by Lexi Archer
I walked up to a bored looking guy who looked almost hot enough to be one of the prince actors. I’d seen several people like that and I just assumed that, like me, they weren’t interested in acting.
“Name?” he asked in a bored tone.
“Isaac.”
I was about to say my last name but he held up a hand to stop me. Well then. I guess this was a short interview. He ran a finger down a long list of names until he found something he liked and then gave me a thumbs up.
“Okay. Looks like you’re going to be in room number four. Walk forward and take a turn to the right and you’ll be on the right track. Make sure that you go in, take the pictures like the handler asks you to, and try not to talk directly to the talent,” he said in that same bored tone.
I blinked. That sounded fucked up.
“Wait, so does that mean you’re telling me not to talk to the talent as a matter of company policy or something?” I asked.
He looked up at me and grinned. The first grin I’d seen since I walked in here. At least it was something.
“Actually I added that one myself a year ago. I found that it helps cut down on incidents if everyone knows their proper place and all that.”
I shook my head. “This place is more and more fucked up.”
The guy leaned back and put his hands behind his head. “Hey man, I don’t make the rules for the talent. I just try to live by them and get through life with as few tantrums as possible.”
“But they’re playing a role at an amusement park! Is it really a big deal? Everyone’s walking around like they’re superstars or something!”
“Around here they are man,” the guy said. I realized that I didn’t even have his name. Then again I guess it wasn’t that important that I know his name. I certainly didn’t have any desire to talk to this guy after I finished with this conversation. I looked at his name tag. Jake. It also said he was a manager.
Fucking great. The guy running this place was drinking the Kool-Aid when it came to the ridiculous rules everyone followed about the actors at this place.
“Right. Well I’m going to go and take some pictures. Hopefully I won’t get in with some prima donna who thinks her shit doesn’t stink just because she’s hot,” I said.
“As far as the park’s concerned that might as well be true,” Jake shouted after me as I walked down the hall. There were a series of doors along an extra wide hall and they were all helpfully numbered so it was easy enough to see when I was at magical door number four.
I paused and took a deep breath. I was in air conditioning. I’d keep telling myself that for the rest of the summer. No matter what else happened, no matter what crap I had to put up with because I was working with a group of women who thought they were the best thing since sliced bread because they dressed up in silly costumes, I could be thankful for that.
I also got a bit of a pay bump for working in here. Not much, but it was something. I was starting to think of it as hazard pay. Or maybe combat pay would be a better comparison.
I stepped into the room and I couldn’t help but be impressed for a moment. I stared in much the same way I’d seen tourists stopping and staring at things around the park. Then again I did that a lot these days considering I was just as new to the place as some of those tourists. I’d been here a couple of times with my family, but we’d never gotten to see everything.
The inside of the “princess room” really was something to behold. It was done up to look exactly like the interior of a castle, and everything was perfect. There was a draft followed by a whoosh of cold air that ran through the room along with speakers hidden somewhere that made the sound of wind blowing. There were various little woodland creatures at various spots in the darkness from whatever movie this was based on.
My sister was always the one who was all about the princess stuff. I’d never particularly cared about them one way or another until the first time we visited the park after I hit puberty.
“You must be Isaac,” a voice said off to the side.
I turned and saw a pretty girl smiling at me. She wore a Royal Realms polo, though, so she wasn’t a princess. Or if she was then she was in disguise. Maybe they wore the polos before they got into uniforms.
“Hi, um, Tiffany?” I said, reading her name off of her name tag. “So are you the one I’ll be photographing?”
Tiffany giggled and shook her head. She bit her lip as well as she moved in closer. Well then. That was very interesting. It also did away with any worries I might have that she was one of the actresses. If she was there wasn’t a chance she would be moving in this close to a mere peasant like yours truly.
“That’s nice of you to say that, but I’m just the handler. I’ll be making sure everything moves like a well oiled machine. Get the families in, get their pictures taken, and get them out so we can get the next group in without taking up too much time.”
“Sounds like a plan. And I’ll be sitting over there looking pretty in a dress, right?”
Tiffany giggled again which I thought was nice. That joke wasn’t all that good to begin with, but it was good of her to laugh at it. She reached out and put a hand on my shoulder.
“Funny, but no. As much fun as it might be to see you in one of the princess dresses I’m pretty sure they don’t make them in your size. At least not the ones we use here.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “So is there anyplace in particular I need to stand while we’re doing this?”
Tiffany led me over to little alcove on one side of the room. Set down in the fake rock, I’d have to ask someone what that was made out of sometime because it looked like the real thing until I rapped my knuckles against it, was a small control panel that had controls for all the animatronic animals and the special effects in the room. It looked like the alcove was maybe big enough for two people to fit into if they were both in good shape.
