‘I think he’s noticed us,’ said Alice. ‘Yes, he definitely has.’
‘That’s the infamous Charlie?’ said Liz. ‘Hmmph. Let’s just pretend we can’t see him.’
‘No,’ said Cass firmly. ‘Let’s not. Let’s give him a big wave.’
‘What?’ I said.
‘Well, look at us,’ said Cass. ‘There’s a big gang of us, hanging out, having a good time. And he’s stuck with Robbie because half his mates ditched him for being so horrible.’
‘It’s true,’ said Richard, who goes to the same school as the Crack Parrots boys. ‘He hasn’t been the same since the summer. Thank God.’
So, as he went past, we all cried ‘Hi, Charlie!’ and waved at him with big fake smiles on our faces. Cass put her arm around Liz and kissed her on the cheek. Charlie looked really embarrassed and walked past really quickly, and we all cracked up. In fact, we were laughing so loudly he could probably hear us halfway down the street.
And then Liz brought out a big birthday cake her mum had made for Cass (she checked with the Milk Bar that it was okay to bring our own cake, and they were cool about it). And we all sang happy birthday and everyone in the restaurant joined in. It was a brilliant afternoon. In fact, I didn’t think about Sam the whole time. I’m thinking about him a bit now. But mostly I’m remembering how great it was when we all showed Charlie that his stupid bullying had just made us stick together more.
Vanessa was on the front page of the Irish Independent today. Seriously. There was a photo of her in a posh southside shopping centre surrounded by gullible members of the public, all dressed as Kookie! What a terrible sight. She is, of course, delighted with herself. She took the paper into school and kept showing it to everyone.
‘It was so great to meet my fans,’ she said.
‘The song was on the radio twice this morning,’ said Karen. ‘No wonder people are lining up to meet you!’
I couldn’t help thinking of how Karen behaved when I accidentally ended up in the paper after Mum’s book came out. How things have changed.
On the plus side, I think Alison has totally given up on Karen at last. I hope Alison becomes a super successful tech genius millionaire and leaves both Karen and Vanessa far behind. She spent all of lunch today with Emma talking about this computer course they are both doing. I chatted with them for a while. It sounds pretty interesting, actually. You can do all sorts of impressive things if you learn code, which is basically computer language.
But I don’t have time to take on any extra challenges myself. I’m busy enough as it is. It feels like all our teachers were going on about it being an exam year again today. And it’s not like I’m not studying. I spent all of yesterday (well, at least an hour) doing my homework! I’m doing my bit! And I’ve just done tonight’s homework, even though the awful Mulligan child popped up at her window and danced at me for a while. Thank God the clocks are going back soon and it’ll get dark earlier. She won’t be able to taunt me when my bedroom curtains are drawn.
Had to go to the dentist for a check-up after school today. I live in fear of the dentist even though I have no fillings (yet). I keep feeling that my luck will run out eventually. I also worry that she’ll tell me I need to get braces. My teeth look pretty straight, but so did Ellie’s last year and then the dentist told her she needed train-tracks to correct her bite. She told him her bite seemed to be working perfectly, but he disagreed. She’s used to her braces now, though. And they’ll be off in another six months or so. Still, I’m glad I don’t have to get any braces (yet. Touch wood). And I was very relieved that my teeth are fine and will stay filling-free for the moment. I ate a Wispa to celebrate, though I’m not sure that’s what my dentist would have wanted. I did brush my teeth straight afterwards, though.
Mum and Dad’s rehearsal went well tonight. At least, they claim it did. Mum said it’s still all ‘coming along nicely’, but they are both a bit more subdued after rehearsals these days than they were a few weeks ago, presumably because Dad is still pushing his luck with the rest of the cast. On the plus side, Rachel and I had a very civilised evening watching Jack Rosenthal try to get out of jail in Laurel Canyon. It was very exciting and it definitely distracted Rachel from her woes.
