Work Text:
It’s totally Lisa’s idea. That’s who she’s gonna blame when all this inevitably goes south.
“Please, Nat? For me?”
Natalie groans. “Why do you want me to embarrass myself so badly? You know I can’t act for shit.”
“That’s not true! You were great in that school musical!”
“That was in seventh grade! I only had three lines!”
“And you did great with those!”
“That doesn’t mean I should go to an open casting call for a Disney show. Don’t you think I’m kind of too old for that sort of thing anyway?”
“You’d get to meet Lottie Matthews if you make it to the screen tests!”
“Who?” she asks, even though she knows who Lottie Matthews is. Everyone knows. She’s kind of everywhere.
If she was lame enough to have a favorite Disney Channel star, it would probably be Lottie Matthews. Not that Nat is a huge Disney fan or anything, but having a little sister that’s obsessed with all those stupid D-coms means she watches a lot of them, and Lottie Matthews always comes across like the most normal out of all the kids in those stupid behind the scenes features. She’s not over the top and annoying, she’s a pretty okay actor, and she doesn’t constantly smile like Mickey Mouse himself is pointing a gun at her from behind the camera. If she had to hang out with any of the Disney Channel stars, she’d want it to be Lottie. Which is a dumb fucking thing to even think, because she’s obviously not going to ever meet any of them, but maybe that’s the only reason she doesn’t immediately put an end to Lisa’s crazy pipe dream audition plan.
It’s obviously still a terrible idea.
“You know her Dad always brought her to set and that’s how she discovered her love for acting! Her first role was the little sister on that show about the step brothers who make a bet about going to space. You said she was kinda funny when we watched that princess movie she was in!"
The enthusiasm eleven-year-olds have for celebrity trivia will never cease to amaze her.
“Did I? Can’t remember.”
“Nat!!! Please?”
Natalie sighs in the most over-the-top way, which is exactly the kind of acting chops she’d need for a Disney show, so maybe she’s just a natural. “Why do you want me to do this again?”
“Because! You’d be good at it!”
That’s a total lie, and they both know it.
“You can’t come to the audition, by the way.” Lisa’s face falls. “If they even let me try out, that is. If you’re only doing this to maybe meet Lottie Matthews, just tell me now and we can stop this madness.”
Lisa shakes her head in that earnest, childlike way of hers. “You’ll totally blow them away, and then I can tell all of my friends my sister is on a Disney Channel show with Lottie Matthews!”
The shit she’s willing to do to make her little sister happy knows no bounds. Nat knows there’s no way Lisa will ever shut up about this if she doesn’t, so she signs up for the stupid casting call and figures now they can just forget about all of it.
——
It’s easy enough to forget about the whole thing because it’s not like she wants to get the part.
Look, she’s not gonna lie; She’s not exactly shocked when she gets selected to come in and audition. Obviously, at just shy of eighteen, she’s in the right age bracket the casting call listed, and she knows she’s not exactly ugly, and most importantly, Disney Channel acting isn’t all that hard. She totally nails the first two auditions, as far as she can tell. They have her read some generic lines that honestly sound fucking stupid and over the top, but they’re easy enough to say convincingly. Maybe her thrilling run as Tree #2 in the seventh-grade spring musical really did prepare her for stardom.
Honestly, from what she can tell just looking around the waiting room at the casting agents’ office, she’s also kind of the only person who doesn’t want to be a Disney starlet. Everyone else is all dressed to the nines and doing fucking vocal warm-ups as their pushy mothers feed them lines, and Nat’s kinda never been more grateful to her mom for being a workaholic with a mild drinking problem. At least that made her turn out kind of normal.
She’s never, ever telling Lisa that the whole thing is actually fun. She doesn’t need her to be gloating.
The final screen test is at Disney Studios in Burbank, and the paperwork said she should bring someone. They probably meant, like, a parent or a guardian, and not her annoying little sister, but it is what it is. It’s Saturday, and she didn’t want to leave Lisa at home by herself, and the scream she let out when she asked her if she wants to come meet Lottie Matthews was so loud, Nat’s pretty sure the entire fucking block must have heard it.
She’s totally the best sister ever.
Lottie Matthews is prettier in person than she is on TV, if that’s even humanly possible. She’s taller than Nat by a mile — something she already knew in theory since Lisa spent the whole drive over here reciting Lottie Matthews trivia — and there’s this genuine, simple smile on her face when she greets them and asks about the drive over here.
Lisa is literally clinging to Nat’s arm, has apparently suddenly realized meeting your idols is nerve-wracking, and Nat just pats her on the head and stands there making small talk with Disney Channel starlet Lottie Matthews. It’s kind of wild.
“You must be exhausted,” Nat tells her, leaving Lisa to stand off to the side with one of the assistants while she sits down next to Lottie. “How many of us are you meeting today? There must be what, ten or fifteen?”
Lottie laughs. “Just three, actually. You’re the last one!”
Oh shit, does that mean she might actually get this gig? Nat doesn’t even know if she wants it, so that’s confusing to think about.
“Is that your little sister?” Lottie asks, pointing over at Lisa, who’s still being entertained by some production assistant, a juice box in hand, clearly living her best Disney life.
Nat nods. “Pretty sure she was thrilled this thing got scheduled for a Saturday when our mom is working so she got to tag along. She’s, like, obsessed with you.”
Lottie giggles and waves at Lisa, which makes Lisa blush. Nat has never seen her this quiet and smitten, and it’s actually super cute. She’s usually more of a loud kid.
“I’m Lottie, by the way,” she says, as if she needs any introduction. “You must be Natalie.”
“Should I be flattered you learned my name or do they make you do that stuff to make it feel more personal?”
“Um. I mean, they don’t make me do it, I just think it’d be rude not to know who I’ll be running lines with. I’ve seen your audition tape, by the way. You’re really good.”
