Film Star (16 page)

“Well, if you can trust me, I can trust you,” I said, hoping I wasn't betraying Sean by what I was about to tell her. “There's something that Sean's mum really needs to know.”

As I walked over to Sean's trailer, wanting to tell him what I had told Imogene, I was stopped in my tracks by an unexpected but familiar voice.

“Ruby! It's me!” I turned around and stared at Anne-Marie.

“Hello?” I said, not quite believing my eyes.

“It's me, I've come to visit you,” she said excitedly. “Daddy is back home for a week and he's got some business here so I pestered him until he said I could come too. Brilliant thing emotional blackmail, but I suppose there have to be some perks to having permanently absent parents.”

“What about school?” I asked her.

“Daddy said I could take the afternoon off,” she said. “It's only games and geography and they don't really count, Daddy says.”

Anne-Marie hooked her arm through mine.

“I thought,” she told me, dropping her head on to my
shoulder for a moment, “that after everything you've been through you could use a friend to talk to. What with Nydia not speaking to you—or to anyone very much for that matter—and Danny chucking you, I thought you must feel terrible.” Anne-Marie gave my arm a little squeeze.

“Honestly,” she said, “I can't believe the way he's acting. I mean, I thought he'd be miserable for weeks and weeks, at least! But going straight out on a date with Jade Caruso—what on earth is he thinking? It's
obvious
that Sean isn't interested in
you.
” Anne-Marie glanced hopefully around the empty lot. “Is he around by the way?”

I stopped dead in my tracks and tried hard to remember what Imogene had told me—that I was lucky, lucky, lucky.

“He went on a date with Jade?” I asked Anne-Marie.

She clapped her hand over her mouth, her blue eyes wide with horror.

“Oh, no,” she moaned. “I'm so stupid. You must think I'm a cow! I just thought you'd know already, I don't know why. Nydia would usually have told you but she's not talking to you, is she? I didn't mean to tell you like that. I was just excited about being here and I don't know what I was thinking.”

I shook my head. “It doesn't matter,” I said, keeping my voice steady. “At least I know where I stand now.”

“Oh, babe,” Anne Marie said and she clasped me in a tight hug.

“Let's go somewhere,” she said in my ear as she hugged me. “Just the two of us and have really good girly…Oh, hi, Sean!” Anne-Marie let go of me suddenly as if I were a hot brick, and fluttered her lashes at Sean.

I turned around and gave Sean a half-hearted smile, completely forgetting what it was I was supposed to tell him.

“Annie!” he called out to Anne-Marie, using a nickname which everyone else in the world was forbidden from calling her. “My dance partner's here—excellent!”

“She's come to visit me,” I said rather obviously, still reeling from the news that Danny was dating Jade. “Only I've got to be on set in ten minutes, Anne-Marie. I can't talk now—I'll be at least two or three hours. Maybe you'd better find your dad and get him to take you home.”

“Or,” Sean said, carefully casual, “I've got nothing on till a night shoot on location later on, unless you count classes with Fran Francisco, which I don't. Dad's in
town doing yet another new deal, so if you like I could give you a tour while you wait for Ruby?”

“Oh,” Anne-Marie said coolly, giving me a wink. “I suppose that would be OK.”

I watched the pair walk off together, feeling a bit miserable and left out.

“I'll see you in my trailer later then?” I called out. “Mum will be there so just knock. Sean will show you where it is.”

“OK, Ruby,” she called back. “And just remember, the show must…”

“Go on,” I finished for her under my breath. I turned on my heel and made my way towards the set. At least for the next few hours I wouldn't have to remember how lucky I was.

I'd be too busy fighting my evil father to the death, suspended above a vat of boiling molten lava.

It was dark by the time I got out of wardrobe and I didn't expect Anne-Marie to still be waiting, but she was. I could hear her laughter before I even got to my little Winnebago.

She and Sean were sitting at the little table playing
cards. Anne-Marie's cheeks were flushed and her eyes shone brightly. They looked as if they had been laughing since the moment I left them, and I couldn't help feeling an ungracious pang of jealousy.

I flopped down next to Anne-Marie, exhausted, and actually quite wishing that neither of them was there.

“Where's Mum?” I asked through a yawn.

“She said she'd be back in ten minutes to take you to the flat,” Anne-Marie said, not quite answering my question. “Daddy will be here in a minute too.”

I glanced at them.

“You two look like you've had fun,” I said, my voice a heavy flat monotone.

Sean gave me a sympathetic smile.

