Our kind of love - Tom Holland

Chapter 1: Radio

Let's make this clear. I have no interest in pursuing a career in journalism. Voluntarily talking to strangers on camera or in any form is not my idea of fun.
So when I applied for an apprenticeship at BBC Radio 1, I made sure I applied for an off-camera position. In fact, so off camera that I'd be behind it. I figured that would be safe. Ha.

It was going well. The commute to London every day got a bit much, so I decided to rent a small flat in the city. I was about 6 weeks in to my position as 2nd Camera Operator, and I was loving it. It was exactly what I wanted to do  learning the technical behind the scenes skills and being taught by the best. My line manager, Mark, greeted me as I walked in the office for what I presumed would be another typical day of happily not being noticed.

"Hey, Gem!" He smiled, as I walked over to his desk.

"Morning, Mark" I replied, putting a coffee down in front of him. I had made it a habit of getting us Starbucks every morning on my way in.
He grinned and took a sip.

"So what's the plan for today, boss?"

"Jesus Gem, stop calling me that" he chuckled, setting the cup down and pulling up his emails.
"We've got a live stream from the studio to set up for Grimmie this morning, then a high profile interview after lunch. Slow day, really."

I nodded along. This wouldn't be my first high profile interview, I'd sat behind the camera for a few now. It was always interesting to see how people behaved on and off camera. Refreshingly, there weren't many people where you could tell the difference.

"Oh, and Simon is overseeing the production of the interview later" he raised his eyebrows at me.

I sighed. Simon was Mark's line manager, he was basically in charge of all recordings and equipment at the station. I shot Mark a small smile.

"I'm sure it will be fine. He can't be much more of a douche than he was last time, right?"

"Hmm" was all I got from Mark, as he picked up his coffee again. I decided to leave it and go upstairs to set up the livestream.

I walked in to find Grimmie sitting at the microphone, working on his laptop before he had to start.

"Gemma! How are you hon?" He said with his signature grin, setting his laptop aside.

I smiled back and went over to hug him. "The usual, lurking in the shadows" I winked at him, and he laughed.
"You are never going to come out from behind the camera are you?"

"Absolutely not" I chuckled, setting up the camera and positioning it to point at Grimmie. "Especially not since Simon is coming in later, I'll be hiding as much as possible."

He rolled his eyes as I finished up, quickly hugging him again before I made my exit.

Simon was one of those people that nobody liked, but would put up with anyway. He was good at his job, its just a shame he was such a dick.

Lunch rolled around and I ate with Mark, and a couple of the other camera crew. We were a small team, only about 10 of us in all. It was perfect though, we all got along really well and we were good at what we did.

"Shit"

I looked over at Mark, who was frowning at his computer screen.

"What's up, Mark?" I asked, wandering over to him.

"Ali is sick, and everyone else is on assignment" he groaned at ran his hand through his hair. Ali Plumb is our head interviewer for film and TV, he really is the best in the business. Also the nicest human alive.

With no time to process, our sector door swings open and Simon marches in, with a clipboard. Everyone in our area stop what they are doing immediately.