Olivia's First Term

by Lyn Gardner

  Eel watched fascinated, tapping her feet in perfect time, although she had never had dancing lessons. She longed to be up there on the stage. She thought it must be wonderful to have everyone looking at you. The tap dancers were replaced by a cheeky-faced boy and a girl who did a version of “I’d Do Anything” from Oliver! The girl was charming, and the boy, who had red hair and freckles, made the audience laugh.

  Alicia watched with approval. Aeysha Aziz and Tom McCavity would both go far. Tom’s mix of bashfulness and cheek made the audience feel warm and smiley, as if they were toasting their toes in front of a cosy fire.

  Under cover of the clapping Olivia leaned towards her father, and as she did so she noticed the worry lines around his tired, handsome face and the dark shadows under his eyes.

  “I thought,” she whispered, “you were going to introduce us to our grandmother, not take us to see a show.” Jack Marvell shifted in his seat uncomfortably. The truth suddenly dawned on Olivia and she gazed at him hard with her piercing green eyes. “She does actually know that we’re coming, doesn’t she? You did phone her and ask her if it would be all right if we all moved in with her for a while?”

  Guilt flickered across Jack Marvell’s pale, weary face. “Actually, I decided it might be better if I didn’t. I’m not Alicia Swan’s favourite person. She blames me for taking your mother away from her and the glory of the London stage, and holds me responsible for Toni’s death too. The last time I saw Alicia was at your mother’s funeral and she said that she never wanted to see me again. I took her at her word. She seemed very certain about it. I think she feels that if Toni hadn’t run away to join the circus with me in the first place, she would never have been on that plane.”

  He looked drawn and sad. Jack Marvell seldom talked about his wife’s death. It was too painful for him, and Olivia and Eel had learned not to ask about Toni. But not talking about her mother made it feel to Olivia as if everybody was trying to pretend that Toni had never existed. Eel was still a baby and Olivia had been only five when her mum had died, and when she tried to remember her face everything became a little hazy. Mostly she could just remember her mum’s smell, a hint of lily of the valley.

  When she was little there had been photographs of her mother everywhere in their caravan, often captured by the great theatre photographers while playing her most famous roles. But after she had died the photographs had disappeared, as if Jack could not bear to be reminded of what he had lost or of anything to do with the theatre. Jack had plunged himself into work, but sometimes at night, when he thought the children were fast asleep, Olivia had seen him take one of the photos from his box of precious things and stare at it so hard it seemed as if he was trying to will Toni back to life. Marisa, the tattooed circus contortionist who could squeeze her entire body into a small suitcase, had once told Olivia that her parents’ relationship had been a real love affair. “They were like Romeo and Juliet.”

  “So,” said Olivia hotly, forgetting to lower her voice, “we’re going to be a horrible surprise for her then.” People turned round in the rows in front and ssshed them angrily.

  A girl and boy who had been doing a pas de deux from Swan Lake were applauded and replaced by the girl Olivia recognised from the four-by-four. The music began and Katie’s clear voice filled the auditorium, pure and sweet.

  “Whenever I see someone

  Less fortunate than I

  (And let’s face it – who isn’t

  Less fortunate than I?)

  My tender heart

  Tends to start to bleed…”

  “I can’t believe you’ve done this to us,” hissed Olivia.

  “I’ll explain,” said Jack desperately. People glared at them.

  “And when someone needs a makeover

  I simply have to take over

  I know I know exactly what they need

  And even in your case

  Tho’ it’s the toughest case I’ve yet to face

  Don’t worry – I’m determined to succeed

  Follow my lead

  And yes, indeed

  You will be:

  Popular!”

  “We’re hardly going to be very popular with our grandmother! She won’t want us and you clearly don’t want us either,” said Olivia loudly. People all around gave them thunderous looks of disapproval. Jack Marvell beckoned desperately to Olivia and Eel and the three of them slipped out of the theatre and into the foyer with Olivia still holding tightly on to Eel’s hand.

