Everyone has secrets. His just happened to be that he hasn’t kept in touch with any of his closest friends in years and that immediately made him a horrible friend. There were calls and texts and they went unanswered because after a three hour concert for eight months straight around the world, combined with jet lag and mixing in practice and soundcheck, the little sight-seeing and interviews and press, he was just exhausted. For the past three weeks, he felt like all he’d done was sleep. And it was the best thing he’d ever experienced in his life.

He liked not having to wake up at ungodly hours for a flight somewhere; he loved it even more when he woke up to his mother cooking something heavenly for his stomach.

At 24, Ross Lynch was now, officially, a household name. Posters of his face lined young girls’ walls, his autograph on any kind of piece of paper was sold for amounts he couldn’t and wouldn’t even pay for, and he was hailed as the next Channing Tatum...whatever that meant. R5 was right in the boat with him. Riker was getting back into acting, Rocky was writing and playing for rock stars that Ross was envious of, Rydel was studying her ass off for a degree that he admired her for and Ratliff was, well, Ratliff and was being awesome at everything.

Finally rolling out of bed, it was the first day that he got up before noon and it felt weird. There was no smell of breakfast or even any commotion that he could hear downstairs. Peaking out of the door to the hallway, he smirked to himself. He had done it; on his own -- he got up before the alarm clock and before anyone else. He needed to put that on the calendar to commemorate it. A shower woke him up and drinking half of the orange juice in the fridge got him even more ready for the day ahead of him -- a day of auditions.

After arriving home from their (insanely) long world tour -- the fans kept asking for more dates and cities, so R5 gave it to them -- and after nearly three weeks of rest, he was now getting back into the acting game like Riker. His agent had lined up a string of auditions for today and he only prayed that the LA traffic would be kind to him. Grabbing a few extra granola bars for the road, Ross picked up the keys and his phone with his schedule and headed for the door. Next stop: waiting room hell.

+++

Two hours. He had two hours to get to the other side of town for a last minute audition his agent just called him about during rush hour -- which let’s face it, was all damn day in Los Angeles. The funny thing about this though was that “across town” meant two blocks and it would still take him at least an hour to get to it, if not longer.

Looking down at the sides once again, Ross questioned if this role would even be worth auditioning for. It wasn’t a hard hitting role like he had told his agent he wanted. It wasn’t even a character who had a name. It was just a role that could, emphasis on could, turn into a recurring gig. He wasn’t looking for recurring. He was looking for a guest spot or a movie. Getting up and approaching the call desk, he asked about how much longer and explained his situation. He knew this was a steady show and it could be a good thing for him, but he reminded himself about the other 15 people sitting around him, dressed just like him, and decided that this really wasn’t for him. It was for one of them. As the assistant crossed his name off the list (where he was actually next) and radioed in the update to producers, Ross bolted from the room and raced to his car to get to the next one. The one that he knew nothing about and hoped and prayed it was worth it. The only description he got from his agent was that it was a movie about “disappearing people”.

Waving to security on his way out, sunglasses were on and rock music blasting, Ross raced the two blocks to the audition and as if luck was actually on his side for this role, was there in twenty minutes.

“Thank you LA,” he muttered to himself, walking across the studio grounds to stage five instead of a blank and stale green room where he was used to auditions being held in. These studios weren’t part of his old stomping grounds, but he loved them just the same. Streets of New York passed by him and him, in his leather jacket, looked like he actually belonged there. Maybe for real one day.

Checking his watch, Ross was impressed. It was like time and fate finally got along for him and got him there not only in twenty minutes time but at least a half hour before his audition. It was almost perfect. Nodding to passersby and double checking the stage number, he took a deep breath and headed inside.

“Hi, Ross Lynch,” he told the assistant at the table and looked around for any other sign of actors auditioning for the day.

“Welcome Mr. Lynch. They’re almost ready. Here are your sides. You’ll be reading with the director today.”

“No other cast members?”

“No. They haven’t been cast yet. Everything about this movie is being held inside a vault inside another vault inside another one. Even though I’m still just an assistant, I don’t even know the actual summary for the film. I don’t even think the producers do.”

“Wow. Super secret,” Ross smirked and started to look through the sides.

“Do you want any water?”

“I’m good...actually, yea. If you don’t mind.”

“It’s my job. Be right back,” the assistant said and hurried off to wherever craft services were.

The sides weren’t long and the assistant was right, not even the scene he held in his hand gave away anything about the real plot. All he knew was that he would be reading for the part of Rory, as indicated on the stop of the pages. He had to wonder and hope that this Rory was a guy. Skimming the lines over again, he had to admit that he was definitely intrigued.

“Here you go,” the assistant came back with the water and Ross nodded in thanks.

Rory furrows his brow, rising up against the advisor.

