by Charles Mead
“Right now we’ve both got main channel videos to record and edit, and our combined main channel one to do before we can start thinking of stuff to do in Vegas,” said James.
“Our own channel videos can now include us both packing and letting our audience know where we are going, it should be pretty easy.”
“Maybe, but anyway, we need to move fast, it’s getting towards lunchtime.”
“It will be fine, we can get it all done. I’m off to get my suitcase out and add some content to my channel vlog,” said Chris as he left James alone in the kitchen.
James thought about flying Upper Class and then realised he had no idea what it might be like, so he grabbed his laptop on the kitchen counter and did a quick search. He was soon impressed with what he saw and was glad that a man of his talent was being transported in the only acceptable way these days.
CHAPTER THREE
James had set his alarm early on his phone, so he could record an early video as part of his travel day vlog. He looked across at the three large suitcases in the corner of the room. Having checked Virgin Atlantic’s website the previous day and noted Upper Class passengers were allowed three bags of up to thirty-two kilograms each, he thought it best to bring as many different sets of clothes as possible. While his third bag was mainly empty and probably entirely unnecessary, that was not the point. He was allowed it so he was going to bring it. The third bag could always be used for purchases he made whilst over there, and that in itself could form the basis for another video.
James positioned his phone on his desk near his bed and adjusted the zoom so most of his upper body would be in frame. He went to his bathroom and played with his hair in the mirror to get the look just right, and then took his medication. James had no desire to do his make-up routine for the first part of his vlog, so as he returned to his bed he adjusted the dimmer switch to bring the light down in the room. The combination of low light and the camera being some distance away should mean the audience would not notice he looked a bit different.
He hit record on his phone and returned to get into bed. Before he started to speak he checked his hair one last time. James was ready.
“Gooooooooooooood morning, guys, and welcome to another daily vlog. Whilst yesterday’s vlog was a bit routine for me, today is an exciting travel day. For those of you who haven’t watched yesterday’s vlog, shame on you, go and do that now! Just kidding. To summarise, me and Chris have been invited to Las Vegas to do a talk. They’re flying us out for a full week so we should be able to show you lots of things you should find interesting. I am really excited to go to Vegas, as I have never been. I don’t think Chris has been either, so it will be an adventure for the both of us. As with all of my adventures, the first step is to get to the airport. We’re getting picked up at seven a.m., which means I have about fifty minutes to get ready. Let’s do this.”
James got out of bed and stopped the recording. He quickly played it back for sound and everything looked good. Time to get ready, he had left plenty of time.
Just then there was a knock on his door, followed by a brief pause, and then Chris entered the room. He had his vlogging phone in one hand and was clearly recording.
“Morning James. Just had a call from the chauffeur company. They are five minutes away.”
“What are you talking about? We’ve got almost an hour before we have to be ready.”
“Well…” Chris smiled. ”You don’t, but the good news is I am ready to go.”
“How can I not have plenty of time?”
“Because last night I unlocked your phone and put your phone clock time back by almost an hour. You’ve got five minutes!”
“You’re pranking me? Today?” James was trying hard to suppress his fury.
“Oh yes. Now chop, chop, we don’t want to keep the driver waiting.”
Chris noticed the three suitcases in the corner of the room.
“You’re bringing three bags, James?”
“Yes I am. Just as well I packed them all yesterday, isn’t it?”
“Oh yes! You probably now only have four minutes, so will leave you to get ready,” said Chris. He took a few steps to leave the room and stopped recording on his camera.
“I cannot believe you chose today to do a prank. I’ve only got four minutes to get ready,” James fumed.
“Probably less than that now. You might have time for a quick wash.”
“I am not happy about this at all.”
“It will be great for the viewer numbers on my vlog,” said Chris.
“Well great,” James grumbled.
“Yesterday you were all about the numbers.”
“I didn’t mean your personal numbers and you know it. Our shared channel is what I was talking about.”
“Oh, so my personal channel can fail, and you would be fine with it?”
“Yes I would, after that prank. What I am going to do if we meet fans at the airport? I look a mess!”
“Have a quick wash, put some deodorant on, and you’ll be fine. The clubhouse we get to relax in has showers, and I booked you in to use that along with a full body massage. Should help improve your mood.”
“Just barely, Chris. Now get out!”
James was still fuming and quickly went to his bathroom for a quick wash, followed by applying light enhancing moisturiser, which he hoped would make him look good enough in front of any fans they might bump into.
