A month has passed, and Sarah's been enjoying life as Silvermist in the park, but can she handle life as a celebrity TV actress? She still gets nervous meeting "real" celebrities! And how will HRT affect her ability to play the role?
A month has passed, and Sarah's been enjoying life as Silvermist in the park, but can she handle life as a celebrity TV actress? She still gets nervous meeting "real" celebrities! And how will HRT affect her ability to play the role?
“Honey, I’m home,” Sarah called jokingly as she came through the door to the apartment she shared with Olivia. Olivia had already been home for a bit, as Sarah had to go back to her parents’ to go over Annie’s contract as a Lost Girl.
“Hey stranger,” Olivia laughed as she climbed out of the pool, stopping at the edge to towel herself off. “How did it go with your parents?”
“They took it pretty darn well.. Annie’s so excited too, she’s a massive fan of Mark and Juliette - I mean Megan.” Sarah sighed. “Hard to believe that used to be Mark though.”
“I know right?” Olivia giggled. “Gennine is surprisingly cool with us taking off for the big time too.”
“Yeah,” Sarah said as she sat down on the sofa and picked up her art tablet. It was an expensive Wacom Intuos Pro with its own display, unlike the old Bamboo she had been using before her little sister geeked out her PC setup.
“Annie loaned me a thumb drive with some kind of lost episode where Mark comes out as Megan. I promised her I’d watch it, but I keep forgetting,” Sarah laughed. “I’ll watch it tonight for sure, after girls’ night.”
“Put it on the big T.V. so we can watch it together?” Olivia asked. “I actually really liked that show, plus we have a few hours before girl’s night.”
“Oh, good idea!” Sarah said as she jumped up and ran into her office. She returned a moment later with a sparkling pink translucent thumb drive. There was no question whatsoever that it was Annie’s or Sarah’s. Sarah walked over to the flat screen mounted on the wall, and began to inspect it, front, bottom, and sides. “Uhh...” she said, confused.
Olivia giggled softly as she watched for a moment, before offering to help. “It’s on the bottom but it’s kinda in the back a bit. You can feel it if you stick your finger up under the edge.”
“Sticking my finger in a light socket when I was three taught me never to repeat it,” Sarah laughed, instead getting down on her knees to look up underneath. “Oh there you are,” she said, trying to fumble the drive into place. It didn’t fit. She turned it over, and it slid right in. “Oh, so that’s what that weird symbol means.”
“You know I don’t think I’ve ever used it before. Oh, just give me a second to change,” she added as Sarah sat down on the sofa again. She picked up the digital art pad again, this time managing to turn it on, and began to add defining lines to her latest Silvermist sketch.
“You know what amazes me about CGI?” Sarah spoke, “The way they can actually shrink us down to real pixie size when we fly in, or create pixie magic that looks so realistic. I was talking with Regina in the art department and she showed off a realistic tidal wave that’s perfect for Silvermist.”
“Oh I know right?” Olivia said as she came back. “At first I thought they wanted us as voice actresses or something. I wasn’t expecting full on live action.”
“Neither was I. I was sort of embarrassed when Rob yelled Action, and I was like um..” Sarah giggled.
“You did great,” Olivia giggled as she snuggled into Sarah. “I was a nervous wreck. And I thought poor Jade was going to blow pixie dust,” she laughed as Sarah put her art pad down again, exchanging it for the TV remote, which she promptly offered to Olivia.
“All I know is,” Sarah sighed, “I’m going to enjoy tonight. I have plenty of steam that needs to be elsewhere.” She giggled. “We shall paint the air blue at IHOP tonight.”
“Was it IHOP?” Olivia laughed. “I lost track of where we were going on our wheel of destinations,” she joked. It had become something of a tradition to hit a different restaurant every other girls’ night, while returning to their favorite diner the next week. She raised the remote and switched it over to the USB-reading channel, and booted up the bootleg video.
Sarah leaned into Olivia as the traditional theme song played, only as the logo ‘My Brother Mark’ displayed, a CG graphic of the words ‘Brother Mark’ being crossed out appeared, and the look and sound of someone scribbling in ‘Sister Megan’ appeared underneath.
So far the Pixie Hollow crew had only faced one day of filming, but it was a longer, harder day than any of them had pulled working at the park. And it was only June. As Sarah came out of the bedroom, putting in a set of small gold plated hoop earrings, someone buzzed from downstairs.
“Lost Girls calling!” Megan and Juliette chimed in unison and giggled.
“Hey! Come on up!” Sarah buzzed them in over the intercom to open the front for them. Sarah opened the door, waiting for the elevator in the doorway.
Megan whistled as she stepped off the elevator, looking around. Several framed pictures, including some iconic Disney character portraits, were hung around the hallway, as well as various landscapes, and a few abstract works. Juliette waved, but she was as fascinated as Megan, with a big portrait of Tinkerbell, Silvermist, and the others sitting on a hill, watching the sun set over the horizon.
“Wow,” Megan giggled out. “That’s it. I want to work on a Tinkerbell movie so I can get cool promo art like this too.”
Sarah laughed. “Oh, that’s not promo work. I painted that a couple of years ago.”
“Wow, seriously?” Megan gasped. “Sarah this is amazing. This belongs in a Disney museum or something,” she teased. “Hey, thanks for inviting us out tonight,” she added. “You really didn’t have to.”
“We know from hearing you guys giggle about it that girls’ night is important to you,” Juliette added. “We’re really honored.”
Olivia giggled as she came to the door. “And we know how stressful filming can be, having to do retakes of retakes and getting everything just right. We figured you needed this as much as we did,” she said.
“Oh,” Sarah spoke up as they let the girls inside their main apartment. They owned the entire floor, but considered the actual living area ‘their apartment’. The rest was being renovated as studio space. “Just so you know, we’re not a drinking crowd. I’m not saying that because of your age though. I got the same warning when I joined.” She laughed.
“We’ve both tried it.. I sure don’t like it.” Megan said.
Sarah nodded. “Me either. I can’t hold my liquor at all, and Kelly is actually allergic.”
“The biker girl who plays Periwinkle?” Juliette asked. “Wow. That makes me feel better.”
Olivia nodded, adding, “It’s the taste that gets me. When I was your age a well meaning uncle gave me a sip of his,” she paused to make finger quotes, “‘homemade wine’. It tasted so bad, I could never go near the stuff again.”
“I think that’s the biggest reason Disney doesn’t want to let us go,” Juliette said dryly. “Megan and I don’t like to party.”
“But they don’t know what to do with us either,” Megan laughed. “We’re like the poster children for normal, except for the whole TG and possibly lesbian thing.”
“Nope we’re a pair.. it’s in our contract.” Juliette winked. “You can’t have one without the other unless we both agree to it.”
“I don’t really get why the TG thing would even matter though,” Sarah said. “I mean they were thrilled to have me as a park actress, and I know for a fact I’m not the first trans girl they’ve hired.”
“The whole boat rocking thing,” Megan answered. “They’re getting better about it, like I know for a fact there’s a lesbian couple in an upcoming animated movie,” she added, grinning innocently. “But you didn’t hear that.”
“But Disney has an old school image, and people expect certain things from them.” Juliette sighed.
“Ohhh,” Sarah nodded. “That makes sense. It’s like how as park actresses we have to keep a certain look or we can’t play our characters anymore. Don’t rock the boat.” She giggled a bit.
“Speaking of,” Megan sighed, “I had to add walking and jogging to my list of daily activities.” she motioned to her backside, and Juliette gave her a playful hip bump.
Sarah frowned. “Seriously? I thought it wouldn’t matter as much for a TV role, especially with you guys as creative consultants.”
“She has image issues..” Juliette winked. “She had them as Mark too.”
“Sarah’s the same way,” Olivia chimed in. “She’s constantly checking that her hair or makeup or boobs are perfect,” she teased.
“I think you found your walking partner.” Juliette giggled.
“Absolutely,” Sarah laughed. “I do tai chi in the morning, so I’m already up and around early. Anytime you want to go walking or jogging just give me a call, or a text.”
Megan started to sing, and Sarah and Juliette joined in on the second or third word, “Call me beep me if you wanna reach me. If you wanna page me it’s okay.”
“Oh, I love Kim Possible,” Kelly, dressed rather nicely in a spaghetti strap knee length plum colored dress over a short sleeved white top, which showed off all of her arm and wrist tattoos, said as she appeared in the doorway, holding the hand of a honey blonde haired girl with her hair in a white Alice band.
“Oh, FYI, we have three weeks before air of the pilot episode after we’re done filming it.” Megan smiled. “AMC seems to want to push it out, it might be Disney forcing their hands though.”
Juliette grinned. It was as if they planned to bring it up right when Kelly arrived. “We’re hoping that Periwinkle can atleast make an appearance in the Pilot, and then we can use her as we need her.”
Kelly laughed. “I’ll be honest. I made up that line on the spot because, if you do steal the others permanently, someone’s got to stay and train the new crop. Geninne's been looking for more girls to play us anyway, so we’re not being run to death. But yeah, I’d love to do cameo shots if you need Peri. It’d be fun.”
Megan laughed, “It’s in the contract that you can leave the show and return to the park any time you want. I’ve seen how much you girls like being the Pixie hollow girls, so I made sure you had an out.”
“Especially Silvermist,” Juliette giggled out. “I mean whoever they get to play her when Sarah’s busy has to pull double duty as an actress and lifeguard.”
“Sarah’s going to be a hard shoe to fill.” Olivia nodded.
Sarah looked down at her feet, and in her best Silvermist voice, said “Hey, Fawn’s feet are bigger than mine!” causing everyone to laugh.
“I didn’t want to say anything, but Megan and I were told last night, that the production crew is looking for some property here in Florida. They’re trying to find it near Orlando since the New Zealand deal fell through”
“It’s kind of a shame,” Megan sighed. “We were really looking forward to doing the full show in New Zealand, but Dad agrees with the AMC people. It’d be easier on you guys too.”
“That and finding extra’s is easier here stateside.” Juliette nodded. “And honestly... We really don’t want to lose you,” she giggled out. “When Megan texted me a picture of Tink, i was like ‘This girl is Tinkerbell. We have to have her’. Then she met Silvermist.”
Sarah laughed. “God, that was a crazy day. I really only just started working at the park, but I’d been doing the Pixie Hollow voices for my little sister for a long time.”
“Bull,” Megan laughed. “I refuse to believe you haven’t been there at least a year.”
Sarah shook her head. “Nope. Actually I’m still kind of learning how to be a girl too.”
“Same here on that part.” Megan laughed, “I mean sure I got to have a nice small time off and get to relax and stuff, but there’s still stuff about being a girl that’s just like ‘woah’. Did you know, if you eat too much, it goes to your hips and your butt?”
“Oh man,” Sarah whined, “And I was going to load up on the pancakes tonight. I’m so hungry.”
“Hey that’s what walking’s for.” Juliette giggled, “Don’t let her get you down.”
“Speaking of,” Olivia giggled, “The others are going to meet us there. You two need a ride?” she asked.
“Oh we have a car.” Juliette shook her head.
“Sweet,” Sarah said as she grabbed her purse.. “Liv and I can catch a ride with Kelly and Christina.”
“Juliette and I have been kind of independant for a long while, so we have a hired car that usually takes us anywhere we want to go.”
“My parents are like that,” Sarah nodded. “It drives Annie crazy though. One of her friends is like, one of those helicopter parents, constantly hovering. Our mom though? You’ll be lucky to pull her out of her studio when she’s in her Zen place listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd on 11. And Dad’s in a punk band, so... yeah.” She laughed.
“My dad’s a producer/director, my mom’s a talent agent slash manager, Juliette’s mom is too, and her dad’s a Football guy so he’s never around till offseason.” Megan nodded as they stepped off the elevator together. “It’s funny how much we have in common.”.
Sarah giggled. “Yeah. It really is. You remind me so much of Annie. Sometimes I forget she’s only 13.”
“Biggest diff is, we were actresses the entire time.” Juliette nodded. “I’m not going to lie to you, acting in the park and acting on camera are two very different things. But I guess you figured that out today huh?”
“Amen to that,” Olivia groaned. “We gained a whole new respect for what you guys do all the time and this was just the first day,” she laughed, waving as the girls got into their car.
The car pulled away, but didn’t go straight to IHOP, instead heading for another residential suburb first.
Annie came running out of a rather large two story as the car pulled up to a stop on the street to wait for Christina to pull away again. Annie hopped in the backseat of Christina’s new SUV, and soon enough they were off again. They pulled into the IHOP parking lot, where the group of young women had already gathered just outside to wait for them.
Olivia waved to everyone, “Hey guys. Had to stop and get Annie first.”
“Sorry,” Annie said wryly. “I meant to come to Sarah and Olivia’s sooner, but I kind of pulled a Mom and got lost in my work.” She still had some paint on her hands, but it was dried by now and would take a good scrubbing to remove. She sheepishly buried her fingertips in the pockets of her jeans.
A woman carrying an expensive DSLR camera around her neck approached but stayed back a small distance, “Hey is that Juliette and Megan with you guys?” she asked the girls. Juliette recognized her right off, but Megan hadn’t seen her face yet.
Megan groaned quietly, but Juliette grinned. “Oh! Hi Amanda!” She waved and approached, dragging Megan with her. “What’s up?”
“I won’t keep you girls too long, but do you mind if I take a picture of you all?” Amanda asked, “And ask you two some questions?”
“I don’t mind,” Juliette said brightly, turning to the others. “I promise Amanda’s cool. She’s with TMZ. They’re super respectful.”
“I actually ask before I snap.” Amanda laughed.
Megan giggled, relaxing. “Oh, Juliette told me about you. Sure, I don’t mind.” The others nodded or gave their general verbal agreement.
“Great! I just want you girls to know Juliette and Megan pictures are going for around a grand right now: just a heads up.” Amanda laughed, as she took a shot of all the girls in the parking lot that were there to hang out. Megan put one arm around Juliette and the other around Annie, the three grinning as the older girls crowded around them. Kelly tried to hide in the back, but Christina pulled her closer.
“So my only questions are,” Amanda winked, “Foremost, are you girls filming something together?”
“Well,” Megan said, “Annie, Juliette and I are. These gals are part of our film crew.”
“I won’t press on that.” Amanda said, “Ok one final question, Juliette are you and Megan finally dating? TMZ really wants to know. Our boss is a massive fan of yours,” she added. “He’s got several signed pictures of yours in his office.”
Juliette giggled as she looked at Megan and grinned. “Are we dating?”
Megan laughed, “That’s the billion dollar question. I think that our true fans already know the answer.”
Juliette glanced at Amanda just long enough to shoot her a mischievous grin. Amanda’s reporter instincts kicked in and she raised her camera just in time to catch a close-up of Juliette planting a kiss right on Megan’s lips.
“The first PDA we’ve ever done, and it’s for TMZ only,” Megan managed to giggle out as the others headed inside.
“I’ll make sure to watermark it so it can’t be lifted off the website easily,” Amanda laughed. “Thank you so much girls. I hope I didn’t keep you long.”
“Not at all, thanks Amanda.” Juliette waved as they followed the others inside. “She’s like the coolest Rotzi I’ve ever met.”
Sarah laughed. “She’s one of those rare breed of artistic photogs. I love those kinds.”
“So you two have a grand bounty on your heads huh?” Olivia asked. “Nice save on calling us your film crew by the way. Gennine would lay ten kinds of eggs if our names got out.” She laughed.
“Well for one, we can’t use your names till after the pilot airs.” Megan nodded, “And for two, Annie’s got a massive week ahead of her. They’re going to be doing a back story on her character now.”
“Which means it’ll be back to the park for us,” Carol laughed softly. “At least after our part’s finished this week.”
“Till after the pilot airs and we start filming the season.” Juliette nodded. “Oh God you guys have to meet Lynn the girl they got to play Hook’s daughter, Captain Steele. She’ll be on set Monday I think.”
“Is she the one we get to kill?” Annie giggled.
“No, she’s our recurring Enemy.” Megan giggled. “Peter Pan has Captain Hook. We get Captain Steele. They’ve already got three episodes written, we’re going to be doing about 15 per season.”
“Lost Girls party,” Juliette giggled out as a waitress approached them.
“Oh sure! Right this way ladies,” she said without missing a beat. Sarah laughed.
“AMC warned them we were coming huh?” she teased.
“Megan and I have watch dogs from the studio. I’m sure they’re in here somewhere.” Juliette giggled again. “Annie will have one starting Monday too.”
Sarah grinned over Annie’s shoulder. “Well, you’re always complaining about Mom never being around. Careful what you wish for.”
Annie groaned, and then laughed. “Yeah, no kidding.”
“... And the guy is like ‘Oh my God, you’re Debby Ryan!’. Poor Debby’s like ‘Oh God, please don’t be a stalker, please don’t be crazy’,” Juliette giggled. “Next thing you know he’s dragging his sister over to meet her. Turned out it was the girl’s birthday. It was really sweet.”
Megan giggled, “There were several times like that filming MBM, I missed a lot of them because, well you know, but yeah.” she shrugged. “After I decided to become Megan a lot of things have changed, for one I haven't missed much of anything cool.” she winked.
“Can I ask you a serious question?” Sarah asked as she put down her fork, having polished off her third plate of pancakes by now. The others were in various states of wishing they hadn’t eaten that last pancake as they sat around the large table, laughing and relaxing.
“Hey, we’re going to be family, “ Megan said, grinning as she licked some syrup off the corner of her mouth, foregoing a napkin entirely. “So you can ask away.”
“Did you have problems with depression?” Sarah asked.
“A lot,” Megan answered. She paused, took a sip of her soda, and let out a quiet burp. “This last movie Juliette and I did kinda hit home,” she sighed. “I was on a cocktail of antidepressants up until a year ago when I started living as Megan full time. it started out as a way to avoid being hounded, after my sister’s director mistook me for a girl and asked me to play that bit role in Dark Days. But I started to realize I didn’t need the drugs anymore.”
Sarah nodded. “See I had the same experience. My therapist has put me off my ADs completely. I even developed gynecomastia from one of them,” she laughed. “So it wasn’t all bad.”
“She’s more fun to hang with without them anyway.” Olivia giggled out. Sarah nodded.
“I’m kind of jelly,” Megan teased her, that odd inflection of California and Australia co-mingling adorably as always. “Well, I shouldn’t be. You are older, but you have boobs. I just have nubs.” She pulled on her top to tighten it a little and then let out a giggle.
“Yeah, but you get to experience puberty naturally. I’ll be honest with you guys... I’m not even on HRT yet, and going through with it scares the hell out of me.” Sarah breathed a slow sigh.
“If you want I can talk with my doctor?” Megan asked. “She’s like the best of the best. She’s even talking about moving here to work with me if we do end up staying stateside for the filming.”
“I like the one I go to. She’s not pushy, but some of the things she’s telling me really do scare the crap out of me.” Sarah laughed. “You know how Disney is about its park actresses looking a certain way. If I go on HRT, my whole body could go ass-ways on me. If I can’t look like Silvermist, my career’s done.”
Megan lifted her sleeve to show Sarah were her HRT implant was placed - a tiny thing just below the skin, hardly even noticeable. “This stuff is amazing, but man does it play havoc on you for the first few months, I was turning into such a Diva for a bit there.”
“Still are,” Juliette quipped and then giggled. “But I am too. It’s just part of being a teenager or something.”
Sarah laughed. “That’s another thing. Puberty was hell the first time around. I’ll have to do it twice.”
“There’s an older girl that goes to another doctor in the place I go.” Megan smiled, “She said that she had an easier time with the hormone changes, but it differs from person to person.”
Vanessa, the light blonde better known as Rosetta, spoke up. “I don’t think Gennine would let you go, Buttercup, even if your body did go ass-over-tits on you.” She giggled.
“Really?” Sarah asked. Jade, better known as Iridessa, laughed.
“Nah, she’d just make you run laps around the park,” she teased.
“I’d pitch a fit.” Megan giggled, “You’re one of my favorite pixies in the park.” She looked at the other girls, “Don’t take it wrong, you are all good as well.”
“Oh no, we understand,” Kelly said, nodding. “Silvermist is kind of the reason we got all these massive renovations to Pixie Hollow coming, even though she’d never admit it.”
“I did notice there were a lot of work crews over there.” Megan nodded.
“It’s going to be so cute,” Annie gushed. “Silvermist’s new hut is going to be one of Hatter’s hats.” She giggled.
“Cool.” Megan cheered. “Our set designers are working on a Pixie Hollow as well. Episode 3 has us Lost Girls visiting it. The writers are still working on how we shrink down to your size though.”
“Oh that’s easy Dew Drop,” Sarah said in Silvermist’s voice. “It’s the same magic that lets us grow big when we leave the Hollow for the park.” She laughed. “Sorry. I’ve used that speech far too often the last week.”
“A little bit of Pixie dust, and some happy thoughts, just like flying.” Olivia spoke in her Tinkerbell voice.
“Oh I love that,” Juliette said as she quickly grabbed her phone. “Gotta write that one down before I forget. Okay,” she announced, putting her phone away, “Texted Uncle Rob to pass those both on to the writers.” She giggled.
“God I’ve never been more excited for anything before.” Annie bubbled. “But I really hope I do a good job as Ratchet. It’s going to be so weird. I’m like the young human version of Tinkerbell.”
Olivia laughed. “I was just thinking the exact same thing. Tink is going to absolutely adore Ratchet. I can already see her going a mile a minute babbling about her collection of lost things.”
Annie giggled and nodded. “I did read a bit ahead, and the look that Tink is supposed to give when she sees Ratchet's lab area in the Tree House... It’s going to be priceless. I’m worried about the whole accent thing though. I’m terrible at character voices.”
“Take it from someone who’s been acting most of her life. Just make her you.” Juliette said. “We didn’t choose you for Rachet because of your accent.”
Megan nodded. “Juliette and I are actually struggling with ours. I used to talk like a Californian, but spending a year in Sydney has ruined me.”
Juliette laughed. “And I sound like some weird cross between a surf chick and an Aussie. People can’t decide if I’m from South Africa or Scotland. It’s really funny because they never guess Australia, let alone L.A.”
“That’s if they don’t recognize us right off,” Megan laughed now too. “Dad says it’s a sign of a good actress though so we just kind of roll with it. But yeah, if you want to get together and work on lines ahead of time we’d love to help.”
“I know a few people who can help you cultivate an accent too.” Juliette giggled. “If you want one.”
“That would be awesome - both I mean,” Annie giggled. “AMC put me in touch with some of the acting coaches at the park too, but they seem more focused on... well, park acting. Not that that’s a bad thing, but park actors don’t work from a script.”
“Exactly. Park acting is a good start.” Megan nodded. “But it’s only half of it.” she pulled out something from her small purse and handed one to Sarah, and a laminate one to Annie. The one for Sarah was for her Doctor/therapist, and the other was for a voice coach for Annie. She turned to Sarah, “Trust me, I have nothing against American doctors, but AU doctors, even EU doctors are way different.”
“Well, it can’t hurt to give her a call,” Sarah said as she looked down at the card. “Can’t help feeling like I’m cheating though,” she laughed. “I should at least talk to my therapist about it first, let her know I’m considering a second opinion.”
Megan nodded. “That’s a good idea actually. Like I said, they do things way differently. Sometimes getting an outside opinion makes things a lot clearer.” She winked as Annie jumped, letting out a startled squeal..
“Sorry,” she whined, blushing. “Phone’s on vibrate. It scared me,” she sighed as she took out her phone.
“Hi Crystal, what’s up?” she said quietly so as not to interrupt the ongoing conversation. They had a private dining area all to themselves, so she didn’t have to worry about other diners at least.
“What’s up?” Crystal repeated. “You’re famous girl! Twitter is crazy right now with that picture of you with Megan and Juliette.”
Annie covered her mouth, giggling behind it. Stains of blue and red from her recent project dotted her fingers still, dappled with blueberry syrup now too. “You know you could be famous too. They’re still looking for more Lost Girls.”
“Is that Crystal or Gretchen?” Juliette giggled.
“Crystal.” Annie whispered.
“They remembered my name?” Crystal asked, shocked, having overheard Juliette. Annie laughed and put Crystal on speaker.
“Hey Crystal!” the entire table cheered in unison. Crystal giggled nervously.
“Ugh, why did you put me on speaker!” she whined.
Megan laughed. “It makes it harder for you to say no?” she answered. “We’re putting Annie in touch with a voice coach to go with the acting coaches the company’s got for her. They’re super easy to work with.”
“But all those cameras...” Crystal said nervously. “Plus I almost peed when Miss Gomez talked to me at the after party the other day. Why not try Gretchen? She wants to be an actress, and she’s really good.”
“Because we want you both.” Megan giggled. “We’re going to corner her when we see her.”
“If it’s any comfort,” Olivia said with a lilt in her voice, “I’ve been working at the park for a year and I still have to fight myself not to get starstruck around celebrity guests.”
“And my first day, I blew fairy dust,” Jade giggled. “If I can play Iridessa in front of thousands of people, you can handle one camera. We’ll work with you.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Crystal said finally, “But um... Why would you want to do all that for me? Why even want me? Annie’s a great artist, and her dad and sister are famous, and Gretchen’s an amazing musician and singer. I’m literally nobody.”
“Because, we want unknown actresses and actors, for one.” Megan said, “And besides why shouldn’t we do that for you? You’re more than nobody. You’re a friend.”
Juliette picked up at that. “There’s a great saying I’ve learned. We used it in the true final episode of MBM, but I believe it with all my heart. Friends are the family that you get to choose. I know I don’t know you nearly as well as Annie, or even Megan, but I’d like to change that. You seem like a really cool, sweet girl with a lot of potential. You just need to let yourself show it.”
“Aww,” Crystal sniffed. “You guys... You’re going to make me cry,” she sighed. “Okay, I guess I can try, but I won’t promise not to be completely terrible.” She giggled.
