“This could be our ace in the hole,” I agreed. “We could trot this out if they push back on me doing movies or try to force me to be the poster child for them. Even if they threaten to pull my eligibility, I wouldn’t use it until we really need it.”
“What about the FBI?” Dad asked.
“You should ask Ms. Addison that question,” Mr. Morris said. “In the meantime, we wait to see what the NCAA does next.”
Since we were paying Mr. Morris by the second, we told him goodbye.
“It was pretty ballsy of you to turn off the video and kick out your dad,” Lexi said.
“It would have been nice if you’d given me a heads-up,” Dad said.
“And miss the look on your face? Please,” I said with a grin.
“I miss your mom,” Dad shot back.
I wasn’t sure if that was a threat or not. Probably best that I not torment him too much.
“It turned out okay,” I said.
“If you mean ‘okay’ as in Stewart is going to try to roast you,” Lexi said.
“He was going to do that anyway,” Dad said. “At least David got him to do it all on video. I can’t believe he was dumb enough to think you wouldn’t be gathering the ammo to fight back.”
I bit back my retort that Dad had thought that very thing.
◊◊◊
Chapter 12 – You May Demand a Boon of Me Friday December 16
There was a whole different work ethic at Halle’s movie from that at the J-drama. I was playing
There was a knock on the door, then Lexi opened it and stuck her head in.
“There you are. You’re supposed to be on set,” she said, pointing at me, and turned to Ben. “And you’re supposed to be in makeup.”
“Damn, David. Your PA is a slave driver,” Ben complained. “I was about to beat you again.”
He smashed all the buttons on his controller, and I died spectacularly. That one hurt my pride because I thought I was doing better. Oh, well. Back to work.
“Lead on, Slave Driver,” I said to tease Lexi.
She gave me one of those looks that promised bad things would happen to me but didn’t say anything. As we walked to the set, Lexi handed me my phone.
“Call Lily,” she said and split off to give me privacy.
I saw by the time on the phone that Lily was probably finishing up lunch at school, so I took a chance and called her.
“Thanks for calling me back. Lexi said you were busy today. Do you have a minute?” Lily asked.
Lily and I had a history. It was because of my party that she’d almost died at the end of middle school. Since then, we’d become friends. I wasn’t sure how it happened, but she was in charge of my social media and websites. The reason I let her do most of it was that it saved me from myself. Most young athletes or celebrities didn’t have a filter on what they posted. My example was the alien baby bump I’d posted that featured Adrienne. That was why teenage me wasn’t allowed to post very often. I didn’t want to have my stuff come back and haunt me twenty years from now.
I know that it made almost no sense to allow a teenage girl to handle it. After all, they were prone to the same brain cramps boys were. But, in fact, I completely trusted Lily. She took what she did seriously. That didn’t mean that she didn’t act goofy sometimes, or take on people who posted stuff about me. Frank Ingram, my PR guy and Lily’s boss, said she had a knack for it. He observed that, unlike most of his employees, she came across as young and playful. Those were two qualities he wanted to push forward in creating my image. Frank said his twenty-somethings acted too old for what I needed. They had been to college and had been hammered with political correctness. Not that Lily got me in too much trouble, but she hadn’t been beaten down to conform yet, either.
I stuck my head onto the set and saw they were still setting up. What I liked most about Mr. Otsuki was that he was always looking towards the next scene, and there was no messing around. That filming style fit my personality much better than, say,
“They’re working on setting a scene. I should have a few minutes,” I assured her.
“I think I found my mom.”
When she was younger, her mom had left without even saying goodbye. Lily had been devastated, to the point she had a complete meltdown. It still bothered her that her mother could just walk away from their family. No one seemed to know anything.
“I hadn’t realized you were still looking for her.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t, but then I was. I got Megan to help me. I’m not sure what all she did, but she thinks she found her.”
“Are you sure you want to do this? I only ask that because I care for you. If you decide to follow up, I’ll do whatever you need to help,” I said.
“I am. I’m debating whether I should go alone or bring my brother and dad with me,” she said hesitantly.
