FicWad

Chapter One

"Deadline, friggin deadlines rule my life." Jill sighed to herself as she stared at the clock on her computer screen, "damn it."

"Are you bitchin again?"

Jill looked up to see her work colleague peering over the desk divider, "Please don't Justin I'm trying to get this finished."

"You do this to yourself everytime and are you not just doing gig reviews?"

Jill suddenly stopped typing,"Fuck off, there's no such thing as just a gig review," she said slightly scowling at him, "At least I care what I write."

"Ohhhh, raw nerve," Justin replied, "You know I'm kidding you hun."

"I know but if you don't leave me alone the ed's gonna kill me." Jill smiled back as she picked up a malteser from her desk and flicked it at him.

"Ah Malteser." Justin yelped as he leapt to catch it.

Jill laughed at her friend; she didn't know what she would do without him. Justin was the one person that kept her sane at her work.

"Finished." She proclaimed as she quickly spell checked her work and printed it off, "Just hope it gets by Neil."

"It will, you had it in the first draft." Justin shouted as she quickly walked by him towards the sub-editors office.

Jill always dreaded turning her work in and she anxiously rescanned it as she walked towards the hellmouth. The hellmouth being Neil's office due to his acid tongue and quite frankly scary ass demeanour.

"About time Jill." Neil yelled as he saw her approach his office.

"You know me I like to get it right." Jill replied as she handed it to him.

He grabbed the copy from her hand, "There's getting it right and just pissing about with words."

"Yes boss," Jill winced as she started to back out his office.

"Jill wait a minute I need to speak to you," Neil said pointing to a seat packed high with papers.

"Oh okay," Jill replied looking at the chair and then removing the papers before sitting down.

"Right, I know you're working on that article at the moment."

"You mean the Green Day one?"Jill replied already starting to feel anxious at the fact he was mentioning it.

"How far have you got with it?" Neil asked as he glanced at his computer and typed something.

"The preps all done and their people have agreed the specifics so I'm all set to go over there." Jill informed him as she recalled the bit of a nightmare scenario trying to set it all up.

"That's good," he replied finishing whatever was distracting him and turning his full attention to Jill,"I need to shuffle a few things around."

Jill could feel the anger rise in her, "No, you can't take this away from me."

"Hold on a minute."

"I've worked so hard to get this, " Jill told him unable to keep the anger from her voice, "I've done all the prep and organisation."

"Listen a second will you, I need to change things because Katie is sick and unable to do the MCR interview tomorrow."

Jill rolled her eyes, "Don't make me laugh, she's off shagging the editor and as usual we all have to drop everything and cover her scrawny ass."

"Jill, that's enough." Neil interupted.

"Come on Neil, you know the only reason she has this job is because of her amazing skills with the ed."

Neil let out a sigh he knew exactly where Jill was coming from but as sub-editor he had no choice but to tow the line, "I understand your frustration but I need you to carry Katie's workload for the immediate future, I know you did some of her prep for the MCR article."

"Some of the prep, try most of it but that was weeks ago and as usual I lost the interview when Kate suddenly decided she wanted to do it."

"Look I need you to do this, Katie told me that her prep is on her laptop which is in her desk and it should just be a case of turning up." Neil assured her.

"Well, I don't really have a choice, " Jill said, "Neil, you can't just turn up, those guys will shoot me down if I ask them a bunch of crap."

"Don't worry Jill, I saw the draft of her questions. I'm sure they'll love the what's your favourite colour question." Neil said unable to hide the smirk.

"Great", Jill said as she stood up, "Neil, I've lost the Green Day interview haven't I?"

"I did try Jill but you know I've got to give everyone a chance and I've had my orders to give it to Katie."Neil told her as he returned to his computer screen.

Jill walked out the office and shut the door behind her, she wanted to yell and she quickly walked towards the ladies toilets. Checking each stall she turned and stamped her feet on the ground and yelled in frustration.

"Jesus, I almost died of a heart attack."

Jill head snapped up as she looked in shock as Ruth came out of the end stall, "How the fuck did you do that?"

"I'm hiding." Ruth replied as she stubbed her cigarette out in the sink.

"You'll set the smoke alarms off one day." Jill replied.

"Sooo what's up with you?"

"Just the usual bullshit." Jill told her as she gently splashed some water on her face.

"Okay, what did the whore do now?" Ruth asked as she sat on the sink beside the one Jill was using.

"She's off "sick" or so Neil told me and I've been dumped with the MCR interview tomorrow." Jill said leaning her forehead against the mirror infront of her.

"Cause that's such a hardship." Ruth replied.

"I don't mean it like that, I love MCR but I've had no time to do any prep and her supposed stuff is on her laptop. She just gets away with screwing us all over."