  Katie was just reaching the end of the song.

  “La la la la

  You’ll be popular

  Just not quite as popular

  As me!”

  Chapter Seven

  “Olivia,” said Jack quietly, and Olivia thought she heard a crack in his voice, “you know that you are not unwanted. You and Eel are the most wanted children in the world. You two are all I’ve got left, you’re my reason for living. But I’m just not able to look after you on my own at the moment. When I can, I will. I promise. The Great Marvello never breaks a promise.”

  “I know that,” said Olivia fiercely and she did. Her father was a man of his word. After his accident had stopped him performing and audiences had dwindled away to nothing, he desperately tried to keep the circus together, paying all the other performers week after week, and it was this generosity that had got them into the trouble they were in now. Because it was the Great Marvello – the infamous high-wire walker who had skipped across the top of Niagara Falls and fearlessly negotiated the chasm between the two highest points in Paris, even stopping on the wire to light a Primus stove and fry an egg – who everybody wanted to see. But he couldn’t perform because he had broken both his legs and four ribs in an accident in a small town in Italy, just one of the many stops the circus made as it endlessly travelled across Europe and the further-flung parts of Scotland and Ireland.

  Olivia felt sick whenever she thought about that bright January morning that had begun so full of promise but had almost ended in tragedy. They had been walking down the main street on the way back from the market. Eel skipped along a few metres in front of Olivia and Jack, as always moving as if she was responding to some invisible orchestra playing inside her head. Jack was talking intently to his elder daughter, shyly proposing that they might start trying to work up a tightrope double act together.

  “You’ve come on so well, Liv. You’re improving every day. It would be fun to work together, and a father–daughter double act could be a real draw, something a bit different.”

  Olivia was thrilled. She and Eel had always done bits and bobs to help out in the circus, selling the tickets and programmes, helping the performers do their quick costume changes and joining in the finale with some acrobatics, but this was different. Her dad was asking her to be his partner. He must think that she was genuinely good. High-wire walking was dangerous and if you worked with a partner, you had to trust that person completely. It was essential, because your lives were in each other’s hands.

  Olivia felt as if she had swelled to twice her normal size with pride. She opened her mouth to say “yes”, when she saw a look of horror on her father’s face. Eel had skipped her way into the road, entirely oblivious to the car that was racing towards her. Jack lunged at Eel, knocking her out of the way. There was a screech of brakes and a sickening thud. A bag of tomatoes had split, and its contents oozed all over the tarmac. Jack lay very still in the road. For a few moments there had been an eerie silence and then from somewhere far away came the sound of an ambulance siren.

  The driver of the speeding car was shaken but unhurt, Eel escaped entirely unscathed and everyone said that it was a miracle Jack had survived the impact. But the bones had been slow to heal, and sometimes Olivia wondered whether her father had broken something even more precious in the accident: his spirit.

  From behind the doors of the auditorium they heard a racket of applause. There was a pause and then the music swelled again.

  “What if Granny A
licia simply turns us away?” asked Olivia nervously, grasping Eel’s hand more firmly.

  “She won’t,” said Jack. “Alicia may be a bit of a dragon, but she has a kind heart. It’s just that her daughter’s death broke it. Once she’s met you, she won’t refuse to help you. You are her granddaughters, her daughter’s children. Flesh and blood. She won’t turn you away and let you starve. I know she’ll take you in.”

  “Take us in,” said Olivia slowly. “But what about you?” The shifty look once again flashed across Jack’s face. “You’re not intending to stay with us, are you?” Olivia shouted, furious. “You’re planning to dump Eel and me on a grandmother we’ve never met and who probably won’t be at all pleased to see us and then you’re going to run away, aren’t you, leaving us at this awful place, a stage school, knowing full well that neither of us can sing, dance or act so it will be hell for both of us. You couldn’t have made a worse job of it if you really had found an orphanage run by a wicked witch.”

