I feel giddy seeing my performan the puter se. I know I'm only a novice when it es to ag, and I have a lot of scope for improvement, but it was surreal, yet exg seeing myself out there.

  “Hmm,” Dad hummed thoughtfully, “Total length es out to be 52 minutes.”

  I beamed, “Isn’t that good? We won’t have to edit this much as it is already pretty close to 45 minutes.”

  He shook his head, “That’s not how it works. Currently, there are some shots that o be shortened. If the movie drags unnecessarily, people will get bored while watg. We have to shorten this further. My goal currently is to shorten it as much as I without promising with script or viewing experience..”

  That did make some sense I guess.

  “That’s enough work for today,” Steve announced.

  I was a little startled by his decration. Seeing my rea, he smiled, “It’s been more than three hours Troy.”

  Then he showed me his wristwatd yup it had been more than three hours alright.

  “e on. You have to do your vocal and Guitar practice as well.”

  “Alright, alright. Let’s go.” I acquiesced thinking about the practice I was supposed to do.

  My lessons are actually very simple. Every Saturday, I take up an hour each of vocal and guitar lessons. Then during the week, I have to practice the same. I try to practice for at least an hour every weekday.

  Though from what it seems I’ll have to cut short the time as we got carried away editing the movie.

  (Break)

  It wasn’t until January 1998 that Steve told me about the success of Harry Potter books. The Philosopher’s Stone had sold more than 100,000 copies in the UK till that point and hopefully, the trend will tinue when it is released in the US. However, from what Steve told me, we ot pitch the idea to any major studio until they see a rea in the US market.

  The problem here lies in the fact that a big produ with hundreds of millions of dolrs would be difficult to recover from the UK market alone. So until the book bees a hit in the US as well, the studios will pnecessary restris on the produ. So it would be better to wait for a couple years at least.

  Also in January, I officially turned 9. Yeah, yeah, I know, not a big deal. You’re just 9 and ’t drink, drive, or fuck. True.

  But if you look at things optimistically, I am already halfway there and within another 9 years, I legally do all three.

  Steve and Kathy threw me a little party where they invited all my cssmates and we had my favorite, chocote truffle cake. While I didn’t like many people besides Evan, I tolerated them and always acted polite.

  If I do bee a successful actor iure, I don’t want spiteful children to harp on to the media about how I was aloof and arrogant.

  Evan, being the best pal that he is, gifted me a set of guitar picks and strings. It was a very thoughtful gift as he had observed the brand and size of my guitar before the strings.

  And of course, the best gift I received was that our short film, ‘Sex Education’ had been submitted by my parents to the Sundance Film Festival to be held this month between January 16th and 26th.

  They had po take me to Salt Lake City, Utah for a period of four days from the 16th to the 19th. I’d miss two days of school, but it wasn’t much at this year's level, with me being top of our css.

  Evan wao apany me badly and had even begged his own parents to let him e with me. Unfortunately for him, our parents expio his parents the tent of the film and why it wouldn’t be good for a child who is not the star of the movie to go there and watch it.

  As expected, his parents put a stop to all his begging by not allowing him to apany us to Sunda was a nightmare to see him moping for a week after that day.

  (Time Skip-2 weeks)

  The wait was agonizing. While I was allowed to visit the Sundance Festival, I was given one of the two optioher I could go visit the festival during the premiere of our short film or wait for the ending ceremony to visit during the award ceremony. I had deliberated hard. I khe film was good, but I didn’t have high expectations of it receiving an award.

  Keeping that in mind, I decided to just go see the premiere to gauge the audience's rea. And what a rea it was.

  (Fshback)

  I eagerly sat in the sing hall with my parents oher side of me and Bobby and Amy sitting on my mother’s other side. My eyes kept wandering around, the number of people present for the sing. It was a small hall supp only 150 or so seats. Because it was a self-financed short film, it didn’t take much moo s the movie, only 100 or so. Still, for a small hall showing a short film, there were some 40-50 people present.

  Guess it’s true that sex sells.

  Steve had spread the word among a few of his friends that we would be presenting our movie here, so a few executives of produ panies had e to attend the premiere because they knew of Steve’s reputation.

  “How are you doing, Steve?” A burly caucasian man in his te 40s with brown hair came forward and shook hands with the man iion.

  “Peter, so nice of you to join us.” Steve stood up and smiled at the man, “This here is my son Troy who is the star of the movie and you already know my better half.” Steve owards me and Kathy while making the introdus.

  “Troy, this is Peter Jones, he is a film executive at Warner Bros.”

  I shook the man’s hand, “Pleasure to meet you, sir.”

  Peter smiled indulgently, “Well aren’t you the polite oheurned back to the older man, “Steve, I specifically came to see your work, but I hope you uand that short films aren't my forte.”

  His blunt response came out like a surprise. I couldn’t help but smile at that.

  “Yes, I am aware.” Steve answered back with a smile of his own, “This is more for Troy’s sake actually. Just watch the movie and you’ll uand.”

  Before Peter could say anything else a loud voice rang, “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the returning prodigal son and family.” I turned my head sideways to look at the new arrival who was a man of a simir age to Steve. While his words may feel to be harsh, the smirk on the man’s face was anything but malicious.

  “Barry!” Steve excitedly excimed as he hugged the said man.

  “Troy, this is my best friend Barry Mendel. Barry, this is Troy, and of course, you know Kathy aer.” Steve made another round of introdus.

