“I wanted to tell you that you did great. Mom’s been doing this for a while, and she’s really impressed. Craig Wild might be the name that’ll pull them in, but they’ll know who you are when they leave.”
“What do you want?” I asked.
“‘Stupid boy,’ learn to take a compliment.”
“You broke your surfboard, didn’t you?” I pressed.
“No, you big dork. I really mean it,” she said.
“Thank you. That means a lot, coming from you,” I admitted.
She looked at her watch.
“You’re taking us to the airport. We need to get moving,” Halle said.
◊◊◊
I never unloaded my bags from the limo, so I didn’t have to go home. When we picked up Brook, she had enough luggage to stay a month. I would have to teach the girl how to pack. She was excited. I was disappointed when she chose to sit next to Halle. Things could have been worse: Rita sat next to me.
“You ready for this weekend?” she asked.
“I’m sure I’m not, but I hope that I have people around me who’ll help me cope. Going back home reminded me that I’m not ready for LA full time yet. I can see how it can change you.”
After this week, I had another week in LA before returning home. I planned to have some fun before going back to my real life. Zak and Craig were the perfect examples of what the LA lifestyle would do to you. Craig was a recovering alcoholic in his twenties, and Zak was a total skirt-chaser. Who could blame Zak? He was good-looking, and women threw themselves at him. I’d be surprised if he ever got married. I could imagine myself falling into that lifestyle. What teenage boy wouldn’t want to? For that matter, what fifty-year-old man wouldn’t want to?
There were stories about what sudden fame and money did to young people. I hoped that football and modeling helped me in that regard. Of course, if I got too out of hand, my mother would straighten me out. I needed to find the right balance between having fun and not getting out of control.
It had been a long few days. I put my earbuds in, leaned back, and fell asleep on the ride to the airport.
◊◊◊ Thursday January 7
I woke up to Bandit swatting my nose.
“Silly cat,” I said and play-swatted him back.
I looked beside me and found Brook watching me.
“Good morning,” I said as I leaned over and kissed her.
“I thought I’d show you what you missed waking up each morning while you were gone,” Brook said as she reached under the sheets to grasp Mr. Happy.
“Yeah, Halle missed the boat on this one,” I said as seriously as I could.
I guess I forgot all about Bandit because he popped my chin to get my attention. Little scamp! I put him on the floor and told him to find his mama. He began to meow because he couldn’t yet get on the bed by himself. Halle strolled in to find out what was wrong with her kitty.
“Brook Davis!” Halle yelled.
“Leave her alone,” I complained. “And take Mr. Crybaby with you.”
Halle gave me a haughty look that told me I would be sorry later for making fun of her cat. When she left, I pulled the sheet back.
“Forget that. I want you,” I said.
Brook took the time to remind me that I needed to get back home.
◊◊◊
We had three interviews to do today. The first was sort of CBS’s version of
The original plan was to have the full cast do the shows, but Craig was stuck in New York, rehearsing for
Saul and Frank were beside themselves that I’d snagged the lion’s share of the most-watched talk shows. All week my ‘Q’ scores had risen, which simply meant that I was becoming recognizable to the public as a whole. They were interested in two numbers: familiarity and positive. The familiarity number was what percentage knew who you were. The positive number centered on those that were familiar with you and thought you were one of their favorite actors.
An example would be Tom Hanks. Seventy-four percent of teens knew who he was, and of those, forty-six percent thought he was one of their favorite actors. I now had thirteen percent who knew who I was, and eighteen percent of those liked me. Saul was confident that once the movie came out, those numbers would go up.
Among my castmates, Craig Wild had the best numbers, because twenty-three percent recognized him, and nineteen percent thought he was one of their favorite actors. He had some high negatives also, though. Nine percent of people didn’t like him. Fortunately, I didn’t have any negative numbers.
My first stop was
