Disclaimer: The show victorious, its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.
The Extra
No One's POV
"God dam it, were losing our light!" yelled 28 year old Jade Vega-West to the Assistant Director. "Stupid extra's can they do like they are supposed to be told."
Jade had been under pressure to get her current film in the can. It was already going over budget and weather delays had caused at least of weeks location filming to be lost. It wasn't a normal film for her to direct but when offered the chance do direct as the original director had to drop out at the last second she said yes.
It was a historical film set during the civil war and followed a young woman disguised herself as a man and joined the Union Army so she could be with the man she loved. Though she wasn't a history person at all she found the story interesting. All that was left to film was the location shoot for the big battle scene. It was a rather hot Tennessee day on location and the day was ending so jade was afraid of losing her light. Her patience which was never in plentiful supply was now running very short.
The scene itself was a reenactment of the battle of Chickamauga which took place in 1863. Jade was filming some of the more epic shots of large bodies of soldiers marching across the battlefield on this particular stressful day.
The film crew had noticed she had become more and more short tempered as the shooting began. One delay after another shortened her fuse. Not to mention her wife Tori was Currently Touring in Europe at the moment and she had spoken to her in a week and seen her in a month. Mostly just contacting through texts and emails. She missed Tori terribly.
"I'm sorry" She said to the assistant director as she rubbed her face. "I hate location shooting, to many variables that can't be controlled."
She had been having trouble getting the extras to charge across the field correctly. First they were too slow, then they were too fast then they died all wrong.
"Relax Jade" Said Benny the assistant director. "You're doing fine, we almost got this sucker wrapped up anyway."
"Thanks Benny, Lets get set up for the next shot" said Jade as she sat down to look at her notes.
After a half an hour they were set up a medium range shot of a brigade of Union infantry attacking the confederate line. In this part of the film they attack gets beaten back.
Finally they had the several thousand renactors set up and ready to go. Some in Union Blue and some in confederate grey.
"Ok, and Action" Jade yelled through her walkie talkie."
The union extras moved across the field amongst the simulated explosions. Everything was good until Jade noticed one of the extras was wearing white tennis shoes. Which showed up in the shot.
"Cut" she yelled.
"What's wrong Jade?" said Benny.
"Some goon in wardrobe forgot to get that extra down there a proper pair of boots. His white high tops stick out like a sore thumb. I don't think they had those in 1863."
"Ok, I'll take care of it" Benny said.
While that was going on a text came through from Tori.
From Tori: Hi baby, I just finished my show in Budapest, crowd loved me. How is it going?
Jade had a moment and answered her wife's reply.
From Jade: Not good some stupid extra has on the wrong shoes.
Her reply came a minute later
From Tori: Sorry to hear that baby, your doing well, I love you.
Soon the shot was reset and someone got the extra the proper 1863 styles shoes.
Halfway through the shot Jade noticed what looked like the same extra now texting on a cell phone during the charge.
"What" Jade Screeched "Cut, Cut Cut"
"Now what" said Benny
"Tell that extra to put the phone away. They didn't have cell phones in 1863."
Jade was loathe to fire the renactors as many of them tried very hard to get things right and some had driven a great distance to be in this film. Benny warned her it may cause problems others may leave.
Before she could do anything else another text came from her wife.
From Tori: They added another Prague show, 2 more in Poland and maybe some more in Hungary so I will be gone probably be gone another 2 weeks at least. Sorry Babe
Jade just closed her eyes and growled at no one in particular.
When Jade started to growl other crew members knew they should not be near the Raven haired director. Several quickly disappeared.
She texted back to Tori
To Tori: That's ok, I Just miss you.
Jade grabbed her binoculars and glanced in the direction of the extra about 100 yards away.
The extra was dressed as a union soldier, he had a full mustache and beard as many of the other extras did. He was a bit shorter than the rest, his face was rather greasy and was wearing a typical union army cap. But Jade could not make out too much in the way of details. Jade was beginning to hate that person.
"Hey Benny, I want that extra to die in the next shot" Jade had decided to get her revenge by having the extra die.
"Ok" he said radioing instructions to someone out on the field.
Soon the shot was running again, all was going smooth. The union infantry was about half way across the field when the simulated explosions started. A few extras here and there started to drop and die.
