Search for a Star

by Cindy Jefferies

  “Milk and one sugar, thanks,” said Ellie.

  Piano stalked towards the door and Ellie bit back a smile. Of all the things that could have happened to cheer her up, this had to be the best. Piano, making her a cup of tea! She glanced over to Francesca. The Deputy Editor gave her a warm smile, and she had a definite twinkle in her eye. Ellie was as certain as she could be that Francesca had done it deliberately. Piano’s behaviour towards Ellie might not warrant a telling-off exactly, but it seemed that Francesca had other ways of keeping her staff in line!

  Over the next few days, Ellie threw herself into contacting as many agents as she could, to arrange interviews for the magazine. To her surprise, Kurt Draagan’s agent replied very quickly, to say that the star was in London at the moment, and would be pleased to be interviewed straight away. Unfortunately for Ellie, Angel decided she should be the one to do the job. As she was the Editor in Chief, no one could argue about that, although Piano and Debbie were united in thinking that Piano would have been a far better choice.

  There was a lot of discussion between Piano and Debbie about what they should wear on the day of Kurt Draagan’s interview, just in case he came into the office, although it was almost certain that Angel would interview him at his hotel. Francesca took no part in this. She always remained aloof from such conversations, and Ellie knew that whatever happened, the Deputy Editor would always look cool, sophisticated and way above anything Piano or Debbie could achieve. On the other hand, Piano was great at putting together a really funky look, one that Ellie longed to emulate. But no one, least of all Piano, asked Ellie what she thought.

  Ellie was just crossing off the name of a soap star who wasn’t going to be available for an interview, when Francesca called her over.

  “You remember that visit you made to Jacob Frou last Easter?”

  “Do I!” Ellie beamed. She had got on really well with the elderly shoe designer, and had ended the day on a photo shoot, modelling his shoes with Zone One. He might be old, but his designs were seriously cool. She would never forget that day, especially as Monsieur Jacob had given her a pair of his shoes as a thank you for modelling for him.

  Francesca smiled. “Well I have another designer I’d like you to go and see.”

  Ellie beamed. “Great! Who is it?”

  “A new young designer called Adam Calwell. Angel wants to have a series of articles about the designers who drive the fashion industry. If we’re going to look at up-and-coming stars, this guy definitely seems to be one of them. So would you like to interview him?”

  Ellie’s face lit up. “I’d love to!”

  “Okay, give him a ring then,” said Francesca. “Angel won’t want a huge article, just a brief biography really, with some bits and pieces about how he works, what it’s like in his workshop, that sort of thing. And we’ll have pictures of some of his designs. It could be the first of a great series for the magazine.”

  Ellie got onto it straight away. She found Adam Calwell’s number in the office database and keyed it in. Almost at once a woman picked up the phone and Ellie explained about the interview.

  “I’m sure he’ll be delighted to be interviewed,” she said. “He’s not here at the moment. I’m Julie, his assistant. Hang on. I’ll just look in his diary.”

  There was only one day when Adam was available that week, and Ellie took the offered time straight away. “I was afraid he wouldn’t be able to see anyone until the autumn,” said Ellie. “And then I would have been back at school. But this is perfect. Thanks so much.”

  “I’ll get back to you if he doesn’t want to do it,” said Julie. “But I’m sure he’ll go for it, especially as it’s Heart magazine. Your readers are just the right age for his designs.”

  Ellie put the date in her phone diary and hung up, feeling very pleased with herself. But Piano must have overheard her conversation. “Don’t you like Kurt Draagan?” she enquired with a smirk on her face.

  “Of course I do!” said Ellie. “Why?”

  “No reason,” said Piano. “I just wondered why you were making appointments for the day he’s going to be interviewed.”

  Ellie reminded herself that he was fairly unlikely to come into the office, but she couldn’t help looking a bit crestfallen, knowing that he might. Piano, being the sort of person who took pleasure in others’ misfortunes, looked almost pleased. “What a shame you’ll miss him,” she said insincerely, before sashaying back to her desk. “It looks as if he’s definitely coming here for Joe to take some pictures.”

