Chapter One

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I stand in front of the large condo and make myself take a deep breath. The nervous feeling that I had the first time I was here returns, and I begin to feel nauseous.

Whenever I approach the first stone step, I hesitate before making myself walk up. Why am I so nervous? I wouldn't be here right now if I didn't belong.

I force myself up the small section of smooth, white steps and onto the porch of the condo. I can hear the chatter of people from outside and actually debate whether I should leave.

Stop being stupid, I tell myself. I should be excited, not willing to just turn around and leave. This is a big deal.

I take one more deep breath before knocking on the door. I could just walk on in, I suppose. But, I just knock anyways. When nobody answers the door, I knock again. Just as I am in the middle of knocking, the door swings open and the familiar gray-haired man stands in the doorway.

He grins widely at me and gestures for me to walk inside. When I move my shaky foot through the door, he closes it behind me and sets his hand on my shoulder.

"So glad to see you again. Everyone's in the living room. We'll start soon, alright?" he says in a cheery voice. I just smile nervously and nod in return.

He then lets go of my shoulder and disappears into what I guess is the kitchen. I follow the sound of voices into the living room and am almost overwhelmed by the crowd of people. There are some adults that I immediately recognize, but most of the people my age are relatively unfamiliar. I take a seat on a couch by a young, small girl.

She gives me a nervous smile as I sit beside her. I return one as well and scan the sea of people before me. No, I really don't recognize anybody here my age.

The gray-haired man that let me in walks into the room with a stack of multicolored folders in his arm. He greets and chats with the people as he hands the folders out. His warm smile given to everyone makes me feel a little more welcome, and my nerves relax a little.

"Hey, how are you guys?" he asks as he hands a green folder to me and an orange folder to the little girl next to me.

"I'm alright." The little girl speaks up. I'm surprised when she speaks and just smile at the man in front of me

"Great." He answers as he goes on to the next person.

I stare at the folder in my lap. It has my name and role written in sloppy handwriting across it. I flip open the cover and scan a few pages, not really paying attention to any of the words.

"Okay, are we ready to start?" the man asks from the center of the room. He now has one spiral bound notebook in his hand with a pen in the other.

There's a series of nods around the room and he flips open the cover of the notebook. He takes his pen and scans over a list of things, then checks some things off before speaking.

"Alright, so take a look around the room really quickly. These guys are the people that you will be with for the whole summer so I recommend you get used to the faces now. First off, the filming will all take place in North Carolina. If you look in your folder, there will be a plane ticket and the date that you will fly out there. Most of you will have different set-dates. And you won't actually start filming when you first get out there. I have arranged for you all-"

"Gary!" a shout fills the room, cutting our director off from speaking. All heads turn in the direction of the shout and watch as the boy walks in the room.

Our director covers his face with his hands and peers just above his fingertips, glaring at the boy striding over to him. The much taller boy wears an arrogant smirk across his face whenever he approaches the man.

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