Basketball referee

The moment he woke up, Eric's head felt as heavy as a mountain. He shook it a few times to get rid of the feeling, and once he had taken note of his surroundings, he smiled as he sat up. It was already past nine in the morning.

This was the Williams' residence second floor bedroom, the blazing summer sun rays were streaming unhindered through the south balcony's French doors. It was already August and you could feel Los Angeles' warmth way before noon.

It's been half a month since his rebirth, and Eric had been busy with all sorts of things. He hadn't even had the time to act as a tourist before jumping into the Hollywood circle.

He laid back down and looked around him.

The bedroom was large, more than thirty square meters. Even if you included his bed, wardrobe, desk and some random antiques, it still felt empty.

Ralph had wanted to divide it into two separate rooms but refrained since only their father and son duo lived there. Until death, he had never made an attempt to remarry either.

Eric wondered if all drinking addicts were the same, burdened by similar heartrending pasts.

When he got down from the second floor, it took him half an hour to tidy up the mess in the living room left behind by yesterday's party, and after taking his breakfast, he drove out.

He spent several hours visiting music shops and finally settled on a Strauss piano. He left behind his address to get it delivered, and purchased a thick stack of books on music arrangement from the bookstore nearby.

It wasn't done on a whim or because Eric wanted to become a singer, it was to prepare for future movies' soundtracks. He had so many classic movies in mind, and if he wanted to replicate them to perfection, he couldn't neglect that point. He had to at least understand arrangements to some degree or he'd be turned into a laughing stock by those music professionals.

Hollywood was different from China. In China, directors would often just find a musician, listen to his works, and if they liked something, they'd shake hands and be done with it.

But in Hollywood, original soundtracks were an integral part of movies. Let's not even mention background music, just the theme songs were enough to become classics. Like "Unchained Melody" from Ghost, "New Divide" from Transformers, "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic, "Young and Beautiful" from The Great Gatsby, "Let it Go" from Frozen, as well as Juno's entire album.

Carrying his new found books home, delivery men soon came and the piano was set up in the study at the west side part of the living room. Well, although it was called a study there wasn't a single bookshelf there, just a large desk and other miscellaneous stuff. It used to be Ralph's, and he never had a reading habit, so all of Eric's books were in his room upstairs.

After the piano was in place, he had to tune it. As Eric sat on the bench and placed his fingers on the keys, the delivery men didn't try to hide the ridicule in their eyes. He ignored them and started playing "Happy Birthday". After playing for a while, he glanced at the amazed delivery men and their necks stiffened. Even in his past life, Eric's piano skills could be considered good.

As a revenge for their contempt, he cut their tips by half. The several delivery men didn't notice that as the tall white one muttered to himself once they were in the car: "Strauss, ah, Strauss ! That's worth at least 20,000 US dollars…". The tone of his voice was as heartbreaking as a woman learning about her grandfather's death the eve of her marriage. If Eric had heard it, he would've probably felt ashamed at his earlier gesture. Luckily though, he hadn't.

...

"Audition ? What audition ?" Eric asked in puzzlement: "Penny, hasn't my role already been decided ?"

For a few days Eric studied music everyday and practiced basketball. Three days after he had gotten used to this routine, he received a phone call from Penny Marshall.

"Of course, Eric. What I meant was for you to be present during the auditions of other roles. After all, you're the writer, you could offer some advice, right ?"

Eric knew he would only be able to give his opinion and that the final decision wouldn't be his, but he still readily agreed to Penny's offer, this was a good way to earn some experience.

Driving to the FOX's studios, he saw Penny and James. The casting was a really important part after all, of course the director and producer had to be present. There were also several other staff members, but Eric was the youngest.

It was still a good ten minutes before the beginning of the auditions, so Penny Marshall took the initiative to chat with Eric about some 17 Again matters.

"With BIG's success, the Twentieth Century Fox has high hopes for this movie, they've given us a budget of 20 million US dollars. They'd like to release it by Thanksgiving, so we have two weeks to make all our necessary preparations and finish the filming before the end of the school holidays."

Eric thanked the staff member who gave him the list of auditioning actors, then said to Penny: "If everything goes smoothly, three months should be enough to wrap everything up, the movie has barely any CG, so it shouldn't take that long."

Penny Marshall nodded: "Indeed, but we also need to set aside some time to promote the movie."

