sweet like cinnamon | tom blyth au

2. friends

━━━  Real life  ━━━

The first table reading was in New York and Wiktoria was stressed.

Why? Well, for a start, she had never been to New York before. Getting around this big city was challenging, to say the least. Thank god the production team got her a hotel room, otherwise she probably would have had to sleep in a cardboard box.

Next, she didn't know anyone except the casting director and the producers. She met Rachel on Zoom for a chemistry read but that was it. So yeah, she was shitting her pants. It was a big moment for her, maybe a breakthrough for her acting career and she couldn't fuck it up.

Well, she was off to a good start, as she was late for the reading. The traffic was terrible and she arrived 2 minutes before the meeting was supposed to start. She immediately rang her agent to ask where she should go. The place was huge and although security told her how to get to the conference room, she was too stressed to remember the directions. After a quick chat, she made it to the right place. She walked in, mentally preparing herself for this stressful moment, but the number of people there stopped her in her tracks.

There were so many people that Wiki didn't recognise. She had never worked on such a big project but still it felt weird that so many people were present for the reading. There were cameras everywhere and a few photographers circling around. Her agent told her to go and sit at the table in the middle of the room. She recognised a few of the actors, already seated there. She had done a bit of research before coming here. Well, more of a stalking session, but still, she wanted to know who she was going to work with.

There was obviously Rachel, and to her left was Josh. Wiktoria's seat was next to him. To Rachel's right was Tom, the lead. There were also a few other actors. Today they were only going through scenes in District 12, so it wasn't the whole cast.

She quickly took a deep breath, trying to calm her pounding heart. Someone would think that as an actress, she would know how to manage her stress, but that was the thing. When she performed, she played a role and it was easy to put on a mask, not care and get lost completely in the fiction . Now, she had to be herself or like the most pleasant version of herself so people would come to like her.

When Wiki finally came to the table, Rachel immediately stood up to greet her.

"Hi! You must be my Rowan!" She was so genuinely happy to see her that Wiki felt some weight being taken from her heart. She was relieved that someone was already being nice to her. It was one less thing to worry about.

"Yeah, it's great to finally meet you in real life and not on Zoom," she replied, and before she knew it, Rachel was hugging her tightly.

"I hope we're going to be best friends in no time! Oh, and this is Josh Rivera. He plays Sejanus!" Rachel pointed to the man with the curly hair. Josh also got up to meet her and, just like Rachel, gave her a big hug.

"Hello!"

"Hi! Nice to meet you!" Wiki replied. She was a little overwhelmed with this job, but so far the people she would be working with seemed very kind and welcoming.

"Hey just, I have a little question. Could you tell me how to pronounce your name correctly? My dad is Polish but I don't really speak the language so I just want to make sure I'm saying it right." Wiki was surprised to hear this, she literally let out a small oh. She didn't think people cared about being considerate, but Rachel did seem like one of the good ones. One who knew that a  friendly atmosphere was the backbone of a good production.

"Oh it's fine, my name, it's the Polish version of Victoria and you pronounce it the same way. My surname is Zima so "ʑi.ma". But you can just call me Vicky or whatever, I really don't mind."