Page 30 of Wish You Were Her
“I’ve been watching everything you’ve ever done since hearing about your arrival in town,” Vivienne said and Allegra watched her tall son flinch at her words. He probably thought so little of Allegra, imagining that she would hold disdain for his mother and her enthusiastic fawning. Whatever version of Allegra that existed in his head, it was someone she probably did not want to be.
“Did you watch the terrible sci-fi I did right afterA Little Princess?” Allegra asked in her most self-deprecating voice. “I thought I had managed to get all copies destroyed.”
Vivienne laughed a little too loudly, as did a few other people in close proximity. When you were famous, every public meal, every party and every conversation would have a little bubble of people around it, all listening in and waiting for their chance to jump in.
“Jonah, isn’t she just a delight?” Vivienne asked, hauling her son to stand next to her.
Allegra looked up and his dark eyes were staring down at her. A deeply uncomfortable pause fell between the two of them and Allegra could not stand it.
“I haven’t quite mastered Jonah’s system of bookselling yet, Vivienne,” she said, forcing her tone to be light and playful. “So, I don’t think I’m his favorite person.”
She wondered why a part of her secretly wanted him to agree with his mother’s assessment.
But as Jonah opened his mouth to say something, Simon suddenly clapped his hands and the bustling room fell silent.
“All right, players. We’re waiting on a few stragglers and then the game will begin. Does anyone not know how to play?”
Allegra hesitantly raised one hand. “I’ve got an idea but I’ve never played.”
“They don’t play games in your trailer between scenes?” Skye asked, and the girl beside her spluttered out a laugh which she quickly suppressed.
“That’s not funny,” snapped Grace Lancaster.
“I agree,” Vivienne said shortly and Allegra felt grateful for both of them.
“Okay, it’s super simple,” Simon said, maneuvering his way around people so he could reach Allegra. “I’m hosting, so I don’t play. I just moderate and narrate what’s happening. Everyone else picks a card and they don’t show anyone what they have. We have a bunch of ‘villagers’ and usually a couple of werewolves. You can have a doctor but we’ve given up on that.”
Simon began to shuffle a special deck of cards as he spoke.
“Once everyone has their part and their card, the game starts,” he went on. “We’ll have our first night phase. This iswhen I turn off the lights and the werewolves make their first kill. Everyone has to close their eyes, while the wolf or wolves pick their target. I will put the lights back up and narrate the night phase. The victim is out and the rest get to vote on who they think is a werewolf. We keep playing until everyone is caught, or the werewolves are discovered.”
“Got it,” Allegra said confidently and people made noises of appreciative anticipation.
“This is just one way to play, but it works for us,” Theo, Simon’s little brother, said with the cheerful authority of his twelve years and it made Allegra smile.
“All right, everyone find your spot in the room and I will start handing out the cards!” Simon decreed.
This charmed Allegra. She liked how social he seemed. How unapologetically keen he was to engage the whole group in a shared bit of fun.
She sat on the floor by Grace and Kerrie, and her hands felt full of electricity. The only social gatherings she had attended over the last couple of years had been wrap parties, and she had always been chaperoned. Everyone else had solidly been an adult. She had done ten-hour days on set, disappearing occasionally to be tutored. People her own age were strange, exotic creatures that she had always watched from afar.
Now she was in the scene, and very worried about getting her lines wrong.
In Lake Pristine, everyone seemed to know each other so well and age was not a factor. Simon’s mother was one of the group, as was Jonah’s. They were both chatting to Skye’s older brother, introduced earlier to Allegra as Carrick. The slightly surly but handsome cinema manager Arthur was there, too, with some of his friends. They were talking by the makeshiftbar. One was a girl with lots of piercings, and she was holding hands with Hera, the woman who ran the arcade.
A card was handed to Allegra and she covertly checked it.
Werewolf.
“Keep your cards hidden,”Simon instructed, moving over to the dimmer switches on the wall once again. “Werewolf or Werewolves, be ready to choose your first kill of the night. Everyone else. Close your eyes.”
The room fell into near darkness. “Werewolf and werewolf only, open your eyes.”
Allegra did. She found herself staring into Jonah’s eyes, as he was the only other person in the room whose head was not bowed. They glared at one another as the realization hit; they would need to work together.
“Werewolf, choose your victim,” Simon instructed, as Allegra and Jonah continued to regard each other from their opposite sides of the spacious room.
Jonah pointed to Skye but Allegra quickly shook her head. That would be far too obvious, and her siblings would extract revenge on her behalf. She pointed to Grace’s brother. Jonah considered Arthur Lancaster and then nodded, albeit a little begrudgingly. Simon silently pointed to Arthur, too, to confirm their choice.
