popping back up between projects to give you more content

Prep day didn't go as smoothly as Kara would have liked.

She told Nia and Siobhan to meet her for nine a.m. at the trailer so they could do some cleaning before shopping. She also wanted to do a quick little team meeting to thank them both for coming aboard and briefed them on what to expect. She got there fifteen minutes earlier than that just because, and Nia showed up five minutes after her.

They hugged in greeting and chatted for a few minutes, catching up because it had been months since they'd last seen each other. Kara didn't know Nia very well, but she liked her a lot. She was goofy and upbeat and added much-needed laughter to Kara's days when they worked together. Nia was also a member of the queer community, and Kara felt bonded to her simply because of that. Gay solidarity and all that.

Nia was a bisexual, trans woman in the process of transitioning. The first day they met Nia told Kara how she'd figured out she was trans from a young age, how she'd come out to her family, and how long she'd been on hormone replacement therapy. Kara'd never even asked. But she quickly learned that not only was Nia an open book, she had absolutely no filter. Anything that came into her head came out of her mouth, and even though it wasn't always appropriate, it had Kara unexpectedly cracking up throughout the long workday. She couldn't wait to do a whole show with her.

As much fun as it was talking to Nia, though, Kara kept glancing at her phone to check the time. The closer it inched to nine with no sign of Siobhan, the more anxious Kara got. Then nine came and went, and Kara got a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach. Nia occasionally checked the time on her phone as well, her face obviously showing the disapproval of Siobhan's tardiness on the first day.

By ten after nine Kara called her, Nia's dark brown eyes staring at her intensely as she did. Kara turned her back as the phone rang, her face slightly reddening. Nia hadn't been keen on her hiring Siobhan without talking to her about it first. She insisted she had people she could call that could do the job, but Kara hadn't wanted to go that route. Those were Nia's friends, Nia's people. And while she appreciated Nia wanting to help, she was the boss. She had to work with this person, too, and Siobhan was a friend—a new one at least. But being late on prep day wasn't a good sign for things to come, and the adage of not working with your friends floated through her mind as the phone rang again and again.

Just when she thought the call was going to go to voicemail, Siobhan picked up. "Hi, honey," she said in an overly sweet voice. "I'm almost there. My GPS says five minutes."

Kara resisted the urge to sigh. "Okay," she said slowly. "So you'll be here around nine-fifteen?"

"Yes, babes," came the reply. "I've gotta go, though. I'm driving, okay?"

Kara bit her lip. She sure hoped she was, damn. "I'll see you soon."

"Okay, bye, love," Siobhan cooed out before ending the call.

"Dude," Nia said in a low voice, walking around Kara and standing in her line of vision again with a distinct frown on her face. "You told her nine, right? She's seriously going to be late on prep day?" She shook her head slowly, yet her long, dark pony-tail swung behind her. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Kara agreed with her that it didn't make her confident for the rest of the show if Siobhan was late before they even officially started filming, but she knew that if she said so it would just launch them into another discussion about hiring someone else. But she'd already hired Siobhan, and there was no time to find someone new less than twenty-four hours before filming started.

"It's fine," Kara insisted, planting on what she hoped was a convincing smile. "It's only prep. No big. As long as she's on time tomorrow."

"And if she's not?" Nia asked, quirking a perfectly-plucked eyebrow.

"Then I'll have a talk with her," Kara said, tilting her baseball cap up so she could wipe sweat from her brow. The sun was already beating down on them mercilessly, and they hadn't even started working yet.

"You should talk to her now," Nia said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Anxiety surged through Kara's chest at that suggestion. She wasn't good at confrontation, and just thinking about saying something to Siobhan made her feel shaky. But Nia was looking at her so pointedly and stubbornly that she felt like she had to agree.

"Okay, I will," Kara said.

"Good." Nia smirked. "Because if you didn't, I was going to."

They decided to get inside the trailer and start dragging things out so they could sweep and mop the floors since the trailer had been sitting for a minute. Siobhan ended up being another ten minutes, not five, and by the time she pulled into the gravel lot Kara was silently fuming, reminding herself to stay calm as Siobhan climbed out of the car with Starbucks in hand.

Seriously?

"Hi, doll," Siobhan greeted, instantly draping an arm around Kara in greeting.

