Star Struck (11 page)

‘Flixton in Manchester.’

‘Oh God, don’t you find that everyone nowadays is from Manchester,’ Star sighed heavily. ‘I blame Oasis. Even people from bloody Newcastle claim to be from Manchester, it’s like “Get over it, that is
so
nineties”.’ Star threw her legs off the bed as if she was descending from a horse side saddle and peeled the cucumbers from her eyes. ‘So are you any good at singing?’

‘Er, I’m OK, I think.’

‘They haven’t put you through on the sympathy vote then? I mean it happens …’

Catherine looked at Star. Who did this girl think she was? They were both there on the strength of their auditions, but Star’s assuredness of her own superiority over Catherine was breathtaking. ‘Yes it does. And what about you, can you sing?’

Star looked at Catherine as if she were simple. ‘Yes, of course I can. I went to Sylvia Young.’

‘What’s that?’ Catherine asked.

‘What’s that? What’s that?’ Star spluttered as if she’d just choked on one of her pieces of cucumber. ‘It’s only London’s premier stage school, that’s bloody all. We’re talking Billy Piper and Emma Bunton here.’

‘Right. And was it good?’

‘Of course it was good, it cost ten grand a year to go there, that’s how good it was.’

‘But what I mean is was it good for you, did you enjoy it?’

Star glared at Catherine as if she thought this girl really needed a few lessons in life. ‘You don’t get anywhere in this business by just enjoying yourself.’

Catherine paused for a moment and then said exactly what popped into her head, it seemed to be good enough for Star so she thought she’d try it. ‘Are you having a bad day?’ It wasn’t often that Catherine came across people like Star and she was really hoping that the rest of the people in this competition weren’t like this or she might have to go home.

‘Am I what?’

‘You’re being really rude. So I’m just wondering if you’re having a bad day?’

Jo always said that Catherine could get the truth out of anyone; that she was like a CIA interrogator. Jo seemed to think that when Catherine was riled she didn’t lose her temper she just tried to find out what was wrong with the other person and did so in such a calm and systematic fashion that people just rolled over and told her everything.

‘This isn’t rude,’ Star said pointing at herself as if she could increase her rudeness levels at a finger click.

‘It is from where I’m standing.’

‘Listen, if I were being rude, you’d know about it. Anyway, I haven’t come here to find a new best friend. I’ve come here to win.’

‘Well, good for you.’ Catherine shot Star a look as she made her way over to the bathroom door, ‘I’m Catherine by the way,’ she said as Star grabbed the door handle.

‘What?’ she asked, stopping in her tracks.

‘My name’s Catherine. I know you don’t care but I’m just saying.’

‘Oh. Right. Hi.’

‘Enjoy your bath.’

‘I will.’

What a witch
, Catherine thought, throwing her suitcase on her bed and unzipping it. She hoped that the other girls in the room had a bit more charm about them than that stage-school brat.

‘Here you go …’

Catherine turned around. Jesse and Andy were standing in the corridor again.

‘Found another one for your room looking a bit lost …’ Jesse said.

Catherine peered over his shoulder hoping the new girl would be better company that Star was shaping up to be.

‘Oh my God!’ Catherine exclaimed, ‘Kim!’

‘Catherine!’ Kim ran towards her and gave a genuine hug. They then pulled apart and, slightly embarrassed by their own enthusiasm for seeing one another, tried to explain themselves to Jesse and Andy.

‘We met at the auditions in Manchester,’ Kim said.

‘I didn’t think I’d see you again.’ As soon as she’d said it, Catherine put her hand to her mouth. ‘I didn’t mean it like that, I didn’t think I’d get through is what I meant to say, and I didn’t know if you had …’

‘Don’t worry, I know what you meant,’ Kim said kindly. ‘Thanks lads for the tour. Oh and Jesse, you’ve got to stop with the full-on flirt! It’s exhausting!’ Kim said, winking.

‘Me, flirting?’ Jesse turned to Andy as if he was genuinely shocked.

‘Bye!’ Kim said, waving them away.

Once Andy and Jesse had departed, Andy smiling and Jesse with his tail between his legs, Kim turned her attention to Catherine. ‘He’s something else, isn’t he?’

‘He’s friendly enough, just a bit. …’

‘Much?’ Kim asked.

