I watched it ring and I could see Matthew glancing at it out the corner of his eye but the guest was in full flow, telling him all about his trip to the zoo and, as the politest man of all time, Matthew wouldn’t dream of breaking away mid-conversation. The phone continued to ring. I just stared at it at first but then it started to bug me so I craned my neck over the desk to see if any porters were nearby, but they were all busy. I put my hands over my ears grumpily until FINALLY Audrey appeared and snatched it up. She did a lot of ‘uh-uh’s and ‘mm’s and then went, ‘of course, straight away,’ before neatly placing the receiver down.
‘You took long enough,’ I said, as she turned to face me with her hand on her hip. ‘Is there any way of turning down the volume on that thing?’
‘You know that is the internal line, right? I’ve told you several times before.’
‘Yeah. So?’
‘So,’ she said through gritted teeth, ‘you could have picked up, as it was a guest in the hotel and not someone phoning to make a booking.’
‘I don’t work here, Audrey. You can’t expect me to just jump in when you’re understaffed. This isn’t the industrial revolution; child labour isn’t fashionable any more.’
Audrey took a deep breath. I had made a valid point and she knew it. I can’t answer the phones. It’s not my fault I happen to live here.
‘I suppose you’re right,’ she said, her tone oddly flat. ‘I shouldn’t expect that of you.’
‘Apology accepted.’
‘For reasons I can’t possibly imagine, Skylar Chase has requested your presence in her suite.’
I stared at her. ‘W-what? Are you sure?’
‘Quite sure. That was her on the phone. She wants Flick Royale to go straight to her room if she is home from school and if she is not busy.’
‘Why?’
‘She didn’t say.’
‘And you’re certain she asked for me?’
‘Yes.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Flick.’ Audrey began tapping her shoe impatiently. ‘I am certain that Skylar Chase requests your company this very moment. She’s in Room 108. It goes without saying that you do not pass on that information. Now, I suggest you get up there pronto. Don’t worry about Fritz, I’ll have someone bring him upstairs when he’s ready.’ She clicked her fingers at me. ‘Come on, look lively.’
I quickly stood up and hurried out from reception towards the lift, feeling completely shocked. My heartbeat was out of control as I arrived at her floor and stood stone still outside Room 108. I lifted my hand to knock on her door and froze, swallowing a lump in my throat. What could she possibly want?
The door swung open before I’d knocked, my hand still raised in preparation. Skylar Chase stood in front of me, wearing the hotel’s white fluffy dressing gown and matching slippers.
‘How long were you going to stand out there?’ she said.
‘Uhhh,’ I replied intelligently.
‘Come in!’ she ushered, shutting the door behind me as I shuffled forwards. ‘I need your help.’
She rushed off into the bedroom, leaving me standing awkwardly by the door. Her suite was the biggest and most beautiful in the hotel. It had a gigantic living room, a bedroom with a four-poster bed, a sparkling bathroom complete with hot tub, and a dressing room. The living room was filled with fresh bouquets of red roses – presumably her favourite flowers – and there was a grand piano at the far end of the room underneath a large window, which had an amazing view, looking out across London. The purple velvet curtains were currently closed so the room was bathed in the bright light of the chandeliers.
I had once asked Mum why our flat didn’t look anything like this and she’d just brushed me off, telling me that no one would actually like to live in a place this grand.
To this day I don’t know what she’s talking about. Bring on the chandeliers.
‘Why are you just standing there?’ Skylar said, popping her head round the bedroom door. ‘Come through.’
‘Are you sure it was me you wanted?’ I asked, following her instruction and making my way into her bedroom.
‘Of course.’ She was standing next to her bed, on which there were piles and piles of clothes. ‘It’s an emergency.’
‘What’s the problem? Because, if it’s something with the room, I’m not really the right person to –’
‘So, here’s the thing,’ she interrupted, ‘I gave my team the evening off. They’ve been working really hard so I insisted on it and they all got really excited and they’ve gone sightseeing or something. And I’ve got this dinner to go to with some friends tonight and normally my stylist or PA would help me pick out what to wear but I don’t want to ring them and disturb them from looking round that big tower thing. What’s it called?’
‘The Tower of London?’
‘Yeah. Where all the heads were chopped off.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘I couldn’t think of anyone to call in London. Then I thought of you.’
‘Me?’
‘Yes, you. I remembered that you said you were grounded so I figured you’d be somewhere in the hotel this evening and probably looking for another escape from whatever you were doing.’
I broke into a grin. ‘You were spot on.’
‘Great!’ She smiled back. ‘Will you help?’
‘Sure.’ I pulled out the chair from the dressing table and sat down.
‘I just need someone to make sure I don’t look terrible. You won’t believe how nasty the Internet can be when you get it wrong.’ She pointed at the huge pile of clothes on the bed. ‘These are my favourite options.’
‘Right, so just a small task then.’
‘Let’s start with this pink dress,’ she suggested, snatching it up and scurrying into her bathroom. I relaxed back into the chair and smiled to myself. It was easy to forget that you were with the most famous pop star in the world when you were hanging out with Skylar Chase. The way she talked and acted – it was just like being with a friend.