He had just barely finished getting ready when he heard their apartment intercom buzz and Chris answer.
“Sure, no problem, we will be down in a minute,” said Chris, followed by, “James, move your butt, our driver is here.”
James took one last look at himself in the mirror and grabbed his passport, wallet and phone from the bed and shoved them into his backpack. He got his three suitcases organised and wheeled them out of his room. He looked back at his dirty room and was temporarily grateful that when he returned from Vegas their cleaner would have restored the apartment to showroom-quality cleanliness.
“Come on, James. Smile! We’re going to Vegas!” said Chris as he continued to film the travel day.
James managed a brief smile but was still really annoyed. “Yeah, Vegas baby, and I stink!”
“It’s going to be great!” said Chris.
Chris continued to film as they left the apartment and went down in the lift to the car. James remained silent as Chris spoke to his audience about the travel day.
The management team had sent a luxury mini-van for their trip to the airport. As they settled into their seats, Chris relayed to his audience how comfortable the seats were for the journey, and that they both had bottles of water along with an order of their favourite coffee from Starbucks. James noticed the seats could almost fully recline, so he did so immediately and closed his eyes, pretending to go to sleep. He had no interest in talking with Chris for his video; in fact, he wished Chris would get ill at the airport so he could go to Vegas alone.
CHAPTER FOUR
To James’s surprise he did go to sleep and was awoken by their driver letting them know they had arrived at Gatwick airport. He got out as the driver was carefully placing their luggage on the curb. Chris reminded him of his coffee he hadn’t touched, and as Chris was no longer filming, he went into grab it. He took a cautious sip.
“It’s not poison, James!”
“Just want to make sure you haven’t tampered with it for another one of your pranks.”
“It’s just the coffee order,” said Chris.
“It had better be. I am not in the mood for more of your nonsense right now.”
“You shouldn’t prank me and expect not to be pranked back,” said Chris.
“I haven’t pranked you in two months,” said James.
“Maybe true, but after what you did that time, you should be thankful I didn’t do anything worse.”
James could not quite remember what the prank was for a moment, but then he recalled. He made a mental note that if he wanted to
get rid of Chris once his channel had enough revenue to sustain his lifestyle, he would do something similar again.
The driver appeared bemused by the exchange he had just witnessed between two grown men and wished them a good trip. Chris thanked him and tipped him twenty pounds.
As they wheeled their bags across the forecourt of Gatwick’s North Terminal, Chris began to film again, but was not talking over the footage. James assumed he would use it for some time lapse material for his video.
As they entered the main terminal and looked at the screens to find out where they had to go to check in, James was on high alert for any potential fans. Knowing Chris, he had probably tweeted out about his prank and that fans could catch them at the airport. So far, the other people in the airport were indifferent to them.
James looked to his left and noticed the large Virgin Atlantic sign and check-in area with Upper Class desks to the far left. To the right were large queues where other passengers were checking in for their economy class flights. James smiled.
“This way,” said James as he walked off.
Chris was still filming the airport surroundings but quickly followed behind.
James noticed a lady standing in Virgin Atlantic uniform in the area and went straight up to her.
“Morning,” said James, “we’re going to Vegas and are not sure where we should check in.”
“Do you have your boarding passes?” asked the lady with a friendly smile.
“Sure,” said James and he handed over the boarding passes, which clearly showed Upper Class on them.
“Just right ahead of me, please gents,” said the lady as she pointed at the empty Upper Class check-in area.
James nodded to the woman and strutted past her to the Upper Class desk.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” said the check-in agent. “Where are you travelling to today?”
“Vegas,” replied Chris as he handed over his passport. James followed suit. After a quick check that everything was in order, the check-in agent asked for the bags to be put on the scales one by one and tagged them.
She seemed amused that James’s final bag was almost empty. “This one must be to carry your shopping back.”
James just smiled awkwardly and it was left to Chris to reply, “Yeah, my friend here likes to do a lot of clothes shopping.”
The check-in agent smiled and then handed their documents back along with their Clubhouse passes. She explained how to get to the Clubhouse after clearing security, but asked them if they would like to be escorted through.
“Yes please,” replied James immediately.
The lady spoke into her radio and less than a minute later a man appeared and asked them to follow him. James eyed the man up and down as they walked—taller than him, probably freakishly tall, really, and maybe some girls would have liked the look of his face, if they were desperate enough—but Chris engaged him in conversation as they headed towards security. As they walked past the queue at the economy check-in desks, which had only grown larger, James smiled at random strangers in the queue as he ensured his Upper Class travel documents were facing them.
