by Lyn Gardner
“But,” insisted Eel, “you knew that those girls had a real talent. All I want to know is whether I do, too. I know I’m good, I just want you to tell me if I’m good enough. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask.”
“Eel, darling,” said Alicia. “You’ve got to realise that most girls here started ballet when they were four or five, sometimes even younger. You’ve only been dancing a year. Your progress has been phenomenal. But what we don’t know is whether you will continue to progress at the same rate.”
“You mean I may have already peaked?” asked Eel, gloomily.
“Possible, but not probable,” said India. “Not in my experience.”
Alicia smiled patiently at her granddaughter. “Listen, Eel, the Swan is a hot-bed of talent. Just to get through the doors, pupils have to be immensely talented and immensely dedicated. But did I know when an eleven-year-old Theo Deacon arrived here that he’d go on to be Hollywood’s highest paid movie star? When I had to coax Kasha Kasparian out of a cupboard when he was seven because he was so scared of performing, did I know that almost ten years later he’d be an international pop star being chased down the road by screaming girls? Of course not, because it wasn’t just the fact that they were talented that got them where they are now, there were other factors too, including hard work and a great big dollop of luck.”
“I know all that,” said Eel impatiently. “I know that you can’t tell me if I’ll have the same luck or whether I’ll get run over by a bus next week and never dance again, but I don’t see why you can’t tell me if you think I might have what it takes to be a ballerina.”
“Because we don’t know yet what the depth and breadth of your talent is, Eel,” said Alicia. “Talent reveals itself in mysterious ways.”
Eel sighed loudly. “Well, if you can’t tell me, I’ll just have to find out for myself then.”
She left the room, banging the door behind her. Alicia and India looked at each other.
“She’s extraordinary,” said India. “She’s very single-minded and prepared to work unbelievably hard. Combine that with a mighty talent and I reckon she could do anything she wanted.”
“Tell me truthfully, India, she is as good as I think, isn’t she?” Alicia looked worried. “I’d hate to think that I was letting my love for her cloud my judgment. You would tell me if I were?”
India Taylor smiled. “No worries on that score, Alicia. She is a genuine ballet talent. Like you, I believe she has the talent to make it to the very top, but as you told her yourself, there are plenty of other factors that come into it. And of course others may not agree. Remember Chloe Hertz? We all really rated her and she was devastated when neither the Imperial nor the Royal Ballet School took her. She never really recovered from the blow.”
“That was a real lesson in not piling too many expectations upon a child or getting up the parents’ hopes,” said Alicia. “Excessive enthusiasm about a child’s prospects can be very damaging.”
“Yes, that’s true,” said India, “but I do wonder whether your Eel may be the exception. Maybe children like her do need to know early the extent of their gift, and are tough and flexible enough to deal with the truth and may actually benefit from knowing.” India paused. “Of course, there is a way, not surefire I know, but it would give a pretty good indication. Put her up to audition for the Imperial this term. I know you’ve always thought it was better to wait until our pupils can try out for both the Imperial and the Royal Ballet School at the time of secondary school transfer, but maybe in this instance…”
“And if she got in?” asked Alicia quietly.
“Ah,” said India sagely, “then you’d have to deal with losing her.”
After India Taylor left, Alicia sat thinking for a long while. She hoped her motives in not raising Eel’s expectations about her future were the right ones. But maybe India was right and Eel was different from other children. She was certainly way more independent and confident than most children her age. Her upbringing in a travelling circus had ensured that. Maybe she did need to know the true extent of her talent?
But if Eel got a place at the Imperial, Alicia wasn’t sure she could bear losing the granddaughter who she had only found a little more than a year ago. She sighed. She would have to talk to Jack and between them decide what they thought was in Eel’s best interests. She just hoped that what they thought was in Eel’s best interests, and what Eel thought was in Eel’s best interests, turned out to be one and the same.
