The morning after the cave party the five of us sat around Leah's massive dining room table for our second table read. Before we started we talked about the night before. Already the girls received calls and texts about people's reactions to the party.
"Most people are probably still sleeping off the hangover and nightmare of wandering through the dark woods," Leah said looking at Simon.
Leah seemed to catch on to Simons interest in the more sadistic plot behind the event, and even though the plan held many backups in place for safety, now that we completed the event and all the guest made it out unharmed, Leah focused on the darker side of the party.
"Blood began pouring from our mouths as we started howling and running around like banshees...then we left them in the dark, the party over."
The second read through Andrew and I switched roles. I read the rebel and he the jock.
"Are the roles not decided yet?" Simon asked, after twenty minutes.
"Not ours," Andrew said, pointing to me.
Simon looked confused and turned to Leah.
"And why are you auditioning for both girls and my role?"
The four of us looked at each other, wondering how much to tell our newest member. The knowledge of each of our different characters and coaching had become so layered. Individually Karen coached us and we all had our own secrets. As a group, we knew most of the basic angles each of us prepared to go into the filmed casting. We knew nothing about Simon and he remained an outsider.
"It's no secret the series is a show within a show." Leah began to answer, "I'm just having fun with it all. Why not audition for a few of the roles? It will be memorable and throw off the audience since the casting is rigged."
"I guess it makes sense that you plan to play games, after what I experienced last night," Simon said, slowly understanding.
"Exactly," Leah said, looking at the rest of us. Andrew and Carrie looked relieved with Leah's handle on Simon.
"Why don't you use your script?" Simon asked me, still curious.
I chose to go with a version of the truth.
"I, unfortunately, have the least amount of experience out of all of you. I need to work five times harder to perform at your level. I'm coaching with Karen and being off-book is part of her challenge to me to not completely suck when we start filming. Also, Karen needed to coach me on all three guy parts since we didn't know who I would be...and still, don't."
Simon nodded his head and we continued.
*
Andrew and I drove to Equinox after the table read to work out.
Following Andrew though sets of crunches and squats, we discussed our roles.
"I want to play John Bender," I said, with confidence.
"OK, I'll go for the jock. Karen already suggested I should."
"Perfect."
"I'm going to cut my hair short, too"
Andrew's hair looked almost as long as my shaggy mess. Cutting his hair shorter another step in the direction of solidifying our roles.
