Sam in the Spotlight (5 page)

Ellie shook her head. “I still don't know, to tell you the truth.”

“I'm trying out for Laura,” I said. “Did I tell you, Mandy? I really want a big part this time. I know I'd be brilliant.”

Mandy laughed. “You're very confident, Sam. Choose a scene then, and I'll come round and have a listen in a sec.”

I smiled and nodded but inside I didn't feel quite as confident as usual. Ellie was dropping me for Eddie, Mum thought having some stupid tutor was more important than Star Makers, Crystal was
supposedly
getting married – and I couldn't seem to get Adam out of my head. Everything around me was changing and I didn't like it one little bit.

We ended up doing the scene where the detective comes to the castle to question Laura and Ben about the face at the window. Monty B joined me and Sandeep to be Mr. Biscuit, and Ellie was his trusted assistant, Sugar.

“Don't you think it would be funnier if we added some more biscuit jokes?” said Monty B when we'd read it through once.

“You don't mean you're going to change it, do you?” I said.

“No, not change it exactly, just embellish it a bit.”

“Stop using clever words,” complained Ellie. “What does ‘embellish' mean anyway?”

Monty B grinned. “It means to adorn or add interest to the piece,” he said.

“
What?
” said Ellie, even more confused.

“I think he means he's going to add bits just to annoy Mandy,” said Sandeep.

And Monty did add bits and Mandy did get annoyed, but it was really funny. Ellie got the worst fit of giggles, and the more she laughed, the more biscuit jokes he made. He ended the scene by saying, “The trouble with this case is there's not one single
crumb
of evidence,” and Ellie literally had to be helped off the stage, she was so hysterical.

“Okay, I'm changing the detective's name,” said Mandy. “What on earth was I thinking? And you can forget all about having that part, Monty B.”

“Don't say that, Mandy,” said Monty B. “I'd make a great digestive…er…I mean detective, wouldn't I, Ellie?”

But Ellie was laughing too hard to answer.

It was fun watching the others perform. Catharine was just as good as usual, but I think Sara was the biggest surprise. She didn't get all the lines right and she looked a bit young to be Laura – but she was
so
loud and confident. I wasn't that worried about either of them getting the part to be honest, but I did make sure to tell Mandy one last time that I really wanted to be Laura – just in case she'd forgotten.

When we left to go home, Eddie was waiting for Ellie at the bottom of the stairs. That was three weeks in a row! We said hello and Ellie asked me to come with them again, but I thought Eddie gave me a funny look, like he didn't want me to, so I made up an excuse. He was looking much more confident these days and I couldn't help feeling that same twinge of jealousy that he was there, taking my best friend away from me, just when I needed her most.

The week flew by and somehow I managed to push Crystal's invitation to the back of my mind. She didn't turn up at school or call me, but I figured she was probably just busy with arrangements for the wedding. Mum's done the flowers for loads of big weddings and she says the bride always ends up totally stressed out.

There wasn't really time to worry about it anyway. We had tons more homework now we were in Year Eight and every single teacher seemed to think their subject was the most important. Last year I was in trouble all the time for messing around in class, but I knew I had to keep my grades as high as possible in every subject if I was going to convince Mum not to book that tutor. Ellie still wanted to have a giggle and muck about, but I just couldn't afford to pass notes back and forth about how dreamy Eddie was or what she should wear on Saturday. She'd sent me a note that morning during French – something about meeting up with Eddie after drama – but I'd stuffed it in my bag without answering. It was Friday and I'd been trying to get all my homework down in my diary before the bell rang.

“Why are you being such a boring old stick-in-the-mud?” she complained at the end of the day. We were in the cloakroom getting our stuff and she'd been having a go at me for the past ten minutes. “Eddie says it's because you're jealous I've got all the attention for once – but I told him that was rubbish.”

“It is rubbish,” I said. “How comes he's such an expert all of a sudden? He doesn't even know me. And why were you talking about me behind my back?”

Ellie blushed a bit. “It wasn't behind your back, Sam. Okay, I
was
talking about you, but only because I want Eddie to get to know you. Why won't you just come out with us one Saturday? It's not like I haven't asked you about a hundred million times.”

“Fine, I will! Just to stop you going on about it. But not this week. Let's go back to yours after drama tomorrow for a change. Girls only! We haven't done that for ages. We're getting our parts, so we could start practising and Phoebe and Polly could come as well. You don't want to be one of those girls who drops all her friends the second you get a
boyfriend,
do you?”

“He is
not
my boyfriend!” said Ellie, getting very wound up. “When are you going to realize?”

“When you stop seeing him
every
Saturday,” I muttered. “So can we go over to yours tomorrow or not?”

“Hey, do you mind if we practise at mine instead?” said Phoebe, as she came in to grab her coat. “My mum's going out for the day and I've got to look after Sara.”

Ellie shrugged. “Okay then. We'll go to Phoebe's tomorrow after drama, but the following Saturday you have to promise you'll come out with me and Eddie.”

I promised with my fingers crossed behind my back. I didn't want to go out with boring old Eddie – Ellie was welcome to him as far as I was concerned. I wanted to go out with
Adam,
but it's not like that was ever going to happen.

Aunty Mags was waiting for me when I came out of school, standing across the road by her car. I thought something might be wrong for a second, but she was grinning like mad and waving a newspaper at me.

“Hurry up, Sam,” she called out. “I really need your help with something.”

I crossed over to meet her. “What's going on?”

“Look at this,” she said. “I was leafing through the local paper at work this morning and there are some chocolate-brown Labrador puppies for sale right near here!”

“And?” I looked at her, confused.

