Rebecca is Always Right (21 page)

‘It’s really hard to balance it,’ she said. ‘I mean, you want them to know you don’t hate them, but you don’t want them to think you’re, like, obsessed with them. Especially if they don’t like you back.’

‘Exactly!’ I said. I sighed. ‘I almost wish he wasn’t so nice to everyone. I mean, then I’d know he definitely meant it when he was so nice to me. He just seems to like everyone.’

‘Well, he doesn’t spend ages talking on his own to, say, Ellie, even though he likes her,’ pointed out Cass. ‘And he hasn’t asked anyone else to go and have coffee after the Knitting Factory.’

‘That’s true,’ I said, feeling hopeful. ‘That does have to mean something, doesn’t it?’

‘It definitely means he likes hanging out with you more than most of us,’ said Cass.

‘Am I thinking too much about this?’ I said.

‘Meh, not really,’ said Cass. ‘I mean, before me and Liz got together, I spent an entire week analysing what she meant when she said “I’ll see you next Saturday.” And I felt I couldn’t even tell you or Alice about it, because you didn’t know I even liked girls at all and I didn’t know what you’d say.’

Poor Cass. Though at least she doesn’t have to hide anything now.

‘Sometimes it’s kind of exhausting doing all that analysing,’ I said. ‘But once I start I can’t really stop.’

‘You need to do something nice and distracting,’ said Cass. ‘Like painting a giant band logo on a sheet.’

‘I haven’t asked Mum and Dad if it’s okay to call over on Sunday yet,’ I said. ‘They’ve been on at me about studying again.’

‘Just tell them how sorted you are for geography now,’ suggested Cass, which is quite a good idea. If I can convince them that I’m on top of my studying, they’ll have to allow me some more freedom. I will give it a try.

Laura likes the idea of an overture dance! I must admit I was quite nervous when Dad and Mum went to rehearsal this evening. If she had ruled it out, he really would have felt miserable. And it didn’t help my nerves that Vanessa’s ad was shown twice in the space of about half an hour tonight. I didn’t think that was legal. Although straight after one of Vanessa’s airings,
there was a new ad that was genuinely cool. It was for a new national dog-run scheme called Dogtown (they’re basically fencing off bits of park so dogs can run around off their leads in them), and it began with a really good hip-hop tune with a cool heavy bassline. Then, one by one, all these dogs walked out of their gardens in time to the music and joined a line of other dogs and kept sort of grooving along slowly down the street until they eventually got to the dog park.

They were real dogs, not animated ones, and I don’t know HOW they did it without it looking all cheesy and without CGI, but it looked awesome. I think Handsome Dan might have been in it, but it was hard to tell – I must admit that most pugs do look quite alike. But whoever the dogs were, it was cool and funny. We need more ads like that, not ones with Vanessa showing off!

Anyway, that ad was only a momentary distraction because we soon noticed that it was after half nine and there was no sign of Mum and Dad.

‘Do you think Dad’s being fired?’ I said.

‘They wouldn’t do that just because he had an idea!’ said Rachel, but she didn’t look totally convinced. So when the front door finally opened and we heard the two of them singing ‘Just You Wait, Henry Higgins’, Rachel and I both
breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Your idea was a hit, Bex!’ said Dad, bounding into the sitting room. ‘Laura said that if I can work out something suitable, it’ll be a really strong opening to the show.’

‘And the rest of the cast like it, too,’ said Mum. She looked pretty relieved herself. ‘He’s just got to come up with the choreography.’

‘So thanks a million,’ said Dad. ‘You can be my manager when I leave the dull world of academia and take to the stage.’

‘You’re not really going to do that, are you?’ said Rachel, sounding worried.

‘You never know,’ said Dad, but he winked at Mum so I knew he was joking. Actually, I think his showbiz fever may have died down a bit when he realised he’d gone too far with his Henry Higgins mania. Now he just has to put together a routine that pleases Laura, but I bet he can. I mean, his moves in that scene I saw were genuinely pretty good, it was just the fact that he was doing them in the background while other people were singing and dancing. So if he does them on his own, I’m sure Laura will like it.

Anyway, he and Mum were in such a good mood I mentioned quite casually that I was thinking of going to Cass’s house on Sunday (I told them how well I’d been doing at
geography, as Cass suggested) and they are fine about it. Hurrah! Now I just hope this whole sheet-painting thing is as easy as Cass seems to be convinced it is.

Karen has her audition tomorrow. Vanessa decided to spend lunch today ‘coaching’ her, which basically involved showing off even more than usual.

Every so often she’d mention the public appearances she did last weekend, or how well the single has done.

‘It’s still at number twenty-five in the charts this week,’ she said. ‘I’m so pleased for the charity.’

I bet she still couldn’t tell me what charity it is.

‘There’s no singing in the ad I’m going for,’ said Karen (who can, I have to admit, actually sing quite well). ‘I wish there was.’

