Author's Note: Sorry guys... I have three jobs now and I'm student directing in a play here in town as well as acting in it and going on professional video auditions. Whew. Busy week. I hardly sleep now if I want to get anything done. :) This chapter was written and produced in the lobby of the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville. :o Pretty fun place to go! Check it out! I try and go in once a month just for the atmosphere. Makes me feel creative.

Chapter Seven

Kody left the party at 10:00 a.m. that morning, just as he had told his dad he would the night before. It took him an hour and a half to drive home; the remnants of late rush hour traffic were still on the highway and took a toll on Kody's driving speed. When he pulled into his driveway, it was 11:31. Kody met his mom inside the house.

"Congrats on the interview! Are you nervous?" she asked.

"A little," Kody confessed as he dashed up the stairs to put his stuff away. He returned to finish the conversation with his mom three minutes later.

"I hate when you do that." Kody's mom said, sounding like she was picking a fight.

"What?" Kody asked.

"You come in and go straight upstairs all the time and haven't seen me in a whole day!"

"MOM! It was a day! Relax! And you see me everyday anyway and I always run upstairs and put my stuff away before I talk to you, you know that!" Kody defended himself, upset at how his mom picked petty things to be upset about.

"Why can't you ever just sit and have a conversation with me?"

"I can and I do way more than most wolves do with their parents."

Kody's mom rolled her eyes and waved him away. "Whatever. Go do what you were going to do."

"I'm done now and I can talk to you," Kody reasoned.

"Whatever, I don't wanna talk now," she turned and walked away.

She gets mad at me for doing something and then does the exact thing she was mad at me for… ugh! Kody screamed mentally as he dashed upstairs to shower, change, and prepare for his dad to come home and take him to Brentwood for his interview. As he ran around the house ironing clothes, unpacking his overnight bag, eating random things in the kitchen for lunch, and brushing up on a monologue he already knew for his audition, his phone rang. It was Robert.

"Hey man, what's going on?" Robert asked, sounding very calm, bored even.

"Oh you know, just running around the house doing everything at once to get ready for my interview today at the agen… I mean, uh, office place… thing," Kody caught himself, remembering he was keeping his exact progress a secret from his friends until something happened. He wanted it to be a secret because in the professional show business world, project confidentiality is worshipped and admired. Best to go ahead and get in the habit of it. And there was also the slight chance he would not be able to get anywhere with his dream, and he did not want to look like a failure.

"You got a job interview?" Robert asked, confused.

"Yeah… I mean no! I mean… sorta…?" Kody shrugged. "Anyway, yeah I have an interview and that's all I'll say. It's in Brentwood and I'm running around the house on about four hours of sleep trying to get clothes ready, unpack from last night, gather everything I need, shower and make myself presentable… and oh yeah it's nice to eat food and survive too."

"Wow… do you ever take a break?" Robert asked.

"Well I sleep in once a week but yeah that's about it," Kody laughed. Over a pause, he caught his breath and then continued. "I don't know man. Just when I think I have some time, something else pops up."

"And meanwhile, I'm bored over here with nothing to do. I need a job."

"Can't you just work for your dad?" Kody asked as he steamed a dress shirt on the ironing board.

"Yes… and no. He kind of wants me to be his assistant, but I have a whole lot to learn until then. Lately I just help in the shipping facility when there's large orders and sometimes I work as an intern in his office answering phones. He doesn't really pay me though."

"I wish my dad would let me work at his law office more often," Kody sighed as he put his shirt on and buttoned it, top to bottom. "But he doesn't really like his family in his business. I need a job too. There's no way I'm going back to that sub shop place." Kody shuddered. "That was a living hell."

"I've never worked fast food and I never plan to."

"Good!"

At 12:50 p.m., Kody called his dad, practically panicking. "WHERE ARE YOU?!" he yelled. His dad was almost always a few minutes late to everything. Kody liked to be perfectly on time to the minute to everything. Kody and his dad fought a lot whenever they had to go somewhere at a certain time together.

"Pulling into the driveway… relax!" Kody's dad sighed.

Kody ran downstairs and stood on the back patio, waiting. A minute later, his dad pulled into the driveway in his large, white truck. Kody ran and got in the passenger side, but his dad turned off the engine and got out. "Where are you going?" Kody panicked. "Dad, it's 12:50! Please don't make me late!"

Kody's dad growled. "I just have to go in and get the Whole Foods bags, relax. Come in with me if you want."

"I'll wait here, so it doesn't take longer."

"It only takes an hour to get to Brentwood."

"Yeah, when I drive it because I go 80…. I mean, I drive… swiftly!" Kody laughed nervously, still trying to hide from his parents that he was a speed demon driver. "I mean, what if there's traffic?! Dad, we can't be late to this! I'm providing an image to these people and I want it to be a good one and I want them to know they can count on me for jobs and auditions if they sign me! This is really, really important to me!"

Kody's dad sighed. "I know bud, I'll be right back…" he left and went into the house.

Ten minutes later, Kody couldn't contain himself. He put his paw on the door handle and was about to pull when he saw his dad come out, the bags in hand. Kody sat down again and buckled.

Kody's dad slowly got into the truck, opening the back door to toss the bags on the seat before he himself jumped up into the driver's seat. "Don't worry… we'll be on time!" Kody's dad assured.

Kody sighed and tried to relax for the journey, studying his monologue script whenever he felt he needed to double check himself.

Sure enough, on the exit ramp to Brentwood from the interstate, there was a long line of cars all waiting to turn at the intersection, which lacked a stoplight.