  Ellie could have thumped her desk with frustration. She couldn’t ring to rearrange the meeting with Adam Calwell because she knew there wasn’t another day he could do. She would just have to resign herself to not seeing her heart-throb and concentrate on enjoying meeting the new designer. Damn! In fact mega damn.

  At lunchtime she went down to see Sophie.

  “I’m sure Flynn thinks I’m stupid not to push myself,” Sophie said to Ellie over a shared sandwich. “But at least he’s not nagging me about it any more.”

  Ellie had wondered about telling Sophie that she’d seen Flynn chatting to Debbie, but in the end she didn’t feel she could. Maybe he’d just been indulging in a bit of harmless flirting. After all, she hadn’t actually overheard anything he’d said. And Ellie didn’t want to do anything to make Sophie’s relationship with him any more difficult.

  In the afternoon, Ellie took Ferdinand for his usual walk. Once again there was no sign of the little dogs with their silver book tags.

  “Sorry, Ferdi,” said Ellie. “They don’t seem to be coming here at the moment.”

  Back in the office afterwards Debbie seemed a bit grumpy, and Piano was sitting at her desk, concentrating hard on something with a face like thunder.

  “What’s happened?” Ellie asked Debbie, picking up Ferdinand to give him a last stroke before she returned him to his mistress.

  “Angel Makepiece really gets up my nose sometimes,” said Debbie in a low voice. There was no sign of the Editor, but it would never do for her to hear such comments from her staff.

  “Why’s that?” said Ellie.

  “She’s only changed her mind about Kurt! She’s announced that she thinks pictures in his hotel would look better. I’m sure she gets us all excited on purpose, just so she can let us down.”

  Ellie thought Angel had much more important things to think about than irritating her staff, but she didn’t like to say so. “Maybe he doesn’t want to come out of his hotel in case he’s mobbed by his fans,” she said, thinking of all the effort Piano and Debbie had been going to make in the hope that he would notice them. “I expect he gets loads of girls throwing themselves at him, so maybe he wants to avoid that.”

  “I think she just wants him all for herself,” said Debbie, looking thoroughly fed up.

  Ellie really didn’t want to turn into another version of Piano, but she couldn’t resist making some sort of comment as she went past her desk. “I’m so sorry you won’t get a chance to see Kurt Draagan,” she said sweetly. Piano pretended that she hadn’t heard. But when Ellie got back to her desk a rude message appeared on her laptop. It didn’t say it came from Piano, but Ellie was as sure as she could be that it had. Ellie deleted it with a smile.

  On the morning of the interview with Adam Calwell, Ellie wore her Jacob Frou shoes. She was immensely proud of them. They were called the Pirate because they hinted at pirate boots without looking exactly like them. They were lined in the softest red leather, and fastened with a gold coin. What’s more, they held her feet as if they were precious objects. They were the only designer items she actually owned. To Ellie the shoes felt so comfortable, it was like walking on clouds, yet at the same time, they always made her want to stamp her feet on echoey wooden floors and dance about with wild abandon.

  At the moment she was doing none of these things. She was sitting quietly on a bus, with her notebook on her knees, revising the questions she was going to ask the fashion designer, and hoping that the
shoes she was wearing would help him to take her seriously as something of a fashionista. From the bit of research she’d done she knew that his mission statement was to get girls to love dresses. It would be interesting to hear how he intended to do that!

  The sun had been shining when she’d set out from home, but now, to her dismay, the sky was clouding over, and it looked like rain. Oh no! Don’t rain. Please don’t rain just yet, she thought. But in no time the bus was driving through a torrential downpour. Ellie was cursing herself for not bringing a coat or umbrella, when the rain suddenly stopped and the sun came out again. Ellie hopped off the bus in high spirits, carefully avoiding the puddles as she headed towards the designer’s workshop. She’d almost got there when it happened. A lorry went past, sending a whoosh of water over the pavement where she was walking. It was impossible for her to avoid it, and she was instantly drenched from the knees down in horrible, dirty water.

  Ellie rang the doorbell feeling really upset.

  Julie let her in. “Adam’s looking forward to meeting you,” she said, drawing Ellie into the large, light workshop. “But what’s the matter?”

