PoV: JAKE
"Jake? Hello?" Madison snaps her fingers in front of me twice. Disoriented, I shake my head from side to side.
"Sorry. Spaced out a little."
Madison glares at me. "We have to memorize these lines for the next scene by noon, Jake. You can daydream about your little girlfriend later."
My shoulders go tense. "She's not my girlfriend!"
Madison raises an eyebrow. "Uh-huh," she mumbles, unconvinced. "Gonna talk to her again today?"
"How could I? The extras aren't coming in today, remember?"
Madison looks at me like I'm the dumbest person she's ever met. "She doesn't always have to come to you, you know. You can go to her."
I raise an eyebrow. "Go to her? What does that mean?"
Madison looks to her left, then to her right (even though we're alone in her trailer), before leaning in towards me. "We finish filming right when the school day ends, right? So get a hoodie and a pair of sunglasses from the costume trailer and wait out front for her. You go to her," she explains.
"Do you know how risky that is?" I ask, even though I don't need to. Madison rolls her eyes right on cue.
"Of course I do, genius, but I'll cover for you."
I pause, making sure I heard her right. "You'll cover for me? Why?"
The apprehension in her eyes is clear. She seems to debate an explanation with herself before shrugging and saying, "I might think you can do better, but you're still the closest thing I have to a friend out here. Don't think for a minute I agree with you on this, but…I'll still help you."
Considering this will probably be the nicest thing Madison will ever do for me, I smile gratefully. "Thanks, Madison."
She rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, invite me to the wedding. Now can we focus on these lines?"
After an eternity spent on set, I'm barely able to stake out a hiding spot in front of the school before the last bell of the day starts ringing. I'm wearing a dark gray zip-up hoodie with the hood pulled up, aviator sunglasses, and crouching behind a large oak tree that canopies the front courtyard of the school. If I was dressed like this in LA, everyone would ignore me. I hope that's how things work in Willow Falls, too.
I go unnoticed by every single student that exits the school, and after close to ten minutes of waiting behind the tree I spot Rory with one of the girls she was with yesterday. They're about to walk right by me when I swiftly step out from behind the tree and place a hand gently on Rory's shoulder.
Everything happens all at once. Rory jumps about a foot in the air and spins around so fast she crashes right into me. We tumble to the ground in a heap, my hood and sunglasses flying off in the process.
Rory's friend quickly drops down to grab my sunglasses. She hands them to me, expertly standing in front of us so that no one sees my face. "Put these on, quick!" If she was at all surprised by the situation, she sure got it together fast.
I slip the sunglasses back onto my face and tug up my hood. Helping a frazzled Rory to her feet, I yank her by the arm and pull her behind the tree, going a little further this time into a small row of shrubbery shrouding the entrance sign. I drop to my knees behind the sign, once again dragging Rory down with me. From over the shrubs I can see her friend around the other side of the tree giving us an all-clear thumbs up. A boy approaches her and they start talking, allowing me to turn my attention back to Rory. She's still frozen in shock, and I risk an "Are you okay?"
She looks down at herself, as if checking for anything broken. "I think so? You nearly scared me half to death!"
"I know, I know, I'm sorry. But I wasn't sure how else to come to you, other than in disguise hiding out in front of your school…" Okay, saying it out loud I realize how creepy it sounds. And the fact that I touched her from behind while she didn't recognize me would make anyone jump like that.
Why did I think this was a good plan?
"Rory, I'm really sorry for freaking you out so bad, but I just wanted to talk. Is that all right? Can we talk?" I ask.
She eyes me warily. "Sure…"
Sensing that I may have just screwed up big time, I try to retrace my steps. Madison can only buy me so much time. "I'll just say it: you're not like anyone else I've met in Willow Falls, and I think if we go about it right we could be good friends. I was wondering if you wanted to, I guess, be friends?" I'm so embarrassed right now, for so many reasons, that I can hardly stand it, but now it's all on her to say yes or no.
Rory stares at me, into me, for a few seconds before shaking her head in amazement. "I've been wanting to ask you that exact same question!"
My eyebrows shoot up. "You have?"
She nods. "Yeah. You're cool. I think we could be good friends too." Her voice dips awkwardly on the last couple of words, but it really seems like she's getting used to the idea of me being a regular person. "Assuming you mean it and you're not going to turn me into some sort of media scandal," she probes, inquiry filling her eyes.
I shake my head no, vigorously. "Never! I do mean it. I want to be friends."
She waits a beat, then smiles. "Okay. I believe you. How should we start, then?"
"Start?"
"Being friends. Want me to show you around town?" When I don't answer, she squeezes her eyes and shakes her head. "Unless you've already seen all of town and I'm just dumb—"
"No, that'd be great!" I quickly recover. "I've been stuck with the cast and crew for most of the time we've been here, so it'd be nice to see the rest of Willow Falls."
Remnants of shock flit across Rory's eyes. "Okay then. Saturday. Meet me right here at nine a.m.—and it's probably best if you're in disguise," she adds. "I'll bring my friends. It'll be fun! I think you'll like them, and I'll let them know beforehand that they don't have to treat you different," she assures me.
"Wow…thank you," I tell her. "You're an awesome friend already."
Rory smiles. "Good. I'm glad." She looks over her shoulder at the thinning crowd in the courtyard. "Okay, I think you're good to go now."
She starts to leave, but I think of something just in time. "Wait!" I say quickly. "Do you have a phone number?"
She cringes. "Yeah, but I share it with a pizza joint, so it only takes calls from selected numbers that are already in my phone."
I take a second to process that. "Oh. Okay, um…could I put my number in your phone?"
Her eyes look like they're going to burst from her head. "Sure," she says, taking it out of her backpack and handing it over. "It's the lamest phone on the planet, I know," she laments.
"Hey, it does the job, right?" Rory smiles gratefully. I plug my personal cell into her contact list, which I notice is very short. There are only six other numbers in there, that I can see. It suddenly makes sense why Rory's so gobsmacked that I want to be her friend. Seems like she has limited experience with them.
If that's the case, then we're not so different after all.
