Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, I don't own the picture used for the cover, and I don't own a Ferrari. What else is new?
Maya Martinez ran her hand over her face in an attempt to regulate her breathing like her yoga teacher had been drilling in her head. All around her, chaos reigned supreme. Chickens were running past squawking, men in giant toast costumes were running about shouting, "Has anyone seen my butter slice?" and her fellow actors were looking just as baffled as she was. The Director was running around, his clipboard in his hand, and shouting random things at random people. "No, no, no! The breakfast commercial is being filmed next door! Somebody get rid of these silly actors in food costumes!" Maya gripped her head and was overcome with the urge to pound it against the nearest wall.
Though her life on the set was hectic to say the least, she loved it. She loved the excitement, the thrill, and the all-around skill it took to be in a movie. To completely change your personality, your thought process, your speech, you had to be able to do all of that to even have half a shot in the movie industry. And sometimes the sour fact of the business was that the part went to the prettiest not the best. That's just the way things went. You're in one day and blacklisted the next. You don't complain, you accept it and move on, well in theory. Of course there were the bitter ones, but Maya had no intention of getting to know the bitter ones particularly well.
Maya was one of the lucky few that had been in this business for several years and it didn't look as if she'd be showing any sign of stopping anytime soon. She'd been gifted with the talent and the looks and for that she was grateful. She had been a child actor when she was a little kid. Not a big one, but she'd been featured in those little kids shows where all teenage stars seem to get their start. She'd moved onto commercials, small bit parts in other movies, and finally she got her lucky break and had been the adorable, loving daughter to some at the time famous movie star. Since then, she'd been the star of three movies and had become a big face. Lately, she'd been working on breaking into the action portion of the business. Before it had mostly been romantic comedies and stuff like that, but she wanted to branch out. Expand her horizons. And it had been going pretty well.
However, gifted as she may be, Maya wasn't prepared to do her own stunts, such as fights and jumps and explosions and motorcycle jumps. In light of this, she had to get a stunt double. Maya personally didn't think that the girl they got was any good. The girl looked absolutely nothing like Maya, her hair was bright red for goodness sakes, she did some… interesting interpretations of Maya's mannerisms, and she seemed to think that she was a bigger deal than she was. It irked Maya to no end that she was being portrayed by such a mediocre actress, stunt double, person thingy. Maya didn't even know her name. It might be Beatrice, but there was a very good chance that it wasn't. Maya hadn't spent a whole lot of time getting to know essentially the back of her head.
As Maya sat back in her comfortable actress's chair, the comfortable cloth chairs that were always in the TV shows (they were truly better than everyone thought they were), a bedraggled man with a very rumpled suit wandered past. He was looking very lost and was repeating the same thing in a language that Maya didn't understand. She was no slouch when it came to languages, she spoke several decently, but not enough that she recognized what the man was saying. Maya was pretty sure that the guy was some foreign investor of the movie but what she didn't know was why the man didn't have his ever-present translator trailing behind him. She had overheard someone a few minutes ago that a few members of the crew had Mono and were passing it around. Maybe the translator was sick.
"Alright everyone to set!" the Director shouted. Maya looked up with a quirked eyebrow. She knew that she wasn't scheduled to film anything until later today, but she always enjoyed watching others at work and today was an interesting point in the movie. Maya was getting up to go to set when she heard the Director saying loudly, "I don't know what you're saying!" She could only assume that he was talking to the foreign investor because all she could hear on the other end of the conversation was gibberish and babble from the foreign investor who was that sounded quite frantic. "What are you saying? English! TRY ENGLISH!" More hysterical babble. "Does anyone know a translator? Our normal one got Mono and she's out for like a month," the Director shouted in desperation. Aha! Maya knew it. There was silence from everyone gathered at the set. Most people here didn't know anyone outside of Hollywood or who could speak adequate English, let alone a different language.
Maya racked her brain trying to think of someone who would do. She quickly got an answer, but it wasn't necessarily a good one, nor one that would work. "I do," Maya said slowly, thinking of an old... acquaintance.
"Call them," the Director begged. "Now."
"Yeah, funny thing is I don't know exactly where she is. I can try Skype but there is absolutely no guarantee that she'll answer or that'll she'll be able to help."
