Centre Stage: A Novel Page 5

  We played three more times and then I suggested we read the problem pages in Ally’s collection of Mizz and Sugar magazines. We all love looking at the problems. Some people ask the most obvious things!

  ‘No, let’s read my quiz book,’ Harriet said. She reached over and pulled a quiz book out of her bag called One Thousand Quiz Questions. ‘The quiz club try-outs are on Monday and I’ve got to practise,’ she went on. ‘We can all try answering the questions. It’ll be fun!’ She opened the book. ‘Look, here’s a question. It’s really easy. Who was the first Tudor king?’

  Ally looked at me. ‘Hmmm, quiz questions or problem pages — it’s a difficult choice, isn’t it, Soph?’

  ‘Very difficult,’ I said, pretending to be serious. ‘Now, which would I rather do?’

  Ally’s eyes met mine.

  ‘Read the problem pages!’ we both exclaimed.

  ‘You two,’ Harriet said, sighing half in exasperation. But I could tell she hadn’t really expected us to say we’d do the quiz questions. ‘I guess I’ll just have to read it tomorrow. But if I don’t do well in the quiz try-outs it’ll be all your fault.’

  ‘You will do well,’ I told her.

  ‘Yeah. And just think, once you’re in the quiz club you’ll see loads of Ben,’ Ally said.

  ‘That’s not why I want to get into the quiz club,’ Harriet protested. She smiled. ‘But it would be good, wouldn’t it?’

  ‘I can see it now, him asking you over to his house to practise,’ Ally teased. She pretended to be Ben. ‘Oh, Harriet, please come to mine and do some quiz questions with me — please,’ she said, putting her hands on her heart.

  I grinned and sang a song that we used to sing in primary school. ‘Harriet and Ben up a tree…’

  Ally joined in. ‘K-I-S-S-I-N-G!’

  For a moment Harriet looked annoyed, but as Ally and I made stupid kissing noises, a grin pulled at the corners of her mouth.

  ‘If only,’ she sighed longingly.

  I woke up early the next morning. As I blinked my eyes open, a prickle of nervousness ran through me. What was I feeling nervous about? Suddenly I remembered the auditions and in an instant, I was wide awake. Of course, I was waiting to hear if I’d got the part of Lucy. When would I know? Soon, please, I prayed.

  From the regular sound of Ally and Harriet’s breathing I could tell they were still asleep. I lay in my sleeping bag thinking about the auditions. They had gone well, hadn’t they? I hadn’t made an idiot of myself in the dancing, and my singing and acting had seemed OK.

  A horrible thought crept into my brain. What if Justine gets to be Lucy and I don’t? She’d been good at the auditions and she’d been Lucy before.

  No, it wouldn’t happen. I gulped. Would it?

  Trying to be positive, I shut my eyes and imagined being Lucy. It would be just the coolest thing ever. I’d have to miss school for a start!

  At last Harriet and Ally woke up. They were going riding together that day and although I love horses, being around them gives me hay fever, so after breakfast they set off for the stables and I went back home.

  ‘How was your sleepover?’ Mum asked. She was in the kitchen, brushing Snowy. From the silence in the house I could tell Tom and Jess were still in bed. But then they almost never get up before eleven if they can help it.

  ‘Good,’ I said, dumping my bag on the floor. ‘Do you want a hand?’ I asked, watching Snowy try to chew the brush.

  ‘Thanks,’ Mum said. ‘He seems convinced the brush is a toy.’ I went over and Mum held him while I gently teased out his wiry white coat with the brush.

  ‘Mum,’ I asked. ‘When do you think I’ll hear about the audition?’

  ‘It shouldn’t be too long. All the auditions were held yesterday and they said they’d let people know as soon as possible.’

  ‘So I might find out today?’ I said quickly.

  Mum nodded. Excitement fizzed through me. I so wanted to know!

  ‘What have you got planned for this morning?’ Mum asked.

  I shrugged. ‘Nothing much.’

  ‘Are you free to come and help me, then?’ Mum said. ‘I’m looking after the Walters’ rabbits again so I could certainly do with a hand.’

  The Walters family bred rabbits and had twenty-three of them. Looking after them was a lot of work. ‘Of course I’ll come,’ I said.

  Mum smiled. ‘Thanks, love.’

  *

  I helped Mum all morning. As I cleaned out the rabbits’ hutches I kept thinking about the play. When would I find out?

