On Friday I came home from school and Diane was standing on the front doorstep. For a second I thought it was more bad news, but she was grinning, hopping from one foot to the other.
“What’s going on?” I said.
“Hurry up!” She grabbed me by the hand. “Now, close your eyes, Polly, and come with me.”
“Why, what’s going on? I’m not in the mood.”
“Come on! Don’t argue – just for once in your life!”
She led me down the hall and into the kitchen. “Keep going, just a little bit further.”
“You know I’m seriously not in the mood for this.”
She stopped walking and let go of my hand.
“Okay. We’re here. Ta-da!”
I opened my eyes, blinking against the light.
“Look, Polly,” said Diane, leaning down to Cosmo’s basket.
And there he was, filling the whole basket, purring so loudly it sounded as if he had an engine in his tummy. I knelt down, trembling. Lots of his fur had been shaved off and he had a big plastic hood over his head to stop him from biting his stitches.
“Hello, Cosmo,” I said.
And he pushed his face against my hand over and over again.
I didn’t go to drama the next day. I was much too worried about leaving Cosmo, for a start, but apart from that I still didn’t know my lines well enough and I couldn’t bear the thought of watching Sam take over my part. Diane tried to persuade me to go. She promised she’d look after Cosmo and give him heaps of cuddles, but I decided it would be much better to stay at home and take care of him myself.
He was feeling terribly sorry for himself. He absolutely hated the plastic hood, but Mr. Adesina said he had to wear it until he’d had his stitches removed in about ten days’ time. He couldn’t get through the cat flap either, the hood was too wide, so we’d gone back to using a litter tray. I thought Diane was going to kick up a big fuss about it but she hadn’t said a word.
Phoebe called me during break to ask me what was going on.
“You should’ve come,” she hissed down the phone. “Sam’s doing your part and she knows all the lines.”
“Has Mandy actually said she’s going to be Marcia?”
“I don’t know but it wouldn’t surprise me. She’s teaching her your songs right now, while the rest of us make masks for the viruses.”
“Who’s doing her part then?” I asked, quietly.
There was a long silence. “Erm…I am, actually,” she said in the end. “I really didn’t want to, Polly, I mean, why would I want to be Cydore? But Mandy said it would be a big help and I couldn’t let her down, not when it’s, like, only three weeks until the show. I’m still doing my song at the end, but Rachel is going to take over the rest of my character’s lines.”
We said goodbye and I cuddled up next to Cosmo on the couch. I could just imagine Sam strutting about on the stage showing everyone how brilliant she was, but I couldn’t believe Phoebe had gone along with it when she was supposed to be my friend. She called me again a bit later when she was back at home.
“Come over to mine, right now!” she said. “I’ll help you learn your lines and we’ll tell Mandy about Cosmo getting run over. I mean it’s not like she’s going to get cross with you if she knows what’s been going on. I nearly told her myself but I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to or not.”
“Look, forget it, Phoebe. I’m so sick of talking about it. I don’t even care about Sam doing my part. It’s just not a big deal.”
Phoebe snorted down the phone. “I don’t believe that for a second. I don’t know why you’re being so stupid about all of this. It’s obvious you still want to be Marcia even if you won’t admit it. Anyway, you are coming over to mine on Monday, aren’t you? To watch the news programme?”
“Course,” I said, though the last the thing I wanted was to spend the evening with Sam while she gloated about taking over my part.
I was so hacked off with everything I went up to my room and spent the next couple of hours chatting to Skye. I told her all about Cosmo, but not about the accident. I didn’t want to think about that, so I told her that Phoebe and I had entered him in the biggest cat show in the country – and that he’d won first place, just like Sam’s cat, Bella.
“It was so exciting, Skye, you wouldn’t believe it. He got this beautiful silky red rosette and the biggest silver cup you’ve ever seen and he purred all the way home, as if he actually knew how well he’d done.”
