Shooting Star (6 page)

“Of course,” I said.

“You know when you asked me if I love Sean?” I nodded. “Well, I made a joke of it because I didn’t want to look silly. But the truth is I do love him, and you, and Nydia. I love all three of you because you are like my family. You’re the only people in the world who really care what happens to me. I know I tease you and act like a diva and spend most of my time being a horrible, self-obsessed cow. But I don’t know what I’d do without the three of you. And if you ever tell anyone I said that I’ll kill you.”

“Well, you won’t have to find out what you’d do without us because we’ll always be friends,” I said hugging her back, a huge well of guilt brimming up inside me. OK, so I’d recently started feeling a bit odd around Sean. Thankfully no one ever had to know that, including Sean. But how would Anne-Marie feel if,
when,
she found out that I had been keeping Sean’s secret; that he had trusted me and not her? She’d feel like two of the three people in the world that she relied on had let her down, and she didn’t deserve that. I had to make Sean
talk to her tonight. I had to make everything right as soon as I possibly could.

“Anything I can do to cheer you up?” I asked.

“How about double-chocolate-chip-cookie ice cream?” she ventured. “I saw this ice-cream parlour across the street that looks amazing.”

“It’s a deal,” I said. As I hauled her up on to her feet I stumbled backwards and straight into the person who was behind me. Knocking him off his feet, the pair of us staggered backwards, tumbling on to the floor and taking a clothes rack with us.

“That works too!” Anne-Marie laughed.

“Help me, I’m stuck under teen casual wear!” I yelled. But Anne-Marie was laughing too much to be of any use. It took two shop assistants and another customer to get us free from the rack.

I sat up, disentangling myself from dresses and the arms and legs of the poor person I had landed on, apologising all the time.

“I’m so sorry, I don’t know what happened. I just lost my balance and then splat! And there you were right behind me and you sort of got caught in the crossfire…I really hope you haven’t broken anything because I did land right on top of you and…”

“Seriously, Ruby, it’s fine,” came a familiar voice.

I stopped talking and finally got a look at the person I had landed on.

“You!” I shouted, making the whole shop look at me. I must have concussion, I thought. Or maybe post-traumatic stress disorder, because the person I had landed on appeared to be Danny Harvey.

“Anne-Marie, call 911, I’m hallucinating,” I said.

“No, you’re not, Rubes,” Anne-Marie said. “That actually is Danny.”

“I was just on my way to meet a friend when I spotted you though the window,” Danny said. “So I thought I’d come in and say hello.”

“But you’re supposed to be in Sherwood Forest!” I said.

“We were never going to film in the real Sherwood Forest,” Danny said a few minutes later when the three of us sat down for ice cream and I was just about getting my head round seeing him in the very last place I expected. “There’s not enough of it left to film in, and the little bit there is, is protected by the National Trust. Most of it’s being shot in Romania, but we’re in Hollywood for a few weeks to do some special effects and studio scenes.”

“Honestly, Ruby, for one so experienced in the film industry you are naïve,” Anne-Marie teased me. “You
should have seen your face when you realised it was Danny you squashed – it was spectacular!”

“You were the one who said I didn’t have to worry about Danny and Hunter because they were miles away in Sherwood Forest…” I trailed off as I realised what I had just said. “Not that I was remotely worried about you and Hunter or anything anyway,” I added.

“So how is it working with the lovely Hunter?” Anne-Marie asked Danny as she scooped up a big spoonful of ice cream. “Does he talk about Ruby?”

Danny blushed, studying his mobile phone as he got a text. “No, not really,” he said. He looked at me for a long moment and then seemed to decide something. “The first day I met him it was all a bit awkward and then he said we had to clear the air about you. He said that he really liked you, but that you didn’t feel the same way, and I said that now you and me are just friends. So once we got that clear everything was cool and now we’re mates. He said to say hi.”

“Oh, right, well, tell him hi back,” I said, waving my hand at no one. It was all a bit of a shock to be honest, literally bumping into Danny the way that I did and then hearing him bluntly telling me what I had been wondering on and off for months. It was officially over between us. We were just friends. As it happened I was
quite relieved. But that didn’t stop the whole experience being really, really odd.