Chapter Four
Tom turned as the door of the little rehearsal studio at the top of the school opened and Georgia, Aeysha, Katie and Alex appeared. He quickly put his finger to his lips to tell them to keep quiet. Olivia was on the wire and she was so intent on what she was doing that she hadn’t even heard the door open, or noticed the others arrive. She was balancing on the wire on top of two chairs that were wedged one upside down on top of the other so they fitted together like the pieces of a 3D jigsaw. For a moment the structure she had made wobbled, and it looked as if she and the chairs would collapse and fall, but Olivia adjusted her weight and miraculously the structure stayed upright. The others held their breath. They could see the muscles in her arms twitch and her forehead was frowned in concentration. She held the pose for a count of five and then nodded at Tom who ran forward to grab the chairs as Olivia let go of them and jumped off the wire. Everyone broke into spontaneous applause.
“Wow,” said Alex. “That was amazing. Did you learn to do it here?”
Olivia shook her head. “My sister and I lived in a circus. It was our dad’s: the Great Marvello’s Circus of Wonders. We toured all over Europe, and to Ireland and Scotland.”
Alex looked impressed. “So your dad must be the Jack Marvell who does all those extreme high-wire stunts? I’ve seen loads on YouTube.”
Olivia nodded proudly. “The one and only.”
“I’d love to have a dad like that. Is he working on anything now?” asked Alex curiously.
“Oh, he’s doing—” began Georgia excitedly, and then stopped abruptly and put a hand over her mouth as she realised what she was saying. She turned bright red and Olivia glared at her.
“He’s always working on something,” said Aeysha smoothly. “Isn’t he, Livy?”
Olivia nodded. “And sometimes he teaches high-wire here.”
“Yes,” said Tom, “so if you wanted to learn…”
“That would be cool.” Alex looked right into Olivia’s eyes and said lazily, “But I’d prefer you to teach me.”
Olivia didn’t seem to notice the intensity of his manner, but Aeysha and Katie looked at each other and made a face. Georgia frowned as if she was a bit miffed, and Tom said a little too quickly: “I don’t think Liv would have time.”
Olivia shook her head. “Tom’s right. I wouldn’t. It’s a real struggle to find time for Tom and I to practise together.”
“So you walk the wire, too?” asked Alex, turning to Tom and looking him up and down as if assessing him in some way.
“Yep,” said Tom, and then he added perhaps a little too gleefully: “Liv taught me.”
“Yes,” said Aeysha loyally, “and Tom is a complete natural.”
“He’s very good,” said Olivia, with such pride in her voice that Tom actually felt his heart swell. Olivia wasn’t one for gushing praise. She had once made him practice the same notoriously tricky move on the wire for over an hour without a break, and when he eventually got it right she had simply said that he was coming along quite nicely – for a beginner.
“I did a bit of tightrope walking when I was younger,” said Alex. “I used to go to a circus-skills workshop on Saturdays when I was a kid. I was quite good at it actually, so I could probably be again.”
“I bet you could,” said Georgia. “Why don’t you show us what you can do?”
“OK,” said Alex and he jumped on to the wire. He took a few steps and promptly fell off again.
“Bad luck,” said Georgia.
“Must be a bit out of practice,” the boy said, his supreme confidence seemingly undentable.
“Here,” said Olivia, getting a stick. “Get back on and try with your finger tips touching this. It will just give you the security you need.” She held the staff up and Alex walked along the wire supported by the stick. Alex got to the end and jumped off. He gave Olivia a dazzling smile and touched her hand.
“Thanks, Liv, that was fun. Do I show promise?”
“Well, you’re not a natural like Tom, but you’ll do,” said Olivia, with a brief smile. “You should join the class. But it’s not for everyone. None of the other Swans have taken to the wire as well as Tom, but we’ve some really promising aerialists and lots of acrobats.”
“Well, everyone has different skills,” said Aeysha. “Livy can walk the high-wire and does trapeze, Georgia sings beautifully and just gobbles up quadratic equations, and me, I can wiggle my ears.”
Everyone laughed.
