Olivia's First Term

by Lyn Gardner

  To top it all, there had been the disturbing scene in her study when bit by bit the story of Katie’s behaviour had come out, including the revelation that she’d cheated in the maths test. At first Katie had blustered and denied everything, but she soon broke down and admitted having put the earrings in Olivia’s case to frame her.

  Alicia had sent Olivia away while she talked to Katie alone, but it soon became apparent that Katie wasn’t really sorry for what she had done – just sorry that she had been found out.

  “You realise that I have no choice but to ask you to leave the Swan?” said Alicia gently.

  “That’s not fair. My dad said if I came here I’d be a star,” whispered Katie.

  “The Swan doesn’t need stars, it needs children who will work hard and work hard together,” said Alicia sadly.

  Not long after this, Katie’s dad had arrived and Alicia had a long and difficult interview with him in which he first threatened to sue the school and then offered Alicia a bribe to keep his daughter there.

  “I’m sure you could do with expanding your premises,” he’d said smarmily. “I’ve had my eye on the building next door for some time. I expect I could snap it up cheaply. I could turn a neat profit by building luxury flats at the top and you could have the bottom floors for more rehearsal space. Maybe even a new theatre. You have to admit the old one is a bit shabby.”

  “That’s part of its charm,” said Alicia drily, declining the offer and showing father and daughter the door.

  Mr Wilkes-Cox refused to leave quietly, shouting, “You’ll regret this! Wait and see. Nobody treats my girl like this. She’s going to be a big star, aren’t you, Katie?”

  There was a silence.

  “Aren’t you, Katie!” thundered Mr Wilkes-Cox.

  “Yes, Dad,” said Katie, her chin in the air, but her eyes glistened with tears.

  Alicia felt sorry for Katie. No wonder the child was like she was with a father who thought money could buy you out of any sort of trouble. She sometimes wondered whether they ought to audition the parents as well as the children for places at the Swan.

  She was sitting alone in her study thinking about Katie, and Olivia too, and how in very different ways she had failed them both, when she heard the knock.

  “Come in,” she said a little wearily. She looked up and smiled when she saw that it was Sebastian Shaw and Abbie, two of her favourite people. But their faces were serious and she wondered what bad news they could be bringing.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  “What can I do for you?” Alicia asked, her smile dropping.

  Abbie spoke quickly. “We think you should come to the upper rehearsal room. There’s something you ought to see.”

  “What is it?” asked Alicia, alarmed, convinced that some new catastrophe had taken place.

  “It’s nothing to be worried about,” said Abbie, unable to keep her face serious any more.

  “No indeed,” said Sebastian, smiling. “In fact, it’s rather astonishing. I haven’t been quite as delighted since Toni’s Juliet won her an Olivier award.”

  He held open the door for Alicia. As she passed up the stairs in front of them, he said quietly to Abbie, “I just hope she recognises this for the wonder it is. Alicia is a remarkable woman in many ways, but she does have her blind spots.”

  When Olivia had returned to the upper rehearsal room following her interview with Katie in the headmistress’s office, she was only intending to grab her tightrope and leave. But she found Georgia waiting for her outside.

  “Olivia,” said Georgia. “I’m truly sorry. I’ll quite understand if you despise me so much you never want to talk to me again…”

  Olivia put up a hand to stop her. “Of course I don’t despise you, Georgia. Anyway, it’s over. Katie won’t be able to hurt either of us again. Alicia has seen through her at last.” She took Georgia’s hand and squeezed it.

  When she opened the door, she found Tom and most of the children from the class waiting for them. They broke into a cheer when she walked shyly into the room, and gathered round wanting to know what had happened. Olivia shook her head and said, “Katie is still with my grandmother. It looks bad for her.”

  “But the main thing is that you’re entirely in the clear?” asked Georgia. Olivia nodded.

  “That’s fantabulous,” said Tom, “because you’ve got dozens of new pupils, Liv. They all think tightrope-walking rocks and they want to learn. I’ve told them that you are a complete slave driver, but they won’t take no for an answer.” He grinned. “I’ve also told them about our Romeo and Juliet scene and everyone is very keen to see it.”

