Hannah in the Spotlight (3 page)

‘Right,’ I said. ‘We need to decide a few things. Like, what’s our name going to be? Where are we going to meet? How often should we meet? What’s the first thing we should focus on?’

Mum says I can be a bit bossy sometimes. I do try not to be. But I’m good at organising things and getting things done. And, without wanting to sound conceited or anything, I do have a lot of good ideas.

‘Well, we can meet in each other’s gardens as long as the weather’s OK,’ Ruby said. ‘Maybe we can take it in turns to be the host.’

‘I wish we had a clubhouse,’ I said. ‘I don’t suppose anyone has an old garden shed they’ve forgotten to tell me about?’

‘No, and if we did it would be full of junk,’ Laura said.

‘Anyway, outdoors is going to be better than a shed. We’ll need a lot of space for acting,’ Meg said. She sounded like she knew what she was talking about.

‘OK, that makes sense,’ I admitted. ‘So how often should
we meet?’

‘Obviously, the answer is as often as possible. Is twice a day too much?’ Laura asked innocently.

The others laughed. ‘I think that might be a bit much even for Hannah,’ Ruby said. ‘How about three times a week to get started and we’ll see how that goes?’

‘That sounds good,’ I said. ‘But can we meet again tomorrow just so we can get started properly? That’ll give us all a bit of time to come up with some more ideas. Like what we’re going to do. I don’t want us to just sit around talking about acting, I want us to actually do something!’

‘We could put on a show for our parents and grannies and grandads,’ suggested Laura.

‘Or something for the little kids on the green that would keep them entertained,’ said Ruby.

‘We could charge a small entrance fee and give the money to charity,’ said Meg.

Soon everyone was talking at once, wanting to share all their ideas for our new club. By the time Ruby’s little brother called around to say their mum wanted her home, we had a definite agenda for our next meeting. We’d elect club officers (that was my idea), decide on a club name (my idea too), and plan a schedule of meetings and where they would be held (also my idea. Actually, I may as well admit that most of the ideas were mine). Meg said that everyone should bring along some suggestions about what
we’d like to act in, and we could talk about that too.

This was so exciting. I couldn’t wait to really get started.

After the others had all left I got out a new notebook and my favourite sparkly pen. I had a whole stack of unused notebooks on my bookshelf, because people are always giving me them as presents – probably because they know I like organising things and making plans. I chose one with a pink cover decorated with silver stars. It looked like the perfect kind of notebook for starting a drama club.

Soon my hand hurt from writing, I had scribbled down so much. I had so many ideas my hand could hardly keep up! I just hoped I’d be able to read them the next day. My handwriting isn’t the neatest anyway, and when I’m in a huge hurry to get everything down it can get pretty scribbly.

After a while I realised I’d better go down and help Mum – it was getting to that time of day when she’s trying to make the dinner, Emma is cranky because she’s hungry, Maisie keeps getting under her feet, and the boys start fighting. So I took them all out to the garden and organised a big game of hide and seek to keep them occupied. Even Emma joined in, though I had to carry her on my hip, and she wasn’t much good at staying quiet, so we ended up doing most of the seeking.

‘Thanks, Hannah,’ Mum said, kissing me on the top of the head as we trooped in for dinner. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without you.’

I felt a bit guilty. Would it make things harder for Mum if I started spending as much time as I wanted to on the club?

It seemed like three o’clock the next day would NEVER arrive. I decided to pop over to Meg’s after breakfast so I could tell her some of my ideas, but when I rang the doorbell her mum, Cordelia, told me they were about to go shopping. Cordelia was young and very glamorous-looking, with blonde hair like Meg’s and designer sunglasses perched on top of her head. She was the sort of person who called everyone darling (even me, who she’d only just met) and she spoke so quickly it almost made my head spin.

‘So sorry for stealing her away, Hannah darling!’ she said with a smile. ‘But it’s quite the clothing emergency! Meg simply has nothing to wear!’

‘Don’t exaggerate, Mum,’ Meg said. ‘I just need some warm stuff,’ she told me. ‘Pretty much all I packed was light dresses, shorts and T-shirts. So we’ve got to stock up on leggings and hoodies and stuff.’

‘And I simply must find something more suitable to
wear for my interviews,’ Cordelia added. ‘I mean, tell me truly, Hannah darling, would you offer me a job in this sort of outfit?’

I thought she looked pretty amazing in her lightweight white jumper, skinny jeans and high-heeled boots, but I didn’t need to say anything as Cordelia immediately answered her own question. ‘Of course you wouldn’t! It’s absolutely essential that one looks the part when applying for a job in an office. I’m a little out of practice, but I’m sure with the right look I’ll be able to convince someone to take me on.’