In fact, though there are still times when she goes to her room and plays sad music and is probably crying, Rachel has been pretty normal this week. It seems like she really is getting a bit better, slowly but surely. Which is why it’s so awful about Jenny and Tom. And weirdly, her seeming like her normal self makes it even harder for me to think of telling her the truth than when she was upset – I can’t bear the thought of making her miserable again. Ugh, I can’t think about it now. I’m going to go and read for a while and think about imaginary people’s problems. They generally have a happy ending. Though not always – I’ve read a few brilliant books lately that made me cry buckets at the end.
Cass, Alice and I are debating whether to put together a stage set for the gig. Cass, unsurprisingly, is in favour.
‘It’d be easy!’ she said. ‘Remember what Puce did at the summer-camp gig. It looked really good and it didn’t take much stuff. All we need is a few old sheets and some paint! And maybe a standard lamp or something.’
It’s true, Puce’s stage set was simple but really impressive.
‘But when are we going to find the time to paint sheets?’ said Alice. ‘We’ve only got two and half weeks!’
‘That’s loads of time,’ said Cass.
‘What if we can’t find sheets at all?’ I said. ‘I think all the old sheets in my house have patterns on them.’
‘Stop looking for problems!’ said Cass. ‘We’ll find plain sheets somewhere. Now, what will we paint on them?’
We discussed this for some time. I suggested lots of dolls’ faces, but Alice said people mightn’t know they were dolls and think they were just random people. She suggested something simple but colourful, like a rainbow. Cass said a rainbow was too boring and she wanted more of a challenge.
‘What about a giant version of our band logo?’ I said.
‘In rainbow colours!’ said Alice. ‘Like, it can look as if the letters are windows and you can see a rainbow through them.’
‘Hmmm,’ said Cass. ‘That might work. I’ll get working on some sketches.’
I think it could look really good. I hope we do have enough time to do it. I know the gig is over two weeks away, but we’ll be at school for most of it.
Oh dear. I knew it was going to happen and it has. Our parents went off as usual to their rehearsal, and Rachel and I were watching telly when, at around half past nine, we heard a sound from the hall.
‘Was that the door?’ said Rachel.
‘It can’t have been,’ I said. ‘I don’t hear any singing.’
But a moment later Mum and Dad came in. Mum looked a bit stressed and Dad looked downright miserable.
‘Is everything okay?’ said Rachel. ‘What happened?’
I already knew the answer.
‘Ah, the rehearsal didn’t go that well,’ said Mum.
‘It was fine,’ said Dad. ‘I just … misjudged a few things. About the part.’ He yawned. ‘I’m too knackered to talk about it, actually. But it’s all fine. Let’s just watch some telly.’
But when Dad went to the loo, I asked Mum what really happened.
‘It was all a misunderstanding,’ she said. ‘But … well, a few of the other cast members had a word with your dad and Laura. They don’t think Ed’s contributions are really working.’
‘So what does that mean?’ said Rachel. ‘Has he lost the part?’
Mum looked shocked.
‘Oh no!’ she said. ‘Nothing like that. He’s just going to have to, well, tone it down a bit. Stick to the scenes where Henry Higgins usually appears.’
‘Are they all really annoyed?’ I said. I hated the idea of that. Dad does drive me mad, but he’s a decent person really, and I know he didn’t want to steal anyone else’s thunder.
&nb
sp; ‘Oh no, not now,’ said Mum. ‘They know he means well. Everyone’s fine. But they just found it really distracting and … well, they just didn’t think it worked. So he’s going to have to go back to the usual Henry Higgins.’
I know this is the right thing to do – I mean, just the bit I saw of Dad’s jazzed-up version looked completely insane. And I shudder to think what he would have been like leaping around the stage when Eliza Dolittle was trying to sing a song on her own. But it does seem like a shame that he can’t get to do some more dancing. It really is what he does best. Well, I suppose he must be quite good at teaching history and writing research papers about it too, considering that’s his job, but he definitely seems to have more fun dancing. Poor Dad.
