I was in my trailer. I couldn't believe that I had a trailer. I had a hard time believing that they would give an actor with only three scenes a trailer. Maybe it was because I had a connection. Maybe it was because they wanted me to feel welcome. For whatever the reason, I had one. Because I was a minor, there was a limited amount of time that I could be on set. I wasn't entirely sure what those were. I needed to make sure that I knew my lines. I wanted to make them think that I made the right choice. Fortunately, it wasn't like a play so if I messed up my lines, we could do another take.
When it came to my character being trans, we came to the agreement that it would be revealed in my second episode. Someone was going to get Josie's name wrong. I was still nervous about it. Part of me was thrilled to be the first transgender character on The Valley but the other part of me was scared. Currently the only people who knew were my friends and the people in my drama class, but as soon as the episode aired or some sort of entertainment website like TVLine wrote about it, people would start to know. Then again, I could probably make a deal with those website not to out me like that. Most publications were cool.
"You ready to go to set?" Crimson Fell, one of the stars of the show asked me. She was specifically the one who I would be having scenes with.
"I'm kind of nervous." I admitted.
"Don't be. You'll do great." She declared. The character wasn't that much different than I was. There wasn't even a lot of depth in this first episode. "So you have an older sister, right?"
"Yeah." I answered, even though I was the cooler of the two of us. One thing that I didn't want to get out right now was the fact that I was adopted and it was also pretty recent. Maybe I would be ready to reveal that information in an interview later, but right now I just wanted to be the girl from a rich family who hit it big.
"So I have a question for you and it's okay for you not to answer if it's too personal." She remarked. I was a little nervous about that. I hoped that she wouldn't ask about what was between my legs. "How long have you been transitioning?"
"If you mean medically, it's really only been since August." I told her as we started to head to the set. Since the show was set in California, I was basically wearing my own clothes. They told me that if they needed me to wear something specific, I would go to wardrobe, but none of that had happened yet. "So I think it's my turn to ask you a question. When did you decide that you wanted to be an actor."
"How old are again?" She replied.
"15." I answered.
"Well I was a few years younger than you are now." She answered. "I would have killed to get a role like this when I was your age…I mean as on a show like this, not specifically the role that you're playing."
I had mixed feelings about trans roles going to cisgender people. On the one hand, if the character was made to be evil or a joke, I absolutely hated it, but on the other hand if the character was portrayed sympathetically like Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry or Charlotte in Pretty Little Liars, I didn't have a problem with it. Though in the latter case I was quite upset that they killed her off the episode after revealing she was trans and later also decided that she was still evil. I liked to think that everything that happened after the girls graduated, outside of Emily and Ali getting together and the Aria and Jason thing were not canon.
The first day shooting wasn't much of a day at all. Only two of my scenes were being filmed and I didn't have a lot of dialogue in either of them. Part of me wanted to stay on the set to get some previews of the episode, but I knew that I had homework and I did generally want to go home and see my family, friends and girlfriend.
When I got home, Kaitlin was the first person to meet me.
"Oh my god is that Rhiannon Cohen the newest star of The Valley?" She asked with a slightly higher voice. I had to admit that her saying it like that made me smile. I then went over and kissed her. "How was your first day?"
"Well I didn't even do that much. It wasn't like being in a play. I completely messed up the first take because I was scared by having the camera in my face." I explained.
"Well that is something that you'll probably get used to." She assured me and I hoped that she was right. I wasn't under contract for anything but these three episodes, but I did know that positive reception could lead to more opportunities. "Did you have fun?"
"Yeah I did." I replied. "Oh by the way, there is a party at Holly's house tonight and you're going."
"I am?" I replied. The last few times I went to parties at her house they didn't go well. "I thought Holly didn't throw parties any more because she was no longer popular."
"Well it's not going to be one of her ragers." Kaitlin explained. "But all of our friends are going to be there. In case you haven't figured it out, the party is for you."
"Oh." I stated. I hadn't had a party for me…well ever. I hadn't even had a birthday party. The closest I ever had was when Mrs. Diaz invited me over for my birthday because my parents weren't around. I actually did have a few good memories in Chino, but they were few and far between.
"You don't want to go, do you?" She replied. "I told Holly that it was a bad idea to try to throw a party without asking you first. She can just get so in her ways that when she sets her mind to something, she wants to do it."
"It's not that I don't want to go. It's just that I'm surprised by all of this. And I've never actually even had a birthday party before, so all of this is a bit of a shock to me."
"Well you're going to be the talk of the school when the first episode airs. Are you ready for that?" She asked.
"Not really." I admitted. "So what should I wear to a party that is being thrown in my honor?"
"I have just the thing." She told me.
Of course before the party was dinner and I felt like it was going to be an interesting one. I knew that there would be questions about how work went. Calling it work sounded so wrong because it didn't really compare to the lobster place, but since I was in fact making money from it, it was work.
"So how was your first day?" Dad asked me. They had dropped me off, but both of them had their own jobs to go, so someone from the studio took me home.
