Musical Star (8 page)

“Er…thank you,” Danny sounded uncertain. “I’m never really that sure I’m any good, but I suppose if people keep telling me I am…”

“You’ve got a great attitude,” Mick said. “Good luck for the final.”

Danny left the room and Dakshima and I looked at each other in astonishment.

“That was well rank,” Dakshima said.

“He was pants,” I said, nearly forgetting to whisper.

“Can we have a tea break before we have to subject our eardrums to any more?” we heard Mick call out. “Milk and two sugars, please, Lucy.”

“Well, we’ve put him through,” Elaine said. “I have to say, Mick, I don’t approve of this at all.”

“I know, I know,” Mick said. “But if it makes Jade happy then it’s worth it. She wants Danny Harvey as her leading man so it’s Danny she is going to get.”

“He’s a great actor,” Elaine said. “It’s just a shame that he can’t sing at all – even with his charm and good looks I don’t know how you are going to cover that up and still look credible. This is live television, Mick. Not a recording studio where you can make anyone sound good. Miming won’t cut it.”

“I know that,” Mick said. “But we’ll get it sorted.”

“I know better than most people that Carmen Baptista
is a genius when it comes to choreographing and staging a musical, but do you seriously think that she can teach Danny and Jade to sing like stars in less than a month?” Elaine asked.

“She won’t have to,” Mick said, lowering his voice. Dakshima and I leant nearer to the door. “Not once we’ve got them wired up to an Auto-tune Miracle Microphone.”

Elaine didn’t say anything, but I assume she must have looked puzzled because Mick Caruso explained. “It’s a tiny device fitted inside a microphone just like the one musical actors wear on stage. The only difference is that whatever the actor sings into it is instantly retuned to sound fantastic in a fraction of a second, and then feeds through the speakers as live. No matter how bad the singing, the Auto-tune Miracle Microphone can make it sound brilliant. And the best thing is that the audience in the studio and at home will never know the difference.” Mick chuckled. “It’s going to make my Jade and that Danny the hottest two musical stars in the country.”

There was a long pause.

“I don’t like this at all,” Elaine said uncertainly. “Mick, I don’t want to be involved in something that means cheating the public and those kids.”

“No one is getting cheated if everyone is happy,” Mick
said. “Plenty of kids will get a chance to let their talent shine, but Jade and Danny need a little bit of extra help. And because I’m Jade’s dad, I’m going to make sure she gets it. Nobody will ever know.”

“If this gets out,” Elaine said, “the reputation I’ve worked hard for will be shot to pieces. I don’t think I can go on with this, Mick.”

“I think you can, Elaine,” Mick said. “For one thing, if you check your contract you’ll find that you’re stitched up tighter than a kipper. So think about those kids you
can
help and stop worrying about Jade.”

“Hey, you!”

Dakshima and I fell over each other as we heard someone shout behind us.

“Run!”
Dakshima yelled, grabbing my hand and racing down the corridor.

“Come back here!” the security guard yelled as we pelted around the corner and away.

“Stairs!” Dakshima breathed hard as she yanked at my arm. “Come
on,
Ruby!”

We scrambled down one flight of stairs and tumbled into the corridor on the floor where our holding room was.

“Here,” Dakshima took her scrunchie out and handed it to me, shaking her long hair over her
shoulders. “Put you hair up in this and give me your headband. Act natural, OK?”

“OK,” I said squeakily, twisting my hair into a bun.

We strolled back into the holding room full of students, about five seconds before the security guard burst in. He stood stock still breathing heavily, looking around the room.

“Any one just run in here?” he asked. A room full of nervous kids stared blankly at him. “Right, well, if you see anyone running, let me know. We’ve had a serious breach of security.”

Dakshima and I looked at each other as we sat down with the rest of the choir.

“Where have you two been?” Mr Petrelli said. “They’re going to announce who’s going through to the finals any minute now.”

