Centre Stage: A Novel Read online

  I saw Dan’s hand tighten slightly on Jessica’s. The reason they’d broken up over the summer was that Jessica had kissed the lead singer in Tom’s band. For a while she’d got really into the heavy, nu-metal type of music that they played, but now she was back with Dan and back to listening to r’n’b and pop again.

  We reached our cottage. It’s down a small, quiet street behind the church. There’s a front door but no one ever uses it. We always go in through the wooden gate at the side of the house. As soon as we opened the gate, Baxter and Wilson, our two Labradors, bounded out of the back door and down the paved yard.

  ‘Hey, boys,’ I said as they greeted us, their tails thwacking into our legs, their tongues licking our hands.

  There was a yapping sound and a little West Highland White terrier came racing down from the garden.

  ‘Is this a dog your mum’s looking after?’ Ally said, bending down to ruffle his head.

  I nodded. In the summer my mum had started a pet-sitting business called Purr-fect for Pets. It was going really well and she had lots of animals to look after. ‘He’s called Snowy and he’s really friendly. He’s staying with us for two weeks.’

  ‘Hi there,’ Mum said, coming to the back door. ‘How was your first day, then?’

  ‘OK,’ I called, fighting my way past the dogs and into the kitchen. ‘But Ally’s not in the same form as us.’

  ‘Oh no,’ Mum said, looking concerned. ‘How did that happen? I thought you were all going to be together.’

  ‘We were but then things were rearranged,’ Ally replied gloomily. Jessica and Dan headed into the playroom to watch the TV while Ally, Harriet and I all sat down and Ally told Mum the story.

  ‘It’s not fair,’ she said while Mum got out apple juice for all of us from the fridge. ‘It’s horrid being in a different form from Sophie and Harriet.’

  ‘It must be,’ Mum sympathized. ‘But I’m sure you’ll make new friends quickly.’

  Ally didn’t look convinced.

  ‘You will,’ Mum told her. ‘And look on the bright side, then you’ll have your new friends in your form and you’ll still be friends with Sophie and Harriet.’

  ‘I guess,’ Ally sighed. She looked at me and Harriet. ‘But you’re not to go off together just because you’re in a different form to me.’ She sounded as if she was teasing but I saw the worried look in her eyes.

  Harriet seemed to see it too. ‘Of course we won’t,’ she put in quickly. ‘We’ll always be your friends, Ally.’

  ‘Always and for ever!’ I said. ‘We’re best friends and being in different forms isn’t going to change that.’

  Ally smiled. ‘Thanks.’

  Mum fetched some biscuits and we stood up to go through to the lounge. ‘Hang on, Sophie,’ Mum said quickly. ‘Before I forget, you need to get your jazz shoes out tonight and see if they still fit. You’ll need them for the audition on Saturday.’

  ‘Has the play got dancing in it, then?’ Ally asked me.

  ‘Yeah.’ My tummy flipped as if I had just gone too fast over a hill in a car. I really wasn’t looking forward to the dancing audition. I mean, I can dance a bit but I’m not brilliant. When I was seven I started going to dance lessons in our village hall. I did the classes for three years but then I started getting bored and gave up six months ago. I was a bit worried in case the dance steps at the audition were really hard. ‘I hope the dancing at the audition isn’t too difficult.’

  ‘I’m sure it won’t be,’ Mum reassured me. ‘Sheila Blake, the casting director, knows how much dancing you’ve done and she wouldn’t have asked you to the audition if she felt that you wouldn’t be able to cope.’

  I felt a bit happier. Mum was right. Surely this dancing audition couldn’t be that hard — could it?

  Chapter Three

  ‘OK, everyone, settle down!’ Mr Davey clapped his hands together as he came into the classroom the next morning.

  Ally hastily jumped off my desk. ‘See you at break!’ she said to Harriet and me. Grabbing her bag, she slipped out of the classroom before Mr Davey could shut the door.

  When Mr Davey had finished taking the register, he told us about a noticeboard where you could sign up to join all kinds of different school clubs. ‘There are clubs to suit everyone,’ he told us. ‘Art club, the computer club, quiz club…’

  ‘I’d like to join the quiz club,’ Harriet whispered to me. ‘Can we go to the noticeboard at breaktime?’

  I nodded.

  Mr Davey told us some more about the different clubs and then we moved on to the day’s form activity. Each day our form had a different theme for the day. On Fridays, the theme was going to be reading.