"I really didn't do that much." I stated. "I thought there would be more to it, but we only did two scenes."
I had to go back tomorrow to do the other scene. The story for why my character wasn't seen before was she was in boarding school. It seemed like a bit of an overused trope, but the show wasn't exactly one to come up with new ideas. I was just glad to be a part of it.
"Have you started writing your Emmy acceptance speech yet?" Rose quipped. I knew that there was no way that I would get nominated because the Emmys liked to ignore teen dramas. They also wouldn't nominate someone who had only a total of 10 scenes.
"I'm not going to be nominated for any awards." I replied. I mean there was a very small chance that I could nominated for a Teen Choice Award, but I doubted that too.
"I'm really surprised that you're okay with playing a transgender character." Mom stated.
"I thought about it a lot and I didn't really have people like me growing up. Yeah there were people like Miley and Miss Ramos but all the famous trans people were much older than me." I explained. "Even though I'm not really into activism, I want to let other people know that you can be like me or Rose and still be normal."
"Well things will be different as soon as these episodes air." Dad declared. "Not everyone is going to be okay with this. There will be people who hate you for being you."
That did scare me but I also realized that there was no realistic way for me to keep the secret forever. At some point, things would probably get out. I was at least glad that I was doing it on my own terms.
"I can't do keep this a secret forever. I want to do this so it doesn't happen later without my consent." I replied. "So Holly was going to throw me a party tonight. I really want to go. I promise that I won't drink too much."
It had been a while since I had had alcohol.
"How late were you planning on staying out? You have to be there pretty tomorrow." Dad remarked.
I did have to go in early. They wanted all of us on set even I wasn't sure if I would even be doing anything for a few hours. I wasn't sure what the production schedule was. I didn't know if that was something that they even determined before the day started.
"You can go but I would advise you not to drink anything." Mom declared. "But if you feel the need to, you definitely need to keep your intake down."
"What about me?" Rose asked.
"You shouldn't have any drinks because you're the one who's driving." Dad replied. I didn't know if that would remain true at the end of the night.
A little bit after dinner, Kaitlin came into the pool house. I had been locking it more, but I specifically left it unlocked because I knew that she was coming over. She kissed me upon entry.
"I see you remember the password." I said.
"Hopefully that's the password for just me." She replied. I saw the bag in her hand. "I got your dress."
"So do you just have those lying around the house?" I asked. It was kind of a joke, but knowing Julie Cooper was her mom, I wouldn't be surprised if she did.
"Yeah a few of them." She replied as she took out the dress. It was gold with a black sash around the waist.
"Are you sure that I should wear this?" I asked. It was very low cut, one that I wouldn't be able to wear bra with.
"Yeah I should you'll look great in it." She told me. "Your boobs look great and every now and then you should show them off a little."
"I guess." I replied. It was also something that I was only going to be wearing around friends. No one would try to touch them.
"So is it true that you're shooting a beach scene tomorrow?" She asked as I started to get changed.
"Yeah I'm not going to be in a bikini though. Well I'm not going to be in more than a top." I answered. "I don't need my parents there to wear one, they just didn't want me in one. There is going to be scene that my parents need to be there for."
"What's that?" I asked.
"There's going to be a scene of me getting an injection. I'll be topless for it, but you'll only be able to see my back."
"Are you okay with that?" She asked.
"Yeah I know that they're not going to be filming the front and I want it to look as real as possible. We're even going to have a female director who the rest of the cast has said good things about." I explained because I didn't want another Gabrielle situation. I was glad that Caleb had dumped her. I still wondered if I should tell him about her harassing me since we were closer now. I finished putting the dress on. "So how do I look?""
"You look amazingly beautiful." She declared. "You look like a movie star."
"Well I'm only a TV star, so I guess that's an upgrade." I retorted.
From there we went to Holly's house and there was not a lot of people there. I supposed that she really had lost all of her popularity after being called a slut and having a dad who was a pedophile. Well at least my friends were there. Marissa was there too.
"There's the guest of honor." Holly declared as she gave me a hug. "It feels like forever since I've seen you."
"It was literally yesterday." I pointed out.
"Well it feels like longer since you were shooting all day." Holly stated. "So as you can see, this isn't one of my normal parties. It's hard to get people to show up now, but everyone I invited came."
That was Hadley, Vicki, Marissa, and Summer, plus the three of us.
"So how is it being on the show?' Hadley asked. "It's great, isn't it?"
"Have you met the actors before?" I questioned. I imagined that she had probably been on set before since her dad was the creator.
"Yeah my favorite is Grady." Hadley said. I hadn't really talked to him since the two of us didn't have any scenes together.
"He is really cute." Summer agreed. "So are you allowed to have friends on the set at all?"
"I don't think I should right now. Maybe when I'm shooting my next episode." I replied. I also would have to make sure they wouldn't act like crazy fangirls. That would be pretty embarrassing.
