DAISY

"WHERE IS MY DECAF? EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT I CAN'T DRINK COFFEE!"

I sighed heavily as soon as I stepped into the set.

Brandi Mann, the protagonist of Hearts on Fire, was screaming through the staged living room with half her hair tidy in a Regency era style and the other half loose. Still, they looked incredibly soft.

Actresses always have perfect hair. I would die to know what products they put in their hair. Maybe they just washed... Something I did... three days ago?

"Where is Brandi's decaf?" The assistant's director and my boss asked me when I was putting my badge with my name blurred because the rain stained the ink.

We won a best direction Emmy last year, but no one had money to buy a damn badge for me.

"I just got here"

"Great. Now get a decaf for Brandi" she said.

She was in her forties, lived with the hair tied in a bun and screaming orders out there.

Before I could ask where the hell I would find a decaf, she was already on the other side of the set, having a serious conversation with the makeup artists.

That was my job after all — make whatever the people with a real badge asked. That includes buying food, medicines, Brandi's contraceptives and sometimes someone would call me to ask me about a scene.

In general, it was something like "Wasn't supposed to have a jar of flowers on the table? Put a damn jar of flowers there, then".

Even though this job is not what I expected, I loved the chance to be on the set.

The environment was amazing and inspiring.

We produced an 18th century TV show about the revolution. We were using an old house in the fictional city of the Channel. The local was transformed into an old room of the year 1776. There's two big red sofas and an enormous mahogany table with carving on the sides. But what grabbed more attention was the enormous painting from the Regency period with an image of two children running in a big field.

The production cost a fortune. TV shows and movies that passed in the Old Century always cost a lot for the company, so the channel needed assurance about the final product to approve the pilot.

In this case, the TV show was a huge success in America.

To sum up it was a historical romance during the independence of the United States between an English soldier that fought for England and an American girl, descendent of Prussian protestants that tried to fight in favor of her country. But being a woman and all... It was hard. Her father — and basically all men — didn't believe she was capable of fighting.

It was so good. I loved watching up close the development of the story and seeing what was going to happen next before everybody else. Even if most of the time I was getting a chocolate cake gluten and sugar free for Brandi Mann instead of paying attention to anything.

"We can't capture the whole house in this fucking sunny weather" That was director Stacker screaming "We don't have a sequel plan to follow. We can't have a brutal cut from England to America". He screamed to no one special.

"Well, the England footage is made in Texas, so we're never in England anyway" One of the cinegraphist said and received a hard look from Stacker as answer.

Director Stacker was hard to live with. In fact, he was responding to a series of processes about going against the work laws in past productions. However, Stacker won an Oscar in 2014 for his movie about the Civil War, so everybody just let him do his job. If there were some casualties in the set? Well, worth the risk.

One day, I want to be like Stacker. Not exactly that illegal part of him, but I wanted people to have that much confidence in my work, no matter what I was doing.

"You! Denise! Go buy me a headache pill or I swear to God I am going to explode this set to the bits before we get independent" Stacker said, pointing to me.

"There's already a box of Tylenol in your room".

Stacker looked at me, surprised.

"Is that so?" This is the director's way of complimenting my job.

"Yes, I thought you would ask and... By the way, my name is Daisy" I smiled a little. "I also think we could do some montage of the sea. The sea has been agitated the last few days. So, we could do a transition, associating Dirch behavior to the frantic waters." I said rapidly before Stacker could distract himself with something else.

It wasn't easy to get an opportunity to share my ideas with the director. One time, I got here two hours early only to catch him in the parking lot and talk about one dialogue in the screenplay that could be improved.

He heard all I had to say and then asked: "Who the hell are you?".

Stacker passed his hand through the few hairs he still had. Soon enough he would be bald if kept this habit.

"Let's do one at sea this week" He said to no one in particular "How did you say again...? Associate Dirch behaviour..."

"With the angry sea, yes!"

"Great. I'll use that in one of my interviews".

I had his attention. Oh God. I swallowed and prepared myself to make the speech that I have been training in the bathroom every day.

"Stacker, I..." I stuttered, so I cleaned my throat before saying more. "I could take more responsibility at the set. Everything I do here is bring food and..." Before I could finish my sentence, something took the director's attention.

"Carver! What are you doing this hour? You know what time it is? We've only eight minutes to put it in a fucking costume and start shotting!"