‘Hannah, have you seen Maisie?’ It was Mum, standing at our garden wall and shading her eyes from the sun.

‘No – has she disappeared again?’ Maisie has a habit of disappearing when someone is annoying her, and she seems to go completely deaf to anyone calling her. ‘I’ll come and help you look for her.’

‘Sorry to interrupt,’ Mum said to Cordelia. ‘I’m Claire, by the way.’

‘Cordelia,’ Meg’s mum told her, extending a long elegant arm to shake hands across the garden wall. ‘So nice to meet you.’

‘You must come over for coffee some day,’ Mum said, smoothing down her hair a little self-consciously. ‘I’d ask you in now, but I’m afraid the place is a bit of a mess.’

‘Oh, don’t worry, darling, we’re off to the shops just
now anyway. Meg here has got absolutely nothing to wear – I’d forgotten how changeable the Irish summers can be.’

‘I’m sure summers were much nicer when we were young,’ Mum agreed.

Meg and I grinned at each other – that was exactly the kind of thing parents always say.

‘Mustn’t keep you,’ Cordelia said to Mum. ‘Come along, Meg, darling.’

‘There’s something familiar about her,’ Mum said, watching them drive away. ‘Where did you say they used to live?’

‘I’m not actually sure. But Cordelia grew up in Carrickbeg – maybe you knew her when you were kids?’

‘Maybe.’ Mum had already moved on. ‘I’d better go and look for Maisie. I can’t think where she’s got to.’

‘I’ll help you,’ I said.

I headed upstairs, still wondering about Meg and her family. I couldn’t help being curious, but I didn’t want to pry. Someone like Tracey Dunne would have just come right out and asked Meg where they used to live, and why they’d moved, and where her dad was, and she wouldn’t have stopped until Meg told her everything she needed to know. Then she’d have used the information against her in one of her nasty little schemes. I knew Meg didn’t need that kind of pressure. Whatever was going on, Meg would tell us when she was ready. Sometimes talking is what
being friends is all about, but sometimes being a good friend means knowing when to shut up too.

I found Maisie in the first place I looked – our room, where she was sitting on her bed, arms folded and bottom lip stuck out.

‘Mum, she’s here,’ I shouted down the stairs. ‘Maisie, didn’t you hear Mum calling?’

Maisie unfolded her arms so that she could pointedly fold them again to let me know she was cross. I tried not to smile.

‘What’s the matter?’

‘Zach and Bobby are playing
Star Wars
again and they said I can only play if I’m Princess Leia. I want to be Luke Skywalker, but Bobby says he’s
always
Luke Skywalker. Then I said I’d be Rey instead, but Zach said they’re not playing that bit today. It’s not fair, they’re always ganging up on me!’

I’d been involved in enough
Star Wars
arguments to know there was no point in trying to interfere. ‘Why don’t you and I play something else?’ I suggested instead. ‘A board game?’

‘OK – can we play Monopoly?’

Maisie always wants to play Monopoly even though she’s only five and she doesn’t understand it properly. She keeps putting houses on train stations and charging people extra, and she gets annoyed if anyone else tries to buy the
pink section because it’s her favourite colour so she thinks she should be the only one allowed to own it.

‘Only if you play properly,’ I warned her.

‘Of course I will.’ Maisie was already leading the way downstairs. ‘I always play properly. It’s other people who don’t understand the rules.’

Monopoly is a LONG game. Especially when played the Maisie way. I started to get a bit worried when it got near to lunchtime that it wasn’t going to finish, but then I landed on one of Maisie’s illegal hotels and she cleared me out of all my cash.

After lunch I ran upstairs to get changed. I felt like the first meeting of a drama club required a dramatic outfit. I tried on lots of different combinations while Maisie watched and gave me her opinion. Soon most of my clothes were in a pile on my bed. Finally we settled on denim shorts over purple tights, a black top with seagulls printed all over it and a deep pink cardigan.

‘You need something with feathers too.’ Maisie was very definite on that point. ‘Feathers are dramatic.’

She rummaged around in her bedside locker and pulled out a hairslide with big pink feathers on it. She insisted on me trying it on. Actually, it looked pretty good.

‘Now do I look dramatic enough?’ I asked her.

‘You look great!’ she said with a big smile.

‘Thanks, Maisie.’ I gave her a hug.

Maisie’s smile had turned a bit wistful. ‘Can I come to your meeting too, or is it just for big girls?’

