Sean on the other hand would never do the screen test. I knew he wouldn’t because he’d told me and only me. It was our secret.
He’d told me the truth earlier that day. It was the last day of term and I’d been walking out of school with Dakshima, Adele, Gabe and some others when I spotted him waiting for me on the other side of the road, leaning up against a brick wall. At one time it would have taken precisely fifteen seconds for Sean to have been ripped to shreds by the hordes of teenage schoolgirls who were all madly in love with him. But recently the girls of Highgate Comp had got used to the fact that one of their number hung out with former international teen heart-throb Sean Rivers. So nowadays all they did was pretend not to notice him and then giggle hysterically once he was out of sight.
“Hiya,” Dakshima said casually, as he fell into step beside us.
“Hey,” he said. “What’s up?”
“What are you doing here?” I asked him with a smile.
“Well, the Academy broke up yesterday and Anne-Marie’s shopping her head off for clothes to take to Hollywood, because apparently the fifteen closets-worth she already has aren’t enough, so I thought that maybe you’d like to go get an ice cream with me,” Sean said.
“Sounds cool,” Dakshima said happily.
“Um, actually,” Sean looked sideways at me. “It was really just Ruby I wanted to talk to.” He treated Dakshima to one of his sweetest smiles. “It’s nothing personal; just some stuff I want to tell her about the trip – totally boring stuff…”
“Ooh, secrets,” Dakshima teased him, but with a smile. “What secret could you and Ruby have? I hope Anne-Marie knows or else there’ll be trouble…”
“Do I need to come then?” asked Gabe. “Only I can’t because I said I’d play footy down the sports centre. Under sixteens five-aside tournament.”
“Don’t worry,” Sean told him. “It’s nothing important.”
“I’m off then,” Gabe said, winking at me. “See you at the airport.”
“Hey! Wait for me,” Dakshima said. “I might as well come and watch you if this lot are going to be all film starry.”
After they had gone I looked at Sean.
“Just boring stuff?” I asked him. “I’ve never heard such a lame excuse in my life. What’s the real deal?”
“Hollywood,” Sean had said. “I’ve decided that I’m going with you.”
“You are?” I was shocked. “I mean, that’s great. It’ll be a lot of fun to have you on the trip and Anne-Marie will be thrilled. But you seemed so certain that you didn’t want to try and get a part in the film. That you were happy with how your life is now.”
“I am, but…” Sean began before trailing off as we approached the ice-cream van.
“Has Anne-Marie finally got you to give in?” I asked him. Anne-Marie Chance was one of my best friends, but as funny and kind and as loyal as she could be, she had never really got used to the idea that her boyfriend was the former international teen heart-throb Sean Rivers. They had been going out together for nearly a year now and she never tired of telling us over and over again that Sean was wasted, hiding himself away in school in England, and that he should be back out there, taking charge of his career and making the most of his talents. Since Sylvia Lighthouse told Sean that he’d been offered the chance to screen-test for Spotlight! too, Anne-Marie had badgered him non-stop in a bid to get him to come to Hollywood with the rest of us.
“It’s not Anne-Marie.” He paused as he paid the ice-cream man for two ninety-nines.
“Then what is it?” I asked him, puzzled. “Why are you going back?”
Since moving to London, Sean had seemed like such a happy, settled person, not at all like the troubled boy I’d met on the set of The Lost Treasure of King Arthur. We had nearly fallen out the last time I went to Hollywood because I’d accidentally given away his secret location to the world press during an interview on national TV, but even then in the end he’d ended up being a really good friend to me. I hadn’t seen him look this worried since and that worried me. I realised I cared about Sean a lot.
“It’s Dad,” Sean said simply, with a shrug.
“Your dad?” I asked him with surprise. “Has he been trying to bully you, Sean? Because if he has you have to tell someone.”
Sean had lived with his dad after his parents split up, because his dad had told Sean that his mum didn’t want him any more. Pat Rivers had kept Sean and his mum apart for years. While filming The Lost Treasure of King Arthur I’d realised exactly how cruelly Sean’s dad treated him, making him work all year round and sometimes even hitting him. It was because of Pat Rivers that Sean had decided that the world would never see his amazing acting talent ever again. He’d had enough of celebrity life.
That was why his answer was so confusing. How could the man who drove him out of show business get him to go back to it?”
“No, he hasn’t been in touch,” Sean said with a shrug. “And in a way that’s why I want to go to Hollywood.”
I was so surprised by what he said that I’d forgotten to eat the ice cream and now it was dribbling down my elbow. I licked my wrist as I waited for him to continue.
“I haven’t seen Dad in nearly a year,” Sean said, studying his trainers as we sat down on the grass. “At first he tried to contact me, but Mum returned all of his letters and stopped his calls. And for a long time that was the way I wanted it, but now…”
“You’ve changed your mind?” I asked in amazement. “After everything he did?”
“He’s my dad, Ruby,” Sean said. “Yes, he was a terrible dad, but he’s the only one I have. I thought that maybe now he doesn’t have my career to obsess over, he might have changed. I’ve been wondering if we can make up.”
“And the only way you can think of to make that happen is to go back to being in films again?” I asked. “Because you know, Sean, if you go up for the lead in Spotlight! you will get it. No one else will stand a chance. And before you know it you’ll be walking the red carpet and dodging the paparazzi again, and if you get back together with your dad…well, have you forgotten how hard he made your life?”
Sean shook his head. “That’s the point. I don’t want my life to go back to how it was. I don’t want a part in Spotlight! I don’t want any of that. All I want is the chance to see my dad and talk to him. And my dad’s in Hollywood. But I told Mom I’d screen-test and see how it goes.”
“And she thought that was a good idea?” I asked.
“She said if it’s what I really want then she’ll support me,” Sean said, not meeting my gaze.
“But it’s not what you really want, is it?” I said, trying hard to understand. “Why don’t you just tell her that you want to see your dad? I’m sure she’d be fine with it, help you make the arrangements and everything.”
“No…I can’t,” Sean said quickly. “The last time Dad was around, Mom ran away. I didn’t see her for years and years. The only reason she found me again was because of you. It’s not like your parents, Ruby. Even though they’ve split up they still like each other, care about each other