Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (29 page)

“Those are the extras who are going to be in
this scene of the movie. Follow my lead,” she explained, tiptoeing
to the group of extras, and mingling her way into the center of
them all. “Okay, while you were sleeping, I did some studying on
this set. I found out that the table by all those flowers is the
table we want to be at,” she added, pointing toward the director’s
camera. “You see, the camera is going to be right on that table,
that way we’ll be seen for sure.”

“How are we able to get to that table? Isn’t
it being occupied by other extras?” Damen was curious about her
plan, hearing the voices of the extras standing around them, and
how they sounded like whispers, he added in a whisper, “Besides,
how many times did they do this scene already?”

“They only shot this scene once so far. So
don’t worry about that, they won’t notice us if we sneak in, and
take that spot. Anyway, that table is being occupied by a woman and
a man,” she replied, pointing to the extras in which the table is
taken by. “All we have to do is invent a diversion or a lie, so
those people won’t be in the scene. That way we’ll be able to take
the scene from them.” Suddenly, her eyes widened, having her
eyeballs nearly falling out from her sockets; a light bulb went off
in her head, Damen nearly seen the light coming from her ears.
“Here, stay put, I’m gonna go take care of the woman first, she
seems like the easiest.” Vivian then lit up a cigarette and tried
to focus in on her plan by standing still for a moment.

“Well, I’ll stay right here, Double O Seven,”
Damen muttered. He kissed Vivian on the cheek, adding, “Good
luck.”

Vivian walked over to the woman and stood
behind her, seeing that the woman was standing next to a man
smoking a cigar. Inconspicuously, Vivian took the woman’s blue,
flowered blouse ever so gently and burned several holes into it
with her cigarette. The woman was still talking and discussing her
acting career while Vivian lined up all the holes to make one,
great big hole, looking around her to see if anyone was seeing her
commit this crime, she finished her little project and waited.
Then, Vivian put out her cigarette and waited for the man with a
cigar to get closer to the woman. As soon as he did, Vivian tapped
the woman on her shoulder and said, “Excuse me, excuse me.”

“What do you want?” the woman asked in an
arrogant manner. The fact that she was sitting at the head table,
made her think she was a movie star, but really, she was only an
extra with an attitude.

“I just wanted to tell you how lucky you are
to be at that table. You know the camera is right on that table?”
Vivian questioned with a high pitched and whiny voice. She wanted
to make herself look like an air-head-kind-of-girl, being envious
of this woman with a conceited nature to her character; Vivian
wanted to have fun.

“I know. I guess if you got the look, you got
it. Now, if you would excuse me, I was talking to somebody who’s
more important than you,” the woman said with snootiness.

“Oh, don’t let me be in your way.” Vivian
paused and then added, “By the way, do you smell that?” She
pretended to sniff the air for a smell; her acting began.

“Smell what?” The woman tried to smell what
Vivian was smelling, failing in her attempt.

“It stinks like, like, like smoke,” Vivian
spoke, still sniffing all around the air.

“All I smell is cigarettes and cigars.” The
woman gave up searching for the smell, turned around, and continued
her conversation with another person. That’s when Vivian knew she
had to take action, and do what she was planning on doing in the
first place.

Damen just stared from a distance, first
seeing Vivian do her stuff, and now watching her stand still,
behind the woman, and look at Damen. He was confused, he didn’t
know what was up her sleeve, so he turned away from her, and
noticed one of the main actors, a movie star, sitting at a table,
with an air-conditioning tube going up her skirt. This turned on
Damen, a lot, but suddenly he turned away from this massive sight
for a glance, and gazed at Vivian’s actions, seeing her eyes on
him, and jealousy raging through her pupils. “Sorry,” he whispered,
knowing that Vivian saw him staring at the movie star’s dress,
having the air blow up it; she gave a laugh that meant she wasn’t
mad.

That’s when Vivian shouted, “My God, smoke is
coming from your back, turn around.” She yanked the woman’s body to
face her own back. “There’s a big hole on your blouse.”

“Oh no, there is?” the woman asked. She ran
into the bathroom and looked at the back of her blouse in the
mirror, seeing the big hole that gave a shocking presence to her
sight.

