by Summer Day
‘Miss Phoebe Harris?’
‘Yes.’
‘I have a letter for you, young lady.’
Even the chauffeur sounded like he was from another country.
I took the cream paper, sealed in a gold envelope with my name on it, and immediately thought of our treasures (letters from so many boys, growing daily), but only a few from Mark thus far.
I read the letter with interest as I poured milk into my breakfast cereal. My mother arrived in the kitchen fully dressed in a suit and ready to start her realtor day with a showing in Mark’s Knightly’s gated community. I considered myself lucky to have such a good relationship with my mother and considered Mark and Petra’s situation in a reflective light.
‘Good morning sweetie,’ my mom kissed me on the top of my head.
‘Hi mom.’
I pulled out my cell and texted Mouche.
You need to come over right now P.
Mouche arrived ten minutes before we were due in home room. She was breaking some cotton with her teeth (‘I know, it’s totally not the done thing in your stupid Mrs Jones Etiquette tome, but I’ve just finished hemming our dance costumes. There.’)
‘Check this out,’ I said. ‘It’s the longest letter he’s ever written!’
Waving the letter in front of her I ripped it open and read aloud:
Dear Phoebe
There is one subject that I should enlighten you about – the subject of Joel Goodman.
Although he is from the very best of families and my father and mother were great friends with his parents, Joel was always economical with the truth, from the time we played together as small boys. When my father died, he left Joel (as his Godson) a sum of money for his college education and Joel managed to hoodwink his own family into letting him have access to this money which he then spent in a seriously disreputable manner. But this is only money, which I have never thought was something worth arguing over.
Mmm...Mouche raised her eyebrow, ‘ a man with a good value system,’
‘Finally!’ I said, wickedly.
‘Read on, I can’t wait to hear the rest. He has this haughty British tone on paper.’
‘Not just on paper.’
‘Keep going!’
What really led to our falling out was an incident that occurred during the summer holidays when he came home from the prep school he’d been sent to by his parents. This was the first time he tried to get close to my sister. He basically made an attempt to seduce her. They were both under age and my Uncle threw Joel out. This has led to my sister being quite unsociable and at one stage she suffered from anorexia (thankfully recovered, but she is still quite fragile).
Mouche interjected, ‘actually his love for his sister is really quite touching!’
I looked at her incredulously.
As for Joel’s parents, when the company they ran was sold, they both received enough money to live on comfortably for the rest of their lives. It is Joel who is lying, not me, and I just wanted you to know this, so that we can be friends.
Mark K.
‘No loving exclamation marks?’ Mouche asked
‘No,’ I said, stating the obvious.
‘Maybe we have been way harsh on him. I’m sure he didn’t mean to separate me and Jet.’
‘He’s certainly tried to make up for it since.’
‘Well, I’m beginning to see how complicated relationships can be...’
‘Mrs Jones always says good ones don’t need to be.’
‘Well, I think, just this once, Mrs Jones is wrong.
Chapter 24
Rocco and Julie
It was opening night.
‘I just want to apologise for my crazy aunt and uncle,’ Mark said from the shadows as I was about to enter the dressing room to apply my stage make-up.
‘That’s okay. The whole experience was...kind of fun.’
‘Just as long as they’re not your family, huh...’ Mark said, master of the obvious.
He had repeatedly apologised for his ‘unwelcoming family’ even going so far as to tell me that he ‘can’t wait to turn eighteen so I can be out of there.’ It was way harsh for him to have to live with such stuck up bores and you had to hand it to him for trying to overcome his circumstances. His personality had really improved too, or maybe he’d just finally revealed himself once we got to know him better. Perhaps we’d been too quick to pass judgement.
The dating game had pretty much been played. We all had our favourite dates and an entire locker filled with ‘gifted’ treasure as well as a subway map of New York and a trophy with a blank metal space ready to be engraved with the name of the winner. The yet-to-be-uploaded blog was designed and edited with out-takes, quotes and images from our many months of intense research. The research was all contained in the second Boy Rating Diary – the one we fully revealed amongst ourselves. The original diary was hidden. Mouche and I hadn’t glanced at it for days but we knew it contained early, unspoken secrets.
We were all very proud of our game and busy acting like best friends. Teegan was still mildly in disgrace since all of us suspected her of the riding sabotage. She had apologised profusely, admitting that although she had groomed the horse, given him an extra brush, she had not noticed the pebble under the saddle and would never have let Mouche ride if she had.
We kind of believed her.
After all, we were besties now.
Although, let’s face it, no two friends could ever be as close as Mouche and I.
Everything changed on opening night.
