I ran down the front stairs of my school on Friday afternoon ready for a quiet weekend of relaxation. “It’s been such a long week,” I complained to my best friend Zach Philips. We’d known each other since kindergarten, so he was pretty used to my baseless whining. “Between planning the surprise party and that stupid health project, I’ve barely had time to think.”
“Since when do you think?”
I ignored his interjection and continued. “That doll kept waking me up so I could feed it. I was out of the fake bottles to give it, and the instructions were, like, a million pages long. There was no way I was reading something like that at three in the morning!”
“How did you get it to go back to sleep?” he wondered. “Jamie passed little Alfredo over to me last night and I couldn’t get him to drink his bottle for anything. I was burping that thing for an hour!”
“I did what any responsible parent would do,” I told him plainly, resisting the urge to roll my eyes at the ridiculous name he’d given his health class “baby”. “I smacked it against the wall until its batteries fell out.”
“Brook! What kind of way is that to treat your own daughter?” he gasped in exaggerated horror.
“That thing is a girl? My partner named it Jeff Jr.”
“Hey, Zach, could you give me a hand with this sign?” Kay suddenly interrupted.
He leapt to help her. Gosh it was gross. My best friend in love with my brother’s. Hopefully it was a phase and he’d get over her and crush on Candace from our science class, or Margaret from art, or even the Goth chick who worked at the mall. I didn’t care, as long as it wasn’t Kay.
“Auditions at the O’Malley residence 3pm Saturday” the brightly colored poster boards read.
“Auditions? Auditions for what?” I asked, my interest suddenly piqued by even the idea of acting.
“Peter’s holding auditions for his film class assignment. The best film will be entered into the New York City Young Filmmakers’ Contest. We’re doing an epic science fiction.”
“Cool. I love science fiction,” I heard Javier’s voice behind me. “I hope I get cast.”
I turned to face the Spanish hottie with hearts where my eyes should have been. His chocolate brown hair was so smooth and so perfect, like every feature on his gorgeous face. I didn’t really hear what he said to me, but I nodded as he turned away and walked into the sunset.
Okay, okay, there was no sunset. It was three in the afternoon. But in my mind, we were riding a perfectly white steed into the brilliant colors of a slowly hiding sun.
Zach elbowed me in the gut and I realized I’d been standing with my mouth open for about a minute.
“You’re auditioning for the lead in our movie? When did you take an interest in helping Peter with schoolwork.”
Zach rolled his eyes at an oblivious Kay.
“No way,” I answered quickly. “Peter can find another nerd to play Princess Leigha. Only someone with no life and no boyfriend would risk the public humiliation of the role. Hey, why don’t you audition?”
“I’m helping direct,” she corrected me. “Besides, you just told Javier you were auditioning.”
I looked at Zach in horror.
He nodded with a shrug.
I groaned loudly. “I can’t think straight when I’m talking to him!”
“What’s the big deal?” he asked. “Just be in your brother’s thing this one time. It can’t kill you.”
“Wanna bet?” I mumbled, following the pair as they put up more audition flyers.



“Oh, please,” I moaned as I observed my brother’s ridiculous script. “Paniken? Mount Boom? The bling of power? Are you serious here?”
“This is a story of love, loss, and redemption!” Kay defended adamantly.
“Whatever,” I rolled my eyes.
A poke from Zach made me look up to see Javier walking through our front door and into our livingroom.
“You’re actually early,” Peter told him, “so you’ll have to wait for auditions to start in five minutes.”
“Sorry, I just like to be punctual.”
I ran to Javier. “Yeah, he likes being punchable. Let him audition!”
“Mmm,” Peter hummed to himself, “I don’t really think I can do that. The sign says 3pm. It wouldn’t be fair to the other people who come on time.”
“Peter, no one else is auditioning for your Dork Fest,” I hissed. I ignored Kay’s indignant gasp.
“C’mon, Peter. Let them audition,” Zach prompted.
Peter loudly agonized over making the decision.
