Annabel's Starring Role (6 page)

“I think Katie's right,” Becky put in. “Mum wouldn't wear that very often.”

Annabel frowned to herself, and looked carefully at the pile of clothes. Maybe she had gone a bit mad with some of them. “How about this?” She picked up a pretty blue cardigan with a velvet ribbon round the edges. “She could wear that with jeans, or a skirt. It's, um,
versatile
.”

Katie and Becky nodded approvingly. They could imagine Mum in that.

Annabel still made Auntie Jan try five more outfits before they were happy, though. As she said, they didn't want to miss anything. By the time they met up with Mum again, Auntie Jan was looking limp and demanding coffee.

Mum gave them a suspicious look. “What have you been doing? Did Annabel try and buy something really silly?”

Annabel just clutched the bag with the blue cardigan and a striped silk scarf in, and grinned knowingly at the others. Sometimes, even
she
found it hard to believe just how clever she was.

Chapter Seven

The triplets didn't get much sleep that night. They were sharing the sofabed in the front room and the duvet just wasn't quite big enough for three. Becky was in the middle, so she was toasty, but every time Annabel and Katie yanked the duvet over to their own sides she got elbowed! They'd finished off the evening by watching a film from the sofabed on Mark's DVD player – he had a really good film collection. In fact, there were so many things they fancied watching that they ended up tossing a coin and Katie's choice won –
Jaws.
Although it was a really old film the triplets had never seen it. Becky had thought that it wouldn't really be all that scary – it was ancient, and the special effects would be really bad, she reckoned. Actually, she didn't see very many of them. She watched the first quarter of an hour, and then she had to dive under the duvet and have a running commentary from Katie and Annabel instead.

They were still asleep the next morning when an enticing smell wafted into the living room, and they were sitting at the kitchen table within minutes. Mum wasn't up yet, so the triplets told Mark about their shopping success the day before while they wolfed down a fry-up.

“So, did you get everything you wanted?”

Annabel quickly swallowed down a bite of bacon sandwich. “Yup, presents for everybody. People at school, and we got something for you and Auntie Jan. Oh, and we got the best present for Mum, she's going to love it.” She nipped back into the living room and found the bag, carefully unfolding the layers of tissue paper round the blue cardigan.

“Nice,” said Mark, stroking it. “Very soft.”

Annabel looked at him, expecting more. “Is that all you can say?” she asked disgustedly, while Becky and Katie giggled – her face was so funny. Mark looked apologetic and shrugged. Annabel sighed in an “I give up!” sort of way and refolded the cardigan lovingly. “I can't believe it. A whole day of shopping, and I didn't buy anything for me!”

Katie and Becky exchanged smug looks. Annabel didn't know that while she'd been choosing clothes for Auntie Jan to try on, they'd spotted a jewellery display, with a necklace on it just like one she'd pointed out in one of her magazines. There'd been a bracelet too, but they didn't have enough money to get it – so Auntie Jan had volunteered to get it as her Christmas present for Annabel.

When Mum and Auntie Jan finally surfaced, also drawn by the breakfast smell, they were keen to get down to work on the dress, and they commandeered the kitchen table and most of the living-room floor. Annabel was eager to help, as she really wanted to see her dress taking shape, but Becky and Katie began to feel they were rather in the way after they'd been shrieked at for nearly treading on the fabric several times. Becky fetched a book from her bag, and curled minutely into the corner of the sofa, reckoning that if she didn't extend any part of her body beyond the furniture she had to be safe. Katie wasn't feeling like sitting still, though. After shopping all day yesterday she felt like doing something active. She could never live in a flat, she decided. Window boxes were useless for playing football in.

Mark laughed at her the next time she passed his armchair. “You look like a caged tiger. Want to go out? I'm supposed to be playing football with some mates in the park in half an hour – we could go and have a kick about first, if you've got stuff it's OK to play in.”

Katie was into her bag and into the bathroom and out again changed in about thirty seconds. Mark looked a bit gobsmacked.

“I'll take that as a yes then. Come on.”

When they returned a couple of hours later the others were looking triumphant. All the pattern pieces had been cut out on the fabric and marked up, and they'd started tacking the different parts of the dress together. Annabel was standing on the coffee table wearing it while Mum and Auntie Janet crawled round her with mouthfuls of pins.

