Show Business (7)

"You fit the role perfectly," the director admired the effort both Ben and Alice put in this morning.

"Shouldn't Rapunzel have poorer clothing since she's held captive in a castle," I wanted more comfortable clothing.

"No, the way you are is perfect. You'll get more of the audience's attention this way," he quickly threw out my concerns.

My original clothes I wore let me blend into the crowd. I thought this place was supposed to be dangerous, where it would be better to be unnoticed. Everyone stared at me from my flashy appearance as I secretly blamed Ben who didn't stop Alice. I wondered how everyone in the first district almost had the same hobbies.

"She's like a doll," an actress whispered.

"Isn't she a living doll?" an actor refuted.

"To think her clothes would make this much of a difference," an artist stared at me.

"Isn't rehearsal starting soon?" I warned them to stop staring.

"Rika is right, everyone should be in their positions," the director yelled at them.

I smiled as I took my place in the tower again. I barely had any lines in the play when this character had the play named after her. All I had to do was to wait for my prince to come and scream how much I longed for his visits. The main story was around the prince's struggle in how he tried to rescue the princess.

Around twenty cameras flew in the air, trying to capture every angle whenever it was my turn to speak. I didn't think how boring it would be to always stand inside the tower. My legs were starting to ache since there was no chair here. And I couldn't do anything to distract myself since the tower was always in the line of sight even when I wasn't doing anything to contribute to the story.

"It's time for a break!" The director finally yelled.

I sighed in relief as I walked down the long set of stairs. Grabbing a lunch box handed to me, I was about to take a bite until Ben took it away from me. When I shot him an annoyed glance, I noticed he wasn't eating the food as well. In fact, only I had gotten a lunch box while everyone else ate sandwiches. Why was I getting special treatment?

"A princess like you can't eat this," an actor teased me.

"I bought this for you," an artist heavily blushed.

Ben shook his head to disapprove as he passed me a sandwich. But the sandwich didn't even look good, the sauce dripping into my hands. I decided I would fill myself up at his apartment again since I was used to binge eating. I was glad I ate a lot of salad for breakfast, which would help me in missing a meal. I wondered why they were eating such disgusting food when they had robots to cook them perfect meals.

Going back into the tower once the break was over, I noticed a blind spot in the twenty cameras dedicated to filming me. This would be the perfect chance to go over the contract they offered me with all the employee benefits and work environment guidelines. My eyes widened when I noticed they only filmed and practiced for eight hours per day. This meant I would be free to go to Ben's apartment soon.

They got vacation packages to go to famous hotels and other districts. Healthcare was all covered as well as education expenses for their children. Meanwhile the pay was high with the potential to earn one quarter of a million Aris per year. How could they afford all of this? It didn't appear they were a famous group since they only used one set to film the play. If this wasn't a dangerous place, I would want to work here in the future with all their amazing terms.

"Everyone can leave for the day now!" The director oddly only had two rehearsals today.

Once I left the tower, I noticed the cameras that continued to film me. When I looked around if anyone else was being filmed, all of the cameras inside the room was trying to hide that they were focusing on me. I shuddered as I finally discovered something strange about this place.

"This place is an amazing place," I pretended to be impressed with the contract in my hands.

"As soon as you sign, we can give you the bank account to access your pay," a worker behind the scenes informed me.

"I'll talk to my guardian," I ran to Ben.

"Let's talk in the hover car," he noticed everyone trying to listen to our conversation, the room completely silent.

"They made it so obvious," I found them to be bad actors.

"We'll talk in the apartment," Ben couldn't trust the car.

Entering the apartment, I turned to Ben to tell him about what I noticed. They have cleverly hidden the only suspicious thing about the stage since it naturally blended into the scene. Flopping onto the bean chair, I shared, "all the cameras are filming me. Even when it's not my turn, they all focus in my direction."

"I also noticed the same thing. I managed to extract the spell on the cameras," Alice joined us.

"They're criminals. This almost solves everything that has been going behind this theatre group and their success," her face scrunched in disgust.

"What did you find?" I was curious why they were filming me.