Chapter 15

Transcript for Chapter 15A

Opens with the Bouquet contestants dancing in syncronization to music playing from a speaker nearby.

Katrina (off-screen): Control your movements!

Hannah and Amy pose with hands in front of their bodies.

Grace and Ingrid pose with their arms beside their heads.

Katrina (off-screen): Arms high and swivel!

Katrina shouts orders while demonstrating the dance moves.

Katrina: Swivel!

Katrina swivels her hips.

Katrina: Jade, don't be shy!

Jade tries to mimic the dance move, but she looks shaky and awkward. Her face is pained.

Katrina: Get your hips out there!

Jade looks back over her shoulder, basically in the direction of us, the readers. Her teeth are clenched and she's sweating from the exertion of bad dancing. A camera is pointed right at her from maybe two feet away.

Jade: [It's not me, it's my hips! They refuse to do it in front of the camera!]

Katrina stops dancing and waves her hand dismissively.

Katrina: Okay, cut the music.

The girls also stop dancing and sigh with exhaustion. Bridgette is limp and smiling with relief. Sarah's hands are on her hips and Danielle is bent over, panting. Hannah wipes sweat away from her forehead. Katrina also takes a moment to dab at her face with a towel.

Katrina: You guys have the basic move set for this dance down, or...

She glances over at Jade sternly.

Katrina: ...most of you do...

Jade cringes.

Katrina tosses the towel toward some male employee and moves on.

Katrina: So now we're going to work on blocking. Look at your shirts.

Amber and Ingrid are looking down at their audition shirts.

Katrina: There are two different shades of green and two different styles, which gives them a little bit of variety, but the point is that it makes it easy to block a big group of you when we're short on time. Right now I want you to line up on your usual order but with the girls wearing the kelly green in the back and the girls wearing the spring green in the front. Make sure you're staggered, so everyone can be seen.

The girls look around at each other.

Katrina: Take note of who's beside you when you're in this position.

Jade is on the far back left of the group and Amber is on the far front right. The rest of the girls are arranged in two lines between them.

Katrina stands with her arms crossed, giving orders.

Katrina: Now, without looking backward, use a four-count to switch so that the kelly green is in front. One, two, three, four.

The girls change positions while she counts.

Katrina: See, we just changed up our blocking and I didn't have to position each one of you individually.

The girls with the darker-toned shirts are in the front now.

Katrina: This is a little harder, but try switching so that the tanks are in front and the tees are in back.

The girls shift positions again, but Jade and Bridgette accidentally bump into each other.

Jade: Ah, sorry.

Jade: [Even though they're letting us move around now, I'm still always on the opposite side from Amber.]

Jade can see Amber on the other end, but several girls are in the way.

Jade: [How am I supposed to talk to her like this?]

Transcript for Chapter 15B

Katrina continues to stand with her hands on her hips and give orders to the Bouquet audition contestants.

Katrina: Let's count it out from the beginning in this formation and see how it goes. And one, two, three, four!

The girls begin to dance again. Bridgette and Sarah, in the front, are sweating it but they're keeping up. Jade's in the back, just sweating it. She grimaces and looks over at Amber, who's dancing seriously down at the other end. Jade keeps dancing, but her mind is on the precarious situation she's in.

Jade: [This is a disaster. Amber's not smiling, I'm flailing...]

She looks over at the camera that's filming her from a couple of feet away. She's looking pretty salty at the moment.

Jade: [...and this freaking camera is in my grill recording every second of it. I hope Harrison's enjoying this.]

Jade looks right at the camera, frowning and thinking.

Jade: [Are you enjoying this, Harrison? Are you having fun up there in your office, wearing your Armani suit and drinking your gourmet cappuccino, deciding whose dreams you're going to crush?]

She's still dancing, but her face has transformed into an evil death-glare.

