The Silver Screen Wars

21 - Easy

Kodi could only stare as two men filed into the house by the front door and promptly began to set up in the kitchen. She had no idea what they were cooking, but the delicious aromas that had begun wafting around the entire place not too long after was tempting her to wander closer and find out.

But that would mean getting up from her seat, which in turn meant attracting attention. For now, she was staying as inconspicuous as possible so that she could fly under the radar for the rest of the night. Just to be safe. What a fine line she had to walk between making sure she wasn't turned into the village whipping boy for the cast, and not being overtly friendly or personable with anyone.

Because as cynical as it sounded even to herself, she couldn't trust anyone here. Because wouldn't Bishop have selected only from the most cutthroat in the business, the ones with the most promise and therefore the most to gain if they turned on each other for the spotlight? She didn't want the spotlight, just the money - but that wouldn't protect her from all the snake-like showbiz machinations of this world if that was what the other secretly had in mind.

Everyone always wanted to be on top, even if it meant shoving others down. Friends, colleagues, all irrelevant. Everything was fair in love and war and Hollywood, apparently, and Kodi had been astonishingly late in getting the memo.

It was one of the reasons she had struggled so much her first year. Nothing had mattered so much as the 'right' connections and the ability to cut each other down while smiling all the while, even so-called friends. She had been bad at that...still was. And she had been burned for it far too many times to count. Now her only weapon was to keep everyone at arm's length, but on the flip side - that turned out to be something she was good at.

But why, then, was she here in the middle of this group? She hated Bishop, despised his reputation, would spit upon his five-pointed terrazzo and brass star that lay embedded in the Hollywood Walk of Fame if she ever had the chance, but she knew without a doubt that he had the highest standards in all the industry. She shouldn't have made it here. Really shouldn't have. Because neither did she have the formal education nor the experience nor even those special connections to have made it here.

God, she hadn't even known it was Bishop's audition she had been trying out for until it was too late. This was a mistake. Not just her, but Bishop's too. He'd probably figure it out in due time, but she would do whatever she needed to do to secure the pay. She could hang in there long enough for that.

Well - sure, Kodi knew she was better than some. Good enough to impress a few people who underestimated her because of her crudeness and utter lack of any social poise, but she was not...one of them. 'Them' meaning the others here in front of her, who were all currently joking and conversing with each other at total ease. They were likely no less experienced than she was, no less familiar with the workings of the industry. So was it all fake? This friendliness? Were they like all the others who smiled in front of each other's faces and then stabbed each other in the back as soon as the opportunity presented itself?

Or maybe they didn't know it yet. Maybe they really did want to be friends with each other - but that wouldn't end well, and Kodi wasn't dumb enough to hope for it. In the end, everything was a competition in this business, and even if someone didn't want to partake, someone was always going to be shoved into the ass end of it. Like her. She'd narrowly avoided being the outcast in any of her gigs so far, but only barely, and somehow watching it all from the sidelines made the dread even worse.

She didn't like to think of herself as a coward, but the idea of having to work with people who wanted nothing more than to see her fail would wear anyone down. And of this group, it was clear she was the odd one out already:

She didn't know much about Drake yet, but surely he was some kind of prodigy if he had made it into Bishop's line of sight with this project at only nineteen. He looked scruffy, adolescent. He had a less than commendable understanding of the importance of personal space. And yet he had been the first one to answer when Bishop asked the group what they thought about the script. The same brazenness that had gotten him on Kodis's bad side also allowed him to be sure and confident even in uncertain waters.

And he was a hard worker. Devoted, passionate. She knew from the way that he had pored over his pages so hard that a slight sheen of sweat gathered over his brow earlier. What did Kodi have that was supposed to compete with that? Bishop had picked her out of an audition that had been populated with idiots and people who gave up the first second they encountered resistance; it hadn't been much of a fight for first place. But s**t, if this kid had been there...

And then Alexis. Alexis had it all, didn't she? Gorgeous. Charismatic. A background in creative literature or whatever it was that she had said. Something that was way beyond Kodi's basic understanding. It wasn't like her one and a half semesters of college education before having to drop out and work full time could measure up to that kind of education. Now that was classic stuff: Alexis knew all the technical terms and jargon of both industries, acting and fiction writing. And she'd solved the mystery of the script, too, for good measure.

And Taylor - well, alright, Kodi could admit she didn't know much about him. But he clearly came from money, and he was too poised and in control of himself to be incompetent. She wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be even more accomplished than Alexis - those who spoke least knew most, or something like that...right?

