Discount Diva (Zodiac Girls)

by Cathy Hopkins

  “Just wondered. What about stubborn?”

  “Definitely,” said Hannah.

  Georgie and Megan both nodded in agreement with her. “Yeah,” they chorused. “Very stubborn.”

  “What do you mean? I’m not, am I? Give me an example.”

  Georgie laughed. “Er… how about not coming on the school trip with the rest of us?”

  I crossed my arms in front of my stomach. “Oh, that.”

  “Yes, that,” said Megan.

  “Ask your planet lady if she thinks you should go,” said Hannah. “Bet she agrees with us.”

  She’d probably tell me to be practical or get misery guts Cronus to tell me to walk there or something equally unhelpful, I thought, but soon realized that was me being stubborn. And I didn’t want to be that. I’ll ask the planet people for advice, I thought. I’d show them who was stubborn or not. I had nothing to lose and I did really want to go to Italy with the others. “Hold on a sec.”

  “Where are you going?” asked Megan as I headed off towards the Ladies.

  “Cloakroom,” I called back. I wanted some privacy to text Nessa on my Zodiac phone and didn’t want them looking over my shoulder.

  Once in the safety of the cubicle, I got the phone out of my rucksack and typed in my question. “Need £££ for ski trp to pasta land. Ny sgestns?”

  A message came back seconds later. “Use ur talents.”

  I texted back. “M a schlgrl. Dnt hv tme.”

  A message came back. “Excuses.”

  I had a feeling that Dr Cronus was somehow hogging the line. I texted back. “Isnt thre ny1 else thre bsdes Saturn?”

  This time, there was no return text but a minute later, my phone rang. It was Nessa. Phew, I thought.

  “Okay,” she said. “I checked over your chart again. There was the encounter with Pluto and Saturn earlier today. ’ow did you get on?”

  “PJ’s way cool,” I said, “but Dr Cronus isn’t exactly a bundle of fun, is he?”

  Nessa laughed. “Oh, ’e ’as ’is moments but I did tell you that ’e’s known as the task master of the zodiac. The one who ’as lessons to teach. Listen to what ’e ’as to say, Tori. It’s for your own good and ’e’s on the level, really ’e is.”

  I wonder if he ever gets on to her about dropping her H’s when she speaks, I wondered but decided not to ask. “I get enough lessons at school. Isn’t there anything else in my chart? Anything nice?”

  “Everybody’s chart is a mixture,” Nessa replied. “But it’s what you make of it that makes the difference and makes it nice or not. Sometimes what you resist, persists. But ’old on, there is a good aspect to Jupiter comin’ up, that should be okay.”

  “That’s Joe isn’t it? Jupiter. The one with the deli. Jupiter’s the planet of jollity and expansion isn’t it?”

  “On the nail, darlin’,” said Nessa.

  “So what does that mean then? A good aspect to Jupiter?”

  “Well, where it’s placed in your chart usually means good luck of some sort. It can mean winnings out of the blue or unexpected windfalls.”

  I punched the air. That was more the sort of thing I wanted to hear. Better than old Cronus’s ideas. “Excellent.”

  “And I was thinkin’ about your Italy trip,” said Nessa. “Why not suggest to one of your teachers that they ’old a raffle? With the money raised, maybe it can sponsor one student on the trip.”

  Ya-ay, I thought. What a totally brill idea. Nessa is so nice. I am so glad that she’s my guardian and not old killjoy. I had a feeling that as the idea had come from Nessa and I was her Zodiac Girl and Jupiter was jolly and about windfalls and such, that I would win if there was a raffle. That was what she was trying to tell me. I just knew it.

  “Thanks, Nessa.”

  “That’s what I’m ’ere for innit? And come by and meet Joe some time,” she said. “He runs the deli in Osbury. Bring your mum. They can talk cakes. He always loves to meet a fella cook.”

  “Okay, will do.” I said. I might leave out the fact that he’s supposedly the planet Jupiter here in human form though, I thought. Mum would think I had been taking drugs if I told her that.

