Ruby
Parker Film Star
Rowan Coleman
For my very own superstat, Lily
Thank you to Stella Paskins, Gillie Russell and all the team atHarperCollins Children’s Books for their support and enthusiasm.
And extra special thanks to my very own focus group—Polly Harris,Laura Day and Emily Fettes—for their excellent opinions and thoughts,and for the gratis promotional work they did on Ruby Parker’s behalfwith all of their school friends. I appreciate it very much.
29 Windhouse Street
Brighton
Sussex
Dear Ruby,
I wanted to write and thank you for the letter you sent me, and anyway you said for me to let you know how I am doing so I thought I would. When I wrote to you I was feeling really low and getting your letter really made me feel better. I took your letter and showed it to my mum and when she read it she looked sort of surprised and cried. I was worried at first but then she gave me a big hug and it was as if she suddenly realised how much her and Dad splitting up was affecting me too. Things are still hard, and I wish it wasn’t happening, but at least they are trying to sort things out in a more friendly way now, and Mum lets me see Dad without getting angry.
I read in Teen Girl Magazine that you have left Kensington Heights. I am sorry you won’t be playing Angel any more, she was my favourite character in Kensington Heights, the only one who seemed really real. I am glad that Angel had only gone to America though. Maybe one day you will come back and be in the show again. I know you used to get loads and loads of letters from Kensington Heights fans. I expect the show’s fan club will get a lot less mail now. I think it will be nice for you to have a break from writing all of those replies! Maybe you should have your own fan club? I wonder what you will be in next. I will definitely watch it whatever it is.
Thanks again.
Lots of love
Naomi Torrence
Table of Contents
“If there’s one thing I know about this business we call show business,” Sylvia Lighthouse told me when it was my turn for her inspirational pre-audition pep talk, “it’s that success is never down to good fortune alone—you do realise that, don’t you, Ruby?” I nodded. I did know, mainly because I knew exactly what she was going to say next. She had been seeing all of us girls who were about to audition for a part in the Imogene Grant movie, The Lost Treasure of King Arthur, individually and in alphabetical order. I was last because poor Selena had chicken pox really badly and hadn’t stopped crying since she found out she wouldn’t be allowed to audition. (I don’t blame her, I would cry too if I discovered I was missing out on such an important audition because of chicken pox, even if at that moment a nice warm bed, a pile of DVDs and a bottle of Lucozade did seem like more fun.) Anyway, it meant that I was last, so Nydia, Anne-Marie, Olivia and Scarlett had already told me what she was going to say, complete with dramatic pauses and eye rolling.
“Good,” Sylvia Lighthouse continued, “because success is perhaps ten per cent luck, maybe even ten per cent talent…” She leaned across her desk and fixed me with her steely glare. “…But do you really know what makes a performer successful?”
“Hard work and lots of it,” I answered automatically, before realising that the question was supposed to be rhetorical and I wasn’t supposed to answer at all but let her tell me. “I mean, probably…” I added hastily, “I don’t know really…um…what do you think, Ms Lighthouse?” Sylvia Lighthouse arched an orange pencilled eyebrow at me.
“I do hope you are not too confident, Ruby,” she said, as she examined me. I shook my head energetically. “Acting in a so-called