Heaving an exaggeratedly annoyed sigh, I grabbed his marker, walked up to the whiteboard he’d labeled for the event, and changed the time to 2:55. “Problem solved,” I tossed the stupid marker at his head. “Now let us read for our parts.”
Peter waved for us to start.
“Oh, Paniken,” I read my line with emotion, cheesy though it was.
“Oh, Brook, you’re not supposed to read the stage directions. That just means you’re supposed to sound panicked,” Javier tried to correct me midline.
“No. Not panicking. Paniken. That’s your character,” I reminded.
“Oh, yeah,” he chuckled,
“From the top!” Kay ordered.
“Oh, Paniken,” I repeated, “what are we going to do? We’re forbidden to be together. When the council finds out—“ I waited for him to interrupt me. “Ahem.”
“They won’t find out. Love. I won’t take them the bling. It will be ours.” I gave an awkward smile at his dry lines, stumbled over with no depth or feeling.
“For Thor’s sake!” Kay called from her folding chair. “Put some power into those words!”
Zach grabbed me by my elbow. “He’s not a very good actor,” he whispered.
“I’m a great writer,” he countered. “This writing just doesn’t speak to me.”
“It doesn’t really speak to anyone,” I explained. “Just try to put more emotion into the scene. I mean, it is a romance. Me and you, on the stage, gazing into each other’s eyes.” I took a step closer to him before hearing Zach clear his throat. “I mean, our characters, you know.” I wanted to slap myself, but I needed every ounce of energy that I had to pull off these cheesy lines.
“Can we just continue?” Peter asked.
“It will be ours,” Javier repeated even more dully than before.
“No, the bling has a mind of its own. It cannot be used for anything other than evil. It will destroy us, Pani, filling out hearts with darkness and hatred. It must be destroyed. Promise me,” I teared up, “promise me that you will destroy it.”
“It came to me. It is mine. It is my own,” he read dryly from the wrong page.
“Cut!” Peter sighed. “Let’s take a break.”
“Did I get the part?” Javier asked hopefully.
Okay, even I can admit that the kid had not an acting bone in his entire body. But I wanted him to do this with me. It was the only reason I’d auditioned in the first place.
“Well,” Peter hesitated to reply.
I whispered fiercely in his ear, “He’s the only one who wants the part!”
“You saw him yourself. I know rocks that could play the part better.”
“I know rocks that have,” Kay added.
“What are you talking about?” Sometimes my brother and his friends forget that I don’t speak Geek. Or whatever it is that they speak.
Peter clarified. “Brook, your friend stinks.”
I stomped my foot against the carpet. “Do you want to make this stupid film or not?”
Kay and Peter became a two-person huddle. Zach and I rolled our eyes at each other as the directors made their decision. “Javier, the part is yours,” Peter announced.
“Yes!” he pumped his fist in victory as though there was ever another choice.
“And the female lead will be played by the talented, the amazing, the super-cute, the incredible Brooklyn O’Malley,” I announced.
“Fine, but only because you were the only one to audition,” Peter finalized my declaration.



“Hi, I’m Serena,” introduced a pretty girl with high heels, a miniskirt, and flowing blonde hair.
“Oh, hey,” I nodded at her. I looked back down at my script and scribbled the page out.
“What are you doing?” Peter poked his head over my shoulder.
“Oh making some improvements, trust me,” I laughed.
He tore the papers from my hand. “Improvements? You’re rewriting the entire thing!”
“Same thing.”
“Brook, how can you play Becky if you can’t even show respect for the movie?”
“Hey, her movie could use some work. If I didn’t know any better I’d think that it was written by, well, rocks.” I gave him a smug grin.
“No, absolutely not! It’s a beautiful piece of romance and adventure!”
“Um, excuse me,” Serena put in, “but what are you talking about?”
“Trying to understand him will only give you a headache. He speaks Nerd.”
“I’m making a film for school and Brook is butchering the part of the female lead,” he explained.
“Not butchering,” I reminded, “fixing.”
He handed her the script and she flipped the pages excitedly. “This is awesome!”
