Hannah tried to run further into the casino.
"NO!" Jess grabbed her. "Remember what happened in Book Two!"
"Oh, but Jeee-ss…" Hannah whinged. "I could win us loads of cash with this quarter!"
"My arse."
"Your arse isn't important right now, J. Now come on." Hannah ran in and up to the cash desk.
"A quarter chip, please." She said to the lady.
"I'm sorry, madam, but we only have chips in denominations of $10." She replied.
"Oh. Ok," Hannah grabbed a chip from the desk. "Take this," she put down the quarter. "And I'll pay you back." She ran off before the lady could argue.
"You are gonna get us into SO MUCH trouble…" Jess said, apprehensively, as Hannah ran up to a Roulette wheel.
"Oh, c'mon, J, lighten up!" Hannah chucked her chip down on Red 32. The wheel whizzed around.
"I can't watch." Jess covered her eyes.
"What have you got going on this, l'il lady?" A man in a cowboy hat asked.
"Both our lives." Hannah answered, plainly.
"Yowza!" The man emitted, shocked.
The Roulette wheel continued to spin. It was making Hannah feel a little dizzy.
People began to gather round the table to see the spectacle of these two girls lives depending on one quarter.
A couple of television cameras appeared and filmed them.
The Roulette began to slow and everyone leaned in closer to stare. No-one dared to breathe just in case it effected the turn-out.
The small ball skipped along towards the 30s.
"Go on!" Hannah prayed, holding onto Jess's hands really tightly.
Jess squeezed harder on Hannah's.
27…The ball skipped one and landed in 28, the wheel still spinning, with a bump it hopped to 31 and the wheel stopped.
Everyone gasped.
With one last momentous leap, the ball fell over into 32.
"YAY!!"
"Winner takes all!" The attendant pushed about 10,000 chips in their direction from the rest of the table.
"YES! YES!" Jess did her happy 'shake my arse' dance in triumph.
"WE'VE GOT $100,000!" Hannah yelled.
"You still owe me $9.75." The lady at the cash desk reminded her.
"Oh. Yeah." Hannah handed her a $10 note and lady gave her back her quarter. "We have $99,990.25!" Hannah, said, leaping up and down.
"What shall we do?" Jess exclaimed.
"Let's bet it on something else!" Hannah tried to go towards the card tables.
"NO." Jess grabbed her. "We've got to pay for accommodation and a flight home."
"Or to Australia."
"NO."
"Or to wherever Keanu Reeves lives."
"NO."
"Or to L.A."
"N-hmm…maybe…um, I mean no. NO."
Jess grabbed her and pulled her out of the casino. They stumbled into the brightly lit street and started to look for the nearest and least dodgy-looking hotel.
They came to the most magnificent looking hotel. It was shaped like a gigantic pyramid with lights all the way up it and fountains outside the front.
Jess and Hannah ran into the hotel. "Can we have your nicest room for two single beds please?" Hannah asked.
"Hmm! Yeah…whatever." The man at the desk disappeared back behind his newspaper.
Hannah slapped down $1,000 on the desk in $10 notes.
The man's eyes widened. "Straight away!" He typed something on the computer and called a porter over. "You can give all your bags to this boy here." He said.
Jess and Hannah exchanged a glance. "We don't have any bags." Jess explained.
"Oh." The porter looked surprised then deflated and walked away.
"Follow me." The receptionist led them to the lift and to their room. He unlocked the door to their suite and opened it to reveal the most amazing hotel room either girl had ever seen.
"Wow." Jess said.
"Will this be satisfactory, madams?"
"Beats sleeping in a sack." Hannah commented.
"That'll be all." Jess gave him a $50 bill and he grinned.
"Yes, of course. Thank you, madam." He scuttled out of the room.
"Eeeee!" Hannah ran and bounced on the nearest bed.
"Well…this is a turn-up for the books." Jess said, looking around the room, impressed.
"Yey!" Hannah grabbed the TV remote and turned on the telly. A porn channel immediately appeared on the screen.
"Ooops." Hannah tried to change the channel but more and more porn spread over the screen.
"HANNAH!"
"I can't help it!"
Jess hit the on/off button on the telly and the screen went blank.
"Ahem." Hannah continued bouncing on the bed but dropped the remote.
"Right, I vote that we stay the night here, then get the first flight back to England tomorrow." Jess said.
"Cool." Hannah picked up the phone and started calling room service.
"HANNAH! We should be SAVING this money. Remember we have that big Christmas Party to sort out…" Jess paused. "We haven't even gone shopping yet."
"Yeah yeah, I know," Hannah groaned. "So what do you want?"
"What's on the list?"
"Porn…porn…OH! Look here…nice meals." Hannah read the menu.
"Let's have a look…" Jess took the list. She nodded approvingly.
"So what'll it be?" Asked Hannah, picking up the phone.
"Can't decide…you choose." Jess, defeated, handed her the menu.
"Okey-dokey." Hannah pressed a few buttons on the wireless phone. "Hi there, can I order some food?"

