BAD ACTING

BLUR

        Leah and I met Karen at the YA Studio the next morning at nine am. The three of us began preparing for Days of Our Lives.

        Episode 1: My character transfers to the private school the young female lead attends on the show. My character's father and her mother used to be lovers years ago, and my character knows all about this secret past. My father uses me to get close to his ex-lovers daughter, for reasons mysterious to my character. The episode included a scene in a classroom with minimal lines. A scene with the young female lead, five pages of lines. And a scene with my father, four pages of lines.

        Episode 2: My father and I show up to an event thrown by his ex-lover and her husband. My father's ex-lover has a meltdown while hosting the event. I pretend I know nothing and continue befriending my father's ex-lover's daughter. The end of the episode my father's ex-lover demands her daughter to not speak to me ever again. This episode I had minimal lines in the opening scene at the event. Four pages of lines with the young female lead in the middle of the event.

        Episode 3: My character tries to talk to the young female lead at school, but she ignores him. My characters' father is upset that his son is ruining his plans. My character's big scene happens in this episode. My character secretly meets with the young female leads mother and confesses his part in his fathers plans and apologizes. My character is caught going behind his father back and is sent far away to live with his mother. Twenty-five pages of lines.

        Three days of coaching followed by three days of filming. By the end of the week, I added my first television credit to my resume, signed with Focus Talent, and booked a one- episode role on the CW drama, Into the Night.

        "I'm going to be a vampire!" I cheered when I called Leah about the CW show.

        "I am so jealous," Leah said

        "I only have three lines, so we won't have to stay up for days working on this one."

        "Thank god!"

        Karen and Constance orchestrated the details of obtaining the role on Into the Night. Two days later I filmed my one scene and added a second television credit to my resume.

*

        The last week of December, Constance called and told me I booked a two-line role with Carrie on the Hit List.

        "You flirt with Carrie's character at a party and she turns you down."

        "I'm going to be on Hit List?"

        "Yes, but it's a tiny role. We tried for a few other roles, but this is the one we got."

        I danced in place, celebrating my two lines... On The Hit List!

        "Thank you, I'm happy to do it," I said, jumping up and down.

*

        I sat in bed on Christmas Eve watching movies alone. My phone buzzed and I picked it up, thinking maybe Leah wanted to hang out, but a male voice answered.

        "It's Brian Lowe."

        "Oh...Hi, how are you?"

        "Almost as busy as you it seems. I recently talked with Constance and she updated me on where we stand now. I passed the word on to Jared and Dani at HBO, and they are more than impressed. We all look forward to working with you on the series."

        I thanked Brian and expressed my excitement about the docu-series.

*

        Constance called, asking about needing more headshots and I remembered I had boxes of them still at Michael's office. It was the last day of the year. I called Michael a billion times and it was starting to get dark outside.

        Andrew was out of town. Carrie and Leah were in my room playing dress-up and watching movies. I began to get irritated about not getting ahold of Michael.

        "He's holding my headshots hostage!"

        "You still have your keys right?" Leah asked.

        "I do!" I completely forgot.

        We drove to Beverly Hills to rescue my boxes of headshots. Nobody answered the door, but Duke and Apollo were barking like crazy. I let us in with my key, and Michael appeared not to be home. The office was dark and the lights were not working. The dogs continued barking and running all around. I quietly called out for Michael, not really wanting to see him. I just wanted to get the headsets and leave. Leah and I looked for the headshots in the dark until we heard Carrie from the other room.

        "Oh my god."

        Michael was sitting in his office chair. Dead.

        Carrie screamed and ran in my direction, she tripped over one of the dogs hitting a pedestal with a Greek statue of David sitting on top. The David statute flew down, hitting me hard on the left side of my face.

        "Jesus, fucking mother of Christ!" I yelled.

        "Ahhhh my hand!" Carrie bellowed.

        "Are you guys okay?" Leah asked, raising her phone as a flashlight.

        "I'm fine," I said getting up, stars danced across my vision.

        "You're bleeding," Carrie said, pointing to my head.

        "So are you," I said, her pointed hand was cut during the scuffle.

        "We were never here," Leah said.

        "Don't tell Andrew." Carrie pleaded.

        "He looks like the guy from Tales from the Crypt," Leah said.

        The girls carried out my headshots and I took the David statue for myself. It had been one of my favorites and Michael obviously wouldn't miss it.

*

        Back at the Shire Julia dropped by to hang out. Walking into the room she glanced from Carrie's bandaged hand to my black eye.

        "What? Did you guys join a fight club?"

        "It's best if you know as little as possible," Leah said, smiling.

        Later that night sitting on my bed with Leah and Julia asleep next to me, I thought about Michael's dead body, probably still undiscovered in his mansion. I climbed out of bed and carried the greek statue out to the back yard. Leah, half asleep followed behind me. I set the statue under a tree, as a memorial.

        "You were kind of creep, but I thank you for teaching me what you knew about the business," I said.

        "Didn't Michael suggest you take classes from Karen at the YA Studio?" Leah asked.

        "He did," I said, although I had completely forgotten.

        "In a weird way, he brought us together," Leah said.

        "If this was a movie a song would begin about now." I said, "Opera...he loved opera."

        I imagined an aria growing louder as a camera shot our faces in close up, showing off my black eye. The camera would then spin around and slow pan away behind us, a wide shot of our silhouette holding hands, the statue at our feet, and the finally the moon in the sky.

        "Happy new year." Leah whispered.