Ruby Parker Shooting Star
Rowan Coleman

Table of Contents

Cover Page

Title Page

SPOTLIGHT on Young British Talent

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapten Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Also by Rowan Coleman

Copyright

About the Publisher

SPOTLIGHT on Young British Talent

Who can forget the brilliant reality show talent contest Spotlight!: Search for a Star? It had us all glued to our seats, right until the brilliant one-off TV special of Spotlight! The Musical featuring the best of new young British talent.

The bad news is that the musical’s writer – rock legend Mick Caruso – has no plans for another series, telling us at Hiya! Bye-a! it was only ever meant to be a one-off. We wonder if that’s true or if it has something to do with the surprise last-minute withdrawal of his daughter Jade from the line-up, along with teen heart-throb Danny Harvey.

The good news is that the live broadcast was so successful that it’s about to be turned into a blockbuster Hollywood musical! Casting is due to start any minute and rumour has it that the stars of the TV special, including Nydia Assimin, Ruby Parker and newcomer Gabe Martinez, are high on the list of preferred actors to win roles. We’ve also heard that sixteen-year-old international superstar Sean Rivers, who retired recently much to the misery of his global army of fans, might well be up for one of the lead roles in the movie!

Will we see Jade Caruso try out for the lead part of Arial again? It seems unlikely, especially as Mick Caruso told Hiya! Bye-a! that he’s letting Hollywood get on with it while he concentrates on writing material for his new album, due out next year. And we don’t think Hollywood would want to risk big bucks on an unreliable unknown with no track record.

So who will win a part in the biggest teen musical role in Hollywood? Keep your fingers crossed for the Brits and watch this space!

Chapter One

“This is going to be mega,” Nydia said as I watched her jam clothes into her suitcase. It was the night before all of us – me, Nydia, Anne-Marie, Gabe and Sean – were due to fly out to America to do our screen tests for the movie version of Spotlight! Nydia was so excited that she hadn’t stopped talking since I arrived to help her choose what to pack, not even to take a breath. “It’s so exciting, all of us in America, all of us going to Hollywood! We can go and look at the big sign and stroll along the Walk of Fame. I know you’ve been before, but this time it’ll be better because we’ll be with you. It will be so exciting that I almost don’t even feel nervous about the audition!”

“This is more than an audition,” I reminded her as she finally paused for breath. “It’s a screen test. To see if we look right, more than anything, and if we do then they’ll audition us.”

“I know!” Nydia exclaimed, holding up a red and white print sundress for my approval. “It’s going to be the best summer holidays ever!”

I wasn’t feeling quite as excited about going to Hollywood as Nydia, Anne-Marie and the rest were. And I wasn’t the only one. Sean felt just as nervous about it as I did, probably even more so – with very good reason.

As for me – well, my first Hollywood experience had been a disaster. I had got a part in this film called The Lost Treasure of King Arthur. When it came out, it got terrible reviews, mainly about me and how awful I was. I ended up getting fired from my guest role on American TV drama Hollywood High and running away back to London without telling my mum where I was going. And when I got back, I told everyone that I was never acting or auditioning again. I even left the Sylvia Lighthouse Academy for the Performing Arts and started at a normal school instead. But somehow acting seemed to follow me around and before I knew it I was part of the chorus in the TV production of Mick Caruso’s new musical Spotlight! and I had enjoyed it. I realised how much I missed acting, dancing and, since joining the choir at Highgate Comprehensive, even singing! So when we were asked to go and screen-test for the Hollywood film version of the musical, I decided to go. It wasn’t until now, when we were actually about to fly off to America, that I started to feel scared about exactly what that meant. Hollywood hadn’t been kind to me the last time I was there. Why should now be any different?

“I’ve got a feeling we’ll all get a part,” Nydia said, holding up two pairs of sandals and then, after a moment’s thought, throwing them both in her suitcase. “Because they’ve already seen me, Annie and Gabe in the TV special, and they know your work…”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I said, grimacing, thinking about all of those hideous reviews.

“Rubbish!” Nydia laughed. “The Lost Treasure of King Arthur might not have been a box-office hit, but it’s been at the top of the DVD charts for months now, so you’ve got nothing to worry about. And if Sean makes a comeback – well, the only thing is if Sean gets the lead, then that means Gabe will get a smaller part, but I don’t think he’d mind that much. He’s still not totally sure he wants to be an actor anyway. I think he’s more interested in the trip to LA.”

Gabe was a boy from the Highgate Comprehensive choir. He’s a really good singer, but it had taken us a while to persuade him that he could wear dance clothes and still be cool. He was only ever meant to be in the chorus, like me, but Dakshima (my best friend at Highgate Comp) and I found out that Mick Caruso had been cheating, using a thing called an Auto-tune Miracle Microphone. This made his daughter Jade and my ex-boyfriend Danny sound as if they could sing, when really they couldn’t. Gabe and Nydia took over the lead roles and so they both got invited to the auditions. But Gabe still loves football more than singing and, to be honest, he got more excited about the thought of a trial for Arsenal’s youth squad.

Sean on the other hand would never do the screen test. I knew he wouldn’t because he’d told me and only me. It was our secret.

He’d told me the truth earlier that day. It was the last day of term and I’d been walking out of school with Dakshima, Adele, Gabe and some others when I spotted him waiting for me on the other side of the road, leaning up against a brick wall. At one time it would have taken precisely fifteen seconds for Sean to have been ripped to shreds by the hordes of teenage schoolgirls who were all madly in love with him. But recently the girls of Highgate Comp had got used to the fact that one of their number hung out with former international teen heart-throb Sean Rivers. So nowadays all they did was pretend not to notice him and then giggle hysterically once he was out of sight.

