Starring Meg

by Mac a'Bháird, Natasha;

  I sat up straighter in my seat. Drama at school – excellent! I couldn’t wait to hear what Miss Brennan had in mind.

  ‘Now, the staff have decided that this is a project you should work on yourselves. So I want you to get into small groups of two to four and come up with a sketch together. It doesn’t have to be very long – about five minutes is fine – and it can be based on a story or film or you can write something original yourselves. We’re not going to do this in class time – I want it to be all your own work – and it will be a nice surprise for the rest of the class to see what you’ve come up with. Next week we will have a performance just for the class, and I’ll choose a group to represent us at the celebration day concert.’

  Hannah turned around in her seat to smile at me and I gave her the thumbs up in return. Our Cinderella show would be perfect for this! And now we’d have a brilliant excuse to get together more often because it was homework. Laura and Ruby were whispering together and I knew they’d had the same idea.

  Miss Brennan was still talking. ‘So it might be easier to choose someone who lives near you so you can get together to work on it. I don’t want to create a lot of work for your parents in setting up play dates!’

  Tracey put her hand on my arm. ‘Great! We can work on this together. What do you think we should do?’

  ‘Oh – um …’ I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t very well tell her that I’d already agreed to work with Star Club, when the other three were sitting all the way at the front of the classroom.

  ‘Don’t worry, I’m sure I can come up with something, I have loads of great ideas,’ Tracey said. ‘Oh, how about we make a music video?’

  ‘Uh, I’m not sure that’s what Miss Brennan means …’ I began.

  ‘No, you’re right. She probably wants something a bit more traditional. Well, how about we’re two sisters who want to be pop stars, and we’re fighting because we both think we’re better than the other? Or how about we’re judges on X Factor, and we can be really nasty and mock all the contestants?’

  In spite of myself I found I was nodding along to Tracey’s ideas, though she was talking so much I didn’t actually say anything. She finally paused to take a breath before saying, ‘Why don’t you come over to my house after school and we can get started?’

  ‘I can’t today,’ I said, glad to have a good excuse. ‘My granny collects me on Mondays and we go back to hers.’

  ‘Oh. Well, never mind, we can do it another day. It’s so handy us living so close! We’ll be able to get together every day if we want to.’

  ‘All right, boys and girls, I know you’re excited, but let’s move on now,’ Miss Brennan said. ‘Take out your Spellbound books please.’

  Tracey sighed dramatically and made a big show of searching through her bag. I opened my book, a tense feeling in the pit of my stomach. How was I going to get out of this one?

  * * *

  Our Star Club meeting that afternoon was in Hannah’s again. It was really my turn to be the host, but Mum wouldn’t be home by 5pm so I couldn’t have people over. Mum was happy to let me stay home on my own, but she knew some of the other mums wouldn’t be happy to have their kids visit without an adult present. I’d promised to host on Friday instead, when Mum got off earlier.

  I was the first one there and Hannah answered the door, full of excitement. ‘Hi, Meg! I was looking for you after school, but you must have gone straight off with Sadie. Isn’t it cool about the drama project for the School Centenary? I’ve already told Mum we’re going to need extra rehearsal time because it’s homework!’

  ‘Cool,’ I said, squashing down the uncomfortable thought that Tracey was expecting me to do the project with her. ‘I wish all homework could be like that!’

  ‘Come up to my room,’ Hannah said. ‘It’s a bit too chilly for the garden this evening, so I’ve bribed Maisie to stay away for an hour. I have to play Maisie Monopoly with her later, but it’s a small price to pay for a bit of peace and quiet.’

  ‘Maisie Monopoly’ is what Hannah calls Maisie’s version of the game, because Maisie has pretty much made up her own rules. I played it with all the Kielys one day during the holidays. It went on for four hours and Maisie, inevitably, won, mainly because the rest of us got so confused by the rules that we eventually just started letting her buy all our property at knock-down prices. I thought it was pretty self-sacrificing of Hannah to agree to a game just so we could have our rehearsal. I wondered, though, if we’d have enough room in her bedroom – I’d been up there before, and with the twin beds belonging to Hannah and Maisie there wasn’t room for much else.