  I had homework to do in the afternoon, but I couldn’t concentrate. I was staring into space and thinking about the auditions when Mum called up the stairs.

  ‘Sophie! Phone!’

  Pushing my Maths to one side, I jumped off my bed. ‘Who is it?’ I said, going to the top of the stairs.

  ‘Sheila Blake,’ Mum replied.

  My heart did a double flip. ‘Sheila!’ I gasped.

  Mum smiled and nodded. ‘Hurry up. Don’t keep her waiting.’

  Racing down the stairs three at a time, I half fell into the kitchen and grabbed the phone. ‘Hello?’ I stammered.

  ‘Hello, Sophie. It’s Sheila Blake.’

  ‘Hi,’ I gasped, barely able to get the word out through my excitement and nerves.

  ‘Well, I’ve got some good news for you.’ I could hear the smile in Sheila’s voice. ‘You’ve been given the part of Lucy.’

  I gaped like a goldfish.

  ‘Are you pleased?’ Sheila asked.

  Pleased? I was ecstatic! ‘Yes!’ I managed to gasp. ‘I’m really, really, really pleased!’ I looked at Mum. She was grinning at me and I knew Sheila had already told her the news.

  I’ve got the part! I’ve got the part! The words sung in my head so loudly that I almost missed Sheila’s next words.

  ‘Initial rehearsals for the juveniles start on Saturday.’ I forced myself to concentrate. ‘They’ll be held at Clawson Academy of Performing Arts. You’ll be needed to rehearse each weekend for the next six weeks and on Tuesday evenings. That won’t be a problem, will it?’

  ‘No,’ I answered quickly.

  ‘Great. Full-time rehearsals — with the adults in the cast — will start in November, three weeks before the show opens. You’ll be taken out of school for those — and obviously for the performances that you’re involved in. So we’ll need to get you a licence. Do you want to put your mum back on the phone so I can talk about the arrangements in more detail?’

  My heart singing with happiness, I handed the phone over to Mum. She took it and began to talk about things like contracts and licences. Ignoring the fact that I probably looked like a hyperactive four-year-old, I jumped up and down on the spot in delight. I’d got the part! I was going to be Lucy!

  It didn’t take Mum and me long to spread the news. I rang Ally and Harriet and e-mailed Issy, who sent me a message back almost straight away to say congratulations. That evening, Dad bought a huge Chinese takeaway to celebrate. It had absolutely all my favourite things — crispy duck, spring rolls, sweet and sour chicken, beef chow mein. Dad also bought a bottle of champagne.

  ‘This is cool. Do you think you can get a part in a play every week, Sophie?’ Tom said, starting to dig into the box and taking out a huge bag of prawn crackers.

  ‘Definitely!’ Jess said, helping him.

  ‘I’ll get some glasses for the champagne,’ Mum said.

  Dad peeled the gold foil off the top of the champagne bottle. ‘OK, are we all ready?’ he said, and he opened the bottle. The cork came out with a loud pop and he quickly poured some champagne into the glasses. He only gave me a little but it was fun to sip at the bubbles fizzing in the pale-gold liquid.

  ‘You did so well, Sophie,’ Mum said, hugging me. ‘We’re all so proud of you. Sheila said you did an excellent audition. Apparently the director was absolutely insistent that you were Lucy.’

  ‘Don’t tell her that, Mum, you’ll make her even more bigheaded tha
n she already is,’ Jessica groaned.

  ‘I suppose this means we’ve got to put up with you prancing around the house and learning another script,’ Tom said teasingly.

  ‘Not only that, but this time you’ve got to come and see me actually perform,’ I told him.

  ‘Oh no,’ Tom said. ‘Nightmare.’ He grinned and ruffled my hair. ‘Just think, isn’t it weird? There’s going to be loads of people coming to watch you — my bratty little sister.’

  ‘Get off,’ I said, shaking his hand away and quickly smoothing down my now standing-upright hair. ‘And don’t call me bratty!’

  But I didn’t mind really. It was nice to have Tom teasing me instead of just grunting and ignoring me like he usually did.

  ‘I think it’s time for a toast,’ Dad announced, holding up his glass. ‘To Sophie. For getting the part of Lucy.’

  ‘To Sophie!’ everyone said.

