Star Power (8 page)

Desperate to find Mac, Emily craned her neck to peer at the crowd of industry onlookers who had gathered to watch. She saw Giselle mumbling to herself, and Chris the PA talking into his headset. She saw the DVD crew, already filming everything. She saw the producer of
Deal With It
, Elliot Tachman, who looked like a giant teddy bear with his belly and big beard. Kimmie sat beside him, clutching her pink iBook. Seeing Kimmie, Emily gulped. Anything stupid she said or did would wind up on the Tawker's live blog. She imagined a headline about a dumb Iowa girl who knocked Davey Woodward out with her death breath. Which was all the more reason to find Mac now. But where in the Sony-world was she?

“
Quiet on set!
” Shane screamed. He walked to his director 's chair, which had a canvas back with his name on it. There was a hush over the crowd and then Shane screamed “
Action!
”

Emily couldn't believe it was all happening so fast. Her heartbeat was racing. Already the cameras were filming her. Davey snapped into his character mode and faced Emily. “Look, Kelly, there's something I need to tell you—”

He began to remove the braided wig and leaned in close to kiss Emily. Even though Emily knew it was acting—make believe, pretend—her tuna breath was very, very real. Suddenly she didn't even see hotness in Davey, she just saw Code Red Terror. Between the heat, the lights, and the people staring at her, Emily felt like she was going to faint.

“Hold up!” Emily screamed. “What's my motivation?” It seemed like a clever way to show she was a serious actress, a Meryl-in-the-making, his next Oscar-winning star . . . so Emily continued. “I'd like to take this material home and work on it tonight.”

Shane stared at her like she'd turned into a wildebeest. “CUT! CUT! CUT!”

She looked over at the industry crowd and saw Mac pushing her way through to the front, her blue eyes widened in horror. Mac ran over to her. “What do you think you're doing?” Everyone—even Emily—knew it was a cardinal crime to interrupt a shot.
That
was how desperate she was.

“I need breath mints,” Emily whispered when Mac was close.

“I cannot believe this,” Mac hissed, slipping a roll of Lifesavers into her hands.

“I'm all set!” Emily screamed big to show that she was ready to be serious. “Figured it all out.” She had never felt so relieved to freshen her breath in her entire life. She turned her face away from the crowd, unrolled the entire package of mints, and shoved them all into her mouth.

“And we're going again!” Shane screamed in an exasperated voice. He took his position behind the monitor. Slowly he raised his right hand to the sky and then brought it down in one strong swoop. “
Action!
”

Davey faced Emily exactly as he'd done the first time. “Look, Kelly, there's something I need to tell you—”

Emily wanted to respond, but she'd stuffed her face with mints and now her cheeks were swollen like a chipmunk's. Davey was looking at her like she was a freak, which only made her more nervous. She tried to quickly chew her mints so she could swallow them. But the more she thought about
not
spewing mints all over Davey, the more her lips began to quiver nervously. He leaned in closer, and Emily prayed that he'd know to back off. She waved him away, but he kept coming. Then, just when he leaned in to kiss her, Emily did the only thing more heinous than unleashing her fish breath on him: She sprayed him with a mouthful of half-chewed breath mints.

“Ow,” Davey said, wiping a chunk of Lifesaver off his nose.

Emily felt sick to her stomach and she ran behind a tree.

“Um, I think I need to go clean up?” Emily could hear Davey's voice calling to Shane. “Maybe Emily needs to get well?”

Shane sighed. “THAT'S A WRAP, EVERYONE,” he announced.

Emily wiped her brow, and emerged from behind the fake tree. She wanted to call out,
I'm not actually sick!
But the crew began silently packing their gear, and Tina and Robyn were wiping Davey's face, talking in hushed whispers. Kimmie Tachman was looking at her sadly and the DVD crew was hoisting cameras at her. Mac was staring at her like she'd seen the apocalypse.

Emily's tongue felt like sandpaper and she stood alone in the grass. Shane flashed Emily a fake smile. “We'll get it next time, dollface!” he yelled. But he was about as believable an actor as Paul Walker.

Emily smiled weakly. It was her first day of shooting, and so far she had disappointed Mac and—to put it mildly—made a bad impression on Davey. And then, seeing the glares on people's faces as they left the set, Emily's shoulders sank. She hadn't just made a bad impression on Davey. She'd made a bad impression on
everyone.

The Breathalyzer had done its worst.

becks

“o La Table!” Becks cheered as she and Coco sidled up to their favorite table at Bel-Air Middle School. Mac had picked it out, due to its perfect balance of privacy and voyeuristic opps. Even though she and Emily were on set, Becks and Coco had to uphold tradition.

