Chapter Thirteen:
Everyone but Ishio nodded. Erica smiled, then spread her hands. "Okay, enough being tough. You all did a fantastic job. It'll get better the longer you do it. Now, I want to get you guys into make up to get you all banged up for the next scene. So, head on up, behind the Inn, to the trailers set up back there. Marie and Joanna are waiting for you."
"What happened to the formal breakfast promised us?" Joey asked suddenly.
"You're hungry?"
"He always is," Tristan said.
"So are you."
Erica frowned slightly, then smiled. "I'm sure Candy kept some stuff nice and hot. Go on and eat. Anyone who isn't hungry, you can go ahead and get into make up. They're not going to be able to do all of you at once anyway. Yami, Tristan, you're welcome to eat on us, if you want. Tea, too, if you find her and Daisy."
"Thanks!" Tristan said cheerfully.
The pair of them turned and hurried up the driveway. Yugi smiled with long-suffering affection and fell into step beside Yami while the rest walked up with them.
/You did wonderfully, Aibou./
Yugi looked down at the pavement beneath his feet, embarrassed. /Thanks./
/Erica seems like a nice person./
/She is. I think doing this really is going to be fun./
Yami smiled. /Good, I'm glad./
On the porch of the Inn, Tea and Daisy were waiting for them. Tea told them that Joey and Tristan had already hurried by to find the food stand.
"How'd the crash go?" Daisy asked.
"Good," Rin said, joining them on the porch. "The two stunt people came and crashed the cars like it was nothing."
"We saw them in their golf cart. They passed us on the way. They looked really intense."
"They are. The girl said Japan is pretty, and that's it. Just came down, crashed the cars, got back in their cart, and left. Erica says they're really hard to work with."
Tea and Daisy joined the group following after Joey and Tristan. Behind the Inn, Yugi saw a small town of trailers, tents, and portapotties. People were bustling about, shouting at each other, shouting into phones, and hauling equipment. There were cables running everywhere that people stepped over without a second thought, though Yugi found himself having to watch where he was going intently to avoid tripping up.
"Hey! You guys looking for Candy or Marie?" a man shouted to them.
"Are you guys hungry?" Yugi asked the rest.
"Starving," Daisy said.
"We never did get to have our picnic," Tea said, and Yami nodded.
"I'm not. I think I'll get into makeup," Rin said. "Some of us should."
"I'm with you," Sota said. "I can't wait to get some more done."
"I'm not hungry either," Mark said.
The man was beginning to look irritated. He pointed in two different directions. "Candy's that way, Marie's that way."
"Thanks!" Yugi shouted back. "Sorry!"
The group split up, with those who were hungry heading towards Candy's and those who weren't taking the path toward Marie's. The various crew milling around paid them no more attention than brief glances.
Candy's was an enormous food stand of the type seen at fairs and carnivals. In hot pink letters lined with blue lights were the words Candys'-Best Grub You'll Ever Have. Candy herself was visible behind the counter. Indeed, it would have been hard to miss her. She was a gigantic woman. Standing probably six feet two, she was amply busted, thick in the waist, arms, and hips, with a large patrician nose and big, doe-like brown eyes. Her black hair shone like a raven's wings, pulled tightly back from her face. Her hands looked capable of snapping tree trunks.
"Whoa," Joey murmured.
Candy saw them. A grin spread over her mannish, yet appealingly good-natured face. "Hello!" she cried in English, her voice as big as her body. "Hope ya'll speak some English. Sorry, but I cain't make heads nor tails of ya'lls' language."
"We speak English," Joey said in that language.
"Great! What cain I get ya'lls? Got American, Cajun, Italian, French, Spanish, German, and been learnin' to make ya'll's Japanese. What'll ya'll have?"
"Uh…"
Menu's right thur." She waved a ham hand at a long whiteboard scrawled with various junk food dishes in different colored marker. There were no prices.
"All's free," Candy said, resting her upper half on her folded arms on the counter. The wood groaned. "All on Erica and her company. If'n ya'll's confused 'bout anything', I kin tell ya'lls what's what."
Yugi thought her accent might be heavy Southern. It made it difficult to understand her, and he saw Daisy looking completely flustered.
"How about we just order whatever's easiest," Tea suggested in Japanese. "She's hard to understand."
