Page 36 of The Small-Town Seduction Plan

I stare blankly.

“Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” She gives me a wink, and then exits – leaving me with a massive pile of books.

I tug the first one closer, feeling intimidated. I’ve never really researched for a role like this before, but I try to take it one step at a time. Somewhere in this stack is the spark of inspiration that will break the character wide open.

I just have to figure out where to start.

I wind up buying a whole stack of biographies, and pitching up in the corner of the coffee shop to read for the afternoon. It feels good to lose myself in a project like this, making notes on important events in Amelia’s life, and things that might inform her character. I get more excited as I read. I know it’s a massive long-shot, a role like this is Oscar-winning material: prestigious. Emotional. The kind of thing A-list actresses would claw each other’s fake lashes out to get.

And I’m a long way from the A-list, especially right now.

Hey, a girl’s got to dream, right? And not just dream, but ruthlessly plot, and plan, and hunt down every last chance of getting what I want.

It’s how I got this far.

But after a few hours lost in the dense pages, even I’ve had enough of twin-prop airplanes. I pack up, and decide to take a stroll through town. It’s busier here than Blackberry Cove, with narrow cobbled streets packed with tourists and families, and kitschy stores selling sell jewelry and nautical gifts.

I get an iced drink and wander for a while, happy just to blend into the crowds. Everyone has that summer vacation vibe, and I enjoy the feel of the sunshine on my bare shoulders. Little kids are running around, trailing sand from the beaches, and there’s a group of teens over in the park, rehearsing some kind of performance.

I pause. This must be the theater camp Suze was talking about!

I drift closer to watch. Suze is trying to keep it together, but the run-through is breaking down into typical teen anarchy. One preppy-looking girl is trying in vain to get everyone back on track, while a few of the guys are play fighting with wooden swords, and the other girls have given up to sprawl in the sun on their phones. Nobody is so much as glancing at their photocopied script pages.

“It’s supposed to be funny!” one of the shaggy-haired boys is arguing. “Not everything’s, like, life and death all the time.”

“They literally die at the end!” the preppy girl wails.

“Yeah, at the end. I don’t want to look like a loser, all sincere,” he grumbles.

“Can we just try it one time without you idiots ruining everything?”

“You’re not the director, Beanie is. Yo, Beans!” Shaggy-Hair hollers to one of the other guys, who’s trying to flirt with a girl. “We’re doing this my way, right?”

“Yeah, whatever.”

They try the scene again, the famous balcony duet from Romeo and Juliet, but it’s clear that Shaggy-Hair is hamming for laughs, while Preppy Girl is overemphasizing every line.

“Counting your blessings, huh?” Suze waves me over, from her spot in the shade. She’s wearing a denim romper, with her hair pulled back in a scarf like an old Rosie the Riveter poster. “I figured I’d just let them wear themselves out. Eventually, they’ll get back to work again. I hope.”

I laugh. “I was just having flashbacks to my high-school drama club,” I admit. “There was always one jock guy who signed up for extra credit, got cast as the lead, and then was terrified of showing any actual emotion in front of his buddies.”

“Aka, Cade over there,” Suze nods to Shaggy-Hair. “How did you handle it?”

“Oh, I didn’t,” I say immediately. “I was just hiding out in the back, playing the extra characters. Nurse, messenger, Random Capulet #3.”

“You, hiding out?” Suze looks disbelieving, and I understand why. The Avery Lawrence everybody knows, and loathes, never shies away from the spotlight. But back then, attention was the last thing I wanted. Not with my dad passing out drunk in the parking lot of his favorite bar every week, and my mom taking off for weeks at a time to “clear her head”, leaving the bills unpaid and the refrigerator empty again.

No, it was safer to go unnoticed, gliding through the hallways with a big fake smile on my face, counting the days until I could get my diploma, and get out.

“I stayed pretty much under-the-radar,” I give Suze a vague shrug. “But there was an English teacher who’d run all the school productions. She’d actually been an actress, way way off-Broadway, she would always joke,” I add with a nostalgic smile. “I refused to try out for the big parts, but she made me understudy everyone, she swore one day I’d surprise myself. Then one night, the lead was out sick, and I actually had to go on.”

I was terrified, fully expecting to bomb, but the moment I stepped on-stage…

Everything changed.

Losing myself in another character, it was the only time I could truly forget my shitty, stressful life. When I felt the eyes of the audience on me, the way I held them in the palm of my hand…

I knew, this was my future.

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