“Okay, time for action,” Amber declared and Lily looked up from her magazine. “Get your lazy butt off that couch. We’re gonna do something cool. I’m gonna show you around London.”

“Wow, what brought this up?” Lily protested. “I’m just reading and having tea. What’s wrong with that?” She was sitting on the couch in Amber’s living room.

“Exactly! That’s all we’ve been doing ever since you got here. We’ve been talking and reading and eating and drinking. In other words: boring! You haven’t even seen London yet!”

“I’ve seen London before,” Lily replied, but Amber frowned.

“Yeah on school trips. That doesn’t count.”

Lily shrugged and put the magazine down. “Okay, so what do you want to do?”

Amber shrugged. “I don’t know. Just stroll around London.”

“Alright, then let’s,” Lily replied. “I’m up for it. I’ll have to finish my tea first, though.”

Fifteen minutes later the girls walked out of the building. “Where are we going first?” Lily asked as she looked around. She took a deep breath and smiled. She loved big cities.

“I don’t know,” Amber said. “I guess we could go to Leicester Square or so?”

Lily nodded. “Sure, sounds like fun. But I want to see your university too!”

Soon the girls were in the middle of London. That was not very hard to do though, for the centre of London was gigantic. They walked by a cinema and Lily stared up at the billboards. “Can we go see a movie?” she asked. “I haven’t been to the theatre in weeks.”

Amber smiled. “Okay, fine by me. Which movie do you want to see?”

Lily didn’t hesitate for one second. After her encounter with Billy and Sean in the train there was only one option left: the newest Lord of the Rings movie. “Return of the King,” she said and Amber smiled.

“Okay, let’s go.”

The three hours went by so quickly that they thought they had just been in the cinema for an hour. They stared in awe at the big screen as it showed drawings of the actors. “Look at Merry.. Wait for Merry and look at him,” Lily whispered.

“What?” Amber asked confused, but Lily shushed her.

“Just do it!”

“Okay so what’s the big deal? That’s Merry.. so?”

“That’s Dominic!! Dominic Monaghan. Remember.. The useless sitting on the bench in the middle of the winter..? Waiting for that guy to get into his car..?”

“Oh my god..” Amber let out. “It’s him..”

Lily nodded. “Yes it is.. And do you want to know how I found out?” She pointed at the screen where a picture of Billy Boyd appeared. “That’s how. I met him in the train. Him and Sean Astin.”

Amber started to laugh. “Yeah right, like that really happened.”

“No it’s true, I really met them!”

Her friend shook her head and Lily felt so frustrated. Why didn’t Amber believe her? Okay, maybe the story did sound a bit crazy, but she wasn’t lying. “It’s the truth. I swear!”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

The two walked out of the cinema, one laughing and one irritated. Lily looked up at the sky where the first stars had appeared.

“We’d better get home,” Amber suggested, wiping the last tears of laughter out of her eyes.

Lily nodded. “Yeah.. we’d better,” she sighed.

The next day Lily opened her eyes to discover it was only 8 am. The sun was already shining a bit and she smiled. It was going to be a lovely day. She got over the fact that Amber didn’t believe her. The adventure on the train now just remained a sweet part of her memory.

She got out of bed and walked into the living room. It was empty so she decided she would pay the kitchen a visit. She opened the door and walked in. Amber was already sitting there; she had always been an early bird. “Hey, you’re up already,” she said surprised. It was a known fact that Lily never got up before 10 am.

“Yeah,” Lily said. “I guess I am.” She strolled over to one of the kitchen stools and sat down. She then looked at Amber who was chewing on some cereal.

“You want some?” she asked with a full mouth.

Lily laughed and wrinkled her nose. “If you put it like that, no thank you!” She stuck out her tongue. Then she hopped off the stool and poured herself a cup of tea. She walked back and sat down again. “So.. What are the plans for today? I guess I won’t get away with drinking tea and sitting on the couch reading magazines anymore..”

Amber shook her head. “You’re right. Active. Fun. Jolly good.” Lily burst out in laughter and Amber pulled an insulted face. “You hurt me by laughing at me,” she said and pouted.