“That man with the cigar probably did it by
accident,” Vivian said as she stood by the opened door to the
bathroom. The woman ran outside of the bathroom and began yelling
at the man with the cigar, that’s when Vivian ran over to Damen and
grabbed her bag that she treated as a purse. She didn’t speak any
words to Damen, and he did the same, he just stood back and watched
this entertainment being captured, and loved every moment of it.
She opened up her bag, purse, her way of carrying things, and took
out a pair of pants and a shirt from it; this made Damen know that
she’d done this kind of thing before. Vivian ran up to the woman
and pretended that she was concerned for her. “Here, go into the
bathroom and change into these.”

“But what happens if they start the scene
while I’m changing?” the woman asked, grabbing the clothes with
nervousness to her grip.

“Um, don’t worry, if you see them doing the
scene while you come out, it will just be a rehearsal. Trust me,”
explained Vivian, letting go of her clothing that the woman grasped
in her hands; the clothing that was five sizes smaller than the
woman’s figure.

“Okay, I’ll be right back.” The woman ran
back into the bathroom and began her changing.

Vivian knew she didn’t have much time left
till they begin the scene, so she ran over to the man that was the
woman’s partner and stood behind him. She looked over at the
bathroom and then over at the man, not being able to think of
anything to say that would prevent him from being in the scene as
well. Then, she heard someone call him by the name of John, so she
said the first thing that came to her mind; she improvised. “Excuse
me, sir.”

“Yes, may I help you?” the man asked, itching
his blond beard and flexing his biceps at the same moment.

“Is your name John?” She stared at his
muscles closely, hoping he’d be tricked into believing she’s
attracted to him. Her tactic of seduction always works for her, and
that’s the only thing, the only way to get this man out of the
scene. But, she didn’t know where this conversation, or plan was
going to lead, and Damen just watched from a distance, and laughed
the whole time.

“Why yes, yes it is.”

“Oh, okay, um, well, um, hi, um, there’s an,
there’s an agent waiting for you across the street. Yeah, he, ah,
he sent me over to look for you,” she said in a serious, but
nervous fashion.

“Oh yeah, what’s the agent’s name?” The way
the man’s voice acted, Vivian knew he realized she was pulling his
leg.

“His name, um, well. Um, it begins with an F,
um, Fryer I think it is,” Vivian replied. That’s when Damen
approached them.

“Tom Fryer is here? One of the top agents in
California is here to see me? Fryer’s Talent?” The man was excited,
and his voice showed happiness and shock together; Vivian felt she
had him now.

Damen came up to them, hearing Vivian’s
words, and asked, “Mr. Fryer’s here? Where is he?” Vivian punched
him unnoticeably in the chest with her elbow, and kept on smiling
at this man named John, while Damen started coughing and tried to
keep up a smile at the same time.

“Oh, honey, you have that cough again,”
Vivian spoke, and chuckled toward Damen’s bent over body. She then
turned to the man, and added, “Anyway, yep, that’s the one, he said
he’s looking for a John, John something.”

“John Loblet?”

“Yeah, that’s the one, he said he wants to
see John Loblet immediately.”

John Loblet started to fix his hair, and
asked at the same time, “Will you tell the people here that I’ll be
right back, but only if they start the scene while I’m gone?”

“Sure, Johnny, I won’t forget.” The man ran
out of the restaurant, and Damen’s hands began to clap, giving
Vivian applause for doing such great work.

“Okay, places everybody, we’re going to do
this again,” one of the casting agents announced. All the extras
started to go to their assigned seats, and Vivian followed in the
herd of people.

Vivian grabbed Damen’s right arm, and pulled
him toward the main table, saying, “Come on, let’s sit down.”

They sat down calmly, like they were supposed
to be there. The makeup woman came over to them and started putting
makeup on Vivian and a little on Damen, saying, “I don’t remember
you guys.”

“Sure you do. We just had to change clothes,”
Vivian said. Damen just smiled at the woman. Being nervous as it
was, Damen knew if he started to speak, he would screw everything
up.

“Oh, okay.” The woman finished putting makeup
on Damen, looking at him very strangely, this caused him to be more
nervous than he already was. But, he still didn’t say anything, and
he watched the woman slowly put her makeup in her box, and walk
away very calmly.

