[Edward POV]
Since one episode of Wizards of Waverly Place has around a 20 minute run. It took only a few hours to finish recording the episode as they were shot on a ready made set of Waverly Place.
The fictional place was set in the city of New York. Not only that, the Russo's family restaurant has a subway theme where they have a prop train inside their building.
After we finished shooting the 3 monsters episode, I turned to Selena and asked her in confusion, "Shouldn't this be recorded in front of a live studio audience? What's with all of the fake laugh tracks?"
"Oh, I thought as much but it turns out they use ready-made tracks to help us in getting the dialogue timing right and play the thing in front of an audience later to get the true reactions."
"Really? I don't think anyone ever did that." I said as I turned towards the director with a suspicious expression. It might be that the director had misinformed Selena about the thing, but still, I guess I don't have any problems with it being like that since it's a kids show even if it had a big audience tuning in.
"You seem like you're thinking of something rude." Selena narrowed her eyes on me.
"I am. You knowing that made me wonder if you really have some magical wizard powers." I teased with a serious face.
She was taken aback and said, "Maybe I do. Avada Kedavra!" She said while pointing her wand at me.
"*tch* You're still alive." She clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction. I raised one of my eyebrows and said, "The second you thought you had magic, you tried to kill me off?"
"Well you should be grateful that I don't have magic!" She laughed carelessly. "I'll keep doing that until you tell me, why you are here."
"I told you I'm here to be a guest star." I said with exhaustion.
Selena had been badgering me to spill the beans, and she definitely didn't believe what I was saying.
"No you're not. There's no way you're coming here for just that."
I scoffed in disbelief, and the director called the both of us. Selena felt that I had an ulterior motive in coming here, and she couldn't calm herself down until she knew what it was.
"Tell me. Did you come here to make Taylor jealous? Cause I don't want to become a part of your weird toxic couple games." She warned me.
Her words were caught by her parents cast in the show. Suddenly, the older David said teasingly, "Wait. You still don't know?"
"Even I already know." Jake said with a grin.
"What?! What is it!? It's not my birthday? It's not even your birthday?!" She turned towards me and asked with exasperation, "So why?"
The director chuckled and said, "Remember the day you wanted a day off to go to the carnival, but the producer said you couldn't although they gave you permission later. Well, that's all thanks to him."
"I know that!" Selena replied with annoyance.
"Then, you should know that the reason you could do that is because Edward agreed to become a guest star in the show." The director explained as he couldn't take the drama any longer.
Selena's eyes turned touched and she looked at me with disbelief. She asked with an affectionate tone, "You did that for me?"
I quickly rub her face with my palm to annoy her while shuddering, "Don't look at me like that. That seriously gave me goosebumps."
After some briefing, I sat on an empty seat next to the side of the set while the cast members– the characters Justin, Juliet, Alex and Harper started off the episode while I was standing by at another set– the underground train station.
-Scene Starts-
In the wizard's lair, Justin and Juliet were freaking out, while Alex sat on the couch without a care in the world with Harper joining her, but her focus was on Justin– the one she had a crush on.
Justin holds Juliet's hand, " I know what to do. We should call the Monster Hunter department again, and make– Make them recall Jeremy Van Helsing. That way, Juliet can finally be at ease."
Juliet said, "I know the Van Helsing family. The family has been the sworn enemy of the Vampires since the middle ages. My dad talked about them on the casserole one time! And now they won't stop hunting us!"
*LOL*
Harper suddenly chimed in, " Are you even sure he's here for Juliet? Or is he just wandering around the place, buying sandwiches and playing skeeball–"
Justin interjected quickly, "Of course he's here for Juliet! She's a Vampire! And he's Van Helsing!" At the same time, he contacted the monster hunter department using his wand.
Harper added, "But Alex said that's what he had been doing after following him around."
Justin turned to Alex in surprise and asked, "Alex?"
"What? Someone needs to keep an eye on him." Alex said gleefully.
*LOL*
"Besides, I don't think he's an expert anyway. I walked in front of him a few times, but he still hasn't come and talked to me."
The line was connected before Justin could rebuke Alex's 'brilliant' way of seducing a guy. Justin hid Juliet behind him and greeted the handler.
"Hello. Sir. I think you should recall Jeremy Van Helsing back now. The monster issue has already been settled." He said to the blank green screen.
The scene with the handler would be inserted after the shoot, but the dialogue was there. "Jeremy Van Helsing? Well, there's nothing I can do about him."
"W-Why Sir? Shouldn't he travel around the world, trying to hunt monsters and keep the peace?" Justin crossed his arms and asked nervously. Juliet nodded in agreement behind him, but Alex looked at the call with amusement.
