Welcome to Reality – Episode 1
So, the story goes that there was once a music artist that took the world by storm, said music artist then met the wonderfully attractive model Genine Gudroth, who just turned out to be the love of Marcus Stone’s life. And so, as time went on and their love deepened, these two romantically obsessed people got married and had children, which resulted in both of them deciding to withdraw from the public eye forever more. That is until they’re presented with an opportunity they can’t refuse: to have their own documentary. Of course, there was a large sum of money offered as incentive which they found too difficult to ignore.
By this time however, their two children were 17 and 12. They were already well into their own lives, and had benefitted greatly from their parents genes and wealth. And so, the Stone family decided to take up the offer, and have their own reality tv series; Starring the Stones.
But where do you fit into all of this? Well, you’re the best friend of Drake Stone, the first son of Mr and Mrs Stone. You’ve known one another since you were 6 months old and your mothers met during a pilates class when they were trying to regain their figures. Ever since then you’d been joined at the hip; same schools, neighbourhoods same everything basically. Your parents are Keith and Derene Silver, who are the joint owners of one of the most successful law firms in the UK. Yeah, this isn’t set in the Americas, nope. You’re stuck with merry ol’ England, known widely for inconsistent weather patterns and well, crumpets and tea, although that perception should really be let go. But back to your story, your parent’s and Drake get along relatively well, but with your family constantly being at work and leaving you, their only child, stranded at home, you spend more time with the Stones than is normal. This means that when they decided to go ahead with the tv show, they included you in the decision and you said, “Yeah, go for it! We need a little excitement around here!” – This turned out to be the turning point of your entire life.
Elyse’s POV
“Dray, are you sure it’s okay for me to come over today? I mean, your parents must be stressed as hell,” I say as I walk beside Drake to his car,
“Yeah, of course it is. My mum and dad love cameras, I don’t think they were this happy when Conway was born,” He remarks, unlocking the boot and throwing his bag inside, then taking mine and doing the same,
“Don’t be a retard. But fine, you’ve convinced me,”
“Good, because I was given orders to use force if you didn’t come willingly,”
“Huh? Why?” I ask, buckling my seatbelt and looking back to Drake,
“Oh? I didn’t tell you did I? Well, surprise! You’re having your interview today!” Drake shouts throwing his hands up and hugging me as though I’d won something,
“What?”
“Haha, well my mum though it’d be cute to include you as part of the show because well, you have a bedroom at ours anyway, and well I think my dad’s forgotten that you’re not his kid,”
“But, I’m not a Stone. I’m a side character, the randomer that you sometimes spot on the side of the screen!”
“Well, you still are. You’ll just take up more of the screen,”
“Hey! Are you trying to call me fat?” I ask, watching as Shawstrall Avenue came into view as well as it’s more expensive houses,
“Well, you did eat all of those cookies at lunch...” Drake muses, a sly grin consuming his face
“Oh shut up! You’re just jealous I didn’t give you any,”
“You didn’t even offer me one!”
“Ahah, so that’s what this is really about then? Revenge?” I ask, laughing because I just can’t keep a straight face at how childish we were,
“Well, that was only part of it. But you owe me a cookie,”
“Fine. Now how many will you need for me to not do this interview?”
“You couldn’t afford it babe,” Drake said with a smirk as I rolled my eyes.
Walking up to the wonderful mansion sized home of the Stones I could practically feel the cameras already on me.
“Um, Dray? You’re not having those nifty little spy cameras fitted are you?” I ask, biting my lip,
“Nifty?”
“Just answer the question before I explode from paranoia,” I whisper urgently, yeah, I do have a few little quirks to my character. But they’re not all bad, well at least I hope not.
“Well, yes. They were installed on Wednesday,”
“But that was two days ago,”
“Yups,” He replies, a huge smiling taking over his face as he watched my reaction,
“Oh dear God no. Please, please tell me that they’re not using any of that footage,”
“Oh, you mean of you dancing around the living room because your favourite song came on?”
“Yeahhhh....” I replied hesitantly, already knowing what he was going to say.
“They’re definitely going to use that, don’t worry,” Drake stated, laughing out loud as my jaw dropped,
“You’re such a bitch Drake! You could have warned me?” I whined punching his arm lightly.
“But there’s no fun in being nice,”
“I’ll remember that next time I’m having cookies,” I say glaring playfully,
“Now who’s the bitch?” He asks, placing his hand on his hip,
“That’d still be you sweetheart,” I reply, looking at his stance with raised eyebrows. We both burst out laughing at our own antics as I opened the door, I really do treat this place like my second home and walking straight to the living room.
“Welcome home kids,” Genine shouted to us, “Say hello to the camera,”
“Hi Gen, hello camera, and the man wearing the hat behind it too,” I say waving with a smile,
“Elle, sweetie, you’re not meant to talk to the man behind the lense,”
“Stranger danger,” Drake replied, “He may follow you home and kill you now,” flopping onto the couch,
“Please Dray, he’s not you. Besides, Camera Man has to stand around all day being ignored,” I say turning back to the hat man, “I really doubt you get paid enough. What’s your name anyway?”
“John Hewick,” He replied with a smile,
“Hello John. I’m Elyse Silver,”
“Yeah, Elyse practically lives here John, she’s a freeloader, doesn’t do a thing,” Drake said as he browsed through the tv channels,
“I do more than you smart-arse,” I retorted,
“That is true, when was the last time you helped clean the kitchen?” Genine asked, hands on her hips and walking until she stood directly in front of the tv,
“Hey! Don’t gang up on me! I’m your son, you should be nice to me,” Yeah, the next thirty minutes were filled with silly pointless arguments like this, it was what normally happened, well with the exception of John and his camera. Marcus is usually at the studio he owns in the centre of London and Conway (aka Connie) is at rugby practice every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until 6.