As Danny and Anne-Marie chatted about Sean and his decision to take the screen test for
Spotlight!
I tried to look at Danny without him noticing so that I could test out how he made me feel. It was strange. I had expected to feel flustered and anxious, and for my cheeks to go pink and my heart to race. But actually the more I looked at him, the more I realised it was just nice to see him. Just like seeing an old friend.

“So tell us – who else are you acting with? Who’s playing the part of young Marian?”

“Oh, um, that’s Kirsty,” Danny said, smiling. “Kirsty O’Brien. She’s really cool.”

“What’s she been in?” Anne-Marie asked him.

“
At Home with Dad
– a kids’ sitcom,” Danny told her. “She’s really cool.”

“You said that once already,” Anne-Marie said with a tiny smile.

“I know,” Danny said. “She just texted me to tell me she’s got through the first round of auditions for
Spotlight!
too.”

“She’s doing two films at once?” I asked him. “How is that possible?”

“She’s shot most of her scenes for
Robin Hood
already
and has six months before we finish the location stuff – she’s very in demand.
It’s Your Life!
calls her Hollywood’s Fastest Rising Star.”

“Oh, right,” I said, glancing at Anne-Marie. “Maybe we’ll meet her tomorrow.”

“Actually you’re going to meet her in about five seconds,” Danny said, smiling at someone who was walking up behind me. “She’s the friend I was going to meet.”

“Hi, Dan!” A blonde girl with brown eyes and a sparkly smile greeted Danny and slid into the seat next to him. As soon as I saw her I recognised her face from the sitcom that Nydia and I had not been watching yesterday.

“Kirsty, this is Ruby and Anne-Marie – friends from home. They’re auditioning for
Spotlight!
too.”

“Hi, it’s so great to meet you,” Kirsty said, smiling at us. “I know exactly who you are.
You
are Ruby Parker. I love
The Lost Treasure of King Arthur
– I’ve seen it about a hundred times. And
you
are Anne-Marie Chance. I’ve watched your performance in the British version of
Spotlight!
– you were brilliant, a real inspiration.”

“And you are unexpectedly likeable,” Anne-Marie said. “So are you two an item now?”

“Um,” Danny stared quite hard into his ice cream and blushed. Kirsty clapped her hand over her face and giggled.

“What? Did I say something wrong?” Anne-Marie asked innocently.

“We’re really just friends,” Kirsty said, smiling sideways at Danny in the universal girl-signal that meant she’d like to be more. “So far.”

“Well, anyway,” I said, sensing that Danny might implode from embarrassment. “We need to be getting back home. I expect we’ll see you tomorrow, Kirsty.”

“Looking forward to it,” Kirsty beamed.

“I bet you are,” Anne-Marie said.

FAX

Dear Mrs Parker,

Please find attached the parental permission forms required by Sapphire Blue Productions before the next stage of casting can commence. Please ensure that each form is signed by a parent or legal guardian.

The workshop process will begin tomorrow at 9 a.m. at Sapphire Blue Productions Rehearsal Studio on Delrado Blvd. Address and map are attached. Please make sure that the children are wearing comfortable clothing, bring their dance shoes with them and one piece of prepared music as they will be asked to sing a solo.

We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow, Yours sincerely

Christina Darcy

When we got back from shopping, Mum and Nydia were in the kitchen reading the fax. Anne-Marie and I grabbed it out of their hands and read it out loud.

“Parental consent forms?” Anne-Marie made a face. “Will you be able to sign those for me, Mrs Parker? I don’t need an actual parent to sign them, do I?”

“Well, your mum has agreed for me to look after you while we are here, so I don’t see why not,” Mum said. “But if it has to be an actual parent, I’m sure we’ll be able to fax the forms to your mum or dad to be signed.”

“If you can find them,” Anne-Marie said, looking at me.

