Centre Stage: A Novel
just above the ankle,’ Kelly went on, and I could tell she was just having a go at Harriet because she was still fed up about Ben turning her down. ‘It shows them off perfectly.’
‘You never know, maybe you’ll start a new trend,’ Rachel said.
‘Or maybe not,’ Kelly added.
‘Oh shut up,’ I told them.
Snorting with laughter, Kelly, Rachel and Leanne went into the building.
I looked at Harriet. Her face was bright red. ‘Just ignore them,’ I said. ‘They’re morons.’
‘Yeah,’ she muttered in a small voice. ‘Yeah — you’re right.’
But despite what Harriet said, she couldn’t seem to ignore Kelly. For the rest of the week Kelly continued to tease her. It was really bad on Friday when Kelly saw Ben talking to Harriet after they had come out from a quiz club meeting together.
‘Ooh, got a boyfriend have you, Harriet?’ she mocked as Harriet came over to meet me afterwards.
Harriet went the colour of a tomato.
‘Does he like your big granny pants?’ Kelly sniggered. ‘I bet he finds them really attractive.’
‘Ben isn’t my boyfriend,’ Harriet said quickly.
Kelly burst out laughing as if Harriet had said the funniest thing ever. ‘I was joking. ’ She snorted. ‘As if Ben would go out with someone like you.’
‘You can talk,’ I said. ‘I didn’t exactly notice Ben jumping at the chance of going to the cinema with you, Kelly. Or has he changed his mind?’ Seeing Kelly’s expression darken, I grabbed Harriet’s arm. ‘Thought not. Come on, Harriet, let’s go.’
I marched off, half dragging Harriet beside me.
Honestly, Kelly could be so annoying at times!
Chapter Ten
‘I’ve heard there’re some journalists coming in!’ Justine said to me when I arrived at rehearsal on Saturday morning. ‘They want to talk to you and me about being Lucy.’
I hesitated. That wasn’t the way Velda had put it on Tuesday — she’d made it sound like the journalists just wanted to interview me.
‘It’s really exciting, isn’t it?’ Justine went on. ‘Let’s go and find Velda and ask her exactly when they’ll be here.’
Velda was looking at the stage plans. ‘Velda,’ Justine said, bouncing up to her. ‘What time are the journalists coming in?’
‘At twelve,’ Velda answered. She smiled at me. ‘There’re three journalists now. There’s one coming in from Sugar magazine too.’
Sugar! Wow. Just wait till Ally and Harriet heard that!
‘Will they take our photographs?’ Justine asked eagerly.
Velda looked surprised. ‘Your photograph?’ Realization dawned on her face. ‘Oh, they’re not interviewing you, Justine. Just Sophie. I’m sorry. Did you think you were being interviewed too?’
Justine blushed. ‘Ur… yeah.’ She looked like she wanted to drop through the floor with embarrassment.
I felt awful for her. ‘Couldn’t they interview us both?’ I asked quickly.
Velda shrugged. ‘I could suggest it to them. But I think the reason they want to interview you, Sophie, is because you were the lead in the film.’
‘But Justine was in the film too and we are both Lucy,’ I said.
Velda nodded. ‘I’ll see what they say.’
I glanced at Justine. ‘I… I’m going to get a drink,’ she mumbled.
I went after her. ‘I’m sure they will want to interview you as well,’ I said.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Justine muttered, her face still pink. ‘I don’t care.’
But it was obvious that she cared loads. We poured ourselves drinks in an uncomfortable silence.
‘Hi, Justine,’ Samantha said, coming over and totally ignoring me as usual. ‘Should we go through our lines together?’
‘OK,’ Justine said. And, looking relieved to get away from me, she hurried off with Samantha.
*
I had a good day. The acting rehearsal went well and the interviews were fun. The only downside was that Justine wasn’t interviewed. Velda was right. The journalists just wanted to talk to me. When I was called to the interviews Justine shot me a jealous look, and when I came back she avoided me completely. I felt bad but I didn’t see there was much I could do. After all, I couldn’t make the journalists interview her.
‘I can’t believe you’re going to be in Sugar , ’ Ally said that evening. She and Harriet had called round after riding. ‘That is so cool!’
‘And you’re going to be in the local papers too,’ Harriet said, stroking Billy, our new doggy guest. He was a beautiful but very greedy Golden Retriever. Plonking
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