Summary:

I've read many stories about adding a girl to the Fellowship, and many are wonderful – some are even my favorite stories out there. But I've always wondered what would happen during the filming of the movies if that were true.

Also, most authors tend for their girls to travel with the 'three hunters'. Since I want mine to be a little different, I originally thought of her tagging along with Frodo and Sam. But then one of the main ideas that started this story was romance, and I wanted my girl to have some sort of romantic relationship with Frodo. Poor Sam (I love him to bits – he's my favorite character, hands down – but he just doesn't work out in this story!) would get left out and such. So, I changed his character to a girl, Lily. To all of my readers who are miffed at the absence of Sam, I'm really sorry! Like I said, he's my favorite character in the trilogy, so it was painful to take him out. But just think of my girl as a female Sam... same lines, same personality, etc.

But since this story is about the filming, not the actual story, I'll leave it to your imaginations what happens along the way. I'm not thinking any major plot changes, though - I'll probably write some bits about shooting my favorite scenes with him, like the Sam's speech in Osgiliath... basically everything's the same. The only difference I can think of is that Lily and Frodo end up getting married at the end and Frodo doesn't sail away to Valinor.

Oh, yes. One more thing before we get to the actual story. Whenever I've used lines from the script, Lily has Sam's.

Chapter One:

Brake lights flashed on the car in front of her, causing Natalie to slam on her own breaks. "Ack. Gotta go, Lucy. I'll call you tomorrow," she said, flipping her cell phone shut. Must be an accident, she thought, and immediately she groaned. She was already late for a babysitting job, and this slowing down of traffic was not helping her arrive on time.

As she waited for the cars in front of her to start moving again, Natalie glanced out the window. She had been living in New Zealand for five months already, but the sight of rolling plains bordered in snow-crested mountains always made her stare. Even though she was supposed to be here for school, Natalie found it difficult to study with a view that seemed to come straight out of a fairytale everywhere she looked.

At first, it had been a challenge to convince her parents to let her travel half-way across the globe for a semester abroad – she had only been eighteen, an age they thought to be much too young.

But then a solution presented itself, to Natalie's relief. One evening, she overheard a phone conversation of her dad's with an old neighborhood friend, Sam. She listened curiously, and found out that her father's childhood neighbor still lived in Wellington and would be more than happy to look after Natalie while she studied in New Zealand.

Then, with some much-required begging, thorough convincing, and more reassurance from Sam, Natalie was on her way to her father's native country – one she had always dreamed about. Now her time here was almost up – it was May, and the end of her semester was quickly approaching. As much as she loved this country and the friends she had made here, she missed her home and was looking forward to going home.

Flashing lights brought her back to the present. She was still sitting in her car and unless things started moving soon, she was going to be late for her newest babysitting job.

Natalie had often babysat for Sam's kids, and quickly he started passing on her name to his friends with children. One such couple was Peter Johnson and Fran Wales, who would never hire her again if this traffic didn't start picking up...

As if her thinking had spurred on the cars ahead of her, the line of traffic inched forward. Soon, Natalie could see what had caused the hold-up: Fire trucks and paramedics surrounded a white SUV flipped over upside down.

Natalie heaved a sigh of relief as soon as she passed the accident and traffic became up to speed. Thank God that wasn't me or anybody I knew back there... she thought, and then her thoughts became consumed with following her hastily written directions to find the house she was supposed to babysit at.

Only fifteen minutes late, Natalie pulled up in front of a modest cottage home. She flipped down the mirror and tried to smooth her hair out, but giving up, pulled it back into a messy ponytail. Throwing her keys into her purse, Natalie walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell.

After a minute, a motherly-looking woman opened the door. "You must be Kelly! Come on in, come on in! We were just waiting on you – the rest of the actors are already in the basement." Kelly? Actors? Basement? Before Natalie could puzzle out what this woman was talking about or even correct her, she was ushered into the hall.

"Um... I... I'm not Kelly." That was the only thing Natalie could think of to say. "My name's Natalie Summers... do I have the wrong house? I thought..." she dug around in her bag, coming up with her directions. "I'm looking for Peter Johnson and Fran Wales' house?"

The woman looked at her strangely. "I'm Fran, dear, but... oh! I'm so sorry, we're having quite problematic day. I'd forgotten that we'd hired a babysitter..." Fran trailed off, distracted. "Well, both kids have gone down for naps..." She trailed off again, giving Natalie a very strange look. Natalie inched towards the door, thinking that she wasn't needed. "But wait! Don't go! This is sort of strange – but have you ever heard that Pete and I are making movies of The Lord of the Rings books?"

"Yeah, I read something in the newspaper. I don't really know the storyline or anything about them, though," Natalie admitted. Fran was eyeing her in that strange way again.

