Tara's Triumph

by Cindy Jeffries

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Copyright Page

  1. Alone

  2. Mixed Feelings

  3. A Good Idea?

  4. Tara’s Idea

  5. A Difficult Task

  6. A Difficult Time

  7. Tara’s Song

  8. Judge Jim’s Advice

  9. Another Good Idea

  10. Making the Best of It

  11. Concert Fever

  12. Lonely Eyes

  So you want to be a pop star?

  Glamour! Talent! Stardom! Fame and fortune could be one step away for the kids of Fame School! All the students at Rockley Park, a school for the pop culture performing arts, are talented, but they still have to work hard. They must keep up their grades, learn about the professional side of the music business, improve their talent, and get along with their classmates. Being a star—and a kid—isn’t easy. Things don’t always go as planned, but one thing’s certain—this group of friends will do their best to sing, dance, and jam their way to the top!

  Tara’s Big Plan

  “What are you doing?” Chloe asked Tara.

  “I looked up Tikki Deacon’s charity on the Internet,” Tara told her. “And it’s all here. The school where they did the fashion shoot can only take care of fifty children, and according to this there are thousands who need the same help, but there just isn’t the money to do it. And that school does need more money urgently or it might have to close.”

  “That’s terrible,” said Chloe. “It won’t close now, though, with Tikki Deacon helping, will it?”

  “I don’t know,” Tara told her. “In my experience, adults often let you down. Who knows? She might support them for a few weeks and then go on to something else. But the school needs help all the time.” She thought for a moment and then turned to face Chloe. “When I see Mrs. Sharkey tomorrow, I’m going to ask if we can adopt the charity, and make it our job to help keep the school going.”

  “What an awesome idea!” said Chloe.

  For every child in need of help, wherever they may be.

  Thanks to Ed for the loan of his bass

  and Rickenbacker for making the beautiful 4003.

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Young Readers Group,

  345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario,

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  Penguin Books Ltd. 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

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  Registered Offices: Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  First published in Great Britain by Usborne Publishing Ltd., 2005

  Published by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2007

  Copyright © Cindy Jefferies, 2005 All rights reserved CIP Data is available.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-11888-7

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  1. Alone

  Tara stepped out of the shower and put on her last clean shirt. She looked longingly at her freshly made bed, with the mosquito netting neatly furled. But she couldn’t go back to bed, even though she’d been up since five A.M., and had just returned from the morning’s safari. She had a very long journey ahead of her and she wasn’t looking forward to traveling alone.

  She picked up her earphones and put some music on. She’d filled the player with all her favorite songs before she’d gone on vacation, and now she tried to blot out her tiredness with some heavy rock as she began to pack.

  The staff at the game lodge had been kind to her. The owners, Connie and Tambo Sissulu, were old friends of her parents. They had looked after Tara very well and had tried hard to make her feel at home. Jimmy, their safari guide, had been wonderful about including her, sometimes even letting her ride up in the front of the safari bus with him. But even seeing the “big five” game animals of Africa hadn’t cheered Tara up. She was feeling very let down, and spending the last two days of her vacation with a variety of middle-aged couples, with their baggy shorts and tedious conversation, hadn’t helped. She was sure none of them would share her passion for rock music, and she hadn’t mentioned to anyone how much she missed playing her bass guitar.

  It wasn’t supposed to have been like this. It should have been a family vacation, a fantastic week on safari, all three of them together for once. But that’s not how it had turned out. Things had gone wrong almost from the start.

  “Unfortunately, I have to fly back home a couple of days early,” Tara’s dad had announced rather sheepishly over dinner on the first night. “I got a call this morning, asking me to step in at the last minute for a really important recording session. They need me in London on Friday.”

  “Oh no! Darling!” protested Tara’s mom. “Can’t you tell them you won’t do it?”

  “Sorry. No, I can’t turn this one down,” her father had replied. “But we’ll still have five days on vacation together.”

  Tara had played with her exotic fruit salad while she listened to her parents’ voices arguing against the night sounds of the African bush. We should all be sitting quietly, she thought, listening to the fantastic roars and screeches out there in the dark. But Tara’s parents’ careers got in the way of almost everything.

  Tara’s father was a jazz musician and her mother was a fashion journalist. They both spent lots of their time jetting around the world at a moment’s notice, and now it seemed they couldn’t even manage a week together as a family without one of them ruining everything.

  Tara tried not to be too unhappy about her dad having to leave early. But it turned out that her father wasn’t going to be the only person to let her down. Her mother soon abandoned the family vacation as well.

  After three wonderful days together, her mother had got wind of an important photo shoot happening on the coast. First there had been constant phone calls. Then she had dropped the bombshell.