  Hannah led the way up to her room, where she opened the door with a flourish. ‘Ta-da!’ she said, letting me go in first.

  ‘Oh wow, you got bunks!’ I said, admiring the lovely bunk beds with their matching duvet covers, yellow with purple and pink butterflies.

  ‘Great, isn’t it?’ Hannah said, beaming. ‘We have so much more space now. It used to drive me crazy trying to walk around our beds when I was practising my lines. We didn’t even need new beds – the ones we had could be either bunk beds or twin – Dad just didn’t want to put them up as bunks before because he thought Maisie would dive-bomb off the top bunk, but she’s promised to behave.’

  ‘It’s brilliant – you must be thrilled,’ I said.

  ‘I’d still prefer to have my own room, but looks like I’ll have to wait a bit longer for that,’ Hannah said.

  The doorbell rang and Ruby and Laura came running up the stairs to join us, exclaiming in delight when they saw Hannah’s revamped room. It was amazing how much difference it made to the bedroom – it would definitely work much better as a rehearsal space.

  ‘Let’s get started then, will we?’ Hannah said. ‘Oh, and we still need names for the characters – apart from Cindy of course. Anyone come up with anything?’

  ‘How about Faye for the fairy godmother?’ Laura said. ‘It means fairy, but it sounds like a normal name, so I think it would work.’

  ‘Perfect!’ Hannah said.

  ‘We need something horrible for the ugly stepsisters,’ I said. ‘And matching – like maybe starting with the same letter, or rhyming or something. Like Prudence and Prunella.’

  ‘Beryl and Cheryl,’ said Laura.

  ‘Mildred and Hildred,’ said Ruby.

  ‘Vienetta and Verucca,’ Hannah said, giggling as she wrote all the suggestions down.

  In the end we decided that I would be Hepzibah and Hannah would be Hortense, which we thought sounded just perfect for the kind of characters we were creating.

  ‘What about Disco Boy?’ Ruby asked. ‘We haven’t got a name for him yet.’

  ‘Never mind, we haven’t finished his scenes yet so we can leave him for now,’ Hannah said. ‘I’m dying to get started. Let’s start with the bit where the stepsisters deliberately knock over the soup and make Cindy clean it up.’

  We had the best time bringing the stepsisters to life. I noticed, though, that Ruby was a bit unsure in her role as Cinderella, and Laura kept getting impatient with her when she didn’t know her lines.

  ‘Don’t worry, Ruby,’ I said, trying to smooth things over. ‘It’s still really early in our rehearsals.’

  ‘I think we’re all probably hungry too!’ Hannah said. ‘Laura, why don’t you come with me and help me get a snack ready?’

  Laura got up to help, and as they were leaving Hannah whispered to me, ‘See if you can give Ruby a hand.’

  Ruby was walking around with the script in her hand, feverishly going over her lines.

  ‘Want me to go over that bit with you, Ruby?’ I asked tentatively.

  ‘It’s too hard,’ Ruby burst out. ‘I did say I didn’t think I should be Cinderella. There are too many lines for me.’ She looked almost tearful.

  ‘But you’re a fabulous Cinderella,’ I told her. ‘I think maybe we just need to make the part suit you better. What about if we cut out a few lines? I’m sure she doesn’t need to say
so much.’ I took the script, where Ruby had highlighted her own lines in pink. There really was quite a lot for her to learn. ‘Look, that bit can come out, it’s not important to the story,’ I said, pointing. ‘And we can make that line much shorter. And that bit can come out too. You don’t need to say so many words – you can use body language to show how you feel when you’re being bullied by your stepsisters.’

  Ruby nodded, but she didn’t look completely convinced. ‘I don’t know, Meg. I just don’t know if I’m right for the part. It’s not like Posy, which felt like a natural fit to me, with the ballet and everything.’

  I had a flash of inspiration. ‘But we can have dancing in this too. Why don’t we put in a dance for Cinderella in the disco scene?’

