~Snow Day~

"Here you go," Leo handed me a cup of hot chocolate, "I hope you don't mind marshmallows."

"Oh, thank you!" Wrapping my fingers around the warm mug, I smiled at him. It was freezing today, and the falling snow stacking up on the roads made it impossible to drive anywhere.

He smiled back, "No problem," I noticed he had a cup of his own as sat on the floor beside me.

"Thanks for starting the fire too." I gestured to the orange and red flames in the fireplace.

He laughed slightly embarrassed, "No problem, it's just one of those days, so I figured why not!?"

"Yep." I sipped my hot chocolate and sighed, "It's definitely one of those days."

"What? Are you saying you don't like these kinds of days?"

"Yes, and no." I struggled to decide, "Because, I love the sun, and being able to run around bare foot. Eating ice cream and swimming! But..." Glancing out the window, I saw the storm was getting worse, "Sometimes, it can be sort of fun to just sit by the fire and drink hot cocoa with you."

"Hmmm, well," He fished out a marshmallow and popped it into his mouth , "I'll do my best."

"Your best?" I asked puzzled, "Best to do what?"

"To make this fun!" He took a big swig of hot chocolate, but without meaning to, it left a mustache on his face.

I had to giggle at how silly it looked, "Oh Leo, you don't even have to try."

Written By~Ally Elaine

~Tree House~

"Hold on..." Leo whispered, "You're almost there."

"How much farther?" I waved one hand out in front of me, while the other held tightly to Leo's grasp.

"Almost, just a little farther." Though I was blindfolded, I could hear the smile in his voice. "I'll tell you when you can look." He continued to strategically steer me through a maze of trees in the outside woods.

"Okay,  and...?" I pressed the matter of his secret, "What is it?"

"Would you be patient! You'll see in a minute."

Turning: right, left, left, right, left again. It felt like we were just walking in circles, and without my sight, it felt almost sickening. But I knew deep down I could trust him, even though after a few months of being married, he still disregarded the fact that I HATED surprises.

"Alright..." He stopped and tugged at the knot of my blindfold, "You can look now!" I felt the warmth of the afternoon sunlight beam down on my face as the blindfold fell away from my now open eyes. My excitement building up since forever finally released, and I shrieked, "Oh my!"

"So, do you like it?"

I stared in disbelief, "Do I like it?" I pointed, not sure what to make of it, "It's a tree house! A real tree house! ...in a tree!"

"I know," stepping behind me, he wrapped his arms around my chest in an affectionate hug, "It's not the most romantic thing ever. But, I built it myself when you told me you always wanted a tree house, and never got one growing up." He kissed my cheek, "So, there you go!"

"Awww, thank you! But... I'm not a kid anymore Leo, don't you think I'm a little too old for tree houses?"

He squeezed me tighter, "Nah!"

I shattered into surprised screams, feeling his fingers seek for my ticklish spots, "Ahhh! Oh gosh NO! ...Please, stop it!" I was forced into laughter as I struggled to escape his hold.

Catching the contagious sound, he laughed with me, "You may be all grown up, but I know there's a playful part of you in there somewhere!"

I screeched through my breaths of intense delight, "Nooo!" Unable to hold myself up anymore, I collapsed to the ground,

 Letting me go, Leo bent down on his knees, meeting me in the cold, leaf covered, ground, "Did I get it out yet?"

Gasping to catch my breath, I yelled at him, "What the heck?!?"

"I don't think I've succeeded." He furrowed his eyebrows, "Hmmm... Must I act on more drastic measures?"

He lifted his finger, and I jumped in reflex, "Oh, no!" I giggled, and sat up attempting to shuffle backwards for a safer distance.

"Okay then," He smiled, and in that moment, not even the sunlight draping over us could compare to the feeling of warmth I felt from him, "Just for a few hours, let's forget all about the problems of this world... the nosy paparazzi, the gossiping news reporters, and my stressed out agents ...let's live like we're eight years old again. Who cares if you're 'older' and I'm famous? It'll be fun!"

"I never said I wouldn't play along! You didn't even gave me the chance to decide! ...It wasn't fair play."

"Oops sorry," He flashed me a wink as he offered his hands to help me up... but I hesitated, questioning the motives behind those fingers and that deceiving grin.

