Author's Note: Hey guys, got a nice length chapter for ya, and this one does have a little bit of a romantic arc building between a couple of hormonal teen wolves... Oh whoops, did I say "hormonal" out loud?

Kody: Shut up!

Me: We both know you're hormonal!

Chapter Six

The next evening, at 7:05, Kody and his dad took a seat on a leather couch in an office. There were a few other wolves, some way older than Kody and some way younger than Kody, that had come to the "open talent call" at the agency. A short woman with blonde hair stood up in front of everyone.

"Hi everyone," she began addressing the gathering, "my name's Cheryl and welcome to Williams Talent Agency! So we don't have much time, I mean, I would like to actually sleep tonight, ha ha ha!" Cheryl laughed while Kody's dad stared with a funny look on his face. "Anyway, basically I'd like to meet each one of you, but we just don't have time for that right now. So I'm going to pass out a script appropriate for your age range and you'll have about five minutes to review it before you come up here and perform it on camera. I'll be showing the videos to the head booking agent and we'll interview and offer a contract with the talent we're interested in at a later date, okay?"

Kody shrugged. He turned to his father, who had a skeptical look over his muzzle. When he looked up, Cheryl stood in front of him with a script. "You don't have tats, do you?"

"Tats?" Kody asked.

"Tattoos. You've got a long sleeve shirt on and I just need to make sure you don't have any tattoos," she explained.

Kody shook his head. "No, I don't. My parents wouldn't stand for it," Kody chuckled.

"How old are you?" Cheryl asked.

"Seventeen. I'll be eighteen in three months though," Kody smiled.

"Perfect," Cheryl said as she gave Kody a script and then moved on.

Five minutes later, Cheryl stood again at the front of the room. "We'll start youngest and then move to oldest so we can get all the kids out of here early since it is kind of late and it's a school night."

Before he knew it, Kody had read a commercial script right in front of a group of wolves he'd never met before with perfect annunciation, proper stance, and a fine commercial smile. When the office was empty, save Kody, his dad, and the agent, Kody walked up to her. "Hi Cheryl, I just wanted to introduce myself formally and give you the headshot and resume we talked about on the phone." Kody handed her his materials.

Cheryl smiled widely. "Thanks so much for remembering, Kody! Listen, we're going to be calling the people we're interested in sometime tomorrow morning. Are you available to come in for an in depth interview if we decide we're interested?"
"Yeah, absolutely!" Kody's tail wagged.

"Perfect. Now don't get too excited just yet," Cheryl gestured to his tail, "but if it's okay, I just need your cell number."

Kody gave her his number.

"Alright! We'll let you know. Bye guys," she waved to the two males as they exited the building.

"I don't know about her…" Kody's dad shrugged. "She seems a little… full of it."

"She's a talent agent, Dad. She's supposed to be a little… eccentric. And this is Brentwood."

Kody's dad shrugged again, now standing in front of his truck. "Alright, well, have fun at the party. What time will you be home?"

Kody smiled. "For sure by 11:00 a.m. I want to leave by 10:00."

Kody's dad frowned. "Nah come on, don't leave too early."

"Dad, 10:00 is not that early. It's a sleepover. You just party till you crash, then the party is basically over when you wake up in the morning."

"Is Kierra going to be there?"

Kody nodded.

"Well then, you should definitely take your time!" Kody's dad winked.

"DAD!"

The director of the drama cast, who was hosting the sleepover, had a thirty acre farm out in the country just east of Nashville. There was a farm house, shed, barn, fences for some animals, and several trees. Kody came in when they had already started the movie in the living room; the movie was actually just a video recording of the play they had performed just a week ago. He helped himself to some popcorn and laid on the floor, in the middle of a group of girls. Kody was exceptionally comfortable around girls, since he had grown up with three younger sisters. He found that he associated with them better than he did with guys, usually, and on more than one occasion he would be completely oblivious to the fact that he was the only guy in the room because he was so comfortable. He was not impervious to teases from the girl groups, however.

"Hey boo!" one of the females called out!

"Ugh," Kody rolled his eyes. He sat beside her. "Hi Kylie," he smiled.

"Haha! You're so done with me messing with you, aren't you?" she asked. She was not attracted to him, she was just really friendly to any guy that was comfortable with it, and Kody was.

Kody shrugged. "Nah, I don't care really."

