Polly Plays Her Part

by Anne-Marie Conway

  The bus trundled along. I looked out of the window, not sure suddenly if getting the biggest part in CRASH! was going to make the slightest difference to Mum’s plans. She was so excited about going to Spain I couldn’t really imagine anything changing her mind.

  “I’m not in any kind of trouble,” I said, still staring out of the window. I took the deepest breath. “I was just going to tell you that I’m Marcia.”

  “What do you mean, you’re Marcia?”

  I turned to face her. “You won’t believe it, Mum, but Mandy has chosen me to be Marcia in our new show. It’s the main part. She’s chosen me to be the main part.”

  “Oh, but that’s brilliant news, sweetheart. I’m so proud of you.” She grabbed hold of my hands. “Look at me, crying and carrying on, when all the time you had this wonderful news. You’d better tell me when it is so that I can arrange to fly back. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  “Fly back?” I whispered. “What do you mean, fly back?”

  But I knew exactly what she meant. Getting the main part in the show wasn’t going to stop Mum going to Spain. I don’t know how I could’ve been so stupid. How I could’ve thought that a tiny little thing like me having the starring role in the next Star Makers production could matter enough to make Mum change her mind?

  As soon as we got off the bus I muttered something about scenes to practise and ran all the way back to Dad’s. “Come and see Cosmo,” Mum called out after me, but I didn’t stop. Diane was home. I could hear her in the kitchen feeding Jake but I raced straight upstairs and shut myself in my room. I lay on my bed for ages thinking about how my plan had failed. Mum was leaving and she probably wouldn’t even bother to come back to see me in the show. She’d probably be so caught up in her new life by then that she’d forget about me altogether. I was stuck here for a year and there was absolutely nothing I could do.

  Diane popped up after a bit to see if I was okay, but I just smiled at her and said I was fine. Mandy had the right idea. What was it she’d said about Arthur? “I’m just going to smile at him and pretend he doesn’t really exist.” That’s how I’d get through the year. I’d just smile and say I was fine and not show anyone how I really felt about Dad leaving Mum, and about Desperate Di and The Great Baby Jake, and about Mum dumping me at Dad’s so that she could swan off to Spain.

  I must’ve dropped off to sleep in the end because the next thing I knew it was dark outside and the house was quiet. I opened my door and saw that either Dad or Diane had left a sandwich and a drink for me in the hall, but I wasn’t hungry. I closed the door and settled down in front of the computer.

  I hadn’t played THWACKERS for days but when I logged on I saw I was still second on the leader board. The game wasn’t even that great, but the more I played the less I thought about Mum leaving. I carried on until I could hear the birds singing outside my window. I sat there hunched over the computer eliminating one baddie after another while my score went up and up.

  It was almost light outside by the time I’d finished. It seemed like ages since I’d been on the bus with Mum. In three days she’d be in Spain and there was nothing I could do to stop her.

  A message flashed across the computer.

  CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY MADE IT TO THE TOP OF THE LEADER BOARD.

  I wasn’t even that bothered about being top, I just enjoyed playing. I tried to find another game but they all looked stupid. I searched around for a bit but there was nothing. I was just about to give up and crawl into bed, when I remembered that website they were all talking about at drama, friend2friend. The site Dad had forbidden me to go on. I knew he’d go mad if I even looked at it, but right at that moment I was too tired and too angry to care.

  It was easy to find. It came up straight away. I sat there for a bit, my palms suddenly sweaty even though my room was pretty cold.

  The screen was completely empty except for a sparkly silver door.

  A message appeared on the door handle.

  It said: “Click here to enter…”

  I clicked on the door and waited. Nothing happened for ages and I wondered if Dad had actually blocked the site or something. Finally I heard the sound of a key turning and the silver door swung open. The screen was blank for a second and then another message appeared: “Welcome to friend2friend, a special place for special people to meet, hang out and chat. Please click on the Sapphire door.”

