Starring Meg

by Mac a'Bháird, Natasha;

‘You know all my secrets,’ Hannah complained. ‘I’ve known you since we were about two!’

  ‘There must be something,’ Ruby insisted.

  Hannah thought for a minute. ‘OK. You know when Mum hurt her ankle and I was looking after the kids? Well, one day I’d made fish fingers and waffles for dinner, but Bobby said he didn’t like fish fingers any more. So I told him they weren’t fish fingers, they were shark fingers, and he ate them all up and said they were yummy. Now he keeps asking Mum for shark fingers and she doesn’t know what he’s talking about!’

  ‘Good one,’ Ruby said. ‘OK, Meg, your turn.’

  My heart was pounding. This was the perfect opportunity to just get it over with and tell them. They had to know some time, right? I started to say something, but at the last minute I chickened out. I just couldn’t do it. ‘Well, you see, my secret is that my mum is an actress, my dad is a film director and my granny and grandad are both in theatre too. Oh wait, I forgot. That’s not a secret, because the whole town knows.’

  Everyone laughed, and Hannah gave my arm a sympathetic rub.

  ‘Nice try, Meg,’ Laura said. ‘We need a secret you haven’t told us before. Something you haven’t told anyone.’

  I racked my brains for something safe I could tell them. ‘Uh …’

  ‘Are you girls still talking?’

  I’d never been so thankful to see Mum appearing at the door.

  ‘Come on now, snuggle down and go to sleep. It’s after 1am! Your parents will never allow you to stay over again if I send you home exhausted!’

  ‘Sorry, Mum,’ I said. ‘We’ll go to sleep now.’

  ‘Sorry, Cordelia,’ everyone murmured.

  Mum waited until we were all lying down, then turned off the last lamp.

  ‘Goodnight, girls. Sleep well.’ She squeezed my hand as she went by and I squeezed back, grateful for her perfect timing.

  Ruby waited until she heard Mum’s bedroom door close upstairs, then whispered sleepily, ‘You owe us a secret, Meg.’

  Next morning we all slept late. I woke up first, and tiptoed out of the sitting room so as not to wake the others. The kitchen clock said it was nearly ten o’clock!

  ‘Morning, sleepyhead,’ Mum said. She was already dressed and sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of coffee and flicking through a magazine. ‘Where are the girls?’

  ‘Still asleep,’ I told her. ‘Can I make French toast for breakfast, Mum?’ I loved making French toast – it was pretty easy, not to mention delicious.

  ‘I thought you’d want to – I even got white bread,’ Mum said, gesturing towards the bread bin. Since she’d started her healthy eating thing it had been wholemeal bread all the way. ‘And there are plenty of eggs in the fridge.’

  ‘Thanks, Mum.’

  I cracked eggs into a bowl, stirred in milk and started dipping slices of bread into it. I melted some butter in a frying pan and when it was sizzling I dropped in a few slices of bread.

  ‘Hey, you should have called us.’ Hannah was at the kitchen door, her long brown hair all tousled, still looking pretty sleepy.

  ‘I was going to,’ I told her. ‘I just thought I’d start breakfast first. I’m making French toast.’

  ‘Yum! I’ll call the other two.’

  The words ‘French toast’ seemed to work like magic to get Ruby and Laura out of bed. A few minutes later we were all sitting around the kitchen table eating our tasty breakfasts, topped with maple syrup and some of Grandad’s blackberries.

  ‘When you’ve finished your breakfast,’ Mum said, ‘if you’d all like to get dressed quickly, I thought I would take you into town to do some shopping for costumes.’

  ‘Oh, that would be brilliant!’ Laura said. ‘Miss Brennan wants us to do a dress rehearsal for the class on Monday, and I’m not sure we have what we need at home.’

  ‘Don’t you have ballet?’ Hannah asked Ruby.

  But Ruby shook her head. ‘No, it’s my private class on Saturday mornings, and Miss O’Neill moved it to Sunday this week.’

  ‘Yay – so we can all go!’ I said. ‘Thanks, Mum!’

  Half an hour later Mum parked the car outside the main shopping centre in Carrickbeg. ‘So do you know where you want to go, ladies?’

  ‘Let’s try Claire’s Accessories first,’ Hannah said. ‘And then Penney’s.’