  “Liv, it’s not like that, honestly,” cried Jack despairingly, and he would have gone on but at that moment they both realised that Eel was no longer holding Olivia’s hand. Olivia looked around wildly and ran to the big glass doors that led to the busy road, expecting at any moment to hear another ominous screech of brakes. Could Eel have slipped outside without them noticing? Then she heard an outraged shriek from inside the auditorium. Olivia and her father looked at each other and rushed back inside the theatre.

  Chapter Eight

  Katie had always known that one day she would be famous. It wasn’t a question of if, just when. For somebody with her talent and looks, it was guaranteed. She felt certain of that. Today was the start of the journey that would eventually take her to starring roles and the front covers of all the glossy magazines. She’d shine in the West End and on Broadway and she’d make movies and win a Best Actress Oscar while still in her teens. Her acceptance speech would be so humble and moving that it would reduce all who saw it to helpless tears and become iconic on YouTube. She thought it must be lovely to have people waiting outside your house day and night, wanting to take photos of you.

  Her stomach was fizzing like a firework but as soon as she stepped on stage into the light, all her nerves evaporated. This was what she was born to do. She was a natural. Others might need long hours of practice in the rehearsal room, but not her, not Katie Wilkes-Cox. She opened her mouth and the clear notes rose into the air like balloons. She began to enjoy herself. She couldn’t see the audience, but she could feel them. She thought of the audience as being like a big cat, and by singing the song really well she was tickling the cat’s tummy and making it purr. She could feel the cat eating out of her hand, coming back greedily for more.

  The song was a huge success and the audience roared their approval. Katie beamed and bowed and felt as if she might burst with excitement. She saw Georgia sitting in the front row, very pale, with her ankle bandaged. For a split second Katie felt a twinge of guilt, but then she remembered what her dad had said. Georgia wasn’t a friend, she was a rival. Her dad was always right. After all, he had made millions through his property-developing business. He was a success, and Katie wanted to be successful just like him.

  She sneaked a glance towards Miss Swan. She was looking at Katie with a look of amusement on her face. Katie took that for approval. She had shown the old Swan that she was a real star and that she should have picked her in the first place. Katie allowed her mind to drift for a moment as she acknowledged the applause. The audience loved her. She imagined Miss Swan tapping her on the shoulder afterwards and leading her into her snug office, settling her down in one of the comfy armchairs with the paisley throws, offering her apple juice and chocolate biscuits, before leaning forward and saying, “Katie, my dear, you are a very, very special girl, undoubtedly the most supremely talented child that we have ever had at the Swan, and I intend to devote myself to turning you into a massive star. From now on you will have my full attention.”

  Katie was so enjoying her fantasy that she almost missed the opening bars of the music for her dance. She had to concentrate. She took the first few steps. She was very conscious of her body and of the fact that she had to coax it into doing what she wanted. She knew that, unlike Georgia, she didn’t have great technique. But Katie was sure that she had something much more important: natural flair. Practice was for the also-rans like Georgia, not for real stars like her. She relaxed a little as the music seeped into her brain; she felt the audience beginning to relax too. She took several more steps, then she prepared to make an impressive leap. She left the ground, momentum carried her through the air and then she bumped into something and gave an outraged shriek. What was going on? She was supposed to have the stage all to herself, but there was somebody else there, a small child with crazy chestnut ringlets who was doing a mad dance to the music, occasionally throwing in a cartwheel or an astonishing back flip. The orchestra played on.

  Rushing back into the auditorium, Olivia and Jack stood transfixed with horror as they watched Eel fling herself energetically around the stage as if she’d been performing all her life. They stared at each other, aghast. Olivia looked around the audience, which seemed confused by the appearance of this newcomer, but also deeply impressed. Several people were looking at their programmes trying to work out who she was. Eel did a back flip and the audience cheered wildly, then she started to do a pretend tap dance and was so funny that the audience laughed loudly, and one little boy even fell off his seat.