  As I went out to join the others, my mouth fell open. Who was standing there outside the cinema as if she was waiting for someone? Our teacher, Miss Creighton! I could hardly believe my eyes. It was clearly meant to be. Part of a plan. Part of a “get Tori to Italy” plan. Magic, I thought as I went straight out to her and told her about the raffle idea.

  “Excellent idea, Tori,” she said. “I’ll get it organized first thing on Monday morning as there are a couple of places still not taken. What a clever girl you are.”

  I beamed back at her. Italy, here I come, I thought.

  Chapter Eleven

  Acceptance

  I beamed out at the envious faces in front of me. “Thank you so much for this wonderful prize,” I said and then smiled modestly. “And I can assure you I shall do my very best to have the most fantastic time ever.”

  And then everyone would cheer as I got down from the stage with my ticket to Venice in my hand.

  That was my fantasy anyway. Soon to become a reality.

  True to her promise, Miss Creighton had put the raffle plan into effect and she confided in me that there had been a fantastic response. By Thursday, she said that there was enough in the kitty to send at least one pupil on the trip. I knew the prize was mine not only because Nessa had hinted at it but also on Monday night, a message had come through from old Cronus-socks. “Learn acceptance,” it said.

  I knew exactly what he meant and so every evening after school, in front of the mirror on my chest of drawers in my bedroom, I practised my acceptance speech. I tried a variety of expressions for when Miss Creighton announced that the winning ticket was mine. Surprise. Quiet dignity. Just a smile. Modest but thankful.

  “What on earth are you doing?” asked Will on Friday morning. I’d left my bedroom door ajar and he caught me at it. It was the day of the draw and I still hadn’t decided what expression to go for when I was announced as the winner and called up in front of the school.

  “Say one won something fab,” I said. “How do you think one ought to look?”

  “One? Who’s one?”

  “Me duffhead. Say I’m one. The one. Say I won something. How should I look when it’s announced.”

  Will shrugged. “Dunno. Don’t care. Why? What are you expecting to win?”

  “A holiday.”

  “Can I come?”

  “No.”

  “How do you know you’ve won or that one’s won?”

  “Because Jupiter is favourably aspected in my horoscope.”

  “Oh that rubbish,” he scoffed. “Astrology’s a load of cobblers you know. Some stupid journalist is paid to make it all up so that suckers like you will read your horoscope in the paper and think that their lives are going to improve.”

  “That’s not true. At least not all of it. The stuff you read in the papers might be made up but if you have your own personalised birthchart done then it’s actually scientific.”

  “Yeah right. How do you know?”

  I didn’t know but I wasn’t going to tell him that. “I know because my brain is far superior to yours on account of the fact that I am a girl. So come on. You must have an opinion. Okay. This is me being told the prize is mine.”

  I quickly ran through my practised expressions for him. Surprise. Joy. Dignified acceptance etc. He burst out laughing.

  “Looks like you’ve eaten something dodgy and need the loo really badly,” he said.

  I rolled my eyes up to the ceiling. “I don’t know why I bothered to ask you.”

  “Okay, you should do it like those people on the Oscars, I guess. Just don’t start blabbing like a baby and thanking everyone from your parents to the milkman.”

  “Tori, can you come here a moment?” Mum called from her bedroom.

  I grabbed my rucksack and went to see what she wanted. She put a finger up
to her lips, beckoned me inside her room and shut the door.

  “What’s the big secret?” I asked.

  “Dan,” she said. “I’ve put a birthday present aside for him at the cyber café shop in Osbury. You know the one with the computers at the back and the novelty items at the front. It’s a computer game that he’s had his eye on for ages.” She handed me a twenty pound note. “I called yesterday and said that someone would be in to collect the game tonight. I might not finish work until the shop is shut so can you pop over there after school?”

  I nodded. “Sure. I know exactly where the shop is.”

  “Excellent,” said Mum. “And we’ll have a lovely time tomorrow hey? You have invited the Crazy Maisies to the party haven’t you?”

  “Er… I think they’re busy,” I said, “but I’ll try again.”

