A Dream Come True

by Cindy Jefferies

  The Lowthers were equally glamorous, just like the pictures she’d seen of them. And they really were identical. Thank goodness they were wearing different clothes, otherwise she’d never have been able to tell which one she was speaking to.

  Was she supposed to go and greet them? No. Francesca was doing that, as poised as ever, shaking hands and showing them to the meeting room. As they passed Ellie’s desk, Francesca glanced at her, and she remembered what she was supposed to do. She had to follow them and wait outside while Angel chatted to the guests for a few minutes. Then Angel would leave, Francesca would introduce Ellie to them, and leave them with Joe to do the photo shoot. After that, Ellie would have no more than twenty minutes to interview them. As she’d been told, she hurried over and loitered by the door.

  “Ah, Ellie. There you are,” said Francesca, emerging from the room a few minutes later. “Let me introduce you to Pop and Lolly Lowther.”

  The Lowthers were tall, very nearly as tall as Francesca, and Ellie discovered that even close up they still looked pretty well identical. Hopefully she’d remember which was gold heels, and which was black jeans.

  The twins’ faces seemed flawless, as if carved in a pale, coffee-coloured stone. But as soon as they spoke, their faces came alive, and Ellie reminded herself that, however extraordinary they were, Pop and Lolly were still just human beings, and she shouldn’t allow herself to be overawed.

  “Hi! I’m Pop,” said one of the girls. She smiled as she held out her hand and Ellie shook it. She tried to fix in her mind that gold heels was Pop.

  “And I’m Lolly,” said black jeans, also shaking Ellie’s hand. “I hear you’re on work experience. I hope you’re enjoying it.”

  Pop followed her sister’s comment without allowing Ellie to reply. “You’ve managed to wangle this interview, which is quite an achievement I should think!” She grinned at Ellie and Ellie found herself grinning back. Everything was going to be all right.

  It was great fun being photographed with the Lowther twins. They made it very easy for Joe, seeming to know exactly what he wanted almost before he spoke. But then, they had been photographed so many times since they were young children that it must be second nature for them by now.

  Joe wanted to take some pictures of Ellie interviewing the twins, so Ellie opened her notebook and put on an enquiring expression, while both the Lowthers paid her a flattering amount of attention.

  The time flew by, and after what seemed a very few minutes Joe had gone. “Well,” said one of the twins – Ellie had somehow for the moment forgotten which was which. “Now it’s just us. What do you want to know?”

  “Don’t worry,” said the other kindly. She seemed to have sensed Ellie’s sudden panic. “There are loads of stock questions that magazines always ask us. We can help you out if you like. Don’t feel pressured.”

  “It’s okay,” said Ellie, finding her voice. “I’ve got my questions written down. All I have to do is run through them, if that’s okay.”

  The twins sat together on a comfortable leather sofa, while Ellie took one of the blue chairs. They answered everything they could about their coming tour. Then they answered questions about their careers, their schooling at Rockley Park – the famous school for musically talented children – and their home life. Ellie was amazed to hear that they really had started their modelling career as infants! The student twin, Lolly, told Ellie a bit about the work she hoped eventually to do in India, where their mother’s family came from, and Ellie remembered the special question that she wanted to ask.

  “Why have you decided to give up your career with your sister to become a doctor?” she asked.

  “I’ve been asked before about why I’ve decided to stop being a model and pop singer,” said Lolly thoughtfully. “But I haven’t seen the proper answer printed anywhere.”

  “Well, no magazine is going to print that you think being a pop singer is silly,” laughed Pop.

  “Do you really think that?” asked Ellie, feeling rather shocked.

  “I don’t think it’s silly!” protested Lolly. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be going on this tour, would I? No. There’s nothing at all wrong with using your talent to be an entertainer. I just don’t find it satisfies me somehow. I don’t know why.”

  “She’s always wanted to be a doctor really,” said Pop, smiling affectionately at her sister. “And I was pretty cross about the idea of her deserting me at first.” She grinned. “But she has to follow her heart, just as I do, and she is very clever.”

