Chapter 5: Made in Hollywood

As soon as the plane landed and we were free to get off, I ran to the bathroom. I had to wipe drool off of my bare arm and wash it until the skin was raw and red. Gap-Tooth fell asleep on me halfway through the plane ride and Cheeto did absolutely nothing to help me get him off. The last hour of my plane ride was spent painfully observing the moisture on my arm and subsequently crying.

I nearly cried again, this time tears of joy, when we arrived at our hotel room, safe from the eyes of creepy men and annoying Ry-Hards.

Tori watched me inspect the room and raised an eyebrow. "Soph, what are you doing?"

I didn't want to tell her the truth, that I was wary of secret cameras now, thanks to a certain celebrity and his creepy manager. Even if you thought you were safe – such as in a dark movie theater – you weren't. After checking every corner, the ceiling, and glancing out the large window, I decided we were good.

"Just looking around," I said. "Well, this hotel room is nice enough. I can hide here until Saturday."

Hiding out until my audition wasn't a bad idea, actually. The audition scene for Kidnap My Heart had been sent to me the day after Mrs. Franklin called me, but I hadn't spent as much time practicing as I would have liked.

Tori just looked at me for a moment. I thought I was in the clear until she started shaking her head. "No. No, no, no, no, no! No! That is not how we're gonna spend our time here in Hollywood!"

She had that look on her face, the look she only got when she was about to let me have it. "Er, Tori," I began, trying to calm her down. "I just meant—"

"I came here for you, so that nothing would stand in the way of your dream," she said. "Not because I want to mooch off of your dream – okay, there's a little bit of that, but not a lot – but mostly because I love you to death! And then you go and do this? You're not gonna launch your acting career by hiding between auditions. So what if someone recognizes you? It's bound to happen eventually, and we are not spending our days hiding when we could be out in the sun or getting laid!"

I opened my mouth to say something but never got the chance. She just went on with her rant, which had already escalated farther than I'd expected.

"I know you don't want to be associated with Ryder, but it's too late for that. You're already known as his Mystery Girl whether you like it or not. That's not gonna change. You just have to accept it."

I tried to speak, but she cut me off yet again.

"I know you want to do this on your own, through your own achievements and all, but it's not like someone would hire you just because you're Ryder's Mystery Girl," she went on. "You wouldn't have gotten this audition in the first place if you didn't deserve it. Why not just accept what you can't change?"

Somehow her rant had turned into a motivational speech. I didn't know which was worse, the rant or the speech. I'd thought I was done hearing these kinds of things when I'd graduated high school.

"Well, I could always become Amish," I said. "They don't have computers or tabloids there."

By the look on Tori's face, I had a feeling she was gearing up for another tirade.

"I was just saying!" I quickly added. "I won't stay here all day, alright?"

"Good." She beamed. "Glad we had this talk."

Actually, I kind of wanted her to keep yelling at me. It was better than listening to her talk about Nick. All she wanted to do was talk about him. It was cute at first, and I really did want to know how her flight had gone. After a while, though, she used up all of her stories and just kept repeating how cute, sweet, and gentlemanly he was. As happy was I was that she'd found someone she liked, that got old pretty fast.

When she suggested going out, I was all for the idea. Sight-seeing and shopping were better ways to distract Tori than making her yell at me. Besides, I doubted we would have any problems while walking around. There were sure to be loads of people walking on Hollywood's streets. As long as Tori and I blended in, I would be fine. All we had to do was blend in.

Blending in turned out to be a bit harder than I'd originally thought, mostly because of Tori. She inspected every person we passed, hoping to eventually run into a celebrity. I told her to stop because she wasn't just making it hard to blend in – she was also scaring people.

But did she listen? No. No, she did not. A few people stared at me for a little too long thanks to her, leading me to run into the nearest store to avoid recognition.

The store I ran into had a secret exit in the back that thankfully didn't set off any alarms. I used it to sneak out and found myself on a quiet street with a fraction of the amount of people on the main street we'd been walking on.

"Well, this is kind of nice," Tori said, coming up from behind me. "It's quiet."

I was just about to agree when I heard it: dozens and dozens of shrill screams far off in the distance. My first thought was that there was some sort of disaster nearby, or something crazy like that.

I spun around in search of the source, and it didn't take me very long to find it. The screams were coming from behind us with no disaster in sight – unless you counted a mob of teenage girls as a disaster, which sounded pretty fair to me.

Realizing we would be trampled if we didn't move, Tori and I glanced at each other simultaneously and bolted. We both took off in a sprint, but that didn't last very long. After about oh, ten seconds, we began to slow down. Luckily, we were already far away from them or we would have been screwed.

They were gaining on us quickly, if the increased volume of the screams told us anything, but I just didn't have it in me to pick up the pace. Instead, I ran into a nearby candy shop. The minute I entered the shop, I wondered why I had tried running in the first place.

Tori stumbled in behind me, breathing hard. "What... was that?" she asked, trying to regain her breath.

"No... clue," I said, holding onto my chest as I studied my breathing. "I think... it's a... celebrity... sighting...."

The mob of girls ran past the door as Tori and I watched the scene in awe.

After she'd regained her composure, Tori said, "I say we find out what they're chasing. Did you see the size of that mob? It could be someone we know."