“Is it meant to look like that?” Katie asked doubtfully.

The dress wasn't immediately saying magical ballgown to
her 
–
there were too many ends sticking out.

Annabel rolled her eyes. “It's inside out, dimwit.”

“Oh, OK. Well it's very nice then.”

The exercise (and the admiring comments from Mark's mates about her ball skills) had left Katie feeling much more relaxed. She joined Becky on the sofa with a football magazine and a sandwich, and listened to Becky testing Annabel on her lines.

“‘Oh, Your Highness' – that's when we kiss, Auntie Jan! Josh is so good-looking, you wouldn't believe. Will you come and see the play? Pleeeease?”

“Mmmmpf.” Auntie Jan couldn't speak for pins, but she was nodding.

“Cool. It's going to be really good, the whole thing. Katie and Becky are helping too, you know.”

“Like we had a choice,” Katie muttered.

By the time they had to head back to the station to go home the dress was nearly finished – it was just the final details like the hemming and adding some ribbon rosebuds that Annabel had bought the day before, dithering over shades of purple ribbon until Katie and Becky had seriously considered trying to set off the fire alarm in the fabric shop.

“See you in a few weeks!” Annabel said happily as the triplets hugged Auntie Jan goodbye on the doorstep.

“Definitely – after all my hard work I have to see you in that dress. Bye! See you soon!”

 

On Monday after school Annabel dragged Katie and Becky along to the meeting to find out what they could do to help with the play. Luckily for Annabel, Fran and Megan were keen to help too, so no one noticed that she'd volunteered them anyway. When David found out from Becky that they were all going to be helping, probably in lunch hours, he said he'd like to join in too, so it was a biggish group that trooped into the hall that afternoon.

“Oh look, Annabel's brought her fan club!” Amy said snidely as they passed her.

“Least I've got one!” chirped Annabel cheerfully. She was looking forward to Ms Loftus seeing the workforce she'd found.

The Drama teacher was gratifyingly pleased, and Annabel preened happily. Becky, David and Fran went off to the art studio with Mrs Cranmer to discuss the sets, and Katie and Megan reported rather nervously to Mr Hatton.

Fortunately, he was in a good mood for once. “Any idea what you'd like to do? Lighting? Sound? Stagehands? We need a prompt, too.”

All the others in the group were boys, and they seemed keen on the technical bits like lighting. Katie thought that would be quite fun, but when Mr Hatton mentioned prompting she jumped at the chance – she'd been enjoying testing Annabel on her words, and she liked the idea of being the one to rescue anybody who dried up onstage. After a whispered discussion with Megan, who thought it sounded OK, she volunteered them both.

“Excellent. Assistant Stage Managers, both of you. That means prompting, cuing the stage effects, making sure the actors are in the right place, that kind of thing. We'll get you some runners for the performance as well, so you can send them to chase the actors up.”

“Becky and Fran and David might do that,” Katie suggested. “They're working on scenery now, but they'll be free for the performance.” This was starting to sound really good fun – being an ASM seemed to mean you were allowed to boss people around as much as possible!

They all met up and went back to the triplets' house afterwards – they had asked their mum, so she wasn't too shocked when seven people arrived wanting drinks and biscuits. Becky, David and Fran squashed up on the sofa, with a sketchpad they'd borrowed from Annabel. Mrs Cranmer had told them they could be responsible for the set for the ballroom scene and they were really excited. Fran was brilliant at drawing, and soon she was sketching out ideas.

“A big mantelpiece, like this, look, and some portraits, and big vases of flowers—”

“Oh, I thought that was a feather duster,” said David, craning his neck to look from another angle.

Becky dug David in the ribs. “Shut up, silly. You knew perfectly well it was flowers. If you're not careful Fran'll make you model for all the portraits.”

“Oooh, Fran, you should make all the portraits of the teachers. That would be so funny!” suggested Annabel excitedly. “See how many of them guess!”