“I'm afraid we did,” he said. He sighed deeply and looked at his watch. “But now I've got to go. It was good to see you again, Annie,” he said. “I hope I see you again before I go.”

“I hope so too,” Anne-Marie said, letting her cool façade slip, and sounding rather wistful for a moment.

“Well, whatever,” I said, feeling a bit grumpy. “Hope it goes all right tonight, Sean.” Sean shrugged.

“It usually does,” he said as he left. “Acting is the one thing I can't seem to get wrong.” There was a rush of cold air as he opened and closed the trailer door.

After he had gone I could see Anne-Marie trying her best to turn down her excitement as far as she could until she was able to rearrange her features in an expression which more matched my own. She patted my forearm quite firmly, so that it stung a little bit.

“How are you doing?” she asked me with a little pout, which made me smile for some reason. When it came to girl talk, even after months of being friends, Anne-Marie still wasn't a patch on Nydia. But she was here, even if it was partly to see Sean, and she was really trying. I appreciated that.

“I'm fine,” I said heavily. “I mean, I am sad because I really liked Danny and, well…I just don't know how this all happened. Over nothing at all really.”

“I don't think that article in the paper helped,” Anne-Marie said seriously, before giggling a little bit. “Or that photo.”

I screwed up my face as I remembered it.

“I know,” I said. “But Jade Caruso? She is really pretty, I suppose—in an obvious way.”

“Pretty evil,” Anne-Marie said, and I managed to laugh. “Anyway, he doesn't really like her. He's just acting like an idiot again. Like the old Danny before you got to know him and brought him over from the dark side—grumpy and sullen and always hanging around on
his own. He hasn't really talked to Jade since the date or on it, if what Michael Henderson says is true. Whereas she hasn't stopped talking about
him.
” Anne-Marie rolled her eyes and sighed. “The trouble with Danny is that he
likes
things to be complicated. He should be more like Sean; Sean likes the simple things in life.”

“What, like you?” I asked. Anne-Marie pursed her lips for a moment before extending them into a smile.

“I'm letting you get away with that because you're depressed,” she said.

“Hang on,” I said. Suddenly I saw exactly how to fix things with Danny.

“What?” Anne-Marie asked.

“Well, it's obvious really—you know Sean doesn't fancy me because he fancies you! All you have to do is tell Danny and then everything will be fine. He can be all humble and apologise to me, I can be all gracious and forgive him and we can get back to normal again.” Anne-Marie's smile froze on her lips.

“Except that Sean doesn't fancy me,” she said, tossing her blonde curls back over her shoulder as she said it.

“He does!” I said. “It's obvious!”

Anne Marie shook her head.

“He doesn't fancy me and I don't fancy him either,
actually.” I looked hard at Anne-Marie. It was obvious that she was lying, but I knew what had happened: she had told Sean she liked him and he had ever so politely and sweetly told her he wasn't interested. He probably told her that he couldn't have a girlfriend; he was never in one place long enough. And even though he must have let her down ever so gently judging by how well they were getting on when I came back, Anne-Marie didn't want me to know. I suppose I couldn't blame her.

“Oh,” I said. “OK.”

“And anyway, you shouldn't have to prove to Danny that Sean is with someone else so that he'll believe you,” Anne-Marie said, getting quite fiery. “He should just believe you! But then again I suppose boys do sometimes need things spelling out for them, don't they?” She nodded decisively. “Danny needs a good talking to and I'm going to give it to him and make him see that he's wrong.”

“Danny isn't good at being wrong,” I said hesitantly.

“Yeah, well,” Anne-Marie said, lifting her chin a little, “I'm worse.”

“And what about Nydia?” I said. “I'm worried about her.”

“Why?” Anne-Marie asked me crossly, not knowing, I supposed, about why Nydia was acting so strangely.
“She's got nothing to be so miserable about. She's got a part on TV—that's more than most of us. She's just totally overreacting to you getting this part, and if anybody should be jealous and bitter it's me, not her! I'm really surprised by how she's being with me as well as you. I'm a bit cross actually.” Anne-Marie drummed her forefinger on the table top to make her point.

“Still,” I said carefully, “will you talk to her gently to see how she is—just in case it's something else that's upsetting her? She won't answer my calls.”

“OK, I will, I
suppose,
” Anne-Marie said, with a theatrical sigh. “I do quite miss the old Nydia. School is a bit boring with both of you missing. I've got no one to torment, and at least when I'm hanging around with you two it makes me look really good.”

“Thank you, Annie,” I said.

