Polly Plays Her Part, Page 2

  “That’s awful, Polly. I can see why you’re upset. But at least your mum’s not forcing you to go with her.”

  “Yeah I know, but I’ve got to find some way to make her stay. There must be something I can do.”

  “I’ll help you think of something,” she said, shyly. “Maybe we can find a way to make her change her mind together.”

  Sometimes I couldn’t believe I’d been so mean to Phoebe last term or that she’d forgiven me. If someone had told me a few months back that we’d end up being friends I would’ve thought they were bonkers.

  The rest of the week was a total nightmare. Mum called Dad first thing the next morning and basically told him I was moving in with them more or less straight away. Mum wasn’t even leaving for another couple of weeks, but she said it would be best to get me settled at Dad’s before term started. Couldn’t wait to get rid of me more like. She didn’t ask or anything, she just told him. After that there were endless phone calls, and Dad was on the doorstep shouting and carrying on. It was so obvious he didn’t want me to live with them.

  And in the meantime, Mum was packing up and saying goodbye to people and getting her nails done and coming home every day with bags of new clothes, as if she was going off on some two-week holiday, not disappearing out of my life for a whole year. She tried her best to hide how excited she was so I wouldn’t get upset, but it was so obvious.

  It turned out that the important letter – the one that had arrived that morning – was the actual contract she had to sign to accept the job. I tried everything to get her to change her mind. I promised I’d wash the dishes every day and make my bed and stop being so stroppy – but she just kept saying it was something she had to do and that one day when I was older I’d understand.

  I spent most of the time lying on my bed cuddling Cosmo. I wasn’t going anywhere without him – not even to Dad’s. I’d had Cosmo since he was six weeks old and I couldn’t bear to be separated from him.

  “I’ll never leave you,” I whispered into his fur, and I wondered if maybe we should run away together. I tried to work out where we could go, but it was hopeless. Cats aren’t like dogs. You can’t just bundle them up and take them somewhere new.

  Dad called me on my mobile a couple of times. Diane even called once and left some stupid message about how much Jakey was looking forward to his big sister moving in, as if it had all been their idea in the first place. I knew what Diane really thought of me – that I was moody and difficult and always in a sulk – so why on earth would she want someone like that to move in with her and her precious baby?

  On Friday morning, Dad turned up to help me move. It was only seven houses away of course, but there was no way I could manage all the bags by myself. It’s funny because Dad’s actual job is helping people move house. He’s got this massive white van and he’s really strong and muscly from shifting so much heavy furniture. He calls himself The Big Man with the Big Van but this was probably the smallest job he’d ever done – shifting his own daughter seven houses up the road.

  “All set?” he said, ruffling my hair. “We’ve got your room looking really nice. I know it’s tiny but Diane’s cleared out all the drawers and you’ve got your computer in there already. I reckon you’ll be settled in no time.”

  “What about Cosmo?” I said. “I’m not going anywhere without Cosmo.”

  Cosmo had crawled under my bed and was refusing to come out. I was very tempted to crawl under there with him.

  Dad put his head on one side and I could guess what was coming. “Well, you know Diane’s never been too keen on cats, and she’s a wee bit worried about Jakey. Let’s get you moved in and sorted and then we can come back and get Cosmo tomorrow, or the day after, or next week some time. How does that sound?”

  It didn’t sound great, but I knew my opinion wasn’t going to count for much so I just kept quiet. We trudged up and down the road, carrying my stuff bit by bit until my room at home was so empty it looked as if I’d never lived in it. Twelve whole years stuffed into a bunch of black bin liners. The only thing left when we’d finished was poor Cosmo, cowering and confused under my bed.

  I only unpacked a few things at Dad’s. Just enough to make it look like my room. I didn’t want to get too settled because I wasn’t planning on staying that long. I put my covers on the bed along with Boo, my tatty old beanie-bear that I’d had since I was tiny, and stuck a few photos up on the mirror.

  I had planned to stay in my room all evening, but when Dad called me down for tea I suddenly realized how starving I was. The kitchen at Diane’s is teeny and Dad looked so silly trying to lay the table and spoon food into Jake’s mouth and sort out chopping the salad all at the same time.

