‘I’m sorry.’ And she genuinely was. ‘But I’ll be too busy learning lines for my film role.’
‘OK.’ Jenny nodded slowly, her shoulders sagging. ‘I understand. Thanks anyway.’ Olivia felt a twinge of guilt as Jenny pushed her way through the other students. But this was going to be her big break. She needed to give it her all, and that meant rehearsing and re-rehearsing until she knew her lines better than she knew her own name!
As the four friends were making their way out of the hall, Olivia felt the phone in her pocket vibrate again. She slipped it out of her jeans and touched the flashing message to open it. The message was from Jacob Harker, the studio head giving Olivia her shot at Hollywood: Olivia, my rising star, we need to catch up. Stuff ’s going down. Call the office. 818-350-4917.
Olivia tugged at her sister’s elbow, pulling her to a stop. ‘Harker wants me to call him.’
Ivy read the message over Olivia’s shoulder. ‘Even for a V, that guy’s a little kooky. Shouldn’t he have, like, a whole squad of minions taking his calls and sending his memos? At least that’s what I would do if I was that powerful.’
‘Well, then, let’s hope you’re never that powerful,’ Olivia teased. ‘You’d be a slave-driver!’
‘Hey!’ Ivy dropped her chin and tried to shoot Olivia a death stare, but instead burst into laughter.
Olivia’s stomach flip-flopped as she punched the keys for Harker’s number. She couldn’t believe that she, Olivia Abbott, was calling the head of a major Hollywood movie studio. How cool was that?
After three rings, the sound of Harker’s drawling voice eased on to the line. ‘Duuuude, what’s up?’
Olivia didn’t know the proper response to that. ‘Nothing . . . er . . . man,’ she replied uncertainly, hoping it didn’t sound weird.
‘Bad news.’ Harker’s voice became grave. Oh no . . . Am I getting fired? Is Jackson OK? ‘The Hollywood writers have gone on strike,’ he announced.
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’ Olivia tried to sound sympathetic, although she had no idea what this really meant.
‘No worries, my friend, but you’d better start watching reruns of your favourite shows, because it looks like it’s going to be a while before you get any new episodes.’
She hadn’t expected that. Olivia’s mouth went dry. ‘And movies?’
‘Kaput, too. With no one to write the scripts around here, we’re like bums on the beach. No choice but to relax and put everything on hold.’
Olivia stopped dead. ‘No more movie shoot?’ It felt as if a sumo wrestler had climbed aboard Olivia’s shoulders and taken a seat. She was crushed.
Ivy turned and shot her sister a worried look.
‘The movie shoot will still go forward – just a year later.’ Harker’s voice was silky on the other end of the phone. ‘Until then, we all just chill.’
Olivia couldn’t tell him that she had been counting down the days until she got to work with her boyfriend.
‘No problem,’ she fibbed, though her voice was wobbling and she knew how miserable she must look. At least Harker couldn’t see her down the phone line. ‘I’ll see you in a year!’ She ended the call and buried the phone in her pocket.
‘What’s wrong?’ Ivy rushed towards her. Sophia and Brendan crowded round, too.
Ivy squeezed her sister in a tight hug.
‘It’s bad,’ Olivia told them. ‘The writers are on strike and there’ll be no new movie shoots and no new television episodes until it’s over.’ She wanted to flop to the floor.
Ivy’s grip tightened so much that Olivia felt her eyes bugging. She could hardly breathe, her sister was hugging so hard.
‘Ivy!’ she yelped.
‘Does this mean there won’t be any new episodes of Shadowtown?’ Ivy asked through gritted teeth. Shadowtown was a show about vampire teens, and Ivy’s new guilty pleasure. She never missed an episode. ‘How will I survive?’ She pulled away from Olivia.
‘Too bad,’ said Brendan, but even Olivia could tell he didn’t mean it. Ivy and Sophia both turned on him.
‘What?’
He held up his hands in surrender. ‘Personally, I think the show sucks. And not in a good way.’
This time Ivy did manage a death stare, and it was aimed straight at Brendan. ‘How could you say that about Shadowtown? It’s only the best show ever. This is the end of the world.’ She pressed the back of her hand to her forehead and acted as though she would faint.
‘For you?’ Olivia interrupted. ‘My film is postponed!’ Not even Olivia could maintain a perky cheerleader image in the face of news this bad. ‘Jackson can’t come back from his promotional tour and summer holidays start today. What am I going to do? I was planning on being so busy learning my lines that I wouldn’t notice he was missing.’
Ivy twirled a loose strand of her hair. ‘You could get a hobby?’ she suggested.
Olivia drew a sharp breath. ‘That’s it! You’re a genius, Ivy. Hold on one second.’
‘Where are you going?’ called Ivy, as Olivia dashed back down the corridor.
‘I won’t be long. Don’t worry. I’ll meet you at the gate!’ She skidded around a corner and nearly collided with Jenny, who was shuffling along with her binders clasped against her chest. ‘Hey!’ Olivia panted. ‘I was looking for you.’
Jenny shifted the enormous folders in her arms. ‘You were?’
‘Yes. Do you still want me to help out?’
‘Oh my goodness!’ Jenny’s words came out in a rush. ‘Absolutely!’ She dumped the biggest binders on Olivia, who stumbled under the weight. ‘The first committee meeting is on Sunday.’ Jenny patted Olivia’s arm. ‘That should give you plenty of time to look those over. OK?’ Olivia opened her mouth, but Jenny didn’t wait to hear what she had to say. ‘Great, thank you!’
Olivia could barely hold the binder, it was so enormous. She felt herself start to tip, and before she could stop herself, she staggered on to a chair on one side of the corridor. She blinked. Jenny couldn’t get away from all that paperwork fast enough. She must have really not wanted to organise the dance. But, wait! Was that the sound of Jenny’s heels clacking on the floor? She must be coming back to help.