December 24th [COMPLETED]

1. The Busking Busboy

A/N: Okay. First context Author's Note. Our story starts with our girl Georgie already at her internship in London that we read about in chapter 2 of Dec. 24th. The studio she worked at was called Willow Studios in Dec 24th but it might be called something different here. Also Benji became Benjamina in Dec 24th.

Enjoy!

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Georgie was bored. Two weeks into her stay in London and she was bored. This fact was simultaneously frustrating and depressing. Not only was Georgie bored, but she was also kicking herself for agreeing to Julien's ridiculous condition. Georgie had liked Sydney well enough on tour. She was that stoic quiet type that Georgie found refreshing after spending hours around roadies. But when Sydney was her only source of conversation, it was a different story altogether.

And all of this didn't even include how much she missed the road, her crew, Julien, Tyler, everyone, and everything about her previous. But Georgie didn't let herself dwell on any of this for too long. She knew she'd be on a plane in a heartbeat if she gave it more than a passing thought. She was twenty years old and starting a new chapter. Giving up two weeks in was not an option.

At least she had work to look forward to. Georgie was firm in her conviction that she deserved a spot in that program as much as the other interns did, despite their continuous mutterings that she did not. She did everything. She was happy to do anything. She got coffees, she worked studio tech, and she grabbed lunch for everyone. The quick-paced errands back and forth reminded her of the road and it kept everyone happy and off her back for the most part and so Georgie had no complaints.

The real highlight of her days, though, came at night. Mac had encouraged the interns, from day one, to take advantage of the free open studio hours. Anyone in the program was allowed to set up shop in any one of their multiple studio rooms and work after hours. Georgie was the only one so far who had taken him up on this offer. After she grabbed dinner with Sydney at whatever new place Sydney had found in their neighborhood to try out, Georgie headed back to the studio and stayed until late in the night messing around, mixing the work they had recorded with Mac during the day, just figuring out what she liked, what she didn't. Those late nights were the only thing keeping Georgie going.

Sydney had found them a short-term rental apartment just a few blocks from the studio. Georgie could walk to work every morning and was guaranteed a safe walk home every night because of the quiet and homey nature of the neighborhood. And so every day, George walked along the quaint houses and watched as parents sent their kids off to school, as people waited for the bus to take them deeper into the city, as regular life happened around her.
And every morning she paused just a block from the gates leading into the studio because every morning and evening, there was a busker standing on the sidewalk, with just his guitar and an open case on the ground for spare change. Georgie stopped and listened every morning first because of his voice. It was incredible. Georgie hadn't heard anything like it.

He had the rasp of the old rock legends with the depth of a Broadway singer. Georgie kept stopping to listen to him play when she caught wind of his lyrics. She had assumed he was playing covers this whole time but she was more than happy to be wrong.

He was good. Really good. And smart, too, if he was busking in a quiet neighborhood right outside Abbey Road Studios where there was little traffic and no competition but the people who did pass by were the ones who mattered.

As Georgie was leaving the studio one night, leaving behind the continual cries of "Burns, get this" and "Burns, go fetch me that", Georgie paused where she always did expecting the busker to be right where he usually was but he wasn't there that night. Georgie shook off the disappointment along with the judgmental glances of her co-interns as they continued to treat her like a servant and an idiot.