  Jack smiled, but Olivia was in agonies. Eel was being so embarrassing. She wanted to leap on to the stage and pull her sister off, take her by the hand and run out of the building and keep running all the way back to Italy. But Jack, who in a split second had decided that intervention would be even more disruptive, put a calming hand on her shoulder. Eel did an explosive series of cartwheels and the audience erupted, some even rose to their feet.

  Katie looked wildly around. This was her one big chance and she was being well and truly upstaged! What’s more, it was by that nasty, rude little girl who had stuck her tongue out at her. She was furious and felt deeply humiliated. When the audience laughed at Eel’s cheeky tap-dancing, she felt they were laughing at her. This couldn’t be happening! Not to her, not to Katie Wilkes-Cox, the coolest girl at the Swan. She longed for a winged monster to sweep down from the ceiling and carry Eel away in its talons. She stopped dancing, marched over to the child, seized her by her chestnut ringlets and started trying to drag her off the stage.

  “No!” cried Olivia, running down the steps towards the stage with Jack just behind her. The audience gasped and murmured, creating a low-level buzz, because one child pulling another by the hair couldn’t possibly be part of the show. The school orchestra, which had been taught to play on whatever the circumstances, faltered and stopped. The entire auditorium fell eerily silent.

  Katie pulled Eel over and Eel screamed. “Get off the stage, you little horror! Get off!” shouted Katie. “You’ve ruined my big moment. I’ll teach you to upstage me. You’ll wish that you’d never been born by the time I’ve finished with you. Nobody upstages me. Particularly not some talentless little kid like you who can’t even dance properly!”

  A ripple of astonishment passed through the audience. Olivia felt some satisfaction as a few people booed. Some in the audience were clearly rather enjoying the spectacle; others could hardly bear to look at the stage. In seconds, Olivia and Jack had reached the bottom of the stairs. As they did so, Katie’s dad rose from his front-row seat, his face screwed up in rage, and started to clamber awkwardly on to the stage, a murderous glint in his eye.

  “No!” shouted Olivia again. She had to save her little sister!

  Chapter Nine

  “Katie Wilkes-Cox, let go of that child at once!” Alicia Swan’s voice cut across the auditorium like a knife. Olivia skidded to a halt on the steps. Katie let go of Eel’s hair. She still felt as if she might explode with anger, but she could hear the icy disapprov
al in Miss Swan’s voice. It was as if somebody had thrown a bucket of cold water over her. The fire inside her burned away to ashes and she stood frozen to the spot. Eel wriggled beside her, not in the least embarrassed but feeling slightly surprised to find herself there at all. She couldn’t remember running on to the stage; it was as if she had been bewitched by the music.

  Alicia Swan made her way on to the stage. Her impressive presence immediately quietened the audience. She calmly addressed Katie’s dad. “Mr Wilkes-Cox, do please go back to your seat.” For a moment he looked as if he might be about to argue, but there was such authority in Alicia’s tone that he suddenly deflated and shuffled back to his seat like an oversized toddler who has just been scolded by his mum.

  “I apologise for this unforeseen spectacle,” said Alicia graciously, adding with a wry smile, “but sometimes the impromptu can be the most revealing, and it is when something unexpected happens that you make the most important discoveries.” The audience suddenly relaxed. Alicia had such a commanding presence that all potential for embarrassment passed and they leaned forward in their seats, completely absorbed in what was unfolding. It felt as if something momentous was about to happen.

  Alicia turned to Eel and studied her face intently. “What’s your name, my dear?” she asked kindly.

  “Eel.”

  Alicia raised an eyebrow. “And are you one of the new children?” she enquired, although she knew that she would remember this child if she had seen her before at the auditions. Eel shook her head.

  “Perhaps you are the little sister of a boy or girl who is starting at the school this term?”

  Eel shook her head again. She liked this lady; she seemed very kind, not at all as Jack Marvell had described. “My dad says that you are a bit fierce, but he’s the wrongest he’s ever been because you don’t seem such a dragon.” The audience laughed. There was something charming about this wild child. Even Miss Swan smiled.