I rolled my eyes when Guy Carver entered the set with that annoying smile and mirrored sunglasses like he owned the place. He was the main actor together with Brandi and like her he was an untouchable superstar.

All the people in the set turned to see him, because "wow it's the big star of the show" running late again.

"I thought we would start at eight" He said with that strong accent from England. He took off the sunglasses, but put it back on the nose again, even though we were in a closed space. Maybe he remembered those hugeous dark circles under his eyes.

I worked here many years to fall for his fake innocence.

The man could be freaking idolized by the whole country for his amazing job as an actor, but his personality was still the worst.

He had no sense of responsibility or whatsoever. Every day he runned late and messed up the schedule of the recordings. Sometimes, he forgot his lines or was so drunk that could barely stand up.

Besides that, Guy was the biggest womanizer of Hollywood. There were always pictures of him with some random blondie on the cover of the magazines.

Not that I was interested in Hollywood gossip. I only need to stay updated about what is happening in the set I worked on.

I understand why Stacker chose him to be the Captain Dirch. Guy was very talented and even I had to admit he has the looks for TV. But with all the controversies and lack of commitment would lead me to fire him if I was the director.

But I'm nobody. People here don't even know my name.

"Maybe they sent the email with the wrong schedule" He concluded, raising his shoulders.

Even that unpretentious movement seemed out of a freaking perfume's commercial. I couldn't tell if it was his intense blue eyes or his glossy dark blonde hair. Or everything in a pack. The fact is — he was the man of the moment with or without scandals.

"Who sent the schedule this week?" Stacker asked nobody in specific.

"I did" I said.

Both men turned to me as if finally realized there was someone right beside them.

"Oh, poor thing. You got yourself confused. It's okay." Guy consoled me, putting his hand on my arm.

"I didn't confuse myself" I said with more intensity, moving away from his touch. "Brandi, Mark and the extras have been here since six. You're the only one late".

"Enough with the stupidity. Be ready in five" Stacker screamed. "Denise. Grab my coffee."

"That's not my name" I murmured, but Stacker was too far to hear me. I sighed out loud.

"So, how long have you worked here?" Guy asked, approaching me. I could smell the dark scent of his masculine perfume mixed with alcohol.

"Since the beginning of the show" I answered unwillingly.

"That's not possible. I would have noticed you" He smiled with the perfect set of teeths. If I was not mad trying to run away from his charms, I would've asked for his dentist.

"You're already said that to me three times in the last two years".

Guy frowned.

He flirted with all the girls that worked on the set and most of the time, he got what he wanted, because, you know, he was hotter than the sun. The English accent also did his job very well.

"What went wrong?"

"I have a boyfriend"

"I don't have a problem sharing".

I rolled my eyes again and let Guy talk with the walls. I don't have time for that. I had to grab one coffee and one decaffeinated coffee, come back to the shooting in time, make Stacker notice my insights and remember my name correctly.

*

It was friday and I could be sleeping, I could be getting my chance with Stacker or I could be binge watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians. But no. I was buying detox juice for Brandi Mann.

i hate hollywood artists.

Cliff ❤: Singers too?

if they don't do the laundry then yes.

Cliff ❤: :(

Hey

Don't forget the show today!

The tickets sold out

It's going to be huge

And I have a special song for you

I smiled at my phone.

"Beet juice with extra carrots?" The woman behind the balcon asked me with a tedious tone, probably tired of attending people every day waiting to have their body magically transformed by a vegetal juice.

"No. Mine was without carrot" I tried to record Brandi's annoying comment about hating carrots. "But, hey, everyday is a new day to start liking something, am I right?".

She didn't answer.

I got to the studio in a hurry. Brandi and Guy were still in the marks when I left off to buy the juice, which means they were redoing the scenes, which also means I would've to stay late today to finish the schedule.

It happens frequently. Stacker was a perfectionist and our main actors were... Well, not so much.

"Darling, please, do not make me choose between you and my country. You must know what the final answer will be" Brandi said to Guy.

She was wearing a green dress with long sleeves that divided itself in various layers.

On the other side was Guy with the english marine red costume. The short pants and long boots would make anyone look ridiculous, but Guy seemed to be born wearing that costume.

It was not a mystery why he was the main choice for historical movies and TV shows. He was most known for the new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. He was even nominated for the Oscar for his performance as Mr.Darcy.

"Elizabeth, we both know you lie" Guy approached Brandi, who tried to fight him away, but she only got close to him.