“Oh stop the act, you drama queen,” Lily laughed.

“Okay, okay. Well I was thinking, maybe we could go to my university? You said you wanted to see it?”

Amber nodded. “And maybe we can leave afterwards?”

Just an hour later they were on their way to the university. “That guy’s eyeballing you,” Lily hissed into Amber’s ear, and she casually pointed at a guy who was also standing in the subway.

“No, he’s not,” Amber replied.

“Oh yes he is.”

“Shut up.”

Lily laughed as she saw the blush that appeared on Amber’s cheeks. She had really missed her friend.

“Come on,” Amber said as she pulled Lily with her into the train. It was always hectic to get everyone with you whilst travelling by tube. Luckily it was just the two of them.

“This is it.”

Lily looked at her friend who quickly made her way to one of the doors in the train and followed her. She jumped out and smiled.

“University is not far now,” Amber announced and Lily nodded.

“Okay.. So where do we go?”

Amber pointed at one of the staircases. “That way.”

Quickly they got onto street level again. Amber turned to the right and shortly looked over her shoulder to see if Lily was still there.

“I’m still here,” Lily said smiling and Amber smiled.

They walked for a few minutes. Then Amber suddenly stopped. Lily looked up at the building and smiled. “Wow.. so this is it?”

Amber nodded and motioned to walk closer to the building. Lily followed her friend. “What’s going on here?” she asked as she looked around. The place was crowded. “Is your university always this busy? Looks like a bee stock.”

Amber shook her head. “No.. I really don’t know what’s going on. Let’s find out.”

Lily nodded and laughed. She was always up for something like this. Amber grabbed her hand and pulled her with her, making their way through the crowds. “I’m a student. I just have to check the announcement board!” she yelled to the complaining people around. Lily showed them an apologetic smile, but followed her friend. Not that she could do anything else than follow her friend, since Amber was still holding her hand in a tight grip.

Suddenly they found themselves up front and both Lily’s as Amber’s jaw dropped. “What the..” Amber said.

The normally so quiet university has been changed into a real film set. There were people walking around with cameras, people who were carrying boxes of make-up and also some strange dressed people, who looked overly student-like.

Amber took a step forward, but out of nowhere a large man wearing a black t-shirt appeared. The word ‘security’ was printed on his chest in white letters and Lily swallowed. “I’m sorry, but you’re not allowed to enter the set,” he said.

Lily looked at Amber. Her friend could only stare at the tall man in front of her. “O.. okay..” she managed to say. “We’ll go..”

She turned around and smiled at Lily as the security guy walked away. “This is weird. I didn’t know they were shooting a movie here.” She laughed. “Do you reckon they need any more actresses?” She struck a pose and Lily giggled. “I’m sure you would make a perfect actress,” she said.

“Yeah,” Amber replied sarcastically. “As if.” Then she smiled. “So do you think one of your famous friends is here?” she said teasingly. She still didn’t believe Lily’s story about meeting Billy Boyd and Sean Astin.

“Maybe,” Lily shot back. “You never know. Let’s go look for the actors!”

The university was a large U-shaped building. The large open space in the middle with grass and benches was often used by students during their breaks or free hours. There was a path around it, leading to three different entrances of the building. But this time the entire space was occupied by people who obviously weren’t students.

“Come on,” Amber said as she pulled Lily with her. “We can go to the second floor. From there we will have a great view on all of this.”

Before she got pulled along Lily quickly glanced up. The second floor was partially a large balcony, surrounding the entire centre area. Already a lot of students had made their way up there and curiously looked down at the scene below them.

Panting Lily and Amber reached the second floor. “Jeez,” Amber said. “I felt as if I was climbing Mount Everest.”

“I know,” Lily agreed. “I don’t know how you manage to do this every day.”

“Well, Lil, normally I don’t have to fight my way up.”

Amber walked over to the balcony and looked down. Lily followed her. She grabbed the banister and looked down. Immediately her face went pale. “Oh my..” she let out as she took a step back. “That’s kinda high..”

