“I think this one needs some more water…” Hannah heard a man's voice advise. She opened her eyes to find that she was in a tent, with lots of medical aid lying around. To put two and two together, she'd have said she was in a medical aid tent.
“Hello?” She croaked looking around.
“Welcome back!” The man said, looking down at her from where he was stood.
“Where am I?”
“You fainted at the front – we had to pull you out and you've been brought backstage to recover.” The man explained.
With the word 'backstage', Hannah's eyes lip up. She looked around to see Jess curled up asleep on a nearby table and poked her with her foot.
“Anyway,” The man continued, oblivious. “Now you're ok, we'd better put you back in the arena…wouldn't want you to run off to the VIP area, would we?!”
Hannah smiled and got up. As soon as Jess got up…they were going to make their second grand escape of the day.
“Jess! Get up!” Hannah kicked her comatose friend.
“Eh – what?”
“I need you to escape again.”
“NO! NO more windows! NO!”
“Nah, it'll be easier this time, I just need you to get up and run through that door over there.”
Hannah pointed to a door with 'VIP area' written on it.
“Oh, but HANNAH…”
“Do as you're told!” jess, aided by a further kick, sat up and rose dizzily to her feet.
Hannah pulled a pen and paper out of her back pocket and scribbled down a message.
“'Dear Mr Medical Man. We are feeling much, much better now and have thrown ourselves back into the arena and will crowd-surf to the back. We most certainly haven't broken into the VIP area. Thank you. Kiss kiss.'”
“That should do it.” Jess said, approvingly.
“Right. Let's GO!” Hannah grabbed Jess and they made a break for it.
Just before they reached the door they bumped into an absolutely HUGE security guard.
“Who are you?” He asked, looking down at them from his enormous height.
“We're VIPs.” Hannah quipped quickly.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah!”
“And where exactly do you think you're going?” The guard asked.
“The VIP area.” Hannah replied.
“Oh, no you're not.” The guard positioned himself in front of the door. “Get lost.”
“WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!” Hannah screamed at him. “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! I'M GODDAMN NATALIE IMBRUGLIA, SO SHIFT YOUR FAT ARSE OUT OF THE WAY AND LET ME IN THE VIP AREA!”
“Oh, I'm sorry…” The guard blushed and side-stepped.
“Wow.” Jess muttered under her breath as they walked through the gate.
“I don't know whether to feel ecstatic that we're in here or badly offended.” Hannah mused.
“Ooh…is that Kate Moss?” Jess enquired, peering over a pair of sunglasses she had donned quickly.
“Maybe…” Hannah looked around surveying the people. “Ooh look, there's Zane Lowe.” She added, half-interested. “Looks like he's doing the rounds.”
Zane Lowe walked from one group of people to another group and introduced himself.
“Oh, God, quick…run!” Jess made an attempt to get away but it was too late.
“Too late.” Hannah stated as Zane finished introducing himself and turned to face them, trying to distinguish whether he knew them or not. A look of surprise crossed his face and he wandered over.
“Jess and Hannah…” He said, amused.
“Zane!” Hannah smiled as if pleasantly surprised.
“I can't remember whether we parted on good or bad terms…” Zane thought aloud.
“Good?” Jess tried.
“Sounds good enough.” Zane concluded and held out a hand.
“Well, it's good to see you again,” Hannah said, cheerfully. “Taken over the world yet?”
Zane looked confused.
“What?”
Hannah remembered that Zane wouldn't remember what had happened in Book Two, and so it would be pointless talking to him about it. She and Jess only remembered it thanks to a convenient plot twist.
“Never mind.” She cleared her throat. “So, who's here?”
“Placebo, Less Than Jake, The Darkness…” Zane said, matter-of-factly. “They're al good mates of mine, of course.” Stef from Placebo walked past them. “Stef! HI!” Zane grinned.
“Do I know you?” Stef looked at him quizzically before walking on. Zane flushed.
“Ha ha…yeah, Zane, good mates of yours.” Jess snickered.
“Yeah, well…what are you doing here? You two are hardly VIPs, are you?” Zane asked, annoyed.
“I'll have you know I'm pretending to be Natalie Imbruglia, thank you very much.” Hannah replied, haughtily.
“Anyone ELSE here?” Jess asked, excitedly. “Any actors, for example…like…Hobbit actors?!”
“Not that I know of.” Replied Zane.
“Sod this. I'm going home.” Jess turned to leave. She started to stomp off and bumped into a man dressed all in black, almost knocking him over.
“That's almost the second time today someone's tried to knock me over!” The man said to himself sounding a bit fed up in an American/English accent that was very confusing.
“Sorry.” Muttered Jess. She was about to walk off when she realised who it was. “Brian Molko from the rock band Placebo!!”
“Why do you announce it like I'm in a book?”
“Sorry, force of habit.” Jess blushed.
Zane ran over. “Hey, Brian!”
“Oh…hey.” Brian smiled politely and shook Zane's hand.
“Wow, glad you remembered me. I just saw Stef who gave me the cold shoulder!”
“You don't say!” Brian said sarcastically, turning back to Jess. “So, how are you?”
“Uh…fine.” Jess smiled.
“Oh, where are my manners?! My name's Brian.”
“Or you can call him Molky!” Zane put in.
“Shut up Zit.” Brian snapped.
“My name's Zane.”
“Whatever.” Brian shook Jess's stunned hand.
“Oh, my name's Jess.” She said, almost forgetting what to do. “And that's Hannah over there.”
“No, I'm NATALIE IMBRUGLIA, you stupid-“
“Hi.” Brian shook her hand too. “Do I call you Hannah or do you prefer Natalie?”
“Um…Hannah will suffice.” Hannah said in a very small voice.
“Cool. Well, we're not playing our set for another couple of hours so we'll be off…we only came over to check out the sound arrangements.”
“Where are you going?!” Zane exclaimed, quickly.
“Our trailer.” Brian replied, cautiously.
“Cool! I'll come with you! Then I can INTERVIEW you!” Zane grabbed a clipboard and pen and ran after Brian.
“Uh…” Brian regarded the over-enthusiastic Zane with distaste. He didn't really fancy being left in a trailer with him…unless he had some relief of some sort.
“YOU TWO!” Brian pointed to Hannah and Jess, who were ordering around lighting technicians and trying to order hobbits from a confused prop manager respectively.
“Yes?” Hannah asked.
“Would you like to come and kill time until our set?”
“Well, I don't really think-“
“YES!” Hannah interrupted Jess and grinned manically at Brian. “Yes! We'd love to. And when I say 'love', I mean 'Daniel-Johns-luuuurve'.”
“Ooookay.” Brian began to wonder what he'd let himself in for.
“Party in Brian's trailer!! Party in Brian's trailer!!” Zane cried, skipping across the grass happily.
“Shut up you daft, Kiwi!!” Brian shouted at him.
Zane didn't say anything more. “Can I bring a TV camera though?”