Chapter Two:

The call came just as Natalie was leaving campus as she was walking towards her car, chatting with a few friends.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Natalie, this is Fran. We just heard that Kelly Townsend was in a bad car accident and is taking some time off. She won't be playing Lily anymore, and we're really in a tight spot. Can you come over and read for us today? The casting directors are already scouting for a new Lily, so I promise it will only be for today," Fran said in a rush. Natalie remembered the horrible car crash she had seen on her way to Fran's the day before. Could it have been...?

"Sure. I can do that," she replied, and, saying goodbye to her friends, got in her car and started to drive.

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Natalie arrived five minutes early, so she hurried down the basement steps and sat in the same chair as she had yesterday. It was something familiar and comfortable, things that always seemed to lesson her anxiety. She scanned the room and saw that the other actors were talking and laughing like old friends. She also noticed that she was the only one sitting down. Natalie thought of trying to go talk to them, but quickly dismissed the idea.

'It's not like I'm ever going to see these guys again, except maybe in the movie theater back home. I don't have to be un-shy or something,' she reasoned with herself. Natalie stuffed her hands between her knees and sank back into the chair. She began studying the walls instead of the actors.

They were painted a sunny golden, which reminded her of home. It was the exact shade of the shore at Lake Michigan during a fall afternoon. Natalie sighed. She missed home.

A picture hung on the wall caught her attention. It was of Peter and Fran with their children, Billy and Katie, in front of a scene Natalie vaguely recognized. But before she could stand up to get a better look, the boy who looked about her age sat down next to her.

"Hi, I'm Elijah, in case you don't remember," he started. Natalie smiled weakly. He's talking to me. What do I do now?

"And I'm –," she started, but Elijah cut her off.

"Natasha, right?"

"Um, Natalie…" she said, trailing off. Elijah looked embarrassed and tried to cover up by saying something else, but stopped when Peter entered the room. He called them to order and the other actors began to take their seats. Fran began going around, handing the actors their new scripts.

Elijah gave Natalie a quick smile before grabbing the booklet Fran tossed him. Natalie's was next; she barely caught it be her fingertips. Holding it up so that she could read it, she saw "The Fellowship of the Ring: Gilraen's Memorial through The Road Goes Ever On" written on the cover.

Natalie was saved from having to make conversation by Hugo Weyland, Elrond, saying the first lines of the scene. "Anirne hene beriad i chên în. Ned Imladris nauthant e le beriathar aen."

Natalie briefly wondered why both the read-through yesterday and today started with a line in a foreign language, one that she had never heard the likes of before. But the brief scene between Elrond and Aragorn ended and Natalie's attention was brought back to the script when Elijah jumped into the next scene. "Mordor, Gandalf, is it right or left?"

To Natalie, the read-through ran very similarly to her first one yesterday. Actors said their lines in order… and that was about it. She supposed that in later readings Peter would inject his comments about the acting, but she quickly dismissed her pondering, as future readings were of no importance to her. It wasn't like she would ever see another script in her life, much less attend another read-through.

As they made their way through the booklet, Natalie was sucked into the story again. Something about being here, reading the script… it all felt so natural. She was so absorbed in the story that she just barely spoke her line in time when it came up. "What is that?" Natalie spat out and sucked in her breath. Surreptitiously, she looked at the other actors; they carried on as if they didn't notice the pause before her line.

"It's moving fast… against the wind."

"Crebain from Dunland!"

Natalie supposed it didn't matter anyways; how long was this stand-in for Lily going to last?

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Time flew by during the read-through. Before she knew it, Natalie could see the rays of the sinking sun slanting through the windows. She yawned, thinking of the long plane ride that awaited her in two days. As fun as it was to spend the second semester of her sophomore year in New Zealand, her five months were up and it was time to head back home for a three-month summer break and then her junior year back at the University of Wisconsin.