Jade: [Makes me wanna pull your tie tighter and tighter until your face starts to-]

The scene cuts over to Harrison's office, where he's watching Jade on a monitor. It's the exact same image of her from before, with the evil death-glare. Harrison doesn't know what she's thinking, but he's perturbed by the look on her face. However, contrary to Jade's mental image of him, Harrison is actually dressed for comfort. He's wearing a Culture Club t-shirt and drinking regular coffee from a paper to-go cup. He's got several monitors set up on his desk, pairs of which are vertically mounted on monitor trees.

Justice (off-screen): Hey, Dad.

Justice enters the office holding another computer monitor. Unlike Harrison, he's dressed for work in a button-up, collared shirt.

Justice: I got the monitor you wanted.

Harrison waves him over from behind all his other monitors.

Harrison: Good, bring it over.

Justice sets the monitor up on Harrison's desk, but he's kind of glancing over at the other monitors at the same time. Harrison's watching several different angles of the auditioners performing.

Justice: So, how's Jade doing?

Harrison: She can't stop thinking about the cameras long enough to relax.

Justice smiles.

Justice: But she'll get better, right? Once she gets used to them?

Harrison gazes at a monitor with his chin resting on his fist, unconcerned.

Harrison: Don't know.

Justice waits a moment. When Harrison doesn't say anything else, Justice looks away, bitter.

Justice: You don't care if she gets better or not, do you?

Harrison: Of course I care. I don't want her to break my concert.

Justice is confused and frustrated. He turns around and sits backward on the edge of Harrison's desk.

Justice: I still can't figure out why you really passed her.

Harrison: Twins are a good red herring this year.

Surprised, Justice stares at him.

Justice: That's it? You know you're going to make the whole planet hate you.

Harrison: That's fine, they'll still buy concert tickets.

Justice sits there annoyed. But after a while his curiosity starts to get the better of him. He begins to speak without looking directly at his father.

Justice: So, who do you like best? I mean...

He finally looks back at Harrison.

Justice: If you had to pick two winners today, who would they be?

Transcript for Chapter 15C

Harrison looks seriously at Justice.

Harrison: There's no way I'm going to answer that question, but I will tell you which three I'm looking at the hardest. Sarah Todd, Alexis Ritterbach, and Robyn Lewis.

Justice gazes with only a little interest at the three girls, who are shown on various TV monitors as they dance.

Justice: The Darling, The Baby, and The Pro.

Harrison is mildly surprised.

Harrison: Right. Very good.

Justice looks back over his shoulder at Harrison.

Justice: And is Jade even on your radar? Where is she in your rankings? Is she at the bottom, or...?

Harrison holds his coffee in preparation to take a drink.

Harrison: She's ninth.

Justice is looking at the monitors when his dad answers, and he's caught off-guard that it's not as bad as he suspected it might be.

Justice: Ninth? Really? Then who's tenth?

Suddenly afraid, he whips around to look at Harrison.

Justice: Oh, man, it's not Amber, is it?

Harrison just smiles at him, kind of warmly. Justice narrows his eyes, suspicious.

Justice: What is it?

Harrison: I've never seen you so invested in an audition.

He puts his elbows on his desk, folds his hands, and gazes toward the monitors.

Harrison: Feels like sixteen years of parenting finally paying off.

Justice is still watching him, frowning. Finally, he asks the question that's really on his mind.

Justice: What would it take for Jade to be first?

Harrison: In the next two days, she would have to convince me that she's a completely different person than the one I think she is.

We cut to Jade in the dance room with the other girls. She's in her usual position on the very end. She and the other girls are in the middle of a dance and are all in similar poses with their hands up near their faces. But while the other girls are smiling, Jade is glaring toward Amber, all grumpy.

Jade: [Okay, that's it. We've been dancing all morning and I still haven't gotten close enough to talk to Amber.]

She notices that Katrina is pulling Amy away from the group for some extra help. Amy seems intimidated by Katrina.

Katrina: Here, Amy, let me show you.

Jade's eyes are narrowed, devious and calculating.

Jade: [If they're not going to let it happen, then I'm going to have to make it happen.]

