Hollywood Star

by Rowan Coleman

  All I could do right now was get on with the new experiences that the day would bring. But it was hard. I felt like I was doubly alone. With no old friends and no new friends either. And I knew that my character Lady Elizabeth was a scheming, no-good, nasty old cow. But I knew how to act the scenes where she was pretending to be insecure and vulnerable because that was exactly how I felt. It would be the acting confident and in control that would be the difficult bit.

  To make matters worse Mum dropped another bombshell just as I was pushing a blueberry pancake around my plate, unable to eat even one bite.

  “Great news, Ruby!” she said, smiling at me. Her face had relaxed a lot since her first treatment and although she still looked different with her giant hair and all her make-up, she could at least smile properly now.

  “Really?” I asked. I wasn’t listening properly. I was more worried about what I was wearing. I wished desperately that Beaumont had a school uniform like Sylvia Lighthouse’s Academy did because then, even if you hated it, with its skirt exactly the wrong length and its dreadful grey cardigans that could make even Anne-Marie look frumpy, at least you knew that you had to wear it and so did everybody else. Now I had to decide for myself and it was a decision fraught with danger.

  How would I know if what I had chosen to wear was anything like what a hip American kid would wear? And as I knew that my personal style didn’t exactly make me cutting-edge cool back at home, I wasn’t feeling too hopeful.

  I had carefully studied as many episodes of Hollywood High as possible and after several private hours of worrying and trying stuff on, I had decided on my pale blue three-quarter-length trousers (Capri pants they call them here) and pink T-shirt with a pink cardigan. I accessorised with the string of fake pearls Julian had given me and for footwear I chose a pair of trainers decorated with silver stars. I’d brushed my hair a hundred times, which I had read once that Sylvia Lighthouse used to do when she was a girl, and put some sticky, moussey product on it that Julian had left behind to try and smooth it down. I didn’t know about make-up. The characters in Hollywood High obviously wore make-up, but it wasn’t allowed at the Academy. So as Beaumont was a real school and not a soap school, I decided not to put any on.

  “Ruby are you listening to me?” my mum said quite sharply. She had a lot less time for my tendency to have my head in the clouds these days.

  “Sorry, Mum,” I said quietly. “I was worrying about my outfit for school – what do you think?”

  “What? Honestly, Ruby, there are more important things to worry about than clothes, you know.”

  I looked at Mum who was wearing a gold silk shirt over cream trousers with a pair of pale gold, open-toed, high-heeled sandals just to take me to school, and I thought, If you say so, Mum. But I didn’t say it out loud because Mum obviously thought that what she had to tell me was quite important.

  “I spoke to Lisa last night and its great news,” Mum told me. “Sean has agreed to fly out to LA with his mother and do an interview to set the record straight. He’s going to do it on The Carl Vine Show and the best bit is – you are going to do it with him!”

  “Me?” I asked, surprised that Sean would want me anywhere near him.

  “Yes, you. It will be perfect,” Mum told me happily. “You and Sean can both talk about what it was like to be on the set of The Lost Treasure of King Arthur, how wonderful and magical it was and all that business. And you can tell him about the hilarious mistake with the diamonds and how Sean wasn’t under the influence of anything at all.”

  It was the first time I’d heard my mother refer to that night as “hilarious”, but recently strange had become normal with Mum so I wasn’t surprised any more.

  “And you can tell the press that as a child star you understand only too well the pressures of life in the public eye. You and Sean can ask them together to respect Sean’s privacy now until he is eighteen, and to pursue him only if he decides to step back into the public eye. It will be brilliant. Brilliant for Sean, brilliant for the film and, best of all, brilliant for you!”

  “Did Sean ask for me to do the interview with him?” I asked hopefully.

  “No,” Mum said. “Lisa arranged it and after some discussion he agreed.”

  “So he doesn’t want to see me then?” I asked anxiously. “He’s being forced to do the interview with me?”

