Sunset Beach's restless Meg Cummings fled Kansas to follow a dream. Susan Ward, who plays Meg, can relate - she left Louisiana at age 13 to travel to New York City and meet with the prestigious Ford modeling agency. "When I went to New York, I was so young and so naive, I didn't really know how to be scared," Ward reflects. "I was in New York all those years and I never worried about anything. I was young and determined and hell-bent to succeed, and I did."

Fear came later -- in January of 1996, to be precise, when Ward relocated to California. "When it finally came time to leave that safe environment, I was scared, just so scared," shudders Ward. "I was so scared that I sat up in my room with my mom the night before and I cried and I cried and I cried."

What had driven the gutsy teen to New York in the first place wasn't a desire to model, or even to act. It was her love of animals. "I orginally started modeling at Ford to pay for my college education for veterinary school," Ward recounts. "I just love animals. I have one cat, but at my parents house in Louisiana, there are four cats and three dogs. They raise exotic birds and they're taking care of a baby monkey."

So, how did Ward make the leap to acting? "I went to an acting class with a friend and loved it," Ward smiles. "I took some classes and eventually started going out on auditions."

One of those auditions was for a featured role on a new Aaron Spelling prime-time show, Malibu Shores. Ward tried out for the part in June of 1995. When she heard from them - more than six months later - she was asked to fly to L.A. for a screen test. "I had forgotten all about it, " Ward shrugs. "I went, met Aaron Spelling, tested and landed the part [of Bree]."

Thus the move to Los Angeles. Although the show lasted just a handful of episodes, Ward calls the job "a wonderful experience. I had just the best time and it was such a fabulous opportunity."

Opportunity has a habit of knocking more than once in the Spelling organization, and a few moths later Malibu was cancelled, Ward was tapped to play naive farm girl Meg Cummings on Sunset Beach. "I was thrilled ot have a chance to work on another Aaron Spelling show," Ward grins. "I knew the show would be a great opportunity, and I have learned so much already."

Wards first lesson was theat there is a world of difference between prime-time and daytime. "On Malibu Shores, we did 10 pages a day and had seven days to do an episode. Here, it's boom, boom -- an episode a day. It's tough. We usually work 12-hour days. Most weeks, I'm on five days. I don't think I expected to work that much, but my character has a lot of story and is everyone's business."

The reason the actress is so busy is that she and Clive Robertson [Ben] were Beach's first breakout characters. The Internet romance between Meg [aka Dorothy from Kansas] and Ben [aka S.B.] caught on quickly; Ward had been frantically memorizing scripts ever since.

So, could two people really fall in love over the Internet? "I truly believe it's possible," says Ward, "but I just don't think I would ever do it. With writing, you can make up so many things about yourself. I'm way too trusting, and I know I would put my heart and soul into it. If this person was lying to me, or pulling the covers over my head, I would just be so hurt."

Not that the actress's romantic life needs any cyber help - she has a relationship with her boyfriend, Joe, that she describes as "great." In fact, just as Meg became enthralled by the breathtaking sunsets that her adopted town is famous for, Ward also developed an appreciation of sunsets, thanks to the aforementioned Joe. "He lived in the penthouse in a high rise in Santa Monica and we used to watch the sunsets a lot there," Ward remembers. "That was the first time I really ever noticed one." Since Beach goes on location at Seal Beach, Ward is getting her fill of them now. "I love filming on location. It's one of the best parts of the job," she smiles.

The other best part? "Working with Clive [Roberson, Ben] of course," Ward giggles. As for Annie's infatuation with Ben, the actress has a suggestion. "Meg needs to teach Annie a lesson. I want a catfight," Ward laughs. "I want to pull her hair. I think it would be fun. I would use my Midwestern techniques, all those cornpicking things that I'm used to."

Meg isn't in Kansas anymore!