Chapter 3: Bon Voyage

"Sophia, you have a phone call," my mom called out from the living room. The sound of her approaching footsteps made me scramble off of my bed in protest. Something told me relaxation just wasn't in the agenda today. All I wanted was some peace and quiet – not another phone call. As a matter of fact, I didn't want to take another phone call ever again for as long as I lived.

"Don't answer it." I slid into the living room, using my socks as makeshift skates. I held up my hands to halt my confused mother. "Please don't answer it. Wait, who is it?"

Not that it mattered who it was. I had just sworn off phone calls, after all. I wasn't answering that phone – no exceptions.

"It's your school." She raised both eyebrows at me. "Still want me to let the call go?"

Okay, time to reconvene. Exceptions could be made to impulsive oaths. "No! No, give me the phone."

She shot me a knowing look and handed the phone over to me before returning to her native habitat: the couch.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Sophia?" she said. I didn't recognize the voice right off the bat, but I knew it belonged to someone who was female and vaguely familiar. My observations were validated when she added, "This is Mrs. Franklin."

So it wasn't technically my school that was calling; it was one of my teachers. Mrs. Franklin was by far my favorite teacher from the summer acting program I'd attended in New York right after graduating from high school, although that didn't offer me any insight as to why she was calling me at this hour. I already knew I'd been accepted into their full program, and I was all set to return to New York for my second summer session in a week.

Whatever it was that she had to say was important enough to merit a late-night phone call to Nowheresville, Indiana, though, so I was all ears.

"Yeah, it's me," I said. "What's up?"

Was that an inappropriate way to greet a teacher? By the way my mom was looking at me, I had a feeling it was, but Mrs. Franklin wasn't your average teacher.

"I have some very, very, very exciting news for you. I suggest you sit down for this. Hold onto something, too, if you can. But not too tightly, or your mom will think you're having contractions."

"What?"

"Is that not the right metaphor to use in a situation like this? I'm not sure right now. I've had a few glasses of wine. Okay, I've had a bottle. But that's not why I'm calling."

I laughed and did as she said, sitting down on the recliner by the couch and holding onto the side with my free hand. "I would hope not. What's this exciting news you speak of? I think I'm ready for it."

"I know you are. That's why I picked you."

I pressed my lips together. "I'm still not following."

"Sophia, I've been in the acting business for a long time, as you probably already know by now. Botox can only do so much for a woman. When auditions roll around and casting directors are looking for fresh new faces to fill some of their smaller roles, sometimes they turn to me to help them out."

She paused, probably to take another drink of her wine if we were being honest. The woman loved her Moscato.

"I've never promised any of my students immediate success," she continued. "I can't promise something like that. The only thing I can offer is a way to get your leg in the door. That's what I'm offering you."

I made some sort of strangled noise I couldn't quite describe. "What?"

Her tone turned downright jovial when she said, "I recommended you for an audition over in Hollywood. Teen book adaptations are a hit right now, and there's another one right around the corner. It's called Kidnap My Heart. Your audition for the part of Natalie is in a week. Again, I can't promise you anything, but I can say that you're a good candidate for the role."

"Oh, my God." It was a good thing I was sitting down and had something to hold onto because I was pretty sure my entire body had stopped functioning altogether. "Are you serious? I knew you were my favorite teacher for a reason." This merited a laugh from her, one my frazzled brain barely recognized. "I mean – holy – oh, my God, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! Oh, my God. But wait, what about the second summer session? I'll miss some of it if I go."

"If you go? An audition in Hollywood will teach you things you won't learn in a classroom, Sophia. Even if the audition doesn't go the way you want, the experience is still invaluable."

I quickly nodded even though she couldn't see me. "No, no, you're right. I'm going. Of course I'm going. I'd be crazy not to. I mean, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I don't care if I have to crawl there. I'll be there."