And I gave her a hug before she could punch me.

In the end I saw Danny before I saw Anne-Marie.

It all came as a bit of a surprise, and it happened so quickly that I hardly had time to catch my breath, and I certainly would never have guessed that things would turn out the way that they did.

The morning after my visit with Anne-Marie, Lisa interrupted Sean and me during a tuition period with Fran Francisco, who wasn't nearly as pleased about the distraction as we were.

“Who is Sindy Torrington, Ruby?” Lisa asked me over the top of her clipboard. I frowned at her.

“Sindy Torrington,” I said with a shrug, “is or rather was Shona Mackay, a character from Aussie soap
Bush Patrol,
that is until her character got eaten by a crocodile and she left the show to pursue a pop career. Why?” Lisa grinned at Sean and me.

“She's broken her leg,” she said. “Isn't that great?”

I looked at Sean, who looked as confused as I did.

“Well, I mean, I was never a fan but…” I said uncertainly.

“She was due to present an award at the National Soap Awards, which is being broadcast live to the nation tonight!” Lisa told us excitedly, jiggling so that her beads click-clacked. Sean and I exchanged a mystified look.

I wasn't confused about the awards; I knew perfectly well that they were going to be on tonight, because after all I had received an invitation which I had declined due to work commitments. What I didn't get was why Lisa was so happy about one of the presenters suffering an injury that would surely ruin her dance routines.

“And that's good
why?
” Sean asked Lisa, clearly as mystified as me.

“Because,” Lisa said, “it means they need a replacement, or should I say replacements, for her urgently and—they want you two!” Lisa gave us a mini round of applause, and Fran Francisco checked her watch. “Both of you have been asked,
begged,
to step in to replace this Sindy woman and give the award she was going to present. You two are all the rage since your little escapade in the papers. And it will be great pre-publicity for the film; there's nothing like an on-set romance to get the press interested.”

“And this is
nothing
like an on-set romance,” Sean said a little crossly.

“I know that and you guys know that,” Lisa said. “But
they
don't have to know that.”

“Actually,” I began, “I'd prefer it…” but Lisa was already in full flow, talking over me. And if there was one thing I had learned recently it was not to interrupt her when she was in full flow. It was a bit like waking up a sleepwalker in the middle of a dream—who knew what damage it could do?

“Now, Sean, your dad's OK'd it in principle, but he's negotiating on the appearance fee and, Ruby, your mum and your agent are very happy with the terms, so all you have to do is say yes. It will be so sweet…”

“Bleugh,” Sean said, sticking his tongue out and crossing his eyes at me.

“…and perfect!” Lisa said, ignoring him. “Because you two are emerging talent…”

“Hey,” Sean said, raising his hand. I was sure that he knew just as I did that Lisa did not like to be interrupted, but unlike me he was not afraid of annoying her. Sean was not afraid of anything—except his father. “I am not sweet, and I
have
emerged, thank you very much.”

“Well, maybe,” Lisa said. “But anyway, it's appropriate because the award you'll be presenting is for the Best Newcomer in a British Soap.”

“Oh?” I said, getting a funny feeling in my tummy.
The sort of feeling you sometimes get when you know exactly what the person you are talking to is about to say next, even if you don't want to hear it.

“Who's nominated?” I asked her. In theory, if Danny had been nominated I would have known about it, but if I remembered correctly, nominations for these awards were only announced a week before the actual ceremony. And I had barely spoken to Danny except to argue with him. And it would be typical of him to keep something like this to himself. I held my breath and crossed my fingers.

“Let me see,” Lisa scanned her clipboard. “There's Alison Higgins, never heard of her, Jamie Jameson, never heard of him, Tatiana Khan—oh, now, she's quite good actually—and Danny Harvey. Hey, he's from
Kensington Heights,
your old show! Moody good-looking kid—do you know him?”

I looked at Sean, who gave me a conciliatory pat on the back.

“You could say that,” I said, happy for Danny and upset for me all at once.

“Cool, let's hope he wins, hey?” Lisa said, checking her clipboard again. “Now you have to be at the BBC Theatre by six for transmission at eight. You both have scenes this afternoon so we'll get you dressed and made
up here before you go, OK? Our good friend Tallulah is sourcing you something to wear. Are you all set?”

“Yes,” Sean and I chorused unenthusiastically.

“Great, now get back to your school work; your life depends on knowing how to do fractions. Oh, and one other thing, Ruby.”

“What's that?” I asked Lisa.

“This time, you'll be wearing
fake
diamonds, OK?”