"Nadine Ferguson? What the hell are you doing here?" Sarah asked, upon seeing the new arrival. As always, the teenage girl was dressed like a total prude with no fashion sense, her hair in a bun, and wearing a cross necklace.
"No, she's not doing that part anymore," said one of the make-up artists. "Mercedes, if you wouldn't mind?" the artist continued, gesturing for Nadine (or rather Mercedes) to sit down in a chair so that they could get started on her make-up.
Sarah peeked over the screen, not paying attention to her assigned task of changing.
Mercedes took off the cross necklace and handed it off. "I hope they are going to give me more to work with," she remarked. "I mean...I was doing my best with the Nadine material...but I knew I could do so much more, you know?" She told the woman she handed it to.
"Well, this is your big break, dear," they responded. "You're a featured player now..." They took her hair out of the bun and started working on her make-up, giving her a much more tanned appearance, her hair laying neatly around her shoulders.
Sarah balked.... "What kind of makeup is that?" She asked. "I mean...look at her...I barely recognize her."
"Thank you," one of them said taking it as a compliment. "What is taking you so long getting dressed? We need to do your hair and makeup, and then get you both back on set."
"They don't fit right," Sarah said.
"Don't worry, dear....we'll fix it."
Sarah grumbled, and fiddled with the outfit before coming out, looking particularly confused and wondering why she was going along with this.
By this time, they'd done work in record time on Nadine...or Mercedes. Sarah approached the chair as the other girl stood up. Sarah had no problem with her appearance, but if they were able to turn a plain prude like Nadine into this so quickly...imagine what they could do with her. Mercedes went behind the screen to change.
"Into the chair, dear..."
Sarah sat. She could feel them working on her face, her hair...her vision grew a bit blurry as they sprayed things until they were finally done with her.
"That's it, we're done."
Sarah stood up, feeling a bit disoriented. Her vision was still blurry. She felt someone put something onto her face, and then the world came into sharp view. Mercedes was standing there, dressed in a cheerleading uniform. "I'm sorry...I was just so excited about my part...what was your name again?" She asked.
"You don't recognize me?" Sarah insisted.
"Well, there are a lot of people around, I guess..."
"What's going on around here?" Sarah demanded.
Bridget, the production assistant reappeared. "Okay....the writers have a bio for you," she said, handing a binder to the other girl. "It's a lot thicker than Nadine, but I think you can handle it. They made some big edits from the way it was before. Notes from the Director."
Mercedes opened the binder and Sarah swore that she saw it glow for a second. "I'm Mercedes...and I'm the head cheerleader at Lake Point High School," the teen said. It wasn't just what she said though, but how...she sounded confident and upbeat all of the sudden, and her body language had changed to match.
"Why don't you get ready to go on?" Bridget suggested to Mercedes.
"Wait a minute," Sarah said.
"Here's yours," Bridget said. "It's a bit sparse, but it isn't the role, it's the actor, right?" Instead of a binder, it was a thin folder with a single sheet of paper in it.