Today Mrs O’Reilly showed us some examples of the Junior Cert paper. I have to admit it freaked me out a bit. It made the exams and stuff seem even more real. I was so worried about it I didn’t even take advantage of the fact that Mrs O’Reilly seems to have forgotten she forbade me and Cass to sit together last week. I could easily have done one of my trademark historical Cass portraits, but I was too busy worrying about whether I’ll be able to cram so much historical stuff into my brain by next June.
Mrs O’Reilly did point out that we haven’t actually done some of the topics in class yet, so we shouldn’t be too freaked out by the fact that some of the questions were on unfamiliar things, but it was still very unsettling. And it’s got me worrying again about geography. I mean, we’ll be sorted if the exam is all about eating bugs and cities being submerged by giant tidal waves, but what if it isn’t? And I’m also worried about German. After all, the thing about languages is you either understand them or you don’t. You can waffle a bit in some exam subjects (even geography), but you can’t really waffle at all if you don’t have any of the right words. Or, even worse, if you don’t understand the questions. Right, that’s it. I’m going to try and get the others to practise Deutsch with me tomorrow.
Oh, and at lunchtime today I was giving back one of my library books and Jenny was behind the counter. She tried to talk to me, but I basically ignored her (I said ‘Hi’ but that was about it) and got the other sixth-year girl to check my books. Jenny may think she can walk all over Rachel, but she can’t walk all over me.
Excellent day! First of all, our practice went really well. The new song will definitely be ready to perform at the gig in two weeks. In fact, we’ve worked out our set and we can play all the songs through perfectly with no mistakes (apart from when Cass hit the wrong note once on the keyboard. Oh, and I nearly came in at the wrong time during ‘The Real Me’, but I didn’t).
Also, we even managed to talk in German – well, sort of German – for five whole minutes. Though Cass was not enthusiastic at first.
‘I don’t know why you’re getting so hung up on this,’ she said. ‘There are months to the exams.’
‘That’s why we need to start now!’ I said. ‘So we don’t have to cram at the end. And besides, we should be taking advantage of the fact that our best friend can speak German perfectly.’
‘Not totally perfectly,’ said Alice. ‘I mean, my cousin Florian thinks I have a totally Irish accent.’
‘Well, you’re a zillion times better than either of us,’ I said. ‘So come on, let’s talk “auf Deutsch”!’
‘You’re just panicking, Bex,’ said Cass. ‘In a couple of days you’ll forget all about it. And then in a few months you’ll probably panic about it again and make us all talk German until the panic wears off. And it’ll go on and on.’
She is probably right. That is the sort of thing I do. But still!
‘Well, you’ll be glad I made you when we both get As in German next summer,’ I said.
Cass rolled her eyes. ‘What’s the German for “okay”?’ she asked Alice.
‘Um, they usually just say “okay”,’ said Alice.
‘Okay,’ said Cass. ‘Spielen wir Musik!’
That means ‘let’s play music’. So we did. In fact, we were so busy playing and singing we didn’t really say much, in German or otherwise, but we did say ‘Wo ist das Microphone?’ and stuff like that. Anyway, it made me feel weirdly less panicky about the exams, so that’s something.
When our time in the studio was up, we went out to meet the others. Richard and the Wicked Ways were there, and so were Exquisite Corpse and Puce. The Puce boys are full of ideas for their stage set.
‘We’re going to have stuff projected on the stage,’ said Niall. ‘It’s quite easy if you hook up a laptop. I asked Veronica and they could set it up.’
I could see Cass’s eyes light up at the thought of this.
‘Are you going to make a special film?’ she asked.
‘Um, no, not yet,’ said Niall. ‘We’ve found something cool online so we’re going to use that and hope no one sues us.’
That sounds a bit risky to me, but I can’t wait to see how it turns out. Anyway, then we all strolled back to the art space as usual, and I tried not to get my hopes up in case Sam had gone off to another skating contest or had the flu or something. But when we walked into the studio, there he was. He gave me a big grin when he saw me and came straight over.
‘Hey, long time no see,’ he said.
