“Did you forget that you have a football game tonight?”
We wore our jerseys on game day. I just went up to her and kissed her. Kissing Peggy helped get Eve out of my head.
“No, I had to do more of Eve’s video this morning and I brought a change of clothes. I promise not to look too grubby for you.”
She ruffled my hair and kissed me. I think that was the first time she initiated a kiss between us. I smiled at the progress. Peggy was still worried I would get her excited and she’d want to have sex with me. It wasn’t really anything religious. Peggy just had this fairy-tale dream of giving her husband her virginity on their wedding night. I couldn’t buy into that. What if the sex sucked? Then you were trapped in a marriage where you weren’t sexually compatible. I cared for Peggy, though, and wouldn’t try and sway her from her dream of remaining a virgin. I think that was why I was fine with just dating her.
We walked into school holding hands. Tracy and the rest of the varsity cheerleaders were eyeing us. I had an uneasy feeling that something was up by the way they were checking me out. I’d seen that look before, and it normally led to Mr. Happy standing up and paying attention.
What caught my eye was the new cheerleader. I hadn’t met her before. Her name was Pam Bell, and she was a sophomore who’d transferred in at the beginning of the school year. Her dad now worked at Tom’s law firm doing estate planning. Her mom was supposed to be drop-dead gorgeous. The rumor mill had her as the runner-up in the Miss Teen California beauty contest. Pam looked like what you think of as a California surfer girl. She had blond hair and legs that never seemed to end.
I hadn’t realized that we were staring at each other until Peggy gave me a little hip-check. My head snapped down, and she gave me a knowing grin and tightened her grip on my hand as I walked her to her locker.
“You do know that I know about you and Tracy?” she asked.
I hadn’t tried to hide it from Peggy, but I hadn’t advertised it, either. Greg had taught me not to act guilty; own it and act confident when confronted with something like this. He said if you evaded or acted guilty, you were only going to make it worse.
“I hadn’t realized that,” I said.
She gave me a tight smile. We’d talked about the possibility of Tracy and I hooking up and Peggy had said she was okay with it. At the time, I’d played it as if it was something that happened only rarely. Peggy must have heard that Tracy and I’d gotten together at Suzanne’s bidding.
“You know that we’re just dating. I don’t expect you to just date me. What I don’t want to have happen is you sleeping with everyone. I wouldn’t want to get lumped in with your other conquests.”
“Peggy, I like you more than you probably realize. I’ve had a crush on you since I was in middle school. I’d never do anything intentionally to embarrass you.”
She gazed deep into my eyes and smiled.
“I know you wouldn’t. I would have never known if Tracy hadn’t talked to me before she visited you. You know she loves you, don’t you?” she asked.
“Tracy and I ... our histories are complicated. We love each other, but will never be together, if that makes sense.”
“I know. She’s unpredictable, and I know you love her. I can tell that by the way you look at her. Don’t worry, I see you look at me the same way.”
The bell rang and I went to PE.
JUST BEFORE LUNCH, I got a text from Mom to meet me at the office. I hadn’t done anything to piss her off, so I wasn’t too worried ... but then again, it was Mom.
“Come on, Sport, I’m springing you from this joint.”
I know, I should have asked. But Mom was in a good mood. I decided just to go with the flow. Besides, I was getting out of class. Mom gave me a funny look, and I just grinned at her. She shrugged, and we drove in silence. I was a little surprised when we pulled into the parking garage at Rigby, Thompson, and Associates, my agents. My mom was waiting for me to ask what was going on, but I kept quiet. It had become a battle of wills. I could tell she was dying for me to ask.
She led me to the lobby. Don Rigby, one of the managing partners, was waiting at the elevator. He was talking to one of the lawyers that had gone to Kentucky with me last year. Mom and I walked up and I introduced her to him. We got on the elevator, and the lawyer hit the fifth-floor button. Don hit the sixth. The law offices occupied the top two floors. When we got to the fifth floor, the lawyer got off and Mom followed him. She turned around just as the doors closed. Mr. Rigby’s eyebrows went up.
“She’ll figure it out,” I said.
We got off on the sixth floor and I went to the conference room. I figured that was where everyone was. I walked in and found Dad there, with Tom, Kendal, Roy Thompson and three people I didn’t know. Dad gave me a funny look.
“Where’s your mom?”
Don Rigby came in and laughed at me.
“She’ll be right up. She got off on the wrong floor. I sent my assistant to help her find her way,” he said.
“Someday she’s going to kill you. Did you even think to hold the door for her?” Dad asked.
“Mr. Rigby was in control of the buttons,” I told him.
“Hang on, don’t be throwing me under the bus,” Don shot back at me.
Mom came in, not looking too happy. She glared at me and then turned on Don.
“How come you didn’t hold the door for me?” she asked.
“I, uh ...” he stammered.
I couldn’t hold it anymore and started laughing. Mom and Dad joined me as Don’s face went red. I looked at Tom and Kendal, and they were trying not to be noticed. Roy Thompson, the other managing partner, was enjoying Don’s discomfort. Roy saved him by introducing the three people I didn’t know. They were from the film I was making, Star Academy: Jessup Fields was the director, Janice Utley, the producer, and Karen Least was a production assistant. Once the introductions were done, Roy and Don excused themselves. I think they just wanted to be nosy.
“I want to apologize for the last-minute meeting. We wanted to fly you out to LA, but Kendal explained that you had a music video and football game. We had to come to Chicago anyway, so we decided to come meet you,” Janice explained.
“David, we need to get an idea of your background, and take care of few details,” Karen said. “Do you have any credits?”
I looked at Kendal.
“He’s done some commercials, and is currently doing a music video,” Kendal said. “Let me give you a portfolio. Inside, you’ll find links to his videos.”
Kendal handed out the binders to three moviemakers.
“Have you had any speaking roles?” Karen asked.
“No,” I said.
“There may be some partial nudity. Are you comfortable with that?” Karen continued.
Kendal pointed them to my butt picture on the conference room wall. There were several different questions that Kendal handled. Then Karen asked me to strip down to my boxers so she could take pictures of me. She wanted very specific poses, and they measured the distance from the camera to me. This was for some computer-generated imagery (CGI) work they wanted to get started on. They planned on everyone getting together for a read-through of the film, the first week in January. Part of that time would be for them to get us into a special studio, and let the CGI people do what they needed with us.
They then pulled out a picture of what they thought my character, Stryker, would look like. The first thing we all noticed was his head was shaved. The second was that there were a lot of tattoos.
“We may have a problem. Do you mind if I scan this and send it to two of David’s other employers?” Kendal asked.
“What’s wrong?” Jessup asked.
“David’s under contract with Range Sports and Jade. They both have clauses in their contracts about not changing his appearance. He’s not even allowed to get a haircut without their approval. I think shaving his head might be an issue,” Kendal explained.