A very glamorous, insanely cool friend.
‘OK, here’s the first one.’ She emerged from the bathroom and did a twirl. ‘What do you think?’
I burst out laughing. ‘It’s a big fat no from the judges.’
‘Why? I quite liked this one!’
‘You won’t when you see how it looks in this lighting.’
She went to admire herself in the full-length mirror and gasped. ‘It’s completely see-through!’
‘It would certainly make the headlines,’ I pointed out and we both erupted into giggles.
‘On to the next one!’
After going through half of the pile, we finally decided on a beautiful red mini dress with sparkling silver shoes.
‘You look amazing.’ I nodded. My eyes widened as she opened a trunk filled to the brim with handbags, carefully selecting a silver clutch to finish the look. ‘Where’s your dinner then?’
‘It’s here in the hotel,’ she said, putting on some diamond earrings while I moved to sit on the floor and dig through her treasure trove of handbags.
‘You want to come?’ she said suddenly.
I dropped the bag I had been fiddling with. ‘What?’
‘It’s a dinner with some friends of mine, very casual.’
‘Yeah, it seems very casual.’ I laughed, nodding at the diamond bracelet she was putting on.
‘I mean it. You should come.’
‘I . . . I can’t. I don’t know anyone and I have nothing to wear and –’
‘I think we could find you something.’ She pointed at the bed of clothes. ‘I get sent stuff in all kinds of sizes. We could find something small enough to fit.’
‘You don’t want me tagging along.’
‘I’ve asked you, haven’t I?’
I was stunned into silence. I couldn’t believe that Skylar Chase was asking me to dinner with her friends.
‘Come on!’ She grinned. ‘Don’t make me beg. Plus, it’s not technically breaking your mom’s rules as yo
u won’t be leaving the hotel. So?’
I continued to stare at her, completely baffled at what was happening. ‘If you’re sure . . .’
‘Great!’ She shook off her heels and rushed over to the bed. ‘I think I have the perfect thing in here that will look amazing with your beautiful red hair,’ she announced, clothes flying across the room as she made her way through the pile. ‘Wait until they find out I’m bringing you, Flick Royale of Hotel Royale!’
I sat in a daze. I had a feeling that she thought I was a bit more important than I was.
And there was nothing wrong with just going along with it, was there?
I need my lip gloss back
I haven’t got your lip gloss, Ella. You were using it today
Not that one. My berry one. I lent it to you weeks ago
Yeah and I gave it right back. I just wanted to see if it really smelled like berries. I didn’t actually use it
If you’ve lost it, you should buy me a new one. It will go perfectly with the green top
I’ve got to go, talk later
I stole Ella’s lip gloss
The one she’s looking for? Grace, you need to give it back, she thinks I have it
I know, she texted me saying you were refusing to give it back. Then I realised what had happened. I can’t give it back. I donated it to Battersea Dogs Home
You donated a LIP GLOSS to Battersea Dogs Home?!
Grace, do you know what Battersea Dogs Home is??
It was by accident. I donated them my cardigan and it was in the pocket
You donated a CARDIGAN? Grace, it’s a DOGS HOME
Dogs get cold too
You’re going to have to buy her a new one. She’ll get really angry. You know what she’s like
Yeah. The other day she yelled at me because I bought a polka dot pencil case and she has a polka dot pencil case. I had to return it
Grace, I’ve gotta go. I’m on my way to . . . well, an important dinner
Your life is so amazing. You get to spend evenings going to posh dinners. I, meanwhile, have to spend the evening cleaning out my tortoise hutch
You have a tortoise??
I never told you about Bruce? He was a birthday present a couple of years ago from my uncle who owns a tortoise shelter in New Zealand. He’s getting really big now. The other day he ate my eyelash curler thinking it was a leaf
How can you mistake an eyelash curler for a LEAF ?
I dunno. Ask Bruce
Grace. You are so weird.
But you really make me laugh
Thanks! Have a good night. Bruce says “WASSUP!” (joking. Tortoises can’t talk. I made that up)
Thanks for clarifying. Night, Grace x
Up until two years ago when I stopped trying, I was the lead in all the school plays. And obviously now I wouldn’t be seen dead auditioning for whatever lame production my school puts on next but, I have to admit, being in the spotlight was quite a lot of fun, and sometimes I do consider returning to the stage, but then I realise that doing so would mean spending a LOT of time with the drama club and, no offence to them, but they are exhausting.
For example, once I saw Hannah, the Queen Bee of the drama department, sitting on her own at a party, so I selflessly ditched my friends to go over to her so she wouldn’t feel like such a loner, but she was utterly ungrateful about the whole thing. All I was saying was how I thought the play she had just been in was nice, but the ending was completely predictable and it would have been really cool if they’d mixed it up a bit more and had the fairy queen do something totally dramatic, like kill that boring fairy king, who was topless and everything, but such a creep. She looked at me in disgust and went all narkily, ‘Sorry, but some of us don’t think Shakespeare’s works need “mixing up”,’ and then just got up and walked away.
