Sam in the Spotlight

by Anne-Marie Conway

  “Phoebe! What are you doing?” said Mandy, shocked. “I thought things had calmed down since our session of trust games.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Monty B. “I’ll keep her under control. It’s her temper, you see.”

  Phoebe raised her hand to hit him as well and then dropped it again, sighing.

  We went over and over the opening number while Julian played around with the sound effects. Finally, when he was happy, Mandy sent us off to have a break.

  “Hey, Sam, we found a home for the last of the puppies yesterday,” Adam said, taking a sandwich out of his bag. We were all sitting together in a big group and so far I’d managed to avoid any direct eye contact with him. Keep A Low Profile…that was my latest coping strategy. It was obvious he fancied Catharine, but that didn’t stop me acting like an idiot every time I was anywhere near him. “Mum’s quite relieved in a way,” he went on. “They’re terrible chewers, you know. They’d destroyed three of my exercise books already!”

  “Oh, Riley’s a terrible chewer as well,” I said, forgetting my strategy in the blink of an eye. “You should have seen him last night when he got hold of my new bra…” The word was out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying. “I mean my new braaaaaaaaaa…” I repeated, stretching the last sound out while I desperately tried to think of something else to say. “My new braaaaaaaan jumper. Hahaha!”

  Adam looked at me as if I was deranged. “What do you mean, your new braaaaaaaan jumper?”

  Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at us.

  “I know what she means,” said Monty B. “I’ve got a braaaaaaaan jumper myself. My nan knitted it for me. It’s a kind of cross between your ordinary brown and a sort of green army colour.”

  “What?” said Adam.

  “I thought I had the only one actually. It’s not exactly the coolest colour combination in the world, is it, Sam?”

  I snorted into my script. I didn’t have a clue what Monty B was on about but I could’ve literally kissed him for coming to my rescue.

  Back at Aunty Mags’s I sat on the couch cuddling Riley, thinking about Stevie and the Stingrays and how weird it was to find out something so crazy about my own dad.

  “Are you okay, love?” said Aunty Mags, coming in with a pot of tea and some biscuits. “It’s your school fireworks tonight, isn’t it? I could drop you up there if you want.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not going. I’m not in the mood.”

  Aunty Mags sat down next to me on the couch. “How was drama today? Is the show going well?”

  I nodded, cuddling in to Aunty Mags and helping myself to a biscuit. “It was brilliant. Mandy’s boyfriend Julian was there, sorting out the music and sound effects. It’s going to be such a great show. I just wish my mum would realize how serious I am about acting. She carries on and on as if being on the stage would be a fate worse than death – and now I find out that my boring old dad, who works in a boring old bank, was in a band. It just doesn’t make sense. I know he’s always humming and tapping his feet and singing random songs from the past, but that’s not the same as being in a band. Why do you think he’s never told me?”

  Aunty Mags shrugged. “I don’t know, darling, he doesn’t really talk about it any more, but I guess it explains where you get your love of performing from, eh?”

  “I suppose so, but I still don’t get it. I mean why did he leave Stevie and the Stingrays if they were doing so well?”

  “It was because of the baby, Sam. You see, when your dad found out your mum was expecting Crystal, he knew he couldn’t carry on with the band. They were travelling all over the place, playing at a different venue every night of the week. He didn’t want to put your mum through that. He was good though – really good – but your mum always came first. They met at a gig, you know.”

  “No way! But Mum’s so serious about everything. I always thought she fell in love with Dad when he was already working at the bank.”

  “Nope, she met him before that. She was only eighteen, all set to go off to uni, when she went to see Stevie and the Stingrays. Your dad says he spotted her the second he walked out onstage. He says it was as if everyone else in the crowd just disappeared.”

  “But whenever I’ve asked my mum where she met my dad, she’s always said it was through an old friend.”

  Aunty Mags grinned. “Well, that’s because your mum was at the gig with me.”

  “You mean you were the friend?” My mouth fell open. It was all falling into place. “What about the band? What happened to Stevie and the others when Dad left?”

