Chp 104 : Autumnal Equinox

Timeline: late September to early October.

Enjoy

~~~

A few days after the homecoming dance, Al and Ione flew to the shooting set of <Dirty Dancing> in Mountain Lake Lodge, Pembroke, Virginia North Carolina.

When he came to this resort, he was greeted by one of the producers of this film, his one in a million friends, Quentin Tarantino.

As soon as he arrived, Quentin rushed him to get into a resort's restaurant and bar for rehearsal.

Emile Ardolino and Eleanor Bergstein were already here with the rest of the crews and cast.

They were all staring at Al and Ione who was the last to come. Those dozens pair of eyes made Al felt very uncomfortable.

"Okay... Hello everyone," Al said with an awkward hand wave. "Um... my name is Alphonse Brandt, just call me Al or Alphonse whichever suits you all and this is my friend who was also the female lead, Ione Skye."

"Hey Al, hey Ione." They replied simultaneously then the room became silent.

A few seconds passed and finally, Al spoke, "Okay, this is awkward... but hey, nice to meet you all and I can't wait to work with you all for the next two months, sorry for the delay in starting the shooting. All that because I changed my profession from a Navy to a dancer, so I need to stretch my stiff body."

Another silence, Al thought that was felt really cringe telling that, but finally, he heard a laugh and it came from the person behind him

He turned around and he saw only Ione was the one behind him, "Okay, okay, stop it, everyone, I can't hold it anymore, it so awkward and corny what you saying there, Al." Ione said and soon followed by everyone else.

That moment he knew they were all pranking him by making him feel uncomfortable.

"Ha, ha, very funny guys." He said in a flat tone and shook his head.

Al then asked, "Are you behind this?"

Ione giggled and replied, "Sorry Al, but no, it was Mary. She called me this morning and told us to make you as uncomfortable as you can get but looks like I ruined it."

"Yeah, geez, thanks for ruining it." He said again with an exasperated sigh.

Then the casts came to him. Most of the males were shaking his hand or just hugged him such as Jerry Orbach, Jack Weston, or Lonny Price.

As for the women, besides with additional kisses, some of them flirted with him.

Al was smiling stiffly at their advances. But one woman was able to leave a good impression on him, she was Cynthia Rhodes who would be playing Penny Johnson.

"Hello, Ms. Rhodes, nice to meet you. I can't wait to be on the same scene with you. You have a good dancing performance as Jackie in <Staying Alive>."

"Just call me Cynthia, Al. Too bad critics didn't like it very much." She let out a helpless breath.

"Psst, don't care about critics said, they are boon to an artist like us. At least the film was a box office success."

"Easy for you to say, critics like you!" She said almost screaming in excitement.

"No way, some of them hate me, and they can't wait for me to fail."

"Hey, playboy! Stop flirting, you already had a girlfriend!" Ione said from behind him.

"Hey, Ione, I want you to meet Ms. Cynthia Rhodes and she'll be my first partner before you, you know. So I had to get the best chemistry with her."

Ione just rolled her eyes and began talking with Cynthia. Most of it was a girl's talk and he soon had no place behind their conversation so he left both of them to become familiar with each other.

He began having a nice chat with some of the crews which most of them he knew because they were part of the Muspelheim Films' crew.

That brought him talking with Eleanor Bergstein and Emil Ardolino.

"Sorry Mrs. Bergestein, the shooting was delayed and could only begin this month. we can't make it to shoot in summer and to be waiting for the next summer will be very bad for our schedule. We need this film to compete for the Cannes Film Festival next year. Also, I had a lot of things to do next year."

"Don't mind it, Al. It's also my fault for insisting you play and it has been my greatest decision. Don't worry about anything, at least some of us won't have a heat stroke because the summer in here is awful."

"Don't worry about it, Al. The only problem we had here is just the scenery and coldness you and my actors will have to endure. But if the weather condition became so awful, we should shoot the rest of the scene in the studio. We could get to shoot the indoor scene like exteriors and cabin scene in here. As for the outdoor scene, we will make most of it, but a few, I doubt it."

"Okay, Emil, you are the director, you can do everything that is suited for the filming. Any other things I should be notified about?"

"We also had to paint some of the leaves into green because the fall season was taking over. And we should move the Lure Lake scene to another Lake in California, it could get very cold in November and I had a few perfect locations for it."