“Shouldn’t we be focusing on this part?” I said, picking up the fax. “The bit where it says we have to have a piece of music prepared because they are going to ask us to sing a solo!”

“Yes, I was wondering about that,” Mum said dubiously. “You can sing something from
Spotlight!
, can’t you?”

“Except that everyone will be doing that,” Anne-Marie replied thoughtfully. “We need something different…Hey, maybe we can get Danny to come over and teach us the words to ‘You Take Me To (Kensington Heights)’!”

“Danny?” Nydia looked confused.

“Turns out he’s not in Sherwood,” I told her. “He’s in Beverly Hills.”

“And he’s got a new girlfriend,” Anne-Marie added.

“She’s not his girlfriend,” I said.

“Only because he’s too dim to ask her out,” Anne-Marie said, rolling her eyes. “But she looks like the kind of girl who gets what she wants, so I shouldn’t think it will be long…”

“What? Where?
Who
?” Nydia asked all at once. As we filled her in on how we met Danny and Kirsty O’Brien, Mum peered in Jeremy’s giant fridge, probably hoping that we would forget she was there so she could listen to every word.

“That must have been a bit freaky,” Nydia said after Anne-Marie told her all about Kirsty. “What’s she like?”

I looked at both of my friends and said, “She seemed really nice actually and as for her and Danny…” I glanced towards the fridge where Mum was apparently fascinated by a tub of yoghurt. “I just don’t mind any more.”

“Which is a good job,” Mum said, unable to keep quiet any longer. “Because you have to learn a song each by tomorrow and I haven’t played piano since 1994. We’d better get practising!”

I was trying my hardest to learn ‘Good Morning Baltimore’ from
Hairspray
when Sean and his mum came back. Anne-Marie’s shrieks of excitement were louder than my singing so thankfully Mum stopped torturing Jeremy’s piano and we went to find out what all the fuss was about. Everyone was in the hallway with Sean when we arrived.

“You got through?” I asked Sean as soon as I saw him.

“Sort of,” he said, looking uncomfortable. Anne-Marie had her arm hooked through his and was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“Sort of? What does that mean?” I asked him.

“It means,” Sean’s mum said, putting her arm around Sean and hugging him to her, “that they have offered Sean the part of Sebastian in
Spotlight! The Movie Musical
and that Sean has accepted.”

“Subject to contract,” Sean said, looking at me.

“Oh, Sean, stop sounding like an agent and start getting excited – you’ve got the lead!” Anne-Marie said.
“This is HUGE. I can’t wait to tell Jade and Menakshi – this is going to kill them. I might e-mail them now actually, or maybe text as it’s a special occasion…”

“You mean he doesn’t have to do any more auditions?” Nydia asked.

“No, he’s got the part,” Mrs Rivers told us. “They said that if there was anyone in the world they could cast in that role it would be Sean, and that was that.”

“But you’ve been gone all day,” I said.

“There were a lot of people to meet,” Sean said with a shrug. It was weird – everyone else in the room probably thought he was being shy and modest about his success. But I knew he was feeling bad. Bad about lying to his mum, to Anne-Marie, to the studio and, worst of all, to himself. I knew he didn’t want to play Sebastian; he didn’t want the lead role in any film with all of the attention and stress it would bring him. I knew he was only doing this because his dad had somehow made him think it was a good idea, and I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t see how mad he was being.

But I couldn’t say any of that, so instead I just smiled and shrugged, “Well done.”

“So when you go back for the workshops tomorrow, Sean will be there working with all the different groups.”

“This is fantastic,” Anne-Marie said. “Because you know what this means, don’t you?”

We all looked at her. “What?” I asked.

“Well, the girl who’s picked to play Arial will be the girl that Sean has most onscreen chemistry with – and it’s bound to be me, isn’t it? I’m going to get the part of Arial!”

“Well, maybe,” I said uncertainly.

“You’ve as good a chance as any,” my mum said.

“Of course I will,” Anne-Marie said happily. “Sean just has to tell them he wants me to play Arial and they’ll give me the part.”

“Except that wouldn’t be exactly fair…” Nydia said uncertainly.

