All My Life (Sequel to Starting Over)

Chapter 13

"yes Sof, 11 should be good... Yeah and don't dress like a homeless person today, your sisters words not mine... Don't ask questions we'll see you later... Love you too, bye." Damien finished his conversation with my sister and hung up, placing the phone on the counter beside me. Well the conversation did start when I was in the shower but they've been talking for half an hour about God knows what. "did she agree?" I asked after rinsing the toothpaste from my mouth. "yeah, I told her 11 so they can talk for a bit then we can all have lunch." he said, picking up his own toothbrush and turning on the water. Today by sister is coming into the office for what she thinks is a regular visit but what she doesn't know is that we've pulled some strings and managed to get her a job interview with Ian. She's been in school for production since September and she's doing really well, she's at the top of her class so I thought it would be a good place to intern while she's still in school. Experience looks great on résumés and smosh is pretty laid back for a first job.

I walked out of the room and into Lucy's to get her ready for the day. I did our usual routine, wash, change and dress before bringing her back to our room to get myself ready. "can you check the temperature, I'm not sure what to wear." I asked Damien before handing him the baby and sitting down to do my makeup. He turned on the weather network and waited for today's forecast to come up while I put on my foundation. "it's 52 right now with a high of 61." he said simply, turning the channel to family junior and turning Lucy to face the tv, bouncing her on his knees gently which she stares at the screen. "so what you're saying is sweater." I looked up at him in the mirror briefly before turning the attention back to my bronzer. "yeah basically," he chuckled, standing up and adjusting the baby in his arms. "I'm going to feed her and make some breakfast do you want anything?" he asked walking towards the door.

"I'm ok, just a coffee to go please. I'll be down soon." I said, tilting my chin as high as I could to give him a kiss. "God get a room!" Shayne shouted as he walked by the door. "we were in our room!" Damien yelled back, running after him making Lucy laugh. I shook my head as I leaned out of the doorway to watch them run down the stairs, what a bunch of children. Courtney walked into my room as I applied mascara and stood in the doorway, her arms spread out slightly "what do you think?" she asked, turning to give me a good look of her outfit. She's wearing black leggings, white high top converse and a light blue Queen hoodie. "it's cute, can you help me pick something out?" I asked, throwing all the makeup that was on the floor into my makeup bag and zipping it up. She agreed and walked over to my closet. She's pulled out a white and yellow sweater and I pair of black skinny jeans that I hadn't seen since before I got pregnant. I nodded in agreement, threw the clothes on and walked out of my room, ready for the day.

Sofia walked into the office 15 minutes to 11 with a tray holding 3 iced coffees, one for me, one for Sarah and one for her. She always knows exactly what I need, I swear she's psychic. She sat down on the empty desk next to mine that was soon to be hers and chatted with Sarah and I until 11 when Ian walked out of his office acting as casually as he could. "hey Sofia, what are you doing here?" he asked, sticking his hands in his pockets. She told him she was there for visit and that she was sorry she didn't bring him anything. He brushed it off and started asking her how school was going and her assignments and all that. She looked very excited to talk about it which is what he wanted to see so he invited her to go into her office to talk about it so we could continue working. It was pretty clever, I'll give him that. I worked for 10 more minutes until my knee started shaking so much that Cece told me to go for a walk, I knew she was going to get it but I'm an anxious mess regardless so.

I wondered around the halls aimlessly until I heard yell laughing coming from the set room so I decided to go in. They were filming a try not to laugh with CallmeCarson and I figured why not sit in on it. I walked in just as Shayne and Damien were doing a bit inspired by the phone call from the Matrix but the phone call was just instructions for the chacha slide which of course cracked Ted. Shayne was next up to be in the stool so this was bound to be a doozy. Ted came out first wearing a vest with his shirt pulled all the way up over his chest. He started flailing nunchucks around while crying about his recent divorce with his now ex wife. Shayne didn't end up laughing but I sure did. Damien came out next wearing a burger hat and a tight leather sleeveless jacket, he introduced himself as the cheeseburger man and I snorted, this character is new. "I'm here to perform non copy write poetry, today is 'oh captain my captain' by Walt Whitman." he said in a gruff voice.