  I took a gulp of champagne and immediately spluttered as the bubbles fizzed up my nose.

  ‘Very cool, Sophie,’ Jessica grinned.

  ‘Yep, very film starry,’ Tom teased.

  ‘Shut up!’ I told them. But I didn’t mind about their teasing. I’d got the part of Lucy. That was all that mattered.

  Chapter Six

  ‘It’s brilliant!’ Harriet said to me for about the hundredth time as we walked back to the changing rooms after PE the next morning. ‘Loads of people will come and see you.’

  ‘I can’t wait,’ I grinned.

  ‘I wonder if Justine is going to be in it,’ Harriet said.

  I nodded. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t asked Sheila who the other Lucy was going to be. But I’d been so excited at finding out that I was going to be Lucy I just hadn’t thought about it.

  ‘I guess I’ll find out on Saturday,’ I said. ‘It’s the first rehearsal then.’ Realizing that all we’d done all lesson — actually, make that all morning — was talk about me, I changed the subject. ‘So, have you been practising for the quiz?’ It was the quiz try-outs that lunchtime.

  ‘Yeah — are you and Ally going to come and watch?’

  I nodded. ‘Course!’

  I began to change out of my sports kit — white polo shirt and maroon shorts — yuk! I’m sure the people who invented our school uniform tried to make it look as disgusting as possible. As I took off my shorts, I glanced surreptitiously round the changing room just to check out what everyone else was wearing. Knowing I would have PE that day, I’d made sure I’d worn high-leg knickers. Jessica had said that it was really uncool to wear anything else. I was also wearing a padded bra with Little Miss Naughty on. OK, so I don’t exactly need a bra — in fact, to be honest, I couldn’t be further from needing one — but Jessica had told Mum there was no way I could go to secondary school in a crop top or vest, and so when we went shopping for my school uniform, Mum had bought me three bras as well. Looking around and seeing that almost everyone else had a bra on too, I felt very glad.

  ‘I really hope I do well at lunchtime,’ Harriet said, taking off her shorts and shirt. ‘I want to get into the club so much!’

  ‘Love the pants, Harriet!’ Kelly called out.

  Harriet looked startled. ‘What?’ she said, glancing down at her plain white sensible knickers.

  ‘Where did you get them from?’ Kelly grinned. ‘Some old granny shop?’

  ‘Comfy are they?’ Rachel said. ‘They’re certainly big enough.’

  ‘And the crop top’s great,’ Leanne joined in.

  Harriet went as red as a plum tomato.

  ‘Did Mummy buy it for you?’ Kelly said. Leanne and Rachel cracked up.

  ‘Shut up!’ I said angrily to them as Harriet turned away and quickly pulled on her school shirt. ‘Leave her alone.’

  Kelly looked at what I was wearing but seeing as she and I had on almost exactly the same bra and knickers she couldn’t find anything to tease me about. Instead she just smirked at the others, and then turned away.

  I glanced at Harriet. Her fingers were trembling as she did up her buttons and her eyes were bright with tears. I bit my lip, wondering whether to say anything but I didn’t want to, not with Kelly and the others still there.

  We got dressed without saying another word. Harriet half ran out of the changing rooms, her head down. Grabbing my bag, I hurried after her.

  As soon as we were a safe distance away from Kelly and the others, I looked at Harriet. ‘Are… are you OK?’ I said, feeling awkward.

  She nodded, looking at the ground.

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘I’m fine,’ she replied in an uptight voice.

  I hesitated. It was obvious she didn’t want to talk about what had just happened. I didn’t blame her. I would have been mega-embarrassed if it had been me. Harriet continued to stare at the floor.

  ‘It’s French next,’ I said, saying the first thing that came into my mind. ‘Have you learnt your verbs for the test?’

  Stupid question. After all, when had Harriet ever not done the work for a test?

  Harriet nodded but she didn’t say anything.

  ‘I hope it’s not too difficult,’ I babbled, wanting desperately to fill the silence. ‘Miss Rogers is really strict. Jessica says she gives out detentions all the time.’

  ‘Yeah, Emily’s had a detention from her before,’ Harriet said. I saw her shoulders relax slightly and she even glanced at me. ‘Emily said if you get less than seven out of ten she makes you do another test the next day and if you don’t hand your homework in you get a detention. No warning or anything.’

