The Silver Screen Wars

19 - Gagged

Well, that was her cue to leave.

"Kodi, wait." Jason stood up from his stool and extended a hand in her direction as if to reach across the space and hold her back.

She remained on her feet, but she didn't continue moving away, either. "Is this acting school?" she asked, voice flat and making no pretense at pleasantness. "I'm here to say lines, not to write stories and make up characters for Teacher."

"Good, because I already did both of those." Bishop was watching her with a smug grin. "Don't worry, Kodiak Clyde. The hard part's already done for you. When I say you're creating your characters, you're not doing it from the ground up. You're filling the mold I've left for you, not coming up with something new. A nice learning experience. You're going to learn how to figure out your characters instead of it being handed to you like you're a child."

"Are you shitting me?"

"Kodi, please." Jason gestured at her again and took a step forward with his hand still outstretched in a placating pose. "Just give it a chance," he said. "It's better than it sounds."

"It doesn't have to be better than it sounds," interrupted Bishop. "You'll do as I say, Kodiak. Sit."

First of all, since when had he started calling her 'Kodiak?' Somehow, omitting her surname made it even worse - it felt vaguely more familiar now, and she was one thousand percent sure that she absolutely hated it. Actually, scratch that: hearing her name come out of his mouth at all made her want to plant her fist in it. If it weren't for the money on the line, she could just...Or could she? Maybe just a tap. Like a hard tap -

Surprisingly, it was neither Kodi's consideration of the contract nor Jason's pleas for peace that convinced her to stand down. She felt something wrap around her wrist, something cool but strong, and looked down to realize that Taylor had reached over to grasp her by the arm.

Taylor? The quiet guy in the ironed polo shirt and groomed hair, the shy guy who had been as red as a beet just a moment ago and who had been unable to even look up from his lap to answer a question? Kodi was so stunned that she couldn't find it in herself to be angry that he had touched her without her express consent. She simply stared down at him in wordless confusion, dumbfounded by the silent warning she saw there in his light brown eyes and the way the muscles tightened around the corner of his mouth in a grimace.

With a small, discreet tug, he urged her to drop back into her seat, and she obliged him without a thought. In the silence that followed, it was only after a few more seconds had passed that she remembered exactly where she was - or rather, who else was in the room with them.

"If you're done throwing your tantrum, you might consider not slowing everyone else down, too," Bishop said, cutting through the quiet stillness with an annoyed sneer. "Are you going to be sit down and learn now?"

Ordinarily, she would have immediately taken offense and showed him her teeth like an angry animal in response, but she was still to off-balance by Taylor's unexpected display to really put her heart into it. So all she did was nod at Bishop, barely registering the scorn in his voice, and absently pick up the script she had placed on the table. With a squint, she urged him on with an absent nod before dropping her gaze back down to the black-and-white page of text she honestly wasn't even paying attention to.

Well, that settled that. Taylor Grant was one of the strangest and most intensely unsettling people she had ever met. Yes, she had written him off as mousey and quiet earlier, but now she was starting to wonder if maybe his taciturn demeanor wasn't shyness but rather an outright refusal to speak. What she had seen in his face wasn't a wilting nervousness or soft anxiety, after all, but more tension and restraint, like someone pressing the lid closed over a boiling pot.

Drake and Alexis apparently shared the same thoughts: they too were peering at Taylor's face with a mix of wariness and surprise. So she wasn't crazy then, Kodi assured herself. She hadn't been the only one to be shocked stupid about the sudden transformation of his presence.

"Start us off, Alexis. Just read down the first page, everything."

And that was Bishop speaking again, clearly oblivious to the high-energy, soundless exchange going on between his cast at the moment. But the three of them could stare at the guy in unison later, then. They wouldn't get anywhere in understanding him and peeling back that deceptively quiet layer he wore like this, huddled over scripts with their director watching them with a scowl on his face.

"Uh - sure, here we are," Kodi heard Alexis mutter, and with one last lingering look on Taylor's face (now red again, what even was this?), she returned her attention to her sheets to follow along with the other woman's reading.

It took her a moment to sink into the rhythm of it, which was just as well because it seemed like Alexis was struggling to do the same. There was no dialogue, after all, only screen directions. Even listening to it felt awkward and stilted; she could imagine that having to narrate the text aloud had to feel even stranger.

"Anyone want to tell me what's happened here so far?" Bishop stood up from his stool and moved around the island counter toward the refrigerator again. For the first time, Kodi noticed he didn't seem to have a copy of the screenplay himself. Or maybe he had simply left it on the counter, she thought, but that wasn't it. He simply didn't have one, and while Jason certainly had a copy, he hadn't been sharing it with the director.