Skye’s mum wouldn’t let her get a pet – not even a hamster or a rabbit – so I knew she thought I was the luckiest girl alive. It was amazing, but the second I logged on to the friend2friend website and began chatting to Skye, I was so focused on what we were talking about I forgot all about Dad and Diane – and Mum not being around. And about how Sam had stolen my part in the show. I was Cat-Girl and my life was perfect and none of that other stuff seemed to matter at all.
“You’ll never guess what,” Skye wrote, when I’d finished telling her all about Cosmo and the cat show. “I’ve actually been inside the Diamond Den.”
My hands started to tremble over the keys. I couldn’t believe she’d let me go on and on about Cosmo when she had something so exciting to say. “OMG! What’s in there?” I typed. “What’s it like?” I held my breath waiting for her reply. It seemed to take an age.
“I can’t tell you,” she answered at last. “Not until you’ve reached your target. But it’s so worth it, believe me.”
“What’s the big mystery?” I wrote back. I was dying to know more but she logged off suddenly and a screen popped up saying I wouldn’t be able to talk to her until I had enough points to enter the Diamond Den myself. I only needed thirty-five and I was desperate to carry on, but just then Diane called me down to help out with Jake.
“I’ve got to pop next door for a minute,” she said, pulling on her jacket. “You don’t mind watching him, do you?”
I did, but I didn’t say anything. I’ve come to realize that when Diane asks me to do something for Jake, she’s not really expecting an answer!
Jake was sitting on the floor playing with his shape-sorting cube. He had my beanie-bear, Boo, clutched in one hand and a red triangle in the other. He was concentrating really hard trying to get the triangle into the matching hole in the cube, but the second he saw me he dropped everything and came crawling over.
I pulled him onto my lap and we sat there for a bit stroking Cosmo. He’d been very gentle with Cosmo since the accident, rubbing his ears and tickling his tummy, almost as if he understood how careful he had to be. And even if Cosmo wanted to get away and hide under the couch, he couldn’t fit – not with his plastic hood. We’re both trapped here now, Cosmo, I thought to myself, but just at that moment he didn’t look as if he minded one little bit.
When Jake started to fidget I took him back over to the shape sorter. He clutched the shapes in his podgy little hands, trying so hard to squash them through the holes, and every time he managed to get one right I clapped and cheered and he bounced up and down on his bottom squealing in delight.
“Polly, you’re so good with Jake,” said Diane when she came back in. “Honestly, it’s such a help having you here.”
I shrugged and moved back over to Cosmo. I hated it when she said stuff like that.
“He looks like you too,” she went on. “He’s got your eyes.”
I shook my head. “No he hasn’t! He doesn’t look anything like me!”
Diane put her head on one side and folded her arms. “He has got your eyes, Polly Carter, they’re green and they flash when he gets cross, you must have noticed. Let’s just hope he hasn’t inherited your stubborn streak as well.”
She grinned at me to show she was joking. She’d been so nice since Cosmo got run over and I couldn’t help feeling bad, in a way, that the accident had happened straight after that horrid row when I’d told her I hated her. I thought maybe I should say sorry, or thank her for saving Cosmo’s life, but just then Dad
came home.
“I’m back!” he called from the hallway. He kicked his boots off and popped his head round the door.
“What a sight,” he said, in the sickliest voice. “My gorgeous family all together.”
He gave Diane a soppy look and my stomach twisted up. I didn’t want to be part of their gorgeous family. Mum was my family – not Diane and Jake. It should’ve been me and Mum and Dad living together at number 25.
Later on, at tea, Dad carried on with the happy families routine, going on about how great it would be to watch the news together on Monday evening.
“We could get pizzas and something yummy for pudding,” he said. “Only ten months old,” he went on, turning to Jake, “and a television star already.”
Jake blew a raspberry at him and banged his spoon. But I wasn’t ready to play happy families and the thought of going round to Phoebe’s for the night, even if Sam was there, suddenly seemed a whole lot more appealing than it had earlier that afternoon.
