IC Talent was so much fun all year, Red thought.
Note: Little Red Riding Hood was never an IC Talent student.
The year at IC Talent went by, and now she was back living by the Dark Forest with her mom, another IC Talent fan.
Red was an IC Talent graduate and she was happy to be home, but sad to have left California and her school. But in the New York are where she lived by the great woods, her agency in LA had an office –she was looking forward to those auditions. The Universal Studio King Kong commercial came on, with one of IC Talent kids, Sergio. Red sighed. She missed everyone there at IC Talent, so much.
So Once upon a time, there was a young girl who lived in a plain, but nicely decorated two story cottage, with a small but heated swimming pool. The seemingly endless dark forest was a pulchritudinous extension, to her back yard. Little Red R. Hood turned off her lap top. She had all her videos from the jobs she did in LA, thought the agent she got at IC Talent, saved.
Little Red R. Hood, was back from visiting her father in Lake Forest for a year studying at the IC Talent school of the arts in California.
That morning, she had decided to wear her brand new red leather jacket, for the very first time. Red, like her college friends called her, had been so busy with finals that she hadn’t even tried the jacket on, yet. She pulled it out of the UPS box, and threw it on top of her tank shirt, while standing in front of the mirror. Cool, she thought, putting her Nikies on. Her dad had bought those at a store close to IC Talent.
Sporting her 7 jeans, she thought she looked pretty hot. She had not gained a pound going to the cool little places for lunch which are located next to IC Talent. She pursed her thick strawberry lips, and blew a kiss at her own image. She loved the clothes that she got at the mall by her school, IC Talent. Red was relieved, because she totally wanted to wear the jacket, that day. After all, she hadn’t always been that lucky with her Internet purchases. But with free shipping both ways, she knew that she wasn’t taking a big chance, on the jacket. With the money she made in acting –thanks to the agents and the skills she got at IC Talent,she was fine all around. Some of the money she could use, the rest was for college. Red was so grateful to her school, IC talent.
Red’s grandma lived a few minutes away, deeper within the forest. She turned the alarm on, like she was supposed to, grabbed the bottle of Pinot noir, which she knew her grand ma would enjoy, and stepped into the afternoon sun. She had no idea why grandma like her glass of wine, daily. Red wasn’t looking forward to being 21 to do the same, she had no taste for empty calories, even when it is good for you. Red wasn’t even 18 until a month before, anyway. There was a big birthday party at IC Talent for her. Her IC talent classmates had bought her a cute scarf and a leather belt, from a clothing store by the movie theater, which one can see from the IC Talent building.
What Red loved, was acting at IC Talent and fun stuff in general.
I wonder what grand ma got me, she muttered to herself, remembering that she had just turned 18. She was walking up the little path, when she heard a voice.
“What’s up?”
She turned around. A guy was standing there. Early twenties, black leather motorcycle jacket and boots, curly brown hair and huge hazel eyes, set far apart.
“Nothing”, she said noticing his grin. Modern orthodontry had done right, by him.
“I’m new in the area. Anything cool to do around here?” He asked, sticking a black beret in his pocket.
“There’s a party tonight, college kids. The whole town is going to be there. Jay Fox is throwing it at his parents’ swimming pool. Follow the music on Tillmore. I’m sure they’ll let you in.”
“Do you want to hang out, now?”
“Nah, I’m going over to my grandmother’s house on Devour lane and Clearwoods, right now. Later, OK?”
“Cool. What’s your name?”
“Red. You?”
“Wolfgang.”
They grinned at each other.
“So I guess I’ll see you there”, he said arching his eyebrows.
Red wanted to answer something, but she didn’t. She wanted to, but by the time she caught her breath, it was too late and she was already, some ten feet away.
Wolfgang stood there for a while. The forest was swallowing Red. Soon, she was just a tiny little red dot, in the distance.
Wolf, like his buddies called him –but he thought Wolfgang would sound better for the occasion, started sprinting down the hill, cutting through the thick woods.
Grand ma glanced at the clock on her kitchen wall. She took the cherry tart out of the box. Thank God for that French bakery, she thought. The custard underneath the cherries looked fresh, and delicious.