“Hiya,” Dakshima said casually, as he fell into step beside us.

“Hey,” he said. “What’s up?”

“What are you doing here?” I asked him with a smile.

“Well, the Academy broke up yesterday and Anne-Marie’s shopping her head off for clothes to take to Hollywood, because apparently the fifteen closets-worth she already has aren’t enough, so I thought that maybe you’d like to go get an ice cream with me,” Sean said.

“Sounds cool,” Dakshima said happily.

“Um, actually,” Sean looked sideways at me. “It was really just Ruby I wanted to talk to.” He treated Dakshima to one of his sweetest smiles. “It’s nothing personal; just some stuff I want to tell her about the trip – totally boring stuff…”

“Ooh, secrets,” Dakshima teased him, but with a smile. “What secret could you and Ruby have? I hope Anne-Marie knows or else there’ll be trouble…”

“Do I need to come then?” asked Gabe. “Only I can’t because I said I’d play footy down the sports centre. Under sixteens five-aside tournament.”

“Don’t worry,” Sean told him. “It’s nothing important.”

“I’m off then,” Gabe said, winking at me. “See you at the airport.”

“Hey! Wait for me,” Dakshima said. “I might as well come and watch you if this lot are going to be all film starry.”

After they had gone I looked at Sean.

“Just boring stuff?” I asked him. “I’ve never heard such a lame excuse in my life. What’s the real deal?”

“Hollywood,” Sean had said. “I’ve decided that I’m going with you.”

“You are?” I was shocked. “I mean, that’s great. It’ll be a lot of fun to have you on the trip and Anne-Marie will be thrilled. But you seemed so certain that you didn’t want to try and get a part in the film. That you were happy with how your life is now.”

“I am, but…” Sean began before trailing off as we approached the ice-cream van.

“Has Anne-Marie finally got you to give in?” I asked him. Anne-Marie Chance was one of my best friends, but as funny and kind and as loyal as she could be, she had never really got used to the idea that her boyfriend was the former international teen heart-throb Sean Rivers. They had been going out together for nearly a year now and she never tired of telling us over and over again that Sean was wasted, hiding himself away in school in England, and that he should be back out there, taking charge of his career and making the most of his talents. Since Sylvia Lighthouse told Sean that he’d been offered the chance to screen-test for Spotlight! too, Anne-Marie had badgered him non-stop in a bid to get him to come to Hollywood with the rest of us.

“It’s not Anne-Marie.” He paused as he paid the ice-cream man for two ninety-nines.

“Then what is it?” I asked him, puzzled. “Why are you going back?”

Since moving to London, Sean had seemed like such a happy, settled person, not at all like the troubled boy I’d met on the set of The Lost Treasure of King Arthur. We had nearly fallen out the last time I went to Hollywood because I’d accidentally given away his secret location to the world press during an interview on national TV, but even then in the end he’d ended up being a really good friend to me. I hadn’t seen him look this worried since and that worried me. I realised I cared about Sean a lot.

“It’s Dad,” Sean said simply, with a shrug.

“Your dad?” I asked him with surprise. “Has he been trying to bully you, Sean? Because if he has you have to tell someone.”

Sean had lived with his dad after his parents split up, because his dad had told Sean that his mum didn’t want him any more. Pat Rivers had kept Sean and his mum apart for years. While filming The Lost Treasure of King Arthur I’d realised exactly how cruelly Sean’s dad treated him, making him work all year round and sometimes even hitting him. It was because of Pat Rivers that Sean had decided that the world would never see his amazing acting talent ever again. He’d had enough of celebrity life.

That was why his answer was so confusing. How could the man who drove him out of show business get him to go back to it?”

“No, he hasn’t been in touch,” Sean said with a shrug. “And in a way that’s why I want to go to Hollywood.”

I was so surprised by what he said that I’d forgotten to eat the ice cream and now it was dribbling down my elbow. I licked my wrist as I waited for him to continue.

“I haven’t seen Dad in nearly a year,” Sean said, studying his trainers as we sat down on the grass. “At first he tried to contact me, but Mum returned all of his letters and stopped his calls. And for a long time that was the way I wanted it, but now…”

“You’ve changed your mind?” I asked in amazement. “After everything he did?”

“He’s my dad, Ruby,” Sean said. “Yes, he was a terrible dad, but he’s the only one I have. I thought that maybe now he doesn’t have my career to obsess over, he might have changed. I’ve been wondering if we can make up.”

“And the only way you can think of to make that happen is to go back to being in films again?” I asked. “Because you know, Sean, if you go up for the lead in Spotlight! you will get it. No one else will stand a chance. And before you know it you’ll be walking the red carpet and dodging the paparazzi again, and if you get back together with your dad…well, have you forgotten how hard he made your life?”

Sean shook his head. “That’s the point. I don’t want my life to go back to how it was. I don’t want a part in Spotlight! I don’t want any of that. All I want is the chance to see my dad and talk to him. And my dad’s in Hollywood. But I told Mom I’d screen-test and see how it goes.”

“And she thought that was a good idea?” I asked.

“She said if it’s what I really want then she’ll support me,” Sean said, not meeting my gaze.

“But it’s not what you really want, is it?” I said, trying hard to understand. “Why don’t you just tell her that you want to see your dad? I’m sure she’d be fine with it, help you make the arrangements and everything.”

“No…I can’t,” Sean said quickly. “The last time Dad was around, Mom ran away. I didn’t see her for years and years. The only reason she found me again was because of you. It’s not like your parents, Ruby. Even though they’ve split up they still like each other, care about each other even. Mine hate each other. My mom doesn’t want me to have anything to do with Dad ever again. And I thought I felt that way too, for a while.”