  “They never really recovered, to tell you the truth. They tried out a few new guitarists, but none of them worked out.”

  “But if Mum fell in love with Dad when he was in a band, why is she so dead set against Crystal going out with Tyler?”

  Aunty Mags put her arm round me and pulled me close for a cuddle, Riley squashed between us in the middle. “She’s just worried, Sam. She just doesn’t want Crystal to make the same mistakes she made – not that meeting your dad was a mistake – but she was so young and…”

  “Well, the thing is,” I said, suddenly desperate to tell her about the wedding.

  “The thing is what?” she said.

  And then my phone rang.

  And it was Ellie.

  And she was crying.

  “I’ve been dumped!” she sobbed down the phone. “Eddie has just dumped me with a TEXT! Can you come over right now, Sam… Please!”

  I gave Aunty Mags a hug, told her I had to go – and left before she could ask any questions. Crystal’s wedding and all of that would have to wait. I literally ran all the way over to Ellie’s. I didn’t care about the row or anything, I just wanted to see her. She was still crying when she opened the door.

  “Can you believe it?” she sobbed, dragging me in. “A text!”

  “What happened? What did he say?”

  She opened her phone and held it up to show me:

  2 busy revising 2 c u…lets cool things…btw can I have my grey hoodie back?

  “I know he’s got exams coming up but he kept saying he wasn’t bothered, that revising was for idiots.”

  “He’s the idiot! And what a cheek – asking for his grey hoodie back!”

  “But that’s the worst thing,” she spluttered. “You won’t believe it, Sam, but I’ve only gone and…”

  “…lost it?” I finished for her. “Oh Ellie, trust you.” I gave her a look and she half-grinned at me through her tears and suddenly we were laughing and laughing until we were bent over, clutching hold of the banister.

  “It’s not funny,” she moaned. “I’ve been so stupid…”

  “He’s the one who’s stupid,” I said. “All boys are stupid.”

  I decided right that second not to tell her about the girl in the park. There didn’t seem to be any point.

  “Hey, let’s go upstairs,” she said, pulling my arm. “I don’t want my mum to know. She’d been nagging me to stop seeing Eddie for ages. Ever since I met him.”

  It was weird being back in Ellie’s room. I sat on the edge of the bed, not sure if everything was okay between us or not.

  “I meant it, you know,” she said, sitting down next to me. “I have been stupid. My mum warned me and you warned me but I was too stubborn to listen and you don’t know what it’s been like. He kept telling me who to talk to and who to be friends with and everything.”

  “But why didn’t you just tell him to get lost?”

  Ellie shrugged. “It was just so exciting when we met at the disco on holiday. And then I kept hoping it could be like that again, but it wasn’t. He just wanted to hang out with his friends and it was so boring and he kept saying horrible things about you all the time.”

  “What a creep!” I said.

  “I know, and remember what I always used to say? Friends First…”

  “Yeah, but it’s my fault as well. I kept going on and on at you and…I was a tiny bit jealous, if you want to
know the truth.” I blushed a bit. “I just thought that, you know, I’d be the first one to have a boyfriend.”

  “But he wasn’t even my boyfriend. Not really. Anyway, what about you and Adam? He asked you back to his house that day after drama, didn’t he?”

  “He did, but then when I turned up he was out with Catharine! I don’t know if they’re actually going out, but he obviously wasn’t bothered about waiting in to see me. I felt like a right lemon.”

  “No, he’s the lemon,” said Ellie. “Eddie’s an idiot and Adam’s a lemon and we don’t need either of them!”

  We had a brilliant afternoon. It was just like old times. We talked and talked and listened to music and tried out some of the dances we’d learned for the show. When Aunty Mags called to see what time I was coming home, Ellie begged me to stay.

  “Come on, Sam, please. We haven’t had a sleepover for ages.”

  It was supposed to be my last night at Aunty Mags’s – Mum and Dad weren’t due back till gone midnight – but she said it was fine and that I should just pop over to pick up my stuff before it got too late.