Her friend looked around. “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it.”

She nodded, Amber was probably right. She took a few steps forward again and slowly looked down. Amber was right; it wasn’t quite as scary anymore as it was just a few seconds before. “Do you reckon there are any big celebrities here?” she asked.

Amber shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Let’s try and see if we can find one.”

Lily looked down. It looked very busy. Everywhere people walked around. She didn’t really recognize anyone famous. Her eye fell on a group of people sitting on the grass. It was a group of more or less six people and they were probably on a break. She smiled as she thought of how lovely it must be to sit there in the sun. Suddenly she opened her eyes wide. Among others there were two men sitting. Lily squeezed her eyes to try and see them better. Her mouth dropped. Her eyes weren’t fooling her. “Billy?!” she exclaimed.

The shape of the building enforced the loudness of her voice and everybody on the ground looked up, including the two men. Lily put her hand in front of her mouth, knowing it was already too late.

She saw Billy stand up and look around. As his eyes slowly examined every student on the balcony above him Lily started to wave. His gaze focused on her and as he recognized her, he waved back enthusiastically. Lily saw him look down and say something to a man. It was now clear to her that that was Sean. Sean, too, looked up and waved. Billy already made his way to the staircase.

Amber looked at her shocked. “You.. what?”

Lily smiled. “Told you,” she said and she stuck out her tongue. She turned around and walked over to the stairs. But she wasn’t even halfway yet when Billy reached her. “Lily!” he said happily and he hugged her. “What are you doing here?”

She laughed. “I was sightseeing with my friend,” she pointed at Amber, “and I wanted to see her university. Then we ended up in this busy crowd. But well.. nosy as I am I wanted to know what was going on. Amber then told me to go here. Better view, you see..”

He nodded and smiled. “What a coincidence!”

“So what are you doing here?” Lily asked as the two of them walked back over to the banister.

He looked over the edge and smiled. “One of my friends is shooting a movie here and we thought we’d pay him a visit.” Lily looked at the group he just left. They were all looking up. Billy waved and one of them motioned him to come back.

“I guess they miss you,” she commented while a heavy lump developed in her stomach. She didn’t want him to leave just yet. She really liked him and wanted to hang out with him some more.

Billy shook his head. “Nah,” he said. “They want me to come down and bring you with me.”

“Yeah right.”

“No really,” he said. “Just look at them. Wave at them.”

Lily frowned, but against her will did so. Immediately three of them motioned her to come and join them.

“See?”

She looked at Billy who was now smiling smugly. He stretched out his hand at her. “Coming?”

Lily wanted to nod, but first looked at Amber with a questioning look on her face. “Can Amber come?” she asked.

“Sure, I wouldn’t have thought otherwise.”

“Okay then.”

Lily swallowed hard as they crossed the grass to get to the group. She was happy that Amber didn’t know them either and that at least Billy and Sean were there to support her.

“Hey!” Sean said cheerfully and he stood up to greet her.

“Hi!”

“Come on, sit down. Hi, I’m Sean.” He shook hands with Amber and smiled. Lily hesitated about sitting down. Billy came to stand beside her. Slowly she looked around and with every person she recognized her heart began to pound louder in her chest. Next to where Sean stood Viggo Mortensen was sitting on the ground, his legs stretched out before him. On his other side was Liv Tyler. She began to fear the worst and indeed, what she feared came true.

“Dom?” she heard Billy ask and she bit her lip.

“Yeah?” a low voice responded.

Lily looked at the man to whom the voice belonged and as their eyes met her heart nearly exploded. There he was, manlier, handsomer and so much sexier than the last time she saw him. She swallowed and smiled shyly.

“Do you know who this is?” Billy continued.

Lily blushed furiously as Dominic looked at her examining.

“Uhm.. no.. not really.. Should I?”

“Oh my god!” Amber suddenly explained. “You’re Dominic!”

“Do I know you?” Dominic looked really confused.

