Recently, I was introduced to an acting job. I decided to go, being asked to bring a photo of myself and a pen. The audition was located at a hotel about a block away from Sahuaro, though I’d rather not give the exact location. The sign up was on ads all over Facebook, and it was very organized and well-planned, so I figured it was legit.

When I arrived at the hotel Sunday morning at around 10:00, roughly 200 people were there. People were scattered everywhere, moving from line to line, and the hotel didn’t know anything about this, which was the first red flag. Finally, after thirty minutes, we were brought into another room after signing in. We sat down and listened to a lady talk how we were to become famous and what would happen if we were accepted, now that I think through it. they probably read it all off some website. We were then told to stand in lines, though they were not well-organized. Kids were told to memorize commercial lines; for example, mine was a Kit-Kat commercial. What was strange was that our commercials were arranged by age, yet kids in total different age groups had the same commercial. The “judges” videotaped us and then told us we would get a text before ten at night.

My turn came and we left quickly after.

We later received a text stating that I was one of the few kids chosen, but the texts were messy and seemed like spam. They didn’t capitalize their ‘I’s and they wrote dozens of run-on sentences, including spelling an actor’s name wrong. Ryan Kelley from MTVs TV show Teen Wolf was supposed to be coming, but even after the time came for us to all come, he still wasn’t there, and – not very surprisingly – the hotel still had no clue what was going on.

So arriving at the hotel, we started to get a fishy feeling. We asked where to go and the lady merely shrugged; what made us even more confused was that the time on our text was different than the time the hotel stated this was happening. The man who texted us also changed the time twice. People were standing outside saying it was fake, which may have spooked me into watching everything a bit more closely. The group chosen was supposed to go up to a room, but kids and their families would not have fit into said room. My mom stood by the door for a few minutes until a man came and said we were to sign in downstairs. We signed in and sat downstairs like he asked until he came and got us. I was memorizing the new script I got… which had a lot of mistakes. My stomach did a flip and I felt really sick, like a guilty or a very scary feeling. It wasn’t me being nervous, but more of “something is not right.”

My mom, who felt a funny feeling as well, looked up the place and found out that they had no connection to any big movies/shows or even the studio they said they were working with. So, after watching the ‘judges’ whisper to one another, I turned towards my mom and said I wanted to leave. We got up and left.

I thought through what would’ve happened if we stayed, and I threw it way out of proportion and I would rather not freak anyone out by saying what I imagined would happen.

If you are ever in a situation and something feels off, follow your gut and get out.