Action! by Carolyn Keene Page B

immediately began to pace around the cabin.Luke just stood still and glared at me. I gazed back at him, frozen. I couldn’t remember what to do. All I could think about was the camera trained on me, and all the people watching.
    Luke raised his eyebrows, waiting for me to say my line. I had remembered the line perfectly in rehearsal, but now my mind was a complete blank.
    “Cut!” Morris called. “Nancy, what’s wrong?”
    “Sorry,” I said, embarrassed. “I … I guess I forgot the line.”
    “The line is, ‘I know what you’re up to, and I want it stopped,’” called Jenny Kane, the script coordinator. She was always on set with the latest copy of the script to make sure the actors got the lines right.
    I nodded. “Okay. Thanks, Jenny.”
    “Good. Take two,” Morris called. Ben went back to his first mark—the exact place he’s supposed to be standing when the scene starts. The camera pulled back to its starting position, and everyone got ready for the next take.
    Meanwhile, I could barely breathe. What if I forgot the line again? It would be just like my dream from this morning. Everyone would make fun of me!
    “Hey, Nance,” Luke whispered. “Just ignore the camera and all that.”
    “How?” I whispered back.
    “Keep looking at me,” he said. “And keep thinkingabout how much you don’t want me to commit a crime.”
    “I’ll try” I said.
    Morris called “Action!” one more time. I took a deep breath and stared at Luke. Ben was pacing up and down behind the couch, annoyed, but Luke just glared at me with a challenging look. His expression seemed to say that he was planning his heist and there was nothing I could do to stop him. I felt a surge of anger toward him for wanting to do something so stupid, and mixed in with the anger was fear for his welfare if he got caught.
    “I know what you’re up to, and I want it stopped,” I said angrily. I turned to Ben, who was still pacing. “You two boys are going to get in over your heads!”
    “Told you we shouldn’t have let her know about it,” Ben, as Ross Rackham, growled.
    “She don’t know a thing,” Luke, as John Rackham, replied. “What are you fretting about, Esther?”
    “You’re planning a crime,” I cried. I felt indignant—did he really think I couldn’t tell when my own brothers were plotting something? “I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s against the law.”
    Luke rolled his eyes. “You’re imagining things, Sissy,” he said soothingly. “Ross and I would never go against the law.”
    I dropped my knitting needles onto my lap infrustration. “Don’t treat me like a child” I snapped. “I want you to promise me that I have nothing to worry about.”
    Ben and Luke exchanged a charged glance. “You have nothing to worry about,” Ben mumbled guiltily. Then he turned and ran out of the cabin.
    “And … cut!” Morris called. “That was terrific!”
    I blinked, surprised to hear Morris’s voice. For a few minutes there I had forgotten I was on a movie set at all! I had been completely focused on watching Luke and Ben, and on feeling what I thought Esther would be feeling. I had been able to ignore the cameras and all the people.
    “See, Nance?” Luke said. “If you pay attention to the other actors, you forget to be nervous.”
    I grinned at him. “You’re right,” I replied. “That was actually kind of fun.”
    The rest of the takes for that scene went well. Every time I started to feel nervous, I simply forced myself to watch the Alvarez brothers. They were such seasoned actors that they always seemed to know what they were doing. Even if I felt self-conscious, I just paid attention to Ben and Luke. I didn’t even try to act like Esther—I just tried to react to whatever “Ross” and “John” said and did.
    By lunchtime I was exhausted. Bess joined me at the table in the mess hall.
    “The whole set is buzzing about you,” she said. “How you’re a total pro.”
    I shook my head.