“And now you don’t?”

“Now I don’t know how I feel,” Sean said. “But I know Mom would never let me see Dad. The only way I’m going to get the chance to see if he’s changed is if I go to Hollywood and pretend that I want to audition for that part.”

“And try and see your dad in secret?” He nodded.

“But what are you going to do when they offer you the part?” I asked. “It’ll be the biggest news in Hollywood since – well, since you quit acting.”

“I’ll worry about that if it happens,” Sean said, smiling at me, but with none of the usual sparkle. “Right now I have to figure out a way to see my dad once we get there.”

“I can’t help feeling that your plan is nearly as bad as my plan to run away from Hollywood to London in the middle of the night,” I told him.

“Maybe, but it’s the only plan I’ve got,” Sean said ruefully.

“Have you told Anne-Marie?” I tried to imagine what my friend would think about his crazy scheme.

“Nope,” Sean said. “I haven’t told anyone but you, Ruby Parker.”

“Why me?” I asked, feeling pleased and worried at the same time.

Sean smiled at me, and this time there was a real warmth that was difficult to resist. “Because I know I can trust you. And besides, every hero needs a sidekick, right?”

“Oh, so now I’m your sidekick!” I’d said, unable to stop myself smiling back.

“You bet,” Sean said. “And so much more.”

I’d walked back from the park and round to Nydia’s house feeling confused and worried. I was glad Sean had talked to me, but I had seen how mean his dad was to him. I didn’t know if it was a good idea for Sean to try and contact him, especially without his mum knowing. But Sean had trusted me with his secret, me alone, and I knew that as one of his best friends, I would keep that secret and help him in whatever way I could.

But I had the distinct feeling that it wasn’t going to be easy.

teen gril!

Magazine’s

Where has all the talent gone?

We at the TGM! newsdesk can confidently predict that our readers’ celeb-spotting photos page will be empty of your snaps this week. Why? Because all of our favourite stars are flying off to Hollywood in the hopes of winning a role in the movie of Mick Caruso’s hit musical Spotlight!

The brilliant leads for the UK telly hit Nydia Assimin and cute newcomer Gabe Martinez will be hoping they get to play Arial and Sebastian again in the film, but they’d better watch out because they are up against some top competition. Making a comeback AT LAST is our favourite former soap star Ruby Parker, who will also be hoping to score a role in the film, and even more excitingly TGM! can exclusively reveal that former international teen heart-throb Sean Rivers himself has gone with them. We seriously hope that rumour is true because we know that all our TGM! readers would love to see Sean on the big screen again.

Meanwhile, it’s official. Danny Harvey has left Kensington Heights for good. He exclusively told TGM! that he’s decided he wanted to try something new and exciting, and he’s certainly achieved that. TGM! can exclusively reveal that our Danny has landed the part of the young Guy of Gisborne in the new Disney movie The Young Robin Hood. Danny told TGM! that he’s really looking forward to filming this summer and especially to playing a baddy. One thing we at TGM! know is that Danny is going to have to work hard to stay at the tip of our top ten hottest lads poll as the actor playing the title role of Robin Hood is none other than Hollywood High hunk Hunter Blake. Pack a picnic, girls, it looks like Sherwood Forest is going to be the top tourist spot this summer!

Chapter Two

“I can’t believe it,” Anne-Marie said, whisking the copy of Teen Girl! Magazine that I’d bought at the airport out of my hands and staring at the article.

“Can’t believe what?” Nydia was sitting between us with her eyes closed. It turned out that Nydia didn’t like flying. None of us had known this because until today Nydia hadn’t flown anywhere. The minute that the plane’s engines had begun to roar in preparation for take-off, she had given a little shriek and closed her eyes. That was about twenty minutes ago.

“I can’t believe it either,” I said, reaching across Nydia and grabbing the magazine back. “Danny and Hunter together on a film? The only two boys I have ever kissed working together all summer! How did that happen?”

“Really?” Nydia opened one eye. “That’s massive.”

“That’s not what I can’t believe,” Anne-Marie said. “I can’t believe they didn’t mention my name once. Not once! Everyone else was: Nydia, you, Gabe, Sean – but not me. Why not? I’m on this plane too. I got good reviews in Spotlight! Why wouldn’t they mention me?”

Nydia opened her other eye and looked at me. “Danny and Hunter are working together? How come this is the first we’ve heard of it?”

“They’ll hang out,” I said miserably. “They’ll be friends. They’ll get to like each other and then they’ll talk about me. They will discuss me.”

“Not a mention,” Anne-Marie said, scanning the article again. “Not even a photo.”

“That’s not true,” Nydia said, sitting up and leaning over. “There you are in that one.”

“Where?” Anne-Marie scrutinised a photo of me and Nydia, grinning like Cheshire cats at the aftershow party of the TV broadcast.

“Look, that’s your elbow, just in the corner there,” Nydia said, winking at me.

Anne-Marie scowled. “Ha ha – very funny. Amazing how you can be so funny when we are thirty thousand feet up in the air in barely more than a flying tin can that could crash to the earth at any moment.”

Nydia shut her eyes again. “I think I might be sick,” she said.

“You’ve got a point though,” I said, shaking my head at Anne-Marie. “Why didn’t we know about The Young Robin Hood? After all, if anyone at the Academy gets a part Sylvia Lighthouse tells everyone. It’s announced in assembly. And they must have cast it ages ago – soon after Danny dropped out of Spotlight! I know he’s not talked to me since that party, but he still hangs out with Sean sometimes, doesn’t he?”

