December 3, 2015

"One Direction is back today," Bethany bounced on the balls of her feet, the palpable excitement rolling from her as she twisted her hands. "Remember last time when I got in trouble for doing the hair and makeup for that one? Harry? Damn. He is so sexy. Don't you think so?"

"Mhm," Nataley mumbled as she reviewed the lighting plan for the fourth time. Lately it seemed as if the set was always too dark. Hugo's lighting plan for the night required no fill lights which leaves a lot of shadows, and Nat couldn't figure out why they were using such dismal lighting for the song that One Direction was performing. Tapping her pencil on her lips, she commented, "This Tattoo Roulette thing is bizarre, don't you think? Like who would take a chance that they would be the one to get a permanent reminder of a single night on this show?"

"If one of the band members wanted to tattoo his name or a heart or a marriage proposal on my ass, I wouldn't complain a teeny tiny bit," giggled Bethany.

"I've got to get out there for rehearsal and make sure the spots are hung correctly for that segment. It's going to be a pain. One spot right over each of their heads. Probably means I'll have to stay on the catwalk during the filming to make sure they're positioned correctly. If one of them stands in a different spot than indicated, I'll have to shift a light. Ugh." Sliding off the counter, she rolled up the lighting plot for the show. "Plus the tattoo artist has to have his own lighting so he can see what he's doing. Honestly, Bethany, tonight's show is a lighting nightmare."

"Yes, but you get to look at hot guys while you do it."

On her way into the hallway, Nat spoke over her shoulder. "You're right. It's going to be hot under those spots. I hope none of them are overdressed."

Scurrying down the hall, she spied the long-haired one leaning against the wall in a whispered conversation with Ben Winston. Neither glanced at her as she passed, but she heard Mr. Winston whisper, "Second one from the left."

"My left or your left?" Harry's soft voice carried to her ears, but she continued walking. Whatever they were discussing had nothing to do with her.

On the stage, the other three musicians were chatting with the big boss.

"I cannot believe you talked me into this," Niall pouted.

"Please! I cannot believe I talked myself into this," countered Mr. Corden. "Jules will kill me if I come home with a tattoo. But hey, buck up. You only have a 20% chance of being chosen."

Ruefully, Nat lamented the lack of math skills. Niall only had a 20% chance of getting a tattoo if he was the first to open the box. For each "Safe" box opened, the odds would increase to 25%, then to 33%, and then to 50%. She wondered why they set up the game if two of them were terrified of tattoos. Again not her business, so she shrugged and adjusted the backlighting to the setting required on the plot. It really needed some fill lights. But it wasn't her place to correct it. After all, she merely works for Hugo, and she's still in school to earn her BFA. Maybe she's missing something? If they had time before the filming, she would pull Hugo aside and ask him to explain it to her.

"Nataley," James called to her, startling her, resulting in the lights being pushed up well beyond their defined setting. Shit.

"Sir?" She froze with one hand on the lighting board but then quickly returned the setting to its correct spot. Sweat from nerves dripped down her back as the long-haired one entered the space, his hair in a bun that he must have hastily assembled backstage. Bethany had reminded her his name was Harry -- as if she would forget. He was unique amongst the celebrities with whom she had worked.

"Have you put our marks on the floor?" Mr. Corden inquired.

"Yes, sir. We've got some stands to put the boxes on, but they're in the back with props. Did you want to run through it now?" Whatever the answer might be, Nataley was prepared to follow through as sometimes Mr. Corden chose to walk through the whole show and other times he kept bits to himself.

"No, no. No need. Are the spots ready?" Corden waved his hand in the direction of the lighting rig above.

"They are. As long as everyone stands where indicated, there shouldn't be an issue. I'd like to run through once with the sound, but we can do that with stand-ins." Nataley felt confident that everything was under control, but she glanced around for Hugo anyway. As the lighting director, her boss was in charge and should be answering these questions.

"Hmm...No. We can try it out without stand-ins. I want drama! Come on, lads! Places." James began to move towards the area with the tape on the floor in front of the curtain.

Nataley rushed backstage to push out the temporary wall with its columns of blue light. Having stapled the damn light strips down in straight lines herself, she needed to make sure it worked properly.

"Bloody hell. Where did Niall and Louis go? Bollocks." Snapping his fingers at his production assistant, James barked, "Get two stand-ins please." The young man scrambled to find someone to fill in, eventually settling on a stagehand and Bethany. Biting her lip, the makeup artist stood to the side, her eyes bouncing between each of the two remaining boy band members.

"Get a grip, Beth," Nat mumbled under her breath as she passed the make-up artist. Nearly immediately, the woman stood straighter, waiting for direction.

