Sam in the Spotlight (16 page)

“But I didn't do anything,” I pleaded. Mum was going to flip if she found out I had a detention. Madame Blanc raised one eyebrow and turned away. I could get down on my knees and beg and it wouldn't make the slightest difference. She'd never backed down on a detention in her life.

Ellie looked over at me, shrugging. She looked really upset. “Sorry,” she mouthed. “Talk to you later.”

I didn't catch up with her until lunchtime. We're in different sets for English and maths, so I had to wait all morning to find out what the note said and why she'd come in looking so het up. I grabbed a sandwich and went over to where the others were sitting.

“I know why Crystal's not getting married!” Ellie blurted out before I'd even sat down. “Look!” She took a newspaper out of her bag and pointed to a tiny article at the bottom of the entertainment pages. The headline said:

“No way,” I breathed, scanning the article. Suddenly it all made sense. Sophia Malone had asked The Garlic Pickers to play a special set at her wedding. That must've been what the meeting was about that day I was in the park with Crystal. And that was obviously why they'd postponed their own wedding. There's no way Crystal would let Tyler miss an opportunity like that.

“What are you actually talking about?” said Phoebe. “We haven't got a clue, have we, Polly?” Polly shook her head.

I filled them in on the whole story. From when Crystal's invitation arrived until the other day when Mum found it under my mattress. I explained about Crystal and Tyler's wedding
and
Sophia Malone's wedding and how they were both on the same day. “Crystal bought me a dress and everything,” I said. “This awful pink tutu thing that itches like crazy.”

“Never mind about your itchy dress!” shrieked Polly. “Are you telling me that your sister is going out with someone from The Garlic Pickers and you never told us?”

I shook my head, shrugging. “He was just Crystal's boyfriend and they hadn't even been together for that long when she moved out.”

“But you know what this means, don't you?” said Ellie. We all looked at her. “Your mum and Tyler will both be at the wedding and if you're there as well you could do something to get them talking. Get your mum to realize that Crystal and Tyler are serious.”

“Yeah, and maybe you could get me an autograph at the same time,” said Polly. “The drummer in The Garlic Pickers is really hot.”

“Ellie, you're a genius!” I said, ignoring Polly. “That's exactly what I've got to do. Crystal might be there as well and if she is it'll be the perfect place to get Mum to see that's she's been wrong about them all along.”

“Why don't we
all
come and help your mum with the flowers?” said Polly. “We wouldn't even care if we got paid, would we, Phoebs?”

“Not if we got to meet The Garlic Pickers!” said Phoebe. “We'd actually pay
her!
”

“You guys – this is serious!” I said, but I couldn't help grinning.

“I think it's really romantic anyway,” said Ellie. “Crystal and Tyler getting married and him being in a band – it's like out of the movies or something.”

I glanced at Ellie. “Talking of romantic, we haven't told them about Arthur and Mrs. Beagle.”

Phoebe and Polly practically wet themselves as I described Arthur practising his proposal. “Honestly, it's the funniest thing I've ever heard,” Polly spluttered. “Especially as Mandy is convinced Arthur is in love with
her.
”

It was so brilliant to be laughing and mucking about all together after the last few weeks. I was never going to fall out with Ellie again, no matter what.

“Listen, Sam, I am so sorry about the detention,” she said as we made our way back to class. “I always read the entertainment pages while I'm eating breakfast and I saw that article and I thought I was going to burst if I didn't tell you.”

“It's okay, Ellie. In fact it couldn't be better. Well, as long as my mum doesn't find out!”

But of course Mum
did
find out. I don't know how I ever thought I was going to hide it from her. Madame Blanc always calls the parents to let them know she's keeping their child late at school so Mum knew all about the detention before I even got home that day. It's not like I could talk my way out of it either because I wasn't about to tell her about Ellie and the newspaper article and how The Garlic Pickers had been asked to play at Sophia Malone's wedding.

She called me into the kitchen the second I walked through the door. She was sitting at the table with her head in her hands, as if she'd just heard someone had died or something.

“A detention, Sam! I'm so disappointed. Honestly, what were you doing?”

“I didn't do anything. Madame Blanc caught Ellie passing me a note, but it was nothing to do with me. I didn't even see what the note said.” I dropped my bag on the floor and sank down into a chair.

“
Passing notes!
For goodness' sake – how old are you? And you've always been so good at languages. Don't you like French any more?”

“I do, Mum. I love French, but Madame Blanc is so strict you only have to breathe and she's on your case.”

Mum rolled her eyes. “But you promised me you were taking your work seriously this year…”

“I am, Mum. I'm trying
so
hard…”

She waved her arm at me as if she didn't want to hear any more. “Well, anyway, I've made an appointment with your form teacher.”

“What do you mean?” I could feel the colour drain out of my face.

“It's nothing to get worked up about. I just want to find out what's really going on.”

“What are you talking about? There's nothing
going on.
I'm working so hard and I'm actually in the top set for all my core subjects.” I glared at her across the table. “When is the meeting anyway?”

“It's next Friday morning, but I don't want you fretting about it all week. If you're doing as well as you say you are then you've got nothing to be worried about, have you?”

But I
was
worried. Mum was on the warpath. She was desperate to find a reason to stop me going to drama and getting this detention could easily be it. Ellie was gutted when I told her the next morning. “It's all my fault,” she wailed. “Why don't I ever think before I do things?”