“And I've always wanted one of course! So anyway,” she went on, practically pushing me into the car. “I called the woman, her name is Mrs. Dale, and she said we could come and have a look today.”

“Do you mean you want me to help you choose?”

She ran round to the other side of the car. “Yes! I want you to help me choose,” she said, climbing in. “Isn't it so,
so
exciting!”

We drove along, chatting about school. Aunty Mags wanted to know all about my new Year Eight teachers; who I liked best and what we were doing in each subject. I thought about asking her a few questions of my own – like what my mum actually said to Crystal on the night of her eighteenth birthday party – but I was having such a nice time I didn't want to spoil the mood.

“Now be strict with me, Sam,” said Aunty Mags as we drew up outside the house. “I'm only buying
one,
however cute they are.”

Mrs. Dale opened the door with one of the puppies clasped to her chest. It was the most adorable thing I'd ever seen in my life! It had the softest brown fur and was easily small enough to fit into the palm of my hand. I thought Mrs. Dale looked quite familiar for a second, but I wasn't sure where I'd seen her before.

“Come in, come in,” she said, leading us into the living room. “It's a complete tip, I'm afraid, but find yourselves somewhere to sit down and you can meet the pups. This is their mum, Carla.” She patted a big, chocolate-brown Labrador. “She's feeling very proud of herself and very protective, but she won't mind you having a cuddle.”

The rest of the puppies were squashed into an old dog basket filled with blankets and quilts. Carla lay down by the basket and three of the puppies hopped out, clambering over each other to snuggle into her and feed.

“How on earth are we going to choose?” cried Aunty Mags. Her eyes were bright with excitement and I half-wished I was getting one of the puppies myself. Not that Bella would be very impressed! She already thinks she's Queen of the Household, so I don't expect she'd take too kindly to a puppy.

“Here, have a cuddle,” said Mrs. Dale, holding out the little ball of fur in her arms. “This one here's the runt of the litter. That's why I'm carrying him around. He keeps getting squashed in the basket and pushed out of the way.” I reached out for the tiny puppy and he snuggled into me, trying to climb right into my coat. “This is the one, Aunty Mags,” I said. “He might be the smallest but just look at his eyes and little paws and his tiny tongue and…” Just then the front door slammed.

“Oh, that'll be my youngest home from school. Come in and say hello,” she called out. “Some people are here choosing a puppy. I'll just go and put on the kettle,” she said to us.

Mrs. Dale's son came straight into the living room to see who was about to steal away one of his precious puppies. I looked up to say hello but my mouth dropped open.

It was Adam.

Mrs. – Dale's – son – was – Adam.

“Oh hi, Sam,” he said, as if it was completely normal to come home from school and find me sitting in his living room cuddling one of his puppies.

“W-what are you doing here?” I stammered.

“Erm, I'm not sure… Oh yes, I know, I live here.”

“You live here? With Mrs. Dale?”

“Well, she is my mum,” he laughed.

I could feel myself start to burn up. I sounded like a complete idiot. No wonder I thought I recognized Mrs. Dale when she opened the door.

“This little one's called Riley,” said Adam, squashing down between us on the couch.

“Hello, Adam,” said Aunty Mags. “That's funny – you two knowing each other. Have you got a favourite?”

“It's the one Sam's holding actually, although I don't think her cat would be too happy about it.”

“Oh no, it's not for me,” I said. “It's for Aunty Mags. I've just come along to help her choose – not that I know much about dogs. I know loads about cats though. My cat's a Persian Blue. She's called Bella. That actually means ‘beautiful' you know, in Italian. She's really old now – she just sleeps all the time – but she used to win first prize in
all
the cat shows…” I trailed off, feeling more stupid than ever.

Adam lifted Riley off my lap and carried him over to Carla. As soon as he put him down, the poor little pup nuzzled into her and started to feed. “He needs as much milk as he can get, but the others keep pushing him around and he doesn't get a look-in!”

Just then two of the other feeding puppies nudged Riley firmly out of the way. He sat back, looking dazed, and we all burst out laughing.

“I'm totally smitten, I'm afraid,” said Aunty Mags.

Mrs. Dale came back in from the kitchen with some mugs of tea and a plate of biscuits. “This is Sam from drama, Mum,” said Adam. “Didn't you recognize her?”

“Well the last time you saw me I was a deadly virus and I was wearing a black and green mask, so it's not very likely,” I said.

“Oh, you were fantastic,” laughed Mrs. Dale. “I remember. But you look much prettier with your mask off.”

I blushed all over again and leaned over the puppies to hide my face. I'd
need
a mask at this rate, if I was going to turn brilliant red every time I was anywhere near Adam.

Mrs. Dale explained to Aunty Mags that the puppies wouldn't be ready to leave Carla for another week or so. We had a few more cuddles with Riley and a couple of biscuits, and then we set off home.

“See you tomorrow,” said Adam. “I think we're going to find out our parts, aren't we?”

I nodded, mumbled something completely moronic, and dragged Aunty Mags out to the car. I couldn't believe I'd just spent the afternoon over at Adam's house – it was crazy, and
so
embarrassing. I'd babbled on like a total twit. I really needed to talk to Ellie – and fast.

“I think someone's got a little crush,” Aunty Mags teased when we were on our way.

“I have not got a crush,” I said firmly. But my face started to burn up AGAIN. What on earth was happening to me? Maybe I did have a crush – and not such a
little
one either – but I wasn't about to tell Aunty Mags.

I had an even bigger surprise when I got in. Mum and Dad were both home from work and they were drinking champagne. For a crazy second I wondered if they were celebrating Crystal's news; that she'd actually been in touch and told them about the wedding.