Annabel's Starring Role

by Holly Webb

  Contents

  Cover

  Half Title Page

  Series by the Holly Webb

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Back Ads

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Annabel twirled and stretched, humming the music to herself, and critically watching her friend Saima, who was mirroring her moves.

  “You’re doing it wrong, Bel!” Saima complained.

  “No, I’m not!”

  “You did, you know,” put in Katie lazily. She’d been lying on her bed reading a football magazine, and now she lifted her chin off her hands, and stared back at her sister.

  Annabel shared a bedroom with her triplet sisters. It had originally been two rooms, and their parents had knocked it into one when they found out they were having three babies instead of just the one they’d been expecting. It meant that even with three beds, and all her clothes, and Katie’s sports equipment and a cage full of Becky’s rats, there was just about enough room to choreograph a dance routine – if you didn’t mind fitting it around the table where they were supposed to do their homework, Annabel sighed to herself.

  She glared at Katie crossly, her hands in fists at her hips. She was pink in the face – they’d been dancing for at least twenty minutes and she was furious. How dared Katie say that? What did she know about dancing?

  “Don’t look at me like that! It’s our bedroom, so if you’re going to dance in it, you can’t stop us watching. And you did do it wrong, I’ve seen the stupid thing four times now, and you missed out that twirly bit in the middle,” Katie went on matter-of-factly.

  “See!” put in Saima triumphantly.

  Annabel scowled. Katie was extra-annoying when she was right. “I never liked that bit anyway,” she said grumpily. “It looked silly. There’s no point doing babyish stuff – we want to look professional. I think there’ll be loads of people from Year Eight and Nine at the audition, and we have to prove we’re not just silly little Year Sevens. Do you want to end up as part of a chorus of bunny rabbits, or something like that?” she asked Saima threateningly, wagging a finger in front of her friend’s face.

  Saima grinned. “No, Bel,” she answered obediently. She rolled her eyes at Becky over Annabel’s shoulder as she turned away. Saima was very easy-going, and didn’t mind Annabel being a bit overdramatic. It made her a lot of fun to be friends with – you couldn’t be bored with Annabel around. Being friends with Annabel meant spending time with Katie and Becky too, which could be a bit weird sometimes. The triplets looked so alike (even when Annabel was wearing as much make-up as her mum would let her get away with and the others weren’t wearing any) that everyone thought they ought to like the same stuff and think the same about things. They didn’t – and Annabel and Katie would get really cross if you mixed them up.

  Saima glanced over at Becky, sitting on the window seat next to her rat cage, and cooing to Fang, her cinnamon-coloured rat, who was perched on the cage roof sniffing suspiciously at the piece of carrot that Becky had left for her. Becky wasn’t as “look at me” as the other two. She was much quieter, and happy to hide behind Annabel and Katie quite a lot of the time. Annabel had confided to Saima that she was really shocked when Becky was the first of the triplets to start going out with someone. It was just a good thing that Becky’s boyfriend David liked rats. Saima shuddered as Fang’s little paws skittered through Becky’s hair. She agreed with Annabel – rats were not something that ought to be in the house, certainly not in someone’s bedroom.

  “If we want proper parts in this play,” continued Annabel grimly, “we need to be a lot better than the older ones, because Ms Loftus is automatically going to think Year Seven equals dancing bunny. Stupid teachers,” she added bitterly.

  “I didn’t know that you had to dance at the audition anyway,” said Becky, coming over, with Fang now cradled in both hands. “It didn’t say so on the poster, just that you had to turn up straight after school on Tuesday.”

  “You have to be able to dance and sing if you want a main part,” Saima explained, retreating slightly as the rat came uncomfortably close. “Ms Loftus said so. We asked her what the auditions would be like after Drama last week. We don’t know exactly how she’ll organize it, though – whether she’ll get us all to do the same thing, or ask if we have anything we’ve already worked out.”

