A/N Here is Tuesday's update. Yes, I know its Monday, but I may not be around Monday night, so early it is. And, besides, this way, I may put a chapter out Friday.

Chapter 7

Apt 4B, 8:15 AM, Wednesday, Feb 15th, 2012

Penny had arrived by 8:15, as she didn't want Kelli and Jim to think she was blowing them off. She entered the sound stage, walking to the craft services table to get some coffee. She was just putting on the cover of her cup when Pamela Sonders came up. Penny knew she was one of the writers but she hadn't talked to her before.

As Pamela walked up she smiled and said, "You were pretty funny yesterday."

"What?" said Penny, surprised. "I stunk the place up yesterday. I couldn't hit my marks, I couldn't get my lines, the director was screaming at me. I sucked."

Pamela smiled at Penny, "Yes, you're right, but you've done how many multi-cam shows?"

"This is my first one," said Penny, "actually, it's my first show of any kind."

"So, you're learning," said Pamela. "When you did get everything going, you were hilarious. Don't worry, you'll get it."

"But, Kelli wants to see me this morning," said Penny. "Probably wants to fire me."

"Oh, I don't think so," said Pamela with a slight grin. "I think she'll keep you around."

Penny was going to ask why, when Kelli walked up. "Good morning Penny, how about we go to your dressing room, and we can talk there." And with that, Kelli turned and was walking toward the stairs.

Penny quickly followed and they were soon in Penny's dressing room, Penny sitting on the couch, and Kelli in one of the sofa chairs.

"So, Penny," said Kelli, "you are probably wondering why I brought you in early."

"Yes, I am," said Penny with a tremor in her voice. "Are you going to get rid of me?"

"No…what? Why would you think that?" said Kelli.

"Well, as bad as things were going with me yesterday," started Penny, "I just figured you wanted to get rid of me, and save all those problems."

Kelli chuckled, "Penny, we knew there would be growing pains with you. You don't just drop into the routine of a weekly series, especially with as little experience as you've had. Jeanie, Dave, and Dana have been doing this for years, they are familiar with all of this. Let me see your script."

Penny handed over her script.

"Just as I suspected," said Kelli, "why don't you have your lines marked?"

"Why would I mark up the script?"

"Penny," said Kelli, "the script is your guide, it has your lines in it. But, it also has everyone lines in it. You don't have to treat it like some holy relic, you can write notes in it. Most people highlight their lines in one color, and their cue lines in a different color. That way they know when their line is coming up, so they can be ready to say it."

A look of comprehension came over Penny's face, "Yeah, that makes a lot of sense."

"See, if you are just waiting for your line, you'll be late with it. So get those lines marked, and it should be easier for you. As far as what you're doing here, just keep working as hard as you have been, be open to suggestions, like now, and you'll be fine. As far as Ron goes, he's doing this pilot as a favor. Our regular director will be Steven Fleming. He couldn't do the pilot, so we asked Ron. Pay attention to what he tells your, but you don't worry about his opinion of you."

Kelli paused, and Penny nodded.

"What you have to worry about, is what Jim and I think," said Kelli.

Kelli had said the last sentence very seriously, which caused a worried look to appear on Penny's face."

Kelli saw that so she quickly continued, "I know you haven't seen the recorded material from yesterday, it was just testing the camera angles, checking the lighting, all of that, so we didn't have a full taping to look at." She paused for a few seconds, then smiled, "When you got your lines right, and your positioning right, you were really funny. Your facial expression, and delivery are great, and god, your timing is so spot on. We really like what you're doing, acting wise, so keep doing it. All the mechanics of production will come to you, you'll pick up more the longer you do this. But, for the rest of it, the reasons we picked you for this role, you're doing fine."

Penny smiled. "Thank you, I was so scared when you asked me to come in early."

"Well," said Kelli, "we were worried about how your were taking it. You really looked lost out there and, at times, looked ready to cry yesterday."

"Yeah, I was," said Penny. "I just thought that with how bad I was doing, how much I was getting yelled at by Ron. I just thought that you would think it would have been better to just let me go and get someone else. I mean Ron was pretty hard on me and I couldn't tell if Dana was being serious or not. I don't think so, but I couldn't tell."

