Ruby Parker Hits the Small Time (10 page)

“I'm not bottling it up, Mum, I'm just …I'm OK. Really.” I gave her my best smile, hoping to reassure her.

“Your dad called last night,” she said. “He's going to come over later and take you out for pizza.”

My shoulders slumped.
“Pizza,”
I said. “He never used to take me out for pizza on my own. I don't want to go out for pizza with just him. Everyone will look at us and they'll know, won't they? They'll know I have to go out for pizza with my dad because he doesn't live at home anymore.”

My mum crossed the hallway and gave me a big hug, which was probably what she'd wanted to do all along.

“I know, but your dad is trying, Ruby. And he misses you.” She squeezed me hard. “Besides, the only reason people will look at you is because you're the girl from the telly. People's parents split up all the time. You're not the only girl this has happened to, you know.”

I drew back and looked at her. “I'm the only girl it's happened to who's me!” I said. I didn't want to see Dad. Every time I thought about seeing him, the memory of me asking him to stay and him saying no almost came out again until I pushed it really tightly back inside my head. But if I didn't go, then I knew Mum would feel even more worried and guilty than she already did.
Mum
was at least trying to be nice to me.
Dad
, on the other hand, deserved everything he got.

“OK,” I said. “OK, I'll go for
pizza
.” I spat out the word like an old piece of chewing gum. Mum ruffled my hair. Since she was feeling a bit low, I didn't complain like I usually do.

“Things are hard right now, Rube,” she said with a sad smile. “But they'll get better, I promise. Off you go.”

I hesitated for a second longer, but then thought of Nydia, who was probably already at Anne-Marie's house and fuming at me for being late.

“Bye, then,” I said, kissing her quickly on the cheek. I ran all the way to the bus stop, but I just missed one and the next bus took twenty minutes to come. I tried to call Nydia, but all I got was her voice mail.

Nydia was going to kill me.

Chapter Twelve

A
nne-Marie's house was exactly like I described—complete with the security gate, not to mention marble pillars and a nice Spanish housekeeper who answered the door when I (finally) got to it. It was a huge door too, about the size of four normal doors all glued together. I knew there were houses like this in Highgate, but I hadn't actually been to one. In fact, I hadn't even been
past
one, because they were always behind lots of trees set far back from the road.

“Come this way, miss,” the housekeeper said. “Your friend is already here. She is in the garden with Anne-Marie.”

If Anne-Marie had come to my house, it would have taken her about thirty seconds to get from my front door to the back garden. But it seemed to take us forever going through room after huge room. Eventually we came out onto a terrace, and the housekeeper pointed me in the direction of a swimming pool. Not just a paddling pool but an
actual
swimming pool. I said to Mum once a couple of years ago that I wouldn't mind if we used my money from the show to buy a bigger house—maybe even one with a pool. But Mum had just laughed and asked exactly how much did I think I earned anyway and, besides, she wanted me to have a normal family life in a normal family house and grow up to be a normal, well-adjusted adult, etc. Well, so much for that plan.

I could see Anne-Marie reclining on a sunlounger in a pink bikini and matching sarong. Nydia was perched on the edge of another, wriggling uncomfortably under the heat of the sun and the glare that Anne-Marie was probably giving her from underneath her sunglasses. Poor Nydia. I shouldn't have let her go through this alone.

“Would you like a drink?” the housekeeper asked me. “I'll bring you one.”

“Oh, yes please,” I said gratefully. I had run all the way here from the bus and I was hot and sticky. “And could my friend have another one too, please?”

The housekeeper nodded. “You're a very nice girl with nice manners—unlike her friends. Right little madams, most of them.” She threw a look at Anne-Marie. “Although, with my little Annie, her bark is much worse than her bite, trust me!” Then, before turning back to the house, she said, “I love your show, never miss it.”

I took a deep breath and walked down the steps of the terrace where Anne-Marie and Nydia sat.

“Hi!” I said, sitting next to Nydia.

“I waited for you for ages,” she said sulkily under her breath. “And then I thought I'd better go in, otherwise she'd think we weren't coming and she'd go shopping or something.” She looked glumly at Anne-Marie, and I tried to imagine the torture she'd been going through, waiting for me.

