by Betsy Haynes
The phone was ringing when she and her mother entered their room.
"I'll get it," shouted Taffy, dashing around the end of the bed to grab the receiver off the bedside table.
"Hello. This is room nine seventeen," she said.
"Taffy? This is Shawnie."
"Shawnie!" Taffy cried, so surprised that she almost dropped the phone.
"I just wanted you to know that I mailed you a letter on the way to school this morning," said Shawnie. "I started writing it yesterday around the time your plane was supposed to take off for California. There isn't much in it, but I wanted you to know that I was thinking about you. Have you written me yet?"
Taffy sucked in her breath. "Well, I haven't mailed anything yet, but I'm going to . . . probably in the morning," she said, crossing her fingers and wishing she didn't have to lie. She had meant to write to Shawnie, but she had been so busy.
"That's okay," said Shawnie, and Taffy could hear disappointment in her voice. "I'm sure you've been on the go a lot. So tell me all about Hollywood. Are you shooting the movie yet?"
Taffy stretched out on the sofa and told Shawnie everything that had happened since she left home, starting with her trip to the West Coast, the chauffeur-driven limousine, the elegant hotel, the party last night at the director's house, and ending with her day on the set. It felt good to talk to her friend.
"And Raven Blaine is in your movie, too?" squealed Shawnie, sounding as if she were ready to pass out at the thought. "What's he like? Tell me everything."
Taffy winced. She couldn't tell Shawnie everything. Not how she was starting to get a crush on him. Shawnie might think she was getting conceited and would forget her old friends at Wacko Junior High. Not only that, but Shawnie might slip and say something to Cory about Raven.
"He's cuter in person than on the screen or in magazines," Taffy offered.
"But is he nice?" Shawnie urged. "You know, is he friendly?"
Taffy closed her eyes and thought about Raven's gorgeous smile. "Umm-hmm. He's nice and friendly and handsome and everything you'd expect from a superstar."
"Wow," said Shawnie. "You're really lucky. Have you met any other kids our age?"
"Yes," said Taffy. "I'll write you all about them," she promised. She wasn't ready to tell Shawnie about Paige Kramer yet. She needed to think that situation over a little longer.
"Well, I'd better go," said Shawnie. "My parents let me call your dad and get the name of your hotel and the phone number yesterday, but they said I could only talk to you for five minutes every couple of days. Don't forget to write, and Taffy . . ."
"Yes."
"Cory said to tell you that he mailed you a letter this morning, too," Shawnie said softly. "He also said to tell you that he misses you."
Taffy didn't move from the sofa for several minutes after she hung up the phone. She had never felt so guilty in her life. She really hadn't had time to write to Shawnie or to Cory, but she could never explain that to them. They wouldn't understand. Slowly she pulled herself up into a sitting position and stared at the desk. She had seen hotel stationery in the top drawer yesterday when she had been exploring the room. She would start a letter to both of them right this minute before she got too busy again.
"Taffy, honey, you'd better get cleaned up so that we can go down to the restaurant for dinner," her mother called as she emerged from the bathroom. "Then we have to study your lines for tomorrow."
Taffy sighed and promised herself that she would positively start the letters before she went to bed. Surely there would be time after she memorized her lines for tomorrow's filming.
When they got down to the hotel's restaurant, there was a table already reserved for them, and the maitre d' fluttered around while they got seated, and then, with a great flourish, he unfolded the huge linen napkins and spread them in Taffy's and her mother's laps before handing them tall, leather-bound menus. Taffy looked around the room at the elegant dinner guests at the other tables and thought about how Merry Chase had said that the person who won the leading role in Nobody Likes Tiffany Stafford would be given star treatment in Hollywood. I certainly am, she thought. But how am I going to explain all this to Shawnie and Cory?
Just as the waiter had finished taking their orders, there was a commotion near the front door. The other diners were craning to see the cause, and Taffy turned, too, hoping that it was a famous movie star coming to eat at the same restaurant where she was.
