Sam in the Spotlight (14 page)

“What character are you playing then?” asked Julian, grinning.

“I'm Detective Biscuit,” said Monty B, “but I'm not your common Jammy Dodger. I've got a bit more class than that – like a nice chocolate digestive or a—”

“
Class!
” snorted Neesha. “More like
farce
if you ask me.” She made a face at Ellie and they both cracked up.

“Oh, you're funny,” said Monty B and stuck his tongue out at them, blowing a raspberry.

“Thank you,” said Neesha. “I rest my case.”

When Julian was ready, he got us all up onstage to sing the opening number. He wanted to record us singing so he could work out where the sound effects and backing music needed to fit in. He'd also set up a special screen called a shark-tooth scrim, and every time Adam and I saw the phantom face at the window, he was going to project this really creepy image of an old-fashioned looking girl in a long white nightie.

“Oh, she looks just like you, Phoebe!” cried Sara, when Julian showed us the image. “You know, in your white nightie with the pretty ruffles round the collar.”

“Shut up!” hissed Phoebe.

“Okay! Keep your frilly knickers on,” said Sara, and Phoebe slapped her across the head.

“Phoebe! What are you doing?” said Mandy, shocked. “I thought things had calmed down since our session of trust games.”

“Don't worry,” said Monty B. “I'll keep her under control. It's her temper, you see.”

Phoebe raised her hand to hit him as well and then dropped it again, sighing.

We went over and over the opening number while Julian played around with the sound effects. Finally, when he was happy, Mandy sent us off to have a break.

“Hey, Sam, we found a home for the last of the puppies yesterday,” Adam said, taking a sandwich out of his bag. We were all sitting together in a big group and so far I'd managed to avoid any direct eye contact with him. Keep A Low Profile…that was my latest coping strategy. It was obvious he fancied Catharine, but that didn't stop me acting like an idiot every time I was anywhere near him. “Mum's quite relieved in a way,” he went on. “They're terrible chewers, you know. They'd destroyed three of my exercise books already!”

“Oh, Riley's a terrible chewer as well,” I said, forgetting my strategy in the blink of an eye. “You should have seen him last night when he got hold of my new bra…” The word was out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying. “I mean my new braaaaaaaaaa…” I repeated, stretching the last sound out while I desperately tried to think of something else to say. “My new braaaaaaaa
n
jumper. Hahaha!”

Adam looked at me as if I was deranged. “What do you mean, your new
braaaaaaaan
jumper?”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at us.

“I know what she means,” said Monty B. “I've got a braaaaaaaa
n
jumper myself. My nan knitted it for me. It's a kind of cross between your ordinary brown and a sort of green army colour.”

“What?” said Adam.

“I thought I had the only one actually. It's not exactly the coolest colour combination in the world, is it, Sam?”

I snorted into my script. I didn't have a clue what Monty B was on about but I could've literally kissed him for coming to my rescue.

Back at Aunty Mags's I sat on the couch cuddling Riley, thinking about Stevie and the Stingrays and how weird it was to find out something so crazy about my own dad.

“Are you okay, love?” said Aunty Mags, coming in with a pot of tea and some biscuits. “It's your school fireworks tonight, isn't it? I could drop you up there if you want.”

I shook my head. “I'm not going. I'm not in the mood.”

Aunty Mags sat down next to me on the couch. “How was drama today? Is the show going well?”

I nodded, cuddling in to Aunty Mags and helping myself to a biscuit. “It was brilliant. Mandy's boyfriend Julian was there, sorting out the music and sound effects. It's going to be such a great show. I just wish my mum would realize how serious I am about acting. She carries on and on as if being on the stage would be a fate worse than death – and now I find out that my boring old dad, who works in a boring old bank, was in a
band.
It just doesn't make sense. I know he's always humming and tapping his feet and singing random songs from the past, but that's not the same as being in a band. Why do you think he's never told me?”

Aunty Mags shrugged. “I don't know, darling, he doesn't really talk about it any more, but I guess it explains where you get your love of performing from, eh?”

“I suppose so, but I still don't get it. I mean why did he leave Stevie and the Stingrays if they were doing so well?”

“It was because of the baby, Sam. You see, when your dad found out your mum was expecting Crystal, he knew he couldn't carry on with the band. They were travelling all over the place, playing at a different venue every night of the week. He didn't want to put your mum through that. He was good though – really good – but your mum always came first. They met at a gig, you know.”

“No way! But Mum's so serious about everything. I always thought she fell in love with Dad when he was already working at the bank.”

“Nope, she met him before that. She was only eighteen, all set to go off to uni, when she went to see Stevie and the Stingrays. Your dad says he spotted her the second he walked out onstage. He says it was as if everyone else in the crowd just disappeared.”

“But whenever I've asked my mum where she met my dad, she's always said it was through an old friend.”

Aunty Mags grinned. “Well, that's because your mum was at the gig with
me
.”

“You mean
you
were the friend?” My mouth fell open. It was all falling into place. “What about the band? What happened to Stevie and the others when Dad left?”

“They never really recovered, to tell you the truth. They tried out a few new guitarists, but none of them worked out.”

“But if Mum fell in love with Dad when he was in a band, why is she so dead set against Crystal going out with Tyler?”

Aunty Mags put her arm round me and pulled me close for a cuddle, Riley squashed between us in the middle. “She's just worried, Sam. She just doesn't want Crystal to make the same mistakes she made – not that meeting your dad was a mistake – but she was so young and…”

“Well, the thing is,” I said, suddenly desperate to tell her about the wedding.

