Jennifer is recognized

The next few weeks passed and a new script arrived and Jennifer made a point of setting aside time to read it.. The early part of the episode was Gretchen at the cafeteria seeing a hot guy. Jennifer hoped this was the romantic lead, but those hopes were summarily dashed as Gretchen reveals a series of secret shames. First, that she’s never had sex. Not terribly unusual for a college freshman. Second, she reveals that she’s never been asked out by a boy. This tracked with the original series, where Gretchen once asked a boy out as the B plot of an episode of Brianna’s World, but he’d only agreed to the date so he could get closer to Brianna, he’d spent most of the episode comically ignoring Gretchen, and the only times he had said anything to her character had been questions about Brianna. The last was that she hadn’t been kissed since her first kiss in grade school, which had happened on screen in one of the earliest episodes of Brianna’s World.

Jennifer felt like screaming. They were making Gretchen out to be a loser, which is not what they had sold her on when they first pitched the show. It was meant to be a more mature series, where Gretchen was the star! Instead they seem focused on humiliating her and exposing her to the world over and over. There was another nude scene in the next episode, where Gretchen had her clothes stolen from the dorm bathroom and had to run back to her room naked. Jennifer threw the script away after reading that, not even bothering to see the outcome of the scene….something she would regret later...

…

Despite the awful previous day, Jennifer tried to return to her normal schedule. She exercised, despite the instructions not to, which helped her get a lot of her frustration and aggression out as she did weights and cardio and shadow boxing for far longer than usual. Before she knew it, it was evening and she realized she was starving. Feeling like she earned it, not only from her workout but from the awful week she’d had, Jennifer decided to treat herself with a burger – and lucky for her, the best burger place in town was only a few blocks away from her place.

She threw on her sunglasses and a hat as well as her usual padding. Jennifer paused before she left, admiring herself in the mirror near her front door. ‘If only this had been the Gretchen the show had embraced’ she thought. She pulled the hat down as she headed out, hoping no one would recognize her.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t that lucky.

She had scarcely left her apartment before she noticed passerbys pointing and whispering at her. She ignored it at first, hoping it was just her imagination – but then she heard a girl passing by say, “Wow, she’s still wearing the pads!”

Jennifer felt her face grow hot. She gave serious consideration to turning around and heading back home, but she was starving and was practically outside the burger place so she decided to head in.

“Hello, what can I get you?” Said the small blond girl at the register.

“Can I just get a single with fries, please.” Jennifer said quickly, pulling her hat down.

“S-sure...sorry, do I know you?” The girl asked as she entered the order.

Jennifer pulled the hat down further. “No, I just have one of those faces.” She said.

“Oh...oh! Your Gretchen!” The girl shouted.

It felt like time stopped. The girl had shouted so loudly that everyone in the restaurant, which was fairly crowded, turned to see the commotion. Jennifer had covered herself up, but she had done so in that celebrity-going-out-in-public way with the sunglasses and the hat so she drew a fair bit of attention.

“Holy shit!” Someone yelled. “It is Gretchen!”

Then everything fell apart. People began to crown around her. The kindest folks told her how much they loved her acting, and the shows, and Gretchen. The slightly ruder folks asked for photos, and the ruder folks still took photos without her consent.

Then there were the worst people. The ones who said things like: “I can’t believe you got naked, weren’t you embarrassed?” One unquestionably tall and attractive brunette asked.

“Yeah, why are you still padding? Everyone knows your little secret!” An annoyingly attractive blond said. She was classic Los Angeles, and she had an aggravating smirk on her face as she eyed Jennifer.

“Can I get your autograph?” The cashier said as she printed out a piece of receipt paper and handed it to her. From then on Jennifer felt like she was on autopilot. She signed a dozen autographs, posed for several selfies, some of which involved girls and guy pointing at her chest, and she barely registered some of the questions and comments that came her way.

Finally, her food was ready and she grabbed it and quickly left, vowing to forever order delivery the next time she was hungry. As she left the restaurant she heard one last comment from a guy.

“Dude, her tits looked huge, but can you imagine hooking with a girl and realizing that was all padding? I’d be so pissed.”