Al smiled in helplessness. It was all because he needed to finish the shooting for Full Metal Jacket.

"That should have been taken care of, Emil. The Kellerman's resort agreed to build a temporary set nearby. And everything will be taken care of, don't worry about the budget, as long as the film is finished, I will also be glad for it."

"And that's what I've been thankful for Al. Your company dared to give us $10 million for the budget. The highest I can get with other studios was just $6 million." Eleanor butted in.

"Worry not Mrs. Bergstein, as long as the film finished shooting, I too will be glad. I believe this film will be another classic."

"Oh Al, which film you did not play won't become a classic."

"That's too much confidence you two have for me. I'm just lucky playing in that movie."

"Look at him, being humble. You underestimate yourself there Al, you almost become a legend. A child actor who came out as a classic on every character he played. No one ever did that as well as you. Just play in an art film and get an oscar and I guaranteed you, you had succeeded in making yourself a true legend." Emile said in excitement.

Eleanor giggled, then she became serious l

all of a sudden and stared at Al, "Al, do you know why this film was so hard to get approval? Because this film was a Jewish-theme film, unlike those with a background of World War II which most people sympathize with us for, this film was taken from the perspective of a liberal-Jewish-American family.

So you know it will be hard for a non-Jewish audience to understand this film right? That's why most of the studios rejected this for a capital reason."

The reason was not a surprise at all for Al, except for Emile who was American-Italian, "What? You mean they rejected this? I thought Hollywood supposed to be a city made by Jews right?"

Eleanor just shook her head, "They can call us anything, money-grubber, slimy snakes, that's what everyone saw us for. They just saw some of the worst people from our people. Most of us were just simpleton who wanted to live comfortably while having the freedom to do our religious ritual. They just hated us because of history we did not even know we were there." Eleanor said with a downcast look in her eyes.

Al just keep his silence, he maybe had Jewish descent but he wasn't born and raised by a family with Jewish customs so he could not really understand what Eleanor felt.

"That's kind of fucked up generalization that humans had. You know, when you saw a race, they were stereotyping them first before they knew the true nature of this person." Al said.

"Yeah, like Italian must be a mafia, same as like Irish as a mobster, the blacks must be a thug or criminal, and Mexican is a drug dealer," Emile added.

"Sorry Al, Emile, I think I ruined our small chat. We should begin our rehearsal for dirty dancing." Eleanor joked with a grin to release the tension she just made.

"I can't wait to show my moves, Mrs. Bergstein."

"Everyone!! Time for the main course, let's begin the rehearsal!" Eleanor screamed.

When Eleanor told them about the rehearsal, he thought it would be him and the other cast show their dancing moves. But what he didn't expect was the rehearsals she meant was a party, a disco party where everyone from the producers, crews, and casts were joining the grooves.

Whether they could dance or not, as long as they can have fun, nobody cared. Besides dancing, they were also drinking to immerse themselves in the environment, familiarize themselves with the characters they would play.

Al also flabbergasted at Eleanor who encouraged them all to build the sexual tension like intimate dancing and "grinding" because she said that no other physical contact further for the shooting would be done for the duration of the shooting.

So, no sex for Al until December.

The rehearsals finally ended when the sun had disappeared on the horizon. Al was sitting outside the pavilion with a thick wool jacket covering him.

He heard a wooden squeak behind him, followed by light footsteps that he could identify as a girl/woman.

"Does that rehearsals remind you of something?"

"You mean the orgies at homecoming dance that almost made to a local newspaper?" Al joked.

"Yep, I heard the school board still didn't find the male dancer. How does he look like, is he a student or a teacher, or strangers? What I heard was that the female dancer was caught and almost gave her a detention. If she did not have a friend whose father was giving a lot of donations to the school, I think she may have been grounded for a month."

"Now you make me feel guilty Ione." He faked a heart attack.

"You should be." Ione took a seat on the stair, one step below and right in front of him then she leaned her weight to him. "It's cold."

Al saw her only wore a green wool thin sweater, so he took off one of the layers of the jacket he wore and wear it to her, "Thanks Al, how a gentleman of you."

"I always was, didn't I?"

"Aren't you cold? You said you can't stand cold weather."