  ‘Next week I’d like you all to bring along a book you are reading,’ Mr Davey explained. ‘But for today, I thought we’d start with a discussion of your favourite books.’ He walked round to the whiteboard. ‘Now, who’s going to start us off?’

  Harriet’s arm shot up into the air.

  ‘Harriet?’ Mr Davey said, smiling at her. ‘Tell me your favourite book or author.’

  ‘I like loads of books,’ Harriet answered. ‘All the C. S. Lewis books and the Harry Potter ones; and then there’s Philip Pullman, I really like his books, and William Nicholson.’

  Mr Davey could hardly write fast enough to keep up with her. ‘Well, that’s certainly given us a few to start off with. You obviously read a lot, Harriet.’

  ‘I love books!’ Harriet replied enthusiastically

  I heard a muffled giggle from behind me. I swung round. Kelly was rolling her eyes at Leanne and Rachel. They sniggered.

  ‘Settle down at the back,’ Mr Davey said, looking sharply at them.

  ‘Wasn’t that interesting?’ Harriet said, her face glowing happily as we all picked up our bags to go to Geography after the bell had rung. ‘It was really cool to talk about books like that.’

  ‘Very cool!’ Kelly said sarcastically as she walked past. ‘If you’re teacher’s pet.’

  At her side, Rachel and Leanne grinned.

  I saw the happiness fade from Harriet’s face. ‘What?’

  Kelly, Rachel and Leanne walked off giggling together.

  ‘Swot,’ I heard Kelly say in an undertone.

  I glared after them. ‘Idiots!’ I said witheringly. I looked across at Harriet, expecting her to shrug off the comments and nod in agreement. But to my surprise she was looking upset.

  ‘What did they mean?’ she protested. ‘I wasn’t being a teacher’s pet. I was just answering the questions Mr Davey asked. It was really interesting.’

  I felt taken aback. Harriet might be quiet but she’s never been bothered about what people say about her. At primary school people used to tease her for being brainy but she always just laughed it off. ‘Forget it,’ I advised. ‘They’re not worth stressing about.’

  Harriet nodded slowly but she still looked unhappy.

  ‘Come on,’ I told her. ‘Let’s go to Geography.’

  ‘Art club, that sounds cool!’ Ally exclaimed as we stood on tiptoe and peered over people’s shoulders at breaktime. Apparently we weren’t the only ones who’d decided to come and take a look at the clubs’ noticeboard.

  ‘Can you see anything about a drama club?’ I asked as Ally wormed her way to the front of the crowd. There was a tall boy in front of me who was signing up for the computer club and his head was blocking my view.

  ‘Yeah, there’s a notice here. It says that they meet on Friday lunchtimes,’ Ally told me. ‘They’re doing a production of Grease at the end of term but you have to be free to rehearse in the evenings.’

  ‘Oh,’ I said. I wondered whether to sign up. I wanted to but if I got the part in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I would be too busy to rehearse. I decided to wait until after the weekend.

  ‘I’m going to sign up for the art club. It meets on Monday lunchtimes,’ Ally said. ‘How about you, Soph?’

  I shook my head. I like art but I didn’t want to spend a lunchtime doing
it.

  A girl from Ally’s class was writing her name on the art club list. She turned. ‘Shall I put your name down, Ally?’

  ‘Thanks, Eve,’ Ally said. She looked at Harriet. ‘How about you, Harriet? Do you want to do it?’

  ‘No. I’m just going to do the quiz club,’ Harriet replied. ‘They’ve got try-outs next week,’ she said, pointing out the notice. ‘It says if you’re good enough you’re allowed to join the club, and then at the end of term the best people get picked to go in an interschool tournament.’

  It sounded just Harriet’s sort of thing. She signed her name on the notice.

  There was a snort. ‘Now there’s a surprise,’ Kelly’s voice giggled from behind us. ‘Not!’

  Harriet and I looked round. Kelly, Leanne and Rachel were smirking in Harriet’s direction.

  ‘I might have guessed that’d be what you’d go for, Harriet,’ Kelly said.

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ I demanded.

  Kelly looked taken aback. It was clear she hadn’t expected me to stand up for Harriet.

  ‘So what if Harriet’s signing up for the quiz team?’ I went on. I could see Harriet blushing and Ally looking on in total surprise, but Kelly was really beginning to annoy me. ‘At least she’s clever enough!’

  Kelly frowned. ‘Keep your hair on, Sophie.’