Lily slowly nodded and started smiling. “Yeah.. well.. Maybe. I knew you. Back in Manchester.”

A smile formed on his face. “Manchester? Really? Where did you live?”

“In the same street as you did..” She laughed as she felt a bit more secure. “I know how I can make you remember me. Just sit there.” Lily walked over to a bench some 50 feet away and sat down. She let her legs dangle and smiled shyly before raising her hand to wave at him.

“Oh right, now I remember! You were that girl that always sat across the street early in the morning!”

She nodded and walked back over to the group, before sitting down.

“She had a crush on you,” Billy suddenly said and Lily’s cheeks turned dark red.

“Oh no..” she moaned as she buried her head in her hands.

Dominic started to laugh. “You did?” he asked friendly.

Lily looked up and bit her lip. Then she nodded.

“Ah wow! Well I’m flattered.” He remained silent for a while. “Wait. Was that the reason you sat on that bench every morning?”

She squeezed her eyes shut and nodded again.

“Really? That’s so sweet!” he said.

Lily didn’t know what to do and slowly looked up to find him looking at her with a smile on his face. She faintly smiled and then nudged Billy, who had sat down beside her. “Thanks a lot,” she grunted, but he only laughed.

“So, are you here to become one of the extras?” Sean asked.

She shook her head. “Uh-uh, no way. I told you I’m not camera material!”

“Bullocks,” Dominic decided. “Of course you’re camera material. They should be happy to have you.”

Lily bit her lip. “But they already have enough extras anyway,” she softly said.

Immediately Billy shook his head. “Nope. I’ve just talked to one of the important people over here and they said they needed a couple more extras.”

Sean laughed. “There goes your reason not to.”

“Yeah, Lil, why not? Maybe you’ll get discovered!” Amber joined in.

Lily shook her head. “What are you all talking about? If I would try out, and I said if, then it wouldn’t make me an actress and they wouldn’t “discover” me.” She raised her hands to form the quotation marks with her fingers around discover.

Viggo, who had also listened to the conversation, but hadn’t said a word yet, suddenly reacted. “So if you don’t want to be discovered, and you won’t get discovered by being an extra, then why won’t you be one? You’ll make a perfect student. And so would you,” he said as he looked at Amber, who shook her head at his suggestion.

Lily smiled and laughed. “You won’t stop nagging until I agree, will you?”

“Nope, we won’t,” Billy said as he patted her on the back.

“Alright.. So.. where do I go?”

They pointed in the north direction and Billy stood up. “I’ll accompany you,” he said.

She looked around at her friend, who was still sitting on the ground. “Amber?”

Amber shook her head. “No thanks, I don’t really want to. I’m happy as I am.”

“Hey! But so am I! But -” Billy pulled her along before she could complain any more.

“It’s not fair,” she pouted as they crossed the grass. “Why do you want me to be an extra, but Amber doesn’t get dragged along?” She looked around at all the people and felt a bit of excitement as she thought about how she was going to be in a real film. Okay, so she did want to be an extra. She was insecure, but usually she was up for stunts like this.

“Because I know you really want to. Plus you get to meet new people and my friend who’s shooting here.”

“Yeah, who is that friend by the way?” Lily inquired as she looked at him examining. Billy didn’t flinch. “You’ll see,” he just vaguely said.

Lily shrugged. “Whatever you say.”

“Here we are,” he said cheerfully. “Chris? I want you to meet Lily. She has agreed on becoming an extra in your film.”

A dark blonde man turned around and looked at them. Then he started smiling. “Really? That’s excellent. Oh, you are a perfect student type.”

Lily blushed and bit her lip.

“Have you ever been an extra before?” Chris asked. She shook her head. Why did she do this again?

“Okay, I’ll explain it to you on the way over to costumes and make-up.” He put his arm over her shoulder and softly pushed her into a direction. “Thanks Billy,” he said over his shoulder. Billy smiled and turned around to walk back to his friends.

Two hours later Lily walked back to her friends as well, even more excited than she was just an hour ago when she got to do her first scene.

“Hey!” Amber said enthusiastically. “What are you doing here?”