  I hadn’t asked them because, as always, I didn’t want to take the risk of one of them asking too many questions about when the house would be finished and blowing my cover. What they didn’t know about, they wouldn’t miss.

  Mum gave me the money and after a last check in the mirror, I set off for school. I couldn’t wait. In just over an hour, my place on the school trip would be secure. I had already laid out the clothes that I was going to take and earlier in the week at school, I had happily joined in with all the talk about where we were going to go and what we were going to see and what we were going to wear. I’d wear my Susie Tsang dress, it would look so cool with some black shades. And I’d buy some red lipstick. I’d seen models in the glossies wearing it really bright this year. Cherry red was the new red.

  The rest of the Crazy Maisies didn’t know that my only chance of going was the raffle. They thought it was a done deal and that I’d changed my mind after the movie outing and signed and paid up like they had. It would be okay when they saw me win the prize. I’d just explain that I wanted to support the raffle.

  Assembly was the usual boring mix of announcements and readings then at last, Miss Creighton took the microphone and the hall grew quiet. She was carrying a small hat that she put on the podium in front of her.

  As she looked out at the expectant faces, I took a deep breath and tried to calm the rising feeling of excitement.

  “I know a lot of you have been waiting for this morning and I’m not going to keep you in suspense much longer although I would like to thank everyone for the fantastic response we’ve had. So now… the name of the person with the winning ticket.”

  She put her hand in the hat and pulled out a ticket.

  “And that person is…” The silence seemed to go on forever. And ever. And ever.

  I had to hold myself back from heading for the stage.

  “Jane Brightman,” said Miss Creighton at last.

  I almost fell over as one of my feet set off for the stage and the rest of my body held back. A cheer went up from the other side of the hall and a flushed Jane Brightman went up onto the stage.

  I was stunned and I’m sure my face registered an expression not practised in the mirror that week. Horror!

  “You all right?” asked Georgie. “You looked like you were about to fall over.”

  I nodded. “Umpf. Felt a bit faint… Didn’t have any breakfast…”

  My stomach sank and I felt as if my heart was about to break as my fantasy disappeared before my eyes and became a reality in front of Jane’s. Now I knew what Dr Cronus’s message had really meant. Prepare for acceptance. Acceptance that someone else had won my freaking prize. Messages from Dr C really were a bad omen.

  Chapter Twelve

  Planet Earth to Tori

  The rest of the day at school went by in a blur as my mind went through my options – or lack of them. What was I to tell the girls now that there was no way that I could go to Italy? I’d have to fake illness or insanity. Or both. Something. Maybe it was for the best. Maybe winning the ticket wouldn’t have been enough anyway. There was still other stuff I’d have needed for the trip: clothes, make-up, snack money, mags for the plane. Mum could never have given me the money for that. If I was realistic, it had all been a dream. That’s what I had to accept. Never mind planets in the sky. I had to come down to where I really was. Planet earth to Tori. I was a poor girl from a poor family.

  Megan, Hannah and Georgie were very sweet to me all day, like they knew that something was wrong but couldn’t figure what. They fell for my “not feeling well” line and shared their sweets at breaktime and Hannah did my nails at lunch. And Georgie and Megan tried to make me laugh by doing the zombie shuffle dance that I had invented last Christmas. It involved making your eyes cross, letting your mouth go slack like you’re going to dribble, bending the knees slightly then shuffling along slowly in a line. We always ended up on the floor laughing whenever we did it and seeing Georgie and Meg trying so hard and acting so mad did make me smile, but underneath their being nice to me only made me feel worse. I didn’t deserve friends like them.

  Dr Cronus had clearly foreseen what was going to happen, I thought. At least he tried to warn me. And maybe he had been trying to help with his suggestions about me making money through my art.

  I played over my conversation with him again to see if I had missed something. And what had Nessa said about Jupiter? Unexpected windfalls. What was that all about?

  At lunch break, I checked my mobile to see if there were any other messages on there. Anything that would give me a clue as to what to do next.

  There were three voicemails.

