A Dream Come True (8 page)

Friday went well, with Ellie feeling more settled and part of the Editorial Department, even though no other amazing jobs came her way. On Monday she breezed into work feeling on top of the world, but she arrived to find an awful atmosphere in the office. As she walked up to the reception desk, Carlotta gave her a very strange look. It seemed to Ellie to be a cross between pity and glee. Ellie found her heart beginning to thump and, as soon as Piano intercepted her, gripping her elbow in that spiteful way she had, Ellie knew she was in trouble.

“Angel wants to see you in her office. Now!”

Ellie wrenched her elbow free and scuttled to the Editor in Chief's closed door. She could feel Piano's venom – it almost seemed to be piercing her back as she went. She tried desperately to think of something, anything she might have done to bring this amount of anger in her direction. Apart from a week ago, when the Editor had referred to her as “it”, Angel had hardly acknowledged Ellie's presence, and Piano simply ordered her about. What on earth could Angel want? Was it something about the interview with the Lowthers? Had they complained? But they'd seemed so happy with the way it had gone.

It was no good, she couldn't think of anything. She took a deep breath. She couldn't hang about any longer, with both Piano and Carlotta watching her. She simply had to knock on the door.

Ellie could make nothing out by the tone of voice Angel used to summon her. She opened the door, went in and was slightly relieved to find that Francesca was there as well. However, judging from Francesca's expression she wasn't ready to take Ellie's side any time soon.

Angel was holding Ferdinand under her arm as usual. She said nothing, but looked at Ellie as if she was the lowest form of life. She left Francesca to do the talking.

“A few minutes ago we took a call from Joe,” Francesca told Ellie in a cold voice. “You know Joe, the photographer?”

Ellie found herself nodding quickly. “Yes, of course.”

“He was scheduled to do a major shoot this morning with Sapphire, but she didn't turn up.”

Ellie's face and mind went blank as she tried to work out what on earth a famous model not turning up for work had to do with her.

Francesca went on. “When we rang the agency to find out what the problem was we were told that
someone
had cancelled it on Thursday.”

Ellie was waiting for Francesca to make it clear what any of this had to do with her, when Angel's voice cut across Francesca's as she stooped to put Ferdinand in his basket. “For goodness' sake, Francesca, get on with it… You! Whatsyourname, Ellie Ixos. What the hell did you think you were doing?”

Ellie's mouth dropped open and she hastily shut it again. “I…er…” She spread her hands in bewilderment. “I'm afraid I have no idea
who
might have done it. I was busy with the interview, and then the artic—”

“Never mind that! Are you deliberately trying to make trouble?”

Ellie took a deep breath of air into her lungs and tried to defend herself calmly. “No! I'm doing work experience. I just tidy up, and run errands – apart from the interview last week.”

The sudden silence in the room was broken only by Ferdinand scratching in his basket next to Angel's desk.

“I don't have time for this!” Angel waved a hand dismissively at them both. “And neither do you, Francesca. I expect you to run the office smoothly. Things like this should
not
happen.”

Francesca's poise slipped a bit, and Ellie could tell that she was angry with her boss, but she didn't say anything.

Angel sat down behind her desk and pulled a sheaf of glossy photographs towards her. She spread them out on the desk before looking up at Francesca dismissively. “And I want ideas by lunchtime on how to fill the gap this blunder has left in next month's issue. Send Piano in. You're obviously too soft with the staff.”

Francesca gave Ellie a little push and guided her out of the office. She closed the door behind them and led the way over to her desk. “Carlotta, you'll have to do the coffee run this morning,” she said in a level voice. Carlotta had been lurking near the Editor's office, trying to look as if she might have some business being there. She pouted, then put her nose in the air and went to fetch her coat. Piano had rushed back to her desk as soon as Ellie and Francesca had appeared and was pretending to be exceptionally busy.

“Piano, Angel wants to see you in her office now,” said Francesca. “We'll keep an eye on reception until Carlotta gets back. Now, Ellie…”

Ellie trembled under Francesca's intelligent gaze, but was determined to stick up for herself. It simply must have been one of the others who had made the call. But why would
anyone
working for
Heart
do such a thing?

“You do realize what a serious situation this is?” Francesca leaned against her desk and folded her arms. “We've now missed the opportunity of working with Sapphire for ages and, much worse, we have five blank pages to fill, and almost no time to do it.”

“I do realize that it's awful,” said Ellie hastily. “But why would anyone working here want to cancel a shoot?”

“That's what I can't understand,” said Francesca.

“Well…are you sure it wasn't the model agency's fault?” said Ellie, thinking hard. “I mean, maybe someone took a message in their office from a different magazine and got it wrong. Maybe the mistake didn't happen here at all.”

Francesca smiled slightly. “Ever thought of becoming a detective?”

Ellie blushed. “It just seems so unlikely that anyone here would have been responsible,” she said. “What would be the point?”

“You're right,” said Francesca. “Of course I thought that too. I'm sorry you were under suspicion, but Angel is going to tackle everyone in turn. You haven't been singled out. I expect she'll speak to Carlotta after Piano.”

Francesca sighed. “The thing is that this is going to play hell with Angel's budget, and make her look sloppy. She might be in charge of
us
, but she still has to answer to the board, and she knows this mess isn't going to reflect well on her.” She thought for a moment and then gave Ellie a smile. “I know, why don't you go and see if the post has come, and forget all about it. You like spending time with the post girl, don't you? And I need to get on with thinking about an alternative to fill the gap.”