Lily laughed. “I’m on a break. I’ve got to get back in half an hour.” She sat down next to Billy, who offered her a sandwich. “Ooh yummy, thanks!” She brought the sandwich to her mouth.

“So what did you have to do?”

Lily stopped in the middle of action and lowered the sandwich. “Oh you know, just sit around, staring at study books. That was basically it. I got a science book, ironically enough, I sucked at science when I was in secondary school.” She laughed and raised the sandwich to her mouth again. Then she took a bite.

“Hey guys, so here you are! I’ve been looking all over for you,” she heard someone say. She looked up and as she saw the guy standing there her eyes widened. Out of shock a little crumb of bread slipped into her airway, causing Lily to immediately start coughing. She blushed furiously and tears filled her eyes.

Gradually she started to cough less and finally she could breath normally again. Viggo handed a cup of water over to her and she gladly accepted it. “Thanks,” she mumbled after she had downed the water. She put the cup down and rubbed the tears out of her eyes.

Viggo laughed. “So that was quite a scare, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, I guess Elijah can be quite scary,” Billy said. Lily winced; she couldn’t get more embarrassed than she was right now.

She looked up at the guy who had just joined them. During her minute of coughing he had sat down across from her, in between Viggo and Dominic. “Hi, I’m Elijah. Sorry for scaring you,” he said as he stretched out his hand at her.

Lily shyly took it. “Hi.. I’m Lily.. You didn’t scare me; you just.. startled me.”

He laughed. “Isn’t that the same?”

She shook her head. “No, with scaring I had to be afraid. And I was just shocked.”

“Shocked?”

Lily bit her lip. What had she said now? She wished she could just disappear, but obviously she couldn’t.

“Uhm.. yeah, sorta. I mean you show up suddenly next to me. And well.. you are “Frodo”..” Again she lifted her hands to accompany his hobbit character’s name with quotation marks.

Elijah laughed and imitated her. “I am “Frodo”.” He laughed again. “I’ve never seen anyone do that before!”

She blushed. Why did everything come out wrongly?

“Well there’s a first time for everything,” Dominic concluded quite snappy.

Lily looked at him confused. What just happened? She looked at her watch. Only seven minutes had passed. That meant twenty-three more minutes in this painful silence. She bit her lip and looked at Amber, who looked as confused as she felt. With her eyes Lily asked her what was wrong, but Amber shrugged slightly. Even her friend who normally knew everything that was going on had no clue whatsoever.

She then looked at Elijah. He was looking at the ground and his hands were picking some grass leaves. His face was tense. Right. Did she just end up in the middle of a fight? Either way she couldn’t take this anymore. She got onto her feet and cleared her throat. “I’m going to the ladies room,” she announced.

“I’m coming with!” Amber quickly said and she too scrambled onto her feet.

The girls walked away in silence. “What was that?” Lily asked.

“I really don’t know! It was so weird, it was like Dominic just snapped at Elijah.”

“Like he just snapped? He definitely snapped.”

“Yeah, but why?” Amber wondered.

Lily pushed the door to the toilets open and walked in. She immediately looked around to see if they were alone. The room showed no sign of any other girls and the two girls walked further in.

“I don’t know,” Lily continued. “And frankly, I don’t really have the need to find out. Let’s just stay here a bit longer.” She leaned with her back towards the sink and put her hands on the edge.

Amber nodded as she put her right hand on the sink and her other on her waist. “That might be a good idea. It’s probably just some guy thing. They’ll have to work that out on their own.”

Suddenly Lily started laughing. Amber looked at her confused. “What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Lily laughed. “It’s just.. we meet those famous people, right? And they’re arguing and we’re talking about them as if we really know them and such.” She shook her head, still grinning a bit. “I just thought it was funny.”

Amber started smiling. “I guess you’re right. It is kinda weird, isn’t it? I mean I’ve just sat with them for two hours and talked to them. They were so nice and normal. It’s weird to think they are those major movie stars.”

