It was... interesting seeing Lo barge out when some girl was trying to ask me out for Valentine’s Day tomorrow. In a way, it felt good to see that jealousy in her eyes, or how she bumped into the girl. But at the same time, there is no use enjoying the way that she makes me feel when we’re supposed to be staying as far from each other as we can. When we’re supposed to be somewhat friendly, but not more than that. It’s been hell, especially with the way that she looks now.

She’s always been beautiful, so amazingly sexy, even when she didn’t realize it. But now... That hair? The clothes? It’s like everything got amplified, and I don’t know how to exactly deal with it. It matches who she is inside, that fire, that passion. I don’t know how to keep my eyes from going over to her each time she’s around, or how to keep my body from responding. If I thought that seeing her in that dress at the party was bad... I never imagined that I’d have a hard-on each time she walks into a room like I’m some horny teenager, unable to control myself.

Some people think that Lo’s change is too much, too sudden, that she’s trying to be someone else. But I know the Lola inside of all of that. I know who she is, what she’s like. And this is exactly her. The clothes, the hair, the way she moves... That’s her. There’s nothing else to it. She’s dyed her hair a couple of times in the past, though she never really stuck with just a single hair color. She preferred to keep her style simple, understated. So different from the way H, Tess, and I were. And I still believe that if she’d chosen a much more expressive style way back in the day, she would have also gotten the same attention as the rest of us. On the other hand, looking harmless got her out of a lot of trouble that we weren’t able to get out of. Because people didn’t believe a girl who looked as innocent as her would ever do anything that she wasn’t allowed to do.

If only they knew...

Someone is glaring at me, and it’s not Lo this time. I look to the side and find the girl who was talking to me is indeed glaring at me. Whoops. “Hmm?” I have no idea what she was saying, still reveling in the way Lola’s jealousy was so obvious.

“I asked if you wanted to go to like... this concert tomorrow.” Her voice is impatient, and I’m sure she’s already regretting even talking to me. Tough luck.

“No. Sorry. I’ve got other things to do.” I push myself away from the door, going over to the table where the others from my group are already sitting. The way they’re now also glaring at me makes me shrug. Like I’m going to accept an invite from any girl right now. It’s not like I’ve got eyes for any girl other than Lo at the moment.

“Are you kidding, dude?” Thomas glares at me.

“Why?”

“She’s hot.”

Well, yeah, I figured that part out myself too. “So?”

“You’re crazy.” He shakes his head. “Like... seriously crazy. Why would you turn her down? It’s not like you’ve got something to do tomorrow, right?”

I take a breath, almost making a smartass comment, but then I let it out again. “I don’t care. She’s better off asking someone who actually cares about her, or about what she’s trying to do.” It’s not like I didn’t realize that I could almost see her belly button through the top of her shirt if I looked down too far. Before coming here, these last years, I would have accepted the invitation. I wouldn’t have cared about who she was, just that she was good-looking and a warm body to spend the night with. But now... Yeah... Standards or something.

Standards or a different girl on my mind who I can’t get out of my head at all.

One of the girls from the writing group comes over, a mischievous look in her eyes. She walks right up to me. “Blaze?”

“Yeah?” Do I want to know?

“What do you think about rose petals in a bath? Sexy or not sexy? Or romantic?” She adds the last words in a rush.

I shrug. “Meh. Those things only get places you don’t want them.”

The girl lets out a squee, and I flinch, trying to cover my ears before I get hearing damage. “I knew it! I so knew it!” She rushes back over to the other table, leaning in with the other girls, looking my way with a mixture of curiosity and frustration.

I have no idea what’s going on, and neither do the other guys, apparently.

“What the hell?” Thomas looks my way. “What the hell did you just answer to? Was it a trick question, or some meme, or something?”

“Don’t know. Don’t really want to know either.” Rose petals in a bath sounds sexy and all, but they’re impractical as hell and kind of frustrating, and not to mention having to clean it up and all. No. Just... No. Never again.

I eye the other group. Is that why Lo walked away from them? Is that what they were talking about?

Did those girls just figure something out between us? Between Lo and me? Oh, fuck.

What just...

Fuck.

I’m pretty sure I just dug my own grave.

When Lo comes back into the classroom, I don’t dare to ask anything. But my guess about the girls having found something out about us is probably right, if the glares she’s sending my way are anything to go by. Yeah. I fucked up. That question was something that had to do with her, and now I get to enjoy the consequences of my own stupidity. Great.

Luckily, the staging group moves to the other room soon after, after some announcements from Tamara and our promise to her that we’ll have at least most of the store stage ready to go by the end of the week.

Things are actually coming along pretty well for this stage, much better than I expected. After a trip to a second-hand store and some other places where we could get supplies for cheap, we’ve now set up most of the store’s inside, and we’ve started on bits and pieces for a house, or, I don’t know, spaceship quarters. Something like that. It’s going better than I expected. The guys can be lazy, but they’re good at what they do. So while it takes a while to get them moving, when they do start, the end result is great. Which is good, because we’ve got quite a few things left to make, including the walls and outsides of the store. It’s far from finished.

I grab one end of the counter and Damon grabs the other end, and we move it to its supposed spot on the floor, then we roll the temporary wall behind it. It’s just a rack with sheets for now. We’re making the real wall later this week, but we’re trying to get the layout of the store ready first, in a way that allows us to film the right corners and the actors to move around the place.

“Can you hand me the cash register?” Damon points behind me, and I grab the boxes that are supposed to represent the cash register for now. He puts it on one corner and then steps back, nearly stepping into the wall, and I grab him, stopping him.

