Centre Stage: A Novel Page 15

  I looked at the floor, feeling awful. I wasn’t the only one. All around me, people were crossing their arms and going red.

  The silence lengthened and lengthened. At long last Claire sighed and sat back down. ‘OK,’ she said, sounding suddenly weary. ‘Let’s have the notes. I warn you, we may be here for some time.’

  Claire was right. The notes took an hour and a half. She went through the play scene by scene telling us everything we had got wrong and everything she wanted to change. Afterwards we had lunch and then she made us run through each scene over and over again. We didn’t finish until eight o’clock.

  ‘I want you here at nine tomorrow morning,’ she told us grimly. ‘We’re going to go through this play again and again until it’s right.’

  The next two days flew by. I’d never worked so hard in my life. When I wasn’t acting I was dancing. I got up in the morning and practised, and before I went to bed at night I practised. I even dreamt about practising when I was asleep. But you know the most unfair thing of all? I didn’t get any better. In fact, it began to seem like the more I concentrated and the harder I tried, the worse I got.

  ‘Come on, Sophie,’ Dizzy urged on Wednesday afternoon as I stumbled through a few steps. ‘You were dancing better than this a week ago.’

  I wanted to scream. How could I have been better a week ago? And it wasn’t just my dancing that was getting worse.

  ‘Sophie,’ Claire said, shaking her head after I’d acted out a scene. ‘What’s happened to you? That was nowhere near good enough. You were really tense and wooden. You have to be more natural.’

  So my dancing was useless and now so was my acting. And it was just three days until the first performance… Great. Just great.

  Harriet rang when I got home that night. ‘How’s it going?’

  ‘Don’t ask,’ I sighed. ‘It’s a total nightmare. It’s going to be a disaster — I’m going to be a disaster.’

  ‘You won’t,’ Harriet said.

  ‘Want to bet?’ I said miserably. I swallowed and tried to think about something else. ‘Anyway, how are you?’

  ‘Good,’ she said. ‘I’ve been practising for the quiz competition. You are still coming, aren’t you?’

  Quiz night. Help! I’d forgotten all about it. It was on Friday evening after school. We were supposed to be having a dress rehearsal then but Claire hadn’t told us which team would be needed for it yet. ‘Um… I hope so,’ I replied. ‘But, well, I might not be able to.’

  ‘Oh, Sophie!’ Harriet exclaimed. ‘I really want you to be there.’

  ‘And I want to come,’ I told her. ‘But there’s a dress rehearsal that night and if I’m needed I’ll have to go to that.’

  Harriet was silent for a moment. ‘OK,’ she said at last. ‘But try and come — please.’

  ‘I will,’ I promised. ‘I really will.’

  The next day it was the start of the technical rehearsal. It felt odd not going to Clawson Academy any more but going into the real theatre instead. I arrived at nine o’clock with the rest of the blue team. The red team had been called for three in the afternoon. We would go home then and they would stay until nine o’clock in the evening.

  Backstage was a hive of activity. There seemed to be hundreds of people all dashing about, carrying costumes, hammering bits of scenery, carrying huge metal lights around and plugging in wires.

  Velda was waiting by the stage to usher us all downstairs. ‘Come on, quickly now. You must keep out of the stage crew’s way.’

  We went downstairs to the green room, and Velda explained what to expect. ‘The technical rehearsal is a run-through for the technicians,’ she told us, her voice strict. ‘That’s the lighting people, sound people, stage crew who move the scenery, and the stage management. The reason you’re here is so that you can run through any bits of your scenes which have anything technical happening in them. There will be a lot of starting and stopping and waiting around and you’re going to need to be very patient. Tempers will be short so if you don’t want to be shouted at, do what you’re asked when you’re asked and otherwise keep out of the way.’

  It sounded terrifying. I glanced around and was glad to see I wasn’t the only one looking apprehensive.