“No, actually.” Anne-Marie glanced a few rows back to where Sean was sitting next to Gabe playing his Nintendo DS. “They haven’t hung out for ages. Danny’s spent more time with Jade than anyone this term, though they aren’t going out together I don’t think.”

“Maybe there was a confidentiality clause,” Nydia said. “Maybe that’s why it wasn’t announced.”

I sighed and looked out of the window at the clouds below. At the aftershow party I’d thought that Danny was on the verge of asking me out again. Even after I told him that basically he was one of the worst singers I had ever heard, and that all the time he thought he had a brilliant voice it was really the Auto-tune Miracle Microphone making him sound good. Even after he had to drop out of the lead role in Spotlight! because of me I thought that maybe he still liked me, because I knew that I still liked him. But then we’d been interrupted and he hadn’t said anything. And I hadn’t heard from him since.

In the last few weeks I’d been busy helping Jeremy Fort (my mum’s boyfriend and legend of film and theatre) find a nice house to buy in London, getting ready to come out to Hollywood and getting on with everyday life at Highgate Comprehensive. I hadn’t really had a chance to think about Danny and I’d decided that was a good thing. So now I learn about him and Hunter from a magazine.

“Look,” Anne-Marie said, “the least of your worries is whether or not Danny Harvey and Hunter Blake might be scoring your kissing technique out of ten.”

“I hadn’t thought of that!” I cried, clapping my hands over my eyes.

“I had,” Nydia said.

“It doesn’t matter anyway because they will be in Sherwood Forest or wherever and you will be in Hollywood. Thousands of miles away. So don’t even think about them. Concentrate on the screen tests. If we all get parts in this film we can spend the whole of the summer in America, and it will be so much fun! My mum might even be in LA for a week in August and I haven’t seen her since Easter, so she’s bound to let me go shopping with her credit card. And once Sean takes the part of Sebastian the whole town will be after him again. All the paparazzi wanting to shoot his picture, C! the Celebrity Channel will want to interview him, and everyone will be wondering – who is that mysterious yet glamorous blonde girl with him? Me, that’s who it will be, and then I will be on TV and in every magazine, and Teen Girl! Mag can go and take a running jump.” Anne-Marie clapped her hands together. “It’s going to be so exciting!”

If only she knew what I knew she wouldn’t be so happy. I felt a knot in my tummy and looked out of the window. Maybe Anne-Marie was right. Maybe I should stop thinking about Danny and Hunter getting to know each other in Sherwood Forest. They were thousands of miles away and there was nothing I do about it. j Just had to put it out of my mind. What I couldn’t forget so easily was that in order to keep my promise to one best friend, I had to lie to another. It was a difficult place to be.

Mum and I had helped Jeremy find a nice house in Highgate, not too far away from our house. But he had decided to keep his house in Beverly Hills after all and I was glad of that because he’d said that we could all stay there while we were in Hollywood. There were three adults and five kids on the trip. Mum was in charge of me, Nydia and Anne-Marie, as Nydia’s parents couldn’t get time off work and Anne-Marie’s mum and dad were working on the other side of the world again. I thought it was a bit much, because even when Anne-Marie was going halfway around the world, she still couldn’t seem to catch up with her parents. Sean and his mum were coming, and Gabe and his dad. Jeremy wouldn’t be there. He was in a play about seagulls in London, getting rave reviews. But his chef and housekeeper, Augusto and Marie, were and best of all his little dog David, who I had really missed quite a lot, although I would never tell my cat Everest that.

“This place is huge!” Nydia exclaimed as our minibus drew up to the front door.

“It’s amazing,” Anne-Marie said, sliding her sunglasses down her nose so she could get a better look at the house. Back in London Anne-Marie lived, more or less by herself, in one of the biggest, grandest houses I had ever seen, so for her to be impressed by Jeremy’s place was pretty unusual.

“All the houses round here are like this,” I told her. “This is where all the film stars live.”

Looking at Jeremy’s house made me feel a bit funny in the pit of my stomach. The last time I was here it was the most unhappy I’d ever been, even more than when Mum and Dad were splitting up, because at least then I knew they loved me. When I ran away from Hollywood, I didn’t think that anyone did. This time would be different I told myself. This time if I didn’t enjoy it out here, I knew Mum would take me straight home. And anyway I was different now. I was fourteen and I wasn’t a little girl any more.

“Oh my God, what is that!” Anne-Marie shrieked as David raced out of the front door and leapt into my arms. I grimaced as he licked me all over my face with his tiny rough tongue.

“This is David,” I managed to say. “He’s Jeremy’s dog. He look likes a rat, but actually once you get to know him he’s quite nice.”

“He hasn’t forgotten you,” Augusto said as he walked out to greet us, followed by Marie. “I think he sensed you the minute you got off the plane; he’s been waiting by the door for an hour.”

“Augusto!” I said, giving him a big hug that nearly squeezed David to death. “And Marie, it’s so nice to see you two again!”

“We’re very glad to have you and your friends stay with us,” Marie said, smiling at everyone. “Especially you, young lady. You gave us such a fright the last time. Come on, I’ll show you your rooms and then Augusto and I thought some cool drinks and sandwiches by the pool.”

“Woohoo!” Gabe whooped and Nydia laughed as everyone ran off to find which room they would be staying in.

“Coming in, honey?” Sean’s mum watched as Sean crouched down on the drive and made a fuss of David, rolling him on his back and tickling his little tummy.

“Be right there,” Sean said.

I knelt down next to him as he stroked the dog. “Feeling weird?” I asked.

He nodded, but didn’t look at me. “You?”

“Yeah, I am, but I reckon I’ll be OK. I’m not on my own this time, am I?”