Kara returned the hug half-heartedly, feeling Nia's eyes burning into the back of her head. "So, what happened?" Kara asked in an even voice when she pulled out of the hug.

"What do you mean?" Siobhan asked and took a sip of her Frappuccino.

To her left, Nia made a scoffing noise, and Kara quickly asked, "I said nine, so why are you late?" Her pulse raced as the question left her mouth, and her heart leapt into her throat when Siobhan frowned at her.

"I mean, there was traffic," she said with a dismissive wave of the hand.

"At nine a.m. on a Sunday?" Nia asked skeptically

Siobhan narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, I think there was an accident or something."

Kara frowned at that, doubting the statement. She'd been to Siobhan's house before, and it wasn't far from her own. They had to take the same route, and there'd been no traffic, no accident in sight. And even if there had been, that meant Siobhan should have been hauling ass to get there as soon as possible, not stopping at Starbucks (and not even bothering to get them anything, either). But she didn't feel like starting any kind of argument over something stupid.

"Okay, just don't be late tomorrow," Kara said, her voice sounding tired to her own ears, not even a full half-hour into prep day. "We need to be at least on time, if not early."

Siobhan rolled her dark eyes and tucked a strand of her shoulder-length brown hair behind her ear. "I mean, yeah, I know that. I always am on film days." She shrugged. "But today's just a prep day, so you know—like, it's fine."

Kara's eyebrows shot up, and she bit her tongue for a moment to stop a curt reply. "Still, just, in the future…"

"Don't worry about it, hon," Siobhan said with a smile. "I'm on my shit. You'll see."

Kara gave a tight-lipped smile and nodded before gesturing to Nia. "This is the other member of our team, Nia Nal." She then gestured to the woman who'd been tardy. "And this is Siobhan Smythe."

The two regarded each other for a moment, each taking the other in. Siobhan was slightly shorter, with a pointed nose and almond-shaped eyes. She wore flip-flops, a tank top that clearly showed she'd gone braless, and blue jean shorts that were shorter than the pair of boxer briefs Kara was currently wearing under her basketball shorts. Nia, on the other hand, was tall, a couple of inches taller than Kara. Her hair was long, wavy, and full, and she wore it swept up in a ponytail and underneath a cap to keep the sun out of her face, the same as Kara had done. But unlike Kara, who was shorts and a t-shirt, Nia wore a long-sleeve black shirt and black cotton pants. Kara wondered how she wasn't dying of heatstroke.

"Hi, nice to meet you," Siobhan said, holding out the hand that wasn't holding coffee for a shake. Nia hesitated for a moment before taking it limply.

"Yeah, sure," she said, shaking Siobhan's hand quickly before dropping it and crossing her arms over her chest.

A tension hung in the air, an audible silence that made Kara feel even more uneasy. So, she clapped her hands together and nodded her head towards the trailer. "Well, let's get to it, then," she said lamely.

She'd wanted to have a team meeting before starting, but that was before Siobhan was late, before they'd started working in the blazing heat. Now she just wanted to get this shit done as quickly as possible so she could go home and enjoy what was left of the last day before her life became the usual chaos it was during filming.

Thankfully Siobhan did put her head down and work—for the first twenty minutes at least. Then she started talking, which Kara didn't mind. Kara liked to talk, as long as it didn't interfere with work. Kara had gotten good at multi-tasking. She knew how to hold a conversation while still doing her job. Siobhan hadn't seemed to master that concept. Every time she started to say something, she would stop what she was doing and not resume until she'd finished speaking—which was always for a while. It was irritating, to say the least, but Kara didn't snap at her or correct her. She just buckled down and worked twice as fast to pick up the slack.

After about an hour Kara decided Siobhan would be of more use shopping than she would be at the trailer. There was so much they needed to get in order to get started that it would take multiple shopping trips for each of them. So, Kara handed over the production credit card they'd given her and gave Siobhan a list.

With her gone, she and Nia were able to finish cleaning the trailer and set up all of the equipment so that it was ready to go the next morning. It didn't take long, but it was enough time that Siobhan should have returned from the store. The list Kara had given her hadn't even been that long. By the time she finally came back Kara expected her tiny car to be completely packed with groceries, and she was crest-fallen to see how little Siobhan had bought. The time she'd spent at the store did not add up to that little—Kara knew, she was a shopping pro. And when they unpacked everything into the trailer Kara noticed she'd forgotten several things on the list, some of which were for cast.