Hollywood. I had an audition – an actual movie audition – in Hollywood. And this wasn't for some shady backwoods production – it was for a bona fide, catch-it-in-theaters-next-year production.

This didn't feel like real life. I had to have been dreaming. That was the only plausible explanation. Soon, my living room was going to transform into a white-sand beach, where a shirtless Calvin Klein model would then proceed to rub suntan lotion on my back while I laid on a towel and the "Piña Colada Song" played in the background.

"That's what I like to hear." A loud crash resounded in the background. "And down goes my husband. He doesn't hold his alcohol like he used to. I'll email you the materials you'll need later, okay?"

I barely had a chance to say okay before there was another loud crash, a scream, and then static. I slowly lowered the phone down to my lap, unsure how to address what had just happened.

My mom had, at some point, peeled her eyes away from her soap opera so she could stare at me instead. After a few moments of silence, she spoke. "What was that all about?"

I shook my head in awe before managing to answer. "Slight change of plans... I need to book a flight to California."

***

I went overboard with the packing. Even I had to admit it, and this was coming from a girl who usually ended up having to bounce on top of her suitcases in order to get them to close. Most of what I had stuffed in my suitcase consisted of possible audition outfits and every grooming product I owned.

I actually wasn't what you would call "high maintenance," at least not in the cliché, "buy me jewelry and carry my bags and spend four hours waiting for me to get ready for our date" kind of way, although you wouldn't have been able to tell if you'd taken a look at what I'd packed. Auditions were nothing to new, but an audition for a movie in Hollywood? That was uncharted territory.

My phone rang as I was assessing my situation. I absentmindedly answered with, "Hello?"

Tori's loud, overly-excited voice rang in my ears. "Guess what, guess what, guess what?"

I held the phone away from my ear with a grimace. With Tori as my best friend, I'd probably be in need of a hearing aid in a few years. "What?"

"Guess who's going with you to your audition in Hollywood?" She was so excited she couldn't even wait for me to try to guess. "Me!"

I laughed and sat down on my bed, officially having given up on packing for the time being. "Oh, my God, what? How did you talk your parents into it?"

"I talked them into going to Cali for our summer vacation this year. I kind of left out the part where you and I might end up staying there if you get the part, but whatever. I'll break the news to them later."

"You really think they'll be okay with you staying in California with me for an undetermined amount of time?" I raised an eyebrow.

She snorted. "No. Have you met my parents? We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. And we will get to it, because you're gonna rock this audition – so much that they'll probably be like, 'Screw it, let's give her the lead!"

I shook my head but couldn't help but smile. No one knew how to pump me up quite like Tori did. "Yeah, right. I'll be lucky if I get the part of Natalie, the bimbo the male lead sleeps with in the beginning."

"Dang, girl. You gonna show a little nip in your first role?" she asked. I could already picture the suggestive look on her face without needing to be face-to-face with her.

I laughed and said, "Not a chance. It better be a Titanic-level production if I'm gonna show anything, and I better be the next Kate Winslet while we're at it."

I could practically hear her rolling her eyes. "Ugh, you're no fun. What if the male lead is hot and then he thinks you're hot – because let's be real, you're the boobtastic one in this friendship – and you start dating and you get married and then you pop out some Hollywood babies?"

"You need to stop watching so many rom-coms," I said. "You're starting to blur television with reality, Tor."

"Mija! Ven compra estos boletos, o no vamos!" Tori's mom shouted from the background.

"What'd she say?" I asked. My two years of high school Spanish had taught me how to ask where the bathroom was, how to introduce myself, and not much else. Even my Puerto Rican best friend couldn't help me out. I was that much of a lost cause.

"She said to come buy the plane tickets or we're not going. I gotta go, but I'll FaceTime you later so you can help me pack. Otherwise, I'm just gonna bring everything I own."

She hung up before I could say anything else, but I had a feeling we were both just going to end up bringing everything we owned if it meant not having to make any real decisions.