The handler replied, "The Van Helsing family has more experience in monster hunting than our entire monster hunter department. Hell, we only started this department a decade ago."
"The family has been doing this for centuries. They aren't really working together with us, so I can't do anything about recalling him. But don't worry about it. He'll be gone soon enough if he doesn't find anything amiss. The only way you would need to be worried, would be if something crazy happened, something extremely dumb and silly like say… I dunno if your girlfriend was a vampire! HAHAHA!" He made a joke without even knowing how close it was to the truth before he turned off the call.
*LOL*
Justin whimpered nervously before he turned to Juliet. "We need to make sure he doesn't find you, or your parents."
Juliet however took Justin's arm sadly and said, "My parents have already gone into hiding. I'll need to follow them. However since the Van Helsing family is already onto us, we may need to get away from here…forever."
"NO! There must be another way!" Alex chimed in with desperation as she stood up.
Justin looked at Alex with dissatisfaction before he whined, "H-Hey that's my line! Alright. I have a plan to keep Juliet here!"
"What is it?" Alex asked hurriedly.
"Jeremy Van Helsing will be gone if he doesn't find anything wrong in this place, right? So, we'll make it that way. First, we'll need someone to keep an eye on him at all times! We'll call the operation, Stepping on a gum Now, we just need to find someone to be the gum"
"I call it!" Alex volunteered for the first time ever, which made Harper proud, "Aww. Alex. I've been dreaming to see you becoming more proactive with your life."
*LOL*
"Well if life was all about cute boys, then I would be the most activ-est girl ever." Alex joked. "We still need to know where he is right now." She said as she turned to Justin.
"I know a spell that will help." Justin said before snatching a framed photo from the shelves. "Please please tell me now, if there's something I should know? Duranium Duranius!"
As he swung his wand into the picture, a magical glow flew and turned the photo frame into a scene of where Jeremy was in real time.
"Wait! He's in danger! He's surrounded by monsters!" Harper shrieked as she saw the scene.
"Justin! We need to go and help him!" Alex said urgently.
"Wait! This may be how we're going to solve all of our problems!" Justin hesitated.
*LOL*
"JUSTIN!" Alex scolded him.
*LOL*
"FINE! But just let me say this. You wouldn't even care about going to save him if you didn't think he was cute!" Justin retorted before both of them rushed out of the lair without taking Juliet with them.
-Scene ends-
"Cut! Nice work!" The director said before he added, "Continue to the second scene, 'Jeremy's monster battle'. Edward, are you ready?"
I raised a thumb's up at the director while preparing to perform. Surrounding me were a few gnarly monsters with muscular arms and burgeoning faces. It was a kids' show, so they couldn't make the monster look too scary.
However, the shooting had to be postponed a bit because my guards from the DOD started checking all of the monster cast, telling them to take out their id, and apprehending those who couldn't provide proper identification for interrogation.
They also examined every nook and cranny of the set to make sure there were no hidden threats.
"Wait, do they need to go this far?" Selena asked me in confusion. "Can't you tell them to stop?"
"Not really. They aren't under my orders despite being my security details. As long as they have plausible cause to interfere, I can't stop them." I explained to Selena and the director.
Selena's lip curled upwards at one side as she looked at me with disbelief. The director shook his head and said, "Don't worry about it. We can wait 15 minutes."
The agent gave me a thumbs up after checking the whole thing.
"Ready? Action!" The director shouted before my scene began.
-Scene Starts-
In an abandoned subway station with graffiti on the walls, and dim lighting.
"Van Helsing! Today we settle our centuries long vengeance!" A blue faced monster with 4 eyes snarled while crouching his back.
Jeremy scoffed and said, "Yeah? You and what army?"
The monster was confused, "Huh… This army… the one…surrounding you right now?"
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJifDyJT6Rc&ab_channel=DescendantsBadboy ) The fight music score started playing in the background.
"Oh right… That army." Jeremy nodded in acknowledgement as he glanced at the monsters surrounding him.
*LOL*
"Get him!" The blue faced monster shouted. The monsters swarmed towards Jeremy. However, Jeremy avoided himself from getting tackled by sliding off his feet slightly, and tripping the monster that was lunging towards him at the same time, making it crash into the other monsters while holding his hat intact.
He did it multiple times while shooting off offensive magics to the monsters even if they still sounded like the funny rhyming Disney spells. As he spun, his trench coat followed along in spinning, making him seem extremely cool.
With a slight smile, Jeremy took out his wand and began fighting off the monsters. However, the monster leader shouted, "Take out the shields!"
