Sugar Secrets…& Flirting

by Mel Sparke

  “Where’s Daniel! Let me talk to him!” said Cat, staring up at the vans in search of the production assistant with his ever-present clipboard. “I can feed ducks! I can walk along a stupid path!”

  “Cat, hold on,” said Vikki, trying to pacify her. “They’re using that old lady for the duck-feeding and that middle-aged couple for the strolling bit.”

  Vikki pointed up at the huddle of fellow extras standing together chatting and drinking plastic cups of tea beside the catering table. Cat shot a daggers glance in their direction, giving all three the evil eye for snatching potential roles away from her.

  Then she spotted something else that niggled at her - in the small crowd of onlookers hovering the other side of the wire fence, she spotted a face she recognised: Maya’s younger sister, Sunny.

  “But wait, I haven’t told you the good news,” Vikki piped up, in an attempt to console her friend.

  “Go on then!” sighed Cat.

  “Well, Daniel says they definitely want us back on Sunday: that’s when they’re planning to shoot scenes we can be in,” explained Vikki.

  “And Ben?” asked Cat, brightening up.

  “Yes, and Ben should be in those too,” Vikki nodded.

  “Wheeee!” shrieked Cat, clapping her hands together.

  “And the other good news is that Daniel says that since we’re down here already, it’s fine if we want to hang around and watch today’s shooting, as long as we don’t get in the way.”

  Cat frowned up at her friend. “What’s the point of that? Nothing’s happening!”

  Vikki pursed her lips and Cat suddenly realised she was in for another lecture.

  “OK! OK! We’ll hang about; we might learn stuff; it’s for the experience…” Cat trotted out, guessing what Vikki was about to tell her. “Hey, wait a minute - what’s going on up there? Why are Jason and Darren getting in front of that camera? I thought you said they were only using the older extras?”

  Cat frowned as she watched the two boys from college being positioned.

  “They don’t need any of us girls - me, you and Louise, I meant.”

  “And what are Jason and Darren going to do in this scene exactly?” Cat demanded.

  “Play football in the background apparently,” shrugged Vikki.

  “Right! That’s it!” barked Cat, untangling her legs and getting to her feet. “Where’s that Daniel? I’m going to have a word with him - having boys playing football is just plain sexist!”

  Vikki rolled her eyes as Cat set off up the slope to go and give Daniel a piece of her mind.

  “Daniel, can I have a word please?”

  At first glance, Cat felt slightly intimidated by the rest of the film crew - especially the serious-looking director consulting earnestly with one of the cameramen. But there was something about the production assistant that made her feel relaxed enough to talk to him straight. Maybe it was because he looked not that much older than her or Vikki (although she supposed he must be, to hold down such an important job); or maybe it was because he reminded her ever so slightly of two of her closest boy mates.

  In fact, that morning, when Daniel had first introduced himself to them and explained what was going on and where everything was, she’d been struck by how much he reminded her of both Ollie and Joe. Physically - with his floppy fair hair and cute, friendly face, he was like Ollie, while his slightly anxious manner made her think instantly of Joe.

  “Sure. What can I do for you, Catrina?” Daniel asked with a smile.

  She’d come across him perched on the metal steps of one of the location vans, frantically scribbling notes on the pad clipped to his board.

  “Cat, actually,” she corrected him.

  “Cat - that’s a nice name!” he nodded.

  She was thrown off balance by his compliment. She’d come to moan about the blatant case of sexism going on under her nose and now he’d taken the wind out of her sails.

  “Anyway, Daniel,” she said, getting back to the point, “why are Jason and Darren getting to play football in this scene?”

  “Um… what do you mean?” he asked, looking a little confused by her question.

  “Well, don’t you think it’s just too predictable? I mean, isn’t that just a bit clichéd?” scolded Cat, putting her hands on her hips. “You know, only boys play football and girls like shopping.”