  The friend2friend home page certainly didn’t look particularly dangerous or sinister, but I was so tired it was difficult to think straight. It was divided up into different rooms and each room had the name of a precious stone. To go any further you had to click on the Sapphire door and enter your personal details.

  I knew I shouldn’t give out any personal information. Dad had warned me about that a million times – along with more or less every teacher at school – but I was really curious to know what was so special about friend2friend.

  I wondered what would happen if I pretended to be someone else; someone with a completely different life. It’s not like I actually had to say I was Polly Carter. It would be brilliant to be someone else, even if it was only made up – but what if somehow the computer knew I was lying? I was still trying to work out what to do when Diane called me down for breakfast.

  “What, on the computer already?” she said, popping her head round the door.

  I smiled at her as if I didn’t have a care in the world. “Don’t worry, I’ll be down in a sec.”

  As soon as she’d shut the door I clicked on the Sapphire door and my fingers started to fly across the keyboard.

  Name: Marcia Moon (Well, I was Marcia in a way.)

  Age: 13 (That was the minimum age.)

  Hobbies: Singing, dancing, acting, hanging out with my friends (That bit was true.)

  Best friend: My twin sister Phoebe (I’d always wanted a twin!) and my cat Cosmo

  The second I clicked “enter” my personal details were sort of sucked into the Sapphire room and I thought that would be it, but a minute or two later another form appeared with more questions. What school year was I in? What were my best subjects? Who was my favourite singer? The list went on and on. The last section was all about my family. It was fun writing about Mum and Dad and my fantastic twin Phoebe. And of course, we all lived together with our beautiful cat, Cosmo.

  Eventually the questions stopped and a new message flashed across the screen.

  “Thank you, Marcia Moon, your details have been accepted. Please enter your username and click on the Ruby door.”

  Diane called me again from downstairs but I didn’t move. I didn’t want to log off in case I had to start all over again. I’d never be able to remember exactly what I’d said and if I answered the questions differently second time round it would be obvious I’d made half of it up. In the end I minimized the screen and left the computer running.

  “Morning, Polly.” Dad pulled his chair in so I could squeeze past him to sit at the table. “What happened to you last night? You were spark out. Where did you go with your mum?”

  I shrugged and helped myself to toast. “We didn’t really go anywhere. I had lines to learn so I came straight home.”

  “Did you get a good part in the end?” asked Diane. “I know you were a bit worried.” She looked over my head and mouthed something to Dad about the audition being a disaster.

  “I wasn’t worried!” I snapped, but then I remembered that I was supposed to be smiling my way through the year. “Honestly, I wasn’t worried,” I said again, doing my best to calm down. “And anyway I had quite a big part in the last show.”

  “Yes, but I thought this time you wanted the biggest part,” said Dad, but before I could answer, he’d scooped Jake out of his highchair and was galloping around the tiny kitchen pretending to be a horse or something. Jake squealed and squealed and Diane clapped and Dad snorted and neighed and they were so caught up in the game, I managed to slip out with my toast and back upstairs to my room.

  The
friend2friend home page was still there and all my answers had been saved. I knew I should go to bed and get some sleep, but I was dying to see what would happen next. I entered my username as “Marcia2” and clicked on the Ruby door and as the screen cleared a new message appeared. It said: “Welcome to the Ruby room, where you get to choose your perfect friend. Answer these few simple questions and we’ll find you the best best friend ever!”

  I couldn’t believe it…more questions…but these ones were easy. I knew exactly what kind of best friend I’d love to have: someone who wanted to be with me all the time; someone I could share everything with – all my secrets and hopes and dreams; and someone who understood me – no matter what.

  I forgot all about how tired I was and how gutted I was about Mum leaving. I described all the exciting things me and my perfect friend would do together; sleepovers and shopping and double dates. Camping and horse riding and West End shows. The list was endless. I was still typing away when Dad called up to say Mum was at the door.