  Two from Nessa. Her first said, “Your moon is in Cancer, Tori. This means an emotional time.” That probably refers to just now in assembly, I thought, that was waaaaay emotional.

  The second message said: “It’s not over until it’s over.”

  Did that mean there was hope? It wasn’t over yet? I didn’t know any more.

  I listened to the third message. It was from Mr O. “Take a chance,” he said.

  Take a chance. On what? The raffle was over. I hadn’t won despite my good aspect to Jupiter. I was beginning to think that Will was right. Astrology was for suckers. And I was sucker of the week.

  As the afternoon classes droned on, I played and replayed everything that had happened since I’d been told that I was a Zodiac Girl. Despite everything, I did want it to mean something. Maybe I’d missed what they were trying to tell me.

  Take a chance. Take a chance? What did Mr O mean by that? And then it hit me. Of course! It wasn’t the raffle I was meant to win. It never was. That was just to show me that things could happen. Unexpected things. But I had to make what I wanted happen.

  I could hardly wait for school to be over so that I could get out and put my plan B into operation. Mission millionaire. I knew exactly how I was going to do it.

  “Aren’t you coming for a cafe latte?” Megan called after me as I charged out of school gates. “We’re going to Maxwells.”

  “Later,” I said. “Got to pick up something for Mum, for Dan. Sorry. Urgent.”

  I raced off towards the bus stop leaving the girls looking at me with puzzled expressions on their faces. I didn’t want to say too much in case they decided to tag along and I didn’t want any witnesses when I put my plan into action.

  I got the bus to Osbury and once there, headed for the nearest newsagent. When this works out, I’ll go and meet this Joe Jupiter person, I thought as I opened the door to the shop and went in.

  “Yes, young lady,” said the man behind the counter.

  I counted my money out. I had the twenty pounds that Mum had given me for Dan’s present and four pounds left from my car boot sales money. I took a deep breath. It’s now or never, I thought. Take a chance.

  “Yes, young lady?” said the man again.

  For a moment, I almost turned on my heel and ran out of the shop but a voice in my head was urging me on. Take a chance, take a chance, take a chance. I had to be Zodiac Girl for some reason, I thought. So I shouldn’t chicken out now. Now is my chance to change my life. And that of my family.

&nbs
p; I handed the money to him. “Twenty four scratch cards please.”

  The man regarded me with suspicion.

  “For my mum,” I said.

  “How old are you?”

  “Sixteen,” I lied. “Anyway, the cards are for my mum.”

  The man briefly glanced out of the window and I sensed that he was having doubts about selling them to me but suddenly he sighed. “Feeling lucky is she, your mum?”

  “No. I am. Um… that’s why she sent me.”

  “Right then. Which ones do you want? Lucky stars or tombola.”

  I almost burst out laughing. It was obvious which ones I should pick. “Oh lucky stars,” I grinned back at him.

  “Do you want the ones for the top prize of fifty thousand or one hundred thousand?”

  “One hundred thousand.”

  He peeled off cards and gave them to me. “Tell your ma to lend us a fiver if she wins,” he said with a wink.

  “I’ll do that,” I said.

  Once outside, I scanned the green for somewhere private where I could go and see how much I had won. I could hardly wait.

  At the other end of the village was a church and a church hall and next to that was the bus shelter. That’ll do, I thought and set off as fast as I could.

  The shelter smelt damp and musty from last night’s rain but I found myself a corner and set about scratching. The amounts you could win varied: £1, £10, £100, £1000 or £100,000.

  I could hardly breathe with excitement as I scratched off the first card. One star appeared. I only had to get three stars and I’d get a prize. I scratched again. A cherry. And a square. Nope this card wasn’t my lucky one.

  Never mind. I had twenty three more to go. One of them was bound to be a winner. Maybe even more than one, I thought as a rush of excitement surged through me.

  Onto the next.

  One star. A square. And a circle.

  Next.

  Two lemons and a square.

  On I scratched. Triangles. Squares. Circles. Cherries. Lemon but no more stars until there was only one Scratch card left.

  “Please, please let this be the one,” I prayed. “Please let Jupiter and his aspects work some magic.”