Ghost Bird

3: Prepping to Film

The room slowly grows brighter around me. I mumble, rolling onto my stomach to try and go back to sleep. When did my bed get so hard? I mean, it's not normally like a cloud or anything, but it certainly doesn't feel like polished hardwood.

Just as I'm starting to drift off again, a hand falls on my back. I screech. The owner of the hand screams.

"Giant bug!" they yell. Someone whacks me on the back, hard. I grunt.

"Shut the fuck up," a gravely voice growls. North, maybe? Wait, why would North be in my bedroom...

"Is it a spider? For fucks sake, kill it already! Kill it before it bites us and turns us all into mutant spiders. I don't want to shoot webs from my hands!" Gabriel exclaims.

The hand pounds on my back some more. "I'm trying but it's not dying!" Luke laments. I scooch away from him and open my eyes. The sun nearly blinds me.

"Oh god, what time is it?" I moan. I have to be at WION by eight!

I glance around, quickly recognizing Luke's stylish living room. I fell asleep in here? On the floor? No wonder my neck feels like someone poured cement into my muscles.

I try to remember what happened yesterday. I came over after getting the role, we played some games, and then... nothing. Did we dance? Did North actually yell at Gabriel, or was that just a dream? Just how much did I drink last night?

"It's moving! Code black, code black!" Luke screeches some more. I stand up and kick him lightly in the side.

"Open your eyes you idiot. We need to go right now," I say. Glancing at the microwave clock relieves some of my anxiety when I notice it's not even seven yet. As pretty as the wall of windows may be, it certainly does let in a lot of light in the morning.

The rest of the guys are scattered around the living room. I do a quick head count and notice one's missing, though. Why do there have to be so many of them? I think to myself as I try to figure out who's not here.

"Good morning Sang!" a cheerful voice exclaims. Pain pulses through my head. I whirl around to find a very alert Sean holding a plate of slightly burned pancakes.

"Please don't yell," I murmur. He shrugs and tosses a pancake at me, which I barely manage to catch before it falls on the floor.

"Here's my patented anti-hangover pancake! It has all the normal stuff you find in a pancake- flour, eggs, milk- but it also has dried cranberries, chicken broth, diced spinach, and of course my secret SHITT ingredient," Sean says. I look closer at the pancake and realize it's not burned; rather the black spots are actually cooked into the pancake.

It smells atrocious. "And what, pray tell, is the shit ingredient?" I ask with disgust. Please don't tell me those black spots are actually...

"The Stop Headaches Immediately 'Till Tonight ingredient! And it's a secret, but I'll give you a hint- it comes from the ocean," Sean says. He gestures for me to eat the pancake.

Not wanting to offend the poor man, as he's awfully excited about his creation, I nibble at the edges of the pancake. Sean continues to stare at me. I take a bigger bite, fighting to hide the shiver that works its way down my spine. He blinks. I take another bite. The black stuff coats the inside of my mouth. Sean starts to grin. I stuff the rest of the pancake into my mouth and swallow after chewing the minimum amount possible.

"You'll feel better in no time, I promise!" Sean exclaims. Now finished with me, he moves to torture the other guys and tosses a pancake onto each of their sleeping heads.

I run to the sink and rinse out the inside of my mouth. Moments later, a queue forms behind me after people finish their own awful pancake. I move aside to let Nathan use the sink.