by Lyn Gardner
“Now,” said Alicia briskly, although her voice shook a little. “As I’m sure many of you have already heard, sadly we were unsuccessful in our bid to buy the derelict building next door. I won’t deny that I’m disappointed, as it would have been a wonderful opportunity to expand the school. I don’t know who has bought the land or what they’re planning to do with it, but there has been no demolition or building work so far. I just hope that when they do start it won’t prove too disruptive to our work here, which will, of course, continue as usual. I’m sure I don’t need to tell any of you this, but you are not to go anywhere near the building site. Such places can be very dangerous, so I want you all to promise me to keep away. I don’t want any accidents.” Alicia gave a little shudder.
Then, using all her acting skills, she broke into a huge smile. “Now, I have some other news that I think you will all find far more fascinating. Some of you may have read rumours on the Internet and in the media that a big new production of Peter Pan is being planned for the West End this summer, one using child professionals rather than adult actors in the main roles. Well, I’m delighted to be able to tell you that the rumours are true and everything will be announced at a press conference tomorrow morning.” A little buzz of excitement passed around the hall. “The good news is that this is a real opportunity for those of you who hope to work this term and who don’t already have contracts in other shows. As soon as I hear about audition dates I’ll let you know, but they could be as early as next week. The bad news is that the roles of Peter Pan and Wendy have already been cast.” A groan went up from some parts of the hall. Alicia looked at everyone and her eyes were sparkling. She continued, “But as this is turning into one of those good news/bad news assemblies, the good news is that the roles have gone to Swan children.”
The children looked at each other, puzzled. Who could it be? Normally everybody knew when someone was trying out for a role. That kind of secret just couldn’t be kept at the Swan, and in any case, Alicia always insisted on total transparency when it came to auditions so that Swan pupils could be supportive of each other rather than seeing each other as rivals. Alicia clapped her hands and everyone fell silent again.
“Later today we will have two brand-new pupils starting at the Swan and they will be staying with us for as long as they are rehearsing and appearing in Peter Pan. I’m sure that you will all do your best to make them feel welcome here.”
“Oh, Miss Swan, you’re killing us!” called William Todd. “Don’t keep us in suspense. Who is it?”
Alicia smiled. “I was just coming to that.” Ever the actress, she paused for such a long time the listening children thought they might burst, and then said, “Our newest Swan pupils are two people whose names I know will be familiar to you all: Cosmo and Cosima Wood.”
The room exploded into gasps and cheers. Everybody had heard of Cosmo and Cosima Wood, the twelve-year-old American twins who were the youngest of a distinguished American acting dynasty even more famous than the Barrymores or the Redgraves. Members of the Wood family had been appearing on stage without skipping a generation since the early nineteenth century.
Cosmo and Cosima had been performing almost since the day they were born. They had their own TV series and their own clothing range and they often appeared in the pages of the gossip magazines, frequently dressed in his’n’her versions of the same outfit. They had lived their entire lives in the spotlight: their father, Jasper Wood, had been on stage playing Hamlet at the Lincoln Center in New York on the night his wife, the famous actress Melissa Drew, gave birth to the twins. At the curtain call he had stepped forward, quietened the rapturous applause and announced the news by declaring, “Tonight there are two new additions to the Wood family business: a brilliant actor and actress have been born.” Jasper and Melissa had divorced a few months later but the twins had stayed in the US with their dad after their mother gave up acting and moved to Greece to marry a shipping heir. She’d quickly had more children and had almost no contact with Cosmo and Cosima, although she had once referred to them in an interview with a Greek newspaper as “my lost babies”.
Alicia let the children talk for a few more seconds before clapping her hands for silence. “I have every confidence that you will all treat Cosmo and Cosima as you would any fellow professional and make their stay here in London as happy as possible, and their time at the Swan a memorable one,” she said, looking at her watch. “Please go to your first lessons of the afternoon. The bell will ring any minute.”