Authors' Note:
Special thanks to our Patreon supporters. If you want to catch up a week ahead feel free to check us out On Patreon, but it's absolutely not necessary. Everything there comes here as promised! ♥
We're really excited to be able to continue this story. It's garnered a lot of praise from people outside our community, including park insiders! Thanks everyone, for continuing to ask us about our progress. We are very sorry it's taken us so long, but some stuff in Zoe's life came up re: her family including major deaths, drama, and almost losing her father twice, but we should be back in form, again!
Love,
Zoe and Ashleigh
A month has passed, and Sarah's been enjoying life as Silvermist in the park, but can she handle life as a celebrity TV actress? She still gets nervous meeting "real" celebrities! And how will HRT affect her ability to play the role?
it was 5am and Megan was up moving around. She picked up her cell phone and texted Sarah, ‘Up for a Walk?’ She really didn’t want to wake Juliette up just to go for a walk. They had been filming the last three days, and the girls had two more days of filming left for their parts.
‘Hey! Sure thing. I’ll be right over,’ Sarah texted back. Megan couldn’t help laughing a little. Sarah was the only person she knew who used full words in text instead of shorthand acronyms.
‘I’ll be outside so I don’t wake Jules.’ Megan smiled to herself as she wrote a note on the whiteboard, ‘Out for walk with Sarah’, she wrote, and then drew a heart and wrote Megan under it before she headed outside.
It was surprisingly cool for being June in Florida - not cold by any means, but in the upper 60s, or to her mind, about 20c. She had on a pair of short track shorts, and a loose tank top over her tiny sports bra.
Megan watched as a freshly waxed soft top convertible 1968 Mustang rounded the corner. Her jaw dropped a little as the car rolled to a stop in front of her, and Sarah hopped out. She was dressed in a dark green sports bra and black shorts, herself. “Cherry huh?” she laughed. “My dad fully restored it for me.”
“Sweet ass ride.” Megan giggled and tossed Sarah a water bottle.
“I brought the pepper spray,” Sarah teased, then laughed, “Not that we’ll need it. This is a better neighborhood than mine, and I live in a penthouse,” she teased.
“Plus I think I remember you saying you do tai chi,” Megan giggled. Sarah laughed and nodded as they started their walk.
“Yeah, but only the non combat forms. I mean I know those can be used as combat forms, but I’ve never tried it myself,” she said as they made their first block.
“I was thinking about Crystal,” Megan said. “I’m wondering if I should tell her I used to get wicked stage fright too.”
Sarah glanced at Megan. “Wow, really?”
Megan nodded. “Yeah. Any time I had to appear in front of a camera, I’d get almost sick with the anticipation, but once we got rolling I was okay. I’m not sure that’d help her though,” she sighed. “Because it all really changed with Megan. From the moment Young Alessa appeared on set for Dark Days onward I never felt that stage fright again.”
“Hmm,” Sarah said, nodding. “I can see how that would be a problem. But even though the circumstances are different, it just proves what the song says.”
“What song is that?” Megan asked. She immediately regretted it. “Oh God, no.”
“Let it goooo, let it gooooo,” Sarah yowled off-key. Megan groaned, and they both started laughing as someone’s dalmatian, awakened by the singing, began barking at them from behind a chain link fence.
“Sorry puppy,” Sarah giggled. “But it’s true. It’s not about becoming a girl per se. It was for us, but it’s more about being yourself.” She stopped for a moment, pretending to stretch. “We’re being followed by the way. Is that your AMC watchdog?”
Megan turned to look briefly, “Yeah, that’s the guy. We also have a girl that follows us too.”
“Oh thank God,” Sarah laughed. “I’m used to security inside the park. I just wasn’t sure if he was one of your guys or something.”
Megan leaned closer to Sarah and whispered, giggling, “He needs the exercise too,” she teased. “I’ve seen how many donuts he eats. His wife will love us.”
“You’re terrible,” Sarah giggled out. “Gennine has me scheduled to meet with a dietician though. I’m dreading it because I’m a junk food junkie. The only thing that’s kept me in shape until now is that I love to swim. Adding walking will help so much.”
“Oh, God, I forgot you’re a real lifeguard and all. You and Jules have to compare notes sometime,” Megan laughed. “She’s a natural born surfer.”
“Awesome,” Sarah said cheerfully. “The surfing around Florida is definitely different, but one of the lifeguard instructors promised to take me sometime. I’d love to go windsurfing someday too.”
“I’m not the best surfer in the world, but Jules is teaching me,” Megan said as made another block. “Oh, that place serves the best Chai tea.” she pointed at a coffee shop.
“I know it’s completely Hollywood, but,” Sarah giggled, “I adore Chai lattes. We actually moved here from L.A.not that long ago. You grew up there didn’t you?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Megan nodded. “I was born a dual citizen of Australia and the US, and when my acting career took off at the age of, like, two or three,” she laughed, “My parents moved back permanently. I visited Sydney a few times, but didn’t really go back for long until last year.”
“That’s so cool, I’ve never been to Sydney, but I kinda want to go sometime. We definitely have a lot in common it seems.”
“Your Dad’s Blackjack, right?” Megan asked. “I don’t listen to a whole lot of punk, but what I do listen to is pure UK old school.” She paused to giggle. “Well okay, I’m mostly guilty of listening to Radio Disney, but don’t tell anyone,” she teased.
“Oh I adore Radio Disney,” Sarah laughed. “Sometimes I feel like I turned 16 and just stopped growing up after that. I’d sooner hang out with my sister than go bar hopping or whatever 21 year olds are supposed to do.”
Megan laughed at that. “We have the opposite problem. Someone once told me and Jules that we were 12 going on 21. Sometimes because of our jobs we just act like adults.”
“That’s rough,” Sarah said as she shook her head. “I worry about Annie for the same reason though. Thank God she has friends who she can be herself around. You do too, for what it’s worth.” She grinned. “We’re all a bunch of total goofballs.”
They walked another block, neither of them breaking a sweat. Megan glanced at Sarah. “Want to try jogging?”
Sarah laughed. “Sure.”
“Home sweet home,” Jade laughed as she walked out into the main dressing room in her Iridessa costume. She hadn’t put her hair up yet, so it hung around her shoulders in loose curls. As she sat down at the makeup table. “Is it weird that I’m excited to be walking the park today? Filming is harder than teaching Tink to be a light fairy,” she teased.
Carol shook her head, “I don’t know; both jobs can be really rewarding. I used to work for a TV production.”
“I heard that!” Olivia giggled. “I agree with both of you. It’s hard, but kinda fun too. But I didn’t know you were on TV before?” she asked as she looked up from doing her hair, as Sarah came through the door.
“Sorry, Fairy Mary ambushed me,” Sarah said. “What about TV?”
Rosetta laughed. “Seems Miss Fawn’s been keeping secrets,” she teased. “She has actual TV production experience.”
“No big,” Fawn laughed. “I was on a cable TV show for kids, and when I got older I worked behind the scenes. What did Fairy Mary want though?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Just to let me know to let you guys know that we’ll be holding ‘Replacement’ auditions soon.”
“Aww, that’s great!” Olivia laughed. “You know you’ve made it into Princessdom when there are a small army of you ready to take your place.” She giggled at that. “Poor Silvermist’s though. They have mandatory lifeguard training too. I’ll be amazed if anyone applies for her role.”
Jade giggled at that. “Oh gosh that reminds me... Tomorrow evening after filming, I’m getting my first aid certification.”
“Sweet.” Sarah giggled. “If you want to get lifeguard certification I can train you.”
Jade shook her head. “No thanks. I’m terrified of water. Every time I get on the Black Pearl I’m afraid something will happen again and I’ll be the one in the drink.”
Kelly, already dressed as Periwinkle, breezed through the room looking around frantically. “Anyone seen my cover makeup? I swear I left it next to my costume.”
Olivia laughed as she tossed a makeup container to Kelly. “It got knocked off so I picked it up for you,” she said. Kelly breathed a relieved sigh.
“You’re a lifesaver, Tink,” she gushed as she began covering her tattoos.
“Showtime,” Silvermist giggled as she stood. “I thought I might go pick on Jack this morning.”
“I think I’ll be with Peter and Wendy today.” Tink giggled.
“I plan to just go with the flow and see where the wind takes me,” Morgan said as she drifted through the door. “Sorry I’m late. I slept with Prince Ambien last night and my roommate had to literally drag me out of bed,” she yawned.
Silvermist giggled. “Careful, Vidya. Fairy Mary’s on the prowl,” she teased. “She stopped me on my way in to let us know casting calls are going out for more girls to play us.”
“Sweet,” Morgan answered. “Not that I don’t adore playing Vidya, but doing the film plus working here is exhausting. I’ll just have to remember who’s playing who on what day. I’d hate to end up accidentally discussing juicy gossip with your body double,” she teased, sounding just like Vidya.
Olivia laughed out loud. “Been there, done that, got the red-faced pictures when I found out later,” she laughed as Sarah stepped out and walked right into her sister Annie’s friend Crystal.
“Oh!” Crystal squeaked out. “I’m so sorry. I’m so turned around,” she sighed.
“Well that’s okay, Dew Drop,” Silvermist giggled. “I always get turned around back here. Were you looking for something in particular?” she asked, noting that Crystal was wearing a backstage security badge on a lanyard, so she had permission to be back there.
“I’m actually looking for Leslie.” Crystal said. “She’s supposed to be an acting coach?”
“Oh! I saw her earlier,” Silvermist nodded. “I’ll help you find her,” she added cheerfully as she turned to start down the hall with Crystal metaphorically in tow. “Annie’s going to be thrilled you know,” she added with a grin. It wasn’t really breaking character since Silvermist knew Annie and the others from the after party and the official fan club.
Crystal actually had her hair down today, rather than wearing it in braided pigtails. She also wasn’t wearing her glasses, and despite wearing a cute Pixie Hollow souvenir tee shirt, she looked much more grown up. Sarah thought she was wearing some makeup, too.
“I had just about talked myself out of it,” Crystal sighed. “Then Megan came over this morning.” She blushed a little at that. “I mean... How do you say no when the stars personally show up to talk you into it?” She laughed a little.
“Picturing the audience in their underwear doesn’t work too well, does it?” Silvermist teased. Crystal laughed.
“Nope. I end up picturing myself in my underwear too, and that just makes it worse. Um, Sarah?” she asked quietly. “I want to ask you a question, but um, I don’t want you to think I’m being vain or anything...”
Silvermist glanced briefly around, and then pulled Crystal into a side-room so they could talk more privately. “Ask me anything sweetie,” she answered. Crystal blushed, looking down at her feet.
“Do... Do you think I’m pretty?” she asked nervously. “I know, it’s a weird question, totally out of left field, but you’re my friend’s older sister. I know you’ll be honest. It’s in the older sister handbook,” she giggled just a little.
Sarah laughed, “Crystal if I was a few years younger, and you liked girls, I’d say I’d date you, but yes, you're very pretty, and well you’re my sister’s best friend, so you’d be off limits anyway,” she teased. Crystal giggled at that and hugged Sarah.
“Plus Olivia might yell,” Leslie spoke up. She had been standing in the room the entire time unbeknownst to either of them as they rushed in a moment earlier. She grinned. “But I’ll second Sarah. You have a gorgeous smile and a figure to die for.”
“Do not,” Crystal blushed. “I look like a funhouse mirror.”
“It’s probably the clothes you wear,” Leslie suggested as she approached. “You’d honestly be amazed how getting your bra fitted at someplace like Victoria’s Secret, and wearing clothes that compliment your figure can help. That tee shirt looks great on you though.”
“Oh,” Crystal giggled, “Thank you. Annie gave it to me. I usually wear baggy clothes to hide my massive um...” she whispered, “Breasts.” They weren’t that big, really, only a B cup, but Crystal hadn’t really hit her growth spurt yet. At only 5’ tall they did stand out a bit.
“You’ll grow into them,” Leslie giggled. “When I was your age I blossomed early too. Other girls hated me because I had bigger breasts than them, and boys couldn’t stop staring. Once I got my growth spurt though, my body caught up to itself. It’s just an awkward time,. There’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Wow,” Crystal said, smiling a little. “That makes me feel a lot better actually... I mean Annie and Gretchen have been saying the same thing, but Gretchen is like super hotness, and Annie’s boob to height ratio is perfect,” she laughed a bit now. “Thank you so much. I’d better find this Leslie person though, before she thinks I’m not coming.”
Leslie grinned at that. “You found her. You’re still early too. I’m waiting for Gretchen and Annie, and a couple of others. Oh, but don’t worry - you’ll each be receiving a personal acting coach. We’re just going to go over the preliminaries together to see where each of you stands. We’ll also be doing group exercises together in between personal training,” she explained, as Sarah grinned, waved, and slipped out again.
Megan smiled as she walked into the dressing room after hours, holding a bunch of envelopes, “How’s the training going?” she smiled at Sarah and Olivia, “I haven’t seen them yet.” she handed Sarah and Olivia an envelope.
“Sounded like it was going pretty good the last time I checked on them,” Sarah said, adding, “Whatever you and Juliette said to Crystal this morning made an impact though.”
“Just the truth.” Megan giggled. “She just needed a confidence boost.”
“She asked me if I thought she was pretty this morning,” Sarah said as she began removing Silvermist’s makeup. “I told her honestly, that if I was younger and not seeing someone-”
“Nice save,” Olivia laughed.
“That I would totally ask her out myself - well, and if she liked girls, and wasn’t my sister’s friend too. She’s just going through that awkward phase where her body hasn’t caught up to itself yet. Mine lasted my entire teen years thanks to my anti-depressants,” she said with a lilt of a giggle before removing her eye makeup, and beginning work on her street makeup.
“Hopefully having our friends from down under around will help a little too,” Juliette spoke up. “We’ve been waiting weeks for Amber’s passport to clear. They’re all three way down to earth and supportive.”
“Not to mention the biggest Disney freaks on the planet,” Megan laughed. “Expect to be tackled,” she added jokingly as Sarah finally opened her envelope, only to find a check inside.
“Ummm...” Sarah said hesitantly. “The producers made a mistake on mine.”
“It’s not enough?” Megan asked.
“No,” Sarah laughed. “There’s an extra zero on the end that shouldn’t be there.”
“Oh, you’ve never seen a movie or tv show paycheck yet have you?” Megan giggled again. Curious, Jade opened hers and peeked at it. Vanessa had to dive off her chair to catch Jade as she quite literally passed out on the spot.
“Seems the show ended up with a massive budget, and it seems that we are way under budget on the pilot.” Megan shrugged as Vanessa fanned Jade’s face.
Vanessa giggled softly. “Jade’s been having a rough time financially. She’s been staying with me since we started working here at WDW. But that doesn’t leave this room,” she added, winking at the pair.
“Why not just put the extra budget back into improving the show?” Sarah asked, adding, “I mean not that I’m complaining. The less I have to ask my parents for help with college the better, and like Nessa said, Jade needs this more than any of us.”
“They did,” Juliette laughed. “This is what’s left over after paying the CGI department for extra assets, scouting locations and all that fun stuff. AMC basically handed us a plot of land and went ‘Here you go, make Neverland happen’, without deducting it from the film budget.”
“It seems someone,” Megan spoke up as Jade slowly came to, “Donated a hundred acres of land to the project, anonymously.” She looked between Sarah and Olivia. “You two wouldn’t know anything about that would you?”
“Uhhh... Sorry,” Jade moaned, blushing deeply as she slowly got to her feet. “I’ve never seen that many zeroes outside of a calculus class... At least tell me that’s the only one.”
“Keep this up, Buttercup,” Vanessa giggled, “And you’ll be able to pay your way through college without any student loans.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Jade answered excitedly and hugged Megan, and then Juliette. “Thank you... I... I don’t know what else to say but thank you.”
“You are Iridessa,” Juliette and Megan said in unison. Juliette giggled. “You pixies are a package deal. We wouldn’t do the show without all of you, even if you don’t all reprise your roles every single episode.”
“I just can’t believe you found a way to work Peri in,” Kelly laughed. “That scene where she’s supposed to find a lost girl in the snow and brings her to Neverland to recover, I swear I almost cried reading the script,” she said as Megan’s phone rang, a very specific ringtone. It was taken from Debby Ryan’s performance of ‘A Dream’.
“Oh, that’s our publicity girl. This won’t take a second,” she said as she answered, putting the phone on speaker. “Hey girl. What’s up?”
“Just touching base,” Amber said with a bubbly giggle. “I still can’t believe you got us reservations for Cinderella’s castle suite for our first night. I don’t even want to know what kind of string pulling that took,” she bubbled excitedly.
“Let’s just say it took some faith,” Megan giggled, waiting for the girls to pick up their lines.
“Trust,” Tinkerbell spoke up.
“And pixie dust!” Silvermist chimed in.
“Oh my God,” Amber squealed excitedly. “Oh, hang on, someone’s at the door. I’ll talk to you soon!” she bubbled.
Megan giggled, “Well, they’re having fun.”
Morgan - Vidya, grinned innocently, at that. Carol glanced over at her. “What did you do?”
“If you’re implying that I bribed Christina with homemade brownies to get Alice to go and personally welcome my favorite blogger to the Magic Kingdom, you’re completely mistaken.” She paused, then giggled. “It was peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.”
“So, we wait now till we get the stats on the pilot episode before we start filming the rest.” Juliette picked up their conversation where they had left off a moment ago. “So loads of time off.”
“For you anyway,” Sarah teased. “But I am taking tonight off to hang out in the park with Annie and her friends, if anyone wants to join,” she said as she carefully hung her Silvermist costume on the rack.
“Sounds like fun,” Olivia said brightly, then paused, and added, “If you’re sure you don’t mind the extra company.”
“No way. Annie asked me to ask you all,” Sarah answered.
“Sorry,” Morgan said and shook her head, “I have a date tonight, or I would absolutely say yes. I feel bad enough missing girls’ night, but my brother was desperate for a babysitter that night.”
“Oooh,” Vanessa said, “Vidya’s got a boyfriend.”
“Do not!” Morgan laughed. “We’re just going out for dinner,” she said as she picked up her purse and waved, starting out.
“Well,” Megan laughed, “I’d love to go. We were planning on showing our friends around anyway, and I know Annie and Amber really wanted to meet in person.”
“So I got this email from TMZ,“ Amber laughed, “Asking me about you two dating.” she winked. “Seems they wanted to make sure you weren't pulling a fast one on them,” she added. They had just gotten off the spinning teacup ride, and Rebecca was looking a little green.
Megan laughed. “We’ve been officially unofficially an item for awhile. Remember that night Krissy proposed to Tina? We exchanged promise rings that night. We just made it officially official because Amanda is such a cool photog.”
“She’s like you Carolyn,” Juliette chimed in. “She does it for the art. FYI there’s a grand bounty on our heads for photos,” she added playfully.
“Ooh,” Annie teased, “I’ve got like a ton of pics of you two.” She grinned, laughing. “Just kidding,” she said as she bit off a piece of bright blue cotton candy. Rebecca watched a pair of blonde haired girls walk by. One of them looked really familiar.
They were both wearing off-white t-shirts with “Cheer’s the Thing!’ in big, hot pink block lettering, with a pink silhouette of a cheerleader. One of the girls stopped and turned around, her friend looking to see what the first was looking at.
“Oh my God,” the girl squealed. “It’s Rebecca and the girls!”
“Carly!” Rebecca laughed as Carly sprinted over, hugging her, and then Megan and Juliette.
“What are you doing here? The last time we Skyped you said you were still stuck in Australia. Oh!” she giggled, “Guys this is Paige.”
“Hey,” Paige said, nervously eyeing Megan and Juliette’s bodyguard who was now staring daggers at them. Annie slipped away for a moment to talk to the man.
Rebecca nodded. “There was some BS with Amber’s passport because she applied for a Class A and her dad being military. It was total stupidity. While I’m here we might shoot the music video for my take on Let it Go, too,” she said sheepishly. “But what about you? What brings you to the Magic Kingdom?”
Carly giggled a bit. “That sounds awesome. Paige and I actually live in Kissimmee. We hit the park at least once a month.”
“Usually more,” Paige added, nodding.
“It seems like Juliette and I live here,” Megan said, nodding. “We’re here it seems like nearly every day.”
“Sorry about that,” Annie said as she came back over. “I let security know you two are longtime friends. They’re like, uber cautious,” she giggled.
“Oh right,” Megan laughed. “This is Annie, one of our new Lost Girls, and her sister Sarah, Sarah’s girlfriend Olivia, and their friend Jade is over there by the fence, trying to stop her head from spinning,” she laughed.
“Wow,” Paige managed a giggle finally. “Carly told me how you guys ambushed her at Denny’s when she was visiting her aunt, but I guess I didn’t really realize how close you were till now. I’m like, a huge, huge fan. That last episode - the real one I mean, made me cry so hard. It really um, hit home.”
“My Sister Megan?” Megan giggled. “I loved filming that. I’m really glad we had a chance to do it, even if it’s totally bootleg.”
“Hey, you two want to hang out with us?” Juliette asked. “I mean you probably have your own plans, but we’re just kind of doing this huge group thing tonight anyway. We’re going to hit as many parks as we can.”
“And we’re abusing our speed passes for the first time,” Megan added. “Special occasion,” she said, winking.
Paige shook her head and grinned. “Carly would never forgive me if I said no,” she teased. “I wouldn’t want to intrude though.”
“It was an invite, so there’s no intruding.” Megan giggled.
“She gets nervous in crowds,” Carly said, grinning at her friend. “You’d never guess she’s one of our best aerial stunt girls in school history.”
“Am not!” Paige shot back, blushing, and giggled a little too. “Well, I mean not really. Um, anyway, so um,” she searched for a change of topic, but couldn’t think of anything. Sarah grinned. She knew just what to say.
“So I hear it’s Shark Week on discovery channel,” she teased. Paige looked relieved. It wasn’t really, but it had been a long running inside joke in her family, and now her new friends.
Annie and Carolyn stated in unison, “Fish are friends, not food!” and started to laugh as the now larger group continued through the park.
“So what have you been up to?” Rebecca asked Carly. “With the timezone diff and my crazy schedule ever since these two,” she said, pointing to Megan and Juliette, “Came into my life, we haven’t really talked in ages.”
“This and that,” Carly laughed. “We just finished up a cheer camp today. That’s why we’re wearing matching t-shirts. First half of the day was the actual camp. The second half is we go off and have fun doing whatever.”
“Sounds like a total blast,” Megan said. “The only way you’ll ever see Juliette or me in a cheer uniform is if it’s a character role, though,” she teased. “We talked with our manager about public school, but she pretty much confirmed why it’d end badly.”
“Oh yeah,” Paige nodded. “Mauled by rabid fans on a daily basis would put a damper on things. Not to mention the BS power plays you’d get sucked into against your will.”
“Besides that, Demitri, our tutor, pretty much has us two grades ahead of where we would be in public school.” Juliette said.
“Only thing I miss about public school is the drama department,” Rebecca shrugged. “But now that these jokers conned me into joining them on set I don’t even miss that,” she teased.
“For that Jokers comment, the next round of soda is on you.” Megan giggled.
Rebecca laughed and started singing, “I’m a joker, I’m a smoker, I’m a midnight toker. Okay, okay, I’ll make it sodas and a chili dog for putting up with my terrible singing,” she joked.
“Terrible singing, says the future Radio Disney pop diva,” Jade teased as she rejoined the group.
“Hey, now that we’re in the same timezone again,” Rebecca grinned, “You guys want to help with my Frozen cover? It’s Let it Go, but I’m going to punk the hell out of it.”
“Sounds fun,” Juliette nodded. “What do you need?”
“Everything. Backup singers: another guitarist would be awesome too. I wanted to get Lindsey Stirling on electric violin, but she’s busy on tour, so I don’t hold that against her,” she teased. “I’ve got this really awesome punked up Elsa dress I’m designing too.”
Megan grinned, “I can do the second guitarist thing. But you have to excuse me from singing, I’m still getting my singing voice.” She winked.
Carly nudged Paige, causing her to squeak. Paige glared at Carly and shook her head vigorously. Carly started to speak, and Paige covered her mouth. “Don’t you dare.”
Carly laughed. “Page-mmmmph!” Carly tried to mumble around Paige’s hand.
“What’s that girl?” Rebecca stopped and asked. “Paige has a great singing voice?”
Carly giggled and nodded her head. “You should.. murph,” Paige put her hand on Carly’s mouth again. Annie crept around behind the group and gently goosed Paige’s sides. She squealed and jumped, and Carly ducked away. “She’s seriously amazing.”
Paige whined. “I’m seriously not. My sister April is amazing. She’s a soprano with like six and a half octaves range.”
“April’s good,” Carly admitted, “But you don’t shatter eardrums. It’s a different kind of good.”
“I sound like a guy when I sing,” Carly whined.
“I still sound like a kid.” Megan said. “Like the Kidz Bop Choir or something,” she teased.
Juliette laughed. “They tried to get us to do Kidz Bop. We were like hashtag nope,” she said as they all piled into a familiar soda shop - familiar to Sarah and the pixie actresses anyway. The new soda shop in Pixie Hollow wasn’t ready yet, but the waitresses were all dressed in character now, complete with pixie wings and cute little hats.
“Whoa,” Rebecca said as she looked around. There were even painted portraits of pixies hanging on the walls. “Did we just walk into Neverland? This place is awesome.”
Megan grinned, “Can I get a Pixie dust soda, and a chili dog?” she turned to Rebecca, “Yeah, we’re in Neverland now.” She winked.
“I’ll take a Silvermist special and a chili cheese dog,” Juliette added, grinning as Rebecca and the other new girls consulted the menu to try and figure out what all the special drinks were.
Sarah laughed. “I’ll have what she’s having,” she said, trying her best not to slip and use her Silvermist voice.