“That’s not true, Aeysha,” said Katie. “I mean, it is true you can wiggle both your ears at the same time, I’ve seen you do it, and it is amazing, but you can do lots of brilliant things. You’re a real brainiac, and you can write songs and lyrics.”
“Are you going to enter the songwriting competition, Aeysh?” asked Tom.
Aeysha nodded shyly. “I thought I might have a go.” She looked around. “Anyone else?”
They all shook their heads. “I couldn’t write a song to save my life,” said Katie.
“No,” said Aeysha, “but you can do lots of other things. You’re a terrific dancer and I saw you’ve signed up for contortion this term. Pablo is very picky about who he lets do that.”
“Ah,” said Katie with a big grin. “I’ve been in so many tight situations in my life, he probably thought he couldn’t turn me down. But I won’t make much progress this term because of the filming in Yorkshire.”
“What about you, Alex?” asked Tom, who was feeling a little irritated about the way Alex had called Olivia “Liv”. “What’s your special skill or are you just incredibly good at everything?”
Aeysha gave Tom a quick glance. It was unlike him to be snarky. But Alex didn’t seem to have noticed. He looked at them all for a moment and then he opened his mouth. What came out was a complete surprise. Alex sounded just like Sebastian Shaw, and what was even more uncanny, he looked very like him too, even though Sebastian was at least thirty years older. The others gasped with amazement and then shrieked as before their eyes Alex morphed into Mrs Merman the jazz teacher: “Smile, children, smile. Show me your teeth.”
Almost immediately he changed again and became Alicia at the beginning of term assembly. It was so astonishing that Olivia and the others were all left open-mouthed.
“That is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen,” said Aeysha, wiping away the tears of laughter. “How do you do it?”
Alex shrugged. “Think I was just born with it. My dad’s got it. He used to do an impersonation act in clubs before my mum got sick. He always wanted to break into TV, but it never happened for him. He used to have a manager, this guy called Ethan, who said he’d make him the next big thing. But he didn’t. But Dad hasn’t given up hope. He’s a much better mimic than me. I’m actually better at women than men, although that may change as I get older. He can do anyone. I’m still learning.”
“Well, we’re all dead impressed,” said Katie.
“Even you, Liv?” asked Alex softly.
“Oh, Olivia’s never impressed by anyone unless they’re balancing in mid-air,” said Georgia, so snitchily that the others all began talking at once to make up for her rudeness.
They didn’t hear Alex say to Olivia: “Then I’ll just have to sign up for high-wire classes and show you what I can do.”
Chapter Five
Aeysha strummed the last note on her guitar, looked round the room and smiled. She felt tremendous relief that it had gone so well. Everyone clapped and cheered and in the very front Kasha Kasparian was clapping loudest of them all. It made Aeysha feel really proud that someone who she admired and who was a proven songwriter clearly liked her little effort.
It had been a long morning for Kasha who, at Alicia’s request, had been helping the Swans start work on their compositions. Some were entering in small groups or pairs, others singly like Aeysha. He didn’t really have the time but he was still so in awe of Alicia that he hadn’t dreamed of saying no to her. Besides, Kasha loved being back at the Swan and had hoped that it might take his mind off other things, maybe even inspire him. The pressure to get his first album finished was intense. Particularly as he had just released a second single that showed every sign of going straight to number one.
Kasha had never realised that being a pop star was such hard work. When he had been at the Swan and immediately after he had left, the music and lyrics had just flowed out of him. He had found writing a song effortless. He had once heard a novelist say that writing a book was as easy as remembering something that hadn’t happened yet, and that’s what writing a song had always felt like to him.
But since his first single had gone to number one, he’d barely had a moment to himself. First there had been the Swan pantomime, Cinderella, which he’d loved doing but which had taken a huge amount of time, and now his life was an endless round of publicity shoots, interviews and rehearsals for his upcoming gigs. Then there was all the attention, too. He could no longer walk down Oxford Street or travel on the tube without being besieged by fans.