Some people have no manners. And so, for that and several other reasons, I left my theatre career behind and believed that because of Mum’s unnecessarily strict vlogging rules, I had stepped out of the spotlight for good.
That is, until I went for dinner with Skylar Chase.
Because that is what it’s like when you walk around somewhere with her, it’s like being onstage all the time, followed by a constant spotlight. And that’s just walking from her suite to the dining room downstairs, it’s not even leaving the hotel and going out into the real world. People stared at us as we walked down the corridor, then they stared at us in the lift, and then they stared at us walking from the lift and into the restaurant. And it felt GREAT. In fact, the only time we weren’t being stared at was when I persuaded Skylar to hide with me behind one of the massive vases near reception for a few minutes on our way to the restaurant because Audrey was prowling about the lobby.
‘Is it always like this?’ I asked, as we reached the dining room and pretended not to notice all the turning heads.
‘Yes.’ Skylar nodded wearily.
‘It’s so much fun.’ I smiled, lovingly stroking the clutch bag she had lent me.
‘You think?’ Skylar shook her head. ‘It’s like being on a permanent catwalk.’
‘You say that like it’s a bad thing.’
She looked at me curiously. ‘You don’t think you’d get bored of it?’
‘Of being admired and adored?’ I flashed her a smile. ‘Oh, I think I could handle it.’
She laughed as Timothy came hurrying over to us, clutching some menus in his hands. He did a double take at me, possibly because when I usually come down to the restaurant I’m accompanied by a sausage dog in a tailored suit, not a world-famous pop star. Or it might have been down to my hair – Skylar had plaited it into a pretty braid across the top of my head like a halo and clipped a blue flower into it, matching the blue pleated skirt she’d chosen for me.
‘Miss Chase, we have your table ready and your guests have arrived,’ he began, before glancing at me. ‘And will Miss Royale be joining the party?’
‘She will.’ Skylar beamed at me.
‘No trouble at all. I’ll sort out another setting.’
As he scampered away to huddle together with the other waiters and rearrange the settings, a boy approached us with his arms outstretched towards Skylar.
‘You finally made it to the best city in the world.’ He grinned, as she squealed and embraced him. ‘Took you long enough.’
I recognised him straight away: Ethan Duke, the YouTuber. Grace would have passed out on the spot. We’d spent hours at school watching his vlogs in lunch breaks. According to the ‘About Me’ section on his website, which Grace had memorised word for word, the story went that he happened to grow up next door to, and become best friends with, the son of a director, who let him tag along to a load of movie sets. Ethan started asking the super famous actors if they’d let him interview them for his YouTube channel during their filming breaks, and before long he had millions of followers and a queue of celebrities wanting to appear in one of his vlogs. Sometimes they were interviews, sometimes they were dares and sometimes he and a celebrity would team up to play a big prank on another celebrity.
He also happened to be the hottest person on the planet. In person he was more good-looking than in his videos, which I’d thought impossible. His sleek brown hair swept perfectly across his forehead, just above the thick eyebrows that framed his hazel-coloured eyes and he had these really full lips. I could not stop staring at his perfectly square jaw. How was anything that chiselled? I had to stop staring at it.
Look away from the jaw, look away from the jaw, look away from the jaw . . .
‘Flick, this is Ethan.’
I was so deep in my examination of his angelic face, that when Skylar addressed me, I wasn’t ready to form words.
‘Jaw!’
Oh my God.
Skylar blinked at me. ‘Huh?’
‘I mean, four!’ I said quickly, trying to save the situation. ‘Four . . . forks. That’s how many forks there will be. Four.’
‘Flick, what are you talking about?’
‘Yes . . .’ he replied slowly, as though expecting it to be a trick question.
‘Excellent,’ I said, patting him on the arm awkwardly. ‘Well done. You can go now.’
‘Thank you, Miss Royale.’ He backed away, his eyebrows knitted in confusion.
‘Royale?’ Ethan repeated in wonder. ‘As in, Hotel Royale?’
CHANGE IN CONVERSATION = VERY GOOD RIGHT NOW.
‘Yes.’ I nodded, enthusiastically. ‘You know it?’
‘Hotel Royale? Yes. We’re in it.’
CHANGE IN CONVERSATION = DID NOT GO SO WELL.
‘Right, of course. Sorry, I drank a lot of coffee today.’ I laughed nervously.
‘I know the feeling. Nice to meet you, Flick, I’m Ethan.’
Skylar, still watching me strangely, gestured towards another guy and a girl who had come over while I had been yabbering about forks.
‘This is Carly, my drummer, and you might recognise Jacob. He’s a model.’
I thought it wise not to say anything this time, and nodded hello to both of them. We were guided across the room by Timothy, receiving plenty of stares and whispers around the room in the process. I made the conscious decision to try to sit away from Ethan (as apparently his jaw was all too much for my brain to handle) but somehow we ended up next to each other.
Secrets of a Teenage Heiress Page 6