Hatter over animatedly “snuck” into the cafe as the girls were ordering, and slipped up behind the girls. He pointed a finger at each of them as he mouthed the words to ‘Eenie meenie minie moe’.
“Oh there you are.” Alice spoke up rather loudly.
Hatter jumped, putting his hands behind his back, and looking away innocently as the girls looked up at him. He looked with wide-eyed surprise at Alice. “Who, me?”
“Yes you.” Alice put her hands on her hips. “The Rabbit has been looking everywhere for you.. something about being late.” she said eloquently, and quite innocently.
“Well of course he’s late!” Hatter said, holding up a gold watch and inspecting it carefully. “His watch is two months slow!”
“That would surely do it.” Alice nodded thoughtfully. “I hope the Queen doesn’t take his head.”
“Oh my yes,” Hatter said, stuffing the watch into his pocket again. “He’s only got one left!” he said, grinning at the girls. “Say, some of you look familiar.”
“Oh?” Megan giggled. “I think you might mean me and Juliette? We seem to live here these days.”
“What do you think, Alice?” he said as he motioned her over. “Don’t these two look like a couple of hat thieves to you?” he teased.
“I only take lost things.” Megan giggled. “I’m like the Pixies in that aspect.”
“That’s where I know you from!” Hatter said, snapping his fingers. “You’re in league with the tea pot thief!” He paused and giggled. “But it WAS her unbirthday so I forgave her.” He nodded exaggeratedly. “Oh what a pretty butterfly!” he said as a teen girl, wearing a butterfly clip in her red ponytail walked past.
She was wearing the same “Cheer’s the Thing!” t-shirt as Paige and Carly. He walked along behind her as she turned to start inside. She stopped and turned around to look up at him. He jumped, animating his hands in a startled fashion before burying them in his pockets.
“Oh don’t mind me,” he said with a grin. “I was just admiring that insect in your hair.”
“What?” the girl squeaked a little, and then remembered her hair clip. She laughed. “God, don’t scare me like that. I thought you meant a real insect.”
“Oh no no, just the fake one,” Hatter giggled. “You know I saw two more girls wearing shirts just like that. They’re right over there, see?” he said, pointing at Paige and Carly.
“Oh cool!” the girl said brightly. “We went to the same cheer camp,” she said with an affirming nod.
“You have to go to a camp to cheer?” The Hatter asked.
The girl laughed and shook her head, “No, it’s where you learn to cheer. That girl there,” she said nodding toward Paige, “Was one of the volunteers helping with aerial stunts.”
“Why don’t you go say Hello then?” he said. He was up to his old tricks. “But be careful,” he said in his best loud stage whisper, “Two of them are in cohoots with a Tea pot thief.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to interrupt,” she said quietly.
Paige took that opportunity to wave, grinning as she poked Carly. “Hey that’s Bethann from camp! The girl with the amazing Catwoman backflip skills,” she giggled. “Hey, Bethann!” she called.
Hatter grinned and nudged the poor girl closer. “Hi Paige,” Bethann said nervously. “Thanks again for taking the time to help me with my balance on the Liberty.”
“Oh it was nothing.” Paige giggled. “Why don’t you have a seat and join us? Unless you are busy that is. We’re hitting the park with Carly’s friends from down under.”
“Not at all,” Bethann said as the Hatter, in typical animated fashion, pulled out a chair, dusted it off with his hand, and then made a sweeping gesture. Bethann giggled as she sat down.
“My work here is done,” he announced. Alice gave him a funny look.
“What work exactly?” she asked.
Hatter gave her a hard stare, and then blinked. “How should I know? I’ve never worked a day in my life!” he giggled as he spun on his heel and trotted out. Alice shook her head.
Bethann watched Alice run after him and giggled. “Those two have like, the perfect job.”
A few moments later, Gennine, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, approached their table with a smile on her face, “Good evening ladies.”
“Oh, hi Fai--I mean Gennine,” Megan giggled out. “What brings you out here?”
“Hello there. Actually”, she sat down at their table, “I’m here on business of sorts.” she smiled she quieted down a little.
“Uh oh,” Juliette said. “Are we in trouble?” Sarah had to bite her tongue. She, Olivia, and Jade were completely out of character, and with the girls not in on their pixie roles yet present as well, couldn’t say anything.
“Not at all, but I’d like to talk to you all in private for a moment if I can?” she asked.
“Um, sure,” Megan said. “B R B guys,” she added as they all stood - they being Megan, Juliette, the pixies, and Annie Jade picked up her soda for one more sip before running to catch up.
“Wonder what that’s about?” Rebecca said with a mischievous grin. Amber giggled.
“I’d dare you to eavesdrop, but you’d do it.”
Rebecca started to stand, and Amber and Carolyn, the latter of whom had been filming off and on with her DSLR camera, both grabbed an arm.
Gennine smiled as they got into a private area. “Sorry to interrupt you girls, but I called your manager, and she said you were here.”
Megan nodded. “Sarah invited us to hang out, and since our friends from Australia finally made it we decided to make a big group thing of it.”
“I hate to ask this of you especially when you’re trying to relax, but the higher ups have been bugging me endlessly to track you down. They were wondering if you girls could get all the lost girls together, and the pixies, and run amok of the park for a few days.”
“Oh,” Juliette giggled. “Well now that Amber and Rebecca are here too I think we can arrange that.” Megan grinned and popped her head out the security door. Rebecca jumped away, pretending she wasn’t just eavesdropping.
“Get in here,” Juliette laughed and grabbed Rebecca’s arm. “You twoo Amber, Carolyn,” she called over as she dragged Rebecca inside.
Bethann looked dumbfounded at the two. “I just realized... That was Rebecca O’Hara.”
“And Megan Stuart, as well as Juliette Small.” Carly giggled.
Rebecca laughed. “I think I broke Bethann,” she said as she closed the door behind them.
“We break people all the time.” Juliette giggled. “It’s kinda fun once you get used to it.”
“So what I was telling the girls, the park higher ups want to know if we can get the Lost girls and the Lost girls Pixies to run amok of the park for a few days.” Gennine laughed.
“Sounds like fun,” Annie giggled. “Like how the pixies spend every day? Or something else?”
“A bit. They really want you to get out there and show off the new show.” Gennine nodded.
Megan and Juliette shared a glance. Megan tried not to laugh as she asked, “Who the hell are these people and what did they do with the Disney execs who, a year ago wouldn’t give me ten minutes?”
“Best not to ask,” Gennine laughed. “It seems the part 1 pilot episode that aired on AMC was a big hit, and they want to put it on Late Night XD.”
“Oh shit,” Rebecca said, letting her language slip a bit. “You guys got Disney Ninja’d. Disninja’d?”
“Disney Ninja'd?” Juliette laughed. “Sounds painful.”
“So, wait... You’re telling us Disney, our Disney, wholesome family programming Disney, is planning to air our show on Disney XD late night?” Megan asked.
“Yup.” Gennine nodded. “Around 8 or 9 for the older teens. It might get slightly censored for the XD release so you may need to come in and redo a few lines.”
“I’m actually okay with that,” Juliette said. “There’s nothing we do that’s particularly, uh, what’s the word? Vulgar? Yeah, vulgar. But I’m fine with redos, as long as I don’t have to reshoot too much for the alternate release.”
“Except the boob joke.” Megan nodded. “The one you tried to pull on me.”
“Oh God,” Juliette laughed. “Yeah, and the scene where my character complains her coconuts aren’t as big as the pirate’s.”
“Yeah, but we tried to tone that down with “Preteen” language.” Megan giggled.
“There’s a scene we’re filming in episode two where you girls tell me to put peanut butter and pixie dust on mine, and run around in the woods.” Annie snorted. “Even Mom questioned that, and she’s like, hippie chick mom.”
“So I was thinking,” Rebecca said, “Since it’s going to look suspicious as hell having all of us hiding back here for this long, and I know for a fact Carly and her friend are really limber because they’re both cheerleaders - and Paige is a cheer camp volunteer instructor apparently...”
“You want to hire them?” Megan laughed. “I’ve been thinking the same thing. With their background we could cast them as former pirates who joined us even. Real swashbuckler types.”
“Good idea! We need more Lost girls.” Juliette said, quickly firing off a text to the casting director with Paige and Carly’s info and the plan to recruit all three.
“I’ll go see if Bethann’s a local girl or if she’s here from somewhere else,” Rebecca added. She paused at the door. “I wasn’t sure if you guys still needed us since we missed the pilot filming. Glad we’re still on board,” she said, grinning brightly as she ducked outside.
“So you want us to be the mischievous tween Lost girls in the park?” Megan asked double checking. “I mean some of the pranks we pull on each other, are definitely mean spirited, but at the same time, funny.”
Gennine nodded. “The only rule is, no pranking guests without permission. We have ways of obtaining permission from friends and relatives for that. The actors will all be warned to watch out for you,” she teased.
“Oh come now. Let’s not tell them their being invaded by Neverland.” Juliette grinned.
“After all,” Amber said, “According to Rebecca, the prank’s more fun when the victim doesn’t see it coming. Not that I’d know anything about putting honey in shampoo bottles...”
“Cheer huddle, or something,” Rebecca laughed as she waved the girls over. Bethann gave Paige a hesitant glance, but Rebecca answered for her. “Yup, that means you too.” She giggled. “You from around here?” she asked.
“Napa actually, but I live in Florida now,” Bethann said. “Moved here with my gram gram this summer.”
“Perfect,” Rebecca said with an impish grin. “Ladies, to quote my favorite mischievous Missourian, I gots a proposition for ya.”
“Oh?” Carly asked.
“Mmmhmm. Remember how Bethann was just saying Hatter and Alice had the dream job?” she grinned, leading them back into the back.
We love you all!
~ Zoe and Ashly
A month has passed, and Sarah's been enjoying life as Silvermist in the park, but can she handle life as a celebrity TV actress? She still gets nervous meeting "real" celebrities! And how will HRT affect her ability to play the role?
“God these things are a lot skimpier than most Disney costumes aren’t they?” Carly giggled as she and the girls were getting ready to go out into the park. It had been a couple days since Gennine had asked, so the girls were able to get together and discuss the new lost girls and how they relate to the story as well as their attitudes.
Paige’s Lost girl was supposed to be the total opposite of what Paige’s real life was, she was a prima, like a total fashionista.
“I think someone got my character and Rebecca’s mixed up,” Paige whined as she hid behind a changing curtain. “I can’t wear this.”
“It’s just an act.” Megan said, “Besides, in shows and movies, your character is usually never completely who you are, so you have to push the bounds.”
Paige stepped out, wearing a ruffled black mini skirt, a bright red silk top, and most importantly, a real velvet corset. “I’m pushing the bounds of my boobs,” she whined again.
“It looks good.” Rebecca grinned and Carly nodded.
“Just needs the hat,” Bethann giggled as she picked up a broad-brimmed hat with a large feathery plume. Someone had taken the time to hand sew a crossed red and pink sword onto the front so that it looked authentically hand-sewn. She placed it neatly on Paige’s head.
“And besides.” Juliette piped up as she came out of the bathroom, “You read Holly’s lines perfectly.”
“That was my first mistake,” Paige laughed, relaxing a little. “I’ve been doing valley girl ever since I saw the movie Clueless. It made me realize, vapid as it was, just how much I wanted to be a girl, too,” she said sheepishly.
She had already confided in her new coworkers, being that Megan had so publically transitioned before her, that she was the ‘friend’ Carly mentioned back in Australia.
“Granted Cher was a total airhead,” Bethann giggled, “But she did mean well. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be like that, having a good heart. That’s the whole reason I became a cheerleader myself actually. I wanted to set a better example than the jerks before me.” She paused to shake her head. “And then I moved a year later.”
“Juliette used to volunteer with the girl scouts when we were filming My Brother Mark.” Megan said, grinning as she put the finishing touches on her park makeup. “I gained five pounds off the thin mints,” she teased.
“It started as research,” Juliette laughed. “But I liked it so much I stayed after that episode aired. I just hate that we never got Mark into that cute uniform,” she teased.
“The Director was worried people would think we were making fun of the scouts,” Megan laughed. “But I agree, it would’ve been fun having Megan around for another episode back then,” she teased back.
“Darn it,” Amber laughed. “Now I want some thin mints.”
“Me too.” Megan giggled, “Those things like my kryptonite,” she said as Annie emerged dressed in a pair of overalls over an oil stained canvas-like shirt, and wearing a pair of steampunk like goggles on top of her head, with little attached extra lenses that could slide down for extra magnification.
The pixies’ costumes were different as well, showing off a little more skin than their usual park costumes. But they had already been seen in Pixie swimwear a few times now, including their waterproof wings, so these were modest by comparison.
“You know who I feel like right now?” Annie laughed.
“Gadget from Rescue Rangers?” Megan giggled.
“O M G YES!” Annie squealed excitedly. “I didn’t think anyone else here watched those old cartoons. Yes, exactly!”
“Cha-cha-cha Chip and Dale’s, Rescue rangers.” Juliette began to sing the theme song. “Cha-cha-cha-Chip and Dale, when there’s danger.”
Paige couldn’t resist joining in. “No no it never fails, once they’re involved, somehow whatever's wrong gets solved.”
“Sings like a guy, my Aussie ass,” Rebecca said, shaking her head. “Girl you’ve got better pipes than I do.”
“No I said I sing like one of those little kids on those talent shows.” Megan teased. She knew it wasn’t her Rebecca was talking to.
Paige laughed. “You’re all insane. I like that,” she said, still giggling as she put in her gold hoop earrings. Like the rest of her outfit, they were more gaudy than anything she’d ever actually wear. “Like, has anyone seen my sword? I have to accessorize around it or whatever,” she said in-character, and then giggled.
“You looking for this.” Megan asked in character, “You know you should never leave your sword laying around, or Captain Steele might get you.”
“Oy,” Rebecca said, “You call that a sword?” She snickered. “That’s not a sword.” She pulled out her large cutlass. “Now this is a sword.”
“But you see girls.” Juliette grinned, “It’s not about the size of the sword.” she drew her daggers, a pair of golden blades like Megan’s “Pan” sword, only shorter, “It’s about how well you can use it.”
“Sword, shmord,” Annie as Ratchet snorted as geekily as possible. “Give me a slingshot and a couple of firebombs and I’ll send the whole ship fleeing for their lives.”
Pinkie giggled, “Avast, I smell a pirate.” she had spotted Captain Hook walking by their dressing area. He didn’t seem to have noticed them at all. Unlike Peter, who portrayed their story’s narrator, Hook played a prominent role in their origin story, as he was the father of Captain Steele, their archrival.
“Ah, Captain Codfish himself, and Peter’s not here to fight him!” Rebecca said in a low whisper.
“He’s dangerous.” Red nodded, “So we best avoid him for now, till we can find Peter or that Darling girl.” She said Wendy’s last name like they were enemies, though it was quite the opposite. Wendy was actually a lost girl ally with a brief cameo in the pilot.
Silvermist crept into the room using the back entrance into the maintenance tunnels, slipped up behind Annie, and said loudly, “What are we whispering about?” in her best slightly-airheaded Silvermist voice.
Rachet jumped a mile, “Oh my God, Sil you scared the helium out of me.”
“And everyone says I’m the airhead,” Paige, as Holly, laughed.
Pinkie rubbed Holly’s head, “That’s because your head is just full of Holly leaves instead of air.” She winked.
Silvermist giggled. “I just wanted to stop by and see if you needed anything before your big day begins. You know where all the break rooms are, so I won’t bother you about that,” she teased.
“Yeah, we got that tour last night after the park closed.” Carly giggled.
“You know I think I love my character,” Bethann said. “It’s going to be hard to pull off in the show though. Paige and I are ex-pirates, and while she’s all happy about it, I’m supposed to be brooding and serious.”
“Remember, we’re turning it down a few notches for the park, but in the show, we can get away with a lot of things.” Megan giggled.
“I know just the person to talk to if you need any advice,” Silvermist giggled. “Maria, the lady who plays Angelica over on the Black Pearl. She has serious, without being too serious, down to a fine art.”
Pinkie grinned and crowed like Peter does, “Time for the lost girls to take over Disney World and make it neverland!” she held her sword up. “For the Lost girls and for Neverland!”
“For bubbles!” Carly cheered. Everyone looked at her. “What?” she asked innocently. They all giggled.
“Who is Bubbles?” Red asked seriously.
“Not who, what!” Carly answered as Silvermist whipped out her bubble wand, shooting a couple of ‘permanent’ bubbles into the air. “See!” she laughed.
“Oh Bubbles!” Red giggled as the girls all left the changing room into the park, near the Pixie Hollow sections that were still open. “You pixies sure need more room,” she said as she looked around the small area.
Suddenly, a big, icy cold snowball pelted Red, some of the crystals trickling down her neck. Periwinkle giggled, looking innocent.
“Tell me about it,” Tink laughed as Red wiped the snow off her. “It’s why we spend most of our time wandering. But the tinkers’ union is on the job!”
“Good.” Red grinned and scooped up some fake snow and white washed Tinkerbell with it.
“Hey!” Tink laughed. “I’m innocent!”
“All Pixies say that.” Pinkie giggled now. “We know better. You're just as mischievous as we are.”
“Well, in that case,” Tink said as she sprinted over, grabbed Pinkie’s stocking cap hat, and ran off into the park with it.
“Hey! That’s my hat!” Pinkie sprinted off after her stopping for a moment to catch her breath as the Hatter approached.
“Graduated from Tea pots to hats I see!”
“Blasted little blighter,” Pinkie swore between breaths. She wasn’t actually winded. After all she had been jogging with Sarah regularly for awhile now, but her character was less diligent on the exercise since she and Red were the only two lost girls who could fly.
“Kiss your mirror with that mouth?” Hatter teased.
“All the barnacle blasting time.” Pinkie grinned. “There’s no boys on our island, so I have to practice with a mirror.” She winked.
“No boys?” Hatter echoed.
“None.” Pinkie grinned. “Well save for Peter.”
“Not even one?”
“Just Peter.”
Hatter turned to a couple of guests that had seen Tink run past and grinned. “Lucky boy.” The girls both giggled.
“Yeah, but Peter doesn’t like kisses.” Pinkie laughed. “Ask Wendy.”
“Ask Wendy what?” Wendy asked as she came strolling up with Pinkie’s hat tucked neatly onto her head.
“Wendy! Just the girl I wanted to see.” Pinkie grinned, “And you have my hat!”
“I do?” Wendy said, looking around, and then rolled her eyes upward. She looked shocked. “Now, how did that get there?” she said as she took it off, and then carefully placed it on Pinkie’s head.
“It’s the very hat you gave me when you told us that Peter made us the tree house.” Pinkie grinned. “It’s my lucky hat.” She straightened it slightly and then took it off to bow to Wendy.
“Doesn’t seem very lucky to me,” Hatter laughed. “If a pixie can just snatch it off your head like that.”
“Pixies are tricky.” Pinkie grinned, “But that’s why I love them.”
“See!” Hatter announced. “I told you Alice- Alice?” he looked around, spinning in a circle. “Now where did that silly girl go.”
“Oh I accidently knocked her over back there.” Pinkie pointed, “Chasing Tinkerbell. When you see her tell her I’m very sorry.”
“You are?” Hatter asked. The two teen girls giggled again, one of them recording everything on her cell phone.
“Yup, a Lost girl always apologizes when she’s wrong. That’s one of Wendy’s rules.” Pinkie smiled.
“For what?” Hatter asked.
“For knocking Alice on her tushy.” Pinkie giggled.
Hatter looked at Alice, who had crept up on them by now. “Say Alice, I didn’t know you had a tushy.”
Alice blushed, “Nevermind Mr. Hatter, and thank you for the apology. You seemed like you were in a hurry.” She giggled. “Something to do with a blur of green, carrying a hat I believe,” she teased while Hatter talked with the two girls.
“Yes, it’s my lucky hat that Wendy gave me.” Pinkie showed it to Alice. “She helped me and Red set up the rules and the home for the other Lost girls. Peter said that Wendy made it with her own hands.” she turned to the teens, “Did you know that Red wants big coconuts like Captain Steele?”
Hatter, unable to resist himself, began to sing, “Say, I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts! Oh there they are a standing in a row,” he said, pointing to the oncoming rush of lost girls heading their way. “Oh my!”
Pinkie grinned. “Lost girls!” she called out to her sisters waving her hat in the air.
“Well it’s been lovely meeting you but I really must see a pixie about a hat, err, tea pot!” Hatter said quickly as he shook the two girls’ hands and then started off at an animated walk, taking big steps as he waved one arm at his side, holding his hat down firmly with his other hand.
“I saw the mouse.” Red grinned showing off her new mouse ears that Mickey had given her. “He and Minnie are dressed like Neverland residents!”
“Red, there you are,” Pinkie giggled. “We scared off the Hatter, but this is Alice, Rachel and Tiffany,” she said, having overheard the girls give the Hatter their names.
“And Wendy took off a moment ago talking to a boy in green.” Alice nodded.
“Aww we missed Peter?” Ratchet said, and snapped her fingers. Holly cringed, and Ratchet laughed. “Oh relax. I don’t have any boom juice on my hands ... this time.”
“He’s afraid that we’ll try to kiss him.” Red grinned.
“Can we get a picture with you all?” Tiffany asked warmly. “There’s this really cool Australian blogger named Amber that we want to send it to.”
“She inspired us to start our own blog,” Rachel added, giggling, neither of them realizing Amber was standing right there amongst the lost girls, dressed as a lost girl herself.
“What kind of bug?” Pinkie asked. “I hope it’s one of those big ones. Don’t you Ginni?” she asked, turning to Amber.
Holly piped up, “Eeewww bugs, keep them away from me.” she pulled out her sword and began to swat at fake bugs.
“Noo,” Tiffany giggled. “Blog, it’s like a journal everyone can read.”
Pinkie grinned, “Oh! Like a diary!“ She paused then giggled, “Dear Diary, Red here! Today, I almost kissed Peter.” she pretended to read from Red’s diary and did a fake swoon.
“Dear diary,” Red shot back playfully, “Today I tickled Pinkie until she peed.” She goosed Pinkie’s sides gently.
“Eeep!” Pinkie hid behind Tiffany, “I got a shield!”
Red giggled. “Let me just get someone to hold your light box for the picture,” she said with an affirming nod, and literally bounced off toward their lady ninja security guard.
“Red can be really scary when she’s angry.” Pinkie sighed. “I’m glad she doesn’t get angry often.”
Rachel, who had been filming, laughed. “Does she get all red faced like Tink, too?”
Pinkie nodded, “And her head explodes like,“ she pulled her hands apart with an explosion noise, “Boom! Ask Ratchet about the time she left her tools out and Red stepped on them.”
“I heard that!” Red announced as she came storming back over to the group. “I do NOT have a temper!” she said in a mock-rage voice.
Pinkie shook her head, “Nope, no temper. Just sore feet.” she nodded.
Red giggled. “Yes, especially when I stub my toes on SOMEONE’S toolbox.” She glared at Ratchet, who gave a ‘meep!’ and tried to hide behind Holly as Rachel gave Claire her phone.
“Hey don’t look at me.” Holly shrugged, “Rosetta and I are trying to make the perfect shampoo for our hair, not tinker with machines.” She twirled her hair to show it off.
“Ratchet is totes my favorite though,” Rachel giggled as they posed with the large group. “I can’t wait to see her backstory next episode.”
Pinkie giggled as she waved for the photo. “See you’re already popular. Everyone knows who you are.” she ruffled the greasy hair a little, and then wiped it off on her skirt.
“Ugh,” Holly groaned. “You’re first when we get that shampoo ready.”
“No way.” Ratchet shook her head, “It’ll just get dirty again.”
“Thank you so much,” Tiffany giggled as Claire gave Rachel her phone again.
“I was right,” Bethann, as The Crimson Blade, now just Blade for short, finally spoke up as the two walked away. “Best job ever.”
Pinkie had wandered off at that, as the group dispersed into the park to ride rides with guests, play pranks on other actors, and the like. She had spotted Wendy and Peter, and began to follow them.
They were headed to the undersea adventures area. Rebecca as Tawny grinned mischievously at Carly, Kahra, the only pirate to go completely native Lost Girl, though she still had her pirate cutlass, and grabbed her by the arm. Taking a page from the Hatter’s playbook, they began to move in an over animated “sneaking” walk, following Pinkie.
Pinkie spun around, and the two dove behind a trash can and out of sight. She turned to continue, stopped, and looked over her shoulder again. When she turned to continue the second time the girls jumped out and continued stalking her.
Pinkie giggled as she got close to Peter and Wendy, and began to sing the Little Mermaid song “Kiss the Girl.” “Ya don’t know why, but you’re dyin’ to try, you wanna kiss the girl!”
Carly and Rebecca launched into the chorus, coming up next to Pinkie. “Shalalalalala don’t be shy, you got da mood just right, go on and kiss de girl!”
Ariel who had been out nearby giggled, “Oh come now, that ship sailed, we’ve already kissed.” she winked. Peter laughed and pulled out a thimble he just happened to have handy, and placed it in Wendy’s hand.
“There we kissed, are you girls happy now?” he said, laughing.
“Nope, not good enough!” Pinkie announced, turning to Ariel. “You’ll have to find Prince Eric and show these two how it’s done.”
“Though Red might get upset.” Rebecca as Tawny spoke up. “You know how much she wants to kiss Peter.” The three girls began making cute kissy faces like young girls practicing in a mirror, at least until Red and Holly came up behind Tawny, dumping an entire bucket of prop feathers over her head. Red took off running, and Holly squealed, having been left holding the bucket.
“RED!” Holly shrieked, turning to run after her. Meanwhile Rebecca coughed and sputtered, waving off the fake feathery fluff in stunned shock.
Pinkie giggled, “Rooster girl.” she teased Tawny.
