“Ugggghhhh……” I turnover in my bed to look at my alarm clock. “….….” I must have pressed my snooze button too many times, it’s now 9:30am and I was supposed to meet my friend Krystal at the Starbucks two blocks from my apartment fifteen minutes ago.  I tossed my covers off of me, sprang out of my bed, stumbled into my bathroom and splashed some water on my face and quickly rinsed my mouth with mouthwash.  I then used the same pair of jeans I wore yesterday, tossed on a white spaghetti strapped baby doll shirt, tied my hair into a messy bun and ran out my door.  I sped to meet my friend, getting a few honks from cars, not to mention few of them flipped me the bird, as I jaywalked onto oncoming traffic to the coffee shop. I was in such a rush that instead of pulling on the entrance door I pushed which didn’t budge the door open at all, leaving me smacking my body against the door and having the customers turn around and laugh at my expense.  My friend tried to laugh off her embarrassment of knowing me as I walked to her table.

“I’m sorry Krys….I must have turned off my alarm. I just woke up and ran out the door.”

“Honestly, Mari you have got to be punctual, how else do you intend to make it in this business.” She handed an ice coffee she ordered for me while staring me up and down. “You also have to pay attention to how you dress in public.”

I looked at what I’m wearing; not thinking it is too bad. “What do you mean? So I didn’t wear make- up…that only tends to make me look older. And so what if I’m reusing my jeans, I’m only meeting you.” I stick my tongue out at her and then take a sip of my now watered down ice coffee.

She scoffs at my statement. “Well you do still look like you’re in your early twenties although you are thirty-three, but you could have at least put on some BB cream to hide your blemishes. Outfit is not bad, although I didn’t need to know about your “dirty” jeans, and I’m really just judging your choice of footwear.”

I look down at my feet displaying my neon yellow and black toe shoes.  “It’s the first pair I grabbed running out my door, any other heels or sandals would leave me eating the pavement running over here.” I retorted back at her.

“Well sweetie, we are in L.A you should stick to shoes that show off your manicured feet and accentuate your legs. Don’t run around, you should walk gracefully to your destination. You want to be an actress? Only run when it says so in your scripts.”

We both chuckle and continue catching up on our week. Krystal is a make-up artist and was telling me her latest behind the scenes stories of the new Transformers movie that recently wrapped.  She is basically my insider on A, B, and C-list celebrities. She also tries to hook me up with upcoming casting calls although I haven’t been lucky in returning for the second round callbacks, but I still have hope. I’ve only pursued this career for two years now and I’ve done a couple catalog modeling, one infomercial, a voice over for a hemorrhoid commercial, and I did do Shakespeare in the Park “Romeo and Juliet” last summer. My dream is to eventually break out into the silver screen and I’m hoping for my big break.

 Krystal quickly brought my attention back from spacing out and showed me the new open casting for Bill Condon’s new movie.

“So you are going right? In fact no need to answer, I already dropped your headshot off; auditions are next Saturday at 9am. Please get there on time.” Her tone was very authoritative.

“You’re giving my agent a run for her money, maybe I should pay you instead of her.” I giggled.

“Yeah, maybe I should switch careers. Hahaha.” She laughed back.

“Why would I? I just got started in showbiz, I’m sure although they are looking for someone new, I think I’m too new, and I’m sure my age will disqualify me right away.”

“Thirty is the new twenty, and they’re looking for a female between the ages 21-35, so you just made the cut.” She blurted out before I made more excuses.

“Yeah just barely….” I was hesitant.

“Come on Mari, it looks like they are taking a chance on this movie by casting a Korean idol as the male lead, why not be the no name actress for the female lead. Plus this Korean dude is thirty-two, and looking at his pictures he also looks like he’s twenty-something, my god you Asians have good aging genes.”

“Thanks….yeah I’m sure there are a lot of no names that are also dying for the part….not sure if I want to lower my self-esteem even more by going through an embarrassing audition where I will be just another wannabe in the fields of thousands.”

“Yah, you want to be an actress, well auditions are your stepping stone…. it up and JUST DO IT.” I could tell she was getting agitated by my insecurities.

“Are you endorsing Nike or something?” I tried to brighten the mood again.

“No, but you have to admit, their slogan does fit this conversation.” She let out a soft laugh.

“Okay fine, but when I leave the auditions crying I expect for you to be waiting for me with food and alcohol so I can forget the experience.”

“Whatever you want babe.”

After Krys and I parted, I called my agent Victoria about the details of the audition.  The script is really confidential; it won’t even be given for the audition process.  In fact Victoria was even confused with the auditions.  Apparently there will only be one line to remember, it will be given at the time we sign in, and we are to convey that line with different emotions.  Once I got off the phone I was also confused on how am I supposed to prepare for this audition?  Having the male lead a k-pop idol is fine because I won’t be star struck and only one line works to my advantage, but using every emotional expression, that made me feel uneasy.  I figured to just practice in front of the mirror and hopefully my emotions can be portrayed.  What have I gotten myself into?

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a/n: Okay so I'm going to try to keep this rom-com fic pg-13, so mind the language :) Let me know if you like it....subscribe, comment, vote :)