Centre Stage: A Novel

by Linda Chapman

  ‘OK,’ Ally replied, jumping off the wall.

  ‘Matthew’s helping too — and Nathan,’ Eve told her.

  ‘Cool!’ Ally exclaimed.

  Eve grinned. ‘I thought you might think that!’

  So Ally had told Eve about liking Nathan. I’d thought only Harriet and I knew. The thought of Ally talking to Eve and sharing secrets made me feel decidedly odd.

  ‘See you later,’ Ally called to Harriet and me, and she hurried off with Eve in the direction of the Art block.

  For a moment, neither Harriet or I said anything. I had the distinct feeling that Harriet was feeling just as strange as I was about watching Ally and Eve go off together.

  ‘Well… um, fancy testing me on quiz questions?’ Harriet said at last.

  ‘Sure,’ I shrugged, trying to stop thinking about Ally having a new friend.

  ‘So, how’s the quiz club going?’ I asked as she rummaged in her bag and pulled out her quiz book.

  Harriet’s eyes lit up. ‘I love it! It’s such fun, you learn loads and everyone’s really nice.’

  I smiled. ‘Especially someone whose name begins with B?’

  Harriet went pink. ‘I really like him. He’s so clever and…’

  I nudged her quickly. ‘Ssh!’

  Ben was walking along the path towards us.

  ‘Say hello when he comes past!’ I hissed.

  Harriet started to shake her head. ‘No! I can’t!’

  ‘Go on!’ I insisted.

  Harriet took a deep breath but just as she opened her mouth, Kelly, Leanne and Rachel came up the path in the other direction.

  ‘Ben,’ Kelly said. ‘Hi!’ Leaving Leanne and Rachel, she hurried over to him.

  ‘Oh, hi, Kelly,’ Ben said. Phew! He didn’t sound that delighted to see her.

  ‘How are you?’ Kelly asked, smiling up at him.

  She was pretty but, to my relief, Ben just gave a half smile back. ‘Fine, thanks. Look, I’ve… er, really got to —’

  ‘Have you been doing much sailing?’ Kelly interrupted him.

  ‘Yeah, a bit,’ he answered. He spoke politely but his eyes flickered around as if he wanted to get away.

  ‘Have you seen that new movie with Brad Pitt in, the one where he tries to sail across that ocean?’

  ‘No,’ he replied.

  ‘Neither have I.’ Kelly ran her fingers through her hair and looked at him hopefully. When he didn’t say anything, she added, ‘Maybe we could go together?’

  ‘Maybe. Look, I’ve really got go,’ Ben said quickly. ‘See you around, Kelly.’ He hurried past her — and us.

  Disappointment crossed Kelly’s face.

  Leanne and Rachel hurried up to her. ‘Did you ask him out?’ Leanne asked.

  ‘Sort of,’ Kelly said. ‘But he didn’t say anything. He just dashed off.’ She tossed her hair back. ‘Oh well, he’s not the only boy in this school.’

  ‘Yeah, forget him,’ Rachel advised.

  Kelly nodded. ‘Let’s go in.’

  Suddenly she caught sight of Harriet and me. ‘What are you looking at?’ she demanded, and I could see her realizing that we must have heard her whole conversation with Ben.

  I just shrugged but Harriet went red. ‘Nothing,’ she stammered.

  Kelly looked her up and down. ‘Love the socks, Harriet!’ she said sarcastically.

  ‘So cool!’ Leanne said with a giggle.

  Harriet was wearing a pair of old socks — navy blue but with I love ponies written round the ankle in red writing. She’d had them since about Year Four.

  ‘It’s the way your trousers stop just above the ankle,’ Kelly went on, and I could tell she was just having a go at Harriet because she was still fed up about Ben turning her down. ‘It shows them off perfectly.’

  ‘You never know, maybe you’ll start a new trend,’ Rachel said.

  ‘Or maybe not,’ Kelly added.

  ‘Oh shut up,’ I told them.

  Snorting with laughter, Kelly, Rachel and Leanne went into the building.

  I looked at Harriet. Her face was bright red. ‘Just ignore them,’ I said. ‘They’re morons.’

  ‘Yeah,’ she muttered in a small voice. ‘Yeah — you’re right.’

  But despite what Harriet said, she couldn’t seem to ignore Kelly. For the rest of the week Kelly continued to tease her. It was really bad on Friday when Kelly saw Ben talking to Harriet after they had come out from a quiz club meeting together.

