SO, LIKE I WAS SAYING, it was official—I was an actor.
As the days went by and the shoot went on, I settled into a normal routine. Or, as normal a routine as you can have when you’re going to middle school and starring in a movie at the same time. Basically, it went like this:
Go to school until one o’clock.
Get pulled out of class by the school monitor. Walk by my friends, who are getting more and more jealous and annoyed that I get to leave school early every day.
Walk outside, where a fancy Lincoln Town Car is waiting to take me to the movie studio.
Sit in the back seat and watch Ashley text the whole time. I have nobody to text because everyone is still in school, so I play games on my phone. They’re fun but boring. (I know that might sound like it doesn’t make sense, but it does. Trust me.)
Get to the set, go into wardrobe, get dressed, get made up, eventually get called to the set, actually act for approximately fifteen minutes, go back to the dressing room, wait some more, get called to the set again, shoot for another fifteen minutes.
Repeat that pattern five more times, until about seven o’clock.
Go home in Town Car. Ashley is still texting, but this time so am I. Answering texts, mostly.
I get a text from Mareli, who wants to study together for our social studies test (can’t, have to memorize next day’s lines).
I get a text from Charlie Joe, who wants to go to the mall and try every restaurant in the food court (can’t, have to go take publicity pictures with Shana at some prep school upstate).
I get more texts from more people, who want to do more things, but my answer is always the same.
Can’t.
Can’t.
Can’t.
One day, after a few weeks, Charlie Joe sends me a text: THIS IS CRAZY. YOU’RE NEVER FREE TO DO ANYTHING!
I text back: WELL, WHERE WERE YOU TWO MONTHS AGO, WHEN I WAS FREE EVERY DAY AFTER SCHOOL?
Charlie Joe: THAT’S TOTALLY NOT FAIR.
Me: WHATEVER
Kids start to give up. Everybody wants to be my new best friend—but I don’t have time to be anybody’s best friend.
Eventually, Charlie Joe stops texting.
Timmy stops texting.
Even Mareli stops texting.
Go to school every day until one.
Get picked up early to go be in a movie.
It’s so cool!
Until it isn’t.