So, Kara made new lists, one for each of them, making sure to put the stuff for cast on Nia's, because she knew Nia would know how important it was to get those things. Then when she suggested they split up to divide and conquer Siobhan whined and asked why they couldn't just shop together. And even after Kara explained that it helped to save time, she still pouted and tried to insist they go together. Eventually Kara convinced her otherwise, and she was glad. She knew she could move faster on her own.

They each took their lists, Siobhan kept the card while Kara divided up the cash for her and Nia, and they set off, everyone going to different stores based on what they needed. Kara completed hers and was back at the trailer first, but she'd expected to be.

This was, sadly, her favorite part of prep. Shopping used to overwhelm her, but now she knew most grocery stores like the back of her hand, and she just put her headphones in and jammed while she breezed through with cartload after cartload of groceries. Shopping was easy, even fun sometimes. It was the cleaning and organizing that she hated, and it took everything in her not to just throw the groceries in the trailer, bags and all, and instead unpack them neatly on the shelves. By the time she was done Nia had showed up with what she'd bought, and she helped her unload as well.

They were just finishing up with Nia's when Siobhan returned, looking flustered as she immediately began to start taking bags out of her car. Kara didn't know what made her pick up the pace, but she wasn't complaining. Her car was unloaded in no time, but Kara sighed as she went through the bags and noticed once again Siobhan had failed to get some of the things on her list.

"You didn't get bananas, bread, or eggs," Kara said as she unpacked that last box onto the shelf.

"I ran out of time," Siobhan said.

"Getting those things would have been an extra five minutes, tops, and we need those things," Kara said, trying her best to keep the agitation out of her voice.

"Sorry," Siobhan said with a shrug.

Kara blinked slowly and did her best to remembered to breathe. "Okay, can you go back and get those things?"

"Why do I have to go?" Siobhan asked in a stubborn tone.

"Why'd you forget them in the first place?" Nia challenged, and Kara shot her a warning look.

"I told you, I ran out of time," Siobhan said again.

"You have time now, you can go now," Nia said.

Siobhan's face screwed up in a tight frown. "I don't, though. This already took longer than I expected, and I have to go home and get ready for a date." She looked to Kara. "I told you about it, remember?"

Kara did remember. Siobhan wouldn't shut up about it earlier. It was the thing she kept talking about that made Kara send her to the store. Siobhan apparently was seeing this guy who didn't want to be exclusive, but Siobhan did. She asked Kara if she should keep seeing him, and Kara flat-out told her no, that she would most likely get hurt. Yet she was going to see him anyway. Kara wasn't exactly sympathetic to her reason for wanting to leave.

"I told you to expect an eight-hour day," Kara tried to reason. "It's barely four, and you're being paid until five-thirty."

Siobhan let out a dramatic sigh. "I mean, I guess I can go. I just don't see why it has to be me. I have something to do."

"I have shit to do," Nia replied. "I have a life. But this is work."

"It's fine, I'll go," Kara said quickly, not even mentioning that she had a life, too. It wasn't worth all this anxiety and the hassle of arguing about it. She could just stop on the way home really quickly. It was only a couple of things, after all.

"You're the best," Siobhan said, now smiling. She wrapped her arms around Kara quickly before running to her car. "I'll see you tomorrow, ladies!" She said as she climbed into her silver Saturn.

She waved goodbye as she drove off, and Kara returned it, attempting a smile despite how annoyed she felt. She noticed Nia kept her arms hanging limply by her side, making not even the slightest effort to acknowledge Siobhan's departure other than glaring after her retreating vehicle.

"Kara," she said, rounding on the blonde. "This isn't going to work."

Kara sighed and threw her hands up in exasperation. "What am I supposed to do? We start in fourteen hours!"

"You shouldn't have hired her," Nia said, shaking her head.

Kara gave an exhausted shrug, feeling drained both physically and emotionally at that point. "Well it's done, okay?" she said. "She's gonna see. I'll get her on set tomorrow and kick her ass, show her what crafty's really about."

