The Write Match // Bill Hader

Two

It's been five weeks. Five weeks of nail biting, all-nighters, nervous breakdowns, but nevertheless five weeks of hard work. The first episode of season thirty-four premiers this Saturday. Over forty sketches alone have been written for this episode. The producers will have plenty of options, and I, along with John will be there to help bring them to life.

I made it to the studio, taking my things to my office, keeping my journal, pen, and laptop with me. Today is dress rehearsal for the live show tomorrow night. Michael Phelps is hosting this week, but the crew has only heard from him once, and it was through a single phone call asking when he needed to be here.

The cast slowly starts coming in one by one, Seth and Fred stop to ask how I was doing, I told them I was good and away they went. I'm not good though, I'm sleep deprived and stressed.

"Good morning." John says as he sits a cup of coffee down in front of me.

"Good morning." I say quietly, looking back at the scripts on the table.

"What's wrong?" John asks.

"Nothing, everything is fine." I say back, almost too defensively.

"Okay, um, do we have all the sketches finalized for tomorrow?"

"As far as I know, yes." I say thinking about every line of every sketch we've written, knowing the cast loved them.

"Actually Meredith, what if Lorne hates them after the changes we made on Wednesday after the meeting?"

"He'll just have to learn to love them considering we've busted our asses this week, and there's really no time to come up with anything else, the show is tomorrow night." I tell him. "Lorne is a good guy, he knows what he's doing, he'll like what we came up with." I tell John, reassuring him.

"Are you nervous, Meredith?" He looks to me for an answer.

"What do I have to be nervous about?" I ask, shaking my head.

"The show is live, it's your first time writing under pressure like this." John reminds me and I nod.

"Thanks for the reminder, but it's just another writing job. A live show really doesn't have the power to make me nervous." I shrug my shoulders.

"It's a live show, you have one chance to make it perfect."

"I have confidence in the sketches, everyone thinks they're funny, the audience will like them. The cast has everything they need, and I'm not worried. I know you think we've got everything riding on this, but we won't even get the credit for these. I'm not worried, and you shouldn't be either." John nods. "Everything will go swimmingly." I say, trying to ease some of John's stress.

"How long did it take you to come up with that one, smartass?" John asks, taking his scripts with him as he walks over to the producers. I laugh and look at the one titled "Michael Phelps Diet" realizing I need Bill. I haven't seen him this morning, which was odd because he always comes to talk to John before the workday actually starts. I get up from my seat at the writers table, going down the hallway with the cast names on the doors.

"Good morning, Meredith." Kristen says as she opens the door to her dressing room.

"Good morning. Have you seen Bill anywhere?"

"I saw him a getting coffee a little bit ago. He could be anywhere though. Have you checked John's office?" She asks.

"John has been with me all morning and I know he usually talks to him before he does anything, but he didn't this morning."

"I don't know Meredith, I wish I could help, but I don't know where to tell you to look."

"Thanks anyway."