by Holly Webb
It wasn’t going to help that Ms LeBrun had caught her having a little catnap in French on Friday. Lily and Chloe had done their best to nudge her awake, but they hadn’t been in time to save her. And now she hadn’t even revised for the test.
Bethany sped up. She needed to get into school and borrow a book off one of the others, fast.
She pounded up the stairs to the Year Seven form room. Shine’s school buildings were a couple of old London houses which had been converted and had a whole new front built on – it couldn’t be more different from Serena’s purpose-built, sensibly laid-out school. It was like an intelligence test for new students just trying to work out how to get to classes. But after nearly half a term, Bethany and her mates couldn’t imagine not knowing where everything was – or most places, anyway.
Bethany raced into their classroom and thankfully found Sara with a French book.
“Can I look too?” she gasped. French was first period and they didn’t have much time.
“Course,” said Sara, sounding surprised. “Where’s yours? Left it at home?”
Bethany shook her head. “On the bus. It’s been one of those mornings.”
Sara nodded sympathetically. She caught the train to school, but her journey was a lot quicker than Bethany’s. She’d seen how stressed Bethany got with her nightmare journey.
“Did you fall asleep again?”
Bethany nodded, running a finger down the vocab list to hide her embarrassment.
“I don’t know how you manage that trip twice a day, it must be a nightmare.” Sara shuddered. “I mean, my train’s a real pain but at least it’s quick. I suppose it’s all worth it though, isn’t it?” she added happily.
It was the same question Bethany had asked herself only a few minutes before, but this time she didn’t hesitate. Finding Sara had calmed her down a bit – she was one of Bethany’s best friends after all. Nightmare morning though it had been, this was definitely where she wanted to be. “Of course it is. OK, so sometimes I wish I was like my sister, just popping round the corner to school, but her school is really boring. And that’s where I would have gone if I hadn’t got in here.”
And if I hadn’t won that scholarship, she added to herself silently.
Fees at Shine were hugely expensive because it cost loads to pay all the different dance, drama and singing teachers, as well as the academic staff. There was no way that Bethany’s mum, managing on her own since Bethany and Serena’s dad had left, could have paid the fees. It was difficult enough paying for Serena’s guitar lessons and Bethany’s ballet and tap as it was.
Bethany had always dreamed of going to a school like Shine. She and Serena were both very musical – her sister sang and played guitar in a band at school – and Bethany really wanted to be a singer when she was older. Loads of her favourite stars had been to places like Shine and she knew it would be a fantastic opportunity. But she also knew that there was no way they could afford it. She hadn’t even dared to hope for a miracle – she’d just assumed she’d be going to Downsbrook like Serena. At least they had a great music and drama department, and even their own studio theatre. Serena loved it.
Then Miss Collins, the visiting music teacher at Bethany’s primary school, who’d been giving her extra singing lessons, suggested Shine to her mum. She didn’t want to get Bethany’s hopes up, but they did award scholarships for students who really excelled, so…
It took a week for Mrs Adams to decide whether she should even mention it. After all, what if Bethany got really excited about it and then didn’t get in? She would be gutted. Or worse, what if she got a place but not a scholarship? Then she’d know that she was good enough to go and it was all down to money that she couldn’t. But Mrs Adams decided in the end that she just couldn’t let Bethany miss out on this chance.
On the Saturday afternoon, when Serena was out shopping with her friends, Mrs Adams went into their room, where Bethany was lying on her bed, reading one of Serena’s magazines and listening to music on the phone that had been her birthday and Christmas presents combined. She sat down on the bed next to her and pulled out one of Bethany’s earphones. She normally liked the same kind of music as the girls, and she listened along for a bit, nodding to herself.
“Bethany, can we talk for a minute?” she asked eventually, when she felt she couldn’t put it off any longer.
“Mm-hm.” Bethany turned off the music and looked questioningly at her mother.
“You know we had that parents’ evening at school last week?”
“Yeah. You said it was OK! You said Mrs Thomas was really pleased with me,” Bethany said worriedly.
“She was, love, she was. Very pleased. I was talking to that Miss Collins though, about your singing. And she had a-a suggestion.”
Bethany just looked at her curiously.
Mrs Adams twisted her fingers together. “She thinks you should audition for a stage school.”
Bethany sat up straighter. “Wow, really? Did she actually think I might get in?” Her eyes sparkled at the thought. “I mean, I know I couldn’t go, but it’s cool that she thought I was good enough, isn’t it, Mum?”
Bethany’s mum felt furious. It was so unfair that Bethany should be ten years old and already have given up on her dream just because of money. She was too young to have to think like that. She swallowed. “She thinks there’s maybe a chance that you could go,” she said cautiously. “Just a chance, mind.”
Bethany shook her head. “No way, Mum. Serena and I looked online. Have you seen how much those places cost? It’s like thousands of pounds a term!”
“I know.” Bethany’s mum didn’t mention that she’d spent ages looking at the same websites, sadly scribbling sums on little scraps of paper. Bethany was right. There was no way. Unless…
“Miss Collins reckons you could maybe apply for a scholarship. They have them, apparently, at these places. They’d cover the fees and give you something towards your uniform. We’d just have to find the money to get you there every day. She suggested the Shine School – she said she’s got some friends who teach there and it’s very good.”