"I sure hope so," Nia said, though she looked skeptical. "In the meantime, I'm going to reach out to my people and see if anyone's available as backup."

"Okay," Kara said, no energy left to disagree. "I guess I'll go to the store." She couldn't stop the eye roll that accompanied the statement. "And I'll see you tomorrow, really fucking early."

"See you, girl," Nia said, holding up her hand for a high-five. "We're gonna rock this, you and me."

Kara solidly returned the high-five. "I sure as fuck hope so, Nia."

The script was worse than Lena remembered. She cringed several times when reading it and had to pour herself a glass of wine not even fifteen pages in. By the time she'd finished reading she'd also finished the bottle. But even being a little wine-drunk did little to ease the dread she felt when dwelling on the fact that she would actually have to act out the dumb shit one the pages sitting in her lap.

The story wasn't anything special. In fact, it was just plain crap. It followed this guy named Dean who is a playboy. He meets a woman named Erin—her character—who works as a receptionist in a vet's office to pay her way through veterinary school. She snubs him when he first asks her out, and then—through prompting from his obnoxious, toxic, male best friend—he adopts a dog from a shelter just to bring it into her clinic for a checkup and see her again. Then she agrees to hang out with him to help him learn how to be a competent pet owner, and eventually they fall in love. Of course she finds out his plan to dump the dog back at the shelter after getting her in bed, and the guy goes through some soul searching and realizes he loves not only her but the dog, too. Then he makes a grand gesture and wins her back.

Lena couldn't help thinking the story would have ended better with Erin stealing Dean's dog and living happily ever after without him, but she wasn't the writer. She was simply the actor, the puppet mouthing the words.

This was the type of role she hated. Sure, there were things she liked about Erin, such as her drive. Later in the movie Erin reveals she hopes to one day open her own low-cost vet clinic and someday retire to a big house in the country with a lot of land so she could open up an adoption center for dogs where they received love and care while waiting for adoption—open to the public so people could come and socialize the dogs and hopefully fall in love with one of them enough to adopt. That was the only thing that kept her from calling her mother upon finishing the script and telling her to pull out immediately.

Other than that, the story sucked. And Erin wasn't the main character. This was Dean's story. Jack Spheer was number one on the call sheet. Sure, she was number two, but she hated that a female character who had so much potential once again played second fiddle to a boring, one-dimensional male lead. But what did she expect? It was written by Eobard Thawne. All of his movies followed the same boring, overused plot. And nepotism was alive and well because his nephew was playing the dumbass best friend to Dean.

At least there was another woman in the cast, even if she had very little purpose other than convince Erin to give Dean chance after chance. Andrea Rojas was playing her character's roommate, and honestly Lena had to Google who that was before the camera test because she'd never heard the name before in her life. Andrea had few roles under her belt—two movies and a couple of episodes on various shows, none of which Lena had seen.

Going into the camera test was daunting. The rest of the cast had been apart of this movie for weeks, if not months. They'd done read-throughs and had a chance to get to know each other and bond. Lena was going in blind. It felt like starting at a new school halfway through the year— at least she imagined since she'd been homeschooled or tutored on-set growing up (she did portray a character that was a new kid in school once, though, but she didn't think that counted).

Thankfully, though, the cast was extremely nice upon first greeting her. To be fair, though, they were all actors. They knew how to put on that they were nice at first. There was little time to socialize, though, before she was whisked into hair and makeup. Then she got into wardrobe, and she was pleasantly surprised at how much she liked the outfit. I was a simple, grey blouse and skinny jeans with sensible sneakers. It was something she would wear on her own.

The camera test took place on the soundstage they were apparently set to film at for the last few weeks of filming. Her trailer was in the small basecamp in the parking lot. When she stepped out to head to stage, she was greeted by her assistant holding out a coffee and offering a smile.

Lena returned it when she took the latte. "Thanks, Jess," she said appreciatively.

She'd worked with Jess before. She'd been a cast Production Assistant—or PA—on a few different shows Lena had worked on. She'd never been important enough to have her own personal assistant before and was about to turn it down until she found out it would be Jess. She loved Jess. Lena didn't often make it a habit to talk to people on set, but one day Jess asked her about the book she was reading in between scenes, and that got them on a long discussion about their favorite authors. The next day Lena brought Jess a copy of one of her favorite books, and the day after that Jess brought her a copy of one of hers. After that Lena considered Jess somewhat of a friend, even if they only socialized at work.