"No bother. You're the right age, you'll do," she said, taking Natalie's arm and dragging her towards the stairwell, and started to ramble. "Peter and I are working on a new project – we're making movie versions of the books. We're having a read-through today, and of course the actress who we've cast as Lily hasn't showed up yet. Would you mind terribly if I asked you to read for her until she arrives? I'll pay you the same as if you were watching the kids."

Natalie's mouth dropped open. "Me? Read for a movie? Um, I'm sorry, but that's not really my thing..."

"Please? Just until Kelly shows up. We're way behind schedule already and really need someone just to read the lines," Fran begged.

"Um, okay, I guess I will," Natalie replied, taken aback. Immediately, she wished she could bite her words back – the thing she hated most in the world was speaking in front of other people.

"Great!" Fran said, and then started briefing the young girl on what was happening as she led her downstairs.

"Right now, we're having a read-through for The Fellowship of the Ring – the first book. Peter's directing, and I've been working on the script. We're not set to film until October, but we're having a few read-throughs with the main actors this week." Natalie and Fran had reached the bottom of the stairs, and Natalie glanced around. All of the furniture had been moved to form a large circle encompassing most of the rectangular room.

Natalie felt the urge to hide behind Fran as the people filling the room looked up at their entrance. At a loss for what to do, she froze, staring at the carpet.

"This is Natalie Summers, one of our babysitters. She'll be reading for Lily today," Fran announced.

Natalie apprehensively raised her gaze off of the floor. Over twenty pairs of eyes met hers and she immediately went back to studying the tan and brown-flecked carpeting. She berated herself for not putting more effort into her looks today. She tried to smooth down the lumps in her ponytail, but short of whipping a brush out of thin air and starting over, there was no hope in fixing it.

"You're not Kelly Townsend," Peter said, looking at her for the first time.

"Kelly still hasn't arrived and I'm about to try and call her, but Natalie is going to fill in until she gets here," Fran explained.

What have I gotten myself into? she wondered over and over. It was the only coherent thought running through her mind. Natalie was shy – any sane person could see that clearly – and because of that shyness, she had never acted before. Even though she'd always wanted to, she could never get enough courage to audition for any school musical, much less perform in front of anyone. And now all eyes in the room were focused on her. Natalie felt her heart beat quicker as her anxiety heightened.

Her plan had been to come over, baby-sit Fran's children, and make enough money to go see a movie with her girlfriends this weekend. She didn't sign up to read a real movie script with real actors. All of them still stared at her and it made her even more self-conscious. Why did she let Fran talk her into coming downstairs?

"You can go sit in the big red chair over there, Natalie… by Elijah, the boy with dark hair," Fran whispered, shoving a heavy packet of papers into her arms. With a gentle push, Fran pointed her in the direction of the chair.

Natalie hurried there as fast as she could, trying to avoid meeting any gazes or speaking. She plopped into the chair and gripped the booklet so tight her knuckles turned white. This was her worst nightmare. Really, it was. In a room stuffed to the corners with people she didn't know and having to speak in front of them… she weighed the options of bolting out of the room and sprinting all the way back to her apartment.

The stairs were in the farthest corner away. Darn. She wouldn't be able to get out of here unnoticed, after all. She'd be lucky to get through the obstacle course of chairs and couches without tripping. That would make her even more conspicuous, if that was possible. Double darn.

Pretending to study the manuscript, Natalie peered at the actors surrounding her from under her eyelashes, hoping that they wouldn't notice they were being watched.

Only one person in the entire room looked to be around her age – the boy next to her. He was currently entertaining a few of the other actors by balancing a Coke can on his forehead. The rest of the basement's occupants seemed to be in their late twenties or early thirties. Some were much older than that, around their fifties or sixties.

She looked back at the packet of papers Fran had given her. The top sheet was a list of actors and their roles. Natalie studied it, hoping to memorize at least a few of the names.

Fellowship

Frodo Baggins………………………………………………………………………..Elijah West

Lily Proudfoot…………………………………………………………………………Kelly Townsend

Meriadoc (Merry) Brandybuck.........................................…...Dominic Mulligan

Perigrin (Pippin) Took…………………………………………………………….Billy Burby

Aragorn...............................................................................Stuart Taylor

Boromir…………………………………………………………………………..………Sean Baker

Gimli………………………………………………………………………………....…….John Rinehart

Legolas…………………………………………………………………..………………Orlando Brennan

Gandalf the Grey………………………………………………………………………Ian McKenzie

Natalie's head was reeling from all the new funny-sounding names that she couldn't even take in who was who. She attempted to start reading the next section, titled "The Shire and Bree," but Peter's voice made her look up.