“See, Peter,” I raised my well-groomed eyebrows, “she likes it. I told you I was making it better. Though, almost any change to this junk would be improvement.”
“No, not the changes. I meant the original writing. It’s so deep, so dramatic, so romantic. It really is beautiful!”
My eyebrows popped up again, this time in surprise. “Say what?”
“It’s a great role. I wouldn’t take this for granted if I were you.”
“I’m not taking anything for granite,” I argued. “This is garbage. I’m only playing the role as a favor to my dorky brother.”
“If that’s how you feel,” Peter huffed, “then I’ll just find someone else to be Becky.”
“I’ll do it!” the blonde eagerly volunteered.
“You will?” my brother and I were both taken aback.
“Of course. I just love it.”
“She can’t,” I pointed out, jealous that another girl would be playing opposite Javier, “she hasn’t auditioned. You never give anyone a role without an audition.”
“I won’t leave you,” Serena suddenly burst, causing both of us to lean away from her in shock. “Pani, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I won’t let this tear us apart. The Council can do whatever it wants as long as I know that I can just be in your arms.”
“Hey!” I shouted at her impromptu audition.
“That’s amazing!” Peter gushed. “You have the part!”



“Why would a stupid dumb blonde want to be in stupid Peter’s stupid show?” I angrily grumbled to Zach as he painted a backdrop of a barren planet.
“I don’t know, Brook, maybe she really likes it.”
“Zach, you saw the script. It was just so—“
“Stupid?” he asked in the smart-alecky way he occasionally has.
“Well, yes.”
“You’re just angry that you won’t be kissing Javier.”
“There’s a kissing scene?!” I blurted out furiously.
His eyebrows went up.
“There’s no kissing scene, is there?”
“Come on, Brook. You didn’t want to be in this film in the first place. Public humiliation and all that.”
“Maybe I changed my mind,” I told him, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Oh, come on.” He shook his head and turned back to his painting. “Hand me the blue?”
I glance around the room until I spotted the sample-sized can of light blue paint and passed it to him. “You’re crew,” I reminded him, “so you can ask Peter to give me the part back. Make something up about Selena not being able to act.”
“It’s Serena, and he’ll never buy that. She’s an awesome actor.”
I gave him my best puppy dog eyes. “Please.”
“That only works on your dad.” He shook his head and continued his work. “Pass me the yellow.”
I rolled my eyes and stormed back upstairs. I needed to get that roll back.



A half-hour later, I was napping on the livingroom sofa when the kitchen door swung loudly open, disturbing my rest.
“Get up,” Peter shook my shoulder. “Mom just left. We have to get the decorations ready for tomorrow night.”
“What’s tomorrow night?” I asked with a yawn.
“Mom’s party,” he gave me a hard “wake up” shove. “Here’s the list. Get to the store before it closes.”
“Yeah, because most stores close at four on a Saturday,” I sarcastically shot at him.
“And cool kids don’t take Saturday afternoon naps.”
“Cool kids don’t take naps,” I mocked with my face twisted and my voice high and whiny. “At least I don’t watch the morning cartoons.”
“They’re not cartoons; they’re CGI,” he nerdily corrected. He handed me a piece of his stationery decorated in his neat handwriting and strutted for the door with his head high as though he had some dignity to walk away with.
I waited for him to disappear into the kitchen. “Hey, Zach,” I called into the basement.
“I’m designing the set. Whatever you want will have to wait.”
I feigned an insulted gasp. “How dare you! What makes you think I want something?”
“When don’t you?”
I shrugged, knowing he was right. I shouted down the stairs, “If you go shopping with me, I’ll ask Kay if she likes you.”
“Brook, I could do that myself.”
“Why haven’t you?”
In the silence, I could practically hear his defeat. “Fine, but I have a feeling that you won’t be any help at the store.”
“Oh, I totally agree. I’ll only slow you down. Thanks.” I handed him the list when he reached the top step. “And don’t forget to get the balloons with the helium.”