‘Sorry, Maisie. It’s just for big girls,’ I told her. I felt bad – she was so interested in the whole idea. ‘I’ll tell you all about it when I get home, OK? And if we’re doing a show maybe you can help me with my costume.’

‘OK,’ Maisie said, sighing.

I looked at my watch. ‘I’d better get going!’ We were meeting at Ruby’s house today, and I’d said I’d call for Meg first. I grabbed my notebook and pen and raced down the stairs.

Cordelia answered the door. She was wearing a navy pinstripe jacket and matching knee-length skirt and a white blouse, and she looked so different from earlier that I couldn’t help staring.

‘Hannah, what do you think?’ she said, giving a little twirl.

‘Lovely,’ I said.

‘Now you would definitely want to hire me, wouldn’t you?’ Cordelia beamed. ‘Heavens, imagine me holding down a nine-to-five job! It’s too funny!’

‘You haven’t got the job yet, Mum,’ Meg said as she appeared behind her. ‘You still need to do the interview.’

‘Oh, that’s just a small detail,’ Cordelia said, waving her hand as if the interview was barely worth thinking about now that she had her perfect work outfit. ‘What are you girls up to, anyway?’

‘We’re forming a drama club,’ I told her, surprised that Meg hadn’t said anything.

Too late I saw the look on Meg’s face. For some reason
I didn’t understand, she clearly hadn’t planned on telling her mum what we were up to.

Cordelia’s carefree expression vanished. She looked at Meg, worry etched on her face. ‘Oh, Meg, do you think that’s a good idea, darling?’

‘Really, Mum, it’s fine,’ Meg told her. ‘It’s just four girls getting together to share our ideas and stuff. We’re not going to be appearing in the town hall or anything like that!’

‘My mum says it should keep us out of trouble for a bit,’ I joked, trying to lighten the mood. Whatever was going on there was a real tension in the air. Cordelia was still frowning, and Meg wouldn’t look at her. She grabbed her hoodie from the bottom of the stairs and stepped out past her.

‘Just … be careful, OK?’ Cordelia said.

‘I will,’ Meg said, sighing.

We walked towards Ruby’s. Neither of us said anything for a minute. All the questions were whirling around in my head once again. Why on earth would Meg’s mum not want her to be in a drama club? She didn’t mind us hanging out together – she certainly didn’t seem like one of those mums who thought you should spend all your holidays visiting relatives or something – so what was the problem with the club? Suddenly I found myself blurting out, ‘Why didn’t you
want your mum to know what we’re doing?’

‘It’s … it’s complicated, Hannah,’ Meg said, not looking at me. ‘I can’t really explain it just yet. I will some day, OK?’

‘OK,’ I said. I didn’t know what else I could say. I wished Meg would just tell me what was going on.

Laura was just arriving on her bike when we got to Ruby’s. Laura lives a few streets away, and she’s allowed to cycle over here to meet up with us. I, on the other hand, am not allowed to cycle over to hers because of crossing the main road. Mum says maybe when I start sixth class in September. I’m not sure how that’s going to make it magically safer for me to cross the road, but that’s Mum for you. And it’s not like Laura is any more careful than me – actually, if anything she’s less careful. When she’s got a new idea for a story rattling around in her brain she goes into a world of her own and could quite easily cycle right into the road, thinking she was in the middle of a field in wartime France or something like that. But her mum is a bit more laidback than mine about letting her do things. It’s probably something to do with her being the youngest instead of the oldest like me.

‘Great, you guys are early! Come on in!’

Ruby led the way up to her room, which is the pinkest room in the history of the earth. Everything in it is pink, from the walls to the curtains to the duvet cover, and even
the tassles on the lampshade. It’s a bit girly for my taste, but it suits Ruby, and it certainly makes the right backdrop to the ballet posters all over her walls.

We all found somewhere to sit. Meg sank into a beanbag on the floor, and Laura sat beside her on a fluffy cushion (pink, of course). I took the desk chair because it made me feel more official, although I turned it around so that I had my back to the desk and was facing the others. Ruby stretched out on her side on her bed, unselfconsciously lifting one leg as high as she could and holding it there, before gracefully lowering it again. She repeated this a few times, hardly seeming aware of what she was doing. I smiled to myself.

‘Right,’ I said, ‘we’re all here, so I hereby call to order the first meeting of … oh. What are we calling ourselves? Maybe that should be the first item on the agenda. Has anyone got any suggestions?’

‘How about Woodland Green Drama Club?’ Ruby suggested.

‘Or Woodland Green Players,’ said Meg. ‘Drama groups are often called players.’