Without missing a beat, Rebecca put her hands on her hips, threw her head back, and crowed like Peter, before turning to chase after Holly and Red.
“We learned from the best.” Pinkie giggled and waved to Peter and Wendy.
“Never turn your back on a lost girl,” Peter laughed.
A month has passed, and Sarah's been enjoying life as Silvermist in the park, but can she handle life as a celebrity TV actress? She still gets nervous meeting "real" celebrities! And how will HRT affect her ability to play the role?
“Are you sure this will work?” Ratchet stage whispered to Ginni, better known as Amber, making sure the crowd could hear. “She doesn’t seem like the kind that would be afraid of spiders.”
“Look at all that jewelry and makeup she’s got on, she’s got to be a girly girl like Holly, I bet she’s definitely afraid of spiders.” Ginni giggled. They had somehow acquired a bamboo pole, which they tied a long fishing line to on one end. The other end had a gigantic, hairy rubber spider.
“I wonder how we can get up there?” Ratchet stage whispered. “I didn’t bring a ladder.”
The Evil Queen was distracted with signing autograph books and hadn’t even noticed the mischievous pair, as she stood in the shade of an old-styled two story building. Amber waved over a guy who actually had a ladder, one of the maintenance crew.
“We need your ladder,” Amber giggled. “It’s really important.”
“Well only for a moment,” The guy spoke as if he was used to park characters asking him for stuff.
“Oh!” Ratchet giggled as she opened a side door on the building. “It’s not locked!”
“Oh, nevermind,” Ginnigiggled mischievously as she bounded over. Silvermist popped up from inside the building.
“Just what are you two doing?” she said mock-sternly.
Ratchet giggled, and put a finger to her lips, “Quiet Silver, we’re trying to see if that nice lady there likes our pet.”
“Oh well why didn’t you say so!” Silvermist giggled quietly as she stepped aside. “The stairs are just over there,” she said, pointing further inside as she giggled. The two girls giggled showing Silvermist their spider before going upstairs.
Silvermist closed the door behind her. The maintenance guy had apparently decided to stay and see what happened, as Silvermist, hands folded behind her back, nonchalantly meandered over to the Queen.
The Queen had finished signing autographs, and was just about to leave, when she noticed Silvermist, and glanced down at her warily. “Yes?”
“Nothing your majesty.” Silvermist smiled sweetly. “I was just admiring your lovely crown.”
“I’ve heard about you girls. You like to steal hats, and tea pots.” The Queen leered at her.
“Oh my no,” Silvermist giggled. “I borrowed Hatter’s second best hat to go fishing with,” Silvermist said, nodding honestly. “And he let me keep it. How do you get it so shiny? It’s like Iridessa’s sunbeams.”
“Well.” The Queen smiled thoughtfully before answering, “I like to use essence of sleeping beauty to shine my crown.” She raised her hands to adjust it ever so slightly, and felt one of the spider’s legs. She froze for a moment and then slowly lowered her hands. Amber giggled, letting the spider ‘dance’ onto her shoulder. She glowered at the spider, and then looked up, staring right at the two Lost Girls.
“Eep!” Ratchet squealed, shoving the pole into Amber’s hands. By now Silvermist had made herself scarce as well.
Ginni dropped the pole and raised her hands mouthing, “It wasn’t me.” to the queen and pointing to Ratchet, or rather, where Ratchet was. She had already high-tailed it for the stairs. Ginni looked around. “RATCHET!” she screamed, grabbing the spider, and chasing after her.
What followed would go down in Disney youtube history - at least for a few days, as Ginni chased Ratchet, the Queen chased them both, and a crowd of delighted guests with cellphones and a few cameras, filmed the whole ordeal.
Ginni and Ratchet dove into some tall bushes near a wishing well, where Peter was standing and talking to a couple of teenagers as the Queen approached.
“You, boy,” she demanded. Peter grinned innocently as he took off his hat and gave a low, sweeping bow.
“Yes your Majesty?” he said, still grinning.
“Did two rotten little guttersnipes run past here?”
“Two what your majesty?” Peter asked.
She gave a weary sigh. “One of them had blonde hair, and the other as dark as night, and both were dressed quite shabbily.”
“There’s a lot of girls around here like that.” Peter nodded, “Like this one.” he pointed to the raven haired girl he had been talking to,.
“Yes yes, but she’s not dressed shabbily,” she groaned. “In fact, I should turn you into a toad for insulting such a lovely girl,” she half-teased, despite her tone, which almost never changed. The girl giggled.
“Oh well I didn’t mean it like that,” Peter laughed. “You know I didn’t mean it like that right?” he asked. The girl nodded.
“Of course not. He’s a perfect gentleman,” she giggled again.
“They must have taken the other path,” she grumbled, and turned to stalk off the other way. Peter hopped down off the well and strolled over to the bushes.
“She’s gone now,” he laughed.
Ratchet stuck her head out first, “Oh thank the Pixie sticks. That woman could scare the corns off your feet.” She paused and looked at the girls, “Oh sorry Peter, we didn’t mean to interrupt you helping out other lost girls.”
Ginni giggled and pulled out some buttons and handed them to the girls, “There now the other lost girls will know your honorary Lost girls.” they read ‘I’m a Lost girl.’, and the girls had been handing them out all day.
“Oh, that’s alright,” the raven haired girl said, laughing as Peter pretended to straighten his ‘crown’, adjusting his hat the way Maleficent would. “What did you do anyway?”
Ginni pulled out the fake spider. “We just wanted her to meet Ted.”
“That’d do it alright,” Peter laughed out loud. “You two are braver than I thought.”
“We’re not afraid of anything.” Ratchet nodded, except she ducked when she saw Hook walk by the pathway further down.
“Ah hah, speaking of challenges, I smell a codfish! Excuse me ladies,” Peter said with a grin, tipped his hat to the girls, and raced off after the poor actor in the Hook costume.
“Peter is like the coolest boy we know.” Ratchet fake swooned.
Ginni giggled, “He’s the only boy we know.” She stuck her tongue out at Ratchet.
“Well, that’s true,” Ratchet nodded her agreement. “He says there’s Lost Boys, says they built our treehouse and everything, but I ain’t seen any yet.”
“Me either.” Ginni nodded.
“They must be in another part of Neverland,” one of the girls giggled out.
“Hey that’s true!” Ratchet nodded her agreement. “Neverland is huuuuge.” She threw open her hands to emphasize the point.
“Really huge.” Ginni nodded, “I think Red has a map that Peter drew her.”
“I bet there’s treasure marked on it,” Ratchet spoke up excitedly, running off.
“Hey! Wait up!” Amber called, running after her.
“Sunflower seed for your thoughts?” Jade asked as she sat down next to Sarah in one of the employee break rooms. Sarah was sipping a bottle of water, but had been mostly quiet, and both had changed back to their street clothes. Sarah was waiting to give Annie a ride home.
“Hope you’ve more than just the one holding your dress together,” Sarah teased, getting a laugh out of Jade.
“Hey, I’m supposed to be the one cheering you up, not the other way around,” Jade answered. “Is everything okay?”
“Just thinking about... things,” Sarah answered. “Everything happened so fast. Inside a month I went from a janitor to a TV star, not to mention coming to grips with being transgender. Now I have the show to think about and my role at the park, and my sister-”
As if on cue, Annie walked through the door. She was leaning into Megan and crying.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to make this right,” Megan said. “I promise.”
Annie nodded. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just not fucking fair,” she sighed. Sarah stood and ran to her sister.
“What happened?” she asked. Annie wrapped her arms around Sarah.
“Gretchen’s mom went full bitch mode,” she said, trying to dry her eyes. “She tore up Gretchen’s and Crystal’s contracts and threw them in Gennine’s face, and told me she never wants to see me talking to Gretchen or Crystal again.”
“Shit,” Sarah sighed, holding Annie close. “Did she even say why?”
Megan spoke up. “What I gathered was that, after realizing Gretchen and Crystal would be spending whole days at the park, and that they would have to homeschool once school started, she pitched a fit.”
“But that doesn’t explain Crystal,” Jade sighed, a mix of disbelief and concern.
“Yeah, no fucking idea what that’s about,” Megan said. She hardly swore, but she was furious. “Unfortunately the way their contracts are structured, they have the right to do this.”
“I’m going to talk to Gennine,” Sarah sighed. “Gretchen’s mom might be a lost cause, but maybe we can at least salvage Annie and Crystal’s friendship. Hey Megan? Can I get a huge favor?”
“Sure: anything,” Megan answered, nodding.
“Could you guys give Annie a lift home for me?”
“Sure,” Megan said. “We can take the limo. You can come hang out with us too, if you want? It’s just me and Juliette, and Carolyn and Amber. Rebecca’s going out for dinner with Carly.”
Annie sighed, giving Megan a hug as Juliette came into the room. “Thanks. But I just want to be alone right now. But I’ll take that ride if you’re still offering.”
Juliette hugged Annie. “I’m so sorry. I-”
Annie shook her head. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. I’ve been expecting something like this. Gretchen’s mom is insane overprotective.”
“Things were a lot simpler when you could just make everything better with ice cream, huh?” Sarah said. Annie gave a small laugh at that and nodded, hugging her sister again.
“This is my fault,” Sarah sighed. “I never should’ve got them wrapped up in all this.”
“This is NOT your fault,” Jade said, rather sternly, which honestly startled Sarah. Jade was the least forward, least outspoken person she knew, so for her to use that tone, she had Sarah’s undivided attention. Jade sat down beside Sarah and took her hand. “Sarah, look at me.”
Sarah looked at her, and Jade smiled.
“I know it’s easy to blame yourself. Believe me, I’ve blamed myself for far worse. But if you give in to that kind of thinking, then you let them win. There will always be people like Gretchen’s mom, or my ex, who make you feel like you’re the one in the wrong. But if you give up, Annie will too.”
“She’s right, you know,” Gennine spoke up, but quietly as she finally stepped away from the door followed by a man in a black business suit. “This isn’t your fault.”
“Crap,” Sarah said under her breath as she stood. She recognized a corporate suit when she saw one.
The man nodded to the girls, “I’m actually not here for you, I’m looking for Katherine Dupree. Having witnessed the incident, I’m to negotiate with her, and failing that, serve her a lawsuit.”
“I’m not sure this is the way to approach this though,” Sarah said. “Won’t this just push her even farther? She has the resources to drag this out in court for a long time.”
“And according to Gretchen’s contract, only she can back out of it. There was nothing in the wording about her mother being able to end her contract.” The man stated. “My boss said to serve her. My hands are tied in this one.”
“I’m not happy about this either,” Gennine said, “But you said yourself, this isn’t something that can be settled easily.”
Sarah nodded reluctantly. “You’re right. She’s not the kind of person who listens to reason. She’s stubborn.”
Gennine nodded, “Besides this is what both girls wanted: to work with you guys.”
“What about their legal status as minors?” Jade asked. “They can’t legally enter into any agreement without a guardian’s consent can they?”
“Untrue.” Megan giggled, “In the state of California, it’s 14 to enter into a contract without parental consent. And because our legal team is based out of California, that’s the state law that applies in this case isn’t it?”
The man nodded. “Indeed. I’m willing to offer an olive branch to Mrs. Dupree, however when that fails, I’ll be forced to exercise our legal muscle in the matter.”
“Shit,” Annie sighed, much more loudly than Sarah’s earlier. “I’ll be lucky if Gretchen even wants to speak to me again after this.”
“I don’t think this is her doing.” Olivia spoke.
“I know,” Annie nodded. “But... this is her mom. I’m just some girl she just met.”
“Don’t worry.” Megan hugged Annie. “Everything has a silver lining. When does it all go down?”
“This afternoon,” the man said. “I’ll make the phone call myself, try to reason with her, and then failing that, I’ll proceed with contacting Crystal’s parents, and go from there.”
Annie glanced at Megan. “Is that offer to hang out still good? I ... sort of don’t want to be alone anymore. This feels like the sort of thing that could end really badly.”
“Try not to think about what if,” Juliette said. “If you want to make yourself sick, let’s get Amber and Carolyn and order enough pizza and ice cream to do it properly,” she said, smiling at Annie, who cracked a small smile now.
“Thanks guys... I’d be so lost without you,” she sighed. “I mean I can understand where she’s coming from. Gretchen goes to a very elite private school,” she said as they started out again.
“By the way,” Gennine said, “I’d like Silvermist and Tinkerbell to accompany a few guests on the Peter Pan’s Flight ride tomorrow before the scheduled Pixie meet and greet, if you two are up for it?” she asked.
Olivia brightened. “Of course!”
Sarah laughed a little and nodded. “Yes ma’am. You know, I’ve never actually been on that ride yet. This should be fun.”
A month has passed, and Sarah's been enjoying life as Silvermist in the park, but can she handle life as a celebrity TV actress? She still gets nervous meeting "real" celebrities! And how will HRT affect her ability to play the role?
Sarah heaved a sigh as she stared at her reflection in her full length mirror. She knew Megan wouldn’t be up for walking this morning, as Annie had stayed over at the girls’ hotel, and a late night text confirmed the girls had stayed up late.
She sighed a second time, turning this way and that, examining herself. She had an appointment to meet with Megan’s therapist, Doctor Miller before work, and casting calls began that day, in addition to her shift at the park. At least the park shift would be in the late afternoon and evening.
She put on one of her one piece bathing suits and walked out to the indoor pool. Swimming was one of the few times when Sarah could really let her mind go, to wander where it wished. Even when painting, Sarah was focused on the art, but with Swimming, it was like her body went into autopilot. The muscle memory was so ingrained, she didn’t have to think about it.
Olivia sat on the edge wearing nothing but her Tinkerbell green silk bathrobe. She dipped her toes in the water, watching Sarah swim laps past her. On the third lap, Sarah suddenly and abruptly stopped and poked her head above the water.
“Oh, sorry,” she said sheepishly, moving to Olivia’s side, and hoisting herself up.
Olivia giggled. “You’ve been at it for an hour. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
“An hour? Crap,” Sarah groaned. Olivia leaned over and kissed her cheek.
“I’ll get breakfast started if you want to go take a shower. And if you want to talk about anything,” she trailed off.
Sarah gave Olivia a wry smile. “All I do is whine, lately. There’s not much left to talk about. I go in to see my therapist and Doctor Miller in a joint meeting today, but I’m armed with the questions I have to ask them. I’m more worried about Annie.”
“She’ll be fine sweetie.” Olivia answered.
“I hope so,” Sarah said as she toweled off, not wanting to drip all over the apartment. “One of Annie’s classmates from her last school ... before we moved here I mean. They found him dead in the bathtub. He was 13 years old,” she said, shaking her head. “Kids today. You just never know, you know?”
“Oh my that’s terrible.” Olivia gasped. “Well she’s got good friends, and she’s in good hands right now.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to tell her,” Sarah said. “Mom texted me last night about it. She didn’t know the kid too well, but still. Maybe I should wait until this shitstorm with Gretchen blows over?”
“I would.” Olivia nodded. “She doesn’t need that on top of what’s going on right now.”
“Yeah,” Sarah said simply, but then she wrapped her arms around Olivia, and kissed her. “Thanks so much for being here for me during all this crap. I know I haven’t been a great roommate, or girlfriend, lately.”
Olivia giggled a little. “Oh trust me, I liked Georgia, but when she was PMSing, it could be like World War 3 up here. You’re fine sweetie.”
Sarah let out a small laugh and then padded back to her bedroom to start her shower. When she emerged Olivia had the breakfast table set already, with a big pile of scrambled eggs, and Sarah could smell the sausage frying.
“Before your new dietician gets hold of you,” Olivia laughed, “I figured I’d cheat a little. It’s turkey so it’s okay though,” she teased as Sarah walked up behind her and put her head on Olivia’s shoulder.
“You’re the best,” she giggled a little now too.
“I guess what I’m trying to get at,” Sarah sighed, “Is I’m massively body conscious about the whole transition thing. I’ve been living as Sarah for a month now, I have an amazing job, but I know HRT is going to wreak havoc on my body.”
“By that same token,” Doctor Miller, Megan’s therapist said, “Your body hasn’t fully finished growing yet. There’s still time for your hips to widen a little bit.”
Sarah nodded. “Yes ma’am,” she said, “And my breasts to get even larger, or my butt to stick out half a mile. It doesn’t matter how much Gennine or the girls like having me play Silvermist, if I can’t look the part, I’m done.”
“In the end,” her therapist sighed, “It’s got to be your decision. I already have you on hormone blockers. If you’re happy with where you are, then you shouldn’t feel forced to start HRT.”
“That’s the thing,” Sarah answered. “I’m not happy where I am. Some nights, I have nightmares that a wardrobe malfunction will reveal that I’m not a woman. Sometimes I dream I’m back on the Black Pearl, saving that guy, and my costume falls off in the water or something.”
Her therapist nodded as she listened. “You mentioned these nightmares before. Are they getting worse?” she asked.
“Much,” Sarah sighed. “It’s like the better things are going, the more my subconscious is just waiting for the other boot to drop.”
“Well,” Doctor Miller said thoughtfully, “I think that since you are experiencing doubt, even if it’s work related, that you should try to take some time to let your life settle down first. You have part of your shoot next week, and you’re going back to college in a couple of months. I just don’t see any reason to rush.”
“But you were just telling me that I still had time to get a more feminine figure,” Sarah answered. “I’d rather take action now and regret having to work in another role or even as a studio artist, than to regret not taking action.”
Doctor Miller grinned at her. Sarah blinked. “Oh, you’re awful,” Sarah laughed now. “I can’t believe I walked into that.”
Her therapist laughed. “But it worked.”
“Yeah,” Sarah nodded. “It did. Thanks guys. I guess I’m more afraid of doing nothing.”
Sarah walked outside. She only made it as far as her car before she burst into tears. “What the hell is wrong with me?” she said to her reflection in the side mirror. She had a new prescription in hand, she had a great job, a great life, great friends. “I’m worrying over nothing... Aren’t I?” she sighed, and got in the car, taking a minute to try and compose herself before pulling away.
She had calmed considerably by the time she had gotten her hormone situation squared away, and was even thankful that her first booster shot would be in a spot that wouldn’t show, because she had to be Silvermist in half an hour. She rushed over to the park with 10 minutes to spare by the time she reached their dressing room.
“I need a Xanax,” she sighed to herself as she changed her clothes, pulling up her Silvermist boots. Only a handful of Fairies wore shoes in the movies, but they made an exception for their park costumes. They were comfortable, though, and always matched the costumes. They even had a few different styles to choose from.
“Silvermist?” one of the “Directors” called out.
“In here!” she called back. “I’m just putting on my face.”
The girl peeked her head in, “Okay, we’ve got you for the central part of the park today. Is that cool? I know you girls usually just go wherever, but Gennine wants to mix it up. We’re sending Tink to a meet and greet at Mickey’s as a little surprise, so you might run into her.”
“Sure, that’s no problem,” Silvermist said sweetly as she started working on her eye makeup. She saved the lips for last because, for whatever reason, they seemed to take the most work to really get ‘just’ right. She found herself missing having a professional makeup artist right about now, as she fussed with and mussed her hair with mousse to get that iconic ‘Sil’ look.
“Okay, Dew Drop,” Silvermist told her reflection. “You can do this.” She took her bubble wand from the prop table. It really was one of the best ideas she’d ever seen, and the prop department had really done well with making it look like just another part of her costume.
The girl who was acting “Director” for the day peeked her head back in, “Oh hey, we’ve got a few VIPs wandering around: no pressure.” She grinned.
Silvermist let out a groan. “That’s easy for you to say Jess. You get to hide back here and drink coffee,” she teased. She remembered Jess from when she had only just started as a janitor, though back then, her relationship to Sarah involved advising her on which dressing rooms needed the most work. Granted that only lasted a few days.
“Hey it’s not as easy being the director as you think,” Jess laughed.
“I’m teasing,” Silvermist giggled. “Some days I wish I’d just kept my head down and swept the floor, but you couldn’t pay me enough to do your job. How is casting going for our doubles?” she added, as they walked down the hall together.
“Pretty good actually. We’ve got a couple of potentials for both Vidya and Fawn, and several applicants for Silvermist that we’re pouring through this afternoon - mostly college kids like you looking for part time work.”
Silvermist nodded. “Plus the ones who can’t fill our boots can always apply for other roles so it’s no loss to us or to them.” She waved as they parted ways, and made her way out into the small, open section of Pixie Hollow, such as it was.
A teenage girl with a camera ambushed Silvermist as she exited the pixie hollow, “Hey Silvermist, can you give any advice to everyone about how to be a good friend?”
“Well,” Silvermist said thoughtfully. She put her index finger on the side of her chin, bubble wand in the other hand, “Being a good friend is all about being there for each other, not worrying about what you get from it, but what you give back. That way, in the end, it all evens out.” She nodded.
“Thanks Silvermist. We just got done talking to Tinkerbell about it too, and she suggested we find you and ask you.” The girl said.
“Aww, you’re welcome,” Silvermist giggled. “You know, a little tadpole told me you might find Vidya hiding out near the Pixie malt shop today.” She had actually just snuck a peek at Jess’ clipboard, so she knew where everyone was today.
The girl with the camera giggled. “See, what did I tell you? She sounds just like Silvermist.”
Silvermist gave her a puzzled look. “I am Silvermist. At least, I was the last time I checked. I’ll have to see if Tinkerbell has one of those reflectamabobs.”
Silvermist giggled and pointed her bubble wand at them. A human sized dewdrop plopped out, only something wasn’t quite right. It was bright pink. She took the dew drop and stared at it. “Well that’s not right,” she said, scratching her head, and giving the dew dropper a shake.
It definitely wasn’t supposed to do that, but she managed to stay in character. “I’d better find Fairy Mary. I think one of the tinkers replaced my dropper,” she giggled again.
“What’s that on the end?” the other girl asked. Silvermist hadn’t noticed there was a piece of paper wrapped tightly around the end. It looked like very old, aged parchment, and a thin strip of it. She unrolled it, breaking the wax seal.
“Sil, thought your dewdrops could use some color. Love Ratchet,” she read out loud and then laughed. “Ohhh! Those Lost Girls! They’re always playing pranks like this.” She produced another dewdrop, and then, with a special paint pen hidden inside the back of the wand, she scrawled her name in silver ink, giving one to each of the girls.
“Oh wow,” the girl with the camera said, “Thank you Sil!”
“Dew Drops for Dew Drops,” Silvermist giggled and turned, skipping off into the park.
She had only gone a little ways down the path when she heard a little girl’s voice. “Oh! It’s Silvermist! She can help us find our mommies.”
A park entertainer’s job was, of course, to entertain, but it was also to comfort and help whenever possible. Lost children were especially a delicate situation because it meant an irate, frantic mother, or mothers, were tearing the place apart. Silvermist put on her best smile.
“Well sure I can help,” she said brightly as she turned to face them, and found herself face to face with a mini Silvermist and a mini Rosetta. “Oh you two are adorable!” She let out a small giggle. The mini Silvermist blushed brightly.
“Thank you,” she said timidly, but started to smile.
“Now, the first thing I need to know about your Lost Things, is what they look like, and then we can go and get Tinkerbell. She’s an expert at finding lost things.” She gave them an exaggerated wink.
“Her mommy has long blonde hair, and my mommy has red hair like Merida.” the taller of the two girls answered.
“She’s real tall too,” the shorter, mini Silvermist nodded.
“Alrighty,” Silvermist said, latching her bubble wand onto a small loop in her dress that was almost impossible to see without looking for it. She reached out her hands so the girls could each take one. “Whatever you do, don’t let go okay? Sil’s got’cha,” she said, using a line from the first movie, which delighted both girls.
“Thank you Miss Mist,” they said in unison. She knew, realistically, that it was just a matter of keeping them calm while the security people did their real, behind the scenes magic. Just to be safe though, when she spotted Claire, Megan’s watch dog ninja, enjoying some cotton candy, she made a point to clear her throat as she walked by. “Lovely day for a rainbow isn’t it?”
Claire nodded and gave Silvermist a discrete wink. She may not have been on Disney’s payroll, but they had to clear her to work inside the park, which meant she worked alongside them. She pulled out a radio.
“Sil, you found them!” Tinkerbell shouted, waving, barely twenty yards from where the girls had approached her. “They’re with Silvermist!” she called to a pair of distraught women speaking with another security person.
“Mommy!” both girls exclaimed, but both looked up at Silvermist as if to ask if it was okay. Silvermist giggled softly as she gently nudged their hands forward and then let go.
“Now you can let go,” she said, as the two women raced closer. Truthfully, Sil was afraid she was going to be clotheslined if she didn’t let go, as the two women scooped up their daughters, crying and kissing them, amid apologies and relieved sobs, from both adults and kids.
Tink just grinned as she strolled up beside Silvermist, leaning sideways to whisper, “Nice job.”
“We can not thank you enough,” the tall redhead said, holding her daughter in one arm, and hugging Silvermist with the other. “We don’t know what happened. One second they were there, the next...”
Silvermist shook her head. “It’s okay. These things happen. What’s important is that your girls were very brave and asked for help. I’m so proud of them both.” She took her bubble wand off its little loop, producing two pink dew drops. She signed them, and then offered Tink the pen so she could sign them too. “If you set these in a warm place they’ll dry to a permanent drop. They’re completely non-toxic too. Just a little... pink today,” she giggled.
Later that afternoon, Sarah caught a five minute break with Princess Jasmine and Prince Aladdin in his Royal outfit, albeit with the hat hanging on a hat rack near the door, the jacket splayed out on a coffee table, and his shirt open, because this was Florida, and those heavy costumes get hot fast. Jasmine hazarded to ask.
“Have you heard from corporate yet?”
She knew what was going on with Crystal and Gretchen, and Gretchen’s mother. Everyone knew, even if Sarah hadn’t told them. They were family now, and what happened to one affected them all. That’s how they saw it, anyway.
