“Donavan didn’t do that,” I said.
Grant didn’t look like he believed me. He just put the sunglasses back on. “Keep your head down.”
At home my dad was sitting watching television. It felt like I hadn’t seen him in forever. He turned off the TV but didn’t stand. I sat next to him. I was tempted to tell him about the article but I knew how he’d react and I didn’t need that tonight. Plus, there was still something I needed to get off my chest.
Instead of jumping right into my complaints though, I started with “How was your date the other night? I didn’t know you were dating anyone.”
“I’m not, really. Just someone I met . . .” He trailed off like he didn’t want to finish that sentence.
“I assumed it was someone you had met.”
He didn’t smile like I expected him to, just patted the arm of the couch. “I met her on set.”
“On set?” At first the words didn’t make sense to me out of context like that. “Wait, do you mean on my set?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Leah.”
“The makeup artist? That Leah?”
He nodded. “Does that bother you?”
I thought about it. I already had enough drama on set, I didn’t need my dad creating more complications. “I don’t know, Dad. Sort of. It sort of bothered me when I heard you were going to put an ad in my school newspaper for a tutor too.”
“Donavan told you?”
“I wish you would have told me.”
“I’m sorry, but I had run out of options. I’d called all the students from the tutoring list. I’d gone to a tutoring center, but they didn’t have anyone willing to travel, not for the amount of money I could pay. It was my Hail Mary.”
I laid my head back on the couch, feeling more tired than I realized. “I wish you would’ve just listened to me and let me do the work on my own.” I didn’t really wish that, because then I wouldn’t have met Donavan. But right now, it’s what I felt.
“I’m sorry, but, Lacey, you weren’t doing the work on your own. Let’s not rewrite history here.”
“You’re right.”
He coughed a little as though surprised.
“I know. I don’t say that very much. It’s not my fault you’re rarely right.”
He laughed, and I smiled. Then we both sat there in silence until he said, “So you want me to stop seeing Leah?”
“You like her?”
“I do.”
It would be so selfish of me not to let my dad have a relationship because it was someone I worked with. I was seventeen. Almost grown up. My dad needed a life even if it might make things even more complicated at work. “I like her too. She’s always been nice to me. You should see where it leads.”
My dad ran a hand over my hair. “Thanks, I was hoping you’d say that.”
I stood up. “Just no more surprises.”
He held his right arm up as though making a vow. “No more surprises.”
I walked back toward my room. I hadn’t even come close to saying everything to my dad that I’d wanted to, everything I’d realized I felt when I was talking on the phone to Donavan the other night. But I was tired, and he seemed happy, and it was hard.
Dancing Graves
EXT. CAVE ENTRANCE—NIGHT
SCARLETT, getting worse each day, carries a bag of supplies toward the cave where she has gathered the zombies. The first sign of trouble is bloody footprints in the dirt leading away from the cave. She drops her armful of things and goes to investigate. Nobody is left. All she finds is carnage. There was only one person who knew about this location. He had betrayed her.
SCARLETT
(whispers)
Benjamin.
All the rage she’d been suppressing lights a fire in her chest. She is unleashed.
Twenty-Four
I arrived at makeup early the next day and wondered if it would be weird to see Leah. Had my dad told her that he told me? I didn’t have a chance to analyze what was or wasn’t said because Leah was frantic when I reached her station. She was picking up things on the table and moving them a couple of inches only to pick them up again. She moved to the couch in the room and started looking under the cushions. When she saw me she let out a big sigh. “Please tell me you have it.”
“Have what?” I couldn’t help but stare at Leah with my new knowledge that she was dating my dad. I had never noticed before how edgy she was, or at least never thought about it. Way edgier than my dad. She had several tattoos down her arms, a nose ring, and cute choppy purple hair.
“Your premade cheek section,” she said, bringing me back to the moment.
“Why would I have that? You always take it.”
She cursed under her breath, then went back to the couch cushions.
“Is it missing?”
“Yes.”
Crap. Crap, crap, crap! So I wasn’t being paranoid at all. Someone was messing with things on set. Did this have to do with the conversation I’d heard in the hall? Did someone not want me here? Was someone trying to make me look bad? But this newest sabotage would be more of a reflection on Leah than me. Maybe the person didn’t realize that I wasn’t in charge of that zombie piece.
I immediately started helping Leah look. I began at one end of the room and thoroughly inspected everything. It wasn’t until I was to the other end of the room that I said, “I’ll be right back. I’m going to check a few places.”
“Do you have any ideas?”
“Maybe.”
She shooed her hand in my direction. “Go. Hurry.”
The only place I could think to look was where I’d found my kneepads. Maybe the thief had put the zombie cheek in the same place. But when I got to the dark set and opened every single desk drawer, it wasn’t there.
It was early, but I decided to head to the row of trailers anyway. Grant’s security guards let me through, and soon I was pounding on Grant’s door. He answered, pulling a shirt on, then running a hand through his hair.
“What is it? Did you want to practice our kissing scene again? Just let me brush my teeth.”
“Have you seen my zombie face?” I pointed to my cheek.
“Yeah.”
I took a breath of relief. “You have?”
“Of course. I see it all the time.”
“No, I mean off my face.”
He shook his head. “No. Why?”
“It’s missing.”
“That’s weird.”
“You still think it’s nothing?” I asked. “That someone is not purposely messing with things?”
“I think there are a lot of hands moving things around and yes, things happen. Accidents.”
“Whatever. I’ll see you later.” I ran toward Amanda’s trailer and pounded on her door.
She opened it. “Where’s the fire?”
“Did you take my zombie face?” Maybe she’d been pranking me like she had that day in the shower.
“What? No.”
“That’s too bad.”
“You wished I had?”
“Yes, actually. Then I’d have it now. It’s been taken.”
“By who?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll come help you look for it. It probably just got misplaced.” She stepped out in what she was wearing—shorts and a tank top without shoes. It was pretty similar to my outfit, except I wore flip-flops. We rushed back to makeup together.
“Tell me you found it,” Leah said when we arrived.
“No, we didn’t.”
She released a slow breath. “I guess I need to go tell Remy the bad news.”
She left, and Amanda and I looked at each other, then began searching the room again.
“What will happen if we can’t find it?” I asked.
“They’ll have to make another one, which could take a day or two. Did you finish all your human scenes yesterday?”
“The ones that take place here in the studio.”
“Then I guess you get an unexpected day or two off. Yay?”
I closed my eyes. I was thinking this would be worse for Leah than me, but had this been the end game—to make sure I wasn’t on set for a couple of days?
“It will be okay,” Amanda said.
“I’m going to go look in my trailer,” I said. “Maybe someone stashed it there to frame me.”
“I’ll come with you.”
We searched the trailer for quite some time. “Do you honestly think this is just a series of accidents?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve seen enough weird things on set to think that maybe it is.”
“But that article wasn’t an accident.”
“That’s true.”
There was a knock on the door. “Come in,” I said.
Noah poked his head in and said, “Remy’s called a meeting you both need to be at.”
“When?” Amanda asked.
“Now,” he said, and shut the door.
“Well, let’s go face the music,” Amanda said.
I stayed where I was on the floor by my wardrobe. Amanda walked over and held her hand out for me. “Are you seriously worried?”
“Yes. I don’t know why someone would do this.”