  “So we – need to – be prepared,” gasped Annabel between high kicks. Then she stopped as she noticed where Becky was. “Hey! Becky! This is the no rat zone. Out! You know the rules.” She folded her arms and glared, and Becky backed meekly away.

  “Sorry! I forgot, Bel, really.”

  Becky had agreed to Bel’s rules for the rats because she knew it was the only way she could keep them, and because even though she couldn’t understand why her sister disliked the rats so much, she knew that they really did make Annabel shudder.

  “I suppose this isn’t really the best place to dance.” Annabel sighed. “Let’s go downstairs where there’s more room. We’ll put the proper music on and you can see the whole thing!”

  “Oooh yes, let’s!” Katie muttered, but thankfully Annabel didn’t hear her.

  As soon as Annabel and Saima had disappeared out of the door, Becky grabbed the football magazine, and smacked Katie on the head with it. “Don’t be so mean! She comes to watch your football games, even if she does spend the entire time moaning that she’s freezing to death. She’s really excited about this play, so you’ve got to be nice. Come on!”

  Becky popped Fang back in the cage and took out her other rat, Cassie, before following the others downstairs. She had let Katie and Annabel name the rats because they were going to have to share a room with them, and Cassie’s black and white coat had made football-mad Katie think of Newcastle United. Fang had been Annabel’s choice – as she had said, to her, rats were nasty, slinky things with wormy tails and too many teeth.

  There was plenty of space in the living room, so Becky, Cassie and Katie curled up on the sofa to watch.

  Saima and Annabel both took ballet classes, and they were very good dancers. Saima also did Indian dancing, which seemed to give her an added grace, but Katie, watching them get into their starting pose, decided that Annabel really did have something special. Of course, there was no way she’d ever tell Bel that – she reckoned her sister was big-headed enough already – but there was something about the confidence in her moves that made her fun to watch. She was arched over backwards holding Saima’s hands, as Saima knelt on the floor. As the music started, Saima somehow managed to get up very smoothly and they kept holding hands, so that they made an arch as Annabel straightened up. Then they spun out and the real dance began. Becky and Katie watched open-mouthed. How long had the two of them been practising this? Now they had the right amount of space, the steps that had looked a bit silly and clumsy upstairs seemed to flow into each other naturally.

  It was all going brilliantly, but then someone else decided to join in. Annabel and Saima were doing a complicated sequence that involved crossing each other as they went from one corner of the room to the opposite corner, when Annabel noticed in mid-twirl that somehow Pixie, the Ryans’ small black cat, had appeared with split-second timing just where her foot was about to land. She yelped, and managed to insert a sort of half-jump. Pixie gave her an affronted look, sat down, and started to wash
in a way that strongly suggested that this was her floor, and Annabel ought to get off it. Annabel, scowling, introduced a new step that didn’t quite fit into the music, the “scooping that stupid cat out of the way” bend and grab. Unfortunately, Pixie was not in a mood to be twirled with. She arched her back, and plunged her claws into Annabel’s favourite lilac jumper.

  Becky and Katie were in hysterics by this point. Annabel’s face when she’d first spotted Pixie practically underneath her feet was bad enough, but Annabel trying to remember her steps and remove the cat was just too much. Saima had been trying to keep going, but she was giggling so much that she was bent almost double.

  Annabel sighed, and stopped. Pixie leapt to the floor and stalked off indignantly.

  Katie managed to stop laughing long enough to say, “That was fantastic, Bel. Not sure they’ll let you take Pixie to school, though.”

  “Funny,” muttered Annabel crossly. “If she’s spoilt this jumper I’m going to kill her and make a black fur hat. Honestly, you can’t move in this house without something furry getting there first.”

  “It was a brilliant dance, though,” said Becky, trying to make peace with her sister. “Wasn’t it, Katie?” She raised her eyebrows at Katie, wanting her to be nice to Annabel, but Katie looked like she was still trying not to laugh.