“Yes, well, show business isn’t fair, is it?” Anne-Marie said. “That’s sort of the whole point.”

“I don’t think so, Annie,” Sean said. “And anyway I don’t have much say in who else they cast. I just get to sit in on the auditions. They told me today I’d be working with at least twenty potential Arials tomorrow.”

“Oh.” Anne-Marie looked crestfallen for about one millionth of a second and then she started jumping around again. “It doesn’t matter anyway, because me and Sean are bound to work the best together. It’s going to be brilliant!”

“We should celebrate!” Gabe said. “Me going home, Sean getting a lead role.”

“A small, quiet celebration that involves an early night,” Mum said, getting supporting nods from Sean’s mum and Mr Martinez. “How about pizzas and ice cream all round?”

She put her hands over her ears as we all cheered.

Later on, as Anne-Marie was still speculating on exactly when they would be offering her the part of Arial, I walked out into the garden for a think. It was still really warm and quiet out by the pool. All I could hear were crickets in the shrubbery and the distant sound of music from inside where Nydia was still practising her song while my mum murdered the sheet music. David had come out with me and was trotting at my heels, sniffing around in the plants and occasionally growling at something that was clearly not there. David never growled at anything that really was there: those things he hid from.

I sat on the edge of one of the sunloungers by the pool and looked into the dark water. A lot had happened since we’d arrived in Hollywood and, for once, not a lot of it had happened to me. I’d been feeling so worried and nervous about coming back here after the last time, but I’d hardly had a second to think
about me. Tomorrow might include one of the most important auditions I would ever have, and the very first proper one since I decided I didn’t want to give up acting after all, but somehow that didn’t seem as important as everything else that was going on. Mainly this huge great big secret that Sean was keeping from everyone else; a secret I didn’t know how to keep for much longer. Once before I’d given away a secret that belonged to Sean and it could have ruined his life. I wasn’t sure if he’d forgive me a second time.

“Whatcha thinking?” Sean asked me, making me jump as he stepped out of the shadow of the veranda.

“I’m thinking about you,” I said before I knew it.

“Can’t blame you,” Sean said with a grin. “I am fascinating.”

I pursed my lips just to be sure that I didn’t return his infectious smile.

“Sean, I’m serious,” I told him. “I’m thinking about you keeping seeing your dad a secret from your mum, and about how you’re lying to both your mum and Anne-Marie about why you took the part of Sebastian. Your dad said there’d be weeks of auditions and rehearsals. But you got the part, Sean. You’ve got the lead role in a major movie and you don’t really want it.” I made myself look into his eyes. “Sean, what are you doing?”

Sean sat down alongside me on the sunlounger and looked into the pool.

“I don’t know,” he said, after a moment. “But I like that you worry about me.”

“Be serious!” I said, feeling annoyed.

“I am serious,” Sean said, glancing at me. “All I wanted to do was to see my dad, to get close to him again. I never meant for this to happen. But now that it has, it’ll give me some more time to get to know him again and to get Mom ready for the idea that I want him back in my life.”

“And pretending to take the lead role in the world’s biggest teen movie musical ever was the best way you could think of doing that?” I asked him.

“It was the way it happened,” Sean said.

“Well, it’s the wrong way,” I said firmly. “Sean, you
have
to tell your mum the truth.
And
Anne-Marie – before this goes any further and you really get in deep. Anne-Marie’s your girlfriend and my best friend. It’s not right to lie to her or your mum – plus it’s really stupid.”

“I know,” Sean said. He was quiet for a long time and we sat there in silence, until David decided that some imaginary monster was lurking underneath our sunlounger and launched an assault on our toes.

“It’s been kind of fun though,” Sean said when David
finally abandoned our feet and tried instead to murder a towel. I frowned.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Having something that just you and me know about,” Sean said.

“That’s just silly,” I told him.