"Announcement, everyone!" Peter called from the base of the stairs. "Next read-through won't be held in the basement – Weta just finished moving into the new building yesterday, so we'll be over there. There's a lot more room and you all should get to know the building; it's right across the street from where you'll live during the shoot. So see you all in room 102B in two days!"

Natalie gathered up her purse and started to dig around for her car keys when Fran and Peter approached her. Oh, here it comes. They're letting me know that I'm not invited to the read-through tomorrow. There's no way they could want me to keep reading for Lily, after they saw how terrible an actress I am.

"So, Natalie…" Peter trailed off. Natalie felt her stomach sink. She hadn't realized how much she loved reading for Lily until it was all being taken from her.

Fran continued, "We know you're going home in a few days, so we wanted to say goodbye." Natalie nodded, her throat constricting. "And we wanted to thank you for helping us out these past two days. It was really great of you."

"Yeah, of course. I hope the shoot goes alright," Natalie said, unable to come up with anything else. She nodded goodbye and slipped up the stairs, unsure of why she felt like crying.

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Natalie's life was so hectic in the next few days that she didn't have time to be sad about the loss of Lily. Although she knew that she hadn't really lost the part, seeing that it was never actually hers, the short time of reading for Lily had bonded her to the character, and she couldn't help but feel some attachment to it.

But Natalie was busy; she was finishing up finals, saying goodbye to all the friends she had made on this side of the world, and packing up the apartment with her roommates.

Sooner than she realized, Natalie was stepping off of the last plane of her three-leg journey back home and running to greet her family.

"NAT! NAT! NAT! NAT!" Natalie laughed as her youngest brother, Noah, ran up to her, hugging her legs. She scooped him up and tried to swing him around, but had to set him back on the ground.

"Noah! You grew too much while I was gone!" Her five-year-old brother grinned up at her and Natalie turned to hug her mom.

"Oh, honey, I'm so glad you made it home safe," Natalie's mom, Elizabeth Summers, said, but Natalie could see that her mom wasn't focused on her at all. Probably thinking about Nick, she thought, but quickly squashed her angry thoughts down. She was home, and happy to see her family.

"Yup! I'm home! I have so many stories to tell you guys!" Natalie hugged one of her other brothers, Nathan, who was only a year and a half younger than her, and then looked around. "Where's Nick and Dad?"

"Nick was having a bad day..." Elizabeth said. "We thought it best to have him stay at home, and we should hurry. You know how I don't like to leave him home alone too long." Natalie nodded. Nicholas, older than Natalie by two years, was a highly functioning autistic.

"And Dad was really busy at work, but he said he'll try to be home early for dinner so he can see you tonight," Nathan offered up, shrugging at Natalie.

"Doesn't sound like much has changed," Natalie whispered to her brother as they started walking towards the exits. Nathan pulled her in for a side hug, and Natalie laughed and hugged him back. She was so happy to be home with her brothers that she almost forgot that she had been moping about the part of Lily.

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Natalie sank into her favorite comfy chair in the family room, a glass of lemonade in her hands. She had been home for a week now, and she never wanted to leave. She reached over to the side table and picked up the book she was reading, and started to flip to where she had left off.

Nathan walked into the room, loudly shuffling a deck of cards. "Wanna play some Gin Rummy?" he asked her, smiling.

Natalie laughed. She and Nathan had a long-standing tradition of nights of Gin Rummy tournaments. "Of course! You know I can never turn down a good card game!" She set the book back down on the table and joined her brother on the floor as he tossed her ten cards. She organized them in her hands, looking for any patterns.

The sound of screaming from the hallway made Natalie look up. Noah came hurtling in the room; a sheet trailed behind him. "Like my cape?" he asked, plopping down in Natalie's lap.

"You make a great super hero!" she replied, setting her chin on top of her brother's head. She was deciding which card to throw away when her cell phone rang.

Natalie looked at the screen – it was an unfamiliar number. "Hello?" she said.

"Hi, Natalie. This is Fran Wales again... Are you still in New Zealand?"

