𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁... 𝗽𝘂𝗽𝗽𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲. [roman kemp]

𝑿𝑰𝑽

𝑳𝒂𝒏𝒂 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒅𝒂𝒚. Last night could not have been more perfect if she'd wanted it to be. Though she had missed her family last night when reading her letter, she was finally acclimatising to jungle life, and it was a good life indeed.

Andrew had been chosen to complete the day's trial. He returned victorious, with 10 stars out of 12; from the description he gave, Lana was impressed he'd even managed 10. Though it was no roast dinner, they'd be eating well tonight - this was great news for Ian, Andy and Cliff, who were all still hungry from their meal of rice and beans.

Lana had enjoyed talking to Myles for a while about fame. The two had a similar experience, only recently rocketing into the public eye. Myles had shot to fame within the last year with his band, Rak-Su, and had never been so popular.

Similarly, Lana had only recently entered stardom after the release of her single, Psycho Killer. Fame had been practically overwhelming; suddenly she was no longer regular Lana Clarke of Portslade, Brighton. Now she was Lana, popstar and teen idol. People she'd never liked and who had never liked her were suddenly pretending they'd been her best friends the whole time. People who had never batted an eyelid were now her "biggest fans". It had become difficult to separate who truly appreciated her, and who simply wanted a slice of the elusive creature that was stardom.

"It's hard," Myles was saying. "Suddenly I've got all this- this attention. And I can't always tell who just wants me for who and what I am, or who wants me for me."

"Right?" Lana agreed. "Don't get me wrong, fame is fun. But it's not what I imagined. I do miss some aspects of my old life."

Their conversation continued for a while, and Lana found Myles to be a very genuine, kind person, who she thoroughly enjoyed talking to. It was refreshing to hang out with someone so down to earth.

Just as Roman came over to join them, Lana was called to do a Dingo Dollar challenge along with Cliff.

"Yes!" she laughed, standing up and punching the air. "These things look so fun, I wondered when I'd get to do one."

The challenge involved clockwork and a lot of post-it notes. Maths was by no means Lana's favourite subject, but she had always been a high achiever and this did not present a problem she wouldn't be able to solve.

I didn't realise just how long these challenges took, she thought, wiping sweat from her brow as she perused row upon row of multicoloured post-its. After a while of doing this, the notes had begun to blend into one big multicoloured blur on the walls, and Lana had to concentrate hard on squinting at the little squares of paper. Cliff, who had decided he would not be able to bring much to the table, reclined on an armchair in the corner of the room they were in instead.

After an hour or so, tired, sweaty and with a maths-induced headache, Lana had finally completed the challenge and the Dingo Dollars were clutched triumphantly in Cliff's fist.

As they approached Kiosk Kev's outback shack, Lana saw a blackboard sign that read:

𝑾𝒐𝒕𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒔 ($100)

𝒐𝒓

𝑨𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑬𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 ($100)

Chocolate over everything was the motto, and After Eights it was. As they approached the tiny shack, Lana saw Kiosk Kev for the first time, with his bushy grey beard and perpetually stern expression. She had always wondered how he never even cracked a smile at the celebrities.