Proceeding to the lighting board, Nat once more sought her supervisor, but he was nowhere in sight. She would have to run the rehearsal without him. Not the first time, but her preference would have been to to allow Hugo to be responsible for the run-through.

"Grayson, are you working the sound board tonight?" When the technician indicated affirmation, Nataley stepped to his side. "Okay, dude. Let's run this." Her hands were shaking. Corden seemed a bit grumpy, and it wasn't often that the lighting landed completely on Nat's shoulders. Usually the team was around. Customarily Hugo was in charge. Where was he?

"We're ready, James," Grayson spoke, and Nataley wondered how long it would be before she felt comfortable calling the big boss by his first name.

"Okay, okay. Niall stand-in, you're over here. Then Harry, me, Louis, and Liam. Get in your spots please. Oh, you're the stand-in for Louis so you're right here next to me. Got it?" As Bethany and the boys stood on their marks, Nataley softly whispered, "One." As the first light flashed on simultaneously with an ominous 'Law and Order' type sound effect, she was finally able to draw air into her lungs. Shutting off the light, she moved her fingers to the next one in preparation. "Two." Together, she and Grayson worked as a coordinated team to create the effect that would increase the tension during the show. Her chest burst with pride that resembled a scene from the 1979 Alien film once they completed all five synchronous options.

"What are we doing?" Asked the other two musicians as they returned to the set.

"Nothing much," Harry teased, "Just testing out Nataley's hard work on the lighting." He winked at her. At least she thought it might be a wink. His right eyelid lowered and his mouth shifted to the side.

For a moment, she was pleased that he had remembered her name until she recalled that Mr. Corden had used it just moments before. Had Harry been in the room then? She couldn't recall. Shaking the thoughts from her head, Nat focused on the prep in front of her for the song rehearsal. As if some famous musician she'd met months ago would remember her name. Ridiculous.

"And does it work properly?" Louis, the one with the fringe, asked.

"It worked great. In fact, I found it to be a little..."

"Harry! Louis!" Niall hollered. "Come on, mate. We need to rehearse the song."

Grinning at Nat, Harry moved to join the others. Unsure what he was implying with his cheeky dimple, Nataley ran through the lighting plot for the song in her head. Why the hell had Hugo made it so dark? Backlighting was present merely to set a mood. Perhaps the song was a slow love song? That would make sense to Nataley.

While she didn't normally run the light board, that afternoon it was necessary since no one else on her team appeared to be available. When the band started playing, Nat shook her head. No, no, no. Way too dark. She double and triple-checked the lighting plot, but the settings and lights were exactly as designed. Gazing at the musicians, she had to squint at times to see them as well as she should. Carefully and cautiously, Nat inched the controls upwards on the overhead lights, illuminating the stage the tiniest fraction more. Still not perfect, but better.

As the band finished their song, and Grayson noted the sound controls, Nataley made adjustments to the lighting plot to indicate the new levels. Just as she completed the penciling, Hugo appeared over her shoulder.

"What the hell are you doing, Nataley?" he roared.

Her hands shaking, Nat debated erasing the marks. Slowly, she rose from her chair at the lighting board and turned to face her supervisor.

"It was too dark," she quietly stated.

"I had them exactly as I wanted." His anger was palpable, and Nataley ducked her head at his tone. "You don't have the right to make changes to my lighting plots, Nataley. You're just the apprentice." Shaking his head and gathering his temper like a shepherd might hold a sheep, Hugo relaxed his jaw consciously while still barking at her, "Go take your lunch break."

The frustration was evident in his voice, and Nataley kept her eyes on the ground as she skirted around him. The humiliation was a million times worse than anything else. Everyone had heard Hugo squawking at her, and Nataley wanted a crater the size of a swimming pool to open below and suck her down. Hot tears stung her eyelids, but she refused to let them fall. Fists clenched, she made her way to the break room, grabbing her jacket and sunglasses from her locker before making a beeline for the exterior door.

"Hi. I'm not sure you remember me, but I'm Harry."

He stood in the hallway in front of her, blocking her path to the exit. Shit. How bad would it be if she were rude to him? Would that make her day even worse? Would he whine to her boss? To Corden? To Winston? Fuck.

"I remember," Nat forced the words out, maintained her focus on the floor in front of her, and barrelled past the celebrity.

"And you're Nataley." Hands in his pockets, he sauntered behind her.

What in the hell? All she wanted was a quiet walk outside in the sunshine. Maybe a chance to shed the tears she'd been holding in. Definitely an opportunity to escape the shame she'd just experienced.

"Yep." The 'p' on the end of the word should have indicated the end of the conversation, but he continued behind her.

"We don't go on for a little while. Mind if I take a walk with you?"