Had Bishop simply memorized everything? There were over thirty pages of material; surely he couldn't remember it all just because he had written it.

"Blue wakes up with no memory of where she is," Drake answered. "I can't tell who she is exactly, but we know the people around her do, and she tries to play it off for as long as she can because she's afraid of what's going to happen to her. She can't move well or anything either."

He had the script nearly in front of his nose as he pored over the text. For a kid who looked like he had skipped every class in school to go smoke a joint behind the school building, he appeared surprisingly dedicated to analyzing every word.

"She's also wearing a mask that she can't take off, but we don't know anything else about her. And I'm guessing Blue isn't her real name even if that's what the script calls her."

Bishop finished pouring himself another cup of ice water just as Drake looked back up, but instead of drinking it, the man placed the side of the frosted glass against his temple.

A headache? Kodi wrinkled her nose. She hadn't known he was capable of feeling pain like an actual human being with feelings. But it did soothe something inside her to see him nursing his temple like that with a sharp frown.

"Keep going," he said impatiently. "Is that all you got from an entire page?"

Drake seemed uncertain yet eager to continue: ah, the resilience of youth. Kodi stared down at the page and basked in the relief that she wouldn't have to contribute anything to the discussion. She didn't think deeply about anything if the answers didn't present themselves before her, ready to be understood. And when it came to this screenplay from hell, she didn't even know what the questions should be.

She'd leave it to the opossum kid to talk instead.

"Uh...I'd have to read it again. I'm not good at getting things on the first go." Drake proceeded to bury his face in the pages again without even waiting for a reply, but it was just as well since Alexis decided to speak instead.

"I don't think she just lost her memory, I think she might be mentally ill or something." She had put her copy of the script down in her lap and was currently running her hand over the smooth skin of her hairless head. "I don't know how it explains the mask or whatever is on her face, but it does specifically say she tries to move her mouth but can't. So maybe not a mask, but like, wrapped bandages? Unless she's paralyzed...Or maybe she's been gagged? She can't speak either. She tries, but just can't."

Bishop turned the glass, evidently placing the colder side against his temple now. "Go on," he said brusquely.

"It also explains why she can't move around well. Maybe restraints? A straitjacket?"

"Anything else?"

"It's almost like...I read a book once, written from the perspective of this girl who lives her life like, minutes at a time. Her memories are always scattered, she only remembers things that happen within a certain window of time. Like she never remembers waking up - her memories for the day start only after she's been awake for a few hours at least, and she'll suddenly find herself randomly in a different room talking to people with no recollection of how she even got there. So she has these big gaps in her day to day life where she remembers nothing. Just flashes. This script reminds me of that, like it's written from her perspective."

Bishop looked pleased. Well, it was nice to know that someone had read Bishop's mind and had an idea of what he was going for, because Kodi certainly didn't.

"And?"

Alexis took in a deep, contemplative breath. "I don't know. I actually didn't think of any of this until just now," she admitted, "so I haven't had a chance to think about the rest of the stuff. But...yeah. Feels similar in a way. Am I dead wrong?"

Bishop didn't reply right away, but he did stare at her with a scowl that looked half-pleased instead of furious. "How long have you been trying to break into the business?"

She looked up at the ceiling and counted something on her fingers before turning her attention back to him. "About two years."

"And you said you're twenty seven?"

"Yes."

"What did you do before that?"

She grinned. "I was a writer. I was okay at it, but then I realized I could do other things better...like this."

Bishop narrowed his eyes at her and lowered the cold glass from his forehead. "Don't get cocky, Alexis Dewitt."

"But I'm right, aren't I? I'm right."

"Pipe down. Now you, Taylor. You're going to have to open your mouth at some point, kid. You're an actor, not a f*****g mute. Read page two."

Whoa. Kodi made sure to keep her head down and to stay quiet so that she didn't accidentally attract Bishop's attention, but it seemed like that wasn't going to be a worry at all soon enough: he'd looked pleased when Alexis had given him her analysis, and he had even inquired about the woman's life. If she was going to become his pet favorite actress on the cast, then surely that meant he would have less time to torment Kodi, didn't it?

She'd taken enough of his s**t by now, hadn't she? She deserved a win here.

As Taylor mumbled over the lines, Kodi sat dreaming of days where she could sit silently on the sidelines while Bishop only harassed the others.

She crossed her fingers.