  Velda seemed to see our worried faces. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said more kindly. ‘I’m just warning you. Technical rehearsals are always difficult and it’s best you’re prepared. The technicians here are really good fun, but they’ve been working non-stop for three days and nights to get the set and lights and sound up and ready, so they’re all tired and a bit grouchy. Once the show starts you’ll see a different side to them. But for now, just do what you’re asked and don’t even think about complaining.’ She pointed to a black box on the wall. ‘Lauren will call through the tannoy system when you’re needed,’ she said. ‘Otherwise just stay down here with Jackie and Rona.’ She smiled at the two women from Clawson Academy who were going to be chaperoning us while we were in the theatre. ‘And don’t make too much noise. Now let me show you your dressing rooms.’

  I never thought I would ever get bored with standing on a stage, but after six hours of hanging around, saying a few lines and then hanging around some more while the technicians hurried about or shouted to each other, I was more than ready to go home.

  ‘Do you know which team is going to be needed for the dress rehearsal on Friday night?’ I asked Velda on my way out.

  ‘Claire hasn’t said yet,’ Velda said. ‘But I think it will probably be your team. The plan is to have one dress rehearsal tomorrow afternoon about three o’clock and one tomorrow evening. I’d imagine Claire will want your team to do tomorrow evening, seeing as you’ll be doing the first night. However, it will depend a bit on how the technical rehearsal goes. If we over-run then, the plans might need to be changed. I’ll let you know tomorrow morning.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I said, my heart sinking. I wanted to go to the quiz competition and support Harriet but the chance of that looked to be very small indeed.

  However, the next morning, when I arrived at the theatre, I was greeted with good news. Well, good for me anyway. The stage crew had had problems with some of the scenery the night before, which meant that the technical rehearsal was running way behind schedule. It now looked as if the dress rehearsals weren’t going to take place until the next day.

  ‘It’s going to be very difficult,’ Velda told us. ‘We’ll be very pushed for time but we’ll have one dress rehearsal in the morning, that will be with the red team, and then one in the afternoon with the blue team.’

  ‘But the show’s tomorrow night,’ Mark said.

  ‘Yes. Like I say, we’re going to be pushed for time. You’ll only have a couple of hours or so between the dress rehearsal finishing and the first performance starting — but then it’s going to be the same when you’re doing a matinee and evening performance.’

  ‘So what about today?’ I asked. ‘What are we doing?’

  ‘The same as yesterday,’ Velda said. ‘You’ll be here until three and then the red team will come and take over.’

  ‘So that means we won’t get a chance to have a proper rehearsal today?’ a girl in the chorus, called Tania, asked.

  ‘I’m afraid not,’ Velda replied. ‘It’ll just be more starting and stopping.’

  ‘So we’ve only really got the dress rehearsal left,’ Colette said.

  As Velda nodded, the delight I’d been feeling at being able to get to the quiz competition faded abruptly. No more practising, just the dress rehearsal! But… but… but I wasn’t good enough. Images of the last dreadful rehearsal on Wednesday came back to me. Help, I thought, suddenly feeling as quivery as a pile of jelly. What am I going to do?

  *

  Dizzy did find time when the crew went to the pub for lunch to let us practise the dances on the stage. But my mind seemed to be switched on to panic mode and I made loads of mistakes.

  ‘Sophie, come on!’ Dizzy shouted as I went into a spin a couple of beats too la
te. ‘Keep up!’

  And step, two, three and forwards. The instructions pounded around in my head. I felt stiff and tense. Oh, no, I thought as I missed a lunge to the side, Dizzy’s going to kill me.

  But she didn’t. Afterwards she just looked at me and shook her head. ‘I’m not going to say anything, Sophie. I just hope you don’t perform like that tomorrow night.’

  I almost wished she had had a go at me. The disappointment in her gaze was horrible.

  I bit my lip and looked down. Oh, please, I prayed desperately. Please let me be OK tomorrow night!

  Chapter Eighteen

  ‘We’d better win,’ Ally said to me and Eve as we found three seats near the front of our school hall.

  It was a huge relief to be at the quiz competition that night, and to be able to think of something apart from the play. I looked at the stage. Four teams from four different schools were sitting there. Harriet was with Ben, a Year Eight girl called Anna and a Year Seven boy called Nikhil. She saw us and waved. We all waved back.

  Good luck, I mouthed at her.

  She smiled nervously.

  Ally sat down and sighed. ‘I can’t believe it’s a Friday night and we’re back at school. We could be at the Junction tonight hearing Tom and his band play.’