  ‘And we could try that secondhand shop Sadie loves,’ I suggested. ‘They usually have some cool stuff.’

  ‘And we’ll have to hit the chemist for some make-up,’ Ruby added.

  ‘Sounds like this could take a while,’ Mum said. ‘Good thing I have plenty to keep me busy! There’s a sale on in Shoe City. They had the most divine pair of red kitten heels the last day. I do hope they’re reduced because I simply must have them! Now, you know where we’re meeting for lunch, don’t you darlings?’

  ‘Yes Mum, you’ve only reminded me about four times,’ I told her. ‘We’ll be there!’

  ‘Well, make sure you are. Have fun, darlings!’

  Mum strode off in the direction of Shoe City, and my friends and I turned to each other, feeling excited.

  ‘Claire’s then?’ Laura said.

  ‘Yes!’

  Claire’s was pretty quiet, which was just as well, because we were definitely not. Ruby started squealing with excitement over some hot pink tutus, and Laura started draping feather boas over her, while Hannah tried on a leopard-print cowboy hat with some oversized sunglasses that made her look a bit like she was in disguise. I found some stripy leggings in black and luminous green, which was just what I had in mind for Hepzibah, and a pair of black pointy glasses which would look great for Faye.

  ‘Look, look, you have to try this on,’ Hannah said, rushing up to me with a flowery hat. ‘It would clash horribly!’

  ‘And this!’ Laura hung a purple feather boa around me.

  Ruby came up too to add a gaudy scarf. I looked at myself in the mirror and started laughing – I looked ridiculous!

  ‘OK, Hannah’s turn, I don’t want to be the only crazy one!’ I said, and Laura and Ruby turned their attention to Hannah, who soon looked as funny as me.

  ‘Don’t look now, but I think the shop assistant might have had about enough of us,’ Hannah said all of a sudden. ‘Hey – I said don’t look!’

  Obviously you should never tell people not to look now, because that’s exactly what they’re going to do. An older lady behind the till was frowning over at us, and she turned and said something to her younger assistant, who moved over in our direction.

  ‘Maybe we’d better just decide what we’re buying,’ Ruby said nervously. She hates getting in any kind of trouble.

  ‘We’re not doing anything wrong,’ Laura said defiantly. ‘We’re customers, we’re entitled to try things on before we make our minds up.’ Nevertheless, she started putting back some of the feather boas.

  ‘Can I help you girls with anything?’ It was the younger assistant, a fake smile plastered to her face.

  ‘Yes please,’ Laura said, speaking in her Auntie Faye voice, and peering at the assistant over the top of the pointy glasses. ‘I’m looking for some accessories for my two nieces.’ She pointed to me and Ruby.

  The assistant’s eyebrows went up at the suggestion that twelve-year-old Laura was our aunt, but Laura carried on as if it was all perfectly normal. ‘Now, as you can see they like to wear as many different colours and patterns as they can possibly find – it’s how they express themselves, isn’t it, darlings? Do you have this scarf in another pattern? Something with polka dots perhaps?’

  ‘Uh – I think we have it in rainbow stripes, if you would like to take a look?’ the shop assistant said.

  ‘Delightful. Thank you.’

  Laura managed to keep a straight face while the poor shop assistant brought her one thing after another. She made Hannah and me hold them up against us and turned her head on one side with a critical expression.

  ‘Yes, I believe red is your colour, Hepzibah,’ she told
me. ‘It brings out the red in your eyes.’

  By now Hannah and I were really struggling not to laugh. Ruby had given up the battle and was hiding behind the earrings display, her hand tightly clamped over her mouth.

  ‘Thank you, my dear,’ Laura said to the shop assistant. ‘I believe we have everything we need now. Let me just consult my nieces as to their favourite options and we will be over in just a little moment.’

  ‘Of course.’ The shop assistant looked extremely relieved to escape, scuttling back over to the till where her boss was looking crosser than ever.

  ‘Laura, you’re terrible!’ Hannah told her, giggling.

  ‘I thought she was going to kick us out of the shop,’ I said.

  ‘Is she gone?’ Ruby poked her head around the earrings. ‘Oh my God, Laura, I thought I was going to die laughing!’

  ‘I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,’ Laura said, still in her Auntie Faye voice. ‘Can’t an aunt spoil her favourite ugly nieces?’