Sarah shook her head. “No, and I’m getting anxious. I know they were threatening to file a court injunction against Mrs. Dupree because she not only had no legal right to tear up her own daughter’s contract, she tore up Crystal’s without her permission, and without the knowledge of Crystal’s parents.”
Aladdin just shook his head slowly. “I still can’t believe she did that. I mean I’ve seen helicopter parenting before, but even the worst of them never went that far. What the heck set her off anyway?”
“Oh,” Jasmine said, “She found out that the girls would have to be homeschooled in order to take the acting job, and she went ballistic on Gennine.”
Sarah nodded, “Yup it states in the contract that Crystal and Gretchen would be homeschooled during filming of the show.”
“Honestly?” Aladdin shook his head again. “She should’ve read the contract more carefully. I mean you saw the contract WE have to sign. They basically own anything I write, and I’m totally fine with that,” he laughed.
“Well yeah, I signed it.” Sarah giggled. “I had my lawyer read it over first but I signed it, the park’s contract wording is far worse than the studio’s. I didn’t know you were a writer though?”
He grinned and nodded. “Nothing professionally published yet, but if the corporate mouse wants to take it and do something with it that would make my whole year,” he laughed again.
“If I sell my artwork the park gets 30% of the sales according to the deal I had to sign with them if it makes you feel any better.” Sarah giggled out.
“You should see her paintings,” Jasmine spoke up. “Her portrait of ‘us’ - of Aladdin and Jasmine on a flying carpet ride is hanging in Gennine’s office right now actually.”
“That was yours?” Aladdin looked shocked. “I thought someone from the art department made that.”
Gennine peeked her head inside at that moment. “Oh there you are Sarah. I’ve been looking all over for you,” she laughed.
“Uh oh,” Jasmine teased. “Sil’s in trouble.”
“We had better get back out there,” Aladdin laughed too as he put on his jacket again. “I think tomorrow I’ll see if I can get away with the street rat look,” he joked, putting on his hat. “My Lady.” He bowed to Gennine, and then escorted Jasmine out.
“I thought you might want an update on the Gretchen and Crystal situation,” Gennine said as she sat down facing Sarah.
“Only if you can, I don’t want you to get in trouble.” Sarah replied anxiously.
“Well since you’re family, and Olivia is the de facto leader of the pixies, I can tell you.” Gennine winked. “I can also tell you the park wants me to fight tooth and nail to keep all you girls park employees too.”
“Wait,” Sarah said, “You mean Gretchen and Crystal had Park contracts in addition to their AMC ones?” she asked, and her mouth made a little ‘o’ shape as she said, “Ohhhh dewdrops. So she not only crossed AMC corporate, she crossed the Mouse too...”
“Yup, and it allows us to bypass their parents and allow them to change our terms, at will, and we can loan you girls to other things like the AMC deal.” Gennine explained. “To put it bluntly, Mrs. Dupree is up shit creek. We’re going to try to reason with her one final time. The director’s going to talk to her this afternoon in person.”
“So Gretchen and Crystal work here in the park?” Sarah asked.
Gennine nodded, “Yes, both are part time employees. It was necessary to set up a contract for them as actresses here in the park, in order to set up liability waivers and the like, but we’re seriously thinking of keeping the Lost Girls as a permanent presence - again, part time, since they are only teenagers - running amok every so often.”
“Guest reaction to the Lost Girls has been really positive,” Sarah giggled. “I heard they snuck into Hollywood Disney and pelted Boba Fett with paint balloons.”
“There’s one other matter I wanted to discuss with you while I have you,” Gennine said. “It’s about the painting you let me hang in my office. Well,” she chuckled. “That started it, anyway.”
“I thought it was perfect for the office.” Sarah said with a proud smile.
“Oh, I do too. And so does Regina, from the art department. She asked me which of her artists painted it, and I told her it was one of my new pixies. I thought she was going to faint,” she laughed.
“I don’t know if I want a job in the art department anymore” Sarah giggled.
“But you’re going back to college this fall still?” she asked. Sarah nodded.
“I want to get a degree in art history and teaching, so that when I can’t play Sil anymore I can at least fall back on that. Then maybe I’ll join the art department,” she giggled again. Gennine laughed softly, and opened the messenger bag she had brought in with her. She took out what looked like a check to Sarah, and handed it to her.
“She asked me to give you this. It’s a grant on behalf of the art department, not a bribe mind you,” she quickly added, grinning. “Use it for tuition or books, or food, or whatever else you need. And this,” she added, taking out a printed sheet of paper, signed at the bottom by Regina Mason, “A letter of recommendation to Florida State. Sarah, we take care of our own around here.” she winked.
Sarah stared, dumbfounded. “She only saw one painting, and did all this?”
“Oh no,” Gennine said, “As I said, that painting started it. After that, I took the liberty of showing her your online portfolio. I mentioned this isn’t a bribe, but I think, unofficially, she wants to keep you around too. Oh, and she wants to buy a copy of Aladdin and Jasmine.” Gennine laughed softly.
“Wow. I really don’t know what to say,” Sarah squeaked out. “Thank you so much.”
“You earned this,” Gennine answered. “Honestly I don’t want to lose you, either. None of you girls: you’ve been the best thing to hit this park since 2010.”
“What happened in 2010?” Sarah asked. She was still living in LA back then.
“We had to get rid of a lot of our good park actors due to a scandal.” Gennine sighed. “Best not to ask too many questions about that dark time. A lot of the older actors and actresses are still trying to forget. I was brought in to clean it up, and found myself promoted to head of park staff, as it were.”
Sarah nodded. “I won’t ask. Thank you though.”
“No problem. Jess is going to tell you this, so I’ll give you a heads up, the rest of your shift will be at Pixie Hollow for a birthday.”
“Oh that sounds delightful,” Sarah said cheerfully. “I’d better find somewhere safe to p ut these. Pixies don’t carry purses, except Tink when she’s in her Lost Treasure outfit.”
Gennine laughed. “I’ll hold onto those until after your shift if you’d like.”
A month has passed, and Sarah's been enjoying life as Silvermist in the park, but can she handle life as a celebrity TV actress? She still gets nervous meeting "real" celebrities! And how will HRT affect her ability to play the role?
Sarah had a day off before having to head over to the studio to do a four day filming stint, so she decided to make the best of her day off. She wanted to get the base layers down on the reproduction of her Aladdin and Jasmine painting started. True she could have just canvas printed the scanned, digital copy she had on her PC, but there was just something relaxing and zen-like about painting it, herself.
She had never tried to duplicate a painting though, granted, so this was going to present its own unique challenges too. She didn’t plan to spend the whole day in her studio, though. After a few hours getting the base painting done she decided to go out for a jog.
“Going for a run?” Olivia asked.
“Eep!” Sarah squeaked. “When did you get in? Oh God I wasn’t painting all day was I?”
“Nope, and I haven't been in for long.” Olivia giggled.
“Oh, but yeah,” Sarah nodded, “I thought I’d get some fresh air. Want to come?”
Olivia giggled. “Ordinarily I’d say I get enough exercise chasing guests around the park, but since it’s you asking? Sure.” She went into her bedroom at that, but left the door open, as she changed into a cute and, unintentionally, Tinkerbell green jogging suit.
“Don’t laugh,” she said as she came out. The matched jacket and pants were mostly white, but with green panels the exact color of Tink’s dress. “Green just happens to be a really good color on me,” she teased.
“Well you are Tinkerbell after all.” Sarah giggled as they both took the elevator down.
“You know I seriously thought they were joking when they said my name would appear as ‘Tinkerbell’ in the Lost Girls credits,” Olivia laughed. “But I’m not complaining.”
“Yeah, none of our real names will be appearing in the credits.” Sarah nodded. “Something to do with protecting our park identities. Were Crystal or Gretchen at the park today, speaking of which?”
“Yeah Gretchen was.” Olivia nodded, “She got the news by the way, and she’s so ecstatic.”
“I’m just glad her mom finally backed the jingles off,” Sarah said, literally stopped as Olivia walked another two paces, looking back at her. “Oh my God. Did I just say what I think I said?”
“Yup,” Olivia answered, and giggled. “We all catch ourselves off park doing that,” she said as Sarah caught up to her again. “I find it really hard to swear. It’s going to be really hard for me to say that line tomorrow too, calling Hook an asshole.”
“Yeah really,” Sarah nodded. “Going from kid friendly to... Well, kind of a smartass,” she said with a giggle. “Tink can be vicious.”
“Oh guess what!” Olivia bubbled as they rounded a corner. “The girl they’ve got playing Zarina on the show is going to be at the park soon as the Pirate Fairy. Apparently she caught one of our ad libs with Hatter. She said she laughed so hard she peed.”
“Cool!” Sarah said happily, “Can we play tricks on her?” she teased.
“What kind of pixies would we be if we didn’t?” Olivia giggled again. “She played a nasty trick on our characters in the movie, switching our powers. I like to think that our characters still play the occasional prank on her - all in good fun of course.”
“Yeah, but we got her to come around.” Sarah nodded.
They stopped at a crosswalk, where a woman and her young daughter were waiting as well. The little girl, holding onto her mother’s hand with one hand, looked up at Sarah and Olivia. Her eyes went wide, and her little mouth opened. Olivia grinned and put a finger to her lips, winking. The girl giggled and nodded.
When they got across the street, the girl and her mother went into the store, but they could here the girl, “Momma I saw pixies!”
Sarah and Olivia burst out laughing the moment they were far enough away from the store. “It’s funny how only the little ones recognize us.” Sarah smiled. “Even with my hair in a ponytail and yours down.”
“And not an ounce of stage makeup between us,” Olivia laughed.
“I was at the bank the other day, and I got the same thing from a little boy.” Sarah laughed. “It’s really cute.”
“Jasmine and Cinderella sometimes get it too,” Olivia giggled. “Mileena IS Jasmine though as far as I’m concerned. That girl should be a Broadway actress.”
“Yeah, I have a hard time with it. I get that “I should know that person” vibe, but I don’t recognize most of the actors and actresses outside the park.” Sarah shrugged as they passed Vanessa and Jade’s apartment building. Jade was actually sitting on the front steps strumming a guitar and humming something. Every so often she’d stop and strum a different chord.
“Hey Jade.” Olivia smiled. “Looking forward to filming tomorrow?”
“Hey guys!” Jade said brightly and waved. “Yes and no,” she giggled. “I’m not as nervous as I was, but it’s still a little scary.”
“I’m the same way, “ Sarah nodded, “Oh did you get a chance to see the costumes we’ll be wearing for the new shoot?”
“Worse than the ones they already had us in for the pilot?” Jade giggled.
“Not really.” Olivia laughed. “They’re made them a bit more maneuverable in though, so they show off a tiny bit more. Like poor Silvermist is practically in a bikini,” she giggled again
“The top is damn near Bikini.” Sarah sighed, “The skirt.. I would almost not call it a skirt.”
Olivia nodded, “But we’re a lot more combatish in the show, so they needed to give us outfits that fit that.”
“I just want to see Fawn riding in on the back of a badger with an army of skunks behind her,” Jade laughed.
“I love how the green screen stuff, they project for us so we can see it too.” Sarah said as she and Olivia sat down with Jade. “Makes it more realistic while filming.”
“OhmyGOsh yes,” Jade nodded. “Carol was telling me how they had to use stand-ins on that kids show she was on because it was just too weird talking to thin air, where the animated characters were supposed to be.” She strummed a few chords, and began fingerpicking ‘It’s a Small World’
“Hey I know it’s our day off, but do any of you guys fancy going to the park today?” Olivia laughed.
“You had me at ‘park’,” Jade giggled. “Just let me put this away. Vanessa gave it to me for my unbirthday,” she teased.
“I love it.” Sarah laughed. “Oh and Marry Unbirthday to you.”
“To me?” Jade said, almost sounding like Alice, with that little squeak Alice did in the song.
“I think Kevin is playing the Hatter today.” Olivia laughed. “Should be a riot.”
“That was so weird yesterday,” Sarah said as Jade came back out. “Did you hear about that?”
“Yeah I saw those stormtroopers chasing that lost girl, Ratchet?” Jade laughed.
“Apparently Annie’s been having way too much fun with the prop guys,” Olivia giggled. “She had them build her a paint balloon launcher, and she tested it out on the unsuspecting Star Wars cast.”
“It’s going to be weird getting to know all the Lost girls’ names at the park.” Jade nodded. “I know Ratchet, Red and Pinkie, and then there’s Captain Steele, but she’s not really a Lost Girl, and um... Jingles.”
“She’s an unofficial Lost girl.” Sarah nodded. “Oh! I hear, the lost boys are going to actually make an appearance in this season. We get to paint them pink.”
“Nope,” Olivia giggled. “Jingles isn’t one of them. But that’s what I’ve been hearing too, that the lost boys invade the Lost Girls’ island, and get repelled by Ratchet’s paint launchers or something.”
Sarah nodded. “I was reading through some of the future scripts, I mean they’re all subject to change, but it was kinda fun to read some of the antics they have us girls up to too.”
Vanessa appeared in the doorway wearing a short, casual black skirt and a red spaghetti strap tank top, and a pair of shoes that screamed ‘I can walk all day in these’. “Did somebody say park?” she said, grinning.
“Yup.” Olivia giggled. “I think a relaxing day at the park would be nice.”
“I always feel a little guilty using my employee pass,” Jade laughed, “But I could live in the park.”
“I don't anymore.” Sarah laughed as they started walking to the bus stop together, rather than taking a car. “But even on my time off I can’t get away from the park, it’s just so.. What’s the word? Magical. Even if I know what goes on behind the scenes. Did you guys get caught by Karen the park blogger when working yet? She got me the other day and asked me how to be a good friend.”
Olivia giggled sheepishly. “I couldn’t resist siccing her on you.”
After a bit of a bus ride, they had only just entered the park, when they found themselves witnessing quite the spectacle. Zarina the Dust Keeper fairy, alchemist extraordinaire, crossed blades with Captain Steele as they exchanged witty banter.
“Haha, you call that swordplay?” Zarina laughed. “I’ve seen lost boys with better footwork!”
“I think I found Captain Steele’s marbles over here.” Sarah called out.
“What? Where?” Captain Steele looked up, momentarily distracted, and Zarina used the tip of her rapier to knock her big captain hat off her head. Red swooped in from a nearby bush and grabbed it, gave a loud crow, and dashed off.
Look, “I’m Captain Dork!” Red yelled as she ran off wearing the hat.
“Gah, I’ll deal with you later, peasant fairy!” she said as she sheathed her sword and glowered at Zarina, running off after Red. “Get back here with that! It cost me fifty pounds!”
“Fifty? But you still look so fat!” Red called back.
“STERLING you bilge rat!” Steele yelled, chasing her. Sarah giggled loudly as Zarina turned and saluted the girls with her rapier before sheathing it, and then giving a low, sweeping bow. Sarah winked at her as the girls headed into Fairy territory heading straight for the malt shop.
Alice and the Hatter were outside chatting with a mini Alice, a mini Hatter, and two mini pixies, one Rosetta and the other Fawn.
“You pixies, my goodness,” Hatter giggled. “You keep shrinking and growing. You’ve been into the Mushrooms haven’t you!”
“Pixies can change sizes at will. Don’t you know that, Hatter?” Olivia asked.
Hatter jumped with an animated arm wave. “Well of course I know that Hatter! I know all the Hatters!” he answered with a lopsided grin.
“Mad as a Hatter.” Jade giggled, “That one is.” she said to the kids. “Best watch him closely.”
“It’s the pixies you have to watch,” Hatter nodded to the girls - even the mini Hatter was actually a little girl, which Kevin would later mention absolutely made his day. “Trixy pixies. That’s what they say.”
“Oh not that again,” Alice groaned, but then politely giggled..
The mini Rosetta spoke up, “Pixies aren't trixy’s. We’re sweet and kind.”
“Are you sure?” Hatter giggled again. “They look pretty suspicious to me.” He looked around over animatedly just to be sure there weren’t any more around.
The Tinkerbell extra came around the corner at that moment, stopped, and grinned, “Hey Hatter, I just saw Peter making off with a fancy teapot. It had a big ‘H’ on the side...”
“What?! How dare he! That’s Tinkerbell’s teapot!”
“Yep. He and Wendy were having tea together.” Tinkerbell huffed.
“WHAT?!” he gasped and put his hand on his chest. “This is an outrage! Have a tea party without me! Why I never!”
“You never what?” Alice asked.
“I never eat jam on ham,” Hatter grinned and nodded. “But I have a tea pot thief to catch! The case,” he said dramatically as he held up one finger, “is afoot!” and he began his dramatic sleuth walk.
“Oh dear,” Alice giggled. “I’d better keep an eye on him. The last time he got off by himself, the Evil Queen almost turned him into a hat rack.” She winked at the kids and then raced off after the Hatter.
“Wow,” Sarah whispered as they walked inside. “I’ll have to be careful not to kiss the wrong Tink.”
Olivia giggled, “She’s pretty good huh? I love messing with them like that too. They do it to us all the time!”
‘Tinkerbell’, with her arms folded neatly behind her back, snuck up behind the girls, and in her loudest stage whisper she could manage, said, “What are we whispering about?” Sarah jumped about three inches, causing the others to giggle.
“We were saying you have a lovely dress Tink.” Jade said, trying really hard not to slip into her Iridessa persona.
“Awww why thank you. I made it myself!” Tinkerbell giggled. She really did have the Tink mannerisms down, and the smile too.
“Did you see Red yet?” Sarah asked, “Last time we saw her Captain Steele was chasing her.”
As if on cue, the very large, white plume of Captain Steele’s hat poked up behind the malt shop’s soda bar, and then the brim, followed by Red’s eyes peeking out, shifting this way and that, and then a giggle escaped.
“If you see Captain Dorkfish, don’t tell her I’m hiding here.” Red grinned. “Jack says you’re just not a captain without a proper hat.” She nodded.
Holly, the former pirate turn lost girl, strolled into the malt shop a moment later. “Like, Ahoooy! Can I like get one of those pink fizzy things please?” she said in her best pirate-meets-valley girl voice.
“Oh sure.” The girl working the counter smiled, “Anything for a lost girl.”
“You’re like, totes the best!” she said brightly as she fished around in her “coin” purse. She had a bunch of chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil that she gave out to kids, so she put one on the counter as payment.
“Ooh, pirate Booty.” Red grinned and reached over the counter, snagging it.
“Eek! A pirate!” Holly squealed, putting her hand to her chest. “Oh, jingles. Red, it’s only you. Don’t scare me like that!”
“Captain Dorkfish is looking for me.” Red stated. “Careful she might take you hostage.”
“What an excellent idea,” Captain Steele said from the doorway, drawing her fake sword. “En garde!” The kids in the malt shop were so fascinated with the story going on they weren't paying much attention to their food.
“En garde yourself,”Holly said as she drew her sword. “Like, if we have to do this let’s take it outside. I wouldn’t want you to get soda all over that gorgeous new top.”
Red joined them outside, and they could hear Pinkie out there as well, “Nobody touches my sister!” Pinkie shouted.
Vanessa giggled as they watched the whole thing from their vantage point near the bar. “I swear this place gets better and better every day.”
“This is totally why I love coming here even when I’m not working.” Olivia giggled. “It’s like a mini cartoon or TV show in it’s own. The crossover stuff is soo funny.”
“Avast!” Zarina could be heard, “Cavalry’s here! Ratchet, lock and load!”
“Noooo!” Holly squealed. “Not the paint launcher! It’ll ruin her top!”
“Then she’d better start running!” Ratchet laughed.
“This isn’t over!” Captain Steele shouted as she grabbed her hat and ran. The lost girls and fairies, and kids cheered, and even a few adults got into the spirit, as Rebecca, not in her Lost Girls role, but as herself, strolled into the malt shop. Granted she was wearing a bright pink baseball cap and sunglasses.
“Rebecca, hey,” Sarah called and waved.
Rebecca picked up her soda, grinning as she came to join them. “‘Ey girls,” she said. “Nice day for a swordfight eh?” she laughed.
“Going incognito today huh?” Olivia teased her.
“Yup, actually. Today is my Radio Disney premiere. I want to see how long it takes for someone to recognize me,” she giggled impishly.
The girl behind the bar, overhearing the conversation, grinned impishly herself, and queued up Rebecca’s punk remix of ‘Let it Go’ on the shop’s PA/music system.
“Oh lord,” Rebecca groaned.
Olivia giggled and hugged her, “We got spotted outside the park half way to Jade’s place. So don’t feel bad.”
“I don't think she thought of us from here. I think she saw us on TV.” Sarah nodded.
“See, that’s my problem,” Rebecca laughed. “I’m only technically with AMC. When I’m here as a lost girl I’m just an extra.”
“Nope,” Olivia grinned. “You’ve got a park contract.”
“Well you know what I mean,” Rebecca said. “I haven’t been doing this as long as you guys.”
“I’m afraid I’m fairly new at this too.” Sarah winked. “Including the acting thing.”
“It’s true,” Jade nodded. “We’ve all been here like... a month? Olivia’s the only seasoned one.”
“We came in shortly after Sarah,” Vanessa added.
It was about this time that Sarah noticed a young tween/teen girl was staring with her mouth open. She coughed and nudged Rebecca. “Your public awaits.”
Rebecca turned around in her chair and grinned at the girl. “Well? Don’t just stand there, come sit, hang out! These guys are AMC film crew, but they’re cool.” She winked.
“Action.” The director called out. Silvermist came out from behind a large wooden door, only to be pelted by a water balloon by a lost girl.
They were in a big, open plot of land with a real pirate ship - or a real fake pirate ship - and off in the distance stood the pixie dust tree that would be both the pixies’ and Lost Girls’ home, a truly massive feat of engineering.
“Hey!” Silvermist shouted pretending to be angry for a moment, and then lifted her hand over her head. “That’s my job!” she giggled as she pretended to hurl a giant dewdrop at them.
“Got you first!” a lost girl named Soda giggled, she had soda bubbles decorated on her outfit.
Another lost girl came running up to her. “Red’s back! Red’s back!”
Silvermist ran down a gangplank to where the other pixies where, “Red’s back!” she called out to them. “Come on you lazy dew drops!” she giggled and brought a CGI wave crashing over the ship - or at least that’s how it would look in post production. A bunch of dripping wet lost girls came barreling down, chasing her. She giggled as the director yelled.
“Cut! Beautiful! Okay girls, we’re about to film the landing sequence and your first glimpse of Lost girl island. Remember you were in Peter’s land up till now. But first lets take 10.”
“I just figured out why all this filming stuff is done in warm places,” Crystal giggled as she wrung out her soaking wet hair. Sarah nodded as one of the makeup and hair people came over to dry her hair, and several others came out to do the same with the other girls.
“Although I bet location filming is exciting too,” she said as she sat down in the canvas chair with her name, or rather ‘Silvermist’ written in silver glitter on the back, said.
“It has its moments,” Megan laughed. “I’ll let you in on a secret. If you saw the Sam Snow movie, that grub scene...” She waited until every eye was on her. Even one of the makeup artists paused to listen.
“Marshmallows,” Juliette spoiled it for them with a giggle. “We literally sat about, chatting up a bushman while eating roasted marshmallows. Megan ate a real grub, though, just to see what it was like.”
“Kind of nutty,” Megan grinned, as Gretchen and Crystal, and several others, let out an ‘Ewwww!’ in unison.
“I’ve been wondering something,” Jade said as she approached. “Maybe you guys know, being in the business for so long, but is it normal to air an episode before the second half of it is even finished?”
“You mean the pilot episode?” Megan asked.
Jade nodded. “Yeah. I mean this is supposed to be part two where we establish Lost Girl island and rescue Zarina.”
Megan nodded. “Yeah, they didn’t want to release it, but Disney kind of wanted to see the ratings before we even filmed part 2.”
“Ahh okay,” Jade nodded. “That makes sense.”
“It’s been over two weeks since we even began filming part 2, so they must have been waiting for some data to come in?” Sarah looked confused.
“Yeah, Netflix has paid a good amount of money to stream it now, they’re trying to negotiate same day rights.” Juliette stated, “So we were waiting for their results as well. It’s all really weird. They want to use our show as a testbed for whether they do same-day streaming, or wait for the full season to put it up like they normally do.”
Carolyn, dressed in her Pirate lost girl outfit was busy snapping photos of the girls getting their hair and makeup fixed, while they let their clothes air dry. They had just been hit by a Silvermist wave, so they were supposed to still be a little damp, but not too much.
“I believe this is the episode Amber joins us?” Jade asked. “Big first battle with Captain Steele too, our first enemy.”
“I still can’t believe I let you lot talk me into this,” Carolyn laughed. “I prefer being behind the camera. But I have to admit...” she giggled. “Being in the show gives me a lot more creative freedom about what Amber and I can post.”
“Well, keeping it in the family helps, yeah,” Megan giggled. “Having Dad directing and all. AMC can’t really say ‘no’ as long as it’s not spoiler content.”
“I'm glad there’s no nude shots.” Sarah laughed.
“Only partial like the waterfall scene next episode where it shows the top of your butt.” Megan winked.
“Why does a water fairy even need to take a shower?” Sarah pouted cutely and then giggled.
“Because even water fairies get BO.” Olivia tossed Sarah a bottle of water.
“Okay,” Megan said, “Let’s go over the next scene really fast before we shoot. Silvermist gets everyone off the ship by drowning them, then everyone runs to follow her.”
“It was supposed to be an accident.” Silvermist giggled. “I put too much oomph in it this time I think.” she shrugged looking innocent.
Juliette laughed. “I don’t care how many times I hear it, it never ceases to amaze me how much you sound like Sil.”
“That’s because she is Silvermist.” Olivia giggled.
“Just as long as she doesn’t usurp my voice acting job,” someone with a very familiar voice spoke up behind them. Sarah froze.
