Junior Year Box Set

“I hired a new you, Caryn Buckley, and I need to hire you to get her up to speed,” I said.

“Why does that name sound familiar?”

“She was Devin’s PA,” I said.

“Finally! You’re getting your pound of flesh. I wish I were there when he heard. Is he pissed?”

“He doesn’t know yet.”

“Can I call him? I would love to do it for you,” she pleaded.

“No, I believe Caryn wants that honor. Don’t ruin her fun. Cora finally went too far, and I’m the beneficiary of that little fiasco.”

“I don’t think Devin realized what he had in Caryn.”

“Yeah, I agree. So, can you help me out?” I asked.

“In fact, our agreement was to get your team up to speed, so this is covered in the settlement.”

“Could you maybe pick Caryn up at the airport?” I floated out there.

“You’ll owe me, but I can do that for you. Do you have her flight information?”

“You’re the best, Kendal. She’s booking her flight now. When I get the information, I’ll text you.”

“Remember, you’ll owe me.”

I just shook my head. What could Kendal possibly want that could be that bad? I next called Saul Gessler, my movie agent.

“Hey, Saul.”

“David, I’m glad you called me back. I have some scripts I need you to read.”

In the background, I heard, “Saul, you have Chubby Feldman on line three.”

“Stacy, can’t you see I’m on the fucking phone with a client?”

“But you said to tell you as soon as Mr. Feldman called.”

“Sorry about that, David. It’s hard to get good help sometimes,” Saul explained.

“Tell Chubby I said ‘Hi,’” I said.

“You know Chubby Feldman?”

“Yeah. Craig Wild and I went to a party at his house. Chubby seemed like a nice guy. I especially liked his party hos.”

Charles ‘Chubby’ Feldman was one of the hottest action directors in the business right now. I would kill to be in one of his films.

“I like you, David,” Saul laughed. “That’s good news because one of the scripts I sent you is his project. Read the scripts and call me. I have to take this other call.”

Saul hung up on me. If I didn’t realize my life was about to change, the next call confirmed it. I called Frank Ingram, my publicist.

“Frank, how’s it going?”

“I’ve got good news,” he started, without any preliminaries. “We have lined up interviews with Variety, Entertainment Weekly, and Seventeen. I’m working on getting you the covers to coincide with the release of your movie, but they all want interviews

now since you’re the next big thing. Saul wants to create a buzz because he wants to get you some work while you’re in LA.”

“Yeah, whatever,” I said, slightly stunned.

“Okay, I’ll confirm it.”

“Uh, Frank. I have a new manager, Caryn Buckley. Could you coordinate everything with her?” I asked.

“Look at you. You finally have people. I’ll talk to her to get it scheduled. They want to do it in the next couple of days to meet their deadlines,” he said and then changed the subject. “I’ve checked, and Brandon has pulled all his blogs and attack websites. I guess Ms. Dixon got the message across, but we’ll continue to monitor what’s going on.”

“That sounds good. Thanks, Frank. Oh, Caryn won’t be here until tomorrow, so just go ahead with scheduling the interviews and let me know.”

Frank then told me about what he and Lily had been doing with social media. He seemed excited about the increase in followers I had.

I finally begged off the call with Frank, since I had to study for the finals I would sit for starting a week from Friday. I had one last call to make, and I dreaded it.

“Hey, Angie. What did you need?” I asked.

“You’re invited to our party next Wednesday.”

That was the day before Thanksgiving.

“I have a standing date with Beth then,” I said to try to get out of it.

“Beth has a boyfriend. Anyway, Beth, Suzanne, and Cindy are all coming, and they specifically asked if you’d be here. Also, Greg said you had to come.”

I was a little disappointed to hear that my annual date with Beth was canceled. Mr. Happy would be devastated when I told him. I hadn’t seen Cindy in quite a while. I also always loved to hang out with Suzanne. It would be fun to hang out with my three favorite older ladies.

“Okay. I’ll be there.”

“Great. I’ll text you everything I need you to bring. Love you,” Angie said and hung up.

A few minutes later, I had a list that was a mile long. I sent a text back that I would just give her money. I didn’t have time to shop for her party. That would be Angie’s Christmas present this year.

◊◊◊

Chapter 10 – I Will Dare Thursday November 19

I was in my college prep class when I received a text from Kendal. It was a picture of her and Caryn at Morton’s, eating a steak for lunch. I quickly realized that I was paying for that lunch. They looked a little too happy, and I wondered how evil Kendal was going to be. She had way too much dirt on me that Caryn had no business knowing.