  ‘Oh, could we?’ Ruby said, her face lighting up. ‘That would be fantastic. I think I could do a much better job of getting the character across if I could use movement. I could choreograph something that shows how Cinderella feels so happy to be at the disco, and free from the mean stepsisters.’ She started moving gracefully around the room in a floaty, dreamy sort of dance, swaying in time to some music only she could hear.

  ‘That would be perfect,’ I told her. I wondered if Hannah would mind me changing things around. It was really the director’s job to make the sort of changes I was suggesting, but then again it had always been a team effort for us in planning our show. Even though Hannah could be bossy at times, she was nothing like some directors I’d seen before, who were almost like dictators on set.

  Hannah and Laura came back with a plateful of carrot sticks and houmous. Hannah was delighted when I told her what Ruby and I had come up with.

  ‘That sounds fantastic, guys!’ she said. ‘I love the idea of using dance to show how Cindy is feeling!’

  ‘Sorry I was grumpy,’ Laura added a bit sheepishly. ‘I think Hannah was right, I just needed to get some food into me. Even if it’s just carrots.’

  ‘That was all Mum would let us have this close to dinner time,’ Hannah explained. ‘You know what she’s like!’

  ‘It’s perfect,’ I told her, grabbing a handful of carrots. ‘Ruby, why don’t you show them the dance you were doing? I think this is really going to work.’

  At home, I had just sat down and switched on the TV, thinking I’d chill out for a few minutes, when I heard Mum’s key in the front door. She came storming into the sitting room and flung her jacket on the back of the couch any old way. I watched as it slid onto the floor. Mum didn’t bother picking it up, just flung herself onto the couch instead.

  ‘Bad day at work?’ I asked sympathetically.

  ‘You could say that, darling,’ Mum said, sighing theatrically.

  ‘Is it that computer program again? Or Chris?’ I asked. Chris was Mum’s boss in the office where she worked.

  ‘Neither. The program’s going just fine now, and Chris thinks I’m fabulous. It’s your dad!’

  My heart sank. ‘What’s he done this time?’

  Mum sighed again. ‘What hasn’t he done? He keeps emailing me and texting me promotional photos from the new film, asking me to choose one, and when I ignored his call on my mobile he rang the office. Honestly, darling, doesn’t he understand that I’m in work? I can’t keep dropping everything to answer his silly questions.’

  ‘Why is he in such a rush with the photos?’ I asked, trying to fight a sense of foreboding. I wondered if Mum had seen the ‘Tinseltown Talk’ story. Probably not, I decided, or she’d be even angrier.

  ‘I really can’t imagine,’ Mum said. ‘The film isn’t due out for months! I simply can’t see what the panic is. And then he starts up again about wanting you to go back out to California. Can’t he accept we just want a quiet life for a little while?’

  Mum looked exhausted by the stress of it all. I went and sat beside her, giving her a clumsy one-armed hug.

  ‘Do you want me to talk to him?’ I asked. ‘Maybe he would listen to me.’ I didn’t really think that he would, but I badly wanted to try to make Mum feel better.

  But Mum shook her head emphatically. ‘Absolutely not. I’m not having you used as a pawn between us.’

  ‘I know you wouldn’t,’ I said, though for a moment I wondered. Sometimes my parents acted like couples are supposed to act when they’re getting divorced – using the children for information and to pass on messages, trying to win them over to their own side. Surely though my parents weren’t going to get divorced? They were always fighting like this – and then they’d make it up again and be so lovey-dovey with each other that it was absolutely sickening. I’d always figured this was just the way it was when you had two such highly-strung artistic temperaments coming up against each other. Sometimes I thought I was the sanest one of the three of us.

  ‘Let’s put it out of our heads,’ Mum said. ‘I don’t much feel like cooking dinner after the day I’ve had. Let’s see what’s in the freezer, will we? There should still be some of Sadie’s casserole left. I knew that would come in handy.’

  * * *

  Next day in school, Tracey kept whispering to me in class about what she thought we should do for the School Centenary show.

  ‘I hope you don’t mind, but Jamie and I got started without you,’ she whispered. ‘We’re going to be the two X Factor judges and you can be the pop star who we think is rubbish.’

  ‘Uh, Tracey …’

  ‘You can do some really terrible singing, right? Something awful and screechy, and we’ll make fun of you and then you get thrown off the show.’

