Chloe Centre Stage Read online

“Ow!” Lily made a wild grab for the banister and just managed to avoid going flying. Sara snatched her back from the top step.

  “Are you mad? Look where you’re going! Oh, Chloe, it’s you.” Bethany’s voice changed. “Are you OK?” She picked up Chloe’s bag and put a hand on her arm. “You look awful.”

  “Cheers,” Chloe muttered crossly. Bethany was being suspiciously nice and she didn’t know how to react. Besides, no one likes being told they look terrible, even if they know it’s true.

  “Everyone’s saying you’re going to be expelled,” Bethany said worriedly.

  “Oh, great!” Chloe sighed and sat down on the stairs. She suddenly felt too tired and depressed even to stand up. “Just what I need. Why do you care anyway?” she added, looking up at the three of them. “You hate me. You ought to be pleased.”

  Bethany sat down beside her, and glared at Sara and Lily. Lily was still rubbing her arm where Sara had grabbed her, but she sat down on the step above, and eventually Sara gave an irritated sigh and flumped down next to her.

  “We don’t hate you.”

  Somehow Bethany being so nice was hard for Chloe to take and her voice wobbled as she answered. “Well, you should. With the Lizabeth thing and then getting you in trouble with Miss Jasper. I’d hate me.”

  “Don’t tempt me,” Sara said. “I could be persuaded.”

  Bethany scowled at her. “Sara! Stop it! Chloe’s never even done anything to you. Anyway, it’s not important right now. Chloe, we want to know why you haven’t told Ms Purcell you didn’t set the alarm off.”

  “I did!” Chloe looked up at them, surprised. “Of course I told her! But they don’t believe me. They think I did it, but they can’t prove it, so I’m on a warning. If I do anything else wrong all term, I’ll get suspended,” she said miserably.

  “Right. Well, in that case we’ll have to go and see Miss James,” Bethany said decisively.

  Chloe gaped at her. “Why? Miss James really does hate me.”

  “We need to tell her it wasn’t you.” Lily leaned down from the step above. “We could go to Ms Purcell, I suppose, but I’d rather not.”

  Chloe smiled at her, but she felt like crying. Why on earth did these three believe her, when no one else did?

  “Even if we didn’t know for sure, I don’t think you’d actually have set off the alarm with the exams going on.” Lily’s voice was very serious. “Not after that drama lesson on Friday – you just wouldn’t. I could see how much it meant to you, that class.”

  “And anyway, we do know it wasn’t you, and Bethany and Lily don’t think you deserve to have everyone thinking it was.” Sara sniffed. “Personally, I think it might do you good, but I’m outvoted.”

  “But – but – how do you know?” Chloe asked, feeling totally bewildered.

  “We saw you!” Bethany grinned at her. “You were in one of the practice rooms, weren’t you?”

  “Yeah, but what were you doing?” Chloe could feel a little bubble of happiness lifting inside her. For the first time since Carmen and Ella had told her their suspicions yesterday, the horrible, desperate feeling was starting to go away.

  “I was going to see if I could change the time for my violin lesson. My teacher uses one of those rooms,” Sara explained. “Lily and Bethany came with me.” She stood up. “Come on then. If we’re going to find Miss James before school starts, we’d better go now.”

  It felt so different, walking down to the staff room together with Lily, Bethany and Sara.Somehow it didn’t matter that everyone was still staring. They passed Carmen and Ella just coming in, and the twins looked totally confused seeing them all together. Chloe could see they were desperately trying to work out what was going on. She gave them a quick smile, but still felt embarrassed about talking to them.

  Somehow it was a bit of a shock arriving outside the staff room. It wasn’t as bad as Ms Purcell’s office, but Chloe really didn’t feel like knocking. She looked hopefully at Bethany.

  “Oh, all right!” Bethany nodded her head, smiling.

  “Hang on.” Lily tapped her on the shoulder. “Here’s Mr Lessing. We can ask him.”

  Chloe would have preferred it to be almost anybody else. Mr Lessing was the one who had actually thought she’d set off the alarm. She shrank back behind Sara, looking scared.

