The delay for this one has a good reason (honest) I dragged my small blonde friend to gap and got her to try on clothes for an hour so I could decide what Buffy should be wearing. But it was quite a while before we were both free at the same time. Still, I'm doing better, I think.
Good News for anyone who remembers 'Pulse' which I stopped posting because I lost the next parts when my computer broke… my computer's gone into the shop. Admittedly seven months later, but at least it's there now.
Weasy
Part Nine
//First day at work? Imposing certainly, whether it's serving fries at the The Double Meat Palace or mail-boy at Wolfram and Hart, but anything's bearable with a little help from your friends."
It was barely twenty-four hours before Buffy was called onto set, in her hundred briefings with Wes before then he told her they were probably wanted to get it on air while she was still 'an object of mystery'. Wes and Willow accompanied her as the chauffeured Buick joined the Monday morning traffic.
"Now, I'll be with you at the set all morning, but in the afternoon I have to see another client."
Buffy double taked on Wes. "I'm going to be there all day?"
Wes smiled politely. "Yes, that is the normal practice."
"But it's an ad. It's only going to be thirty seconds long."
"I imagine they will take hours of footage and then take what they need. Since Gap is clothing company you'll probably be asked to wear dozens of outfits. It's not unusual, Buffy, for adverts to cost a million dollars each to make."
"A *million* dollars? Jeez, do they give away all the clothes or something?" Willow spoke up.
"She might. If they like her."
"Oh." Checking her reflection for the hundredth time Buffy glanced around nervously. "I can be likeable, right?"
"You'll be fine. It's not like your actually required to do anything except… be you." Willow reassured her.
The 'set' was somewhat less glamorous than Buffy had expected, it looked more like an old warehouse than anything else. Inside there were half a dozen fabric walled three sided stages, each in a different shade of white from Brilliant to Victorian. The open ends of each stage faced in towards cameras and a score of technicians and cameramen milling around. It was somewhat imposing. At the other end of the volumous space were a few stalls with mirrors and rows of make-up next to racks of clothes that lead of in isles to the distance. While everything was in different shapes and sizes, it was predominantly in denim, but then Gap ads were like that. Smiling quietly to herself Buffy remembered Madonna's Gap ad, and wondered absently if they had auctioned off the jeans Madonna had worn, or if she had kept them. Turning around to see Willow's wide-open eyes Buffy shared an excited smile with her. Unable to contain herself Willow did a few jumpy steps of a mini-happy dance and Buffy fought not to join her.
The man that had let them into the building, a security guard named Riley, laughed at their antics. "C'mon, I'll introduce you to Maggie Walsh, she's directing today's endeavour." It was quite a slow process to walk to the light haired woman Riley'd pointed out, as they were all required to tread carefully on the floor, or trip on the thousands of cables that were tapped down to the cement.
"So how long have you worked here, Riley?" Willow asked politely as they waited while a team of staff and a camera blocked their path.
"Oh not long, I'm just working here part time while I study at UCLA - Watch out for the step. – Are you two at University?"
"No. They're still in high school." Wesley cut in, rather forcefully, and they walked the rest of the distance in silence. At closer range Walsh was older than Buffy had originally guessed, closer to Giles' age, lines of grey streaked her light brown hair. But everything about her, from the official looking clipboard to the steel grey eyes, screamed opposition to the comfortable-ness she felt around Giles. Anxious to make a good impression, Buffy smiled and stuck out her hand.
"Hi! I'm Buffy Summers."
Walsh's eyes flicked over her blankly; making a note of something on her clipboard she finally spoke. "Report to Lily and then come back." Walsh replied shortly before turning her back on them.
Buffy stared at her back for a moment longer in confusion before slowly spinning round. "Uhm… Right."
"Lily's the blonde over there by the clothes rack." Riley filled in, Buffy smiled gratefully and he returned it. "I'd better get back to work, but it was nice meeting you all." With a polite nod he headed off back towards the entrance.
Lily turned out to be the most helpful person Buffy met that day. Though she looked so tired and rumpled that it was easy to suspect she'd been up for hours, she greeted them with a bright smile and a passionate introduction to the days work. It seemed simple enough, Buffy and Lindsey were to dress in various Gap clothes and perform a set dance routine, but they'd have to do it in different clothes and on different stages, and shot from hundreds of different angles, so the editors had enough variety to make an ad with the right 'feel' for what they wanted.
While Lily shuffled through the racks, muttering to herself about skin-tone and the correct contrast of textures, Lindsey emerged from the tent-style changing rooms to one side of the clothes racks. He was so involved in examining how the cut of his stonewash jeans fell against his thick work boots that he almost walked into the girls. Tipping up the peak of his cowboy hat he smiled in recognition. "Buffy! And… Willow?" He hazarded.
