Danny laughed. “So, Ruby Parker, how’s America? Is it as exciting and as glam as you thought it would be?”
I thought about the article in People’s Choice Magazine.
“It is, but it’s also much more like being in a foreign country than I thought it would be. No, scrap that, it’s like being on another planet. Even Jeremy’s different here – he’s even got a celebrity dog!” I said, making Danny laugh as I told him about my first meeting with David. His laugh made my tummy tense.
“I miss you,” I mumbled before I knew what I’d said.
“When are you back?” Danny asked me, without telling me he missed me too.
“About a week. We fly home on January 6th,” I told him. “I’m actually looking forward to going back to school.”
“Me too,” Danny said, and I thought I could hear a smile in his voice. “OK then, Ruby, I’ll see you in a week.”
I knew he was being all cool and offhand because once I had told him that he carried on like Romeo out of Romeo and Juliet, all overdramatic and far too serious. He had taken that information to heart. A little bit too close to heart, I sometimes felt, especially now when I felt so lonely and he seemed so far away.
“I’ll see you then,” I said, wanting to say more but not knowing how to.
“Ciao, baby,” Danny said in an appalling Italian accent and then he was gone.
I felt better and worse when I put the phone down. Better because talking to Danny had cheered me up, but worse because I couldn’t Just go round to his house to watch TV, or meet him at the café on the corner for hot chocolate, or try to outrun screaming mobs of ten-year-olds with him. And I missed that.
Just then I heard a strange scraping and scratching outside my room, and a high-pitched whimper. I got up and opened the door. David trotted in and with some effort scrambled up on to my bed, and after turning three clockwise circles, he curled up in a tiny ball, his nose on his paws, and looked at me.
“I haven’t got any food in here,” I told him. “And I’ve put all of my shoes out of your reach since the trainer incident so you might as well go.”
But David didn’t move an inch. As I gingerly sat back down on the bed I expected him to attack me at any moment, but he didn’t. All he did was get up to move closer to me, turn in three clockwise circles again and then curl up into another little ball, only this time with his tiny body pressed right against mine.
I didn’t know why David the dog had decided to stop trying to eat me and my possessions and start trying to be my friend, but just at that moment I was really happy that he had.
David and I spent the rest of the afternoon exactly as I said I would. We wandered about the garden and I threw a tennis ball for him which he would chase, but which was too big for him to get his Jaws around and bring back, so I ended up throwing it and fetching with David at my heels. Then I went for a swim in the pool while David stood at the edge, his little legs trembling. Once I’d dried off, we walked down Jeremy’s long, tree-lined drive and peeped out between the wrought-iron railings of his security gates. The sweep of the road was completely silent, and with the view shrouded by trees, I thought that I could be anywhere in the world.
David could easily have slipped out between the railings, but he seemed quite content to stay where he was.
“You’re small and rather annoying,” I said to him. “But I can’t imagine how anybody could ever throw you out on to the street. It must have been horrible for you feeling so alone and left out in the cold, even though it’s mainly hot here. You’re lucky someone kind like Jeremy found you and took you in.”
On impulse I picked David up and carried him back to the house. After all, everyone deserves a helping hand now and again. And the heat of his little body against mine took my mind off what was really worrying me.
Tomorrow was the day that I would really find out what this town was about. Tomorrow would be crunch time for Ruby Parker, film actress.
It was when David and I came down to find food that Mum finally accosted me. “I hope you know how ashamed I am of you, young lady,” she said, stopping at the foot of the stairs and crossing her arms. I looked at her in her Jeans and T-shirt and I realised what was wrong – no sparkly pink silk dress.
“Aren’t you getting ready? You’ll be late for the Zeta-Jones-Douglas’s,” I said.
Mum shook her head. “There is no way I can go to something like that when I look like this,” she gestured at herself. “Everyone will have seen that magazine and if they don’t laugh in my face, they will behind my back. No, I need to make a few adjustments before my next public appearance.”
“You don’t, Mum,” I said. “Honestly. You look lovely and Jeremy fell for you, not some glossy plastic-looking model.”
Mum’s smile softened her face but I could see she was determined to tell me off. “Stop trying to change the subject,” she said firmly.
“What subject?” I asked, trying my best to look innocent. “Hey look, me and David have made friends! I’m thinking of changing his name to Fido. That way he might not be embarrassed to hang out with the other dogs on the street.”
“Ruby.” Mum tried her best not to smile, forcing a frown that was not nearly as scary as it should be. “You were very rude to Jeremy earlier, to someone who I thought you liked and respected as a friend. Jeremy has been very generous and kind to you.”
“I know,” I said, dropping my chin. “And I’m sorry, Mum, I really am. It’s just that since we got here—”
“After all, Ruby, if you want to be treated like an adult you have to act like one,” Mum went on, clearly intent on getting all of her best lines into my lecture before she’d let me go. “It’s unattractive to see a girl of your age sulking and pouting like a three-year-old. I have not brought you up to be a prima donna and if I thought that for one minute experiencing all this is going to change you then—”
“It’s not me who’s changing,” I said. “I mean, it is me a bit. I know I’ve not been myself lately. But it’s because everything else is changing. You’re changing, Mum. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I like to see you so happy – well, mostly happy. It’s Just that you and Jeremy are always together and I feel…out of it and that made me sulk and be rude. I’m sorry.”
My mum looked at me for a moment and then hugged me very tightly so that my ribs ached, and David wriggled out of my arms and scampered off to safety.
“Oh, Ruby, I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have realised. It must be hard for you to see me with someone apart from your dad.”
“It is a bit,” I said. “I do like Jeremy, I really do, but I like him better at home in our house where he’s the guest and he doesn’t seem so…”
“So what?” Mum asked me, keeping her voice level.
“Smug,” I said with a shrug. To my relief Mum laughed before making her face go serious again.
“Jeremy is not smug, and even if he was, that would be no excuse for rudeness, young lady. Jeremy really cares for you and he’s told me he thinks that you have real talent, talent that could go all the way.” I saw a glint of something in Mum’s eyes then, as if for the first time she was really excited instead of just anxious about what the future might hold for me. “Look at what he’s doing for you tomorrow,” she went on. “Taking you to the studio, introducing you to a lot of important people – people who could really make your career.”
“I know. And that’s exciting but…well, I don’t know, Mum.