When the movie finished, all the wolves ran outside to play games in the barn. Some of the girls had decorated the barn earlier with confetti, streamers, lights, and other celebratory things to recognize the drama club's achievement at pulling off the production. They played capture the flag, freeze tag in the dark, and dodge ball. Hours passed with ease. Kody was on his way back to the house when Kierra called down to him from up in the loft. "Kody!" she yelled. She was seated in the loft, legs dangling out the opening a story off the ground. She patted the empty place next to her beckoning Kody to join her. Kody smiled and ran up the stairs in the barn to the loft. He sat beside Kierra and thrusted his legs out over the ledge, letting them hang.

"Hey Kierra," Kody smiled as he scooted in to be closer to her.

Kierra giggled, her tail starting to wag. "I feel like we haven't had a lot of one on one time together, Kody," she sighed. "Mind if we just sit here and talk?"

"No!" Kody said a little too quickly. He kept his cool. "I mean, I love just sitting and talking. I don't mind at all."

"You uh… you heard I broke up with Nathan a month ago, right?" she asked.

"Well, you never told me the full story, but yeah, I kind of knew. You stopped talking about him as much as you did and kind of seemed to be avoiding him at school," Kody reasoned.

"Damn," Kierra cursed. "I hope it wasn't too obvious. I hate to be causing drama."

"Hey, don't worry about it! Shit happens," Kody felt like cursing after he heard her cursing. "I mean, causing drama is making a huge deal about the shit after it happens. You can't always prevent something from happening but you can influence the way you deal with it."

Kierra smiled. "Gosh I love talking to you. You're so… I don't know… put together! You just get everything."

Kody shrugged. "Nah, I don't get everything."

Kierra elbowed him.

"Ow! What?"

"That's for looking like you understand everything when you don't! Sly dog!"

Kody laughed and nudged her back.

"Well… anyway," Kierra sighed. "I just kind of felt like… Nate and I weren't really connecting. I always had to be the one to ask him to do stuff. He never came up to me, I had to come up to him. And I got a vibe from him, like something was not right. So we took a break but then, I guess what really set the nail in the coffin was he found another girl just like that that he took out and went dancing with. And when I saw him with her, I realized how much I really meant to him. I was completely dispensable."

"I'm sorry," Kody frowned, looking Kierra deep in the eye the whole time.

"What are you thinking about?" Kierra asked.

"Huh?"

"You're looking me deep in the eye. You're listening intently, but you're thinking too. I can see it."

"Oh! Well, to be honest, I can't believe he'd treat you that way. And I thought he was too tall. And he's kinda immature."

"Yeah he was tall. Kissing was weird. And he was immature. I guess I have a problem with that. I want a mature boyfriend."

"You'd think it'd be easier to find one."

"You'd think," Kierra agreed. She rolled her eyes. "I'm so done with high school dating."

Kody leaned in to hug her, tight.

Kody woke up the next morning to his cell phone ringing. It was 8:00 a.m. He had not gone to bed until shortly after he finished talking with Kierra, around 2:00 a.m. Trying to catch his phone before it went to voicemail, Kody cleared his throat, shook himself out to get his blood flowing so he would not sound sleepy, and answered the call. "Hello?"

"Hey Kody, Cheryl, Williams Talent. I'm just calling to let you know we are interested in interviewing you today. Shelby's our head booking agent and she loved your tape and is definitely interested in working with you. I also told her how well prepared you seemed, and that further impressed her. So what time this afternoon would be good for you to come in and interview with us?"

"Um, gosh, I'll have to check with my dad!" Kody choked out still worried he sounded sleepy.

"No problem! I've got a 2:00 and a 4:00 available and we would need at least thirty minutes with you, most likely up to an hour depending on how many questions you guys have for us."

"I'll call you right back," Kody said before hanging up.

"Do the 2:00," Kody's dad said on the other line. It sounded like he was in his truck on the way to his office. "I did not go to Whole Foods last night so we can go today after the meeting and hopefully be out of town before rush hour hits."

"Will do," Kody agreed.

"See you then," Cheryl said quickly before hanging up again. Kody looked at the time readout for the call. Twenty seconds. She certainly did not waste any time

Author's Note: And there you have it! Filler chapter, we're gonna have some more excitement in the next couple of chapters and a nice healthy dose of DRAMA! :D :D :D :D Family drama with Kody's clan and then high school drama with friends. Get excited. What, it keeps it interesting? Oh yeah. The network (me) has also ordered a double to triple dose of romance in upcoming installments. So I'll be in and out of meetings with the director (me) and the producer (also me) over the next few days so we can figure out how to work this in.

Be on the lookout for another short story (one to three chaps) or one shot with Garth and Lilly. Word on the street is, it may turn into a lemon... That's just a rumor though, you'll have to check with the source.

Kierra: You are the source, dummy!

Me: Oh yeah.

I've basically been up since 1:00 a.m. don't judge me.