with Angelique!” the man insisted to the bodyguards. “I have an access-all-areas pass. She’ll tell you, won’t you, Angelique, baby? Tell them!” he pleaded.
Angelique looked over and gave a nod to the bodyguards to let the man and his skinny sidekick through. The other paparazzi began to complain loudly at this and the little man gave them a smirk. “A-list access!” he beamed. Then he turned to the teen starlet and smiled his oiliest grin.
“Angelique! Honey!” His voice took on a crawly tone. “Great entrance, baby! Right on! But…uhhh, the thing is, we’ve had a slight technical hitch and we’re going to have to reshoot all of that.”
Angelique’s smile disappeared. The little man looked nervous. “It’s all because of Bob here,” he stammered. “He didn’t get the sound recorded right. Isn’t that right, Bob?” He shot a withering glare at his sidekick, who looked suitably guilty and didn’t say anything.
“So…we need you to do it again from the top,” the little man said. “Can you get back in the car and then drive up and do the whole arriving-on-set thing again? And make it really, you know, real.”
Angelique rolled her eyes. “All right. But this better not take all day, Eugene!” she snapped at him. “I’ve got, like, a masseuse and three beauticians waiting for me back at my trailer.”
She glared at Bob, who cowered a little, then she clicked her fingers at her assistants and climbed back into the Hummer. Her bodyguards quickly piled in after them, slamming the car into reverse as the paparazzi scrambled to get out of their way.
“Hey, you kids!” the man in the khaki jacket turned his attention to Issie and her friends.
“Who us?” Stella said.
“What? Yes, you! Of course you!” the man said. “You kids were great!” he enthused. “We’ll go once more, just like last time. Are you ready?”
Stella looked at him blankly. “Ready for what?”
“The second take of course!” the little man said. There were more blank looks from Stella and Issie. The man sighed. He didn’t have time for this.
“We’re making a documentary here, kids! The name is Eugene–Eugene Sneadly–Hollywood’s most hardworking documentary film-maker.” Eugene gestured over his shoulder at the skinny man with the cat on a stick. “This here is Bob, my sound man. That stick of his is what we call a sound boom. Hey watch it with that thing, Bob!”
Eugene cast a surly look at Bob and then continued, “Bob and I are here with Angelique Adams. She’s given us A-list priority on the film set so that we can do this behind-the-scenes documentary about her. Drama Queen–Behind the Scenes. That’s what we’re calling it. Sounds exciting, right? And it is! It’s gonna be big, big, big, baby, because everyone loves Angelique and, well, the girl just can’t help herself. Like they say, she’s a regular, real-life drama queen.”
“You just got lucky, kids,” Eugene went on, barely pausing for breath. “This is gonna be your big moment. You can all be in my documentary. So get ready to go wild because…Angelique Adams is about to arrive!”
“But she’s already arrived,” Stella protested. “We just met her.”
The little man sighed. Then he raised his hands to the sky and began talking to himself. “Oh, Eugene, Eugene! Why are you working with amateurs here?” He looked back at Stella.
“I know she’s already arrived, sweetheart,” he said through gritted teeth. “What I’m saying is, let’s pretend and do it again, shall we?”
The girls and Aidan all nodded at this. They weren’t sure what Eugene was up to, but it seemed easiest to agree and go along with it.
“And…action!” Eugene shouted, waving his hand frantically at the Hummer in the distance.
The chrome-yellow car drove down the road and pulled up in front of the stables for a second time. The doors opened and Angelique appeared, looking every bit as fresh-faced and eager to meet everyone as she had the first time round.
“Hi!” she smiled sweetly. “Nice to meet y’all. I’m Angelique Adams!”
The girls and Aidan were dumbstruck as the paparazzi bounded after her and started snapping wildly once more and Angelique grinned and waved.
“Perfect! Perfect!” Eugene yelled out. “Got it! Great work, Angelique.”
As soon as the cameras stopped rolling Angelique abruptly stopped smiling. “That’s it, Eugene! I’m outta here.”
“But, baby, Rupert ain’t even here yet. He wants to meet you. They start shooting tomorrow,” Eugene said.
“Y’all can wait for him if you want, Eugene. I’ll be in my trailer gettin’ a spray tan!” Angelique snapped. She hopped back in the Hummer, obediently followed by her assistants and bodyguards who slammed the door and promptly floored it.
“Angelique, cupcake! Wait! We’re coming too!” Eugene cried. He and the paparazzi made a dash for their cars. Clouds of dust and gravel flew up from the road as the Hummer sped off with a line of cars following closely behind.
“I thought the security guard at the gate was supposed to keep the photographers out,” Issie said to Aidan.
Aidan shrugged. “I guess Angelique let them in. Maybe she likes the paparazzi following her everywhere. You know, taking her picture for all those magazines.”
“I still don’t believe we just met Angelique Adams!” Stella said. “She is soooo famous!”
Natasha sighed. “Yeah, she seemed real thrilled to meet you too, Stella. She couldn’t wait to get away! Didn’t you notice how fast she got out of here?”
Natasha glanced around. “Not that I blame her for wanting to get away from this place,” she muttered under her breath, just loud enough for everyone to hear.
Aidan ignored Natasha and picked up her bags. It was clear that he was going to have to carry her luggage since the snooty blonde still refused to do it herself.
“Grab your bags,” he instructed the others. “I’ll show you to the barracks.”
“What do you mean ‘barracks’?” Natasha said as she followed along behind him through the white courtyard of the stables. “Surely we all have our own private trailers? Aidan? Aidan!”
They walked straight through the golden stables and on the other side they found themselves standing in front of a row of makeshift wooden huts.
“These really were army barracks once,” Aidan explained. “Rupert, the director, bought them cheap and had them moved on to the site to use as accommodation for the crew.”
Aidan pointed to the left. “That building over there is where the props department and the set builders live. And over there are the sleeping quarters for the Elerian horsemen–that’s where I’m staying.” He pointed to the right. “Those two silver trailers are the costume department and make-up and that white building next to the trailers is the main dining hall where we all meet for meals.”
“This