He opened his mouth and nothing but gibberish came out, he was using the inflection of the poem but it was utter nonsense. I couldn't contain my laugh and neither could Sarah who walked in shortly after me so us two dummys were just standing in the corner laughing our asses off. "bo bop boo bo bo this is about Abraham Lincoln." he finished and Shayne spit all his water out forcefully. "you're an idiot, go away." Shayne chuckled, leaning down to pick up his water bottle and gesturing to the props area with it. He drank some more water and got back onto the stole, next was Courtney's turn. "alright, alright, alright! It's been a long time since we've been back at the academy of weird sounds. We're behind on the curriculum first up chapter 3!" she came out flipping her hair and clapping her hands for emphasis. She rubbed her studded bracelets together and they didn't make much of a sound so she ripped them off and moved onto her next prop.

"chapter 2, you can hear colours when you're on LSD!" she said, sticking her hands in the pocket of her hoodie and pulling out about a dozen different coloured bandanas, sending then flying all over the set. "can you hear this?" she asked, flailing the one left in her hand around and spinning. She dropped it and pulled a harmonica out of nowhere and yelled very loudly into it before putting her mouth up to it, producing the sound. Shayne spit and turned to Courtney in confusion, he turned away when she made the sound so he thought the harmonica played just from her yelling alone, I wouldn't doubt that either have you heard that woman scream? While Courtney was walking to the back Sofia and Ian walked in and before I could ask any questions Olivia pulled Ian to the props area, insisting he read something off her phone for her bit. "what'd you guys talk about?" I asked quietly, trying to play as innocent as I could. "oh you'll find out soon enough." she smiled widely at me, bouncing in her heels.

They finished up Olivia's weird bit and the last few people took their turns then they filmed the outro and Ryan called cut. "ok everyone, I'm calling a meeting in the pen in half an hour, we'll have lunch after the meeting it won't be very long I just have to go talk to Matt." Ian announced and left the room without another word. We all looked at each other in mock confusion, basically everyone in the room know what was going on. We made our way back to the pen and everyone took a seat, weather that be at or on a desk or ok one of the couches. I grabbed Lucy from the squad room where she was napping and Damien and I lounged on the couch against Matt and Ian's office, partially because there were enough chairs around it for Sofia and the housemates to sit but also I was sneakily trying to hear what was being said. (I don't know what the offices rules would be for a child that had to be brought to work. For story purposes I'm going to ask you to suspend disbelief and just assume that since Sydney returned to work so soon after having the baby they'd be fine with her bringing the baby to work on occasion.)

At some point I tuned out of the conversation about video games that the other 4 were having and turned my attention to Damien's hand on the arm which hung loosely around my shoulder. I played absent-mindedly played with his fingers while thinking about what I was going to pack to bring with me to Australia. I cannot believe we leave in 10 days, I'm going to have so much laundry and so much packing to do that I am going to sleep like a baby every night till we leave, I can't wait for that. I looked down at the baby that was still half asleep in my lap and smiled. I hope she's ok with the time change, that little girl is a champ with the way she handled Japan at just over 3 months that I'm sure she'll be okay at almost 8. The door to Ian's office opened, snapping me out of my thoughts and I sat up straight. He whistled loudly, catching the attention of everyone that was sitting in the work area and cleared his voice before he began to speak.

"I brought you all here to tell you that we have a new crew member joining us, you all know her because she's here way too often so we thought we might as well put her to work, give it up for Sofia!" he exclaimed as everyone in the office clapped. Sofia jumped up and they exchanged a hug as she thanked him repeatedly. He smiled warmly at her and told her that he was glad to have her on the team then turned back to the rest of us. "ok, you may all go for lunch now, let see what time is it? Just after 1? Be back by 2:30." he said to no one in particular and we all stood up and scattered. Our little group along side some production crew decided on poke so we grabbed our jackets and started off down the street. "Sydney." Sofia said suddenly as I found us falling all the way to the back of the group. "I've known you for 21 years and I know when you're faking confusion. Thank you for getting me my dream job." she pulled me in for a side hug and we stayed arm in arm as we continued our walk towards lunch, I'm so excited to have my sister working with us, it's a great opportunity and in sure she'll fit in well.