  ‘We’d never have got in, and anyway,’ I looked at her sternly, ‘you know you’d rather be here supporting Harriet.’

  Ally looked like she was actually giving it serious thought. ‘Well…’ she mused. She grinned at my outraged expression. ‘I’m just joking. Of course I’d rather be here. Even if we could have got in at the Junction, I wouldn’t have gone. This is Harriet’s big night.’

  I smiled at her.

  ‘So, has Tom sorted out his hair?’ Eve asked as we settled down.

  ‘Yeah, he went to the hairdresser again today,’ I told her.

  ‘What did she do to his hair?’ Ally asked.

  ‘She dyed it dark brown again but she also gave him this red spray-on colour to use. It washes in and washes out. He gelled it up tonight into spikes for the gig and he coloured the end of each spike red.’

  ‘That sounds cool,’ Ally said.

  I nodded. It had actually looked really good. ‘Yeah,’ I started to say but just then something — or rather someone — caught my eye. ‘Look, Kelly’s here!’

  ‘And Leanne and Rachel,’ Eve pointed out.

  ‘I bet Kelly’s come to try and ask Ben out again,’ I said. ‘I don’t know why she doesn’t just give up.’

  Kelly, Leanne and Rachel sat a few rows away from us. They kept giggling and waving at Ben. He smiled briefly but then ignored them.

  After about ten minutes the quiz began. Mr Johnson, our deputy head, was the quiz master. Sitting at a desk he read out the questions. If the contestants thought they knew the answers they had to press a buzzer which made a light in front of them light up. If they got the answer right then their team got to answer three questions as a team.

  I’d thought it was going to be boring — I mean, quizzes about stuff like science and history and geography aren’t my idea of fun — but it was actually exciting. The four teams were all really good. They kept pressing their buzzers halfway through the questions and Mr Johnson hardly gave them time to think.

  Harriet was brilliant. She looked a bit nervous to start with but as soon as she had answered a few questions correctly she really got into it. In fact, she and Ben seemed to be competing for who could press their buzzer the quickest.

  Gradually it became clear that the competition was going to be won by either our school or the team from St Mary’s.

  ‘Just one minute left,’ Mr Johnson announced, glancing at the clock on the wall. ‘And Charles Hope and St Mary’s are joint leaders with two hundred points each, so for ten points and a chance of three bonus questions…’ He paused before reading the question and I saw the members of both teams glance nervously at each other. This could be the deciding question.

  I leant forwards. Could our team do it? Come on, I thought, come on!

  Mr Johnson looked around. ‘Who was the first Tudor king of…’

  He hadn’t even got the fifth word out before Harriet’s buzzer went off.

  ‘Harriet, Charles Hope!’ Mr Johnson called.

  ‘Henry the Seventh,’ Harriet answered quickly.

  ‘Correct. The first Tudor king of England was Henry the Seventh,’ Mr Johnson said.

  ‘Yes!’ I saw Ben exclaim, clenching his fists. Harriet grinned at him in delight.

  The people in the audience who were supporting Charles Hope clapped and cheered.

  ‘Your three bonus questions start now,’ Mr Johnson said. ‘Who was Henry the Eighth’s first wife?’

  ‘Catherine of Aragon,’ Ben called out.

  Mr Johnson nodded.

  ‘Who was on the throne before Elizabeth the First?’

  ‘Mary the First,’ Harriet answered.

  Mr Johnson nodded again. ‘And which king was responsible for the dissolution of the monasteries?’

  There was a pause. ‘I’m going to have to rush you,’ Mr Johnson said, as Harriet, Ben, Anna and Nikhil quickly conferred. He waited about five seconds.

  ‘Sorry, your time is…’

  ‘Henry the Eighth!’ Harriet burst out quickly.

  ‘Correct!’ Mr Johnson exclaimed. ‘And now on with the next starter question. In which country is the city of…’

  There was a loud buzzing noise. The time had run out.

  ‘We’ve won!’ I gasped.

  ‘And the winners of the first round of the interschool under-fourteen quiz are Charles Hope!’ Mr Johnson announced, looking very pleased.

