Chapter 2

Friday came in quite quicker than expected and before Casey realized it, she was on the plane making her way to her hometown to shoot the movie she was staring in. The nervousness was eating up at her, she visited the toilet to throw up a little. Why was she nervous, she couldn’t even tell.

She tried sleeping, but it resulted in her tousling and turning not getting any sleep in the process, so she gave up and tried reading the script that Richard gave to her some few days ago.

She remembered that there was a time she made her decision to leave her small town and move to a place that was filled with dreams and hope. But what she wanted for herself, wasn’t what her parents wanted for her, instead her parents wanted her to go to school, graduate, and get married to a hardworking and diligent man and have kids.

That’s why when she told them that she wanted to be an actress they scoffed at the idea of it. They told her all the bad things that actors go through as a means to discourage her, but it only fueled her passion more.

Since when she first went to the theatre and watched a play, her dream was to become a famous actress, and her parents weren’t going to ruin it for her.

So she practice hard on her acting skills, read a lot of playwright books, and put in the work for it. The happiest moment of her life was when she got to play the role of Desdemona in one of many William Shakespeare’s  plays, Othello. She did so well that the crowd gave her a standing ovation.

She swell with so much pride knowing that she was the star of the show, and it was only the beginning of her journey, that there was more great things coming to her.

They gave her an award for best actress at the talent show, and everything yet her parents were still adamant on not wanting her to become an actress, for whatever reason.

And she won’t lie if she said that it didn’t hurt her, but luckily for her there were two people that supported her, her sister Rachel and her longtime crush Andrew Denvers.

They met when her father’s friend introduce them to each other. It was an awkward first meeting with the two, but due to how much of a conversationalist Casey was, Andrew was able to keep up with her.

When she told Andrew of her dreams, he told her to go for it, that why should her parents be involved in what she wish to achieve, it’s her decisions to make not theirs. Casey, in her moment of excitement, kissed him. It came to him like a shock, both of them being in 9th grade and still trying to understand what love and lust mean. And oddly enough Andrew liked the kiss, I mean who wouldn’t want to be kissed by Casey.

So with that determination in mind, she started saving up some cash to be able to take a bus to California–cause flight tickets are a bit too expensive to purchase.

She saved from her pocket money, she worked in part time jobs, she made a lot of sacrifices just to get enough money to move out of town to the place her dreams would come true. And the sacrifices were worth it, cause at the end of her high school journey she had enough money to travel to California. And she didn’t waste time to skedaddle.

The only person she told goodbye to was Andrew and he wished her goodluck in her career and hope the best for her, she gave him a hug and a kiss on the lips as a parting gift, as she boarded the bus to go and chase her dreams.

That was the last time she saw Andrew, she even tried to get his socials but to no avail. The number that he gave to her to use contact him stopped going through. She even called up her sister to ask her but she said that she doesn’t stay in Ohio anymore, and she didn’t have the contact of any of their former classmates, so she gave up.

She had a feeling that he was married and have kids. Wouldn’t be bad thing, after all she wished for him to have one of the best things in this world and that was a happy family, that was something she sadly couldn’t give to him.

There was an announcement made over the intercom that plane was about to land, that everybody should make sure that they are seated well to avoid casualties.

Casey sighed. Here goes nothing.

****

Oricon was a town suited in the far side of Chardon, Ohio, the people inhabiting the place are simple folks, the major occupation of the town is ranching or farming, the town had different schools, some of which had a nursery, elementary and high school suited in one.

Normally Ohio was a hot state but it seems as Oricon has a different heat of its own. The temperature are usually at an all time high due to the fact that it’s summer.

Currently the cast and crew were on set, normally they were supposed to take a day off due to some of them being jet lagged, but the crew members turned it down when Richard proposed it. So they got to business instantly.

The vans they rented were for different purposes and different use. Casey was getting her hair and makeup done while an electric fan was being held by her PA, Cory.

“Casey I just want you to know that I am a huge fan of your movies,” the make up artist, Sandra, said. Casey looked up at her and smiled, this caused Sandra to blush. Nothing else was said as Sandra applied the finishing touches of her makeup.

After she was done, the hairstylist came and styled her hair in a messy bun, since the movie was about the a group of humans that were the remaining survivors on Earth so it was only normal that her hair would look messy and unkempt.

Everything was set. Casey stepped out of one of the vans onto the scorching hot sun of Ohio.

As she went to the set and everything was ready, the scene was to begin with Casey walking down a deserted street with nobody in sight. After a viral disease wiped out half of humanity, she with a group of survivors had to battle with another major issue at hand, and those were the beings that had come alive due to the disease and were eating away at any human on sight.

Most of the casts were both veterans and young actors/actresses. It was a star studded cast.

With Casey being the main character she was to open the scene, she stood there while Richard sat on his director chair with a megaphone in his hand.

“Scene one, take two.

“Action.”

****

They had shot up to three scenes before the day got dark, fatigue was eating away at most of the casts and crew.

Casey was standing there looking at the almost empty set, since she came to Oricon she haven’t even met anybody from her town yet, probably due to the fact that as soon as she landed she got to work immediately, she felt tired having to repeat some few lines and forgetting some and some props not working, and she still had 7 months of this, at least that’s the time that Richard said that they would take in this place–there is also a slight chance of them moving to another state for a different scene, but that wouldn’t be seen as a problem.