I tried to think of a tactful way to say I thought it sounded like a pretty boring name, but thankfully Laura came to my rescue.

‘That makes it sound like anyone who lives in Woodland Green can join,’ she pointed out. ‘We don’t want that.
Also, you might remember I’m not actually from Woodland Green, so unless you want me to leave and one of your neighbours to join …’

‘That’s a good point, actually,’ Meg admitted.

‘It’s also a bit too … grown-up,’ I said, managing to find a more diplomatic word than boring. ‘We’re just kids doing this for fun, so we should have a fun name.’

‘How about something like Fame Club?’ suggested Laura. ‘
Fame
was this eighties TV show about teenagers who wanted to be on the stage. My mum used to love it, she has all the DVDs.’

‘It’s on the right track, but I think we need an original idea if we can manage it,’ I said.

I was tapping my notebook with my sparkly pen as I spoke. I glanced down at the starry pattern on the notebook, and that’s when inspiration struck. ‘How about Star Club?’

‘That’s perfect!’ Ruby said.

‘Yes, I like it,’ Laura said slowly. ‘It’s fun, and it’s not too restrictive. It could include Ruby’s ballet as well, not just drama.’

Meg was nodding too. ‘Sounds just right. Nice one, Hannah.’

I wrote it in big letters at the top of my page: STAR CLUB. It looked great!

‘OK. I hereby call the first meeting of Star Club to
order. Now, has anyone got any ideas for us?’

I was dying to share my ideas, but I was determined not to take over the meeting, so I wanted to let everyone else go first.

‘Could we try to put on a ballet?’ Ruby said. ‘Just a simple one,’ she added quickly, seeing all our faces.

‘No way,’ Laura said. ‘I did ballet for two years, and I hated it. I begged Mum to let me stop, and it was only when the teacher told her I had two left feet that she finally gave in. I’m just no good at it.’

‘I did a bit of ballet and I was OK at it, but I’m definitely not good enough to be in a show,’ Meg said.

‘Me neither. Sorry, Ruby,’ I said. ‘But maybe we can do some sort of variety show, with different acts, and your act could be a ballet dance. Or we could work it into a play some way.’

‘Anyway, I thought you’d be glad to do something different,’ Laura said. ‘It’s ballet, ballet, ballet, all day long with you. There are other things in the world, you know. It might do you good to try something else!’

Ruby looked set to argue. She doesn’t take criticism of her beloved ballet very well, so I thought I’d better smooth things over.

‘We’ll all be trying something new here, that’s part of the fun,’ I said quickly. ‘But like I said, I’m sure ballet can come in somewhere. So, any other ideas?’

‘How about acting out some scenes from
Little Women
?’ Laura said.

‘Yes, I thought of
Little Women
too,’ I said. ‘It would be perfect for us because it’s got four sisters in it. And we even have a Meg already – and an aspiring writer.’

‘Four girls sounds great. I’ve been wondering about that, actually,’ said Meg. ‘Do you think it’s going to be a problem that we are all girls? What will we do about parts that should be played by boys?’

Ruby made a face. ‘Well, we’re not inviting any boys to join, that’s for sure!’

Ruby thinks boys are smelly, annoying and generally a huge pain. This comes from having brothers. Mum always smiles and says give her a bit of time and her opinions will soon change. Ruby insists that they won’t.

‘Let’s just keep it to the four of us for now,’ I said. ‘Maybe in the future we’ll need boys to get involved in shows or whatever, but they don’t have to be a part of the club. We’re just getting started anyway, we need to find out what we really want to do first.’

‘There are tons of things we can do that don’t need boys, anyway,’ Laura said.

‘If we do have boys in the story we can play those parts ourselves. That’s part of being a good actor,’ Meg put in.

‘That’s OK then,’ Ruby said, sounding relieved. ‘I’ve got more than enough boy trouble in my life just now.’

We all laughed.

‘So, we’ll stick to things that have mostly girl roles for now,’ I said. ‘Should we do like Laura suggested and use a book for inspiration, or try to write something ourselves?’

‘Any talented writers in the house?’ Ruby asked, using a pencil case as a pretend loudhailer.

We all looked at Laura, who immediately started blushing. ‘I’m working on something, but it’s not ready,’ she muttered.

‘I think it would be good to adapt something from a book so we don’t have to start from scratch,’ Ruby said. ‘I haven’t read
Little Women,
but I know you two love it. Or we could do something from Jacqueline Wilson. She has some great girl characters.’

‘Or how about Harry Potter?’ Laura said.

‘Oh that would be brilliant,’ I said. ‘Although I don’t know how we’d manage the magic bits – it might be too tricky.’

