Startling Enthusiasm
Leo Foster nursed the fresh bruise on his leg, kicked for no good reason.
After dabbing some cream on it, he headed downstairs.
As he left, his eyes lingered on Wyatt Riggs and Shane Croft.
There was something about the two guys from Avery's hometown...
a look in their eyes, sharp and intense, just like the bodyguards who always flanked Julian.
They had to be ex-military.
You had to give it to him. For a guy who could be pretty naive, Leo had a sharp eye for people.
Avery was scheduled to join the film crew for *The World's Game* the next day, so she decided to spend the morning bunkered down at home, studying. But this time, she wasn't just winging it by watching random videos. She was following the lesson plan Alden Pierce had sent over.
The first lesson Alden taught her wasn't about crying or rage, but something much simpler: smiling.
He had her bite down on a chopstick, forcing her facial muscles to learn the curve of a perfect smile through sheer repetition.
While she held the chopstick between her teeth, she also had to focus on her eyes, making sure they were smiling, too.
The exercise took two hours a day, broken into four or five sessions. By the end of each one, Avery's cheeks were completely numb.
After smiling came emotional training, and the first step was all about her eyes.
This was some next-level stuff, way beyond the simple mimicry she'd been trying on her own.
Alden wanted her to dig up her rawest emotional memories and channel those feelings into her gaze until her eyes could tell a story all on their own.
Avery stared into the mirror, her expression going from stiff and blank until, finally, she saw a flicker of life ripple in her own reflection.
After a full day of it, she was wiped. *Damn,* she thought. *No job is easy.*
Luckily, she wasn't the only one cramming.
Wyatt wasn't having a much easier time of it.
While Avery practiced in the mirror, he was parked on the couch with headphones on, watching videos about the essential skills for an actor's assistant and the unwritten rules of surviving in the industry.
Shane, meanwhile, had left first thing that morning to track down the driver of the van.
The next morning, Avery was set to join the cast of *The World's Game*. Shane drove her to the set while Wyatt stayed home to keep studying.
"Avery's here!" Screenwriter Jude Finch dropped what he was doing and strode over to greet her. "Quick, I got the costume designer to whip something up for you overnight. Go get changed, see if it fits!"
His over-the-top enthusiasm was so startling that Avery instinctively took a step back. Anyone who didn't know better might've thought he was trying to kidnap her.
It wasn't just Avery who was confused; even the principal actors on set thought the screenwriter was laying it on a little thick.
All eyes turned to Avery. The male leads had met her two days ago and knew she was a featured actor, but the other actresses had no idea who she was.
They started whispering among themselves as they sized her up, all of them suspicious she was some plant from the investors, here to steal one of their roles.
"Hello, Mr. Finch." Avery pretended she hadn't caught their murmurs and greeted him politely.
"Hello, hello! Your scenes are this afternoon. Go try on the costume. If it doesn't fit, we can alter it on the spot." Maybe realizing he'd been a bit much, Jude toned down his grin and waved over a staff member, telling her to take Avery to the dressing room.
After Avery disappeared, the female lead, Sadie Vance, gathered the hem of her costume and leaned toward Jude. "Mr. Finch, who was that? What part is she playing?"
The second Sadie asked, every other actress on set perked up, listening in.
*The World's Game* was an A-list blockbuster series, and all the important female roles had been cast long before filming started. The parts weren't huge, but a role in a Simon Vance production was a major career boost. No one wanted to get replaced.
"That's Mrs. Hayes," Jude said casually. "She's playing Ning Niang."
The actresses stared. A featured actor? *That's* why you were so worked up? You had us thinking our jobs were on the line.
Jude was a veteran screenwriter; he'd been on sets for years and knew exactly what they were thinking.
But his excitement had nothing to do with any of that.
He'd been casually scrolling through trending topics when he stumbled across the media firestorm between Avery and the Sterling family, and discovered she was a student of the renowned Professor Joel Finch.
Professor Joel Finch. A titan in the medical field. More than half of the country's most famous doctors had studied under him.
With connections that powerful, who wouldn't want to stay on her good side? Besides, he had a favor to ask.
Jude glanced at them sideways. "You shouldn't just have your assistants tracking celebrity gossip. Maybe watch the actual news once in a while. Mrs. Hayes has been trending on X for two days straight."
He was right. She was still trending.
Warren Sterling had been taken down by a scheme cooked up by Avery and Caleb Sterling, and the Sterling family's company was now facing a massive online boycott.
The more hate the Sterlings got, the more public support Avery received.
The company's PR team, having clearly learned from past mistakes, was much smarter this time.
While building buzz for Avery, they never once mentioned she was an actress, framing her purely as the victim in the whole affair.
As for her public image, Dexter felt it was already perfect. There was no need to force anything. Avery's reputation didn't really need the company's help, after all. A doctor with a master's degree who quits her job to take the bar exam? Does a person like that really need an image consultant?
Avery was basically climbing a ladder built from the Sterlings' downfall. After the story blew up, her follower count on X had shot past five million in just two days.
Five million followers in two days. That was insane, viral growth, the kind of numbers A-list stars see after a hit show drops.
Jude's words left Sadie Vance and the other actresses baffled, so they all rushed off to find their assistants and grab their phones. They had to see what was so special about this featured actor that had Mr. Finch practically bowing down to her.
It didn't take long for them to find out. And when they did, they all cringed. Hard.
"God, this is so embarrassing."
For them, as drama majors, just barely passing their core classes had been a miracle.
And now some certified genius who'd scored over seven hundred on her college entrance exams had just wandered onto their set.
No wonder Mr. Finch was so wound up. Just the night before, at a crew dinner, Director Vance and Mr. Finch had been complaining about how the public thought their entire industry was full of idiots.
"People who couldn't even pass basic classes are trying to deliver these profound performances," they'd grumbled. "It's a joke. They should learn how to be functional human beings first."
What shocked the actresses even more was Avery's backstory. The whole thing read like something out of an underdog movie.
They all fell silent. None of them wanted to read any more about her. The more they learned, the more insecure they felt.
Sadie Vance stared at her phone, her nails digging into her palms without her even realizing it. "With credentials like that, what is she doing here acting?"
The young actress next to her muttered, "Five million followers in two days. I've been in this business for six years and I only have ten million, and I guarantee you half of those are bots."
This featured actor was on another level. In an industry that, behind the scenes, respected serious brainpower far more than anyone on the outside would ever guess, her academic background was a rare and valuable currency.
Just what they needed. Another rival for the spotlight.