The Fake Traveller

CHAPTER ONE

I hate walking back from school now. My family's moved from my Rowerbridge cottage to a big fancy house in the suburbs. I hate the suberbs. What ever happend to my parents having a 'neat little cottage in a clean friendly environment' like they always said. Now I go to the same school instead of moving to one closer to our new home. It's not just the house that's changed though. School work seems to pile up on me. My friends think it's just like normal, but all the bad things away from school seem to make everything else worse. "Libby. Have you finished your homework?" Mum called.
"Yes. Can we go now?"
"Yes. Get in the car and get Sammy ready."

My sister Sammy comes to my hockey games on Thursdays. She thinks I'm really bad at hockey. I'm the best on my team. She thinks all the other girls are better because they touch the hockey ball the least and stay far away from the net the most. - Young people! She keeps me going. I wish I were her age. She gets to stay at home with mum at least three days a week. Colouring in her colouring book and watching a tape with a dancing penguin all day. Doing whatever she wants. Of course I don't want to watch a penguin spin 3 circles and jump once before yelling 'hey!' But I need a day off. I've been worked to the bone at school. Well, kind of. And the worst part is, my Mom and dad seem to be fighting a lot. I think they're going to get seperated.

"Of course we're not," my Mom would tell me. I managed to bring up the courage to talk to her about it and then she just lies in my face. After hockey, I ran up to the upstairs bathroom and had a shower. I came down with some sort of flu after running outside to say hi to my friend for half an hour, with wet hair. So I stayed at home the next day with Mom. I love being sick, no matter how painful it is. Because Mom always looks after me the way she did when I was a baby.

Dad came home late that night. I was already in bed by then. He came into my room anyway. "Good night sweet heart. Get some rest."
"Night." Dad's so nice to me. He treats me like a baby all the time. I can't wait until the baby comes. I loved looking after Sammy when she was a baby. - Of course, I never handled the diaper changes.

CHAPTER TWO

Well, I've still got my flu. I'll probably be staying at home on Monday. Yay! I went to get the post on Saturday afternoon and I picked up a letter from an overseas person. It read

Dear Libby Greenlane

We are delighted that you decided to join us at the Actors Tour around America. Would you please call us to give us your details and then we will arrange to meet somewhere to giveyou your tickets here. We will try to make your trip an all round success so we will start by making sure the tickets are first class tickets. Please call this number to finalise the details. +645933521689

Lawrence Hector

Um, they have my name, but I'm no actress. "Mom! I just got a letter for me saying this." Mom read it. She said 'wow'.
"I betta call them and tell them." Aaahhhh, mom always takes care of things for me. She called later that day. Only, they didn't seem to pass the message on to the mailing person, because I still got a letter from them the other day. It had been going on for a week.
"I'll call them again sweet heart, and after that we'll just ignore it."
But this call still didn't change anything. They must've wanted the person urgently because I'd received six letters in one week. I was reading an article in a magazine on shaving. I flippe dthe page and on the page it had the dates for Actors Tour around America. It was on the 16th of July. Seven days away. Wow.

Sammy caught my flu yesterday. She slept in my bed last night. Silly twat. Mom was out of the house all day today. She told me to take care of Sammy because she had a business trip to go on that she absolutely couldn't miss. This time, we got an e-mail from the Actors Tour thing. It had a link for more information, so I clicked on it.
The Actrors Tour around America for 2007 is going to be the biggest one yet. Each year we get more and more actors and we watch their careers turn into bigger careers. Incase you didn't know what the Actors Tour around America is, it is an event that we have every two years where all or most actors get together filming movies and clips to show what they've done and what they can do. The clips get shown at the THEATRES they're so big. The clips range from funny to sad and romantic.

To think I could have easily gone along with it! That night we went to Flappy's restaurant for families. I had a chicken burger with fries and a chocolate shake. I was so full. After that we went home and Sammy fell asleep on my lap. The seat belt looked to be strangling her. When we got home I went to my bedroom, read for a while and fell asleep with the book on my face. I awoke the next morning with print smelling scent. I had a shower (cause it is weekend) and walked downstairs. I sat on the couch and saw the phone machine saying that we have 1 unread message. After getting my milo cereal, I sat back on the couch and listened to the message.

"Hi this is Laurance Hector from the Actors Tour. If you don't want to or are unable to come to the Actors Tour, please call 645933521689. We need to discuss the trip as we leave in 6 days."

Suddenly I felt relieved or happy about somthing. But I don't know why. I know they must have the wrong person. Because I am not Libby Greenlane the actress that they mentioned in one of their e-mails. I'm Libby Greenlane the kid. Later that afternoon, mum went to the grocery store. It was raining so I stayed at home. Mum wouldn't let me risk having my flu up graded to something worse. Then dad said he was going to take Sammy to her soccer game. He was coaching too, so I would be all alone for an hour at least. I started tidying up. I wanted mum to feel like she didn't have to do anything. I don't want her to lift a finger, - that's after she packs away the groceries! Eventually the house was spotless. The laundry was done and the dishes were washed and packed away. All in less than an hour! I started to feel tired after that. I walked to the couch and I knocked something off the side table. It was a small piece of paper that had a number. That number looked extremely familiar. '645933521689.' It was the Actors Tour number! Why would it be on a piece of paper on the coffee table? Then a thought came into my head. What would be the harm in calling the man. He might be one of those silly types you get in the movies who don't wonder why a kid would be coming along instead of the person they wanted. In my rush of immaturity, I picked up the phone and dialled the number. The man said that he could come over in 15 minutes! I said ok!

When the man got here, I urged him in and said basically 'hand over the plane tickets!' He wondered why I looked so young and I almost caved in want of telling him how stupid he was for even thinking that. But, I went along with it. He said to be at the airport on Friday at 4:00pm!