But now Jess was all hers for the whole show, and she was showing up with her favorite coffee without having to be asked, and Lena felt better about the whole thing.

"You're an angel," Lena said before talking a sip of her skinny vanilla latte. "How did you remember?"

"It's not a hard order, Ms. Luthor," Jess said with a laugh as she swung long, dark hair over her shoulder. She smiled again, and it reached her dark brown eyes.

"Jess, please call me Lena," she said for what felt like at least the tenth time. "And also, please tell me you didn't pay for this with your own money. If so, I'll pay you back."

"Oh, no," Jess said quickly, shaking her head. "Production gave me a credit card to buy whatever you need. It's all covered."

Lena blinked with amazement. Okay, so maybe bigger budget productions did have their perks. "Okay, but you don't have to do this every day. I'm fine just drinking crafty coffee."

"I know," Jess said. "But we don't have crafty today, and you mentioned needing another coffee on the way in." Another smile.

"You're fucking brilliant, do you know that?" she asked, laughing a little. "So, tell me, what have you been reading? Anything good?"

Jess shrugged. "I finally got around to reading the final book in A Song of Ice and Fire series," she said. "Now I'm just upset that there's no ending to the books yet, and I don't even have the show to get my fix anymore."

"I know," Lena said as she sipped her latte again, fighting the urge to smile. She'd been the one to suggest Jess read the Game of Thrones books, and now she felt partially responsible.

"It's a tragedy," said a deep voice with a British accent, and they turned to see Jack Spheer had emerged from his trailer. His dark hair was swept back, his beard was neatly trimmed, and his costume for the shoot was simple grey slacks and a red sweater.

Lena had to admit he was objectively handsome, but she wasn't attracted to him. However, if she was going to have to pretend to be in love with a man, she supposed he wasn't the worst choice in the world.

"Have you read them?" Lena asked interestedly.

"Many times," Jack said as he approached, a tiny man with mousy features and spiked brown hair at his elbow. "I even auditioned for the show and was heartbroken when I wasn't cast." He smiled as he stood before Jess and Lena, offering his hand out to Jess. "Hi, we haven't met yet. I'm Jack."

Jess blinked at him, seemingly star-struck for all of a moment before shaking his hand quickly. "Jess, Lena's assistant."

"Lovely," he said, then gestured to the nervous-looking man at his side. "This is my assistant, Winn." He clapped the tiny man on the shoulder. "Do you like Game of Thrones, Winn?" he asked.

Lena found herself smiling at that. Many times actors ignored their assistants or treated them like crap. From first impressions, though, Jack seemed genuinely nice and wanting to include Winn. First, he remembered his name—that was better than most actors. Second, he went out of his way to interject Winn in the conversation after introducing him.

"I—uh, yeah—I mean, of course!" Winn said quickly, seemingly suddenly aware of all the eyes on him.

Jack laughed and squeezed Winn's shoulder before letting go. "Good man," he nodded to Lena. "Thank you for joining our cast last minute, Lena. I'm looking forward to working with you."

"Likewise," Lena said, surprised to find herself meaning it if Jack was going to be this pleasant going forward. But only time would tell.

"Well, shall we get to it, then?" Jack asked, gesturing towards the warehouse that acted as a soundstage.

Lena nodded, and they set off. Behind her, she heard Jess say into her walkie that she and Jack were self-motivating inside. She tried to shirk off the odd feeling she got every time she was aware of people watching her every move and being concerned with her whereabouts. But then again, she reminded herself, wasn't that the typical life of a celebrity?

Thankfully the camera test didn't take long, and Jess was driving her back across the city to her home around dinnertime. Her plan for the rest of the evening was to soak in a hot bath, have a glass or two of wine, and go over her lines for the next day before going to sleep for her early call time.

But her mother called before she even unlocked her door, and Lena knew she would keep calling until she answered. So, she cradled the phone in her neck as she pushed open the door and entered the loft.

"Yes, Mother?" she asked as she dropped her keys on the end table by the door.