  “Here she is!” he announced as I walked in, as if I was some incredibly important visitor they’d all been dying to see.

  The tea was awful and I’m not exaggerating. Diane had made this soggy spaghetti in a slimy, green sauce that looked like vomit – and then Jake actually puked up some of his tea, splattering bright orange carroty goo right down my new top.

  “He couldn’t help it, Polly,” snapped Dad, as I screamed and sprang away from the table. “You were a baby once, you know. Now eat up and stop making such a fuss.”

  I pushed the spaghetti round my plate. It looked like a load of slithering, green worms and I wondered for a second if Diane was trying to poison me.

  “I don’t actually like green sauce,” I muttered. I was very tempted to throw the whole lot straight into the bin, but I knew Dad would go off on one.

  Diane laughed. “It’s called pesto, Polly,” she said. “It’s Italian. Haven’t you ever had it before? It’s made from basil leaves.”

  “I don’t care what sort of leaves it’s made from. I’m not eating it, all right?”

  Just then Jake squealed and banged his spoon and another lump of orange goo flew right into my face. Dad and Diane burst out laughing, clapping their hands as if he’d done something really clever.

  “Oh, Polly, he’s so excited to have you here,” cried Diane. “You should be honoured!”

  Back in my room I waited until everyone was asleep before I logged on to THWACKERS. I played for hours, improving my score each time, until by the time I logged off I’d moved up to second place on the leader board. At some point I heard Jake wake up because he’d lost his stupid dummy again. I heard Dad pleading with Diane to get up to sort him out and I heard her talking to him in her simpery, soppy baby voice, but I just played on – eliminating the bad guys as fast as they appeared on the screen:

  THWACK!

  THWACK!

  THWACK!

  I was shattered the next morning. Diane fussed about me at breakfast, but the minute Jake started to howl from upstairs, she dashed out of the room and left me to get on by myself. I gulped down my cereal and raced off down the road to make sure Cosmo was okay.

  He was waiting for me outside number 25. We sat on the doorstep and I told him all about the slimy, green spaghetti and how Diane was trying to poison me and how it wouldn’t be long until we were back together again. He stared at me with his huge, tawny-coloured eyes and I swear he understood every word.

  “Don’t worry, Cosmo,” I said, giving him the biggest cuddle. “I’ll soon get Mum to change her mind about Spain and then I’ll move back home and everything will go back to how it was before.”

  I didn’t really believe that for a second, but I couldn’t bear to see him so sad.

  Dad drove me up to drama in his van. You have to climb up really high to get into the front and when I was younger we used to play this stupid game that Dad was the King and I was his precious Princess Polly and we’d drive around looking down on everyone in our kingdom, checking that everything was in order. “Where to, Princess Polly?” he’d say in this silly posh voice. “Your wish is my command.”

  We didn’t say much on the way to drama today – well, I didn’t anyway. Dad went on and on about how well I was settling in and how I was still his Prin
cess Polly, but I just stared out of the window trying to work out how I was going to stop Mum from going away. As soon as we arrived, I scrambled down from the van and disappeared inside.

  It was strange walking back into drama and seeing everyone after the break – especially as so much had changed since last term. Phoebe was over by the piano with Ellie, Sam and Monty B. Ellie used to be Phoebe’s best friend – they’d been friends since nursery – but when they started Woodville Secondary, Ellie became best friends with Sam, and Phoebe was left tagging along after them.

  Now Phoebe and I were starting to get close and I could just imagine us being really good friends – if it wasn’t for the Great Montgomery Brown – also known as the Not-So-Great Monty B. He was Phoebe’s next-door neighbour years and years ago and, basically, he’s got the BIGGEST crush on her. She swears blind he hasn’t, but it’s so obvious.

  They were all laughing their heads off about something, but as soon as Phoebe spotted me she came straight over and gave me a quick hug.

