Chapter 15

After we had arrived on set, I followed Triss to her office and the day began as usual. I made sure the coffee was on and started brewing. I went to the cafeteria to get some biscuits, smiling at the staff and getting smiles back. I then went back to Triss to see if there was anything else I could help with.

When I got back, Triss was on the phone, frowning into the receiver.

“Uh-huh, alright. OK, I see. I'll be there,” was Triss' side of the conversation.

“Come on, let's go, there is an emergency meeting we need to get to,” Triss told me.

“Do you want me to bring the biscuits?” I asked.

“No, on second thoughts, yes, bring them. If anyone has missed breakfast the last thing we need is someone who is hangry.”

“Hangry?” I questioned.

“Angry because they are hungry. Trust me it is true. Pierce can seem like a different person if he is tired and hungry. Don't worry, I make sure to keep him well-fed.”

I followed Triss carrying a tray with a selection of biscuits on it. There was one larger one that had chocolate button eyes, nose and mouth. That one was mine. I could get behind this hangry thing if someone else tried to grab it.

We weren't the first to arrive, but we weren't the last either. It took another five minutes before everyone was sitting and settled. I saw a few people grab a biscuit, but no one went for mine.

“Phoebe was Lucia's personal assistant and she has some news for us,” Adam explained.

“I went to bring Lucia her breakfast this morning, but she hadn't arrived. She had never been late before, so I called her. Her mother answered the call and told me that Lucia was feeling overwhelmed by stress. Last night they had seen a doctor who had prescribed taking a month of rest. They are, at present, on route to Hawaii,” Phoebe reported.

“How does that leave us legally?” Pierce asked.

A guy down the table answered. I recalled his name was Tom. He always dressed in a suit, but I didn't know why.

“I will have to check the contract, but I believe Lucia will not be in breach of contract, but we would be at liberty to replace her. We wouldn't be able to sue for a medically approved leave of absence. On the other hand, she could not sue us if we replaced her,” Tom told us.

“Can we wait a month?” Adam asked.

Another man, whose name I didn't know answered that. “Financially, our backs are already to the wall, but it would still probably cost less than re-shooting all the scenes that she was in with someone else. It is the lead role after all so there are a lot of scenes and agents smell blood in the water when you try and get someone in as an emergency replacement.”

“You're presuming that she would return in one month. With stress-leave it is not uncommon for the length of time to be extended. If she has left because she doesn't think she can do it and let's face it, she has really struggled, I don't think she is returning,” Triss stated.

“The obvious answer is to see if Rose can do it,” Adam said, looking at me.

I think my mouth dropped open in shock.

“I don't think that would work. Our financial backers wanted a named celebrity,” Pierce remarked. He then looked at me. “Not that I don't think you could do it.”

“How about this. While we wait the month out, Rose completes as many scenes as possible. This gives the option of telling Lucia that she isn't required if necessary. While we are doing that we check through our original auditions and speak to agents. Get an idea of costs. Rose can probably be hired based on film profits, as she is an unknown and the film production is struggling. We can show the financial backers the difference between Rose and Lucia and how much it would cost to get a named star, who may not be able to perform anyway,” Adam concluded. “Have you seen the edited scene that we showed Lucia? It's no wonder she gave up. Rose looked awesome.”

There was a bit of argument and discussion. I was a bit young. The character was supposed to be nine and I looked like a small eight. They were worried about my acting talent since I had no previous experience. The writers thought they could reduce the number of lines if it looked like I was struggling. With Adam's plan, every base was covered. If I couldn't act, they were still going to be looking for a replacement, if I could, then it would be up to the mysterious financial backers to decide, based on all the information available.

Only after they had decided to agree with Adam did they then ask me if I would do it. I knew I couldn't really say no, so I nodded. I was worried though. I wasn't planning on showing my face to the world and it occurred to me that my focussed look might be recognisable by anyone I had treated. My body would look completely different, so they might dismiss it, but they might not.

Phoebe was assigned to Adam as his assistant so that Bee was available to be my personal assistant. I was first taken to wardrobe so that they could measure me and start working on my outfits. I was then taken into a fancy hair salon where my hair was trimmed and coloured. I was now a blonde. They did a good job and it looked natural.

We then returned to Lucia's dressing room which would now be my dressing room and started going over the script. Bee and I would play-act the different scenes to help familiarise me with it. That evening Pierce explained how he saw the Charlie character and suggested that I pretend that I was Charlie. This meant I had to pretend to be a young girl who was able to set things on fire, was being chased by bad guys and so was running away. The only thing I found hard to imagine was the idea that my father loved me. Charlie's father loved her very much and in the end, gave his life for her. My father sold me into slavery. I told Pierce that I couldn't pretend that my father loved me, but I could imagine my step-father loving me and then pretend the actor was my step-father. To try and help me get into the role, everyone was going to start calling me Charlie. I was going to try and show affection to both Triss and Pierce.

I started that by giving everyone a kiss and cuddle before going to bed. The next day was a Sunday, so I knew I was going for my first psychologist appointment and then shopping after.