Sean smiled at me, his blue eyes twinkling. “I’ll look out for you,” he said.

“So have you worked out how you’re going to give your mum the slip, go and find your dad and see if you can work things out with him, all while somehow managing not to get the lead part in a film that would be perfect for you and getting your picture in every single magazine on the whole planet?” I asked him.

Sean shook his head. “Nope. But I’m working on it.”

“Well, let me know when you do,” I said.

“Don’t you worry, Ruby, you will be the first to know,” Sean told me, standing up and offering me his hand. Somehow that didn’t make me feel any better.

Half an hour later and all of us kids were in the pool, while the adults sat around it eating some of Augusto’s amazing BLTs. David was sitting up on his hind legs and begging for scraps.

“This is the business,” Mr Martinez said. “You get yourself a life like this, son, and I’ll be happy.”

“I will do when I’m playing for Arsenal,” Gabe said, winking at Nydia and making her laugh. I noticed that those two had started to spend quite a lot of time together lately.

“We’ve got an early start tomorrow,” Mum said. “We all have to be at the studios at eight, so you all need an early night tonight.” Everyone groaned. “I’m serious. No midnight feasts or talking after lights out.”

“Mum!” I protested. “We’re not babies any more. We don’t do midnight feasts.”

“Mmm well, good,” Mum said. “Come on, you lot. Out and get ready for bed. It’s a big day tomorrow and you’ve had a long day.”

Moaning, the five of us pulled ourselves out of the pool and wrapped ourselves in bathrobes.

“You can actually see the Hollywood sign from here,” Anne-Marie said, smiling at Sean. “This place is so amazing, aren’t you glad that you’re back?”

Sean looked, his face expressionless. “I don’t know yet,” he said.

“Of course you are,” Anne-Marie said. “It’s going to be great! You’ll get the lead in the film and you’ll be famous again, and the whole town will love you and me, your girlfriend, and I’ll get my big break and nothing will ever be the same.” Anne Marie flung her arms around Sean and hugged him.

“We’ll see,” Sean said, glancing at me over Anne-Marie’s shoulder.

“Don’t be silly,” Anne-Marie said. “When have you ever not got a part that you’ve gone for?”

“There’s always a first time,” Sean said.

Later, while the parents were still downstairs, Anne-Marie, Nydia and I lay on my bed with the balcony doors open, letting the warm night air in as we ate a packet of cookies that I had snaffled from the kitchen when no one was looking. I was feeding crumbs to David who had curled up on my feet as if he was really pleased to see me.

“What will it be like tomorrow?” Nydia asked me.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I haven’t done this before either. Every single audition I’ve ever been to has been different. I have no idea what they ask you to do at a screen test.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Anne-Marie said. “Because we are prepared, aren’t we?”

Nydia and I looked at each other. For the last month Anne-Marie had made us meet at her house three times a week to learn the lines from the play and rehearse all the songs over and over again. “No one knows Spotlight! better than us. They’ll have to choose us, they’ll just have to.”

“But they might not,” I said carefully. I had the feeling that getting a part in the film meant more to Anne-Marie than anyone else. “They might want American kids and I heard that Sunny Dale might be up for Arial.”

“She’s rubbish,” Anne-Marie said. “I can knock spots off her any day of the week, and if they think I’m going to have that girl screen-kissing my boyfriend then they’ve got another think coming.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Nydia said. “If you or me got the lead we might have to kiss Sean too, Ruby. How disgusting would that be!”

“Yuck!” I said, and I pulled a suitable face. But worryingly, the second Nydia mentioned it I realised I didn’t think it would be too awful to kiss Sean Rivers at all. I thought of that twinkly, blue-eyed smile he’d given me earlier that day and for the first time since I’d known him it made my tummy lurch. But not in bad way.

“Oh no, that’s a terrible, terrible idea!” I said out loud before I realised it. “That would be really, really bad.”

“He’s not that bad a kisser,” Anne-Marie giggled, whacking me with one of my pillows.

“Well, he’s been kissing you for nearly a year so he can’t be that good,” I teased her, keen to get the stupid feeling out of my tummy.

“Attack!” Nydia yelled, launching herself at me with the final cushion.

There were feathers all over the floor by the time my mum caught us.

SPOTLIGHT! THE MOVIE MUSICAL
SCREEN TEST SCENE SCREENPLAY BY JOSETTE HUGHES AND SIMION HUGHES based on LYRICS AND MUSIC BY MICK CARUSO and BOOK BY DEN FELTON
Scene 37

Ext. Evening. Fire escape at the back of the drama school. ARIAL is sitting on her own, crying. A figure appears at the window. It’s SEBASTIAN. He hesitates and then climbs out of the window and sits beside her. He considers putting a hand on her shoulder, but in the end is not brave enough.

SEBASTIAN

Arial, why are you crying?

ARIAL looks up at him, as if she’s only just realised that he is there. Hastily she wipes her tears away and tries to smile.

ARIAL

I’m not crying, I just have…um hay fever. That’s all – it makes my eyes run.

SEBASTIAN hesitates again. He knows that ARIAL is lying, but he doesn’t want to embarrass her.

SEBASTIAN

Look, I know you haven’t got very many friends here yet, and that some of the girls are giving you a hard time – but that’s only because they are jealous.

Only because you are more talented than they are. Kinder, nicer, funnier and more beautiful…

ARIAL looks up sharply at SEBASTIAN.

ARIAL

Pardon?

SEBASTIAN looks scared and then his face changes as he makes a decision to say what he’s really thinking.

SEBASTIAN

I said I think you are really beautiful.

They look at each other for a moment longer and then SEBASTIAN loses his courage. He climbs back in through the window, leaving ARIAL sitting alone once again.