"Right, Penny, for which roles are they auditioning today ?" Eric asked.

"We've invited Dan Aykroyd and Susan Sarandon for the adults Mike & Scarlett O'Donnell, and James recommended a friend for the role of Ned. Today it's mainly about Mike's children, as well as a number of other teenagers, so I think we should let you take a look."

Although Eric already knew the final decision wouldn't be his, when he heard that most of the actors had already been decided, he was somewhat depressed. Fortunately Penny told him that they kept Eric's description of the characters in mind when they chose them. As for Ned's role, James Brooks wouldn't joke around with a 20 million dollars project, so the actor he settled on shouldn't be too shabby.

Eric still felt a bit stifled and unwilling as he secretly vowed that he wouldn't let that happen again in the future. Being marginalized left him with a bad aftertaste.

He wasn't in the mood to keep chatting with Penny, but the latter didn't seem to notice his gloomy expression as she went towards James to discuss something in a low voice.

The auditions began, and after 7 or 8 people, Eric finally met someone he was familiar with: Brad Pitt. And he was even auditioning for the role of Alex.

Alex's original appearance was that of a weak and feeble guy, and Eric remembered thinking how it was hard to believe that someone like him could suddenly mysteriously shine on the court.

He reckoned that the only reason they chose a skinny boy instead of a tall and handsome male, was because they were worried that Zac Efron would be outshined with his 1m75 stature, as it was somewhat short for a caucasian male.

Brad Pitt was 25 years old right now but he could pass as a high-school student without problem. Eric pictured his tall and strong stature getting bullied, then owning everyone on the basketball court; it was at least less far-fetched than the original. Besides, Eric was convinced that his performance would not be outshined by Brad Pitt.

When the latter would become famous, people would still talk about how he played Eric Williams' son, how awesome was that ?

While his lips curled into a smile, he studied the remaining list and tried to spot celebrities from his previous life.

He looked through the list which contained more than a dozen actresses' personal informations as he stopped at the first name on the list, and his chin almost fell off: Angelina Jolie. Ah, it looks like the whole family is in attendance today!

He remembered that Jolie should have just graduated from a performing arts school, and that she would start her modeling career next year, he had no idea what she was doing on Maggie's auditions' list.

Caucasian women mature very early, and Jolie's profile picture was that of a thirteen-year-old slim blonde-haired girl with iconic lips, who exuded a type of wild aura. Eric wasn't really looking forward to her performance as she was seriously too young, she probably only got to audition thanks to her father, Jon Voight.

While he kept searching, Eric found a very interesting girl.

"Hey, Penny," Eric turned around and asked: "What's up with Drew Barrymore ? You know, after how she's been behaving for the past couple of years… I don't think she's really suitable for a campus comedy ?"

Penny Marshall smiled helplessly: "Steven recommended her. That other woman shamelessly kept begging him so many times that he was tired of it, so in the end he recommended Drew. He also implied that we don't have to take his recommendation into account when she auditions."

"Steven Spielberg ?"

Penny Marshall nodded: "Yeah, he is Drew's godfather."

Eric sighed, the woman Penny mentioned with an undisguised tone of disgust should be Drew Barrymore's greedy mother. In those short few seconds of conversation, Eric was able to get a better understanding of Hollywood. It wasn't anything like how the media or people had described it in his past life; fair and transparent. Here, it was all about connections.

Penny Marshall patted Eric's shoulder and said: "Alright, Eric let's start."

Eric had the list of the line up in hand as he waited for the auditions to start.

He initially thought he would just sit down and provide additional comments, eventually even ask some symbolical questions, he didn't expect that when the first actor came in, Penny would face him with a smile and say: "Eric, you go and perform this scene with Mr. Wolfson."

Eric shrugged, glanced at the script, and stepped forward.

...

Once the fifth actor was out of the audition room, Eric sat back in his seat and jokingly complained: "Penny, when you called me to be a referee, I didn't think it would be on the basketball court."

"Ha, nice analogy! Alright don't be mad Eric, it was James' idea. He kept whining about how I canceled your acting classes, and so he thought of this method to make you practice your acting skills."

Eric pretended to be angry as he stared at James Brooks and said: "Why didn't you tell me about it ?"

"Don't you know now ?" Penny Marshall asked with a smile.

"… Whatever." Eric was left speechless.