"Don't worry," He chuckled with amusement, "I'm not gonna touch you."

"You promise?"

A thoughtful expression passed over him for a moment, "Uhhh... maybe."

"Maybe?" I took his hands and let him help me back up to my feet, "What's that supposed to mean?" I brushed a few leaves off my sweater and raked even more out of my tangled hair.

"It means, that it depends on how you behave." His thoughtfulness morphed into a mocking smirk.

"Oh please," I smirked back at him and though he was much heavier than me, I challenged myself to give him the hardest shove I could muster up.

"There she is!" His face lit up as he nearly tripped, "That's the girl I was looking for!"

"Really???" I smiled, thrilled that I had pleased him, "In that case... Race you to the top!" I took off for the tree house ladder.

"Hey! That's not fair play!" He lunged after me.

"Oops sorry," I teased him, "Welcome to my world!"

"Oh, you're so gonna get it!" He called up after me.

I squealed as I climbed up into the dead end of the tree house, up here, there was no place to escape his revengeful tortures.

*****

"So, can I ask you again?" Leo laid beside me, allowing a moment of truce for me to catch my breath.

Tangled in his arms on the tree house floor, I closed my eyes feeling exhausted with defeat, but at the same time, content. Still, he continued to pester me with interrogations, "Do you like it? ...This tree house, I mean? After all, I built it for you."

"Yes," I murmured slightly annoyed, "It's very nice."

"Are you okay?" He laughed at me, "You're not even looking at it."

Although I was tired, one more weak laugh managed to escape, "Am I okay?" I opened my eyes and shot him the 'look', "What do you think!?! I'm practically dying here... remind me again why I married you?" Though, of course I was exaggerating, I aimed to make him feel guilty.

"Gee, I'm sorry," He looked almost sympathetic, "But I was just trying to teach you a lesson."

 "Oh brother!" I didn't have the strength to retaliate, so I ignored his comment and turned my attention to observe the inside appearance of the tree house. The dark wood panels and the symmetrically framed windows, it actually wasn't too bad. I decided that I liked how the outer walls were built around the wild branches growing from the trunk, it gave a sense of vintage beauty. Almost as if this little structure had been built here for years, until new branches finally sprouted, and broke desperately through the walls, searching for sunlight on the other side.

 Leo nudged me, "Hello? You still in there? Or did you drift off to dream-land?"

"Yeessss," Still trying to calm down my deep breaths of air, I replied, "I'm still here."

"And?" He raised his eyebrows as if expecting something from me.

"And what?"

"You still haven't answered my question."

"Oh sorry... Thank you for building this for me, you did a good job. It's just what I would've wanted." I smiled, breathing in the fresh forest air, soothed by the sound of leaves rustling in the wind, "I feel like we should just spend the night in here." I sighed, relaxed, but still aching.

"Yeah," He took in a deep breath himself and whispered, "That sounds nice." He paused, as if a troubling thought occurred to him, "But please don't tell anyone. It's our little secret, okay?"

"Yeah, okay." I smiled to myself as a ridiculous image came to mind, "What?! You don't want the paparazzi showing up on the doorstep of our little tree house in the morning?"

"Ha, ha, very funny." He sat up to look at me straight on, "The only thing I want showing up on this doorstep is you... got that?"

I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer, "Yes sir... there's just one problem."

"What's that?"

I whispered, "You brought me here blindfolded Mr." I suppressed a giggle, "Right now, I have no idea where we are, or how to get back to where we started from... So, I wouldn't consider that fair play either."

"Oops, sorry," He glowed with a playful smile that lit up his blue eyes, "Welcome to my world."

Written By~Ally Elaine, Edited By~Madge     

~The Actress~

Someone banged a rhythm on my trailer door, "Mr. DiCaprio? Sir?" A man called for me, "We need you in ten minutes." His message had been delivered, and I listened as his footsteps continued to grow further away.

I slowly sat up in bed with a tired yawn, it's another day. Stretching the sleepiness off, I searched through my jumbled memory to recall everything I was supposed to do today: speaking with my agent, dealing with my schedule, going over rehearsals... and then it hit me. I smiled to myself as I realized, she was one of the things that kept me going on this project.