“I... Is that...” she squeaked out. She very slowly turned her head. Sure enough, Lucy Liu was standing right behind them. She whipped her head around again. “Oh my God it is.”
The actress laughed. “Nice to meet you too,” she said jokingly. “I saw part one of the movie and I just had to come watch the filming for part two.”
“I literally own every Pixie movie.” Sarah giggled. “I used to pretend to be Silvermist for my little sister too.” Annie raised her hand at that and giggled nervously.
“TV series actually, but yeah, the pilot was meant to be a mini movie.” Megan corrected. “I kinda wanted to do each episode ‘Live’. But the Director kind of shot that down saying filming in parts was easier since it was hard to get all the actors together when we needed them at the same time for live shooting.”
“I have to say,” Lucy said, “I’m impressed. I do a lot of voice acting these days, but the Tinkerbell movies were some of my favorite work. Sil is so cute, and you really bring her to life. You all do.”
“Well you’re the O.G. Sil, I’m just second hand.” Sarah giggled nervously..
A young woman with tiger-striped bright pink and sky blue hair came into the circle wearing wings, “Oh my gosh!” she giggled, “Luci Lu, I loved you in Charlie's Angels.”
Lucy let out a small giggle as she shook the girl’s hand and then gave her a hug. Sarah smiled. “That’s C. Candy, Cotton Candy, one of the new Pixies,” she said.
“They’re trying to get me to debut at the park too, but my mom was like no way, filming the show is enough,” she laughed. “Maybe next year when I’m 18 though.”
“How’d you like to make a guest appearance?” Megan asked. Juliette nodded, “We could have you as one of the Lost girl Island natives that greet us on shore.”
Lucy grinned innocently, glancing at Megan’s dad, who gave a helpless shrug and laughed. “You get to tell them. That’s what the contract said.”
Lucy laughed, “I’m actually going to be playing the leader of the Island Natives permanently. I couldn’t decide whether to tell you now, and get to meet my doppleganger,” she teased Sarah, “Or wait until I was in full makeup and let you figure it out.”
“So wait you’re playing Earth Sister?” Sarah squealed.
Lucy nodded. “I think the park people are hoping having my name in the credits will throw them off too,” she teased.
“That’s soo cool,” Sarah said.
“Okay actors on set!” The Director called out.
“Showtime,” Lucy grinned, taking a chair next to the Director’s as the girls rushed back to the filming area.
A month has passed, and Sarah's been enjoying life as Silvermist in the park, but can she handle life as a celebrity TV actress? She still gets nervous meeting "real" celebrities! And how will HRT affect her ability to play the role?
“Ye’ll never take us alive, right girls?!” Captain Steele called defiantly. She had four pirates at her side played by Carolyn, Paige, Claire, and Bethann, and three of them were well-known to be highly athletic, so they had been working hard with stunt coordinators to film this rather action packed scene.
“Aye!” her pirates cheered, one of them knocking over Zarina’s tiny cage with her sword in the process. “Ooooops,” she said in a ditzy valley girl voice.
Red grinned, “Lost Girls! Get them!” she pointed her sword that Peter had given her at the pirates.
“Cut!” the director called out. “Zarina you’re on.”
“Right boss,” Zarina teased as she hoisted herself up onto the pirate ship. It was the same ship set piece they had used for their ‘arrival’, but with enough different dressings to make it look like Captain Steele’s vessel.
“Action!”
“Now I’m going to show you the fury of an ALCHEMIST FAIRY!” Zarina shouted, and began to throw dust on the pirate extras, as the lost girls handled the core pirates. The scene went off beautifully. The girls’ practice paid off in allowing them to do one smooth, continuous overhead shot too. They were going to have to repeat it for a few close-ups, but all in all they had the entire scene finished in one take.
“So, then,” Zarina said, pacing back and forth in front of their prisoners, her rapier drawn. “What,” she said, thwapping one pirate across the head, “Should we do,” she said, thwapping another, “With you. I vote we feed them to the crocodile.”
Tinkerbell shook her head. “No. I say we banish them from the island.”
“But Tink,” Zarina said, “They’ll just come back and kill us later! You know how pirates are!”
“We have the Lost Girls.” Tinkerbell answered. “They’ll protect us like Peter had before. Besides,” she said, putting her hand on Zarina’s shoulder, “You were a pirate once too.”
“I was a misguided idiot,” Zarina sighed.
“Um,” Holly spoke up. “We’d um, like to like, join you actually?”
“Oh, that’s rich,” Red laughed. “You, the elite guard of the granddaughter of Captain Codfish, you who trained on the blood of innocent natives and pixies, want to join us.” She grinned broadly and with a swift flick of her sword, cut Holly free. “Welcome aboard.”
“Wait, really?” Holly squeaked, as Pinkie and Red began to cut the others free.
“We’re coming!” Iridessa’s voice called. Fortunately the close-up shot didn’t call for her and Rosetta to come flying in frame.
“Too late,” Silvermist giggled. “Did you stop for a ... light lunch?”
“Cut!” The director called, “Okay I need the natives to get ready. While we do the sword fight scene again from a different angle. You core Pixies, you can break if you want. We’re going to reuse your scene that you had already done. It’s almost 5 already so we’re going to wrap after the native scene with Red and Pinkie.”
“2 more hours of filming left for the younger ones,” Katherine stated rather firmly, but then grinned. “Then we’ll have to wrap for the night.”
“I know that voice,” Sarah whispered, looking around. Sure enough, Mrs. Dupree was standing just off and behind the director’s chair. In all the excitement of filming, she hadn’t noticed her sooner.
“You didn’t hear?” Gretchen asked as she grabbed a bottled water before the next take. “Mom is our resident taskmaster,” she said jokingly. “It was Megan’s dad Rob’s idea.”
Megan popped her head in between the two, at that, “I had a feeling things would work out. All Dad had to do was extol the virtues of private tutelage. When she found out Jules and me were two grades ahead, she got real interested, real quick,” she added, laughing.
“Ooooh,” Sarah whined as they got on the private bus to drive them back home. “I used muscles I didn’t know I had today, and I’m a lifeguard.”
Olivia nodded, “My butt hurts from taking that fall. I think I got bruises on my bruises after doing it four times.”
“My wings are killing me,” Jade said. Everyone turned to look at her, and she giggled. “What? You guys got all the action scenes. All I did was fly around,” she teased.
“The core pixies get to kick some butt tomorrow though,” Sarah laughed, “Hopefully we don’t have to do so many retakes.”
Since first meeting Zarina at the park, they really hadn’t had much contact with her until today. They had only just learned that her real name was Emily. She stifled a yawn as she boarded the bus last. “Sorry. Had to help Rob find his phone.”
“Again?” Megan groaned. “He loses it like fifty times a week.”
“Megan keeps threatening to superglue it to his ear so he can’t lose it,” Juliette giggled as Emily sat down. Juliette grinned at her. “Hey, Emily, you got plans tonight?”
“Not... really?” Emily answered hesitantly. She had no idea about the ‘girls night’ tradition, or any of that. She had only just been brought in to play Zarina at the park and in the TV series within the last week, so no one really knew much about her either.
“Well we’re doing girls night before we go home.” Juliette said, glancing at Sarah and Olivia to make sure it was okay.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Sarah said. “We pick a different restaurant every other week, and hit our favorite diner otherwise. It’s strictly park people so you’ll already know everyone.”
Emily looked a little surprised at that as she sat up in her seat. “... You guys are serious? You want me to hang out with you?”
“Why not?” Olivia asked. “We don’t bite, except for maybe Candy,” she teased.
“Hey I resemble that remark.” Candy giggled. “It’s my first girls’ night too. I’ve never even seen Alice or Periwinkle outside of the park so I’m kind of excited.”
“Well I mean, I just thought,” Zarina said, “Aren’t you guys all real actors?”
Rebecca laughed. “Says the actress who gets to play the coolest fairy in history. Megan and Juliette are the only career actresses ‘ere,” she said, letting her accent slip through. Ironically her lost girl character was American. “I sing, and I used to do drama at my old school, but that’s about it.”
Sarah nodded, “Technically we’re actresses as well, but we’re Park Actors which is totally unscripted. A couple of months ago I was just a janitor,” she added.
“Up till a month and a half ago,” Jade said, “I was living at a homeless shelter. Never acted a day in my life, but they loved my Iridessa and hired me on the spot, thanks to Sarah chasing me down first,” she giggled.
“She almost blew pixie dust,” Vanessa nodded.
“I did once I got into the park,” Jade laughed. “But we saw you in the park the other day, too. You’re good, scripted or unscripted.”
Emily blushed now. “Thanks. In reality I’m super shy, but I’ve wanted to be an actress since I was little. I always take the brash roles, in school plays, community theater, whatever, because they’re so different from me.” She giggled. “And now I’m Zarina. I keep waiting to wake up and find out it was just an amazing dream”
“A dream is a wish your heart makes,” Rebecca sang, and then giggled, adding, “And not to sound like a broken record, but the coolest fairy ever. She’s not just a dust keeper. She’s a dust weaver, and a helluva swordswoman.”
“And she can swear without saying Jingles,” Olivia laughed.
“I thought Dad was going to spit out his coffee when you called Steele a glass bowl,” Megan cackled.
Sarah laughed, “That whole ‘stick it in the ass’ line just felt way out of character for Sil, so I changed it.”
As if on cue Megan, Juliette, Paige, Carly, and Bethann all chanted in unison, “Stick it in the tadpole hole!”
Sarah giggled, “It just sounded better than what they wanted me to say. No way even in an edgier setting Sil would say ass.”
“Yeah, Sil is pretty conservative out of the pixies.” Megan nodded.
Morgan, who had been dozing the entire time, suddenly sat bolt upright and whipped her head around. “Oh thank God,” she said, getting her breath.
“Bad dream?” Emily giggled softly. Morgan nodded.
“Dreamed I was in Pixie Hollow chasing sprinting thistles.” She shuddered. “I”ve been playing Vidya too long.”
Emily giggled. “Awww.”
“So,” Kelly said, as they worked on their second round of non-alcoholic drinks, much to Emily’s relief really, since she was too young to drink anyway. “You never told us how the therapy thing went.”
“Oh, um,” Sarah said, “I had to choose between a guaranteed job with Disney for another 2-3 years and losing the chance to fill out my figure, or taking HRT, filling out my figure before my bones fully fuse, and possibly losing my job as Silvermist, if and when I no longer look like the character.”
They weren’t in a private room, but they were the only ones in the diner save for the staff, who already knew everyone worked at the park, and they wouldn’t list names for all the tips in the city.
“Oh, damn,” Christina actually swore, which coming out of a petite girl who even outside the park looked a lot like Alice, was kind of comical. “Sarah I’m sorry. But well, even if you can’t play Sil, you can always get another Princess role easily.”
“That’s even assuming Gennine lets you go,” Kelly laughed. “Good performers are hard to find, and you’re practically a legend after the way you saved that guy on the Black Pearl.”
Sarah nodded. “I chose HRT of course, but...” She looked over at Emily. “You alright?” she asked.
Emily grinned. “Yeah, great. I just um, didn’t realize you were trans. I mean don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re really pretty. Like people keep saying, you are Silvermist.”
“Thanks,” Sarah giggled.
“Oh don’t worry!” Emily blushed a little now. “I um, I don’t really know ‘what’ I am, but I’m an LGBT ally. My roommate hangs out at this nightclub called Surge sometimes. She’s been trying to get me to go too, but I’m like what if someone recognizes me?”
“Oh I know that place,” Kelly giggled. “I used to tend bar before I got the job at the park”
“Wait,” Christina looked at Kelly. “You’re allergic to alcohol.”
“Yes,” Kelly said.
“But you were a bartender?”
“Yes,” Kelly said.
Christina blinked again. “Oookay then!”
“By the way,” Juliette leaned over to Emily. “You do know there’s like, three lesbian couples sitting at this table right?” She grinned.
Emily blushed deeper. “Seriously? And the park doesn’t care?”
“Not as long as we keep it out of character,” Olivia giggled. “I mean like, if Sarah and I were making out behind Pixie Hollow in costume, heck yeah we’d be thrown out on our tadpole holes, but what we do on our time is our business.”
“Not sure what it is,” Megan said, “If it’s just more open attitudes about sex and sexuality, or if it’s just a coincidence, but I’ve noticed lots more people these days are openly bisexual or gay.”
“Or pan, in my case,” Morgan coughed.
“Pan?” Emily asked. “Sorry... What’s that?”
“Well,” Morgan said, “Being bisexual is binary - you like guys or girls. Pansexual is a little more... gray area. I’m attracted to guys, and I’m attracted to some girls, and, well for example my last date was with a guy who dresses like a girl but identifies as a guy still.”
“Oh,” Emily nodded.
“How was it anyway?” Vanessa asked. Morgan laughed.
“Not gonna have a second date. He looked drop dead gorgeous, but he smoked like a chimney. There wasn’t a moment in the night he didn’t have a cigarette in his mouth.”
“Ouch.” Sarah shook her head.
“Yeah. We’ll probably stay in touch, preferably long distance,” she laughed and raised her glass of soda to finish it off. “But I’m back to being single for awhile. I guess it’s just as well with the TV shoots going on. I’m just glad they list us as our characters so we’re not being hounded like the movie stars.”
“I’m surprised the newshounds didn’t follow the bus here,” Megan laughed. “Not that I’m complaining. If this tradition ever got ruined I’d shoot every photog in a fifty mile radius.” She paused to look over at Carolyn, “Present company excluded.”
“Nice save,” Carolyn laughed.
The next morning Sarah was awakened by her phone ringing. It was 4am. She sat bolt upright and grabbed it. No one ever called at 4am unless it was bad news. “Hello?”
“Sarah, it’s Megan,” Megan said. She sounded upset.
“Megan? What’s wrong?” Sarah asked.
“I don’t know,” Megan said. “Dad just called me. He’s got me and Mum putting the word out. There’s no shooting for the next week. He wouldn’t tell me why.”
“But we took the whole week off to finish shooting,” Sarah said, walking into the kitchen.
“I know, I know,” Megan said. “He wouldn’t cancel shooting if it wasn’t serious. I just wish I knew what’s going on. I’ve got to call the others. Can you tell Olivia and Annie?”
Olivia rolled over after Sarah hung up, walking back to the bedroom. “What was that about?”
“Sorry,” Sarah said. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You didn’t. Your phone did,” she yawned. Sarah sat down on the bed.
“Megan says shooting is cancelled for a bit. Rob wouldn’t tell us what’s going on, just to get the word out. I have to call Annie and let her know,” she sighed.
“Jingles,” Olivia giggled a little at herself. “Well my double can probably use a break at the park. I’ll call and ask her if she wants today or tomorrow off.” She looked at the alarm clock. “Ugh. After the sun comes up.”
Sarah sent out a mass text to the ‘core pixies’. ‘Emergency meeting @ Pixie Hollow when park opens. Something’s up w/ shooting. Going to find out what.’ She set the phone on the nightstand and leaned over to kiss Olivia. “I’m going to jump in the pool then do my tai chi.”
“Awww I wanted to snuggle some more.” Olivia yawned again.
Sarah giggled. “Well since you put it like that.” She jumped back in bed.
Olivia squeaked. “Fuck your feet are cold!” She blushed, giggling again. “Wow. I didn’t say jingles!”
“You’re welcome,” Sarah laughed as she put her arms around her.
“Not even sure how we ended up in the same bed last night.” Olivia giggled as she snuggled closer to Sarah. “But you were warm all night, and it felt good.”
Sarah laughed again. “And that was without a single drop of rum,” she teased. “I know we didn’t do anything. I definitely would have remembered that.”
“Yeah no, we just snuggled all night.” Olivia laughed and put her head on Sarah’s shoulder. “We must have both been so tired.”
Sarah nodded. “Did I dream it, or were Emily and Morgan holding hands on the bus after we left the diner?”
“Maybe? Megan brought up a good point though. A lot more people seem to be open to trying an LGBT relationship these days. Emily’s definitely bi-curious- Sarah?” she looked up. Sarah had dozed off again. She giggled and snuggled closer, closing her eyes.
Everyone gathered at “Pixie Hollow HQ” - namely, the pixies’ dressing room. It was a little bit of a surprise for Karen, the Tinkerbell double, to walk in and find everyone there, but it concerned her too, as Olivia’s understudy for the TV show.
She hugged Olivia. “I got your message. Tomorrow off would be amazing since it’s my niece’s birthday. You guys don’t know what’s going on though?” she asked.
“Notta clue,” Megan said, “But Sarah’s gone to bring Gennine in. She won’t keep us in the dark.”
Sarah came out of Geninne's office a moment later, “Okay, it’s not 100% bad news at least, I’ll let Fairy Mary tell you all whats going on.”
“To start with,” Gennine said, “Nobody died, or is in the hospital, to set your minds at ease,” she chuckled. “Sorry Rob couldn’t be more forthcoming about what was going on.”
“So what is going on?” Jade asked.
“Tropical Storm Andrea just struck the Bahamas,” Gennine said, “And it’s looking like it’s going to arc right up to us, so they’re shutting down the entire site while the engineers nail everything down.”
“How is that not all bad?” Jade asked. “That’s awful.”
“Because the park is giving us a paid vacation.” Sarah giggled. Gennine nodded.
“That goes for you as well Karen. We’re shutting down Pixie Hollow to continue the new renovations so we’re giving you and Kelly the week off too.”
“Jeez,” Megan sighed. “Why Dad couldn’t just tell me that is beyond me. I thought someone vandalized the set or something.”
Gennine laughed, “Not with how much Disney has put into security out there. Does everyone have hurricane-safe shelter?”
Sarah spoke up, “Our apartment has a hurricane shelter in the basement.”
“Not sure about our hotel,” Megan said, “But this is Florida so I’m guessing we’re good,” she laughed.
“If not your hotel is not that far from our apartment, if you can you can hop over, we’ll get you in.”
A month has passed, and Sarah's been enjoying life as Silvermist in the park, but can she handle life as a celebrity TV actress? She still gets nervous meeting "real" celebrities! And how will HRT affect her ability to play the role?
“Oh goodie though on the vacation thing, I can get some more sleep.” Olivia smiled, “My butt still hurts by the way, I took a fall 4 times yesterday before Megan’s dad said the take was perfect.”
Sarah giggled. “Next time I’ll find a pillow and paint it to look like part of the scenery.”
“I can’t believe we agreed to do our own stunts.” Jade giggled.
“I can’t believe it’s not butter!” Hatter said as he walked past, half-eaten bagel in one hand.
“While we’ve got everyone here,” Kelly spoke up, “Two things I want to address. The first is that auditions for the other pixie roles are happening in about an hour if anyone wants to hang around and help judge the new recruits,” she said with a grin. “The other is about Sarah’s status as Silvermist.”
“I’m sorry,” Gennine said. “There’s nothing I can do. It’s already been decided.” She paused to grin. “That even if we have to make her wear a corset, she’s going to be playing Silvermist until her two year contract runs out.” She winked, and then laughed out loud as everyone let out one big, collective sigh of relief.
“Don’t DO that to me!” Olivia giggled.
Gennine, still laughing, shook her head. “You girls are wearing off on me. But really, Sarah exercises in the morning, she walks the park even on her days off, and she’s consulting a dietician. I really do think you’re all worrying over nothing. If anything, what she’s doing will only enhance her appearance as I understand it?”
“I... suppose so?” Sarah looked at Megan.
“Well, yeah, in some ways,” Megan nodded. “Your skin will be softer and you’ll see some changes in your face, but you don’t have a lot of fat to your face anyway. You might end up looking more like Sil than you do now with all the special makeup you lot have to glob on.”
“Those stories about losing your ability to play a role are only partially true,” Gennine said. “You have to look like the character, yes, but it’s more the overall appearance. We can’t, for example, have a 40 year old woman trying to play a 16 year old princess.” She winked. “It just doesn’t work, no matter how much makeup she wears. We also can’t, say, have Prince Ali walking around with a 40 inch pot belly waistline.”
“So...” Sarah said hesitantly. “So I’ve been freaking out over nothing all this time?”
“Not nothing, exactly,” Gennine said. “The fact that you care so much just reinforces that I made the right choice in casting you for the part,” she said, grinning. “I realize how you got the role is ... extremely unconventional. Had it been anyone else I probably would have called security on the spot, but something about the way you looked and acted, completely sold me the moment I saw you,” she laughed.
“From Janitor to Silvermist.” Sarah giggled. “Wrong place right time.” she winked.
“Silverella,” Olivia giggled softly. “That’s right. You girls have never heard how Sarah got cast as Silvermist did you?”
By day two of their impromptu vacation, Sarah already found herself beginning to go stir crazy. She had already finished the new painting for Regina. It turned out reproducing something she’d already painted once was easier than she thought. It wasn’t absolutely, stroke for stroke, identical, but from a distance it looked the same. She even had a nice frame for it.
But that left her wondering what to do with the rest of her spare time. Olivia wasn’t faring much better though. She was just as used to constantly being on the go as Sarah. She had already cleaned the apartment, scrubbed down the kitchen cabinets, and if she stayed in much longer, was in danger of scrubbing down the walls next.
Sarah let out a frustrated, argh type, yell, “I can’t take this anymore.”
Olivia peeked around the corner. “You too? I’ve blown through an entire season of Daredevil, scrubbed everything, even got a few chapters of a novel written.”
“I finished the repaint of the painting I did for Gennine, I cleaned the bedroom, made the bed, cleaned the bathroom.” Sarah sighed. “What the hell did I ever do before Silvermist?” she laughed. “I used to love spending hours painting. I still do, but I’m so used to just constantly going that it feels weird stopping like this.”
Olivia nodded. “What kind of pixies would we be if we didn’t defy Fairy Mary’s orders to rest and went to work anyway?” she said with a mischievous grin. “I don’t have to worry about Karen having the same idea since she’s at her niece’s birthday party all day.”
“It’s in the Magic Kingdom isn’t it?” Sarah asked, grinning now, too.
Olivia whipped out her phone and texted Karen. ‘How’s the party going?’
‘Awesome! BTW Gennine gave me the whole week off w/ everyone else ‘cause they’re renovating Pixie Hollow.’
‘Woah?’ Olivia sighed. “Looks like a no go, no pixies in the park..”
“Then we go anyway!” Sarah grinned. “We’re always walking the park like Hatter and Alice. Those two hardly even stay in the Fantasy section.”
“Truuuue...” Olivia grinned, texting the others. ‘Going out of our minds @ home. Me n Sil going 2 walk park as pixies’
‘Cool!’ Jade texted her back. ‘There now but as myself. OMG just got invited to an unplugged jam session w/ some Disney pop divas OMG OMG OMG!’
‘Uber awesome.’ Olivia texted back. “Jade says she’s already there jamming with Disney divas.”
“Ooh!” Sarah said. “Let’s check that out first before we sneak into the dressing rooms.”
‘We’ll come watch before we run amok’ Olivia texted Jade and giggled as they headed for the elevator.
The park was as packed as is usually the case in the middle of summer. July 4th was fast approaching too so there were a few more prominent VIPs milling about, as Jade had already discovered.
“Jade said they were hanging out at the soda shop on Main Street,” Olivia said. “Which makes sense. Great acoustics in there, and it’s air conditioned too.”
They made their way over, only momentarily held up by the tail end of one of the park’s legendary parades. When they got inside they found a large crowd of guests sitting and standing, and near the front, a group of Disney A-listers sitting in chairs, some with guitars, along with Jade, Rebecca, Megan and Juliette. Among the others present were Debby Ryan, and, currently singing “Kiss Da Girl”, Raven-Symone while Rebecca played a mean bongo drum.
There were other Disney stars and starlets hanging out too. It was more than Sarah could handle. She slipped out, heading for the Pixie den to change into Silvermist. Meeting Lucy Liu at the filming was enough for her. She was having flashbacks to meeting Selena Gomez at the pixie party a few weeks ago, which made her stomach flutter. She wondered, as she let herself into the dressing room, if it ever got easier.
There was a girl with long, red hair in a ponytail, dressed in a tie-dye red-pink-purple tee shirt pushing an almost comically huge push broom in the dressing room. She had a ‘STAFF’ badge hanging from a rope lanyard around her neck, and hadn’t noticed Sarah come in.
Sarah waved to her, “Hey there, new? I haven't seen you in here before.”
The girl jumped slightly. “Oh! Hi there,” she said sheepishly. She couldn’t have been more than 18 maximum. “Yes!” she said a little excitedly. “I just started today. I finished my other work so I thought I’d get a jump on the dressing rooms while everyone’s out in the park. You’re one of the actresses?” she asked. “I can come back later.”
“Want to do something for me?” Sarah asked, grinning as she pulled out her outfit and wings. She pulled out another pixie outfit they had nobody to fill the job of yet form the new series.
“Sure,” she said cheerfully. “I can have it over to the wardrobe department in no time.”
“No actually. I was wondering, can you do bubbly cute?” Sarah grinned.
She laughed out loud. “Have you been talking to my friends? That’s half my nickname. They call me Bubblegum because I’m always in a good mood. I’m Becky.”
Sarah giggled, “That’s perfect.” She handed her the Pixie Bubblegums outfit. “Put that on, and meet me in Hair. I’m Sarah by the way,” she said as she went to a private booth to put on her Silvermist costume, and then waited in Hair and makeup for Becky.
“Gosh, I don’t know how they... walk... in...” she stopped. “Oh my God. You’re THE Sarah?”
Silvermist giggled, “That’s me, Dewdrop,” she said cheerfully as she pulled out several pink hair extensions and some yellow and green ones too. She had already texted Elyse over in the makeup department, who was on her way over, as well. “Okay, we need to go talk to Fairy Mary really fast and then come back because Elyse is going to do some magic on you.”
Becky squeaked. “I am so going to get fired.”
“No you’re not. Trust me,” Silvermist giggled as she took Becky’s hand, leading her to Gennine’s office.