  “I got splashed by a lorry just before I got to you,” said Ellie. “So I’m sorry, but my feet are rather wet.”

  Julie glanced at the rather sorry-looking Pirates on Ellie’s feet and gasped. “What amazing shoes! They’re fantastic. But we must clean them up for you. I don’t know much about shoes, but I do know that it’s very important to dry leather out slowly. Maybe we ought to just clean them off, and leave it at that. Hang on. I’ll fetch you a towel for your legs too.” Julie stopped chattering and disappeared, leaving Ellie at the door.

  “Hi. I thought I heard someone. Come in. You must be Ellie.” Adam Calwell was a tall, good-looking man with a closely clipped beard and collar-length, dark hair. He seemed rather amused.

  Ellie paused in taking off the Pirates and shook his hand. She had been so determined to look and sound professional, and here she was, caught taking her shoes off and with her skirt and legs splattered with dirty water. It was so embarrassing. “I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I got splashed, just outside.”

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “What was Julie thinking, leaving you here? The workshop is all floorboards, no carpet to ruin… Hang on, are those Jacob Frous?”

  “Um…” Ellie pulled the second Pirate off and straightened up. “Yes, they are. They’re called the…”

  “Pirate. I know. My goodness, Ellie. They must pay well at Heart magazine!”

  He was teasing her, but he was so nice she didn’t mind, and soon they were chatting like old friends. It seemed that Jacob Frou was a bit of a hero to Adam. He sounded distinctly jealous when Ellie explained how she’d modelled the shoes for Monsieur Frou at a photo shoot before he’d given her the pair she was wearing today.

  “I wish he made shoes for men,” Adam said as Julie came back with a towel for Ellie. “I bet they’d be fun to wear. Get some of that white paper to pack in the shoes,” he added to Julie. “It’ll help draw the moisture out. Hopefully they won’t feel too wet when you have to put them back on.”

  “Thank you,” said Ellie. She no longer felt embarrassed at talking to Adam in her bare feet, especially now they were sitting in comfortable chairs where there was a soft rug she could dig her toes into.

  “So why do you want girls to love dresses?” she asked, notebook at the ready.

  “I just think they have so much potential,” he told her. “The cut, the length, you can do so much with them. But I try to style all my dresses so that they’re easy to wear. And with my designs I hope you can just throw on one of my dresses and accessorize it in your own way.” He leaped to his feet and went over to a desk. He came back with some large drawings. “I’m very excited about these,” he said. “You know the singer Maia Tonkin?”

  “Yes,” said Ellie. “She’s great.”

  “Isn’t she?” said Adam. “And what’s more she’s filming her next music video at the Boat Show…and she’s going to be wearing three of these designs!”

  “Wow!” Ellie was seriously impressed. No wonder Adam seemed so pleased. She scribbled down all the information, but Adam had jumped up from his seat again, and gone back to the desk.

  “Here! I’ve got some extra tickets to the Boat Show, and I don’t need them all. Why don’t you go along? Maybe you could report on how cool Maia looked in my dresses?”

  Adam looked so earnest Ellie had to laugh. “I’ll see what my editor says,” she said. “But it does sound a good idea. Thank you very much!”

  Ellie put the tickets into her bag feeling quite excited. She hoped Francesca would let her go. It had to be a glamorous event, if Maia Tonkin was going to be filming there.

  On the way back to the office, Ellie wondered how Angel had got on with her interview. No doubt she had managed to avoid getting drenched by a dirty puddle when she had gone off to meet the dreamy young actor who had taken the film world by storm with his most recent movie. Yes, of course it would have been wonderful if Ellie could have been in on that interview, but she had liked Adam Calwell a lot. Still…Kurt Draagan…Ellie drifted off into a daydream where she and Kurt met in the hotel and hit it off at once. His agent would be ringing up to tell him he had another appointment…but Kurt would only have eyes for Ellie… They’d go out for dinner, and it would be like being in one of his films. He’d gaze at her with his wonderful dark, smoky eyes, and tell her she was everything to him. He’d whisk her off to his country retreat. They’d travel in his luxury custom-built sports car…

  Ellie came back to earth when the lady sitting next to her started rummaging in her carrier bag, and poked her in the ribs with her elbow. “Sorry, love. Just looking for my keys.”