(She’s not blushing, okay? It’s not like she’s a celebrity-obsessed loser, but Lottie’s charming as hell, and having her compliment her feels kinda good.)
Nat snorts out a laugh and says, “There’s no fucking way you actually think that.”
That makes Lottie laugh for real, none of the polite fake stuff from earlier, and she’s brushing her hair behind her ear when she asks, “Did they not tell you that Disney Channel actors don’t really get to curse?”
Shit, that’s probably true and not really something she’s thought much about.
“Thank god no one heard me then, huh? Can’t miss out on my big break.”
“You joke, but this is gonna be huge. You do know what you’re potentially signing yourself up for, right?”
“So is the whole public casting call shit for real? Or are they only doing this to run a highlight reel of it on YouTube and cast that girl who played your nemesis in that princess movie?”
(What? She has a little sister. She’s watched a lot of Disney Channel against her will. She knows how this stuff usually goes.)
Lottie is laughing again, seems totally relaxed around her, and Nat’s gonna assume that must count in her favor here. “I mean, they could still cast Mari for this, but she’s kind of a bitch. I’d rather work with someone else.”
“I thought Disney Stars weren’t allowed to say shit like bitch.”
“Shit, you’re right, they’re totally sending a SWAT team right now to come arrest me and take me to Disney jail.”
Lottie Matthews is funny. Nat doesn’t know what to make of that. She didn’t really know what to expect, but a dry, sharp sense of humor wasn’t exactly it. She kind of thought maybe her whole approachable act on TV was just that; an act.
A set of producers and casting agents and showrunners and god knows who else walks in before she can get in her head about all this, and there’s some small talk before they’re both handed scripts and a little camera is turned on to record them.
From the get-go, this scene feels about a million times better than anything she read for the other two auditions. It’s a real scene from the show, for one, because they had her sign an NDA before this, and not just generic little one-liners that she has to figure out the tone on.
The role they have her read for is this bitchy, edgy mean girl character that’s seemingly Lottie’s character’s frenemy, and Nat’s kinda good at being a hater, so that works out for her. The roles are pretty obvious — Lottie Matthews’ Cece is the star of the show, the good girl with a chip on her shoulder, and Nat’s character Jo is totally gonna try to ruin that and get under her skin. It’s fun, and they have good chemistry, which she knows is something casting people look for because Lisa told her so.
Maybe she should’ve done her own research instead of relying on industry intel from an eleven-year-old.
The plot is your standard Disney fare, as far as Nat can tell. Lottie’s character is a normal high schooler by day, but a time traveler by night, keeping her travels a secret until she accidentally opens a portal at school and Nat’s character — the sassy emo girl whom Lottie’s character totally doesn’t like — somehow ends up traveling back in time with her. There’s fighting about keeping it a secret, and constant threats to reveal the truth to everyone at school, and it’s absolutely been done a million times before, in a slightly different font. If Lottie wasn’t so pretty and charismatic, it probably wouldn’t work as well as it does.
At the end of the scene, there’s a quiet hum of approval from all the very important people sitting behind the row of desks, and Lottie shoots her this silly grin. That must bode well for her chances.
Lottie tells her it was nice to meet her and that she’ll see her around, and then some producer whisks Nat away to hand her a whole bunch of paperwork to take home and get her mother to sign. There’s no fucking way her mom is ever gonna read any of these documents, but if taking them home to pretend she’s not gonna forge her mom’s signature will make these very important Disney people feel better, so be it. She’s eighteen in a few weeks anyway.
Maybe spending more time around Lottie Matthews wouldn’t be that bad is what she kinda lands on. There are probably worse jobs in the world than going on fake time travel adventures with a girl like her, and the money can’t be bad, and it’s not like Nat had much of a plan for what she wanted to do after she graduates in May. Who needs community college when you can be a Disney star?
She wouldn’t say no, is all she’s saying.
——
Lisa spends the next two weeks making sure every single person they talk to knows she met Lottie Matthews. Apparently, they took a selfie together while Nat was busy talking to one of the producers, and Lisa drags Nat to get it printed and puts it in this ugly heart-shaped frame she falls in love with at Target.
If nothing else, this definitely gets her Sister of the Year.
She gets the call when she’s on her lunch break at work on a Saturday scarfing down a cheeseburger in her car. Nat almost doesn’t answer because who the fuck calls people out of the blue? The only calls she ever gets are from Lisa’s school if she’s not feeling well, or from the kids dance team when the fees aren’t paid on time, and she knows for a fact this can’t be either of them.
When she does finally answer the phone, Nat kind of tunes out everything the woman says after she says her name, because holy shit, is this it? It can’t be, right? Is this how she’s gonna find out she’s gonna end up on Disney Channel — in a McDonald’s parking lot in fucking Glendale?
“Hello? Natalie? Are you there?”
“Uh, yeah, sorry. Can you repeat that? Got shitty service down in the valley.”
“This is Misty Quigley. We met briefly the other week at the studio? I’m one of the show runners of Past Perfect.”
Last she checked, the whole thing was still called Untitled Lottie Matthews Project. She’s pretty sure they wouldn’t be giving her insider info like a confirmed name for the show if she wasn’t gonna be in it, which… Holy shit, is that what this call is about?
“Yeah of course. Hi. Hey.”
The line is quiet for a moment, and then the woman says, “Oh, you know, I was gonna draw it out a little bit more but this is my favorite part. We want to offer you a job. Series regular, filming starts in about three weeks, assuming pre-production get their affairs in order which is… Sorry, I’m a talker. What do you think, Natalie?”
“I’ve got school,” is the first thing Nat can think to blurt out, even though it’s March and senior year is almost over.
“We’ll get you a tutor if you need one.”
That’s… “Oh, um. I mean, okay, yeah.”
The showrunner whose name she’s honestly already forgotten chuckles.
“We’re gonna need to get you some media training. The lack of enthusiasm is not gonna fly when you’re doing press in a few months,” the woman laughs, and it sounds a little off. Freaky. “That was a joke. We’ll email over contracts now, and I’ll have a courier drop by with a hard copy. Can you get back to us by Monday?”