"What does the crew usually ask for?" Joey asked in English.
"Oh, 'bout everyt'in'."
"That's helpful," Tristan muttered.
"Ya'll's lookin' mighty lost. How 'bout I just gets ya my most popular dishes?"
"Sounds good," Joey said, relieved.
"So, ya'll's the new actors," Candy said, once they'd been served a strange mish-mash of dishes. Spinach quiche, chorizo quesadilla, teriyaki, miso soup, shrimp gumbo with cornbread, and French eclairs and German chocolate cake for dessert. "How're ya likin' it?"
"It's great," Joey said around a mouthful of food. "Erica's great."
"Yep, she is," Candy agreed. "Ya know, that lady, she don't forget nothing. I gots me six kids stateside 'n' she don't forget a birthday, nor me and the mister's anniversary. She's like that with everybody."
"How long have you worked with her?" Tea asked.
"Oh, I reckon it's been about ten years, in betweens the kids. I was there for her first international movie she made."
"Twelve Ways to Die," Joey said enthusiastically.
"Yuh. You're one of her big fans, I take it."
"Yeah."
"Me too," Tristan said, a bit put out. "But I wasn't there for her casting call."
"She's good people. I don't like her movies much myself, but the woman's good."
"This food's good, too," Joey said. "Man."
"Why thank ya." She looked at a watch clamped around one meaty wrist. "Ya'll's got some time yet, I reckon. Takes them girls 'bout an hour to do the makeup, even just the little blood."
"You said you've been with her about ten years," Yugi said.
"Yuh."
"The news said there was a lot of accidents on the sets of her movies."
He felt Yami's surprise and disturbance at that news, and saw Tea look over at him sharply. Candy's expression grew harder, like she was sizing up Yugi's reason for asking about them.
"Been some, yuh."
"I didn't know that," Tea said, looking extremely worried. "Is this safe?"
"Everythin's got it's risks," Candy said. "I tol' ya, Erica's a good woman. She feels terrible about any accidents, but she cain't stop her work on account of 'em. Lots of people get hurt in cars, but they don't stop making 'em. She takes lots of precautions, but sometimes things happen."
"How often have things happened?" Tea pressed.
"Sometimes," Candy said flatly. "Not every movie. Sometimes several a movie, sometimes none."
Tea looked at Yugi and Joey, troubled. "Are you guys sure you ought to be doing this?"
"Of course they should be," Tristan said. "This is awesome. So what if some accidents have happened? That doesn't mean anything'll happen this time."
"That shows a lot of concern for your friends," Tea said reproachfully.
"You worry too much. They'll be fine."
"Yeah, Tea, I know all about this stuff," Joey agreed. "It really doesn't happen that much. It's all sensationalism, you know, draw attention to the movies. She's made dozens of movies. Bound something'll happen sometime or another, but that happens with lots of movies. And we're not going to be doing stunts or whatever, you know. Just the acting, the dialogue. You saw, the stunt was done by those two siblings. If anybody's going to get hurt, it's them. We'll be fine, don't worry about us!"
"Well… if you're sure."
"Doesn't matter, he wouldn't change his mind anyway," Tristan said.
"Damn right."
Yami looked at Yugi directly in the eyes. Yugi offered him an uneasy smile.
It wasn't long before they were finished eating. For the first time, Joey was finished before anyone else. Despite the fact that he ate like the end of the world was coming, Joey generally ate so much that he was always still eating when others were done, but now he was so excited that even his monstrous appetite was curbed. He fidgeted impatiently while the rest ate at their own pace, asking Candy endless questions about Erica, her movies, and what it was like working on the set.
"Always busy, most times," Candy said. "There's lots of people here 'n' they's always hungry. I gots me some assistants, thank the Good Lord, but both of them's on breaks. Always a real test for my skills, but that's the way I like it. Always findin' new things to cook up. Cain't really tell you too much about anythin' else here, 'cause I don't do nothin' but the cooking. Sometimes on break I go and watch the filmin', but I don't like the blood much."
"So how did you get in with a famous horror movie director if you don't like horror movies?" Daisy asked. "I mean, I'm not a huge fan either, but she just found me in the street."
