Hannah in the Spotlight

by Natasha Mac a'Bháird

  ‘I did a bit of ballet and I was OK at it, but I’m definitely not good enough to be in a show,’ Meg said.

  ‘Me neither. Sorry, Ruby,’ I said. ‘But maybe we can do some sort of variety show, with different acts, and your act could be a ballet dance. Or we could work it into a play some way.’

  ‘Anyway, I thought you’d be glad to do something different,’ Laura said. ‘It’s ballet, ballet, ballet, all day long with you. There are other things in the world, you know. It might do you good to try something else!’

  Ruby looked set to argue. She doesn’t take criticism of her beloved ballet very well, so I thought I’d better smooth things over.

  ‘We’ll all be trying something new here, that’s part of the fun,’ I said quickly. ‘But like I said, I’m sure ballet can come in somewhere. So, any other ideas?’

  ‘How about acting out some scenes from Little Women?’ Laura said.

  ‘Yes, I thought of Little Women too,’ I said. ‘It would be perfect for us because it’s got four sisters in it. And we even have a Meg already – and an aspiring writer.’

  ‘Four girls sounds great. I’ve been wondering about that, actually,’ said Meg. ‘Do you think it’s going to be a problem that we are all girls? What will we do about parts that should be played by boys?’

  Ruby made a face. ‘Well, we’re not inviting any boys to join, that’s for sure!’

  Ruby thinks boys are smelly, annoying and generally a huge pain. This comes from having brothers. Mum always smiles and says give her a bit of time and her opinions will soon change. Ruby insists that they won’t.

  ‘Let’s just keep it to the four of us for now,’ I said. ‘Maybe in the future we’ll need boys to get involved in shows or whatever, but they don’t have to be a part of the club. We’re just getting started anyway, we need to find out what we really want to do first.’

  ‘There are tons of things we can do that don’t need boys, anyway,’ Laura said.

  ‘If we do have boys in the story we can play those parts ourselves. That’s part of being a good actor,’ Meg put in.

  ‘That’s OK then,’ Ruby said, sounding relieved. ‘I’ve got more than enough boy trouble in my life just now.’

  We all laughed.

  ‘So, we’ll stick to things that have mostly girl roles for now,’ I said. ‘Should we do like Laura suggested and use a book for inspiration, or try to write something ourselves?’

  ‘Any talented writers in the house?’ Ruby asked, using a pencil case as a pretend loudhailer.

  We all looked at Laura, who immediately started blushing. ‘I’m working on something, but it’s not ready,’ she muttered.

  ‘I think it would be good to adapt something from a book so we don’t have to start from scratch,’ Ruby said. ‘I haven’t read Little Women, but I know you two love it. Or we could do something from Jacqueline Wilson. She has some great girl characters.’

  ‘Or how about Harry Potter?’ Laura said.

  ‘Oh that would be brilliant,’ I said. ‘Although I don’t know how we’d manage the magic bits – it might be too tricky.’

  We talked a bit about how we’d actually go about adapting scenes from a book. It seemed like a lot of work for one person.

  ‘Why don’t we pick a story we like, and when we know what characters we’re playing we can all write their lines?’ Meg said.

  ‘I like that idea. A joint effort,’ Ruby said.

  ‘It can be sort of improvised, as well,’ Meg said. Seeing puzzled looks, she explained, ‘That means you make it up as you go along.’

  ‘Oh, oh, oh!’ Ruby suddenly sat bolt upright on her bed, her stretches forgotten. ‘I know! We can do Ballet Shoes! You know the one by Noel Streatfeild? There are three sisters in that, and the fourth person could be the teacher or the nanny, maybe. It’s perfect.’

  ‘Plus, you know, there’s ballet in it,’ Laura said with a grin.

  ‘Well, that too,’ Ruby admitted. ‘I just love the scene where Posy goes to audition for Manoff. I feel like I know exactly how she feels.’

  Ruby’s eyes were shining, and I had to admit she’d come up with a fantastic idea.

  ‘Is it all about ballet?’ Meg wanted to know.

  She sounded a bit sceptical, so I rushed to reassure her.

