"We'll have to cut across the dining hall to get to the girls' side of the building," Aaron told her. "Mindy will take you up."
"Oh. Right," Stacey shook her head a few times.
"What's up?" Aaron asked in concern, glancing at her a few times. "You feeling alright?"
"I'm fine," Stacey smiled, still rubbing where she'd hit her forehead on Endo's hard one. It felt like she had a little lump there. "Just post sleep dizzies. You know when you're in a deep sleep and someone wakes you up and you don't really know what's going on?"
"I see," Aaron made a face and gave a little smile. "I get what you mean. My little girl gets that sometimes. It's cute."
"It's not. I'm not cute," Stacey protested, tripping down the stairs and accidentally missing a step. She grabbed hold of the railing to prevent herself from falling over. "I'm too old to be cute now."
"Whoa. Be careful," Aaron steadied her. "Watch your step. I think you're cute, but it's a different sort of cute from the other girls. You have a nice shine of individuality that makes you stand out from the other girls. It's refreshing, to be honest. You're kind of like the best mate, girl next door. It makes you relatable."
"If you say so," Stacey shrugged, slapping her cheeks to wake herself more.
"I have to confess," Aaron said, "that you're not just going up to your bed with the mentors. We've been given a literacy test that you need to fill in. We have no idea of what your academic level is and we need to know where to start with you. Also, the producers are working on trying to find a way to squeeze you in with the other girls. Once we can get you to join the other girls, you'll be joining them in their dorm properly. We can't keep you separated from the rest of the girls for the entire program. You need to be able to make friends and network with them as well. We've seen that you seem to get along with the boys pretty well. You'll have to make an effort to make friends with a few of the girls as well."
"Whatever you guys say," Stacey lifted on hand and shoulder. "As you all probably already know, I'm just here for the food. You guys are the bosses."
"I'm relieved that you're so easy going," Aaron said. "It truly makes things a whole lot easier."
"Hey. I'm just a spare tire here."
"You aren't," Aaron said. "Oh, hey, there's Marvel, outside. Let's go and say 'hi'."
Aaron gestured to a man just outside a door who was talking with some of the camera men and producers where they were changing the chips in the camera. The man had carrot orange hair that stood up like he'd been shocked. Honestly, it reminded Stacey of an old movie her dad had pulled out one time with a character called Dead Fred. The man was even wearing a bright green suit.
"Hey, Marvel," Aaron called. "You found a great candidate among the lost kids here."
"I did? This must be Anastasia Wright, right?" the man called Marvel turned around and came over to meet them with wide strides of his long, lanky legs. "People keep congratulating me on finding her but to be honest, I'm not the one who scouted her. We've never met and I don't know where she came from. Hi, Stacey. I'm Marvel. I think on paper, the State Government appointed me as your main guardian for the duration you're with our program. I just found out an hour ago. It's nice to meet you anyway."
"Nice to meet you too," Stacey greeted and shook his offered hand. His limp hand shook her off almost as soon as it had touched hers. It was almost as if he was just trying to get the formalities out of the way.
"May I ask exactly how you ended up joining our program?" Marvel asked her with what Stacey felt was more of a glower than a happy expression. He appeared to be talking to her through gritted teeth. "It's important to know what happened. I heard you seem to have lost your memory. Can you tell me everything you remember about what happened?"
"A few days ago," Stacey took a breath and recited the story she had worked out while going through the interview earlier in the day, "I woke up under a bush outside town. When I came into town, I found that I had no money. When I asked people where I was, what the date was and everything, they all thought I was crazy. I tried to get a job but everyone I asked rejected me. They all said my accent was weird, I wasn't dressed suitably and that they couldn't help me. One lady was going to hire me but she kicked me out when she realised that I couldn't read or speak Tadpole. She said she had no place for dropouts and runaways. I tried begging, but I was ignored. The restaurants and other places chased me away from their dumpsters out the back when I started getting desperate. I spent most of my first night on a park bench but a policeman found me and told me to go home. Since I had no where else to go, I've been sleeping under the stairs at the front of that building over there," Stacey pointed. It was best for her to stick to the real facts after all. She wasn't lying exactly. She was just omitting the fact that she had somehow arrived here from her world and she had no idea where she was. "Then this morning, I woke up and saw the busses and all the people. So I came over for a look and somehow got caught up in all this."