“Okay. So you’ll talk to her while I’m out?”
“Heck no,” I snorted, “I’m going back to sleep.”



Zach, Kay, Javier, Peter, and I met in Kay’s livingroom the next night to shoot the movie. Zach fretted over his sets like they were children, threatening death to anyone who so much as smudged the paint on one of them. Kay looked on while Peter impatiently paced, waiting for his new star to arrive.
“Um, Brook?” I look up into Javier’s eyes. “You think you could help me with my lines? I’m a little nervous and Serena’s almost twenty minutes late.”
“Of course,” I immediately agreed.
He stumbled through his lines embarrassingly. “I know, I’m saying all the wrong words,” he admitted with a sigh.
“It’s not what you say that matters,” I encouraged, “but how you say it. I don’t know the stupid lines either. You just have to say whatever you say like you really mean it.”
“I don’t know,” he looked at me unsurely.
“Just take my hands. Good. Now look into my eyes and say whatever comes naturally.”
“You look really pretty.”
I blushed a little. “In character. Remember, you know that turning Sidious in to the Council is the right thing to do, but if you do bring him in, he’ll tell them about the part you played in Princess Liana’s death. You’ll be sent to prison and never see Becky again. So you have to make sure that Sidious goes free. For us. For love. Feel the character, breath the character, be the character.”
“I won’t do it,” he began with more power than before. “I won’t lose you, not again.”
“But this is wrong,” I pleaded, automatically landing into character. “Sidious is evil, Pani, and he won’t keep quiet for long. Just tell Master Window the truth and he’ll take care of the rest.”
I thought for a millisecond that Javier would suddenly stop, but he improvised beautifully. “Never!” He pulled away from me as though he was furious and deeply insulted.
“You would keep the plot from the Council?”
“For us!” he boomed angrily.
I grinned. “That was great, Javier.”
“Thanks,” he chuckled.
Kay marched over to us. “Looks like you have the part back, Brook. Serena is a no show.” She handed me the costume. “We have to start shooting in ten or we won’t have the film ready in time for the contest.”



Like an idiot, I hopped around with Javier shooting a plastic ray gun at a non-existent army of vicious, man-eating space elves.
Kay watched eagerly as though any of what we were doing looked good. Peter signaled for me to kick an invisible enemy and I did, only to lose my balance. I fell on one of Zach’s painted backgrounds, tearing it on my way down. Javier turned sharply, hoping to help me up, but landed on top of me, taking the rest of the set down.
Zach and Kay gasped in horror.
“The streamers!” Peter cried as a tin foil suit of armor toppled over, tangling with the white loops before landing in Mom’s cake.
“I made that cake!” Zach complained. “I decorated in by hand! It took me three hours!”
I stared up at Javier, who still lay on top of me.
“Oh, sorry,” he clumsily made it to his feet and helped me up.
“Mrs. Krispen will be bringing Mom here any minute!” Peter announced. He assigned us each something to fix and we each got busy.
“She’s coming!” Zach screamed as a car door loudly slammed outside.
We scrambled for cover, with Kay turning out the lights as she crouched behind a rocking chair, decided it wasn’t a good hiding spot, and threw herself under the wreckage of our set.
We sat in silence, waiting for the sound of a key in the door. Knock, knock. “Did we even lock the door?” I wondered in a whisper. I guess we didn’t, because the single door flew open and an angry, wet Serena marched in.
“What happened to you?” Peter gasped as he left his post.
“Somebody slashed my tires,” she complained. I hid my smirk quickly, but not quickly enough to keep Zach from seeing and shaking his head at me.
“Probably some jerks playing a cruel, cruel joke,” I put in. I got a nasty glare from Peter but paid him no mind. “If your tires were slashed, then why are you soaking wet?”
“I lost my key and set my sprinklers off trying to get back into my house through the back window,” she informed me through gritted teeth.
Yes. Bonus. “You poor soul,” I told her, “I’d tell you to come and warm yourself by the fire, but Kay doesn’t have a fireplace.”
