Free The Hollywood Mission by Deborah Abela

ran after his friend and tried to stop her but it was too late: Max and her runaway trolley ran smack into a ladder that started to sway like a tree that had just been sawn through.
    â€˜Timber!’ joked Toby.
    The ladder came crashing down, leaving the guy at the top swinging from the thick black curtain he was repairing. Crew members flew into action to save him but the curtain started to tear and the whole thing ripped like a ship’s sail in a storm. He landed in a black cushioned heap beside Max, and even though she knew it wouldn’t do any good, she said it anyway. ‘Sorry.’
    It was then she noticed the entire crew had stopped what they were doing and were staring ather. At times like this Max wondered if she was too young to volunteer for an extended stay on the international space station.
    â€˜Okay, everyone,’ the woman with the clipboard announced into a microphone. ‘Filming starts in twenty minutes.’
    Instantly everyone went back to work.
    â€˜You okay?’ Max’s dad asked her.
    Apart from wanting to trade herself in for a kid who wasn’t a complete disaster, ‘Sure,’ she answered quietly.
    â€˜Good. Carla will take care of you and show you what you’re going to wear.’
    A woman with a hair wrap and a long colourful gown led them into a darkened corridor to the wardrobe department. She handed them each an outfit. Max took the frilled dress with the bustle and feathered hat and knew that, after the damage she’d done, she had no room for complaint. ‘Thanks, Carla.’
    They were to be three rich kids from the late 1800s in New York. Toby and Linden got into their suits and laughed as they tried to out-posh each other.
    â€˜As impossible as it may seem,’ Toby whispered, ‘that dress suits you even more than your pink one.’
    Max ignored him as she sat before a well-lit mirror and the last of her make-up was applied. A voice yelled into the room, ‘Places everyone.’
    Suddenly actors and extras came from everywhere and spilled onto the staging area. Max lifted her skirt and stared at the studio, which had been transformed into an early morning in 1876. It was amazing. As if she’d been transported straight into …
    â€˜Ouch!’ A man in a dark suit knocked her in the head with his cane and walked off without noticing.
    â€˜These were rough times. Especially for women,’ Toby said knowledgeably as he polished his hat with his gloved hand.
    â€˜They’ll be especially rough for you if you don’t stay away from me,’ she warned.
    â€˜Action!’
    The scene bustled to life as hundreds of extras milled around her. Cameras moved along tracks called dollies while others swung over their heads on cranes. After a few minutes of this, Max’s dad called, ‘Cut!’
    It was then arranged that more specific movements would be filmed. A man with a baseball cap and a tragic moustache called to Max and Toby.
    â€˜I want you, little girl, to stand beside this shop. And you,’ he looked at Toby, ‘when I give you the nod, you sneak up and kiss her.’
    Max fumed at a few things; being called ‘little girl’, the idea that Toby had to kiss her and lastly, the fact that Linden thought it was so hilarious. She was about to protest when everybody was told to take their places and ‘Action!’ was called again. Max stood by the shop window. The guy then nodded and Toby did as he was told, only when he went to kiss Max, she was so repulsed she pushed him away and he fell through the shop window. There were screams as actors sprang back from the fallen pane.
    â€˜Medics!’
    People from the first aid area raced over and checked Toby out. They fussed over him and asked him questions to make sure he was okay. The glass had fallen out in one solid piece and apart from a red mark that was developing on his cheek where Max had hit him, he was fine.
    â€˜Does your