Golden Girl (10 page)

‘OK, Mrs Lewis,’ I said, then looked at Pia, who mimed zipping her mouth shut.

‘See you later. Wish me to break a leg,’ said Shreya, misquoting the actor’s cliché of wishing each other luck.

I didn’t dare correct her. I felt intimidated by her. We all wished her luck and she disappeared back down the corridor, then we said our goodbyes and thanks to Ramesh. I couldn’t
wait to witness the filming and followed Mrs Lewis down the stairs and into the back of the hall.

We were met by an assistant director who, after speaking into his radio, showed us where to stand.

‘The director wants to do this all in one take,’ he said. ‘Mr Lewis will enter from the far end of the hall. He will run along the side, keeping in the shadows where he will
encounter Shreya, the princess, then they will both exit over there.’ He pointed to a small door close to us. ‘So please, no movement at all while we’re shooting.’

We all nodded in agreement, then he spoke into his radio again and was off. I hoped that Pia wouldn’t get one of her giggling fits. She often did if we were in places where we knew we
mustn’t laugh. Nerves probably. Trouble was, it usually set me off too.

I turned to Alisha and, even in the dim light, I could see that she was blushing. Two tall Indian boys had entered the hall and were coming over to join us in our corner. Divinely handsome and
clearly brothers, one maybe around eighteen with shoulder-length hair, the other slightly younger with shorter hair. The younger one stepped forward and put his hand out to JJ.

‘You must be JJ,’ he said. ‘We’ve been looking forward to meeting you. I’m Prasad and this is my brother, Kunal.’ He glanced at Alisha, who smiled then tossed
her hair in an attempt to look cool.

I glanced at Pia, who raised an eyebrow at me. We didn’t need to say anything. Alisha had met her prince.

JJ just had time to quickly introduce Pia and me before there was a shout for silence.

Ignoring it, Kunal stepped close to me and whispered, ‘Will you be at the party tomorrow?’

‘Hush,’ warned the assistant director from a short distance away.

Kunal made a short bow in apology. I glanced at JJ, who had been watching. I couldn’t help feeling flattered that Kunal had asked.
Now you know how I feel
when Shreya flirts with
you, JJ
, I thought. No harm in him seeing that other boys noticed me in the same way that girls noticed him.

At the far end of the hall, I saw Jefferson Lewis and Shreya arrive. They exchanged a few quick words with the director then, to their left, someone called, ‘Action’.

There was such a buzz of energy in the room, the atmosphere, the setting, JJ standing next to me – just being there was a thrill. JJ moved closer and took my hand. Double thrill.

Jefferson crept into the hall, keeping his back to the wall. A noise to his right alerted him that someone had come in. He darted back into the shadows. Shreya entered and looked around her. It
was really quiet – as if everyone in the room was holding their breath along with Jefferson.

‘I know you’re here,’ Shreya called.

Jefferson shrank back further against the wall.

The hall was completely silent and still as we waited to see what happened next.

‘
I tawt I taw a puddy tat a creepin’ up on me
,’ sounded the voice of Tweety Pie, shattering the silence.

It was
my
mobile. I’d downloaded the ringtone to my phone before we’d left the UK.

Pia burst out laughing.

I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me.
So
not funny.

‘CUT!’ called the director as a hundred angry faces turned in my direction.

‘I blew it,’ I said the next morning as Pia and I took a break from our studying. ‘I
totally
blew it.’

Pia sighed. ‘No, you didn’t. You saw what happened. They did ten takes in the end. It happens all the time. Planes fly over scenes in historical movies and they have to reshoot, plus
Shreya was wearing a watch in the first three takes, for heaven’s sake. Somehow I don’t think they had Cartier back in the fifteen-hundreds.’

‘Yeah, but
I
should have known better.’

‘
She
should have known better; she’s the movie star, not you. If Prasad hadn’t noticed the watch, they might have had to go back to shoot today. I thought they had
people on set to notice bloopers like that. What about that microphone in shot on one of the last takes! It’s amazing what gets through – there are endless websites showing famous
errors like that.’

‘I still feel like an idiot.’

‘Stop obsessing. Get over it. Everyone makes mistakes and it was cool in the end.’

After the shoot, I’d apologised to everyone I could find, to the director, to Jefferson, to Mrs Lewis, to JJ and Alisha. They were all very sweet about it but I wondered if they had put on
polite masks and, as soon as I was out of earshot, they were agreeing that I was a total eejit. I even apologised to Shreya. She hadn’t been so sweet and had treated me like I was invisible
the rest of the evening. I even overheard her saying to Kunal that the first take would have been the best one if only the stupid English girl hadn’t ruined it. And she insisted on
introducing JJ to all the film crew so once again, he and I didn’t manage to get any time to ourselves. He’d glanced over at me a few times and shrugged as if to say that there
wasn’t a lot that he could do about it.

‘Why doesn’t Shreya go for Kunal?’ I asked. ‘He’s from her A-lister world.’ Alisha had told us more about the brothers on the way back from the shoot.
Apparently they both went to school at Eton in England and were home for the holidays, staying at the five-star hotel their parents owned on the other side of the lake.

‘Alisha told me that Shreya dated Kunal for a while last summer, then moved on to the next boy on her list. Alisha thinks she’s the kind of girl who likes a challenge,’ said
Pia.

‘Like a female Tom.’

‘Sounds like it. Shame he’s not here to distract her. Apparently she’s desperate to get away for some beach party in Goa after the wrap party. Loads of celebs from Mumbai are
going to be there.’

‘I heard. I can’t wait for her to go. She even asked JJ if he wanted to go with her to Goa after the party, like I don’t exist and am not even worth considering!’

‘Maybe you should stake your claim and snog him in public,’ Pia suggested.

