"Hello?" I heard my mom answer the phone. I looked at the clock on my nightstand. Who's calling at three in the morning? I heard her yawn. "Okay, we'll be there as soon as possible." She hung up and came into my room. "Callie, are you awake?"
"Yeah," I said. "Who was that?"
"Steven. He said he had some cool news that he wanted to share with the whole cast right now, so we all have to meet at the Neverland-set-place," she said, her mind still foggy with sleep. She grabbed her purse. "Let's go," she said.
"In our PJ's?" I asked.
"Yup. Come on. The faster we get there, the faster we can get back here and go back to sleep."
I shrugged. Can't argue with that logic. I grabbed my phone, a pillow and my bunny slippers and followed her. The lobby of the hotel was creepily empty, not that I expected it to be full this early in the morning. I saw Trinity carrying a sleeping Amber to her limo as we got into ours. I fell asleep on the way to the studio. 'Why couldn't Steven just wait until tomorrow?' When we got there, I put my pillow against a studio wall and slept until everyone arrived. I think Robin and Dustin knew what the news was because they were smiling. The only people that weren't there were the extra pirates and lost boys that didn't have any lines, the mermaids, and Julia, of course.
"Now, most of you may know," Steven started talking. His voice was tired but excited. Super excited. Something was going on. "That I think that movie-making is like a learning experience for everyone involved, and with all of the kids around, I figured we should take a field trip." He scanned the crowd of kids. "Callie!" he said, motioning me towards him. I stood next to him, in front of all of my castmates. "Answer this million-dollar question for me, and the whole cast will get a special prize. Where does the Banning family go on vacation?"
"London," I said. Duh.
"Correct! Robin, tell the lovely lady what she's won!" Steven said. 'I thought I was in a movie, not on a game show.'
"Well, Steven, Callie has just won herself, along with the entire cast of Hook, a trip to LONDON, ENGLAND!" Robin announced. There was a symphony of gasps and chatter amongst the crowed. I could feel my eyebrows fly up in surprise. I gave Steven a, 'No way! Really?' look. He smiled and nodded.
"Kids, make sure you thank Steven for putting this trip together!" Dustin reminded us. We all ran up to him and hugged him at the same time (and since there was a lot of us, it was enough to almost knock him over, but he didn't mind). When we were done, we were dismissed, but some of us stayed for a few minutes afterwards to talk.
"Callie Callie CALLIE!" Amber came running up to me. "You answered the question right! Great job!" She said, sticking a gold star sticker on my pajama pants and running off, giggling. Trinity ran up to me.
"Sorry. She got a new pad of stickers and she's sticking them everywhere," she said, out of breath. She ran off to get Amber. Mom walked up to me with a giant smile on her face.
"Wow! How fun!" she said. "Can't wait!"
"Jess, can I talk to you for a second? I have some script changes for Callie. I just wanted to run them by you first," Steven said. He led her away and I went up to Charlie, who was standing all by himself (again).
"Excited?" I asked. He nodded. "You don't talk much on set, do you?"
"If I can help it," he said. I laughed. "Well, at least I'm not like Amber. 'Look at my pony! I like kittens! I love cupcakes!'" he said, impersonating her. I giggled more.
"And you do a great job at...standing there, Charlie! You get a sticker, too!" she said, running by and sticking another star on his pants.
"Thanks, squirt," he said. She ran off again when she saw Trinity coming for her.
"Oh, so you have new nicknames for everyone now? Amber is Squirt and my mom is Jess," I said.
"Your mom's name is Jess," he said. "I just happen to call her that."
"What do you call me?" I asked.
"I know what you call me," he said, crossing his arms and changing the subject.
"What do I call you?" I mused.
"Your boyfriend," he said.
"My mom only said that to embarrass me," I said. I felt my cheeks turning red
"I know, but I could be your boyfriend if I wanted to. I just have to use some of my Charlie Charm," he said. I laughed.
"What's Charlie Charm?" I asked. He flipped his hair and smiled, and it was really, really, really cute, but I'd never admit that to him.
"Anyway, I think I'll have to get back to you on that nickname thing. I'm gonna make it special. Like, an inside joke or something," he said. I smiled. 'I'm special.'
After we got back to the hotel room, we went back to sleep and less than forty-eight hours later, the whole cast was on a private jet to London. When we got there, Steven took Amber, Charlie and I for a walk around town. More 'family bonding time,' like we did in LA, except Robin and Caroline weren't there. It was just the Banning children this time.
"Still feeling jet lagged, Callie?" Steven asked. He had to wear sunglasses and a hoodie so he wouldn't be recognised. I nodded. He laughed. "Don't worry. We'll be here for two weeks. You'll get used to the different timezone."
"I sure hope so. I wanna go sightseeing on one of my off days," I tell him.
"Are you gonna take some pictures for your dad?" he asked. Just by the way he said it, I could tell my mom told him what's going on. I nodded my head yes, but I'm sure my eyes told a different story, and he knew too. He watches actors act for a living, so he could see right through me. In fact, I should've known better than to lie to him, but he didn't press any further.
"'Sup, Cup?" Amber asked Charlie.
"Amber! I told you not to talk about that!" he said.
"Too late! That's your new nickname," she said.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because he-" Charlie stopped her by putting his hand over her mouth.
"Nothing! Nothing! It doesn't matter! Lets just forget it," he said. Steven smirked. So this is a secret that everyone is in on but me? Not fair! "You still don't have a nickname," he told me.
"Well, hop to it, kid. I need a nickname," I said.
"Since your full name is Calista, isn't Callie your nickname? And you shouldn't call me, 'kid.' I'm a month older, remember?," he asked.