  ‘No, it’s about three sisters who are orphans and they go to a theatre school. Pauline is the oldest – she loves acting. The youngest one, Posy, loves ballet, and the middle one, Petrova, isn’t really interested in any of it, but she has to learn it anyway, because they need to earn a living.’

  ‘Definitely not just ballet,’ Laura chimed in. I was glad to see her sticking up for Ruby’s idea. ‘There’s all the stuff with the tenants in their house, and about the way the sisters get on together and with their guardian and everything.’

  ‘You’d love it,’ I promised. ‘There’s loads about the theatre in it, and about how Pauline really wants to be an actress. I’ll lend you my copy so you can see for yourself.’

  ‘OK, well, it sounds great,’ Meg said. ‘Let’s go for it!’

  ‘YAY!’ shouted Ruby, turning head over heels off the bed and finishing up by doing the splits, her arms held gracefully over her head.

  ‘OK, how about we all pick out our favourite bits for the next time we met up?’ I suggested. ‘Then we can decide who’s going to play who.’

  I already knew who I wanted to play and was hoping no one else would have the same idea, but I didn’t say anything about it yet.

  Laura looked at her watch. ‘Have we talked about everything?’ she asked. ‘I need to get home soon – Mum said I have to help Andrea with dinner.’

  Laura’s mum works full time, so often the two girls help with stuff around the house. Andrea is the oldest – she’s sixteen – so she does more than Laura, but Laura’s pretty good for doing her share too.

  I looked down at my notebook. ‘What about when we should meet, and where? Should we pick a few set days every week?’

  ‘I think we should just meet as often as we can during the holidays,’ Meg said.

  ‘Yes, that makes sense,’ Laura said. ‘We’ll probably need a stricter schedule once we’re back at school,’ (Ruby groaned) ‘but none of us have anything else on at the moment.’

  ‘Apart from me,’ Ruby pointed out. ‘I’ve got ballet camp in the mornings, but I’m free in the afternoons, so can we have the meetings then?’

  Everyone was fine with this. I suggested that we could take it in turns to host the meeting, though I did wonder how I would get to Laura’s house if Mum wouldn’t let me take my bike.

  ‘We can meet in my house next time,’ Meg said.

  ‘Are you sure your mum won’t mind?’ I asked, thinking of her reaction earlier.

  ‘Not if I don’t tell her,’ Meg said. ‘She’s going to be out doing interviews a lot in the next few days, so she won’t be at home.’

  I obviously still looked concerned, because Meg said, ‘Really, don’t worry. I don’t know what got into her earlier, she’s normally fine about stuff like this. I’ll clear everything up before she gets home, anyway, so it’ll be fine. What’s next?’

  ‘OK – last thing on the agenda. Electing officers,’ I said. ‘We can probably wait to appoint people to be in charge of wardrobe, and props, and all that sort of thing until we know more about what we’re doing, but I think we should have a director, anyway, to sort of make sure things are moving in the right direction.’

  ‘Hmmm, that’s a tricky one,’ Laura said, putting her chin in her hands and pretending to think deeply. ‘Who has the right skills to be in charge of our club?’

  ‘It’s not being in charge,’ I said quickly. ‘This is a democracy, we’ll vote on everything. It’s just a sort of … leader, I suppose.’

  ‘Let’s think about that one,’ Laura said, frowning thoughtfully.

  I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. I’d done my best not to be too bossy, but maybe I’d put people off already. I was always doing tha
t without meaning to. And Meg certainly seemed to know a lot more about theatre than I did. Maybe they’d rather have her in as director of the club.

  ‘The perfect leader …’ Laura said, her face breaking into a smile as she looked from Meg to Ruby and then back to me.

  ‘Hannah,’ all three of them said at once.

  I couldn’t help smiling too. ‘If you’re sure …’ I said.

  ‘Yes!’ Laura told me. ‘You can get yourself one of those director’s boards that say “Take 57” on it if you like! Now I’d really better get going. See you at Meg’s tomorrow!’

  Chapter Six

  I was kind of sorry I’d offered to lend Meg my copy of Ballet Shoes, because I realised I’d need a copy to look over myself. Anyway, I’d already promised, so I went to drop it in to her right after dinner.