  “Ssh!” said Lolly, nudging her twin. “You’re embarrassing me. And I still have to get a good degree. What if I flunk my exams?”

  Pop rolled her eyes, and Ellie found herself giggling. The twins were great to be with, and very easy to like.

  “Look,” said Pop to Ellie, nudging her sister back with a grin, “we ought to be giving you something exclusive for your article, so you can show the Editor how brilliant you are.”

  “Good idea!” said Lolly. “What shall we tell her that no one else knows?”

  Ellie sat between them, hugging her notebook to her chest, hardly able to believe her luck.

  “I know,” said Pop. “You can have it exclusively from me that I’m about to launch a totally new venture!”

  “Put something in to the effect that you made us feel so relaxed that Poppy let it slip by mistake,” said Lolly.

  “Okay,” said Ellie. “So…” she added breathlessly to Pop. “What is your new venture going to be?”

  “Ah! Well unfortunately I can’t actually tell you quite yet,” said Pop. “There are still a couple of things to put in place. But it should be enough for Heart to say that something’s happening. And if you hint that your magazine might be the first to announce what it will be…well, it’ll hopefully keep people buying the magazine until they find out.”

  “That’s what editors like.” Lolly gave Ellie a lovely smile. “Don’t worry. It’s true. She really is going to launch a new venture, very soon.”

  “If you email my agent in about a month’s time she should be able to explain,” said Pop. “I’ll give her your name so she’ll be expecting your message.”

  “But Ellie will have finished her work experience by then,” said Lolly.

  Pop frowned, but soon brightened again. “Well she can still give Heart the exclusive information,” she said. “Make sure they pay you for it too,” she said to Ellie with a wink.

  It was time for them to go.

  “I love your dress, by the way,” said Pop to Ellie as Angel appeared at the door, with Carlotta and Piano lurking nearby to catch a last glimpse of the celebrities. Ellie felt herself go pink with pleasure at the compliment.

  Under Angel’s withering look, Carlotta backed away and resumed her place at the reception desk. Piano was still hovering, but neither Pop nor Lolly gave her a second glance. And to Ellie’s great delight, the twins gave her a hug before they allowed Angel to whisk them away.

  “Good luck in the future,” said Lolly.

  “Don’t forget to email,” added Pop.

  As Piano saw the visitors out, Ellie went back to her desk, feeling as if she was drifting along on a cloud of total happiness. She sat down and opened her notebook, intent on adding to the information she already had, while the interview was fresh in her mind. She hadn’t made anything like as many notes as she’d intended, although she was fairly confident that she’d done enough. But before she began she just had to sit and revel in her experience. It had been quite simply the most exciting time of her life!

  Ellie worked hard on her article and, thankfully, apart from sending her out twice on errands for Angel, Piano mostly left her in peace.

  As for Carlotta, Ellie hadn’t wanted to fall out with her, but reluctantly assumed that she’d lost her ally. However, to Ellie’s delight, Carlotta seemed to have forgiven her and was ready to be friends again. She wanted to know all about the interview, and Ellie tried to tell her as much as possible, without giving the impress
ion she was bragging. It was great not to be shunned, but Carlotta seemed to be happy to chat all day, whereas Ellie wanted to get on with her article. In the end, Ellie simply had to ask her politely to stop talking, so she could work.

  As the receptionist turned away with a pout, Ellie sighed. Now Carlotta would probably hate her again. It was an awful lot easier dealing with Piano. Ellie might not like Angel’s assistant, but at least she was consistent in treating Ellie as if she was some sort of pond life.

  At one point, Francesca found time to come over and give her a bit of advice, which Ellie was most grateful for.

  “Try hinting at the most exciting item at the beginning of your article, and then go into more detail about it towards the end. That’s the way to keep your readers hooked,” she said.

  “Thanks, Francesca!” Ellie looked at the first sentence, and rewrote it.

  I thought it was exciting enough to be photographed with two of my fave people, but Pop ’n’ Lolly hinted that they would give me and Heart an exclusive scoop too!