"Who is she?" the Director asked curiously, he really couldn't help it.
Maya bit her lip, rolled her eyes, and ground out, "My sister." Silence met her answer. Everyone on set, no everyone in Hollywood and anyone who read Hollywood's tabloids, knew that Maya didn't like her sister. From what several said, she despised her, and from others, that her sister was dead. No one was really sure. Well, at least it was confirmed that Maya's sister wasn't dead.
"But she speaks a bunch of languages?" the Director asked eagerly, breaking the awkward silence.
"Yeah, more than anyone else I know," Maya answered truthfully.
"Call her. Please call her," the Director begged. Maya nodded and scrambled to a laptop that someone had left lying on a craft service table. She dragged it over and clicked on the Skype icon and quickly typed in an account name. MaximumRide474. There was a waiting period and Maya was about to shut the computer off and tell the Director it was a bust when her call was accepted. Maya leaned forward eagerly and waited impatiently to see her sister's smiling face. Instead she came face to face with a bright white face, mouth outlined in bright red, and a comical red nose. The clown was also grinning quite creepily. It took all of Maya's self-control not to shriek out loud. Fortunately, all she did was jump slightly.
"Bok?" the clown asked curiously.
"Uh," Maya trailed off. Truth be told, while this wasn't normal, she'd been greeted with worse when trying to contact her sister. Like the time she got her call accepted by a goat herder wearing nothing but a loin cloth with a goat chewing on his waist-length hair. "Max?"
"Ah!" the clown's face lit up, or at least Maya thought it did behind all that caked on make-up. He held up a finger in the universal 'wait one moment sign' and shouted behind him in a heavily accented voice, "Max!" Then, the clown moved off camera and left Maya waiting impatiently, listening to muffled shouts coming from the other end of the conversation.
From the limited view afforded by the webcam in her sister's computer, Maya could see a flurry of movement going on. People were running to and fro, carrying boxes, juggling what appeared to be flaming bowling pins, doing flips and cartwheels, and shouting at each other in bizarre languages. Every now and then, a word or two in English would slip through, but they were so heavily accented Maya had no idea what they were saying. Maya tapped her fingers on the laptop's keyboard, almost completely unaware of the loud gathering behind her. She vaguely heard a few shuffles and muttering but just as she was about to turn around, there was even more movement on the screen.
Finally, footsteps could be heard walking over to the computer and a loud voice in English, shouting, "I don't care where you put the piranhas, just keep them far away from my bed! And Yorgi, get your dumbass brother's head away from the lion's mouth right now!" A rough, guttural command followed, presumably at Yorgi, and suddenly there was a person flopping down in the chair in front of the computer. "Hey ya sis," the girl sighed in exasperation. She blew a chunk of hair out of her eyes and rested her chin on her hand. "What brings you calling to my little slice of hell?"
"Hey Max," Maya chuckled at her over-dramatic sister. She might have been the drama and theater nut that ended up in the movie business, but Max was just as dramatic, if not more so, than her sister. "What the hell is wrong with your face?" Maya sputtered.
"Oh the make up?" Max asked with a laugh. Her face was caked in so much powder and blush it was impossible to know what her natural skin tone was. Her eyes were outlined thickly and her eyelashes coated in so much mascara you could barely see her eyes.
"Yes the makeup. Last time I saw you, you would only wear lip-gloss. Now you look like you should be waiting on the corner for a mime to pick you up," Maya snorted.
"We also haven't seen in each other face to face for a good four years," Max pointed out with a smirk.
"Yeah, but didn't you always say that you would never dye your hair," Maya challenged.
"Indeed," Max nodded. Max's hair was an obnoxious, fire-engine red that was falling in clumps in her eyes. The hair coupled with the horrible makeup had Maya unsure if this person was really her sister. "It's a one day thing, comes out in the shower. I need it for my gig tonight," Max explained with a laugh.
"As what, a pole dancer?" Maya asked bluntly.
Max threw her head back and all but roared with laughter. When she finally got her giggles under control, she managed to gasp out between chuckles, "Nope." She popped the 'p' with flair.