"I can cope with it. The time in military training in shooting set made me used to it."

"Okay private, don't over exceed your boundary. If your cold, we can share the jacket."

Al didn't answer her back and let the comfortable silence came upon them.

He was then staring at her back with a complicated look. He had baggage on his heart after the day they danced. What made it worst was he didn't let it out to anyone and left a shadow on his mind.

Then the next day came and the shooting that everybody was waiting for finally began.

The first phase of shooting would be the drama scene and then half of the dancing scene. The dancing scene would really eat up their time, so they need to do the drama as soon as possible.

Once the drama scene was all wrapped up, it's time for the first phase of the dancing scene.

Everybody was blown away by his dance skill, even more, when he was partnered up with Cynthia playing as Penny.

Their chemistry was marvelous, they were all dumbfounded seeing them dance.

After months of intense training, he wouldn't call himself a pro dancer but he sure he was one step to become one.

Emile wasn't wrong when he decided Cynthia was the first to cast. While Eleanor felt her face frozen stiff from too much smiling when she saw Al and Cynthia dance.

They thought both of them were the greatest chemistry in this set, they didn't see the most amazing chemistry yet.

Today was the scene where he would be teaching Baby how to dance.

When it was the turn for Al and Ione, they've been made dumbfounded again. It was as if both the real Johnny and Baby that pictured in their storyboard.

The progress when Baby made in her practice dance. The way Johnny taught Baby to dance. The chemistry between both of them.

Every time they finished the shooting, Ione would always come to him or asking him for an acting course in the resort's restaurant with everyone else.

But in the end, they both were the last ones who left. Sometimes they flirted at each other and sometimes they almost crossed that friend boundaries they created. But they knew and immediately backed away, pretending that thing never happened.

Al was a bit pissed, he pissed at Ione. He pissed at her ignorance of the state of his mind.

Then he pissed at him because he pissed at her who pissed him off. Fuck, his mind was so messy right now.

Fortunately, it did not hinder his performance, both of his dance and his acting.

He was sure it kept worsen. Even his call with Gwen became distant. Nothing wrong with her of course, it's just he felt guilty.

With how well the shooting was going on, they would end the shot in December, right before Christmas and before the first snow would fall in Virginia.

Mary only appeared once on the shooting, kissing him goodbye, then left again. The only producer left here was Quentin.

He was so damn good at his job as a producer. On the shooting set of <Three Man and A Baby>, if not because of his managing skill, they could extend the shooting schedule for another week.

Thankfully he could do it as scheduled.

The cast was almost the same as in his previous life. The only changed was there is no Jennifer Grey or Patrick Swayne.

Today was another shot of him doing a training dance in the room.

Because they have been shooting since dawn, Ione felt really tired and decided to be playful with him.

Not only that, because Ione and Al still in high school, they need a class of at least 3 hours per school day so Ione must be really tired to do this every single day.

In the previous film he was starred in, Al was just too smart and he just bribed the tutor and asked to a test directly. But Ione was not. Ione still needed to follow the curriculum that the tutor and school made.

On the warm-up, before the shooting began, she crawled like a sexy cat and approached him who was sitting on the floor.

Emile the director became intrigued decided to let the camera rolled and let it play without them knowing it.

When the first day of the shooting, Emile did encourage the actors and actresses to improvise and one of the moments was this.

Al was just staring at Ione at amusement, but he still kept his act together, without knowing the camera has been filming them. Then he decided to play along with her, flirting with her after she called him lover boy.

They both acted without knowing that the camera has been rolled. The intimate scene and sexual inuendos made them looked like a real lover.

Their pheromones were so thick and almost everyone in the set felt hot all of sudden in this cold weather.

Emile knew that this scene starting to get out of control and decided to stop them.

"CUT!! Nice both of you,"

"What!?" Al and Ione heard Emile saying Cut just realized that everything has been recorded in the film and suddenly felt embarrassed.

"You has started filming?" He asked, "Why didn't I hear 'action'?"

"Sorry Al, Ione, but I think the scene was okay, and it was so natural. Don't worry, keep it like that but can you reduce the sexual tension. I think almost everyone here was turned on by two of you."

Their face got scarlet red and unable to look at each other eyes.

Ione finally break the silence and said, "Sorry, it's not my intention, I think the month of doing dirty dancing has made it some kind of habit."