  I thought it might be better not to disturb her mum in case she was still trying to avoid telling her about Star Club, so I squeezed through the hedge and sneaked around the back of the house, hoping to see Meg through a window. Luckily she was in the family room on her own. I tapped gently on the window and Meg looked up and smiled, coming over straight away to kneel up on the window seat and open the window.

  ‘I brought the book,’ I said. ‘I thought I’d come through the garden instead of disturbing your mum.’

  ‘That hole in the hedge is going to come in really handy,’ Meg giggled.

  ‘So is she OK about the club?’ I asked.

  Meg shrugged. ‘I don’t really know. She had a couple of phone calls after I got home so I haven’t really been talking to her. I’m kind of hoping she’ll be too busy to think about it.’

  Suddenly I heard her mum calling her name. Instinctively I ducked below the window. I heard the door open and Cordelia saying, ‘Time for dinner, honey.’

  ‘OK, Mum, just coming,’ Meg said. She waited for her mum to leave, then leaned out the window. ‘I’d better go.’

  ‘Me too,’ I said. ‘See you tomorrow!’

  I was glad I didn’t have to go past the kitchen window to get to our garden. Walking home, I remembered that I’d seen at least one copy of Ballet Shoes in the library. The library is one of the places I never have to argue with Mum to be allowed go to. For one thing, she likes to encourage reading as much as she can (not that she has to try hard with me). For another, it’s only about a five minute walk away, with no main roads to cross.

  I decided I’d head up to the library first thing in the morning. I could even offer to bring some of my brothers and sisters with me so Mum could go to Tiny Tunes, the baby music class, with Emma. I knew it was one of the things she missed during the summer holidays – not because of singing ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ five hundred times in a row, but because afterwards the adults got to have a cup of tea and a chat while the babies crawled around and played with the tambourines and xylophones and bells.

  Mum liked meeting up with the other parents, but she couldn’t very well drag Maisie, Bobby and Zach along, so she usually just gave it a miss when we weren’t in school. This time though, I’d tell her she should go. And there was something in it for me as well – if I’d minded the others all morning, surely she wouldn’t mind if I spent the afternoon at the club meeting at Meg’s.

  Mum was all in favour of the plan, so the next morning she and Emma headed off to Tiny Tunes. I rounded up Maisie, Bobby and Zach for our library trip. Actually, that makes it sound a lot easier than it was.

  First of all Maisie couldn’t find her shoes, and instead of looking properly for them she trailed around the house, as if expecting them to pop out from somewhere. Next Bobby couldn’t find the library books he wanted to return.

  ‘Where did you have them last?’ I asked patiently.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Bobby said. ‘I think Zach borrowed them.’

  ‘No I didn’t!’ Zach said. ‘I wouldn’t read your babyish old books anyway.’

  It was about to turn into a full-blown row, so I sent them into separate rooms to search there, while I started a search of my own. I found Maisie’s shoes (in the laundry basket) and Bobby’s library books (one underneath a cushion on the couch, and the other, surprise surprise, right in plain view on Zach’s locker).

  At long last we were ready. The walk to the library took us approximately one-tenth of the time it took us to actually leave the house. I quickly got Maisie settled down with some crayons and colouring pages and sent Zach off to explore the science section and Bobby to pick out a new novel. I sat down with Ballet Shoes and started reading.

  I soon found myself totally lost in the story. I loved all three of the Fossil girls, and as I was reading I was picturing how they should be played on stage. Petrova is so independent-minded and way more interested in cars than in anything to do with the theatre. Posy has this amazing self-confidence and her only focus in life is her ballet. Pauline has all the sense of responsibility of being the oldest and she is also the one who is head over heels in love with the theatre and wants to learn all she can about being on the stage.

  They were all such great characters, but there was no doubt in my mind which one I wanted to play. From the very first time I read Ballet Shoes (and this, I reckoned, would be my seventh time to read it) I had identified with Pauline.