‘Yes, I suppose.’ Catherine admitted. When she had walked to the room with Jesse and Andy she had wanted Jesse to pipe down a bit so that Andy could get a word in edgeways.

‘His mate’s quite cute in that Oh-my-God-girls-scare-the-living-daylights-out-of-me way.’

‘Is he?’ Catherine said pretending she hadn’t noticed.

‘So, tell me, has it been mad at home? My mum and dad are all over the shop because I’ve got through to Boot Camp. My mum’s had posters made up and forced everyone to put them in their windows saying Vote Kim! The shame, I’ll get kicked out tomorrow and have to go home and say, “Er, hello everyone, can you take your posters down please, I’m off back to work in the pub. But if you need a pint I can sort that out for you.”’

Catherine laughed. ‘So you work in a pub?’

‘Yep,’ Kim said, throwing her bag on the double bed, ‘The Dog and Gun. The landlord reckons it’s called that because it’s full of dogs and working there makes you want to shoot yourself. He needs to pack up and move to Spain and stop just talking about it, the miserable sod.’ Kim jumped up onto Star’s bed. ‘This is comfy. Are you in this one?’

Catherine shook her head and pointed in the direction of the bathroom. Kim quickly realised that Catherine was indicating that whoever was in the bathroom was a bit of a nightmare. She jumped down from the bed and went and stood next to Catherine so that she could whisper the details to her.

‘Oh!’ Kim said, once she had been filled in on Star’s personality and self-promoted credentials. ‘She sounds lovely, can’t wait to meet her.’

Catherine and Kim chatted amiably as the room began to fill up. Kim was from Bradford and she and Catherine compared notes about appearing in the local newspaper. Kim said that she had been put in a star costume and positioned outside the town hall and told to give them a
big
thumbs up for the camera. On the day the piece appeared on the front page of the
Bradford Telegraph and Argus
she had received over five hundred text messages. ‘People from school who wouldn’t have said hello in the street had got my number and were now my new best friend.’

This chimed with Catherine. She had received a call from a girl called Veronica Kenny. The last time she’d spoken to Veronica was when they were fifteen and she had asked Catherine what she was looking at and if she wanted her face smashing in. Veronica only ever seemed to do two things: threaten to smash people’s faces in, and
actually
smash people’s faces in. The fact that Catherine had older sisters and could run faster than Veronica was the only thing that saved her. But now Veronica wanted to go for a drink with Catherine and catch up on old times. Catherine had made her excuses, sure that even if Veronica did just want some free
Star Maker
tickets if Catherine made it to the finals, then she would still find some reason to smash Catherine’s face in.

The new girls who were arriving all grabbed a bed, unpacked their stuff and then joined Kim and Catherine for a chat. There was Marissa, a chatty young mum from London, Heidi, a shy, wide-eyed nineteen-year-old from the north-east and Jill, a student from Sheffield.

It had been almost an hour since Star had taken herself off to bathe and there was still no sign of her appearing. ‘I really need the loo,’ Jill said.

Marissa got to her feet and hammered on the door. ‘You all right in there, doll? You’ve not drowned have you?’

Kim and Catherine looked at one another and burst
out
laughing. There was no response from the bathroom; Marissa turned to the other girls and shrugged. She was halfway through asking, ‘What d’you think we should …’ when the door burst open and Star glared at them all.

‘It’s not a bloody dorm, yeah? I was just after a bit of peace and quiet.’

‘Pleased to meet you too, love.’ Marissa said sarcastically.

‘No you’re not. And don’t pretend you are.’ Star said folding her willowy arms across her chest. ‘We’re all here for the same reason: to win.’

‘I’m not. I’m here because I got a few days off work.’ Kim said, raising a laugh from the other girls.

‘You say that now, but if you get down to the finals – and with that attitude I doubt you could win a bet never mind an international singing competition – then you’ll change your tune. It’s dog-eat-dog and don’t let anyone tell you any different.’

The other five girls looked at one another in horrified-but-about-to-laugh silence. Then Kim said, ‘Well you’re a little ray of sunshine aren’t you?’ Catherine burst out laughing and the others joined in.

Star glared at them with pure venom. ‘And you don’t want to cross me,’ Star said viciously, but only Catherine seemed to hear her, the others were too busy laughing.