The children began to move out of the hall still talking animatedly to each other. They were used to rubbing shoulders with famous people: the Swan already boasted the offspring of several celebrities as pupils, and it had produced more than its fair share of stars. But the Swan had never had anyone quite as famous as the Wood twins before.
“So that explains all the photographers hanging around outside,” said Tom.
“And those men in suits really are bodyguards like you see in the movies!” added Aeysha.
Olivia nodded. “I really did want to tell you all but I’d given my word to Gran that I wouldn’t. But you will all come to tea after school to meet Cosmo and Cosima, won’t you? They’re going to be in our class. They’re going to be doing some work with Gran and Mr Shaw this afternoon, but Gran wants to make sure that they recognise some friendly faces when they arrive after the press conference tomorrow.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for anything,” said Aeysha before she rushed away to her jazz class.
“Cake and the Wood twins, that’s not an invite anyone could turn down! I wonder which will be nicer?” said Tom, walking towards singing in the Callas Room with Olivia. He noticed his friend’s pale, closed face. “Is everything all right, Liv?” he asked. “You look a bit glum.”
Before Olivia could answer, the bell sounded loudly. It was as though it was some kind of cue, because the second it died away there was a huge roar of noise from the building site next door, with lots of banging and the high-pitched squeal and shudder of drills. It sounded as if somebody had turned on all the machinery at once. Olivia and Tom stared at each other. It felt as if the Swan was suddenly at the centre of an angry, deafening thunderstorm.
Chapter Three
Cosmo and Cosima Wood stood in the middle of the Judi Dench rehearsal room on the first floor of the Swan. They were playing Wendy and Peter in a scene from Peter Pan, watched closely by Alicia and Sebastian Shaw.
“Peter, how old are you?” asked Cosima, sounding as if she had absolutely no interest in the answer.
“I don’t know, but quite young, Wendy,” replied Cosmo with a strange transatlantic twang that made him sound half Californian and half Cockney, a bit like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. “I ran away the day I was born.”
“Ran away? Why?” asked Cosima, raising her arms stiffly on the word “why” as if she was trying to round up a herd of particularly stubborn cows. Alicia could feel Sebastian glance her way. She resisted meeting his eye: she knew exactly what he was thinking, and it wasn’t encouraging. “Why?” hissed Cosima again, more loudly this time.
“Because I heard Father and Mother talking of what I was to be when I became a man. I want always to be a little boy and have fun…” Cosmo’s next few words were drowned out by a terrible racket from the building site next door. The floor of the rehearsal room trembled slightly as if it was complaining.
Cosmo broke off and raised his eyes to the heavens. “They warned me that conditions in West End theatre were primitive,” he drawled, “but nobody told me that I’d be trying to act on a demolition site.” He looked at his sister and added nastily: “It’s tough enough having to act with someone like Cosi who demolishes the meaning of the text at every opportunity.”
“Zip it, Cosmo. Nobody cares what you think,” his sister replied.
“Children, children…” began Alicia, but she got no further because the terrible noise started up again.
Almost immediately the door flew open and Pablo a
ppeared in the doorway, his eyes flashing. “This is impossible! This noise has scrambled my brain. My poor little ducklings, they shake like leaves in a big storm when they are on the wire. We cannot work in these conditions. Miss Alicia, I beg of you, please stop this noise! It is monstrous.”
Alicia sighed. “I’ll go and talk to whoever is running the site,” she said wearily. “Please take Cosmo and Cosima up to my flat, Sebastian. It’s almost time for the final afternoon bell anyway. Olivia and Eel and their friends will be coming up for tea shortly. Would you mind putting the kettle on?”
As she turned to go, Cosima blurted out loudly, “I can’t do this. I can’t play Wendy on stage. I just can’t do it. I’ve told Dad but he just bawls me out. Why won’t someone listen?”
Alicia turned back. Cosmo raised his eyes to the heavens and said, “Oh no, here we go again, the princess is whining. Cut it out, Cosi. Dad and I are fed up with your moaning twenty-four seven.”