  Olivia stared at him, shocked. “You mean, you actually want us to do it in front of an audience?”

  “Don’t look so worried, Liv. We don’t have to keep it a secret any more. Let’s enjoy it.” Olivia looked uncertain, but the others all begged them to do it, and Abbie said quietly, “Please don’t disappoint us, Olivia.”

  Eel jiggled about and declared loudly, “Honestly, Livy, you’re being invited to show off by a bunch of people who leap at every chance to be in the spotlight even when it’s only the fridge light coming on and who would never ever turn down an invitation to perform themselves. You should be chuffed to bits they want to watch you.”

  “I am,” said Olivia, giving a little bow, and her serious face broke into a smile that made everyone else smile too.

  While Olivia and Tom were setting up, Abbie slipped away and came back with Sebastian Shaw, and the two stood at the back of the room open-mouthed as Olivia and Tom performed their high-wire act.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Now Abbie, Sebastian and Alicia were seated in the rehearsal room waiting for the second performance of the day. Sebastian had rigged up a couple of lights, and William Todd, who was a brilliant pianist and composer, was improvising some background music. The lights went down and came up again and there in the spotlight on the high-wire were Olivia and Tom, acting out the moment during the Capulet masked ball when the two lovers meet for the first time.

  Alicia leaned forward in her seat and a tiny meow of surprise escaped her lips as Olivia began to speak. Olivia didn’t notice her grandmother’s reaction. She noticed nothing except her Romeo moving towards her on the high-wire. Her brain knew it was just good old Tom, but her heart and soul responded as if he was a boy she had only just met and fallen in love with. She danced along the rope and tumbled so the audience suddenly realised for the very first time what the phrase “head over heels in love” really meant.

  The scene continued as Olivia moved lithely down the wire using her dexterity to mask Tom’s lack of wire-walking experience in a way that made it seem as if his physical uncertainty was simply the awkwardness of first love. It felt exhilarating, as if their heads, hearts and bodies were totally synchronised.

  This, thought Olivia to herself, must have been what it was like for my mum and dad when they first met, and she hoped one day when she was older she’d feel a love for someone with the same passion and intensity.

  Her body curled around Tom’s on the wire, their palms touched and it was as if there had been an exchange of electricity between them. Afterwards, in what became a Swan legend, some in the audience swore they’d actually seen a flash as their fingertips touched. To Olivia, it felt as though there had been. It felt as if both she and her Romeo were lit up from inside. They were completely, heart-breakingly luminous.

  In a demonstration of perfect control, Olivia cartwheeled backwards along the wire until the two lovers were standing at opposite ends, separated from each other by a void made up of their parents’ enmity. Suddenly, there was silence.

  Olivia and Tom jumped down from the tightrope. Olivia felt completely drained and dazed, as if she’d run a marathon. She couldn’t bear to look in the direction of her grandmother. But then there was a flash of green velvet. Alicia was on her feet. Tears were pouring down her face. She began clapping and calling “Bravo!” and everyone else clapped and scr
eamed their approval, too.

  Olivia took a step towards Alicia. Alicia took Olivia’s hand and said, “You are a great actress like your mother, but you have one talent that she did not: you are a great tightrope-walker like your father. The combination is irresistible. Olivia, I was wrong about tightrope-walking. It’s a skill and an art, and your father has taught you well. He must be a very great artist, and you will be, too.”

  *

  Half an hour later, Olivia, Tom, Abbie and Sebastian were sitting excitedly in Alicia’s study together and Eel was jumping around.

  “It will work, I’m absolutely confident,” said Alicia. “It honours Shakespeare’s words but also intensifies them, as if distilling the very essence of first love itself. It was like watching joy, and it will make the audience feel joyful too if we frame it in just the right way. We’ll get the rest of the cast to play the guests at the masked ball in a cross-discipline dance sequence, and we will put Olivia and Tom centre stage on the high-wire, a moment of stillness in the swirl of the dance followed by an explosion of love. We need to keep it very simple but with the right costumes, lighting and music, it will be very effective and completely original.”