The monsters encircled him and carried a plastic shield with them at the same time. "Plastic. A wizard's only weakness." Jeremy said with a smirk but keeping his guard up.
*LOL*
"Luckily for me, I'm not 100% dependent on my wand."
He kicked the shield, making the monster fall backward before he hopped onto the subway bench, kicking and punching the monsters while dodging their attacks at the same time.
Jeremy accidentally slipped and fell onto a monster's back– one that was just trying to get up after getting kicked, and used both of his legs to kick the monster that was trying to bite him. "Thanks for the support". Jeremy used the monster as a support before knocking him down again.
At this time, Alex and Justin finally arrive at the abandoned subway station and they witness the whole thing. "Watch out!" Jeremy said as he pulled Alex out of the monster's way and kicked Justin to the other side at the same time.
Selena and Jeremy locked eyes for a while, but Justin had to run away from the monsters running after him in swarms, breaking their moment. He screamed like a little girl and screamed, "HELP!!!"
*LOL*
Jeremy held Alex's hand, and twirled her around before saying charmingly, "Mind giving me a hand here beautiful lady?"
Before she could answer, he grabbed her waist and pulled her closer towards him to avoid the monster, before turning left and releasing her to spin, making her fist punch the monster's face. It turned into a tango between the two of them, a moment of just them despite being attacked by monsters from all sides.
He pulled her back in, with his hand grabbing her waist again, and abruptly lowered her back, making her raise her leg instinctively and kicked the monster in the face.
Jeremy released Alex before jumping over a bench to save Justin by shooting off magic again. Without the plastic shields, the monsters were defenceless. He grabbed the blue faced monster hand that was trying to claw at him, and used a shoulder throw to slam him on the ground.
The monsters became spooked and they stopped their offense. The music stopped as the monster slowly retreated.
"You won't get away with this Van Helsing!" The blue faced monster said before he blew horn. With that bellow, all of the monsters ran away from the subway station.
Jeremy wanted to follow them, but Justin stopped him, "Are you crazy!? You barely survived the fight, and now you want to follow them?"
Alex said with infatuation, "Riiigghhttt…Maybe I can come along with and we can dance along again."
"Alex!" Justin called her out.
"Yeah?" Alex finally snapped out of her state.
"Yeah!! Those guys were prepared to have a fight. We need to report this to the monster hunter department and get some backup–A LOT OF BACKUP!" Justin said nervously.
Jeremy instead shook his head and said casually, "Don't worry about me. I get ambushes like this all the time! My family name doesn't really scream out 'Monster Friendly'." He did the bunny ear air quotation.
*LOL*
He placed his hand on Justin's shoulder and said, "Besides, I already have backup right here. Thank you for coming to help, rookie. You guys are good."
"Maybe Justin is but you haven't known me yet I am like a super fan of this monster…hunting…thingy." Alex bragged with a hint of confusion and she signalled Justin with her eyes to confirm that she got the right thing. Justin nodded and she giggled to herself after breathing in relief.
Jeremy then walked closer towards Alex and said, "Then, maybe we can look around together?"
Alex giggled while Justin's eyes darted between the two. Jeremy then said, "But before that, can I invite you to lunch with me? Maybe talk about it over some sandwiches?"
"That's fortunate because our family runs a sandwich shop." Alex said before she saw Justin gesturing 'No' with his hand behind Jeremy.
*LOL*
"Ah! Right. Our restaurant is closed for today. Let's walk around. I'm sure we can find another place to eat nearby." Alex said before she pulled Jeremy's arm.
"The gum is on the foot. I repeat. The gum is on the foot!" Justin announced excitedly before he shuddered at the empty subway station. Fearfully, he said, "Guys…Wait for me!" before rushing to follow Alex and Jeremy out of there.
*LOL*
-Scene ends-
"Cut. That's great Ed!" The director said. "I thought we had to shoot that multiple times to get it right, but you guys did it in one take. Especially Selena. You really captured the gaze of a young lady who's enchanted when you guys locked eyes together."
"No I didn't!" Selena said defensively.
Jennifer Stone said with confusion, "Girl…He's complimenting you…just take it."
"Oh. Right. Thank you." She thanked the director, blushing at her own blunder before moving away to the side of the set to have a conversation with Jennifer.
The next part of the episode was about Max Russo, his humanoid conscience– which was another guest star, Moises Arias (the brother in the new Fallout series). Max and his parent's scene filming took a while, so I hung out with David Henrie and Bridget Mendler – Juliet.
I asked David, "The show's run time is only 20 minutes, right?"