"No," said Kelli, "Dana wasn't being serious. He doesn't have the experience of doing a weekly show full time either. But, he has the advantage of having done spots on so many other shows. As for Ron, remember he's filling in for us. The hard time he's giving you is one reason he wasn't in the running for our regular director. Don't get me wrong, he's a great director, but he isn't as forgiving as Steven will be, and knowing you didn't have all that much experience, is one of the reasons we went with Steven, who, let me say, is also a fantastic director, a good teaching director. And that's why I called you in early, to tell you we, Jim and I, think you are doing fine."

"I did rehearse last night," said Penny "My boyfriend helped me set up my living room to look like this set and I went over and over it again. I didn't want to, thinking I was going to get fired, but he insisted, he said if I did get fired, it would be a waste, but if I wasn't fired, I would do better today."

"He sounds like a smart man," said Kelli.

"He is, he's got an IQ of over 170."

"Oh yeah, you have all those smart friends."

Penny nodded and said, "Thank you so much, Kelli."

"You're welcome, Penny. Keep working at it, like you did last night, and I'm sure you'll get it. We'll see you out there at ten." Kelli turned and walked out of her dressing room. Penny, feeling much better, headed down to the floor level, with her script and her travel mug.

She got to the craft services table, picked out some of the pieces of fruit and a bear claw. She also filled up her travel cup with coffee and took those things to a table in the camera bay. While she ate, Penny started color coding her lines. She decided on green for her lines, and yellow for her cue lines, those lines just before hers. While doing the highlighting, the rest of the actors and crew came in and were waiting around, in groups talking. Right at ten, Tina came out and asked for silence.

She explained the various scenes they would be doing for the rest of the day along with telling everyone they expected to be out around 3 PM. After that, she turned it over to Ron who explained what he wanted to work on, within those scenes. When he was done, he called Dave and Dana over to Dave's character's apartment, to work on that scene first. Penny took advantage of the extra time to walk through her movement and run her lines in her characters apartment.

At first, things went better for Penny. The different colors in her script helped her find her lines. Running over it with Leonard the previous night help cement where and when she was supposed to be during the scene. When she was sure, she could get to her marks, when she was supposed to be there.

But, more importantly, even if she wasn't sure, she could almost get to her marks on time, the little bit she was off, not mattering. If it did matter, she would remember where she should have been, and would get it right on the next take.

Ron was yelling a lot less at her, and even gave her a couple of compliments. The crew also, was doing a lot of laughing on her lines, and facial expressions, which made her feel good. The director continued to work on the early scenes, having the actors run them three or four times.

They broke for lunch, Penny choosing a salad with chicken breast and some green beans, with some tea. While she was eating, she exchanged a couple of texts with Leonard, first telling him everything was fine, and thanking him for insisting she run through things last night. She also told him she would explain everything when she got home. Just before restarting, Tina had brought over some changes to the script for the afternoon scenes.

When they shifted to working those later scenes, the ones with all the changes, Penny started struggling again. The changes didn't have her lines highlighted, she hadn't had time to mark them. And, since she didn't previously run through them, she was again struggling with her blocking.

At first Penny tried to hold the changes, and her script, but all she ended up doing was getting confused between them. Add to that she was trying to remember the changes to her blocking caused by the new pages, and the good feeling she had in the morning disappeared. She got so flustered at one point, she even left a new page on her chair, and was using the old page.

The director was again getting snippy and sarcastic with Penny, making Penny feel worse about the afternoon. But, she tried to remember Kelli's good comments to help her get through. The ran one scene several times, with Penny trying to remember what the director said after each take. It wasn't helping and finally, the director looked at Penny with disgust, shook his head, and said, "I guess this is as close as we're going to get." Looking directly at Penny he said, "We spent way too much time on this scene, let's move on and maybe get the next one done quicker?"

Penny was distraught, heading to her chair and collapsing onto it. She had been sitting in her chair for several minutes, when Jeanie came up to her. "Hey," Jeanie said, "You know you can unfasten the clips holding the script together, pull out the old page, put the new one in, and then re-fasten the clips."

Penny turned red, "No, I didn't. I didn't see anyway I could open or bend them."

"Here," said Jeanie, "let me show you." She took Penny's script, unscrewed the clips, remove the old page and put the new one in. It was only about thirty seconds until Penny's script, with the new pages installed, was back together. "I was trying to get to you earlier, but I had those scenes with Dave, so this was the earliest I could get here."

Penny smiled at Jeanie, "Thank you, I never thought about having to unscrew the fasteners, I've never seen these before." Penny looked around, "I've been struggling with all of this, I feel like I'm in way over my head. You make this all look so easy."