  The applause was deafening. On stage, Harriet, Ben, Nikhil and Anna all jumped up in delight. Anna banged Nikhil on the back and then Ben hugged Harriet. She threw her arms round his neck.

  ‘Look!’ I squeaked to Ally.

  Harriet and Ben both suddenly seemed to realize they were hugging. Looking very flustered, Harriet quickly stepped back. The next second, Anna and Nikhil were beside them, shouting in excitement.

  ‘They hugged!’ Ally said to me.

  ‘I saw!’ I said. Excitement raced through me. Hugging had to be a good sign.

  The four teams all shook hands and then they came off the stage to be surrounded by their supporters.

  Eve, Ally and I pushed our way through the crowds to meet Harriet. ‘You were brilliant!’ I cried as I reached her.

  ‘Fantastic!’ Ally agreed.

  Harriet’s eyes shone. ‘It was such good fun!’

  ‘You got loads of questions right,’ Eve said. ‘There’s no way we’d have won without you.’

  ‘Ben answered lots too,’ Harriet said, glancing in Ben’s direction. He was with a crowd of friends, standing near the table where drinks were being sold. He saw her looking and smiled.

  ‘He likes you,’ Eve said. ‘It’s totally obvious.’

  Excitement seemed to bubble through Harriet. ‘He’s wonderful,’ she sighed. She looked in Ben’s direction again. He glanced at her at exactly the same time.

  ‘I’m… I’m going to get a drink,’ Harriet said, going red.

  ‘We’ll come with…’ Ally broke off with a gasp as I trod on her foot — hard.

  ‘We’ll wait here,’ I said quickly to Harriet.

  ‘OK,’ she replied.

  ‘Ow! What was that for?’ Ally demanded as Harriet made her way towards the drinks’ table.

  ‘Ben’s over there,’ I hissed. ‘Maybe he’ll go and talk to her.’

  We watched as Harriet pushed her way through the crowd. Ben saw her too and headed after her.

  ‘Look!’ Eve exclaimed as he caught up with Harriet. He took her arm and said something. She hesitated and then nodded, and they swerved away from the drinks’ table, stopping when they were in a quiet corner away from the crowd.

  We watched agog as Ben leaned forwards. He seemed to be asking Harriet something. I saw her eyes widen and for a moment she didn’
t seem to know what to say. But then she nodded.

  A grin broke out on Ben’s face and, stepping forwards… he KISSED her.

  ‘Ohmigod!’ Ally squealed.

  ‘They’re kissing!’ I gasped, my head going all swirly. Harriet had kissed a boy! She was kissing a boy! A real, lips-and-everything, proper kiss.

  ‘Mr Johnson’s going to kill them if he sees!’ Eve said.

  But it wasn’t Mr Johnson Harriet had to worry about. Suddenly I realized that Kelly was watching them from the drinks’ table. A furious look crossed her face and she started to march in Ben and Harriet’s direction. Not stopping to think, I started pushing through the crowd. I had to get to Harriet first. There was no way I was going to let Kelly upset her on such a perfect day.

  Just as I got close, I saw Ben smile at Harriet. ‘I’ll go and get you that drink, then?’ I heard him say.

  Harriet nodded and he headed off.

  ‘Harriet!’ I exclaimed.

  Harriet turned. ‘Sophie!’ She looked like she had a light bulb shining inside her. ‘Did you see?’ she gasped. ‘Ben kissed me. He’s asked me out! He…’ Her words dried up and her smile suddenly faded as she stared at someone over my shoulder.

  I didn’t have to look round to know who it was.

  ‘So, you’ve got a boyfriend now, have you, Harriet?’ Kelly’s voice sneered. ‘Think you’re cool, do you? Well, you’re just a pathetic geek and there’s no way Ben will go out with you for long and…’

  I turned, hot anger racing through me.

  But before I could open my mouth, Harriet spoke. ‘Get lost, Kelly!’

  I swung round in astonishment.

  ‘What?’ Kelly exclaimed, sounding as stunned as I felt.

  ‘You heard,’ Harriet said, drawing herself up to her full height. ‘Just get lost!’

  Kelly gaped.

  ‘You’re the pathetic one, Kelly,’ Harriet rushed on. ‘Acting as if you’re something special, expecting everyone to want to be the same as you.’