  “But Olivia wasn’t already in our team, so I’m not sure that we are allowed to use her,” said Sebastian.

  “I’ve checked the rules,” said Abbie. “We won’t be disqualified for doing it. You’re allowed one substitution up until the finals, and now that Katie has gone, Olivia can take her place.”

  Everyone looked at Olivia.

  “That is, if Olivia will do us the kindness of taking part,” said Alicia. “I don’t want to force you, Olivia. It’s a big favour to ask. Nobody will think less of you if you decide you don’t want to do it. You haven’t exactly had a good time here since you arrived.”

  “Of course, she’ll do it,” piped up Eel. “The honour of the Swan and the Marvell family is at stake.”

  “Well,” said Olivia with a smile, “if you put it that way, how could I possibly refuse? Yes, I’ll do it, but on one condition.”

  “What’s that?” asked Alicia.

  “That I can give up baby ballet and carry on high-wire walking with Tom.”

  “It’s a deal,” agreed Alicia.

  “There’s something else,” said Olivia. “You’ve got to help us find Dad before he does something silly.”

  Chapter Forty

  Olivia, Eel, Tom, Georgia and Aeysha sat with Abbie in a steamy café, eating iced buns. An old TV on the counter was tuned to a rolling news channel. Very soon they would have to set off for the Palladium, where the final of the Children’s Royal Spectacular was being televised, to meet up with the rest of the cast who were going there straight from school. They had been to the costumiers to see the dress that Abbie was going to wear to play Liesl in The Sound of Music. It was a treat decreed by Miss Swan, who had said that as Olivia and Tom had been working nonstop over the last thirty-six hours, they deserved a break. They had been told that they could invite along a couple of others so Eel, Aeysha and Georgia had come, too.

  “Oh, Abbie, your dress is soooo beautiful,” sighed Georgia. “I wish I could wear a dress like that on stage.”

  “You will one day, Georgia, if you keep working really hard,” replied Abbie. “In any case, maybe Miss Swan will put you up to play one of the children in The Sound of Music? They’ll be holding auditions at the start of next term. Your singing has really come on beautifully. I’m sure you could do it.”

  “Could I?” said Georgia, looking both chuffed and worried at the same time.

  “You could,” replied Eel firmly, “but only if you believe in yourself.”

  “You mean a hundred per cent, like you believe in yourself, Eel?” teased Tom.

  “Yes,” said Eel, so seriously that everyone burst out laughing. “I’m the bestest.”

  “Best,” said Olivia with a weary smile.

  “Actually, she’s got a point,” said Abbie. “You do need a bit of self-belief in this business, because you get so many knocks along the way. I don’t mean self-belief in a Katie Wilkes-Cox way, but in an understanding your real strengths and weaknesses way. I’ve been up for loads of roles that I haven’t got and you just have to learn to live with it and realise that if you don’t get the part, it’s not necessarily because you’re no good, but it’s because you’re just not what the director is looking for. It doesn’t make you a failure.”

  Tom opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment Olivia stood up so suddenly that she knocked her lemonade over. She had gone quite pale and was pointing at the TV. The others turned to look. On the screen there were grainy pictures of Tower Bridge and large crowds pointing upwards, and the newscaster was saying that some kind of unauthorised stunt was taking place. A man appeared to be tightrope-walking across a wire stretched between the very pinnacle of the bridge’s two towers!

  All traffic on the road and down the river had been stopped and large crowds had gathered to watch. A camera zoomed upwards and captured the unmistakable image of the Great Marvello in its sights.

  “Tower Bridge. It’s just round the corner, isn’t it?” said Olivia urgently.

  “Yep, just a couple of minutes away,” confirmed Abbie.