I didn’t get a chance to go on the computer and get up to my target before Monday. Dad said I could only watch the news round at Phoebe’s if I’d finished all my homework, and I’d spent so much time chatting to Skye that I was behind with more or less everything. I was still trying to wade through it on Monday after school, when Diane popped her head round the door and said I could leave the rest and go.
Ellie, Sam and Tara were already there when I arrived. Sam was all glammed up, wearing a really short skirt and high-heeled boots. The second Sandeep walked in she practically rugby tackled me out of the way to make sure she got to sit next to him on the couch.
“Hey, watch it!” I said, glaring at her, but she was too busy flirting to take any notice.
Phoebe’s mum had made great big bowls of buttery popcorn and she gave us each a can of fizzy orange. I squashed up on the sofa with Phoebe, Ellie, Sam and Sandeep, while Neesha and Monty B and the others sat around on the floor.
We had to wait for ages until it came on. There was all the proper news first and then the business news and even the weather. And then, finally, when there were only a few minutes left, the presenter said:
“When Arthur McDermott decided the old folk at Cranberry needed a new piano, he organized a good old-fashioned dance contest to raise the money. But what he didn’t know was that the real winner would be a ten-month old baby. Our reporter, Melanie Burton went along to find out more…”
“It’s about to start! It’s about to start!” squealed Phoebe’s sister Sara, leaping up. She pressed record on the DVD player so we could watch it back later – and switched off the lights.
Suddenly, Arthur was on the screen bleating on for a bit about the old people’s home and how desperate they were for a piano. He kept tugging on his crooked beard and at one point he dislodged a big flake of croissant. The camera followed it this way and that, as it floated all the way down to the floor, and then just as he started to explain the importance of supporting local causes, the camera cut to the dance floor. I groaned and covered my face with my hands.
“This is so embarrassing,” I said, squirming. “I can’t bear to watch. Tell me when it’s over.”
“What are you talking about? We were brilliant, Polly!” cried Monty B, turning round and pulling my hands off my face.
“Do me a favour!” scoffed Sam. “You only won because of Polly’s brother.”
And then suddenly we were there, spinning around in our glittery, pink costumes, right in the middle of the screen. And then, after a few seconds, the camera panned across to Diane and Jake and as Jake struggled to get down from her lap the reporter said, “And this is where it gets really interesting, folks. Keep your eyes glued to that baby!”
And the camera followed Jake as he crawled across the dance floor. We watched as Monty B scooped him up and twirled him round and everyone clapped and cheered. Then, a second later, the camera cut again – to Diane.
“I just couldn’t stop him,” she said, grinning. “He adores his big sister. And she’s fantastic with him too. He couldn’t wish for a better sister than Polly. We all love her to bits.”
I sat there in the dark, burning up. I couldn’t believe Diane had said something so nice in front of so many people. Suddenly Sara turned on the light and it felt like everyone was staring at me.
“Oh, that was so cute!” said Ellie.
“I wish I had a little baby brother like Jake, instead of a great big lump of a sister like Phoebe,” said Sara.
“Shut up, Sara!” said Phoebe. “You’re lucky I’m even letting you watch with us!”
“Hang on a minute,” said Monty B. “Why is everyone going on about how cute Polly’s baby brother is? What about me?”
“What about you?” snorted Neesha. “You’re about as cute as a baboon’s bottom.”
“That’s a bit insulting to the baboon, isn’t it?” said Adam, and we all fell about laughing.
And then we watched the recording over and over again, getting sillier and sillier each time it came on. Adam and Sandeep started to lope around the room pretending to be baboons – shaking their bottoms in Monty B’s face, so when Phoebe’s mum popped her head round the door and said, “What’s going on in here? It sounds as if you’re at the zoo,” I laughed so hard I nearly wet myself. I was having such a good time I forgot all about the friend2friend website and the Diamond Den. I even forgot about how much I hated living at Dad and Diane’s. I looked around at everyone from Star Makers and suddenly the only thing that really mattered was getting back my part in the show.