"Me too, Ione, sorry." He said in guilt but he did not regret what he was doing. In fact, he felt very fine with it.

Then something inside him stirred. He knew something also going on in her. He wondered if Ione had the same urges as him.

Or is it just him?

Finally, the scene was finished and the shooting was half from the completion. It was in early November and the shooting was faster than they predicted.

Emile decided to let them have a week's break because the intensity of the shooting and the cold weather affected almost all of them.

One surprise for him and Ione was Robin came to this Mountain Lake Lodge, uninvited.

Then he just remembered that he had promised Robin to accompany her to England. Helping Stanley with post-production.

He knew then her purpose here was to pick him out and flew straight ahead to England.

When she came, Ione was so excited to have her friend here. Too bad they only had one day to be together

"Miss me?" She said while having Ione in her arms.

He flicked her forehead and pretended to get angry, "Not really, because of your plan months ago, Ione and I got into trouble." Then he smiled and spread his arms wide open. "Of course I miss you, Roby."

Robin got off from Ione then crashed into him, "Me too, I really miss you both."

"Hey, I'm going to give Robin a tour of this resort, do you want to come?" Ione said.

"Nah, you both have quality time here, I will have this minx for a whole week in England. I will join everyone in the bar tonight. Maybe after you had done touring, you can come and join us, there should be another round of rehearsal tonight."

"Rehearsal?" Robin questioned.

"I'll explain it in our walk, come on Roby." She said with a smile and dragged Robin off with her confused face.

Al saw them both leave and had a conflicted look on his face, his sight was focused on Ione's back. Today's shot had again disturbed the feelings he had for her.

Everyone on the set was asking them if they were a couple and kept it a secret after they finished those scenes.

Of course, both of them denied it and they knew Al and Ione didn't want to talk about it further. So they kept their mouth shut.

He turned around and left for the party they held on the bar.

Although the atmosphere was filled with excitement, people drinking and dancing, and the loud disco music, Al did not enjoy it at all.

His heart went numb and only a glass of ginger ale on his hand could help soothe it. Although he wished he was already 18 and hoped he could drink himself with whisky or vodka.

Looking at the clock on the wall that showed 11.51 pm, he excused himself out of the bar and went wandering off the resort.

He found himself facing the bright reflection of a half-moon on the Mountain Lake that he believed would dry in the early 21st century.

He read that in the future, there would be a statue of Patrick Swayze in the middle of the dried lake.

He giggled to himself and wondered if they would make a statue of himself if he died.

"What's so funny?"

"Who's there?"

"'Tis I, Sir Robin came to your aid." She said.

He laughed, "Oh, Sir Robin, I wonder why are you here. Where's the maid you shall protect with your life."

She also smiled, "Ione was so tired because of the shooting today and decided to call it a day. I asked everyone about you and they said you are going in this direction. What happened? You and Ione were so weird today."

"Is it that obvious?"

"Not really, but I know both of you very well. Something is going on right?"

Al didn't answer immediately, he paused for a while before he asked, "Robin, is there something called friendship between man and woman?"

"You, asking me something like that? I'm not even sure if you are my Al or an alien who shapeshift into you."

"Are you making a reference on <Lifeforce> film we watched last year?" He asked with his eyebrow rose.

She laughed, "Haha, good film, right? Ridiculous but fun to watch."

"So... you and Ione huh, I'm not even surprised."

"Are you mad?" He asked.

She did not say anything but approach him and punch his face. She hit hard. Any normal people would stumble to the ground but not him. He was sturdy like a bolt.

"Ouch, but I deserve that though."

"Yeah, you do."

Both of them did not speak anymore and were confused about what to say. Al took one of the stones on the ground that had a flat surface and threw it to the river.

It made an arc and when it landed on the surface of the water, it bounced up until it made 3 bounces before it sank to the bottom of the lake.

Robin also followed and threw the stone until it made 5 bounce. Both of them compete until Al won with 8 bounce while she was 7.

Robin let out a frustrated howl and he chuckled at it. "Relax Roby, it's just a game. It's not like Nimue will come and ask if we lost the golden or silver stone."

"It can be happening. Remember we saw King George's ghost and Bloody Mary in that palace. Maybe Merlin is still staying in Avalon or Nimue is still on that lake?"