Cameras were flashing as a knot of people squeezed through the door and into the foyer. Suddenly the crowd parted just long enough for her to see who was at the center of all the excitement. It was Raven Blaine, and he was smiling at the cameras and waving to the reporters crowding around him.
"Oh, my gosh," cried Taffy. "That's Raven, and he's coming this way."
"Tell us about the movie you're making," shouted a woman holding out a tape recorder with one hand while she tried to get her camera in position with the other.
Taffy held her breath. Raven was only a few feet from her now. It was so thrilling. So exciting to see reporters flock around a real movie star. She held her breath and imagined for an instant the same thing's happening to her.
Suddenly Raven stopped beside her table. "I'm making a wonderful film called Nobody Likes Tiffany Stafford, and this is my costar, sitting right here. I'd like you to meet Taffy Sinclair."
Before Taffy could understand what was happening, Raven reached for her hand, pulling her up to stand beside him, and the reporters turned to her and began asking questions and taking pictures.
"How many movies have you starred in before this one, Miss Sinclair?"
"Are you a personal friend of Raven Blaine's?"
On and on the questions went until restaurant personnel moved in and ushered the reporters back out the door. When the room was quiet again and Taffy was tingling all over with excitement and trying to catch her breath, the maitre d' returned to her table and bowed low.
"I'm so sorry, Miss Sinclair," he said. "I deeply regret this invasion of your privacy. Mr. Blaine is attending a private function in one of our party rooms. We anticipated that the press would cover his arrival, but we had no idea that they would interrupt your dinner as well."
"Oh, that's okay," Taffy assured him. "I mean, actually it was fun. But Raven . . . I mean, Mr. Blaine, you said that he's in a private party room?"
"Yes, Miss Sinclair," the maitre d' said formally, and Taffy could sense that the subject was closed.
As soon as he had moved away from the table, Taffy's mother began speaking in a loud voice. "Isn't this exciting, dear? You're actually going to have your picture in the paper with a famous actor." She gazed at the ceiling and looked thoughtful. "I'll go right out tomorrow and buy up all the copies I can find. Then I'll send them to . . . hmm . . . let's see . . . to your acting coach back home, and your agent, and that wonderful casting director who auditioned you . . . and . . ."
Taffy barely touched her food. She tuned out her mother's lengthy chatter and remembered the way Raven had looked at her when he introduced her to the press. He had been smiling so sincerely, just as he had yesterday when they first met. So what if he was sixteen and a superstar? she thought. He liked her. She could tell.
Taffy drifted up to her room like a helium-filled balloon. In fact, when she got on the elevator, she wondered briefly if she couldn't float up faster by herself than the elevator could travel.
"I've got to call your father and tell him what happened," cooed Mrs. Sinclair as soon as they were in the room.
Taffy flopped across her bed, vaguely hearing her mother's conversation, and relived the scene in the restaurant. If this is what being a movie star is all about, I love it! she thought, hugging herself with joy.
A knock sounded at the door. Taffy glanced at her mother, who was still talking on the phone, and then got up to answer it. She peered through the peephole and saw a bellman standing in the hall holding a big vase of roses.
"Flowers for Miss Taffy Sinc
lair," he called.
"That's me," she gasped, throwing open the door. "Oh, my gosh. They're beautiful."
The bellman left, and Taffy carried the flowers across the floor and carefully set them down on the table beside the sofa. There were a dozen long-stemmed red roses in a silver vase, and they were the most beautiful flowers she had ever seen. Her heart was thumping and her hands shaking so badly that she had trouble removing the small envelope holding the card.
"Who could these be from?" she whispered.
Raven! she thought, and the idea startled her so much that she almost dropped the envelope. Fumbling, she removed the card. On the outside it said:
For a beautiful actress,
Congratulations on your first day as a star.
Holding her breath, she opened the card. It has to be from Raven, she prayed. It just has to.
Finally she let out her breath and looked at the signature.
Len
"Len!" she shrieked. "Who's Len? I don't know any Len."
Disappointment pressed down on her heart. Who on earth was Len?