“This is where you’ll be hanging out until it comes time to actually take the pictures,” she said. “I’ll be in here too. You just stand right here…”
She reached out and put a hand on my arm to guide me over to my spot for the day. I shivered as her hand ran down my arm and she moved me in close. She was right. It really was a tight squeeze. She moved in beside me to the control panel and I couldn’t help but notice the way my cock brushed against her ass.
I was wondering if she’d even noticed our slightly embarrassing situation when I felt something happening that made me want to die from embarrassment. I started to get hard.
I mean what was I supposed to do? It was an involuntary reaction. It’s not like I could help it. A pretty girl with what looked like a killer body under her frumpy polo shirt was rubbing her ass against me. Show me a man who didn’t have a reaction to that and I’ll show you a man who was into other dudes.
Even then he might have some trouble with the direct stimulation.
I tried to move back but I only got maybe an inch of clearance before I pressed against the fake wall behind me. Damn. No escape that way. My face was bright red but Tiffany was looking forward as though preoccupied with the panel.
Only a few seconds had passed. I thought maybe if I stepped out she wouldn’t notice, but then she gave a shimmy and pressed her ass back against me. Moved forward and then pressed back against me again.
Damn. That felt good. Really good. I closed my eyes and pressed back against her before I could really think about what I was doing. Then she stopped and I worried that I might have taken things too far. That maybe I’d ruined our working relationship on the first day.
I could see it now. I’d get hit with a sexual harassment accusation on the first day and that would be all she wrote. I’d be kicked out of the program and assigned to pushing a broom or something like that. Probably in the heat directly under the sun and as far from air conditioning as you could get around here.
Tiffany turned around. Looked up at me and smiled.
“I can tell we’re going to have a good time working together her
e this summer,” she said.
Well then. Maybe it wasn’t going to be the end of the world after all. I returned the smile even as I couldn’t believe my luck. I didn’t think the universe could smile on me any more than it already had and here was a pretty girl grinding against me with the promise of more of that to come for the rest of the summer.
This was going to kill me, and not because I had to deal with a snooty princess. Speaking of snooty princesses…
“So where’s the other third of this operation?” I asked. “Shouldn’t we actually have a princess in the room if we’re going to do this?”
Tiffany rolled her eyes which gave me an idea of exactly what she thought of the girl we’d be working with.
“That bad, huh?” I asked.
“Actually I have no idea,” she said. “This is the first day when all the summer help shows up to their new assignments so everything is kind of up in the air. Last year I worked with a girl who was a royal bitch on wheels, though. Our nickname for her was Princesszilla.”
“Huh. Weird,” I said. “So what happens to the people who normally work here during the off season?”
“They’re still here,” she said. “There’s just a lot more now getting ready for the summer rush. They open up a bunch of rooms that usually sit closed. There was probably an army of technicians coming through here over the past month making sure everything was perfect.”
“Huh. Guess I never thought of people who make this sort of job a full time thing,” I said.
“Yup. They’re out there. They don’t like the summer workers either,” she said.
“Wouldn’t that be nice if we got a snooty princess who was a full timer?” I said. “The worst of both worlds!”
Tiffany giggled and slapped my chest. I noticed that her hand lingered there for a moment. Yeah, this summer was getting very interesting indeed.
“I don’t know, I think…”
Tiffany never finished telling me what she thought because the door in the back opened. I’d just walked through the thing a few minutes ago but already it was difficult to tell where the heck it was. That was how good the people who built this place were at hiding it.
And in through that door walked…
A goddess.
It was the only word I could think of that accurately described the creature who walked through that door. She wore a bright green dress and had blonde hair done up in an elaborate pattern that put anything I’d seen a girl wear to prom to shame and she was perfect in every way.
Not that I should’ve expected any less from a princess at Royal Realms. She took my breath away. I was staring. I probably shouldn’t be staring, especially since we were going to be working together, but I couldn’t help it. She was so damn beautiful.
And I recognized her. She was the girl from that first day in the commissary. The day that asshole working as a prince had been, well, a complete asshole to someone who wasn’t working as a prince. She’d stared right at me before she went to sit at that table and I thought there might be something even as Dan gave me shit about it.
Yeah, I’d thought there might be something there right up to the moment she didn’t say anything as that asshole acted like the asshole he was and confirmed everything Dan ever said about these people.
Still, she was something to look at. That wasn’t enough to give her a pass for standing by while someone acted like a jerk, but I could see why other people did.
Someone elbowed me in the side. I looked over to Tiffany.
“Your jaw’s hanging open,” she said. “Probably not a good idea to start your work day by gawking at the talent.”
“Right,” I said. I was conflicted anyways. I wasn’t sure if I should be turned on or pissed off. Ultimately it felt like my body decided on some combination of all of the above. This meeting was going to be interesting, that was for sure.
6: Falling
Melody:
I stopped as I stepped into the room, the smile plastered on my face.
