Tyler took me aside.
“Look, these guys are the scum of the industry. We can press charges, or try to get some quick cash out of them. I vote for cash,” she told me.
“Cash is good. You take care of it, and I’ll meet you at Jade.”
I left Tyler to do her scary-lawyer bit. The Jade rep seemed like a nice man. We went back to the offices and they turned out to be more of a warehouse. They were designing the clothes on site, and they had a corner set up to do photo shoots.
It was pretty much what I expected. It was very Abercrombie in style. I put on everything, from ripped jeans and wrinkled t-shirts, to swimsuits, to sports jackets. When we were done, they had a check ready for me. I sent a text to Tyler, and she said she was thirty minutes away.
I sat down with the photographer, and he pointed out the problem shots, the ones that showed a stupid look, or my eyes closed. I agreed they were all the ones I would ask to be deleted, but I needed Tyler to authorize it since I wasn’t eighteen yet. We were just finishing when she came in clutching a big bag. She shoved it into my hands and then worked with the photographer.
Tyler made me more money ... again! Because I was on time at the first location, I was owed a show-up fee. When the location was changed, and I did the shoot, I was owed for actually working. So they had to write me a check for the show-up fee. Of course, it was written to Ford. Tyler had the bad shots deleted, and then she signed off.
She took me back to their place. When she got into their apartment, she collapsed into a chair.
“Open the bag,” she told me.
I did and about dropped it. It was full of bundles of hundred-dollar bills. I got a big grin on my face and began to laugh.
“Crap, Tyler, what did you do?”
“You being a minor caused them some problems. I guess what they’ve been doing is lucrative because they had much more than that on hand. That was so much fun. I haven’t gotten to be a badass lawyer in a long time. I can’t believe people fall for their shtick.”
“Newbies don’t know any better. They made it sound very reasonable. If I hadn’t been on a few jobs, I might have fallen for it,” I admitted. “How much money is there?”
She told me. I now had enough to buy the Jeep. She put the money into Adrienne’s safe. She said she would take it to the bank tomorrow and wire my portion into my business account. She wrote up an invoice for her time today and gave me the checks to give to Tiffany. I needed to get back, so we said our goodbyes. I asked her to give my regards to Adrienne.
I FOUND TIFFANY IN the office downstairs.
“You must have made an impression. Jade wants you back tomorrow. They also want us to send over a few girls to work with you. I want to send the new girls with you so they get the experience of a casting call.” She looked at the checks. “How come you got paid twice?”
“There was a problem at the first location. We had to move it to their offices.”
“There has to be story there. Hang on and I’ll get the girls down so you can meet them. They might as well learn something today while they’re at it.”
While she did that, I went to the kitchen and grabbed some fruit. I needed some quick energy. I was going to have to go grocery shopping, or I might starve on model food. I was stuffing my face when I heard.
“There you are, sexy boy.”
It could only be Kat. I turned around and she was standing in the doorway, barefoot and in short shorts and a silk t-shirt with no bra. Boy, did she look good!
“Kat! I’m so glad you made it. We’re going to have fun for the next three weeks.”
She came up and gave me a kiss on my cheek, and then took my hand.
“Everyone’s ready,” Kat told me.
We walked in and I guess what Kat was wearing was some sort of uniform because they all had on similar outfits. Mr. Happy tried to take control. He recognized a target-rich environment when he saw one. Damn.
“Oh, good, David’s here,” Tiffany started the meeting. “David was at Jade doing a job. We’ll talk about it in a moment. I want formally to introduce everyone.
“Let’s start with the lone male. This is David. He’s under contract as the face for Range Sports. He’s also currently on the air with his ad for Red. David’s by far the most experienced model here, so if you have questions, please ask him.
“Katrina or ‘Kat’ is from our Paris office and lives in the UK. As it happens, she has worked with David on a Range shoot. Next is Sasha, who’s also from our Paris office. She was just signed two weeks ago.”
Sasha had a dark complexion, or she was deeply tanned. She was a striking brunette with deep brown eyes I could see falling into. She had an air of sophistication about her that made me think she could do very well in Europe.
“Sarah is from our Chicago office. She signed six weeks ago.”
Sarah was your blond bombshell with piercing blue eyes. She also had a quick smile that made you like her.
“Olivia and Courtney are both from our New York office, and I’m their agent. They were both found at our open casting in May.”
They were brunettes. Olivia looked like a Russian princess and Courtney had some Asian ancestry mixed in. All five of the girls had the looks to be models. The question would be if they could perform in front of the camera.
“David, please tell us about your day,” Tiffany said.
“Tiffany told me this morning I had three jobs lined up when I got here. Range Sports wants me to do a store appearance and then some catalog work. I also had a shoot lined up for Jade this afternoon. When I first got started as a model, a photographer gave me great advice. He told me always show up on time, follow directions, and never sign the release until you see the check.
“When I got to the studio, they wanted me to sign a blank release as soon as I got there. One of my agents taught me I should tell them I’m not authorized to sign anything. I normally have someone with me who handles that. We had a little mix-up this morning and didn’t have anyone available. So we had to get a last-minute replacement, and she was running late.
“These guys made it sound perfectly reasonable to get the release signed so they could get started. If I had done that, any shots or videos taken today on their premises were theirs to use. So, if they would’ve had a video camera set up in my dressing room, they could plaster my images all over the net. I would also be violating the terms of my contract with Ford if there was any nudity.
“Something else you do before you sign a release is to review every shot. A good photographer will point out the ones you’ll want them to delete. Make sure they’re deleted off both the camera and the PC.
“So let’s get back to today. Once my chaperone arrived, she stopped them and demanded to see any images of me they had taken so far. Sure enough, they had me on video in my dressing room.”
The news seemed to upset the girls.
“Before you worry, this is the first time anything like this has happened to me. So when the Jade rep showed up, he pulled the plug on using their studio. We went back to their corporate offices and did the job there.”
“Tell them why you got paid twice,” Tiffany told me.
“When you show up to a shoot, and it doesn’t happen for whatever reason, you’re paid a portion of your fee just for being there. So I got paid for showing up at the studio, and then again for going to their corporate offices and doing the shoot there.”
“But isn’t that just like a location change?” Olivia asked.
“It would have been if they hadn’t canceled the first shoot,” Tiffany told her. “David must have done a good job today because he’s been called back to work again tomorrow. They’re also looking for someone to partner with him, so in the morning all of you are going to the casting call with him.”