"Perhaps he's someone you met on the set today," said her mother, who had hung up the phone and come over to admire the flowers. "You talked to a lot of the cameramen, the gaffers, the grips. Maybe one of them has a crush on you."
Taffy made a grumpy sound and turned away, vowing not to look at the roses again until they turned brown and died. She didn't want them to be from someone she met on the set. Not a gaffer. Not a grip. Not a cameraman. She wanted them to be from Raven Blaine.
CHAPTER SEVEN
When the AD knocked on Taffy's trailer door the next morning to tell her that it was time to begin filming, she jumped in her chair. She had been so lost in her thoughts about the roses, she hadn't realized the time. She still hadn't figured out who Len was, and what's more, she didn't care. But one thing was certain, she thought, she would be extra careful about whom she talked to or even said hello to from now on.
But the roses weren't the only thing on her mind. As Taffy walked to the set, she kept her eyes focused on the ground just ahead of her feet and thought about Shawnie and Cory. It had been late last night when she had finally settled down to memorizing her lines for today's shoot, and she had been too tired to start letters to either of them before heading for bed. "What am I going to do?" she whispered to herself.
"Good morning, Miss Sinclair."
It was the same voice as yesterday, and it startled her so much that she looked up without meaning to. The cameraman who had spoken to her was younger than most of the others and nice looking, and he was smiling as he waited for her answer.
"Hi," she said quickly, then she ducked her head and hurried on past. That has to be Len, she thought. She was glad she had gotten away before he could ask her about the flowers.
This morning's set was an interior room in the school, which had been built, complete with desks and a chalkboard, on the back lot near the fake school front. When she arrived, Paige, Megan, Chelsea, and KJ were already there, blocking out their movements in advance so that the action in the movie would look natural. She looked around for Raven, but he wasn't there yet. At least she wasn't the last one to arrive, she thought with relief.
Paige was strutting around looking important, so Taffy ignored her and smiled at the others as she hurried to her mark. This time, instead of chalk, it was a piece of dark tape marking the spot where she was to stand when the cameras began rolling.
Suddenly Paige rushed toward the director. Her green eyes were flashing, and she swept her auburn hair over one shoulder as she shouted, "Taffy Sinclair isn't the only person in this movie, and yet you always arrange it so that she's standing front and center. What about the rest of us? We're in the story, too."
Jerry Lowenthal looked flabbergasted, and Taffy shrank back, not wanting to get into the middle of a fight. It was obvious that Paige was furious and that she wasn't going to merely back down with a few soothing words. But on the other hand, thought Taffy, she isn't the lead character. I am.
Jerry approached Paige. "Sure, Paige. I'm listening. What did you have in mind?" he asked.
Paige whipped around and began pacing back and forth across the set, pointing to various places in the room and quoting the lines other actors would speak. "So you see," she concluded, "it would be a much better scene if I were in the close-up instead of Taffy." Paige shot a look of superiority at Taffy while she waited for Jerry's reply.
The director rubbed his chin in thought and then shrugged. "You know, that's not a bad idea. Let's give it a try. Okay, everybody. Places, please."
This time it was Taffy's turn to be flabbergasted. Paige Kramer had taken control of the scene and was pushing her into the background. So what if Paige had made lots of movies before. That didn't give her the right to take over the director's job.
Apparently her mother felt the same way, because no sooner had the actors taken their places than Mrs. Sinclair came bustling onto the set.
"Just one moment," she shouted.
Jerry took an exasperated puff on his cigar. "What is it, Mrs. Sinclair?"
"You can't let Paige upstage my daughter," she said indignantly. "Taffy is the star of this movie."
"Of course Taffy is the star of this movie, Mrs. Sinclair," Jerry said in a soothing voice. "Don't worry. She'll get all the attention she deserves. Now please have a seat while we get on with the shooting."
Taffy couldn't look at Paige. Why did her mother have to make scenes and embarrass her all the time?
Just then Raven came trotting into the room. "Sorry I'm late. I overslept," he said, grinning sheepishly.