"Usually. Yeah. Why?" He was confused.
"Can the entire storyline fit into one episode?"
David checked the script for a while before he said, "I don't think so. Usually, a long episode like this will be split into two parts. So maybe that's what's happening here?"
Bridget suddenly interjected the conversation and she asked shyly, "Edward. After this, can you sign my album?"
"Why wait? I can sign it for you right now." I replied with a polite smile.
"Huh." David suddenly exclaimed while Bridget squealed and excused herself to go get her album.
"Explain the disbelief." I asked David after we were left alone.
"That's not— Um…I feel a bit bad to tell you this…" He was hesitating, so I smoothened the deal. I wrapped my arm around his shoulder and said in a low volume, "You know, I need to cast a few actors around your age for my new series about chess."
"She said you'd flirt with anyone!" David exposed Selena immediately without even an ounce of remorse. "And she also said that you had flirted with her multiple times! But I saw that you didn't do that with Bridget, so I was thinking that she lied. That's why I let out the 'Huh'."
"That's all?" I asked.
"Selena also said you're kind off an ass, so we needed to watch out for you, but you're actually a pretty awesome guy, Mr Future Producer." David added.
I chuckled a bit and then said, "You're alright David. Give me your number. I'll text you when I'm holding the auditions. But first, you need to deal with that." I pointed at the direction behind him.
"Deal with what?" David was confused and turned slowly. He widened his eyes in shock when he saw Selena and Jennifer standing nearby, with Jennifer shaking her head in contempt, and Selena who's mouth agape from disbelief.
"I can't believe you told him that!" Selena scolded him.
"Yeah! You went too far David!" Jennifer added in to berate him.
David hurriedly stood up and tried to calm down the girls, "Wait-Wait-Wait! I only did that because– because–" He hesitated to tell them the truth as he knew that the fact would lower their opinion on him even more. Then, he turned and made a run for it.
"DAVID!" Selena yelled at him. But before the girls could follow him, I grabbed Selena's wrist and pulled her towards me. She flopped on the seat beside mine, and looked at me with anxiousness while her friend went further and further away.
"So… I am an ass huh?" I asked Selena teasingly.
"Um…The director is calling us! Let's go." Selena pretended to hear something before she stood up abruptly, but I grabbed her hand and made her take a seat again.
"You're not going anywhere until I learn more about what you have been saying behind my back."
"Umm…I'm sorry?" She batted her eyes at me to get forgiveness, but I shook my head and replied, "Don't say that yet until I get you to spit everything out."
…
My scene continued, and it was a scene of me and Selena getting some food together.
-Scene Starts-
"So, you said that you usually got ambushed. I'm sure that doesn't feel too great." Alex Russo said while eating some fries.
"I usually think of them as the local resident's greeting, so I wasn't too bothered by it. Besides, most often than not it just gives me a clear idea of what monsters are around and what I need to catch." Jeremy said sarcastically while staring at Alex. Then he said honestly, "Yeah. Sometimes I wish I could travel around and be at ease without thinking about the monsters. But, my family has too many enemies."
"Enough about me. What about you?" Jeremy asked.
"Well for starters, monsters usually view me as part of their crowd, so I fit right in and never get ambushed." Alex joked.
*LOL*
Jeremy chuckled and said, "That's something to never worry about."
"I know." Alex said before both of them laughed together.
Alex suddenly leaned in and asked, "What do you actually think about monsters? I know your family is like the biggest name in the business, but I don't really feel that you have any hostility towards them…even during the fight."
"You saw right through me huh." Jeremy replied as he leaned back on his chair. "Maybe I don't want to keep fighting anymore. But I know that's never going to happen. And with me being the last wizard in my family tree, I have to keep our family's honour."
"Wait. The last wizard?" Alex asked in confusion.
Jeremy replied, "Well. My parents were gone after they went to fight with an adult dragon. My brother and sister also met the same fate when they tried to fight off the Mother of Monsters. So I'm the only one left, the last of the Van Helsing family ."
"Oh Jeremy." Alex grabbed his hand sympathetically as she tried to comfort him.
Audience: Awww!
While Alex and Jeremy were on a date, Justin watched them from the corner of the alley with Juliet. Justin exclaimed in bewilderment, "What is she doing? Trying to keep him here?"
Juliet added, "Wait. Is that Jeremy Van Helsing? Wow! He's so gorgeous!"
*LOL*
Justin glanced at Juliet, which made her taken aback, "I mean, he's so dangerous!"
*LOL*
"Oh no. The gum has gone rogue." Justin muttered as he saw Alex and Jeremy walk out of the restaurant together while holding hands.