What if I told you I'm a Mastermind

Chapter 4: At the same time

In the end, Ava found the waiting room for her chemistry read a few minutes late. In the following few hours, Ava waited. Her mind had drawn several conclusions.

Firstly, Ava was the least professional actress here. The other two actresses both had entire teams of assistants and managers with them. Ava didn't know the other actresses' names, but she recognized them from flipping channels past random cable sitcoms and made-for-television movies.

Secondly, Ava was wholly underprepared. She had never even sat for a chemistry read before, and now she was supposed to play the romantic interest of a character played by Beatrice Lin-Watson. It sounded more like a cruel joke than her current reality. Besides, upon reviewing the scene, Ava struggled to decipher the intended tone. Her character spends several moments trying to bring Elsie out of her shell cautiously but then, in the end, completely changes focus and makes a romantic move. It felt wrong like her character was pushing boundaries she shouldn't break— at least not at that moment.

Lastly, Ava thought she wouldn't even get a chance to read for the part. The team called in the first actress, Ava learned her name was Karina, and she was in the other room for almost an hour. When Karina returned, she sat back down and told her team that they had run the scene a dozen times. After another half hour, the group called her back in, and she didn't return for 45 minutes when she finally left with her team. Several more minutes passed before the casting director, Jacob, called in the other actress— Morgan. Morgan was gone for half an hour before she came back. When her team asked how it had gone, Morgan smugly shrugged her shoulders and said, "we had so much chemistry that I just kissed her." (So, the scene was supposed to be romantic? Ava thought to herself.)

An hour later, the casting director returned to the room and said, "Morgan, we'll call you. Thank you for coming," and left the room before anyone could even respond to him.

"That's a good sign; it's not a no," Morgan's manager said as soon as the door closed. Once her team had fully shuffled out of the room, Ava was alone except for a young woman with long dark hair that hadn't looked up from her laptop the entire time she sat there. Her presence was intimidating, regardless.

Ava's stomach rumbled. She had been sitting in this room for almost three hours, too scared to leave to go to the bathroom or get up to get a snack. Instead, she rubbed the corner of her script between her thumb and forefinger repeatedly as she practiced the lines in her head over and over again. The edges of her paper were starting to curl upwards from the friction.

Ava was about to get up and stretch her legs when the door opened.

"Ava Silva?" The casting director looked annoyed as he held the door in place.

"Yes?"

"We're ready for you," he sighed.

"Oh, okay," Ava quickly shoved her things into her bag that was sitting on the chair next to her. She got up as the red-headed man stared at her and quickly walked over, leaving her things behind.

"Thank you," Ava ducked her head with a shy smile as she stepped through the door the man was holding open for her. When she steps into the room, she's met with dozens of eyes trained directly on her.

This room felt significantly colder than where Ava had been waiting. Several casting team members were sitting behind a long folding table. Almost everyone had a tired look in their eyes as if they had hoped to be done hours ago. A woman she recognized as Yasmine Amunet stood up and walked around the table, "Ava Silva?"

"That's me," Ava did her best to hide her nerves behind a smile as she extended her hand. "It's a pleasure. Thank you for this opportunity."

"Of course," Yasmine shook her hand. Then, she stepped aside to direct Ava's attention to a woman leaning against the wall, "This is Beatrice Lin-Watson. She is playing Elsie."