Little Things

Chapter 1

The plane lands mid-morning in London. I slowly wake up as the passengers around me are preparing to get off. I glance around at everyone grabbing their things and line up in the aisle. Tossing the blanket off my body into the seat next to me, I grab my phone and check my hair and makeup. I sigh as I clean up the eyeliner under my eyes, then pull my hair up into a bun. As all the passengers start emptying out the plane, I open the visor and glance out at the view of the city past the tarmac. My lips break into a tiny smile before I'm encouraged by the flight attendants to make my way off the plane. I quickly get up, grab my bags, and exit the plane.

I walk out to the pickup area of the airport, finding someone holding up a sign with my name on it, so I approach him.

"I'm Juliette González," I say softly, yet confidently.

The gentleman smiles as he lowers the sign and extends out a hand. "I'm Eric Jones. I'm the—"

"You're Fiyero's understudy," I cut him off as we shake hands. "Nice to meet you." He's tall and quite handsome with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes, looking at him reminds me of a California surfer, but without the tan.

He smiles and nods, "you know the cast already?"

"It was a long flight," I reply shaking my head with a chuckle in my voice. Eric smiles, takes my carry-on bag, places it in the back seat of the car and drives me to the theatre. On our way, I'm looking out the windows in awe as he tries to start a conversation. I only hear the end of the question, so I turn my head to him.

"What? I'm sorry, could you repeat your question?"

"Are you going to ignore me the whole ride while you daydream?" He asks, amused.

"I'm sorry, I kind of just zoned out for a moment."

"It's not the first time that's happened. You know, I was in your shoes once. Moving to an entirely different country for a job I've never done – it's scary."

"Where are you from?" I ask as I situate myself properly back into seat.

"Toronto."

"When did you move here from Toronto?"

"I moved to New York City first to try and make it on Broadway," Eric starts, the pauses. "That didn't really work out like I hoped, then I moved here a few years ago, starting out as a stagehand like you."

"And now you're in the cast and an understudy to one of the main characters."

"Believe it or not, good things happen here."

"That's incredibly comforting, I'm in need of good things happening."

I smile at him, then look out in front of us. We're there. The West End. My jaw drops at all the theatres, and all the plays and musicals on each marquee. Eric chuckles after he glances over at me.

"You haven't seen anything yet."

I turn my head towards him, wondering what he meant by that. He turns into an alley, then into a parking space behind the theatre. I slowly get out and just stare for a moment before he walks around and extends his elbow out to me.

"Let's meet your new family," he says, as I slowly look over at him. I smile and rest my wrist on the inside of his elbow.

We walk in through the stage door and my jaw suddenly drops again as I look around at all the props and set pieces. The crew is already hard at work prepping everything for the show that evening. Before I start meeting everyone, I must meet with the heads to formally introduce myself and sign my contracts. All of that didn't take too long - maybe a half hour at most – before they let me go to meet everyone that works for the show and to get myself to my apartment to settle in. The show producers agreed to give me tonight off so I can come completely prepared in the morning – and they gave me a ticket to watch the show. I was ecstatic to be honest, Wicked is my favorite musical and I was eager to see how good this cast is.