“Anyway, Elyse sweetie, I think you should get your interview over with before I put the dinner out,”
I’d spent the last 20 minutes trying to explain to her that I didn’t need one because I’m not in fact, a Stone, her reply? A complete dismissal of my entire argument, it’s a cruel world.
“She’s right, Elyse sweetie, no point feeling nervous throughout dinner,” Drake mocked, I shot him a quick glare before relenting.
“Fine, but when I explain that you slept with a pink teddy bear until you were nine, do not come crying to me!” I shouted, just to make sure the microphone heard me before cackling evilly, and walking over to John,
“Finally ready to get started then?” He asked as he lead me to one of the empty living rooms, (they have 4).
“Not quite, but how bad can it be right?” I asked him as I sat down in one of the chairs and he sat opposite me,
“Well, it won’t take long, I just have to ask you these questions and then you’re free to go,”
“What? You don’t want a full riveting life story and blood sample?”
“Not quite,”
“Well it can’t be that bad then, fire away,”
“So, how do you know the family?”
“Since my mum and Genine met during a pilates class when they were trying to lose their baby-weight. They became friends and well, play dates were arranged I guess. I’ve known the family pretty much all my life,” I explained,
“So what’s your relationship with Drake?” He asked, keeping the camera trained on my face,
“Drake? He’s my best friend, always has been, always will be,” I replied with a shrug,
“So you guys aren’t dating?”
“Hahaha, nope, we don’t have those kinds of feelings for one another,”
“Have you thought about it then?” He prodded, and I couldn’t help but wonder why he was trying to find something there,
“We only share platonic feelings,” I replied with a head shake and a shrug.
“Do you want something to be there though?” I gave him a strange look before answering,
“I don’t think it’s even possible for there to be. Why? Please tell me you haven’t spoken to my mum,” I asked with wide eyes, my mum was always under the impression that Drake and I had a secret relationship,
“No, it’s just that Genine and Marcus implied that you were practically their daughter,”
“Oh, yeah, you’ve got the wrong end of the stick. That’s just because I’m here so much, I have my own room; I honestly think of them as my second family.”
The interview continued for another twenty minutes; the reason why I had no idea because they’d only end up using about 2 minutes of the entire thing actually in the show, and that’s if they decided to use it.
Walking into the kitchen I was greeted by the wonderful aroma of spaghetti Bolognese, one of my favourites,
“Hey Elyse, how’d your interview go?” Asked Marcus as I took the seat next to him,
“It depends, is your idea of a disaster make a good interview?” I asked him, which caused him to laugh,
“I’m sure it wasn’t bad,”
“Well, then it was definitely annoying,”
“How so?”
“It doesn’t matter, I set them straight,” I say with a smile before letting out a yelp as Drake kidney jabbed me,
“Hey! Don’t bully me or you won’t get fed!”
“Oh? And how will that happen?”
“Do you really want to test who your mum loves more?” I ask with a grin causing Marcus to starting laughing loudly, “Don’t do it son, Elyse would win,” he chokes out, his eyes crinkling slightly at the edges,
“Now be a good boy and help me set the table,” I order, smiling as he rolled his eyes and started walking towards me, only to hear Marcus’ imitation of a whipping sound, which caused me to start laughing.
Later on in the evening, the entire family and myself were sitting in the living room watching Family Guy, our favourite show. John had already left, he’d only come for the interviews, the rest of the filming would be done by the spy cameras apart from allocated days when events outside the house would also be filmed, which was when a camera crew/man would be required.
“Are you staying here tonight Elyse?” Asked Drake looking down at me where my head was currently lying in his lap as I was sprawled across our couch.
“Well I was hoping to,” I tell him, meeting his dark green eyes as we whispered to one another,
“Good, because I was going to force you to,” He replies with a smile, causing me to smile in return. I looked back at the screen, but I wasn’t really watching, instead I was thinking about my interview. Honestly, I’d never thought about a relationship, as in a boyfriend girlfriend type of relationship, with him before. The idea was alien to me, but I was suddenly feeling a strange tugging in my mind, just to think about it. Yeah, I attacked that thought like it was carrying the plague. I was one of those people who preferred to ‘shoot now and ask questions later’.
“Good morning star shine, the Earth says hello!” Shouts a familiar voice in my ear, which only caused me to groan and roll onto my other side,
“Come on Elle, wake up!” Drake says as he pulls the covers from me,
“Drayyy, it’s Saturday, I don’t have to be up,”
“But you’re missing out on wonderful memories with me,”
“Trust me, the one were making right now isn’t too wonderful,” I complain, refusing to open my eyes, “Now give my back my blanket before I choke you with it,”
“Well, now you’re definitely not getting it back,”
“Drayyyyyy,”
“Elllllllllle,” He says mockingly, which provokes me into searching with my hands until I caught him on the edge of my bed and dragged him down.
“Be a good boy and go to sleep,” I murmured into my pillow, I heard him sigh but get comfortable none-the-less,
“Fine, but only because it’s 6 am,” He replies, pulling the blanket back up and over the both of us, but I swear, if I hadn’t been less than semi-conscious at that point I would have slapped him; 6 am? What was that boy even thinking?