  ‘Ooh, got a boyfriend have you, Harriet?’ she mocked as Harriet came over to meet me afterwards.

  Harriet went the colour of a tomato.

  ‘Does he like your big granny pants?’ Kelly sniggered. ‘I bet he finds them really attractive.’

  ‘Ben isn’t my boyfriend,’ Harriet said quickly.

  Kelly burst out laughing as if Harriet had said the funniest thing ever. ‘I was joking.’ She snorted. ‘As if Ben would go out with someone like you.’

  ‘You can talk,’ I said. ‘I didn’t exactly notice Ben jumping at the chance of going to the cinema with you, Kelly. Or has he changed his mind?’ Seeing Kelly’s expression darken, I grabbed Harriet’s arm. ‘Thought not. Come on, Harriet, let’s go.’

  I marched off, half dragging Harriet beside me.

  Honestly, Kelly could be so annoying at times!

  Chapter Ten

  ‘I’ve heard there’re some journalists coming in!’ Justine said to me when I arrived at rehearsal on Saturday morning. ‘They want to talk to you and me about being Lucy.’

  I hesitated. That wasn’t the way Velda had put it on Tuesday — she’d made it sound like the journalists just wanted to interview me.

  ‘It’s really exciting, isn’t it?’ Justine went on. ‘Let’s go and find Velda and ask her exactly when they’ll be here.’

  Velda was looking at the stage plans. ‘Velda,’ Justine said, bouncing up to her. ‘What time are the journalists coming in?’

  ‘At twelve,’ Velda answered. She smiled at me. ‘There’re three journalists now. There’s one coming in from Sugar magazine too.’

  Sugar! Wow. Just wait till Ally and Harriet heard that!

  ‘Will they take our photographs?’ Justine asked eagerly.

  Velda looked surprised. ‘Your photograph?’ Realization dawned on her face. ‘Oh, they’re not interviewing you, Justine. Just Sophie. I’m sorry. Did you think you were being interviewed too?’

  Justine blushed. ‘Ur… yeah.’ She looked like she wanted to drop through the floor with embarrassment.

  I felt awful for her. ‘Couldn’t they interview us both?’ I asked quickly.

  Velda shrugged. ‘I could suggest it to them. But I think the reason they want to interview you, Sophie, is because you were the lead in the film.’

  ‘But Justine was in the film too and we are both Lucy,’ I said.

  Velda nodded. ‘I’ll see what they say.’

  I glanced at Justine. ‘I… I’m going to get a drink,’ she mumbled.

  I went after her. ‘I’m sure they will want to interview you as well,’ I said.

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Justine muttered, her face still pink. ‘I don’t care.’

  But it was obvious that she cared loads. We poured ourselves drinks in an uncomfortable silence.

  ‘Hi, Justine,’ Samantha said, coming over and totally ignoring me as usual. ‘Should we go through our lines together?’

  ‘OK,’ Justine said. And, looking relieved to get away from me, she hurried off with Samantha.

  *

  I had a good day. The acting rehearsal went well and the interviews were fun. The only downside was that Justine wasn’t interviewed. Velda was right. The journalists just wanted to talk to me. When I was called to the interviews Justine shot me a jealous look, and when I came back she avoided me completely. I felt bad but I didn’t see there was much I could do. After all, I couldn’t make the journalists interview her.

  ‘I can’t believe you’re going to be in Sugar,’ Ally said th
at evening. She and Harriet had called round after riding. ‘That is so cool!’

  ‘And you’re going to be in the local papers too,’ Harriet said, stroking Billy, our new doggy guest. He was a beautiful but very greedy Golden Retriever. Plonking his head on Harriet’s knee, he gazed up at the biscuit she was munching with hopeful brown eyes. Mum’s new business was certainly going well. She had pets booked in almost every week until Christmas.

  Dad turned from the sink where he was washing up. ‘Did the journalists say when the articles would come out, Sophie?’

  ‘The local papers said some time in the next few weeks,’ I replied, feeding Billy a bit of my biscuit. ‘The journalist from Sugar said it would be in the December issue.’ I got up. ‘Can we have some crisps as well, Dad?’

  Dad nodded. ‘But just one packet. We’ll be eating as soon as I’ve taken Tom to Nick’s house.’