  After exging pleasantries, we all went back to our seats as the time for the film to start finally came.

  As soon as the projector turned on, the s lit with the words, ‘Sex Education, a film by Steve Kloves’.

  The movie started rolling and I watched in fasation as the story unfolded with the three main characters showing a different perspective.

  Mark’s POV (that’s my character) shows the loneliness of a child with overworked parents and the o get any worthwhile attention. Still maintains a happy front for others, especially in the presence of his sister. Whenever alone, he will go back to loneliness.

  From Jenny’s POV, we see the desire of a young woman to be free from the responsibility of her brother and be on her own. At the same, the love she has es before any youthful rebellion. That is especially shown i shot where she shows her decisiveness in following her gut feeling that something wrong was going oween her brother and Dyn.

  Finally, Dyn shows the future of a person like Mark with a ck of good parental figure. If Dyo be successful, then it’s entirely possible that Mark could follow in his footsteps.

  On the surface, it may seem to be about sex, which it is, but it has many deeper uohat have been explored by the director. And all of that is within thirty minutes because the rest of the s time is spent on my and Amy’s respective monologues.

  There was ughter throughout the movie. While the subject was dark, it resented in a humorous way. The only disturbing se was the assault se and its follow-up. My monologue had more than one whistle and catcall and I couldn’t help but feel giddy.

  When I expihe meaning of snogging to the ‘Ameri twats’, there r ughter in the hall. I breathed a sigh of relief. I thought people would be offended. I guess being bad-mouthed by a kid doesn’t seem to be too offensive.

  When the end credit rolled, I didn’t know what to expect. So it was truly a novel experience when all the members in the audieood up and cpped loudly.

  I looked around myself in shock as people were actually looking at me with smiling faces but they didn't stop g.

  For a full five minutes.

  Yes, I checked the time on my wristwatch.

  I turowards my parents to see both of them smiling at me with a proud look on their faces. A sense of aplishment bloomed inside my heart. This robably the best award I could’ve received for this movie.

  After the appuse, the people started moving out one by one, barring a few people. The first to approach us were Bobby and Amy.

  “Woah dude, that was an awesome performance,” Bobby fist-bumped me which I reciprocated. “If only I wasn’t pying such a despicable character.” He sighed in monoyance.

  “And your speech at the end,” He immediately flipped back to being cheerful, “I loved it! I abso- fu..fudging-lutely loved it.” He ged the word at the st moment after receiving a deadly gre from my mother.

  “Thank you,” I answered simply.

  “That was indeed some great ag,” Amy replied from beside her boyfriend. “I loved the whole film a lot. Do you think Steve would give us a copy? I would love to show it to our dramatics css.” She gnced back at Steve who was talking to Peter, Barry, and Kathy.

  “There’s no harm in asking, is there?” I answered with a smile. “From what I know, short films like this rarely get distributors, they are only made for artistic purposes or to spread the love of ema and movies. I think he would be happy if you spread it to your css at the very least.”

  Amy my dedus, “You know, you are really smart sometimes, but other times you go back to being a kid, it’s like a switch has been flipped.”

  “Aww Amy, you are smart too.” I gave a dramatic pause before saying, “Sometimes.” I gri her cheekily.

  “You brat,” she pulled my cheek pyfully while Bobby watched us in amusement from aside.

  “Alright, kids. It’s time for us to go,” Kathy’s voice came from behind us as she escorted us out of the hall while Steve was still talking to the two men. Probably some catg up to do.

  After the premiere, we spent two more days there but didn’t waty film because most movies weren’t kid-friendly and there was no rating system of MPAA. So she simply banned watg any movies there for the foreseeable future.

  Thus all we did was enjoy the sights of Salt Lake City.

  (Fshbad)

  I came back to LA with Kathy, Amy, and Bobby while Steve stayed back to watovies and to wait. Totally unfair, I say. I know for him it’s his work, but still.

  Sometimes I regret my decision to not just plete my schooling in a couple of years. The problem with that would be, I would get totally bored. I mean, I am not an adult, so I wouldn’t be getting many roles and I definitely won’t be joining a college until I am 16 at the very least.

  e on dude, college is for having fun and parties and sex and all that jazz. Yes, I could go and study to make a career but I don’t want a b life in a rge corporation, g numbers all day long.

  It would’ve been somewhat better if my school had a joint building for elementary and high school. Then I could’ve read up on advauff to see my actual level of knowledge or to merely challenge myself.

  But here I was, stu the with 8-9-year-olds, studyienation, when I could write a full novel if I really wanted.

  ring

  Finally!

  I put my stuff ba my bag and raced towards the door. Today was the day that jury and audience awards would be announced for the festival.

  “Hey wait for me!” A voice came from behind me. I slowed slightly and saw Evan catg up to me.

  We rushed to the school gate, only to find my mother standing there.

  “Mom! Did the result e out?” I asked impatiently.

  “Your dad hasn’t called yet,” Kathy answered, “but I’m sure he will as soon as they do.”

  “Alright,” I grumbled, annoyed.

  “Evan,” Mom turowards my friend, “your mom called. Your nanny had an emergency so she had to go home. You’ll be ing home with us, okay?”

  “Yes!” He excimed in joy.

  “You shouldn’t be so happy,” I said and he mellowed down a little. “Whenever someone says emergency it is usually bad news.”

  He nodded in ption, “Yeah, sorry.”

  “It’s alright dear,” Kathy smiled at the two of us, “let’s hurry back.”