𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙖 ↣ 𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙩𝙩 𝙢𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙮

01 ᴀɴᴀɴᴅᴀ

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LANA HADN'T THOUGHT TWICE BEFORE APPLYING FOR THIS JOB. she had been waiting for a proper photography job to open up and at the manchester united grounds, one was calling her name. lana rossi, an inspiring young girl who was born on october twenty ninth and was brought up in london. her parents, who were veterinarians, moved to liverpool when she was just thirteen. now, twenty two, lana was a self employed photographer. she done small things for her community like local wedding pictures and primary school photos. she would sometimes get asked back to her high school to take sports team photos or even pictures of special school events.

lana finished high school with high scores in her gcse's, mostly nine's and ten's. her parents, kirsty and mark, had tried to push her into doing veterinarian work but all lana wanted to succeeding was photography. with her gcse scores, lana could easily have got into any university wether that was one back in london or even up north in scotland, lana chose to go to the university of liverpool. she decided to stay local so that she had her family close by for support.

lana's first term in university was a waste of time, and already, she was bored. it was like being in high school again, constantly listening and writing. lana had moved out of her parents home just before college, she bought a small apartment in the center of liverpool, closer to the university. lana wanted to expand her experience, she wanted to get far in life with photography. that's why she applied for the job. she had told no one. not her parents, her friends, her grandparents. absolutely no one.

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lana heard her phone ring from downstairs, the creamy grey mask was smeared all over her face. in no hurry, lana walked down the stairs of apartment. the phone stopped ringing for a brief moment which made lana freeze. until the phone began ringing again, she continued to make her way to the phone.

facedown the phone sat of the black leather sofa, it lit up the sofa the tiniest bit. lana picked up the phone reading the contract name. it was unmarked, which wasn't unusual for lana as she was usually getting business calls from people who needed photos taken. lana swiped right to unlock, and answer her phone. she brought it up to her ear before taking a deep breath.
"hello, this is lana rossi speaking." lana said the cheeriest voice she could produce on a late, saturday night.
"hi lana, i'm jake stanley, the head of the media department in association to manchester united football club." the voice on the other side of the phone said. lana's mouth suddenly became dry as no words could be muttered from her mouth.
"hello." the voice said again. awkward, lana cleared her throat.
"yes, sorry about that hi jake, how can i help you?" lana said kindly, a smile slowly formed on her face.
"so i have your application here, for our photography department, i have to say, some of your work is breathtaking." jake said with a slight chuckle.
"wow. thank you so much." lana replied.
"anyway, i recently have had a job open up here and it seems you would be perfect for the job." the man on the phone said causing lana's hand to cover her mouth in shock.
"really? that's great, i mean, i would be so happy to take this job." lana said grinning, the excitement obvious in her tone of voice.
"that's great lana, but, you don't even know what this job contains." jake said stifling a loud laugh. lana laughed along too.
"you won me over when you said photography job." lana confessed.
"well, you would be the main photographer at old trafford. you would be in charge of capturing pictures of the first team's matches and training sessions and then sending the best ones to our social media team, who will then post them online." jake said ecstatically.
"wow." lana said.

"no no, it's sound great jake. thank you so much." lana said cheerfully.
"that's all then, i will be in touch and i will tell the boss we have put new pitch-side photographer." jake said.
"great, goodbye." lana said.
"bye." jake replied before ending the call.

lana placed her phone back on the sofa, face down. she was silent with shock, the realisation hitting her. she, lana rossi, was going to work in manchester at, old trafford. lana swore her face had began to tingle with excitement, yet, she just realised that her face mask had now been on for way too long. lana walked upstairs into the bathroom to clean her face.

many different thoughts went through lana's head as she cleansed her face with face wash. how would she tell her parents? would she have enough money to afford to move? would the people in old trafford like her? what if her standard of photos wasn't good enough? lana bit the inside of her cheek as anxiety hit her. she knew none of those things would be a bother but lana was extremely prone to overthinking, it was like a daily routine for her. lana patted her face dry with a clean towel, she rubbed some carmex on her lips, double checking herself in the mirror. looking back at her reflection for a couple of seconds, lana walked out of the bathroom as fresh as a daisy.

lana walked straight into her kitchen, she opened the cupboard just next to fridge to get a glass. she ran the cold tap for a couple of seconds before sticking her glass under the tap, once it had filled up, lana turned off the tap and took her water over to the sofa. she placed her glass of water on a coaster which sat on a small, wooden table in the middle of the living room. lana sat in silence for a moment just thinking, thinking about what to do first, who to tell first. should she put her apartment up in the market or should she wait for her parents opinion. here she went again, her through a rambling furiously through her head. lana picked up her glass and took a sip of water before picking up her phone. she unlocked it and tapped on the facetime icon before calling her mum. the ringing of the call filled up the silence of lana's home, it was oddly comforting.

the image on lana's mum, kirsty, popped up on the screen causing her to grin.
"hey mama." lana said leaning back into the sofa.
"hi lana honey, it's almost quarter to ten are you okay?" kirsty asked her daughter worryingly, a slight concerning look on her face.
"no mum stop worrying i'm fine, look, i just have something pretty important to tell you. is dad there?" lana said her eyes searching the screen for her dad. a popped into frame.
"i'm here lanaloo, what's wrong?" mark asked her. lana giggled at the nickname 'lanaloo' her dad had called her that from the day she was born.
"basically a few days ago i applied for a photography job." lana said, both her parents hummed impatiently.
"and i got it." lana squealed excitedly.
"no way that's absolutely brilliant." lana's dad said clapping his hands.
"where is it? who are you working for?" kirsty asked curiously.
"well here's this thing, i am working for manchester united. i am there new pitch-side photographer." lana said laughing. lana saw her parents share glanced with each other but they both stayed silent.
"lanaloo, that great but, does that mean you have to move to manchester?" mark asked his daughter.
"well yeah," lana said laughing, "that's really the whole part of the job, move to manchester and start a new life." lana said.
"are you sure you want this lana, be truthful please. i don't want you to travel an hour up there and regret it." kirsty said causing lana to roll her eyes.
"look mama, i know you will be worried about me, i mean this is my first independent task but i swear that this is nothing more than what i want in life." lana said in one breath. again, her parents exchanged glances with each other.
"okay lana, if you are positive." mark said.
"i am i promise." lana said with a proud smile.

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after another ten minutes on the phone to her parents, lana eventually drove them off the call. lana let out a sigh of relief before taking another sip from her water. she had finally got this weight of her shoulder, she had finally told someone. now, she would have to tell maria, her best friend of almost ten years. maria had helped lara through year seven when lara was new to the city and school. staying on the facetime app, lara searched through her facetime log until she found maria's name. she pressed it. the call rung twice before maria's wholesome face took up the screen.

"hey lara love, why the late call?"

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