Musical Star

by Rowan Coleman

  “Just checking,” Nydia said, as I squeezed. “I don’t want to lose you completely.”

  “Impossible,” I told her.

  “So, tell me about Highgate then,” Nydia said. “Are there any cute boys?”

  “Not that I’ve noticed,” I told her, which was true. I knew the boys in the choir – Rohan, Gabe and the others – but I didn’t fancy any of them.

  “What do you do there? Have you joined a drama group?”

  “Well, I’ve…” I started to tell Nydia about the choir, but then I stopped myself. I knew that she would be sweet and supportive and that really there was no reason not to tell her. But I was pretty sure that even with Adele, Talitha and Hannah in our choir we were too inexperienced and too under-rehearsed to stand a chance of making it to the TV performance. There would be thousands of people auditioning for the leads when we were singing for the school choir competition. If I kept my head down, stood at the back and didn’t do anything to get myself noticed, no one from the Academy need ever know I was there. If some of the other girls found out – like Jade, who at that moment walked in through the door, along with Menakshi – then they would make it seem stupid, silly and desperate. I didn’t want them to do that. Especially not in front of Dakshima.

  “I’ve…thought about joining a club,” I said to cover my tracks. “There’s a book club. I might join that.”

  “Great,” Nydia said, confused. She put her hand on my shoulder. “Are you really OK about Danny and Melody now? Because you can tell me if you’re not, you know.”

  “Of course I am,” I said, producing a great big smile that felt like it stretched from one side of my face to the other. “Danny and me splitting up was weeks ago – and don’t forget I’ve been kissed by Hunter Blake since then. And anyway, I’m not interested in boys right now.”

  “None at all?” Nydia asked.

  “None at all,” I said firmly, glancing over at Danny who was laughing with Melody. “There’s more to life than boys and acting and auditioning for musicals, you know.”

  “Yes, but none of them are half as much fun.” I felt my tummy lurch as Jade Caruso butted in to our conversation. “How nice to see you again, Ruby. Are you out of rehab now?”

  “Jade, you know perfectly well I wasn’t in rehab,” I said heavily. “I had a bit of time off of school because I was tired, that’s all.”

  “Oh so that thing in Hiya! Bye-a! about nervous exhaustion wasn’t true then?”

  “No it wasn’t,” I said, looking around for an escape route. “Congratulations on the musical, by the way. Sounds like it’s going to be great.”

  “It is,” Jade said, winking at Menakshi. “Stage schools all over the country are auditioning for the leads, including everyone at the Academy. Hundreds of people will be lining up for a chance and I’ll be one of them. Shame that you’ve given up, Ruby. Still, the competition would be very tough so perhaps it’s better. You wouldn’t want any more ‘nervous exhaustion’, would you?”

  “Jade, you are such a cow,” Nydia said.

  “At least I don’t look like one,” Jade said, turning on her heel and walking away.

  “I’m gonna…”

  Nydia held my arm as I started off after Jade, ready for a fight. “Don’t let her get to you,” she said. “I shouldn’t have called her a cow. I’ll never get a part in the musical now, not if she’s got anything to do with it.”

  “I’m sure Jade hasn’t got any say, not really,” I tried to reassure Nydia. “She’s just making out that she has to wield power over all of you. I could just thump her, I really—Oh, hi, Danny.” I turned around to find my ex-boyfriend smiling at me, that sweet half smile he did whenever he thought I’d said something funny. “How are you?”

  I sounded like I’d just sucked the air out of one of the million or so helium balloons that were dotted about the place.

  “Hi, Danny,” Nydia said. “I’m just going to go and…go over there – bye!”

  Danny and I looked at each other. “I’m OK,” he said. “I just thought I’d come and say hi.”

  “Really?” I said, wishing I hadn’t sounded quite so surprised.

  “Yeah,” Danny added. “So – hi, er, how are you? How’s the new school?”

  “It’s great actually,” I said, making myself smile at him and trying to remember my method acting.

  “So you’re happy then?” he said.