"Ugh! I hate traffic jams! You'd think with all the money in this town they could put in a light at the top of the ramp!" Kody slumped back into the seat.

"Relax! You need to look calm and cool. Besides, it's only 1:55 and they're two minutes away. We'll make it!"

Kody and his dad sat down in the Williams Talent Agency office minutes later. The traffic was bad on the ramp earlier, but it moved swiftly.

"Alright, let's see…." Cheryl began talking as Kody and his dad sat down in two chairs across from the desk. When she spoke, she sounded like she had said the same thing twenty times already. "Let me tell you a little about the agency. We've been here for two decades, we are non union, meaning we're not affiliated with a union because this is Tennessee and you don't have to be affiliated… um… 50% of the work we send our actors and models out on is commercial print, so if you sign with us today you'd have to be willing to be a model as well as an actor… um…"

"Wait!" Kody interrupted Cheryl's rant. "You're interested in signing me… today?!" Kody was shocked.

"Oh yeah," Cheryl nodded.

"But you only saw one little script from him… he has a monologue prepared and everything…" Kody's dad chimed in.

"Yeah, I brought a monologue to perform today if you want." Kody echoed his dad.

Cheryl threw her paws up in the air. "YES! You see?! This… THIS!" she pointed to Kody excitedly. "This is exactly why we want to sign you right now! You're so prepared! You know what's going on and you're just a natural! Do you have any idea how hard it is to find someone in Nashville, let alone a good looking teen guy, who is young, serious, prepared, professional, and ready to work?! No, you know what, I'll show you!" She threw a pile of papers to the side on her desk and dug her laptop out. "Normally my laptop is on top, but I was going through some things earlier this morning, haha!" she laughed as she opened up the device. "Alright! See this?"

Kody and his dad leaned in to look at the computer. Cheryl was navigating through some sort of database.

"This is our roster. It has every single actor and model we have with us on it. Okay? So let's see… I select male, age 16-18, brown fur… and… yeah. We have three and none of them are your height or weight either." Cheryl showed the screen to Kody and his father. There were three pictures of good looking, male wolves on the left side, and a description of what they could do on the right side. "Now you may think 'Oh, she already has three guys my age with brown fur. Why does she want to sign me?' Because…." Cheryl took the laptop and changed the statistics. "Look at what happens when we select female, 16-18, brown fur…" She rotated the laptop to face the two wolves again. There were at least twenty female wolves, all very good looking and several of them at similar height and weights. "See?! There's twenty of them! And that's just brown fur… wait till you see blonde, black, red, white… The point is, there's a severe shortage of talented young males in the area! I think if we get you in, set you up with some more pictures, maybe a couple classes from reputable directors and coaches… I think you're going to see a lot of auditions."

Kody looked at his dad, who had his paw to his chin to express interest. "Hm…" his dad said.

Kody smiled. "Listen, it all sounds great but I've got some questions for you too."

"Shoot!" Cheryl said as she sipped a green, nasty looking smoothie that sat on the shelf of a bookcase behind her desk.

"Okay, um, what kind of work are you talking about? Where is it, what kind of shows, what's the usual pay?"

Cheryl turned back to face Kody. "Atlanta. Every major TV show and movie we get auditions for shoots in Atlanta. Now we have stuff for commercials all the time in Nashville…"

"Music videos?" Kody asked.

"Music videos, yes, we do a lot of music videos but they don't pay half of what a TV show will pay you for a role. But they're a lot of fun," Cheryl smiled.

"Okay, what about travel expenses?" Kody asked.

Cheryl nodded. "We suggest having some money saved up in your bank account so you can cover those on your own if you have to. But whenever you get a major show, it will always pay enough to travel down there, stay as many nights as the show needs you, and sometimes, for the really big stuff, they will fly you down and set you in a hotel themselves. It just takes a while to get paid or reimbursed sometimes so you have to have funds in advance. We had an actress shoot for Vampire Diaries last week. Production did not pay for her hotel, but she worked five days and made eight hundred a day plus overtime on days lasting more than eight hours. And they paid for all her gas and meals on set. You know… that's four thousand right there. Plus overtime. Can you go to Atlanta for five days on four thousand with free gas? Yeah you can!"

"Wow," Kody smiled.

Cheryl sipped her smoothie, then continued. "So, any other questions?"

"Yeah, how much do you take when I book something?"

"Ten percent on union projects, twenty percent on non union projects. Major shows are always union projects."

Kody nodded. "Well?" he said looking at his dad.

Kody's dad shrugged. "I don't know… what else does he need to do?"

"Well, until he's eighteen he'll have to have a parent or guardian on set with him at all times. It's the law. We need a couple more pictures shot in order to best market him, but we can hook you up with someone here in town that will do it well and for a decent price. We would also need him to sign up for Actors Access, which is free, so we can put him in Breakdown Services and submit his resume to casting directors. I'd advise you to let us put him on our website for a small fee so locals can see him too," Cheryl smiled.

"I don't know… is this what you really want Kody?"

Kody nodded with a big smile.

"Okay… I guess we'll do it," Kody's dad agreed.

"Great! Let me go get the contracts printed and then I need you guys to pick a day to have some body shots done to submit to casting directors for modeling gigs."

And with that, Kody was signed to Williams Talent Agency.

Author's Note: Kody is a little high strung. He's like me. Yes, I'm a little high strung. Anyway, as you can see there are a few things with Kody and his folks that prevent total peace and harmony... let's see if we can get those ironed out.

I will be posting a one shot soon! Something I really want to write! :D

Please review! I'm like not sleeping tonight in order to get this up and then the one shot at least started. :3