Shit, that’s only two days from now. There’s a million and one things to think about here, and Nat has no fucking clue where to start, but she’s not about to push her luck.
“That works,” she says. “Uh, am I allowed to tell people about this?”
“Leave that to us. Once the paperwork is done we’ll make an official announcement.”
“But I can tell my family, right?”
“You’re a minor, so you’re going to have to tell your parents.”
Right. Fuck. That’ll be a fun conversation.
Okay, so she can probably tell Lisa, is what she’s hearing. The call ends, and it’s left her with more questions than answers and a lot of overwhelming conflicting emotions to try to juggle, and walking back into work after all that feels kind of surreal.
Fuck, she’s gonna have to quit her job, too. Not that she’s very attached to stocking shelves at the store, but she’s sort of used to it, and she doesn’t hate some of the people she works with and all of this is just really damn overwhelming.
The woman is still talking, rambling about something Nat does not have the brain capacity to keep up with right now, and she finally says, “I’m excited to work with you, Natalie.”
“Uh yeah,” she says distractedly. “Me too. Thanks.”
And just like that, Nat’s on a fucking Disney show.
——
An hour after the courier drops off an overwhelming amount of paperwork that day, their doorbell rings again, and Nat tells Lisa to get the door. She’s too busy trying to understand what any of this legal contract jargon means, totally in her head about whether she’s selling her fucking soul to the devil here, and whoever’s at the door is probably just looking for a neighbor and mixed up apartment numbers.
As soon as she hears the door open, Lisa screeches so loud, Nat literally runs over from the living room because it sounds like she’s being murdered. The kid is so dramatic; clearly, she’s the person in the family who should be on fucking Disney Channel.
None other than Lottie Matthews is hovering outside their door, looking all kinds of casual with her hair up in a messy bun, and she’s wearing a pair of pretty black-rimmed glasses, grinning at Lisa’s shell-shocked little display.
“Holy shit, you can’t just scream like that. I thought you were being fucking kidnapped,” Nat says, pushing at Lisa’s shoulder as she steps closer to her. “Uh, hey Lottie.”
It’s hard to act casual about how a literal celebrity is standing on the doorstep of their shitty rental in South L.A., but Nat thinks she kind of pulls it off. That’s acting talent right there.
Lottie smiles, then awkwardly clears her throat and pushes a bouquet of flowers at her, which Nat didn’t even notice she was holding until now. “I thought I would come say congrats in person.”
Lisa lets out this guttural scream, turns to Nat and says, “You got the part and didn’t tell me?!?!”
“Keep your fucking voice down,” Nat scolds. “No one can know until the official announcement’s out.” She turns back to Lottie and accepts the flowers from her. “Um, thanks? I was just looking at contracts, actually. Do you wanna come in?”
Lottie glances around, taking in the building, then looks past Nat into the apartment, and finally says, “Why don’t we go for coffee instead?” which Nat’s relieved about, honestly. She knows they’re kind of poor, and she doesn’t really need Lottie fucking Matthews scrutinizing their ratty old furniture and their stained walls. It would be embarrassing.
“I’ll grab the paperwork.”
Lisa follows her back to the living room like a puppy, gives her this big sad look and whispers, “Please can I come?”
“No way. We have work stuff to talk about,” Nat alludes, grabbing the folder of paperwork on the coffee table. Lisa is pouting even bigger now, so Nat grins and her and decides to rub it in a little. “You know, Disney stuff.”
In the end, Lisa begrudgingly lets Nat drop her off next door with their neighbors, and they take Lottie’s car to head to a random nearby diner.
“They should be paying you more than this,” Lottie says after a minute or two of skimming through the folder.
Nat has no idea how any of this works.
“They should?”
“They always do this to new people. Try to rip them off. You’re about to literally give up your anonymity in favor of being accosted by screaming children everywhere you go, that sort of thing should be fairly compensated.”
Which like… Good to know, but what is she supposed to do about it, you know?
“Sounds shitty.”
“They’re shitty,” Lottie agrees, and Nat kind of can’t believe she’s drinking terrible diner coffee with Lottie fucking Matthews right now. It’s trippy. “You don’t have an agent, right?”
Nat snorts out a laugh. “Fuck no. Last time I acted I was a tree in the school play. Three lines total.”
Lottie shoots her this crooked smile, says, “That’s wholesome,” and then plays around on her phone for a bit, a determined look on her face.
“I can leave if you have shit to do.”
“Really pushing it with the swearing today, you’re gonna send Mickey Mouse to an early grave.”
“Fucking whatever.”
Lottie giggles, throws her head back a little and clutches the (gross) diner booth they’re sat in with her perfectly manicured fingers.
“You need help with this,” she finally says, and Nat kinda has to try hard not to blush under her intense gaze. “I’ll ask my agent to look over this stuff for you. She’s gonna call you later.”
“How do you have my number?”
“How do you think I had your address?”
Shit, true. She didn’t even think about that. She eyes Lottie carefully, trying for menacing, and then says, “Okay, am I joining a fucking cult? Is everyone at Disney crazy like you?”
Lottie seems to think about this, and then she nods slightly, shoulders drawn up to shrug.
“You’re gonna love it. Trust me.”
Nat’s kind of shocked at how easily she believes that.
——
And then everything kind of happens way quicker than expected. It’s a fucking whirlwind.
She sends all the signed paperwork back to Disney after some help from Lottie’s agent, even gets her mother to actually sign it for her, and Disney tells her to hang tight while they wrap up pre-production. Nat has no idea what that means, so she just kinda keeps going to school, and then one day she gets called to the principals office and they tell her she can graduate early if she wants because apparently fucking Misty Quigley from Disney called to share the good news and pressure them into that. And like yeah, it’s already April and there’s only a few weeks of senior year left, but Nat would’ve appreciated a heads up before Disney told the school.