‘Well, not every ad offers such a good role as Kookie,’ said Vanessa smugly. ‘Now, here’s how you should enter the room. Shoulders back …’

But although she was supposedly helping Karen, she kept saying things like, ‘You shouldn’t get your hopes up too much,
anything can happen at an audition.’ If Karen actually gets the ad, she’ll be furious.

Speaking of ads, I’ve still got the song from that Dogtown ad stuck in my head. But I don’t mind, because it actually is really good. Unlike another ad song I could mention. And unlike the Kookie ad, I don’t mind being reminded by the song of all those dogs marching down the street because I liked them. I think I’m going to have to download it; it really is a great song. And maybe playing it will drown out the sound of the
My Fair Lady
overture which is currently blasting through my house. Mum has gone round to Maria’s house and Dad is working on some ‘moves’ in the kitchen, even though there is not much room. He’s pushed the kitchen table back against the wall to create a ‘studio atmosphere’.

‘I told Laura I’d have something for her next Thursday,’ he said when I tried to get to the kitchen without him leaping in front of me. I do have faith in his ability to put together a routine, but I wish he could do it somewhere else. Between the thudding and the music it’s giving me a headache, and I’ve got to be fresh and fit for our big practice tomorrow.

Ellie has done an amazing job with Richard’s suit! Seriously, she is a sewing genius. Last week it looked like the kind of baggy suit a teenage boy would be given to wear at a wedding – which indeed it was. And now it looks like something from a cool 1960s film. As soon as we’d finished our practices, we went back to the art space and Ellie handed it over.

‘If it’s not quite right, I can do some more alterations,’ she said. Richard went off to the loo to try it on and when he came back we all gasped, even Sam who admits he doesn’t really care much about clothes.

‘I don’t know how you did it,’ said Richard, gazing at his reflection in the glass door (there aren’t any actual mirrors in the art space). ‘You’re a miracle worker.’

‘You’re a fashion genius!’ said Alice.

‘Oh, it wasn’t that hard,’ said Ellie, going a bit red. ‘I mean, I didn’t make it from scratch.’

And that wasn’t the only good thing that happened today. Not only did our practice go very well (though just to be on the safe side we’ve decided to have one last one before the gig, so we’re going to Alice’s house after school on Friday, where
we can run through the whole set list a few more times), but things were really good with me and Sam. After we’d all been wowed by Richard’s new suit, Sam came over to me and said, ‘Can I get your opinion on something?’

‘Um, sure,’ I said. ‘What is it?’

‘It’s the comic I’m working on,’ he said, as I followed him across the room to the drawing boards. ‘I want an unbiased eye I can trust. Ellie and Lucy don’t count – not that I can’t trust them, but we’ve all been working on stuff in the same place for so long that they’re a bit too familiar with what I’m doing. Especially Lucy. So basically, I’d love it if you could have a look over this and tell me what you think.’

He picked up his portfolio, which was propped up against the desk, and took out some sheets of paper.

‘Here you go,’ he said nervously. ‘Be honest. But, um, not too honest if you totally hate it.’

I put the sheets of paper on the drawing board and started to read. The story was great – it was a funny, slightly spooky story about a band who sell their souls to the devil to become rich and famous, and then one of them decides to get their souls back.

But what really blew me away was the fact that the pictures were amazing – they were really comic-ish, but they’re
not, like, cute like Japanese comics. The people look like real people. They were a bit like the ones he showed me by Jaime Hernandez, but they still looked totally original, and there were these amazing, vivid splashes of colour. I’d never seen anything like it. And the pictures went so well with the story.

‘Wow, Sam, that’s amazing!’ I said, forgetting to sound distant. ‘I love it!’

‘Seriously?’ said Sam, looking very relieved. ‘Do you think the funny stuff works? I was worried it wasn’t quite the right tone …’

‘No, I think it works really well,’ I said, and I meant it. ‘You could do even more funny stuff with that character Folly. She’s great. You could make her even more into the whole selling-her-soul thing. Mike too.’

‘Yeah,’ said Sam. ‘That’s a really good idea. But you think it’s generally going in the right direction? And the story makes sense?’

‘It makes total sense,’ I assured him.

‘Cool,’ said Sam, looking happy. ‘Thanks a million, Bex.’

‘No worries,’ I said, but I felt happy. I do like knowing that he trusts my comics judgement. That has to be a good thing, doesn’t it? I just hope I wasn’t too gushing. I want to be friendly, yet not too scarily friendly.

We went back to the others and talked about the gig next week. Richard is particularly looking forward to it now he knows he has such an excellent suit to wear.

‘I hate to say it, because he did my head in sometimes,’ he said. ‘But Shane Driscoll was right when he said that the perfect stage outfit can make a difference.’

‘Please don’t start wearing leather trousers,’ said Alice in a worried voice.

Shane was very fond of what he called his ‘leather trews’. But there is no danger of Richard adopting the Invited look.

Right, I’d better go and do my homework now so my parents have no excuse to give out to me when I go to Cass’s tomorrow. I really don’t think they appreciate how hardworking I am.