“We went to the loo,” Dakshima said, looking at me. “We were nervous, weren’t we, Ruby?”

“Very, very nervous,” I said. I still couldn’t believe what we’d overheard. I couldn’t believe that anyone – not even Jade Caruso’s dad – would give the lead parts in his musical to two kids who couldn’t sing. I couldn’t believe that he was
cheating
so much. I could only hope that Jade wouldn’t have any say about anyone else, which meant that Anne-Marie and Nydia still
had a good chance of getting one of the lead roles.

It seemed to take a long time before Highgate Comprehensive School Choir was called through to hear our fate. Other choirs went out one by one, but as they didn’t come back in again, we still had no idea what was happening. Finally there were just two choirs left – ours and St Mildred’s School for Girls, a very good choir all dressed immaculately in tartan kilts and blazers. Suddenly I felt a bit silly in my legwarmers.

The door swung open.

“Right, can the last two choirs come through to the auditorium, please,” the blonde production assistant said.

We all stood in a row in front of the judges. This time there were TV cameras, and Mick Caruso and Elaine Emmerson had joined the judging panel.

“Hello, choirs,” Lillian Shoreditch, the head judge, began to speak. “You were the best two choirs in the competition today…”

There were cheers from both choirs and looks of stunned disbelief from a few of the Highgate Comp kids, not to mention Mr Petrelli.

“You each had different strengths. St Mildred’s, your performances were a technical tour de force, the sounds you made utterly beautiful – and you must
be commended for being the only choir here today to achieve such a high standard of singing.”

A ripple of applause momentarily broke the tension in the auditorium.

“Highgate Comprehensive – you brought something completely fresh and original to the competition, with your very successful attempts at staging the songs and your unique approach to costume. You gave us some much need showbusiness and reminded us that we are looking for a West End chorus and not a school choir.”

Lillian Shoreditch picked up a piece of paper. “It’s been a very tough decision, but the choir going through the national final of the competition is…”

And we waited…

And we waited…

And just when I couldn’t stand it any longer she read out, “Highgate Comprehensive School Choir – you’ve won!”

And suddenly I was engulfed in hugs and my ears
were filled with shouts and screams and all I could think was…“We’ve got through to the final. We did it!”

One thing I knew for sure though was that our choir had got through because we’d tried really hard and did the best we could. Nobody rigged our result, not like Danny’s.

The question was, now that I knew about Danny, Jade and the Auto-tune Miracle Microphone, what was I going to do about it?

TOP CHOICE!

The only TV listings guide that helps you pick of the best and forget the rest!

Saturday 25th Top Choice!
Star Pick of the day!

SPOTLIGHT!: SEARCH FOR A STAR THE FINAL
7.05 p.m.

There’s really only one show worth watching this Saturday and it’s
SPOTLIGHT!: SEARCH FOR A STAR THE FINAL.
We’ve all been waiting with baited breath since iconic rocker Mick Caruso announced that he was planning to turn his pantheon of classic hits into a musical that was to star only under-sixteens and premiere with a live performance on TV. Mick’s own daughter Jade Caruso has gone through rigorous auditions to win her place in this live final and we’ll see some other
more familiar faces competing alongside unknown talent too. Danny Harvey of
Kensington Heights
fame will be hoping for your phone vote, as well as popular children’s TV presenter Nydia Assimin. Also look out for the face of H&M summer teen collection Anne-Marie Chance. All four of these hopefuls are pupils of the legendary Sylvia Lighthouse Academy for the Performing Arts. Cue tears, tantrums, hopes and dreams dashed, and much, much more! Can there be a better way to spend your Saturday night? RF

“It
is
kind of amazing that
all
of your friends got a place in the final,” Dakshima said, as she read the piece in the TV guide out on our way to our last rehearsal before the national final.
“Maybe
their results were rigged too.
Maybe
ours were. Maybe we only got picked for the national choirs final because of
you!