Alicia frowned at him before turning to Cosima. “Of course you’ll be able to play Wendy,” she said kindly. “I’m going to make sure that you will. That’s my job. You just need more self-belief, Cosi. You’re going to be fine.”
Cosima said nothing, but she shook her head sadly.
“Jeez, yes,” said Cosmo. “She’s going to be just awesome. I don’t think.”
“Cosmo!” said Alicia warningly and there was something in her tone that made him stop, and even look a little bashful.
“Sorry,” he muttered, popping a wad of gum into his mouth. She opened the door of the rehearsal room and found her way blocked by the two man-mountains that were the twins’ minders. They eyed her with suspicion before stepping aside reluctantly.
Alicia set off downstairs. The noise was deafening and all classes seemed to have ended prematurely. She felt as if she was centuries old. Normally she loved the first day of term, but it had been a very stressful afternoon. For a start, there had been the threatening phone call, with the anonymous voice at the end of the line trying to persuade her yet again to sell the Swan for a ludicrously knock-down price. Today’s call had been the most menacing yet. The sensible thing would be to go straight to the police but there was something about the caller’s voice that made Alicia feel frightened. She was certain he would have no hesitation in carrying out his threats.
It had certainly been a most exhausting day. Getting the Wood twins into the building via the river entrance to avoid the photographers had proved difficult enough, and made Alicia realise that having them at the Swan might prove more disruptive than she’d imagined. She just hoped that after the press conference tomorrow morning, where the details of the production and its casting would be announced, that interest would dissipate and the photographers would decamp elsewhere. The twins’ minders were another problem she hadn’t anticipated. It was like having two human Rottweilers on the premises. Some of the younger children were quite scared of them. Alicia wondered whether they could be persuaded to smile occasionally and at least take off their sunglasses when they were inside the Swan.
But she had far more pressing things to worry about than the twins’ minders: seeing Cosmo and Cosima act was a sharp reminder of what a long, hard job it would be to get them ready for their West End debut. Despite what she’d said to Cosima, she wasn’t convinced that they’d ever be truly ready.
And they certainly wouldn’t be if this dreadful noise kept up. Alicia felt as if she’d been spun around in a concrete mixer all afternoon. There could be months of disruption ahead from the building site next door. She had to deal with it and find a way to limit it. She just hoped that whoever had bought the building would be reasonable and willing to discuss the situation with her. Then, as she reached the front door of the Swan, the noise suddenly stopped.
The silence was exquisite for a few seconds and then it was filled by the clang of the bell marking the end of the Swan school day. She waited for a moment, expecting the building site noise to resume again but all was silence except for the chirp of a blackbird and the sound of two hundred and fifty children heading home. Alicia turned on her heel and started to climb the stairs towards the flat. Maybe that was the end of the disruption? If it happened again tomorrow she’d respond, but her nerves were too stretched for any further confrontation today.
Chapter Four
The tea party in Alicia’s flat was not going well. In fact, thought Olivia, it was a disaster, unfolding like a slow-motion car crash before her eyes. She kept looking at the clock in the hope they’d get through to the end without anyone getting seriously hurt. Cosmo and Cosima seemed to have had some kind of argument and kept glaring at each other, and the Swans found themselves unexpectedly shy when faced with the famous Hollywood twins. Tom, who was normally so sunny and funny, was stiff and formal, and Georgia and Aeysha were unusually subdued.
Only Eel was her usual self, prattling on about dancing and asking Cosmo about his favourite ballet, a question that Cosmo didn’t even deign to acknowledge, let alone answer. He refused all food and just chewed gum noisily all the way through tea. He kept texting and checking his iPhone, which the others thought was very rude. Cosima sat looking miserable, eyes downcast, nibbling on the corner of a sandwich. She reminded Olivia of a nervous and very pretty squirrel.