It’s actually super embarrassing to have the damn school counselor and the principal talk to her about how she’s leaving school to film a Disney Channel show, and she kinda finds herself wondering what the hell she signed up for. It’s only a matter of time until the rest of the school find out, and then it’ll be on the internet, and fuck, she really isn’t sure she’s ready to have stalkers, you know?
She’s on set getting ready for their first day of shooting not even three weeks after getting the part. The only reason she hasn’t bailed yet is honestly Lottie, who’s been sort of taking her under her wing, trying to help her maneuver the pitfalls of Disney behind the scenes chaos.
Nat isn’t even nervous until there’s a knock on her trailer (yeah…) door and she opens it to find Lottie on the other side, hair in two braids like she’s fucking twelve years old and Crocs on her feet. She’s holding something that looks a lot like a cookie, except it’s shaped like Mickey Mouse ears for some reason.
Is there anything on this damn lot that isn’t Disney themed?
“Ready to woo everyone on set with those acting chops?”
She has no idea why that question makes her panic. Maybe it’s because she’s successfully avoided thinking about the real reason she’s here so far.
“Not even a little bit,” Nat admits, and Lottie kind of frowns, pushes past her and closes the trailer door behind them.
“You’ll be fine, Nat. Everyone’s nervous before their first day.”
“You say that like you haven’t been doing this since you were nine.”
That makes Lottie laugh. It’s kinda stupid how pretty she is when she does that.
“Someone’s been reading my Wikipedia page,” Lottie tells her, folding her legs under her on the little sofa in the corner. “See, you’re already comparing yourself to everyone and worrying about your gorgeous costars being more famous than you. You’ll fit right in!”
Nat lets out a disgruntled sigh.
“Who says I’m worried about any of that?”
It’s good though, having someone in her corner. A friend, if you will, except she still isn’t really sure Lottie isn’t just being paid by Disney to keep an eye on her. Like, she kind of has to have an ulterior motive, right? No one’s ever just this nice.
(Nat’s not used to anyone doing anything for her, so even the minimal amount of support Lottie is showing her feels suspicious.)
She’s met the rest of the main cast when they did a read through of the pilot script a week ago, and she doesn’t outright hate any of them so far, which is better than she expected. It’s really just a whole bunch of teenagers in the recurring cast, except for the adults who play Lottie’s parents, and they all seem alright.
Lottie’s mom is played by this actress Nat has definitely seen in some daytime telenovela when she skipped school to take care of a sick Lisa last year, and when she leaned over to whisper, “Do they know you’re not actually Latina?”, in Lottie’s ear, the older girl squeezed her hand so hard, it actually hurt and giggled loud enough for one of the show runners to shush them.
So yeah. She’s an actor on a set filled with tween stars and obnoxious Hollywood stage moms in the wings, and it’s kind of funny how she literally didn’t even try that hard to get here. Those insufferable teens who got cast in minor recurring bit parts are probably foaming at the mouth knowing Nat’s never been in front of a camera before and she’s already getting second or third billing. (Not that she has any fucking idea what that even means…)
The first few days are exhausting. Memorizing scripts is one thing, but there’s all this stuff she didn’t really think about much that goes into making a TV show. It takes her a few days to learn some of the jargon and not forget to be on her mark at all times without literally staring at the floor, and she definitely fucks up a few times and looks straight at the camera, too.
Lottie tells her she’s a natural, and Nat’s pretty sure she’s lying to her but she’s feeling insecure enough to accept the fake compliment anyway.
It’s weird how quickly she gets used to the Disney grind.
The premise of the show is still fucking ridiculous, but Nat is kind of into it. Of course they hit all the horrifically cringey comedy beats with the whole secret time traveler concept, and there’s this range of characters in the cast that are quite literally only there for comedic relief. A few episodes in they introduce a new villain subplot where an ambitious mean girl at school tries to expose Cece’s secret, and Nat is pretty sure that means her character Jo is off the hook and they’re gonna commit to the whole enemies to friends plot. Which is good, cause she thinks she and Lottie are kind of a great team. Someone else can be the antagonist if that means she can keep shooting these random time-traveling sequences with Lottie.
It’s Taissa’s first day on set, and Nat hasn’t had any scenes with her yet, so of course she takes her lunch over to Lottie’s trailer to interrogate her about the whole experience.
“What is she like?” She asks, feet up in Lottie’s lap while the brunette is highlighting lines for their next scene on her iPad. “She seemed like a bitch when I saw her at fittings the other day.”
Lottie looks up from her iPad and giggles. “You can’t go around calling people a bitch just because they’re not overly friendly at seven in the morning.”
“Uh, yeah I can,” she tells her, then nudges the iPad out of her hands with her foot just to be annoying. Lottie doesn’t bother reaching down to pick it up. “You’re avoiding the question.”
“Tai is nice, I think. We hosted an event together last year, some Radio Disney charity thing.”
Right. Of course. Sometimes she forgets that Lottie’s just sort of been doing this forever.
“Already on a nickname basis? Damn, I’ve been replaced.”
Lottie reaches over to poke her thigh, then rests her hand there. “She’s a little too intense. I like that you’re normal.”
“Yeah? Am I a better friend than her?”
“You are,” Lottie agrees, even though she’s kind of laughing as she says it. “In case you haven’t noticed, you’re kind of the only one I hang out with around here.”
The thing is she has noticed, and she’s trying not to feel too smug about it, but she obviously loves getting Lottie all to herself for the most part. Nat’s not great at befriending new people, so having Lottie just decide to be her friend has been perfect.
“Gotta hang out with me while you can. Soon enough, I’ll be more famous than you and all the kids that come up to you for pictures are gonna ask about me.”
Lottie laughs again, shakes her head in disbelief. “Maybe I’m too nice to you. All the praise has clearly gone to your head.”