He started toward his mark and then stopped and looked at the other actors. "Hey, what's going on here? According to the script—"
"The script was wrong," Paige said icily. "The scene works much better if we're standing this way. Your new mark is over there. It's the one that used to belong to KJ."
Raven glanced first at Paige and then at Taffy before shaking his head and crossing the room to his mark.
"You'd better watch out," KJ whispered to Taffy. "She's going to try to upstage you in every scene now that she's gotten away with it once."
Fuming, Taffy moved toward her mark—the new mark, which was off to one side and had once belonged to Paige—and watched the gaffers adjust huge, plastic reflectors to create the proper mix of light and shadows. Naturally, her own face was in shadows now while Paige beamed triumphantly in the light.
Surprisingly, the rehearsals and filming of the scene went smoothly, even though once during a rehearsal Taffy turned stage left when she was supposed to turn stage right. As soon as she discovered her mistake, she gave herself a small lecture that the mistake didn't mean she was an amateur but that instead she was learning with experience. And as badly as she hated to admit it, the scene did work better with the actors arranged the way Paige had suggested. Still, she couldn't forgive Paige for pushing her into the background and taking the spotlight for herself.
The only other disappointment of the morning was Raven. In front of the camera he was all smiles, flirting and treating her special. And after Paige's outburst, she was dying for him to mention the scene in the restaurant with reporters crowding around both of them. She was dying to see Paige's face when she heard about that. But he didn't say a word about it. He didn't even act as if he remembered it. Instead, away from the cameras he seemed even more distant and quiet than he had the day before.
To Taffy's relief the rest of the day went pretty smoothly. She divided her time between filming scenes and doing her schoolwork in Toodie McCormick's trailer.
Dollins was waiting when they wrapped for the day and whisked them through the rush-hour traffic toward the hotel with his usual efficiency.
Taffy leaned back against the smooth leather upholstery and played again in her mind the scene where Paige took control of the filming. She would play it through once, then mentally rewind it as if it were on her VCR at home, and then play it through onc
e more. Finally she let the tears flow that she had been holding back all day. They were tears of humiliation because of the way Paige had succeeded in making her look insignificant, unworthy, an amateur. They were tears of frustration because she did not know how to handle someone as nasty as Paige. And they were tears of anger because she wanted to fight back and didn't know how.
"I have to do something about her," she muttered under her breath. "If I don't, she's going to wreck the movie and take over the lead. She'll even rewrite the script if she has to in order to make it come out the way she wants it."
She sighed deeply and thought about the story line for Nobody Likes Tiffany Stafford. Paige was like Jillian Morris in so many ways. But in the movie Tiffany simply proved to everyone that she was a nice person and didn't deserve to be treated the way Jillian and her friends were treating her. Eventually wicked Jillian saw the error of her ways and changed, too, and everyone lived happily ever after. Taffy blew out her breath noisily to show her distaste. That was how it was in the movies. In real life things never worked out that way.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Taffy bounced eagerly out of bed on Saturday morning and hurried to shower and dress. Even though she usually loved to sleep in on Saturday mornings, the day's shoot was scheduled for one of the biggest malls in the San Fernando Valley, and she could hardly wait to get there. It seemed like ages since she had done something normal, like go to a mall.
As the limousine sped through the crowded streets, Taffy studied her lines and thought about the scene on this morning's call sheet. Since it was a shopping scene at the mall, only the girls in the cast, Paige, Megan, Chelsea, Tess, and herself, would be acting today. Unfortunately that meant that Raven wouldn't be there and also that she would have to be on her guard against Paige again. For the past few days the filming had gone on without major problems or any more outbursts from Paige, but things were tense on the set just the same. The movie cast had expanded to include some adults who played teachers and parents, and Taffy recognized one of the actors from an old comedy series she had watched on television when she was younger. Even though school in the temple of doom was a pain, she was beginning to enjoy the time she spent on the set, sitting around talking to the cast and crew and waiting for her turn in front of the camera.