The girls reached the shore at about the same time. Hannah ran up the beach towards her musical friends looking like a Baywatch babe. Jess crawled over the sand looking like a drowned rat.
"You...evil, evil sod," Jess choked, coughing up a minnow.
Hannah shook her damp hair nonchalently and walked towards Kelly, grinning radiantly.
Jess scowled after her and started detaching crabs from her clothing.
Patrick unhelpfully pulled seaweed strands from her hair.
"Oh, stop it," she muttered, moving away and doing it herself.
"Look at this!" Ben called, pointing at the jumbo jet parked neatly on top of the remains of Patrick's Post Office.
Hannah laughed heartily but stopped abruptly, when she saw the look on Patrick's face - as if he was about to cry.
"Don't worry, mate!" Ben said, hopping down off the left wing of the humungous plane and slapping Patrick on the back manly. "As soon as we get the plane off the island, I'm sure there won't be that much damage!"
"And how do you suggest we do that?" asked Jess.
"We've decided to go." Kelly piped up.
Richard and Stuart nodded in agreement.
"We're off now. Thanks for the ride!" waved Richard.
The three disappeared into the plane without another word, shut the door and started the engine.
"Aww, nuts!" screamed Hannah, over the noise of the jet engine.
Patrick, Steve, Daniel, Ben, Cartman, Chris, Hannah and Jess fell over as the plane rumbled off the island and straight into the sea.
"Well, that was clever," muttered Steve as bubbles began to surface a little way out from the shore.
"Come on," said Jess, turning back to Patrick's Post Office. "Let's build."
"Sorry, Jess, but there's no way we're rebuilding an entire Post Office brick by brick," Hannah said, firmly.
"Aww...please...!?" Jess whined, clasping her hands in a begging motion.
"NO!" Hannah, Ben, Chris, Steve, Daniel and Cartman all shouted in unison.
"I think the general feeling is that we get on the boat and go home," said Steve, who was bored.
At the mention of the word 'home', Patrick, in a confused state of grief, ran down to the shore and kicked Superturtle into the sea. She landed with a smooth plop and bobbed on the surface.
Her dragon offspring snorted fire menacingly at Patrick who ran behind Chris for safety.
"Well, I'm sorry for sounding like the voice of reason here," said Hannah emphatically. "But the boat's out of fuel. There is no plane. There is no Post Office - sorry Patrick - so there's no fuel in the Post Office!! The plane is underwater...so WE HAVE NO FUEL!" she shouted.
"Sorry, what was that?" Steve asked, picking at his fingernails.
The dragons both sneezed simultaneously and threw themselves into the air. As they fell back to earth with a squawk they spread out their two metre long wings and encircled the island by flying round and breathing fire.
"Oh... oh God..." Jess had seen the light of an idea in Daniel's eyes and she didn't like it much.
"We could FLY!" he said, suddenly.
"Eh?" Hannah asked, looking up from the water.
"We could fly, on the dragons' backs!"
"You're having a laugh," Hannah snorted. "You're off your nut."
"No, listen - three dragons, right? They've grown a bit now, they've got quite big, so..." Daniel began pushing and pulling people into place. "Jess, Hannah and Cartman can go on one dragon," He pushed them into a huddle. "Chris, Ben and I can go on another, and Patrick and Steve can go on the last one."
"Can I make a few minor alterations?" Hannah asked. She pushed Jess over to Steve and Patricks' huddle, then picked Cartman up and handed him to Chris. "You," she said, grabbing Daniel, "Can ride with me."
"What are you all? Insane!" shouted Steve.
"Got any better idea for getting home?" retorted Daniel.
Steve paused. "Swimming would be better, dragon-boy."
Daniel narrowed his eyes. "Go on then. We'll see you in England."
Steve huffed and turned to walk down to the sea. When he got to the edge, he dipped his foot in, squirmed and ran back, flinging himself on the nearest dragon.
"Let's go!" Ben shouted.
The dragons flew up into the sky and lost sight of Patrick's island through the clouds.

