in which you, an aspiring filmmaker,
find the perfect actor for your breakout short film.
casting is difficult for the main love interest,
but once a certain blue-eyed boy comes into your life, you know he's the one...
maybe in more ways than yo...
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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
seeing eye to eye
mom was at her desk with her headphones in, so to not disturb her, i whispered as we waited for the fifteen copies of the flier to print. "walker, are you completely, utterly, certainly, without a doubt, one hundred percent sure that you want to do this on thursday? it could take hours if word gets out by tomorrow that you're in this, which is very likely since everyone stares at us in class, meaning we would probably only have tomorrow to work on the fennel project."
"i can't do it on any other day. and let's face it, is it really worth it to put so much effort into that woman who was probably around to witness the salem witch trials? i mean, she was probably one of the witches!"
"you're right!" i chuckled, then hesitated. walker seemed so lenient with his academics. the curiosity about how he ended up back in school was making its grand return. i figured that it might be a good time to finally ask, seeing as we've become a lot more comfortable talking one on one. "can i ask you something? hopefully not too personal."
"yeah, what's up?" he did that tilting of the head thing.
"did your parents make you come back home, or did you do that willingly?"
i watched as he pondered the right words to say. which was a good thing -- he was thinking of a real answer. then he spoke softly, "it was a mutual thing... kind of. you see, my parents recognized that i was having almost no high school experience whatsoever when filming. they said it was taking a toll on me, that i was going to regret having a abnormal teenage life and it was best that i focus on my education anyway."
"you seem so against school though."
"i don't necessarily like it. like, at all, but i'm pretty sure no one does. that's my parents' stupid argument, so i agreed. but recently, since my grades have been falling and — you're my witness, i'm not doing anything about it — they said that if i ace all my classes by the end of the year, i can go back to filming. it's like an ethical test more than an academic test."
i took a moment to take in all this long-awaited information. once the built up dirt was drained out, what was left was this question. "why would you want to work on casting instead of this massive project then?"
"if i can prove to my parents that acting is my passion, then i know they'll let me go back to it sooner. i'm not wasting my energy on shit i don't care about," he declared, his voice growing louder and steadier. "i already found and had the opportunity to do what i love, i'm not going backwards."
his confidence and ambition was so attractive, and don't get me wrong, i was so glad that he knew what he was doing. but i couldn't help but feel a little hurt. he wanted to leave as soon as possible. he just said that straight out.
trying to ignore the previous revelation, i shifted my thoughts to how ideal this mindset can be to benefit both of us. "wow, okay. this is perfect actually."