It was him. The guy from the commissary. The one who’d looked at me with that intense gaze on that first day we saw each other from across the room. The one who’d seemed disappointed in me. The one who was so cute.
Sure he was in a Royal Realms polo right now, but even with that it was obvious that this was a guy who was in shape. And that face. Those eyes. Now that I was up close and personal with him I was weak in the knees in a way I hadn’t been even with stupid William.
This guy looked good. And from the way he was scowling it seemed like he still remembered everything that happened in that commissary. Damn it.
Someone beside him cleared a throat. Cleared her throat, from the sound of it. I’d been so preoccupied with the guy holding the camera that I hadn’t even looked at the girl standing beside him. She was very pretty and also in the polo uniform everyone wore around here.
I fixed them both with my best most winning smile, the one that got me my first role here, and did a curtsy in my green dress.
“A pleasure to meet both of you,” I said. “I’m Melody, and I look forward to working with you this summer.”
“Nice to meet you too,” the girl said. “My name’s Tiffany and this slack-jawed idiot who’s trying not to look at your tits is Isaac.”
The guy blushed at that and his eyes immediately went up to my face. I smiled, and this time it had nothing to do with the fake smile I kept plastered on my face when I was in character. I blushed a little bit myself. Knowing I had his attention like that was nice. I felt a tremor run through me.
Working in this room this summer was going to be very interesting if we were all going to be working together!
“Nice to meet you,” Isaac muttered. Now that he was looking at my face there was something there that wasn’t entirely pleasant. Maybe he remembered me from that day. Maybe he remembered how I sat there and didn’t say anything when William was such an ass to that poor kid.
No time to go into any of that now though. We could talk about it later if it became a big deal.
I moved into the room and checked the area where I’d be making the magic happen. It was about the same as what I remembered from last year. A tree branch that had a seat sculpted into it with padding that was surprisingly comfortable for looking like solid bark.
I turned and looked to Tiffany. “How much time do we have?”
“You got here just in time,” she said. “Looks like the first guests are moving through. The line should get to us in five minutes or so.”
“Good,” I said. I looked at her and Isaac in turn. Smiled again. “I really am glad to be working with the two of you. I hope this is the start of a fun summer working together!”
They glanced at each other but it was difficult to tell what they were thinking. I sighed. I guess it was too much to hope we’d be able to overcome all the baggage that seemed to have developed between the actors and the regular workers over decades.
That I was thinking of them as regular workers was a testament to that. Though it was difficult to think of Isaac as a regular worker. Damn was he hot. It was going to be distracting being around that all day long!
I didn’t have much of a chance to think about that though. Tiffany went over to open the door and a moment later a family stepped in with a precious little girl who was in the same green dress I had on. I smiled as she squealed and ran forward to wrap me in a huge hug.
Moments like this made the whole job worthwhile.
After that it was a whirlwind of activity. People coming in and out at a regular clip. It was exhausting work, but so very worth it. There were times when I felt like I was feeding off the positive energy.
Through it all I was also impressed with the tight ship Tiffany ran. She kept people moving in and out at a regular clip. On top of that Isaac was a consummate professional whisking in and taking pictures and even making the most difficult kids smile and laugh.
Not that it was that difficult to make them smile and laugh. After all, this was supp
osed to be the happiest experience they’d ever had. If they weren’t already primed for a good time then I don’t know what would do it.
Then a problem started towards the end of the day. I knew it was too much to ask that the first day be nothing but smiling girls who wanted to see their favorite princess. I knew there was trouble as soon as the door opened and a group of guys who looked like they were maybe in late high school stepped in.
I also didn’t like the way they were staring at me. Sure there’d been a couple of dads who gave me a once over when they thought I, and more importantly their wives, weren’t looking, but this wasn’t like that. These guys were staring at me as though the only thing keeping them from ravishing me right here in the room was the fact that there were other people in the room with them.
I stood and gave them a curtsy.
“It’s so nice to see you gentlemen coming to visit our magical kingdom!” I said.
“Hey baby,” one near the front of the pack said. “I wouldn’t mind visiting your magical kingdom if you know what I’m talking about!”
I almost frowned. The only thing that stopped me was all the training I’d had. The one thing we were never supposed to do was break character. That was the cardinal sin. There’d been girls who had to go back for a lot of training when they were caught in a picture giving anything less than a smile.
The pressure was so intense that a lot of girls just kept the smile on twenty-four seven.
“Yeah, come here baby,” one of the others said. He moved in and put his arm around me. I immediately went to my training and put a hand out to push him away. He frowned down at me but unwrapped his arm.
“What’s the matter? You don’t want a real man?”
“Yeah! He’s way better than that prince asshole you were dating in that movie!” another one said.
Again it was only all my training that kept me from rolling my eyes and sighing. If I didn’t know any better I’d say these guys had been drinking, but they all looked a little too young for that. I wondered if they’d somehow snuck something into the park in their water bottles or something.