  ‘Excuse me,’ a boy behind me said politely. ‘Can I get to the board, please?’

  As I looked round at him the words I’d been about to say flew out of my mind. He had light brown hair, gorgeous green eyes and an amazing smile. Wow!

  ‘Sure,’ I mumbled, feeling myself go red.

  ‘Thanks,’ the boy said. The others stared at him. They were all clearly as stunned as I was at seeing a boy with such love-god qualities so close up. We watched wide-eyed as he stepped closer to Harriet. ‘Could I borrow your pen, please?’ he asked her.

  ‘What? Oh, yes, of course,’ Harriet squeaked, two spots of colour jumping into her cheeks as she held out the pen.

  The boy took it and signed up his name. Ben Harvey I read — and then I realized he’d written his name on the quiz-club sheet.

  ‘You’re trying out for the quiz club?’ Kelly burst out.

  The boy looked surprised. ‘Yeah. I did it last year too. I was in the under-fourteen team and we won the regional finals. I’m hoping I get to be captain this year.’ He looked at her with interest. ‘Why? Are you thinking of signing up?’

  Kelly hesitated for a nano-second and then nodded her head as hard as if she was one of those nodding dogs in the back of cars. ‘Oh yes, we all were, weren’t we?’ she said, shooting looks at Leanne and Rachel, who quickly nodded too.

  The boy smiled. ‘Well,’ he said, moving out of the way, ‘I’d better let you get to the notice, then.’

  Kelly, Leanne and Rachel made a dive for the board.

  The boy started to walk away and then stopped. ‘Your pen,’ he said to Harriet. He handed it back. ‘Thanks. I’ll see you next week at the try-outs, then?’

  He made it into a question. Harriet nodded, her hazel eyes wide. ‘Yeah,’ she said in a half-strangled voice.

  The boy smiled and walked away.

  Kelly and the others forgotten, Ally, Harriet and I hurried away from the board to a quiet corner by the stationery cupboard.

  ‘Ohmigod!’ Ally gasped. ‘Was he gorgeous or what?’

  ‘Did you see the way he smiled at you, Harriet!’ I exclaimed.

  ‘I bet he fancies you,’ Ally said excitedly.

  Harriet’s face flushed. ‘Of course he doesn’t. Don’t be stupid. Why would he fancy me?’

  ‘Why wouldn’t he fancy you?’ I said. Harriet’s always going on that she’s not pretty but it’s not true. She’s got sparkly hazel eyes with long curly eyelashes and she’s tall and slim. Her hair’s lovely too — thick and browny-blonde — although she always just wears it pulled back in a ponytail. ‘He told you he’d see you next week, didn’t he?’ I went on. I felt a flicker of jealousy. Why couldn’t a boy like that smile at me? I quickly squashed the feeling. It was brilliant for Harriet and if this boy was into things like the quiz club then he’d be just perfect for her.

  ‘I guess he did,’ Harriet said. She started to smile. ‘Did you see him write his name down? He’s called Ben — Ben Harvey.’ She sighed. ‘It’s a really nice name, isn’t it?’

  ‘Harriet’s in lurve!’ Ally teased.

  Harriet hit her on the arm. ‘Am not!’ she said, but her face looked all kind of glowy.

  ‘Come on,’ I grinned. ‘Let’s go to the tuck shop.’

  We headed to the hall where the sixth formers ran a tuck shop at breaktime. There was a mad scrum round the serving hatch.

  ‘I’ll go and queue — or push,’ Harriet said, still looking starry-eyed. ‘What do you want?’

  We handed over our money and told her our orders — cheese Quavers for me and pickled onion Monster Munch for Ally — and Harriet went to join the crush.

  Ally and I wandered over to a table to wait. ‘Ben was really nice, wasn’t he?’ I said.

  Ally nodded but she was frowning slightly and I had a feeling that there was something on her mind. I was right.

  ‘What was going on with those girls from your class — you know, just before Ben came along?’

  ‘You mean Kelly, Rachel and Leanne?’

  Ally nodded.

  I shot a look at the tuck queue to make sure Harriet was well out of earshot. ‘They’ve been picking on Harriet,’ I said in a low voice. ‘I mean not much, just laughing a bit at her trousers and giggling when she answers questions. And, well, they called her a teacher’s pet today after registration.’

  ‘Morons.’ Ally frowned.