He didn’t have time to write any new songs. At least that’s what he kept telling himself. The truth was that the inspiration seemed to have dried up. Every time he sat down at a piano or picked up his guitar, nothing came out. At first it had been frustrating, but now he was starting to feel panicky. What if he could never write another song? At least he had just enough really first class material for the album, but he had drawn on all his best old stuff to create it. If his songwriting gift had really deserted him forever, his career would be over before it had properly begun.
“That’s wonderful, Aeysha, you’re a real talent,” said Kasha. And he meant it. Most of the songs he had heard that morning had been predictable, derivative of recent big hits including his own. But Aeysha’s song, although unpolished, had a really quirky, distinctive quality that marked it out.
“I’m really impressed, Aeysha. It’s genuinely promising. Maybe you could be a singer-songwriter?”
Aeysha smiled shyly. “Nah, I wouldn’t want to perform. I’ve already decided that. It’s not for me, at least not in the long term. That’s why I’m leaving the Swan at the end of the year. But I’d love to write songs for other people to sing.”
“You can write one for me any time,” said Kasha. “Or maybe we could write one together when I’ve got a bit more time? That would be fun.”
“I’d really love that,” said Aeysha, sincerely. The bell rang for lunch.
“I guess that’s it for today,” said Kasha. “We’ll all meet again in a couple of weeks or so.”
He walked with Aeysha down the curved staircase towards the entrance hall. “Are any of the others around? I’d love to say hello to Georgie and Livy and Tom,” he said.
“Georgia will have gone to the lunchtime high-wire workshop,” said Aeysha.
“Georgia? High-wire? I thought she was scared of heights?” said Kasha, frowning.
“Oh, I don’t think the appeal is the high-wire itself,” said Aeysha dryly. “I think the appeal is a boy.”
“Lucky boy,” said Kasha. “Georgia was a beautiful Cinderella.”
“She was,” said Aeysha, “but I’m not sure that Alex Parks is fairytale Prince material. Anyway, I think he might have his eye on someone else. Listen, you might catch Livy and Tom if they’re not helping out at the workshop.”
But they were nowhere to be seen, although Kasha did get to high-five Eel, who they found asking Mrs Gibbs at reception if any post had come for her dad.
Kasha said goodbye to Aeysha and wa
lked down the steps, and as he did so his phone rang. It was Lucie Groves from his record label. Lucie was always brisk and to the point, as if the usual niceties of conversation were costing her money she felt she could ill afford. Kasha was a bit frightened of her. She had always been pleasant, even effusive towards him, but he had heard stories of acts being suddenly and mysteriously dropped when they had displeased Lucie in some way, or hadn’t been as financially successful as expected. Kasha didn’t think that failure was a word in Lucie’s vocabulary.
“Hi Kash,” she said now. “Listen, we’ve been talking here. We all really love the album, and I know we said it was finished, but we really think it needs one more song to balance the others. Something more down-beat. Maybe a ballad? I’ve booked the studio for three weeks’ time. You should be able to come up with something really good by then, won’t you?”
“Yep,” said Kasha brightly. “Course.” He ended the call, sank down on the steps of the Swan and looked up at the sky.
“What am I going to do?” he asked out loud.
“About what?” asked a familiar voice behind him. “Was the workshop so awful you need celestial help?”
Kasha looked round with a smile on his face. He always had time for Livy Marvell. She came and sat down beside him.
“No, Livy,” he said. “The workshop was fine. In fact, Aeysha’s song was brilliant. That girl really can write. Not just tunes, lyrics too.”
“She’s a genius, that’s why,” said Olivia. “But is everything all right, Kasha? You sounded a bit desperate.”
“I was just thinking out loud,” said Kasha. “It was nothing really.”
“Nothing will come of nothing,” said Olivia lightly.
Kasha frowned. “Wait, don’t tell me…” His face lit up. “King Lear?”
Olivia nodded. She read a lot of Shakespeare.
Kasha sighed. “Well, the old boy was right about nothing coming of nothing. My record company just called and they want another song for the album. But they want it, like, yesterday.”