“I'm sorry I'm late,” I said to Anne-Marie. “It's just that my scripts came and—”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Anne-Marie interrupted me, flapping her hands like a duck's beak. “I'm so important, yak, yak, yak, who cares about anybody else.” She rolled her eyes. “You can't pull your prima-donna stunts here, OK? If you want my help, you turn up when you say you're going to turn up. I have plans later, you know. I do actually have a life. Now, tell me what this scene is that you're too stupid to be able to act and let's get on with it.”

I tried to smile, but suddenly the thought of going through with this plan seemed more ridiculous than ever. All I could think was that I needed to escape somehow. I needed to get us out of there before Nydia told her the whole story.

“Your house is amazing,” I said, hoping to stall her with some small talk while I thought of a way to escape. “Where are your parents?”

Anne-Marie looked bored. “Dad's in LA. Again. Mum's in Milan until next week, and then she's going to Tokyo. My brother, Chris, is in Ladbroke Grove staying at his girlfriend's place, as usual.”

I frowned. “So you're living here in this enormous house on your own?” I asked, not sure if that was really great or really terrible. “Is that even legal at our age?”

“No, idiot. I'm not on my own. Pilar, the housekeeper, lives here too. And the man who does the gardening comes in every day. Chris is
supposed
to be here, but he never is. It's no big deal,” she said breezily, her eyes masked by her shades.

“But …aren't you lonely?” I asked her.

She pushed up her sunglasses and shook her head. For a moment she looked sort of smaller and younger—more like an average thirteen-year-old girl instead of a hard-as-nails vixen. Then she opened her mouth.

“Of course I'm not
lonely
! I've got hundreds of friends, and a boyfriend who's coming over later. You and sad sack here are the lonely ones. Anyway, I don't mind. It means I can do what I like.” She sat up and looked directly at me. “It means I can have people like you over with no one having to know about it. Now, stop trying to stall and tell me what it is you want. Otherwise I'll be so bored you'll have to leave before I slip into a coma.”

And then I knew it was too late. I wasn't getting out of this plan.

So we told her. Well, actually, Nydia told her. First Anne-Marie looked horrified, then delighted, and then she just laughed and laughed and laughed until she went pink from her ears down. Either that or she hadn't put any sunblock on.

“Oh my God!” she shrieked as she reached for her phone. “Just wait until Jade hears about this!”

Nydia reached out her hand in a stopping motion. “Hang on. Remember what we agreed,” she said, sounding quite cross for her, but not cross enough to stop Anne-Marie.

“That was before I knew what you wanted me to do. You want
me
to teach
her
how to kiss. Me? You must think I'm crazy. I always thought you two were weird. You're probably lesbians.” She keyed in Jade's number and held the phone to her ear. “This is brilliant,” she said as she waited for Jade to pick up.

I looked at Nydia, wide-eyed with panic, waiting for her to come up with one of her plans. She didn't. She just sat there as if she were frozen solid, even under the heat of the sun.

“OK,” I said, desperately trying to act as if I didn't care. “OK, fine. I'll just cancel the meeting I made for you next week with our producer, Liz Hornby, then.”

Anne-Marie's laugh froze on her face.

“Oh, hi, Jade. Yeah, yeah, I do, but listen, I'll call you back, OK? Something's just come up.” She put her phone down. “You've already set up a meeting with Liz Hornby?” she said, looking at me.

I am an actress, so, really, I should be very good at lying. After all, everything I do on-screen is basically me trying to convince people I'm someone I'm not. But when it comes to
actual
lying—off set and in the real world—I'm terrible. I can't look at the person I'm lying to and my voice goes all silly and small.

“Er, yes,” I said, trying to sound normal. “It's all been arranged, but it can easily be unarranged. There's a new part coming up, but …”

Just at that moment, Pilar arrived with two drinks. Nydia and I both took ours and drank them down in one gulp.

“But it's ridiculous! How can I teach you to kiss?”

Anne-Marie said. “It's not something you
teach
. It's something you sort of just
learn
.”

