"What?"

Kelsey didn't remember having risen to her feet, but she must have, because now everyone was looking up at her, startled at how loud her voice was.

Robin King, the director, Al Cohn, the assistant director, and their assistants were staring at her, looking uncomfortable, but not too surprised, Kelsey noticed.

They were in Robin's office at the studio, where she'd been called for a "little meeting" before shooting that day. Kelsey had no idea what it was about, but assumed it was something to do with the pool scenes, which were coming up the following week. Obviously they couldn't use the actual Olympic venue in Rio, especially given its current conditions. There had been no maintenance since the summer games, and it was a rust and algae filled mess. The nearest covered pool that could substitute was in Pasadena, which was where they'd be filming.

Robin and Al exchanged glances before the director looked back at Kelsey. Her look wasn't without sympathy.

"I'm sorry, Kels, but this was a business decision, pure and simple." She shrugged. "It came from upstairs." She gestured to the chair. "Come on, kid, sit down."

"You don't want me to swim?"Kelsey kept her voice down with difficulty, and took her seat. "But it's a movie about fucking swimming! I mean, how's that going to work?"

Al took over the talking. "They got permission from the IOC to use some stock footage from the games," he said. Robin and Al's assistants, Cami and Travis, looked nervous and embarrassed, like they wished they were anywhere but here.

"Right, I get that, but what about for the close ups, for the starts and finishes and things?" Kelsey stared back and forth between Al and Robin, who looked back at her impassively. "I spent the entire fucking summer preparing for this! I hired a coach and spent six hours a day in a pool learning to swim, you guys know that, right?"

"Yes, and you look phenomenal as a result," Robin said. "You look like a legit swimmer, so that was money well spent, no matter what, don't you think?" She nodded encouragingly at Kelsey. "It's like having a college education or whatever, it's knowledge, a skill you have, a benefit to your body, and no one can ever take it away from you--"

"Oh, spare me the condescending platitudes, please!" Kelsey retorted. "I worked my ass off for months--" she broke off as a new thought occurred to her. "How long have you known?"

Again, Robin and Al exchanged glances.

"No," Kelsey said. "Are you fucking kidding me? Have you known since the beginning? And you let me spend my entire summer exhausted and smelling like chlorine? Why?"

"We didn't think you'd take the part," Al admitted. "Ray said you were looking for something really serious, a challenge, so people would stop looking at you as a sex kitten or whatever. But the producers really wanted you, and they said to do whatever we had to do to make it happen."

"It's happened to the best actors," Robin was saying. "I mean, it happened to Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, for Christ's sake! She worked on her singing so hard, then found out that she was dubbed over by Marni Nixon! And I don't think Audrey even found out until it was over."

"She knew," Kelsey said, her voice soft.

"What?" Robin leaned forward.

"Audrey Hepburn. She found out on set. She walked out, but came back the next day and apologized to everyone. She was a class act," Kelsey clarified.

"So, there you go," Al said. He took a sip of his latte.

"And Jennifer Bealls with her dancing in Flashdance," Robin added.

"Hold on, Jennifer Bealls knew, well beforehand," Kelsey retorted. "She was in on it."

Kelsey again looked at the people across the table from her, eyes narrowed. She finally shook her head.

"There's something else," she said. "There's something you're not telling me. What is it?"

Robin rolled her eyes. "Shit," she said, taking a drink of her own coffee. She looked again at Al. "She's going to find out anyway."

She sighed and looked at Kelsey. "We're going to shoot the starts, finishes and close-ups with Marian Lowell."

"What do you mean?" Kelsey was confused. "How? I mean, why? You already have tons of footage of her, from the actual games, right?"

Then she got it. "Wait a minute. Are you saying you're going to film her? Next week? In the pool? Instead of me?"

"Like I said, Kels, the decision came from upstairs, you know?" Robin said. "This is a big budget picture, with awards potential. The scenes will look so much more real, so much more professional, if it's Marian swimming." She placed a hand on Kelsey's arm, reaching across the small table to do so. "It's called 'show business' for a reason, am I right?"

Kelsey yanked her arm out from under Robin's hand. "How? I'm the one playing the part! It will be so obvious that it's someone else in the water for the starts and finishes! You might as well have hired Marian to play the fucking part!"

She took a deep breath, trying to keep herself under control. "You know what this does to me," she said to the older woman. "You know. To be 'body-doubled' takes away any credibility I have!" She spoke now to both of them, unable to keep the hurt out of her voice. "It's worse than lip-synching a live song, it's like cheating on a test!

"Hold on, does Ray know?" She stared at Al and Robin, who shook their heads.

"But before you get any ideas about calling him, or getting your lawyers or agents or whatever involved, this is all in your contract," Robin said. She sounded tired. "I mean, it's not in your contract." She looked at Kelsey. "It doesn't say in your contract that you have to do all of your own stunts, and swimming in this movie qualifies as a stunt, which means we can get anyone we want to do it."

So they'd checked, Kelsey realized. They'd covered their own asses.

"And Marian has agreed to this?" Kelsey couldn't believe it.

Robin nodded.

"The studio explained that you'd be basically cutting my part in the movie, and she agreed?" Kelsey persisted.

Robin nodded again. "She's known since the beginning, and they told her they'd pay for her to work with your coach if she needed to brush up on anything to get ready."

