Undercover Star

♪ Two ♪

Rich shook me awake the next morning. I opened my eyes and groaned when I saw his face just inches away from mine. I felt like I just went to sleep.

"You have to get ready," he said.

"Why?" I mumbled, rolling over and closing my eyes again. I was not a morning person.

"We're going to church."

"What?" I asked, my still-asleep brain unable to process anything.

"It's what the whole town does on Sunday mornings," Rich explained impatiently. "Get up. We're leaving in ten minutes."

I groaned again as I sat up. I couldn't even remember the last time I attended church. I used to go with my mom when I was young, but I always thought it was a boring affair. I tended go less and less often as I grew older, and by the time I was thirteen, I entirely stopped going altogether. It was too risky to go anywhere in public like that anyway.

But now that I was undercover, I could go, and I wasn't sure I was happy about that. I still hadn't gotten over the boringness of it. I guess I really never paid any attention to what was being said.

I looked over at Rich who was wearing a semi-fancy suit that was different than his usual grey ones. He actually looked like he was trying to look nice.

"What do I wear?" I asked. I finally forced my legs to kick over the edge of the bed and set my feet on the ground.

"Your mother packed some dress pants in your suitcase," Rich said as he fixed his hair in the full-length mirror.

I knelt near the suitcase and searched through it until I found a few articles of clothing that looked presentable. I quickly changed in the bathroom and put in my contacts. I didn't even need to touch my hair, and it was the first time I didn't mind its shortness.

"The whole town is going to be there I presume," Rich told me as I slid on my shoes. "This is where you have to decide who you want to be in this town and how you're going to act for the rest of your stay. I assume the usual Logan attitude won't fly here."

I rolled my eyes. "If you somehow forgot, I'm an award-winning actor. I think I know what I'm doing."

He raised his hands in mock defense. "Just don't mess this up. You're here for a reason."

A dumb reason, I thought to myself. I had fought with those guys for a reason, not that Rich would care.

"We're going to walk there."

"Fantastic," I muttered.

When we left our room and went through the lobby, I noticed the lady at the desk wasn't there. How could she just leave? I don't think that would go over too well in Los Angeles.

"It's such a beautiful day, huh Jesse?" Rich said when we were exposed to the sunlight.

I rolled my eyes. So the act started now.

Besides Rich's annoying commentary, it really was a nice day. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The summer air was calm and warming.

Since the church was in the dead center of town, it only took a few minutes to walk there. There wasn't a single person on the road, so we were able to walk directly on the roads. My past experiences led me to continuously glance over my shoulder to look for cars, though none ever came.

Groups of people were scattered around the front steps of the church. The stairs were huge and stretched almost the whole width of the church, which was large in itself. Stained glass windows adorned the sides of the big white building. It was a wonderful thing to look at. It was obvious that most of the money and work went to this building alone. Nothing else in town compared to it, at least nothing that I've seen.