  By the end of the day Ellie was happy with what she’d written. She had tried to answer most of the questions readers liked to ask, and had added a bit about Lolly’s hopes for her medical career. At the end she’d mentioned Pop’s new project, and tried to make it clear that Heart would be in a position to tell all when the time came.

  “I’ll read it through as soon as I can,” said Francesca when Ellie described what she’d done.

  Ellie pushed her notebook into her bag and got ready to leave. As she went through to change her shoes in the lobby she met Piano, who was coming back from an errand.

  “Pop Lowther was having a good laugh earlier, wasn’t she?” Piano said, kicking off her outdoor shoes.

  “What do you mean?” asked Ellie.

  “Well…” Piano slipped on a pair of brilliant blue court shoes with see-through heels and smiled. “Saying she liked your dress. What a joke!” She pushed past Ellie and sauntered back to the office. Ellie stared at her back, trying without success not to feel upset. She was still smarting when Carlotta came for her coat.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t talk more to you today,” Ellie apologized. “But I really had to get that article written while the interview was fresh in my mind.”

  Carlotta didn’t smile back. “You’ve got so up yourself,” she said. “It’s pathetic.”

  Ellie was stung. “I’m sorry,” she said, swallowing her anger. “I do realize how lucky I am. But I’ll be out of here very soon, and I’m sure you’ll get your chance then.”

  Carlotta looked even more angry. “Don’t patronize me,” she snapped. “And don’t bank on that article of yours getting into the magazine. It won’t.”

  Ellie couldn’t help replying. “You don’t know that!”

  Carlotta sneered. “It’s the photographs Angel really wanted. She’ll put them in and not bother with an article. Captions will do, and Piano or I will do those.”

  “Well it was fun meeting the Lowthers,” said Ellie, determined to be positive in the face of Carlotta’s spitefulness. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

  “I suppose it would have been a big thrill for you,” said Carlotta pityingly, ignoring the fact that she’d wanted to hear all about it not long ago.

  Ellie couldn’t bring herself to reply. She flung on her coat and hurried off to catch the bus.

  “Hey!” called Sophie, running to catch her up before she could reach the front entrance. “Come on! Tell all. Was it fabulous?” One look at Ellie’s face was all Sophie needed. She put her arm round Ellie and drew her back into the lift and down into the basement. “Did it really go badly? I’m sure it was better than you think.”

  Ellie shrugged off Sophie’s arm, thumped into a chair and folded her arms. “It was brilliant,” she told Sophie, with a furious expression on her face. “The Lowthers were great, I remembered what to do, and I’ve finished the article. Thanks to a tip from Francesca I really think it’s got a good chance of being published. I was feeling fantastic until Piano and Carlotta got their teeth into me. And I thought Carlotta liked me. Then she didn’t for a bit, then she did, and now she doesn’t again. It’s crazy!”

  Sophie sighed. “You just have to try and ignore them,” she said. “I know they can be pretty poisonous, but it’s only jealousy. They would love to be able to interview people instead of running errands for Angel, but all they get to do is make up readers’ letters and make sure the horoscopes fit the available space.”

  Ellie sighed. “They can both be so…horrible.” She gave Sophie a weak smile. “They don’t really make up the readers’ letters, do they?”

  Sophie smiled back. “I invented that. I bet Heart gets loads of letters from readers, without Piano and Carlotta having to make them up. Let’s go and see if Flynn has managed to get the car out of that shoebox they call a car park. We’ll give you a lift home.”

  “But it’s not on your way,” said Ellie, feeling almost completely cheered up.

  “Flynn won’t mind. It looks like rain and we can’t have our celebrity interviewer getting wet in the bus queue, can we?”

  Flynn insisted on driving Ellie all the way home, and so Ellie invited them both in for a cup of tea. When Ellie’s mum got in a few minutes later she found Ellie and two new faces sitting round the kitchen table, laughing happily together.

  Ellie introduced them and poured her mum a mug of tea. In no time they were all listening to Ellie relive her day. Then Georgia wanted to know about Sophie’s pots.