“My new agent says I have a lot of potential,” Nat teases. “He asked if I’ve considered modeling.”
Lottie laughs and squeezes her thigh, and Nat can’t help but smile back at her. Lottie’s always so damn genuine and earnest, and now that she spends all her time around fake industry people, she appreciates that a lot.
“You know I’m your number one fan.”
It’s weird how Nat actually believes her.
——
She was kind of joking about her impending meteoric rise to fame, but as soon as the network starts airing promos for the show, her life gets significantly weirder. Nat wouldn’t have even known it was happening if it wasn’t for Lottie forcing her to watch the behind-the-scenes features Disney uploaded to YouTube, and god, is watching herself talk on screen always gonna be this weird? It feels weird.
She thinks she comes off pretty well in the little behind-the-scenes segment about her casting process. There’s a short clip of Lottie talking about how she knew Nat was the right choice right away when they met, and Nat looks over at her and murmurs an awkward, “Thanks, Lot,” because she doesn’t wanna get too sappy.
Her brand new Instagram account quickly gains a following of several thousand people, and she doesn’t know how to deal with that so she just tells Walter to post whatever. She’s not sure that’s in his job description as her agent, but he doesn’t say no, so it’s fine. Maybe he feels bad for her, too.
Lisa is freaking out over the whole thing, of course. Nat hasn’t seen her as much as she’d like lately, because filming has kind of messed with her schedule, so it’s nice to spend quality time with her annoying little sister, even if she’s making her watch fucking teasers for her own damn Disney show.
And to think the show hasn’t even premiered yet.
“The comments are all really good! They’re excited to see you. Mostly Lottie, of course, but still!”
“Thanks Lisa, appreciate the vote of confidence. Good to know you’d choose Lottie over your own sister.”
Lisa rolls her eyes, and god, she doesn’t even wanna imagine how much more insufferable she’ll be once she turns thirteen and hits puberty. Maybe she should appreciate the tween phase while she can.
Then people start recognizing her in public.
A mom and her two daughters stop her and ask her to take a picture with them when she’s out running errands with Lisa, who spends the entire interaction kind of smiling like a big dumb idiot, which is hilarious.
“We’re so excited to see the show,” one of the girls who can’t be older than maybe nine says. “Lottie is so pretty.”
“Uh, yeah, she is,” Nat says awkwardly, which earns her an eye roll from Lisa, who’s standing off to the side of the girls, trying to give her vague sign language pointers. Maybe she should just tell Disney they cast the wrong sister because Lisa would seriously be so much better at all this and she’s eleven.
“Are you friends?” the other girl asks, and Nat doesn’t know what to say to that. Is she supposed to lie? “I wish Lottie was my friend.”
“She’s an awesome friend,” Nat agrees. She’s fucking terrible at this. “I’ll tell her you said hi, okay?”
She kinda thinks that’s a lame cop out but both girls are super excited at the prospect, make her promise she will, and then their mom thanks Nat for her time and finally gets them away from her.
“You really need to come up with better answers if you want to be popular,” Lisa points out the second they’re alone again. “That was embarrassing.”
She tells her to shut up and drags her back to the car so they can drive home.
“Tell me more about this event we’re going to,” Nat says to Lottie that night. They’re in Nat’s living room, lounging on the couch as they eat slices of pizza. “Are there gonna be screaming children?”
Lottie giggles. “Still not over your first fan encounter today, huh?”
Lisa comes barreling out of her room like she’s been waiting for her cue while eavesdropping and says, “Oh my god, she was so nervous, it was pathetic.”
Nat rolls her eyes. “Since when do you know what pathetic means?”
“Some of us are actually paying attention in school.”
“Yeah? Maybe some of us should go back to their room, do their homework and stop bothering the grown ups while we hang out.”
But Lottie pats the empty spot on the couch next to her and waves Lisa over, and Lisa obviously can’t believe her luck and sits down immediately, sticking her tongue out at Nat when Lottie isn’t looking.
“Your sister is the talk of the town,” Lottie says to her. “Have you seen the billboards?”
Nat asks, “There’s billboards?” at the same time as Lisa screeches out an excited, “NO!” and then Lottie pulls out her phone and shows them a picture of a billboard downtown.
They entertain Lisa for a little bit, and luckily she starts yawning soon enough so Nat forces her to brush her teeth and go to bed, and then it’s just the two of them again.
“So the premiere tomorrow…”
“Right. Um, it’s for some new Disney movie. Something vaguely family-friendly, maybe? Talking dogs, probably.”
“Of course,” Nat laughs. “There’s always a talking dog.”
Lottie nods and just lets her head slide from Nat’s shoulder to her lap, a small yawn escaping her as she does.
“Who else is going to be there?”
It’s taken her a few days to work up the courage to ask.
Much like every other Disney starlet, Nat is pretty sure Lottie has a Disney Channel boyfriend. Which is to say she knows she’s been linked to and seen with Ben Scott a few times since they did a movie together last summer. The tween gossip-infested media seems to think that makes them a couple, and Lisa agrees, so really, it must be true. Kids know shit like that.
Nat’s never met him, and Lottie has never mentioned him at all, but maybe they’re just not close enough to talk about this sort of thing yet. Being famous must mean you put up walls and shit and don’t easily overshare, right? They’ve really only been friends for, like, the past month of filming. She’s pretty sure they’re just not there yet.
“A couple of the usual suspects,” Lottie alludes, then starts listing names, and Nat’s never heard of about half of them. “I’m taking Ben. He’s finally back from shooting on location in Georgia.”
Nat doesn’t think it’s her place to ask, but Lottie really doesn’t seem too hyped at the thought of seeing her boyfriend again. Maybe the whole thing’s fake after all.
Nat only got invited to this random event to build her brand, and she sticks with Lottie for the whole thing. They offered her a plus one but she had no idea who to bring, so she’s on her own, posing on the red carpet for a group of photographers who definitely don’t know who the hell she is.