It was made worse because while Alicia and Sebastian had tactfully withdrawn to give the children a chance to get to know each other, the twins’ minders stood in the corner glowering and looking suspiciously around as if they were convinced that the tea party wasn’t a tea party at all but a dastardly plot to kidnap the twins and hold them for ransom. Not surprisingly, the conversation was somewhat stilted. Questions about whether the twins had any pets, had read all the Harry Potter novels or had been to England before were greeted with a monosyllabic grunt from Cosmo or an unhappy little shake of the head from Cosima. At one point, when Georgia started enthusing about Peter Pan, saying how much she loved the story about the boy who refused to grow up and how she wished she wasn’t a girl so she could play one of the Lost Boys, Cosmo yawned very loudly and started to play a game on his phone. Georgia had looked really hurt and flushed very pink, while Olivia felt furious on her behalf.
In their TV series in which they supposedly played a version of themselves, Cosmo and Cosima came across as a pair of cool, quick-witted pranksters who never stopped joking and kidding around. In real life they barely said a word. Olivia wondered if it was because they didn’t have a script to follow. There seemed to be a vast chasm between the real Wood twins and their celebrity image.
After a while Olivia and the others began to talk amongst themselves to fill in the silences. Out of the corner of her eye, Olivia could see Cosima visibly relax. She wondered whether Cosima might be quite nice away from her ghastly brother.
Aeysha started to talk about her holidays. “Mum says we might be able to go to Disney World in Florida next summer!” she said excitedly.
“That’d be awesome,” said Georgia.
“No, it wouldn’t,” grunted Cosmo. “Disney World sucks.”
“How would you know?” asked Tom sharply, seeing Aeysha’s face drop.
“We had our tenth birthday party there,” replied Cosmo. “They closed the place specially.”
“You mean you had the whole of Disney World to yourselves?”
Cosmo puffed out his chest proudly. “Yep,” he said. Cosima looked embarrassed.
“They’ve only ever done it for us,” added Cosmo. “It still sucked, though.” He took out his gum and stuck it under the table. Olivia made a mental note to remove it later before Alicia discovered it.
“But wasn’t it amazing to have Disney World closed specially for you?” said Georgia. “It must have made you feel really special.”
“We are special,” drawled Cosmo flatly, as if Georgia were a bit slow. Cosima looked as if she wanted the floor to open up and the others just looked at each other, embarrassed.
Eel broke the silence. “How many auditions did you have before you got
cast as Peter Pan and Wendy?” she asked very sweetly.
“Auditions?” said Cosmo, looking astounded. “We’ve never had to audition for anything in our lives. We’re not like you kids. We were in a movie when we were six weeks old. We played the baby and Angelina Jolie was our mom. We were voted cutest newcomers by the biggest Hollywood fan site. We’ve had loads of awards since. We pick and choose from stuff we’re offered. Auditions! They’re for losers.”
“Oh,” said Eel, surprised. “So how do you know if you’re any good? You could just be getting roles because of who you are, not because you’ve got any talent.”
Olivia kicked Eel’s ankle very hard under the table, while Georgia’s apple juice went down the wrong way and Tom had to thump her hard on the back. Cosmo looked at Eel as if she had just crawled out from beneath a stone and Cosima seemed to be looking frantically for the nearest exit. Her cheeks were flaming. Aeysha quickly thrust a plate under Cosmo’s nose and said a little too brightly, “Chocolate cake?”
“You’re kidding?” drawled Cosmo. “I’m wheat-and dairy-free.”
“Don’t forget charm-free,” muttered Cosima.
Her brother glared at her. “Least I’m not talent-free,” he snarled.
“Oh yeah?” snapped Cosima. Cosmo flushed. Olivia thought they looked like tigers ready to spring at each other.
Aeysha coughed. “Where are you living while you’re in London?” she asked.
“We have a suite at the Savoy Hotel,” said Cosmo. “It sucks.”
“No, it doesn’t, Cosmo,” said Cosima sharply. “It’s totally neat.” She looked a little wistful. “But I wish we could live in a real apartment like this and be just like other kids.”
Cosmo made a braying sound, like a donkey laughing. “But we’re not like other kids, Cosi. We’re the Wood twins and don’t you forget it.”
