The Making of…
Chapter 31
Welcome to Middle Earth!
I rolled out of bed with a groan, slamming my alarm and tousling my hair – and wincing as I found a clip that I’d forgotten to take out last night. I sat up and yawned, looking around my messy hotel room in L.A. We’d flown here after the London premiere, and last night had been our second one. Checking the time, I saw that I had a few more hours before we all had to be at the airport to fly back to New Zealand for the final premiere. After showering and changing, I set about tidying up and packing, stuffing my clothes into my small case and digging around under my bed for my shoes. Just as I was pulling them on, my phone rang.
“Hello?” I answered, not bothering to check the number.
“Hey Ki, its Elijah!” His cheery voice called down the phone.
“Morning Lij.” I smiled, stamping on my suitcase as I tried to pull to zip up. “What’s up?”
“Uh, well you know how we were all supposed to head to the airport together? Well there seems to have been a mix-up with the cars, they’re all arriving at different times.” He mumbled anxiously.
“Oh… So, what do I have to do?” I asked, frowning a little.
“Not much, your car isn’t going to be here for a while; I think you’re sharing with Liv.” He replied as I violently kicked my suitcase in an attempt to compact its contents.
“How long ‘til its here?”
“About half an hour.”
“That’s fine.” I smiled, “I’ll have time to grab some breakfast.”
“Great, see you at the airport!” He sang, obviously happy that I wasn’t grumpy about the mix-up.
“Bye.” I smiled, hanging up and slipping my phone into the pocket of my jeans as I eyed up my suitcase. Why is repacking so hard?
A few minutes later, I was sitting in the reception of the hotel with Liv, eating a muffin that I’d nicked from the breakfast buffet.
“The paparazzi are out.” She commented as we stared out the window, waiting for our car. Everyone else had left and were probably at the airport by now.
“When aren’t they out?” I smiled, tossing my muffin-wrapper into a nearby bin. Last night we’d been bombarded with the same questions as before. ‘Are you and Viggo dating?’ ‘Do you kiss in this movie or the next ones?’ and the likes of that. It was getting a little old, as we kept giving the same replies. Has the word ‘No’ lost all meaning?
“Here’s the car.” Liv smiled, standing and grabbing her bags as I did the same. We got to the door and tried to make a break for the car before we were noticed by the group of about ten photographers, but they seemed to have some sort of sixth sense – either that, or noses like bloodhounds (or as Gimli might say, ‘The eyes of a hawk and the ears of a fox’!). “Leg it!” Liv yelped as they pursued us to the car, yelling questions and cameras flashing – was that a T.V camera I could see? I couldn’t help but laugh when Liv couldn’t get the door open because it was locked.
“Liv! Kira! Wait!” Someone called behind us as she scrambled into the car. It was still weird when I heard people call my name, I wasn’t used to this much attention.
“Kira! Do you have any statements about the nature of your relationship with Viggo Mortensen?” A reporter yelled. I sighed in exasperation and checked my watch- fifteen minutes before we had to meet the guys, and it was less than ten minutes to the airport. I put one foot on the seat of the car, and hoisted myself up until I was sitting on the roof, above all the photographers.
