Hollywood Star

by Rowan Coleman

  I looked at my mum, her face full of excitement and her eyes glittering. She had thought of everything to try and get me this part and I couldn’t work out why it was that I was feeling so down about it. OK, I was scared and nervous of going to a new school and walking on to a new set. But it would only be for a while, and no matter what my tummy thought about it, my head told me that this was an amazing opportunity. It was one that I had to stop being uncertain about and give a hundred per cent to, even if only for my mum, because she would be so proud of me if I did this.

  “It’s going to be fantastic, Mum,” I said, bouncing a little on my toes. “It’s going to be fantastic – it really, really is!”

  And I kept on saying it until I started to believe it too.

  HOLLYWOOD HIGH©

  A BLENHEIM PRODUCTIONS PRODUCTION

  SEASON TWO EPISODE 23 “THE PRINCESS AND THE FOOTBALL PLAYER” WRITTEN BY: SUZIE BLENHEIM, JENNY ROBERTS, SAM JENKINS, HALLE GONZALEZ, NAVEEN SMITH AND CONNIE KREMER DIRECTED BY: SUZIE BLENHEIM

  SCENE 48

  INT. LUNCH RECESS, THE CAFETERIA

  NATALIE and SABRINA are sitting with PARMINDER and LARA at their usual table. They are in close discussion when Sabrina looks up to middle distance and notices that the subject of their discussion is approaching their table.

  SABRINA

  Shhh, girls – she’s coming over!

  The table is quiet as all four girls look up. Their faces are less than friendly.

  LADY ELIZABETH

  Hello? Would you mind awfully if I came over and sat down with you ladies? I expect you know it’s my first day at school here in America and as I’m sure you can imagine it is rather different from my old girls’ school.

  SABRINA

  (Coldly) Is it true that you really are a “Lady” and that we all have to call you “Lady” Elizabeth?

  LADY ELIZABETH

  (Sits down despite lack of invitation) Goodness no! I mean, yes, formally I do have the title of “Lady” but nobody, not even our servants, calls me Lady anything. Please just call me Lizzy. I might have a different accent and come from a faraway land but really I am just like you. Right now I could really use some friends and it’s easy to see that you ladies are the coolest girls in your grade. I’d be so grateful if you would agree to show me the ropes as it were?

  NATALIE

  Do you know the princes?

  LADY ELIZABETH

  Of course I know the princes. My older brother Edgar goes to Sandhurst with them.

  The girls look at each other and make an almost telepathic decision.

  NATALIE

  OK, you’re in.

  LADY ELIZABETH

  Oh, this is going to be jolly good fun!

  But there is a glint in LADY ELIZABETH’S eyes that tells us she’s going to be trouble.

  Chapter Seven

  I suppose that I expected my only second ever professional audition to be something like the first. When I auditioned for The Lost Treasure of King Arthur it hadn’t been glamorous at all, at least not the first time. We all had to wait in a grubby corridor above a shop in Soho and then troop one by one into a whitewashed dance studio where a panel of people who I thought were utterly terrifying (so terrifying that I actually threw up) were waiting for me.

  So when the day of the audition arrived, I was prepared for it to be more or less the same. Not in a dance studio above a shop, but gut-wrenchingly terrifying. And in a funny kind of way, the terrifying part was the only thing that was certain about the whole experience. Because I certainly didn’t know how to feel about it.

  We had only been in Hollywood a little while, and though it was wonderful and exciting in so many ways, it had been eventful enough for me already. And now there was a steely glint in Mum’s eye and a kind of determination to change everything, including my life, that I had seen somewhere before but couldn’t quite put my finger on.

  But despite her oddness, it was a new experience to have Mum so totally behind me going for a part. Especially one that would mean more time away from school and home and the life where my feet were anchored firmly to the ground in exactly the place where Mum most liked them to be. For once I wasn’t getting the “It’s not the end of the world if you don’t get it” speech or her “There’ll be other parts, Ruby, and you’re still so young – you have all the time in the world” talk. And funnily enough, for the first time ever, I wanted to hear both of them.

