Secrets, Schemes & Sewing Machines

by Katy Cannon

  It was nice, having us all together again. Ella told us stories about her new school, and we pretended it didn’t matter that we didn’t know any of the people she was talking about. Mac and Lottie told her all about Paris, and the rest of us pretended we hadn’t heard it a million times already. Yasmin and I talked about rehearsals, and I pretended I was fine with just being in charge of the costumes this year.

  Then the bakery door opened and Ash walked in. With Connor.

  As Yasmin got to her feet to welcome them, Ella leaned over towards me and whispered, “Who are they?”

  “The dark-haired one who keeps staring at Yasmin is Ash. He’s playing Benedick in the play. They have maths together, and a mutual crush that is edging towards dating.”

  “And the cute one who keeps staring at you?”

  I checked again in case that gorgeous guy from Year Thirteen had wandered in when I wasn’t looking. Nope, still just Connor.

  “Seriously? You think he’s cute?”

  “Yes,” Ella murmured. “And so do you, because you still have eyes in your head. So, who is he and why are you making out that you’re not interested?”

  “It’s not like that. Trust me. He’s the stage manager for the play. We have a mutual disgust thing going on.”

  “That’s not what it looks like to me,” Ella said, straightening up, but by then the boys had reached the table and pulled up chairs, so there was no time to argue back.

  It was weird. I hadn’t remembered Ella being so … confident, I guess. She’d always been the quiet one, the shy one. The one hiding behind Jasper, desperate for help but not quite sure how to ask for it.

  I couldn’t help but think that moving up North had been the best thing for her if it allowed her to become a little more herself. Even if it meant we lost her.

  When I looked away from Ella, I discovered that Connor was indeed staring at me. He was also sitting right next to me.

  “I’m going to get more cake,” I announced, standing up quickly. “Anyone want anything?”

  I took orders and cash, then darted over to the counter to make my own choice, glad for a moment alone.

  Except I wasn’t alone for very long.

  “What?” I asked, when I realized that Connor had followed me.

  “Just interested to see a princess in her natural environment,” he answered.

  I ignored him. Turning away, I eyed up the lemon drizzle cake. It looked like one of Lottie’s, with the perfectly spaced candied lemon slices on the top. That could definitely be worth a go.

  “OK, fine,” Connor said after a moment. “I wanted to, I don’t know, apologize. For the other day.”

  My gaze swung away from the cake to stare at him in astonishment. His cool blue eyes looked sincere. And somehow not as cold as they always had before.

  “Seriously?” I asked. “You want to say sorry. To me.” Unbelievable.

  “Yeah, I do.” Connor shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his hands deep in his pockets. “You were right. What you said the other day. I wasn’t thinking about what was best for the play, and you were. So, I’m sorry.”

  “Well, OK, then.” What else was there to say? “Are you having cake?”

  Connor stared at the glass case as if he’d only just noticed it was there. “Yeah. What do you recommend?”

  I shrugged. “They’re all good. But that looks like one of Lottie’s, so I’m going to give it a go.”

  As I leaned past him to point at the lemon drizzle cake, my body brushed against Connor’s chest. Such a small thing, but it made my heart speed up all the same.

  The girl behind the counter came to take our order and I paid. Connor carried the tray back to our table then sat down beside me again. I tried to ignore the way the air between us seemed to crackle, like it was filled with static electricity. Instead, I shifted my focus to the conversation the rest of the group was having, and the fact that Yasmin was holding Ash’s hand under the table. At least somebody’s romantic life was working out right this year.

  “So, Connor,” Lottie asked, wiping the table down with a napkin before leaning her elbows on it. “Which school did you move from?”

  Connor shook his head. “You wouldn’t have heard of it. Just the local school in a little town over on the other side of London.”

  “How do you like St Mary’s?” Mac asked. “Speaking as someone who got the hell out of that place as soon as possible.”