Natalie started at hearing the woman's voice. She hadn't expected to hear it ever again. "Um, no. I'm not. I came back to Wisconsin a week ago," she replied.

"Well, Peter and I have an offer for you. I know, it's quite strange, but I hope you'll hear us out."

"Okay, just a minute." Natalie held the phone into her chest and pushed Noah out of her lap. "I have to take this call – sorry, guys – I'll be back in a minute." She stood up and walked down the hallway to her bedroom. Flopping onto her yellow and white bed, Natalie held the phone back up to her ear. "Hi, Fran. Sorry about that."

"No problem. So over the past week Peter and I have been looking at hundreds of audition tapes for the part of Lily, and nobody seems to work." Natalie felt a spark of hope in her chest. What could this possibly mean? "We keep comparing them to you. We just keep saying to ourselves – we need Natalie. After hearing you read for us, I guess you just stuck in our heads. Nobody seems right for Lily – except you."

"What?" Natalie couldn't speak, she couldn't think. After a few minutes, she said, "Is this a joke? I mean... I know I can't act. I mean, are you serious?"

"I am! There's something about you, Natalie – natural talent, some may say. Peter and I have discussed this at length, and we really can't find a better Lily. Yes, you could use some acting lessons and there is a lot of work ahead of you if you accept, but that initial spark – you've got it. You've really captured Lily's wonderment and naiveté. I'm not saying that you've got everything perfect. Like I said, you will have to work harder than everyone else, but I'd hate to see potential as big as yours slip away."

Natalie's head reeled. No one had ever told her that there was some great potential building up inside of her. And here was one of the biggest film makers telling her – her – that she could be a star. Her, shy little Natalie! It was too big to handle.

"Um... I don't know what to say!"

"Well, take a few hours to think it over – a day if you need to. I know it's a big decision, and there's a lot of responsibility involved. Just let me know as soon as you can," Fran said.

"Alright. I'll call you back soon," Natalie said, and hung up. Turning her head so that her face was pressed into her pillow, Natalie let out an excited scream. She'd been asked to be Lily!

Immediately, Natalie bit her lip and flipped onto her back, staring up at her ceiling. Yes, of course it was exciting to be asked to be part of a movie – any movie, but especially one as large as this one was – but Natalie forced herself to think about why playing Lily might not be the best thing right now.

Her thoughts were so muddled – on one hand, she knew that she was no actress, and that this wasn't something she was supposed to do. She would have to stay far away from her family for at least another year or two, and she supposed that she would have to drop out of college. She couldn't see how her parents would let her do that – they were firm believers in working hard to make a living, and wouldn't approve of her throwing away her education just to be in a movie.

Natalie also thought back to how she felt when she left New Zealand. While there were so many things about the country to love – the scenery, for one thing – she had missed her family and her home, and had been more than ready to leave as soon as the semester was over.

But at the same time, Natalie had an inexplicable pull towards The Lord of the Rings. She absolutely loved the story, and in all three read-throughs, she found herself being pulled more and more into the character of Lily. Something inside her cried out at the thought of parting with the character she had come to understand so well. And then there were those comments that Peter and Fran had made – that she had natural talent? Somehow, she couldn't seem to let go of that. No one had ever told her that she had potential in something – sure, she got along okay in all her classes, but she had never been brilliant at anything, never played any sports or musical instruments or had any other sort of talent. To think that someone believed in her – even if it was just a tiny bit – Natalie couldn't shake off that feeling.

She was being pulled in both directions, but she couldn't lie to herself – the part of her that wanted to stay in New Zealand, to film this movie, was getting bigger and bigger by the moment.

As much as Natalie loved her home and her family, she had to be honest with herself. There was no way she could pass up this opportunity. She loved the character of Lily, connected with her on such a level she never thought possible. Reading the script over had only solidified that knowledge. If she didn't say yes – if she didn't play Lily – she knew she would regret that for the rest of her life.