Casting Call - Avatrice

Chapter 2

Ava was going to explode, she was a whirlwind of emotions. JC had been her friend for years, he knew how much Rebecca Summers' books meant to her, he knew that starring in an adaptation of any of them was her dream. All he had cared about was the money, the fame. He had always belittled her for her literary obsession, saying she was too old and too important to read such silly made up stories. First of all, all stories were made up. Second, she should have known not to listen to him since his favorite book was 'Lord of the flies', which he'd read in eighth grade and had completely missed the point of.

He was accusing her of blowing up her career, but hundreds of thousands of people were massive Rebecca Summers' fans, they wanted an adaptation - a well made one - and Ava knew she could do justice to Ayélen, she would give it all she had and more. She could already tell, this was the role that would make her fall in love with acting once again.

Ava wondered if part of JC's refusal to let her do this was homophobia, he had always ignored her bisexuality since she was often sleeping with him; she had kissed plenty of women in real life but never on a screen. She wasn't overly open about it but she had never hidden it either, everyone knew but no one talked about it.

She wasn't blowing up her career, she was transforming it, allowing it to be once again about the movies rather than the money. Plus, who doesn't want to play an immortal fire witch ?

The tears had stopped, at least for now, and her anger had subsided, now she just felt empty ? She wanted to answer the inquiry, of course she did, but JC's words kept nagging her in the back of her mind. What if she really was making a mistake ?
Thankfully for Ava the universe took care of her dilemma for her, or rather, Rebecca Summers' herself did. In the form of a private twitter message - which Ava was absolutely not planning on printing either, thank you very much.

RS : ''Dear Miss Silva,
I am writing to you to follow up regarding the letter my team has sent to you, about the adaptation of 'Broken Kingdoms'. While I do realize that a tweet is not a promise of anything, I want to make sure you are aware that the role of Ayélen is yours if you would like to portray her.
I would also like to remind you that this project, while very exciting, is still unannounced, so I would appreciate your utmost discretion.
Thank you in advance,
R.S"

Ava had to fight her fangirling urges and remind herself to stay professional, this was a twitter conversation after all but the author's message might as well have been an email, or a notarized letter.

AS: "Dear Miss Summers,
Thank you for giving me time to answer your inquiry, for the sake of honesty I would like to let you know that I have fired my agent who had taken upon himself to throw away your letter without informing me of it. That being said, I have now read it and would like nothing more than to accept your offer if you think me the right fit for Ayélen. I have loved your books for almost a decade now and they mean a lot to me, as i am sure they do to a lot of other people. Getting the chance to bring one of them to life on the big screen would be an honor.
Respectfully,
Ava Silva
PS : I've stayed as professional as I could manage but aksfhgjdk !"

* * *

Beatrice had been staring at her phone since she had sent the message, refreshing her twitter every few seconds in hopes of an answer. Rationally speaking she knew that Ava was busy, that she might not even be the one managing her social media, and that probably would not even see the message because her inbox must be overflowing with fans' messages. Still, she kept on staring at the phone.
It must have worked because Ava answered.

Beatrice felt a wave of anger rising as she read her message, she had never liked Ava's agent, he always held onto her like she was his property in pictures. He could have gotten her whole project canceled, Beatrice had been quite clear about her adaptation conditions, one of them being that Ava was Ayélen, no one else.
She smiled as she noticed the postscript in Ava's text, who even used postscripts in texts ? Still, that keysmash was perfectly fitting of the image she had of the actress in her mind

RS: I appreciate your professionalism, but you're right, bjazifugeizufb, indeed. I am beyond happy that you want to be a part of this project, I have pictured you as Ayélen since the very first draft.
Also, no offense but your (former) agent sounds like a jerk, all I can say is good riddance. I'll have my team get in contact directly with you to arrange a first meeting, unless you happen to have a backup agent ?

Beatrice had rewritten the text three times, why were keysmashes so hard, were they supposed to be this hard ?

AS: Can I just say how excited I am !!
Yeah he's a jerk, but for the most part he was a good agent so...
Nope it's just me now, but don't worry I've been in the industry long enough to manage my career myself, I am nothing if not professional.
Also, would being Ayélen grant me early access to 'Broken Kingdoms 3'🥺?

As she sent her text Ava realized she had casually thrown away her so-called professionalism, but who cared, she was actually texting with THE Rebecca Summers.

This is when it all finally dawned on Ava, not only was she about to portray her favorite character, but she was about to meet the one person who had had the biggest impact on her life. She was about to meet Rebecca Summers.
Oh god, what if she threw up, or fainted, or worse, straight up died ?
Then a second realization hit Ava, the first volume of Broken Kingdoms had come out almost four years ago, which meant that Rebecca had been thinking about her specifically, for at least five years. Rebecca Summers knew who she was.

As Beatrice read Ava's last text she thought the actress was adorable, the third book wasn't supposed to have a single early release copies to cultivate even more mystery and anticipation. But the author decided immediately that she could make an exception, as long as Ava kept it quiet, which Beatrice had no doubt about.
She felt as if she was floating, she really was about to have her first big screen adaptation and to work with her favorite actress.

A much colder realization than Ava's hit Beatrice, she was about to work with Ava like she had always dreamt of. But Ava had obviously dreamt of working with Rebecca, not with Beatrice.She was about to meet her idol, but Ava in all of her blissful ignorance was about to meet her very disappointing idol's assistant