  “And not before you tried to burn it down,” Jasper added, unhelpfully.

  Lottie elbowed her boyfriend in the side. “You liked it more by the end.”

  “Parts of it.” Mac leaned in to kiss her, just where her jaw met her neck. “I only liked some very specific parts of it.”

  Lottie smiled and turned to kiss him properly.

  “Are they always like this?” Connor asked.

  “Mostly, yeah.” I sighed.

  Connor cleared his throat. “So, St Mary’s. Seems OK. Just another school, I guess.”

  Ash and Yasmin were not just holding hands, but also staring into each other’s eyes now, and Jasper had his arm around Ella with her head on his shoulder.

  No one was listening. No one except me. “Have you been to a lot of schools, then?”

  “Some.” He shrugged. “We moved when my parents divorced a few years ago, then again when my dad got remarried, and again now.”

  That sounded like a lot of moving around to me. “Why this time?”

  “Just the way things work out.” Which wasn’t an answer at all.

  “Is it weird, having to call your stepdad Mr Hughes all the time?” I asked. It seemed as good a way as any to get him talking.

  “The whole thing is weird,” Connor replied. “The play, the school, everything.”

  I could kind of sympathize. It was enough having to deal with your family at home, but at school, too? Weird.

  “But you like being stage manager?” I pressed.

  “Yeah.” He smiled, and I knew he meant it. “I like the feeling of pulling it all together, of everyone having their own part to play to make it all work,” he said.

  “What don’t you like, then?” Because there was obviously something.

  “The drama.”

  The drama. Did he mean the acting, or the actors? I had a feeling this was more about what went on with the cast backstage than on – the gossip, the romances. And, of course, the highly strung tendencies of some cast members. Violet, particularly, had been acting up to the starring role thing over the last few weeks.

  I leaned back in my chair and picked at the cake crumbs on my plate.

  “So, how are the costumes coming along?” Connor asked.

  “Slowly.” I raised an eyebrow at him. “We missed our meeting last week. What with … everything.”

  “So let’s have it now, then. It doesn’t look like we’ll be missed too much. And since I’m here, we might as well make the most of it.”

  Connor shifted in his chair so he was facing me and folded his arms across his chest.

  “Why are you here, anyway?” I asked.

  “Ash wanted me to come. I think he was a bit nervous about, you know, being—”

  “Alone with Yasmin,” I finished with a nod. “They really are a pair! So, costumes…”

  “Yeah. What have you got so far?”

  I pulled my list out of my bag, and Connor’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “What?”

  “You carry that with you everywhere?”

  “Pretty much. Besides, Yasmin and I were shopping for some costume bits before we came here.”

  “Huh.”

  “What?” I asked again, irritation colouring my voice a little more this time.

  “Maybe you are taking this seriously, after all.”

  What did I have to do? Endless hours in the costume cupboard, putting in extra time every single rehearsal … and it was a list that convinced him. “Of course I am. I’ve been telling you that from the start. If you’d just listen to me occa
sionally—”

  Ella interrupted my flow. “Sorry, guys, but I’ve got to go. I promised Dad I wouldn’t be back late.”

  There was the usual round of hugs and then, “See you soon” and “We’ll email more, right?”. But as I hugged Ella goodbye, I had a feeling that I might never see her again.

  Everyone started to drift off after that. I looked down at my epic list, then at Connor. “We’ll do this at rehearsal on Tuesday?”

  “For sure.” He smiled, and I felt my heart tighten up again the way it had when we’d touched. “I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with.”

  I watched him leave with Ash, staring at the door for a long moment after he’d gone.

  “So, you and Connor,” Yasmin said, exchanging a look with Lottie. “Still not friends?”

  I swallowed. “Nope. Not at all.” I didn’t know what we were, but it didn’t feel anything like friends.

