Polly Plays Her Part (8 page)

Catharine and Adam were Marcia's parents, and Sam was Cydore – the virus with the ability to replicate itself.

“Scary thought!” joked Monty B. “I'm not sure the world needs any more Sam Lesters.”

“Very funny,” snapped Sam, pulling a face.

Phoebe grabbed my hand, grinning. “Can you believe it?” she whispered. “I'm going to be singing a whole song by myself! How cool is that?”

“It's
really
cool, Phoebs, but I knew you could do it.”

While Mandy was busy explaining to Sam why she couldn't have one of the biggest parts
every
time, I sent a quick text to Mum asking her to come and meet me at one o'clock. I didn't tell her why, I just said I wanted to spend the afternoon with her. When all the parts were sorted, we went over the opening scene and then we sang “Give Me Your Name – Give Me Your Number”. I got to sing Marcia's part over everyone else and it was amazing.

“Try to learn the first five or six pages by next week, Polly,” said Mandy, at the end of the session. “You've got so many lines to learn, I want you to get on to it straight away.”

“Don't worry, Mandy, I won't let you down. I'm so excited, I'm going to start the second I get home.”

“Come over and practise at mine if you want,” said Phoebe.

“Oh I'd love to, but my mum's coming to meet me straight from drama.”

I hugged my script to my chest. I still couldn't believe that, out of everyone in the group, Mandy thought that I was the best.

“Well, I don't even think Marcia's such a great part, anyway,” Sam announced, just as we were packing up to go home. “And besides, there's no way I'd want it now that I know Monty B is Tarn.”

“Hey!” said Monty B. “I am standing right here, you know. Even macho guys like me have feelings.”

Sam snorted. “Do you even know what
macho
means?”

“Of course I do. I wasn't going to tell you but Macho is actually my middle name, if you must know.” He flexed his non-existent muscles and we all cracked up, even Sam.

“And this from the person who does the waltz with his nan,” said Neesha. “I'd love to see what you're like when you're
not
being macho.”

I left them arguing about how macho – or
not –
Monty B was, and waltzed downstairs to meet Mum. She was already there, leaning against the door, nattering to someone on her phone, but I didn't tell her about being Marcia. Not straight away. I was going to wait for the perfect moment.

“Your dad seemed to think you were going straight home when I spoke to him this morning,” she said, as we walked to the bus stop. “You haven't had a row or anything, have you?”

“No, of course not. I just wanted to see you. I've hardly seen you all week.”

The bus took ages and ages. While we were waiting, Mum tried out all her new Spanish phrases on me. “What do you think of my accent?” she said. “It's getting so much better, isn't it? Wait until I've been there for six months, I'll be fluent. Hey, listen to this,” she giggled. “
Tenga cuidado España – aqui vengo!
That means, ‘Watch out Spain – here I come!'”

I didn't know what to say. I hardly recognized Mum these days. She'd lost quite a bit of weight and had her hair cut and coloured and she did look better, but she was changing so fast I couldn't keep up. I was dying to tell her about getting the part, but she was so caught up with her plans for going to Spain that I could barely get a word in edgeways.

“Here, why don't you test me?” she said, when we were sitting on the bus. She pulled her Spanish phrase book out of her bag.

“I wish you'd stop going on about Spain all the time. Don't you care about leaving me at all?”

She shoved the book back and put her arm round me. “Oh, sweetheart, of course I care. I'm sorry. It's just that when I spoke to your dad this morning he said you were settling in so well and that you were getting really close to the baby. And you told me yourself that Diane has redecorated your room.”

“But that doesn't mean anything!” I cried. I couldn't believe it. “Just because my room's a different colour doesn't mean I suddenly
love
it there – and I'm not getting close to Jake. I can't stand him, if you must know. He screams all the time and he keeps me awake and the way he eats is totally gross. I only said he was gorgeous for a sort of joke, I didn't mean it. And anyway it doesn't matter because I've got something to tell you.”

She narrowed her eyes at me, frowning. “What's the matter?” she said. “You're not in trouble or anything, are you? I've been so wrapped up with myself lately, getting ready for Spain.” She took a tissue out of her bag and dabbed her eyes. “I've been really selfish, haven't I?” she sniffed. “Come on, silly. What's going on? You can tell me.”

The bus trundled along. I looked out of the window, not sure suddenly if getting the biggest part in CRASH! was going to make the slightest difference to Mum's plans. She was so excited about going to Spain I couldn't really imagine anything changing her mind.

“I'm not in any kind of trouble,” I said, still staring out of the window. I took the deepest breath. “I was just going to tell you that I'm Marcia.”

“What do you mean,
you're Marcia
?”

I turned to face her. “You won't believe it, Mum, but Mandy has chosen
me
to be Marcia in our new show. It's the main part. She's chosen
me
to be the main part.”

“Oh, but that's brilliant news, sweetheart. I'm
so
proud of you.” She grabbed hold of my hands. “Look at me, crying and carrying on, when all the time you had this wonderful news. You'd better tell me when it is so that I can arrange to fly back. I wouldn't miss it for the world.”

“Fly back?” I whispered. “What do you mean,
fly back
?”

But I knew exactly what she meant. Getting the main part in the show wasn't going to stop Mum going to Spain. I don't know how I could've been so stupid. How I could've thought that a tiny little thing like me having the starring role in the next Star Makers production could matter enough to make Mum change her mind?