It seemed as though the play was shaping up really well, and Annabel was so glad that all her friends were involved too. The only thing that spoilt all the fun a little was that Dad wouldn't be there to see her. She'd been emailing him all about it, and when she checked her messages that evening there was a new one from him.

 

Hi Bel!

How's everything going? Have you learnt all your words yet? Mum has promised to send me loads of photos of the play, and you in this fantastic dress – I'm so sorry that I can't be there. We're really busy again, and after I had that extra break at half-term, coming home for Christmas just isn't an option this year. Mum's been giving me loads of ideas for Christmas presents though – I think I've got everything sorted. I don't know what I'd do without internet shopping! Oh, nearly forgot – does your computer have a microphone? Can you record yourself saying some of your lines from the play for me, and singing your songs? That way I'll get a bit of a flavour of it. And make sure you get a copy of the video – I bet the school will do one. That can be my Christmas present from you.

Lots of love, Dad

Annabel made a face at the screen. They did have a microphone attached to the computer, but it wasn't very good – and it wasn't nearly the same as having Dad really there. She sighed. The triplets had had to get used to missing him. It had been really hard for Katie recently with Dad missing all her football matches. He was really into sporty stuff and he used to play football with Katie a lot, but he loved seeing Annabel doing stuff like this too. He was always telling her she'd be a star if she just never gave up.

Then she smiled – Dad's email had reminded her of her dress. It was all finished now, and it was hanging up in the wardrobe in Mum's room. Annabel quickly sent off a reply to Dad, promising to do a recording soon. Then she turned the computer off and raced down the steps from the loft – she just had to go and see it again! It was so perfect. She didn't put it on, just lifted it very carefully out of the wardrobe and laid it on the bed so she could stroke it. The silvery-lilac fabric shimmered as she ran her hand down the folds admiringly. It was so unfair that she wouldn't get to keep it! After the play it would become part of the school costume store – even though she knew that it wouldn't fit her for long it was still going to be a wrench. And the idea of somebody else wearing
her
dress was just horrible!

Chapter Eight

“Bel! Bel, where are you?” Katie was calling up the stairs for her. It was time to leave for school, and Annabel was actually looking forward to it. Not only was there a rehearsal that afternoon, but everyone seemed to be getting into a Christmassy mood now that there were only three weeks left until the end of term – even the teachers! OK, this meant that Mr Hatton was having a blitz on “festive vocabulary” in French (Annabel was sick to death of hanging
tresse
on the
sapin de Noël
),
but everyone seemed to have lightened up suddenly. Manor Hill was trying to raise enough money to build a swimming pool, which was what the ticket money from the play would be used for, and there was going to be a Christmas Fair on the Saturday after the play, too. Loads of lessons were being borrowed for Fair stuff, and Annabel was all for it.

 

That afternoon's rehearsal was meant to be a full run-through – the first one. Now that Annabel had almost entirely learnt her words (she only made the odd mistake, and she could generally catch herself and work out what she'd done wrong before Katie had to prompt her) the rehearsals were getting better and better. Not having to look at the script meant that Annabel could concentrate on moving more naturally, and looking at the faces of the people she was talking to, as she would in real life. This was especially good in her scenes with the prince, aka Josh Matthews. Annabel giggled – she was quite happy to look at his face as much as possible…

When she and Saima got to the hall Ms Loftus was running round like a mother hen, looking panicked, and all the cast were feverishly flicking through their scripts, as this was meant to be a no-books rehearsal, and it seemed to have crept up on everybody. By the time they got to the second half, Ms Loftus was looking a bit calmer, but quite a lot of the cast were developing clever techniques for hiding their scripts up their sleeves and writing their lines on their arms. Annabel was feeling smugly virtuous, and
very
grateful to Katie and Becky for spending all that time helping her learn her words.

Not everyone had been so successful. Annabel tried not to look smug as Amy stumbled through her scene with Josh. She obviously hadn't got a Katie to point out the trick about learning your cues as well as your lines, and she kept mixing up which line went where. Josh was sighing dramatically every time she made a mistake, which was wrong-footing her even more.

Eventually Ms Loftus called a halt. “Amy, this is a
run-through
.
You ought to know your lines by now. I need you word-perfect for the next rehearsal, you're letting everyone down. Josh, well done.”