  She noticed Daniel’s eyes flicker up and down her body. Is he checking me out? she wondered. Again, that was a compliment, but cute as Daniel was, he wasn’t really her type. Not like Ben Fitzpatrick…

  “Well, I see your point - stereotypes and all that - but actually, it’s only texture. You know - a bit of noise. Atmosphere. I doubt that they’ll feature much in the finished shot,” Daniel told her. “Whereas you, Cat…” He paused for a second and flicked quickly through some notes. “Yep, I definitely think we’re going to need you a lot from Sunday onwards!”

  Cat felt her chest swell at the thought of being so important. That put a whole new slant on things. Jason and Darren were welcome to their little bit of ‘texture’, kicking a football around…

  “Oh and while I think about it—” said Darren, letting his eyes skim over her body again.

  He is checking me out! Cat decided to herself.

  “—Rhona, who looks after the wardrobe department, asked me to have a word with you about your clothes.” Daniel’s expression was apologetic. This, Cat realised, meant he wasn’t giving her a compliment after all.

  “What about them?” she bristled.

  “Well, there’s nothing wrong with what you’ve got on - I think it looks brilliant!” Daniel shot her an admiring smile. “But we need you to dress down a bit more on Sunday. You know, wear your ordinary clothes; stuff you’d wear every day.”

  “But this is the sort of stuff I wear every day!” Cat spluttered, even though she knew she had taken hours to choose the exact combination for the right effect.

  “And it really suits you. But we need you to wear jeans, or combats and a T-shirt or something, Cat,” Daniel elaborated. “You know - pretend you’re like an ordinary girl in the street. Rhona might well end up dressing you from the wardrobe, but it’s always handy if extras bring their own stuff. It’s always more comfortable to be in familiar clothes, don’t you think?”

  It was on the tip of Cat’s tongue to stand her ground; to argue that there was nothing wrong with trying to look pretty, especially in the glamorous world of TV. But two things stopped her - first, she knew she’d only dressed to impress Ben Fitzpatrick (for all the good that had done); and second, she had to remind herself that Daniel wasn’t one of her mate - she was the guy who was employing her.

  “No problem!” she beamed, slapping on her widest Cat smile.

  “Brilliant!” Daniel grinned back. “And you know you’re welcome to stick around today and watch, if you want to!”

  “Definitely!” said Cat enthusiastically. Already her mind was whirring with a new plan.

  Dressing in jeans and a T-shirt doesn’t mean I have to look boring, she thought to herself. I think I’ll go to Top Shop tomorrow - they’ve got those new T-shirts in that spell out ‘Hi, Gorgeous!’ in silver stars on the chest. Ben Fitzpatrick has got to notice me in that!

  CHAPTER 8

  THE TRUTH GETS TWISTED

  “Wait for this…!” Cat treated her friends to her biggest smug smile as they sat round in their regular Saturday lunchtime huddle at the End of the Line.

  “What?!” Sonja barked across the table, impatient excitement getting the better of her - and annoyed that her cousin was keeping them all on tenterhooks so successfully.

  “There’s only a wrap party happening next Friday!”

  “Wow! That’s amazing!” Kerry exclaimed. “Urn, what’s a wrap party?’

  “A party to celebrate the end of filming,” Cat informed her friend, as though it was something she’d known all her life.

  Actually she’d heard it for the first time the day before. Ouerheard it, t
o be more accurate.

  “And you’re invited to the party, even though you’re just an extra?” gasped Kerry.

  Cat felt her smile falter slightly, but before anyone could spot it, she breezed on. “Yeah, of course I’m invited!” she boasted. “Everyone on set is so friendly! It’s like one big happy family!”

  If she was Pinocchio, right at that moment Cat’s nose would have grown so long it would have been tapping Sonja on the shoulder. The day before, no one apart from Daniel and the guy in charge of catering had spoken to Cat or Vikki - other than a couple of technicians who’d said stuff like, “Could you move out of the way, please?” Cat didn’t suppose that really counted.

  Darren and Jason had chatted, of course, and Louise, too, who’d hung around to ‘observe’ filming - the same as Cat and Vikki. But the other, more experienced extras had seemed a bit stand-offish. And the business about the wrap party; well, it was just something Cat had heard two of the actors talking about. She had no idea whether or not it was something she’d get invited to.