  ‘OK, what are we going to buy?’ Hannah asked. ‘We haven’t got enough money for everything.’

  ‘Definitely these leggings anyway,’ I said. ‘And why don’t you get the pink stripy ones? I think it would be cool if we had stuff that sort of matched.’

  ‘And we have to have these crazy tutus,’ Hannah said.

  ‘And I NEED these pointy glasses,’ Laura said in her normal voice. She still hadn’t taken them off, even though the price tag dangling down the middle of the frame must have been tickling her nose.

  ‘Absolutely,’ I agreed.

  We finally settled on the tutus, the leggings, two clashing wigs and the glasses. We figured we could find feather boas in Sadie’s attic and someone was bound to have strings of beads in their jewellery box.

  ‘We haven’t got anything for you, Ruby,’ I said.

  ‘I haven’t really seen anything,’ Ruby said. ‘Cindy’s outfit should be more ordinary really, shouldn’t it? We can look in Penney’s.’

  ‘Cool. Let’s take this all to the till so before we get thrown out.’

  We pooled all our money and Laura paid for everything, still being Auntie Faye, and telling the shop assistant she was ‘too marvellous for words’ and a ‘perfect darling’ for being so helpful.

  She put on her Auntie Faye walk, wiggling her hips as she strolled towards the door, the rest of us scurrying after her. As soon as we were safely outside we burst into giggles, all except Laura, who widened her eyes at us and said, ‘What? Hannah, you’re always telling us to take every opportunity to get into character.’

  We linked arms and wandered down in the direction of Penney’s. But just as we reached the open space in the middle of the shopping centre, I saw it. Huge red letters declared ‘COMING SOON’ on an enormous film poster with a scene featuring two dark heads and two blonde ones. In smaller but still very prominent letters was the line ‘Starring Michael Cooper, Daniel Stephens, Cordelia Sheridan and Daisy Sheridan.’ I barely glanced at the men’s faces because the taller blonde was, unmistakeably, Mum.

  And the smaller one was me.

  I froze. Ruby on one side of me and Laura on the other were both still walking so my sudden stop jerked their arms.

  ‘Oh, s-sorry,’ I stammered, slipping my hands back into their arms. My heart was racing and I hoped that somehow, somehow, they hadn’t seen the poster. But on the other side of Laura Hannah had stopped too and was staring straight ahead, open-mouthed.

  ‘Meg,’ she said. ‘Meg, it’s you!’

  Ruby and Laura followed Hannah’s gaze and stopped dead too. All three of them stared at the poster, unable to believe their eyes. As the Saturday crowds swirled around us, Hannah began moving towards the poster to get a closer look, and the other two followed. I stayed where I was, completely rooted to the spot.

  Finally the girls stopped staring at the poster and crowded around me instead.

  ‘YOU’RE Daisy Sheridan?’ Ruby said, sounding completely incredulous.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell us?’ Laura asked.

  ‘You’re actually in a FILM,’ Ruby said.

  I couldn’t say anything. It was like my voice was as frozen as my legs.

  Hannah took charge. ‘Come on, let’s go in here for hot chocolate. I think we all need a sit-down!’

  She took my arm and steered me into a café, choosing a table in a quiet corner well away from the window. Ruby and Laura were still staring at me as if my hair had suddenly turned green or I had horns coming out of my head or something. Hannah managed to get the attention of the waitress and ordered four hot chocolates. Once the waitress had gone she turned to me.

  ‘So what’s going on, Meg? It is you in the poster, isn’t it?’

  I nodded. They waited for me to go on. The chatter of other customers and the clinking of cutlery and the hiss of the coffee machine all seemed to fade into the background as I finally found my voice. ‘Yes, it’s me. It’s my dad’s new film. Mum and I are both in it.’

  ‘You’re actually a film star,’ Ruby said, shaking her head in disbelief.

  I gave a shaky laugh. ‘I wouldn’t call me a star. It’s not a very big part. I think they’ve only put me on the poster because of the whole mother-daughter thing.’

  ‘So what’s the part?’ Hannah asked.

  ‘It’s a political thing,’ I told them. ‘For grown-ups, you know – pretty dull, to be honest. Mum plays a politician who’s running for office and these two men are conspiring against her. I play her daughter – I’m only in a couple of scenes. Honestly, it’s a really tiny part. I don’t know why they’ve put me on the poster. It’s probably just because of the family name.’