“The thing is what?” she said.

And then my phone rang.

And it was Ellie.

And she was crying.

“I've been dumped!” she sobbed down the phone. “Eddie has just dumped me with a
TEXT
! Can you come over right now, Sam…
Please!
”

I gave Aunty Mags a hug, told her I had to go – and left before she could ask any questions. Crystal's wedding and all of that would have to wait. I literally ran all the way over to Ellie's. I didn't care about the row or anything, I just wanted to see her. She was still crying when she opened the door.

“Can you believe it?” she sobbed, dragging me in. “A
text
!”

“What happened? What did he say?”

She opened her phone and held it up to show me:

2 busy revising 2 c u…lets cool things…btw can I have my grey hoodie back?

“I know he's got exams coming up but he kept saying he wasn't bothered, that revising was for idiots.”

“He's the idiot! And what a cheek – asking for his grey hoodie back!”

“But that's the worst thing,” she spluttered. “You won't believe it, Sam, but I've only gone and…”

“…lost it?” I finished for her. “Oh Ellie, trust you.” I gave her a look and she half-grinned at me through her tears and suddenly we were laughing and laughing until we were bent over, clutching hold of the banister.

“It's not funny,” she moaned. “I've been so stupid…”

“He's the one who's stupid,” I said. “
All
boys are stupid.”

I decided right that second not to tell her about the girl in the park. There didn't seem to be any point.

“Hey, let's go upstairs,” she said, pulling my arm. “I don't want my mum to know. She'd been nagging me to stop seeing Eddie for ages. Ever since I met him.”

It was weird being back in Ellie's room. I sat on the edge of the bed, not sure if everything was okay between us or not.

“I meant it, you know,” she said, sitting down next to me. “I have been stupid. My mum warned me and you warned me but I was too stubborn to listen and you don't know what it's been like. He kept telling me who to talk to and who to be friends with and everything.”

“But why didn't you just tell him to get lost?”

Ellie shrugged. “It was just so exciting when we met at the disco on holiday. And then I kept hoping it could be like that again, but it wasn't. He just wanted to hang out with his friends and it was so boring and he kept saying horrible things about you all the time.”

“What a creep!” I said.

“I know, and remember what I always used to say?
Friends First…
”

“Yeah, but it's my fault as well. I kept going on and on at you and…I was a tiny bit jealous, if you want to know the truth.” I blushed a bit. “I just thought that, you know, I'd be the first one to have a boyfriend.”

“But he wasn't even my boyfriend. Not really. Anyway, what about you and Adam? He asked you back to his house that day after drama, didn't he?”

“He did, but then when I turned up he was out with
Catharine!
I don't know if they're actually going out, but he obviously wasn't bothered about waiting in to see me. I felt like a right lemon.”

“No, he's the lemon,” said Ellie. “Eddie's an idiot and Adam's a lemon and we don't need either of them!”

We had a brilliant afternoon. It was just like old times. We talked and talked and listened to music and tried out some of the dances we'd learned for the show. When Aunty Mags called to see what time I was coming home, Ellie begged me to stay.

“Come on, Sam,
please.
We haven't had a sleepover for ages.”

It was supposed to be my last night at Aunty Mags's – Mum and Dad weren't due back till gone midnight – but she said it was fine and that I should just pop over to pick up my stuff before it got too late.

We decided to go back together. We ran down the road, holding hands in the dark.

“You realize we're missing the school fireworks tonight,” I said, as a rocket exploded above us and hundreds of tiny stars sprayed out across the sky.

“I'm so not in the mood,” said Ellie. “How about you?”

I smiled, shaking my head. “That's exactly what I said to Aunty Mags just before you rang.”

When we got there, Ellie played with Riley while I went upstairs to pack my things. I had one last look at the scrapbook and then left it on my bed for Aunty Mags.

“It's nice to see you two are friends again,” said Aunty Mags when I came down. “Life's too short to fight.”

I gave her the biggest hug, squeezing as tight as I could. “Thanks for a brilliant week and thanks for telling me about Dad,” I whispered. “Maybe we can find some way to get Stevie and the Stingrays back together…”

She hugged me back, laughing. “Have a lovely time. And listen, if you
really
want to be an actress, if you're
that
serious about it…”

“I
am,
Aunty Mags. I want it more than anything.”

“Well, then you'll make it happen, sweetheart. I know you will.”

Back at Ellie's we sat about in our pyjamas, watching the first two Star Maker shows on DVD, even though we'd already seen them about a million times before. Our favourite bit out of both shows is when Monty B dresses up as a Christmas fairy in this hilarious song called “
Scream!
”

“And Eddie kept saying drama was for losers!” joked Ellie, as Monty B pranced about the stage in his pink tutu. We played it over and over, leaping around the room pretending to be Monty B and screaming at the tops of our voices, until Ellie's mum came in to see what was going on.

“Sorry,” said Ellie. “We didn't realize we were being so noisy. Hey, you haven't seen my grey hoodie, have you, Mum? Like, in the wash or something? Only I can't find it anywhere.”

Ellie's mum rolled her eyes and we started to giggle. “What are you two like?” she said, and in a funny sort of way it was as if the last two months had never happened.

I waited until the lights were out and we were snuggled under the covers before I told Ellie about Crystal. Ellie was in her bed and I was on one of those blow-up mattresses next to her. I couldn't see her face, but every now and then she whispered “No way”, and “You're joking”, and “I don't believe it”.