  “Let’s go over to the others,” she said, pulling me back towards them, but I shook my head. I still felt weird around Phoebe’s friends after last term when I was so mean to her. She might have forgotten about it, but there’s no way they had – especially Monty B. And anyway, I was dying to tell her about Diane and the green spaghetti.

  I was just about to launch into the whole story when Mandy called us over to sit in a circle. Her hair was a little bit longer than before the holidays and a perfectly ordinary brown colour.

  “Hi, guys,” she said, grinning. “It’s so great to see you all. I really missed you over the holidays, believe it or not!”

  I looked around the circle at all the old faces and a couple of new ones I didn’t recognize.

  “What’s happened to your hair, Mandy?” said Monty B. “I’m sure last time we saw you it was a sort of psychedelic shade of purple.”

  She pulled a face. “I’m not allowed to dye it for a bit, worse luck. The hairdresser said it was in such a shocking state it was in danger of falling out at any minute!”

  Monty B ran his hand through his bright red hair. “I was going to stop dying mine as well,” he said, “but Phoebe literally begged me not to.”

  “No I didn’t!” Phoebe cried, slapping him. “You can shave it right off for all I care!”

  “Okay, okay, enough about hair,” said Mandy. “I actually spent most of the break working on our new production, CRASH! It’s a fantastic adventure story all about how dangerous computers can be.”

  “Have you got the scripts with you today?” Sam called out. “I hope there are loads of big parts!”

  “I have but, before we get started, I want to welcome Sandeep and Rachel, who’ve joined Star Makers today.”

  Phoebe squeezed my hand. “It’s so nice not being new this term, isn’t it?” she whispered. I nodded, smiling. It was nice not being new but it was even nicer being friends with Phoebe.

  “We’re going to go round the circle and say our names and three facts about ourselves. Your favourite colour, something you did in the holidays, anything. I’ll go first, and then we’ll carry on round to the right.”

  The new girl looked a bit worried.

  “Don’t worry, Rachel,” said Mandy, noticing straight away. “You can just say your name if you prefer. Okay, let’s start. I’m Mandy. My favourite film is The Wizard of Oz. I love banana and Marmite sandwiches and my middle name is George, because my parents were secretly hoping I’d be a boy.”

  “Have I ever told you what my middle name is?” said Monty B.

  “Oh my God, yeah, it’s not Bumble, is it?” said one of the older girls, Neesha. “You know, as in, Monty Bumble B!”

  “No it’s not actually,” said Monty B. “My parents aren’t that stupid!”

  Catharine went next. She’s in Year Nine and she had the main part in our first show last term. “I’ve got two sisters,” she said. “I’m allergic to pink marshmallows and I raised forty-five pounds in the holiday, doing a charity swim.”

  Rachel said her name and smiled. She was really pretty with rosy cheeks and dimples and I don’t know why, but she annoyed me straight away – flashing her dimples at everyone like that.

  Monty B was sitting next to Rachel. “My name’s Monty B,” he said. “I’m not allergic to pink marshmallows but I am seriously allergic to pink. I can’t even be in the same room as something pink without feeling sick. It’s ever since I had to wear that tutu in the last show. The awful thing is, my nan’s knitting me these pink socks for my birthday and I don’t know how to tell her that I won’t be able to wear them. It’s terrible really because—”

  “I said FACTS,” said Mandy, laughing. “Not a load of made-up nonsense.”

  “But it’s all true,” insisted Monty B. “That tutu has scarred me for life.”

  “Ah bless,” said Neesha. “It’s just tu tu sad.”

  “You will not believe this, Mandy,” said Ellie, when it got to her turn. “But I actually lost my brother during the holidays.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest, Ellie Matthews,” said Mandy, shaking her head. “A week doesn’t go by without you losing something. I presume you found him again.”

  “I did, and luckily it was before my mum and dad realized he was lost. Oh, I’m Ellie by the way,” she said, smiling round at Sandeep and Rachel.

  Sandeep was really cool-looking, with his long, shiny black hair tied back in a pony tail.

  “I’m Sandeep and I’m in Year Nine,” he said. “I love acting, but I’ve never done any singing or dancing, so I’ll probably make a total idiot of myself.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “We’ve got Monty B for that.”