  “I have to leave in the morning, and won’t be back for the rest of the week,” she had announced, to Tara’s dismay. “Don’t be difficult, darling,” she had added, noticing the look on Tara’s face. “The rumor is that Tikki Deacon is in Africa for more than just a modeling assignment. You know how famous she is. It could be a really big story. I can’t let my editor down, can I?”

  So that was that. Three days as a family, two more with her dad, and the last two abandoned by both her parents. Tara bit back the angry words she felt like saying. Other people got to have real family vacations. Sometimes they spent as much as two whole weeks together. But the best her parents could manage was three days.

  She listened while her parents discussed what they should do with their daughter for the final two days of the vacation, when they would both be away. Their conversation made Tara feel like a package.

  “We could send her to my mother, but there’s the problem of getting her back to school, now that Mother doesn’t drive,” Tara’s mom mused.

  “Do you ha
ve a friend you’d like to stay with, sweetie?” asked her dad hopefully. “That would make it easier to get her to school,” he added to his wife, ignoring Tara’s mumbled reply.

  There wasn’t anyone Tara wanted to stay with, especially at such short notice. She didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for her. That would be too much to bear.

  “Can’t I fly back to London on Friday with you?” she had begged her dad.

  But her father had been adamant. “As soon as I get back, I’ll be in the studio, and you know what long hours that means,” he told her. “I expect I’ll be working through the night. That would be no fun for you, and I couldn’t leave you at home for so long on your own either.”

  “Let’s talk to Connie and Tambo,” suggested her mom. “Just because we have to leave doesn’t mean that Tara needs to miss the rest of the safari. I’m sure they’ll be fine about keeping an eye on you,” she told Tara cheerfully. “You wouldn’t want to be dragged around with me in this heat, would you? You’ll have lots to do here, with two game drives each day, and there’s the pool to relax in, too.”

  “If we make sure she can connect directly to the London flight, she’ll be fine,” Tara’s dad added to his wife. “And I’ll arrange for a car to pick you up from Heathrow Airport and take you to school,” he told Tara. And so that had been that.

  Tara hadn’t created a fuss, but soon afterward she made an excuse and went to her room. She put on some mellow music and stared miserably at her reflection in the dark window before she pulled the blinds. She wished she had her bass with her. At least music was reliable. It seemed it was the only thing in her life that was.

  Once again, Tara would be showing up at school for a new term without her mom and dad there to give her a hug and wish her well like all the other pupils. Rockley Park was a boarding school, and Tara hated arriving by herself. It just wasn’t fair.

  At least Tara enjoyed school. Although it offered all the usual classes, Rockley Park also taught the students everything they needed to know about making it in the music industry. And Tara had great musical ambitions. She dreamed of belonging to a famous rock band. She was determined to become more successful even than her dad. He was a well-respected saxophonist, but most of his work took place in recording studios, accompanying other musicians as they made their CDs. Tara preferred performing live. She wanted to be out there playing her bass onstage and hearing the cheers of her devoted fans, who would travel enthusiastically across continents to see her, not leave her in the lurch like her parents so often did.

  Now, with rock music pounding in her ears, Tara finished stuffing the few remaining possessions into her bag. She lugged it down to reception, where Jimmy was waiting for her, his handsome face beaming. Tara gave him the luggage, and thrust her earphones and player into her pocket.

  “All ready?” asked Jimmy.

  Tara nodded. Connie and Tambo each gave her a big hug, and told her to take care. Tara had the impression that they didn’t really approve of the way her parents had abandoned her either.

  “You enjoy your new semester, now,” Connie said. “And as soon as you’re famous, be sure to send me your first CD.”

  Jimmy and Tara walked out to the safari lodge’s single-engine airplane and clambered in. The small plane was soon bumping and rattling its way over the red earth of the landing strip, and then it was up and gaining height. Once they reached the city airport, Jimmy was going to hand Tara over to the airline escort, who would take care of her on the long international flight.

  At the bustling terminal, Jimmy helped Tara check in her bag. He made sure she had her passport, boarding pass, and carry-on luggage before seeing her through the boarding gate where her escort was waiting. He gave Tara a cheerful smile and a wave, before striding off on more lodge business.

  Tara watched him go. She knew her father would have paid Jimmy well for looking after her, but he had been very kind, and she would miss his bad jokes and fantastic animal stories.

  By the time Tara landed at Heathrow Airport, Jimmy and Africa seemed a lifetime away. The airline escort had irritated her intensely by treating her like a child, and the constant thrumming of the plane’s engines had prevented her from getting any sleep. What with that and her early start, Tara was exhausted. Thank goodness her dad had been as good as his word and had arranged for someone to meet her.

  As Tara emerged from customs, she scanned the mass of expectant faces. She spotted a young woman at the barrier who was holding a hurriedly written sign with Tara’s name on it.

  “Did you have a good flight?” the woman inquired. She didn’t wait for an answer, but led the way out to where the car was parked. The woman loaded Tara’s bags into the trunk and then started the car. Tara slumped down in the back, and tried to feel happy about returning to school on her own. She should be used to it by now.