Rory: It’s been five months since you told us that. Why are we still here?

Advisor: You’re here for a reason.

Rory: What reason? You’ve given us nothing to answer any of our questions!

Rory is angry and raises his voice, pacing between the Advisor and his friends from the Ten.

Advisor: You are free to leave. We have no hold on you.

Rory: Are you kidding me?

Advisor: You’ve always had the option of leaving us. We can not keep you against your will.

Rory: You’ve kept us against our will for 6 months. You kidnapped us from our timelines, from our families, from our lives with no reason, and no explanation. We’ve been sitting around here waiting for you to give us orders on something because you implied we were all here for something. Something big and something life changing. [He brushes his hair back, frustrated and looks back to GIRL].

Rory: Now, you’re telling me, telling all of us that we’re not here for anything?

Advisor: Yes.

[Rory lunges at the Advisor, not caring for his actions. He wants answers]

Ross blinked at the end of the page. A fight, yes! He had no clue what this movie was about and even if he screwed this audition up, which he wouldn’t, he wanted to do something with this movie. A song, an endorsement, a screening, something. It was interesting and the plot, cast and everything else being under more locks and keys than Star Wars was giving him a feeling it was going to be insanely good.

“Mr. Lynch,” the assistant got his attention once again. “They’re ready for you.”

“Thanks,” he got up to go inside the stage and once inside, was truly surprised once again on how it wasn’t a stale room. Decked out in Christmas decorations that he assumed were for another movie or television series, his eyes scattered before landing on just three people in the room -- the director, and two others.

“Hi Ross, I’m...”

“Stevenson Long,” Ross completed his sentence for him. “Sorry. I’m a big fan. It’s great to meet you.”

“Great to meet you as well. I feel I could sing your whole album,” the director admitted to him. “My daughter has not stopped playing it since it came out. I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m kind of ready for an hour without an R5 song.”

Ross laughed at his confession. “Sometimes, I feel the same way, sir.”

“This is Patricia, our producer and Ryan, our casting director. As a team, we’ll be making all the final cast decisions. Are you ready?”

“Yes, I’m ready.”

Stevenson smiled, his glasses coming down from his forehead to his nose. “Let’s get started.”

+++

“You guys, I got it!” Riker bursted into his parents home, jumping on the coffee table and blocked the view to the television from his youngest brother, Ryland’s view.

“You got what?” Ryland asked with Stormie, Mark and Rocky peering in from the kitchen.

“Putzie! I got Putzie. I’m going to be in Grease!” Riker started dancing on the coffee table, not really caring if he would break it. It’s not like they couldn’t afford to replace it.

“Should I expect a ‘Grease Lightning’ performance in the next few minutes?”

“No, but you could be a little more excited for me, Ry.”

“Sure. Give me ten minutes when this show is done,” he tilted his head and continued his show as Riker got down from the table and wandered into the kitchen.

“I, for one, am happy for you, Riker,” Stormie gave her oldest son a kiss on the cheek.

“Thanks Mom,” he grabbed a slice of cucumber she was cutting for a salad and munched on it. “I’m really excited about it. I know people don’t want a remake or anything, but the cast is kind of phenomenal. I mean, we’ve got Joey Pollari as Danny and Elizabeth Olsen as Marty. And Ross is going to flip when he finds out that Sofia is going to be my Jan.”

“Sofia? Sofia Carson?” Rocky asked and Riker nodded. “Oh, he’s going to flip alright. He’d flip even more if it was Raini.”

“Who’s Sandy?” Mark inquired.

“She’s being announced tomorrow. But she’s amazing too. I actually wished I got Danny all because of her.”

“But you still got Sofia.”

“Yes,” Riker smiled, putting a hand to his heart. “I got Sofia.”

The family talked for a bit about Riker’s new role, which Ryland joined in on, still wanting a performance of “Grease Lightning” just to annoy him, before Ross joined them again. Rydel, as a college student, was staying on campus more and crashing with friends rather than make the trip over to the valley each and every day. It saved her time and money in the long run.

As they sat down to dinner, which consisted of leftovers from the fridge and a yummy salad thrown together with even less cucumber slices than normal, the talk never died down. Not a rarity in the Lynch family, but today it was more about actin, new roles and new ventures. It wasn’t about new R5 music -- and when Ross told them about the story Stevenson Long told him, they all had a good laugh.

“When do you think you’ll hear anything?”

“I honestly have no clue,” Ross admitted when his dad asked him about his audition for the unnamed movie. “They have everything so locked down and it’s all speculative. But the other audition I had earlier in the morning, I’ll know by next week.”

“I’m proud of you boys,” Stormie confessed. “Doing things that are just amazing. So proud.”

Riker gave her a kiss to her forehead. “We love you too, Mom.”