Jade makes her move, dancing leftward behind Sarah.

Katrina is still busy. She's holding Amy's arm out in front of her, with one hand gently bending her elbow.

Katrina: Keep your elbows soft.

Amy: Okay.

Jade takes the opportunity to slip behind Danielle. When she passes Danielle and might be in the line of sight of Katrina or the cameras, she pauses long enough to pose along with the rest of the group. Then, continuing to move left, she dances her way behind the other girls. When she passes Hannah she poses again. Then she passes Lexie and poses again. Finally she ends up right next to Amber, who is too busy dancing to see her.

Jade: Psst--Amber.

Amber turns in response to the voice. Jade is just behind her wearing a mild expression. She waves a little and Amber recoils in shock.

Amber: Jade! Why are you over here?

Transcript for Chapter 15D

Jade and Amber continue to dance while they talk.

Jade: I have to talk to you about what happened last night.

Amber looks back over her shoulder while dancing. She's surprised.

Amber: I don't want to talk about that right now. I'm trying to dance.

Jade: I know, but I don't want you to go through the whole audition still mad at me.

Amber faces forward again. She looks huffy.

Amber: I'm not mad.

Jade: Yeah, right. You're obviously still mad.

Jade looks thoughtful, perhaps a bit regretful.

Jade: I'd be mad if I were you.

Amber lifts her chin in a haughty way.

Amber: That's because you like to be mad. Now go away before you get us in trouble.

Jade leans forward, determined and annoyed.

Jade: No. I'm not going away until you forgive me.

Amber glances back over her shoulder.

Amber: Fine, I forgive you.

Jade: You do not forgive me. You're still all grudgy.

Amber blushes and gets a little louder.

Amber: I said I forgive you! Now please go back to your side!

Jade jabs an accusing finger at Amber's angry face.

Jade: That is not forgiveness!

Jade: If you forgave me you'd be like, "Ooh, Jade, can you believe were at the Bouquet auditions? Did you see my hair? Did you see my t-shirt? Isn't it awesome? Aren't we having so much-"

Amber whirls on Jade and shouts.

Amber: Jade! Can't you see I'm trying to work?

Katrina's voice cuts in from off-screen.

Katrina: Stop the music.

Surprised, Amber and Jade both whip around to look at Katrina. Katrina addresses them both with a mild expression.

Katrina: Girls. Come up here.

The twins approach Katrina warily. Behind them, other girls are looking on at the scene and a cameraman is filming it.

Amber and Jade stand in front of Katrina. She whirls her finger around in a circle.

Katrina: Turn around.

They obey. From above we see that the rest of the girls are watching them and most of the cameras are trained on them. Then Katrina leans over and puts her head right between the girls' heads, and we see the three of them in profile. Jade is in the foreground and she's glancing away from Katrina, kind of bummed. Amber is on the other side of Katrina and she's looking toward the ceiling with wide eyes and a fearful expression. Both girls are sweating. Katrina means business.

Katrina: You want to fight with each other during my dance practice?

Both girls start talking at once. Amber looks horrified at the thought that Katrina thinks she would deliberately ruin anything. Jade's response is totally different; she's disgusted and dismissive.

Amber: I'm really sorry. I wasn't trying to cause trouble but-

Jade: Oh, please, you think that was a fight? You should have been there that time we-

Katrina: Quiet.

The girls fall silent.

Katrina's hands are on her hips as she lectures the girls.

Katrina: Listen. Not every member of Bouquet gets along with every other member of Bouquet. But if they fought every time one of them got offended, there would never be a performance. They learn early on that their commitment to excellence, or lack of commitment, affects every other member of the group.

Katrina puts a hand on Amber's shoulder and the other hand on Jade's shoulder; the girls are surprised by the contact and they start.

Katrina: I think it's time you learned the same lesson.

Intense, Katrina looks out at the other girls. Amber and Jade stand on either side of her, concerned.

Katrina: All ten of you.

The rest of the girls, sweaty from dancing and fear, grimace or frown.