"Yep." Willow nodded smiling brightly at his recognition.
"I have to admit, I was expecting you to refuse to come. Angel's certainly the overprotective type."
"He doesn't own me." Buffy replied, a little more forcefully than she would have liked. But she was painfully bad at hiding her feelings and she was still angry with Angel and his continuous coddling of herself, and Kat. She also knew she would have to school her features more carefully, she had no doubt Lindsey would try to use her present dislike of Angel to his advantage, and while she was annoyed with him… the idea of hurting him was tantamount to sacrilege. As it was, any more slip-ups were prevented when Lily cam back with the first outfit. Soft, almost cord white trousers and a pale pink shirt with a busy pattern of dark pink flowers. A fitted denim jacket completed the ensemble.
Once Buffy was dressed, she was ushered through to hair and make-up; it was a peculiar sensation, to have half a dozen people working on her head at the same time. And Buffy couldn't help the bubble of claustrophobia that welled up inside her. When they finally left her alone she had barely a moment to survey their work, the make-up was plain enough, no more than the light dusting she normally wore, but subtly different in a way she couldn't describe. Her hair was a different matter the top half had been plaited into minute cornrows that were pulled into a tight knot at the back. It was tied with a band curved in long strands of beads, that fell heavily against the back of her head, and in such a way that the ends of each plait spiked out in a fan at the back of her head. The rest of her hung loose but had been straightened so that it no longer curved outwards at the ends. It was not what Buffy would ever have done to herself, though she was starting to see that her own preferences were off little choice. At least the style was not something she hated, but something she just needed to get used to.
She was given little time to contemplate it anyway, as she was rushed of to the set. Having run through the dance routine, she and Lindsey decided to ditch their shoes and dance barefoot instead.
After the six different colour shoots were taken to choose the exact shade for the white background, Buffy and Lindsey retired to the tiny room behind the clothing racks that served as his 'trailer' while the producers went to argue over the direction of the advert, and it's place in history. Given that it was *just* an ad Buffy was becoming slowly more convinced that everyone with any power in Hollywood took themselves too seriously. She grew to love the cameramen who had taken to walking along behind the director mimicking the 'inspirational' speeches she gave. So she was feeling pretty light-hearted when Wes departed with a few sage words of warning that she barely even heard let alone took in. She and Willow curled up on the huge, fluffy red couch with Lindsey and mocchacinos.
All of this had lulled Buffy into such a sense of security that when Lindsey asked her directly about Angel - "Are you two screwing?" She spilt coffee down the brand new clothes.
"What? No!" She yelled jumping to her feet. Lindsey laughed at her reaction, and Buffy turned bright crimson in embarrassment.
"Hey!" Willow defended her, throwing a cushion at Lindsey. "See, I really liked you till now… but that was just… well I'm upset and I can't think of a bad word right now but that's what that was!"
Lindsey laughed harder. "I'm sorry… I didn't – ahem." He tried to clear his throat and look serious, but ended up with a weird slightly sideways smirk. "You just looked so sleepy… and I couldn't help it."
Realising he'd only meant to shock her Buffy smiled in relief, and carefully putting her mug down on the sideboard, sat back down. In a split second move she chucked another cushion at Lindsey; which caught him on the ear. A pillow fight, quickly reverting to a free-for-all tickle fest was underway in moments.
Lily saw Maggie pacing angrily on set and casually slipped away from the group of cameramen she was talking to. Knowing she had best fetch the stars before Maggie did she made a beeline for Lindsey's trailer. Pausing before the door she took a moment to straighten her clothes and heard the strangest thing… muffled giggling and thumps from inside the room. Surely the aren't…? Letting the thought trail off she knocked loudly on the door. There were several more muffled bumps and giggles in rapid succession then a loud thunk, followed by a quiet and whimpering "Ow…" This clearly inspired another round of giggles, which was quickly hushed. Finally Lindsey's voice rang out clearly. "Come in."
Pushing open the door she was met by a curious sight, Lindsey, Buffy and her red-headed friend were sitting in a row on the sofa all struggling to contain smiles and looking extremely rumpled.
"Uhm, you're needed on set." Lily managed, before turning away. Buffy, Lindsey and Willow? That would certainly be something to tell her kids about.
//Or equally… a big does of hyperactiveness. Just because you're doing something 'serious' doesn't mean it has to be the be all and end all of everything you do… take a break and mess around, and if it snows take the day off, because every opportunity we get to act like we're five and blame it on something else, is certainly worth taking.//
On a side-note I'd like to say Merry Snowday to everyone in the UK, and to all you who managed to get two in a row, I hope you used it well. (I put mine to good use! Look! A part!)