  More than that I wanted her to ask me the question she always asked me and to which up until now I had always replied “Yes”. I wanted her to ask me if I was sure if this was what I really wanted.

  But she didn’t.

  I decided to phone Dad that evening after Mum told me that the audition was all arranged. I hadn’t spoken to him since we left and I didn’t think that my rather rude conversation with his so-called girlfriend had done anything to help how we had left things between us. I

  wanted to hear his voice. I wanted to say sorry and for him to be OK with me again and call me “kiddo” and tell me a terrible Joke.

  Part of me wanted to tell him that I was unsure about auditioning for Hollywood High but I felt that if I did, if I said anything about how Mum had changed then I would be being disloyal to her. Still I wanted to tell Dad about the audition, no matter how I felt about it, just so that I could hear in his voice whether or not he thought it was a good idea. But when I picked up the phone and dialled, all I heard on the other end was the ringing tone. I wondered if I was getting Dad out of bed because I wasn’t really sure what the time was back home, but I was pretty certain that he would be there.

  He didn’t pick up though and I wondered if it was because he knew it was me and didn’t want to speak to me. Or if it was because he had stayed the night at his so-called girlfriend’s place. I felt a rush of anger and slammed the receiver down hard. If that was true, if he was at her place, then he wasn’t at home wishing he could make friends with me. He wasn’t even thinking about me. He was taking another step further away and I wondered how long it would be before he was gone from my life forever.

  I didn’t try and call Danny or e-mail the others. I didn’t want to say anything to them until I knew if I would be offered the part. It was partly superstition, wanting to keep it to myself as if even talking about the audition might Jinx it. Also, despite my misgivings, the competitive part of me still wanted to do well. Chances like this were, after all, what I had devoted my short career to so far.

  The main reason I didn’t tell them anything though was because I didn’t want my life to change any more than it already had. My friends were waiting for me to come home in a few days and somehow this fact made that life still real. If I rang them and told them that actually I might not be home for weeks or even months, then they would stop waiting for me, stop expecting me. There would stop being a gap at the lunch table or space at my desk in class because the everyday life I was no longer part of would gradually close over and cover my absence.

  Chapter Eight

  A few hours before we had to leave for Blenheim Studios, Julian arrived with my audition “costume”. He claimed he had done a lot of research before he finally unveiled the outfit he was confident would nail me the part.

  I dutifully took it to my room and put it on, wearing it back down to the living room where Mum, Julian and Jeremy were waiting. Jeremy smiled.

  “I would say that is exactly the Hollywood perception of a young English Lady,” he said, winking at me. I was wearing a pale blue cotton shirt with the collar turned up so that it flapped just beneath my ears, and a string of pearls over that. Julian had insisted that I tuck the shirt into the blue and green tartan skirt that came to just about my knees, pulling half of it out so that it billowed over the waistband. Then he made me put on a pair of pristine white knee socks, the sort I hadn’t worn since primary school, and finally he strapped on a pair of black patent leather round-toed shoes with a t-bar.

  “Perfect,” he said.

  “Do y
ou get Hiyal Bye-a! over here?” I asked him cautiously.

  Julian looked puzzled. “We get the American version,” he said.

  “Oh, well, it’s just that in the British version you quite often see photos of real Lady This or That and stories about actual Right Honourable Miss Blahs, and they never, EVER look like…like…this.”

  “Yes,” Julian said smartly. “But this isn’t about how your English aristocrats really look; it’s about how we Americans expect them to look. And this is how.”

  Of course Blenheim Studios was nothing like the dance place where I auditioned for The Lost Treasure of King Arthur. Much more modern than Wide Open Universe, it consisted of several new and shiny-looking buildings covered in reflective glass windows, but its avenues were still lined with the palm trees that I had now got used to seeing everywhere.

