Authors: Lyn Gardner
Olivia Flies High (11 page)
“You can’t prove a thing,” said Katie sulkily.
It was the interval and Katie, Tom, Eel, Georgia and Abbie were all in the girls’ dressing room. Joshua and Mia had been excluded by the others, and were in the next room desperate to know what was going on. But a couple of stagehands taking an unscheduled break had witnessed Tom’s miraculous escape and news of it was beginning to spread amongst the cast.
“Maybe. Maybe not,” said Abbie, who had been filled in on what had been happening by the others. “But we know everything that you’ve been up to, Katie. We’re on to you, and you know it.”
“It’s up to you, Katie,” said Tom. “Either you promise to behave yourself and get off
my case, or we’ll involve the grown-ups and everything will come out – the text you sent in Liv’s name, the card, the keys you swiped from Bert’s drawer and the fake message from Jon James that you asked Mia to deliver.”
“Tell me,” said Katie, smiling her cat-like smile. “I’m very curious. How
did
you get out of the dressing room in time for your cue?”
“Liv organised a rescue. She’s a true friend.” Tom looked at his watch anxiously. The interval was almost over and this impromptu meeting meant that he hadn’t had a chance to try to call Liv.
“I’m surprised Saint Olivia didn’t let you rot like you deserve,” sneered Katie. “You’ve not been a very good friend to her, have you?”
Tom clenched his fists and Abbie laid a restraining hand on his arm. The call for beginners for the second half was being broadcast.
Katie stood up very coolly. “It’s been a lovely chat, but I’ve got to go now.” She walked to the door and when she got there, she turned and smiled. “You can say what you like to anyone you like. But until you’ve got some hard evidence, you can’t prove a thing unless I turn myself in
and make a full confession, which is not very likely, is it? The text is gone. The card is missing. The keys will turn up and little Mia gets so easily confused.” She paused. “Oh, and there’s one other tiny thing that you’ve forgotten. Uncle Chuck is still the producer. I’ve heard that he’s having talks about transferring the whole production to Broadway. Jon James isn’t going to want to miss out on an opportunity like that.” She started to walk down the stairs. “Hurry up, kiddiewinks, I wouldn’t want you to miss your cue.”
“I could kill her,” said Tom when she’d disappeared.
“That’s how she wants you to feel,” said Abbie. “She wants to goad you into doing something stupid so you lose your job. Katie’s clever. But probably not as clever as she thinks she is. She’ll overreach herself. We just have to keep calm.”
“It’s true what she says, though,” said Georgia. “Her uncle will always take her side, and even though she’s as good as admitted what she’s done, we haven’t got a shred of hard evidence against her. Mia’s hardly a reliable witness, she’s too much in thrall to Katie,” said Georgia.
“We’ll get the evidence,” said Eel. “We can’t let her get away with it!”
“Come on, quick,” said Abbie, “or we
will
miss our cue.”
“I need to call Liv,” said Tom.
“No time,” said Abbie. “You can talk to her afterwards and explain everything.”
The curtain swished open and then closed for the final time. The enthusiastic applause died away. The Swan pupils in the audience began to gather up their belongings.
“Did you enjoy it?” Pablo asked Olivia.
Olivia nodded. “But Eel’s right, it would be better if it had circus in it. She was amazing, though. And Georgie and Tom. Tom was very good.”
“He was,” said Pablo. “Are you going to go round to the dressing room to see Eel and congratulate them all?”
“Do you think Tom’ll want to see me?”
“Of course he will,” said Pablo.
“But I still don’t understand why he’s so angry with me,” said Olivia.
“Whatever the reason, he’ll have forgiven you now. You did something amazing tonight,
Livy. You could have ignored his cry for help. Lots of people in your circumstances would have done, but you didn’t, you rose to the occasion.”
“Strictly speaking, this lot rose to the occasion,” said Olivia with a smile, indicating the
castellers
. “Should I really go round?”
Pablo nodded.
Olivia followed the crowd out of the theatre and around the building towards the stage door. She turned the corner and came face to face with Katie Wilkes-Cox. She hadn’t seen Katie since that day towards the end of last term when the two of them had been together in Alicia Swan’s study and it had become increasingly clear that Katie would be asked to leave the Swan.
Olivia felt nervous and a bit like a cowboy in a Western squaring up to an old enemy, although she knew that the only shoot-out between them would be verbal. But in Olivia’s experience, words could hurt just as much as bullets.
