Rebecca's Rules (25 page)

We have rehearsals every day this week because the musical is on Friday. All the other teachers are getting pretty cross. Miss 
Kelly, unsurprisingly, is the worst.

‘I want all of you in this room giving me your full attention on Monday when this nonsense is over,’ she said grimly. ‘There’ll be no more excuses for lazily done homework and girls staring out the window thinking about dance steps instead of concentrating on serious geography issues. I might even give you a test.’

We all stared at her in horror. Kelly’s tests are terrifying. Not least because they are generally about what terrible environmental disaster is most likely to afflict various parts of the world. Jessie had nightmares about nuclear power stations and earthquakes after the last one.

Anyway, Kelly relented by the end of the class and said she wasn’t going to give us a test.

‘At least, I won’t give you a test next week,’ she added. ‘But maybe the week after that. So I want you all back working very, very hard on Monday.’

I can’t really imagine what it’ll be like when the musical is over. It feels like it’s been our entire universe for the past couple of months. I can’t believe it’s only a few weeks since we were all standing around a piano going through those songs for the first time. We know them all backwards now.

I still felt bad about deserting Cass and Alice after rehearsal yesterday, so when today’s rehearsal was over I told John I wanted to wait for Cass so we could all walk together. He rolled his eyes but said, ‘If you insist, Rafferty.’

Cass seemed faintly surprised but pleased when she saw me waiting for her and we all strolled out together. She was covered in paint from some last-minute set-painting.

‘It’s all coming together now,’ she said. ‘Did you see the carousel?’

‘Yeah, it looks great!’ I said.

‘A bit garish, though,’ said John. ‘I wish we could have a more, you know, experimental set. Like, instead of an actual carousel, there could just be some giant white spheres in a circle.’

Cass looked at him. ‘I don’t think Richard and Vanessa would be very comfortable trying to sit on giant white spheres,’ she said.

‘It was just an idea,’ said John loftily. ‘I suppose I’ll have to think more about that sort of thing when I’m studying drama.’

‘Oh, you want to do drama in college?’ said Cass. ‘Cool.’

‘Well, yeah, of course I do,’ said John. ‘I’ve always known exactly what I want to do when I leave school.’

‘But you’ve got another two years before you have to think of college,’ said Cass. ‘I mean, maybe you’ll decide that it’s better to do, I dunno, another arts degree and read loads of stuff and then become a director. Or you could even become something else.’

John looked appalled. ‘I’m not going to waste time on anything like that! I’ve got a vision!’

‘But, I mean, you’re sort of pinning yourself down, aren’t you?’ said Cass. ‘You should leave your options open!’

‘I don’t need to,’ said John.

‘Don’t you want to be a set designer, Cass?’ I said, trying to smooth things over. ‘That’s a vision!’

‘Oh yeah,’ said Cass. ‘But I’m not sure how I’ll end up there at the moment. I mean, I might go to college and find something else I like and do something totally different. Or I might apply to, I dunno, set designing and not get in and then have to think of something else.’

‘I’m going to get in to drama college,’ said John, but he looked very annoyed. ‘Not everyone wants to faff around waiting to find out what they like.’

‘Fair enough, I suppose not,’ said Cass. She didn’t seem bothered, but somehow John seemed more sulky than usual.
I was kind of relieved when we reached the corner of Griffith Avenue and she walked on home while I stayed to say goodbye to John.

‘God, I thought she’d never go,’ said John, which was a bit unfair because as soon as we reached the corner she’d said, ‘See you tomorrow!’ and left. ‘I know she’s one of your best friends but God, she’s so argumentative!’

‘Oh, she’s not really,’ I said. ‘She just disagreed with you! And she was very nice about it. It wasn’t a big deal.’

‘Maybe not,’ said John. He smiled at me. ‘I suppose it’s because I just wanted to be on my own with you so I could do this.’

And then he kissed me. I wish Cass knew how sweet he can be when it’s just the two of us.

WEDNESDAY

Alice is getting a bit nervous about Friday. Not because of the show itself – at least not just because of the show. But because her parents will meet Bike Boy for the first time.

‘Why are you so worried, Alice?’ said Cass. ‘I mean, it’s not like Richard is really rude or obnoxious or anything. He’ll be 
fine! They’ll love him!’

‘But what if they decide he’s not, like, worthy of their family or something?’ said Alice.

‘Alice,’ said Cass. ‘You are not living in Victorian times. They’re not trying to marry you off to a lord. Plus you and Richard have, you know, basic social skills – well, he does anyway. I’m starting to wonder about you. And your parents are pretty normal as far as parents go.’

‘Apart from liking my mum’s books, but that won’t affect them with Richard,’ I said.

‘True,’ said Cass. ‘So yeah, I’m sure the meet-up will go okay.’ She turned to me. ‘It was fine when Paperboy met your parents, wasn’t it?’

‘Oh yeah,’ I said. ‘They only met him a couple of times but they loved him.’

‘And that was after your mum had caught you snogging outside the Knitting Factory after the Battle of the Bands!’ said Cass. ‘But even that didn’t prejudice her against him. And what about John, didn’t they meet him on Saturday?’