Ellie noticed how stressed Francesca looked. It must be difficult working closely with a boss as demanding as Angel. And it occurred to Ellie that Angel might well try to shift the blame onto her deputy. But there wasn't anything Ellie could do about that. She needed to worry about herself. She couldn't prove that she
hadn't
cancelled the shoot. What if Angel decided to tell her she wasn't allowed to finish her work experience? Everything had been going so well. The interview, and her article…was it all going to be wasted for a mistake some unknown person had made? If so, it was too unfair. Suddenly, Ellie felt totally out of place. She'd tried so hard to fit in, but really she knew she was seen as a nuisance at best. Piano would no doubt be feeling pretty bruised when she emerged from Angel's office, and the chances were that she'd vent her feelings on Ellie. Ellie didn't want to be on the receiving end of that. She hurried down to see Sophie, as Francesca had suggested.

The post hadn't come, but was due any minute, so Sophie put the kettle on and pulled a packet of biscuits out of a drawer labelled F. “It used to be labelled B,” said Sophie, noticing Ellie's quizzical look. “But I decided F was better. It reminds me how Fat I'll get if I eat too many,” she added as Ellie still looked puzzled.

Ellie laughed. “F could also mean Fillings in your teeth,” she suggested.

“Even worse!” said Sophie, rolling her eyes. “So,” she went on, ladling instant coffee granules into two mugs, “how's our grand celebrity interviewer today?”

“
I'm
all right,” said Ellie. “But you'll never guess what's happened upstairs.”

Ellie explained about the photo shoot, and Sophie looked serious. “Joe is in great demand,” she told Ellie. “He's always said to Flynn how much he enjoys working for
Heart
, but if we start letting him down he might not want to any more. Jane in the Design Department told me that he's one of the best in the business – he can pretty well name his price. And another thing… Oh! Hang on, I'll just get that.”

Ellie sipped her coffee while Sophie answered the phone. “…Not yet…no, well…I'll…here it is. I'll send it up. Bye.”

The postman had arrived and was dumping sacks of post by the counter, so Ellie helped Sophie to sort it. There was quite a lot for the Design Department, a load of letters for Ellie's office and a parcel for Angel, although it was addressed to Ferdinand.

“Typical!” said Sophie. “I bet it's another of those awful costumes she dresses him up in, the poor animal.”

“I think he looks quite cute,” giggled Ellie. “Did you see him in that pixie outfit? I'm sure he likes being the centre of attention.”

“Huh! In my opinion dogs ought to be allowed to be dogs, not dressed up to look like people. Angel will be doing a feature on doggy fashion next.”

Ellie picked up the letters and the offending parcel. “I'll deliver these for you,” she offered. “Actually,” she added, pausing at the door, “that's a great idea about doggy fashion. I'll mention it to Francesca. She's desperate for a filler.”

“Don't you dare!”

Ellie gave Sophie a grin and disappeared back upstairs.

“You know, that actually
is
a great idea,” said Francesca when Ellie mentioned it. “We could have a few pics of Ferdinand and ask readers to send in their own dressed-up pet pictures. We could even offer a prize for the best, chosen by Ferdinand – well, you know…Angel really – but we can say that Ferdinand had a paw in it.” Francesca actually smiled another proper smile at Ellie.

“It was Sophie's idea,” said Ellie, determined to be honest.

“But you thought to mention it,” said Francesca, taking the parcel. “As long as we can get a suitable photographer, we should be able to have it done in time for the next issue and, as it's something to do with Ferdinand, hopefully Angel will go for it. Well done!”

Ellie watched Francesca make her way over to Angel's office with a warm glow of achievement. The day had begun disastrously, but now things were really looking up!

For the rest of the morning Ellie tried to keep well away from Angel's office, in case she came out and harangued her again, but the Editor and her deputy were far too busy making sure that they had enough material for the next issue. They didn't even demand coffee for ages, but eventually Francesca put her head round the door and sent Ellie to get it. Once she had delivered their order, Francesca sent Ellie over to help Piano and Carlotta with the previous month's competition entries.

Heart
ran a competition in most issues, and Ellie had sometimes entered them. Although she often had the right answers she'd never won, so she was very interested to find out how the winner was chosen.

Last month, readers had had to name the members of a new band that had been interviewed. All the names were actually in the article, but it was amazing how many incorrect entries had come in. Some readers had simply been careless, and spelled the name Scott with one “T”. According to Piano, that meant they couldn't win, which Ellie thought was a bit harsh. But a few entries were so inaccurate it seemed that the article hadn't even been read! She found one entry that had only three names on it, while there were actually five members in the band.

Sorting out the correct entries from the ones with careless mistakes showed her how important it was to enter competitions carefully. She decided to double-check every last detail when she went in for competitions in future.

It made her feel quite special, checking competition entries. It would be terrible if she made a mistake and put an entry in the wrong heap, so she took her time over it and, fortunately, no one disturbed her while she was busy.

But Ellie wasn't going to be allowed to choose the actual winner. As there were always a number of correct entries, the fairest way was to pull a name out of a hat. Apparently Piano always reserved that pleasure for herself. Ellie could tell that Carlotta would dearly have loved a turn, but, like Ellie, she had to do as she was told. Ellie shot her a sympathetic glance, wondering if their similar feelings would make Carlotta feel friendly towards her again, and Carlotta gave her a slight smile back. Ellie was relieved. Life was too short to stay annoyed with people, she thought, and she was pleased that Carlotta seemed to feel the same.

As soon as Ellie had sorted the entries into two piles, Piano grabbed the winning ones and put them into a large Top Shop handbag that she kept for the purpose. She handed the bag to Carlotta who shook it vigorously. Piano shut her eyes and turned away. She reached out, felt for the top of the bag, and rummaged about inside. Ellie tried not to feel hurt that she wasn't allowed to join in, but failed.