Josh managed to look modest, long-suffering and very hard-working all at once – it was quite impressive.

“I know I
ought
to feel sorry for Amy,” Saima purred. “But somehow I just
don't
.
Strange, isn't it?” She beamed at Emily and Cara, who were quite obviously eavesdropping, and preparing to carry tales back to Amy. They didn't have a words problem, they were only being onlookers with the odd line to say here and there.

Annabel smirked at the pair of them. “Poor Amy. Learning lines is
so
difficult. I'm sure she just needs to put a bit of effort in and she'll be fine.”

They watched as Emily and Cara scuttled off to meet Amy when she came offstage.

“We shouldn't stir, should we?” Annabel said in a very serious voice.

“Nope,” agreed Saima, grinning.

Josh followed Amy off the stage and passed close by Saima and Annabel.

“Hi Annabel! Did you think that went OK?” He smiled charmingly at her, but practically ignored Saima.

Annabel flushed slightly pink. “Yes, it was great – you know your lines really well.”

“I'm really enjoying being in this play, are you?” He lounged up against the wall next to them, as though he was settling in for a good chat. “Have you done lots of acting before?”

“Not really. I've done more dancing than acting. How about you?”

“Yeah, I've done some acting. I go to a stage school on Saturdays. I've done a couple of commercials, you know, that kind of thing…” Josh looked away casually, but turned back quick enough to see if she was impressed.

She was, very, but she was trying desperately to stay calm. “That sounds cool. Was it hard work?”

“Josh!” An extremely icy voice spoke from behind them. It was Julianne, Josh's girlfriend, and she didn't look happy. She smiled in a polite but very unfriendly way at Annabel and Saima. “Are you coming? We're all sitting over there.” She indicated their group of Year Eight mates.

Annabel noticed that although she
sounded
bolshy, she was twisting her hands nervously behind her back, and her teeth were biting into her lower lip. Julianne was really nervous! She wondered why – it looked like Julianne wasn't sure what Josh's reaction was going to be.

Josh scowled. “OK, OK, I'm coming. Are you my mum or something?” He turned back and aimed a high-power smile at Annabel.

Julianne hovered for a moment longer, but Josh ignored her and she sheepishly slunk away, casting a look back at Josh that reminded Annabel of one of Becky's cute puppy posters. She didn't know whether to feel sorry for Julianne, or gratified that Josh would rather talk to her than his supposed girlfriend. Being gratified won.

“Sorry – she's so clingy, she goes all weird if I talk to any other girls. It's stupid, I mean, it's not as if she's got anything to be jealous of, is it?” Josh smiled at Annabel as he said this, in a way that suggested Julianne might actually have quite a lot to worry about.

“No,” said Annabel, smiling back. “We're just talking, aren't we?” she cooed.

Unfortunately Miss Davies called Josh over to go and try on his costume just at that moment. Annabel watched him go, her mind racing. She wasn't really sure what all that meant. She turned to Saima. “Do you think—?”

“Don't know. Really – I haven't a clue.” Saima sounded intrigued, and possibly a little miffed, Annabel thought. Josh had completely ignored her, after all.

Katie wandered over, carrying her prompt script. One of the dances had just gone completely pear-shaped and Ms Loftus was trying to sort it out, so she wasn't needed. “What was Josh Matthews talking to you about?”

“Oh, just stuff.” Annabel was practically glowing.

“His girlfriend didn't look happy.”

Annabel reacted immediately to Katie's tone of voice. “I didn't make him talk to me, Katie! I can't help it if she's jealous – we were chatting about acting, that's all.”

“OK, OK! I was just saying. Hey, have you noticed Ms Loftus giving me funny looks today? I haven't made any mistakes with the prompting, but she keeps giving me this kind of thoughtful stare – it's really weird.”

Annabel and Saima peered over Katie's shoulder at Ms Loftus, who
did
only seem to have one eye on the dancing and the other on them.

“She's coming over!” Saima squeaked. “What've you done, Katie?”

Nothing, as it turned out. Ms Loftus was smiling hopefully, and she appeared to be a Drama teacher in the throes of a Big Idea.

