oh brother.

one.

I've been staring up at my ceiling for about two hours now. My nerves active now, just as much as they were last night. My new beginning starts today. New job, new apartment, new relationship status--everything is new. I was nervous for what was to come, but excited at all the possibilities and opportunities to come. Moving to my own apartment in Southern California all by myself is gonna be different, but its a change that I desperately needed in my life.

 As the sun slowly began to creep through my blinds, the alarm on my cellphone goes off. "Finally, 6:00 AM." I whisper to myself. I silence the alarm immediately and sit up. I look at the clothes I laid across the foot of my bed that I meticulously picked out the night before: a plain white T shirt and my favorite black, over-worn mom jeans. I quickly change before I give myself the chance to change my mind for the thousandth time.

I spend the next 10 minutes tying, then untying my dark hair--I should at least look like I'm trying on my first day--before deciding to leave it down as it falls to my waist. I walk to my bathroom and brush my teeth then wash my face before swiping on some eyebrow gel, concealer and mascara. "There," I said to my reflection, "Now you look presentable, at least." I give myself another once over before I grab my bottled ice coffee from the fridge, slide on some black vans, then walk out to my car.

When I finally pull into the parking lot, I circle around wondering where to park. After 5 minutes of looking crazy, I just park dead center in the lot and say a quick prayer before stepping out into the sunlight and towards the studio entrance.

"Hi!" The receptionist smiles brightly. "You must be Mia." She stands up to shake my hand then walks me over to a small couch and gestures for me to sit. "Matthias should be here in a few minutes. Are you okay waiting here?"

I nod, almost too aggressively. "Yeah, of course." I swear I could feel myself sweating already.

"Theres some donuts over there in the break room, if you wanna grab some while you wait." She says as she walks back to the front desk.

Just when she sits down the front door opens and in walks Matthias. 

I stand up as soon as I see him and his eyes dart towards me before he starts to laugh. "Jeez, Mia," he says as he puts his hand to his chest. "You nearly gave me a heart attack jumping up like that!" He chuckles as he walks towards me. "Alright new girl, follow me. I'm gonna introduce you to who you'll be working with most."

I do as he says and follow him as he leads me through the hallway and towards the back of the building. I try to keep myself from looking around the office too much, and keep my hands interlocked to contain my excitement. As we approached the door at the far back, the sounds of laughter grew louder and louder.

"Hey!" Matthias shouted loudly as he swung the door open. "Whats all this laughing about? I don't pay you to have fun!" He jokes.

The boys froze and stared at him before breaking out into more laughter. They each had on safety goggles and what appeared to be raw hot dogs in their hands and all over the floor.

"You know, its kind of cool that you aren't some sort of super fan, because you'll get to experience how crazy these guys really are first-hand." Matthias whispered to me jokingly.

Suddenly a hot dog flew across the room and smacked him in the gut. "I heard that!" The tall, blonde one cracked.

"Really Tanner? In front of the new girl?" Matthias says before he picks up the hot dog and throws it back.

I took a deep breath before smiling my friendliest smile. "Hey guys, I'm Mia."

"Whoa, I didn't even see you there--you're so tiny!" Tanner said sheepishly. "You're shorter than Woods!" He guffaws.

Everyone starts to laugh again, except for the boy with the short brown hair. "Ha, ha. Very funny Tanner," he smiles sarcastically. "I'm 5'8". You guys are just all freakishly tall." He rolls his eyes as he walks towards me. He had a hotdog in between each finger like wolverine claws. "You are pretty short though." He grins as he holds out a hot dog claw, as if to shake hands. "I'm Woodland, but everyone calls me Woods."