  What you need:

  2 pieces of fabric – 1 patterned, 1 plain

  Iron-on interfacing

  Sheet wadding

  Self-adhesive Velcro strip, 1cm wide

  What to do:

  1. Measure your phone, and add 3cm to the width and 4cm to the height

  2. Cut out two pieces of each of the fabrics, the interfacing and the wadding to this size.

  3. Start with the lining. Iron a piece of interfacing to the wrong side of both pieces of plain fabric. Place the two pieces of plain fabric together, interfacing on the outside, and pin.

  4. Sew in place, about 1cm from the edge, along both long sides and the bottom short side – but leave a gap of 3cm on the short side for turning the right way later.

  5. Place your two pieces of patterned fabric together, right sides facing, and add a piece of wadding to both sides.

  6. Pin along the bottom edge and two sides, then sew in place along those three sides, around 1cm from the edge again.

  7. Trim the bottom corners, making sure not to cut through the stitching.

  8. Turn the lining the right way out, then slide it inside the inside-out patterned layer, so the patterned fabric and the plain fabric are together.

  9. Line up the tops of the patterned and plain layers and pin in place, then sew the top around 1cm in, keeping the layers closely aligned.

  10. Pull the lining back out, then use the hole you left in the bottom edge to pull the outer layer through. Sew the hole closed once the case is the right way out, then push the lining back inside.

  11. Slip your phone inside, then add a small strip of Velcro to the top of your case to hold it in place.

  The first day back at school after half-term there was Sewing Club. I trudged out of my English lit lesson, waving goodbye to Lottie as she headed off to White Hill. Then I headed across school to the textiles classroom, a large bag full of material, clothes and odds and ends in my arms.

  Jasper had beaten me there. When I pushed open the door, I saw him sitting with Izzy, measuring out a piece of bright red felt. It looked like they were going with the classics for the stocking.

  Which hopefully meant that, once she had Jasper started off, Izzy would be free to help me with the costumes.

  “Ah, Grace. I’ve set you up over here today, dear.” Miss Cotterill pointed to a table in the corner of the room, and I sighed at the sight of it. There, neatly laid out on the table was a pattern, a sewing box filled with pins, needles and threads, and several rolls of fabric.

  I held up my bag. “I brought some stuff we picked up for the costumes. I thought that maybe—”

  “We’ll take a look at those afterwards.” Miss Cotterill pulled out the chair, and I sat. Clearly we were doing this her way. “First, I’ve got a new project for you, to help build your sewing skills. Since you did such a nice job on that scarf.”

  I touched the pale gold and cream scarf at my neck. It had turned out well.

  “Is it one of the costumes?” I asked. “Because, really, I do need to get those sorted first.”

  “You said you wanted to learn to sew,” Miss Cotterill said, firmly. “And if you want to make or fit any of those costumes that are so important to you, you need to have these basic skills. Besides, you have plenty of time to work on the costumes during rehearsals. That’s how it’s been done every other year. Just because you have a fancy title, doesn’t mean you get to rewrite the rules around here.” She picked up a few sheets of printed paper. “I chose something useful. So, take a look, and then you can select your fabrics.” She ran a hand over the stack of patterned cotton beside me, like they were favourite toys she was letting me play with. “I’ll ask Izzy to come over and see how you’re getting on in a little while.”

  Left alone, I pushed my charity-shop finds to one side and studied the instructions I’d been given. A phone sleeve. Well, that looked simple enough. Just two pieces of fabric sewn together with some wadding between them.

  Easy. I could get this done in no time, then move on to what I was actually there for – the costumes.

  Noting the type and amount of fabric the pattern called for, I turned my attention to the stack of material. There were stripes and spots, flowers and even flamingos. Eventually I settled on a thicker fabric with a red and green apple print. Quickly, I grabbed the tape measure and held it against my phone, cutting a piece of paper the right size to use as a pattern.

  “Are you sure that will be big enough?” Izzy asked, suddenly beside me, and I dropped the pot of pins on to the fabric in surprise.