It had been two weeks since we found out that we were going through the final. Two weeks of solid rehearsing in which we found out that Anne-Marie and Nydia were going to join Jade and Danny in the final for the lead parts too. And two weeks since Dakshima and I found out that Danny had got through, not because of his talent, but because Jade had wanted him to. Mick Caruso had been rigging the results.

So far Dakshima and I hadn’t told anyone. We didn’t know who to tell or even if we should.

“They didn’t put our choir through because of me,” I told her, shaking my head. “Jade hates me so much that we’d have been out in the first five minutes if she’d had a say in
it. They put us through because we were the most original, so forget about worrying that we don’t deserve it. And I
know
that Nydia is one of the best singers I’ve ever heard and that Anne-Marie can belt out a show tune like a star. Those two deserve to have a chance. Besides, you heard Mick Caruso; he told Elaine that it was only Danny and Jade that he was going to plug into that microphone thingy, everyone else would be there on their merits.”

“I suppose so,” Dakshima said. “But it’s just not right that those two should get the places that two other kids really deserve.”

“Well, they might not,” I said slowly. “I mean, there’s the phone vote. Maybe people won’t vote for them.

Dakshima looked at me. “Do you really think that Mick’s going to let that happen to his little girl? Either the show will make them look so good people vote for them, or they’ll rig the results – you hear about it all the time. Either way, they’ll get through, I’m telling you.”

“What should we do?” I asked her.

“What do you mean, what should we do?” she replied.

“Well, we know this thing and it’s a really terrible and wrong thing – shouldn’t we tell someone? Maybe Mr Petrelli?”

Dakshima frowned. “I don’t know,” she said. “I mean
maybe this is what it’s like. Maybe this is the real reality of reality TV. Besides, if we tell someone now then the show might be stopped completely and we wouldn’t get a chance to be in it and the school won’t get the prize money. And there are more people who do deserve to be in
Spotlight!
than the two who don’t. I think we should forget what we heard, keep our heads down and hope our choir wins.”

“It’s just…” I paused, feeling uneasy. “I’m sure if Danny knew that he was being manipulated like this he’d be really upset and he wouldn’t have anything to do with it. I know he dumped me for Melody in a letter, and at the worst time of my life, but he’d hate to think he got through because of cheating. And he wouldn’t want the part just because the producer’s daughter fancies him. He’s not
that
bad.”

“Are you sure he’s not like that?” Dakshima asked me, hooking her arm through mine. “You said he told you he hated musicals, and then we saw him in front of the cameras going on about how much he loved them. Maybe he knows what Mick is planning for him.”

I shook my head. “No, not Danny. He’s a stubborn idiotic pig, but he’s not evil.”

Dakshima laughed. “You are
so
not over him,” she said, ducking as I swiped at her with my bag.

Dakshima was right though; Danny had said he loved musicals at the audition, something I didn’t think he would ever normally say, even to get a part. The truth was that the Danny I knew and the Danny that was going to be singing live on national TV in a couple of days’ time seemed like a completely different person. Plus Anne-Marie and Nydia said he hadn’t been hanging out with them since the auditions, so I couldn’t even ask them what they thought.

“Is he hanging around with Jade?” I’d asked Anne-Marie on the phone last night, trying and failing to sound casual.

“No, he’s trying to escape from her I think,” Anne-Marie had said. “She’s all over him like a rash. I don’t know why he’s cooled it with us, though. He’s not even hanging about with Sean any more. Maybe it’s because Melody didn’t get through and he doesn’t want to rub her nose in the fact that the rest of us breezed it.”

I’d found myself wondering if Melody not getting through had something to do with Jade’s plans for Danny.

“Look, if you think Danny would hate what’s happening, then it’s obvious what you should do,” Dakshima said, as we walked to the music room. “Why don’t you tell him?”

“Tell
him?” I asked her, stupidly surprised by the suggestion.