"Oh, pretty much how it always hep'ns in this business. Connections. I was a small-time cook workin' back home and sometimes doin' fairs and whatnot when Joanna's brother moved to Texas and became a good friend a'mine. When Erica was just startin' out, she wanted a caterer, and couldn't afford no one expensive, so Adam told her and Joanna I had the best food he ever tasted, and she came out and agreed and here I am."
Finally, everyone was done eating and Joey urged them up to head over to Marie's. As Yugi looked at the huge array of dishes and utensils from the six of them eating, he offered to help Candy clean up. She laughed.
"Aww, well, ain't you sweet. It's my job, honey. You go on and get your'n started. You don't want to make Erica mad, no, sir." Yugi blinked, and Candy smiled brightly. "She might be a nice lady and a great boss, but, well, you don't make tons'a famous movies without gettin' a little bit used to gettin' yer own way, now do ya?"
"Come on, Yug!" Joey whined petulantly.
"All right, Joey, I'm coming. Thanks again, Candy."
"You have yerself a good time, ya hear, honey?"
Yugi joined the rest of the group and headed back toward Marie's makeup trailer. It was an enormous dull silver house on wheels, larger than most mobile homes. The main door, side door, and all of the windows were open. Lounging outside, smoking a cigarette, was Mark, showing a vice he'd hadn't shown before. He was devoid of makeup, because his character was not in use yet.
"Hey, guys. They just got done with the others."
"Is that the rest of them?" Marie's girlish voice proceeded her in the doorway. She was wiping her hands on a stained towel. "Good. I don't have to send Joanna to go get you. Come on, the two of you with parts in the crash. The rest, you all hang out, okay?"
Yugi and Joey climbed up the steps into the trailer. Ishio was standing at the far end by the window. Bright red was smeared down the right side of his face and splattered on his shirt. He was standing, unsurprisingly, with his arms folded across his chest. Rin still sat in a revolving chair, Joanna leaning over her and applying the last bit of red to her knuckles, as if she had hurt her hand in the fake car accident. Sota stood off to the other side, fiddling with his red-stained shirt. His bottom lip appeared to have been split open, spilling blood down his chin. Nadia, though also with light-softening make up on her face, looked normal except for her hair in disarray.
"Okay, Rin, you're all done," Marie said.
Joanna, still silent, stepped back. Rin got to her feet, moving out of the way to stand near Sota. Marie patted the armrest of the second chair that was empty in front of a bank of mirrors and bright lights.
"Yugi, here with me, Joey, sit there with Joanna."
Yugi walked over to the chair and climbed up into it while Joey bounced eagerly into the other chair, nearly upsetting Joanna's free-standing makeup tray as he hit it with his hip. She saved it from tipping over, but smiled at Joey's big grin. Marie turned to Yugi, putting her foot on a pedal and pumping it to raise Yugi up, the chair exactly like the one found at a barber's.
"Hope you don't mind getting your shirts all messed up," Sota said. "They didn't tell us that part."
"Yeah, sorry, honey," Marie said dismissively. "We would have had costumes for you guys," she added to Yugi and Joey, "but one of the new assistants to the costume designer borked his job and they're not arriving until tomorrow morning and Erica wanted to get started. Every delay is more time lost, after all. Don't worry, she's going to pay you for the clothes."
"Who cares?" Joey said quickly. "It's no big deal, it's just a shirt."
Marie laughed. Joanna didn't react, instead just started dipping a cotton ball in a jar of something. She leaned forward and started smearing the pale semi-solid on Joey's face.
"Foundation," Marie explained, picking up her own jar and cotton ball. "It'll take the sheen off your skin under the stage lights and even your skin tone."
She turned to Yugi and raised the cotton ball, beginning to add foundation to Yugi's face. The makeup was heavy and odd-feeling on Yugi's skin, but he didn't complain. After the foundation was added to Yugi's face and even his neck, she picked up what even Yugi could name; a compact. Powder was added, then Marie picked up another jar and bent closer. For several minutes, she dabbed something on Yugi's forehead, then stepped back and picked up something red from the collection of jars and another small dabbing sponge.
"Pity I have to mess up your pretty face," Marie said absently as she started putting the red gunk on Yugi's forehead. "Good thing it's only temporary."