She waits for Lottie and Ben on the other side of the carpet, watches them together as they put on a show for the cameras, and Nat’s so fucking jealous, it’s not even funny. Not of Ben, obviously, but of the effortless way Lottie manages to pose and flirt with the cameras. She’s always so down to earth and introverted around her, and it almost feels illegal to see her in her full Disney star glam element.
Then they’re in the auditorium getting ready for the movie screening, and Nat wonders how much of the free popcorn she can reasonably eat before they tell her to stop.
Ben seems nice enough. They chat a little before the director and cast go up on stage to do a quick Q&A, and she can see why he's considered a hot commodity in Disney heartthrob terms. He has a nice smile and good hair, and she’s guessing there’s a decent body hiding underneath the dress shirt and perfectly ironed pants.
There’s a little after-party for the Disney cast and crew, and apparently Nat is invited by virtue of knowing Lottie, and she’s kind of surprised to say the least when she finds out there’s actual alcohol being served. Not to her, obviously, since she’s 18, but Ben picks up a few glasses of champagne and subtly hands one to both of them, and Lottie makes a dry little quip about him being their dealer.
“He just turned twenty-one,” Lottie tells her, as if that explains why they’re underage drinking at a Disney-sponsored event. “We probably could’ve just ordered the drinks ourselves, but he likes to show off his old age.”
Lottie is nineteen, so obviously he’s not actually much older than her, and Nat decides to just drink the damn drink and get this show on the road.
“Is this gonna get me fired?”
She’s mostly joking but, like, is it?
Ben laughs and shakes his head. “You must be new here.”
“So innocent,” Lottie agrees, propping herself up on Ben’s shoulder. “Drinking problems are a Disney kid rite of passage.”
Nat bites back the bitter comment about how they’re also a public school kid in South LA rite of passage because this probably isn’t the right place to air out her shit. She doesn’t have a drinking problem anyway, and she doesn’t need to be telling these privileged people some sob story about how some chick in her sophomore-year English class dropped out of school after getting kicked out and turned to drugs and booze to deal with being homeless.
Anyway. They sort of chit chat for a while, and Lottie introduces her to a few industry people milling around, and Nat can’t decide if this is fun or not. Like, it’s definitely not like any other party she’s ever been to, but she also doesn’t fully hate it. It’s weird.
She excuses herself to use the restroom about an hour into the whole thing, and thinks she’s hallucinating when she watches Ben lead some random tall dude away by the hand, smiling and laughing as he does. She kind of wants to follow them and figure out what they’re doing but that seems a little invasive. It’s probably none of her business.
Lottie is still on her own when she walks back into the party, which is already winding down a little. Lame.
“Uh, where’s Ben?”
Lottie shrugs. “Probably with Paul.”
Huh?
“Paul?”
“His boyfriend,” Lottie clarifies, looking around to make sure no one else is listening. “I’m not a monster, I won’t keep him to myself all night.”
Nat shoots her a calculating look and steps closer to Lottie, “Wait, so you two aren’t… What…”
“We’re best friends. Have been since we were kids. His dad was my father’s producing partner for a while.”
“So you’re not… You know?”
“I’m gonna need you to be more specific with your questions,” Lottie laughs. “But no, we’re not dating if that’s what you mean.”
“And you don’t mind lying to people?”
“I mean, the kinds go crazy for it. They love this stuff. It makes it more fun for them. We hang out a lot anyway, so it’s not a hardship or anything.”
“That still feels wrong. You’re an actor, not a fucking reality TV star.”
“It’s all part of the job.” Lottie shrugs, and she looks slightly uncomfortable. “It may be the 21st century, but this is still Disney Channel. Can you imagine the uproar if their Disney teen idols were openly gay?”
That makes Nat irrationally angry. Ben seems pretty cool, and it’s insane that he has to hide a big chunk of his life from the world to keep his job.
Her stomach’s growling and all this place is serving is stupid finger food, and if Ben is busy, Nat figures they might as well take off now. They’ve done enough networking.
“Okay, you’re gonna have to get me out of here right now because I’m starving and I’m not above punching a Disney executive.”
Lottie pretends to consider her carefully, then nods and says, “We can’t have you arrested just a month out from the show premiering. Think of the children!”
They get Animal-style Fries and Burgers at the nearest drive-thru and eat them in the back of Lottie’s car, and Nat’s still thinking about the whole Ben Scott revelation from earlier.
“You’re a good friend, you know? Not everyone would do that for Ben.”
Lottie wipes some burger sauce off her chin and shakes her head slightly.
“It’s mutually beneficial, let’s not pretend I’m just doing this for him.”
Huh.
“Yeah?”
Lot looks kind of bummed, and shit, this is all kind of miserable to think about. In lieu of offering her a hug, she holds out the box of fries to her and grins when Lottie puts a few on her burger. That’s both disgusting and genius.
“I’m used to it. I grew up in the industry, so people have sort of been asking me really invasive questions since I was a literal child.”
“Fucking freaks.”
Lottie pokes her shoulder teasingly. “Just wait until we start doing press. You’re gonna be begging me for tips to lie about your dating life.”
Nat groans, scarves down the rest of her burger and checks her phone for the time.
“How do you feel about a movie at my place? Lisa’s probably asleep and my mom’s working.”
They always hang out at Nat’s house these days, and Lottie doesn’t seem to mind that it’s rundown and kind of tiny, so she’s kinda gotten over feeling like she needs to hide how poor they are from literal daughter of millionaires Lottie Matthews.
“That sounds perfect,” Lottie says, so genuine and un-Disney-like, it makes Nat feel like the most important person in the world. She has no idea how she does that.
It feels kinda nice to have a friend like that.
——
Of course the show is a hit. No one at the network is surprised, and Nat would be lying if she said she didn’t see it coming. Lottie Matthews doesn’t get involved in projects that aren’t gonna be a guaranteed success.
