"Goddammit."
Kara was jolted with adrenaline when her phone suddenly buzzed to life in the cup holder, breaking her concentration. The last thing she wanted to do was get distracted on the highway. Especially in Florida. The drivers are beyond terrible.
She quickly glanced at the caller ID.
"Ugh," she sighed. "How many times have I told him not to call me while I'm driving.
After waiting for the ringer to silence, Kara decided to give technology one more chance. The last time she tried this was extremely frustrating and just ended up with her swearing at her phone. Overall, nothing got accomplished.
"Hey, Siri!"
The familiar two-tone ding sounded. Alright, so far so good.
"Text Numbnuts."
Another ding. "What would you like me to send to Numbnuts?" asked the insistent, robotic voice.
Just to be safe and prevent another pointless rant, she decided to annunciate her words very clearly, to the point of ridiculousness.
"I. Am. Driving. Back. To. My. Apartment. Period. I. Will. Get. Back. To. You. When. I. Get. There. Period."
"Would you like me to send?"
"Yes please."
A second ding indicated that her message had been sent successfully. Sighing with relief, Kara quickly reached down and shut her phone off.
"Well done, Siri," she thought. "You've redeemed yourself for the time being."
The rest of the drive passed uneventfully. It was late afternoon when Kara finally pulled into her small apartment complex, parked, grabbed her backpack and computer, and made her way into the front lobby.
It was modest; warmly lit by old-fashioned shade lamps, soft green couches and leather recliners, and a coffee table covered in magazines. There was a set of wooden stairs directly across from the entrance, leading up to the residential floors. The check-in desk was to the left of the stairs, kind of shoved in the corner. Behind it, an average looking guy with messy light brown hair was flipping through a wrinkled fashion magazine.
"Hey, James." Kara raised a hand in greeting as she passed.
James looked up from his reading. "Hey, Kara." He smiled, "How's your boyfriend?"
She rolled her eyes, "Nonexistent. How's yours?"
"Same as usual," he shrugged. "We're going out tomorrow to celebrate our year and a half anniversary."
"That's awesome. I'm happy for you." And she genuinely was. She was very happy that James had such a steady and easygoing relationship. Because he was so proud of his success, he never missed an opportunity to tease Kara about her own relationship status. He claimed his reasoning behind it was that he "couldn't understand how such a headstrong and talented woman was still wandering around this world single." Honestly, the last thing Kara wanted was a relationship.
After reaching the seclusion of her apartment, Kara threw her bag on the table and pulled out her phone. Normally, she would have checked all her emails, started making dinner, or even have gone to bed before remembering to call her brother back. But it was unlike him to call her when he knew she was driving back from work. So, whatever it was, obviously must be important. This assumption was proven correct when he picked up almost immediately.
"What took you so long?"
Kara sighed, "You know how long the drive is from Edgewood to Tallahassee."
"Yeah, I know," he said. "What I don't know is why you don't just move down there."
"Because I'm too gosh darn lazy, that's why!"
The two bickered about Kara's lack of interest in moving closer to her internship for a solid twenty minutes. Other than being lazy, her main reason was that she had absolutely fallen in love with the area ever since she first attended Florida State University. (Go Noles!) In fact, she could see the campus from her balcony. Guess she never really wanted to leave once she graduated.
They ended up talking about each other's jobs and their successes. Her brother, Lukas (Luke for short, since she thought Lukas was too formal), had just graduated from Keiser University. He aspired to be a lawyer, which made sense to his entire family, since he was so good at arguing over everything. Especially at a young age. Kara was currently interning at the Adrenaline Films, getting some more experience with sound design and video editing. It was her childhood dream to become a part of the film industry, and she was now working towards becoming a decent music editor. She was hoping to be picked up by a director soon...
"Wait a second." In the midst of saying nothing was going on at the studio, she remembered something quite interesting that happened today.
"Actually," she paused. "I do have some news." Earlier that day, while she was working on compiling a bunch of clips for a PSA, jamming out to some of her favorite soundtracks, some guy walked into the studio. He had on a plaid flannel, jeans, sneakers, and small glasses. He carried a little notebook and a pen, and when he entered, smiled and tipped his fedora.
"Good morning gentlemen...," he peered around to the back where Kara was working at a lone computer. "And lady."
He said this bit louder, enough to get Kara's attention and pull one of her headphones off.
"My name's Tyler. I'm just passing through. If you don't mind, I'd like to look at some of your work and ask you a few questions."
Kara groaned. "Great," she thought. "A journalist."
She put her headphone back on and completely forgot Tyler existed until he tapped her on the shoulder.
"Excuse me, miss...?"
"Kara Morgan." She shook his hand.
He smiled, "It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Morgan." He jotted her name down in his notebook.
Thinking it would be polite, and never one to miss a chance at being courteous, Kara got up and offered her chair.
Tyler waved away her gesture. "No, no. I'm fine." But Kara had already pulled up a second chair, so he had no choice but to sit. He thanked her and motioned towards her computer.
"You can pull up your work, but I'd like to as you some questions before we watch it."
They were basic, generic questions. Where did she go to school? What were her interests? How long had she been interning? Why she decided to peruse film? Everything she said he furiously scribbled into his notebook. He glanced up only for a second to look at her screen.
Taking notice of the open iTunes tab, he asked, "What music do you typically listen to?" She told him mainly movie soundtracks, techno, and alternative pop or rock.
Finally, he asked to see her best work. She decided to pull up a movie trailer she had made for the third Hunger Games movie in her spare time. She had mixed a few songs together for the music and added in her own effects here and there. While Kara didn't think it was all that great, Tyler seemed enthralled. He had nothing but praise about the timing, music editing, scripting, etc.
"That was absolutely fantastic, Miss Morgan! My, I can certainly see you have a perpetual sense of timing and an appreciation of the power of music."
Kara waved away the compliments, not one to take flattery easily. But Tyler just continued.
"Truthfully, Miss Morgan, you have blown me away. I have a proposition for you."
This piqued her interest.
"Now," he started. "I am a recruiter of sorts for a Mr. Shane Black. He directed the most recent Iron Man movie, and he is looking to start another picture. And he's sent me around to look for someone to assist the sound and music editors. Basically, I'm here on his behalf to offer you an apprenticeship..."
"Wow," her brother said. "That is quite a day."
"Yeah, I guess so." Despite feigning a calm demeanor, Lukas could hear her smile.
Kara huffed. "Enough about me. What was so important that you had to call me while I'm driving?"
She heard her brother take a breath of excitement. "You know how I've been dating Kayla for a couple of years?"
Kayla was a short, sweet, talkative, and slightly feisty young woman who Lukas had met in elementary school. They had remained friends all throughout their school years, and Lukas finally decided to ask her out his sophomore year of high school. She remembered thinking, Took him long enough.
"Well... I asked her to marry me!"
Both sat in silence for a moment before simultaneously erupting into celebration. Kara couldn't believe it. Her younger brother, getting married! She was overjoyed.
"Oh my god, I'm packing my stuff right now and coming home!" She said as she scrambled for her suitcase.
"Wait, what about your new job?"
"Don't worry, that doesn't start until next year." Kara was literally jumping with excitement, shaking her hands and scampering around her apartment. "Oh, Luke. I'm so happy!"
They hung up with elated goodbyes, and Kara went to work throwing clothes and shoes and brushed into her bags. She grabbed her keys, laptop, locked her door, and flew down the steps, waving to James as she yelled, "My brother's getting married!" Putting the keys in the ignition, Kara smiled at herself in the mirror.
"This has been the greatest day of my life!"