Free Happy Birthday to You (Birthday Trilogy, Book 3) by Brian Rowe

Reno, she could stand out in a crowd. But not in L.A.
    So Charisma did
the unthinkable, and started taking acting classes, trying her best to improve
on her skills and her God-given talent, hoping that with a lot of hard work,
she could finally start nabbing bigger roles. She still hadn’t been in a movie.
She really wanted to be in a movie, even if it was just some small part. She
had an opportunity one day to go be an extra in an upcoming Zac Efron movie,
but she just couldn’t do it. She was Charisma Kellog, and she was no extra. She
was a star .
    And today, while
she found herself stuck in the horrendous 405 traffic, she felt confident about her big Santa Monica audition coming up at 4:00. It
wasn’t for a movie, unfortunately, but it was for a brand new Disney Channel
pilot, a chance at the lead role. She thought of breakout stars from the Disney
Channel, like Selena Gomez, Shia LaBeouf, and, of course, Miley Cyrus. She
couldn’t particularly sing very well, but her acting had improved enormously,
and she could feel, in her heart, in her soul, that today was going to be her
day. She was going to prove to that casting director that she could play this
part. And before she could scream, “STAR ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME,” she’d
be the newest Hollywood somebody, a somebody whose
life would be changed… forever.
    “You’ve got
this,” Charisma said to herself as the traffic finally started clearing a bit.
“I don’t care if everyone’s focused on the economy, the state of the world, all
those little babies looking older. Pretty soon, everyone’s focus is going to be
on me . And I won’t be able to walk
down the sidewalk to grab a freakin’ Pinkberry without the paparazzi snapping
my every move. Today… it all comes down to today…”
    She smiled to
herself and started applying more lipstick as she turned on the I-10 and started
heading toward Santa Monica. Thankfully for Charisma, all the traffic was
headed in the opposite direction. She couldn’t believe her eyes, as there were
hardly any cars going toward the ocean. It looked as if everyone was trying to
get out of town, as if a giant tidal wave was headed for the coast. Charisma
laughed and realized, even if she was minutes away from death, she’d still
deliver an amazing audition at the casting space. She’d still get the final
word, no matter what.
    It took her ten
minutes to find the building, two streets over from the beach. She parked her
car, analyzed her make-up in the rearview mirror one last time, and grabbed her
four-page scene, even though she had memorized all her lines the night before.
    She stepped out
onto the sidewalk. It was a gorgeous eighty-degree day. If she wasn’t running a
little late for her audition, Charisma would’ve taken a minute to enjoy her
final hour on Earth. But she was in a rush.
    “Hello,”
Charisma said to the assistant on the fifth floor. “I’m here for the role of
Valerie.”
    “Yes, of
course,” the young woman said. She seemed sad, like she hadn’t been able to
poop in days, or maybe because she wanted to be the all-powerful casting
director, not some unpaid intern spending her whole day greeting actors and
sitting bored at her desk.
    Charisma took a
seat next to the other twenty girls, all with blonde hair, all looking, more or
less, like her. She couldn’t help but think the other girls looked a few years
too old for the part. The character was supposed to be only sixteen, and
Charisma felt positive at the young age of nineteen that she would be perfect
physically for the role. Once she brought her acting chops into the room, the
rest would be history.
    “Academy Awards,
here I come,” she whispered to herself.
    “What was that?”
a girl with a noticeably flat chest asked next to her.
    “Nothing.”
Charisma didn’t want to say anything, but as she crossed her legs and turned to
the girl next to her, she just had to. “How old are you, anyway?”
    “I was about to ask
you the same