Casey felt her phone vibrate at her back pocket, she removed it and check the caller ID, it was Rachel. She picked up the call.

“Hello?”

“Casey, I heard that you are back in town,” she heard her sister say over the phone.

“Yes I am.”

“That’s just great, but why didn’t you call us to tell us anything?”

‘Cause as soon as I landed in a Oricon I started working instantly,’ she wanted to say, instead she said, “I was caught up doing some things so I couldn’t call.”

“Oh, well will you come home, mom’s already cooking some of your favorite food,” Casey could hear her mom in background saying that she would love them. Casey smiled at this.

“Ok fine, I would be there in the next couple of minutes.”

****

The McAddams house was a fairly big house, that fits the overall image of the town.

Casey parked the car that she rented on the driveway that led to the house. She had so many good memories in this place, and also so many bad ones too.

She took sometime before she stepped out of the car and walked up to the front porch leading to the front door of the house, she raised her hand as a means to knock but stopped halfway. She decided to open the door and walk in.

On stepping into the house she was greeted with the smell of something delicious, her mother and sister were in the kitchen, while father was no where to be seen.

She closed the door softly behind her as a way not to catch her mother and sister’s attention. She removed her shoes, and tiptoed her way to the kitchen, she smiled as she stood behind them.

“Do you think Casey’s probably change a lot?” Rachel asked.

“Maybe she has gotten taller or something, she’s always been short.” Her mother said giggling.

“Hmmm I won’t say I have change much in terms of appearance but at least I grew some few inches taller since I left.”

The two women turn around and their eyes were wide open, and then they screamed as they ran and hugged her, almost toppling her over.

“Oh my God Casey, why did you sneak up on us like that?”

“You almost gave me a heart attack.”

Casey apologize, her father came out wondering what the whole commotion was, only to see his daughter finally back after how many years.

He engulfed her in a hug, kissing the top of her head. He was happy to see her.

After all the greetings, the family settled down in the dinning table to eat. The table was packed with different dishes from sandwiches to chicken to cauldron, it was overflowing and Casey couldn’t wait to eat them all.

They all said a prayer before they began eating, Casey reached out for the sandwich, taking a bite out of it and letting the taste fill up her taste buds.

“So Casey how is Hollywood?” Her father asked.

“Oh it’s ok,” Casey answered with her mouth full.

“I heard that you are shooting a movie here in Oricon?” Her mom asked.

“Yes I am.”

“Casey, just so you know I have been watching all your movies since you debuted on the big screen,” Rachel said, drinking out of her orange juice.

“After you left you didn’t bother to call up on anybody, not even your family members,” her mom said.

“I didn’t have time to call anybody, plus I thought that after I left town you people didn’t want to see me again.”

“Sweetie, why would you think that, you should know how much we love you. And our daughter waking up one morning and deciding to leave of her own accord just got us worried,” her dad placed his hand over her hand.

Even though during that period of her life, even though she was hell bent on making her dreams a reality, she should have still tried to contact them and tell them that she was ok at least.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized looking at her family. Yes they didn’t want her to go out by herself into the cold dark world, cause what is an 18 year old doing in an unknown city, filled with unknown faces. Heck, she was even lucky that nothin bad happened to her, and for that she was even grateful to have met genuinely good people.

“Hey Casey, ever since you left town, have you heard from Andrew?” Rachel asked.

Casey swallowed the remaining bits of sandwich in her mouth, “to be honest I haven’t heard from him since I left Oricon, aside from some couple of phone calls, I think he changed his phone number, I called one time to ask you about him, didn’t I?”

Rachel nodded her head in agreement. “Well, he just recently got engaged.”

“That’s great news, i’m happy for him,” Casey said smiling.

“But he is getting married to Gwen Lowe.”

The smile on Casey’s face drop, but she tried to cover it up by acting nonchalant about it, Rachel was able to catch on. She knew that she wasn’t happy with what she said, but she didn’t want to show it.

“Well, I guess I wish him all the best.” Casey said, her smile went from genuine to fake in an instant.

The conversation went to another topic entirely as soon as her mom caught sight of Casey uneasiness.

After Dinner, Casey offered to clean up, but her mom declined saying that both her and Rachel would take care of it, that she was probably tired from the day’s activity, that she should go to her room and rest.

Casey entered her room, turning on the light to chase away the darkness. On seeing her room, a wave of nostalgia hit her. Her room was still the same nothing much had change. Looked like her mom had been cleaning and arranging it every now and then.

There was big poster of a boyband that she used to obsess over during her teen years, it was suited by her bed post, her small book shelf that was by the corner of her bedroom, which hosted so many scripts and books about acting was dusted, her hands ran over the spine of each book. Recollecting the memories of her teenage years.

She went her bedside table, and saw something placed on it, it was a letter from Andrew, and with that letter came a gift, a pretty necklace that she was currently wearing.

She removed the necklace and place it next to the letter, the thought of Andrew being engaged to Gwen gnawing at her insides. Of all the girls in Oricon, it just had to be Gwen.

For all she knew, she might have changed. But Andrew definitely had a type that’s for sure. Casey chuckled at the thought of Andrew getting engaged to Gwen.

She shook her head off such thoughts, she was here to shoot a movie not to think about a man that had probably forgotten about her.