Gossip and chatter filled the backstage area along with tulle and denim jackets, the staples of the costume department. Nervous actors with parts both big and small gathered in the wings before the curtain came up. My costume was amazing for the last act but quite understated for the first two. I couldn’t wait to get into it as I ran my hands over the pink tulle ball dress designed and made to fit perfectly (thanks to Mouche), and the vintage blue denim jacket and boots that would complement the tragic scene when Julie gives her life to be with Rocco in death.
Conversations gathered in the air: talk of Act One moved on to the topic of Miss Love and Mr Frame’s upcoming wedding, Wednesday’s audition for a potentially lucrative baby commercial – these were all topics for discussion. Mouche and I are totally going to be Wednesday’s managers if she wins. Teegan even offered to put in a good word for Wednesday to get back on side with us.
The Princesses were all acting so supportive, in pursuit of the greater good, like little Godmothers. The future Boy Rating Blog had taught us all a thing or two about female friendship.
‘Like,’ Teegan repeated, ‘if girls truly supported one another, the way groups of boys seem to, the world would be a very powerful place for us.’
‘It’s like playing soccer,’ Tory continued.
‘For example, last home game, when all the boys actually seemed to work together as a cogent team, the girls were jostling on the sidelines for the best view,’ Brooke added.
‘Is it because the view is so hard to get?’ Freya asked.
‘Wouldn’t we have had a better afternoon if we’d made space for everyone instead of trying to exclude some girls? Or better yet, shouldn’t we have worked to make our own team more athletic?’ Mouche stated.
‘Who cares if no one wants to cheer us on. It’s time we stopped being happy just sitting on the sidelines!’ I suddenly announced.
‘So true,’ Tory said.
‘Yes,’ Brooke added, ‘girls need to stand together. I’ve learnt so much about how boys behave just from comparing stories with everyone else.’
Of course, it helped that by this stage, everyone had blown it with Mark, everyone except Mouche and me. Try as they might, they disregarded the rules and paid him far too much attention until he seemed completely fed up with being tailed by the Princesses and started directing all his energy towards me and Mouche.
‘Geez,’ Freya said, ‘do you think he’s gay or what?’
; ‘He’s so not gay,’ Brooke said.
‘Definitely not gay,’ Teegan added.
‘I have it on good authority,’ Tory concluded.
‘Whose?’
‘I kissed him in the rotunda but all he wanted to do was talk about Mouche and Phoebe. I don’t think he can make up his mind which of you is his favourite.’
‘Me too,’ Teegan added, ‘I mean, I kissed him as well: another time, another place, of course. He has strong arms and for sure a big...’
‘...jacket?’ Mouche finished the sentence for her.
‘That’s just what I was about to say,’ Teegan said mischievously.
‘He didn’t even try to kiss me. I think Jet told him I’m planning on becoming a nun,’ Brooke said.
‘Are you?’ Teegan asked.
‘No,’ Brooke whined, like it was obvious that she was about to change image and lighten up for senior year.
Well, he needn’t tax himself, I thought, because he is just the pawn in my game of chess.
‘Funny how it’s always the men who think they control the game of love,’ Mouche said.
‘The game of love is a game of chance,’ I repeated as I was about to go on and pretend to only have eyes for Peter Williamson.
And then the curtain and lights came up and there I was, front stage centre, saying my lines and pretending to be the most famous lovey-dovey teenager in history.
It all went very well and we had a huge cheer after Act Two as the curtain came down. During interval I ran to the backstage dressing rooms to pick up a prop that Brooke had ‘forgotten’ to place onstage. I would have ‘made do’ except the vial of poison was vital to the plot ( the part where Julie pretends to be dead so that she and Rocco can run away together – except Rocco thinks she actually has killed herself and stabs himself because he can’t live without Julie. Mr Sparks uses this plot point as a message about the futility of self-harm).
It was, however, Miss Tartt’s idea and Mouche and I were impressed to see her flicking through The Good Girlfriend Guide last rehearsal and insisting on being included in decision making as well as standing up for herself. We’ve noticed she’s nicer to girls and other women, and, she’s applying for a promotion. Instead of just giving certain students an evil glare when Mr Sparks is speaking, she will stand there with an almost beatific smile on her face, spreading the mental love just like The Good Girlfriend Guide suggests.
‘Not exactly normal,’ Mouche would comment, ‘but a step up from how she was before.’
‘Absolutely,’ I agreed. That night Miss Tartt was being helpful, desperately searching with me for the poison prop vial.
It was the same week Teegan pretended to self-harm (feigning a mild overdose of her mother’s tranquilizers) to get Jet’s attention (it worked, but he still hadn’t asked her to the prom and she was considering a pity date with Jack Adams, who’d bothered to visit her on the one day she took off school (also to get Jet’s attention).
‘You are sure to get invited by Mark,’ Mouche whispered backstage as she was going over my lines as part of her jobs as prompt, dancer and now understudy. ‘Now might be the time to give him a little encouragement,’ Mouche suggested and she was usually right.
