Junior Year Box Set

“I think I’ll have to let my daughter know that Mia has designs on her boyfriend,” Rita said.

“Maybe I should date them both,” I shot back.

Mia was a good sport about it. I was impressed when she pulled the same shtick for the other interviews. It was a lesson on how good an actress she really was. I totally believed it each time Mia revealed that she had a crush on me. I had a feeling the tabloids would eat this up. They loved nothing more than a male celebrity stepping out on his girlfriend. The sad part was they didn’t really judge him for his poor behavior. The girl was just his latest conquest, as if that were normal.

◊◊◊

Rita invited Mia and Stewart to dinner. I was getting ready when my dad called me.

“Hey, your mom wants to know what she should wear for dinner,” Dad said.

I pulled the phone from my ear and looked at my caller ID to make sure it was my dad on the other end of the line.

“You’re asking me because …”

“Rumor has it you’re a model,” Dad clarified.

“Are you eating with me?” I asked.

“Yes, David. Rita called and asked that we join her for dinner with your other castmates. So, again, what should she wear?”

“Mom should go with that red dress she brought, and I would suggest that she pick comfortable heels. If we go dancing afterward, she will kill you when her feet start to hurt,” I told him. “Oh, and Dad: sport coat with no tie.”

“T-shirt?”

“No, that’s something someone my age can get away with. Wear your Oxford, and you can’t go wrong.”

I hung up on him and wondered when I started to be the person people called about what to wear. I remembered when Cindy and my mom had labeled my clothes so I didn’t mix plaids with stripes.

◊◊◊

The dinner was nice. Stewart recounted stories about me on the set of The Royal Palm. He warned Mia that she had to watch out for me because I would get the crew on my side. Halle told her about my antics in Star Academy and The Secret Circle.

Mia shared what it was like to work with Chubby Feldman. She’d done two movies with him and was excited to do a third.

“This is what I know about Chubby. There are a select few directors who virtually every studio has on their short list whenever a blockbuster goes into production. These are the directors whose creative visions are unparalleled by most of Hollywood. All it takes is a quick look at the people responsible for the majority of the biggest films coming up. If you list them, you’ll see that Hollywood is being dominated by a select few. And Chubby Feldman is at the top of the action-film category.

“What I love about him is he knows what he has to get on film so it can go to postproduction and they can do their magic. That’s a lot harder than you think. Chubby has an eye for it, though. He is super-easy to work with. He lets you do your bit and then will point out something, and the next thing you know, the scene is ten times better,” Mia said, getting excited.

“After the last film David and I did, he sounds like a dream. I was ready to walk several times,” Stewart said.

“I never realized that,” I admitted. “It seemed like Laurent was focused on me.”

“I think you were his personal whipping boy. I figured you had enough on your plate that you didn’t need to hear me make the same complaints,” Stewart said.

“What was it like doing a James Bond movie?” Mia asked Rita.

“Something you can count on is they won’t rush, and they’ll do it right. It was one of the best experiences I’ve had making a film. I am happy to do another one, even though they cast me as an old woman,” Rita said.

Halle grabbed my leg under the table to warn me off making any comment.

Over dinner, Halle and I seemed to block everyone else out and talk. Nothing earth-shattering; we just enjoyed each other’s company. Trip and Mia seemed to get along, while my parents got to know Stewart with Rita’s help.

It looked like we would all work well together. There was no drama, and if Chubby was as easy to work with as Mia reported, then I couldn’t wait to get started.

◊◊◊

Chapter 37 – Gold Medal Game Sunday August 21

After breakfast, I gathered my Lincoln teammates, and we ran around in shorts and t-shirts doing football drills. It was enough to get the blood flowing and allow us to say we’d practiced.

Zoe found us and informed us she’d discovered a place where we could go horseback riding. Phil and Yuri had been learning to ride this summer while they hung out at the Pearson farm. We were taken to a ranch at the base of the mountains where they had trail horses.

It was funny as they explained to us how to ride. Well, not us, really, but Zoe and Roc, who’d grown up riding. They required that we go with a group led by one of the hands. The horses were used to the drill and pretty much did what they wanted to. They had a routine, and the humans riding them could just lump it if they didn’t like it.