Experiment

Chapter One • Arriving

     "ID please" the man at the gate says to me as I pull up. I slide out my badge for the set and he scans it and waves me in with a slight shake of his head. This is my first ever movie Im about to star in and I'm slightly nervous. I pull into D14, where my boss told me to park.
     I grab my phone, wallet and ID and step out of my car. It was a nice sunny day here in Tennessee. I walk down the path that led to this huge building. The building is huge and the first floor, I'm guessing, is a rectangular shape and there's a huge pyramid on one side and the rest of the building towards the back was a huge sphere like shape. It was all white almost like a factory.
     I walk up to the door of the place and ring the buzzer. I was instantly greeted by Barbra, the boss. She was an older lady, light brown hair, a few wrinkles and she was tall and lanky.
"Hello Miss Emma! How are you doing this evening?" She asks opening the door leading me in.
"I'm doing wonderful! How about yourself?" I ask.
"Wonderful! We were all just waiting for you to show up actually!"
"Am I late?" I ask worriedly.
"No no! Sweetie you're right on time, everyone else was just early!"
"Alright good!" I laugh looking around at the metallic walls.
This place reminded me of something I just couldn't place my finger on it. It definitely doesn't favor a movie studio.

     Barbra and I walk into another room that almost looks like a business room. It was a large room with a huge screen and 2 rows of about 12 seats. I see about 9 other people all around my age but a few younger and one older. Barbra shows me where my seat was on the second row next to another woman.
     "Alright everyone!," she walks over to the screen that had a computer attached to it and she turned on some classical music, "introduce yourselves to your peers and get to know each other! You all will be spending a lot of time together these next few weeks." She says smiling walking out of the room.

     I glance around looking at everyone mingling and chatting amongst themselves. As I was watching everyone else this younger girl walks up to me tugging on my shirt.
"Hi! I'm Astoria! What's your name?" She smiles at me.
"I'm Emma! It's very nice to meet you!" I say shaking her small hand.
"How old are you, Emma?" She asks sitting in the chair next to me.
"I'm 27, and yourself?"
"13," She says "almost 14!"
"Wow! Where's your mom?"
"Mrs. Barbra is my mom! She says I'm finally old enough to star in the film!"
"Wow! Your mother is a very nice woman!" I smile at her.
"Yeah, you should meet the others!" She says.
I shake my head agreeing and her and I walk over to the others.

     An hour passed by and I had met everyone there.
     Astoria, 13 year old girl. Light clean skin, long blonde braided hair. Slightly skinny and taller than usual, like her mother.
     Benny, 17 year old boy. He was a tan skinny boy with black shaggy hair and was normal height. His father passed when he was 12 so he's been on his on in Tennessee since. It's crazy.
     Stella, 20 year old woman with curly red hair and she was a chubby girl but she carried her weight well. She was very beautiful. She was from Germany and you could definitely hear the accent.
     Shaun, 26 year old guy with a blonde buzz cut. He was skinny but very broad shouldered. He was a mechanic back in Ohio before he saw the add on Craigslist. He's quiet but seems very smart.
     Paul, 37 year old man from Florida. His wife passed so he moved to Tennessee last year and he said he's always loved acting so he thought he'd give this a try. He has dark brown hair, clean shaved and was pretty fit. He had the prettiest skin tone. A light brown possibly mixed.
     Casey, a 48 year old woman she has long brown hair and she had a dark skin tone. She was a very tall woman. She was super kind as well. She came from Alaska. She has 4 kids and a wife back home.
     Josh, 28 year old guy from South Carolina. He has long dirty blonde hair and was very fit. Covered in tattoos and had a piercing in his eyebrow. He came because he said he was promised a good acting career after this film.
     Victoria, 19 year old girl from Hawaii. She had long curly black hair and a tan skin tone. She's native Hawaiian and she just dropped out of college because she was promised a roll in this movie. She's short and very fit for a girl.
     Megan, 29 year old woman from Mississippi. 4 months pregnant with a girl. She needs the money from this film to help get her back home to Florida. She moved to Mississippi with her boyfriend. He later died of brain cancer.
     Then there's me, 27 year old girl from Virginia. Long aqua blue hair, tattoos, piercings and skinny and normal height. I'm here because it's either this or the Navy. I can't go into the Navy.

     We all sat around talking about what the movie could possibly be about. We are all very excited. We get to stay in a nice huge house while we are filming. It's got a pool, huge yard, free internet and the bedrooms are so nice.
     Barbra walks in smiling.
"Hello everyone! Does everyone know who everyone is now?"
We all shake our heads yes.
"Great! Time to sign paperwork," She says handing out a bunch of papers and pens, "this pretty much says that you all are dedicated in filming this movie and that if you end up quitting or dropping out you will not be paid for anything and you will not be allowed to contact this organization again. Also! It states that you cannot have any cellular phone activity due to someone possibly letting someone else know what the movie is about! Now before you all freak out about the phones... our security office will keep all of your belongings such as your phone, car keys, and purses stored in our safe building located in here! Don't worry we do have electronics such as Xbox, PlayStation, computers, tv's and a smart board in the house that you all can use for entertainment! There's also a game room in the house you all are staying at and it's filled with board games, pool, air hockey and there's also a basket ball court! There's a swimming pool and a hot tub in the back yard so by no means will any of you be bored! If you need to get in touch with family if something were to happen we do have public phones you can see one of us to use. There will be a security guard in the front of the house to keep an eye over things! So is everyone good?"

     Everyone's shaking there heads and agreeing to everything. Shaun looks a little superstitious about it but continues reading the paperwork. I see everyone else signing and everything and Barbra looks at me.
"Everything alright, Miss Emma?"
"Yes! I'm just reading everything over!"
As I glance through the papers I see where it says on the fifth page:
"If you sign these papers you're stating that you cannot press charges, sue or talk badly about this organization whatsoever."
I sigh looking at everyone else turning their papers in.
"What am I getting myself into..." I say to myself in my head.
I take a deep breath and let out. I click the pen and sign against the dotted line.
Emma Marie Smitt.
I walk up to Barbra and hand her my paper work and smile. She grabs it from my hands and turns away.
"Alright everyone! There's a limousine waiting in the front of the building. Once you all arrive at the house. Lance, your security guard, will show you around and to your rooms. If any of you need anything help yourselves and if you need specific groceries or anything there's a clip board in the kitchen with a pen, write what you need on the paper and put your name next to it and Lance will take the list every night and turn it into Gloria, the runner. Alright! Everyone have fun."
We all follow behind her and pile into the limo. I sit next to Shaun and Stella.
"What do you think about all this, Em?," Shaun pauses, "can I call you Em?"
"Yeah that's cool! And well I don't know how I feel about not having my phone or car..." I say with a nervous laugh.
"I agree!" Stella speaks up rubbing her hands together.
"I'm sure we will all be ok!" I say reassuring Stella and Shaun.
"We all just need to stick together and well, be careful around the youngest here ... she's pretty much Barbra's little ears in all this. She could easily tell her mom anything and we could get kicked out." Shaun says.
"True....," I say looking at him, "Our code word can be Cheesecake in case we feel uncomfortable!" I laugh.
"I love it!" Stella laughs.
I see a grin from Shaun "yeah I like cheesecake!"

     So far it's a little strange but I have Shaun and Stella on the same boat as I. I can at least say I have them as friends right now. I'm still curious though. What is the movie even about?