Action! by Carolyn Keene

afraid—it was too out of character. No one would think it was possible. But here I was!
    “Here’s Esther!” Degas sang out as I entered the makeup trailer. He sat me down and got to work on my hair.
    Pam came over and began making me up. “Thisafternoon’s scenes are going to be fun for me,” she said.
    “Why is that?” I asked.
    “Because we get to age you,” she explained. “It’s more fun to do that than just putting on regular makeup.”
    This afternoon we were shooting a bunch of scenes of Esther writing in her diary. Luther and Althea, the screenwriter, had convinced Morris that it was absolutely vital to include Esther’s diary in the movie. Althea had written it so that the camera would film Esther writing at different points in the story, and there would be a voiceover of what she was writing. Today we would shoot me just sitting and scribbling in the diary. Later, after all the filming was done, I would go into a sound studio and record the voiceover. Basically I would just read the script of Esther’s diary entries. Then, when the editors put the movie together, my voice would be dubbed in to the scenes of me writing in the diary. It would seem as if Esther’s thoughts were being said aloud as she wrote.
    “Esther doesn’t age too much during this movie, though, does she?” I asked Pam.
    “Well, your first diary scene will take place at the beginning of the film,” Pam said. “So we’ll make you look younger—like a girl of fourteen or fifteen. That way, the audience will realize that Esther has kept a diary for a long time.”
    “You can do that?” I asked, surprised. “Make me look younger?”
    “You’d be surprised what a little makeup can do,” Degas said. “To make you look young, we’ll make your lips look plumper and put more of a rosy glow in your cheeks. And we’ll leave your hair down so you don’t look as matronly as you do when Esther grows up.”
    I wrinkled my nose. No one had ever described me as looking
matronly
before.
    “Then, in the later diary scenes, Esther grows a bit older, so we’ll use the makeup to make your face look thinner,” Pam went on. “People are more gaunt when they’re older.”
    “And we’ll change your hair a little for every different scene,” Degas said. “And you’ll wear different costumes.”
    “We all know it’s just one day of your life sitting here and filming,” Pam put in. “But when you look different in each shot, the audience will believe that all these diary-writing scenes took place days or even years apart.”
    “It’s the magic of moviemaking!” Degas added, his eyes sparkling.
    I forced a smile. Everyone else on the set was here because they loved what they were doing. They had a great time creating a whole make-believe world thatpeople would watch and enjoy in the finished film. But I just felt sick to my stomach. Why couldn’t I get into the fun of it?
    After makeup and wardrobe, I went back to the trailer I shared with the Alvarez brothers and Harold Safer. Ben and Luke were already there. When I saw them, I had a quick memory of my bad dream. But their friendly smiles immediately put me at ease.
    “Ready for our first scene?” Ben asked. In the morning we were shooting a scene between Esther and her brothers. I was glad that the Alvarez boys would be there to ease me into the day. I was dreading the afternoon diary scenes, when I would need to be all alone in front of the camera.
    “I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I don’t feel ready for any of this.”
    “Do you want to run lines?” Luke asked helpfully.
    I shook my head. “I know the lines,” I told him. “That’s not the problem.”
    “Then what is?” he asked.
    “I’m nervous,” I said. “I don’t know how you guys do it. I always thought acting would be easy, but it’s not. Every time I think about the camera, I feel self-conscious.”
    “Just pretend you’re a little kid playing a game,” Ben suggested. “All you have to do