And I knew exactly what I had to do.
I started learning my lines the second I got home. I lay in bed reading the script over and over, memorizing each scene, until Dad came in to turn my light out.
“Mum called while you were out,” he said, taking the script out of my hand. “She really wanted to talk to you. She said she had some news.”
I sat up and grabbed Dad’s arm. “Is she coming back? Is that the news? What about Mrs. Bay renting the house? Where will we live?”
Dad sighed. “Calm down, Polly. She probably just wanted a chat, but I’m sure she’ll call back tomorrow.”
She did call back, first thing the next morning. She’d been promoted at work and she wanted me to be the first to know.
“You mean you’re not coming back?” I said, clutching the receiver so tight my hand turned white.
“Not yet, silly,” she said. “I’ve just been promoted. But it won’t be long, I promise.”
When I’d said goodbye and hung up, Diane asked me if I’d had a nice time round at Phoebe’s. It was so embarrassing, because she obviously knew I’d heard her tell the whole, entire world that she loved me to bits. I mumbled something about how funny it was when Adam compared Monty B’s face to a baboon’s bottom. But then Jake started fussing and by the time she’d sorted him out the moment had passed.
I waited for Phoebe outside school and as soon as she arrived I grabbed her and pulled her into the toilets.
“Listen, I need your help, Phoebs.” I lowered my voice in case Sam or Ellie were hanging about. “I’ve decided I really, really want to be Marcia, more than anything, but I’ll have to know my lines back to front if I’m ever going to convince Mandy. I spent ages learning them last night but I’ve still got loads to do.”
Phoebe was so excited and tested me all through break and lunch and when Sam and Ellie came over to ask what we were doing we stuffed the script into my bag and she made up some rubbish about this science project we were working on for Mrs. Bliss.
“By the way, Polly, did Phoebe tell you what happened on Saturday?” said Sam. “You know, about me being Marcia?”
“Well, you don’t know if you’re actually going to be Marcia,” said Phoebe, quickly. “Mandy only asked you to read her part just in case.”
“That was to start off with, but then when you didn’t turn up, Polly, Mandy said there was a very good chance that I’d have to do it for real.”
“A very
good chance,” I said. “But that’s all. You’re not getting your hands on my part that easily!”
I walked off with my head in the air, but inside I was shaking like a jelly.
“Hey, wait for me!” shouted Phoebe, catching up with me. “You’re not upset, are you?”
“Not really. Just more determined than ever to show Mandy that I can learn my lines.”
Phoebe sighed. “I wish you’d tell Mandy about Cosmo – and tell Sam too. Honestly, Polly, why are you making this so difficult? Mandy would understand. They both would. You know how much Sam loves her cat. She’s always going on about how beautiful and clever she is.”
But I didn’t want to tell them about the accident. I wanted Mandy to let me be Marcia because I was the best person to play the part, not because she felt sorry for me. I didn’t want everyone going round saying, “Poor Polly Carter – first her mum dumps her at her dad’s to go off to Spain for a year, and then as if that wasn’t bad enough, her cat gets squashed half to death under a van!”
I carried on learning my lines all week and by Friday night I was pretty sure I knew them well enough to convince Mandy. I practised and practised until I could more or less say them in my sleep. I was Marcia, trapped inside The Rainbow Room game with Tarn, having one amazing adventure after another.
I couldn’t wait to get to drama. There was only a week to go until the dress rehearsal and I knew we’d be running right through with no scripts.
The first person I saw when I walked into the hall was Sam. She had that smug look on her face but I didn’t let it put me off.
“I’m back,” I called out to Mandy. She was busy sorting out the costumes on the stage and she had her back to me. “I’m back, Mandy,” I said again, “and I know all my lines.”
Mandy turned round, frowning. “Oh, hello, Polly,” she said. “It’s really good to see you but we need to have a little chat.”
Polly Plays Her Part Page 11