I'm late. This is becoming a habit and I will be trying to stay on time from here on out. I just added a little more to my case load at work.
Juvia
Arriving at the studio conference room with ten minutes to spare I knew I was early enough to be safe from criticism and decided to celebrate with coffee. Mira stood near the donuts looking tired, "Morning Mira," she took a long sip from her cup and nodded before replying, "Morning love, glad you're here, I have so much to tell you." She looped her arm into mine and led me to the coffee maker, "you disappeared the other night, how'd the rest of your evening shape up?" she gave an eyebrow waggle as she placed a cup of coffee into my grasp.
"Well, you were, um, preoccupied with Laxus so we decided to do something else."
"What exactly did you two do?" her eyes drilled into me, pressing for an answer.
"Mostly video games but also a small amount of drinking and eating," I shrugged.
"Are you being serious? You run off with –" she paused looking around and lowering her voice, "him, and all you did was play video games?"
"it was a really good night, what did you end up doing?"
"The alternate right wing for the Magnolia Victory," she grinned, "and then he made me breakfast."
Trying to not get into details I knew she would very willingly supply I decided to take the conversation in a different direction, "is he a good cook?"
"Surprisingly," she gushed, "I figured the boy didn't know anything except hockey, but he seems to know his way around a kitchen pretty well. I don't even know how to make crepes and his were mind-blowingly delicious, as was his..."
Max interrupted as he rushed toward the conference room signaling it was time for the Monday morning meeting to begin, grabbing our coffees we headed into the stark white room and took our usual seats by the window. Erza, the cooperate figurehead, took her seat at the head of the table and cleared her throat, "Alright let's get to it; last week's episodes were decent at best, but we have to do better than that. Weekend team, you dropped the ball on your shows, and you need to tighten your dialogue." The weekend staff shifted in their seats and Max jotted notes on his chipboard before shooting a look my way that made my skin crawl. "Promo shoots are this afternoon, and I want everyone camera ready at least fifteen minutes before their shoot time, Max will distribute the schedules now." Taking the call sheet, I quickly found my name and saw that my time was one of the last ones the list. It could be bad being toward the end of the day, the crew gets worn out and has much less patience by the last few people, so you're expected to pay attention and nail it right off. "If you miss your time surely you won't miss having a job." Erza continued her threats before returning to her notes.
"Now as far as individual performance goes Juvia, you need to add an extra fifteen into your time in the chair, I want hair and makeup to tame those curls starting today, and yes that means your promo too." she gave me a firm stare "MiraJane you had a great tone last week, keep it up."
"Sting, Rogue, your entire breaking coverage on the Gray Fullbuster story sounded nervous and disjointed, if I wanted that sort of performance, I would simply replace you two with a speak and spell. If you ever want to make the main show you need to work on your banter and tone." Rogue turned white as a sheet and Sting stared at the table, Erza was on a warpath today.
Max slid a folder to Erza, "and on the subject of Gray Fullbuster, we will be releasing exclusive photos of his outing this weekend, watch the prompter for new information during filming." Suddenly my ears were ringing, and my stomach did a flip, by 'outing this weekend' I hoped they didn't mean the club where I could have been seen with him. I said a silent prayer that I would not end up covering myself on the show tonight. It was nearly impossible to suppress the urge to snatch the photos from their hands, but that would make me seem like an absolute mad woman. Glancing over I could see that Mira was sitting forward in her seat as well, we needed to get a look at those pictures, and fast.
The rest of the meeting drug on for seemingly forever, I looked down and realized I had shredded half of the call sheet as I waited for Erza to set the folder down and disappear into her office. Mira elbowed Max out of the way and snatched up the file folder and flung it open in a flash.
There were three glossy photos from Philly's Saturday night, the first was Gray and Laxus entering the club, the second was the duo entering the VIP area and the third was Gray leaving, closing the passenger side door of his car, luckily the features of his passenger were obscured by the heavy tint of the window. I felt a weight lift from my shoulders seeing that no one besides Mira would be able to tell that I was the one in the car.
"I hear he left with someone other than the guy he came with, a busboy saw her and said it was a blunette, but no one got a shot of her," Max said with an overly snarky tone.
"That guy was Laxus Dreyar," Mira informed him with a sneer, "the hockey player for the Magnolia Victory." She seemed quite annoyed that no one knew him, and Max didn't seem to care at all.
"How do you know?" he finally asked seeing her staring daggers directly at him.
"I follow hockey," She answered abruptly, stormed out of the conference room.
Max asked, "what's eating her?"
"Guess you should respect her love of hockey," I said following her into her dressing room and quickly closed the door behind us.
"Mira, what in the hell do you think you are doing? Max is looking at you like you are a complete nut job right now."
"He needs to fact check, that is part of his job after all, just like knowing who is in the photos." She huffed, "we cover plenty of athletes but all he saw was an actor and his friend. "
"Oh, I see now, you like him."