“Yes, go and see him and tell him what you overheard. I mean, he’s not an idiot is he? He must be able to work out that the sound he’s hearing in his head is completely different to the one coming out of the speakers?”

“I don’t know,” I said uncertainly, lowering my voice to a whisper. “Don’t you think that would be a bit weird? For me, his ex-girlfriend, to go and tell him that his whole singing career is a fake?”

Dakshima shrugged. “Well, you said he’d hate it if he knew the truth. If you tell him, then he’ll know. He can make the right choice for him, instead of being pushed around by that Jade and her family without even realising it. As long as we still get our chance to be in the chorus and win the money for the school. I’m not saying blow the whole thing wide open, I’m saying give him a chance to back out before it’s too late.”

“You’re right,” I said, feeling more nervous about talking to Danny than I did singing solo. “I have to tell him. There’s only one problem.”

“What’s that?” Dakshima asked me as we filed into the class.

“If I tell him that means I’ll actually have to talk to him,” I said. “And I’m not entirely sure I can do that.”

Standing outside Danny’s house later that day, I looked up at his bedroom window. The curtains were drawn and the light was on, so he was in.

I suppose I could have phoned or texted him first, but I didn’t want him to know that I still had his number programmed into my phone, and that anyway, even if I didn’t, I knew it off by heart. Besides, I got the feeling that if he knew I was coming then he wouldn’t be in – after all, why would he want to see me?

Still, now I was here, the thought of knocking on the door and going through with it, never mind actually having to talk to him with actual words, made me feel queasy. He could be in there with Melody, or even Jade. He could be plotting his next evil master plan to conquer to the world of musicals despite his total lack of singing talent at that very moment…and then I stopped.

This was Danny, I reminded myself. He always stood up for what he believed in, even when he was completely wrong. That was one of the best and most annoying things about him. I rang the doorbell and had to glue my feet to the step to stop myself from running away in the
twenty or so seconds it took for someone to come and open the door.

Danny’s mum appeared, her tense expression melting when she saw it was me.

“Hello, Ruby,” she said, her voice warm and friendly. “We haven’t seen you in such a long time. Come on in. Danny’s upstairs going over his audition piece again and I’m sure he’d appreciate a break from all that noise…singing, I mean, and an expert opinion like yours.” She lowered her voice. “I must be tone deaf, Ruby. I can’t hear what everyone else can when he’s practising here at home. But don’t tell him I said that, OK? He’s nervous enough as it is.”

I nodded and stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at them as if at the top was a very high precipice I was about to throw myself off.

“Well, go up then,” Danny’s mum prompted me, wincing as Danny missed a particularly high note.

Desperately wishing that I hadn’t come round at all and wondering what had ever possessed me to have such a bad idea, I started heavily up the stairs. It was the longest walk of my life, longer than any red carpet or corridor leading to an audition. After briefly considering climbing out through the bathroom window and shinning down a drainpipe, I took a breath, steeled
myself, knocked on his door and waited.

“Come in,” Danny said. And when I appeared, he dropped the sheet music he was holding. “Oh, Ruby! Ruby – um, hi, hello…I didn’t expect to see you.”

“I can go…” I began backing away.

“No, no, don’t. Not if you don’t want to…either way – whatever,” Danny said, and then, “Come in and sit down.”

I sat down at his paper strewn desk and swivelled the chair to look at him.

The trouble with Danny was that he was still really cute. If the world was a fair place, the moment he dumped me he should have grown enormous ears, had all his hair fall out and got terrible acne. But he didn’t. He was just as fit as he had been when I first realised I liked him. The world, I knew now, was not a fair place.

“So,” Danny said stiffly. “How can I help you?”

“Help me?” I asked him. “You make it sound like I’ve come to buy a pair of shoes or something.”

“Did I?” Danny said. “I didn’t mean to. I just didn’t expect to see you. Like you and I were still friends. I mean, are we?”

“I…I don’t know, Danny,” I said. “I’ve never tried being friends with an ex-boyfriend before.”