  “Very,” I said. Method acting was turning out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be.

  “And how about what’s-his-name, that bloke…Hunter Blake?” he said, sort of coughing out the name.

  “He’s great too,” I said, choosing not to mention that I hadn’t heard from Hunter since he’d gone back to Hollywood.

  “Great,” Danny said.

  “Great,” I said.

  We looked at each other for a moment longer and then he said, “Ruby…I…”

  “Yes?”

  “It’s just that…”

  “What?”

  “Well…”

  “Oh, Danny, if you’ve got something to say, just say it!” I snapped.

  “You’ve got lipstick on your cheek,” Danny said. “Looks like Anne-Marie’s.”

  He walked off, leaving me standing alone at the party. So much for cool and aloof, I thought to myself.

  “Take that back!” I looked round to find Dakshima face to face with Jade, and it didn’t look as if they were getting on. “I said, take that back,” Dakshima repeated.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Jade said. “Who are you anyway?”

  “What’s going on?” I asked, running over to join them.

  “She told me she was the one whose dad’s doing the musical, so I told her about the choir and us going in for the competition, and she said a school like ours would never get through. She said we might as well not even bother to enter.”

  “I’m only being honest,” Jade said with a shrug. “Schools from all over the country are entering – what chance does a rat hole like Highgate Comp have?”

  “As much chance as anyone,” I protested.

  “We’re just as good as any other choir,” Dakshima said, making a pretty bold claim considering we’d only had one rehearsal so far and only about five of us could actually sing. Dakshima looked at me. “Aren’t we, Ruby?”

  I winced and braced myself.

  “We?” Jade said archly looking at me, as if she were sharpening her talons for the kill. “Ruby, are you in this pathetic little choir?”

  “Are you, Rubes?” Nydia asked.

  “Yes,” I said uncomfortably. “I have to be in it, it was compulsory…”

  “This is hilarious,” Jade screeched. “Ruby Parker, Hollywood Star, reduced to joining some grubby little school choir to try and get her life back. You’re career is over, Ruby. Deal with it.”

  “I know it is,” I said. “I didn’t even want to be in the choir—”

  “Ruby!” Dakshima protested, her eyes wide.

  “Well, I’m sorry, Dakshima, you know I didn’t,” I said. “I knew exactly what would happen – people would think I’d made a mistake leaving the Academy and that I was trying to get back into show business. But I didn’t. I joined because I had to. And I know we aren’t going to win, and after it is all over and I will be able to go back to the life I want.”

  “Good job,” Jade said. “The last thing the world of entertainment needs is more Ruby Parker.”

  “Knock it off, Jade,” Sean said casually. “Don’t talk about Ruby like that.”

  Jade eyed Sean up and down. “One washed-up child star protecting another one. How sweet. Are you sure you shouldn’t be jealous, Anne-Marie?”

  “Jade Caruso,” Anne-Marie said, “I knew I shouldn’t have invited you to this party. I don’t care who your dad is, or how many musicals he’s launching, you can’t come into my house and speak to my friends that way. As of this minute I’m uninviting you. Goodbye.”

  “You can’t do that,” Jade said
furiously as the other guests gathered round to watch the action.

  “Door’s that way,” Anne-Marie said, nodding in the general direction of the exit.

  “You’re throwing me out of your party because of her?” Jade seethed, gesturing at me, “This is a big mistake, Anne-Marie…”

  “The big mistake was inviting you in the first place,” Anne-Marie said, her smile as sharp as broken glass. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I must have had a temporary brain by-pass. Better than the permanent lack of talent you’ve got though, hey, Jade?”

  “You’ve just lost any chance you had of getting a part in Spotlight! now!” Jade shouted, making the other guests gasp. “It’s my dad and my musical, and you won’t get anywhere near it.”

  “Not bothered,” Anne-Marie said. “Because unlike you, Jade, I don’t need my daddy to get a part in a show. I can get it on my own. Do pick up a party bag on the way out.”

  Jade looked around at the Academy kids. “If you want a shot at Spotlight! you’d better come with me now,” she said.