Her face seemed serious when she asked that before it broke into laughter, soon followed by him.

"Maybe it's just a sporious moment. Look, you and Ione had liked each other for a long time. She's fucking confessed to you! I saw the script and it's not weird if both of you fell at each other. Heck, I believe any girl who will become the leading actress will be falling in love with you."

"So, What am I supposed to do? I can't just say cliched things like, 'hey I can't decide who I'm going to fall in love with'. Fuck, I look like those people in the cheating story on that site?"

"In the what?"

"I mean, in those cliched movies." He immediately corrected.

She wanted to probe more about what he said about "sites" but she decided to ignore it.

She looked at him from toes to the end of his hair, "Shit, sometimes I forget you are just like any other man. Stop thinking with your dick, dumbhead."

"Hey, that's sexist."

"Only men can be sexist, women can't." That earned her a groan from him, "But... I know you are the type of person who can fall in love with many women, ED."

"Am I really that bad in your image, Roby? I thought we were friends." His face turned ugly and guilty.

She laughed hard at him, "But seriously, you are an amazing person, bruh. Many women would be lined up to be on a date with you. The question here is, are you really fell for Ione?"

"I... don't fucking know. I just feel like I like her, I want to hold her, kiss her..." He then looked at Robin, his next words might offend her.

"Fuck her?" She scoffed.

"Making love to her." He corrected, "Shit, why did I suddenly feel like a teenager."

She was confused at first before she repeated the sentence he spoken before, "ED, we ARE teenagers."

Al opened his mouth but no words coming from it. Then his mind suddenly cleared up, "Yeah, you are right."

"What's right? You okay ED?"

"No, I'm so fucking confused but you are right. We are teenagers. Maybe my hormones start to act up. Shit, I haven't had sex for a month and my urges started to acting up."

"Damn, don't say it in front of girls ED." He scoffed and said, "You're not a girl Roby."

"Asshole." She rolled her eyes, "Oh, by the way, are you having a problem with Gwen? She said you haven't called her for a long time."

"Yes, but it's not her fault, it's mine. This dirty dancing thing is dangerous, I liked Ione, Roby. But these dirty dancing things made me lust after her."

"Wow... shit."

"Yeah, shit."

"Are you okay with Gwen?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Did she give you the head?"

He coughed and decided to play ignorance, "Huh? What do you mean Roby?"

She scoffed, "Did she not give you a blowjob?"

His eyes widened and he thought she was joking. She did not and he could tell, "She did, why the hell I'm telling you this?"

"Did you eat her? Did you both satisfied with each other performance? Did sex is the only thing both of you had in this relationship?"

He sighed and answered it all, "Yes, yes, and yes, Roby."

"Then that's the problem. The only you two did was sex and you had very little emotional connection. Tell her everything, ED. Tell her all of your problems, maybe she can solve it and reduce your fuck intensity when you are with her." She said.

He looked at her face and smiled, "Yeah, your right. Thanks, Roby."

He was looking at her like a proud dad and made her pissed.

"What's up with that look?"

"Nothing, it's just... our position reversed now. I didn't realize you've grown."

"I just felt responsibility is not my thing. I rather have you do it. Now go back to being normal ED!"

"So, about Ione..."

"Well, you like her, and today she was dazzling. I bet most of the guys here fell for her right away. But make sure you set boundaries in the future, she's mine."

"What's up with your plan a few months back to have a three-way relationship with me?"

"That was a mistake you know. I just got my period and I'm not thinking straight."

"Well, you are not s8."

"Gosh, fuck off." She giggled, "Oh yeah, tomorrow we're going to England right?"

"Yeah, Vi said the post-production would begin early October. Are you sure you want to learn under Stanley, he was a nightmare you know?"

"Hmph, unlike you, Stanley favored me."

"He did?"

"Of-" Before she could finish her sentence, they heard the sound of bushes rustling at each other and saw a person was falling from there.

He gave an awkward laugh and with a rush he stuttered, "H-hey, guys. I swear I just arrived here. I didn't hear your conversation about Ione or anythi-- Oh shit, I just blew that up didn't I." He cringed.

"QUENTIN!!" Al groaned.

To Be Continued...

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