Danny gave me a hint of a smile that made my heart
feel as if someone was squeezing it really hard. “I’d really like to have you around again, Ruby,” he said. I was silent for what seemed like forever until Danny added, “As a friend, of course.”

“OK, well…” I had no idea how to steer the conversation around to what I wanted to tell him and now he had brought up the whole “liking me as a friend thing” it seemed even harder.

“Are you nervous about Saturday?” I asked. “Singing live in front of millions of people must be scary. Then again, I suppose you’ve done it before so you’ll be fine.”

“I haven’t actually
sung
live on TV before,” Danny said, looking worried. “When I did live performances of ‘You Take Me To…’ I always mimed along to the recording. I
am
nervous about it. Mum says when I practise my song here that my voice doesn’t sound anything like it does on the recording and I agree with her. In my head it sounds terrible. But I went to the dress rehearsal last night and they wired me up to the mike and I sounded completely different, really good. I guess that what I hear in my head isn’t what everyone else hears – do you find that?”

“Um,” I said. “Look, Danny, the thing is—”

“Ruby,” Danny interrupted me, “I know what you’re going to say…”

“You do?” I asked. “When? How did you find out?”

“Well, you coming round made it pretty obvious,” Danny said. “The thing is, I don’t know if now it’s the right time. I mean, I’ve got the live final coming up and Melody is already really upset about not getting through. I do feel the same way, but maybe we should wait a while.”

I blinked at him. “Wait –
what’s
obvious?”

“You want to go out with me again,” Danny said, smiling and taking my hand.

“What?
You thought I came round here for
that?”
I said, standing up and snatching my hand back, swooshing a few of his papers to the floor.

“Well, didn’t you?” Danny asked me, frowning deeply.

“No I did not!” I yelled at him. “Honestly, Danny Harvey, since you started on
Kensington Heights
and had a Christmas number one, you think the world revolves around you!”

“Really?” Danny said, waving his rolled up sheet music at me. “And what about you? You think you are the centre of the universe—”

“I don’t!” I protested.

“Disappear off to Hollywood, start up a career, and when that all goes wrong, stick your head in the sand and expect us all to feel sorry for you while you pretend
you aren’t who you are. You said you wanted to give up acting, Ruby, but dropping out of the Academy has to be one of the most drama queen things you’ve
ever
done!”

“You…I…
grrrrrrr.”

Yes, I actually growled at Danny Harvey. I was so furious with him for being so right and so wrong about me at exactly the same time.

“I don’t know why I even bother, Danny!” I shouted at him. “You make a fool of yourself in front of eight million people. I don’t care, and you know what else?”

“What?” Danny said crossing his arms.

“I’d rather nail my hand to the floor than go out with you again,” I told him.

“Good,” he said.

“Good,” I said.

And then I ran down the stairs and out of the front door as fast as I could.

“Not staying for tea, Ruby?” I heard his mum call out after me as I fled.

“Love Gets it Wrong Every Time“

Words and music by
Mick Caruso

I’ve had my heart broken a hundred times

Trampled by a thousand cruel crimes

But when I saw you I thought my luck had finally changed

You smiled at me and my life rearranged

I thought you were the one who would finally be mine!

But now I know…

Love gets it wrong every time.

Love gets it wrong!

I made a mistake when I trusted you with my heart

Love gets it wrong!

I should have known that you lied from the start!

Love gets it wrong!

But now I understand that you’ll never be mine

Because love gets it wrong every time.

You lured me in with your smile

Planning how you’d hurt me all the while

I really believed every single word that you said

But you lied, and now I can’t get you out of my head.

I was so wrong when I thought that you would be mine

Because now I know…

Love gets it wrong every time.

Love gets it wrong!

I made a mistake when I trusted you with my heart

Love gets it wrong!

I should have known that you lied from the start!

Love gets it wrong!

But now I understand that you’ll never be mine

Because love gets it wrong every time.