As soon as we got off the bus I muttered something about scenes to practise and ran all the way back to Dad's. “Come and see Cosmo,” Mum called out after me, but I didn't stop. Diane was home. I could hear her in the kitchen feeding Jake but I raced straight upstairs and shut myself in my room. I lay on my bed for ages thinking about how my plan had failed. Mum was leaving and she probably wouldn't even bother to come back to see me in the show. She'd probably be so caught up in her new life by then that she'd forget about me altogether. I was stuck here for a year and there was absolutely nothing I could do.

Diane popped up after a bit to see if I was okay, but I just smiled at her and said I was fine. Mandy had the right idea. What was it she'd said about Arthur? “
I'm just going to smile at him and pretend he doesn't really exist.
” That's how I'd get through the year. I'd just smile and say I was fine and not show anyone how I really felt about Dad leaving Mum, and about
Desperate Di
and
The Great Baby Jake,
and about Mum dumping me at Dad's so that she could swan off to Spain.

I must've dropped off to sleep in the end because the next thing I knew it was dark outside and the house was quiet. I opened my door and saw that either Dad or Diane had left a sandwich and a drink for me in the hall, but I wasn't hungry. I closed the door and settled down in front of the computer.

I hadn't played
THWACKERS
for days but when I logged on I saw I was still second on the leader board. The game wasn't even that great, but the more I played the less I thought about Mum leaving. I carried on until I could hear the birds singing outside my window. I sat there hunched over the computer eliminating one baddie after another while my score went up and up.

It was almost light outside by the time I'd finished. It seemed like ages since I'd been on the bus with Mum. In three days she'd be in Spain and there was nothing I could do to stop her.

A message flashed across the computer.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY MADE IT TO THE TOP OF THE LEADER BOARD.

I wasn't even that bothered about being top, I just enjoyed playing. I tried to find another game but they all looked stupid. I searched around for a bit but there was nothing. I was just about to give up and crawl into bed, when I remembered that website they were all talking about at drama, friend2friend. The site Dad had forbidden me to go on. I knew he'd go mad if I even looked at it, but right at that moment I was too tired and too angry to care.

It was easy to find. It came up straight away. I sat there for a bit, my palms suddenly sweaty even though my room was pretty cold.

The screen was completely empty except for a sparkly silver door.

A message appeared on the door handle.

It said: “Click here to enter…”

I clicked on the door and waited. Nothing happened for ages and I wondered if Dad had actually blocked the site or something. Finally I heard the sound of a key turning and the silver door swung open. The screen was blank for a second and then another message appeared: “Welcome to friend2friend, a special place for special people to meet, hang out and chat. Please click on the Sapphire door.”

The friend2friend home page certainly didn't look particularly dangerous or sinister, but I was so tired it was difficult to think straight. It was divided up into different rooms and each room had the name of a precious stone. To go any further you had to click on the Sapphire door and enter your personal details.

I knew I shouldn't give out any personal information. Dad had warned me about that a million times – along with more or less every teacher at school – but I was really curious to know what was so special about friend2friend.

I wondered what would happen if I pretended to be someone else; someone with a completely different life. It's not like I actually had to say I was Polly Carter. It would be brilliant to be someone else, even if it was only made up – but what if somehow the computer knew I was lying? I was still trying to work out what to do when Diane called me down for breakfast.

“What, on the computer already?” she said, popping her head round the door.

I smiled at her as if I didn't have a care in the world. “Don't worry, I'll be down in a sec.”

As soon as she'd shut the door I clicked on the Sapphire door and my fingers started to fly across the keyboard.

The second I clicked “enter” my personal details were sort of sucked into the Sapphire room and I thought that would be it, but a minute or two later another form appeared with more questions. What school year was I in? What were my best subjects? Who was my favourite singer? The list went on and on. The last section was all about my family. It was fun writing about Mum and Dad and my fantastic twin Phoebe. And of course, we all lived together with our beautiful cat, Cosmo.

Eventually the questions stopped and a new message flashed across the screen.

“Thank you, Marcia Moon, your details have been accepted. Please enter your username and click on the Ruby door.”

Diane called me again from downstairs but I didn't move. I didn't want to log off in case I had to start all over again. I'd never be able to remember exactly what I'd said and if I answered the questions differently second time round it would be obvious I'd made half of it up. In the end I minimized the screen and left the computer running.

“Morning, Polly.” Dad pulled his chair in so I could squeeze past him to sit at the table. “What happened to you last night? You were spark out. Where did you go with your mum?”

I shrugged and helped myself to toast. “We didn't really go anywhere. I had lines to learn so I came straight home.”

“Did you get a good part in the end?” asked Diane. “I know you were a bit worried.” She looked over my head and mouthed something to Dad about the audition being a disaster.

“I wasn't worried!” I snapped, but then I remembered that I was supposed to be smiling my way through the year. “Honestly, I wasn't worried,” I said again, doing my best to calm down. “And anyway I had quite a big part in the last show.”

“Yes, but I thought this time you wanted the
biggest
part,” said Dad, but before I could answer, he'd scooped Jake out of his highchair and was galloping around the tiny kitchen pretending to be a horse or something. Jake squealed and squealed and Diane clapped and Dad snorted and neighed and they were so caught up in the game, I managed to slip out with my toast and back upstairs to my room.