They reached the priority security lane and the man let both James and Chris go in front of him as he explained he had to also go through security to escort them all the way. Chris left his phone recording in the security tray as he thought he would get some good footage to use later in his vlog.
After clearing security the man continued to show them the way to the Clubhouse and struck up a conversation with Chris about vlogging. The man clearly could build rapport with anyone which made James like him even less.
They arrived at the Clubhouse check-in desk, at which point the man wished them a great and eventful week in Las Vegas and strongly advised them to check out the Blue Man Group show if they had the opportunity, as he thought it was fantastic.
“Morning, gents,” said the man behind the desk. “Mr Scott, we have been expecting you. You are booked in for a deep tissue massage and shower. If you could go around to your left, you will see the spa there in front of you and one of my colleagues will be happy to assist you. Mr Leep, you don’t have anything booked currently, but we do have some slots for a facial, manicure or pedicure. These are all of course complimentary, so if you would like to make use of them, please also go to the spa.”
They both thanked the man and Chris said he would see what treatment he could get while James had his. The spa was a haven of relaxation with piped music playing at a low volume. James went for his treatment, still wishing Chris would disappear.
James returned almost an hour later feeling refreshed and in a much better mood than first thing this morning. They decided to have breakfast at a table overlooking the runway.
“That massage was fantastic, I feel so different, and the shower they have is state-of-the-art with its own steam setting. We should think about getting one of our bathrooms changed after we get back from Vegas. We’ve clearly been missing out.”
“Is this before or after you get the Bentley?”
“Oh, most probably after the Bentley. I think that is my top priority.”
“So, producing good quality content isn’t a priority anymore?” asked Chris.
“Well, I suppose the content does come first as I need the money, and that only comes from getting as many views as possible, which in turn increases the revenue. I think my own vlog from this trip will generate quite a bit if I phrase it right and show my viewers what a great time I am having, and what I am doing.”
“You’re not worried about coming across as bragging? Most twenty-year-olds have zero chance of doing the things we are doing,” said Chris.
“Not really. It’s not my fault I am important. Did you see the people staring at us in the economy class queue as we walked by?”
“No, I didn’t notice. Is it really that important what strangers think of you?”
“Of course, isn’t it to you?”
“Not really. I mean, YouTube has changed my life and I am very grateful, but I am also aware that I am not changing the world.”
“Oh, we can still change the world. You need to come across as more important in your own vlogs. I think your audience will like that,” said James.
“Not sure they will. I think it’s more important to me to be genuine.”
“Fair enough. Just trying to help you out. After all, I have a million more subscribers than you on my own channel. That’s a lot of revenue you’re missing out on.”
“I’ll think about it,” replied Chris.
Their breakfasts soon arrived. James had ordered the full English breakfast, while Chris had ordered the vegetarian option. This was another thing about Chris that James thought was odd.
“What are we going to talk about at our Vegas presentation?” asked Chris in between mouthfuls.
“Well, we should probably focus on our joint channel and how we have achieved our success,” replied James. “We should include lots of talk about how successful we are.”
“I think the audience there will know how successful we are, so we should probably focus a bit more on tips, perhaps?”
“Sure, if you want. We’ve got eleven hours on the plane so let’s do something at the bar in-flight. Will also make great material for my vlog,” said James.
“Okay.”
They finished their breakfasts and shortly afterwards there was an announcement that their flight was now boarding. As they exited the lounge Chris noticed one of those electric airport buggies with a man sitting at the wheel. He asked him whether he was waiting for someone, and the man offered to take them to their gate if they wanted. They both hopped in and filmed the journey to the gate.
Upon arrival at the gate James was happy to see a priority lane for Upper Class passengers so he walked straight down it with Chris following behind. After their documents were checked again, they were advised to proceed directly onto the aircraft.
They both continued to film as they walked down the jetway to the aircraft
door, where they were greeted and handed over their boarding passes. They were advised to turn left and into the Upper Class cabin.
After settling into his seat, James noticed that Chris was seated across from him and was filming him. He smiled and waved at the camera. A flight attendant came by and offered both of them champagne, which they both accepted.
As he drank his champagne, James took a moment to take in his surroundings. The seat was huge and he could fully extend his legs with nobody in his way and direct access to the aisle. He noticed there was a bag behind his seat that he assumed contained the duvet cover and mattress for his seat. James made a note to himself that, even though it was a day flight, he would be trying out the bed.