  “No, Ruby, not forced – persuaded.” Mum took my plate of untouched food away. “Look, Sean has had a rough time of it and rightly or wrongly he blames you for that. But I’m sure once you see him face to face, you two will be friends again before you know it. And then everything will be back to normal.”

  “That would be good, Mum,” I said wanly. “But somehow I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.”

  Mum smiled at me and kissed the top of my head. “Yuck, what have you got in your hair? It tastes revolting!” she exclaimed.

  “Gel,” I said flatly. “Hair gel or mousse stuff.”

  “Good,” Mum said as she breezed out of the kitchen. “At least you’re learning about personal grooming. That’s something. Now be by the front door in ten minutes. I’ve never driven on the right-hand side before and I want to leave in plenty of time!”

  Augusto came and sat down next to me and smiled. “Scared about the new school?” he asked. I nodded.

  “Scared about the new Job?” I nodded.

  “Scared about doing an interview with Sean Rivers?” I nodded vigorously several times.

  “You’re a pretty scared kid right now, aren’t you?” Augusto said.

  “I’ll say,” I said in a small voice.

  “Well,” Augusto shrugged. “There’s not much I can do for your fear, Ruby, but if you think a dessert made with more chocolate than you ever thought possible might make you feel better, then I’ll make one for you tonight.”

  I mustered a smile. “Well I’ve never known chocolate make anything worse,” I told him. “Thank you, Augusto.”

  “Things usually work themselves out for the best, you know,” Augusto said. “And as long as we always do our best, then we’ll never have anything to regret.”

  It seemed to me Just at that moment that I had a lot of things to regret. Probably too many things for a girl of only thirteen. But Augusto was right about one thing. All I could do now was my very best.

  I just hoped that it would be enough.

  When I picked up my school bag and it barked I knew that something wasn’t quite right. I opened the flap and David looked at me from inside with a, “Yeah and what are you going to do about it?” expression.

  “Look, David,” I said, “I’m really sorry but I don’t think you can come to school. I’m fairly sure dogs aren’t allowed. But don’t worry because when I get back I’ll play ball with you in the garden, OK?”

  David growled as I attempted to reach in and pull him out.

  “He likes you,” Jeremy said, appearing behind me, his hands in his pockets.

  “Really?” I asked. “Because I always thought it was wagging and licking that were signs of affection in dogs, and not so much the whole biting and growling thing.”

  “David had been through a rough time when we found him, cut and bruised and terrified,” said Jeremy. “I’ve had him three years now and not once until he met you has he voluntarily been outside the gates of this house. He wants to go where you go which must mean he trusts and likes you. And I’m not surprised – you’re a very likeable person, Ruby.”

  Jeremy bent down and lifted an angry David out of my school bag.

  “Am I?” I asked. “I don’t feel very likeable at the moment.”

  “Trust me. Just be yourself and you will never go far wrong,” Jeremy said. “Now, run along – your mother’s waiting.”

  It wasn’t only Mum who was waiting for me; it was the whole of my future, just waiting for me to mess it all up. Be yourself, Jeremy said. But the question is – who is Ruby Parker?

  Right now that question was impossible to answer.
/>   Chapter Twelve

  Beaumont was not at all like I had imagined it would be. I thought it would be like all the high schools I have seen in movies. A big old-looking building with a grand entrance, lots of steps leading down to a grassy area where the kids hang out in various groups depending on their popularity status. I suppose that as an actress who knows all too well that what you see on screen is not usually like real life, I shouldn’t have been surprised when it was different. But I was. Not because Beaumont didn’t look like a movie high school. But because it didn’t look like a school at all.

  It was an ultra-modern building made from what looked like white steel and glass, so that it dazzled in the sunshine. And it wasn’t cube-shaped like most buildings, made up of corners and right angles. It was a series of curves and domes, with white-tiled pathways through large expanses of grass that was so well kept it could almost have been a carpet. As Mum and I followed the signs to the office I noticed that the students at least seemed pretty much as I imagined.