  Hannah pounced on this. ‘Yes, the name! Why are you called Daisy Sheridan? Your name is Meg Howard – or is that some sort of disguise this whole time?’

  ‘No, of course not,’ I said. ‘My real name is Margaret – I did tell you that when I met you first. And Meg and Daisy are both nicknames for Margaret. It’s my aunt’s name, my dad’s sister. My dad didn’t want it at first because he thought it was kind of an old lady name. But Mum liked it because of all the different short forms. She said it would give me the chance to be lots of different people if I wanted to.’ I smiled wanly – I bet even Mum couldn’t have foreseen the way that would turn out.

  ‘But your surname?’ Ruby asked.

  ‘Howard is my dad’s name, so that’s what I normally use,’ I said. ‘But Mum’s surname is Sheridan, and because she’s from an acting family the film producers wanted me to use their name too. Dad wasn’t too happy at first, but he saw that it made sense. Mum’s family are a lot more famous than he is – at least, they have been up until now. And it meant I could keep my identity as an actress separate from my private life.’

  The other girls were quiet for a moment, taking it all in. All around us the café was filled with the happy sounds of Saturday shoppers coming in to have a little break from their shopping and show each other what they’d been buying. It was hard to believe that in such an ordinary setting we were having such an extraordinary conversation.

  Laura finally spoke for the first time. ‘Why didn’t you tell us, Meg? We’d have been so excited for you. We ARE so excited for you!’

  I blushed. ‘I’m sorry. I wanted to, but you know how crazy everything was in school when it came out about Mum and Dad. I thought I’d just have a few more months before it all had to come out about the new film.’

  ‘You mean you weren’t expecting anything like this?’ Ruby said, waving her arm in the general direction of the poster, even though – thankfully – we couldn’t see it from where we were sitting.

  ‘No, I had no idea,’ I said. ‘The film wasn’t supposed to be coming out until the spring.’

  ‘Oh my God – so you didn’t know these posters were suddenly going to appear?’ Hannah said.

  ‘No.’ I suddenly thought of Mum, off shopping for shoes and blissfully unaware that a bombshell was about to strike. ‘Oh my God, Mum is going to go absolutel
y crazy. She’s going to KILL Dad!’

  ‘You mean your dad is behind all this?’

  Hannah’s voice sounded shocked. I didn’t blame her. I was pretty shocked myself. Even by Dad’s standards, this was pretty low.

  The waitress arrived with our hot chocolates. I sipped the hot, creamy liquid, grateful for the warmth that spread through me, a bit of comfort. I realised I was shaking – the cup rattled against the saucer as I tried to set it back down.

  ‘Mum and Dad have been fighting about this for weeks now,’ I told the girls. ‘Dad kept wanting me to go back out to LA to do some promotional work for the film – interviews with the press, getting my photo taken, all that sort of thing. Mum didn’t want me to – I’d only just started school here, and she wanted me to have a chance to settle in properly. He kept pestering her too about choosing photos for press releases and all sorts of things. We couldn’t understand what the rush was – Mum just kept putting him off. Now of course I can see why he was being so insistent.’

  ‘So your dad knew all along that the film was coming out now?’ Ruby asked, eyes wide with shock.

  ‘He must have done,’ I said miserably. ‘And he must have known Mum wouldn’t be happy. So much for me settling into school as a normal kid. Not much chance of that if my photo is going to be all over town!’

  ‘Maybe people won’t realise it’s you,’ Ruby said doubtfully. ‘I mean, the name and everything …’ Her voice trailed off. I don’t think she was even convincing herself.

  ‘You recognised me from halfway across the shopping centre,’ I pointed out.

  The girls were quiet for a minute. Then Laura said, ‘You know what we need here? Damage limitation.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ I asked, feeling a spark of hope at Laura’s positive tone.

  ‘If you tell everyone yourself, you can make it less of a shock,’ Laura said. ‘When Miss Brennan asks us about our news on Monday morning, tell the class about the film then.’

  ‘Yes! That makes sense,’ Hannah said. ‘That way people would get to hear it like you’ve told us – you know, that it’s a small part in a small film – not a huge blockbuster or something. You could tell the story the way you want to instead of leaving it all to gossip and rumours.’