I sighed. “I can't just learn it, Anne-Marie. I haven't got time to learn it
or
anyone to learn it with. It's supposed to be my first kiss, and I want my first kiss to be with Justin. It's got to be perfect.”

Anne-Marie grinned like the Cheshire Cat from
Alice in Wonderland
. “You fancy Justin de Souza, don't you? Justin, the star of the show, the teen hunk! You fancy him and you seriously think that he might like you! You! Poor guy—has he read the script yet? He'll probably resign when he does and then you won't have to worry anymore.”

I stood up and looked at Nydia. “This is pointless,” I said. “Let's just go.” Nydia stood up too, but Anne-Marie waved for her to sit back down . She did with a
plonk
.

“Hang on,” Anne-Marie said. “Kissing scenes are easy, really. You don't even have to worry about tongue. You just need to get the mood right; get your nose in the right place and you'll be fine. And as you've
so
got the hots for Justin, you'll have no problem. You just need someone to practice on. I'll arrange it, OK? If you stick to your side of the agreement, that is.”

I looked uncertainly at Nydia. “OK, but when? I'm on the set tomorrow and I got the new scripts today with the kissing scene in them. The read-through will be on Monday and we'll start shooting it Thursday.”

Anne-Marie thought for a moment.

“Tomorrow evening.
Here.
No one will be here anyway.”

“OK,” Nydia and I said together.

Nydia picked up her bag. “Listen, Anne-Marie, thanks a lot for doing this …” she began.

“Don't thank
me
. You know why I'm doing it. I must be the only girl in the world whose father is a movie producer and won't pull any strings to get her parts. He says if I want respect in the business, I have to make my own way. Well, I'm making my own way. I'm pulling your strings and that's all, so don't start getting all excited and thinking we'll be friends. We won't. Ever.” She picked up a magazine from under her chair and opened it. “You can go now. I'll see you tomorrow.”

We walked through the house and down the long drive, back to the real world of traffic fumes and noise.

“Well, that was hideous,” I said. “I'm so sorry I was late.” Nydia scowled at me. “I'm sorry, Nydia! I wouldn't have been, honest, but Mum wanted to ‘talk' to me and I couldn't just go, could I? Not with her and Dad …you know.”

Nydia sighed. “I know,” she said. “But she's so horrible to me, Ruby. She's even more horrible to me than she is to you. I just don't get why; I really don't. What have I ever done to make her hate me so much? She makes me feel like I'm not even a person. Like I don't even have feelings that count.”

I put an arm around Nydia's shoulder and we bump-walked together along the road. “She treats you like that because that's how she feels about herself,” I said, using a line I'd thought of for one of my problem-letter replies. “Nydia, you're not only a person, you're the best person in the whole world. A million times better than Anne-Marie! You're always there for me. And I know how horrible it was for you sucking up to her today, but you know I'd always do the same for you, don't you?”

“Yeah, I do,” Nydia said. “Although I never get myself into those situations. The worst thing I've got myself into was detention for two weeks.” She grinned at me and giggled. “Poor Anne-Marie. It must be so hard being thin and blonde with those big blue eyes and all that money. Poor her.”

“Yes, poor her,” I said. “Poor little Anne-Marie.” Then I remembered what I'd promised her. “She's going to be really, really
angry
Anne-Marie pretty soon.”

“What do you mean?” Nydia asked.

“When she finds out I haven't arranged any meeting with Liz. That never in millions of years could I arrange any meetings for anyone. I'm only a kid! She must think I'm miles more important than I am. That's really going to hack her off when she finds out.”

Nydia giggled even more, and we both laughed our way to the bus stop until I remembered something else Anne-Marie had said.

“Hang on a minute. What did she mean when she said she would get someone for me to practice on?”

Chapter Thirteen

S
o, what are you having then, kiddo?” Dad said.

Kiddo
? He had never called me kiddo before in my whole life. I stared at him from around the edge of my menu. He was wearing this stupid bright red shirt and a stupid new leather jacket. There was something else funny going on. I squinted at him and realized he'd put gel in his hair and made it all spiky, even around the bits where you could see the pink of his scalp. If it wasn't so sad, it'd be funny. I wondered if he'd gotten himself a girlfriend.