“It’s not that,” Adele said, wiping her sleeve under her nose and sniffing.
“Isn’t it?” I asked her.
“I’m never included in anything,” Adele said. “And I actually can sing pretty well – not like those people on The X Factor who think they can sing but can’t. I’m in the choir at church. But when I got in the hall with everybody there I couldn’t do it. I thought if everybody saw me trying they’d think I was even more stupid than they already do and I got all scared and my voice came out all squeaky and off key.”
“You know what a key is?” I asked her, taking a step closer to her. “Cos I don’t.”
“Yes,” Adele said. “But no one at at school knows anything about me really, not even the teachers.”
“Adele, you should ask Mr Petrelli for another audition, just you on your own. Then you wouldn’t have to be so nervous. Trust me, I know what that’s like. Once I threw up on my shoes during an audition.”
“Serious?” Adele asked me. “That’s rank.”
“I know! Look, if you wanted…maybe I could help you? At the Academy we used to do breathing techniques and stuff for when you’re nervous.”
“You’d help me?” Adele asked me. “You, the famous rich kid?”
“I’m not a…” I paused. The fact of the matter was that I had been on TV for years and years, and in one film that a lot of people went to see, even though it was voted one of the top three worst films of the year. And even though I didn’t see a penny of it, apart from my pocket money, the chances were that I did have quite a lot of money in the bank. Compared to a lot of other Highgate comp kids, I was rich.
“Look, I’ve been famous, but I was rubbish at it. And I don’t want to be famous any more. People say things about you and they don’t care how it might make you feel. They think they know what you are like without really knowing you at all.”
“Sounds a lot like school,” Adele said.
“Maybe it is,” I said thoughtfully. “Look, maybe, what with you threatening to get me and everything, I did judge you a little bit. But if you are saying that you are not, after all, a homicidal maniac, then I would be very glad to help you.”
“I wouldn’t have actually ever got you,” Adele said. “I don’t even know why I said it. I was coming over to say hello, but then I thought there’s no way that famous rich kid is ever going to be friends with me and before I knew it I was saying what I said. That’s how everyone expects me to be.”
I smiled tentatively at her and she returned my smile.
“We should get to class,” I said. “We’re definitely going to get killed by Mrs Moreton.”
“No we won’t,” Adele said. “I’ll say I had to take you to the loos because you felt sick, but you’re better now.”
“OK,” I said, looking at Adele’s tear streaked face. “Or we could say you were sick and I was helping you?”
“That would never work,” Adele said, putting her arm heavily around me in preparation for our roles. “No one would ever believe it.”
Dear Ruby
You are invited to Anne-Marie’s
fourteenth birthday party!
When? March 15th
Where? Chance Heights, Highgate, London
Wear? Anything fabulous.
Bring? Presents!
RSVP Anne-Marie
“So who’s coming?” I asked Anne-Marie. Her invitation had arrived in the post just before I was due to leave for school, even though I was going to see her that evening.
“Well, of course I posted the invitations,” she’d explained when I’d phoned her on her mobile to ask her why she hadn’t just given it to me. “It’s so much more glamorous – I didn’t want to hand then out at school like some little kid. This is the dress rehearsal for my sweet sixteen – it’s got to be perfect!”
“But you’ve got another birthday to go before then,” I’d reminded her as I headed for the corner where I was going to meet Dakshima. Today was our first choir rehearsal, one of a handful before the regional finals due to be held in only a few days. It didn’t exactly leave Mr Petrelli much time to hone us into a “well oiled singing machine” as he put it, but he was determined to give it a go.
I hadn’t told Anne-Marie and Nydia about the choir yet. I don’t know why. I suppose that compared to what they were doing, auditioning for the lead roles while I was toiling away in the back row of a third-rate choir, it seemed a bit…well, I’m ashamed to admit, I was embarrassed by it.
“I know I’ve got another birthday to go before then,” Anne-Marie said in my ear, probably while putting her lip gloss on because she sounded as if she was trying to talk without moving her mouth. “But this is the dress rehearsal for the dress rehearsal. Plus this is the first time Daddy has ever let me have a proper party with a DJ and everything. He said as he’s working in LA on my birthday and Mummy will be in Thailand, I could have what ever I wanted, I just had to tell Pilar. I want it to be the best party the Academy has ever seen. Jade might have a rock star father who’ll stage a musical for her to be in, but mine says I can have a Chinese buffet and that’s real class.”
“I’ve always thought so,” I said. “So who’s coming then? You make it sound like you’re inviting the whole school.”
“I am inviting the whole school,” Anne-Marie said. “Oh, and you, of course. I keep forgetting you’ve left. I still think you should come back here, me and Nydia both do. We miss you.”
“You’re even inviting Jade and Menakshi and that lot?” I asked her, ignoring the last bit.
“Yes, I’m especially inviting Jade and Menakshi and that lot,” Anne-Marie told me. “This isn’t about friendship, Ruby, this is about getting as many people as I can to my party. Jade and Menakshi and that lot will come because everybody else is, and everybody else will come because they are. It’s very complicated.”
“Sounds it,” I said, waving at Dakshima as I saw her turn the corner. She nodded at me and then waited, looking in the other direction as if she was keen to be going. “Can I bring Dakshima?” I asked.
“Do you have to?” Anne-Marie sighed heavily. “Only I wasn’t really planning on inviting the public.”
“Annie,” I said, using the nickname that normally only Sean Rivers was allowed to. “Dakshima is the coolest and most popular girl in my year and I want to be friends with her. Inviting her to your party will be a really big step in the right direction. Besides, you might go to a stage school and you might have modelled a bit for H&M, but you are still the public. You haven’t won one of the leads in Spotlight yet, you know, so don’t be such a snob.”
“But I am going to get this part,” Anne-Marie said. “I just know that I am – this is my year,