A cloud blew into Hannah's face, but she didn't care. She was sitting behind Daniel on the smallest of the three dragons, and she had slid her arms around Daniel's waist (rather subtly, she thought) and she was having a wail of a time.
Ben, Chris and Cartman's combined weight (well, mainly Cartman's) meant that their dragon was flying at a lower altitude than the other two.
"So where are we going, exactly, Mr Organised?" Steve called over to Daniel.
"I don't know, but at least we're off the island." Daniel replied, smirking.
Hannah pretended to dodge a cloud and fell onto Daniel's back. 'This is fab...' she thought. 'Ridiculous... but fab.' She grinned stupidly.
"So where are we going then?" she asked Daniel.
"I really have no idea!" laughed Daniel.
Hannah turned to her left where the third dragon was flying with Jess, Patrick and Steve. "JESS!" she screamed making Daniel jump and the dragon squawk.
"WHAT?" came a reply through the clouds.
"WHERE ARE WE GOING?" she shouted.
"I DUNNO! BUT CAN WE LAND SOON BECAUSE I NEED TO GO TO THE TOILET!" Jess screamed.
"OK! ME TOO!" Hannah replied.
The dragons slowly went down through the clouds. They saw that they were no longer over sea, but land instead, with large skyscrapers and flashing lights.
"Where the hell are we?" exclaimed Jess.
"I think that's Japan!" said Patrick.
"We've only been flying for two hours!" said Steve, ridiculing his idea.
"Well, how else can you explain that?" Patrick pointed down towards the ground.
Steve squinted and saw the cloud clear to show very modern looking buildings below.
"Well, I don't know, but I bet you're wrong anyway!"
"Will you stop it?" Jess asked them angrily. "It may have escaped your notice but I have to sit between you and get shouted at!" She held on to one of the pointed scales on the dragon's back and frowned.
"You guys... seriously," Cartman shouted. "Can we land soon?"
"Let's stop on top of that building." Daniel indicated to the top of a huge skyscraper.
The dragons began to descend. They landed one by one with a gentle thud and their passengers fell off onto the roof.
"Hannah," Daniel said, standing up. "You can let go of my waist now - we've stopped flying."
"I think I'll hang on for a moment - for security," she insisted.
"Are we in New York?" Ben said, oblivious to the arguments between Steve and Patrick.
"Can you see any twin towers?" said Hannah sarcastically, followed by a moment of recognition, "...oh yeah. Sorry."
"This is Hong Kong," said Daniel. "We've played here before, remember guys?"
The three members of silverchair laughed.
"Oh, goody," Steve commented sarcastically. "Is there anywhere you haven't played?"
"Urr..." Daniel stood for a few moments. "Nope."
Steve grimaced.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, (well actually the lift shaft), came a dozen press photographers.
"What the...?" started Hannah. "...oh the dragons!!" she said smiling.
"No actually," said Jess. "I think they're after your boyfriend."
"He's not my boyfriend!" said Hannah, being pulled across the roof.
"Yeah, and I'm Kate Moss," Cartman snorted.
Daniel and Ben wrestled Hannah free of the reporters and the whole motley crew backed away from the lift shaft.
"Where do you think you'll be playing next?"
"What's the next album called?"
"Is it true 'Neon Ballroom' was written under the influence of caffeine?"
Daniel, Ben and Chris blinked as the cameras of the reporters flashed savagely.
Jess felt her heels touch the edge of the roof, where there was a slight ridge. "Oh, God...!" She leapt back up onto safer ground, but the reporters were still approaching.
"Ooh...is that a dragon?" the reporter asked, suddenly realising.
The dragons were getting aggravated by the camera flashes.
"Get back on the dragons!" Hannah shouted. She grabbed Cartman and hopped onto the nearest dragon, (closely) followed by Daniel.
Chris, Ben and Steve leapt onto another and Jess and Patrick just escaped the grabbing hands of the reporters as they leapt onto an already hovering final dragon.
They all swooped from the sky scraper, before climbing high into the sky, away from the reporters.

<< back to Book 1.4

� Jess and Hannah 2001