So I was pretty surprised when I ran up the backstage stairs yelling out, ‘I’ve got it’ with the tiny clay prop in hand and stumbled upon Freya kissing Mark on the lips. Mark seemed to be really into it and how could I imagine Freya was not willing to do anything to win the game?
Wasn’t he supposed to be making sure the stage was lit properly?
I backed up straight away and tumbled into a pile of props that Brooke – who’d offered to help Mouche, had forgotten to put away. I fell splat on the floor. Having tripped over my own ankle, I then managed to fall flat onto Peter Williamson who was doing up the buttons on his Act Three trousers.
I was mortified as my Rocco was carried off on a stretcher. What a disaster. Not only was my heart almost entirely broken but the people from Julliard had probably given up on me ever getting back on stage when Mark ran over to help me.
‘I’m so sorry Phoebe, she just grabbed me,’ he said.
‘Yeah right,’ I said softly.
I backed off, pretending not to care about him and Freya. Freya gave me a smug smile and an insincere, ‘oh no, what can we do to help you Phoebe?’
‘You could get off my prize!’ I wanted to snap but stopped myself just in time. The Good Girlfriend suggests, ‘never reveal your jealousy, simply sift through those issues by working on your self-esteem.’
‘That’s so true,’ Teegan agreed when I told her. ‘It’s like, if I feel fat I should just work out more instead of coveting some other girl’s muscle tone.’
‘Exactly,’ Brooke said. ‘We should try to be the ones who build the building instead of the ones who knock it down.’
‘It’s going to be okay,’ Mouche suggested. And I’m sure she meant it.
Empathy for me didn’t stop her from shining in my place.
Of course, I realize a true friend would have been happy for her and I was. It’s just that when the final curtain fell I was registering the long and passionate kiss Mark had given Mouche. Both were understudying the leads by then and Mark had to carry his script onstage with him. It was hard to feel charitable as their lips touched.
‘What a man-slut,’ Teegan whispered to me.
‘Bet he’s enjoying that, mwoah, mwoah...’ Tory’s little sucking noise mocked my chagrin.
Thankfully, Mouche was such a great performer, she managed to save the play. It was not just my imagination, looking on from the wings, that Mark particularly seemed to enjoy sucking Mouche’s rosy mouth before her character woke only to find Rocco lying still, poisoned. When the character of Julie (my character!) tastes the poison on Rocco’s lips, well that’s when self-doubt started to sink in.
‘Mouche does seem to be lingering unnecessarily,’ Teegan stated.
My ankle was throbbing. How had I managed to become such a cliché of my own life? The nurse had wrapped the bandage around my foot like a tourniquet. I tried so hard to feel happiness for my friends but I’d started to doubt the game, Mark, the Princesses and especially my friendship with Mouche. The Princesses were clapping wildly and whistling on the sidelines along with the standing ovation the audience gave (made up mostly of families but also the precious Julliard judges).
Now that the Princesses had accepted Mouche, I was beginning to feel weird about her. I was unsure about everything to do with our stupid boy-rating idea. It was okay for us to round robin date in the beginning, but suddenly I was mad at my best friend.
‘Face it,’ Tory whispered, ‘Mouche has ‘accidentally’ stolen your man...’
‘Your part...’ Teegan added.
‘And, quite possibly, your life,’ Freya continued.
‘Not to mention the future,’ Brooke added, fixing her nurse’s apron.
Looking back, all the resentment came to a head during the final scene of Rocco and Julie.
In this scene Julie speaks her soliloquy (rather dramatically) over Rocco’s body,
Julie
Farewell... God knows when we shall meet again.
This, I have to do, alone.
Julie takes out bottle and drinks.
Julie’s mother runs in (and here Mr Sparks copied the exact text) where the mother is played by a very smug Freya, (who’d demanded dual roles to show off her ‘versatility’). Freya is plastered in ageing make-up (with talcum powder in her hair to make it look grey and tries to shake Julie awake. Of course the talc began snowing all over the floor by this point and it’s lucky Mouche didn’t turn her ankle as well).
The scene continues:
Mother
Who has done this? A jealous hood! A jealous hood!
Quick, call for help.
Rocco hears Julie has been killed. He fights and kills Paris, runs to Julie who is lying on the floor.
Rocco
Oh my love, my wife.
&n
bsp; Julie
Here’s to my love. The drugs are quick Thus with a kiss I...(Julie falls down)
Rocco kisses Julie, Julie starts to stir, She wakes up as music starts. Julie shakes Rocco but he doesn’t stir, as the curtain falls and anti suicide, smoking, drugs and drinking slogans are projected on the wall behind the slain lovers ...