I read the script for that scene this morning. It was one of the greatest moments of the series. The moment where Brandi's character allows Dirch to see her vulnerable side, buried deep in all the layers of stiffness she needed to show off to be taken seriously by society.

Dirch lifted Elizabeth's face and they were about to kiss when suddenly she took a step away with a grimace. Not her. Brandi.

"You smell vodka!" Brandi screamed, totally out of her strong and rebellious character that would never drink beet juice to lose weight.

"CUT!" Stacker screamed by my side, which made me jump and almost drop the juice in my hand. "What the hell was that, Brandi?!"

"Guy is clearly drunk. I'm not going to kiss him like that! You know what alcohol can do to your body!"

"I'm still in the top ten hottest guys in Hollywood, so your point is ill-founded" Guy declared. He passed his hand through his dark blonde hair and let himself drop in a chair near the set.

And like that the magic of the scene was broken. It was amazing how things could go south very quickly when you worked with Stacker, Brandi and Guy.

"Carver, are you drunk on my set?" The director asked, putting a hand in his face, about to have a nervous attack.

Stacker had a lot of these. One time involved ambulances.

"Yes, but are you watching something that you don't like here?" he pointed to himself.

The director didn't have an answer to that, because, despite the confirmation about being drunk, Guy was acting normally. Maybe even better than never.

"Just chew some gum" He rolled his eyes "And take that fucking Starbucks cup out of scene. We don't want to be the next Game of Thrones".

"You brought it?" Brandi standed next to me while typing furiously on her cellphone.

I gave her that strange purple liquid along with the change the cashier handed me.

"Keep it for you trouble"

"It's one dollar" I said, raising my eyebrows to George Washighton in my hand.

"This is great. No carrots?" She asked after taking three sips.

"Yeah, sure" I smiled.

She walked away. I tried to remember why I was here. It was a golden opportunity. I was in Hollywood, the center of the most famous productions in the world. Cliff was wrong about me losing my time.

He had to be, because if not, I don't know what I'd do.

"You. Denise!"

I looked up for instinct.

It was Stacker.

"Yes, director?"

"You asked me for more tasks about three days ago?"

I nodded fervently.

Stacker remembered me! Stacker remembered me! Ok, ok, my name was still wrong, but baby steps, right?

"The intern that handled the press mails quit last night, because, according to him, I made him raise his dose of Prozac like I was the bad guy around here... Hey, your little shit, careful with that painting. It costs more than your fat mom!" Stacker interrupted himself to scream to one of the helpers in the set. "Anyway, could you...

"Yes" I said without thinking.

This could be a promotion.

This could be a chance.

This could be a "Hey, Denise, how about you direct this episode?"

Not, that was too much.

Or wasn't?

"Great. You'll now answer the press e-mails about the show. Just repeat something that was already released. Journalists are the plague of this century." He shook his head.

I did not have these in mind when I asked for more work. But it's not like I could write my project at night. I was passing through a terrible creative block. All I did was stare at mouse pointer blinking for hours.

"Shall we start?" Stacker asked his crew.

"Director, Brandi is crying because she ate more than 500 calories recommended by her nutritionist and Guy is drinking in his dressing room" The assistant of production read all that in a pink post-it.

I couldn't imagine someone needing to write down these series of weird events in a post-it, but I forgot that we lived in Los Angeles, the land of the nuts. And we were just right at the epicenter of the madness.

"Someone please comfort Brandi and take any drinks far from Carver" The director said, irritated. He rubbed his eyes, then addressed us all. "EVERYBODY, WE'LL BE HERE UNTIL ELEVEN. I'm warning you so no one can report me for harassment... Fucking burocracy".

Eleven?

I couldn't be here until eleven.

"Hey, Jenn? Can I leave early?" I asked my boss.. She took her eyes off the device to look at me.

"Do you have a doctor's appointment or something?"

"No, but I have-"

"If it's not something clinical, then you can reschedule" She said, turning her back.

Oh, no.

Cliff's gig was until eleven. I promised him I wouldn't miss this time. I already missed so many shows in these past months. I especially couldn't miss this one. Tonight could be the turning point in the career that he dreamed so much about.

Maybe I can catch up at the end? We were not that far away from Hermosa Beach. I could make it in time, accommodate myself in a corner and pretend I had been there the whole time.

It wouldn't be a first either.