"Do you really think I should make this film?" Charlie asked Ronni at lunch the next day.
Ronni considered the question. "I think it's a good script," she said. "And you're thinking about a career in film, right? I think it would be a good experience for you. Why? Are you thinking about dropping it?"
They sat at a table at the far side of the cafeteria. Ronni had been waiting outside his 4th period class when he emerged after the lunch bell rang. She asked if he wanted to get lunch, and he agreed. He had a few questions he wanted to ask her. In particular, he wondered how much of the night before Nick had described to her.
Charlie hadn't seen Michelle at all that morning. He was getting close to sending her a text and asking her if she had skipped school. Not that it mattered; he wanted to give her some space at school anyway, so having lunch with her wasn't an option for him even if she was there. Although he did want to ask her what she planned to do over the weekend.
"Yeah, I am," he told Ronni. "I keep thinking about what I need to do to make the film, and I already see all these problems that I'm going to have to solve."
"We're going to have to solve," Ronni corrected. "Producer, remember?"
"Right. We're going to have to solve. Our location is a garden where we can only film after 11 PM on weekdays. So, we need three actors who can be available late at night. I can't even be sure that Michelle is going to commit to that; she had to lie to her parents to be there last night, and afterwards she had to sneak into her house at three in the morning. On top of that, if I'm going to film it as written, with the nudity, I'll need the actors playing Max and Ingrid to be discrete. I don't want them coming to school and blabbing about the nude scene."
"Yes, we definitely have some hurdles to work around."
"There's also the possibility the movie will never be shown to anyone. I told Michelle that if she decided she was uncomfortable with her scene, we would never show anyone the film. Which is fine for her, but how do I convince the other two actors to commit to a film that might not even be shown to anyone?"
"And to do it for free, of course." Ronni grinned. "We don't have a budget to pay anyone. Although Nick might let them swipe drinks and chips from the snack bar."
"I mean, what do you think? Is the film good enough to be worth all this trouble?" Charlie stirred his mashed potatoes with his fork. "Or is it a lot of effort for nothing?"
"We'll never know how good it can be unless we try and make it," Ronni said. "It's a good script. Original idea, good dialogue. So we'll try to film it how you've written it. If we run into problems, we'll figure out how to work around them. I'm pretty sure that's how filmmaking is supposed to go."
"You really think it's a good enough script?"
"Sure. Even Nick liked it. He read the copy you gave him. He said he couldn't stop thinking about it."
"Really?"
"Yeah. He said so this morning. He wanted to talk to me about it and he kept asking what I thought the film was about. He said that if he'd read the script before he met Michelle, he would have interpreted it one way, but meeting Michelle made him think about it in a completely different way." Ronni leaned against the table. "Let's just think about who would be good to play Max and Ingrid. We can talk to them, tell them when and where we want to film, and maybe they'll say no, maybe they'll say yes. One thing I know about theater kids is they like to get cast in things. We're asking them to be the stars of this film. They might go for it, no matter if it's late at night. Have you heard anything from that Apex film program you interviewed for?"
"No, nothing yet."
"Doesn't matter. When we talk to our Max and Ingrid, you make it clear to them that this isn't a Pine Hills school project. You tell them it's a project for Jefferson University. It'll make it seem next-level. It'll also remove any expectations they might have that the film will be shown to anyone at this school."
Charlie nodded. "Good idea. I could see them accepting that."
"As for discretion... I don't know think we can ever be 100% sure that our Max and Ingrid aren't going to come to school and talk about Michelle doing a nude scene. That's just a risk she's going to have to accept, if she's going to do it. She either has to be okay with people knowing, or she has to be ready to deny it." Ronni shrugged. "Let's face it, she took the same risk with me. I haven't told anyone I saw her walking around naked last night. And if we're dealing with theater kids, they probably won't be as inclined to talk about it as others might. They would know how to separate an actress from her role."
Behind Ronni, towards the middle of the cafeteria, Charlie saw Vampire Vanessa sitting down at a table with several other girls. Charlie peered at the group of them, trying to pick out Michelle.
Ronni noticed his distraction and shot a quick glance over her shoulder. "If you're looking for Michelle, I don't think she came in today."
"You don't think so? How do you know?"
"My locker's not far from hers. I see her sometimes between classes. But I haven't seen her today at all."
"Just a sec." Charlie pulled out his phone. He found Michelle's name and sent her a quick text: "You in school today?"
A minute later, his phone buzzed. He read the message: "Home sick. I'll tell you later."
"She says she's home sick," Charlie told Ronni. "You think she's really sick? Or just tired?"
"You could ask her."
"No. She said she'd talk to me later. I don't want to say too much in a text. Anyone could read it." Charlie leaned over his phone. He sent a quick message: "Feel better!" A few seconds later, he received another message from her. No words, just a pink heart emoji.
"You're worried her parents will find out about last night?"
Charlie nodded. "She told them she was at Vanessa's house. Honestly, I don't think they even know I exist."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. I think Michelle has lied to her parents every time she's been to see me. She's always told them she's doing something else."
"That's kind of weird."
"Yeah. I have to admit, I never thought I'd be anyone's secret boyfriend." Charlie grimaced. "Actually, that reminds me of something I have to do tonight."
"What?"
"My mom really wants to read my script. So I need to write a clean version of it. No nudity."
"How are you going to do that?" Ronni asked.
"I'll just switch it so that Gwen is wearing conservative clothes at the beginning of the film, and as Max and Ingrid get to know each other, Gwen will switch to brighter colors and shorter dresses. Same basic concept, really. Just less drastic." He frowned as Ronni started to laugh. "Is that funny?"
"It's just not quite as interesting to do it that way, is it?" Ronni tried unsuccessfully to suppress her grin. "Sorry... I'm just thinking about last night. I definitely had to change some of my preconceptions about Michelle. It's one thing for you to tell me stories about her... but my gosh, she didn't hold back last night, did she?"
"No, I guess she didn't."
"My brother wanted to look at my yearbook from last year, to see her picture. He said he didn't see her wearing anything, the whole night. She came in naked and she left naked. He was pretty amazed by the whole thing."
"Yeah. She got dressed in the parking lot before we left."
Ronni leaned forward. "The first time I read your script, I was skeptical. I thought, is this just his way of getting her to be nude on camera? But after last night, I really think she's not going to have a problem doing those scenes. In fact, I think she's going to be amazing in them. Do you think she can act?"
"Well... she's pretty good at lying to her parents, apparently."
Ronni grinned. "That's true."
"When I finish writing a clean version of the script, I'll give you a copy. In case your parents want to see it."