  Like Sylvia Lighthouse’s Academy for the Performing Arts, this was a stage school and so the pupils were a little more showy and flamboyant than the average kid. (Although, to be fair, I hadn’t been to a normal school since I was a very little girl. Maybe normal school kids do ballet in the corridor and sing impromptu musical numbers when they are waiting to go into maths too.) As we walked, I looked closely at what the other girls were wearing and thought that my outfit seemed Just about passable. Not that this would help when it came to what I was going to wear tomorrow; I had exhausted my wardrobe getting today’s look together.

  Mum led me through some arched doors into the school. I had never seen any school that looked so clean and bright. There was no dust, no chipped paint and no faint smell of disinfectant. It was like walking on board a space ship.

  We came to the school office and after knocking Mum pushed the door open. A woman with auburn hair, who was studying a laptop, looked up and smiled at us.

  “Hello there,” Mum said. “This is my daughter, Ruby Parker. She’s enrolling here today.”

  “Oh, yes, hi.” The woman erupted into a friendly smile and held out her hand to shake. “It’s a pleasure to have you with us for a spell, Ruby,” she told me with a warm and slightly husky voice. “My name is Marianne Green, I’m the School Principal so if there is any help you need with anything, with where your next class is or how your curriculum is working out, then I’m the lady to come to. I’ve been in touch with your school and spoken at length to your form teacher, Miss Greenstreet. What a lovely lady! We’ve worked out a programme of learning for you. You’ll attend the appropriate classes for your year group so you can get a real feel for what it’s like to go to school here, you’ll get special assignments for you to do at home, to make sure you keep up with your classes in England. We’ll Fedex that work back to Miss Greenstreet, so it will be graded and count towards your exams. Does that sound good?”

  “Great,” I said, a little overwhelmed by all the information. Homework. No matter where you go in the world there is always homework.

  “Your first class this morning is English. We’re all expecting you to be an expert on that!” Ms Green and my mum laughed. “If you want to go, Mrs Parker, I’ll show Ruby where to go.”

  “Super,” Mum said. She turned to me and put a hand on either shoulder. “Now, try not to be nervous and have a great day. I’ll be there to pick you up after you’ve finished shooting this afternoon, OK?”

  I nodded, resisting the urge to throw my arms round my mum and wail like a five-year-old.

  “That’s my girl,” she said, dropping a quick kiss on my forehead and screwing her mouth up as she tasted my hair gel once again. I heard her heels clicking down the corridor without even pausing once.

  “Well then, Ruby,” Ms Green said with a smile. “Follow me.”

  As soon as I walked into the class I was engulfed.

  “Ruby!” Nadine squealed, hugging me tightly.

  “It’s so cool you’re here!” Adrienne exclaimed, leading me to a desk by the window across an aisle from them.

  “We saved you this seat, so you’d be next to us,” Nadine said.

  “Thanks!” I said, feeling enormous relief at finding two friendly faces waiting for me. Everyone was looking at me with open curiosity. There was one girl with dark brown hair sitting at the back who sort of glowered, but almost everybody else seemed very nice.

  “This is Carrie, Lauren and Maya.” Nadine introduced me to three more girls, two of whom, Lauren and Maya, I recognised from Hollywood High.

  “Hello,” I said. “Pleased to meet you.”

  “This is Jack and Cory, and this…” Adrienne smiled and before I knew it she had her arms around the shoulders of the real-life person who played her screen boyfriend, “…is my boyfriend, Hunter Blake.”

  “Hunkily Handsome Hunter Blake” as Teen Girl! Magazine would no doubt describe him one day.

  “Oh – h-hi…hello,” I said and I felt my cheeks burn. It was embarrassing on so many levels. First, because here I was face to face with a seriously good-looking boy, who in normal circumstances I would have Blu-tacked to my wall in poster form a few weeks from now. Second, because he was clearly going out with Adrienne and by blushing I had made it perfectly clear that I thought her boyfriend was cute, which I think is universally considered to be quite bad form. And third, because everybody saw it happen.