  “What’s the matter?” For the first time, Sara actually sounded as though she wasn’t regretting they’d ever seen Chloe the day before. Chloe looked so frightened, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. “Don’t you like Mr Lessing?”

  “I used to, but it was him who saw me, in the corridor. He went and told Ms Purcell about what I said on Friday as well,” Chloe whispered shakily. “About paying back the Year Nines for kicking us out of the practice rooms. He really thinks it was me. Please can’t we wait for someone else to find Miss James?”

  “Don’t be silly! We’ll tell him it wasn’t you,” Bethany said determinedly. Chloe was amazed how confident she sounded. After all, she was just about to tell one of her teachers that he was totally wrong. “Mr Lessing! Can we talk to you, please?”

  The drama teacher gave them a curious look, his eyes resting on Chloe for a long time. Then he turned back to Bethany. “What is it?”

  “You have to tell Ms Purcell that it wasn’t Chloe who set off the alarm. It couldn’t have been, you see. We saw her coming out of one of the practice rooms when the alarm went off. It must have been someone else.” Bethany beamed at him and he couldn’t help smiling back.

  “I see,” he said. “You’re sure?”

  Bethany and Lily nodded vigorously, and Sara said, “It definitely wasn’t Chloe.”

  Mr Lessing looked relieved. “Good. Chloe, I’m really sorry. I didn’t like thinking it was you, but I couldn’t pretend I hadn’t heard you on Friday – and then when I saw you… But I’m glad I was wrong.” He ran his hand through his hair and shrugged. “Of course, it doesn’t help us with who actually did do it. But I’ll go and see Ms Purcell now. Do you want to come, Chloe?”

  Chloe was still feeling fragile. She did want to go, as she thought she wouldn’t feel as though everyone really believed her until she saw Ms Purcell again – but then…

  “I think you should go,” Sara said unexpectedly. “It’s important.”

  Chloe nodded slowly.

  “Can we come too?” Bethany asked. “Ms Purcell might want to see us anyway. We’re Chloe’s proof.”

  “OK, let’s go and see if she’s in yet.”

  Ms Purcell’s secretary was there this time and she gave Chloe a slightly disapproving look, which made Chloe certain that she needed to see the principal and get this all straightened out, or she’d be getting funny looks forever.

  “Ms Purcell’s on the phone at the moment,” she said, smiling at Mr Lessing. “But I’m sure she won’t be long. If you wait, I’ll tell her you’re here when she gets off.”

  Chloe plaited and unplaited her fingers nervously until at last they were told they could go in and they trooped through the door after Mr Lessing. Ms Purcell was sitting behind her desk looking thoughtful – and was it just Chloe’s imagination, or was she also slightly embarrassed?

  “Chloe, I don’t know how to say this—”

  “Please, Bethany and Lily and Sara saw me yesterday—”

  They both stopped and Ms Purcell smiled at her. “Sorry, Chloe. I was going to say that I’ve just had a phone call from the council. They were digging up the road yesterday, and apparently they had an accident and hit some wires. Quite a few places round here have had electrical faults, so they were calling to let us know in case we’d been worried. No one set the alarm off at all! So obviously I owe you an apology.”

  Chloe didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t quite imagined the principal apologizing to her somehow.

  “That’s brilliant, Chloe!” Bethany was grinning from ear to ear.

  “And Chloe, I’ll ring your parents now to let them know. You’d better get back to your form room, girls
, it’s nearly time for registration.” As the door shut behind them, a slow smile spread over Chloe’s face. She dropped her bag and threw her arms round Bethany. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Then she waltzed on to hug Lily and Sara.

  “But we didn’t do anything!” Bethany protested, laughing. “Ms Purcell knew anyway.”

  “You were going to, though. And after I was such a brat and got you in trouble in ballet. I’m so sorry about that, honestly.”

  “We’re going to be late,” Lily reminded them.

  “What I want to know is –” said Sara as they set off upstairs – “what were you doing in that practice room anyway? You don’t have music lessons, do you?”

