‘We can have it at my house tomorrow, if you can get a lift over,’ Laura said. ‘You could get your mum to drop you over after ballet, Ruby.’
‘I’m sure Mum would give Hannah and me a lift,’ I said. ‘She can go over and visit Sadie and Grandad while we’re rehearsing.’
Sadie and Grandad live across the road from Laura, which had come in handy a couple of times already.
‘Cool,’ said Hannah. ‘Tomorrow it is then!’
I was expecting the usual pandemonium when I rang Hannah’s doorbell on Saturday morning, but her dad Steve answered, dressed in his gardening clothes.
‘Oh, hi, Meg,’ he said, smiling. ‘I think Hannah’s nearly ready.’ He called up the stairs, ‘Hannah!’
Hannah came running downstairs. ‘Hi, Meg! I’ll just grab my notebook. I’ve written down a few more ideas for the scenes.’
‘Great,’ I said. ‘Me too!’
‘So what’s this latest show you’re doing? Sleeping Beauty is it?’ Hannah’s dad said. ‘Oh no, wait, that’s just what we call Hannah when she can’t get out of bed on Saturday mornings.’
‘Daa-aad!’ groaned Hannah. ‘No dad jokes today please!’
‘Of course not,’ Steve said, winking at me. ‘Do you need a lift home later, Sleeping … I mean, Hannah?’
‘No, we’re fine thanks,’ I said, seeing that Hannah was merely looking thunderously at him. ‘My mum is going to visit my grandparents while we’re rehearsing, so she can bring us home too.’
‘Ah, the famous acting dynasty!’ Steve said. ‘No wonder you’ve got the acting bug, Meg. I’ve no idea where Hannah gets her interest in it from. The nearest anyone in my family ever got to appearing on stage was when I was asked to come up to pick out a raffle ticket at the office Christmas dinner.’
Hannah, who had started blushing at Steve’s mentioning the acting dynasty, now looked positively mortified. ‘Dad, please! Come on, Meg, let’s get out of here before Dad embarrasses me any more.’
‘But it’s my job to embarrass you!’ Steve called after her as we made our escape. ‘It’s in the dad handbook!’
‘Sorry about that,’ Hannah muttered.
Strangely, I found myself feeling a tiny bit envious of her easy relationship with her dad, and her crazy, action-packed family. I wished my dad could be around a bit more – and would pay a bit more attention to us when he was. At least Steve knew what Hannah was up to, and I was pretty sure he’d got the show wrong on purpose. My dad only seemed to want to talk about his film.
Mum was waiting for us in the car. ‘All set?’ she asked as I slipped into the front seat beside her and Hannah got in at the back. ‘I hear you two are going to be the ugly stepsisters, Hannah. It’s going to be quite a task to pull that one off!’
‘Oh, we’ll have great fun with the costumes and make-up!’ Hannah said. ‘You won’t know us when we’ve finished!’
‘I’m sure you’re right, darling,’ Mum said. ‘I played the Wicked Witch of the West once, you know, from The Wizard of Oz? What a palaver that was, good heavens! I used to need to spend a whole hour getting my face done each night. I was quite relieved when that show came to an end.’
‘I don’t remember hearing about that one before, Mum,’ I said, surprised.
‘Well, it’s not exactly the type of photo you want to hang up in your house, darling!’ Mum said with a laugh. ‘Green never was my colour!’
She started telling Hannah all about different productions she’d appeared in over the years which had required specialist make-up. In the rearview mirror, I could see that Hannah was absolutely riveted, though all she kept saying was ‘Wow’ or ‘Really?’ Just the kind of attentive audience my mum likes, I thought with a smile to myself. Sometimes it took this sort of encounter to remind me how unusual my upbringing really was. Not everyone had a mother who’d once had such a severe allergic reaction to greasepaint that she couldn’t leave the house for a week.
‘Oh, it was simply ghastly, wasn’t it Meg?’ Mum said, shuddering at the memory. ‘My face was covered in the most dreadful blisters. Doug had to do all the shopping – I think it was the first time he discovered where the supermarket was! But this is how we actresses must suffer for our art.’
‘Mum, you’ll scare Hannah!’ I said, though from the look on Hannah’s face she seemed quite prepared to suffer for her art if that was necessary. ‘We’re only going to be using ordinary make-up so I think we’ll be OK.’
