Centre Stage: A Novel

my eyes.
    I continued to stare at her. ‘So it doesn’t have anything to do with K—’
    Ally interrupted me. ‘Maybe you should ask him out!’
    Harriet turned in her seat so her back was to me. ‘So do you really think Nathan might ask you out?’
    That was it. Ally didn’t need any more encouragement. For the rest of the journey she talked on and on about Nathan and how perfect they would be together. Harriet appeared to be listening intently but I knew she was just doing it so I wouldn’t quiz her about the reasons behind her new clothes. I frowned at her. She didn’t fool me that her clothes were for Ben. After all, if he did like her he wouldn’t care what clothes she was wearing, and she knew it.
    ‘Hey! Is this you?’
    I was jerked out of my thoughts. A Year Ten girl had walked down the aisle and stopped by Harriet’s and my seats. She was holding a newspaper and looking at me. I looked at the paper: there was a picture of me in the centre of the page and an article with the headline: Film Star Sophie Does it Again!
    ‘Yes, it’s me,’ I admitted as Ally and Harriet looked round to see what was going on.
    ‘It says you’re going to be the lead in the Christmas show at the Palace Theatre.’
    I nodded.
    ‘Cool!’ the girl said, looking impressed.
    Other people had clearly seen the paper too. At least four people in my class had brought the paper in, including Mr Davey.
    ‘Maybe we should organize a school trip to come and see you,’ he smiled.
    I sank down in my seat. Oh great. Just what I wanted: all my class coming to see me dance.
    ‘So, how are the rehearsals going?’ Mr Davey asked.
    ‘Fine,’ I mumbled.
    ‘You’re going to be out of school from next week, aren’t you?’ he said.
    I nodded. In under a week’s time the proper rehearsals with all the adults were starting.
    ‘Has anyone got any questions they’d like to ask Sophie?’ Mr Davey asked.
    Lots of people stuck up their hands.
    ‘Do you get paid?’
    ‘How much time will you get off school?’
    ‘Do you know loads of famous people?’
    I answered the questions as best I could but I was very relieved when the bell finally went. At the moment, the last thing I felt like talking about was the play.
    *
    ‘And into positions, blue team!’ Dizzy called that night. ‘Let’s see who’s the best.’
    Colette, Jack, Mark and I hurried forwards as Samantha’s team — the red team — moved to the side. ‘Come on,’ Colette urged us, ‘we can do it better than their team!’
    The music blared out and we began the first half of the new dance we’d just been learning. That evening, just the principals had been called and Dizzy had come up with the idea of making us perform in our teams one after the other.
    Luckily the dance wasn’t too hard and I managed it with hardly a mistake.
    ‘Well done,’ Dizzy called as we finished. ‘It’s hard to choose between you but…’ she paused, ‘I think maybe the blue team were just slightly better.’
    Jack and Mark exchanged high fives and Colette grinned at me in delight. At the side I could see Samantha scowling.
    ‘Let’s carry on and learn the rest of it,’ Dizzy called. ‘Come on, red team, come and join in.’
    Samantha, Justine, David and Xav walked over. They stood in a group leaving a good couple of metres of space between them and us.
    I glanced at Justine. She caught my eye but then looked away. She had hardly spoken to me since the day she had played the dance-sock trick. She just hung around with Samantha and the rest of her team and giggled with them whenever I made mistakes. But then there were times when I caught her looking almost lonely and it made me wonder if she was really happy with the way things were. I knew I wasn’t. I hated the tension between the two teams. Memories of filming came back to me. It had been such good fun on the film set. No one had been competing with anyone else and nearly all of us had been friends. We’d played rounders together and hung out when we weren’t filming. I wished my team and Justine’s team could all just get on in the same way.
    ‘OK,’ Dizzy’s voice interrupted my thoughts, ‘and so from the finish on the spin you go forwards three steps and then Sophie and Justine you turn to the right like this.’
    I copied Dizzy’s movements as she spoke but I wasn’t really concentrating. As I spun, Samantha stuck a foot out. I saw it too late.
    ‘Oof!’ I gasped as I tripped over and sprawled on the