  Which is why Cat had a new plan buzzing in her head right now; she would have to chum up with Daniel over the next few days and make her lie become the truth…

  “So where’s this party going to be?” asked Maya.

  “At the Balinard Hotel,” Cat replied casually, “where the crew are staying.”

  “Very nice,” nodded Maya, thinking about the beautiful, small stately-home-style hotel just outside Winstead.

  “Hold on! Start the story from the beginning!” Sonja put a halt to proceedings, keen to hear everything her cousin had experienced the previous day. “Is it really glamorous? Are there hundreds of people on set?”

  “Cappuccino for you, Maya,” Anna interrupted her girlfriends’ conversation as she passed them cups and glasses from her tray. “Kerry, milkshake; Sonja, Coke; Cat, Lilt. That’s right, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, cool!”

  “Thanks, Anna!”

  “Thanks!”

  “Could I have some more ice in this, Anna sweetie?” said Cat, passing the glass back. Anna rolled her eyes and took the Lilt from her thinking one day on a film set had already gone to Cat’s head. Cat, meanwhile, continued holding court.

  “Well, it’s amazing, but there weren’t that many people really. Only about twenty technical staff, the five main actors and a few of us extras.”

  “How come?” asked Sonja. “How can they do a whole drama with so few people?”

  “It’s ‘cause the bulk of it is being filmed in London,” Cat explained knowledgeably, as if she’d been in TV all her life. “The scenes they’re doing here in Winstead only need a small crew.”

  “What’s the programme about anyway?” asked Kerry, licking some strawberry foam off her straw.

  “It’s some police thing, supposed to be based on a true story,” Cat shrugged. “It’s all centred around Soho in London - a big drugs bust I think - but then some detectives come up and check out leads about some ex-con who’s got a new identity in another town, and that’s what Winstead is supposed to be.”

  “Sounds cheery,” Sonja joked. “And where does the lusty Ben Fitzpatrick fit into all of this?”

  “He’s this young detective,” Cat sighed.

  “So come on then - what’s he actually like close up?” asked Kerry, her eyes wide behind her little oval specs.

  “Ben?” Cat’s eyebrows shot up and she looked momentarily - and uncharacteristically - stuck for words.

  “Yeah, Ben!” laughed Sonja. “You can’t miss him - he’s the only celebrity in Winstead that I know of at the present time!”

  Cat shot Sonja a withering look. “Very funny - I don’t think,” she muttered. “Anyway, he’s - he’s fantastic!”

  “Is he?” asked Maya, gazing long and hard at Cat. Not that Cat seemed to notice.

  “Yes, he’s really friendly!” Cat continued enthusiastically. “He came straight over to me and Vikki and introduced himself - he’s not a bit starry!”

  “And what did he say to you?” Kerry asked in hushed tones, her voice breathless with awe.

  “He - he, uh, just said hi,” Cat faltered, then remembering her conversation with Daniel, carried on with new inspiration. “And asked our names and stuff - he said my name was nice, and we talked about what I was going to wear when I’m filming tomorrow. Then he got called to go off and do his filming.”

  “But is he as gorgeous in real life as he is in his pictures?” Kerry asked.

  “He’s… more gorgeous!” Cat announced. “He kept winking and waving the whole time! And he said he was looking forward to working with me a lot from Sunday onwards.”

  “Well done, Cat - and that’s only the first day!” grinned Sonja. “What’s it going to be like when you really get your claws into him!”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know!” laughed Cat, getting up and squeezing her way out of the window booth, then heading towards the loos.

  “Cat and Ben Fitzpatrick!” gasped Kerry, turning to the other girls. “Can you believe it?!”

  “No!” said Maya bluntly.

  “What do you mean?” asked Sonja, while Kerry looked shocked at their friend’s unusually harsh tone.

  “Well,” Maya found herself smirking, “I happen to know for a fact that Ben Fitzpatrick wasn’t even at the filming yesterday!”

  “How do you know that?” frowned Kerry.