Bethany was gazing at her like she’d suggested a trip to Disneyworld. “That was one of the websites we looked at, Mum! It’s one of the best schools in the country. Jasmine Day went there!” She waved her phone at her mum – they’d just been listening to Jasmine’s debut album.
“Bethany, listen. It is one of the best schools in the country and it’s incredibly hard to get into. It’s going to be even harder to get a scholarship. And I’m sorry, love, but it’s like you say – the fees are huge. Without the scholarship we couldn’t do it. So it’s probably a thousand to one chance.” She shrugged helplessly at her daughter. “Do you want to try?”
Of course Bethany did. She totally understood everything her mum had said about it being really unlikely she’d get in and get a scholarship, but she had to at least try, didn’t she?
And the thousand to one chance had worked. Bethany thought it was probably because she’d been quite relaxed at the audition – it had all seemed so unlikely that she hadn’t really got too keyed up about it. But now that she was here, it was better than she could ever have imagined, with dance, theatre and music classes every afternoon taught by brilliant teachers. It was just the travelling that was such a nightmare. Still, she had no right to moan. Loads of the students made crazy journeys to get to Shine. She was by no means the only one.
“Of course it’s worth it,” she told Sara, in a voice that was almost naturally cheerful. “I could do without grumpy bus drivers, that’s all. And grumpy French teachers. Ms LeBrun’s going to kill me.”
Sara really wanted to say something encouraging but she had to settle for “Mmmm”. Their French teacher was OK, but she wasn’t known for her patience. “Perhaps if you do really well in this test you could tell her about your book afterwards,” she added hopefully.
“Yeah,” Bethany agreed. “Course, there’s one snag with that.”
&
nbsp; “Mmm, but you’re quite good at French normally. Here, have the book.” Sara thrust the book at Bethany. “I reckon I’ve learned it enough. I wouldn’t like to give Ms LeBrun a heart attack by getting too many right.”
“There they are!” Lily and Chloe raced into the classroom, both grinning, and hurtled to a stop by Sara and Bethany.
“We did it!” Chloe squeaked, dancing up and down. “We got the parts in Little Women, both of us. Can you believe it?”
“That’s brilliant!” Sara gasped. “The parts you wanted?”
Lily nodded. “Yes, I’m going to be Beth and Chloe’s got Amy. It’s just perfect!”
Bethany hugged them both quickly. “That’s so exciting! Well done! Oh wow, it’s amazing, I can’t believe you’re going to be on TV!” She couldn’t help feeling a tiny hint of jealousy. She wished she had an audition – so far she hadn’t even been considered for anything. There was no way she wanted Lily and Chloe to see that though – she really was pleased for them.
Chloe looked like she couldn’t stand still for excitement. “We’re going to be staa-aars!” she sang, twirling around, her curly red hair flying round her head.
“You’re going to have to calm down sometime, Chloe! I bet you didn’t sleep at all!” Sara giggled. “Hey, why didn’t you call us?”
Lily and Chloe exchanged embarrassed glances. “We-ell,” Lily explained slowly. “I didn’t know if Chloe had got a part and she didn’t know if I had—”
“I did ask Ms Shaw but she wouldn’t tell me,” Chloe put in.
“So we both kind of wanted to wait until we’d found that out before we told you. I mean, I don’t think I’d have felt the same way about it if Chloe hadn’t got a part too.”
Chloe nodded. “And it seemed a bit weird to ring up and ask Lily, so I was waiting until this morning. Then we saw each other in the entrance hall and it was totally obvious!”
“I don’t think I’ve stopped grinning since Ms Shaw phoned last night,” Lily agreed.
“What did your mum say?” Bethany asked gently. Lily had been under real pressure from her mum. She was an actress and she’d been desperate for Lily to act too – whatever it took.
Lily smiled and Bethany thought she hadn’t seen her look so relaxed and happy in ages. “That’s the best part! I had this really good talk with my mum after the audition. She’s promised to stop trying to run my life for me!”
“So is she going to back off?” Sara asked.
Lily nodded enthusiastically. “She said she’ll still help with whatever I want but I have to ask her. She’s keeping well out of it. And you know what, now she’s said that, I think I probably will ask her to help me with learning my scenes – she does have really good ideas.”
“Hey, do you think she’d coach me too?” Chloe asked.
Bethany shook her head in amazement. “I totally can’t believe you’re talking about the same person! After what you said on Monday!”
Seeing Lily and Chloe so excited, Bethany couldn’t help feeling that sharp sense of jealousy again.
Why wasn’t this happening for her too?
Coming Soon!
Copyright
STRIPES PUBLISHING LIMITED
An imprint of the Little Tiger Group
1 Coda Studios, 189 Munster Road,
London SW6 6AW
Originally published in Great Britain under the title Lily Under Pressure
by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc in 2007
Text copyright © Holly Webb, 2007, 2019
Illustrations copyright © Monique Dong, 2019
First published as an ebook by Stripes Publishing in 2019
eISBN: 978–1–78895–098–5
The right of Holly Webb and Monique Dong to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work respectively has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved.
Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any forms, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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