Opportunity of a Lifetime (A Macklemore and Ryan Lewis Story)

Chapter 8: A Day in the Life

"Wake up Skylerpoo!" I half heard from my very peaceful and heavy slumber. I slowly opened my eyelids, the light hurting my eyes. Once I adjusted to the sun coming in through the small window above my bunk, I noticed Dylan's face looming over me with a quirky smile.

"Shut up I'm tired," I groaned, turning over in my bed to face the wall.

"Come on Sky, we're shooting today, get your lazy ass up," I reluctantly dragged myself out of my comfy cocoon and followed Dylan to the front of the bus, where people were already up and going. Still in their pajamas of course.

"Hey Skyler, nice to see you finally up!" Tricia chirped.

"Someone's in a good mood," I laughed, instantly bouncing into a better mood as well. I walked over to the kitchen area in my Seahawks pajama shorts and an old volleyball muscle shirt, and made myself a cup of instant coffee. Lots of sugar, lots of creamer.

"Make me one too!" Ryan yelled from the other side of the bus, where he was changing the lens on one of his cameras.

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered back, already starting on his black coffee with one sugar. I walked over and handed Ryan the mug, he nodded back a thanks and continued doing whatever he was doing. I sat back in the row behind him and stretched out while I sipped on my coffee.

Ben got up from his seat next to Tricia and walked over to me. He sat down and pulled out his own pair of headphones, black wireless beats, and handed them to me saying, "here, listen to this. It's some old Eminem music I thought you might like," he said, playing the song.

It only took a couple of seconds for me to recognize the song until I began to rap along to it.

These ideas are nightmares, the white parents

Whose worst fear is a child with dyed hair and who likes earrings

Like whatever they say has no bearing

It's so scary in a house that allows no swearing

"Yeah Ben, this is Sing for the Moment. That's not even underground of course I know that song," I said, pulling it up on my phone and showing it to him as proof. "I didn't know you liked Eminem," I started.

"I respect the man," Ben simply stated. I nodded, seems fair enough to me. "Your actually a really good rapper," Ben told me.

I put on my best swagger tone, "I got mad skills bruh."

"Here I got music for you," I told Ben. We sat for about a half hour while we ate breakfast picking songs for each other. Tricia isn't as into the rap scene, but I totally am. He showed me 2pac and Talib Kweli and I played Eminem, Bruno Mars, and a few others before I got to an album Ben made when he was 16. It was called Open Your Eyes and it sounded so different from his clean structured beats now. I remember spending a couple hours trying to find it until I eventually illegally downloaded it onto my iPod. I played Fresh Coast. It took a couple seconds for him to recognize his old music, and when he did he stared at me in shock.

I grinned back at him.

"Where did you find that!" He yelled. I laughed and played it louder.

Oh it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Everything is all good, I express my life through these words

I have love for everyone, except ignorant assholes

Whose ego exceeds their aura, I warn you, you'll get served

He growled at me. Yeah, actually growled until the song ended and Ryan, Dylan, Tricia, Jackie and I all clapped while Ben just sat there. I knew he wasn't really mad. You can tell when he's genuinely mad, and this was not one of those times.

After our whole little music fiasco was finished, we arrived at the shooting area and both of the buses parked. Everyone got onto one bus or another, and Dylan, Ben, Tricia and I walked over to the other bus where Melissa and Zach would do our makeup.

Once again the makeup took around 45 minutes, and it was more or less the same look as before. Except now Melissa was making my face look sunken in and tired. I looked in the mirror and saw paler skin, darker eyes, and a thinner face.

"Here, put these clothes on," Zach ordered me. I walked into the bathroom and put on the same ripped skinny jeans as before, and a blueish grey acid washed muscle tee. Finished off with beat up converse. I was really digging this grunge look.

I strutted out of the bathroom and down the hallway, posing in front of Ryan when I got to the end of my makeshift catwalk.

It was time to go outside and shoot more scenes. It was taking place on a long dock that ended at a river or a lake or the Puget Sound or something. I'm not the best at geology. Everything was set up and the sky was a hazy grey color, but it was relatively clear outside.

"Okay Skyler you are going to run along the dock, stop halfway, do that face you were working on, and then walk towards Dylan. You're going to stay silent and grab onto his wrist, then scream when he falls in. Keep holding onto his wrist but you can cry here." Ryan ordered. I think I got it.

I did exactly that. Zach and I were working on this face that combines guilt, fear, hurt, and somehow love. I think I portrayed it well and when Dylan fell in I started to freak out.

I wasn't acting.

It suddenly hit me like a wave of terror when I remembered when my brother Finn almost drowned in the bathtub. Everything flashed back and all I remember was fear of losing someone and I felt so much empathy mixed with my own pain that I was shaking and biting my lip so hard it started to bleed until Johnny yelled cut.

Ryan looked dumbfounded, and Johnny our camera guy just looked at me and then the camera, making sure his eyes weren't fooling him. I fished Dylan out of the water and he was sopping wet. No double takes here.

"Wow," Ryan looked at the two of us. "That's more than I ever hoped for."

Dylan and I smiled at each other and I lead him close to the buses where he took off his shoes and his T-shirt to dry outside. He was standing in front of me walking onto the bus so I didn't get a chance to steal a look at his abs.

I'm such a loser.

He went to his bunk to grab dry clothes and then into the bathroom to change. He came back out and then went to hang the rest of his clothes outside. We walked back out where Ben was being filmed rowing a boat. Almost exactly like in the Otherside music video. Then Tricia was standing on the dock just like I was, staring blankly at the vast water in front of her.

Finally shooting was done and everyone went back to the buses and relaxed for a while. Except Ryan. He was looking over all of the shots and playing with some quick editing things. I made myself a cup of tea, threw Ryan a bottle of water, and sat down listening to music, eventually dozing off right in my seat before Dylan woke me up and escorted me to bed, where it only took 20 seconds to fall right back to sleep again.