Last night, Becks had had a quickie conference iChat with Mac, Coco, and Emily, where the girls had promised to accompany her on her first international Dixie trip. Mac and Emily had had to hop off before they could say how shooting was going, but knowing those two, Emily was probably on her way to an Oscar. Then, Becks and her dad had gone to California Pizza Kitchen to celebrate, and they'd each ordered two barbecue chicken pizzas. After dinner, she'd Skyped with her friends in Hawaii. Everyone in her world who needed to know was in the loop. Well, everyone except her crush and next-door neighbor, Austin Holloway, but now that he was crushing on Ellie Parker, he was no longer in her world. Maybe on a nearby moon, but Becks was reserving her planet for the people who actually cared.

“How's your singing going?” Becks asked Coco, resisting the urge to discuss the latest Dixie Girls development uh-gain. She was still buzzing from her good news, but popped two sushi rolls in her mouth so she could actually listen to Coco's response.

Coco shrugged and took a bite of her baby zucchini and soy vegan wrap. “You should come over and tell me which new songs you like.”

Becks smiled and offered an encouraging
my mouth is full but that sounds great
smile.

Before Becks could ask Coco if she was still upset about Finny, or whatever his name was, she spotted Ruby Goldman closing in on them like a hyena preparing to pounce on its prey. She wore a white tunic with sparkly embroidery over J Brand jeans with Mystique sandals, and was flanked by two other girls wearing the exact same outfit: Ellie Parker and Haylie Fowler. Ruby and Ellie were bouncy blondes, while Haylie Fowler was a bigger brunette, the token B-level cute girl. In any other city, she might have been A-level cute, but in L.A. the bar was just too high. Becks had dubbed them the Rubybots because they talked, thought, and dressed the same.

“Here's a flyer for you, Becksie,” Ruby said, dropping a hot pink paper on Becks's tray like she was sprinkling pixie dust.

“Cool,” Becks said, as neutrally as possible. It would be friend-cheating to be too nice to Ruby.

“And don't think I forgot you, Coco.” Ruby placed another flyer on Coco's tray with the same annoying flourish. “I'm hosting a dance next week at the Bel-Air Bay Club for my first event as social chair.”

“Cool,” Coco said, showing exactly no emotion. She pulled her dark brown hair into a ponytail.

“The Decemberists are going to perform.” The Rubybots smiled proudly.

“Sorry,” Coco sighed. “We have plans.”

“Cancel them,” Ruby said, as though she had veto power.

“Sure thing, let me get my phone,” Coco said sarcastically. She shot Becks a
help me out here
look.

“Umm . . .” Becks stammered. “Coco's right. We have a lot going on.” Becks wished she could start over again before she'd even finished. She didn't sound busy, she just sounded nervous. Which, of course, she was.

“Really?
You
have a lot going on?” Ruby placed her hands on her hips while she waited for more information. As everyone in Hollywood knew, information was power.

Coco and Becks exchanged a conspiratorial look. It was Mac's job to run PR, and without her, neither girl was sure how much they should (or should not) leak about their news.

“I don't want to talk about it,” Coco said. She took a sip of her kombucha and smiled mysteriously. “Besides,” she added proudly, “it's got nothing to do with BAMS.”

“Fiiiine, I'll find out eventually,” Ruby said fake-sweetly. “And by then I won't care. Oh, wait, I already don't.”

“Super,” Coco said, although she didn't sound as confident as Becks would have hoped. Mac was the one who usually stood up to Ruby, battling her back with clever comebacks and sassy one-liners. Not things like
super
. Her Dixie Gals high was slowly deflating.

“B-T-dubs, I hear your little friend Emily had a great first scene on set today,” Ruby added. “And by
great
I mean
she vomited all over Davey Woodward
.”

Becks shot Coco a nervous glance, but Coco just arched a perfectly plucked eyebrow and stared at Ruby suspiciously. Coco could say more with her eyebrows than most people could say with words. Becks checked her phone for an update, but all was quiet on the text front.

“Guess some people don't read the live blog.” Ruby smirked.

“Sorry, we'd rather get our intel from the star herself,” Coco snapped. “Not some second-rate gossip blog.”

Suddenly Ruby turned to face Becks. “Hey, how's Austin?” she fake-smiled, her eyes slanted like a snake's.

Becks pursed her lips in frustration. Couldn't they at least be frenemies? Like Blair and Serena? Or Lauren and Audrina? Anything was better than this attack. “I don't know how Austin is,” Becks said flatly. “I don't see him too much these days.”

“Oh, I forgot!” Ruby pretended to be surprised. “'Cause he's seeing Ellie.”

“Ruby!” Ellie giggled, and swatted her friend.

Becks stared down at her bento box. The excitement bubble over the Dixie Gals popped and was gone.

“Later, haters.” Ruby turned sharply on her sandal, taking the Rubybots with her.

When they were finally out of sight, Becks held her hand up to her burning cheeks. After feeling like everything was going right, seeing Ruby and Ellie was like surfing in NorCal with no wet suit—a total shock to her system. A reminder of how screwed up her life actually was: Austin didn't want to see her. The Inner Circle was separated. And all her other BFFs lived in Hawaii. Becks's mental list-making ended abruptly as the lunch bell rang.