Cue production number four SEBASTIAN and ARIAL’S 1ST DUET “I’m in Love!” Sung as a duet but shot in two separate locations: SEBASTIAN’S room and the fire escape.

“I’m in Love!”

ARIAL: | I’ve never felt this way before. I see your face and my heart hits the floor.
SEB: | I don’t understand what’s going on, Only that I miss you whenever you’re gone.
BOTH: | I feel crazy and happy and sad. I feel lazy and zappy and mad! I want to sing, I want to run, to fly in the sky above! What’s happening to me? Could it be that I’m in love?
SEB: | None of the guys have ever felt the way I do.
ARIAL: | All of the girls would laugh if they ever knew.
BOTH: | But I’d do anything to spend a few minutes with you Because only you can make me feel the way I do. I feel funny and stupid and fine! And Honey I wish that Cupid would make you mine! I want to sing, I want to run, to soar in the sky above! What’s happening to me? Could it be I’m in love?

DANCE INTERLUDE

SEB:
None of the guys have ever felt the way I do.

ARIAL:
All of the girls would laugh if they ever knew.

BOTH:
But I’d do anything to spend a few minutes with you Because only you can make me feel the way I do. I feel funny and stupid and fine! And Honey I wish that Cupid would make you mine! I want to sing, I want to run, to soar in the sky above! What’s happening to me? Could it be I’m in love? Music fades. SEBASTIAN looks wistfully out of his bedroom window at the moon and then draws down his blind as his roommates enter. ARIAL takes one more look at the moon and then climbs back in through the window, pulling it down behind her. Scene closes.

Chapter Three

“Right,” I said to everyone as we sat in the waiting room right outside where the screen testing was, with a slight note of panic in my voice. “All we have to do is act, sing and dance. It will be fine.”

“It won’t be fine,” Nydia said anxiously. “This isn’t a scene, it’s a whole act! I thought they’d give us less to do and more time to prepare. I thought we’d get the scene and then at least have a chance to rehearse. I didn’t think they’d hand us a huge script and then tell us we’ll be seen on set in about five minutes. And that was four minutes ago!”

“Don’t panic,” Gabe said, taking her hand. “This is your role. You’ve played Arial on TV in front of millions. OK, so this is a new song and a new scene that none of us have ever seen before, written especially for the film. But it’s still Arial, and you still know how to play Arial better than anyone.”

Nydia smiled at him and I thought that I really had to get her on her own soon and ask exactly what was happening between those two. But now wasn’t the time.

“Gabe’s right,” I said. “We’ve prepared as much as anyone could. Now we just have to do our best.”

“How can you be so calm?” Nydia asked, dropping Gabe’s hand as if she’d only just realised that she was holding it.

“By pretending mostly,” I said. “Look, if you don’t want to do it, just say. Nothing bad will happen, except that you definitely won’t get a part in the film and will have to spend the summer in London.”

“I want to do it,” Nydia said, biting her lip. “Only in about two weeks, not two minutes!”

“I really wanted to do my scene with Sean.” Anne-Marie spoke for the first time since she’d been handed the script. “We’d be so good together in this scene. I can’t believe that he’s not here.”

That morning Sean had woken up with a temperature and a sore throat. He’d told, or rather croaked to, his mum that he wouldn’t be able to screen test-after all. His mum had phoned the studio to tell them and they said they had to go ahead and start the casting process today, but that they’d be happy to wait for Sean to get better before they made the final decision on male roles. By which they meant the part of Sebastian, because there would never be any way that Sean Rivers would get any part in any film that wasn’t the lead.

I’d found Sean lying on the sofa watching TV just before we left.

“Well, there are no radiators on in here, it’s much too hot,” I said, crossing my arms and tipping my head on one side. “So tell me – how did you fake your temperature?”

“Dipped the thermometer in a mug of tea,” he confessed in his normal voice. I shook my head. It was hard to be cross with Sean, but I wanted to give it a go.

“OK, so you’ve managed to get out of it today, but how long are you going to be able to keep it up? You can’t have a sore throat forever, you know.”

“I know,” Sean said, grinning at me. “I was thinking it could progress to a chesty cough, maybe a rash and then, oh, I don’t know – the bubonic plague. That would do it.”

I tired hard not to laugh, but failed.

“Have you worked out how you are going to reach your dad yet?” I asked, glancing at the door to make sure we weren’t being overheard.

“No,” Sean admitted. “But I will. The first thing I have to do is find out his address, because he’s moved. I need to find out where he is living or working. I’m going to do that today.”

“Your mum is staying home with you,” I reminded him in a whisper as I heard voices in the hall. “You won’t just be able to look him up in Yellow Pages.”

“I know,” Sean said. “I wasn’t in the movie Kid: Super Spy for nothing, you know. I picked up a few tricks of the trade.” He smiled at me again, that same but new smile that suddenly seemed to unsettle me the way it did every other girl in the entire world. I didn’t like it.

“Don’t smile at me,” I said without thinking, as my tummy did a backflip.

“What? Why not?” Sean asked me.

I stared at him for a second or two trying to think of something to say that didn’t involve the words “because I think I’m getting a bit of a crush on you for some bizarre reason and you smiling at me only makes it worse”.

“I…um…because I am in the zone. If you smile at me I’ll want to smile at you and then I’ll be out of the, er, zone thingy and um…It’s like Anne-Marie, your girlfriend and my best friend, is always saying, you have to stay in the zone.”

Sean’s smile widened. “You are crazy, Ruby Parker,” he told me. “But that’s what I’ve always liked about you.”

