Centre Stage: A Novel

I was going to be intimidated by her any more. ‘We’re not changing our minds.’
    ‘Justine!’ Samantha appealed.
    Justine shrugged. ‘I’m with Sophie,’ she said coolly.
    Samantha glared at her and stalked off. For the rest of lunchtime she sat by herself.
    At one thirty, Velda called to us that lunchbreak was over. ‘Grab a chair and bring it into the middle,’ she instructed. ‘Claire, Dizzy and Stefan will be here in a moment.’
    Realizing I needed to go to the toilet, I hurried out. I knew Claire didn’t like people going out to the bathroom in between breaks. My heart pounding, I hurried into the cubicle. It was the big moment. We were finally about to find out which team had been chosen.
    I was just coming back out of the toilets when I heard Claire’s voice. She was walking down the stairs with Dizzy and Stefan. ‘It’s very difficult. Justine is clearly better at dancing than Sophie but in everything else…’ Her voice trailed off. ‘I hope we’ve made the right choice.’
    I froze with my hand on the door. They were talking about the teams!
    ‘I’m positive we have,’ I heard Dizzy say. ‘I know Sophie’s had a few problems with the dancing but, like I’ve been saying, I’m really certain we’ve sorted those problems out now. She’ll be ready by the time of the first performance. Trust me.’
    ‘Well, if you’re sure,’ Claire said, and then their voices faded as they went into the theatre.
    My head swirled. Had I heard right? It sounded like they had chosen my team. I wanted to race into the theatre straight away but I forced myself to wait a few moments in case they realized I’d been nearby and had overheard. By the time I slipped into the theatre, they were sitting down at three chairs Velda had put out for them.
    I quickly sat down beside Justine.
    ‘OK,’ Claire said, looking round at us. ‘In a moment I’ll give you your notes on the performance this morning but first I want to let you know that we’ve decided which team will be performing on opening night. It was a difficult decision but…’ she paused and then smiled, ‘it will be the blue team, that’s with the principals Sophie, Colette, Jack and Mark.’
    The breath whooshed out of me and for a moment I felt giddy with relief.
    ‘Yes!’ Colette exclaimed.
    Around us everyone clapped — everyone, that is, except Samantha. Justine smiled at me and mouthed ‘Well done’ . David and Xav gave us the thumbs-up sign.
    A warm glow spread through me. We’d done it, we’d really done it!
    Jack banged me on the back and Colette hugged me. ‘Isn’t it brilliant, Soph!’ she cried.
    ‘Brilliant!’ I agreed, feeling like I was going to faint with happiness.
    ‘OK, everyone settle down,’ Claire called.
    As Claire started talking again, I glanced at Dizzy. I knew how much I had to thank her for. From what she’d been saying to Claire it was clear that she’d been arguing that my dancing would be good enough by the time of the performance.
    It took Claire an hour to go through all her comments on our run-through that morning.
    ‘Take five minutes,’ she said when she finally finished. ‘Then Stefan wants to go through some of the songs with you.’
    As everyone got up and stretched I went over to Dizzy.
    ‘Pleased your team’s been chosen for the first night, then?’ she said to me.
    ‘Very,’ I replied. ‘Thank you for choosing us.’
    ‘It was a joint decision. But you know you’ve still got some work to do before you get your dancing up to performance standard,’ Dizzy said.
    I nodded. ‘I’m going to practise and practise.’
    ‘Good.’ Dizzy looked me in the eyes. ‘Don’t let me down, Sophie.’
    ‘I won’t,’ I promised.

Chapter Sixteen
    As soon as I got home, I rang Ally to tell her my news but she wasn’t there. ‘Sorry, Sophie, she’s at Harriet’s house,’ Ally’s mum told me. ‘Do you want me to take a message?’
    ‘No, it’s OK,’ I said. ‘I’ll go round to Harriet’s and see them both.’
    They were in the garden cleaning out Pickles, Harriet’s rabbit, when I arrived.
    ‘Sophie!’ Ally exclaimed, jumping to her feet and knocking the bag of hay all over the lawn. ‘What happened at the rehearsal?’
    ‘Did your team get chosen?’ Harriet demanded.
    I grinned. ‘Yeah!’
    They squealed and ran over to hug me.
    ‘Well done!’ Harriet cried.
    ‘I knew you’d be OK!’ Ally said.
    ‘Only just,’ I admitted, and I told them about Dizzy having