What’s surprising, maybe, is how much tweens seem to like Natalie. Lottie is obviously the most popular person in the cast, but reviews and audience scores work in her favor, and the showrunners actually decide to give her more airtime in the remaining episodes of the season, give her her own little side plots and some back story, which is pretty cool.
Her character gets a friend that isn’t Lottie, and a parent and it’s kinda cool how she gets to learn more about Jo’s backstory. She’s not a serious actor by any means, and she’s not gonna pretend like she’s doing this for the craft or whatever, but she likes their silly little Disney show and her character. It’s fun, and she gets to hang out with Lottie a bunch, and some of the other cast and crew aren’t so bad either.
It’s all fun and games until they get the script for the season finale and she finds out her character is getting a love interest.
“Why the fuck are they doing that?” she asks Lottie when they’re lounging in her trailer having lunch.
It just doesn’t make sense. Lottie’s the main character, so shouldn’t it be her? Isn’t that how these shows usually work?
“Disney shows always add a love interest eventually. But don’t worry, it’s all kid-friendly, so you probably won’t even have to kiss him.”
Nat wasn’t worried about that at all, actually.
“Why me, though? Feels random.”
Lottie shoots her a pointed look that Nat can’t quite decipher and says, “You know, most teenage girls would kill to be paid to be all over some Disney heartthrob.”
“I literally don’t even know who Travis Martinez is.”
“He was in that one show where him and his little brother turn into robots. I forgot what it was called… Brobots?”
Nat’s on her phone now, googling this guy, which is the only reason why she playfully shakes her head and corrects, “RoBrothers.”
Lottie’s teasing smile stretches into a full-on grin, and Nat sort of has to smile, too. What a fucking stupid name for a show.
“God, that’s even worse than I remembered.”
They’re quiet for a moment, and then Nat shrugs. Whatever. It’ll be fine.
“He’s only in the final episode of the season. Maybe they’ll disregard the idea and won’t bring him back for season two.”
They have a month off from filming after this, which Nat is super excited about. It’ll be nice to just get to do absolutely nothing for a while, and it coincides with Lisa’s summer break, so she’ll be able to spend a little more time with her. Actually having some spare cash to spend on stuff will be nice, too; Nat hasn’t really had the time to go crazy with her Disney money yet.
“Keep an open mind,” Lottie says, eyes dancing over the last page of the script. “There’s a good chance they’ll keep him around, and who knows, maybe he’s cool.”
Nat rolls her eyes. “He was in a show called RoBrothers and looks like he thinks he’s the hottest man on the planet when all he does in every single picture on here is pout. I doubt he’s cool.”
“He could still be cool.”
“Do you have a crush on him? ‘Cause uh, no offense, but he looks like a shorter, less hot male version of you.”
Lottie’s eyebrows shoot up in amusement. “Nat, you’ve never even met this guy.”
“I’ve googled him. I’ve seen enough.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“He’s 5’10.”
Lottie laughs again.
“I’m 5’10.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay, detective. Are you done being a hater? We have to get to set and film this underwater scene.” She frowns. “Do you think the kids watching will even get what historical event we’re time traveling to?”
“I don’t even get it myself, so, uh, no.”
“Guess we’ll just have to be extra funny to make up for that.”
And yeah, okay, maybe Lottie is right. Maybe she should keep an open mind about the whole Travis thing, but she kind of can’t really picture her character giving much of a shit about some random dude the show never bothered to mention until now.
She’s pretty sure her character is too busy with Lottie and her whole time-traveling thing to care about anyone else, actually.
——
They get super wasted at the cast wrap party.
Or well, at the small after party Lottie is hosting, because most of the cast is made up of literal children and the others are still under twenty-one. It’s just a handful of them — there’s Tai, who Nat has to admit is cool even though she’s kind of blunt and a little scary, Melissa, who’s one of the recurring characters they bring in to do stupid comedic relief bits, one of the on-set runners that they hang out with sometimes because she’s funny and not fourteen years old, and of course Lottie invited Ben, too.
And Travis Martinez, apparently.
Maybe she doesn’t get to be annoyed that Lottie invited him, but she is, okay? Nat spent two days on set with him this week, had to suffer through two days of putting on an excruciating, Oscar-worthy performance to pretend like she doesn’t kind of dislike him, and now she’ll have to hang out with him outside of work, too.
It just doesn’t seem right.
They’re in Lottie’s new apartment around the corner from the Disney lot, and it’s still pretty much completely unfurnished except for, like, a bed, the big couches in the living room and the little coffee table Nat helped put together last week.
“So how’s the Disney life been treating you, Nat?”
Ben shoots her a baiting grin.
She’s seen Ben a couple of times since that first night they met, and she doesn’t really mind him. Closeted or not, he’s got that slightly annoying gay man flair for the dramatic, and she’s learned not to give into his baiting questions too much.
“You know, uh, magical and whatever. Loving life with Mickey.”
Lottie giggles. “Don’t worry, they’re making her do some more media training during the hiatus, guys.”
“Not that I need it, obviously,” Nat adds, but she can’t really say that with a straight face, so they all laugh. “Whatever, it’s not my fucking fault they’re all so damn uptight.”
All night, she kind of watches Travis try to cozy up to Lottie and laughs at the blatant ways the brunette manages to get away from him. It gets more obvious with every beer Nat has, and at the end of the night when it’s just Lottie, Travis, Nat and Van, the runner they joke around with on set, left and she sees Lottie flinch away from Travis again, Nat can’t keep biting her tongue any longer.
“Dude, she isn’t interested,” she tells him, much to Van’s apparent amusement.
Lottie is looking anywhere but at Travis or Nat, and Nat can tell Travis is embarrassed because his cheeks are all flushed.
Whatever, he deserved that.
“I don’t need you to speak for me, Nat,” Lottie warns, eyes fixed on the mostly empty glass of wine in her hand.
“‘Kay, so tell him. Since he clearly can’t tell from the way you’ve tried to get away from him all night.”