“Sean!” Anne-Marie rushed into the room wearing a paper mask over her face, presumably to protect her from his germs. “Are you sure you can’t come? Because when you get out there in front of the camera, the adrenaline will kick in and I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

“Can’t talk,” Sean croaked, shrugging apologetically.

“But I really want you to come,” Anne-Marie said miserably.

“Break a leg,” Sean had managed, and I dragged Anne-Marie out to the car.

And now we were in a room waiting to be called for a screen test. The funny thing was that on the other side of the door was a full-size movie set of a building, complete with a life-size fire escape that each of us was supposed to perform a “dance interlude” on. For the first time ever in my acting career, it was quite likely that I actually would break a leg.

Chapter Four

On the way back to Jeremy’s house we were all silent. Finally Anne-Marie spoke up.

“I can’t believe how awful I was!” she moaned miserably, staring out of the car window.

“You weren’t that bad,” Gabe told her. “At least you remembered the words. I forgot every other line. I’m sorry, Anne-Marie. I messed up and I know it means a lot more to you than it does to me.”

Gabe and Anne-Marie had been paired together for their screen test, whereas Nydia and I had two total strangers as our Sebastians.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Anne-Marie said, smiling wanly at Gabe. “At least when you said your lines you were brilliant. I remembered all of mine, but I might as well have been reading them off the back of a packet of cornflakes for all the feeling that I managed to get in them. And the song!” She clutched suddenly at her throat. “Maybe I’m catching Sean’s sore throat. Maybe that’s why my singing was so off.”

“At least you two knew each other,” said Nydia. “My Sebastian was a metre taller than me and he couldn’t look me in the eye. There’s nothing more off-putting than a boy telling you he thinks you’re beautiful when he’s gazing at your left ear.”

“You’ve been very quiet, Ruby,” Anne-Marie said. “What was your Sebastian like?”

I had been standing looking up with some trepidation at the fire escape where I was soon to be sitting when I had been introduced to my Sebastian.

“Ruby, isn’t it?” A lady with headphones and a clipboard approached me. “You have about twenty minutes before we start filming your scene. Now would be a good time for you to meet Henry Dufault. He’ll be your Sebastian today.”

She’d stood aside to reveal a boy of about fifteen with a distinct look that wasn’t like any other boy I knew. Henry had long dark hair that reached down to his shoulders and fell across his brown eyes, which looked as if they were lined with eyeliner. He wore a red T-shirt featuring a band I was not nearly cool enough to have heard of, skinny black jeans and a pair of bright green cowboy boots. He was not at all how I imagined Sebastian. Or anyone, for that matter.

“Oh, hello,” I said, suddenly sounding very English and proper.

“Hey,” Henry nodded and smiled.

“Do you want to talk the scene through before we start?” I asked him as the lady with the headphones and clipboard headed off. “Work out any moves or anything?”

Henry raised one amused brow as if he thought the suggestion was a completely silly one. “Let’s wing it,” he said with a grin. “It’ll be a buzz.”

“Wing it?” I asked him, sounding a bit squeaky. “A buzz? Do you mean improvise?”

“Winging is always best,” Henry told me. “Keeps it fresh, real. Let’s just follow each other, cool?”

I’d nodded.

“This is going to be terrible,” I’d whispered to myself as I took my seat on the fire escape.

But weirdly enough it wasn’t and neither was Henry. He could act as well as any boy I knew, even Sean, and he had a better singing voice than all of them. Even though I couldn’t see him when we sang our duet I could sort of feel his voice; it was so strong that it gave me confidence to push my voice further. I had never enjoyed singing a song so much before and I realised that whether I got a part in Spotlight! The Movie Musical or not, I had enjoyed my screen test when none of my friends had. And that was why I was quiet.

“So?” Nydia prompted me as the car pulled into Jeremy’s driveway. “How did it go?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly, looking at my friends. “I think it went OK. But we’ll soon find out because if they still want us they will be calling us back tomorrow.”

“I just want you to know,” Anne Marie said suddenly, grabbing mine and Nydia’s hands, “if I don’t get called back and you two do there will be no hard feelings at all.”

“Yeah, right,” me and Nydia said at once, rolling our eyes. All three of us laughed and the tension in the car disappeared in an instant.

“Whatever happens, best friends forever,” Nydia said.

“Best friends forever,” Anne-Marie and I agreed.

But as we walked into the house I saw Sean watching us from an upstairs window. He was waving a piece of paper at me, grinning exactly like a boy who had just found out what he needed to know.

Over dinner the parents talked and talked about the screen tests, and the other kids they had seen there, and what our chances were of getting called back for a second round of auditions, and whether or not we had a chance of getting any part in the film, never mind the leads. But us kids just ate our food and tried to talk about something else.

“You seem to be much better, Sean,” I said, looking across at him. He had been trying to get me on my own since we’d got back and so far I’d managed to avoid him.

I had decided it was no good. I couldn’t be Anne-Marie’s best friend forever and keep a secret about her boyfriend from her. Worse still, I couldn’t be her best friend and start having weird feelings about Sean. The only thing to do was to try and avoid him as much as possible. If he wanted to track his dad down then that was fine, but he’d have to do it without me until these funny feelings went away and Anne-Marie knew about the real reason he’d come to Hollywood. That was proper best friend behaviour.

“I’m not sure,” Sean said. “I think I’m getting a cough.”

After dinner we decided to watch a film in Jeremy’s huge screening room. It was a bit like a mini cinema, only it had ten great big comfy chairs that you could swivel round on. We’d been watching the film for about twenty minutes when I went to get us some more microwave popcorn, because we’d eaten the first lot before the film had even started. I was standing in the empty kitchen holding David in my arms, waiting for the microwave to beep, when Sean crept up on me.