"Alright, it's to get this party started. Let's get some drinks." Holly announced as she turned on some music.
"I really shouldn't drink too much since I have to work tomorrow." I declared. Fortunately she seemed to have mostly beer, so I wouldn't get too drunk off the drinks."
I took a drink and started to dance with Kaitlin a little. I had to admit that I was having fun. I hadn't been to a party like this since the time that I went out with Donna. I had gotten really drunk that night. I had no idea how she managed to get me home because I was pretty sure that she drank more than I did. Of course that was before I knew she was a psychopath. At least after that I learned to stop hanging out with psychopaths. I was also glad that thing with Olivia resolved itself because I had a pretty good feeling that she was a psychopath.
"So there's something that I need to talk to you about." Rose said to me. "So lately my relationship with Vicki has gotten kind of stale. It's like we're always doing the same things because we like the same things and I'm kind of bored."
"Have you told her that you want to do some different things?" I asked.
"I don't know how to do that? I actually wanted to ask you if you think I should break up with her." She replied.
"I don't think you should break up just because you like all of the same things." I commented. Was it possible that the two of them were somehow too compatible? I mean Kaitlin had a lot of same interests as me, but she was also into things that I wasn't like Star Wars and hockey. "Though if you want to break up with her because you wish that you were dating Summer, maybe that is something that you need to talk about. Not every relationship works out."
"I'm just kind of afraid to break up with her because I think she'll hit me." Rose remarked.
"She's not going to hit you. Just talk to her. She'll probably understand." I stated. I wasn't really the best person to give advice on the situation because I had only had one other girlfriend and I wasn't even out at the time. Not to mention the two of us had not been very serious at all since we were just kids.
I went back to dancing with Kaitlin and the two of us started to touch each other a little. I was actually glad that I was wearing the dress because it allowed her to touch my breasts a little more. Dancing with her still turned me on.
"Do you mind if we go upstairs?" I asked Holly. I knew that people had probably had sex in her house before, but I still thought it was polite to ask. I didn't even know if we would end up doing it, but I still wanted to ask.
"Yeah sure. I just didn't know that you could have sex." She said. I didn't feel like explaining to her what we did because it was kind of personal.
We didn't actually have sex. We had both taken our clothes off though and done some cuddling. I really did like her touching me. I even let her touch my butt. I looked so much like a like a girl, I just wished that I could have the rest done even though I might not look the same as other girls. I couldn't exactly look at pictures of what it would look like after the operation. Maybe I would be able to figure that out later.
"So can I go to set with you tomorrow?" She asked me.
"I'm gonna have to say the same thing that I said to Summer." I replied. "I want the crew to get more used to me being there before I start to invite people to set. I love you but I want to do this by myself for right now."
"Okay." She agreed. "I just hope that you will let me come and see you work sometime."
"It really isn't that interesting to watch." I told her. "I was in my trailer a lot today. What?"
"You just sound so impressive when you're talking about being on set." She answered. "You're my little actress."
"Can you not say it like that?" I requested with a blush. "It makes you sound like a stage mom."
"It kind of does when you say it like that." She agreed. 'Sorry."
The two of us then headed downstairs.
"So I should probably go home soon." I declared. "I know it's not much of a party, but like I said, I have to be on set tomorrow and I want to get a decent night's sleep."
Not that much long after, Kaitlin and I were in the car with Rose. It was then that I realized that we should have brought Marissa with us. Hopefully Summer and Holly respected her enough to make sure that she didn't get too drunk.
"So I broke up with Vicki." Rose announced. "I am now a free woman."
"How did she take it?" I asked.
"I'm pretty sure that she understood. We're pretty similar and I wouldn't be surprised if she was starting to get bored too." My sister replied.
"Well you probably shouldn't start dating Summer right away." Kaitlin remarked. "Give it some time to grow and you have to make sure that the two of you don't want to get back together. Marissa and Luke broke up and got back together a few times before they broke up for good."
The next day I went to set and I did need to go to wardrobe for it. The wanted to get me a bikini that was new so it wouldn't break or something. I wasn't sure if I understood that logic, but I also didn't want it to break. I knew even though they wouldn't use that shot, I didn't want something like that to exist.
I had to admit from a casting standpoint, I got why I was chosen because Crimson and I did look a lot alike. I wouldn't be surprised if you showed our pictures to random person on the street, they would think that we were sisters. Of course, I also looked a lot like my mom, so there were a lot of people that I wasn't related to that I looked like I was related to.
I had fun on the set. I mean I got to hang out on the beach and when we were done filming, I got to go in the water. You know I realized that I never talked to my dad about teaching me how to surf. I needed to remind myself to ask him sometime. Anyway, the next episode was going to be my big one. It wasn't going to be filming for a few more weeks, but I knew that it would change everything.
So Rhiannon is an actress and she's going to be playing a trans character. Also Rose and Vicki broke up like you knew they would. I decided to make a reference to my first OC story and as such, Crimson is played by Britt Robertson. Please don't forget to review.