“Katie and Annabel!” Her smile got bigger, and she seemed to be savouring the names as she said them. “I've been wondering, Annabel, about how we are going to manage your transformation scene. I'd like it to look really good. Mr Hatton's got some great ideas about dry ice and pyrotechnics – stage fireworks, you know – but it suddenly struck me when I saw you two together earlier on that we've got a brilliant opportunity here. If we fiddle with the lines slightly so that you have to go off, Annabel, to get something, perhaps, just before Saima does the spell-song, then
Katie
can come back on wearing another version of your rags costume, while you get changed. Then we use the dry ice and you run on in your ball dress when the stage is covered in smoke – and there we go, instantaneous transformation! What do you think?”

Annabel looked pleadingly at Katie. It would be brilliant!

Katie didn't seem quite so excited. “But I'm prompting!” she protested.

“Oh well, I'm sure Megan can do that bit. can't she? And it's Saima's song, anyway; that won't need prompting, will it Saima?” Ms Loftus beamed at Saima, and didn't wait for an answer. “You'll literally just have to stand there, Katie, that's all, I promise.”

“I'm no good at acting, really, Ms Loftus.”

“Oh, Katie, it's just standing there wearing the costume, that's all.” Annabel grinned. “You know you're good at pretending to be me!”

Katie glared at her. In her opinion, Annabel wasn't nearly grateful enough. It was her that owed Katie a favour right now, not the other way around. She growled, “OK,” as mulishly as she felt she could get away with.

Ms Loftus was too excited about her plan to notice that Katie was less than keen. “Fantastic! I'll go and tell Miss Davies we need another set of rags.” She dashed off to break the news.

“Thanks, Katie!” Annabel hugged her hard. “This is going to be so cool!”

Ten minutes later, Katie was sitting on the edge of the stage with Megan, still feeling slightly grumpy. It was nearly time to go home, and they were waiting for Becky and Fran and David to come down from the art studio, and for Annabel and Saima who were trying on costumes.

“Are you sure you're OK with this?” asked Megan, who'd been told about the new plan immediately.

Katie wrinkled her nose. “Oh, I suppose so. I don't actually have to do anything. It means I'll be wearing that silly costume all through the first half though, which is a pain.”

“Mmmm.” Megan nodded sympathetically. “Oh look, there are the others. Just Bel and Saima now.”

Becky, Fran and David ran over.

David grinned at Katie. “So you've got a starring role now, then?”

Katie stared at him. “How did you know?”

“Miss Davies came into the studio to moan to Mrs Cranmer about having to make another costume, and we just happened to be close by.”

Becky nudged him. “You're such a gossip. You're worse than us.”

David just shrugged and smiled in response. “Hey, you two ought to come and see our set – it's going to be really cool.”

Fran looked pleased – after all, she had drawn the original design. “Mrs Cranmer's given us loads of gold paint, so it'll really look like a palace. With all the costumes and everything, it's going to look fantastic.”

Suddenly their conversation was interrupted. Furious voices were coming from the other side of the stage.

“I don't believe you! If you don't stop talking to her then I don't want to go out with you any more.”

“I'm acting with her – stop being so thick, Julianne.” Josh's voice was dripping with contempt.

David frowned. “He's such a scumbag.”

Katie and the others looked surprised. “Who, Josh Matthews?”

“Yeah. I know him from football. He treats Julianne really badly, and he thinks he can do what he likes just because he's good-looking. He's always making nasty comments about people as well.”

The girls exchanged glances. Katie wondered if David was jealous because Josh was good at football, but he didn't look jealous, just annoyed, and sorry for Julianne. This was a big problem – Annabel really liked Josh, and it sounded like he might not be going out with Julianne for much longer. Then what would happen? It might be difficult to persuade Annabel he was bad news.

“Are you sure—” Becky was starting to ask anxiously, when suddenly Julianne dashed out and raced past them in tears. She caught sight of Katie and Becky and spat, “This is all your fault! I hate you!” at Becky as she ran off.

Becky looked shocked, and David put his arm round her. “It's OK, she thought you were Bel, that's all.”

Katie got up. “Come on. Let's go and wait outside. I don't want to have to talk to him. Let's hope Bel goes off him soon!”