  Our lives were worlds apart. There was Pauline living in London, nearly a century ago and attending a professional theatre school. And here was I in this small Irish suburb, not even able to go to drama camp and just planning a little show with my friends. But our dreams were the same – filled with bright lights and sweeping curtains and the thrill of stepping on to a stage.

  I really hoped no one else would want to be Pauline. Ruby would be Posy, of course, that was obvious. Either Meg or Laura would be great as Petrova – but what if one of them would prefer to be Pauline? As I imagined what it would be like to have to watch someone else playing the part I wanted so much I almost felt like crying. We were a team, of course we were, and we’d have to agree on it together – I knew I couldn’t go making demands or this club was never going to work out. I just had to hope no one else would want the part as much as I did.

  I was so totally absorbed in my thoughts that I’d pretty much forgotten where I was until a shadow fell across my book.

  ‘Some babysitter you are!’

  Standing over me was my arch-enemy – the horrible Tracey Dunne. ‘You shouldn’t bring those little brats out if you can’t control them!’

  ‘What do you mean?’ I scrambled to my feet, the book abandoned on the seat beside me. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Your stupid little brother thinks he owns the library. I think you need to explain to him that these books belong to everyone!’ Tracy stood with her hands on her hips and glared at me.

  I hurried over to the aisle where I’d left Zach looking through some encyclopaedias. He was holding grimly on to a book while Tracey’s little brother Tyler (who is nearly as horrible as she is) tried to grab it. Zach’s face was red and his jaw was clenched in determination, and I could tell he was on the verge of tears. Even though he’s older Zach is way more sensitive than Bobby, who would probably just have told Tyler to get lost.

  ‘Hannah!’ His voice wobbled. ‘I had this first. Really I did. And Tyler just tried to take it off me.’

  ‘He’s had it for ages!’ Tyler whined. ‘It’s not his! I need it!’

  He gave an extra hard tug on the book. To my horror there was a loud sound of paper tearing and the book ripped right in half.

  Zach immediately burst into tears. I put my arm around him and tried to comfort him, all the while looking at the damaged book and wondering what on earth we were going to do.

  I heard the swift patter of feet from behind the bookshelves and one of the library staff appeared. My heart sank. Just our luck that it wasn’t the nice young red-haired lady who often helps me choose books. No, it had to be Mr Jenkins, the grumpiest and meanest librarian who ever lived.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ he asked.

&nb
sp; ‘Look what you’ve done, Zach!’ Tracey said. ‘This is all your fault! If you had shared nicely with Tyler this would never have happened.’

  Zach was crying too hard to answer.

  ‘It’s not his fault,’ I told Mr Jenkins, trying my best to speak calmly. ‘Zach was reading this book first, and Tyler tried to take it from him.’

  ‘I was just asking him to share it!’ Tyler said. ‘I want to learn all about dinosaurs too! I just asked him to share it and he pulled it away so hard it tore!’

  ‘Yes, that’s exactly what happened, I was watching,’ Tracey said.

  ‘That’s not true!’ I exclaimed, shocked at the bare-faced lie. ‘Tyler was the one who tried to pull it away from Zach!’

  ‘Sounds to me like you’re both to blame,’ Mr Jenkins snapped. ‘Well, the book will have to be paid for. Where are your parents?’

  ‘My mum’s not here,’ I said. ‘I’m looking after Zach.’

  ‘And I’m looking after Tyler, but I was actually keeping an eye on him, not like Hannah who was all the way over there, ignoring her brother,’ Tracey said. ‘That’s how I know what really happened.’

  ‘Well, you’ll both have to come up to the desk and show me your library cards so I can put it on your accounts,’ Mr Jenkins said. ‘There’ll be no more borrowing books until that fine is paid.’

  I trailed after him, my arm still around Zach. I was furious that Zach was being blamed in the wrong, but there didn’t seem to be anything we could do – it was Tracey’s word against mine.

  We stood at the desk while Mr Jenkins made a great show of bringing up the right files on the computer, grumbling all the while about young people today having no respect for library property. I felt a little tug on my sleeve. Bobby was standing there with a big pile of books in his arms.

  ‘Not now, Bobby,’ I whispered.

  I didn’t know whether Mr Jenkins was going to ban us all from taking out books, or just Zach.