  ‘They’re playing at the hall in Nick’s village tonight,’ I told Ally and Harriet. ‘The talent spotter from the Junction’s coming to see them.’

  Dad checked his watch. ‘And they’re going to be late if they’re not careful.’ He went to the door. ‘Tom! Are you coming?’

  Tom came downstairs with his electric guitar. I stared.

  OK, now I know he normally looks weird but this time he had outdone himself. His hair was gelled into points, chains were strung from his pockets to his waist and he was wearing about ten bracelets on each wrist. As a finishing touch he had painted his fingernails black.

  I saw Dad do a double take. ‘Well,’ he said, blinking.

  ‘What?’ Tom challenged him.

  ‘Are you really going out like that?’ Dad struggled. He doesn’t normally like coming down the heavy-handed parent on us but I could tell even he was taken aback by Tom’s appearance.

  ‘Yes,’ Tom said. ‘Why?’

  ‘You look a bit… er… a bit extreme,’ Dad said.

  ‘Dad!’ Tom rolled his eyes. ‘We’re in a band.’

  ‘Yes, but there’s no need to look quite as…’ Dad seemed lost for words.

  ‘Stupid?’ I put in helpfully. Harriet giggled and even Ally smiled.

  ‘Sophie,’ Dad said warningly. He looked back at Tom. ‘Maybe you should tone it down a bit, mate.’

  ‘There’s nothing to tone down. I look fine, Dad,’ Tom said in exasperation.

  Dad looked like he was going to argue but then he just sighed. ‘OK. If you think so.’ He picked up the car keys. ‘Come on, let’s go.’

  They walked out.

  As soon as the door was shut I began to giggle. ‘Can you believe what Tom looks like?’

  ‘I know,’ Harriet agreed. ‘And he seems to think he looks cool.’

  ‘He didn’t look that bad,’ Ally said defensively, seeming to forget that even she had been smirking when she’d first seen him. ‘And it’ll be amazing if the Junction want his band though, won’t it?’

  ‘Amazingly unlikely,’ I grinned.

  ‘They’re good,’ Ally persisted. ‘They might get picked. And if they play at the Junction they might get discovered and become a real band.’ Ally looked excited. ‘They could be on Top of the Pops.’

  Yeah, as if!

  Harriet checked her watch. ‘I should go. Dad’s expecting me home soon.’

  ‘I should go too,’ Ally said. ‘Good luck at the rehearsal tomorrow, Soph.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I sighed. ‘I think I’m going to need it.’

  *

  ‘And spin and reach and hold it there!’ An approving look spread across Dizzy’s face. ‘That’s much better, Sophie,’ she said. ‘And relax.’

  I lowered my arms.

  ‘That was a definite improvement,’ Dizzy said. ‘You still need to sort out the pas de chat jumps but those will come right with practice.’

  I felt a rush of relief. Dizzy had asked me to come in early to go through the ballet with her. It was so much easier to dance with just Dizzy. I didn’t mind going over and over each move if there was no one else watching.

  ‘I’ll go through it with you and Justine again after lunch,’ Dizzy told me. ‘Now go and put your shoes on; the others should be here in a minute.’

  I sat down and pulled my shoes back on — the ballet dance was going to be done barefoot and Dizzy had decided that it would be good to start practising barefoot right from the start. As I stood up, the others started to arrive.

  That morning we were working on the final company number. There were some quite difficult bits and I stayed near the back to avoid Dizzy’s eagle eye.

  ‘Are you OK on that last sequence, Sophie?’ she asked as she watched us do the dance in groups.

  ‘I’m fine,’ I told her.

  To my relief she nodded and turned away.

  ‘Didn’t look like it to me,’ I heard Samantha say. She was in the row behind me. ‘You messed up that second spin,’ she said to me, her eyes appraising. ‘Dizzy just didn’t see.’

  Colette was standing to my left. ‘Shut up, Samantha. You don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘Don’t I?’ Samantha raised her eyebrows. ‘Look, why don’t you just accept it, Colette? Our team’s going to be much better than yours. At least we can all dance.’

  Colette’s eyes flashed. ‘And at least we can all act, or had you conveniently forgotten how important that is? It wouldn’t surprise me. After all, acting’s never been your strong point, has it, Samantha?’

  Two spots of bright colour jumped into Samantha’s cheeks. ‘I can act!’