  “If the company would only give me a rise, Soph could give up the post room job and be a full-time potter,” said Flynn wistfully. “Instead of having to cram it into weekends and evenings.”

  Sophie put her arm round Flynn and gave him a kiss. “That’s kind, but I don’t mind,” she said. “I have to make my pottery pay for itself. And you’ll get a rise eventually. I’m sure you will.”

  Flynn grinned. “Either that, or you’ll sell that pot you keep in the post room for a fortune to some celebrity who wanders down there by mistake. Then I won’t have to work at all and you can keep me.”

  “You wish!” Sophie tried to look scandalized and failed dismally.

  When Sophie and Flynn eventually left, Ellie and her mum waved them off and went back into the kitchen to tidy up and start dinner.

  “What lovely people,” said Georgia, with her head in the fridge. “I feel a lot happier with you in that place knowing you have those two looking out for you. Sophie at least gives the impression that she has her feet firmly on the ground.”

  “And isn’t Flynn good-looking?” said Ellie, stacking the mugs in the dishwasher.

  Georgia withdrew her head and appeared with a selection of vegetables to chop. “He’s obviously devoted to Sophie,” she said primly. Then she looked at Ellie and grinned like a teenager. “And yes, he is totally gorgeous,” she agreed. “But obviously taken, and much too old for you and much too young for me.”

  “Mum!”

  There was silence for a few minutes while chopping got under way. Then Ellie cleared her throat. “Do you think Carlotta was right? Will they dump my article and just print the pictures?”

  Georgia stopped what she was doing and gave her daughter a hug. “I have no idea, love, but no one can take today away from you, can they? And it’s all practice, isn’t it? After all, I thought you wanted to be one of the best. That takes time.”

  “Yes,” said Ellie thoughtfully. “Of course. I can’t expect to breeze in there and become a brilliant journalist overnight. But it would be nice to see at least a few of my words in print.”

  Ellie resumed her chopping, thinking furiously. Mum’s right, she thought. I want to be a good journalist…the best I can be. And I’ve got Dad’s words to spur me on. I don’t care how horrible Piano and Carlotta are. I’m determined that eventually I can do this!

  Friday went well, with Ellie feeling more settled and part of the Editorial Department, even though no other amazing jobs came
her way. On Monday she breezed into work feeling on top of the world, but she arrived to find an awful atmosphere in the office. As she walked up to the reception desk, Carlotta gave her a very strange look. It seemed to Ellie to be a cross between pity and glee. Ellie found her heart beginning to thump and, as soon as Piano intercepted her, gripping her elbow in that spiteful way she had, Ellie knew she was in trouble.

  “Angel wants to see you in her office. Now!”

  Ellie wrenched her elbow free and scuttled to the Editor in Chief’s closed door. She could feel Piano’s venom – it almost seemed to be piercing her back as she went. She tried desperately to think of something, anything she might have done to bring this amount of anger in her direction. Apart from a week ago, when the Editor had referred to her as “it”, Angel had hardly acknowledged Ellie’s presence, and Piano simply ordered her about. What on earth could Angel want? Was it something about the interview with the Lowthers? Had they complained? But they’d seemed so happy with the way it had gone.

  It was no good, she couldn’t think of anything. She took a deep breath. She couldn’t hang about any longer, with both Piano and Carlotta watching her. She simply had to knock on the door.

  Ellie could make nothing out by the tone of voice Angel used to summon her. She opened the door, went in and was slightly relieved to find that Francesca was there as well. However, judging from Francesca’s expression she wasn’t ready to take Ellie’s side any time soon.

  Angel was holding Ferdinand under her arm as usual. She said nothing, but looked at Ellie as if she was the lowest form of life. She left Francesca to do the talking.

  “A few minutes ago we took a call from Joe,” Francesca told Ellie in a cold voice. “You know Joe, the photographer?”

  Ellie found herself nodding quickly. “Yes, of course.”

  “He was scheduled to do a major shoot this morning with Sapphire, but she didn’t turn up.”

  Ellie’s face and mind went blank as she tried to work out what on earth a famous model not turning up for work had to do with her.