I remember the first day I met her. The casting director had told me her name, and gave an overview on a few other projects she had done. Though, it wasn't until we were eye to eye and I shook her hand for the first time, that I knew she was someone special. After going through a few rehearsals and screen tests, I noticed her talent, gorgeous eyes, silky hair and personality I discovered I couldn't resist.

I sprung out of bed and threw on some clothes as I reached for today's cast & crew call sheet.

I couldn't wait to see her again.

Scanning through the scene numbers we were supposed to do today, I looked them up in the script, but stopped on one scene in particular. It read, "And they kissed." My heart stopped. I had to kiss her. I mean, yeah, sometimes that's part of the job if I want to keep getting paid. But, she was different. I actually had a thing for her, and kissing her would feel very different from obediently playing the part of an actor.

I ran my fingers through my hair as I studied the scene. I knew I was gonna have to do this, since I've already been over this script, but that was before I knew WHO my co-star was gonna be.

"Mr. DiCaprio?" The man was back, knocking on my door, "We're ready for you."

I took a deep breath, the scene was nothing I should worry about. We'll both rehears our lines and stuff with the director, and then it will all be over after we've filmed it on camera.

I got up to open the door, "I'm ready."

She was over with the director who was giving her a few pointers. I sat across the room from them and I watched her. I watched her smile, I watched her use her hands while speaking, I watched how she moved her body. This was just a day for rehearsal, but all the same I couldn't help feeling slightly nervous. She laughed at something I didn't hear and glanced back at me. Although, we were both  lacking a whole lot of sleep, her eyes still sparkled. I looked down at my script pretending to be immersed in it.

"Good morning."

I looked up at the sound of her voice and a smiled at her, "Hi, good morning."

She seated herself in the chair beside mine, and pushed her hair back out of her face. Thoughts of admiration flooded through me. I can't believe I'm going to have to kiss her.

"So," she said, "Are you ready for the scenes we're doing today?"

"Uh, yeah." I paused to fumble through the script pages in my hands looking for them, "Did you want to go over them with me?"

"Sure." She smiled back and my heart heated up to boiling point.

We went over the first few scenes and a bunch of lines, I spoke mine, then she spoke hers. We practiced memorize the words and worked on tying to keep from allowing too much "dead space" between our conversation. All to soon we read the part that said: "And they kissed."

I looked up at her, hoping to decipher her expression. Was she filled with nervousness? or maybe it didn't bother her at all? If it didn't bother her... does that mean she didn't like me as much as I liked her?

"Ok! You two!" The 2nd AD walked up interrupting us, and tapped his overly stuffed book binder, "We're ready for you on the set! Remember this is just a rehearsal, and we need to get the lights and equipment tested as well, so please be patient with us." He continued on delivering various messages to others on the crew.

I turned back to the girl and smiled as a joke came to mind, "You heard the man!" I stood up and tried to impersonate his tone of voice, "Remember this is just a rehearsal, so please be patient with us as we play with our equipment."

She laughed and started walking to our place on the set, "As long as they don't break anything, I'm okay with that."

For a while we were able to joke around and have fun, until the rehearsal had started and we needed to collect ourselves. I couldn't believe how nervous I was. My hands were shaking and I could swear everyone could see my forehead sweating.  Why was I so nervous? I've kissed other girls before! I just had to take a deep breath and pull myself together.

We started the scene. The director interrupted us to give more pointers to our body language and tones of voice. He told the camera men what compositions he wanted to see on the screen during certain parts and called for the script supervisor when he wanted something changed in our lines. All the while, I was thinking about that kiss.

"Okay," The director turned to us and crossed his arms, "Lets practice the end of this scene. And then we'll move on. Are you guys okay with that?"

"Yeah." We both said at the same time, and continued to stumble over each others words, "Of course, sure." "Whenever you are Sir."

He smiled, "Good. Okay, picking up from that last line... and action."

Everything was happening way too fast! I could hear her almost off in the distance as she finished her line, and then suddenly it was my turn to finish the scene.

I looked into her eyes, and without saying a single word, I knew she was feeling nervous too. I smiled as I wrapped my arms around her, and did what the script had said, "And they kissed."

 

Written By~Ally Elaine, Edited By~Madge