  A woman in a cream trouser suit was waiting for us when we arrived and introduced herself as Karen Miller. “Follow me, please,” she said, leading us across an open forecourt into a separate building. “Mr Blenheim and Suzie thought it would be nice to audition you on set with the other actors in costume and make-up, to help you really get a feel for what it would be like to be part of Hollywood High.”

  I swallowed, but my mouth was so dry there was nothing to go down, so my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. I wished more than anything that I could turn around and run away in the opposite direction, back to where Jeremy’s air-conditioned car was waiting along with David, who was no doubt angrily making a hole in the upholstery. I would ask Jeremy to take me straight to the airport so that I could home and find my fat and friendly cat, Everest, and get into bed and pull the covers over our heads and hide. But I knew that I couldn’t. I knew that I had to go through with this and there was nothing that could stop it.

  It was the cafeteria set that Karen led us to. Unlike the sets on Kensington Heights which looked pretty small and really fake in real life, it was a huge set kitted out as far as I could see in perfect detail down to the lunch counter. There was enough room for at least fifty extras and for camera crews to move around, which made the filming seem more natural and less static. And it was lit as if bright Hollywood sunshine was streaming in through the windows, even though there were none. I couldn’t help but be impressed; I had never been on a set like this before. And for the first time, the thought of working somewhere like this set a buzzing feeling of excitement vibrating in my chest.

  We saw Mr Blenheim talking to some crew and Karen led us over to him. I looked but I couldn’t see any of the other actors yet.

  “Ruby!” Mr Blenheim’s mouth stretched into a wide papery grin as he held out his hand for me to shake. His dry grip was firm as he gestured at the dark-haired woman standing next to him. “Thank you so much for coming in. This is Suzie, my daughter and the series director. Suzie originated Hollywood High and still helps write a lot of the episodes. Since you and I last talked, Audrey Gold sent us your showreel and we are both very impressed.”

  “We sure are,” Suzie Blenheim said, taking my hand in both of hers and smiling. “Gary, will you get the girls on set, please,” Suzie asked a tall and stringy young man who seemed to be her assistant. She beamed at me. “Let’s get started!”

  Moments later I met Adrienne and Nadine. Well I say “met”: it was more that they launched themselves at me and hugged me, both of them squealing like overexcited mice, as if they’d known me all their lives. It was overwhelming and unexpected but also very nice, because all at once I didn’t feel quite so terrified any more. Still fairly petrified, but not like I might drop dead at any second.

  “Wow, Ruby, it’s so great to meet you,” Adrienne said, swinging my hand in hers.

  “Word is that you are the next big thing,” Nadine told me, with a huge sparkly-toothed smile.

  “Urn, well…I’m not sure about that,” I mumbled.

  “Is it true that you and Imogene Grant are really good friends?” Adrienne asked. “I’d so love to meet Imogene Grant one day. Can you introduce us?”

  “Well, maybe,” I said. “But I think she’s going to Hungary to shoot her next film soon…”

  “And your mom is dating Jeremy Fort, right?” Nadine added. “I wish my mom would date someone classy and British. I’m so bored of male American TV stars; they basically all look the same anyway.” Both girls laughed and so did I, not because I thought all male American TV stars look the same, but because if Nadine and Adrienne were laughing then I wanted to laugh. I wanted to do whatever they were doing.

  I was utterly amazed by how normal and friendly they were, although I realised, I shouldn’t be. After all, what they did every day wasn’t that different from what I used to do on Kensington Heights and I am mostly quite normal and friendly. Also, for a long time I Judged Anne-Marie on how she looked. I thought anybody that beautiful couldn’t be a nice person too (and to be fair, the fact that she despised me didn’t help improve our relationship). But then I got to know her and she got to know me, and we realised that actually we were OK. By which I mean that despite first impressions we could be friends after all. So maybe it would be possible for me to be friends with these two bouncy, shiny, golden beings.