Travis looks pissed off now, jaw set all angry, and Nat’s almost glad she did this just to show Lottie what a dick he actually is. She’s always way too nice to people, even when they don’t deserve it.
No one speaks for a while, and then Van clears her throat says, “Does anyone want another drink?” to break the silence, and Nat’s too drunk not to laugh at that.
Van’s cool; maybe they should hang out more.
Travis just shakes his head and glares when Van hands him another bottle of beer. Fucking loser. See? She was totally right about him; judging a book by its cover definitely works.
They somehow go back to talking about random shit, some Hollywood scandal or other that’s been in the news, and Nat can feel Lottie’s eyes on her for the rest of the night, like she’s scared she’ll say something brash again.
Travis finally takes off, and so does Van, which means it’s just her and Lottie left.
“I, uh, I’ll go if you don’t want me here,” Nat offers, even though she was gonna stay the night. “Didn’t mean to be a bitch.”
Lottie shakes her head. “Stay.”
“You sure?”
Lottie runs a hand through her hair and nods.
There’s no guest bedroom because Lottie Matthews is humble as fuck, despite the millions she must’ve made and inherited in her life, and even if there was, it wouldn’t be furnished yet, so they brush their teeth in silence and end up in Lottie’s king-sized bed, kind of awkwardly lying side by side in the dark while neither of them says a word.
“Nat,” Lottie says, and she feels a hand on her shoulder. “Can you turn around for a second?”
Oh shit, here it comes. Nat’s pretty sure she’s about to be yelled at, even though Lottie doesn’t seem like the type and sounds all tentative.
She turns around anyway because she’s obviously not a quitter, and now that she isn’t drunk anymore her earlier outburst seems kind of embarrassing, so maybe she should own up to that. See? She’s totally mature and shit.
“He was being a dick, okay? I just thought…”
“You don’t have to be jealous, Nat. I don’t like him like that.”
“Well, yeah, fucking duh,” she says, annoyed, but Lottie still looks sort of… uncomfortable, maybe? “Wait, what do you mean?”
“It’s totally fine if you’re into him. He’s all yours.”
“If I’m into him,” Nat repeats, a little confused. “Are you on drugs? Lottie, I would rather spend a week straight listening to Misty Quigly tell me about how time travel is a metaphor for hope than ever see Travis again.”
Lottie lets out this little breath but looks tense, so Nat feels the need to keep talking.
“Why the hell did you think I was into him? ‘Cause shit, whatever I did to make you think that is something I will never do again.”
“You just seemed… I thought you were jealous, because he was into me.”
“Uh, yeah, he’s a man with eyes. Of course he’s into you. I just wanted him to get the fuck away from you.”
“So you’re not…”
“Into Travis? Shit, Lot, I’m kinda offended you even have to ask.”
It’s Lottie who turns away from her and then she says, “Let’s just sleep,”
Nat isn’t sure she could sleep right now if she tried, but she doesn’t know what the hell is up with Lottie, and she’s scared of saying the wrong thing again, so she huffs out an, “Okay,” and turns around too.
Maybe they can talk about it in the morning.
Except they don’t talk about it in the morning, not at all.
Lottie looks slightly more chipper, smiling at her from across the couch as they dig into the greasy diner breakfast they ordered in, and Nat just kinda decides not to mention last night.
“Can’t fucking wait to do nothing for a while. No more six am call times for a while.”
Lottie glances at her nervously, swallows a bite of pancake and says, “Did I tell you I’m going to Vancouver?”
Huh. “Oh… Yeah?”
“I’m filming a guest spot on an ABC show.”
“That’s cool,” Nat says, and wonders why she hadn’t even considered that Lottie might not just hang out with her constantly while they’re off. “Why didn’t you tell me before? Congrats.”
Lottie frowns. “It was— I wasn’t sure it was gonna happen until a few days ago.”
“Can’t believe you’re choosing your career and real adult TV over hanging out with me, Matthews,” Nat jokes, but she kinda means it. It’s a bummer they won’t get to do this for a while.
“You can always come visit,” Lottie offers up.
“Maybe.” She looks out the window, considering. “I guess I have nothing else to do.”
“You could bring Lisa.”
And shit, she probably could. She has the money for plane tickets, and Lisa doesn’t have school, and it’d probably be kinda cool to take her somewhere. Nat thinks it’s cool, how Lottie includes her sister in stuff. Lisa’s kinda always around, and Lottie never seems to mind.
She spends a week in Canada, lets Lisa pick whatever they do during the day while Lottie is busy shooting for her two-episode arc on this medical drama Nat has no interest in ever watching and hangs out with Lottie whenever she can.
They fly back on Lottie’s day off from filming, and Lottie drives them to the airport and hugs her tight when they say goodbye.
“Thanks for coming to hang out with me,” Lottie says, smiling all cute, arms still half around Nat. “I’ll be back next week if you wanna do something.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Nat says, and she goes in for another hug, just because.
She really doesn’t think anything of it until they’re walking towards TSA and Lisa snickers in that almost-a-teenager kind of way. Nat has no idea how she’ll deal with her when the hormones really kick in.
“What?”
“You two are so obnoxious,” she tells her.
“Who?”
“You and your girlfriend, obviously,” Lisa teases. “It’s so obvious you’re, like, in love with her.”
Nat nearly fucking drops their passports when Lisa’s words register. She just barely manages to keep walking, and when she hasn’t said anything for a while, Lisa giggles and tugs on her hand.
“Oh my god, I was kidding, but you totally are. Are you gonna tell her? You could get married at Disneyland!”
She tells her to shut up and spends the entire three-hour flight back to LAX wondering why the fuck the concept of having a crush on Lottie never occurred to her until her eleven-year-old sister pointed it out.
Lottie texts her right after they land, asks if they made it home okay, and Nat turns her phone off after she texts her back.
She’s gonna need a minute.