I shrugged in response, which was my version of "yes." I wasn't as avid as Tori when it came to celebrity sightings, but I couldn't deny that I'd maybe sort of been looking forward to seeing some of my favorite actors or artists.

Tori didn't waste any time. She immediately left the store, jumping in excitement. "Who do you think it is?"

"I don't know. It has to be someone big, though."

Tori gasped. "What if it's that guy from that one movie? The one we watched that one weekend at Bianca's house?"

"The one with the surfer haircut and the perfect teeth?"

"Yeah, that's the one," she said. She nudged my side. "Race ya there?"

"You're on," I said, taking off into a sprint. She followed suit, except we both stopped after a few seconds. "Yeah, just kidding. Let's walk."

Tori let out a loud puff and said, "Yeah, let's do that."

It didn't take us very long to catch up to the deranged fans even though we were walking. When we did, I was shocked to see a sea of fans surrounding a huge glass building.

Tori and I pushed our way to the front to see what was going on. None of the girls were too happy about being pushed aside, but they backed off when they saw the crazed look in Tori's eyes. I couldn't blame them. She even scared me sometimes.

Once we got to the front, I was able to read the sign in front of the building. We were standing in front of Ocean Way Recording, a famous recording studio in the city. So it wasn't the actor with the surfer haircut and the perfect teeth. Although that could have described half the guys in the business.

I was almost pushed to the ground by a girl trying to get past us. A few others around us actually fell. The entire situation was exhilarating, similar to the way you'd feel at a concert when the entire audience is anticipating the appearance of the main act. I could barely hear myself think thanks to the unbelievably loud fans. I was going to have a massive headache after this.

"I love you, Austin!" a girl with bright red hair shrieked at the top of her lungs. She was standing right next to me, so she basically destroyed my eardrum.

"My ear," I yelled back, holding a hand over that poor ear.

"Whatever, it's Austin fucking Trevor!"

Tori poked me in the ribs. "Did you hear that? It's Austin Trevor! Austin Trevor!"

"Okay!" I didn't actually remember who he was, but Tori clearly did so I just went with it.

"He's coming! That's him! He's coming!" the girl with the bright red hair screamed.

I found myself caught up in the excitement, screaming at the top of my lungs for a singer I couldn't even recognize. I turned to where the girl with the red hair was pointing, and sure enough, there was Austin Trevor. At least, I assumed it was him. He was with three bodyguards and everyone was going absolutely crazy, so it was a pretty safe bet.

"Sorry, girls, but Mr. Trevor is late to his meeting. No autographs or pictures today," One of the bodyguards announced in a booming voice. The other two walked Austin inside.

A wave of disappointment spread throughout the crowd. Even I was a little disappointed. An Austin Trevor autograph would probably sell for thousands on eBay.

After enough pushing and shoving, all of the fans left. That is, all of the fans left except for Tori, me, and a few psycho ones. The psycho fans were too loud and were promptly escorted out.

"No! Austin! We're meant to be together!" one of them shouted as she was being dragged away. "We're meant to be, baby! I love you!'

"Oh, God." Tori sunk further into her hiding spot behind some bushes. "Please shoot me if I ever act that crazy."

"I'll keep that in mind." I had a feeling the need for that would actually come up.

After that girl was escorted away, Tori and I were the only ones left, at least that I could see. We stayed behind so that Tori could enjoy her "proximity" to Austin.

"Why won't he come out? I want a picture!"

"He's in a meeting, Tori," I reminded her. "Let's just go."

"But... Soph..."

What happened next was just further proof of how unbelievably unlucky I was. The second I rose out of the bushes we were hiding in, another limo pulled up and parked behind the other limo.

What I should have done was crouch back down into the safety of the bushes. What I actually did was stand there like an idiot, mouth agape at the shiny new limo.

I could have still concealed myself by this point. Instead, I stood on my tiptoes to get a better view of the limo and the person stepping out of it. Being five foot three, I was used to having to stand on my tiptoes to get a good look at things.

And then the unthinkable happened. Christian Ryder, of all people, stepped out of the limo and looked up. Our eyes met, and at first, there was no reaction on his part. I started to exhale in relief until I realized he just needed a few seconds to realize who I was. He wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

I would have run before he had the chance to recognize me, but I was too shocked to even move. I hadn't considered the possibility of running into him here. He was an actor, not a singer, but I guess he had friends in both industries.

"What are you looking at – oh, my God, is that Christian Ryder?"

So much for hiding. Eventually, I snapped out of my trance, but it was too late. He knew it was me. I broke eye contact and stumbled out of the bushes. I look up at him once more before bolting.

"Sophia! What are you doing?" Tori called out.

"Hey, wait!" That voice had to have been Christian's. I already knew it was his. It was the kind of voice you didn't forget.

If the thudding on the pavement behind me was any indication of what was going on, I was 99% sure he was following me. It could have been Tori following me, but I doubted it. She had already ran more that day than she had all year.

Instead of waiting for him, I picked up the pace, something I didn't think was even possible. I wasn't a runner. Yet, for once, I wasn't thinking about how much running sucked, or how much my legs hurt, or how much I missed being able to actually breathe without fearing the loss of a lung. All I could think about was the fact that I was running away from Christian Ryder. More importantly, all I could think about was the fact that Christian Ryder was right behind me, in person.

What had I gotten myself into?