“They’re dangerous,” Kay defended. “Do you know how many fire-related deaths there are each year?”
“Javier, do you have your car?” Peter asked, getting back on task.
“Yes, why?”
“I need a lift to go buy a new cake.”
Javier nodded and followed Peter through the back door. Kay took Serena into her bedroom to find her something warm to wear.
I picked up a piece of the broken backdrop. “Sorry about this.”
“Oh, it’s okay,” Zach sighed. “It’s not really your fault. Maybe Peter and Kay can still edit the footage and use it. I feel really bad that they won’t have a shot at the contest now.”
I rolled my eyes, hating the fact that Zach’s mind was clearly on Kay. “Help me get rid of this before Mom and Mrs. Krispen get here. We don’t want them to see all of this junk.”
The back door reopened and Javier walked back in. “Forgot my keys,” he explained, grabbing his jacket from the sea foam leather sofa. I watched him in admiration as he swung the jacket on and made his way to the door again. “By the way, Brook, I know what you did.”
“Did?” I asked in genuine surprise.
“You slashed Serena’s tires because you didn’t want her to play Becky.”
“That’s ridiculous,” a nervous Zach cut in way too quickly, “she’s been with us all day how could she possibly run all the way there and back without anyone knowing. She can’t superspeed you know,” he rambled.
I’d give him a death stare if my eyes weren’t glued to Javier.
“Yeah, she can,” he countered. Was he serious? I slowly turned my head and then my eyes to look at Zach in shock and fear. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell.”
“Tell? There’s nothing to tell,” I tried to say in an even voice even though my pitch was all over the place. “Even if I did ruin her tires, that has nothing to do with her being wet.” Yeah, it made no sense really, but sometimes that’s how I got out of problems. I call it the Anti-Logical Defense Initiative Tactic.
He tossed something and I instinctively caught it. Opening my fist, I turned to exchange another look with my best friend. Serena’s key, the one I’d slashed her tires with thinking it was her car key, lay in my palm.
“I won’t tell anyone,” he promised as he left the room again.
Kay and Serena returned just on cue. Serena was wearing a sour puss, which I guess any sane girl would be if she were forced to wear Kay’s clothes. “Okay, I just called my mom,” Kay told us. “She’s stalling, but they’ll still be here in ten minutes.”



“And our first place winner is…” I saw Peter cross his fingers, “Calvary Disco, sent in by Kari and the Krew.”
Everyone stood in applause. I could tell how much it hurt Peter to have not even been in the running, but being the good sportsman he is, he wore a smile on his face.
“Sorry we ruined your video,” I whispered to him.
“It’s okay. We had fun. Besides, Kay’s been dying to work with Zach.”
I felt my stomach churn. “She was?”
“Yeah, she’s had this crush on him since forever, but she’s too shy to make the first move. Besides, she likes a guy who can take the first step himself.”
“Really?” I remembered my promise to Zach. I looked over at him talking to a friend and then over to Kay. I was going to regret this. “Be right back.” I pushed through the crowd until I reached him. “Zach, Kay’s been waiting for you to ask her out.”
“She has?” he asked nervously. “Do I look okay? How’s my hair? Is there anything stuck in my teeth?”
“Stop being such a girl and just get it over with!” I burst as I shoved him toward her. “Ask her to go to the silent film festival with you.”
I couldn’t hear what he was saying over some loudmouth behind me who was yelling into his phone about something to do with oysters, but I saw his timidly ask her something. She gave a big nod and impulsively hugged him.
“I know how weird this must be for you,” Peter told me.
I nodded.
“But you did the right thing.”
“I know, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it,” I chuckled.
“Hey, I’ll meet you guys outside by the car. I have to go congratulate Kari.”
I grinned. It was just like Peter to want to praise the person who beat him out of first place. I would have torn her head off or at least want to. Or maybe I’d slash her tires. My smirk turned into uncontrollable laughter as I left the theater thinking about Serena standing dripping wet in Kay’s doorway.