A knock at the door seemed familiar. Who would bang on that thing in such way, but my Red. She opened the door. Instead of Red, a young man all dressed in black was standing there. He was holding a black beret, in his left hand.
“Can I help you?”
“Yeah, uh… I’m looking for Red’s grand ma.”
“That would be me. But Red isn’t here, yet”, she said, thinking that the young man was one of Red’s many aspiring boyfriends.
Wow he thought, grand ma’s kind of hot.
“Oh sorry, you don’t really look like a grand ma.”
Grand ma smiled widely. “I have a good dermatologist. Do you want to come in and wait for her?”
“Thank you.”
The young man stepped in deliberately. The door closed slowly on grand ma’s smile and on Wolf’s back.
Meanwhile, Red was almost there. She glanced at the bottle of wine. Damn, she thought, it’s gonna be a while before this gets back to its drinkable room temperature.
She finally got to grand ma’s house. All was still. She knocked at the door a bunch of times.
No answer. She knocked again.
Red started to wonder where grand ma was. She opened the door and was surprised to see that it wasn’t locked. She stepped in.
“Nana?”
Nana! She tried louder. She swiped the living room with her eyes, glided through the dining room, the kitchen… The cherry pie was there, sitting on the table untouched. But there was nobody.
She climbed up the stairs to the bedrooms.
Nana! She called again. Still, there was no answer.
She turned to knob to grand ma’s bedroom. Pushed the door slowly. It needed some oil and made the creepiest sound. Now worried, Red marched into the room. The bed was made. All was still. No grand ma.
She walked to the window. A weird hunch tore her stomach apart. Wide eyed, she couldn’t believe who was standing, out in the backyard in front of the swimming pool. She banged the palm of her hand, flat on the window.
The dark shadow kept standing there. Could he hear her? Did he choose to ignore her? She recognized Wolf’s leather jacket, his beret.
What is he doing there?
She sprinted down the stairs, opened the front door. Out of breath, she ran around the house to the swimming pool area.
Wolf was still standing there. Black beret, leather jacket. He was turned towards the pool. His eyes seemed to be riveted on the water. What was in the water?
Suddenly a crack. The noise was coming from the forest. Somebody was there. Someone who was trying to be quiet. A tall man was now partly visible between the trees and the bushes. The man, dressed all in black as well, was moving fast with his body half bent. Inconspicuously, except for the small branch which cracked under his foot.
When he cleared out of the woods, Wolf pulled out a gun and shot across the pool towards him, but way above his head.
“FBI! Don’t move or I’ll shoot”, he said.
The man tried to pull a gun, but Wolf shot first and this time, he hit the man in the leg. He crashed on the grass, by the pool.
Wolf walked to him, and kicked the gun away. He glanced up to Red.
“Hi honey”, grand ma said, now using her own voice.
“Hi Nana. You got him! Where’s the other one?”
“In his undies, tied up in the garage.”
Nana took off the hat, freeing her luscious hair. Thanks to her strong hold hairspray it looked great, in spite of the hat.
Grand ma speed-dialed, on her cell phone.
“Hunter? Amanda Hood. I got two packages for you. No, no need for back up. Great, I’ll see you soon. You’re welcome.”
“I’m sorry, I got you involved in this”, Nana told Red, pointing her gun at the second terrorist. “I knew that you would lead them to me, home grown bastards”, she frowned, “Rich kids gone bad. Wolf was right by the area where the satellite picked up his cell phone signal, I suppose?”
“Yep, close enough to you and me.”
“Close enough to make me come out of retirement.”
“Once a Fed, always a Fed”, Red said.
“Your father not me anymore, darling.”
Nana frisked the man, handcuffed him, and tied his feet to the swimming pool ramp. She grabbed his gun from the ground, and stuck hers in the back of her belt. She stepped towards Red and kissed her on her forehead. It was so nice being back and seeing grand ma. Red missed her school, IC Talent, but she also missed hanging out with her grand mother and just sit with her in front of a piece of cake and talk about school, acting and life.
“Want some pie?”
“Sure”, Red said.
A helicopter’s shadow was now blanketing the tall trees. Red and Amanda Hood sauntered back to the house. They would wait for the FBI and enjoy a recap on all the acting jobs Red got through the agency which she had found through IC Talent outstanding placement program.