  “What?” I began shoving the pins back into the pot, irritated by the interruption. “Ow!”

  “You need to make sure you’ve left enough fabric for the seam allowances,” Izzy explained. She started picking up the pins more carefully, while I sucked the tip of my pricked finger. “Otherwise the finished case will be too small.”

  I glanced down at the fabric. “I guess I was rushing,” I admitted.

  Izzy gave me a smile. “That’s one thing Miss Cotterill will never let you get away with. She likes you to take your time and get everything perfect.”

  I groaned. “God, this is going to be like baking with Lottie all over again.”

  “Hey, it takes longer to get a decent finished product if you rush it and have to start all over again. Trust me, I speak from experience.”

  “Is that what you’re teaching Jasper?” I asked, nodding over at the table where Jasper appeared to be failing to thread a needle with thick embroidery thread.

  “Mostly I’ve been teaching him blanket stitch.” She winced, watching him fail to thread the needle again, stabbing himself in the hand instead. “It’s slow going.”

  “It looks it.”

  “He’ll get there,” Izzy said. “He just needs to take his time to get it right, and then practise. A lot. Whereas you seem fine. Well, once you stop rushing.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” I shifted the paper and prepared to pin it. “Hey, could you give me a hand with some costume stuff after I do this, though? Also, I had this idea for a bag…”

  “Sure.” Izzy checked her watch. “Well, if there’s time. Otherwise, next week, yeah?”

  I glanced up at the clock. Only an hour left of Sewing Club, and I still had to pin and cut out my fabric. I’d have to finish it at home. How was I ever going to get the costumes sorted if I also had to follow Miss Cotterill’s sewing lessons?

  Izzy wandered back over towards Jasper, and I watched him look up and grin at her as he proudly held up two pieces of pattern paper shaped like stockings. At least one of us was getting what we needed from Sewing Club.

  “You know, Connor, sometimes it feels like you’re the only one who understands how I’m feeling.”

  Normally, I’d have rolled my eyes and kept walking when I heard Violet whining. But when I heard Connor’s name … I admit it, I was intrigued.

  Backstage was a hive of darkened corners and secret spots, places you could hole up and learn lines, or have a private conversation when you needed to. And since Violet and Connor were tucked away just o
utside the costume cupboard, where I was heading with my bag of charity-shop finds, what was I supposed to do except hide behind a display board and eavesdrop?

  “Violet, you’re doing fine.” Was that exasperation I heard in Connor’s voice? I liked to think so. “Just keep going over your lines every day and they’ll stick eventually. They always do.”

  Violet sighed. “I suppose. But honestly, I’m so nervous about the costumes being right, I’m finding it hard to concentrate. You know Grace has never worked backstage before, right?”

  I bristled at that. She was worried? I was far more concerned about a Beatrice who couldn’t learn her lines.

  Of course, there was an obvious solution to that…

  “You don’t need to worry,” Connor said. A warm feeling flooded my chest until he added, “It’s my responsibility. I’ll make sure Grace does her job properly.”

  I scowled. Like I wasn’t already doing a perfectly good job without him, thank you very much.

  Violet sighed again, louder and more pathetic this time. “It’s just so … intimidating having her here. You know what she’s like. She’s made it clear she’s just waiting for me to screw up.”

  How dare she! I had done no such thing. Granted, I was waiting for it. But it’s not like I’d told her that.

  I risked a peek around the corner of the board I was hiding behind. Violet was sitting very close to Connor in a way that made me roll my eyes. But the frustrated expression on Connor’s face made me feel a little better. Was this what he’d meant when he said he hated the drama of being involved in plays?

  “Look, Violet. I think the best thing to do is rise above it. Act professional. Do the best job you can and ignore everything else.”

  Violet sat up straighter at that, and I ducked back behind the board in case she spotted me.

  “Well, of course I’m being professional,” she said. “But did you hear what Sara said about Robbie the other day? And I know people are saying that I’ve got it in for her because—”