  “Very funny,” said Monty B, but Sandeep burst out laughing and winked at me.

  I didn’t have a clue what to say when it got to my turn. I wasn’t about to tell everyone that my mum was leaving me to go and live in Spain and that I’d been forced to live with my dad and his wicked girlfriend. The last thing I wanted was for everyone to feel sorry for me, but I couldn’t think of anything else. I sat there looking down at my lap.

  “Shall we come back to you, Polly?” said Mandy. “Give you a bit more time?”

  “No, it’s okay,” I said. I took a deep breath and looked up. Sandeep winked at me again and Rachel flashed her dimples. “My name’s Polly,” I said, as if I didn’t have a care in the world. “I’ve got an amazing cat called Cosmo who understands everything I say to him. My mum’s going to work in Spain but it’s brilliant because I’m going to visit her there on holiday all the time and I’ve got a new brother called Jake who’s easily the most gorgeous baby in the world.”

  Phoebe gave me a funny look, but I turned to face the other way.

  When we’d gone all the way round the circle we did the rapping name-game and then we did some other games in groups. I stayed as far away from Phoebe as I could – I didn’t want her to start asking me about what I’d said. She paired up with Rachel and they seemed to be having a great time together, laughing and mucking around. I nearly went over to see what the big joke was, but just then Mandy called us back to the circle to tell us more about CRASH!

  “Basically, it’s about this sad and very lonely girl called Marcia Moon. She’s in her room playing her favourite game on her computer when she accidentally types in a secret code, and from that moment on things start to go very wrong.”

  “But why is the main character always a girl?” complained Monty B. “Can’t she be called Marc instead of Marcia?”

  “Well, technically speaking I suppose she could,” said Mandy. “But Marcia’s not the only good part. There are the viruses – led by the most lethal virus of all, Cydore. And then there’s Tarn – the boy who’s been trapped inside the computer game for years – and heaps more. I’ll hand the scripts out after break and we’ll have a read-through.”

  “What did you say all that stuff for?” said Phoebe, as we walked to the back of the hall with
our bags. “You know, about your mum leaving and about Jake? I thought you said you couldn’t stand him.”

  “Listen, I haven’t told you about Diane trying to poison me last night,” I said, changing the subject.

  “Poison you?” said Phoebe. “What do you mean?”

  I told her all about the green slime, and how Diane was trying to be really nice to cover up how she really felt about me moving in.

  “You never know,” said Phoebe, shrugging. “I mean, maybe she’s okay about you being there?”

  “What?” I stared at her. “No way! You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Okay, I’m just saying.”

  Just then Monty B came over to sit with us.

  “Come on then,” said Phoebe. “What’s your middle name?”

  “It’s top secret, I’m afraid. If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.”

  “Go on. Just tell me the first letter.”

  “No, Phoebs! I mean it, I’m not saying.”

  “You’re lucky he’s even sitting with you,” said Adam, coming over with Sam and Ellie. “I mean, you are wearing a pink top, Phoebe.” Adam’s in Year Nine and he’s really cute. Sam and Ellie were both crazy about him last term, giggling like idiots every time he even spoke to them, but I had a funny feeling Sandeep was going to be the latest Star Makers’ heart-throb.

  “I was joking about the pink thing,” said Monty B. “I loved wearing that tutu, didn’t I, Phoebs?”

  “How should I know?” said Phoebe, giggling.

  “Because you know everything about me.” Phoebe shook her finger at him. “Except your middle name,” she said.

  I sat there watching them muck about. I could’ve joined in, I suppose, but I didn’t want to. Now that Phoebe and I were friends, I couldn’t help feeling a bit jealous of Monty B and the others. I wanted to talk to her about Cosmo, and my mum leaving and stuff, but I knew I’d never get her to myself – not with everyone else hanging around.

  “The show sounds amazing, doesn’t it?” said Sam. “I really, really want to be Marcia – not that I’d ever be stupid enough to give out my personal details on the computer.”