  Mum had never been round to Diane’s – not since Dad had left her to move in here – and for a fraction of a second I wondered if she’d come round to tell me she’d changed her mind about going to Spain after all. I bolted out of my room and down the stairs two at a time.

  She was standing stiffly on the doorstep looking horribly uncomfortable.

  “Hello, Polly, love,” she said, her lips so thin they’d almost disappeared. “Busy practising your lines?”

  I nodded, barely able to breathe, waiting for her to say the magic words; just waiting for her to make everything okay again. She took a tissue out of her bag and started to dab at her eyes.

  “I’ve just popped round to let you know that I’m actually packing up today. Remember that nice couple Mr. and Mrs. Bay, who came to look round the house a couple of weeks ago? Well, they’re moving in tomorrow, so I need to be out of the house by six o’clock this evening.” She dabbed at her eyes again and I could see she was trying so hard not to cry in front of Diane. “I’m only going to be over at number 20. Tracy says I can stay there for a couple of nights, but the thing is, we really need to sort out Cosmo.”

  “That’s fine,” said Diane, quickly. She was standing behind me looking just as awkward as Mum. “Why don’t you pop along with your mum and get him now, Polly, and then you can spend the rest of the day settling him in.”

  I carried Cosmo up the road, talking to him all the way. He started to wriggle and squirm as we came up the path to the front door at number 11, but I held on to him as tightly as I could, trying to reassure him that everything was going to be okay. The second we got inside he scrambled out of my arms, shot through the door into the living room – and straight under the sofa. He stayed under there for the rest of the day.

  I spent ages lying on the floor trying to convince him that it was safe to come out, but he wouldn’t budge. I even slid a bowl of his favourite food under the sofa to tempt him out – but it didn’t make the slightest difference.

  “Just give him some time,” said Diane. “He’ll soon learn to trust us. You know, I popped in to see the vet during the week and he said we should put some butter on his paws.”

  I looked up from the floor. “He said what?”

  “No, seriously, Polly. I told him about Cosmo coming to live with us and he said if we put butter on his paws, he’d lick it off – and then, when he wanted more, he’d find his way straight back to where he first got it.”

  “And he knows that for a fact, does he?”

  “I really don’t know if he knows it for a fact,” said Diane, slowly, as if she was talking to a two-year-old. “But I think it might be worth a try, don’t you?”

  It probably was worth a try but it was going to be impossible unless Cosmo decided to come out from under the sofa. In the end I left him there and went back upstairs to the computer. I finished describing my perfect friend and entered the details. A few minutes later a message popped up in my friend2friend mailbox. It was from someone called Skye. I had no idea who she was but we started chatting.

  Skye said she was my special friend2friend friend. That the computer had matched us up because we were so similar. She asked me loads of questions but I didn’t tell her about Mum leaving, or Diane trying to suck up, or Cosmo quivering under the sofa. I was Marcia2 and I lived with my mum and dad and my twin sister, Phoebe, and everything about my life was just about perfect.

  Cosmo stayed under the sofa for the next two days. We knew he was venturing out at night because each morning his food and water bowls were empty. And we could tell by the awful smell that he’d managed to find the cat-litter tray in the downstairs loo.

  Diane was trying to be patient about the litter tray but I could see it was getting on her nerves.

  “We’ll give it a few more days,” she said at breakfast on Tuesday, “but after that he’ll have to start going out.”

  “But he might not be ready,” I said. “If you force him out before he’s ready he might not come back.”

  She screwed up her face, shuddering. “I’m sorry, Polly, but it’s just not hygienic; not with Jake crawling around putting everything into his mouth.”

  “Don’t worry, Di, love,” said Dad. “I’ve bought a cat flap and I’m going to sort it out as soon as I get home from work today. That way he’ll be able to come and go as he pleases. No more poohs, I promise. The only poohs we can cope with at the moment are yours, aren’t they, little Jakey cakey.”