  We decided to go back together. We ran down the road, holding hands in the dark.

  “You realize we’re missing the school fireworks tonight,” I said, as a rocket exploded above us and hundreds of tiny stars sprayed out across the sky.

  “I’m so not in the mood,” said Ellie. “How about you?”

  I smiled, shaking my head. “That’s exactly what I said to Aunty Mags just before you rang.”

  When we got there, Ellie played with Riley while I went upstairs to pack my things. I had one last look at the scrapbook and then left it on my bed for Aunty Mags.

  “It’s nice to see you two are friends again,” said Aunty Mags when I came down. “Life’s too short to fight.”

  I gave her the biggest hug, squeezing as tight as I could. “Thanks for a brilliant week and thanks for telling me about Dad,” I whispered. “Maybe we can find some way to get Stevie and the Stingrays back together…”

  She hugged me back, laughing. “Have a lovely time. And listen, if you really want to be an actress, if you’re that serious about it…”

  “I am, Aunty Mags. I want it more than anything.”

  “Well, then you’ll make it happen, sweetheart. I know you will.”

  Back at Ellie’s we sat about in our pyjamas, watching the first two Star Maker shows on DVD, even though we’d already seen them about a million times before. Our favourite bit out of both shows is when Monty B dresses up as a Christmas fairy in this hilarious song called “Scream!”

  “And Eddie kept saying drama was for losers!” joked Ellie, as Monty B pranced about the stage in his pink tutu. We played it over and over, leaping around the room pretending to be Monty B and screaming at the tops of our voices, until Ellie’s mum came in to see what was going on.

  “Sorry,” said Ellie. “We didn’t realize we were being so noisy. Hey, you haven’t seen my grey hoodie, have you, Mum? Like, in the wash or something? Only I can’t find it anywhere.”

  Ellie’s mum rolled her eyes and we started to giggle. “What are you two like?” she said, and in a funny sort of way it was as if the last two months had never happened.

  I waited until the lights were out and we were snuggled under the covers before I told Ellie about Crystal. Ellie was in her bed and I was on one of those blow-up mattresses next to her. I couldn’t see her face, but every now and then she whispered “No way”, and “You’re joking”, and “I don’t believe it”.

  “It’s such a relief to talk about it,” I said after a bit, hugging my pillow and trying not to cry.

  “And your mum’s got no idea?”

  I stared up into the darkness. “No, she doesn’t know about them getting married or that it’s on the same day as Sophia Malone’s wedding. Something happened between my mum and Crystal on the night of Crystal’s eighteenth birthday. Crystal told Mum that she was giving up her place at uni and it sparked off this massive row and my mum said something and now Crystal’s waiting for her to say sorry. The thing is, my mum’s in such a state about Crystal living with Tyler and giving up her place at uni that I don’t think she even realizes how hurt Crystal is.”

  “So what did your mum say to Crystal that night?”

  “I don’t know. That’s what’s so frustrating. No one will tell me. And that’s not all – I just found out yesterday that my dad used to be in a band.”

  “Whoa! You’re really starting to worry me now, Sam! Your dad, in a band?”

  “I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve seen the newspaper cuttings. It’s true, Ellie. He used to play guitar in a band called Stevie and the Stingrays. They were really big, like twenty years ago.”

  “But your dad?” said Ellie weakly.

  “I know; I can’t believe it either. Anyway, all this stuff’s been happening, and I’ve been trying to work out what to do about Crystal and Mum, but it’s all such a mess and I haven’t been able to tell anyone…”

  The words hung in the dark between us.

  “I mean, you know, because it was a secret…”

  “No it’s okay,” said Ellie quietly. She climbed into my bed and cuddled up close. “I know I’ve been a terrible friend. I don’t know what was wrong with me. Eddie said all these awful things about you and I just believed him. It’s like he reprogrammed my brain or something. I am never going to put a boy in front of my friends again.”

  “He didn’t reprogram your brain, Ellie,” I said, giggling. “It’s called hormones. Oh, and talking of hormones, that reminds me. Arthur isn’t interested in Mandy at all – it’s Mrs. Beagle he’s in love with.”