  Annabel sighed dramatically and began inspecting her jumper to make sure there really weren’t any pulled threads. It was so unfair. The dance had been looking so good – they’d never got it as perfect as that before – and now it was all spoilt. They should have gone over to Saima’s house, which was always beautifully tidy, with no dumb cats messing things up, and certainly no rats. She scowled.

  Becky headed for the stairs. “Look, I’m really sorry about Pixie. If I go and put Cassie upstairs, and shut the cats out, will you do the dance again in a minute?” Then she glared at Katie – back me up!

  Katie got the signal this time. “Please, Bel. It really was good, way better than it looked upstairs when you hadn’t got the music. I want to see how you finish it. You don’t mind doing it again, do you, Saima?”

  “The end’s the best bit, actually.” Saima nodded enthusiastically.

  Annabel looked pleased. She hadn’t expected Katie and Becky to be so interested – after all, dancing was something neither of them were that keen on – but they seemed to really mean it. She bounced over to the CD player, her bad temper gone as quickly as it had arrived.

  Becky popped her head back round the door. “Shall I get Mum, as well? I bet she’d like to see it.”

  Annabel shrugged, and tried to look as though she didn’t mind either way. “OK,” she said in a don’t-care voice, secretly delighted at the fuss Katie and Becky were making.

  The second performance was slightly less eventful. Katie and Becky and their mum clapped loudly at the end – they’d been going to anyway, to cheer Annabel up, but actually they did it without needing to think.

  “I can’t believe you two made that up!” enthused Mrs Ryan, as they sat round the kitchen table sharing a packet of chocolate biscuits. “It was wonderful. So this is for the Christmas play that the school’s putting on at the end of term, is it? What parts do you two want?”

  Annabel flushed slightly. She wasn’t really sure how her family would react if she said she was after the main part – Cinderella. Annabel knew that she was a good dancer – she wasn’t being conceited, she just was. And she adored acting. But was she good enough to take the lead role in a school play? It would be so cool! Obviously any part would be fun – as long as it wasn’t a dancing bunny rabbit – but secretly she wanted to be the star. All this ran through her mind as she hesitated, wondering how to answer her mum’s question. Then she shrugged, and grinned round at the others. Why not admit it? “The bigger the better.”

  “Well, why not,” said Mrs Ryan. “You’re certainly good enough, Bel.”

  Katie and Becky rolled their eyes at her, but Annabel felt encouraged. Saima and her sisters hadn’t said she was aiming too high – it was as though they thought she might really be able to get a big part.

  Saima nodded. “Me too. I’d like to do lots of dancing. And I want something with a nice costume!”

  Katie rolled her eyes again. “Honestly. You two are obsessed with clothes!”

  “Uh-huh.” Saima nodded happily. “Oooh, Bel, talking of clothes, do you want to come Christmas shopping in Stallford with me soon? My uncle sent me some money to get my own present, and I want to get stuff for people at school too.”

  Annabel grinned smugly. “OK. But I probably won’t need to get that much. We’re doing most of our Christmas shopping in Oxford Street.” She tried to say this in an offhand kind of way, but she couldn’t hide the excitement in her voice.

  Saima’s perfectly arched eyebrows nearly disappeared into her hair. “You’re going shopping in London?” she squeaked.

  “Mmm. Our Auntie Janet lives there and we’re going up to see the Christmas lights and do our present-shopping – isn’t it cool?”

  Saima looked hugely envious. “You’re so lucky! You’d better get me something nice, Bel!”

  Later on, when they’d walked Saima back home and Annabel was sitting on the stairs, supposedly finishing off her homework to hand in the next day, her brain wouldn’t stick on maths (it hardly ever did). Instead she made a big decision. Mum, and Katie and Becky, and Saima all seemed to think she had a good chance at the auditions. So she was going to do whatever it took to get the main part – Annabel Ryan was going to be the star…

  Chapter Two

  Annabel couldn’t believe that there were two whole days of school to get through before the auditions. How could she be expected to cope with stupid stuff like the periodic table and equilateral triangles, for heaven’s sake? She was clearly not in the mood at all for school that Monday, and Katie cast an anxious eye over her as they walked across the school grounds on their way to the last lesson of the morning.