  Once on the highway, the woman wanted to chat.

  “Rockley Park. That’s where you go if you want to be a pop singer, isn’t it?” she said.

  “Or a rock musician,” growled Tara, who wasn’t a great lover of pop music.

  “It must be fun playing music all day,” the woman said.

  “We don’t play music all day,” Tara roused herself to explain. “We have all the usual school classes as well. It’s actually harder than a normal school.”

  “Oh.” After a moment the woman said, “Do you get to meet lots of famous people?”

  But there was no answer. Tara had finally fallen asleep, and she stayed asleep until the car pulled up outside Rockley Park School for the Performing Arts.

  “Uh . . .” she groaned as she crawled out of the car and took her luggage. “I feel terrible. I’m not ready to face anyone at school yet!”

  2. Mixed Feelings

  Tara struggled along the hallway and into her room, where she dumped her bags by her bed. She was early. The famous model twins, Pop and Lolly Lowther, weren’t here yet. Nor was Chloe, her other roommate. But even though it was empty, the room didn’t look unlived in. Students at Rockley Park were allowed to leave their possessions at school over spring break, so the beds were made up with their own duvet covers, their books were on the shelves, and favorite posters were on the bulletin boards above their beds.

  “Hello, Tara. You’re very early.” Mrs. Pinto, Tara’s housemother, popped her head around the door and smiled at her. “Goodness! Don’t you look healthy? Look at all those adorable freckles. Have you been somewhere nice over spring break?

  “Not really,” said Tara, not wanting to be questioned about her vacation. “Is anyone else here yet?”

  “You’re the first,” Mrs. Pinto said. “I don’t think anyone else will turn up for a while. But you’ve got some mail. It’s in your mailbox downstairs.”

  Tara nodded.

  After Mrs. Pinto had gone, Tara decided she couldn’t bear to unpack just yet. She hung up her thin jacket and pulled a sweater out of one of her drawers. She was chilly after her hot week in Africa.

  I wonder who’s written to me? she thought.

  She wandered back along the quiet hallway and went downstairs. In her mailbox was a postcard from her father. Trust him to do that. He could have called or texted her, but he always sent her postcards.

  He was still working on the new jazz album and sounded very busy.

  “Have a good semester, sweetie,” he’d written. “Hope you like our present. Judge Jim Henson will have it for you. Must go. The boys want to fit in another track if they can. Looks like it’s going to be another long night.”

  “Huh!” Tara wasn’t very impressed. “That’s typical. They always send presents when they’ve let me down. But why did they send this one to Judge Jim?”

  Judge Jim Henson was Head of the Rock Department. He and Tara’s father had known each other for years, but that was no reason for her present to be sent to him. What were her parents up to?

  Tara stuffed the postcard in her pocket and went over to the Rock Department. Like many of the teachers, Judge Jim got
to school early at the beginning of the semester to arrange everything before the students arrived. He was in the main room, changing a plug. A mellow blues-guitar CD was playing on the sound system.

  “Hi, Tara!” he greeted her, shaking his gray dreadlocks back from his dark, wrinkled face. “You been sunbathing?”

  She ignored his question. “Did something come for me?” she asked, pulling the postcard from her pocket.

  Judge Jim was smiling at her. “Sure did. It arrived a couple of hours ago.”

  Tara frowned. “What is it, then?” she asked. The lavish boxes of chocolates and designer bags and scarves that her mother usually sent hardly needed Judge Jim’s attention.

  Judge Jim looked surprised. “You don’t know?” He put the plug and screwdriver down and got up. “It’s in my office. Come and see.”

  Tara followed as he led the way to his small, cluttered room. There didn’t seem to be anything gift-wrapped among the heaps of paperwork on Judge Jim’s desk. But her teacher was picking up a large guitar case and putting it carefully on top of the papers.

  “Is it your birthday?” he asked, waving her toward the case.

  “No,” she told him, her hands hesitating over the latches.

  “Well, lucky you,” he said. “Go on. Open it up!”

  Tara undid the case and lifted the lid. Inside, a layer of wrapping protected the instrument. She pulled it off and saw a beautiful, long-necked, black-and-white bass guitar.

  “Oh!”

  “It is lovely, isn’t it?” said Judge Jim.

  “A Rickenbacker! I’ve wanted one forever,” Tara enthused.

  “Well, now you’ve got one. Oh, and I advised your dad to get you this.” He opened a drawer, took out a lead, and handed it to Tara.

  “But I already have a lead for my bass,” she said. “Couldn’t I use that one?”

  “You could,” Judge Jim said. “But this lead is rather special. It will let the sound through so much better. Don’t lose it. The lead was very expensive, but I told your dad that you and the bass were worth it!”