When Cress's alarm rang that morning, she nearly fell out of bed. She had been planning to stay awake all night, but eventually her exhaustion had overtaken her. She fumbled for the button on her alarm clock, which was difficult seeing as she was on the ground.
She sprung up and fumbled for the doorknob, rushing across the hall to Thorne's room. She rapidly knocked before letting herself in.
"Thorne! Thorne, wake up!" she called, rushing over to his bed and shaking his shoulders. Thorne groaned.
"It's too early," he grumbled, "come back to bed, Sweetheart." He wrapped his arms around her waist, still on his stomach with his face buried in his pillow.
"Thorne!" she squeaked, pushing his arms away. "Get up! We need to get ready to go to the studio!"
He cracked open one eye and glared at her. "What time is it?
"Six," she mumbled as he flopped over and put his pillow over his face.
"We don't even need to be there until nine!"
"Come on, Thorne! Don't you want to look good for the camera?!" That certainly got his attention. He slid the pillow off of his face and looked at her.
"Fiiiine," he said, rolling out of bed. Cress tried to ignore the fact that he had been sleeping in only boxer shorts.
"Now, you should probably leave while I get dressed unless-" Cress definitely didn't want him to finish that sentence
"I'm leaving!" she said as she ran out of his room, rushing to get dressed and wake up the rest of their crew.
After Cress left her room, Cinder got up. It wasn't like Cress needed to come in and wake her up. With Cinder's computer in her brain, she could set an alarm for herself. Besides, its not like she would need three hours to get ready.
She grabbed a pair of cargo pants and a plain white muscle shirt before heading to the dining hall in the Emperor's Palace. She munched on a bowl of cereal and went over the news feeds in her head.
Cinder checked the time and groaned. It was still only 7:30. She wasn't at all surprised to see that none of their friends were down. They weren't exactly what you would call early risers. Cress actually did wake up fairly early, sometimes even earlier than Cinder, but then she took so long to get ready.
Cinder went back to her room and tinkered with a new project she had been working on for Scarlet. By the time the clock in her head turned 8:30, she had already tried four different designs, but she gave up and went down to meet the shuttle that was taking them to the studios.
She couldn't believe that they had actually agreed to do this. When Cress had found out that they were making a Net Drama about the Revolution she had somehow convinced the directors to bring the "Revolutionaries" on set. Then she somehow convinced all of them to agree to clear their schedules for this one day to go down to the movie studio.
Cinder stepped into the huge building. She hated it immediately. It reminded her of the warehouse where Peony died.
"Welcome, welcome!" A small round man wobbled over to them with sweat beading on his forehead.
"I am Alexander Kepner, the producer of the show!" He shook everyone's hands. "So, we were planning to have a little meet and greet with the cast of the show where you can get to know your counterparts, and then we will pair you up and we'll do a reading of the script!" Cinder flinched. This was going to be a looong day.
The producer led us to a smaller room with some long tables on the sides and eight people already gathered in there. The commotion in the room died down and the actors turned to face us.
The producer looked at me. "Cinder, meet Sierra."
I walked over to her and stuck out my hand. "I'm Cinder." She completely ignored my hand and wrapped her arms around me.
"Hi, Cinder! It'ssonicetomeetyoumyname'sSierra!" Cinder frantically looked around her, trying to find someone to save her, but her friends were all busy talking to their own counterparts. Not that this was her counterpart. In any way.
Well, Sierra did look kind of like Cinder, if Cinder was a supermodel. But the similarities ended there.
"Ohmygosh I'm so excited to be playing you in 'Stars Above' it's gonna be just buckets of fun. So is Kai really as dreamy as people say he is? I mean I can see him and I mean he's gorgeous but what is he really like?"
Cinder stood there in shocked silence. "Umm…"
"OH! And how does the Lunar mind control thing work? I've heard stories but I've never actually seen it happen? Can you use it right now? OH! Can you move things with your mind! Can you levitate a donut over here?! Oh my goodness we should totally be best friends. Can you teach me how to fix a portscreen? I drop it all the time! I'll be running to pick up a call and then I'll grab it and I'll just drop it right on the floor! OH! Can I meet your android! From what I've heard she seems reeeeally cool. Ohmygosh we should all go shopping together! Is it true that there is a whole room in the palace simply devoted to shoes?
"Um… That's not how the Lunar gift works…"
"Ommygoodness all sixteen of us (wow that's so many people!) should totally hang out! We can come to my house… actually my house is really small but we could go to the palace and have a huge sleepover! Oh my goodness!
Cinder didn't know what to think. This girl was her polar opposite, but she was actually really sweet and nice. In fact… Sierra kind of reminded her of Peony. Sweet and innocent. And clearly obsessed with Kai.
Cinder had just been planning on coming here and getting out as soon as possible, but maybe she wouldn't mind seeing this girl again.
"Emperor Kaito," the producer said, "meet the actor that will be playing your character in 'Stars Above!'"
Kai walked over to the guy lounging on a couch in the corner and stuck out his hand.
"Sup, bro," Kyle said, fist bumping Kai's open palm. Kai looked at his hand before stuffing it in his pocket. He looked at Kyle and took in his attire. He was wearing a t-shirt, board shorts, and flip flops.
Kai was quite taken aback. Everyone else here was dressed up at least a little bit. Even Cinder was wearing her nicest cargo pants and her shirt with the least amount of grease on it. But this guy… it seemed like he didn't care about this at all. He could have at least worn real shoes.
Kai already didn't like this guy.
"So… have you started filming yet?" Kai asked, trying to make some small talk.
"Listen, man," Kyle started, "the only reason I'm here is because the directors said that anyone that didn't come to this would get fired. I'm saving up for a new car."
"Um…," Kai was so confused.
"So we don't have to do any of this publicity crap, we can just hang."
"Hang?" Kai looked over at Cinder for support, but she seemed to be having her own issues. As he tuned back into what Kyle was saying, he seemed to be telling a story.
"So then he was like, bro, and I was like, bro, I know you want this skateboard, but I was here first. If you wanted this board you should have gotten a better place in line." Kai settled down into the couch for a long afternoon.