‘Mr and Mrs Lewis might not like that,’ I said, ‘and I’m probably not their favourite person at the moment after my Tweety Pie interruption.’

‘Nah. They’re chilled.’

‘Do you think Shreya knows that it’s JJ’s birthday later this week?’

‘I doubt it. If she did, she’d want to muscle in on the celebration,’ said Pia.

‘Although if she’s like all these others with their private jets, she could probably go to Goa and then come back again. She’s probably doing that, in fact. I just hope she
goes for long enough so I can get some space alone with JJ at last.’

‘Well, I’m not going to tell her it’s his birthday,’ Pia said. ‘I really don’t think JJ’s interested in her, but if you’re really worried, then
ask him.’

‘But you said I had to be cool and not act needy.’

‘Yes, but I can see it’s getting to you. I’m certain he’d reassure you.’

A knock at the door five minutes later announced that Alisha had come to visit. She came into the room and frowned when she saw our books.

‘It’s so boring you have to do that,’ she said, then bounced onto my bed. ‘Luckily I got all my study done before the trip.’

‘We’ve just about finished for today,’ said Pia.

‘Good, because I have a plan. Have you ever done meditation?’

I shook my head. ‘I tried it once after reading a magazine article but never properly.’

‘Me neither,’ said Pia, ‘but I’ve always wanted to give it a go.’

‘Me too. Loads of my mates are into it over in LA.’

‘The ones with gurus?’ I asked.

‘Yeah,’ said Alisha. ‘It’s supposed to make you feel calm and cool.’ She looked at the books again. ‘Good for exam stress, apparently. Anyway, I came to tell
you that there’s some kind of guru convention festival thing happening at one of the temples in Udaipur today. Prasad has invited me. Could be good. My mates back in the States will be so
jealous that I can go and meet loads of different kinds of gurus.’

‘A bit like an Elvis convention, then?’ I asked.

Alisha laughed. ‘Something like that. Maybe we could check it out. Learn the meaning of life and all that, as well as get to know Prasad a bit better.’

It was good to see Alisha looking so happy. Meeting Prasad had really given her a lift.

Pia grimaced. ‘A
guru
convention? You’re not serious?’

‘Yes I am,’ said Alisha. ‘Apparently there are many different types here in India with different takes on the meaning of life. Aren’t you into all that
what’s-it-all-about stuff?’

‘No,’ said Pia. ‘I just get on with living without thinking too much about the whys and wherefores. Are you sure you’re not just going along to impress Prasad?’

Alisha feigned offence. ‘As if. I’m a
true
seeker.’

‘Yeah, of designer handbags,’ said Pia.

Alisha picked up a pillow from the bed and playfully threw it at Pia. ‘I have hidden depths, you know.’

‘Yeah, very well hidden,’ said Pia.

‘I think about the meaning of life,’ I said. ‘Often. Especially since my mum died. I questioned everything then, like where have we come from? Where do we go? I spent a long
time in the library seeing what different religions had to say about it all.’

‘Queen of Deep, that’s our Jess,’ said Pia.

‘And what
did
the books say?’ asked Alisha.

I shrugged. ‘I only ended up more confused than ever. God, energy, I don’t know. I still think about it, a
lot.
Like, here we are on the planet, but what’s it all about?
Why are we here?
Is
there a God? If religions say that there’s one God, why are they always fighting over which one is the one?’

‘Exactly,’ said Alisha. ‘Gurus are supposed to be wise men. I’d like to ask them some of those questions and this afternoon is our chance.’

‘Yawn,’ said Pia. ‘My philosophy is that we humans have a brain the size of a pea, way too small to grasp the mysteries of the cosmos. What we do know, though, is that
we’re here today, this moment. We don’t know when we’re going to die so it’s best to make the most of it. Enjoy each and every experience that comes your way. Don’t
waste a minute of it. Especially not by going to guru conventions.’

‘I think that’s pretty deep,’ I said. ‘So you’re Queen of Deep too.’

‘Nah. I’m a simple soul,’ said Pia.

‘Yeah. I’ll back that,’ said Alisha and this time, Pia picked up a pillow and bashed her with it.

They were just getting set for a good pillow fight when Alisha’s phone bleeped that she had a message. She glanced at the screen. ‘Oops, it’s Mom. Better go.’ She got up
to leave. ‘Laters. Don’t study too hard.’ And she was gone.

A short time later, I looked out of the window and saw a speedboat with Alisha, JJ, Mrs Lewis and Vanya whooshing away across the water. I made myself focus back on my books. We’d be
joining them soon. I was intrigued by the gurus thing – if we were going to meet some of the wisest people in the world this afternoon then I had a question I’d like to ask. It was a
question I’d carried around with me ever since Mum passed away. Where do people go when they die? If any of them could give me a satisfactory answer to that, I’d be well impressed. I
couldn’t wait to get there and see what they said. Plus, hopefully, JJ and I would be able to slip away and get some time alone. In the meantime, though, I had to clear my head of the
mysteries of life and all thoughts of romantic liaisons; I had homework to do.

‘Have you noticed that drivers in this country avoid collisions with their ears as well as their eyes?’ I said to Pia as we dodged our way through noisy traffic in
Udaipur town. It was early afternoon and we were on our way to meet the Lewises. The streets were a cacophony of hooting from car and truck horns, bicycle bells and mopeds, as drivers and riders
wove their way around each other, narrowly missing hitting each other in many cases. So many of the cars had tinsel on the bumpers and most had garlands and small, colourful pictures of gods, gurus
or goddesses inside, hanging from the mirror. As I watched the variety of transport going past in all different directions – forwards
and
sideways – I saw that people would toot
when they got too close to each other to let them know they were there. In the middle of it all were goats and cows walking serenely by, as much a part of the scenery as the rest of it.