  Jake kicked his legs and blew a big raspberry. I felt like blowing a big raspberry myself – right at Dad and Diane – but I kept my mouth clamped shut and sat there in silence.

  After school I went round to see Mum. She was leaving the next morning and Tracy had invited some of her friends over for a bit of a send off. I wanted to see Mum off by myself – to say goodbye properly, but she said Tracy had been so wonderful to her she couldn’t really leave her own leaving party.

  “Hola, Polly!” she cried when she opened the door. She pulled me inside and threw her arms round me. “I’m going to miss my little girl so much, you’ve no idea.” She pulled a crumpled-up tissue out of her pocket and started dabbing at her eyes, half-laughing, half-crying. “She’s so fantastic, this girl of mine,” she announced suddenly to all her friends. “She’s only gone and got the biggest part in her new show at drama.”

  Everyone cheered and said well done and Mum gave me another hug, and then she turned round to her friend Jaz and started blathering on about the little apartment she’d rented in Spain and how close it was to the sea. I could see she’d already forgotten all about me and my brilliant part in the show – and how she wasn’t going to see me for weeks and weeks.

  I didn’t stay that long in the end. They were all drinking this Spanish drink called sangria. It was in a massive plastic jug with bits of fruit floating around the top and the more they drank the wilder they became. At one point they started dancing around Tracy’s living room. “It’s the flamenco,” Mum cried, grabbing hold of me and practically whisking me off my feet, but a minute later she was in tears again, telling me how proud she was and how much she was going to miss me.

  Back at Dad and Diane’s I was straight on the friend2friend website and in the Ruby room chatting to Skye. She wanted to know how I was and how my day had been.

  “Fantastic!” I fibbed. “Phoebe and I organized this party for our mum and dad’s anniversary and everyone drank far too much sangria. You should’ve seen my mum dancing the flamenco. It was so funny I nearly cried laughing!”

  I logged back on as soon as I got up the next morning. Skye was an only child and she kept going on about how amazing it must be to have a twin to share everything with. I got so carried away telling her about Phoebe and all the exciting stuff we did together that I almost forgot for a while that it wasn’t true.

  We carried on chatting until it was time for school. “Log on later,” Skye said. “The more we chat the more points we get.”

  I didn’t know what she
meant but I didn’t have time to find out. I ran downstairs and told Dad I was going over to Tracy’s to wait with Mum until she left for the airport.

  “Sorry, Polly,” he said, shaking his head. “You can pop in for a minute, but I don’t want you missing any school. I thought you said goodbye last night?”

  I just couldn’t believe my dad sometimes. “You do realize Mum is leaving the country for a whole year? And anyway, it’s not as if missing one measly day of school is going to make the slightest difference to anyone!”

  Dad looked across at Diane, but I stomped out of the kitchen before he could say anything else.

  Mum was up and dressed when I knocked on the door.

  “Come here,” she said, pulling me into her arms. “I’m so sorry about last night. I had far too much sangria. I think it must’ve been nerves.” She hugged me really tight and I buried my face in her shoulder.

  “It’s all right,” I whispered. “I know you’re excited.”

  She pulled back and looked at me. “I am excited, sweetheart, but I wouldn’t leave you if I didn’t think you were going to be fine at your dad’s. You just concentrate on drama and learning your part and doing well at school and I’ll be back before you know it.”

  I clung on to her for as long as I could, fighting back tears. It hit me, suddenly, that she wouldn’t be able to give me a hug for weeks and weeks, and I didn’t want to let go. I’m not even the huggy type, but then I’d never been away from Mum for more than a couple of nights – and even then it was only up the road at Dad’s.

  The day dragged by: double science and then maths. At lunch everyone was talking about CRASH! Sam said she’d already learned all her lines, of course, and Ellie was moaning about how she’d lost her script for about the hundredth time.

  “It turns out it was never in that bag I left on the bus – but now I’ve gone and lost it again so I don’t know my part at all.”