“I just heard,” my friend, Gidget, sympathizes, rushing through the door of the dressing room on the set of Skittle Skattle Doo.

I remove my Dodgy the Dog costume and blink back the tears. “It’s ok.”

It’s not, but what else can I say? I’ve just been let go from a small production of a kid’s show. I can’t even make it as a dancing dog. You may think I’m being a bit over dramatic, but I’m an actress. It’s what I do. While I've been told I have the poise and grace of a young Audrey Hepburn, I have all the luck of a broken horseshoe.

Although, I don’t feel very graceful in this furry dog suit I’m currently wearing. Big floppy ears. Bushy tail. You get the picture.

“I know. Don’t give up, though. You’ll land something even better than this crap show,” Gidget, the choreographer of this ‘crap’ show, says. She's always good at pep talks.

“I’ve only been here, what, like two months?” I pull up my jeans, and toss a t-shirt over my head. “I really thought when I came back here from Texas, I’d land the first role that came my way.”

“This town has a way of spitting people with real talent out.” She grabs my costume and places it neatly on the rack.

“Well, I need something to pay the bills,” I tell her, throwing my blonde hair in a ponytail.

“You know, you should try modeling. Lots of big stars start out modeling.”

“Hmm, my brother does have a friend who works at a magazine,” I say. “But, no. No way.”

“Which one?”

I raise a brow. “Bunny Hunnies.”

Gidget steps closer. “Wait, Bunny Hunnies? Chelsea, you should definitely think about that.”

“Really? I don't know if posing in a men’s magazine will help my career.”

She pulls out her phone from the back pocket of her skinny jeans. “Look,” she thrusts the phone in my face, and I see a picture of a shirtless guy with a ton of muscles, “that’s Wayne Craig. He’s a huge Instagram star...aaaand…he models for that magazine.”

I take the phone and swipe through a few of the pictures. “Well...”

She cuts in, “And June Dellaway got her start in that magazine.”

“Shut up,” I say. June is only the biggest sensation right now. Oscars. Red carpet. The whole nine yards.

“Listen, all I’m saying is, it can help you with money. You need an agent if you’re ever going to make it. Hell, even my dog has an agent,” she says, glancing at the pictures of Wayne one last time before putting her phone away.

“Yeah, agents are expensive.” I sit down in the lone folding chair, feeling a bit defeated.

“You should have Declan call that friend of his and get you in.” She points her finger at me.

Well, that’s the problem. The ‘friend,’ Jonah Marshall. I’ve had a crush on him since day one of meeting him. When Declan brought him home after baseball practice, my heart was a goner.

Soft brown eyes, dark messy hair. He was every young girl’s fantasy, and I was ‘rugrat,’ Declan’s little sister. Even so, my crush only intensified the older I got.

By the time I was sixteen and madly in love, my parents dropped a bomb on my brother and I.

Divorce.

I hate that word.

It’s ugly and upended my life.

I was whisked away to Texas to live with my mother while Declan, already in college, stayed in LA with my father.

But I’m back now in La La Land. Los Angeles. The city of my birth. Population 3,792,621. Two thirds of that are trying to land the same roles I am. And I’m ready for my big break. Since I just lost this job, maybe I will try my hand at modeling.

But, there’s no way I will let Declan call Jonah.

No, if I’m going to make it in this city...I want it to be based on my talent. Not for who I know.

In a city full of big sharks and vicious piranhas, I’ll be the little fish that swims against the current.

Sounds good, right?

Well, wish me luck, or break a leg. Whatever saying works best for you, because none of them work out very well for me.