  “That’s okay.”

  The number twenty-seven bus wasn’t exactly like a custom-built sports car, but never mind, the daydream had been good, and Ellie reminded herself that out of all the thousands of Kurt Draagan fans, she was more likely than most to wangle a meeting with him one day. After all, she’d already met Al from Zone One, and he was her favourite singer of all time! Being a journalist for Heart did mean she was likely to meet cool and interesting people more often than the rest of her friends.

  Back in the office, Ellie started to put her notes in order, ready to show Francesca. She was pleased with all the information she’d gathered, but knew that there wouldn’t be room for a big article. Maybe if Francesca looked over what she’d got and gave her some clues about what to use, Ellie might be in with a chance of seeing her own words appear in the magazine, alongside pictures of Adam Calwell and his designs.

  It was exciting thinking that her work might be used, but now it was lunchtime, Ellie had something else on her mind. She wanted to go and see how Sophie was. Hopefully there would be time for a bit of a chat over their sandwiches. Ellie emailed her typed-up notes for Francesca to look at and closed her laptop. Time to go and find Sophie.

  Down in the basement, Ellie entered the post room hesitantly. She wanted to catch up with Sophie, but she still felt awkward about finding her and Flynn together. She didn’t want to interrupt a blazing row…or them making up. But Sophie was alone, writing on a sticky note.

  “Hi, Ellie! Just writing myself a reminder to order more red ink for the franking machine. I utterly refuse to do it before I’ve eaten my sandwich. I’m starving. There!” She stuck the note onto the wall and smiled. “How’s it going? I haven’t seen you for a while.”

  “I’ve been quite busy.”

  Ellie told her about her interview that morning, and then they got onto the subject of Charlie Daniels.

  “What a shame!” said Sophie when Ellie told her about the trail going cold.

  “But I didn’t come down to talk about me,” said Ellie uncomfortably. “How are things with you?”

  “Okay,” said Sophie. “Flynn and I haven’t exactly made up, but he’s not ranting about me and my wasted opportunities any more, so it could be worse.”

&nb
sp; “Well,” said Ellie, having a sudden thought, “how about doing something with me to take your mind off him for a bit? Adam Calwell gave me two tickets for the Boat Show, so I could see Maia Tonkin wearing his designs. I was going to ask Francesca if I could go. I don’t actually need to for the article. But it would be fun, don’t you think?”

  “I’ve never been to a boat show before,” said Sophie thoughtfully.

  “Neither have I!” said Ellie. “And apparently they have a load of boats floating in the exhibition centre. Indoors! And they’re quite big ones, not little dinghies. It sounds fantastic. I just fancied a look, but it doesn’t matter. I can go by myself…” Her voice trailed off.

  “It does sound fun,” said Sophie. “Rocking about in a boat indoors. Crazy! And it is just around the corner from here. Okay!” She smiled. “I’m up for it as long as you promise not to mention Flynn or my pots.”

  Ellie laughed. “Done!”

  Francesca thought it was a good idea for Ellie to go and watch the music video being filmed.

  “You might get another article out of it,” she said. “And at the very least it’ll be an interesting experience for you. And it’s perfect that Sophie is going to go with you, otherwise I might be a bit concerned. But you’ll be fine with her.”

  The day of the video filming both Ellie and Sophie felt as if they were escaping, as they left the building soon after three o’clock. There was only one slight downer. Ellie had Ferdinand in tow. Angel had spotted Ellie changing her shoes in the lobby as she came back from a meeting.

  “Are you coming in or going out?” she had said, pausing at the door.

  “Um…going out,” said Ellie.

  “Well you seem to have forgotten my dog,” said Angel. “Hurry up and fetch him. I’ve got someone coming in this afternoon who doesn’t like dogs, so don’t bring him back before five.”

  “What could I do?” said Ellie to Sophie as they walked down the street. “I couldn’t say no. Not to Angel. I thought Piano was going to take him out for his walk, but of course she’d disappeared somewhere, just at that moment.”