  “Bel, you need to be sensible. It’s French, and you know what Mr Hatton’s like. He’ll have a real go at you if you mess around with him like you were in science. Even Mrs Stafford was looking at you funny, and she never tells anyone off.”

  This was true. Mr Hatton was well known as a teacher that you didn’t want to get on the wrong side of. He also appeared to be distinctly suspicious of the triplets, as if he was convinced they were plotting something all the time. Annabel had had a real run-in with him a few weeks earlier, when she’d entirely forgotten to learn her French vocab for a test, so normally Katie’s warning would have sobered her up. Today, though, she just felt too buzzy and excited to care much, and only managed to calm down enough to give her sister a withering look.

  “Stop fussing, Katie! You’re so boring.” She stalked ahead of Katie and the others into the classroom. Katie grimaced at Becky – this was typical Annabel. Then she sighed. Why did she feel like she was going to be mopping up the mess any minute?

  It was unfortunate that the scramble for seats had left the triplets at a table right next to Max Cooper and his mates. Max was Public Enemy Number One as far as they were concerned – on days when they managed to avoid blonde brat Amy Mannering, anyway. Max took every opportunity he could to get at the triplets. He especially had it in for Katie, as she’d got him into big trouble a while back after he deliberately injured her in a football match. Max’s dad had gone ballistic at Max after Mrs Ryan phoned him to complain, and Max was still holding a grudge.

  “Oh, great. It’s the triplets. Ben, pass me your rucksack, I need something to be sick in.”

  Ben, who wasn’t nearly as horrible as Max, snickered uneasily, and tried not to look nervous. Katie and Annabel were both well known for giving as good as they got.

  “How’s your leg, Katie? Awww, did you need Mummy to kiss it better?”

  Katie was just drawing breath to blast Max with a detailed descr
iption of the close family relationship between him and a very backward slug when Annabel got in first.

  “Shut up, bug-brain! Go on, be sick – at least it’ll mean you’re not talking.”

  At that moment Mr Hatton came in, and Annabel had the sense to turn round and look innocent – although her angelic expression only made the French teacher give her a suspicious look.

  Max was obviously in the same devil-may-care mood as Annabel, because he spent the whole lesson hissing insults at her, and kicking her chair in the most irritating way. And somehow he managed it without Mr Hatton noticing. So when Annabel finally lost her temper literally two minutes before the end of the lesson – it was the fourth time Max had pulled her hair – and emptied her pencil sharpener over his head, Mr Hatton was not understanding. He had the good sense to put Max in detention, but he put Annabel in too – for Tuesday after school.

  “But Mr Hatton, you can’t – I—”

  “Quiet!” Mr Hatton refused to listen. In fact he threatened to give Annabel a detention every Tuesday for the rest of the term if she didn’t shut up. So she shut up.

  To make everything worse, as soon as the bell went Amy sauntered over with a gloating little smile. “Oh, Annabel! I can’t believe he gave you a detention for tomorrow! You must be so disappointed. You and your sisters would definitely have got parts – I’m sure Ms Loftus could have rewritten Cinderella so that I had three Ugly Sisters.” Amy paused, waiting for a comeback, but for once Annabel was too shocked to argue. Amy smiled perfectly and went to the door, purring over her shoulder, “Never mind, there’s always next year. And don’t worry, I’ll explain to Ms Loftus that you couldn’t make the audition.”

  Annabel watched blankly as Amy disappeared with a last maddening flick of strawberry-blonde hair. So much for Annabel the star. Not only was she going to miss the chance to try for Cinderella, it was clear that Amy thought she was going to be the lead. Amy Mannering to get her part? It was unbearable.