Centre Stage: A Novel

to persuade Claire and Stefan that my dancing would be good enough by the opening night. ‘I’ve promised her I’m going to practise loads. She was really kind. She said she’ll help me with the dances.’ I looked at Harriet. ‘You were right. I have been worrying about what other people think of me and it’s stupid. From now on I’m going to ask Dizzy for help whenever I need it. All I want is to be good enough by the time the show starts so that I don’t let people down.’
    Harriet beamed at me. ‘That’s brilliant, Sophie.’ She hesitated. ‘I’ve been thinking about things too and… well,’ she took a nervous breath, ‘I’m going to do the quiz team.’
    My eyes widened in delight. ‘Harriet, that’s great!’
    ‘What you said is so true.’ She looked at me. ‘Kelly will tease me whatever I decide, so I might as well just do it and enjoy it.’
    ‘Cool!’ Ally said.
    ‘So what are you going to do about Kelly?’ I asked Harriet.
    ‘Try and ignore her.’ Harriet frowned anxiously. ‘I wish you weren’t going to be at rehearsals, though. It’s going to be weird not having you in school.’
    I nodded. It was going to be weird for me too. From Monday onwards I was going to be rehearsing full time and, for the next three weeks, I’d be doing my schoolwork during breaks in rehearsal with a teacher from Clawson Academy. Once the play started I’d be back at school, although I’d have to leave at lunchtime on the days I was performing.
    ‘I’ll be back at school soon,’ I said. ‘And then it will be the Christmas holidays.’
    ‘And you’ll still have me to hang around with at breaktime,’ Ally said to Harriet.
    ‘Yeah,’ Harriet said, but I could tell she was still dreading me not being there.
    ‘We should have a sleepover next weekend,’ I said. ‘At my house on Saturday. Actually, no,’ I said, suddenly remembering. ‘Saturday’s no good. I’ve got a radio interview about the play first thing on Sunday morning and then a rehearsal. I bet Mum won’t let me have a sleepover the night before.’ Mum was funny about things like that. ‘How about the weekend after? I know we’ve got that Sunday off.’
    Harriet nodded eagerly but Ally shook her head. ‘I can’t come then,’ she said awkwardly. ‘I’ve invited Eve over to my house to stay a week on Saturday.’
    It would be weird but… ‘Well, she can come too,’ I offered. ‘I mean she’s your friend now, Ally. We should get to know her.’
    ‘You wouldn’t mind?’ Ally said uncertainly, looking from me to Harriet.
    We both shook our heads. ‘Course not,’ Harriet told her.
    Ally grinned in delight. ‘Cool! I’ll ask her. She really likes you both, you know. She said so last night at the party.’
    My eyes widened. How could I have forgotten? ‘The party!’ I squealed. ‘What happened? Nathan? Did you kiss?’ I could hardly get the words out quick enough.
    Ally shook her head. ‘No. Almost. He was talking to me and was really close and suddenly, well, I realized I didn’t like him that much any more.’
    Harriet rolled her eyes and I could tell she’d already heard the story. ‘It was his eyebrows, Sophie.’
    ‘His eyebrows?’ I echoed.
    ‘They meet in the middle,’ Ally said. ‘I’d never really noticed before but he was leaning closer and saying how much he liked me and I thought he was going to kiss me and then I saw them. They were like a great big beetle or something.’ She shivered. ‘I couldn’t kiss him after that. I like him as a friend still but, urgh, kiss him? No way!’
    I pushed my hands through my hair. ‘I can’t believe you, Ally. You’ve been going on about how much you want to go out with him all term!’
    Ally shrugged. ‘Well, not any more. I told him I liked him as a mate and that was that. He was OK about it and we’re still going to be friends.’
    I sighed. I’d really thought she was going to kiss Nathan and that she’d be able to tell Harriet and me about it. Looked like we were going to have to wait a bit longer before one of us actually snogged a boy.
    A grin pulled at the corners of Ally’s mouth. ‘There was this other boy there that I liked, though. He’s called Luke and he’s a friend of Claire’s brother. He’s in Year Eight. We talked a bit and he said he’d see me at school.’ A dreamy look filled her eyes. ‘I wouldn’t say no if he tried to kiss me!’
    Harriet and I exchanged grins. One thing was for sure, life was never going to