Yugi struggled not to blush, suddenly glad for the heavy makeup on his cheeks. He saw Joey looking at him in the mirror and glared when Joey waggled his eyebrows and winked. Joanna, still oddly silent, was adding a small cut to Joey's cheek, and she leaned back as he made faces.
"Marie, can you tell him he shouldn't move?" Joanna said, speaking for the first time. Her voice had a pleasant English accent, which was also the language she spoke in. Yugi guessed the reason she had been silent so far was that she couldn't speak in Japanese, and didn't realize the rest of them were bilingual, which Marie informed her of right then. "Oh. Well, then, don't move."
"Sorry," Joey said with a grin.
"You can tease Yugi about Marie coming on to him when I'm done," Joanna added, earning a pleasantly surprised laugh from Joey, a squeak from Yugi, and a glare from Marie.
"How do you know what I said? You don't speak Japanese."
"He's over here winking and that one's blushing. It's not hard to guess."
"Well, excuse me, telling him he's cute isn't coming on to him," Marie said, waving the red-tipped dabbing sponge.
"Right, right, sorry, love. I forgot, it's Kevin you have the hots for."
"Enough!" Marie snapped. "You know he's engaged, so quit it already."
"Yes, but he's not married yet, I say you still have a chance."
"You're awful! Don't you know what engaged means?"
"I come from London, love, our education system's much better than you Yanks'. Don't *you* know it's not legal until-"
"Come off it, Joanna. Just because you'll 'shag'," she made derisive quotation marks with her fingers, "any 'bloke' who gives you a smile-"
"Yes, and I'm much happier than you, so you ought to try it sometime."
Marie noticed everyone else uncomfortably shifting and looking around and glared back at Joanna. "See, is this the sort of professionalism you show in Merry Ol' England? You want this getting back to Erica?"
"We won't-" Sota started.
"Hang on," Joanna interrupted, "You're accusing me of being unprofessional? Look at that wound on Yugi's forehead, it'll be clear as day it's fake."
"Uh-oh," Nadia whispered as the tension in the room doubled.
"*I* am not done," Marie said with venom.
"Clearly," Joanna said snidely.
"Uh, ladies-" Sota started, then went silent as both women glared at him. He looked down at the floor and fidgeted until they turned back to each other.
"You are *my* assistant, Joanna, I deserve some respect."
"You'll get your respect, love, when you give me a reason to give it."
"How about not being fired?" Marie growled.
"Oh, please, what would you do without me?"
"Get my work done without you mentally fixing me up with every swinging dick that walks by."
Yugi was struggling not to squirm, despite how terribly uncomfortable he was, so that the women's attention wouldn't focus on him. Next to him, Joey had his fist in his mouth and he realized that his boyfriend was struggling not to burst into childish giggles. In the mirror, he could see Rin, Nadia, and Sota looking as uncomfortable as he did, while Ishio was glaring at the pair with such malignant disgust, he could probably cause them cancer. Marie abruptly turned back to Yugi, making him twitch instinctively, but she was just leaning over him to add some more red to his forehead.
Joanna saw Joey nearly breaking a rib trying to hold in his laughter, and she gave him a wicked grin. Clearly she approved of his reaction. Winking at him, she picked up a piece of latex and leaned back over him, beginning to affix it to Joey's cheek.
"Stop smiling," she said. "It's hard to get it to stick like that."
"Sorry," Joey said, clearly trying to make his features smooth.
Marie rolled her eyes and then picked up a small bottle and started adding what the mirror revealed to be streaks of blood running down his face from the wound on his forehead. She carefully diverted the trickles from Yugi's eyes, told him the stuff was going in his mouth, and let it run over his lips. It ended up tasting like cherry Kool-aid, at least.
"There," she said, stepping back and setting the small bottle of red liquid on the counter. "What do you think?"
Yugi studied his full face in the mirror. On his forehead, just slight to the right of the center of his forehead, was what looked like a small cut in his skin. Thin red trickles ran from the wound down his face, dripping off his chin and staining the collar of his shirt. It looked eerily real, as if he'd really been struck in the face.
Joanna leaned over to Yugi and stared at the wound Marie had finished.
"Mind getting your nose out of my business?" Marie asked.
"Yugi, I do hope you won't take her work as standard for all of us."