Suddenly one of the extras clutched at his chest and instead of simply dropping as all the others did he made a very dramatic scene of it staggering around taking his time to die.
Jade's right eye began to twitch uncontrollably as she realized it was the very same extra that messed up the last two shots.
She gritted her teeth, "Tell the extra to just walk across the field and not die. Just walk and do nothing else."
"Ok" Benny replied.
"Maybe I should fire him" said Jade
"Don't, if you fire one half of these guys will leave" Benny replied.
Another text came in from Tori.
From Tori: They are thinking of adding some Asian dates after the Europe leg is done, sorry. Did that extra get the right shoes?
From Jade: Yes but that extra is an idiot and I am going to shoot that extra myself if they mess up another shot.
From Tori: Calm down baby, perhaps if you just talk to the extra they will do things right. Best to do things yourself. Love you.
From Jade: I love you too.
Jade bit her lip for about the 200th time today.
"Ok lets set up again" she barked at Benny.
A few minutes later the crowd of union soldiers was marching once again across the simulated battlefield.
This time the extra ran way out in front of the union line and promptly acted like they were shot and simply dropped like they were supposed to the last time. But the extra was not supposed to die or so prominently.
Jade did keep the shot going as she just wanted to get the shot finished.
After this there was one more shot she wanted to get but this time she wanted to make sure Mr. Extra smarty pants didn't mess up anymore shots.
She started to walk across the battlefield towards the extra who was still playing dead. As Jade got closer she could see that he was dressed as a union corporal.
"What is your fucking problem" Screeched Jade as she walked towards the errant extra.
The extra sprung to his feet. "Uh Sorry Miss" he said in a gravely voice.
Jade stormed up to him and said "Ok, Mr Smarty pants, I'll give you a role even you can't fuck up. A corpse. Just lie on the ground and act dead and if you move and screw up my shot you'll get this" Jade pulled out a pair of scissors and waived it in the extras face.
The extra nodded in apparent fright and Jade turned around and started to walk away.
Before she got 20 feet suddenly she heard a familiar voice behind her
"I love you too Jade."
Jade suddenly froze and turned to face the still standing extra.
The extra was still standing there pulling off their beard which was fake.
"Now what am I supposed to do again baby?" said the extra who Jade immediately recognized as Tori.
Jade smiled as she suddenly realized she had been set up.
Tori just stuck out her tongue at Jade, laughed and started to run away.
"Come back here you little sneak" said Jade as she began to chase after her wife.
Tori didn't run very fast as Jade was able to catch her and wrestle her to the ground. Within a second Jade was now straddling her now laughing wife.
"This is what you get for messing up my shots" Jade said as she began to furiously kiss Tori oblivious to the couple of thousand cheering extras.
For the first time all week Jade had a big grin on her face. "What are you doing here, you're supposed to be in Europe? You had 3 dates left." Said Jade as she finally stopped kissing her still giggling wife.
"We had some technical issues with some of the equipment so we postponed the last couple of shows. So I contacted Benny and arranged to be one of your extras today. I don't have to be anywhere for at least 3 weeks. I was just messing with you about those extra shows." Said Tori as she gently caressed Jade's cheeks.
Jade's smile got even bigger as she got off her wife.
Tori started to get up herself but suddenly Jade looked down at her.
"Excuse me, where are you going?"
Tori looked puzzled "with you silly."
Jade smirked. "Vega, I love you with all my heart and I'm going to fuck you silly as soon as I'm done but you messed up 3 shots today. I only have one quick shot left so you are staying a corpse until I am finished."
"Can't I just be with you?" said Tori as she did her best to flash her brown eyes. Something that usually worked on Jade.
"I can't have you running around acting goofy messing up my shots. If your with me, i'll pay more attention to you than my shots. So I'm going to leave you where you can do the least damage."
"What, you're going to leave your beautiful wife half dead on the battlefield?" Tori protested.
"No I'm leaving my beautiful wife dead on the battlefield and she had better not move.'
Tori began to pout.
"Tell you what, I'll even give you screen credit as Annoying but beautiful union corpse. Besides the faster I get my shot the faster you get me." Said Jade with her usual smirk.
Tori Smiled and resumed playing dead.
For what it's worth there are numerous recorded instances of women who did disguise themselves as men and served in the US Civil War.