‘How was the … was it a skating competition?’ I said, even though I remembered perfectly well. I didn’t want him to think I’d been thinking about his activities since last week. Even though I had.
‘It was a skating competition, and it was pretty good – my friend Daire came second,’ said Sam. ‘I heard I missed an excellent party, though.’
‘You did,’ I said. And I told him about seeing Charlie. He laughed and said that was the perfect way to treat Charlie. And he should know – like Richard, he’s had to go to school with him for the last few years.
‘You know Evan and Finn from the Crack Parrots have started a new band?’ said Sam. ‘They were thinking of trying to get a practice space here.’
‘Really?’ I said. ‘Hmm.’ My initial reaction to the thought of any of the Crack Parrots turning up in our cool space was annoyance. I didn’t want to be constantly reminded of how awful they were. But then I thought of how Evan and Finn had stood up to Charlie in the end and left the band. I suppose they aren’t too bad really.
Then Richard suggested that we all go to the Flapper Café, which is near the Knitting Factory, quite nice and also, more importantly, quite cheap, and lots of people thought that sounded like a good idea. Including, to my delight, Sam. So a big gang of us headed down there and luckily there was a free table big enough to fit us all. There were so many of us I worried I’d end up stuck about ten people away from Sam, but somehow I ended up sitting next to him, with Liz on my other side.
And it was a really brilliant afternoon. Richard had brought in his wedding suit for Ellie to try altering.
‘What do you think?’ he said, passing it across the table to her. She took it and held it up to the light of the window.
‘Hmm, it should be doable,’ she said. ‘I can take it in a good bit. It may not look as good as your brother’s suit, mind.’
But Richard didn’t care.
‘It’ll still look cool and dramatic,’ he said. Which is, of course, very important for someone like Richard who sings about being a pterodactyl and a fool for love (not in the same song). So they decided that after our teas and coffees he and Alice would go over to Ellie’s house for a fitting before Alice went back to Richard’s house for dinner.
I wasn’t talking to Sam totally on my own much because, obviously, there were loads of other people there and we were talking to Liz and Lucy and the other people sitting near us, but it was really cool to hang out again. We all talked for a while about books (he’s reading 1984 by George Orwell at the moment, while Liz is loving Rae Earl’s My Mad Fat Diary). And he and I did get to talk on our own for a bit.
‘I’m looking forward to your gig,’ he said. ‘I mean, you lot have seen all of our art stuff, but we haven’t heard what you’ve
been working on.’
‘Well, I hope you’re not disappointed,’ I said. And then I worried that sounded like I was fishing for compliments, so I said, ‘I mean, we’ve practised hard.’
And then Ellie knocked over her water, and we had to move back to avoid being soaked while she mopped it up, and after that we were all talking in a group again. So that was about as deep as our personal conversation got.
But he said he was looking forward to the gig. And he really did look pleased to see me when we walked into the studio. Every time I think of his big grin, I feel all happy inside. I keep reminding myself that he is a nice, friendly sort of person and perhaps he was smiling at everyone else when I wasn’t looking. But every so often I let myself think that there is a chance that he might like me back.
Poor Dad. As if to taunt him over his recent woes, the film of My Fair Lady was on telly this afternoon. Rachel and I were flicking through the channels when the announcer said it was about to begin.
‘I kind of feel like watching this,’ said Rachel. ‘Just to remind myself what it’s meant to be like.’
‘Should we be reminding Dad of My Fair Lady at the moment?’ I said. ‘I mean, he still seems pretty disappointed about having to tone down his dancing.’
‘Well, he’s in Mum’s study correcting essays,’ said Rachel. ‘If we keep the volume down, he probably won’t even notice.’
Rachel seemed in quite a good mood so I didn’t want to kick up a fuss. And so we kept watching. I actually wanted to watch it, because it is a very entertaining film (though it’s a bit sexist) and the songs and the costumes are great. In fact, all the music is really good. During the opening credits they played a sort of instrumental medley with bits of all the different songs (this is called the overture, as I remember from my musical days), and all of them were so good I found myself wishing the extracts would go on for longer.