“Look…” Sean trailed off for a second and then took a breath and went on. “Anne-Marie is so cool, she’s a great girl and I really like her, but I sort of think that me and her…Well, I think we’re more just friends really than boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“I don’t think she thinks that!” I whispered crossly, worried that Anne-Marie might somehow hear us through an open window, even though the chances of that seemed slim since the parents had now started singing. Clearly no one in this house had inherited their singing ability from anyone present.

“I’m not so sure,” Sean said. “I know she likes the idea of dating a star, but I’m not so sure she really likes me. I was famous when we met and ever since then she’s wanted me to be famous again. If I was just any kid would she even notice me?”

“Of course she would, you’re gorgeous!” I exclaimed before I realised what I’d said. “Obviously
I
don’t think that. I mean, you’ve come top in the Top Ten Teen Hunk
Totty poll for the last two years, so that’s just a fact.”

Sean shook his head, “Ruby, the thing is…”

“The thing is what?” I asked him, impatiently tapping my foot.

“You’ve never treated me like other girls do,” Sean told me.

“So?” I said sulkily. “And?”

“You didn’t go crazy when you met me and act all silly as if you’d lost your brain. We just got on and had fun, and you don’t care if I’m famous or just another kid at a stage school, and I really like that about you.”

“Well, that’s what friends are for,” I said, miserably thinking how I’d done a lot of acting as if I didn’t have a brain recently, only Sean hadn’t even noticed, which for some reason made me feel more confused..

“I’ve always felt like you really got me,” Sean said. “And then the other day when we snuck out to find Dad, it hit me. This hugely, massively obvious thing that I’ve somehow been missing all along.”

“What hit you?” I asked him wide-eyed.

“It’s
you
I like,” Sean said.

I shook my head. “I like you too, Sean, but you’ve still got to…”

“No, I mean I
really
like you, Ruby. I mean I wish
you
were my girlfriend.”

“I…
what?”
I asked him, hearing my voice rise in a shriek that could shatter glass.

“You heard me,” Sean said, a tiny smile curling up one side of this mouth.

“B-b…but you can’t say that.” I struggled to get my words out. “You can’t say—Just don’t say it, OK? Anne-Marie is my best friend and your girlfriend, and anyway you’re wrong. She cares about you a lot. She told me today how much you mean to her. I
can’t
be your girlfriend, Sean.”

“OK,” Sean said, looking over his shoulder as if he could see something in the dusk. When he looked back at me I nearly had to sit down again. Instead I took a couple of steps away from him, wondering how I could get back inside with the others, back to my life where I didn’t have to think about any of these things.

“Look,” Sean said, “I can see that right now it seems impossible…”

“Right now and forever,” I reminded him firmly.

“But say I hadn’t met Anne-Marie a year ago. Say that back then it had just been me and you, and we’d hung out and got to know each other and realised how much we liked each other right about now, and I asked you to go on a date with me…”

“But that’s not how it is,” I said more quietly as Sean took two steps nearer. I was sure David could hear my
heart thundering in my chest, because he’d stopped barking and was sitting perfectly still with his head cocked to one side, staring at me.

“But if it was,” Sean said, “and I asked you to be my girlfriend, what would you say?” Suddenly he seemed very close and I realised exactly what people mean about having their heart in their mouth.

“I…” I don’t know what I was going to say because suddenly we were interrupted.

“Guys!” Nydia came tearing out to the pool and stopped dead when she saw Sean and me standing face to face.

“Sorry,” I said, leaping away from him as if he had just given me an electric shock. “We’re just…rehearsing. Sean asked me to rehearse with him.”

“Oh, right, OK,” Nydia said slowly. She looked from me to Sean and back again, with a frown on her face. “Anyway you have to come and see Mr Martinez and your mum singing ‘I’ve Had the Time of My Life’. It’s the most hilarious and scary thing I have ever seen.”

“Coming,” I said. But I didn’t move.

“What now?” Nydia asked me.

“I’ve just got to get my…thing,” I said, gesturing in the direction of the pool where I saw David killing a towel again. “Got to rescue my towel.”

“Your towel.” Nydia gave me a long look that let me know she knew there was something else going on. “See you inside then.”