‘I suppose you don’t have to worry about stage lighting if you’re going to be outdoors again,’ Mum said. ‘That’s why you need the really strong greasepaint, you know, Hannah – because under stage lighting even the best tans look terribly pale! Are you planning another garden show?’
‘We haven’t really talked about that yet,’ I said. ‘I guess we could do it in the garden again, but it might have to be pretty soon before the weather gets cold.’
‘Let’s talk about it today,’ Hannah said, writing it down in her notebook.
‘Well, here we are!’ Mum said, pulling up outside Sadie’s house. ‘Have a fun rehearsal girls, and see you back here at one.’
Ruby was just arriving at Laura’s too. Laura was already at the front door ready to let us in. ‘I can’t wait to get started!’ she said. ‘I’ve got loads of ideas for scenes.’
‘So have I,’ Hannah, Ruby and I said at exactly the same time. This was the perfect cue for a fit of giggles, which caused Laura’s big sister Andrea to roll her eyes at us as she passed by on her way up to her room with her friend Maeve.
‘Oh no, it’s the giggle gang again,’ she said to Maeve. ‘Cover your ears, they think everything’s hilarious.’
‘Have fun studying,’ Laura responded at once. ‘Glad I don’t have to do homework on the weekend.’ She turned to us before Andrea could reply. ‘Come on guys, let’s go out to the garden.’
Gardens seemed to have become our ideal rehearsal space, but already there was a feel of autumn in the air, and I realised we’d have to start thinking about a plan for when it got too cold to rehearse outside. Of course we could use someone’s sitting room or bedroom, but it had been great having all the space outdoors. Then there was the show itself – we’d definitely need more space than any of our sitting rooms if we had to accommodate an audience too.
One by one we climbed into Laura’s trampoline which is our favourite place to sit in our garden. It’s very relaxing sitting there chatting and having a gentle bounce every now and again.
‘Let’s get the official business out of the way first,’ Hannah said. ‘We should make a plan about when we’re going to do the show – and where.’
‘Yes, you’re right, it really helped us to focus last time,’ Laura said. ‘Maybe we could do it in school?’
‘Do you think Miss Brennan would let us?’ I asked. ‘It would be nice to do it for the class.’
‘I’m sure she would,’ Ruby said. ‘She seems really nice so far, doesn’t she?’
‘Yes – apart from all the maths homework,’ Hannah said. ‘I think school sounds like a good plan, especially because – well, I’ll get to that idea in a minute. What about rehearsals? It’s soon going to be too cold to use our gardens.’
‘Oh, we might have a few more weeks,’ Laura said. ‘It’s lovely today.’
‘That’s true,’ Hannah said. ‘It’s actually quite warm when the sun comes out! OK, maybe we don’t need to worry about it just yet. So what about a date? Do you think we’d be ready by the end of September?’
‘I think so,’ I said. ‘As long as we can fit in at least three rehearsals a week.’
‘I’m not sure I’ll be able to do three every week,’ Ruby said. ‘My ballet teacher is talking about doing some extra rehearsals for our Christmas show.’
‘You’re already doing three classes a week, isn’t that enough?’ Laura complained.
‘Well, what about you with all your Gaelic football training and matches?’ Ruby flashed back. I’d noticed that those two seemed to be get
ting on each other’s nerves a little bit recently, and that Laura especially didn’t seem to have much patience for Ruby’s ballet obsession.
‘I’m sure we can work around everyone’s timetable,’ Hannah said, trying to smooth things over. ‘Maybe we could fit in short rehearsals at lunch time in school or something.’
‘Can we get started on the show itself then?’ I asked. I was dying to get on with trying out my stepsister act.
‘Yes please!’ Hannah said. ‘Let’s hear some of these brilliant ideas! Who wants to go first?’
‘I will,’ said Laura. ‘How about we start off with the ugly stepsisters making Cinderella do their homework for them? That’s pretty modern.’
‘Why does Cinderella just do what they say, though?’ Ruby said. ‘I’ve been wondering about that.’
