| Hi again, a brief note to say I've got the two reviews making me notice I was using the word 'glare' wrong. I insist that whenever you notice things like this, please let me know. I appreciate learning anything that can help my English writting improve. Especially when some words I've learnt, I haven't learnt those properly. I tried correcting that, by the way, hope it's showing now.

Thanx,

Rei |

Annie Hawk was a tall, long-legged blonde, who resented Kyoko for having stolen her spotlight. Mr. Packerman had warned Kyoko that she might encounter some bad atmosphere on the pilot's set, considering that the young American actress, a girl with a baggage as a child actor, was supposed to be the lead on the first place. The day Kyoko went to the script's first reading, the girl hadn't shown, using a lame excuse, so Kyoko was ready for anything that could happen.

It's only a pilot, that doesn't mean the series will get picked and less continued.

But once the filming started on March, Kyoko had to deal with Annie's cold glare at the backstage. At least, the girl was amazing at faking she was all right with Kyoko's presence in front of the cameras.

I know that I can't appeal to everyone I work with, but somehow Takarada-san's voice gets into my head and reminds me of everything I went through in my first years as an actress.

Kyoko was right. If she couldn't reach that cold girl, even if she wasn't that bad at performing, the character's chemistry might look lame. Maybe they didn't have to become friends, but at least, Annie Hawk could show some respect.

She tried approaching the girl several times, bringing her refreshments, and trying to start conversations "Do you hear something?" Annie used to ignore her while trying to get the rest of the young cast to her side. It was the typical bullying that made Kyoko despair, not because she was hurt, but because it made it harder to deal with the girl. Kyoko was familiar with that behavior; she had suffered it and she had performed it in front of the cameras before, but now she was grown up, she found it silly "If you were that displeased with this job why didn't you refuse it?" She dared to say with a calm and cool voice after she'd tried speaking to Annie for the third time. The girl froze, but she didn't turn to look at Kyoko. However, after that, the rest of the cast thought it twice before following Annie Hawk and her bully attempts.

"I don't know" the director of the series' pilot, Monica Sherman, monitored the first scene they had shot "There's something off" Kyoko knew what she meant. Even if she was trying to get in her role, that other girl, Annie, was reppeling her so bad, and that affected the results. She was trying to make her acting outstand and shadow Kyoko's.

"You must be satisfied" Kyoko tried a different strategy. Annie Hawk still refused to acknowledge her presence, but Kyoko was sure she was listening "I thought I'd finally got the chance to get a taste of Hollywood's real professionalism, now that I am finally playing a more important role and all" Kyoko knew how to be the bully too "But I guess I was wrong, and at the end, Hollywood acts don't get as serious as we do in Japan" Kyoko stood up of her chair and walked away flawlessly, making sure that Annie could see her.

Kyoko didn't want to worry Kuon with those small troubles at set, but since his film in Brasil kept his schedule busier and he hardly got time to chat through Skype, it was easy to just not let him know about this.

"That Hawk is a spoiled brat" Kuu had told her. Kyoko still confided it to someone, and Kuu was her mentor now "But I know the perfect person to make her come to her senses" Kuu had winked at Kyoko. If her previous attempt of embarrass her with her behavior hadn't worked, she'd need to try harder.

"I see why you don't want this pilot to succeed" she muttered the next day "you must be afraid that people see your true colors" Kyoko hesitated on whether to add something else, as her words might sound confusing, but Annie's glare showed her that it was enough with that. She smiled at her, letting her old little spirits come out to back her up "There's a difference between performing and faking, did you know?" were her final words before turning her back on the girl.

The drama was an apparent simple plot. At the beginning it was meant to be the story of a girl who goes to College and overcomes different struggles, the typical tale about growing up as an adult, but after Kyoko had auditioned for one of the main role's friends' character, the staff had changed their minds. The director and the writers thought the show might be more interesting if they turn the focus on Kyoko's role, instead, and added some dramatic background that helped her become a complex character. They still kept a considerable presence of Annie's role, but all the hopes were put on Kyoko's role now. They hoped that catched the viewers' attention.

"This channel is filled with teen mystery series right now, and they already have cheesy but lovely comedies running" the producers had agreed on the changes "We need something different" That was their purpose by offering the series.

"I am sorry for being late" Kyoko still bowed anytime she couldn't follow her schedule as it was planned. She'd been doing a photo-shot for one of the Japanese magazines she still was featured in often. That day, a crew from another magazine would follow her around. Mr. Packerman always managed to keep the balance between her Japanese jobs and the American ones, even when her current producers didn't exactly get in which way that could benefit their production in the US they understood that keeping Kyoko's presence in Japan would help them connect with the Asian viewers that resided in their country.

"You surely like to kiss people's bums" Annie Hawk despised Kyoko's humble behavior with the rest of the staff. Kyoko always ignored her attempts to provoke her.

"That shows how little you know of the World, Annie" Nadia Lacey, one of the supporter actresses that had been friendly with Kyoko scolded her. The girl was older and her role was one of their seniors at the Campus "If you tried to stop being that full of yourself you'd realized that she's a nice girl" Nadia's words only made it worse though. From that moment on, anything they tried to shoot was a disaster. Annie constantly lost her concentration and, consequently, her temper.

"Do you see those cameras following her around?" Nadia was determined to open Annie's eyes "They're here because she's famous in Japan"

"So what?" Annie was irritated "Do we have to start kissing her butt too?" she was still too arrogant "I don't care where she's famous. We're in the US, not in Japan"

"Well" Nadia was that kind of stubborn girl, not giving up on her mission "I'll take it as you never plan to advance your career further" Nadia knew how to hurt people with words "But I guess that seeing your attitude, it's not even worth to try" she left Annie frozen.