"How did the camera test go?" Lillian asked, getting right to business, which Lena was appreciative of. She wasn't in the mood to trade pointless niceties.

"Fine, uneventful," Lena said, because it had been.

"What's Jack Spheer like?" Lillian asked, and Lena heard a hint of jealousy mixed with interest in her voice that made the brunette roll her eyes. Could Lillian just not be a cougar for, like, five seconds?

"He's nice," was all Lena said.

There was a pause, and then Lillian asked, "Isn't he handsome?"

"I guess he would be what people who are attracted to men would call handsome, but as I've told you before, I'm a lesbian so he does nothing for me," Lena shot at her, knowing where Lillian had been going with her dumbass question.

"No one needs to know, that, though," Lillian said, a statement that sounded like an automated response. "I've been thinking—"

"That's never good," Lena muttered.

"Don't be rude, Lena, it's unbecoming," Lillian chastised. "But what I was going to say is that you really do need to reconsider this anti-social media attitude you have."

"Here we go again," Lena said with an eye-roll.

It wasn't that she was against social media in general, it just wasn't for her. She had little interest of being part of an online world where people could facelessly criticize her for literally everything she did. And not to mention she simply didn't care about it. She was a private person, and her life was in the spotlight enough without her drawing more attention to herself.

"It would be good for your career," Lillian insisted. "Not to mention most contracts now come with an added part about promoting the project through social media."

"If the star already has social media, which I don't," Lena shot back as she walked through her loft to her kitchen and grabbed a fresh bottle of wine from the rack on the counter. "I don't want it."

"You hardly have to post anything at all!" Lillian's voice was high and agitated. "Just get an Instagram and take a few selfies on set. It's not that difficult, Lena."

"Why does it matter?" she questioned, frowning as she struggled to get the foil off the bottle.

"It's just self-promotion, dear," her mother responded. "And maybe take a couple with Jack just to generate some buzz."

"There it is: the catch," Lena said as she succeeded in removing the foil and tossed it in the waste bin before retrieving the corkscrew from its drawer. "You want me to add fuel to the fire when the rumors start swirling around that Jack and I are romantically involved on and off-camera." She knew it would happen. It always did. She couldn't so much as breathe on-screen with a man without fans thinking they were fucking behind the scenes, and Lillian loved every second of it because it covered up what she felt was Lena's dirty little secret.

"Not necessarily," Lillian said carefully. "But would it kill you to make an effort to at least appear like you enjoy your job and being around your costars?"

Lena exhaled loudly through her nose, cradling her phone under her chin again as she opened the bottle of wine. "I'll think about it." Which is what she always said, but she never did. The answer would always be no.

She heard Lillian click her tongue on the other end. "Fine, but we will talk about this again soon," she promised, and Lena didn't doubt the sincerity of the statement in the slightest.

"Sure," Lena said dismissively. "Is there anything else, or can I go? I want to go over my lines before tomorrow."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize talking to your mother was so bothersome," Lillian said sarcastically, but the irony was that it actually was bothersome.

"I just want to be prepared," Lena said heatedly as she carried the bottle of wine through her loft to the bathroom so she could start running a bath. "Usually I have more time to learn my lines, but you threw me into this last second."

"Don't be angry with me for advancing your career," her mother said darkly, and Lena resisted the urge to laugh spitefully. "You should be grateful for me getting you this opportunity."

There were a million things Lena wanted to say to that, none of them nice. So instead she just said, "Goodnight, Mother," and hung up before Lillian got another chance to say something else that made her skin crawl.

She filled the tub with scalding hot water and submerged herself under the sudsy water, drinking her wine straight from the bottle. She stared into space, willing her mind to numb with each sip of bitter yet sweet Merlot. By the time she was ready to get out the bottle was empty, and her toes and fingers were pruned, but at least she'd lost the urge to cry just thinking about the day ahead.

Lena ate leftover Chinese takeout before getting into bed and trying to study her lines. But her wine-slogged mine was fuzzy. She found herself reading the same page over and over, and then her head was lolling to the side as her eyelids became increasingly heavier. She fell asleep with the script on her chest, still on the same page she'd originally opened it to.

I promise they'll meet next chapter but for now I hope you enjoyed the world building.

Until next time.