"Hey everyone! I think we'll start the reading now," Peter Johnson called out.

Startled at the fact that they were about to begin, Natalie hurriedly flipped through her booklet. She saw other actors doing the same. A couple of the actors across the room were already trading lines back and forth, laughing like this was the easiest thing.

Finally Natalie saw her first pink highlighted line – "I think I'll just have another ale." What kind of character was she reading for? Natalie eyed the packet with new apprehension. She took a deep breath, preparing herself for what was to come. She could do this… she could, she could. At least, she couldn't bail now – she had already said she would do it. She could do it, she could. It was just for today, after all.

XXX

XXX

Clutching the packet of script in front of her face like a shield, Natalie pretended to read along with the actors. What she really was doing was having a mini freak-out inside of her head.

Her line was coming up.

Natalie marveled at how easy the actors around her made it seem to actually become their character. How on Earth was she, the girl that was too shy to even be a chorus member in the participation-is-not-a-choice fifth grade play, supposed to do this? How was she supposed to say this line in the right spot, with the right timing? How was she supposed to get all the words in the right order? How was she supposed to speak loudly enough that everybody would be able to hear her? What would happen if she opened up her mouth and nothing came out? Natalie didn't think she'd ever been more nervous in her entire life. Calm down, she told herself. You're going to give yourself a panic attack. Natalie sucked in her breath and tried to focus on the story.

She found that following along was much harder than she had ever anticipated. So many names, so many new places were mentioned. They all sounded weird, too, as if the man who created all this – Tok… no, Tol… oh, she didn't remember – wanted the reader to be as confused as possible.

Lily's entrance was during the party dance. Before she knew it, she was saying the lines.

"Come on, Lily! Dance with me!" Elijah, the dark-haired boy seated next to her, said, a smile on his face. He's enjoying this, Natalie thought bewilderedly.

"I think I'll just have another ale…" Natalie quickly said, releasing a sigh she didn't know she'd held in. She'd done it! Said her first line! And she hadn't completely screwed it up! Natalie didn't have time to bask in delight, though, as more highlighted lines were approaching.

"Oh, no you don't. Come on!"

As the people around her advanced through the thick-as-a-dictionary script, Natalie settled back into her chair as she became more and more wrapped up in the tale unfolding before her eyes. It was starting to make more sense now, as long as she could block out the weird names. Some of her apprehension began to disappear. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard…

The next lines with the word 'Lily' in front of them would have made Natalie laugh out loud if she had not been so caught up in the drama unfolding all around her. Even though it was so cliché, the change in her was truly magical. For some reason, it felt like she belonged… that she was finally in a place that she understood. Natalie could hardly figure it out, as she had only said one line so far – and badly, at that – but she felt as if this was what she was supposed to do, that this was the nook she was made to fit into.

Ian McKenzie, the man who played Gandalf, acted like he held a staff in his hands. He then rapped the invisible staff in Natalie's direction.

"Oofff!" Natalie yelped as Ian pretended to drag her up out of a window.

"Confound it all, Lily Proudfoot! Have you been eavesdropping?" he asked her.

"I haven't dropped no eaves, sir, honest. I was just cutting the grass under the window there, if you follow me," Natalie replied, breathlessly. Still going on the feeling she was getting, Natalie embraced acting… she was starting to get the hang of it, too, much to her surprise. She could just imagine how scared Lily would have been feeling.

"A little late for trimming the verge, don't you think?" Ian said, and they carried on through the scene.

XXX

XXX

A couple of hours later, they were through the booklets, all the way up to the Council of Elrond – half-way through the first film. "Well, I think we got quite a bit accomplished, don't you?" Peter asked the group after they had finished with Pippin's memorable line ("Great! Where are we going?").

Murmurs of agreement and nodded heads answered Peter's question before people started to leave the basement. But faces turned in the direction of Fran's voice when she yelled the reminder "Same place, same time, tomorrow!" after them.

Natalie stood up to leave, but Fran stopped her. "In case we still haven't heard from Kelly by tomorrow, can I call you?" she asked. "I'm starting to get worried about her... anyways, just in case, I'd like to know that we'd have a back up. Are you free tomorrow?"

Natalie bit her lip, thinking back on the read-through. It was the scariest thing she had ever done, but she couldn't help but admit that a little part of her had enjoyed it. "Sure, I guess that's alright." She only had one morning class tomorrow.

"I'm sure we'll hear from Kelly – maybe her plane was delayed or something," Fran said. "So don't worry about it. The next time you hear from me will probably be asking you to babysit! Thanks again, for filling in last minute – you really saved us today."

A/N: To comply with 's rules, I have not used the names of any real people. That is why all the actors have new names - I hope that works for everyone!