Rage filled her, and she paused, turning to him, her eyes attempting to burn a stop sign on his forehead.

"I just want some quiet." Each word was chomped as though it were pizza being eaten one bite at a time by a starving man. Or woman.

"Good. Me too." His easygoing manner put her off, and Nataley huffed away from him.

Harry had no difficulty keeping up, though his hands stayed in his pockets and his mouth stayed closed. After the first quarter of an hour, Nataley began to feel calmer.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you," she confessed, biting her lip and looking away from him.

"Did you?" His sincere inquiry suggested that perhaps she hadn't sounded quite so angry with him when she knew for a fact that she'd come across as a vicious wounded lion.

"You know I did." Folding her arms to protect herself, Nataley slowed her pace. "And I'm sorry."

"Hmmm...you and I must have experienced a very different moment."

"Harry," she began, "why are you being so nice to me? Is it just because my boss called me out in front of everyone? So now you feel sorry for me? Is that what this is? A pity walk?"

"Yep," he confessed with a smile. "That's exactly what it is."

With a 'humpf', Nataley picked up her speed.

"'Or maybe it's because I was really grateful that you turned up the lights. I couldn't see anything before you worked your magic."

"Uh huh. Sure."

"You don't have to believe me. But it's true."

Suddenly freezing on the sidewalk, two yards from the door back into the studio, Nataley took him in, attempting to gauge his sincerity. His hands remained in his pockets, and he seemed as positive and genuine as a nun confessing her sins.

"I've never done that before," she whispered. "Done something not on the lighting plot my boss created. He's..." She glanced away from Harry, her eyes landing on an empty golf cart likely waiting for some bigshot to be whisked away. "He's never yelled at me either. Since I started here, he's been my biggest cheerleader."

"Yeah. My pride would have been bruised too."

Nataley whipped her head around so she could make eye contact with this guy. "Yes. That's accurate. But I was also disappointed that he wasn't willing to pay attention to my suggestion."

Harry pulled at his lip, watching her from his solid six inches of height over her. "If this is unusual for him, perhaps there's something else going on?"

Considering his suggestion, Nataley held the door for him to re-enter the studio. As she should have learned by now, he wasn't interested. Instead, he reached over her head and insisted she proceed before him -- the same as on the day they'd met months previously.

Once they were inside, a swarm of people descended on Harry, dragging him to a dressing room to prepare for the filming. Nataley sighed. He'd been good company, and she appreciated his thoughts. Trepidatiously, she approached Hugo at the lighting table. No one else was around, a fact for which she was greatly relieved.

"I'm sorry, Hugo." Nat spoke quietly since the audience was beginning to enter the studio. "I only adjusted them slightly, but I shouldn't have questioned your plot."

The older man shook his head, not looking at her. "Nataley, you did exactly what I would have done as a young technician. After comparing your settings to mine, I've decided to use yours tonight. Thank you for bringing it to my attention."

Gingerly, she touched his shoulder. "Are you okay? I mean, is everything okay?"

He shook his head slowly. "My daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer today." The words were torn from his throat and carried away on the wind, but Nataley heard them anyway.

"Shit. I'm so sorry, Hugo."

"No, no, Nat. It's good news actually. Stage zero. They'll be able to take care of it. Hearing the news just...made me think of her mother."

Nataley remembered hearing that the lighting director's wife had died several years previously of breast cancer.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "What can I do?"

A slight smile crossed his lips. "Run the lighting board tonight? It's a bitch of a show with so many cues, and I would hate to fuck it up."

"Of course!"

Although she wanted to hug her boss, she chose to thank him and step away. "I'll just grab my water bottle..."

He nodded, and she moved towards the backstage area. Returning her sunglasses and jacket to her locker, she removed her reusable water bottle and downed a mouthful before exiting and running, once more, into Harry.

"This is becoming a habit," she laughed light-heartedly. Now that she knew she wasn't in trouble and that Hugo's issues were weighty but solvable, her step became more of a skip.

"A good one, I hope?" Harry teased, his left eyebrow rising.

Taking him in, Nataley couldn't help the giggle that escaped. "Harry. Your shirt is like almost completely unbuttoned. Did you not finish getting dressed?"

When he smiled this time, it was large enough that his dimple popped. "You clearly don't know my fans. They're going to love this shirt." With that, he bopped her on the nose. "Gotta get to hair and makeup. See you out there!"

As he moved away, Nataley sung out after him. "Oh! The lights will be how I set them earlier!"

Walking backwards, Harry gave her two thumbs up. "Awesome! It's gonna be a fun show!" She could have sworn he tacked on the words "even if I have to get a tattoo", but she wasn't about to ask him about them as she floated back to the lighting board to take her spot for the night.