  “Sunny - she and her mates found out where the action was and were hanging around at the location virtually all day,” Maya explained. “She was telling us about it at teatime last night, and she said Ben Fitzpatrick never showed up. She asked a security bloke there, and he said Ben was spending the whole day doing interviews back at his hotel!”

  “Typical Cat!” said Sonja with a sigh. “Why didn’t she tell the truth?”

  “Just wants to impress us, I guess,” suggested Maya. “You know what she’s like. She won’t want to admit she didn’t even get the chance to meet Ben Fitzpatrick, never mind flirt with him!”

  “What’s going on out there?” asked Ollie, slaving cheerfully over a hot stove.

  “Cat’s telling the others about her close encounter of the acting kind, I think,” smiled Anna, opening the freezer and hauling out a jug full of ice cubes.

  “Can’t wait to hear that one!” laughed Ollie, holding a spatula in one hand and wiping the hair away from his brow with his other elbow.

  “I can!” grinned Anna good-naturedly, dolloping a handful of ice cubes into the tall glass of Lilt.

  “Hey, Anna, honey - what’s goin’ on with that drink?” came Cyndi’s voice as she trotted in from the café.

  “Uh, well, nothing really,” frowned Anna, stiffening slightly as she anticipated some kind of telling off. “Cat asked for more ice, that’s all. It’s not a problem.”

  Only the night before, Anna had found herself curled up in her bathrobe, her tarot cards spread out once again on the table in front of her. She’d tried to give herself another reading; to see if it could tell her how to handle the current situation in the café. ‘Be patient’ seemed to be the answer and, right now, as Cyndi stood in front of her, Anna tried to bear that in mind.

  “But, honey, it is a problem,” said Cyndi, coming over to Anna and placing her arm around her condescendingly. “We’ve gotta strive to get it right for the customer - first time, all the time!”

  “But…!” Anna began, trying to explain that asking for more ice, or wanting brown sauce instead of red, or deciding she hated tomatoes in her sandwiches when she’d loved them up till now was just typical Cat - contrary and picky as ever, with no malice intended.

  “I’ll just take this back out,” Anna tried to smile as she slipped out from under Cyndi’s arm and headed back into the café.

  “She understands, doesn’t she?” Cyndi smiled hopefully at Ollie. “She don’t take offence?”

  “Hey, I guess not!” Ollie tried to laugh, although he wasn’t so sure.

  “Good!” trilled Cyndi, turning and
heading back out into the café herself.

  “Did I miss something there?”

  Ollie turned round to see Joe hovering tentatively at the back door. “Don’t ask!” he grimaced. “So how are you?”

  “OK…” shrugged Joe. “But listen, Ollie - about the London thing. I came by to say that I’ve been thinking and I don’t reckon it’s such a good idea. I just—”

  “Joe!” Ollie interrupted, holding his spatula in the air with a grin. “It’s too late! It’s all arranged - my plan has worked out and part of your problem is solved! My sister’s really cool about you going to stay with her while you flat-hunt!”

  Joe’s heart sank again - just as it had when Ollie had first told him his idea. Natasha, he suspected, was hardly going to be skipping for joy at the prospect - Joe always got the feeling she considered him to be a bit of a nerd. And as for staying in her flat, with her and her fellow model flatmates - even if it was only for a couple of days - the thought left Joe feeling positively sick with nerves…

  CHAPTERS 9

  FLIRTING-TAKE ONE

  “Hi, I’m Dawn, take a seat,” said the skinny, friendly-looking woman in the body warmer.

  “Hi, I’m Catrina,” Cat introduced herself formally as she plonked herself down on the canvas folding seat. “But you can call me Cat!”

  She’d been looking forward to chatting to Dawn. For most of this morning, just like on Friday, she and Vikki and Louise had been kept hanging around on the set - this time located by a small shopping arcade in a housing estate on the edge of Winstead. While she’d been waiting for some action, Cat had kept a close eye on the make-up artist. She watched as Dawn had set up her make-up box and brushes outdoors on a trestle table, calling the actors over one by one to get their faces pan-sticked and powdered.

  “Well, Cat, what have we got you down for today?” said Dawn brightly as she picked up a clipboard on the trestle table and flicked through it.