  Chloe was silent for a minute, staring at the steps. Then she looked up at Sara. “You’ll laugh,” she said shyly. Then she sighed. “I was practising singing. Not for a special lesson or anything. I was … well, hiding, I suppose.” She checked the others’ faces, but they were just looking curious. “It was after what you said about not having real friends and showing off all the time. You were right. I mean, there was no way I was going to admit it at the time, but it was true. So I was staying out of the way of Sam and the others. They’re fun, but they’re always doing stupid stuff and then I get dragged into it too. Carmen and Ella mostly practise tap at lunch, so I didn’t really have anyone else to hang around with. I know it sounds pathetic,” she added, almost fiercely.

  “It’s not pathetic,” Sara said thoughtfully. “You were just unlucky. I went overboard on the first day about the thing with Lizabeth. Lily thinks so too. Don’t you, Lils?”

  “Mmm. You couldn’t have known what she was saying to me. And Bethany told us that you two got on so well at the audition.”

  “If it hadn’t been for Lizabeth, I’d definitely have come and found you on the first day,” Bethany agreed. “She totally messed everything up!”

  Chloe shuddered. “I heard her talking about what she was going to do if she found out who set the alarm off. I think she’s really evil! I hope Ms Purcell’s going to say something about the alarm, otherwise she’ll never leave me alone.”

  Miss James beamed at Chloe as she came in and Chloe looked confused. She was so used to their form teacher not liking her!

  “I’ve got an announcement, everyone. Ms Purcell has just told all the staff that the fire alarm was set off due to an electrical fault – no students were involved. Which is great as now we don’t have to worry about who did such a silly thing.”

  Carmen squeaked and reached over her table to hug Chloe. “I’m so sorry we thought it was you!”

  “That’s OK.” Chloe smiled back at her and Ella. “I might have thought it was me too. If you see what I mean.”

  Sam and his mates looked almost disappointed. “Are they sure, Miss?” Jake asked. “It was just an electrical thing?”

  “Definitely.” Miss James nodded. “And don’t get any ideas, Jake. You saw what trouble Chloe got into. Don’t even think about it.”

  It was the best morning Chloe had had at Shine so far. All the staff seemed to be in a good mood and for once Chloe didn’t feel as though anyone was keeping an eye on her. She and Lily and Bethany and Sara squashed themselves on to a lab bench with the twins for science, and managed to stay awake through Mrs Taylor’s explanation of photosynthesis by having a competition to see who could make most words out of it. Then they went off in a giggly group for lunch – and Chloe didn’t miss her little practice room at all.

  Miss Jasper always arranged where they worked in ballet, so they were all split up, but Chloe felt so relaxed and happy that she danced brilliantly. She hadn’t realized just how much feeling uptight had come out in her dancing. Miss Jasper even singled her out to show off her “perfect” battement tendu. She went on and on about the great choreographer Balanchine, saying it was the most important exercise for a ballet dancer to learn, and Chloe glowed.

  It was even better when the others kept teasing her about it the whole time they were getting changed. Somehow Sara calling her Twinkletoes the whole of the way to their modern class just made her feel part of the group and she loved it.

  Chloe couldn’t wait to get home and see her mum. She was desperate to tell her about her fantastic day, especially after yesterday had been such a nightmare. So it was a real shock when Ms Purcell appeared in their form at the end of school. Chloe froze. Had the principal changed her mind? Did the staff think it was her who’d set the alarm off after all?

  Bethany saw her stricken face and nudged her. “Don’t be such a muppet!” she whispered. “She’s not here because of you!”

  Bethany was right. Ms Purcell was beaming and looking particularly smug. She had a quick word with Miss James and then stood at the front of the class, waiting for everyone to stop faffing about and listen to her. It took about thirty seconds. Then she smiled round at them. “This class is particularly lucky,” she purred. “Usually it’s at least a term before Shine students get a professional audition—”

  A gasp ran round the class. An audition? What for? Who was up for it? Ms Purcell waited, still beaming, knowing she had her audience in the palm of her hand. “The whole of Years Seven and Eight are going to be seen by a casting team next week. A West End theatre is putting on a special Christmas run of Mary Poppins – and they’re coming to Shine to find the two child leads. One boy, one girl.” She laughed as the class exploded in delight. “I’m sure you won’t let us down. We’ll have more details about it for you tomorrow.” And she sailed out, leaving them in an uproar.