‘How about they keep threatening to tell their mother on her?’ I suggested. I put on a whiny, bossy voice. ‘Cinderella, get that maths done right now or I’m going to tell Mummy you were mean to me – Cinderella, make me a snack or I’ll tell Mummy you broke her vase!’
Ruby was giggling. ‘That sounds great. Oh, maybe the stepsisters could actually break a vase on stage and then act like it was Cinderella who did it.’
‘I wonder if my mum has any of her old pottery left,’ I said. ‘There might be some in Sadie’s attic. She wouldn’t mind us smashing those!’
‘I had an idea for the cool auntie,’ Laura said. ‘How about she’s a good witch? You know, she’s an ordinary auntie by day, works in an office, but she’s secretly a witch.’
‘But I thought she was going to give Cinderella a makeover instead of using magic,’ I said.
‘Oh yes, I’d forgotten about that,’ Laura said, disappointed.
‘We could do a witch show for Hallowe’en and do something like that then,’ Hannah suggested. ‘That would be so much fun! But getting back to Cinderella – I was thinking, how about she’s going to the sixth class graduation disco?’
‘Oh, yes!’ exclaimed Ruby and Laura together.
I’d already heard so much about the sixth class graduation disco, even though it wouldn’t be happening until the end of the school year in June. It seemed to be a pretty big deal in our school. Sixth class was the last year of primary school – afterwards we’d be moving on to secondary school and the class would be all split up. So the graduation ceremony and the disco that followed were almost like a rite of passage.
We talked about all our different ideas. Hannah’s pen flew over the pages of her notebook as she scribbled everything down. In the end, we’d managed to come up with what we thought was a pretty clever plot.
Cindy (which we thought was more suited to our show than Cinderella) was being bullied by her two stepsisters, who made her do all their homework, clean their rooms and bring them snacks and drinks. (We’d made the stepsisters twins, the same age as Cindy, so they could all be in the same class in school, which suited our story.) Cindy was longing to go to the graduation disco, but she had nothing to wear, because her only clothes were her stepsisters’ old hand-me-downs which didn’t fit her properly. She did her best to make herself an outfit, but the stepsisters ruined it. They went off to the disco without her and she was left alone in her room, crying. That was when her cool auntie arrived with a fabulous new outfit for her to wear, did her hair and make-up and gave her a lift to the disco.
At the disco Cindy met Disco Boy (which was what we were calling Prince Charming for now because we couldn’t seem to agree on a name) who thought she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. He danced with her all night and the stepsisters were so jealous. But Cindy lost one of her new Converse and ran home without it.
Next morning, Disco Boy found Cindy and gave her her shoe back. He asked her to marry him and come to live with him in his mansion. But Cindy said no thanks, because they were only twelve, and she was going to go and live with her cool aunt instead. The ugly stepsisters were very jealous that Disco Boy liked Cindy instead of them and even more jealous that Cindy got to live with the cool aunt, but it served them right for being so mean.
‘How are we going to do the disco scene?’ Hannah asked. ‘Will it work with only four people?’
‘Maybe the scene could be set at the soft drinks table, a little bit away from the main action,’ I said. ‘That would make sense anyway, because that’s where people would go to chat at a disco – you can’t really chat on the dance floor.’
‘Yes, and we could have some sort of backdrop to make it look like there are more people there,’ Hannah said, excited. ‘Maybe we could hang up an old sheet and paint some figures on it – you know, just black silhouettes.’
‘I have a disco ball we could use,’ Ruby exclaimed. ‘We just need to be able to plug it in somewhere and then it will send coloured lights all around the stage. That would help make it look like the silhouettes were other people at the disco.’
‘That sounds great,’ Hannah said. ‘And we’d need some music of course. I guess if the music’s not too loud that will help give the impression that the disco is sort of in the background.’
‘Great, let’s get started then,’ said Laura. ‘Should we start at the beginning?’
We started improvising the first scene with the ugly stepsisters and Cindy. Laura wasn’t in that scene so she took notes for us. I loved that I was finally getting the chance to practise the snooty looks and nasty comments I had in mind for my part.
We were so absorbed in our acting that we didn’t realise Andrea and Maeve had snuck out to the garden to watch us until a smothered giggle gave them away. Laura turned around, outraged.
‘Andrea! Go away or I’m telling Mum. She told you to leave us alone.’
