Rise To Stardom - Chapter 168

Chapter 168: Back & Forth
{Level Up 2 | 10th of September 2020 | Act 2 | Scene 6 | Take 1}

“Lance! You’re slowing the line, get out.” one of the restaurant’s chef, casually called out as he walked over to add some sauce to a dish he had just prepared.

“Also, whatever modifications you’re making to that dish, boss woman ain’t gon’ like it.” he pointed out with a condescending tone.

“It’s called thinking outside the box, Junior… not that I’d expect you to understand.” the young man in question, obviously in his early twenties, countered with a mix of a smug yet goofy grin.

In response, Junior was noticeably irritated as he spoke, gesturing with a pointed finger;

“Wanna take this outside, punk?”

“Are you asking me to dance, Junior? ‘Cause honestly, you wouldn’t even be enough for a warm up.” Lance countered again, the dish he had modified in his hands as he stared the shorty down, a corner of his lips slightly curling upwards in mockery.

It was his turn to be condescending.

“Lance! Get out of my damn kitchen!” a burly-looking blonde woman on the slightly thicker side of an average build in her mid-fifties, burst into the kitchen, her hands instantly slamming on the counter.

“I swear to high heavens you old witch, if I have to wait one more table, I’m going to drop dead of boredom!” Lance’s tone immediately changed, his annoyed gaze trained on his foster mom.

“Oh yeah? Then, you better start practicing you little shit. It doesn’t get any easier!” Hilda’s words lacked empathy, her tone of choice, brutal.

Staring at her for a few seconds, the tension between them increasing by the second with only the sounds of the utensils from the other chefs who minded their business, filling up the ambience, Lance broke the silence between them, a noticeable hint of pained resignation in his voice as he genuinely struggled to understand why his mum was always, so, irrevocably, stubborn;

“What is it with you, really? Why are you the way that you are?”

“Me?” Hilda snorted with crossed arms, seemingly disappointed.

“I’m not the one with an issue. You are.” she pointed to him, a hint of genuine concern in her gray irises…

Only for it to vanish almost immediately.

“Now out! Go wait the tables you little shit.” Hilda added, a finality to her tone.

Donning a begrudgingly ticked off expression, Lance, placed his modified dish down before her on the counter harshly, removed his apron and then, headed out the doors of the kitchen with a forceful push!

“CUT!”

–

“That was perfect. Everyone take five.” Danny said while simultaneously gesturing with a circular motion of his finger to the set designers and the cinematographers to set the tone for the next scene.

“Woah…” Maya quietly expressed, her tone beyond impressed as she watched Kyle instantly return back to his usual receptive demeanor, the transformation instant.

In those few minutes of acting, not a single, visible bone in the young star, resembled even the slightest traces of either himself or the characters he had played in the past.

Only Lance Knight, the character they had read about in the script a few times over.

“Well, now we understand why he’s sought after by almost every director in the industry.” Reggie stated, nodding in clearer realization, a sentiment which the rest of the cast shared…

Not Veronica though.

She seemed mostly unfazed.

“Oh, you’re already in character.” Maya whom had noticed Sharon’s change in demeanor commented, one to which the lady curtly responded;

“Yeah.”

“I still can’t get over how you do that though.” Reggie on the other hand, commented, honestly impressed that Sharon was already in complete sync with her character.

“Nothing to it. Just practice is all.” she responded again, her gaze following Kyle who was currently conversing with Sean and Rebecca.

Just as this was happening though, Tyler walked out of the restroom, his expression casual as he walked up to the director who casually spoke;

“Tyler. You’re back. Just in time. I need to run over a few things with you.”

“Sure man.” Tyler walked up to the director with a respectful nod.

As he did though, he glanced over to Kyle whom was conversing with Sean and Rebecca in the corner with a relaxed gaze.

Sure he and the rest of the dance crew had been just as surprised as the main cast when they found out he was going to be substituting for Justin, but, in comparison to the rest of the dance crew whose excitement lingered on even till now, Tyler’s, didn’t.

‘Maybe, he’s a great actor…’ Tyler thought to himself as he met up with the director.

‘But he’s definitely, not a great dancer.’ the young man inwardly concluded, a slightly condescending expression on his features as he glanced over to Kyle for a few seconds.

No matter how good of an actor one was, when it came to a dance movie, the audience typically didn’t give two hoots.

That was an almost iron clad rule Tyler had realized over the years as a professional dancer for many Hollywood movies.

It was also why, he didn’t really consider Kyle a threat to his chances of being the star of the movie, especially when added to the fact that he was playing the role of a side character, late into the movie.

In fact, considering the character Tyler himself was playing, mirrored his almost immense pride when it came to being a great dancer to an unhealthy degree, him acting as Xander, despite his acting skills not being all that spectacular, came very naturally, further elevating his performances in comparison to other roles he had played in the past.

In a way, Tyler felt that he’d be the most remembered in the dance movie when it finally hit theatres.

Kyle on the other hand, had his gaze linger on Tyler for a brief moment in between his conversation with Sean and Rebecca, completely oblivious to the young man’s thoughts as he skimmed through something else in his field of view.

___________________________

{Tyler Reeds} – 24 years

Dancing › Level 14

Acting › Level 7

Skills – [Advanced Musicality]

___________________________

‘Oh… now I see…’ Kyle inwardly commented, a hint of realization on his features.