"Then why are you dressed like a street walker?" Maya asked in confusion.
"I'm a ringleader in a circus tonight Maya," Max snickered.
"Oh," Maya drew the word out so long it sounded like it was fifteen syllables. "That explains a lot." Max stuck her tongue out at her sister and blew a raspberry at her. "How long have you been working there?" Maya asked, leaning forward on her clasped hands. She hadn't gotten to call or talk to her sister in months and it felt great to reconnect with Max.
"Tonight it's going to be about… two hours," Max pretended to concentrate really hard just to aggravate her sister.
"Max," Maya groaned and felt like pounding her head on the desk. "Well, where are you?"
"I dunno," Max shrugged in indifference.
"Well don't you think you should find out?" Maya asked through her hand that she'd face-palmed with. It seemed like a better plan than to lose brain cells from pounding her skull for long periods of time on the table.
"Maybe," Max shrugged again. Maya sighed and gestured with her hand for her sister to do so. Max looked over her shoulder and started shouting out loud in the same odd language from before, or at least Maya thought it was the same. There was some response that sounded suspiciously like someone hawking a loogie and Max shouted something else and pointed somewhere off camera. When she was done, she turned to face her sister and said, "Somewhere in Croatia. Where's that? Europe?"
"Yes Max, Croatia's in Europe," Maya wished her sister was here to whap her upside the head. Max had an amazing knack for picking up languages but was terrible at geography. She never got lost but she could barely tell you what continent she was on at any given moment. "How long have you been there?"
"Where? Croatia or Europe?"
"Both Max," Maya said with a groan.
"Croatia I'd guess I've been here for probably a week or two and I've been in Europe for a couple months."
"When'd you leave Africa?" Maya asked curiously. The last time she'd heard from her sister had been when she was participating in various political riots in some of the lesser known countries in Southern Africa and Maya had been insanely worried for her sister's safety.
"I might have almost gotten arrested in Egypt, so I kind of fled the country and caught a ride with some sleazy boat dude like half a year ago. Why?"
"No reason Max. What did Mom say when she heard you almost got arrested again?" Max had the decency to look sheepish and Maya shook her head in disbelief. "You haven't told her yet have you?" Max shook her head. "Well when's the last time you talked to mom?"
Max looked, if possible, even more sheepish. "It's been maybe a year," she trailed off.
Maya shook her head at her sister. "She's going to KILL you," she said with absolute certainty.
"Probably," Max nodded. "So what's new with you?"
"I'm in a movie, you should come back to the States when it's released, the openings are always fun and it'd be more entertaining with you there offering commentary," Maya said. She could have gone into more details about what'd she been doing, but she was far more interested in what Max had been doing lately. Truth be told, Maya was getting bored in Hollywood. It was the same day in and day out and all she wanted to hear were some of Max's amazing stories from around the world.
"Maybe," Max laughed, but Maya knew she wasn't going to come back. She hadn't for the last three movies so why would this one be any different? Now that Maya thought about it, four years had really changed her sister. Contrary to popular belief (and by popular she meant the tabloids) Maya Martinez had absolutely no harsh feelings towards her sister. The only reason she avoided the topic when it was brought up in interviews was because she wanted to keep Max out of the national spotlight when she wasn't even in the country to defend herself.
"Look Maya, I've loved talking with you and we totally need to do this again, but I need to go. I'll call you later, okay?" Just as Max was moving to turn the conversation off Maya remembered exactly why she'd called her sister in the first place and she called out for her to stop.
"Wait, Max!" the hand stalled. "There's this guy, he's really been an amazing help in the financial area of the movie I'm working on but he doesn't speak any English. Our translator got Mono and we can't find anyone on the entire set who speaks his language. Do you think you could translate for us? Just for a moment, I promise," Maya all but begged.
Max looked at the clock and sighed dramatically, "If I can I will. Put him on and make it quick."
Maya smiled widely and gushed, "Thanks Max. I'll be right back. Don't move!" Maya wove her way through the chaos of the movie set and grabbed the foreign man's arm. His eyes were wide and he struggled fruitlessly against her iron clad grip. He started shrieking something in a high falsetto voice in that nasally little language of his that Maya had absolutely no idea of what he was saying. She dragged him over to where the computer was set up and forcibly pushed him down into the chair. She pointed towards the webcam and said, "Speak."