  There was silence as everyone looked at each other.

  “Come on then!” Jade said, walking out. After a moment, a few of the other kids followed her. Michael Henderson, Menakshi and her usual cronies, but also some of the other kids. They didn’t even look at Anne-Marie as they went.

  “Come on, Danny,” I heard Melody speak from behind me.

  Danny stood his ground. “I’m not going,” he said. “Anne-Marie is my friend. I’m not ditching her.”

  “But the musical,” Melody said. “What about the musical?”

  “Melody,” Danny said firmly, “I’m not going.”

  Melody dropped his hand and then walked up to Anne-Marie. “Look, I’m sorry, but…”

  “See ya,” Anne-Marie said brightly, waving her hand.

  Along with Melody, about half of the guests had followed Jade, leaving the glittering ballroom still and silent.

  “I thought you Brits were supposed to be steadfast and loyal,” Sean said, holding Anne-Marie’s hand.

  “Not when it comes to fighting over the chance to play a lead part in a musical it seems,” Anne-Marie said quietly before mustering a smile. “Anyway, who cares? Everyone who’s gone was rank anyway…” Catching Danny’s eye she added, “Well, you know what I mean. Thanks for staying, Danny.”

  “You know she’ll do her best to ruin the Spotlight! auditions for you now, don’t you?” Danny asked her with a shrug.

  “Well, she can try,” Anne-Marie said, hugging me briefly. “But she won’t succeed. True talent like mine can’t be hidden. Come on, everybody. Let’s dance!

  It was almost time to go home when Sean found me in the corner watching the remaining guests dance. “You should dance,” he told me, catching his breath. “That Dakshima girl can really move!”

  “I don’t know,” I said, watching Danny do his moves on the dance floor. He wasn’t really a dancer, but he’d had to learn a routine for the video of his single and he kept repeating that over and over again, no matter what the track. “I’m not really in the mood.”

  “The Academy isn’t the same without you around,” Sean said, leaning against the wall and grinning at me. “We haven’t had a surprise visit from a movie star recently and no one’s run off to Hollywood in weeks.”

  “I bet that’s not true,” I said, returning his smile. “I bet you had three Oscar winners in last week.”

  “Well maybe,” Sean said, looking thoughtful. “Ruby, I know I said I get why you left and everything, but, well, I remember you telling me not so long ago that you can’t ever really give up something that is so much a part of you. You told me that I was an actor through and through and that I couldn’t change that. You’re why I decided to go to the Academy, instead of giving up acting for good.”

  “Yes, but you’re brilliant at it, Sean. You’re a true star,” I told him. “I’m just average, even below average probably. Giving up is the right thing for me.”

  “Would it make any difference if I told you I didn’t think that was true? That I thought you were brilliant too?” Sean asked me.

  “If you do think that, then every single critic and producer in Hollywood disagrees with you,” I told him with a sad smile.

  “Well, if there’s one thing I learnt in Hollywood,” Sean replied, “it’s that those guys? They don’t know a thing.”

  Dakshima was very quiet in Nydia’s dad’s car on the way home and when we were dropped back at mine she paused on the front step. “I don’t know about sleeping over, Ruby,” she said. “Might go home, if you don’t mind.”

  “But why?” I asked. “I thought we had fun tonight.”

  “We did,” Dakshima said. “The party was really cool after that Jade left, and even Anne-Marie’s OK once you get to know her. It’s just that…I don’t think you really want to be at our school. And if you don’t really want to be at our school, then you can’t really want to be real friends, with me, Talitha, Hannah or any of the others.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked her. “Of course I want to be at Highgate. I chose it!”

  “You’re embarrassed about being in the choir and about going in for the competition with us,” Dakshima said. “You didn’t even tell your best friends about it! Seems like being at Highgate is just a game for you. Maybe when you get bored hanging around with kids like me, you can get mummy to pack you back to stage school again, but for us it’s real. Our school really needs to win that money, Ruby, and now everyone in the choir is trying really hard because of you. You inspired us. I thought that you were one of us now, but you’re not really. I don’t think you could be even if you wanted to be. So I think I’d rather go home.”

