𝐇𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲

One | Lucky

Y/N

THERE'S something inherently peaceful but eerie about being awake before dawn. The sunlight as it rises is so much softer than the impending day ahead and the brisk cool air outside helps wake me up alongside an extra large cup of coffee. The mugs warmth against my palm contradicts with my free hand which is scrolling on my laptop track pad as I sit on my tiny table outside.

My courtyard overlooks a large containing wall that my property is situated on, which isn't most people's preferred outlook. I guess most people like looking out at gardens or parks or a body of water. When you rent however, beggars can't be choosers. Although, when you wake up before the rest of the city like me, it's quite blissful. Sometimes I even wake up before the birds do.

"Fucking hell," I mutter to myself, raising the mug up to my lips and sipping gently as my eyes scan the script on the screen. The writers promised that they would have updated the final drafts with the notes from yesterday's meeting but I can see that they most certainly have not. Fuckers.

I don't understand how these people have such high-paying careers when they obviously don't do their jobs. Who's asses are they kissing on a daily basis to be awarded pay rises and promotions when the little guys work like slaves just to get noticed? Add the fact that you're a woman in a male dominated industry and you're basically ten steps behind to begin with.

Closing the laptop screen a little harder than I had anticipated, I carried it and my empty mug back inside to get dressed for work. Last night was spent revising the film schedule with a fine tooth comb making sure none of the tasks at hand overlapped with their assigned timeframes, and this morning was all script based revisions. I'm exhausted but that's showbiz.

The studio is about a forty five minute drive from my place. The traffic is minimal at this time of morning and although I had a coffee at home, I make myself another one once I arrive at the lot. The crew usually arrive at work the same time as I do, but they leave a lot earlier; I spend every living second on this god damn set.

"Morning sunshine, sleep well?" Our producer Mike says, reaching in front of me to put his mug under the coffee machine spout. He is a lanky forty something year old man with stubble across his cheeks and dark circles under his eyes. Like the rest of us producing this film, he too is sleep deprived.

We are about three months into filming the first of the Miles Morales trilogy with Marvel; you know, the new Spider-Man kid? The movie had a tonne of production delays and I was out of work for about six months before we eventually started.

The guy playing Miles is probably a year or so younger than I am, although we get along quite well. I'm always running around coordinating everything so I get to know everyone pretty well. This is his big break in Hollywood though, so he's still pretty humble compared to other actors I've worked with.

"You know I don't sleep Michael," I huffed, although part of me wishes it was more humorous than in actuality. I think I slept about three hours total last night.

I'm only a production assistant at the moment but fuck do I work hard for the shitty salary I'm on. Mike is a nice guy admittedly, I think he just delegates majority of his tasks to me. It's good experience though, I'm thankful I get to work on such a prominent film like this.

"Thatta' girl," he joked, tapping me on the shoulder as he asked me for a run down of the day. By memory, I recited pretty much every task on today's agenda and smiled sarcastically when he told me he had another new task for me.

"Send the call sheet to Tom and Zendaya's management, we need them on set tomorrow for their scenes," he said picking up his freshly brewed coffee and nodding at me to ensure I understood.

I was genuinely shocked to hear those words come from his mouth. Their scenes had been delayed time and time again because of scheduling conflicts and although they were only in the film for about five minutes total, they were treated like the leads.

Tom Holland played Peter Parker in the MCU and Zendaya played his love interest MJ during the previous Spider-Man trilogy. In this movie however, Peter who is now in college, finds out about Miles' powers and tells him to 'keep an eye on New York' for him as he and MJ take a quick holiday.

I think Zendaya has about ten lines in the whole film and Tom maybe has two scenes with Miles, but tomorrow is apparently the day where we finally have them on set. I was ridiculously relieved when Mike gave me the go ahead to call their managers and get them on set, they've both been on stand by for weeks and they both have other work commitments coming up that could have affected our film even more.

As the doors of the break room swing open, I glare at the man in front of me. He's in the same blue button up shirt as yesterday which has a faint stain on the front. Knowing him, he probably slept at a Tinder dates house and came straight to work without waking her nor saying goodbye.

"You remember that meeting we had yesterday where I asked for the re-writes? Where are my re-writes Kowalski?" I call out as he yawns and rolls his eyes - he's such a piece of shit I swear.

"There's no re-writes to give you if I haven't re-written anything kid," he called back, picking up a bagel from the snack table and rolling his eyes. Mike turned around when he heard this comment, thank god.

"Re-write the Peter and Miles scene by midday Kowalski! And if you call Y/N a kid again I'll report you to Human Resources again," Mike called out after me, which made me smile; he always has my back.

I think I'm the youngest person on the production crew, which creates both shock and awe from my colleagues when they find out I'm only 25. I guess I carry myself well around the set and they all presume I'm older. And the fact that most assistants to the producers are well into their thirties with a lifetime of experience under their belts.

Most people would say I got lucky landing this role. I would say I just worked ridiculously hard trying to prove myself. Hard work pays off in the film industry.

Sometimes.

Most of the time it goes unrecognised and people higher up the food chain take credit. But sometimes it pays off.