Drama at Silver Spires (6 page)

“Why should I be interested in that?” I asked coldly.

“Because it's obvious you didn't come up here to look at photos,” she sneered, which naturally made her friends laugh. “Anyway, it was Jemima Langton.”

“Jemima Langton,” I repeated. “At least she's not a show-off like some people.”

Cara's eyes flashed with fury. “Huh! I like that! If anyone's a show-off round here it's you, Georgie Henderson!” She tossed her head and walked off. “Come on, you lot.”

By then the whole bottom had dropped out of my world and nothing seemed to matter any more. I wandered towards the list and pretended to be scanning it in a bored kind of way, just in case Cara was still hanging around. Really, though, I was scouring it carefully to see if Cara had missed my name by any miracle. It didn't take a minute to see that she hadn't. The last tiny little ray of hope had vanished and I was hurting so much that I don't know how I managed to get out of the building without crying.

“Oh no!” said Mia when she saw my face. And I could tell she was genuinely shocked.

“I told you,” I said in a thin voice. But then just when I thought I was about to burst into tears, because all my friends were saying, “Poor Georgie” and “Never mind”, I suddenly felt another wave of anger building up inside me.

“It's so unfair!” I practically spat. “And I can't stand the way Cara is all gloaty because she's got the part I wanted.”

“But did you get…Hannah…or anything?” Mia asked gently.

I looked down and pretended to be absorbed in drawing the wrinkles up out of my tights. “Nah. I told you I wouldn't.” I had to straighten up eventually and the moment I did, Mia put her arm round me.

“If only you'd known about the theatre stage being amplified, Georgie…”

A horrible sadness sunk into me and I stayed as rigid as I could, wishing Mia would take her arm away because it wasn't helping me to be strong and that seemed like the most important thing at the moment.

“At least you've got…next year
and
the next,” said Grace. Why were they all speaking in such soft voices?

“I'm okay about it, honestly,” I managed to say.

There was another little silence, then Jess spoke. “Why don't you join art club? We're starting to paint the set next week.”

Katy's eyes lit up. “Or you could join fashion club. I came across Mam'zelle Clemence just now and she says there are lots of costumes in the wardrobe department but they need more, and we're designing them and choosing the fabrics in fashion club.”

“I didn't even know there was a wardrobe department,” I said, making a huge effort to act as normally as possible, even though I could feel my strength draining away. “Where is it?”

“Upstairs in the main building,” said Katy. “Right at the very top. Apparently there's a little narrow staircase that leads to a loft and there are rails and rails of clothes tucked away in there.”

“We should go and see it!” said Naomi, brightly.

I hated their happiness. It seemed so fake. And I didn't need their sympathy. It was like they were trying to root out my shame, and I wouldn't let them. I just wanted everyone to forget about the play and everything to do with it. I shrugged a doesn't-bother-me-either-way shrug which juddered Mia's arm off my shoulder, and the moment I'd done it I wanted to take it back because I suddenly felt more alone than I'd ever felt.

“I'm pretty fed up with the subject of plays to be honest,” I managed to say. “I'm…going to the loo.”

I walked fast, my head still spinning with thoughts and feelings. I hated knowing that Cara had got the part of Amy and I hadn't got a part at all. I hated it so much that I felt sick and wished I could wake up and find the whole thing had all been a terrible dream. I didn't go the loo. I just walked down to the athletics field and on the way I switched on my phone and found two messages. One was from my grandma and the other was from Mum. I read Mum's first.

Gr8 news bout play. Did u get a part? If so let us no ASAP cos dad away 4 work from 13th 2 16th Dec. but still time to alter it. luv u. M X

Oh well, at least Dad wouldn't have to rearrange his business trip. I read Grandma's text next…

So excited about the play, darling. Wild horses would not keep me away! Love Gran

Grandma's message must have taken her ages to write. She's so slow at texting and hasn't got the hang of shortening words. A rock of despair seemed to drop into the pit of my stomach. She was just assuming I'd get a part. My selfish behaviour was letting everyone down. How was I ever going to explain to poor Grandma that I wasn't actually in the play, and that it was my own fault? I couldn't tell my family about turning my nose up at the Susie Perkins part, any more than I could admit it to my friends. There wasn't one single good thing about the mess I was in. I'd thought I didn't want anything to do with the play just because I couldn't get what I wanted, and now I was paying for my stupid hot-headed behaviour. Oh well, Dad would be pleased that the play rehearsals weren't taking any time away from my schoolwork, so at least I might be able to try and improve my marks before the end of term. I quickly texted the same reply to Mum and Grandma.

Only tiny parts 4 yr 7s. Lots of hangin bout at rehursals so didn't aud. Luv G x

I closed my eyes and slowly opened them again. I felt weighed down with sadness and shame. I stopped walking and stared down at my feet.

Something had changed. I wasn't angry with Cara or her friends or Miss Pritchard any more. Well, I was still angry with Cara, but most of all I was angry with myself. I shouldn't have gone flying off the handle at the auditions. Mum and Dad are always telling me I'm far too impulsive. I should have been sensible and written down Susie Perkins as my second choice. What an idiot I was. And now it was too late. There was nothing I could do.

The maths prep was impossible. I tried to get Jess to help me but she didn't have any more clue than I did, and in the end she went to the front to tell Miss Fosbrook, who was on duty. Miss Fosbrook is the assistant housemistress and she's such a nice person that she practically did the whole prep for Jess and me, which meant that I didn't need to concentrate at all. I knew this wasn't helping me in the long run and I didn't like the picture that came into my mind of Dad's cross face reading my terrible report, but I quickly shook it away.