  ‘Quieten down over there,’ Dizzy called and, glaring at each other, Colette and Samantha shut up.

  Colette walked off and I edged over to Justine. ‘Hi,’ I said tentatively. I hadn’t spoken to her that morning and I had the distinct impression that she was still avoiding me.

  ‘Oh, hi,’ she said shortly.

  I wanted to make friends again. ‘Look…’

  ‘Justine,’ Samantha interrupted me. ‘Let’s go and get a drink.’ She looked witheringly at me. ‘Go and join your own team, Sophie. We don’t want you hanging around with us.’

  I felt like she’d slapped me. ‘What?’ I stammered.

  Samantha stepped closer and glared at me. ‘Listen, it’s our team against your team, which means you’re not wanted here.’ She looked at Justine. ‘Isn’t that right, Justine?’

  ‘Well… er…’ Justine looked uncomfortable. ‘Umm…’

  I stared at her. Was she really not going to stand up to Samantha?

  ‘See?’ Samantha said to me.

  ‘Fine,’ I retorted. ‘I’m going!’

  Feeling very annoyed with Justine, I marched away, my head held high. So high that I didn’t happen to see the bag on the floor in front of me.

  ‘Oof!’ I gasped, as I tripped flat on my face.

  Samantha hooted with laughter and Justine giggled.

  You know when you just want the ground to open and swallow you up? Right then I just wanted to die.

  ‘Great work, everyone. We’ll break for lunch now,’ Dizzy eventually announced. ‘Sophie and Justine, I want you ready to start again at one thirty to go through your ballet solo.’

  As I sat down with Colette, I noticed Samantha looking across at me and saying something to her team, a grin on her face. I had a feeling they were talking about the ballet solo.

  I tried to ignore them but I couldn’t. I glanced over again. Samantha was now whispering intently, a gleam in her eyes. I saw Justine start to shake her head and protest but Samantha quickly interrupted her.

  ‘What do you think they’re talking about?’ I said uneasily, as I saw the boys look in my direction and grin.

  ‘Who cares?’ Colette said, glancing briefly at them. ‘Just ignore them.’

  After lunch I went to warm up. To my surprise, Justine came over to me. ‘Hi,’ she said tentatively.

  ‘Hello,’ I replied shortly, wondering what she wanted.

  ‘You know you’ve been slipping on the jumps in the ballet,’ she said.
>
  I nodded.

  ‘Well, maybe these will help.’ She held out two socks made out of tights material. ‘They’re called dance socks and they’re really good at stopping you slipping. We use them all the time in dance classes. Here, take them,’ she offered.

  I looked at her suspiciously. I couldn’t forget how she’d been that morning. ‘Why are you letting me use them?’

  Justine shrugged. ‘I… I just feel bad about earlier. Samantha shouldn’t have told you to go away like that.’ She blushed. ‘I want to be friends.’

  My bad mood lifted. OK, so maybe she wasn’t so bad after all.

  ‘Thanks,’ I smiled, taking the socks. They were the same colour as my skin. I put them on and stood up. You could hardly see them on my feet but they made me feel like a proper dancer. I pointed my toe experimentally. The floor seemed to glide beneath it.

  ‘Sophie!’ Dizzy called from the CD player. ‘Are you ready?’

  I nodded and walked over.

  ‘Let’s take it from the top,’ she instructed.

  I could see the other principals all gathering to watch what I was doing. Here goes, I thought, taking up the starting position. And into fifth position, I thought, my feet sliding easily across the floor in the dance socks, arms up and spring…

  My feet slipped from underneath me and I landed in a heap on the floor. ‘Ow!’ I gasped.

  I heard a few muffled giggles and turned. Samantha and the rest of the red team were grinning in delight. Even Justine was smiling. My warm feelings for her disappeared in a flash.

  ‘Doing well, Sophie,’ Samantha called.

  Dizzy shot her an annoyed look. ‘That’s enough, Samantha!’

  Red in the face, I stood up.

  ‘What happened there?’ Dizzy called to me. ‘You seemed to lose your balance completely.’

  ‘I… I don’t know,’ I replied.

  ‘Try again. Just from the jump. And five, six, seven, eight!’

  As I started the side step into the first jump my feet slipped on the floor.

  ‘Hang on, Sophie. Stop!’ Dizzy shouted.