Marvel snorted. Then he laughed.
"We got an amnesiac street kid that dropped in out of nowhere. How coincidental is that?" he stopped laughing abruptly and glared at Stacey, grabbing hold of her wrist. "Who are you and where are you from? You can drop the act. It's so fake that it makes me want to puke."
He gripped Stacey's wrist so hard that it felt like the bones were being bent. Stacey struggled to pull her wrist free.
"Let go, it hurts," she said, feeling tears spring to her eyes. "I'm sorry. I was just so hungry. I just wanted something to eat. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'll leave if you don't want me here. I'll leave town and go starve where no one can see me. I didn't mean to interrupt your program. I tried to get out when I realised things were getting serious but I couldn't. I'm sorry. Please, let me go."
"Who sent you here? What agency are you from? Who's spy are you?" Marvel demanded, dragging her back when she tried to pull away.
The hate in Marvel's eyes stabbed her. It was a frighteningly wild look. One that promised to kill her if she wasn't who she was meant to be. Stacey's heart shook and jumped wildly in her chest. She had the urge to get out from under this man's threatening glare. It wasn't safe here with him. Starving to death slowly would be better than getting stabbed in the back by a man who didn't want her here.
"I don't even know what agencies there are," Stacey cried, finally managed to break her hand free from his bruising grip when Aaron stepped forward to separate Marvel from her. She backed away. "I can't read half the writing in the town. I don't even know who any of the mentors are. I can't follow half the conversations the other kids talk about. They use words I've never heard of before and talk about things I have no reference for. I've spent most of the day being confused or fainting or being pushed around or scolded. The other kids seem nice and just accepted me and I feel bad that I'm not even supposed to be here. If I'm just making too much trouble, just say the word and I'll leave. Why do you have to accuse me of being an industry spy? If I'd had the choice, I'd have chosen almost any industry besides this one, but I was starving and this was my only chance to get food and shelter. Why would I want the job instability of the entertainment world? What else do you want me to say or do? Is apologising not enough?"
Stacey backed away when Marvel made another swipe to try and capture her, took to her heels and ran.
"Marvel, she's actually a really good kid," Aaron protested. "We already love her. She's a treasure. A hidden talent."
"We don't need a knife in the dark," Marvel held him back from chasing after Stacey.
"But Landen wants her. Mindy interviewed her and Landen did her audition. He showed you her audition tape, right?"
"Yeah, but even if she's really the genuine thing, that unknown background and anything she's forgotten could be a bomb. What did the doctor say?"
"Healthy, slightly overweight. Dehydrated. She had low blood sugar and fainted and then Orlan scolded her for falling asleep. Apparently she's barely slept the last few nights. She doesn't remember anything beyond waking up outside town a few nights ago or something. We reckon she must have been kidnapped or abused or something. The doctor's a bit confused over her memory loss but given the number of things she doesn't know or can't remember - that can't be faked. Besides, her brain scans show some sort of weird brain injury. A couple of the boys have decided to be her guards. They were going to keep her in their bedroom and protect her from the world or something. I found them tucking her into bed. It was cute. She's a great story waiting to happen. Mindy wants to make a feature of her. If you really kick her out, Mindy will have to rewrite everything all over again and you know how grumpy she gets when she has to do such a massive rewrite."
"Hey, guys, what's going on?"
Landen and Hugh came over to see what all the noise and fuss was. Many of the crew gathered together to have their say. In the meantime, a cameraman had chased after Stacey with a camera on his shoulder.