A group of boisterous cheer sang to the appeared guest for tonight's party.

"Congrats, Ivy!" Bethany roared like the thunder.

"Great work, Ivy," Parker, who stood next to Bethany, clapped.

"Very proud of you, Ivy," David praised in his mellowed temper.

Hearing to the rounds of flattery is none other than Ivy.

Her natural auburn hair dyed all black, and she appeared as charismatic and as cool to her character. Now matured to her age, her face no longer retained her foxy att.i.tude. There lingered no foolish plays in her demeanor but only an experienced, hardworking, actively running candidate to make her dream come true.

Ivy is no longer the girl who once belonged to the gossip girls group. After graduating high school, as planned, she went out to the world, chasing after her pa.s.sion, learning the craft, encountering success as well as failures, kept going on and on until she could no longer have fear for trying.

The journey to embark a name for herself as a film director took her to several places, and gave her diverse knowledge. With several years spent learning the different roles behind the camera, she kept producing short films with her close friends from the industry with whom she shares this eternal pa.s.sion for the cinema.

These handfuls of people stuck together to work on scripts. One such creation that they recently released received a lot of attention and bought forth commendations from various film festivals and special screenings.

Having traveled places where their new short film got countless praises and award buzzes, finally, they returned home to celebrate their recent accomplishment. They all gathered at their studio office, turned a portion of it into a party set-up, decorated with drinks, snacks, and a basket of movie collections for binge-watching all night. The play is to start early, where everyone gathered sharp at two in the afternoon, proposing to have lunch together before following with their plan.

Ivy was running late from having a meeting outside and thus allowing the group to plan for a surprise attack. When arrived, at last, Ivy opened the door to find her friends clamoring aloud until all of their ears went temporarily deaf.

The surprise came with a price, yet they could catch Ivy's face panicked in awe and exhilaration. A horrifying smile was the feat these people aimed to accomplish.

David instantly followed the act by opening an expensive bottle of champagne that they received as the gift in appreciation for their short film. Parker followed by pa.s.sing over the gla.s.s, lastly handing it to the frozen figure as David started filling the gla.s.s till the fizzy bubbles overflowed the rims. The cold liquid when touched Ivy's skin, she felt the sharp twinge and melted to its liveliness. They all raised at once to make a toast.

"To Ivy!" they cheered again, and the gla.s.ses clinked against each other, taking turns before making to their first sip.

...

"Wow! It feels like we can finally tell the world that we've arrived!" Bethany spoke in relief.

Bethany holds a mysterious background to her personality. The young and lively woman carries a lot of secrets of her past, which she refuses to share with her creative family. Ivy and Parker saw her earlier works and invited her to join their team. Bethany being younger than the both, enthusiastically accepted their offer and became their editor. Her constant raise of questions showed her interest in the projects, and her ability to take risks without getting swayed from any negative comments is an added trait that impressed Ivy and Parker in the first place. They were looking for someone who was similarly crazy like them, and Bethany filled their interest. At the age of 25, Bethany had a degree from arts, and she joined a team that let her go wild.

"I guess so! My parents always kept suggesting to find a regular job and settle down. I had to keep running away, but now, I feel like I could proudly tell her, 'Mom, I was part of this project!' and that I've made it," Parker, the cameraman as well as the music composer of the film, joined to comment.

Ivy first met Parker in her diploma program, where she studied Film Direction. They bonded over their love for movies and quickly became close friends. Parker's sharpness and noticing fine details in anything made him a natural perfectionist. His genius-like skills let him even read people's minds at times. His friends.h.i.+p with Ivy deserves applauding as Parker changed Ivy's fascist nature and brought her down to earth. Ivy thinks of him the closes she is with, following Bridgette.

Parker's skills also include music, which he learned at a young age. Since they couldn't find anyone to do the background score, Parker stepped up the game to volunteer for both jobs and nailed it to his supremacy. Nonetheless, his ambition is to master the art of cinematography. Until they find an individual music composer, he would hold the torch in both departments.

Meeting Parker and being able to work with him is a choice that Ivy could never regret. She smiled at his comment to join for another sip.

"I can finally find a girlfriend now," David lastly sang to others laughing, and it enraged him because of their teasing.

David is an unusual discovery for the rest three. Ivy met Parker first, and they both joined hands, meeting Bethany a few years later. However, David got added to this team only a year ago.

David's role is the writer of the team, and his approach when it comes to words is remarkable and distinct. Aged 43 and still single to himself, David quit his longtime day job to follow his pa.s.sion. He discovered his love to write at an early age, but a field of work that lacks consistency feared him. Along with his family's worrisome comments on pursuing his pa.s.sion ended up convincing David to drop his dream. Nevertheless, living his life without a desire made him dull. He kept going till he crashed himself with depression and sadness. No longer could he stay happy, thus driving him to quit his work and follow his long lost purpose.

David started by writing short scripts for contests. Within a year, he met Parker on a project for a television pilot season where his story won the compet.i.tion, and Parker a.s.sisted with the cameraman to direct the first episode. However, as the newbie and jobless man in his forties, David got ripped off for his story when the production company took the rights by settling with a shoddy cheque. Parker saw the unfair deal and invited David to join his team with Ivy and Bethany, interesting him with their goals.

Thus, the four met to form their dream team.

**

Ivy and Parker, having experienced enough of the film industry, started making short films while collectively working on individual projects side by side to earn money for their living. Instead of residing alone in this hard-times, they looked for an apartment together and shared rent from the earnings they made.

Looking at each other now to find themselves earning a bit of recognition for their film, and feeling blessed to have all those tough times paid lastly, everyone had nothing but a proud smile for themselves.

David's stomach made a loud growl, and everyone laughed.

"Let's eat lunch first!" Parker announced to bring out the takeout bags.

"So, what are we doing?" Ivy asks without a clue while digging into her chow mein.

Bethany glanced at Parker and David haughtily to announce their plan of getting drunk and binge-watching movies for the rest of the day, eventually hoping to crash altogether on the couch.

They antic.i.p.ated for Ivy to jump out in joy, knowing that she enjoys watching good movies, but Parker found Ivy's face turn to an endless maze. He wondered why, but he still heard her dubiously agree to their program.

Finis.h.i.+ng their lunch paired with smooth champagne, the gang dived straight to watching films- a basket full of exotic choices: both old favorites and new likely ones.

As time pa.s.ses by enjoying films and discussing their favorite scenes, one of them displayed tautness.

Ivy's often departure to the bathroom appeared weird when she got caught red-hand by Bethany, who left her seat to grab more beers. Bethany asked Ivy of what happened in the movie. However, seeing Ivy struggle to answer, Parker stepped in to fill Bethany with the details.

Soon, Parker's eyes kept catching Ivy display restlessness with her presence. She appears not to be sick but reluctant as time pa.s.sed. And her frequent visits to the bathroom spurred his suspicions. Other than him, none others doubted her strangeness since they matched her need to go with the number of beers she consumed.

When you got to go, you got to go! - They believed in the saying.

The next time when Ivy left her place, Parker noticed and sparring a few seconds, he went to follow her as well.

"I hope you two aren't making out!" Bethany exclaimed when she saw Parker leave his seat. Meanwhile, David couldn't care less of what went around him as his eyes fixated on the screen, and he enjoyed an old cla.s.sic movie.