"Heheheheh," chuckled Jeanie, "I was where you're at not so many years ago. I know how it can be. How about we stick together and if you have questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them."

"Oh, thank you," said Penny. "That will be a big help."

"Well, you deliver your lines with such precise timing, and in a way that will make people laugh," said Jeanie, "and when you throw in those great facial expressions it's a sure thing people will be laughing. You almost have me laughing a lot of the time."

This brought a smile to Penny's face, and another "Thank you."

At that the two guys and the director came walking up from the other set, along with Tina and the various production people. After gathering everyone together Tina said, "That's it for today everyone, We'll all see you here tomorrow at 10 AM. We have the regular run throughs in the morning, and we only have a couple of pre-shoots tomorrow, and none of them will be at night, so we should get out of here well before six. See you all tomorrow."

Penny walked up to her dressing room, grabbed her bag, put her script and markers in it, and headed down the stairs to her car. Within 10 minutes, she was driving out of Warner Brothers, and heading home.

Apt 4B, 5:00 PM, Wednesday, Feb 15th, 2012

Penny entered her apartment, she knew she had a couple of hours before everyone would be over. It was, after all new comic book night. They guys had planned to get home around seven, with carryout. She had planned to stay up late tonight, after everyone left, running her lines. But to do that, Penny decided, she needed to take a nap. So, she put her bag on the table, kicked off her shoes, and headed toward her bedroom.

Apt 4B, 6:30 PM, Wednesday, Feb 15th, 2012

She felt lips on hers, she knew they were Leonard's, and she responded. After the kiss, still with her eyes closed, she asked, "What time is it?"

Leonard smiled and said, "It's 6:30. The guys are getting the food right now, and will be back shortly and Amy and Bernadette will be coming over around seven. I left a little earlier, so I could ask about your day before everyone got here. I take it they didn't fire you?"

Penny sat up, "No, they didn't. Will you go pour us a glass of wine, while I run to the bathroom. I'll tell you all about it."

"Sure, I'll meet you at the couch."

Five minutes later, they were both sitting on the couch sipping wine. "So," said Penny, "Kelli basically called me in to tell me that while I wasn't doing the best with the production mechanically, my line timing, facial expressions, you know, the things they hired me for, I was doing quite well. She also help me understand how to color code my lines so I know not only know what to say, but when to say it."

"I was doing good until we got changes in the script, I didn't color my lines in the changes, I didn't really have time. I also didn't put the changes in my script, so I was getting confused again, screwing things up. Jeanie helped me insert the changes at the end, by showing me how the fasteners worked, so I now know how to do that."

"So, they were happy with you?"

"Well, I don't think they were all that happy with me yesterday. But they were happy with my actual acting. I guess that's why they were trying to work with me so, they could keep me around."

"What do you have to do the rest of the week?" asked Leonard.

"Let's see," said Penny. "Tomorrow, we have a few more run throughs, then we have to shoot everything that needs to be pre taped. They said we should get out of there before six."

"Hey," said Leonard, "you want to go out for dinner on Friday."

Penny smiled, "How about we make if for tomorrow? On Friday we have some run throughs, we get a break for dinner, probably from craft services, then we tape the episode, everything that we didn't pre-tape. You are coming with me on Friday, right?"

"I was planning on going to the taping yeah," said Leonard. "That why I thought about dinner Friday. Are you inviting me to spend the day with you also?"

"Yeah," said Penny. "By the way, you can come in with me. I can get everyone else into the taping on Friday night. I'll tell them about it at dinner. If you come in with me, we can eat in my dressing room, you can bring your computer and use the wi-fi when I'm needed. And, when I'm not, I can take you down to watch what others are doing. You can watch the taping from my dressing room."

"That sounds like fun," said Leonard.

"It will be," said Penny, "I'll even try to bring you down to the floor, but it may only be at the end." Right then, they heard people in the hallway, and then a knock on the door. Leonard walked over and opened the door, finding Bernadette there. "They got the food," she said, "Amy and I walked up with them."

"OK, we'll be right over."

"See ya," said Bernadette as she turned and headed toward 4A.

Leonard turned, "You ready to go?"

"Yeah," said Penny, "let's fill our glasses and head on over. I want to get back early so I can run over my lines and movement."

Penny headed toward the fridge, opened the door, and grabbed the bottle. Reaching the table, she filled both glasses, put the cork back in. Then, with Penny carrying the bottle, and Leonard the glasses, they headed over to 4A.