“Don't be stupid. If you hadn't seen the article I wouldn't even know The Garlic Pickers were going to be at the wedding.”

“What do you think Mr. Bayliss will say anyway? It's not like you've been in loads of trouble or anything.”

“I know, but remember I told you my mum's been dying to get me this tutor who only has a Saturday slot? Well, I swear this is going to be all the excuse she needs.”

I couldn't stop thinking about it the next day at drama. I knew my lines inside out, but I was so worried about the meeting I kept losing track of where we were. Mandy was standing in front of the stage encouraging us to speak out and stay in character, and all I could think about was how this could be my last show ever at Star Makers. There just didn't seem to be much point if Mum was going to stop me coming anyway.

“What's going on, Sam?” said Mandy. “You've been so good with your lines up until now.”

“It's not the lines,” I muttered. “It's just other stuff.”

“I bet
I
know what it is,” said Sara.

I gave her a look. “No, you don't.”

Suddenly Monty B leaped onto the stage, landing right in front of me. “Detective Biscuit's on the case, he'll soon sort out your gloomy face.”

“It wouldn't
be
gloomy if you'd just get
out
of my face.”

“Don't start arguing again,
please,
” said Mandy. “Remember how we're all supposed to be pulling together as a team.”

“Oh, I know, let's do some more of those trust games,” Sara piped up.

“Er…let's not,” I said. “Anyway I'm fine now.”

We started the scene again and somehow I managed to keep up with where we were. I loved being Laura. In fact, I loved everything about the show. Mum might think acting was just a hobby, but it meant the world to me. The only downer was that I had to do most of my scenes with Adam – but it's not like we had to kiss onstage or anything embarrassing like that. And anyway, my latest strategy of
Ignoring Him Completely
seemed to be working quite well.

The scene we were practising was my favourite in the whole show. It's when Laura finally solves the mystery of the phantom face. Detective Biscuit keeps saying that April
must
have come to a sorry end and the butler
must
be guilty, even though he swears blind he wasn't there the day she went missing. But Laura works out that the butler has an identical twin brother who April was madly in love with and that they'd run off together. That's why it seemed as if the butler was in two places at the same time.

“Hang on,” said Monty B as the scene finished. “I was just about to work that out myself, wasn't I, Phoebs?”

“What are you talking about?” said Phoebe.

Monty B waved his notebook at her. “You know, all the clues we collected and—”

“Oh my God, yeah,” said Neesha, “you do realize this isn't real? That you're not
really
collecting clues.”

“I might be,” said Monty B. “I
am
a detective, you know.”

Neesha rolled her eyes. “Can someone please tell him it's only a play.”

“But break it to him gently,” said Adam. “You don't want to shatter all his illusions. It's like telling someone that there's no such thing as fairies!”

“What do you mean?” cried Sara, turning pink.

“She still believes in fairies, I'm afraid,” said Phoebe. “And the man in the moon!”

Sara opened her mouth to say something but Mandy held up her hand. “Enough!” she said. “I want you to all start taking this seriously. The dress rehearsal is in two weeks' time and there's still so much to do.”

Two weeks?
My brain went into overdrive. The wedding was in two weeks. How could the wedding
and
the dress rehearsal both be on the same day? It was crazy. I'd known the dress rehearsal was coming up, obviously, but I must've blocked the exact date out of my mind!

Mandy took a deep breath. “Look, let's have a quick break and then I want you all back onstage – and I want you focused!”

I went to grab my stuff from the front of the stage, but Mandy called me over to the piano.

“Do you want to talk about what's worrying you, Sam? It would be such a shame if something outside drama affected your performance – especially since you've got such a big part.”

I shook my head. “It's okay. I know all my lines. I won't let you down.”

“I know you won't, sweetheart. That's not what I meant. It's just that you seem to have lost some of your confidence lately, that's all.”

I thought about the wedding and Crystal, and the detention and the tutor. I could've told Mandy, I suppose, and got her to talk to Mum, but I knew it wouldn't make the slightest difference. Mum just didn't get how important acting was to me and she never would.

I started to make up some rubbish about having too much homework, but then Arthur burst in, looking very flustered.

“Oh hello, Mandy my dear, you haven't seen June this morning, have you?”

Mandy shook her head. “Sorry, Arthur, you've lost me.”

“June Beagle? Mrs. Beagle? You remember.”

Mandy sighed. “Oh yes, Mrs. Beagle. I didn't realize her first name was June.”

“Oh yes…June by name, June by nature,” said Arthur.

“Are you okay, Arthur?” said Mandy, looking at him strangely.

“Top of the world, Mandy. But if you do happen to see her at any point, please could you mention that I was looking for her? Church business,” he added, tapping his nose.

Mandy nodded and turned back to me, trying to keep a straight face.

“Now where were we, Sam?”

“Don't worry, Mandy. I'll just go off and practise the next scene so I don't mess up again later.”

I scooted back over to the others before she could say anything. If Mum decided to stop me coming to Star Makers, there was nothing Mandy could do about it.

“What did Arthur want?” said Ellie.

“He was looking for June. That's Mrs. Beagle's first name apparently.”

“Hey, I bet when we come back next term they'll be engaged or married or something,” said Phoebe. They all burst out laughing but I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. If Mum decided I needed The Great Mrs. Raja on Saturday mornings I wouldn't even
be
here next term.