  It didn’t sound like a whole lot of fun for the poor pop star, I thought. At least Cinderella had a happy ending.

  ‘I’m just not sure …’ I started.

  ‘Enough talking, you two!’ Miss Brennan interrupted. ‘Get on with your work please!’

  I turned my attention back to my work, glad of the interruption. I knew I needed to tell Tracey I wasn’t going to do it, but she was so forceful, it was hard to find the right words.

  It was lovely being able to walk to school with Hannah and Ruby every morning. I’d given up calling for Tracey, who always seemed to leave earlier. I didn’t know why she was avoiding us – she was still very friendly to me in class. And she was still convinced we were going to work together on the sketch for the School Centenary. So far I’d avoided actually committing to something – but I hadn’t told her I was doing it with Star Club.

  That Friday when we got to the school yard, something felt different. Kids fell silent as we went past, then immediately started whispering among themselves. Some of the boys even stopped kicking a ball around to turn and stare at us as we went by. Or to stare at me.

  ‘Oh my God, Meg! Is it true?’ Isabel was actually jumping up and down with excitement, and even Sean and Aaron, who normally pretend to be too cool to be interested in anything girls have to say, edged in close to us, eager to hear my reply.

  ‘Is what true?’ I asked, though I had a sinking feeling I knew exactly what she was talking about.

  ‘That your parents work in films!’ Isabel said, almost breathless with excitement.

  Beside me, I heard a sharp intake of breath from Hannah. Isabel carried on, ‘Everyone’s talking about it. They’re saying your mum’s an actress and your dad’s a director. Is it true?’

  I could almost feel thousands of eyes on me, waiting for me to say something. Dimly, I realised that the way I reacted now could determine my whole future at Carrickbeg National School – in fact, in Carrickbeg itself. I swallowed. ‘Yes, it’s true. But they’re not, like, madly famous or anything. I mean, it’s not like they’re involved in the Harry Potter films or something.’ I tried to laugh. ‘My mum has been in a few films, but she mainly works in the theatre. And my dad mainly works in TV – the film he’s working on now is his first mainstream one.’

  ‘But he’s actually working in Hollywood, right?’ Isabel asked, wide-eyed.

  ‘Uh – yes,’ I admitted.

  ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe it!’ Isabel squea
led. ‘Aoife, it’s true!’

  It looked like my attempt to play it down hadn’t exactly worked. Hannah and Ruby looked as dismayed as I felt. Isabel was waving frantically to Aoife, who left her place at the top of the line and ran down to join us. Within seconds we were surrounded by what seemed like the whole of sixth class, with a couple of extra kids from fourth and fifth class trying to see what was going on too. Only Tracey stayed in her place, not looking at us, her attention fixed firmly on her phone.

  Everyone was firing questions at me at once.

  ‘What films is your mum in?’

  ‘What’s her name? Would we have heard of her?’

  ‘Why did you move to Carrickbeg? Why aren’t you in Hollywood with your dad?’

  ‘What’s it like in Hollywood?’

  ‘Are your parents millionaires?’

  It was even worse than I’d imagined. Surrounded by all these kids, all shouting over each other, all staring at me, I felt panic-stricken and completely alone. Then I felt the comforting touch of Hannah’s hand on my arm, and on the other side Ruby pressed closer to me too.

  The bell rang, but kids took absolutely no notice, crowding around me even closer until I felt completely hemmed in.

  Hannah took charge. Sometimes her bossy big sister thing is an absolute blessing. ‘OK guys, calm down, it’s not like Niall Horan just walked into the yard.’

  ‘Oh my God, do you know Niall Horan?’ cried Aoife.

  ‘Of course she doesn’t!’ Hannah said.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ It was Miss Brennan, sounding distinctly unimpressed at finding her class in a hysterical huddle instead of a neat line. The kids from fourth and fifth class melted away, running after their own class lines which were already on their way into the school.

  ‘Oh, Miss!’ Isabel was so excited she didn’t even notice how cross Miss Brennan looked. ‘Meg’s parents are famous! They’re in films! Meg used to live in Hollywood!’