"Screwing being the optimal word in this case." Ruth grinned.

"Exactly but you know what really pisses me off," Jill sighed, "I've lost the Green Day interview."

"The bitch, she knows how much you wanted that and you've worked so hard on it." Ruth said rubbing her friend's back.

"Thank you, I suppose I better get back and start working for tomorrow."

"You need some help?" Ruth asked.

"I'll be alright but if I phone you in the middle of night please don't be mad."

"I won't be hun, you can phone me anytime," Ruth smiled, "Now do you think I can sneak out of here without getting caught?"

"You're terrible, what you hiding from?"

Ruth smiled, "They're trying to get me to post yet another fricking Pete Wentz story on the website and I just won't do it. I tell you if that guy sneezed they would want me to post aplay by play on the site."

Jill laughed, "I'll get you something to post from MCR,"

"That would be good."

Jill took a deep breath and walked back towards her desk, she sat down and let her head rest on the desk.

"Did he bite your ass?"Justin asked as he rolled his chair around beside her.

Jill looked up at him, "No I just got royally fucked with my pants on."

Justin grinned, "For a reporter, your use of the english word is well quite astounding."

"Sorry, I'm just mad." She said resting her head against his shoulder.

"I got you something." Justin said disappearing to the other side of her desk.

Jill looked at him intrigued as he proceeded to place a brown bag on her desk. She grinned as she noticed the Starbucks label. "Starbucks!"

"You deserve it."

"A muffin, a strawberry and white chocolate muffin," Jill said gently removing the paper casing and biting the top right off, "I love you."

Justin smiled at her as she spoke and bits of muffin fell on her lap, "You're such a pig."

"You better believe it."

"I'm heading off home now, you wanna catch a drink?" Justin asked.

"I can't tonight, " Jill sighed wishing nothing more than to drink herself into oblivion.

"Okay, are you coming back into the office after the interview tomorrow?" he asked as he pulled his bag over his shoulder.

"If I survive." She replied dramatically turning her computer off.

"Right up now, let's get you home."

"Yes Drill Sergeant," Jill said as she grabbed her laptop bag and followed him out the office.


Later that evening

Jill poured herself some coffee in the biggest mug she could find and grabbed the box of cookies from the kitchen bunker as she carefully returned to living room with her essential supplies. Sitting down she surveyed all the papers spread around her.

"Right, let's see what we have," she spoke out loud as she inserted the memory pen into her laptop. She closed her eyes as she waited for the screen to fill with Katie's documents. She noticed the folder clearly marked MCR interview with tomorrows date on it."Hurrah," Jill said as she clicked on it but the feeling of joy soon disappeared as she noticed one lone Word document sitting within it. Once again she clicked the document and nervously looked through her fingers as the screen filled up, "Fucking useless piece of shit I'm gonna kill you," Jill yelled as she saw the document with a few basic questions and nothing else. "Calm down, you can do this it's what you wanted to do remember." She whispered as she bought her mug of coffee to her lips. Taking a large gulp, she plugged her laptop into her printer and prepared to do an all nighter.



Jill walked into the room and suddenly stopped as she noticed the 5 men look up at her with the funniest expressions on their faces.

"Nice costume," Frank said as he looked her up and down.

"What?" Jill replied suddenly looking down to find herself in her pyjammas. She felt her face go bright red as she sat down and tried to maintain a professional demeanour. She opened her bag to get her tape recorder and notebook but it was full of maltesers, the more she tried to reach in, the more it seemed to fill up. She could feel herself getting angry and the constant sound of a mobile phone did nothing to help her mood.

"Will someone turn that damn phone off?" Jill shouted at the group in front of her.

"I think you'll find it's your own phone numb nuts," Frank yelled back at her.

Jill rummaged around her bag as she tried to find the phone but to no avail, she cringed as she heard the remarks the guys were making about her.



"Ouch," Jill said as she quickly pulled her hand back noticing she'd bashed it off her cactus which sat in her living room. She slowly opened her eyes as she found herself lying on her sofa with papers scattered all round her. "Shit," she whispered as she reached for the phone that continued to go.

"Hello," she mumbled.

"Morning sleepy head, already for today."

"Justin, you scared the crap out of me." Jill replied clutching her head as his ever happy and enthusiastic voice caused it to ache.

"I just wanted to check you were okay for today,"

"I'm fine but I better move or I'll be late." She assured him as she checked her watch that she had left by the phone.

"See you later Jill and good luck."

"Thanks J," Jill replied as she clicked the phone back into it's holder and plodded off to the shower. "Let the fun begin." She muttered as she turned the shower on and removed her pyjammas, she made sure to put them in the dirty laundry basket and assure herself that at least that one nightmare wouldn't be happening.