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ON TO CHAPTER THREE >>

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� Jess and Hannah 2003

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HO HO HO! Welcome to chapter one! Hannah's writing is in red, Jess's is in white.

They slid along on the sleigh, slowly getting faster (if you get what I mean).
"How do you get this into the air?!" Jess exclaimed, being thrown around by the bumpy ride.
"Don't you need special magic sparkle dust from Father Christmas?" Hannah remembered.
"Oh CRAP!"
The reindeers zoomed on, oblivious to their surroundings and plunged the sleigh straight over the edge of a cliff.
"ARGHH!" Jess and Hannah gripped onto the front of the sleigh for dear life as the sleigh plummeted. 5 metres from icicle-impaling death the reindeers pulled up and began to fly.
"That was close." Hannah observed.
"Right, well, where are we going?" Jess asked.
"Um…dunno. We could go to Australia…" Hannah started.
"NO." Jess leant forward and grabbed the reins ot prevent them being steered 'accidentally' to Antipodean climes.
A brief silence ensued.
"You're taking us to LA, aren't you?" Hannah asked.
"No," Jess replied, quickly.
"Will you two PLEASE make up your minds where you want to go?!" Said a voice in front of them.
"What the hell was that?" Hannah exclaimed.
"It was me." Jess and Hannah leant forward to see one of the reindeer craning his neck to look back at them. "Now, where do you want to go?"
"Australia!"
"Shut up, Hannah."
"YOU shut up! You only want to go to LA because that's where Sean liv-"
"SHUT UP, HANNAH!"
The reindeer cleared his throat in a very patronising way.
"I think I should take you back to the-"
"NO!" Jess and Hannah both chanted in unison.
"We're not going back there." Hannah said.
"Alright, where then?" The other reindeer asked, sounding like he was bored out of his mind.
"Let's take them back to their home, Holly."
"Ok, Ivy."
The two reindeers pushed on through the ice-cold air.
Jess and Hannah sniggered behind them.
"Do you mind?" Ivy said, turning her head.
"Sorry." Jess and Hannah tried to stop laughing at their silly names.
"Never mind, Ivy…" Holly consoled her reindeer pal. "Their names are probably more stupid than ours."
"What are your names?" Ivy asked, sounding doubtful.
"Jess and Hannah." Hannah answered.
There was a sullen silence.
"Great." Ivy said sarcastically. "Outdone by humans."
"So, where do you live?" Holly asked.
"What?"
"Well, we're taking you home, so we need to know where you live." Ivy said.
"Oh." Hannah paused. "We live in…Las Vegas." She said, slowly.
"Eh?" Jess looked up.
"Oh, that's nice…what an exciting place to live!" Ivy said.
"Yeah…lots of flashing lights, and music, and…stuff…" Hannah said. "It's cool."
"Since when did we-" Hannah knocked Jess into the back of the sleigh.
"ONWARDS!" Hannah declared. "TO LAS VEGAS!"

---

The sleigh touched down on a bank of false snow.
"Blimey." Jess hopped out. "Look at all the lights!" She promptly dropped to the floor and had a brief epileptic fit.
"WAZOO!" Hannah made a snowball out of the fake snow and threw it at Jess, who started foaming at the mouth – it was actually soap flakes.
A bunch of drunk Texans rolled up beside the Christmas display and roared with approval.
"They look like REAL reindeers!" One hiccupped.
"Dance for us!" A man threw some quarters at the reindeers.
Holly and Ivy refused to dance and instead trotted off of the fake-snow mound and off down the motorway.
The men carried on down the pavement, (or gutter as most of them thought it was the pavement), exclaiming, "WOW!", and, "REALISTIC!".
Hannah pulled her friend up and dusted her down, Jess spat out the remainder of the snowflakes.
"We don't have any money!" Jess exclaimed, still frothing a little uncontrollably.
"Let's walk somewhere warm." Hannah suggested, guiding Jess down the pavement. They walked along in silence past hotels lit up with thousands of fairy lights.
"We're, like, 5000 miles from home!" Jess said anxiously.
"Probably more." Hannah noted.
Jess sighed, depressed.
"Don't worry, we just have to raise enough money to get home." Hannah trailed off. "Or…"
"Or what?"
"We start walking." Hannah said.
"Bugger." Jess swore.
"Woah there!!" Hannah stopped and looked down at the floor in shock.
"What?!" Jess looked down hopefully.
"A quarter!!" Hannah yelped, picking it up.
Two straggly kids limped up to them holding up an upturned hat with a hole in it. "M…m…money?"
"Sorry kids," Hannah said. "Duty calls." She dragged Jess into a nearby casino. "Let's get some money!" She said. "You feeling lucky, J?"
There was a hesitation. "No."
"Great."

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� Jess and Hannah 2003

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