  I nodded in agreement. ‘Did you see how quickly they signed up for the quiz club when Ben put his name down?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Ally said. ‘I mean, how obvious was that? They only did it because they fancy him.’

  Just then Harriet came back over. We quickly shut up. Too quickly. ‘What are you talking about?’ she asked suspiciously.

  ‘Just about… about the weekend,’ Ally lied. ‘Sophie was telling me about her audition. So what time’s it on at, Soph?’

  ‘I’ve got to be there at ten,’ I said, trying to make it seem like we’d been talking about it all along. ‘It lasts all day. They’re going to split us into groups for the acting, singing and dancing auditions. I’m dreading the dancing.’

  To my relief Harriet stopped looking suspicious. She smiled. ‘I don’t know why. I bet you’ll get the part. You’ll have to ring us and tell us what happened as soon as you get back.’

  ‘I know, why don’t I ask if you can both stay over on Saturday night?’ Ally said.

  ‘OK,’ I agreed. We often have sleepovers at the weekends.

  ‘I’ll ask Mum tonight,’ Ally promised.

  Yap, yap! Yap, yap!

  ‘Not again, Snowy,’ I said as, for about the twentieth time, a rubber hamburger was plonked in my lap. ‘Aren’t you bored yet?’

  ‘He’s just a bundle of energy,’ Mum said, shaking her head. ‘He never seems to stop. Maybe another walk will help tire him out. I’ve got to drop Tom to band practice but I’ll take him out afterwards.’

  Just then the door that led to the lounge opened and Tom came in. ‘Can we go now, Mum?’

  I stared. ‘What are you wearing!’

  ‘What?’ Tom said, looking down at his clothes. He was wearing a hoody that was about three sizes too big, baggy black trousers with chains strung across them and two belts.

  ‘You look stupid,’ I giggled. ‘Why do you need two belts?’

  ‘It’s cool,’ Tom answered.

  I grinned. ‘Yeah. In some sort of parallel universe.’

  Tom frowned at me. ‘Like you’d know.’

  ‘OK, OK,’ Mum said, holding up her hands before an argument could develop. ‘Come on, Tom,’ she said, getting her car keys.

  Tom walked out of the house and down to
the gate.

  ‘Now, did you try on your jazz shoes yesterday?’ Mum said to me.

  I nodded. ‘They still fit.’

  ‘Good. Well, make sure you give them a clean before tomorrow morning. Oh and there’s an e-mail for you. It’s from Issy. See you later.’

  As Mum headed after Tom, I went to the computer and switched it on. What was Issy’s e-mail about?

  It was short but then Issy’s e-mails always were.

  Hi Soph. Good luck for the audition! I’ll be thinking of you. I start filming in a week’s time. Can’t wait! Anyway, e-mail me SOON! I’m missing you!!!!!!

  Love and hugs, Issy xxxxxx

  I smiled. It was cool she’d remembered about my audition. She might not have written much but I was used to that. Although Issy had promised that we would stay best friends when filming ended, she never rang me and her e-mails were always short. I didn’t mind though. After all, I had Harriet and Ally.

  I e-mailed a reply.

  Hi Issy. Thanks for the e-mail. I’m doing one of Sara’s speeches from the film for the audition - the one where she’s talking to Melchisedec in the attic. It should be OK although I’m dreading the dancing audition. Keep your fingers crossed for me!! Anyway, how’s school? Ally, Harriet and I had a complete nightmare this week. Ally was moved to a different form but we’re going to all stay friends. Apart from that, everything’s OK. I’ll e-mail you after the auditions. I better go and clean my jazz shoes now.

  Lots of love, Sophie xxx

  I sent the message, turned the computer off and went to fetch the tube of black shoe polish.

  My jazz shoes were on my bedroom floor. The toes were scuffed, so I picked them up and began to polish them. As I squeezed on the black shiny liquid, the words from the speech I was going to do at the auditions bubbled up inside my head.

  Oh, Melchisedec. It’s been a long day — a very long, hard day…

  Melchisedec is Sara’s pet rat. She is talking to him in her attic bedroom. She is feeling cold and exhausted and wishing her father was still alive.

  As I ran through the lines, I shut my eyes and imagined saying them on the stage at the Palace Theatre. It would be very different from being on a film set where film crew surround you all the time, even if you’re the only actor in the scene. But I was sure it would be OK. When I’m acting I seem to forget where I am. I know it sounds weird but it’s as if everything fades away and I become the person I’m pretending to be.