It was five to six and Catherine was ready to go down to the meet-and-greet dinner. She was so nervous that her stomach was performing flip-flops. She envisaged a great banqueting hall where they would feast on a ten-course dinner while each in turn getting to sit next to Richard
Forster
and tell him everything about themselves. He would naturally be interested in each and every story and by the end of the night everyone would have bonded and no one would want to leave. The others were equally nervous, all except Star, who was refusing to join them. ‘I’ll be down when I’m ready,’ she said, with a dismissive wave of her hand.

The five girls walked excitedly through the many corridors leading to the main hall but when they arrived, Catherine’s heart sank. Unlike the cornucopia of food and fine wine that Catherine had been expecting, there was a running buffet of badly presented finger-food. ‘Looks like mum’s been to Iceland,’ Kim whispered to Catherine. The room was filling up with the other
Star Maker
hopefuls, all dressed to the nines, all looking as disappointed as Catherine felt.

‘Can I have everyone’s attention?’ A pretty young blonde with trendy hair and – Catherine had to look closely but yes, she wasn’t seeing things – legwarmers with penguins skating on them, was shouting to everyone from the raised platform at one end of the hall. ‘Right guys, welcome to
Star Maker
. Help yourselves to food and bubbly, well, it’s cava, but we all love a bit of cava, don’t we?’

There were some excited whoops from some of the other girls in the audience. ‘Unfortunately Richard and Cherie Forster won’t be here tonight but Carrie and Lionel will be coming down to wish you all well.’ There was an audible sigh from the crowd. Everyone wanted to meet Richard Forster, that was what they were here for.

‘Oh well, let’s get stuck into the cava.’ Kim said raising a plastic cup to the others.

Catherine picked up something that looked suspiciously like a turkey twizzler and bit into it. She chewed for a moment and then wondered if it would be really rude if she spat it out. She quickly decided that necessity overruled politeness and put a napkin over her mouth and removed the offending turkey matter. Turkey twizzlers reminded Catherine of her dad. For a moment Catherine thought that most girls would have nice things that reminded them of their fathers: a favourite story they were read as a child, walks in the countryside, a certain aftershave. Turkey twizzlers were probably not topping the list for most girls and their connection to their dad. But Mick loved them. On their own, in a sandwich, in a salad. He even had them as a starter when he was feeling posh. Catherine liked it when he was in a turkey twizzler phase. It meant that he was eating, and when he was eating it meant he wasn’t depressed. Or at least wasn’t as depressed as he could be.

As the others began to tuck into the food and drink Catherine thought that she should ring home and check that her dad was OK. Mobile phones were banned, but she knew that there was a pay phone somewhere they were allowed to use. Jesse walked past as she was wondering where it could be.

‘Jesse?’

He turned and smiled. ‘Hi, Catherine, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, just wondering. Is there a payphone I could use? My dad’s not been well and I just need to call home and check that he’s OK.’

‘’Course, follow me,’ he said, nodding towards the end of the hall.

Catherine and Jesse fought their way through the packed room. Jesse turned around and put his hand on Catherine’s back so that she could get through the crowd more easily. She felt slightly uncomfortable; she never really knew what to do with men who were super confident. She never really had much cause to concern herself with them, they didn’t usually talk to her.

Jesse led Catherine down a dark corridor and rounded a corner. ‘No one really knows about this one. There’s a queue a mile long at the official telephones, everyone ringing Mummy and Daddy to tell them how fantastic it is here.’

‘Thanks.’ Catherine fumbled in her pocket for some change but Jesse swiped a card along the phone’s card reader.

‘There you go, free call.’

‘Thank you.’

‘In fact keep it. I’ve got two for some reason. Just don’t tell anyone,’ Jesse smiled.

‘That’s really kind of you.’

‘Hope your dad’s OK,’ Jesse said sincerely.

Catherine watched him walk away before punching in her home number. What a nice guy, she thought. Catherine waited for someone to pick up the phone. Surely Jo would be home by now? It had been over five hours since she had said goodbye to her sisters.

‘Hello,’ Jo said, sounding out of breath.

‘It’s me.’

‘Hi, how’s it going? How’s Richard Forster? Loving himself?’

‘We haven’t met them, he’s not here tonight.’

‘How shit is that?’

‘I know. How’s Dad?’

‘He’s fine.’

‘No, I’m bloody well not!’ Mick shouted in the background.

‘Yes, he is,’ Jo said, sounding as if she was physically restraining her father.