Kyoko had seen it, despite of her being busy attending the Japanese crew that was documenting her presence at the American set. She wasn't sure that would cause a positive effect on Annie.

She'll hate me even more now.

But Nadia had said something right: It wasn't worth to try when someone was showing such a bad attitude. Kyoko was frustrated that the situation would end up damaging the pilot's result.

Kyoko used her break that day to analyze what her circumstances were. She tried to find a solution to still make the drama's shooting become something successful, something that would definetly get aired and catch the viewers' attention. But everytime she tried thinking about her performance and how she could made it better to coordinate with someone who hated her as much as Annie, she ended up daydreaming with Kuon.

If he was here perhaps I would be stronger.

Kyoko hated to admit she still needed him to feel better, but she'd become used to that. After all, it wouldn't be love if she didn't feel his absence that much inside her heart.

That co-star killer of mine… what are you doing right now?

Kyoko smiled to herself and after a few seconds, something clinged inside her mind. She still had something else to try. There had only been a time when Kyoko had done that, but the circumstances were more similar than any others she'd been through, and back then, she'd triumphed over her enemy.

It wasn't easy to remember how to do it, but Kyoko remembered how Kuon and she had managed to coordinate for Hikaru Genji's scenes, and she decided to still vanish behind the role's mask, but make the role aware of what she needed to do: Kill Annie's act. Make her follow Kyoko's role lead.

When Kyoko was called back at the set, she entered under her role's skin, just like she'd impressed Dark Moon's senior actress once, she stroke Annie's mean intentions to ruin that recording too. Once director Sherman made her start the scene, even with Annie's will of not fall for Kyoko's act, it didn't become hard to defeat her.

"Perfect, CUT!" the director approved the first scene after a few takes "Now I see something interesting!" she said while monitoring the scene. That day ended up being an easy challenge for Kyoko, who'd caught Annie's guard down.

"It's a pity you can't value what's happened today" Nadia would insist even more on making Annie realize how much of a fool she was "I enjoyed today's filming so much, thank you Kyoko" the more she praised her, the more Annie's embarrassement shown on her red face.

On the next day, Annie appeared tense, but once more, Kyoko managed to make her fall for her lead. The experience she'd got that time on Sho's music video had been crucial for her career, but she had forgotten that on that day she'd used the killing skills to make Sho fall for her lead. Once Kyoko had started, it was hard to stop I guess I understand Kuon better now… but deep inside she wished that Annie wouldn't be such a pain and cooperate, so she could go back to her usual performance, the one that helps the rest of the cast shine with her. Of course that leading others also helped make them show interesting things to the camera, but the way Kyoko usually performed now was also making her stand over the rest. However, she'd been determined to find a balance between that skill and her own, but it was only easier to do that when the rest of the cast members were in the scene. Annie just provoked her more into abusing of her weakness.

There was nothing Annie could do. Day by day, Kyoko ended up getting her on the palm of her hand with just her performance skills, and whenever she watched Kyoko perform without her but with any other cast member, she had to witness how the others didn't suffer her killing act but got actually upgraded by Kyoko's way of perform.

"I think you've embarrassed yourself enough" Nadia was a little bit nasty, but Kyoko couldn't blame her, because Annie had asked for that treatment with her misbehavior on the set and the arrogance she'd still shown. She relied on her child actress status and her supposed fanbase from those days too much, when the truth was she didn't give a thing on her fans. Another of her attempts to irritate Kyoko came when she found her carefully reading her fanmail and planning how she would answer at her blog. Annie had tried making fun of her, pointing out that she was such a 'nobody' having to do those things by herself "Since when nobodies win Golden Globes?" Nadia's reply came as cold water getting thrown on her by surprise "If she was nobody, she wouldn't be receiving offers to play other roles already"

Kyoko's current's drama producers were that amazed with her, that they've tried moving her profile on their company. Kyoko ended up gaining a new role for a TV Movie that would be shot on winter.

"I've got connections too!" Annie always had a way to come back bragging about her strongest points. But once the pilot's filming wrapped, before Kyoko would fly to Japan so she could start filming her summer drama, Annie served herself a last lesson "Giving up, already?" she'd found out that her scenes were already over due to her Japanese schedule, but she used it as a way to let Kyoko know she'd never succeed in her territory.

"Don't worry" Kyoko regained Natsu's best features for the occasion "I've got the feeling you're going to suffer me for a long time" she waved her hair "Just use this time as a vacation"

"Who's being full of herself now?" Annie pointed at her with fiercness.

Nadia stepped in opening her mouth to throw some of her 'nice' words at her, but Kyoko raised her left hand and stopped her.

"Do you know what the difference between you and me is?" Kyoko's glare showed no mercy "I never take things for granted" she let a small, twisted, smile show "I don't rely on any connections I may have because, first of all, if anyone helps me is to expect that I give my best in order to pay that person back" Kyoko had had enough with Annie Hawk's sense of superiority "And no matter how far I go, I still can look back and appreciate everything I went through and helped me become stronger, but I don't just use my past achievements as an excuse to become lazy and disrespect whoever I will work with in my future" Kyoko could see how Annie's lips were pursed "Don't blame me for something you put on yourself alone" Kyoko continued "Because you left me no alternative. I am not the type to run away and cry, if I am assigned a job, I find a way to do it the best possible. At the end of the day, I am here because I love being an actress, and that is the difference between you and me" Kyoko took her bag "Enjoy your long vacation" she said not hiding she had find someone else to despise.

She left not even caring of how Annie would take her last speech. Kyoko had something else to deal with.