"I remember," I told him. "But girls develop faster than boys. Anyway, everyone calls me Callie. You have to call me something different, like you do with Amber," I said.
"Oh. Feeling a bit jealous of the seven year old, are we?" he smiled playfully.
"No," I said, blushing. I guess that was partly true. Another thing I'd never admit.
"This is where we'll be filming on Monday, kids," Steven said. He showed us a small house. He took a key out of his pocket and unlocked to front door.
"We can actually go in?" Amber asked. Steven nodded.
"I want all three of you to walk in at the same time," he said. We all stepped through the small doorway at the same time. "Great! Now, besides me and the guys who came to work on the house, you three are the first members of the cast to step into Granny Wendy's house!"
"Wait, this is Granny Wendy's house?" I asked in disbelief.
"Yeah! Cool, isn't it?" he asked.
"Yeah, it's just smaller than I thought it would be," I said.
"This is so cool!" Amber said, bouncing around.
"What do you think, Charlie?" Steven asked. Charlie leaned against a wall.
"It's great," he said, unenthusiastically. I playfully punched him in the arm.
"Come on, dude. Don't be that guy," I said.
"What guy?" Steven and Charlie asked together.
"Well," I said, pretending to examine my nails. "I'm just saying, there's a rumor going around the set that Charlie is standoffish," I said.
"He's anything but," Steven said.
"That's just what I heard," I said.
"Who told you that?" Charlie asked.
"I can't say," I said, playing with him now.
"I can! It was Tommy! But Tommy only said it 'cuz he heard it from Jasen, who heard it from Raushan, who heard it from Isaiah!" Amber announced. Another mental facepalm.
"Wow. So they really think that?" Charlie looked hurt.
"Well, hey. Don't sit here and cry about it-"
"I wasn't crying," he said.
"You were about to!" Amber said.
"Was not!"
"Was, too!" she said. Wow. So Amber can even start an argument with the smartest kid on set. That deserves a world record.
"I think what Callie was about to say is you shouldn't sit around and do nothing. Fix it," Steven said. I nodded.
"How?" Charlie asked.
"You could start by talking to someone. Make some friends," I told him.
"But I have friends," he whined. "You and Amber."
"Dantes' throwing a cast party tonight and you're coming," I said.
"But I can't! I need to study tonight," he said.
"Study for what? You're a million bajillion times smarter than anyone I've ever met," I said.
"Technically, bajillion isn't a number," he said.
"Technically, I don't care," I said.
"Technically, where's the bathroom? And technically, what does technically mean?" Amber asked.
We'd been extremely tired since we arrived (jet lag) so we went to our new hotel rooms and slept. Well, I tried to sleep, but I was so excited. Everything seemed so new to me. 'So this is what it feel like sleeping on a bed in London.' I thought. After my mom fell asleep, I got a text from Trinity. Well, it was from her, but it wasn't. But it was. But it wasn't. Anyway, here's what it said:
Com 2 my room.
-Amber.
How is she so good at retrieving and unlocking everyone's phone? I quietly went to Amber's room. I had to be super stealthy because my mom and I had to share a room for this trip, so if she woke up and saw me leaving, I'd be in trouble. I'm supposed to ask her before I leave the room. Anyway, Amber had a suite, so her mom was asleep in another bedroom. Amber sat in the living room. The TV was playing a movie, but she was more focused on her iPad.
"Whatchya doing?" I asked.
"Researching Charlie," she said.
"Why?" I asked.
"He's your boyfriend. You have to know everything about him!"
"Amber," I groaned. "He's not my-"
"No way! Look at this article I found!" she said, turning the iPad toward me.
'Charlie Korsmo' it read. 'Pregnant.'
"Oh, Amber. Don't believe everything you read, honey," I said, giggling.
"I looked at IMDB earlier," she said. "It's like Facebook for famous people," she told me.
"I know what IMDB is," I laughed. Facebook for famous people. This kid is really one of a kind.
"How come we don't have one? We're in a movie," she said.
"Yeah, but the movie didn't come out yet, and since this is our first movie, no one really knows about us yet. But if we do a good job in this movie, we'll be really famous in a few years," I said.
"Hmm..." she said. She had an idea. I could tell. After a few seconds of tapping on her iPad, she showed me what she was working on. "Charlie has one."
"Yeah. He's been in more than one movie. He's a superstar," I said, putting sarcastic emphasis on the last word.
"I'm gonna read his bio!" she said.
"Knock yourself out," I said, trying to focus on the movie playing on the TV.
"That sounded mean," she said.
"Oh, just read," I said. She narrowed her eyes. I sighed. "Please."
She started reading. "Charles Rudolph Korsmo-"
"RUDOLPH!?" I said. I laughed until my sides hurt. I looked at the iPad, wiping tears of joy away. "Amber, that says, 'Randolph," I told her. I didn't expect her, a seven year old, to get every word right, but that was just really funny.
"Oh. That makes more sense. He doesn't look like a reindeer," she said, sending me into further fits of laughter.
"That's it!" I said. "That's his new nickname! I'll call him, 'Roo.'"
"I don't get it," she said.
"Like, a shorter version of, 'Rudolph," I explained.
"Oooh," she said, giggling. "What does he call you?"
"Special," I said accidentally.
"What?"
"Nothing...yet," I smiled.
A/N: Hello, friends! Thank you sososososo much for being patient for this new chapter! I promise-promise-promise I'll update as much as I can now! New chapters coming almost every day (if not, more) until summer is over. I really appreciate all the nice comments! The next few chapters will all take place in London, where they shot the scenes for Granny Wendy's house. Enjoy!