“This week, we focus on David’s character having a reputation as a ladies’ man; sort of like this weekend, if Hollywood Central is to be believed.”
Zing!
It took everyone a moment to realize that Mr. Otsuki had a sense of humor and had just gotten me. There was nervous laughter, as they weren’t sure how to handle it. Mr. Otsuki just continued on like he’d announced the sky was blue.
“In the first scene, he steals a kiss from Haru’s character. The rest of the episode is about her going back and forth as she can’t decide whether to run or chase after him. The rest of the cast has to weigh in with their opinion, and Kenta’s character is particularly vocal about his opposition.
“This week’s firsts are Haru’s first kiss and then her first time to initiate a kiss when she kisses David at the end.”
I waggled my eyebrows at Haru and made kissy faces at her. The poor woman turned bright red. I really shouldn’t tease Japanese actresses like that. Mr. Otsuki disagreed when he saw her reaction. It was precisely what he wanted to have happen when I kissed her unexpectedly.
This was going to be a fun week.
◊◊◊
We were about to shoot the first scene, where I was to kiss Haru. The setup was she was with the other girls, walking to class, deep in discussion. I was to step in between them, kiss Haru, and then keep walking.
Misaki pulled me aside before the scene.
“You need to do something to surprise her. She has been preparing for this all morning. I don’t think Mr. Otsuki will be happy with how it turns out if you don’t.”
“Do you have any suggestions?” I asked.
“You should probably practice kissing me, and I could give you pointers.”
Apparently, it was ‘make fun of David’ day. Misaki ran screaming when I made a lunge for her. She was all giggles when she scampered over to tell the other girls what she’d done to me. I suspected that Haru was going to try to pull something on me, too.
When Mr. Otsuki called ‘Action!’, I had no idea how to play it. I thought back to what I’d learned in my acting class about a kiss. It was mainly about what the kiss looked like on camera. I checked all the cameras so I knew where they were and walked toward the girls.
I made my best cool surfer-dude saunter up to her. Then I grabbed her by the back of the neck so I could control where her face was pointed when I kissed her and laid one on her. I think she expected that. What she didn’t expect was for me to push my tongue into her mouth. I knew you couldn’t see that on camera, but her reaction was priceless.
I stepped back and gave her my best sexy smile, then nodded to her as I walked past the girls.
Haru was stunned and stumbled into Misaki, who kept her from going down. Apparently, all the girls had forgotten we were rolling because they all erupted in squeals when they saw the devastation I’d left behind.
“And cut!” Mr. Otsuki barked to get everyone’s attention. “Good job. Let me check to be sure we captured that and then get ready for the next scene.”
I had a light day. In this episode, I had zero lines. Everyone talked about me, but no one spoke to me. I was in a lot of background shots where they would say their lines, and then the camera would pan over to me doing what students do. Well, that, and flirt with girls. Sometimes acting is hard.
◊◊◊
By early evening, Lexi had gotten back. She probably thought I would be curious about why she’d made the trip and what she said to both Caryn and Brook. I figured if Lexi wanted to tell me, she would. My take was that she’d traveled to my home to mend fences and had done just that. I also realized that if Brook was happy, I was happy. There was no need to chance causing her trip to go sideways somehow.
At eight o’clock, Lexi came into the room where Hana and I were working on lines for next week.
“Mr. Otsuki said good job today and that you can go home. The rest of what he needs to get filmed involves the girls talking in their dorm. So, no boys needed.”
Manaia heard and left to get the car.
It was early enough that I could call Brook and not have Ava yell at us because it was a school night. I sent her a text to let her know I would be home in a minute. Once I got there, I told everyone good night and strolled to my room. I put my tablet on the desk and turned on video chat so I could talk to Brook hands-free.
“You got off early.”
“They only had scenes for the girls left to film,” I explained.
“I’ve been thinking. Well, I’ve been thinking, and I talked to Tami.”
“That can’t be good,” I said with just a little worry in my voice.
“Tami said that when she first started at Wesleyan, you helped her make friends via video chat.”
“Naked dance party!” I said as I bounced up and down.
“I thought it might be something we could do together,” she suggested.
“That means I’ll need to pull some music together,” I said as I changed into planning mode.
“No need, I think I found the perfect song. I found it on YouTube,” she said as she began to play it.