Marie glared at Joanna, who smiled provokingly. Marie shifted, her jaw clenched, and slowly put the red-tipped sponge she was still holding down on the counter. She turned fully to Joanna and stepped toward her until they were an inch apart. Yugi watched nervously.
"Ladies, it's okay," Yugi said. "Marie, the wound looks great."
"Stay out of this, lovey," Joanna said without taking her gaze from Marie. The women were staring each other down like a pair of dogs about to attack.
Even Joey wasn't amused now. He stood up, about to intervene, but he was saved by Erica arriving in the trailer. She climbed aboard without announcement, paused in the doorway, and surveyed the scene. Her response wasn't expected.
"Ladies, again? Don't you think this joke has gotten old?"
"Joke?" Joey repeated.
Marie and Joanna sighed theatrically. In an instant, the tension was gone as if it had never been there. "Erica, way to ruin it," Marie whined.
"I should have warned you," Erica said to the puzzled group. "These two like to pretend to criticize each other's work and then get into a fistfight to freak out the new ones."
"You take all the fun out of it," Joanna said as everyone relaxed.
"It's childish and you should know better," Erica said without the slightest trace of anger. "Now, are you done with them, or not?"
"'Course we are," Joanna said, waving toward the group. "We're professionals first."
"Right." She gave the group a cursory looking over, then nodded. "Looks good, ladies. All right, boys and girls, come on."
She turned and exited the make up trailer. Yugi got out of his chair, seeing that Joanna and Marie were now standing against the counter with their arms around each other's shoulders like the best of friends, grinning. He offered them a weak smile back, and was glad to exit the trailer out into the sunshine, Joey on his heels. Tea gasped when she saw the wounds on their faces.
"That looks too real," she said, leaning down to peer closely at Yugi's forehead.
"Yeah," Tristan said, looking at the fake cut on Joey's cheek. "Too bad it's not real, though. You could use the scar, Joey."
"What? Why?"
"Well, if you and Yugi ever break up and you try to date someone else, you'll need *something* to attract people. Your looks and personality sure aren't enough."
Joey growled and swung at him. Tristan laughed and dodged easily. Tea sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Here we are getting all the flak from Erica," came Joanna's voice behind them. "And these two do the exact same thing."
"I wasn't playing," Joey said, switching to English for her. He put his arm around Yugi's waist possessively. "He stands still long enough, I'll knock his block off."
Everyone, even Marie and Joanna, could tell that Joey wasn't serious. The two women were the only ones close enough to the group to have heard the exchange. Erica was walking away toward the set, already a distant figure, and Ishio was behind her, walking hunched over like he was trying to ward off any attempts to talk to him while Nadia, Rin, and Daisy were examining the fake injury on Rin's hand and exclaiming over how real it looked, and Mark and Sota were standing at the far corner of the trailer, speaking about something Yugi was too far away to catch.
"So, you two are together?" Joanna asked, waving her hand between Yugi and Joey. "Pity. All the hot ones are gay." Joey blushed to the roots of his hair as she gazed at him.
"Even if they weren't, you're way too old for either of them," Marie said with a big grin.
"Oh, come off it, pumpkin, they already know we're faking."
"That doesn't mean I wasn't telling the truth."
Joanna threw her arm around Marie's shoulder. "You're two years older than me, so what does that mean for you?"
The pair were starting to walk toward the set after Erica and Ishio. The trio of girls, Mark, and Sota looked up and hurried to join the rest as they started off back toward the cars. Marie and Joanna were still good-naturedly arguing.
"It means I'm wise enough and mature enough to know when I'm too old for someone," Marie said. "I don't much like the idea of dating someone I could have had in high school."
"That's the fun!" Joanna said. "Nice, young bloke with the stamina to show a girl a real good time." She flashed another wicked grin over her shoulder at Yugi, as if she knew exactly how embarrassing the conversation was to him. He was glad when Yami distracted him.
/Aibou, that injury is disturbingly realistic,/ he said. /I don't like it./
/It's just make up and latex./
/Yes, but it looks like you're injured, you and Joey both. That makes me uncomfortable./
Yugi smiled sweetly at his dark half. /Then maybe you shouldn't come watch us make this movie, then, because if Erica's other stuff is any indication, we're going to end up looking a lot worse than this./
Yami frowned.
tbc...