And then my mind filled up with thoughts about the play, just like it did all the time now. I'd tried so hard to forget about it, but I simply couldn't. I was too curious. I'd started wondering exactly how
Castles in the Air
was going to be different from
Little Women.
The little mini-scripts hadn't given me any clues. I only knew what Cara had said about singers linking the action and helping the story to move forward, so now I wanted to know which bits of the story would be shown in song. If only I could get hold of a copy of
Little Women
I could try and work it out. It was true that so far I hadn't exactly had much success with finding
Little Women
, but then I hadn't tried the massive main school library yet.

As soon as I'd had that thought I couldn't let it go. It grew and grew inside my head until it was the most important thing in my life, because that's what I'm like. I can't help it. I looked at my watch and willed the time till prep finished to go faster because I planned to whip over to the library on the dot of eight thirty. I'd be breaking the rules because we're all supposed to be in our houses after eight thirty during the week, but no one would miss me for a few minutes. The book was almost sure to be there. I didn't want Mia and the others to know that I was reading
Little Women
though, or they'd realize I was still all wrapped up with the play and start being all sympathetic again, which was the last thing I needed when I was trying to hide my stupid rashness from them.

“Just going to get some fresh air,” I announced casually, the moment Miss Fosbrook said we could go.

“What!” laughed Jess. “Are you sure you're feeling okay, Georgie? You don't normally notice the difference between fresh air and any other sort of air.”

“But it's nearly eight thirty,” said Mia.

“It's okay, I'm not going anywhere much. It's just that I've got a headache from the maths.”

Mia immediately offered to take me to Matron, so I had to say I was fine apart from needing to clear my head after the strenuous maths prep. Of course that made everyone laugh, which felt nice and normal and back to how we always were. But then that good feeling was spoiled because as I was going out I distinctly heard Jess whisper that she thought I was up to something. So now I'd have to move extra fast, especially as the library was right at the other end of school and the premises are so enormous. I also had to take care not to draw attention to myself, because of the strict rule about Year Sevens being in their own boarding house after eight thirty.

Even though there are loads of lamps all over the place at Silver Spires, it still felt dark outside, and because of my big imagination I could see plenty of spooky things hidden in trees and lurking round the side of the boarding houses. It would have been nice to flop into one of the squishy beanbags in the common room and watch something funny on telly for half an hour before bed, and yet here I was scaring myself on a long dark trek to the school library just to get a book. If anyone had told me a few days ago that I'd be doing this now, I simply wouldn't have believed them. Something weird had happened to me because of that stupid play. It had cast a spell on me, that was clinging like sticky cobweb threads that I couldn't peel off.

It felt strange switching on the library light. The school feels so different at night-time.
Right, quick, Georgie! Find the book
.
Who wrote
Little Women
?
Louisa M. Alcott.
I went straight to the As and ran my finger slowly along until the Bs started. This was unbelievable. It
had
to be here. So I went back to the start and looked carefully at every single spine until I knew for sure, with big sinking certainty, that there wasn't a single copy.

Wandering back to Hazeldean I couldn't care less whether there was a gang of spooks ready to jump out at me from one of the trees and rip me to pieces. Nothing was going right in my life. Nothing. I went into Hazeldean and saw that the clock said just gone four minutes to nine. Even that didn't make me speed up. What was a little telling-off? I trudged up the three flights of stairs slowly and heavily with my head down, then paused outside our dorm to look at the notice on the door. I'd put it there myself at the beginning of term…

Katy the Queen of Style

Grace the Sportswoman

Jess the Artist

Mia the Musician

Naomi the Wise One

Georgie the Actress

Huh! What rubbish. I wasn't an actress. It ought to say,
Georgie the Loser
.

“It's nearly nine! Where have you been?” Mia asked me the very second I opened the door.

“Just walking round.”

“But I went out to look for you and you weren't anywhere.”

I didn't answer because the tiniest ray of hope had just popped up from nowhere. Maybe the copy of
Little Women
from the Hazeldean library had been returned.

“See you in a sec.”

“You've forgotten your washbag!”

“Oh yeah.” I grabbed my washbag and towel and raced off downstairs.

“Where are you off to, Georgie Henderson? Bed! Now!” Matron was leaning over the banister, and although there wasn't an actual echo it still felt as though those cross words of hers were bouncing off the walls of the stairwell. Maybe I did care about getting a telling-off, after all, because my skin had gone a bit goosebumpy.

“I've left my book in the common room. Please, please, please let me get it, oh kindly Matron!” I did praying hands and tilted my face up with my eyes closed.

“Go on then, and make it snappy!”

“Thank you!” I definitely caught a glimmer of a smile on Matron's face when I opened my eyes, and it cheered me up a bit.

I went into the common room willing the book to be there. And it was.

“Yessss!” I told the empty room, as I hid it under my towel and scrambled off to the bathroom.

“Has your headache gone?” asked Mia when I went back into the dorm a few minutes later. “You seem better all of a sudden.”

“Yep!” I replied chirpily, as I quickly got into my jamas and snuggled up in bed. I was aware of the others looking at each other, but no one said anything else.

We're allowed to read with our little individual night lights on till nine thirty, then whoever's on duty comes and checks that all lights are out. My friends didn't ask me what I was reading, thank goodness, because I didn't want to have to lie to them and there was no way I was admitting it was
Little Women.
As soon as Matron had done her lights-out check, I got my key-ring torch and tried it out under the duvet, but it was useless. I couldn't see a thing and had to wait till I was pretty sure everyone was asleep before switching my night light back on. That was a really frustrating wait, I can tell you. Nobody pounced on me to switch the light off, thank goodness, which meant they were all asleep, and at last I was free to read to my heart's content. I snuggled into the deepest, most comfortable bit of the bed and buried myself in the book, reading and reading until I couldn't keep my eyes open any more.