“Come in,” Gennine called.
Sarah opened the door and grinned, “Fairy Mary.” she dragged Becky into the office. Regina was sitting across from Gennine, watching the spectacle with no small amount of amusement. “I found this Pixie sweeping! That’s not her job. She’s not a cleaning Fairy!”
“She made me do it,” Becky squeaked again. “Please don’t fire me.”
“I did,” Sarah laughed, using her normal voice again. “I saw her, and I was like ‘Oh my God, she looks just like the concept art for Bubblegum’,” she said brightly.
“Hmmm,” Gennine said as she stood. Sarah remembered this part. Gennine slowly walked around Becky, looking her over appraisingly.
Sarah whispered into Becky’s ear, “Just act like your nickname.”
“This was your idea was it?” she looked at Silvermist.
“Well She is Bubblegum, not Antsy.” Silvermist stated, referencing one of the Lost Girls whose roles they also hadn’t filled yet. Antsy would debut in episode 3 along with Periwinkle’s first cameo. “Antsy is such a clean freak.”
Gennine was barely able to bite back a laugh, and poor Regina had to hide her lips behind her hand, leaning on the arm of the chair and quietly giggling.
“Young lady,” she said to Silvermist, “If you keep this up, you’re going to have my job.” She laughed finally, and Regina burst out laughing. “She’s perfect.” She turned to Becky. “I was actually planning to have you try out next week anyway. It would have been this week but with the storm coming, I’ve had to move things around quite a bit.”
“I know we’re not hiring the new Pixies yet.” Sarah said, “But I couldn’t resist.“
Gennine nodded as she sat back down. “We’re in an interesting position with the AMC people right now. Sarah, can you two keep a little secret?” She grinned. It was the kind of ‘I’m up to something’ grin that so rarely crossed a corporate businesswoman’s lips.
“Sure?” Sarah giggled, and Becky nodded.
“You know that anonymous donor?” she said. “That land actually belongs to the park. We’re leasing it to AMC for filming at a dollar an acre, in exchange for keeping a good, working relationship with you girls here at the park.”
“Wow.” Sarah whistled. “There’s over 100 acres for the set.”
“113 to be exact.” Gennine laughed. “Now, ordinarily you would have to get the casting director’s approval for something like this, but again given our... unique arrangements,” she paused.
“I haven’t seen Jess anywhere..” Sarah giggled.
“Oh, I don’t mean Jess,” Gennine laughed. “I mean for the television show. In this case, anyone we hire for the park however, is also included in the television production, and vice versa.”
Sarah nodded, “I promise to have her back here to sign papers, but Olivia and I were going stir crazy at home.” she giggled. “So we’re going to run amok. We’ve got a bunch of A-listers hanging out in the Main Street soda shop that I could absolutely not face as Sarah.”
“I was wondering, would you girls mind wearing your show costumes today then?” Gennine asked.
“It’s not too risqué for the park is it?” Sarah asked. “Sil’s battle costume shows a lot of skin.”
“No it’ll be fine. It doesn’t show off anything it shouldn’t.” Gennine laughed, “Our costume department designed it, and all the other pixies costumes for the show. You should also go with your Pixie sword as well.”
“I designed those myself,” Regina spoke up now. “Each of the pixies’ swords reflects their personality. Zarina’s is a rapier with a jeweled hilt, each color representing a different dust, Iridessa’s is gold and high polished, etc.”
Sarah nodded, “Okay I’ll go change and have Bubblegum change too.” She slipped back into Silvermist’s voice to add, “Come on dew drop.” She took Becky by her hand and dragged her along. Once back at her station she texted Olivia, ‘TV pixie costumes. Fairy Mary's idea.’
“Hey girl, what’s the 9-1-1.” Elyse said as she entered. She was a taller woman, but very pretty with swept blonde hair.
“We got to change really fast, but I need you to do Bubblegum's makeup for her in a way she knows how to do it later.” Sarah said.
“Oooh, new pixie!” Elyse said excitedly. “I’m thinking we need to just go over the top with the pink.”
Sarah grinned as she went back into her booth to change into the other outfit. She came out to touch up her Silvermist makeup afterwards. “Lots of Glammy pink.” she agreed. “Maybe some light yellows?”
“Yes, definitely,” Elyse nodded. “I’m going to blend your eyeshadow from pink at the inner edges to a nice yellow toward the outside, and I’ve got some finishing powder with green glitter for your lips and cheeks.”
“The nice thing about these new pixies,” Sarah said, leaning over from her station, “There’s no preset look to them. We’re making this up as we go.” She giggled and put her new sword on the table. Like most pixie swords it was closer to a dagger, silver metal ‘containing’ blue material that felt like glass, but had to be some kind of polymer, and blue sapphire-like gemstones on the silver hilt.
“I can’t believe this is real though,” Becky let out a bubbly giggle. “Like seriously. I heard about the janitor who got cast for Silvermist on her first day. I even came in to sweep with the knowledge that there wasn’t supposed to be anyone in here today. I totally thought I was safe.”
“I see Pixie when I see Pixie.” Sarah giggled. “We would’ve grabbed you eventually.”
“I see a chance to earn extra college money. I never even thought about applying as a performer,” Becky said, trying not to move as long, fake lashes with a faintly pink hue were applied.
“We have a few male roles to file as well if you know anyone.” Sarah said as she finished her makeup, just as Olivia entered the room.
“Bubblegum! What do you think you're doing?” Olivia in her Tinkerbell voice demanded.
“Well I WAS sweeping until Silvermist barged in and made me change,” Becky giggled in her sweetest bubbly voice she could manage. If she put on a British accent she could almost pass for the voice of Alice at the Wonderland attraction.
“She’s not a cleaning Pixie.” Silvermist stated. “And I was thinking we could show off at least one of our new sisters today.”
“Good grief though,” Olivia laughed. “Disney needs to start screening their janitors for acting talent.”
Becky blushed softly. “Thank you. I was in drama club in high school. I played Cinderella in the school play last year, but I’ve never done anything professional like this. Don’t you have to go through intensive classes to learn how to walk, talk, sign your name and stuff?”
Sarah nodded, “That’s like the #1 question they should ask, Have you done any acting that includes high school plays and dramas.” she giggled, “The next one, do you have any artistic abilities. But yeah, you’ll have an acting coach assigned to you, but we’re sort of allowed to just wing it.”
Becky gave Sarah a sheepish look and batted her new, slightly pink eyelashes. “Um... If I answer ‘yes’, will I get offered another job?” She giggled.
Sarah laughed, “No, I will ask you, when did you get adopted?” she teased, “Then I’ll call my mom and ask her the same question, when did you adopt out my twin?”
Becky giggled again as Elyse began to work on her fake nails, a bright, very glittery hot pink. “Actually I sang in choir, but I was never a soloist, just another face in the crowd. I’m pretty good with stage makeup. I’m thinking about cosmetology..”
“Oh, good,” Elyse said. “Then you won’t have any trouble doing this yourself next time.” Sure enough Sarah was busy painting her nails a nice silver, with rich veins of blue sparkles like tiny rivers.
Olivia came out of the changing room, “So combat outfits huh?” She looked herself over. “I still am not used to wearing this.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t model yours after Tink’s Lost Treasure adventure outfit,” Sarah said, looking up.
“I think they were staying away from the movies.” Elyse stated. “They wanted to use that one, but it was shot down, so they modeled it after the concept art for yours and Vidya’s.”
“Makes sense,” Sarah nodded thoughtfully. “I only have one dress that really looks like Sil’s, and it’s the one I’ll be wearing this winter when the temperature drops below 60,” she giggled.
“I find it hilarious, watching tourists wearing shorts, and us natives bundling up when it's 50 degrees outside.” Olivia giggled. Becky tried to look innocent at that, but the harder she tried the more guilty she looked. “You can literally tell who's from Florida and who's not in the winter time.”
Becky started to sing - and she had a really pretty voice, for that matter, a kind of not quite soprano, but very pleasant to listen to, “And the northern girls, with the way they kiss, they keep their boyfriends warm at night.”
One of the Ariels peeked her head out from their section of the backstage, “That was really good, but I recommend not to sing that out in the park.”
“It’s a small world after all,” Becky giggled.
Ariel giggled, “We try to stick to songs that are from our movies.”
“Oh!” Becky started to sing part of the “story night” song from The Lost Treasure. “My little sister is obsessed with the Tink movies. Even though I’m technically part of the expanded AMC universe, I can totally do those.”
“That’s one thing we’re working on,” Sarah laughed. “The Tink movies’ music is mostly instrumental or ambience, plus the introduction. For the AMC shoots we’ve got the Neverland intro, and two of our cast are musicians working with the music directors to produce some unique stuff for us. We’re actually going to go meet some of them once we’re ready.”
“You’re braver than me,” Ariel laughed softly. “When I heard so many stars were hanging out in one place I quietly hauled fin back to my attraction.”
“They’ve invaded the entire park today.” Olivia stated, “No joke, Raven said that there’s over 200 Disney personalities here at the park today.”
On cue, literally at that very second, there was a knock from the other door. It opened a crack, and Selena peeked inside. “Anyone home?”
“Hello Dew Drop!” Silvermist called out as she walked to the door and opened it wide. Ariel let out a small squeak and vanished.
Selena giggled. “Hey Silvermist. I know I’m not technically supposed to be back here, but you girls were so awesome the last time I was here. The after party was amazing. So,” she offered Silvermist an envelope. “Feel free to give these out to whoever. I have like a hundred of them. They’re backstage passes to my next concert. I’ve got special autographed ones for Annie and her friends too, if you see them.”
“Oh thank you so much!” Sarah couldn’t help herself, and gave her a hug.
Selena let out a small giggle. “No problem. I’m about to join the big jam sesh with Rae and Megan, but I wanted to sneak back here first and say hi.”
“Oh before you go, I want to introduce you to someone.” Silvermist stated, “Can you wait right there for me?”
“Sure,” Selena laughed, pulling the door closed and waiting outside.
Silvermist grinned and skipped back, “Bubblegum!” she called out, “Are you ready?”
“As I’m going to be!” Bubblegum called back, blowing a huge, green bubblegum bubble.
“Good.” Silvermist said. “I got a very important friend I want you to meet.” She opened the door, and the two pixies stepped out, “Selena, this is our new sister Bubblegum.” She grinned, “Bubblegum this is Miss Selena Gomez.”
Becky paused for a moment and then let out a polite cough, and then giggled as she shook Selena’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Miss Selena Gomez,” she repeated the name just as Silvermist had said it, just like a slightly ditzy, very bubbly fairy would.
“Oooh,” Selena said, “You’re one of the new ones right? From the island?”
“Yup.” Bubblegum nodded proudly. “Did you know there are candy trees on Lost girl island?” Bubblegum asked.
Selena laughed. “I have enough trouble staying clear of the craft services table dessert cart. I’m such a huge fan already though. I can’t wait to see how the first season goes.”
“Oh there’s going to be lots of Pirates.” Silvermist nodded. “And Tinkerbell falls on her tadpole hole a lot.”
“I heard that!” Tinkerbell shouted from inside, causing Selena to burst out laughing as Tink came plodding over. “Everyone ready?” she asked and then giggled.
“Hey, I think I scared Ariel off,” Selena said.
“Nope,” Ariel spoke up beside her, causing her to jump slightly. She giggled. “Sorry. I just had to get my dinglehopper.” She held up a fork before placing it in her adventure bag.
“Well alright then,” she said, grabbing Ariel and Silvermist’s hands. “I’m counting on you guys to keep me from being mauled,” she teased. Sarah had to suppress that little part of her brain that remembered having an absolutely massive crush on Selena for years. It wasn’t hard to do, but she was still a little starstruck. Silvermist got a pretend serious look and pulled out her sword.
“We’re protecting Miss Selena.” she announced to a security guard, as she pointed her sword at him.
The security guard laughed. “Me too,” he said as he tipped his hat to them.
“Nobody will be able to sneeze any pixie dust on you at all with us around.” Tinkerbell stated. “Except for me..” she covered her face and pretend sneezed covering the security guard and Selena in glitter also getting some on Silvermist too.
“Ahhh, I’ve been dusted,” Selena giggled. “Good thing I’m wearing my heavy boots today.”
“Sorry about that. I’m allergic to Pirates” she said loud enough for Jack Sparrow, taking a break nearby, to hear her.
“Oye!” Jack called out. “I’m allergic to figments of me imagination stealing me rum, so there!” he called back, giving her a dismissive hand gesture.
“Is rum that smelly stuff Pirates like to drink all day?” Silvermist asked. “It’s icky.”
“I prefer wine,” Selena laughed as they started out into the park.
Silvermist jumped in front of Peter Pan with her sword drawn, “Peter! We have to protect Miss Selena till we get her to the Malt Shop!”
“Oh is that so?” Peter said, grinning as he looked Selena up and down appraisingly. “Well any friend of the Pixies,” he said, turned around, and put two fingers in his mouth, whistling really, really loudly.
Red, Pinkie, and a half dozen other Lost girls came around the corner, “You called Peter?” Red asked.
Sarah, for just a split second, slipped out of character, looking completely shocked, but she quickly recovered. “Goodness, they just come right out of the woodwork,” she giggled.
“You ought to know us by now Sil, We’re always ready to help Peter Pan!” Pinkie giggled.
“To the soda shop!” Red declared as they formed a large, loose group around Selena, more for show, and to attract attention to the poor actress, than anything.
Silvermist giggled, “Sorry Miss Selena, the girls get a little rambunctious but they mean well!.”
Selena giggled and leaned closer to Silvermist, whispering, “You guys are amazing. I can’t buy this kind of publicity. Not like I intended it, but... Wow.”
Silvermist winked and whispered, “Even us Pixies have favorite stars.” She giggled, adding, “Tinkerbell’s is the 2nd star to the right, but mine happens to be that big bright one that leads you north.”
Out of nowhere, a big, loosely packed snowball flew right past Selena, pelting Silvermist square in her exposed stomach, leaving little ice crystals clinging to her. “Hey! Who threw that?!” she demanded ready for a fight.
Another snowball came flying from the bushes, this one pelting Tink. Ariel squealed and hid behind Silvermist.
“Lost girls we’re being attacked!” Tinkerbell called out.
The lost girls spread out. Selena grinned as she casually meandered toward a row of bushes. Periwinkle squealed as she ran out a moment later. Selena was chasing her with one of her own snowballs. “You pesky winter pixie!”
“Eek!” Periwinkle giggled. “Tink help!”
“Okay,” Tinkerbell said, and walked over to the bush, where an insulated pail, painted to look like one of the pixies’ leaf buckets, sat full of snowballs. She took one out and threw it at Peri, pelting her in the back. Periwinkle giggled as she dashed off into the park.
“Here, Red,” Tinkerbell said, “You’d better hang onto these. Maybe we can use them on the pirates if we see any.”
“Good idea, Ratchet is laid up right now with a cold in her nose.” Red nodded. “If cold’s good enough to knock her out, then think what it’ll do to them!”
A month has passed, and Sarah's been enjoying life as Silvermist in the park, but can she handle life as a celebrity TV actress? She still gets nervous meeting "real" celebrities! And how will HRT affect her ability to play the role?
Storm clouds rumbled overhead as the girls’ bus rolled up onto the filming site. “Is it really safe to be out here?” Sarah asked as they unloaded.
“As long as we wrap before noon,” Rob said, nodding. “Don’t worry, we’re monitoring the situation very closely. Katherine would have my head if I put any of you in actual danger just for a realistic shot,” he said with a laugh.
“And your ass in court,” Katherine, Gretchen’s mother, said sternly, but then cracked a smile. “Alright, we have thirty minutes for makeup because the outer bands will hit in an hour or so.”
Megan approached Olivia and Sarah, “Is that offer to get us into your shelter still standing, because we found out our hotel doesn’t have a shelter. Their plan is to take us to an evac station.”
“Absolutely,” Olivia nodded. “We have plenty of space available. Our super even told us if anyone needed to come shelter with us that they have food and fresh water for months.”
“I just hope it blows over by the 4th,” Annie sighed. “I’ve got a backstage pass signed by freaking Selena Gomez I want to use.” She giggled.
“Same here.” Sarah giggled too. They were definitely filming out of sequence what they were going to be filming today wouldn’t be seen till next episode, but at the same time, a real storm would be better than any CG storm or wind and rain machine. They just had to be fast and not have any major flubs of lines.
“Okay, so,” Megan said, “We’re relaxing by the bonfire roasting fish, a warning horn blows, Silvermist crashes into Vidya and lands on top of her.”
“There’s a storm coming!” Sarah said on cue. “Batten down the whatsits! Secure the doodads!”
“Kindly get your knee out of my crotch,” Morgan grunted, reading from her script even as they worked on her makeup.
“Peter says it’s the biggest storm in Neverland history,” Sarah continued.
The line reading continued for a bit as the wind picked up. “Okay it’s now or never,” Rob called. “We’ll start with Silvermist and Vidya’s closeup shot.”
Morgan lay down next to the bonfire as if she had just been knocked over, even wiggling a little to get some extra dust on her. Sarah listened to Rob’s instructions, trying to move into position without looking like she was trying to have sex with Morgan in the process.
“Perfect! Let’s get a closeup shot of the opening dialogue here,” he called. The camera panned in, and Silvermist said excitedly.
“There’s a storm coming!” She looked around frantically.
“Wide shot,” the director called.
“Batten down the whatsits! Secure the doodads!”
“Perfect! Everyone get to the bus,” Rob yelled as they began tearing down the cameras in the pouring rain. “No time to change! Grab the film and leave the cameras!”
“National weather service has upgraded it to a Category 4,” the driver said, as he listened to a weather radio broadcast. “It’s still south of Orlando so we have time to get everyone back.”
“Anyone who doesn’t have a shelter in their hotel or homes,” Sarah called out once everyone was on board, “You can come home with Olivia and me. Over half our complex is out on vacation, so there’s plenty of room.”
“It’s a newer building too,” Olivia said, “Built after Andrew so you know it’s built strong.”
“Ugh, god damnit, Mom, pick up,” Annie could be heard swearing at her phone. “Why pick today of all days to space out.”
Sarah got up and walked over to kneel beside her. “I’m sure she’s fine,” she said reassuringly.
“She’s supposed to call and let us know whether or not her and Dad are coming to your place to wait out the storm. I just wish she could be a normal mom once in awhile.”
Katherine cleared her throat. “Honey, take it from me, there’s no such thing as a normal mom.” Annie glanced at her, and she gave the girl a sheepish look. “My mom was a hippie too. She was never around. I had to learn to shave my legs from my gym teacher, which was awkward on so many levels because he was a man,” she laughed quietly.
“Grandma was a hippie?” Gretchen said, sounding shocked. Katherine nodded.
“That’s why I’m so overbearing and protective of you girls,” she sighed. “Overcompensating I suppose. I just never wanted you to feel like I did with her, like I didn’t love you.”
“I guess Mom’s not really that bad,” Annie sighed. “She does care, and I know she loves us. It’s just-” her phone rang. “Mommy? Oh thank God. Yes I’ve been trying to call you. We’re on our way back. The driver says it’s south of Orlando still so you guys have time. Yeah, Sarah says it’s fully stocked. I could use a change of clothes, but don’t put yourself in danger. Just get over to Sarah’s and we’ll meet you there soon.”
Megan’s phone rang next. She laughed. “Hi Mum.”
Sarah giggled as she hugged Annie, and then got back to her seat. Rain poured down on the bus in relentless sheets as they got closer to civilization. Olivia giggled a little. “Wish we could have changed first. We must look like the circus is in town.”
“I kind of want to see the look on your neighbors’ faces when you guys walk in dressed like that,” Carol, still looking like Fawn, giggled.
“We hardly see any of our neighbors.” Sarah laughed. “Should be fun.”
“Coming back from a convention?” the woman at the front desk teased Sarah as several cast and crew came pouring in the front door. She laughed softly at her own bad joke. “I’m just kidding. The shelter is open if you want to head down. We’ve provided towels, robes, and fresh, hot soup if you like.”
“Thought us costumed Con goers would head up to our place first. I have some stuff the girls can borrow.” Olivia giggled. “And we can change before heading down. We got a little time.”
The woman nodded and picked up a small, portable weather radio. “Here, take this up with you. They’ve completely shut down the park. The hotels are on lockdown. The upper floors should be safe, as they’re rated for category 4+ winds, but if it gets too much worse the basement is fully reinforced.”
“Thanks Katie. This is some of the cast and crew of that show I was telling you about.” Sarah said. “Last we heard they were upgrading it to category 4, so we won’t be long.”
“Katie used to work at the park,” Olivia said as some of them got on the elevator. “Some of our neighbors still do,” she giggled. “But Katie’s familiar with Disney NDAs so she won’t say anything.”
“Ohh, that’s why the convention line,” Emily giggled, looking like Silvermist had hit her with another wave.
“Don’t worry about tracking mud or anything,” Olivia said as the doors opened onto their floor. “A day or two stuck in here and Sarah and I will be scrubbing the entire building top to bottom out of boredom anyway.”
“So you guys rent or own?” Vanessa asked. “I like completely can’t remember,” she giggled.
“Own now.” Sarah said.
Olivia nodded. “The building super gave us a great deal when they found out Sarah wanted to turn the empty space into an artist’s studio.”
“This is a converted office building. all the apartments below and above us were built after fact.” Sarah added.
“Oh yeah,” Annie said, “They get gigabit up in this biz,” she giggled.
“Well it is sort of a business.” Sarah giggled. “At first I thought Annie was crazy getting us hooked up for such fast internet, but being able to upload my portfolio to the cloud almost instantly is just insane useful now that the Mouse is courting me for freelance work.”
“So hey,” Megan said as Sarah and Olivia showed them to the bedrooms, “Did anyone ever find out what Raven and Jade were talking about? I know Jade looked like she was about to faint afterwards.”
“I had to run and change,” Sarah laughed. “I could not face that many stars at once. Not as Sarah the psycho Disney fangirl. I bet Rebecca knows though.”
“What?” Rebecca looked innocent. “If you’re implying that I planted a bug in Miss Symone’s ear that Jade is actually a really talented singer, and got her to sing a silly song entitled, ‘Mouse of the Orlando Sun in front of everyone that we wrote in like five minutes the other day... You’d be totally and completely right.”
The wind picked up hard as Sarah and Olivia raced to close the hurricane shutters on their windows. Annie and the others, foregoing changing out of their soaking wet costumes for now, joined them in helping. Once they had every window sealed shut, and had a chance to change their clothes, they regrouped in the living room.
The apartments phone rang as the winds raged outside, “This is Katie from the front desk.” Katie spoke, “We’re shutting down the elevators. If you guys need to come down, please use the stairs.”
“Oh, that’s no problem. We’ll be down soon to rejoin the others,” Olivia said. They had been gathering more supplies in case of power outage as well as Sarah gathering some of her art supplies to bring down so she could paint. Annie had a big roll of canvas under one arm for her sister, too.
“That’s fine. David made sure the generator was updated and primed by the way.” Katie stated before they hung up.
“Have to take the stairs,” Olivia said. “Storm’s bad enough that they’re shutting down the elevator.”
“Now aren’t you guys glad I talked you into getting a short throw projector for a TV?” Annie grinned.
Sarah giggled, “I thought about getting Solar Windows incase of power outages but David said the generator in the basement was powerful enough to supply power to everyone.”
Carolyn, adopting her ditzy pirate voice, looked at Sarah and said, “But if it’s raining how would they get power?” She giggled and ducked as Megan took a play swat at her arm.
“That was horrible.” Annie giggled.
“I learned from the best,” Carolyn laughed. “Thank God I sprang for the weather sealed camera body,” she said as she filmed some more B roll of the girls gathering supplies. “Even so I’m amazed it still works after that deluge.”
“Normally you would put a plastic bag around it wouldn’t you?” Sarah asked.
“Just to be safe, yes,” Carolyn nodded. “It’s sealed against the elements, but I don’t like to take chances on something that cost more than this apartment’s monthly rent,” she giggled.
“True. Monthly rent for just the regular apartment was like $1,400 a month.” Olivia giggled as they headed downstairs.
“My camera girl is upstairs filming B-roll,” Amber said to her iPad camera, “So I’m shooting this quickie vlog update on the iPad. As you can see, I’m not in my hotel nor on set filming. That’s because I’m presently at a friend’s home, more specifically, in a hurricane shelter as Hurricane Annie batters Florida. It’s going to be nice and clear by the 4th for the big concert, though.”
Two familiar looking women had joined the “party” downstairs with their young daughters - one was tall with red hair and the other, a little shorter with blonde hair. Annie had the kids completely distracted with a game of Candyland, along with Rebecca.
“Is that?” Olivia whispered to Sarah, who giggled and put a finger to her lips.
“Hi there,” she said brightly to the two women. “I’m Sarah, and this is Olivia. We’re on the third floor.”
“Oh wow,” the redhead said. “The famous artist,” she giggled as she shook Sarah’s hand, and then Olivia’s. “It’s great to finally put a face to the names. I’m Misty. This is my best friend and roommate, Dana.”
“Nice to meet you,” Dana said warmly. “Do you work at the park too? Katie told us a lot of park employees live here. I’m an engineer myself.”
“Kiiiind of,” Sarah giggled.
“Oh,” Misty giggled. “Nevermind. I recognize you now.” She winked and lowered her voice. “I play Merida,” she said in her best Scottish accent.
“Oh aye!” Sarah giggled. “Since we’re all parkies, we’re the outlandish winged terrors.” she winked.
“This one, … and … I think this one,” Misty said, pointing to Sarah and Olivia, “Are the ones who helped us find the girls the other day.”
“That’ us,” Olivia said.
“Oh wow,” Dana laughed and got up to hug them. “I never got to thank you properly. We sent a note along to Gennine, but with Misty’s odd schedule and your new TV series, you’re a hard bunch to track down.”