  “OK, girls,” Suzie said quite firmly. “Enough of the gossip; there’ll be plenty of time to get to that later. Let’s run through the scene. Take your places! Camera rolling and…action!”

  After the scene had wrapped and the grown-ups were standing round a monitor reviewing the tape, Adrienne, Nadine and I stayed sitting at the canteen table.

  “Ruby,” Nadine said with half a smile, lowering her voice, “what did your mom make you wear today! No offence, but you look like a reject from the last century.”

  I laughed; she was right after all. “It wasn’t Mum, it was my stylist. Well, he’s not exactly my stylist. Mum thought that because Mr Blenheim saw me all dressed up and doing a posh voice on The Carl Vine Show that I should do it again only more so…”

  “I love your accent, it’s so cool,” Nadine said. “You’ll have to teach me how to do a really good British accent while you’re here, OK?”

  “If I’m here,” I said ruefully.

  “You’ll be here. Anyway, your stylist was wrong. We get British Vogue and Taller over here too, you know. Your English aristocracy is very classy. We especially like your princes.” She smiled at me mischievously. “I don’t suppose you know them too?”

  I shook my head and smiled. “No, sorry,” I said. “I went to Buckingham Palace on a field trip once though.”

  The girls laughed. I’d clearly said something really witty. I Just wasn’t sure what.

  “You’ll love school; it’s so cool, not like any other school you’ve ever been too,” Nadine told me. “And there are some seriously cute guys too, especially the ones who work with us on the show.”

  “Oh, I’m going out with someone,” I said with a shrug.

  “Going out where?” Adrienne asked, looking faintly puzzled.

  “I mean I already have a boyfriend at home,” I said, feeling suddenly shy. “Danny Harvey.” Nadine and Adrienne looked blankly at me and I supposed that they had never heard of Danny. Well that was OK because I was fairly sure that he had never heard of them either. “He’s Just had a number one hit back in Britain,” I said, feeling the need to boast on Danny’s behalf.

  “Really? So you date a pop star. Cool,” Adrienne said. “Of course we’ve got four of them in our school. They’re in a band. Envision. They’ve been signed but they’re not really huge – not yet.”

  I shook my head. “I haven’t heard of them.”

  “Well that’s OK,” Adrienne said. “You will. They’re going to play at our Valentine’s dance – hey, you’ll be here for the Valentine’s dance. We’ll have to get you a date.”

  “Well, I…” The girls were going too fast for me.

  “You can’t go without a date,” Nadine told me. “Well, you can, but it’s seriously not cool. Look, don’t worry, stick with us and you’ll be very popul
ar at Beaumont. Finding you a date will be easy.”

  “Or it will be once you’ve escaped from that outfit,” Adrienne giggled. And as the three of us laughed, again I suddenly felt excited about the prospect of going to a real American high school (even if it was a theatre school) and working on a real American TV show and even maybe going to a real American Valentine’s dance. I had no sense of how I’d done in the audition, but caught up in the moment and in Nadine and Adrienne’s friendliness, I really, really wanted to be offered the part of Lady Elizabeth.

  “Ruby,” Suzie Blenheim smiled at me as she came over. I searched the smile for any hint of what it might mean. Was it a “Sorry you didn’t make it” smile or a “Yes, you’re hired” one? It seemed to hover somewhere in between the two.

  My mum hurried over to Join us.

  “Thank you so much for coming in today. You’ve done really good work.” Suzie paused and looked from me to my mother. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you yet if you have the part. I know I want you for it and Dad loves you, but it’s going to take a while before we can let you know for sure.”

  “Suzie!” Adrienne exclaimed. “Can’t you say now? Please? I want her to get the part!”

  Suzie smiled that level smile again. “Adrienne, you know I can’t. Now, you girls, the rest of the cast is in make-up right now so go and make sure you’re ready for your next scene, OK?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Adrienne said, giving me a quick hug before she ran off.