“Wall.” I sigh. “Does this mean it needs to be moved back? Or the counter forward?”

“Nah.” Damon shakes his head. “That’s just me being clumsy.” He steps to the side. “How many sets of shelves do we have?”

We’ve been able to get some of them for cheap and others we’ve just quickly put together with boxes. Again, things to fix this week. “Most of them.”

“Good.” Damon points at Julian and Cole. “Can you put those in place? We’re going to get the cameras and lights ready.” He walks around the ‘wall’ this time, and I follow him. We grab our camera bags and then some of the lights we’ve set up.

Today we’re going to see what types of shots we can get with this setup. Even if it’s just really preliminary, but it’s a good visual and will help both the actors and the writers when they finalize the script and acting.

We first place some lights at the edges of the ‘floor’.

“Thomas.” Damon motions for him to come over.

Thomas sighs and comes to us. “Yes?” I’m pretty sure he knows what’s coming up next.

“Can you stand behind the counter?”

“You want me to be the model?” This isn’t the first time we’ve asked him.

“Yes. Or do you want to take the photos?” Damon raises his eyebrow at the guy, who shakes his head.

“No, thanks.” Thomas is specialized in carpentry, and the last time we asked him to take shots for us, get preliminary pictures for a location, that didn’t go over very well. Very few of them were good enough to use as a framework for reference. I had to go over to the location to retake the shots.

Thomas walks over to the counter, stepping behind it. “And now?”

“Just stand there, you can walk around a little. We’re going to take some pictures.” Damon taps my shoulder. “I take the left side, you take the right side.”

I nod. We’re trying to get as many angles as possible. This way we know what parts of the show will be obscured and which parts are still visible from every angle we can come up with. This is especially handy when you’re working with props that require other people to help the actor out with—they can stay more easily hidden. We’re only working with trial lights now. During filming we’ll have much more, and they won’t be static like these ones for all the shots. This is just to get enough light in this room to see the set.

I check between my camera and what I’m seeing in front of me. There are quite a lot of scenes that are shot in this store. One of the main characters works in it, but it’s also a cover and exchange for some secret operations plot line. So we need to make sure that this stage looks good but will also be versatile enough for the needs of the actors and for us during filming.

The other guys from the group are either watching us or working on more props. It’s a comfortable way to work. We got used to each other really quickly, and it’s good that we all work well independently, with just a little central organizing and stuff.

“Can you do it?” Damon eyes me.

It’s the end of the day, but we’ve just gotten a notification that one of the places that we want to film at is open tonight and that they can show us around. This would be really helpful, especially since we’d hoped that we could do this as one of the early shooting locations. But the timing...

“Yeah, yeah. It’s not like I’ve got much else to do.” I shrug.

“Thanks.” Damon lets out a sigh. “Hopefully the light they already have will be enough today. But try to take as many shots as you can.”

I nod. “Yeah. Yeah.”

The garden-thing I’m going to is where we’re hoping to shoot some ‘alien’ outside shots, mostly forest-y ones and some more hidden locations. Sure, grass and trees that we can recognize on an alien planet is so overdone, but that doesn’t matter. We don’t have the budget to build our own alien planet, so we’re doing the best we can. This place is hopefully one of those ‘best we can do’ things. “Anything else?”

“Lola said that one of the writers will join you, they need to get a feel for the location too. That way they can see what they’re working with and the limitations location will put on the scenes.”

“Okay. Sounds sensible.” I grab my bags, then we leave the staging room and I lock the door behind me. “Anything else?”

“Nah, not that I know. You coming to the workshop to give Tamara the key and show her some pics?” Damon starts walking. The normal classroom we’re in is already empty and the lights are off.

“Sure.” I pull my bag up more and follow him to the workshop.

When we get inside, there are many loud voices, happy voices and laughter. And as we open the door to the main area, I understand why.

Someone, probably Hunter, has hung a ball of light in the middle of the room, and it’s projecting hearts all over the place, slowly turning and moving. They’re playing sappy love songs, and there are people dancing while surrounded by projects.

Damon laughs as he shakes his head and walks further into the room, going over to a frame which seems to be hung with hearts and shiny things.

I find Tamara just leaving her office, grinning. Then, behind her, Lola shows up.

I stop, not sure if I should go over or not. But as soon as she sees me, Tamara comes over.

“Blaze. I heard that you’ve taken pictures of the shop today? And which of you is going to the gardens?” She sounds so happy.

I first hand her the key to our room. “Yes, we took pictures. I can show some to you. And I’ll be the one going to the gardens. All the other guys already fled and Damon has other places to be.”

Tamara nods, her eyes going to Damon for a moment, and then she smiles again. “Good. I just heard that Lola is going for the writers, seems she got stuck with it too.” She shrugs.

I try to find Lo with my eyes, since she disappeared as soon as she saw me, and find her talking to H and Lizzy, having fun.

“Okay.” Great. Of course, it would be us who would end up doing this. “Do you want to see the pictures of the store?”

Tamara nods. “I’m curious as to what you’re doing and what angles you’re looking at.”

“Remember, we’ve still got to put the proper walls up and stuff. They’re planned for this week. So, at the end of the week, everything should look a lot more put-together.” I take my camera from my bag, turning it on. “Here. This is just a frontal shot.” I start going through the pictures. Some of them actually came out pretty well. I’m quite happy with them.

But even as I’m showing Tamara the pictures, my eyes keep wandering over to Lola.

This is our rotten luck. We’ll be spending the evening before Valentine’s Day together, taking pictures of gardens that are known for being beautiful and a romantic place to hide out...

Our damned luck.