  “No way!” Ellie snorted. “Mrs. Beagle?”

  “I know, it’s hilarious, isn’t it?”

  “Oh, my darling Mrs. Beagle! I cannot keep my feelings trapped inside me for one moment longer!” Ellie squealed, throwing the covers off and leaping on top of me.

  “Oi, get off!” I shrieked, pushing her away.

  We sat up, out of breath and laughing.

  “Seriously though, Sam,” said Ellie, when she’d got her breath back, “this stuff about Crystal and her wedding… You have got to tell your mum. Like, straight away. Imagine if Crystal went ahead with the wedding and then your mum found out that you’d known about it all along.”

  I knew Ellie was right. It was only three weeks until the wedding and no matter how angry Mum was with Crystal, it would break her heart for ever if Crystal got married without telling her – and even though Crystal would never admit it, I think it would break her heart as well. She might say that Tyler was her family now, but I bet if she got married without Mum knowing she’d end up regretting it for the rest of her life.

  I walked home the next morning after breakfast determined to tell Mum and Dad everything. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. When Mum found out about the wedding she’d probably go off like the biggest firework of all time – I could literally imagine her pinging off the walls – but it had to be done. I let myself in and stood for a second in the hall.

  “Bonjour!” I called out. “Is anyone here?”

  “Sam?”

  It was Mum. I looked up. She was standing at the top of the stairs, clutching something in her hand.

  “What’s the matter?” I said.

  She didn’t say anything. She just stood there, frozen.

  “What’s the matter?” I said again. “Why are you standing there like that? You’re freaking me out…”

  “What’s this?” she said in the end.

  I couldn’t see what it was, she was too far up the stairs, but suddenly I knew. My heart started to bang against my ribs.

  It was the invitation to Crystal’s wedding.

  I raced up the stairs three at a time and snatched the invitation out of Mum’s hand. I felt like I’d betrayed Crystal and Mum all at the same time.

  “I was going to tell you today, I swear. I know you won’t believe me but it’s true – you can ask
Ellie…”

  “I don’t understand,” said Mum. Big tears started to roll down her face. “Crystal can’t be getting married. She’s only known Tyler for five minutes. You don’t get married when you’re eighteen…”

  I pulled a tissue out of my pocket. “Mum, stop crying. You’ve just got to sort things out. I mean, you got married young, didn’t you?”

  “Dave!” Mum shouted out to Dad.

  “Hang on,” he called back, “I’m on the phone.”

  She sank down onto the top stair. “I know why she’s doing this,” she said weakly. “It’s to punish me. It’s not because she loves Tyler or anything. She’s only doing it because she knows it’s the one thing that would—”

  “No, she really loves Tyler,” I interrupted. “You should see how she talks about him. How proud she is. He’s about to get a recording contract and everything…”

  Mum snorted into her tissue. “Do me a favour…”

  “What’s going on?” said Dad, coming out of their bedroom.

  Mum took the invitation out of my hand and held it up to him. The tears started to run down her face again.

  “Do something, Dave. Go and talk to her – she won’t listen to me. Go round there and bring her home, please.”

  Dad was staring at the invitation, his mouth tight.

  “I knew something like this would happen,” he said, getting angry. “I can’t just go round there and drag her back. I told you to sort things out months ago, Rosy. Why have you let things get so out of hand?”

  Mum jumped up and pulled his arm. She was desperate. “I did try and sort it out. I called and called but she wouldn’t speak to me or see me. Just go round there,” she sobbed. “Go round there and say we’re sorry and that we want her back with us. That she can start her course next year.”

  Dad pulled his arm away. “No, Rosy! I’ll go round there but I’m not going to start a row. Crystal needs to know we love her no matter what she decides to do with her life.”

  He grabbed a jacket from his room and ran downstairs. I raced down after him. “Tell her it wasn’t my fault,” I said. “I don’t want her to think I told you. She trusted me.”