  “You’ve got to show us the way!” exclaimed Olivia

  “We’ve no time,” said Abbie, anxiously looking at her watch. “We’ve got to get to the Palladium.” She saw Olivia’s stricken face and the determined set of her mouth, and Abbie knew that Olivia would never be persuaded to leave for the Palladium until she had seen her father.

  Chapter Forty-One

  They ran through the streets towards Tower Bridge. As they drew closer, they could see the flashing blue lights of fire engines and police cars. They pushed their way through the crowds, who were all pointing upwards at the man on the wire. He was dressed like an old-fashioned silent-movie star with a bowler hat and a walking stick and he appeared to be holding a sack over his shoulder. He was doing a slapstick comedy routine, at one moment appearing astonished by his own prowess and at the next on the brink of falling off the wire.

  The crowd gasped as he appeared to lose his balance, and then broke into fits of laughter as he did the splits and raised his bowler hat to them.

  Olivia ran onwards, followed by the others. She passed a blonde TV reporter who was talking into a camera. “Experts believe that the stunt has been some time in the planning because of the intense preparation required and that the wire must have been put in place secretly last night—” The reporter broke off to listen to some information that was being fed to her through her earpiece.

  “Breaking news,” she continued. “The daredevil on the wire has been identified as Jack Marvell, otherwise known as the Great Marvello, who has pulled off similar feats in several capital cities across the world. He was thought to have retired from the limelight to run his own circus. Marvell is the widower of the great classical actress Toni Swan, who died tragically…”

  The crowds were getting thicker, but Olivia threaded her way through towards the base of one of the towers until she was right at the front behind a police cordon. The others struggled in her wake but eventually caught up with her. Up above, Jack waddled along the wire, scratched his head as if puzzled, and started juggling with his stick and two balls he’d produced from his pocket. The crowd broke into gales of laughter.

  “Look, Livy, he’s doing fine. Are you satisfied now? There’s nothing to worry about. Let’s go or we won’t get to the Palladium in time to go on,” said Eel.

  “All right,” said Olivia reluctantly.

  The others began to weave their way back through the crowd. As Olivia turned to join them, the crowd gasped and some people screamed. Olivia swung round again, just in time to see that Jack had momentarily lost his balance. But he just as quickly righted himself again. The crowd waited. He took a faltering step forward and stopped, a tiny solitary figure alone against the great desolate expanse of grey sky. Seconds passed and turned into minutes
and still the figure didn’t move. It was as if he had been frozen in mid-air.

  Olivia moved forward, squashing herself up against the police cordon and one of the policemen put a restraining hand on her shoulder. Olivia looked desperately around. She had to get to her father and help him before he fell from the wire. The crowd were murmuring, wondering what was going on. Still the tiny figure didn’t move. Abbie, Eel and the others had made their way back to Olivia, who was staring purposefully at the wall of policemen in front of her.

  “I’ve got to get through,” she said desperately to the policeman in front of her. “That’s my dad up there.” The policeman shook his head disbelievingly.

  At that moment, the crowd gasped. Buffeted by the high winds, Jack had almost tumbled off. He took another tiny step and faltered again. Apprehension passed through the crowd. Olivia was terrified, convinced that Jack was having a breakdown on the wire as he had before. She had to help him before he became completely paralysed in mid-air, unable to move either forwards or backwards, and easy prey for the rising wind that would knock him off his perch. She refused to think about the dark swirling waters of the river below, with its terrifying current that could drag a man to his death in seconds.

  “Create a diversion!” she whispered urgently to the others. Eel immediately let out a loud scream and fell to the ground. The rest of them looked at each other for a split second and then did the same. Their acting was so convincing that the policemen broke the cordon and moved towards them to see what was causing the disturbance.

  Olivia immediately seized her chance. She broke forward, dodged two policemen who tried to catch her, and ran to the tower at such speed that she knocked straight into the policewoman guarding the door at its base, winding her badly. Olivia entered the tower, slammed the door shut behind her, realised that the key was still in the lock and quickly turned it.

  From outside she heard somebody shout her name.