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There was a knock
on the door. Rona rushed to answer it.
When she opened
the door Hannah was standing there, hand on hip, her lips pursed
and turned up at the corners, her hair piled on top of her head,
her hips tilted. She was wearing black from head to foot, and for
once she'd left her coat at home. Her right hand was held up and
on its palm rested two pizza boxes. She raised an eyebrow at Rona.
"Hiya, short stuff. You owe me some money."
Rona grinned and
took the pizzas from her, then hugged her with her free arm.
"Is that the
pizzas?" shouted Alain from the sitting room.
"And Hannah"
Rona shouted back. She gave Hannah an inquisitive look.
"The pizza
guy rolled up just as I was about to knock on the door" explained
Hannah.
Hannah and Rona
carried the pizzas into the sitting room. Hannah greeted everyone:
"Hey, Bootsy" she said to Mal. "Frenchy" she
nodded to Alain.
"I keep telling
you, I'm not French!"
"Close enough.
Hi, Big Ears" she said to Brent, then turned to Sacha. "And
good evening, Country Girl."
"What"
complained Sacha, "I'm from Canberra, he's from Albury, and
I get called 'Country Girl'?"
Hannah smiled slyly.
"Best I could do at short notice, darl. Besides, Brent doesn't
like it when I call him a girl." She looked around. "So,
has the party started?"
"No" said
Rona, "we were waiting for the pizzas."
"Cool."
Hannah grinned at her. "Get me a drink, short 'n' sweet, I'm
dangerously sober."
"Huh!"
Rona said good-naturedly. "Get one yourself, you lazy cow!"
"You two"
said Alain, shaking his head and smiling cheekily. "You're
like an old married couple."
"Less talk,
more eating" complained Mal. "I'm starving."
"Me too"
said Sacha.
"Cool, you
tuck in and I'll get the first box of goodies" said Rona.
"'Goodies'?"
scoffed Brent. "Here's hoping! After last time!"
Rona went back out
to the hallway and came back with a cardboard box stuffed full of
review copies of C.D.s and D.V.D.s "Come on everyone, dive
in!"
Alain, Mal, Brent
and Rona all started pulling things out of the box. Sacha held back,
unsure of what was expected of her. Hannah, leaning noncommittally
in the doorway, smiled at her and nodded her head in the direction
of the box. "Go on!" she mouthed.
Just then Rona came
towards Sacha holding a C.D. "Latest hot young things from
Britain. Cover of N.M.E., all that shit. Probably be forgotten about
in a year's time. Put it on! Let's do some damage." She leaned
closer to Sacha, and whispered in her ear: "See? Who needs
a job when you can write 200 words of bullshit and get free C.D.s
for it!"
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