Maybe he was a genius. Maybe he was hiding it all so that he could lay it on them later and stake his claim on the territory. Every cast had its leader, its star, after all. The single point everyone revolved around. If Bishop hadn't chosen one yet, then maybe that was what Taylor was aiming for, to make a crater-deep impression exactly when it counted.

Or maybe Bishop had already chosen him. Just because he hadn't told Kodi what her role would be didn't mean that he had kept the same information from everyone else. Maybe no one knew exactly what they would be playing, but perhaps Bishop had given Taylor a sideways slip of the tongue and told him that he would be the main star of his film. She wouldn't be surprised; it would be fitting considering that the guy had a strange, compelling gravity to him. All that seriousness - and she had mistaken it for simple shyness earlier. Yeah, right.

They were all here because Bishop had selected them, surely. And while Kodi had gotten in on a fluke because everyone else at the audition had been largely incompetent, what were the chances that the other three had been so lucky? They no doubt had the skills to be where they were, and they were going to give this project all they had. And unless this gig was somehow the one exception in all of Hollywood, things were bound to get aggressive and metaphorically bloody eventually.

Meanwhile, here was Kodi. No degree, just a high school diploma. She had a year of experience and half that time had been spent on gigs that flopped because the director experienced a creative crisis and either abandoned the project or drove it into the ground by the end. Her greatest accomplishment was the one breakout performance in a supporting role that had won an award at a film festival...before the director got embroiled in a scandal by impregnating the sponsor's daughters. All three of them.

That had gone to s**t pretty fast. Now no one talked about it.

Kodi pulled in her bottom lip and chewed on it. Well, that was that. She was going to have to compensate for all of that with bravado. All she had to do was not look like the easiest target in the room for them to lay into once the cameras started rolling and things got real.

She didn't have to be the best. She just couldn't be the worst. Ride the middle and stay away from both extremes.

On second thought, she wondered if maybe she ought to stop provoking Bishop - or rather, stop letting him provoke her. Being his favorite punching bag would only encourage everyone else to do the same. And if things were different, if she weren't relying on this one job to solve all her family's financial problems and let them start over fresh, a second chance, she wouldn't give a single s**t. She really wouldn't - but this was different.

She hated Bishop and having to work under him, but there was too much on the line for to throw away before she even tried. She had gotten lucky enough to get picked for the job and then paid an obscene amount to stay on when she had almost walked away; surely good things came in threes. The job would go well. She would make they money, pay off the debts. Quit acting. Go to school, find an actual steady job like her parents wanted.

"Kodi?"

Her phone almost flew out of her hand. What the hell? Who was calling her name?

"Whoa, sorry." Alexis leaned back and pulled her hand away. She hadn't actually touched her, but Kodi could tell she had been inches away from tapping her on the shoulder. "Houston, do you copy? You alright?"

Kodi got to her feet and straightened her clothes before tucking her phone into her pocket. "Yeah, my bad. What's up."

"Dinner. We're sitting over there."

She tipped her chin up slightly in an acknowledging nod at the other woman before following the direction she had jabbed her thumb in. Oh, s**t. Everyone was in the middle of sitting down around the island countertop, Drake chatting with both Jason and the two chefs. Taylor had already sat down, back straight and hands in his lap. Of course, why wouldn't he be?

And Alexis - Alexis was here, urging Kodi to get up and join them. She really had been out of it. How much had she missed? God, what time was it -

Still disoriented, Kodi almost missed the fact that Bishop was staring at her. He was exactly where he had been all night, still turned around in his stool. How had she missed him with the first once-over? And it would be nice if he stopped looking at her like that. It wasn't as if she had zoned out while they had been going over the script. He had f****d off to take a shower, and they had all been taking a break.

If he had a problem with that, she could only hope that he would hold his tongue while they were eating. But since he was an asshole, she wouldn't expect it.

Deflect, she told herself firmly. Tonight wasn't a night to let him bait her into an argument or to provoke him even if said something that pissed her off. Not tonight. If he prodded, deflect.

She assiduously ignored him as she rounded the counter and climbed onto one of the two open stools around the granite island, the one that wasn't next to Jason. Had someone left that open for her? Too bad. She wanted to take it, but that would give everyone the impression that she was kissing up to him again.

Ah, this was easy, she thought as she nodded at Drake who passed her a pitcher of water around the way. All she had to do was be careful. To assume the worst, to watch her every step, to give no one an excuse to single her out.

Easy, she thought, continuing to ignore Bishop who had yet to take his eyes off her.

Easy.