‘Oh, don’t make us go away!’ Andrea begged. ‘It’s really funny.’
‘The stepsisters are brilliant,’ Maeve chimed in.
Laura was about to argue, but Hannah, who loves any kind of constructive criticism, got in before her. ‘Do you really think so?’ she asked. ‘Did you see the bit where I threw Cindy’s favourite necklace out the window?’
‘Yes, it was great,’ Andrea said.
‘You guys are good!’ Maeve said. ‘You could be the next Saoirse Ronan or Daisy Sheridan!’
I felt all the colour drain out of my face. How could Maeve possibly know that name?
‘Who’s Daisy Sheridan?’ Hannah asked.
‘Haven’t you heard of her? She’s this young Irish actress, about your age I think,’ Maeve explained. ‘She’s supposed to be something special. Her first film is coming out soon – I forget what it’s called.’
‘Oh, we’ll have to go and see that,’ Hannah said, excited. ‘Imagine someone our age – and from Ireland. Maybe your dad knows her, Meg.’
I tried to laugh. ‘My dad doesn’t, like, know everyone in all the films …’ I gripped my hands tightly to stop them shaking and did my best to sound casual as I asked, ‘Where did you hear about her, anyway?’
‘Oh I follow all the celebrity gossip on Twitter,’ Maeve said. ‘I saw it on there.’
‘Oh, right.’ I turned to my friends. ‘Well, will we get on with the scene?’
‘After they go,’ Laura said, frowning at Andrea and Maeve. ‘We’re not ready for an audience yet.’
‘OK, we can take a hint!’ Andrea said. ‘Come on, Maeve, we should probably finish that maths anyway.’
We went back to our rehearsal, but the morning was kind of ruined for me. I tried to concentrate on my part, but it was hard not to be distracted by all sorts of panicky thoughts, whirling around my head.
* * *
When we got home I waited until Mum was busy before taking out the laptop. I quickly typed Daisy Sheridan into Google. Straight away a story popped up, written by someone calling herself Tinseltown Talk: ‘Young Irish starlet Daisy Sheridan, soon to appear in a major motion picture, is set to be the next big sensation. With all the quiet charm of Saoirse Ronan and the charisma of Evanna Lynch, Sheridan will wow audiences all over the
world in her new role.’
Overcome with tension, I kept scrolling down, but this was the only story so far. I checked for a photo and heaved a sigh of relief that there didn’t seem to be one. At least that was something.
But why was the story there at all? This wasn’t supposed to happen for ages yet.
‘Doing some more research for your show?’
I’d been so engrossed in the story I hadn’t heard Mum come in. I instantly shut down Google, turning to smile at Mum. ‘Yes, just thinking about costumes,’ I said. ‘I’m going to leave it now though. Is it time for lunch?’
‘Yes, I’m just going to heat up some soup,’ Mum said. ‘Could you put the laptop away and set the table for me, there’s a dear.’
I put the laptop away, glad Mum hadn’t seen what I’d been reading. One thing was for sure, I was going to have to keep this to myself for now. Mum would absolutely go ballistic when she found out. Because there was only one person who could have released the story this early.
I was finding it hard to get used to sitting in the classroom for six hours every day. It was so different from what I was used to, with all the chaos and bustle of being on the film set in between lessons. Here the only breaks were when we went outside to play at break time or for P.E. Even being sent to another class on a message was great because of the change of scene.
Stuck at my desk, my mind wandered a lot, especially when we were doing a subject I wasn’t very interested in. Monday seemed to be the slowest day of all. Gazing out the window, I watched the leaves on the sycamore tree blowing in the autumn wind. Already they were starting to turn brown. Summer was well and truly over.
Suddenly I found my attention caught by something Miss Brennan was saying. ‘Now, we have a special date coming up in a few weeks’ time. Carrickbeg National School will be a hundred years old, and we have a big day of celebrations planned. All your families will be invited along to the School Centenary, and the Lord Mayor has promised to attend. We’ll be decorating the school and baking cakes and so on. But here’s the part that I know will really interest some of you. Fifth and sixth class have been asked to provide the entertainment. We’re going to do a few songs together as a class, but we’ll also have a drama section.’
Starring Meg Page 7