“What are we supposed to do?” Damen
whispered. He still watched the makeup woman slowly walking away
from him, and then added, “Vivian, so, what are we supposed to do
now?”

“I don’t know myself.” Vivian felt the nerves
flow up her spine, seeing the makeup woman returning to their
table, she knew that she had to say something to her, to not make
it look like they were nervous. The makeup girl started to put some
red lipstick on Vivian’s scrumptious lips, while Vivian opened her
mouth and spoke, “Excuse me, my friend is a little bit nervous. He
wants you to tell him what we’re supposed to do. I already told
him, but he wants to hear from a professional like yourself.”

Damen looked at her with shock, but then gave
an exaggerated smile toward this woman. She stared at him, and
suddenly spoke in a caring voice, “Sure, all you have to do is
pretend you’re talking to each other. Once the actor with the gun
comes in, you guys look over at him and scream. That’s all. Don’t
worry, you’ll do fine, cutie.”

Vivian watched the clock at every second that
went by, gawking at the bathroom and the entrance to the building
for the extras that are supposed to be in their spots, her nerves
started to rise up to her throat. Finally, the cameraman said,
“Okay, background action, and action.”

They pretended to talk as the actor with the
gun came in. The director shouted, “Cut, cut, cut, we have to do
this scene over again. There’s dust on the camera lens.”

Four minutes passed, the sweat on Vivian’s
face started to show. The cameraman shouted again, “Background
action, and action.” They pretended to talk again as the bathroom
door opened. The woman came out with Vivian’s clothes literally
choking her body, and Vivian showed fear to her eyes. She watched
as the woman ran up to the casting agent and began asking him
questions in loudness.

“What the hell is going on?” She tried
pulling Vivian’s clothes away from her body by stretching them with
her hands and adding, “Hello, people, what the hell is going on
here?”

The agent, or film worker looked at her and
whispered in anger, “Miss, you have to be quiet, they’re filming.”
The actor with the gun came in then, and the lady obeyed the
agent’s orders, but only for a time being.

Vivian sat there and ignored the woman’s eyes
locked on her face. The scene was finished and the director said,
“Perfect, print it.”

Vivian then gazed at the woman in her
clothes, hearing this woman’s loud voice saying to the agent,
“Excuse me, sir, but I and some other man were supposed to be in
that scene.”

The agent looked at Vivian and Damen from a
distance, questioning, “You were?”

“Yes, I was. Now, what the hell is going
on?”

“Okay, I’ll go see what the problem is.” The
agent, or film worker, they didn’t know what position he had, all
they knew was he worked for Crox Casting Agency, walked over to the
director while the woman followed. “No, you have to stay right
here, Miss,” the man said to the woman with a strict tone.

He turned around toward the director and
said, “Excuse me, sir, but that woman over there says she and
another man were supposed to be in that scene.”

The director, with his white beard and coffee
attached to his hand, took off his headset, and spoke, “Where was
she sitting?”

“I think she was sitting over there,” the man
answered, pointing at Vivian and Damen’s silent figures.

“I don’t know about you, but those two people
sitting right over there are the reason why we ended this scene so
quickly. They’re the reason why this scene took such a short time
to do; they’re perfect for it. Just tell the woman she’s still
going to be seen in that scene. Just lie to her, Erin,” the
director explained before he began walking toward Vivian and
Damen.

“The director is coming this way. How do I
look?” Vivian questioned as Damen sat there and smiled.

“You look fine. Hey, what if he’s coming over
here to fire us, what should we do then?” Damen asked, suddenly
noticing John Loblet coming back in the restaurant entrance, with a
ticked-off facial expression. The woman and man, who were supposed
to sit where they are, stood next to each other, and gazed at Damen
and Vivian, showing wicked anger in their eyes. Vivian knew that
only the director could save them now.

Damen noticed John Loblet was coming toward
them as the director said, “Hello, I would just like to thank you
for doing such a good job, you’re the reason why this scene took so
short. The other extras that were sitting here didn’t do such a
good job. They were acting all high and mighty, and never wanted to
listen to me. Every time I said to act a certain way, they would do
something else.”