  I felt relieved. Harriet seemed to be recovering. The bell rang. ‘Come on,’ I told her. ‘We’d better not be late.’

  ‘Oof!’ I said as Ally nudged me hard in the ribs.

  ‘That’s Nathan from my class,’ she hissed, nodding towards a boy with brown hair who was walking into the room. ‘He’s cute, isn’t he?’

  I nodded.

  It was lunchtime and we were in one of the large rooms in the Maths block. A long row of chairs had been lined up by the blackboard for everyone who wanted to be considered for the under-fourteen quiz club. Harriet was sitting there and so were Kelly, Leanne and Rachel — and Ben. I noticed that Kelly had managed to get the chair beside him.

  Ally and I were sitting on desks at the back of the room with the other people who had just come along to support their friends.

  ‘I really think he likes me,’ Ally went on, still looking at Nathan. ‘He was sitting at the same table as me in art and he kept smiling at me.’

  Normally I would have been really interested but right now I had something else on my mind. I wanted to talk to Ally about Harriet being teased after PE. ‘Ally…’

  Just then a girl with dark curly hair and lively hazel eyes stopped beside us. ‘Hi, Ally! Can I sit here?’

  I recognized her as the girl from Ally’s class who had been signing up for the art club at the clubs’ noticeboard.

  ‘Sure, Eve,’ Ally told her, budging up on the desk.

  ‘So, how come you’re here?’ Eve asked, squeezing in beside her.

  ‘Sophie and I are watching our friend Harriet,’ Ally said, glancing at me. ‘Sophie and Harriet are in 7GD.’

  ‘Oh, right,’ Eve said, smiling at me. ‘Hi. I’m here to watch my friend Sasha. She’s in 7NR. That’s her, sitting over there,’ she said, nodding to a girl at the end of the row. ‘She’s really brainy. I’d never be clever enough to do something like this.’

  ‘Me neither,’ Ally agreed.

  ‘I’d have thought Ruth and Ellie would be here,’ Eve said.

  ‘Yeah,’ Ally said. ‘They’re two girls in our class,’ she explained to me. ‘They’re really clever.’ She turned back to Eve. ‘Nathan’s here, though. I wonder if he’ll get in.’

  ‘He’s really fit, isn’t he?’ Eve giggled. ‘But I think he’s quite shy.’

  They started talking about Nathan and about some other people in their class. It felt weird listening to Ally talk about people I did
n’t know. I almost began to feel left out. I looked at Harriet. She was looking nervous but I was sure she was going to be OK. I gave her the thumbs-up sign and she smiled back gratefully.

  A few minutes later, a sixth former stood up and clapped his hands for silence. Like most of the clubs, the quiz team was being organized by sixth formers.

  ‘I think we’re ready to start,’ he announced. ‘My name’s Andy. I’m the quiz master.’ He turned to the people at the front. ‘We’re going to split you into four teams and ask you questions. Put your hand up if you think you know the answer. If your team gets the answer right you get a bonus question just for your team. It doesn’t really matter which team wins; we just want to see how well you react under pressure and, of course, how much you know.’

  The quiz started. Harriet answered loads of questions — and got them right. Which was more than Kelly did. She answered about four questions and only got one right. Leanne and Rachel didn’t put their hands up at all. Ben was really good. He answered more questions than anyone.

  At the end of the quiz, the sixth formers went off into another room to discuss who they would select.

  ‘I bet Harriet’s got in,’ Ally whispered to me.

  I nodded. ‘She was brilliant.’

  Five minutes later, the sixth formers came back in. ‘OK,’ Andy said. ‘We can now tell you who’s been chosen to be in the quiz club.’

  I crossed my fingers. Please let him say Harriet’s name…

  ‘Tania Foggarty, Ben Harvey, Sasha Lawson, Harriet Chase…’

  Yessssss! I grabbed Ally’s arm in excitement. ‘She’s got in!’ I whispered.

  ‘That’s your friend, isn’t it?’ Eve said to Ally.

  Ally nodded.

  Harriet looked totally delighted. But someone wasn’t pleased. Or to be more accurate — three some-ones: Kelly, Leanne and Rachel. None of them had had their names read out. Leanne and Rachel looked as if they didn’t really care, but Kelly looked totally fed up.

  As soon as the names had been read out I jumped off the desk. ‘Come on,’ I said to Ally. ‘Let’s go and see Harriet.’