“Boo!” he said, chuckling away as if he were hilarious. I was so surprised that I nearly dropped David, who went into a frenzy of barking and general guarding which might have been scary if he had been slightly bigger than a large mouse.

“Sean!” I hissed as I calmed David. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve got it,” he said, handing me a page he had torn out of the local directory. He’d obviously looked his father up in the Yellow Pages after all. “You were right – I didn’t need superspy skills to track Dad down. He’s here, Pat Rivers Talent Agency. I’m going to go and see him.”

“When?” I asked anxiously. I had been hoping that it would take ages for Sean to find his dad. It hadn’t occurred to me that it would really be as simple as looking him up in a phone book.

“Tonight,” Sean said, watching me intently.

“Tonight? But it’s his office address. Even if you could sneak out he won’t be there at this hour.”

Sean shook his head. “Ruby, you met my dad – when did he ever stop working?”

I thought for a second. “Never.”

“Exactly. He’s famous for his crazy working hours. Of course he’ll be there. He probably lives there, knowing Dad.”

“Well, if he does then it doesn’t sound like he’s changed much, does it?” I reminded Sean.

“Maybe not, but if I don’t speak to him I won’t know.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “Anyway I’ve worked out how we are going to get there.”

“We?” I squeaked. “As in you and me? I am not coming with you, Sean. It’s not fair of you to make me. Anne-Marie’s your girlfriend – don’t you think you should be inviting her on stupid trips across LA in the middle of the night?”

Sean pressed his lips together for a second. “She wouldn’t understand,” he said, his voice low. “You do.”

“I can’t come, Sean,” I said. “Imagine if my mum found out. I’d be grounded for the rest of my natural life.”

“Please, Ruby,” Sean begged. “I know I shouldn’t ask you, but I…I don’t have the nerve to go on my own. I need you to come with me. Please.”

The microwave pinged and we all jumped, including the dog in my arms.

“There’s a phone number on that page,” I said hopefully. “Couldn’t you just call him?” Sean said nothing as he watched me and waited. I sighed. Maybe the quicker we got this out of the way, the quicker things would go back to normal.

“What’s your plan then?” I asked him. “That address is on the other side of LA.”

“Remember when you and I were all dressed up at the film premiere and we got a cab across London to Nydia’s party?”

“Yes, it’s quite hard to forget, what with the swat team they sent after the jewellery I was wearing,” I said.

“It’s pretty much the same plan. We dress up, we sneak out, we catch a cab.”

“You call that a plan?” I asked.

“Sorry, Rubes,” Sean said, stuffing a handful of buttered popcorn into his mouth and tossing David a kernel. “Haven’t you worked out by now that I’ve only ever got one plan?”

101

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Chapter Five

Sean and I went back to the screening room. We watched the film for about another twenty minutes before Sean stood up, yawned and stretched.

“I’m going to bed,” he said. “Maybe tomorrow I’ll feel OK enough to audition.”

“That’s a good idea,” Anne-Marie smiled at him. And then he winked at me when he walked out. Which wasn’t all that out of the ordinary. Sean winked at me probably four or five times a day, but just then, just when we were about to sneak out and go and track down his dad in total secrecy, he might as well have had a neon sign on his head flashing “ME AND RUBY HAVE A SECRET!”

I waited for another ten minutes and then tried out my yawn.

“I’m off to bed. Gosh, I am tired!”

Immediately Anne-Marie spun around in her red velvet chair and looked at me.

“That was such a fake yawn, Ruby Parker. What are you trying to cover up?”

“Cover up? Me?” I stared at her for a second. It’s well known that lying is not one of my best things. “I am just going to bed, really,” I protested weakly. I knew I had “guilty” written all over my face. Thank goodness the screening room was so dark.

“Yeah, yeah. So are you going to cave in and phone Danny, or Hunter, or both?” Anne-Marie teased me. “Do you have a direct line to Sherwood Forest? Hey, maybe there is still a slot for the young Maid Marian…”

“I am not going to phone Danny or Hunter or anyone!” I told her.

“I knew it,” Anne-Marie said to Nydia. “I knew she still fancied Danny…”

Anne-Marie stopped in her tracks as she noticed that Gabe and Nydia were holding hands.

“Yes,” Nydia said, looking sideways at her. “Gabe and I are holding hands. Get over it. And leave Ruby alone. If she wants to phone Danny, it’s up to her. You should know it will be about two in the morning at home though, Rubes.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter, because I’m not phoning him,” I said as I made my way out of the room.

“Great, so now I’m a gooseberry,” I heard Anne-Marie say through a mouthful of popcorn. I was pretty shocked that both of my friends thought I was still pining after Danny. But at least I could leave the room without any more questions.

Sean and I had agreed that we should dress up a bit to seem like we were going somewhere, which after all we were. I wasn’t sure what Sean’s definition of dressing up was, but I decided that mine was to wear a dress instead of trousers. I picked a light lilac knee-length dress that I had packed just in case we got invited to any parties and a pair of silver sandals with a low heel that Mum let me wear for special occasions. It was warm outside so I didn’t take a jacket. I just brushed my hair, put a little bit of lipgloss on and waited for Sean’s secret knock that we’d agreed. One slow, two quick, one slow.

As it was he forgot to knock and just walked in.

“Sean!” I hissed.

Sean stood there and stared at me.

“What?” I said, looking down at myself. “Has it got a stain?”

“No, it’s just…” Sean put his hand in his pockets and shrugged. “You look really nice.”

“Oh, well, I’m sorry that it’s such a shock to you,” I said, feeling irritated and oddly pleased, and then irritated again. I closed the door behind him.

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