"That's not the point."
"But you aren't denying it?"
"I can't deny it, he's a really good guy," she grinned.
"and he has tamed the bitch." A light chuckle escaped her lips breaking the tension, "are you planning on seeing him again?"
"Tonight, after work. I am going to meet him after practice,"
"Well look at you, thought you didn't do second dates."
"This is a first date,"
"Well you've got me there."
"so, are you going to see you-know-who again?"
"Well, it's not like that, we just hung out, if anything he is more of a friend."
A clear look of disbelief popped onto Mira's face, "if you say so, but a man that handsome needs to be more than a friend."
"I left my number with him the ball is in his court."
"What exactly do you mean you left your number? Didn't you exchange numbers?"
"I left a sticky note on the table I didn't want to assume he'd want to give me his number and I nearly didn't even leave mine."
"A sticky note? You really went home with an amazingly gorgeous man and did nothing to try to snag him up? You are a complete mystery Juves."
"Why do you say that like it's a bad thing? If anything, it is respectable to not pressure someone."
"You are so old fashioned it is adorable, really."
"Let's just get ready for tonight's ad spots before Erza sends Max out to find us."
"Oh, that guy is so annoying I could—" Mira mimed a strangling motion, "reminds me of a snake for real."
"Don't let him hear you say that he'll definitely cause more trouble that he's worth."
"Don't remind me. Let's get to hair and makeup before I change my mind and track him down."
"Cool it, Killer." I said opening her door and heading into hair and makeup where Cancer waited patiently.
"Ladies, there you are, let's get this shindig started," he winked gesturing to the empty chairs in front of him. I sat patiently as he worked my hair into submission, my tight curls being tamed into gentle waves that hung gently around my shoulders. It wasn't a bad look for me, it was just different.
When it came time for me to shoot my promo I had watched everyone else nail theirs in just a few takes so the pressure was on. The crew was tired and ready to wrap so I made my way to my mark and tried to remember my lines.
Action was called and I plastered on my best smile and started my promo only to stumble over my words, "I'm Ju-Juvia Lockser and you're watching- Uh."
"CUT!" Erza stepped out from the hallway and a chill ran up my spine, it would be a lot easier to do this if she weren't here. "You need to annunciate and remember what the show Is called Juvia, it's your job."
"Right," I nodded, I could do this. I waited for my cue and began again, 'I'm Juvia Lockser, and you-"
"CUT!" Erza interrupted, "you sound terribly unhappy, can you at least act like you want to be here?"
"Sorry," I could do this if she'd just let me finish.
"Do it again," she said, watching carefully as I smiled again and took my mark.
We repeated the shot for fourteen more takes and I started to worry that I would never get it right. The pressure of Erza staring me down had me frazzled, why had she shown up right as it was my turn? I had the worst luck.
"I'm Juvia Lockser and you're watching Shout Out on the Tid Bits Entertainment Network."
Erza pinched the bridge of her nose, "That is good enough," I deflated. "I expected more of you Juvia, you're not on your game today and frankly it's disappointing. That's probably as good as we're going to get, we'll fix it in post, you can go."
I wasted no time in heading to my dressing room to grab my bag, forget changing, I was heading home as soon as possible. I had enough of work for the day and I was ready to escape.
Once I gathered my things, I headed out the side door and straight to my car, the fresh air helped calm my shaky nerves as I pushed down the urge to cry. Why were things so stressful? How had I let things get so out of hand? It wasn't my first time doing a promo and I was better than that. Unlocking my car I plopped into the driver's seat and jumped as my phone rang.
Checking the display I didn't recognize the number, so I took a deep breath before answering. "hello?"
"Juvia?"
"Y-yes? Who is this?" they clearly knew me.
"It's Gray, from this weekend..." his voice trailed off as I felt a smile cross my face, he actually called me. "what are you doing tonight?"
"Tonight?" I repeated trying to think, I should really go home and handle all the things that have piled up but the temptation of Gray's question was too strong to deny. "Nothing, why?"
"Do you want to hang out again?" he asked. Did I want to hang out? Of course, I did, but I also didn't want to sound like a complete fangirl, so I paused for a moment before answering him.
"I think I could do that, what time?"
I heard his low chuckle as he answered, "How about now?"
"Now? I just got off work, I'm still in stage makeup and I haven't even gone home yet," did I need to go home? I could technically go now, I didn't look bad or anything, maybe just a little overdressed if anything. "You know what? Never mind, I can come now."
"Do you remember where I live?" he asked.
"I think I could get back there," I had been paying close enough attention when he took me there.
"Great, the gate code is 1445, See you soon." with that the line went dead. He just gave me his gate code. just like that? Gray was different than I had expected, and he just kept reminding me just how different he was.