"Wait a minute." Suddenly Kelsey found it hard to breathe. "Are you saying that Jack LaGuardia knew about this too?"

But both of them were shaking their heads. "No, no," Al said, draining his cup and handing it to Cami with a small smile of thanks. "Unless Marian's talked to him about it, no one from the studio has, I know that."

Kelsey relaxed, then she shook her head. "I just can't believe you guys lied to me," she said, knowing as she spoke how naive and weak her words sounded. "And ambushing me like this, telling me when I'm all alone? Very classy."

"We didn't lie, we just didn't correct your misapprehension," Al said. He wouldn't look her in the eye.

"Shame on you, Al," Kelsey said, rising again. She walked to the door, opened it, and turned around. "I'm not feeling well, so I won't be on set today," she told her director and assistant director. "I know this puts us behind schedule, and I'm sorry. Maybe you can get Marian Lowell come in and film my scenes for me, hm?"

And she turned and left.

************************

"Kelsey? Where are you?" Jack called, setting his equipment back down in the laundry room before entering the house. It was barely one o'clock, and he should've been sitting in class, but Kelsey's text had brought him home on the run.

"In here," she answered from the living room.

She rose to hug him, hard, not wanting to let go, upset but dry-eyed. There was a wine glass on the table in front of her.

"I'm sorry I asked you to cut class," she said as they sat together.

"In college we don't really call it 'cutting' anymore," he assured her. "We can skip once in a while, not a big deal.

"And anyway, that's not important," he went on. "Can they really do that to you? Just cut you out like that?" He looked intently at her.

"Unfortunately, yeah, they can," she said, nodding grimly. "It's not that unusual, actually, to change things and not tell the actors until the last minute."

"Have you talked to Ray?" Jack asked, smoothing her hair.

Kelsey nodded. "He's looking into it, but there's not much we can do. If it were the opposite, where they were asking me to do something and I didn't want to? That would be easier to deal with, but something like this, especially when there's nothing specifically in my contract that says they'll let me do it?" She shrugged. "It's not really a big deal to anyone."

"Except you," Jack said. "You worked your butt off, Kelsey!" He was indignant.

Kelsey smiled at him. "Thank you, Jack. Thank you for being upset on my behalf. You don't know how much it means to me."

"And what on earth was Marian thinking to agree to this?" Jack wondered out loud. "We should call her, you know? Get her over here so we can talk to her in person."

Kelsey shook her head. "How would that help? She saw a chance to be in the movie, and she took it. Why wouldn't she?" Kelsey didn't mention the part about working with Jack, because she didn't want to sound like a baby again, like spoiled brat who couldn't stand for her boyfriend to spend time with other women. She did wonder, though, if the idea of spending time with Jack was an incentive to Marian.

"She's your friend, Kels, a nice person, she couldn't have known that agreeing to do this would hurt you in any way..." he trailed off uncertainly.

Kelsey smiled at him. "Oh, Jack," she finally said, smoothing his curly hair. "She agreed to do this months ago, before we ever met.

"You're so pure, aren't you?" she continued. "I can't believe some evil ogre didn't just gobble you up ages ago, you know?"

"You're the only person I let gobble me, you know that," Jack answered without missing a beat, winking at her.

"Oh, eww, Jack LaGuardia, what is it with you and blow job jokes lately?" Kelsey asked, scrunching up her face as she laughed.

"Just trying to lighten the mood," he said, joining in her laughter. "And trying to show that I'm not the innocent little baby you think I am, you know?

"Will you at least let me send her a text?" Jack asked. "Find out what she knows about all this?"

Kelsey thought about it. "Okay. Let me give you her number."

"No worries, I have it," Jack replied easily, already typing.

Her reply came back almost immediately.

"What? No, Jack, that's not what I was told at all! Bruce Turturicci, one of the producers, told me Kelsey knew all about it and was okay with it, and that they'd cut me in with footage of Kelsey where they needed me, that's all. So I said yes."

"So you could change your mind?" Jack sent back.

"I don't think I can, now," Marian answered. "I've already signed something saying I would. I think it's worded so that they can change their minds about whether or not they want me, but I can't..."

Jack thanked her and turned to Kelsey, who'd read the whole exchange over his shoulder.

"See?" she said. She sounded morose.

"No." Jack put his phone down on the coffee table so he could put both arms around Kelsey. "We can't just let this go. You can do this. You worked so hard, so hard, Kels!" He rubbed his chin on top of her head.

"And to add to what I was saying before?" Kelsey said. "Thanks for understanding how important this is to me. Ray, my lawyer, even my parents, were like, 'Oh well, it's done. And she's a good swimmer, so it won't be embarrassing for you,' like it's no big deal, you know?"

She sat up to look in Jack's hazel eyes, eyes which focused on her intently.

"I wanted so much to stop being just a pretty face, to show that I could do this, all of this, and it takes away an entire layer of my performance if they stunt out the swimming, even if it is to the original athlete. I mean, they have to use the original footage from the Olympics, we can't recreate that, I get it, but they fucking lied to me to keep me in my 'movie starlet' mold, you know? They're basically saying that they never believed I could do it." She blinked at Jack, who nodded.

"But you believe I could have? Jack? You think I was good enough?" Kelsey asked.

Jack nodded firmly. "You were. You are."