We talked a bit about how we’d actually go about adapting scenes from a book. It seemed like a lot of work for one person.

‘Why don’t we pick a story we like, and when we know what characters we’re playing we can all write their lines?’ Meg said.

‘I like that idea. A joint effort,’ Ruby said.

‘It can be sort of improvised, as well,’ Meg said. Seeing
puzzled looks, she explained, ‘That means you make it up as you go along.’

‘Oh, oh, oh!’ Ruby suddenly sat bolt upright on her bed, her stretches forgotten. ‘I know! We can do
Ballet Shoes
! You know the one by Noel Streatfeild? There are three sisters in that, and the fourth person could be the teacher or the nanny, maybe. It’s perfect.’

‘Plus, you know, there’s ballet in it,’ Laura said with a grin.

‘Well, that too,’ Ruby admitted. ‘I just love the scene where Posy goes to audition for Manoff. I feel like I know exactly how she feels.’

Ruby’s eyes were shining, and I had to admit she’d come up with a fantastic idea.

‘Is it all about ballet?’ Meg wanted to know.

She sounded a bit sceptical, so I rushed to reassure her.

‘No, it’s about three sisters who are orphans and they go to a theatre school. Pauline is the oldest – she loves acting. The youngest one, Posy, loves ballet, and the middle one, Petrova, isn’t really interested in any of it, but she has to learn it anyway, because they need to earn a living.’

‘Definitely not just ballet,’ Laura chimed in. I was glad to see her sticking up for Ruby’s idea. ‘There’s all the stuff with the tenants in their house, and about the way the sisters get on together and with their guardian and everything.’

‘You’d love it,’ I promised. ‘There’s loads about the theatre in it, and about how Pauline really wants to be an actress. I’ll lend you my copy so you can see for yourself.’

‘OK, well, it sounds great,’ Meg said. ‘Let’s go for it!’

‘YAY!’ shouted Ruby, turning head over heels off the bed and finishing up by doing the splits, her arms held gracefully over her head.

‘OK, how about we all pick out our favourite bits for the next time we met up?’ I suggested. ‘Then we can decide who’s going to play who.’

I already knew who I wanted to play and was hoping no one else would have the same idea, but I didn’t say anything about it yet.

Laura looked at her watch. ‘Have we talked about everything?’ she asked. ‘I need to get home soon – Mum said I have to help Andrea with dinner.’

Laura’s mum works full time, so often the two girls help with stuff around the house. Andrea is the oldest – she’s sixteen – so she does more than Laura, but Laura’s pretty good for doing her share too.

I looked down at my notebook. ‘What about when we should meet, and where? Should we pick a few set days every week?’

‘I think we should just meet as often as we can during the holidays,’ Meg said.

‘Yes, that makes sense,’ Laura said. ‘We’ll probably need
a stricter schedule once we’re back at school,’ (Ruby groaned) ‘but none of us have anything else on at the moment.’

‘Apart from me,’ Ruby pointed out. ‘I’ve got ballet camp in the mornings, but I’m free in the afternoons, so can we have the meetings then?’

Everyone was fine with this. I suggested that we could take it in turns to host the meeting, though I did wonder how I would get to Laura’s house if Mum wouldn’t let me take my bike.

‘We can meet in my house next time,’ Meg said.

‘Are you sure your mum won’t mind?’ I asked, thinking of her reaction earlier.

‘Not if I don’t tell her,’ Meg said. ‘She’s going to be out doing interviews a lot in the next few days, so she won’t be at home.’

I obviously still looked concerned, because Meg said, ‘Really, don’t worry. I don’t know what got into her earlier, she’s normally fine about stuff like this. I’ll clear everything up before she gets home, anyway, so it’ll be fine. What’s next?’

‘OK – last thing on the agenda. Electing officers,’ I said. ‘We can probably wait to appoint people to be in charge of wardrobe, and props, and all that sort of thing until we know more about what we’re doing, but I think we should have a director, anyway, to sort of make sure things are
moving in the right direction.’

‘Hmmm, that’s a tricky one,’ Laura said, putting her chin in her hands and pretending to think deeply. ‘Who has the right skills to be in charge of our club?’

‘It’s not being in charge,’ I said quickly. ‘This is a democracy, we’ll vote on everything. It’s just a sort of … leader, I suppose.’

‘Let’s think about that one,’ Laura said, frowning thoughtfully.

I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. I’d done my best not to be too bossy, but maybe I’d put people off already. I was always doing that without meaning to. And Meg certainly seemed to know a lot more about theatre than I did. Maybe they’d rather have her in as director of the club.