She started acting when she found an ad in the newspaper for a local theater company. Jessica, a friend of Jon’s (David) from two local musical theater productions, came to audition after Jon asked her. She had acted in Joseph’s Technicolor Dreamcoat, Tom Sawyer, I Believe in Christmas and as Wendy in Peter Pan. She initially didn’t get the part of Kelly because her family was going to be on vacation, but when the other girl who was cast as Kelly dropped out, Jessica was now able to do the part. During the interim she had gotten braces, but they only added to her character. Her sweet face and natural beauty created the perfect Kelly. Pretty without being too mature, her face is very expressive, showing the nuances of her character’s thoughts as she struggled with David’s being bullied by Bart and as David tried to tell her his feelings. She and Allison had many special times picking out costumes and jewelry for specific scenes, which probably contributed to her willingness to take direction. Her first day of shooting was actually done at night. Both scenes in her ‘bedroom’ were filmed at night. She remembers getting really tired as the night got later and later. In the school auction scene she was a trooper as she did take after retake of the bidding for ‘slaves’. Her funniest memories are of being crammed in a car backseat with Jon and not being able to concentrate. Finally, Allison filmed them just joking around. Her best memories are of the times off camera when Jon would just hang out and he pulled her up on the rope swing in the barn ( the same ‘swing’ that was also used in the square dance scene by the cinematographer for the aerial shots). Jessica wants to be a writer for magazines and now sings in a girl’s choir that travels to the U.S. to perform.