  “Oh, Ruby, you are so blushing!” Maya giggled.

  “No, she’s not,” Nadine said. “It’s hot and that pink top is reflecting off of her skin. But even if she was, who’d blame her with all of you staring? Give the girl a chance to sit down and relax!”

  I smiled gratefully at Nadine and nodded another safer silent hello to Hunter. He was taller than the other boys, with friendly blue eyes and dark brown hair that flopped down over them. Exactly the kind of boy that any normal girl with a pulse would feel slightly wibbly about meeting.

  It was something I would have to get over though as I had a lot of scenes with Hunter Blake. In fact, Lady Elizabeth did her very best to steal his character, Hayden, from Sabrina. If I didn’t get this blushing under control, I was fairly sure I’d spend the entire time I was here bright red. And Nadine was right about one thing. It didn’t go with my pink top.

  “You are so right to stay out of the sun,” Nadine went on. “The sun is so the worst thing for wrinkles. If you like, though, I can give you the name of a really good tan artist? She does Lindsay Lohan.”

  “Thanks, Nadine,” I said as I slid into my seat. “But Suzie told me not to tan. She wants me pale and English rose-like, I suppose.”

  “Pale is totally in,” Adrienne said. “You Just have to look at your friend Imogene…”

  But before she could finish talking the teacher came in. She was quite young, the same sort of age as Miss Greenstreet. But whereas Miss Greenstreet was all sort of warm and cuddly and easily distracted if you asked her an entirely unrelated question (like what kind of wedding dress she would have if she ever got married or if she thought tulips were nicer than daffodils), this teacher looked, well…focused.

  The complete silence that fell the moment she entered the room seemed to back up that theory.

  “Good morning, class,” she said, her voice as clear and as sharp as glass. “And good morning to our new student, Ruby Parker. Please stand up, Ruby.”

  Mortified, I did.

  “Hello, Ruby. I am Ms Martinez and I will be teaching you English. I hope you enjoy your time here.”

  “Yes, miss, thank you, I will,” I said. It felt a little bit like she was ordering me to have a good time rather than asking me.

  “Good. As you’re on your feet, you can start us off. I’ve picked a book to make you feel at home. Jane Eyre. Read from the first paragraph, please, Ruby, and then tell us why this book changed the face of English literature as we know it.”

  The day went very quickly. Partly because it finished just after lunch and partly becau
se with Nadine and Adrienne fussing around me constantly, I didn’t have time to be nervous. They showed me where to sit at break time, what to eat in the canteen, told me who was who in the pecking order of the school and who was not really anyone at all. I realised quickly that by knowing them I had an automatic in with the in-crowd and they were sort of the Jade Caruso and Menakshi Shah of Beaumont. And considering I was me, not renowned for being the most naturally popular of girls, I realised I was very lucky. Unlike some.

  “That’s Tina Petrelli,” Adrienne said, pointing openly at the girl in brown who was sitting at a table alone during break. “She looks like somebody died because we told her to move so you could sit by us in class. Why she thought she could be anywhere near us is a mystery! The back of the class is the only place for someone like that – where nobody has to see her hideous face!” She and Nadine giggled.

  And so did I.

  “No one knows what she’s even doing at Beaumont,” Nadine added, her voice sharp. “This is a school for the stars of the future, it says so in the curriculum. Look at her, Ruby – can you see any star quality?”

  I looked over at Tina who was staring deeply into her yoghurt. I thought that she must know that we were talking about her. She could probably feel our eyes on her and hear the tones of our voices even if she couldn’t make out the words. I thought about Nydia who used to get teased so much because of her weight and still did, even though she was gradually losing it. And I thought about me, so often the butt of people’s Jokes at school. I had got into my fair share of scrapes and arguments with other girls, thrown a few names back at boys who were teasing me. But I had never, ever picked on anybody just because they were different, just because they didn’t fit in. But here I was on my first day, thousands of miles away from home, and at that moment Adrienne and Nadine were the only friends I had in the whole wide world. I needed them.