Lily nodded. “Yeah I guess.. But still, major movie stars are normal people, even though people who consider themselves normal, you know, not famous people, think that celebrities are so much closer to God or something. Strange, isn’t it?”

Her friend nodded. “I’m seriously going to the toilet now,” she said smiling.

“Me too.”

After they both were finished they washed their hands and walked out of the ladies room.

“I wouldn’t like being that famous,” Lily continued. “I mean you get chased everywhere, you’ve got those weird fans and you can say goodbye to your privacy.”

“It’s not that bad,” Elijah said and the girls stopped dead in their tracks. He was standing close to the toilets and smoked a cigarette. “Fans are great. It’s just the paparazzi, that’s really terrible. But the fans are amazing.”

Lily bit her lip. “Yeah.. well, I wouldn’t know, now would I?”

He laughed. “You’re absolutely right.”

She waved her hand in front of her nose. “Smoking’s bad for your health,” she commented.

“I know,” he replied. “It’s awful, I’ve got a major smoking problem.”

Lily laughed. “Okay? Then why don’t you stop?”

He shrugged and looked helpless. “Addict.”

Amber smiled as Lily took a step towards him. “Then let me help you,” she said and before he knew it she had taken the cigarette from his hand and threw it on the ground, where she stepped on it. She smiled smugly, but blushed like crazy. “Done!”

He looked at her in complete amazement. Then he started laughing. “I cannot believe you just threw my cigarette on the ground. My cigarette!”

Lily waved her hand. “Yeah, yeah, your precious.” She laughed. “Hey, I just helped you. You should be grateful that I saved your life.”

“Well thanks,” he said smiling. “I guess.”

“You’re welcome.” She looked at her watch. She couldn’t look him straight in his eyes after pulling such a prank. She hardly even knew him. Thankfully it was almost time for her to get back.

“What time is it?” Amber asked.

“Nearly time for me to get started again. So I think I’d better get going.”

Amber nodded. “Yeah, you’d better. I’ll just be over there, with the others.”

“Are you in this movie?” Elijah asked surprised.

Lily nodded and started to blush again, but then shrugged. “I’m just an extra.”

“I’ll be going now,” Amber said and Lily waved at her. “See you soon!”

“That’s fantastic, that you’re an extra I mean,” Elijah said and she turned her attention back to him. “What are you?”

She laughed. “I’m a student. But I think I’m going to be changed into something else in five minutes.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Really?”

Lily nodded. “Yeah.. why?”

“Well I’m shooting in fifteen minutes too, so I reckon you’ll be in my scene then.”

“Maybe.. that would be cool.” She bit her lip. “I really should get going now,” she said.

He nodded and smiled at her. “I’ll walk with you for a bit, is that okay?”

Lily looked up at him. His blue eyes made her so confused. She couldn’t even think straight. “Uhm.. yeah.. sure.”

They started crossing the grass again until the passed the group at five feet distance. “I’d better go say goodbye to them,” Elijah mumbled and Lily nodded. “Maybe I’ll see you in a few minutes?” he asked and a small smile appeared on his face.

She shrugged and smiled. “Maybe..” Quickly she walked over to the other extras. She glanced around at Amber and the others. Amber, Elijah and Dominic looked back at her, all with a different expression in their eyes. Lily waved at them. Then she quickly turned her head again to listen to the instructions.

Lily ended up not being with Elijah in the same scene, but she had so much fun. This time she had to walk by one of the main characters as they were sitting on the grass, talking about things. She actually got to be in the scene and recognizable as well! Grinning she walked back to the others.

“Hey,” Billy greeted her. “There she is again, our little movie star.”

She smiled and sat down next to him. “Hi..” She laid her head on his shoulder and he stroked her cheek in a way a good friend would. Of the group only Viggo, Sean, Amber and Billy were still there, the others had gone missing.

“Where is everybody?” she asked.

“Oh they had to go,” Viggo said.

Lily looked at Amber who shot one of her I-really-need-to-talk-to-you looks at her. She raised her eyebrows and Amber now changed the look in her eyes to a look that told her she would explain later.