The man started yelling at her, waving his hands around, and he tried to stand up. Suddenly, a voice cut through his ranting and ravings, "Uh ... Olá?" The man whipped his head around and around, looking for the source of the voice. When he finally looked at the computer and saw Max waving at him, he looked desperate.
"Você fala Português?" he asked hopefully, his hands clasped together tightly.
"Sim. O que você precisa?"
"Uma casa de banho. Fui pedir as últimas duas horas e ninguém vai me responder!"
"Ah," Max nodded in understanding. She turned her attention to her sister and said simply, "He wants to know where the bathroom is."
"Really? That's it?" Maya asked in surprise. "Tell him it's down the hall and to the right." Max translated for the man quickly and he went running off, shouting words of thanks behind him as he sprinted to the restroom. "Thanks Max, you really saved my butt today. I owe you one," Maya sighed in relief.
"Yes you do," Max agreed with a cocky grin. Suddenly, Maya was pushed away and an older man with graying black hair and thick-framed glasses was staring intently at Max through the computer.
"Would you come be our translator?" he asked intently, staring right at Max.
"What?" Max asked in confusion. She had no idea who this man was and she had no idea where her sister went.
"Would you come to Hollywood and be our translator?" the older man repeated.
"Why?" Max snorted.
The Director looked thrilled that Max was conversing with him. He grinned and explained, "We need someone to come speak whatever the heck this man is speaking."
Max raised an eyebrow and said, "He's speaking Portuguese. And I thought Maya said you already had one."
"She's going to be out for a while and you're the first person I've ever heard speak that language. There seems to be a shortage of translators for some reason."
"You're in Hollywood," Max pointed out. "There's bound to be at least a handful of people out there that can speak Portuguese. It's not even my best language."
"Regardless," the man shook his head. "We're dealing with a lot of different foreign people investing in this film and I've had to find a translator for every dialect. If you were over here, we'd need a lot fewer people which would save us money. Please?"
"I'm really not planning on coming back to the States anytime soon, sorry," Max said, actually sounding apologetic.
"Please? If, IF, you wanted to get back to the States how fast could you get here?"
"I don't know. The earliest wouldn't be for another month of two."
"No good, I need you this week!"
"Um… no," Max said slowly. "I'm not coming."
"Please Max," Maya cut back in. She pushed herself up off the ground, flipping her hair out of her eyes and glaring at the older man out of the corner of her eyes. "I'll totally owe you more than before. And I'd make it up to you. I promise!"
"And I'll pay you," the man offered energetically. "A lot! I promise!"
Max deliberated for a moment and she tapped her fingers on the table, furrowed her brow, and bit her lip. She was thoughtful for a moment before groaning, "Fine, I'll come."
The older man let out a loud and childish whoop and did a little victory jig. "Excellent!" he shouted, his hands in the hair victoriously. "I'll get you a plane. Just get to the Croatian International Airport tonight by 9:30 and I'll see you in two days! Thank you!" With that, the overly excited man went running off, leaving a slightly flustered and irritated Max alone with her older sister.
"It'll be good to see you again Max," Maya said sincerely.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Max waved her hand flippantly in the air. "I have to go let a bunch of Croatian trapeze artists, knife throwers, and fire jugglers who have angry lions and piranhas that I'm bailing on them after tonight. I'm sure that'll go well," Max said sarcastically. "If you don't hear from me in the next twenty-four hours, assume they killed me and send the authorities to look for my body."
"You got it sis. Good luck." Max nodded once and closed the laptop's lid. Maya smiled to herself and felt like going after the Director with a happy dance of her own. She had missed her sister more than she thought she would and was psyched beyond belief that Max was coming back. She should probably call her mother and let her know… nah. She'd leave that honor to Max. Maya smiled to herself and got up to go to set.
I'm for sure planning to make this several chapters long, but I've got a crazy hectic schedule, so I'll update as soon as possible. Just don't expect anything too soon.
I'm If you have any questions or anything like that, leave a review or PM me.
So, that's about it. See ya!