Misty nodded. “Working at the park and doing community college, plus raising my kid and helping Dana raise hers. I wouldn’t trade any of it though,” she giggled.
“They’re good girls.” Sarah said. “They’re definitely smart for coming to me like that. How old are they?”
“Mine’s 5,” Dana laughed, “Jennifer. Misty’s, Daniella is 6 I think?” she looked at Misty who nodded.
The power flickered for a moment. A big guy with a bushy beard and really long hair in a man bun poked his head in. “No worries folks, just a power surge. We’re still on main power. I’ll be down as soon as I make sure all the window guards are down.”
“Guess we’d better get comfortable,” Lynn said as she came out into the room carrying a piping hot cup of coffee. “Thanks again for inviting us to wait it out here. My building barely has hot water, let alone a nice shelter,” she said with a laugh.
A month has passed, and Sarah's been enjoying life as Silvermist in the park, but can she handle life as a celebrity TV actress? She still gets nervous meeting "real" celebrities! And how will HRT affect her ability to play the role?
Independence Day: as if the Magic Kingdom wasn’t festive enough year round, today was even more special. Adding to the fact that Selena would be in concert that night, but the park had two extended fireworks shows for the holiday scheduled - the first being July 3rd, so the girls could catch it as themselves, and spend the actual 4th in costume, though they would be attending the concert as themselves that night, too.
And why not? Selena made Rebecca promise she would be there. She had a surprise for her, she had said.
Filming had picked up again, but only for a day, as the hurricane had played hell with the set design, which took some time to get back in order. At least no one was hurt, and Sarah and Olivia got to make genuine connections with their neighbors.
It had been a long morning for Sarah. Heat and humidity had her wishing she could get away with wearing her Silvermist bikini. She was standing directly under a large box fan that some maintenance person or other had placed at an angle directly under a high air vent to help dissipate the cold air, when Megan and another young woman their age came walking past.
“Silvermist!” Megan said, running over to her. She looked up at the fan. “Told you she was a smart fairy,” she said, laughing. “Settle a bet!”
“Sure?” Silvermist giggled. “What kind of bet?”
The blonde haired girl laughed and showed Silvermist a sketch of a blue dress. It looked a little bit like Elsa’s gown from Frozen, except that it was much shorter, almost a minidress, with a snowflake “belt” of silver, and a “jagged” hem, not quite ‘torn’, but reminiscent of Tinkerbell’s dress, in fact, and tapered slightly so that the left hem hung slightly lower than the right.
“She says this is punk enough,” the girl said. “I’m worried that it’s not. It’s too late to change it, though,” she frowned.
Silvermist giggled. She looked around to be sure there weren’t any unauthorized people hanging around. “Take it from someone whose dad is from the old school UK punk scene,” she said, “It looks amazing. Is this the surprise for Rebecca?” she asked.
Megan nodded. “Bingo. Selena’s going to drag her butt on stage tonight to perform her ‘Let it Go’ cover. Oh, check this out,” she added, and at that the blonde haired girl turned a page in her sketch pad to show a similar styled version of Anna’s dress.
“Oh, that’s gorgeous,” Silvermist gasped. Megan grinned like a cheshire cat that swallowed a canary.
“I really took inspiration from the music video,” the artist said. “I wanted to design something that looked like Elsa and Anna were taking the kingdom into their own hands, bucking traditions, and ruling together as sisters doing things their own way, like a punk-apocalypse alternate reality thing.”
“If this whole AMC thing works out,” Silvermist added, “A little birdie told me they might allow more crossover stuff. ABC’s been doing it hardcore with Once Upon a Time, and AMC wants a slice of that pie.”
“Awesome,” the artist said as Silvermist put her empty water bottle in a recycling bin, making her way back out into the park.
It wasn’t completely wall to wall packed with people, but it certainly was busier than it had been even the day before. Safety regulations of course prevented guests from having fireworks on the premises, but there were other festive ways to have fun, including special red white and blue cotton candy and snow cones, and it was all hands on deck for the actors today, too.
She felt someone grab each of her hands. One was cold and wet, like she had been throwing snowballs. She looked to her left and right to find herself flanked by Tinkerbell and Periwinkle.
“Oh hi guys!” Silvermist bubbled.
“Hiya Sil,” Periwinkle giggled. “Wanna go throw snowballs at the evil queen?” she said quite loudly. Maleficent was actually within earshot, signing autographs. She glowered at the pixies.
“Excuse me? You want to do what?” she asked.
Silvermist giggled. “Oh, Periwinkle said she wanted to throw-mmmph.” Periwinkle put her hand over Silvermist’s mouth.
“You a party. I said it would be nice to throw you a party,” Periwinkle giggled.
“I see,” she said dryly. “How... thoughtful, I suppose.”
The guests giggled at the back-and-forth. “Those pixies are always so silly,” Silvermist heard as they wandered off. A snowball soared over their heads, pelting the Queen. They all three stopped, looking bewildered.
“Hey, who threw that, and why wasn’t I informed!” Periwinkle said, pouting.
“Direct hit!” one of the lost girls cheered. “Good shot Ratchet!”
“Successful test of the snow-zooka!” Ratchet cheered. She had on one shoulder a long tube like device with a handle to hold and a scope to aim. It looked at least, to be made of brass, with visible gears twirling here and there along the outside, and in stained, dark letters had the word ‘Snow-Zooka v1.0’. The prop department had outdone themselves this time.
“Oh, great. Now the evil one will blame me for that.” Peri fake pouted, “Probably give me one of her special apples later.”
A shadow grew in front of Silvermist, and Ratchet shouted, “Lost Girls scatter!” SIlvermist turned around to see the Queen, covered in snow, arms folded, glowering down at her.
“I don’t suppose,” she said, “You saw who threw that.”
“Um.. um.. It was the one with pink hair.” Silvermist nodded.
The Queen brushed some snow up on her finger. “Really,” she said, looking at the snow with distaste, then crushing it between her fingers. “What about the rest of you?” she turned to look at the crowd watching them. “Pink hair, hmm? Well I suppose I can let it slide, it being so ghastly hot today,” she said finally.
When the queen was gone Silvermist let out a relieved sigh, “She scares me.”
“Aw, she’s not so bad,” Peter Pan spoke up. He was leaning against a lamp post, watching the whole affair, “Just a big softie underneath that grumpy crown.”
“Peter!” Silvermist giggled, “How long were you there?” she straightened out her outfit.
“Oh, from about the time you threw that snowball at her,” he teased.
“But I didn’t throw it,” Silvermist protested.
“I did!” Ratchet stated proudly as she popped out of a nearby bush. “Or more accurately, I shot it. Hello Peter!”
“Oh you silly lost girl.” Peter laughed, “Trying to get your pixie friends in trouble again I see?”
“Why I never!” Ratchet giggled. “It’s just that that old witch makes such a great target. She’s the only person in this entire place who wears all black on a day like this. I thought she could use some cooling off.” She nodded proudly, and then turned a dial on her snow-zooka. She pointed it up, shot out a burst of snow that came raining down in small patches.
“Hmmm,” Peter said, catching a patch. “I think your blizzard setting still needs some fine tuning. It’s not poisoned snow is it?” He eyed her warily.
Ratchet giggled. “Gosh no. It’s just frozen water courtesy of Peri’s friends from Winter.” She licked a small patch herself to show it was safe. “Mmm, refreshing too.”
“She’s been bugging us about that thing for weeks now.” Periwinkle giggled. Silvermist and Tinkerbell had taken to signing autographs for the crowd, hinting that Peri would be making an appearance soon, as well.
“Hey,” Silvermist called out, “Ratchet I found your kindred spirit over here!” She giggled as she waved Ratchet over. She had just signed an autograph book for a teenaged girl wearing a pair of steampunk goggles on her forehead. She was also wearing Ratchet’s leathers including the leather armor skirt.
“Heck yeah,” the girl giggled. “Ratchet is awesome! I love Steampunk stuff anyway.”
“Wow. Did you design those yourself?” Ratchet asked as Silvermist handed her the girl’s autograph book to sign next.
“Yeah,” the girl said brightly. “I mean I didn’t make the loupe on my goggles, but I designed the goggles and outfit myself otherwise.”
“She’s always making cool outfits like that,” her brown haired friend wearing mouse ears giggled. She had a very distinct accent, Irish or Scotish to Sarah’s ear, unlike the Ratchet cosplayer who sounded more east coast American.
“The only way to do it.” Rachet said proudly, “I make all my own outfits.” She pulled a smoke bomb from shirt pocket, “Except I have this problem of not knowing where I put things.”
“Hey,” Peter said, “Is that a smoker or a boomer?”
“Poof.” Ratchet giggled and dropped it as smoke began to bellow from it, temporarily filling a small area around her. She dove into the bushes, making her escape.
“Definitely a smoker,” Peter coughed, laughing as he fanned the smoke away.
The concert went off without a hitch for all involved. Even Rebecca’s star shone during her high octane revision of ‘Let it Go’. She was laughing and fanning herself as she got backstage where the group of pixies - minus their pixieness, and lost girls - minus their lost girlness, were waiting for them. Even Becky was somewhat nervously there, hanging back near Emily and Jade, despite Morgan and Carol’s best efforts.
“Oh my God, that was incredible,” Rebecca said. “I’ve never had such an adrenaline rush.”
“Do you want to do an encore?” Selena sang, to the tune of ‘Do you want to Build a Snowman’.
“Can I drag Megan and Juliette onstage with me?” Rebecca asked, batting her eyes at Selena, who laughed. “Megs wore her Anna dress. I can’t not show it off.”
“Sure. Why not?” she said, heading back onstage to announce the encore, as Rebecca looked around.
“Hey... Where are Megan and Jules?” she asked.
“Um,” Sarah looked around now. “They were right here a second ago... We’ll go look for them if you want?”
“No need,” Annie giggled and held up her phone. “Juliette says they’re coming back with some huge news.”
“Well tell em to hurry up,” Rebecca laughed as Megan and Juliette came running over. She blinked. “Wow. That was quick.”
“Sorry,” Megan said. She had clearly been crying, and was still sniffling, but she had a massive grin on her face. “I just talked with our agent-”
“Selena’s waiting for us,” Rebecca said, grabbing her and Juliette’s hands.
“Wagh!” Megan squealed as she found herself dragged onstage and given a microphone without any explanation, to a throng of screaming fans.
“I ambushed some friends to drag them on stage,” Rebecca giggled. “You guys know Megan and Juliette, or Pinkie and Red from the AMC Lost Girls, among other things,” she said, getting another roar of cheers from the crowd.
“I’m innocent of this one,” Selena said, grinning. “Well, relatively.”
Rebecca laughed. “So I thought it would be fun to get these two on stage to sing backup. With my deepest apologies to the legends who came before me, who do this song much greater justice than me,” she turned to the band, and said smoothly, “Percussions...”
The drummer, picking up on what she was up to, or perhaps she was in on the joke all along, began playing. As she went through the first verse of ‘Kiss the Girl’ Juliette snuck backstage again so that, by the time the second chorus of ‘Sha-la-la-la-la-la’ came up, where in the movie, all the fish are joining in, the entire Lost Girls cast were singing backup, and trying really hard to stay out of the spotlight.
“Gennine’s going to kill us,” Olivia whispered to Sarah.
“I think I’m going to blow pixie dust,” Jade whined.
To her credit, Megan even did a perfect impression of Scuttle squawking, to which Juliette covered Megan’s mouth. When they had finished, Megan giggled excitedly.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the cast and crew of AMC and Disney’s “Lost Girls”.” She looked over at Selena. “Can I steal the spotlight for just a second?” she asked.
Selena waved lazily. “Knock yourself out girl,” she answered. Megan giggled.
“Selena, Raven, Ashley, Bridget, I could stand up here and name off names for an hour of the women of Disney who came before me and Juliette, who were not just our role models but our idols growing up. Knowing we can continue that tradition just...” she paused to clear her throat, dabbing at her eyes. “It means so much to us.”
“Just a few minutes ago,” Juliette continued, “Megan and I got a call from our agent. As a lot of you know, Megan and I used to be on a little show called ‘My Brother Mark’. And there was a very special made for TV movie that we couldn’t release.”
There were a few boos from the crowd at that.
“Now, hang on,” Megan laughed. “It’s not anyone’s fault really. It was never a sanctioned episode. It was something we, the cast and crew, filmed as a passion project, but now,” she paused again. “I’m sorry, I’m just so excited. My Sister Megan is going to air next Friday at 8pm uninterrupted, and you can watch it right now on Disney.com!”
The crowd positively exploded at that. Megan and Juliette excitedly hugged Sarah and the others, and even Selena and the band got a hug from them before all was said and done, as they made their way backstage.
Gennine was waiting for them, her arms folded.
“Uh oh,” Sarah said. Gennine looked right at Megan.
“Well, I hope you’re happy. You two drove so much traffic to the Disney.com website that even the backup servers are straining.” She grinned. “Sorry. I asked if I could deliver the news as a little prank on the girls.” She winked, as everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.
“Jeez, don’t do that to me,” Jade laughed.
“Sorry,” Juliette giggled. “But we had all this amazing talent just hanging out backstage, and Kiss the Girl really works well with a huge chorus.”
“There was a distinct lack of girl kissing going on though,” Rebecca teased. Megan and Juliette turned to grin at her. “Uh oh.”
They both rushed her and gave her a peck on each cheek. Megan giggled again and hugged her. “Thanks for letting us share this awesome moment with you both.”
Selena laughed. “Hey, thank YOU for sharing your awesome moment with me. It’s pretty awesome knowing the current crop of Disney-boppers looks up to us geezers,” she laughed, giving them both a hug. “But if you’ll excuse me, I’ve had to pee since the first chorus. I’ll meet up with you guys at the after party?”
Sarah shook her head as she watched Selena leave. “I still can’t believe this is happening. But like seriously, we’re not going to get in trouble for being onstage right?”
Gennine shook her head. “You and the other girls do your own stunts, don’t you?” she asked. Sarah blinked and nodded.
“Yes...?” she asked.
Megan grinned. “Well, there you go. You’re listed in the credits as stunt doubles. So even if someone does recognize you they’ll just think they saw you doing some actress’ stunts in the show.”
Vanessa started to laugh. “Oh my God... You guys are devious. I love it.”
“Yes. Yes we are,” Juliette giggled.
A month has passed, and Sarah's been enjoying life as Silvermist in the park, but can she handle life as a celebrity TV actress? She still gets nervous meeting "real" celebrities! And how will HRT affect her ability to play the role?
“You want to sound authentic?” Megan asked Lynn, who played Captain Steele, the lost girls’ main enemy. It was a rare break both from filming and the park, and so both cast and crew decided they needed a beach day. Surf, sea, and sand were just what the Doctor ordered.
“Is Sil an airhead?” Lynn teased her back. “I’ve been taking elocution and acting classes on the side, but I still sound like Alice got lost in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie.”
Megan giggled and relaxed, letting go of her accent, “I haven’t bloody spoken like this since I was little.”
“She’s lying,” Juliette giggled. “But she has been trying to keep her accent under control since we got back to the Mainland.”
Megan giggled again, “Crikey, they had to cut on me a few times during our show back when we were filming for Disney because of it slipping out. Oh, they don’t really say ‘Crikey’ all that often down under,” she said jokingly. “Except when messing with tourists, which is something Rebecca just LOVES to do, so, y’know...”
“I bet dingos don’t really eat yer babies either,” Lynn teased her, auditioning the accent carefully. She didn’t want to insult Megan after all.
“No not really.” Megan laughed. “And we don’t put another shrimp on the barby. You’re getting it though. Aussie English is a lot like British English turned southwise. There’s a hundred accents depending on where you’re from, but you’re getting the general vibe already.”
Morgan, unable to help herself, crept up behind the three, and stuck her nose in to ask, “But the burning question is, is Fosta’s Australian fa beeah?”
“Fosta’s a type of beer downunda.” Megan giggled. “Maybe not the beer of choice. I’d have to ask my sister - probably the only member of my family who actually does drink, but she’s more of a wine taster.”
Juliette giggled as Emily and Becky emerged from the surf shop’s changing room, Emily wearing a neon blue bikini, and Becky a bright pink one piece. “Can’t believe I let you guys talk me into surf lessons,” Becky laughed nervously. Emily shook her head.
“I can’t believe you’ve never been surfing. I’m from Michigan, and the first thing I did when we moved here was...” she paused to giggle, “To completely embarrass myself. I fell off my board so many times I was on a first name basis with some of the crabs chilling,” she paused, and said in her best Sebastian voice, “Under da sea.”
“It’s not about staying on the board so much as it is having fun, to quote an old friend of mine.” Megan said.
An older girl, around 18 or so with chestnut brown hair to her shoulderblades, and medium olive skin spoke up as she was examining a neon pink longboard. “A’a i ka hula, waiho i ka maka’u i ka hale. The wise dare to dance, and leave shame at home.” She glanced over at the girls, grinning.
Emily squeaked. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment. “Oh-my-God. That’s-” she began.
“JENN!” Megan squealed and ran over to hug her.
“Hey little sister,” Jenn teased her as they embraced. “I saw you on TV. You’re looking great,” she laughed.
“What are you doing here? Oh, how are you and your friends from Alpine doing?” Megan asked, adding, “Guys this is Jenn, the friend I was literally just talking about.”
Jenn giggled. “They’re great. I’m technically here investigating colleges, but I thought I’d sneak in some time on the waves while I was at it. I just wish I’d come a week earlier so I could see the concert too.”
“Oh wow.” Megan said, “Scouting colleges already! You going to be here tomorrow?”
Jenn nodded. “For another few days. Tomorrow morning I’m going to tour backstage at Seaworld, but after that I’m free the whole day.”
“Cool! Want to do a walk-on on the show?” Juliette asked. “We could so use an extra or two in Fairy department or even the Natives.”
“I think I could pass for a Native,” Jenn laughed. “Sure, that sounds fun. No promises that I won’t go full fan girl if Lucy Liu is there, though.”
“Nah you’ve gotten really pale.” Megan teased Jenn. The half-Hawaiian had always had naturally bronzed olive skin, but it was a running joke to tease her at least once per visit. “That fan-girling part gets easier as you go. Just ask Sarah. Uh... Where the heck is Sarah anyway?”
“Right here?” Sarah came up behind Megan and goosed her sides playfully. Olivia had talked her into wearing a really cute two piece. Megan jumped.
“Oye! Trixy pixies,” she laughed.
Olivia giggled, “Took me 50 years to talk her out of the Changing room”
“Sil’s damn bikini is tiny enough. This thing is just two bits of string with some cloth attached,” Sarah whined. Jenn laughed.
“You sound like someone I know back home. She has the perfect figure for her height, but she’s never worn a swimsuit. I can’t hold it against her though. There’s not much sun and sand in New England,” she teased.
“Shorts and shirt girl huh?” Megan asked.
Jenn laughed and nodded. “Her neighbor has a pool and everything. She went through that awkward phase where her height ran away and left her boobs at the door, but she’s really grown into it,” she said jokingly as she picked up a neon pink-and-green longboard.
Emily squeaked again. “I can’t believe we’re going to get to see the legend in action.”
Jennifer giggled. “You want to know the secret?” she asked. Emily nodded nervously. Jenn stepped up beside her, planted the board in the sand, and put an arm around her shoulders. With a broad, sweeping motion of her other hand, she said, “You gotta relax, girl. Let the wave carry you where it will.”
“Careful, she might go full Hawaiian zen on you.” Megan teased Emily.
“Oh, also?” Jenn continued, “Don’t be afraid of falling. I still fall off sometimes,” she laughed, completely breaking the Hawaiian Zen she had just built up, but it caused Emily to burst out laughing too.
“Hey,” Jenn said thoughtfully, “I don’t suppose one of you is a registered lifeguard?”
Sarah raised her hand slightly. “I am a certified-” she had to catch herself, almost saying ‘water fairy’. “CPR, first aid, and lifeguard, yes?”
Jenn cracked a small giggle. “Oh I know all about you Miss Water Fairy,” she teased her back.
Megan giggled, “My fault, I told her about you in our email exchange.”
“You made the front page too,” Juliette giggled out.
“I know this sweet grotto not too far from here,” Jenn said, “It’s supposed to be locals only, but the owner said I can surf there. The swells are nice and gentle, perfect for beginners, but if you go further out you can get some big waves. We’ll throw some shrimp on the barby,” she teased.
“Oye.” Megan giggled and smacked Jenn’s arm.
Jenn laughed as the others grabbed their rental boards. “You know I’ve spent most of my life up in CT, and to this day people still think I eat nothing but pineapples and coconuts. It’s kind of endearing.”
“I’ve lived in the US most of my life, and when people find out I’m aussie, I get ‘Do you own a Boomerang, or a didgeridoo?’” Megan giggled.
“Thank God surfing is a universal thing huh?” Sarah laughed and started to sing, “The East Coast girls are hip, I really dig those styles they wear.”
Juliette nodded, “Oh and she does own a Didgeridoo by the way. She’s going to play it in the next episode.”
“But before anyone gets any weird ideas,” Megan laughed, “That’s a recent thing! I got it from the bushman we met filming the Samantha Snow movie for Lifetime awhile back. He did teach me how to play it though.”
“I loved that movie.” Emily said, “But then I was a huge fan of ‘My Brother Mark’. I’m so pumped that Disney is releasing ‘My Sister Megan’ officially.”
“Ah the cut episode.” Megan nodded, “They called us about that.” She paused and then laughed. “Oh, wait, you guys were there. Man that whole concert is just a blur. I still can’t believe it was real.”
“Best 4th of July ever,” Becky giggled. “But you know they’re getting even tighter on screening their new hires now.”
Sarah laughed. “I got my recruitment bonus, so I’m fine with that,” she said jokingly, giving Becky a light hug as they walked up the beach. “I’m just glad you said yes.”
“Me too,” Kelly said as she caught up to them. “Sorry I’m late. Had to make sure my aunt knew Jenn was coming.”
“Hakuna Matata.” Megan grinned. Jenn burst out laughing. “But like, do you know everyone, Jenn?” she teased.
“Nah, not everyone,” Jenn laughed. “I know Kelly through her aunt Ellen though. She used to be a big time surfer, out showing the boys how it’s done.”
“My family’s big on breaking stereotypes,” Kelly laughed. “Like the scary biker chick playing the innocent frost fairy.”
A tall, slender woman in her 20s, dressed in a bright pink bikini stood on the beach as they reached the grotto. A quaint beach house was nestled in some trees a bit back from the beach. The woman, whom Sarah recognized as her recertification lifeguard instructor, was watching a particularly big wave with a pair of powerful binoculars.
“Crazy old woman,” she laughed.
“I brought the cavalry,” Jenn laughed as Kelly hugged her.
“Hey cuz,” Kelly said.
“Hey girl. Heya Jenn. Welcome to the not so secret secret grotto,” she teased.
Late in the evening, Sarah reclined in her office chair, putting the finishing touches on a comic book she had been drawing for her own amusement for a little while now. Annie had fallen asleep on the sofa re-watching the Disney Channel airing of “My Sister Megan”, so Olivia had called Sarah and Annie’s parents to let them know she’d be staying with them.
Olivia came into the little computer room carrying a steaming hot mug of tea in each hand. It smelled strongly of chamomile and mint. She set one down next to Sarah, who gratefully picked it up and took a sip.
“Mmm. Thanks, Liv. You’re the best,” she said as Olivia sat in the other cushy chair.
“Best insomnia remedy I’ve ever tried,” Olivia giggled. “Jade swears by it too,” she said as she opened up her leaf green laptop and started to write. She paused. “I just realized it’s been, what, two months?”
Sarah laughed. “Time flies huh?”
Olivia nodded. “Two months and some change. I swear it feels like we’ve known each other longer than that.” She turned her chair to face Sarah, who was facing her, sketching away on her tablet again, and looking up at her with a grin every so often.
“Hold that look just a second,” Sarah said, quickly sketching a rough draft of Olivia. “Okay now you can move.”
Olivia laughed and play-swatted Sarah’s leg. “Listen, Sarah... I should have said this sooner, but... I want you to know I don’t normally rush into relationships like this.”
Sarah nodded, putting the tablet aside. “I know what you mean,” she said as she took Olivia’s hand. “Two months ago I didn’t even want to acknowledge that “Sarah” existed publically. I bound my breasts, tried everything I could to just scrape by as Josh. I didn’t think any girl could ever like me, let alone... Well, more.”
“Are you kidding?” Olivia giggled. “You’re beautiful, intelligent, witty, you’re amazing in a crisis, great with kids, you have an amazing family, which is always a plus,” she teased, causing Sarah to laugh.
“Keep that up and I really will get a head as big as Silvermist’s,” she teased back.
“That’s just the art style,” Olivia giggled. “You know before you came, I was thinking about retiring as Tink, letting someone else take over, maybe taking a job backstage. Things were... Well, they were getting boring. Before you came along all I did all day, every day, was stand in one spot and do meet and greet. But Gennine really let us run wild. Even the other actors get to run around more, like they do at our sister park.”
“I’ve noticed that,” Sarah said, nodding. “I’m grateful Gennine’s management style is so much more open, though, otherwise I’d never have met Megan and Juliette. We wouldn’t have the opportunities we have.”
Olivia stood, and Sarah followed. Together they walked out onto the balcony, taking their tea with them. “You know what?” Sarah said as she put an arm around Olivia, pulling her closer.
“Mmm?” Olivia asked, leaning into Sarah.
“I have a feeling life’s only going to get more interesting from here.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Olivia giggled as she finished her tea. Sarah turned up her cup, and then held it aloft like it was floating on water. “Yup,” she said in her Silvermist voice, “Hatter’s hat makes a much better boat.”
Olivia laughed as they headed back inside, hand-in-hand.
The End... For now.