‘Oh yeah,’ I said. ‘Um, that was fine too.’

This seemed to comfort Alice a bit. Actually, the whole thing got me wondering about meeting John’s parents. On 
the way home from rehearsal today I asked what night they were coming.

‘They’re not,’ he said. ‘Coming, that is.’

‘Really?’ I said. ‘That’s a shame. Why can’t they come?’

‘I told them not to,’ he said. ‘How can I concentrate on my art when I know those two idiots are in the audience cheering and clapping? It would be a distraction.’

‘But don’t they want to come?’ I said.

‘Oh, they want to come all right,’ said John. ‘But I said that if they came, it would totally wreck my performance, and did they want that on their consciences? Also, they’d have to buy their tickets through me, and I won’t get them for them. So they’re not coming.’

I felt a bit sorry for John’s parents. But, on the other hand, I can understand where he’s coming from. I kind of wish my own parents weren’t coming. It will only fuel their musical obsession. The only bad thing about this school musical is that it triggered my parents’ memories of their supposed glory days. I never want to hear the words Pirates of Penzance again.

THURSDAY

Show tomorrow! We had a dress rehearsal this evening with the band, and tomorrow all us musical people have the morning off, then we have one last run-through in the afternoon and a few hours off before going back for the actual show.

Vanessa is going to spend tomorrow morning getting a blow dry from some ridiculously posh salon in town.

‘I have to look my best,’ she says, even though she’s going to be wearing a hat for the entire show. She’s as mad as ever. She’s still convinced that the
Irish Times
are going to send a critic. She was going on about this today, so I tried to tell her that my mum has lots of friends who are journalists and they do not review school shows, but she doesn’t care.

‘You don’t understand, Rebecca,’ she said snootily. ‘I’ve sent all the arts writers invitations. I got them printed up specially.’

I didn’t bother telling her this wouldn’t make any difference. From the way she carries on you’d think we were going on stage in the Abbey, not appearing in the St Dominic’s school hall on a stage that usually doubles as the music room. I was going to write that she’ll get a terrible shock when she realises there isn’t, like, a giant press section but if the last few 
months have taught me anything it’s that nothing shocks or bothers Vanessa for long. She always lands on her feet. Even though she doesn’t deserve it. I’m just not going to tell her about Daisy coming. There’s no way she’ll believe a critic is coming just because she’s my godmother.

I didn’t see John properly after the rehearsal today because it’s his dad’s birthday so he had to rush off and get a bus to town for the birthday dinner. His parents thought it would be good for him to go out the night before the performance rather than sitting at home brooding about it, but he didn’t want to go at all. It’s in some posh restaurant, which he didn’t approve of.

‘I can’t believe I’m going to have to spend, like, two hours in that tacky hell hole, surrounded by fawning waiters,’ he said gloomily. ‘Restaurants like that are just temples to greed! And my parents keep acting like it’s such a great treat for me.’ He put on a silly voice. ‘“Oh John, it’ll be so relaxing for you on the night before the show!” They’re always fussing over me; it’s tormenting me.’

‘You could protest,’ I suggested. ‘Only eat bread and drink water. Or eat nothing! ‘

‘Well, I don’t know’ said John slowly. ‘I feel I can challenge
the system more by ostentatiously eating as much as possible.’

I am not sure exactly what he means by this. I have a feeling he is just going to eat a lot. I have to admit that John’s parents don’t actually sound that bad. Much less embarrassing than mine. His only real problem seems to be that they’re too nice to him. Still, I suppose they don’t understand his artistic temperament.

Actually, I was glad I got to just amble down the road with Cass, messing about like in the olden days. John is very exciting, but all those intense conversations can be a bit exhausting, especially when I’m all worked up about the show tomorrow. Cass and I spent the walk doing impersonations of various teachers singing the songs from
Mary Poppins.
I think my version of Miss Kelly doing ‘Let’s Go Fly a Kite’ was pretty good, but Cass’s portrayal of Mrs Harrington singing ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’ was even better. She got the facial expressions just right. Anyway, I can’t remember when I laughed so much. It was quite nice to be all trivial again.

FRIDAY

I can’t believe what happened today. I am in a rage. I hate John Kowalski!

Well, maybe I don’t entirely hate him. But I am very, very angry with him. He is a stupid selfish baby and he’s wrecked the entire musical.

What happened is this. We met up as planned this morning and walked down to the café place for breakfast. He still didn’t hold my hand on the way, but to be honest, I don’t care now because I don’t want my hand held by a TRAITOR. Which he is.

Anyway, we got there and ordered our breakfasts and then he took a deep breath and said, ‘Rafferty, I have something to tell you.’

Of course, I immediately felt sick because I thought he was going to break up with me. Or tell me he had a secret other girlfriend. Oh God, maybe he was secretly having an affair with Vanessa. I mean, I know I’d been a bit annoyed with him, but I didn’t want him running off with someone else. But he didn’t do either of those things.

‘You know that short play? That got into the final? Well, there’s going to be an awards ceremony in Cork and they’ve asked me to go,’ he said.