Between The Lines [Janet & Aja]

18

Aja
January 17th

When I pulled up to our set of How to Get Away with Murder, I was immediately approached by Viola.

"Come on." She urged me as I got out my car. "We got new blood."

I rolled my eyes playfully as I adjusted my scarf. "For you to call this person new blood, they had to have caught your attention."

"They have."

"Why?" I questioned Momma V.

"I overheard Peter mention her name. I looked her up and realized who she is." Viola looked at my confused expression and chuckled as she shook her head. "She's black, Aja. We aren't alone in this one anymore."

I was taken aback a bit by the way Momma V had stated that. She had made it clear to me that she felt more African American women should have leads in shows and movies than they do.

Yet, I hadn't realized that she thought our show was a prime example.

We walked into the warm building, today we were only going over lines in the new scripts. It was one of the easier things of this career line. Simply Table Reading.

I went and took a seat at the table where my name card was, and Viola sat across from me at the other table. They always had us sit in a 'U' form. I took my scarf off and sat it in the chair next to me.

She looked up at me and nodded beside me. My eyes followed her head nod and saw that Karla was sitting to the left of me but someone named Amirah Vann was sitting next to me.

Her character name underneath simply read 'Tegan'.

My fingers opened the script slightly but Peter called out. "No ma'am, no peeking! Wait til everyone is here."

"Sorry Pete." I mumbled back as I grabbed my phone and attempted to look the woman up like Viola had done.

"I'm sorry, excuse me." A voice called from behind me before I could even type a name in.

I looked back and was taken aback by this woman's beauty. Her complexion was light and light freckles danced upon her cheekbones and met in the middle of her nose. Her hair was curly, and even bare faced this woman was truly just mesmerizing.

My mind went blank until she spoke again. "Is that your scarf? I didn't want to move it since it isn't mines."

I snapped out of the trance that I was in. "Uh- yeah. Sorry."

Grabbing the scarf, I faced Viola again. She smirked at me slightly having watched what just happened.

"You played in The Birth of a Nation didn't you?" She asked me.

Looking at her again, I answered quickly. "Yeah. Back in 16."

"I love that movie. You did a amazing job in it. I'm Amirah Vann by the way." Amirah held her hand out for me to shake.