still a teenager

chapter 8: the business card

Lily walked outside with the man. She looked at him with a puzzled look. He smiled. "I am John Singleton, you might have heard of me?" When Lily gave no sign of recognition he continued. "I am a movie producer. I produced this movie," he continued to explain. Lily felt uncomfortable and shifted from one foot to another. "I am very sorry sir.... I mean Mr. Singleton, but I have a curfew. So what did you want to talk to me about?" Lily shrugged. She hoped she hadn't sounded too rude but Liam was waiting for her and she was cold and didn't feel like talking to some movie producer she had never heard of until now. "Right. I'll cut to the chase. I recently wrote a new movie and auditions are coming up. When I saw you, well, you seem like the perfect girl for the role, so you should try auditioning." Lily's jaw dropped and she gazed at the man as if he just had told her that she had superpowers. "Of course, you don't have to," he said while he took a small piece of paper and handed it to her. "This is my business card. Call me whenever you make a decision." Lily's hand was trembling when she took the card from him. The man nodded at her and turned around and started to walk away. "Sir?" The man turned back to Lily. "Why do you think I would be the perfect girl for this role?" He shrugged. "Whenever a producer writes a movie, he or she pictures all the characters. You, you look exactly like the main character I created. Besides that, we already have a mom in mind and you look a little like her." Lily sighed. This was crazy. 

"You're not auditioning,"Lily's mom said without hesitating. Lily rolled her eyes dramatically. "Why not mom? Give me three reasons why I shouldn't." Lily's mom lifted her eyebrows and stood up. "Only three. Hm, okay," she said while rising her voice. "First of all, I am not going to drive you all the way to some audition. Second of all, you don't know the guy. It could be some kind of creep who wants to kidnap you. Third of all, he is just getting your hopes up, you'll never get the part anyways and I don't want you to get your hopes up." Lily bit her lip. Why could her mom not just be supportive? Lily's eyes started tearing up. She hated her mom. Without saying another word Lily left the room. As she closed the door she heard her dad come in the room. "Think positive for once, Natalie," her dad said with a sigh. "You be positive, Paul I'll be realistic." Well nothing she could do about it now. 

"You're not going? What is wrong with you?" Rachel was almost shouting. They were on their way to school, riding the bus. Lily mouthed to be quiet. She didn't want anybody finding out about this. Especially not Madison. That would be another topic Madison would be interested in. "Just let it rest. It's fine." Rachel cursed. "It's not fine. You have the change to become a world famous actress, and you let it slide. Let me see that business card he gave you." Lily reached into her pocket and handed Rachel the card. She knew it was the only way she would be able to get Rachel to shut up. Rachel kept ranting on about how 'the card looked expensive' and 'this was the perfect opportunity.' Lily wished she would stop talking about it. The thing was, Lily knew this was the perfect opportunity. But her mom had said no, so it wasn't going to happen. Lily closed her eyes. Sometimes life gave her a headache. 

Lily walked into her physics class. The only class she had together with Madison. Thank god it was the only one. But when she walked passed the table where usually the glamorous Madison sat, now sat a girl who looked fragile and breakable. This wasn't the same Madison who had bullied her for years of her life. Madison looked up at Lily and their eyes locked. When Lily saw the look in her eyes she knew something was wrong. Very wrong. Madison quickly looked away and took a pencil out of her pencil case. Startled by the look that had been in Madison's eyes, she walked to her seat near the window. Even though Madison was a complete biatch now, she still had been best friends with her for over five years. She knew Madison well, and knew that you couldn't break her easily. But what she had just seen, that part of Madison she had never seen before, was broken.