  “Mary Poppins!” Bethany yelped. “That’s my favourite musical ever!”

  “Me too,” said Sara dreamily. “Wouldn’t it be brilliant if one of us got to be Jane Banks? In our first term!”

  Chloe looked thoughtfully at her. “You look right for it as well, Sara. They’re bound to want someone who’s blond like the girl in the film.”

  Sara grinned back at her. “Ah, but they wouldn’t want me, Chloe. Not when they could have someone who can do perfect battement tendu, the most important and boring ballet exercise ever invented. I mean, obviously you being ginger would be a problem, but the production costs would probably run to a wig!” Then she ducked, giggling, as Chloe threw a pencil case at her.

  “Which songs do the children sing?” Lily asked. “I can’t remember.”

  Chloe and Sara stopped tussling, and thought.

  “Do they have solos?” Sara said. “I think they join in on ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’ and ‘Chim Chim Cher-ee’. But I’ve only seen the film, not the stage version.”

  “We’ll find out tomorrow, probably,” Chloe put in. “Did Ms Purcell really say next week? We’re all being seen by a West End casting director next week?”

  “Yup!” Bethany was trying to shrug on her coat and hum “Feed the Birds” and dance at the same time without falling over. “It’s like a dream come true, isn’t it?”

  Chloe nodded. It really was. And she just couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

  For perhaps the first time in the school’s history, the whole of Year Seven at The Shine School for the Performing Arts had arrived early. They’d been told the day before that there was going to be a mass audition next week – for a special Christmas run of Mary Poppins at a West End theatre! It was incredibly lucky to get a chance like this in their third week at stage school, and all the Year Sevens were desperate to find out more.

  Bethany, Chloe and Lily were sitting on the windowsill in their form room when Sara walked in.

  “Wow, you’re all early!” she commented.

  “So are you!” Bethany pointed out, grinning.

  “I couldn’t wait to get here,” Sara agreed. “I got the earlier bus! Shove up, then.” She dropped her bag and coat on a table and squeezed in next to Lily.

  “So, has anyone heard any more about the audition?”

  “They’re coming on Monday,” Chloe said, a little shyly. It was only the day before that she’d really made friends with Bethany, Lily and Sara. They hadn
’t hit it off on the first day of term. She and Sara had been sniping at each other for the last three weeks, and she was still a bit unsure whether Sara liked her or not.

  “Monday! That’s not long to get ready. How do you know, Chloe?” Sara leaned eagerly round Lily. She was an easy-going person, and she’d only been so upset with Chloe because she had thought Chloe had been mean to Lily. Sara was very protective of her friends. It had turned out it was all a misunderstanding and now that everything was sorted out, she was happy for them all to hang around together. Besides, even if Chloe was a bit mad sometimes, she had a really cool sense of humour.

  “I heard Mr Harvey talking about it as I came past the staff room this morning.” Mr Harvey was their singing teacher. “He was saying the same thing – that he wished he’d had more warning. He’d like to get us to learn a couple of songs, he said.”

  “Probably most people know them anyway – everyone knows Mary Poppins, don’t they?” Sara asked in surprise.

  “Yee-es,” Bethany agreed. “But do we know them the way Mr Harvey wants us to know them?” She raised one eyebrow at Sara, questioningly.

  “OK, fair point.” Sara sighed and nodded. Three weeks at Shine was quite enough to realize that no one ever knew a song well enough for Mr Harvey. You could do absolutely everything he asked and he would just take it as proof that you were capable of more… Sara adored singing, and she couldn’t imagine how wonderful it would be to get a part in a West End musical. But so far, all Mr Harvey seemed to have done was criticize her singing. Sara chewed her lip. She might as well face it – she had no chance at the audition if her singing was no good…

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