  “I am one of you,” I said. “I’m sorry, Dakshima. You’re right, I was embarrassed about being in the choir, but you saw what Jade is like. I knew she’d laugh at me. And I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think the choir has a chance of winning the Spotlight! competition. But I do care, I really do. And I want to help the choir get as far as it can.”

  “Really?” Dakshima asked me. “Because if anyone can help it’s you.”

  “They won’t put us through just because I used to be famous,” I told her.

  “No, that’s not what I meant,” Dakshima said. “You know about theatre, you know how to act a song, how to get us to stand so we look good – you can even tell us what to wear for the audition. Ruby, you can make a difference to the choir because you know all of those things.”

  “Really?” I said thoughtfully. “Do you really think so?”

  “Well there’s only one way to prove it, isn’t there,” Dakshima said.

  “What that?” I asked her.

  “Help make the choir so good that even Jade won’t be able to stand in our way,” Dakshima said.

  “Alone in a Crowd”

  Words and Music by Mick Caruso

  All my friends are around me

  Everyone here thinks I’m so great

  And I know that I should be happy

  But happiness will have to wait

  Because until I find you…

  I’m alone in a crowd

  Unless I have you holding my hand

  I’m alone in crowd

  Unless you can understand

  That I love you so much I want to sing it out loud

  But I can’t…no I can’t, because I’m alone in a crowd

  Without you

  Another handshake, a clap on the back

  Another kiss on the cheek

  Another compliment, a round of applause

  Can’t they see I’m lost and weak?

  Because until I find you…

  I’m alone in a crowd

  Without you my heart can’t beat

  I’m alone in crowd

  I don’t even want to eat

  They all think I’m feeling happy and proud

  But I can’t…no I can’t, because I’m alone in a crowd

  Without you

  A
nd suddenly, there you are standing in the doorway

  Your smile is brighter than the star on my

  dressing room door

  And when you push your way through the crowd

  to stand before me

  I know that I am not alone in a crowd any more

  Not alone in a crowd,

  Now that I’ve got you with me

  Not alone in a crowd

  Because you complete me

  And I know that when you’re standing by my side

  There’s no fear, no nothing left to hide

  When I have you

  Chapter Six

  “Right now, people, put the sandwiches away please,” Mr Petrelli said. “Even with extra after school rehearsals we need all the time we’ve got, so less eating and more singing.”

  “I’m starving, sir,” Gabe said, reluctantly putting his Mars bar back in his bag.

  “And me,” Talitha said. “I need my carbohydrates, sir, otherwise I get faint.”

  “I’m sure you do, Talitha,” Mr Petrelli said. “Ten more minutes then we’ll finish for today, but we need to do something to improve Alone in a Crowd. It seems so flat – and I don’t mean the singing. It’s got no sparkle or…pizzazz.”

  “Pizzazz, sir?” Gabe said, looking at Rohan. “Isn’t that a type of microwavable rice?”

  “Funny, Gabe,” Mr Petrelli said. “I just can’t seem to put my finger on the problem…”

  Dakshima elbowed me in the ribs. “Ouch!” I said, scowling at her.

  “Ruby might have an idea, sir,” Dakshima said. “She knows all about this sort of thing after all.”

  Every one looked at me.

  “That’s true, Dakshima. We should make the best use of our assets. Any ideas, Ruby?”

  I stared hard at Dakshima, but my “I’m gonna get you” glare can’t have been that scary because she just grinned back at me.

  “Um, well…” I said, looking at Mr Petrelli and then back down at the lyrics sheet. “This song isn’t really supposed to be for the chorus, is it? It’s Arial Logan’s big solo, so maybe that’s why it isn’t working. With all of us singing it together, we don’t exactly give the impression of being alone in a crowd, do we?” Mr Petrelli was frowning quite hard. “Or maybe not. After all, what do I know?”