Page 31 of Let’s Make a Scene

“You’ve got it,” Jack calls back, and he turns to whisper in my ear. “Remind me again which of us got here on merit?” His voice is low, his breath curling over the shell of my ear, and I indulge in an elaborate fantasy where I chop him into bite-size pieces and feed him to the historical sheep.

“I’m sorry,” I say, smiling back with all my teeth. “I couldn’t hear you over the sound of that scenery-chewing you were doing.”

His smile drops and the look he shoots me is poisonous.

“Let’s have talent in hair and makeup,” Jasmine’s voice breaks in, echoing over several walkie-talkies around us. She moves away to talk to Marion, who stands with her ever-present clipboard, casting her eye over the scene.

Arjun descends—a whirr of long limbs—guiding Jack away, while Hannah appears at my side, a bottle of water in her hands, which she thrusts at me.

“How about those tranquilizers?” I say.

“I’ve decided they might actually be Tic Tacs,” she replies.

“Sounds about right.” I sigh as we trudge off toward base once more.

Chapter 12 CYNTHIE

“Okay, I’ve thought about it, and I’ve decided I’m totally in,” I tell Patty as she fusses with the wig on my head.

“In what?” Patty asks absently, adjusting one of the curls framing my face.

“In on payback for Jack.”

It came to me as I was walking away from the rehearsal, clinging to the last scraps of my sanity. I need a distraction, and Jack needs to be taught a lesson. Hadn’t Patty already offered up a suggestion for both?

I watch my face in the mirror as a villainous smile spreads, like I’m the damn Grinch about to steal Christmas. “Let’s hear what ideas you have to make him suffer.”

“Yes!” Patty hoots. “This is going to be so much fun.”

“What happened to being professional?” Hannah asks drily.

I scoff. “According to Jack, that ship has already sailed, so we might as well make the most of being rogue agents of chaos.”

“Ooooh, love that for us,” Liam whispers, delighted.

“Besides,” I add, “it doesn’t matter what we do… as long as we’re sneaky about it and don’t get caught.”

“Hmmmm,” Liam tilts his head. “We’re not talking, like, actual murder, right?”

“Tempting”—I widen my eyes in an expression of innocence—“but no. Only a few harmless little pranks. We just want him… squirming a bit.”

With the added benefit that thinking about pranking Jack will take my mind off the fact I’m going to have to go and film my first actual scene soon… and it’s incredibly likely I’m going to fall flat on my face. (I mean this metaphorically, though given my newfound inability to walk in a straight line I’m not ruling it out as a literal concern.)

“Hmmm,” Patty says thoughtfully. “Well, obviously you’ve got your classics—sign him up for a load of weird mailing lists, fill his trailer with balloons, swap all his sugar sachets for salt, fill his tea bags with gravy granules, Vaseline on all his doorknobs, pins on his seats…”

“Yes, yes.” I nod, already imagining Jack’s disgruntled reaction and the way I will drink it up like fine wine. “All of these are very doable.”

Even Hannah starts nodding. “Okay, as long as we’re not doing actual crimes, I’m in too… It’s like vigilante justice.” Her face darkens, and she’s obviously remembering what I told her about the argument between Jack and me this morning.

“But the real payoff is going to come when we draft in a couple more crew members,” Patty says. “I have a few people who could come in handy. And if you change your mind about the murder”—she flips her hair over her shoulder—“let’s just say I know how to clean up a crime scene.”

“Remind me not to get on your bad side,” Hannah says.

“You have no idea—” Liam begins, but he’s cut off by a knock at the door.

“Hi.” Jasmine sticks her head in the trailer. She stands and scrutinizes me for a moment, then nods. “Yes, this is looking good.”

“Cynthie’s face makes it easy.” Liam smiles.