Back when he and the main cast had been practicing a few days back, he had gauged everyone’s dancing skills to be on an average range of Level 11, the only exception being Reggie and Maya’s who were at Level 12 and had the skills, [Enhanced Technique] and [Graceful Swan], respectively.

As for the dance crew themselves, all of whom were outside the restaurant, prepping for the next scene, he had gauged them all to be at the average level of 12, with only some being at Level 11.

This on its own, had explained to Kyle why the main cast had gotten very serious at the mention of them, their motivation to nail the dance choreography as best as they could, perfectly understandable.

Tyler especially was interesting to Kyle, his skills even higher than Danny’s.

However, the young man wasn’t the least bit perturbed by all this.

[Flow] essentially, was a skill that more or less combined three good skills a lot of great dancers had into one cohesive high-end skill.

Simply put, his created skill put him two dance levels above what he actually was if comparisons were to be made with other dancers…

‘And let’s not even bring [Deep Dive] into the fray…’ Kyle dismissed the panel with a confident gaze.

He was definitely going to be holding his ground against Tyler’s crew a few minutes from now.

However, just as he was about to join back in on the conversation Sean and Rebecca were having, he felt Sharon’s gaze on him.

Noticing the carefree yet disinterested expression on her visage, a clear contrast to how she usually was around him, Kyle couldn’t help but mentally recall the details of the lady’s panel with an impressed smile.

___________________________

{Sharon Winters} – 24 years

Acting › Level 12

Dancing › Level 11

Singing › Level 8

Skills – [Synchronized Zone]

___________________________

* * *

Following the script’s plot from the onset, after a brief introduction in their tweens as they performed a complex dance routine at a dance competition they unfortunately ended up coming in second place at, one that their late father had still been so proud of, the next scene would then transition to Luke and Rose in their current age, the late teens.

The setting had been a dance hall, with the two individuals practicing the same routines, their movements in perfect sync.

And pinned on the mirror lining one side of the hall was the poster for a dance competition;

FINAL JAM: LEGENDS IN MOTION

It was the same dance competition they had been at in their younger years, only this time, it was going all out with this, being the biggest till date.

A high-stakes dance competition which had a prize-money of $1,000,000, Luke and Rose, just like so many others, had been practicing hard for it.

In addition to that, it was going to be a team dance-off between various groups of dancers aiming to get first place as winning on such a big stage, asides the cash prize, would definitely, make their names known.

With a brief exposition into why the competition was such a big deal with a few more scenes which had been filmed here and there, the story’s plot then went on to follow Luke and Rose, trying to gather a few teammates along the way.

They had first come across Veronica… someone they were acquaintances with but had never considered making a teammate.

This was because they had believed her to be too sophisticated for their dance routine since she frequently also used the same dance hall as they did to practice ballet dancing all the time.

However, Luke had later caught the ‘delicate-looking’ lady, freestyling to a popular pop-song, one which had been from their boom-box which he and his sister had forgotten to pick up after one of their training sessions.

Taking the opportunity, he had tried to cajole the lady into joining their dance group, one she instantly declined but ultimately, chose to accept later over the course of the story.

In between those events though, Veronica’s personal stakes had also been touched upon, adding a nice depth to her character as her wealthy parents were adamant, that if at all she was going to be a dancer and not businessmen like them, ballet dancing was the only one they’d allow for her to learn.

Sophistication, grace and whatnots as they always hammered in her ears from the moment she was born.

As for Rose, she had run into a group of street dancers namely; Baby, Bones and B-box; at a beach party where she had been working part-time as a waitress.

All said and done, she too, after a bit of cajoling over the course of the story’s first quarter, got the group of dancers to join their dance crew.

Now a total of at least seven dancers, they could finally register for the Final Jam and hopefully, find a few more teammates along the way.

And so they did, their growth and teamwork getting considerably better as they got through each stage with an occasional close shave till they reached all the way to the semi-finals.

Over the course of that ascent, they often clashed with Xander, the jerk of a dance prodigy whom had been winning all of the competitions since he was as young as the siblings.

Now, even with his own gathered crew, they had been utterly demolishing most dance groups with only a select few giving them a run for their money.

The only seemingly major threat to These Syndicates, were The Deviants, Luke and Rose’s team.

Safe to say, Syndicates VS Deviants was what most people were looking forward to as the story went on… that was until the Deviants’ dance routine for the semi-finals got leaked to the public.

Xander had been the indirect cause of it by contacting a certain someone they had showed earlier in the course of the story’s plot a few times here and there.

Hence, the actual culprit of the leaked video, had been Luke and Rose’s stepmother Catherine, a petty and hateful lady who wanted nothing more than to watch the two youngsters lose all the progress they had worked so hard for.

And her devious plan did have that effect, enough that the dance group, had ended up with broken spirits, believing they wouldn’t recover from this, especially when they had been so close to their goals.

Currently sitting at a pretty popular yet fairly expensive restaurant, courtesy of Veronica who tried cheering her team up with some good food, all had a bleak expression on their features, the atmosphere gloomy.

It was at this moment that Lance whom had already been introduced in the previous scene, would finally meet with the crew for the first time.

It was also the next scene that Kyle and the rest of the main cast was about to film.