She went to hurry by, but Katie stopped her. “Well, well, well,” she said. “If it isn’t the marvellous Olivia Marvell. I’ve heard about your famous exploits with the Swan rescue service. Very smart. I admire that. Tom’s a lucky
boy to have such a friend. It’s just such a pity he doesn’t appreciate you.”
“What do you mean?” asked Olivia, her heart thumping.
“Oh, nothing,” said Katie. “It’s just you’d think he’d be grateful after what you did for him. Forgive and forget, that’s what I always say, but some people just can’t let a grudge go. I’m so sorry, Olivia. After your amazing rescue, you deserve better.”
With that, she tossed her hair and walked on by. Olivia stared after her. What did Katie know? She didn’t trust her but, on the other hand, Tom hadn’t texted or rung in the interval as she’d hoped he would. Maybe his silence meant that he hadn’t forgiven her after all? Her stomach was churning. She walked anxiously to the stage door. A crowd of theatre-goers had already gathered outside, hoping to get the autographs of Cassie Usher and Sam Gibbs. A number of them wanted Eel’s, too.
Bert gave Olivia a big grin. “You’re a heroine, Livy. If it wasn’t for your quick thinking, the show wouldn’t have been able to go on and Tom would be out on his ear. Up you go to see your friends. You’re going to get a
big welcome.”
Olivia walked towards the stairs but her legs felt heavy. How would she be greeted when she got to the dressing rooms? She knew that Eel would hug her, but it was Tom and Georgia she was worried about. Katie had sown a seed of real doubt.
She was at the top of the first flight when Bert called after her, “Livy! I almost forgot, there’s a note here for you.”
She came back down and Bert handed her a white sheet of paper folded in four that said OLIVIA in block capitals on the front. She opened it and read the words: “Keep away from me. I don’t want anything to do with you”. It was signed
Tom
. Olivia recognised the distinctive way he wrote his name, with an almost Elizabethan flourish on the horizontal line on the top of the T. She made a tiny noise of despair, like an animal that suddenly realises it’s cornered on all sides and there’s no hope left. She dropped the note on Bert’s counter and tore out of the stage door and past the front of the theatre, where an astonished Pablo was waiting with the Swan pupils for their parents to pick them up.
She ran so hard and so furiously, it was as if
she was trying to run away from herself. In her pocket her phone rang several times, followed by the “bleep bleep” of left messages, but she didn’t hear it. All she could think about was getting as far away from the theatre as possible and back to the Swan.
“Livy’s not answering her phone. I’ve left three messages,” said Eel. Up in the dressing room, Tom, Eel, Georgia and Abbie were puzzled. They had expected Livy to be round in a flash as soon as the show had finished.
They couldn’t wait to see her, although Tom felt a little nervous. He had so much to say to her and so much to explain. What an idiot he’d been to fall for Katie’s tricks! He should have had enough trust in his friend to know that Olivia would never have sent a text or card as vicious as those. And she’d still been there for him in his hour of need, while he’d done nothing but let her down.
“Eel, can I borrow your phone to try Liv again?” he said. It went straight to voicemail.
“Hi, Liv; it’s Tom again. We’re all waiting for you. Can’t wait to see you and explain everything.”
There was a tap on the door.
“Here she is!” said Eel excitedly and she rushed to open it. But it was Pablo standing outside, looking a little bit mystified and a little bit angry. His dark eyes were flashing dangerously. As soon as the last Swan had been picked up, he’d rushed around to the stage door and been directed upstairs by Bert.
“What did you say to upset Livy?” he demanded. “After all she did for you, Tom! She was magnificent. I thought that you’d be pleased to see her.”
“But we
haven
’t
seen her,” said Eel. “We’re still waiting for her to arrive.”
Pablo looked even more baffled. “But I saw her running away from the stage door. She looked very distressed. The little duckling cry. And she was so nervous about coming round. I’m sorry, I’ve leapt to the very wrong conclusion.”
Everyone looked nonplussed.
“Let’s go and ask Bert if he saw her,” said Eel.
They all trooped downstairs. Bert was just dealing with the last of the autograph hunters
and telling Cassie that her taxi was waiting for her.
“Bert,” said Tom. “Have you seen Liv?”
Bert nodded. “It was a bit odd really,” he said, scratching his head. “I was a bit distracted at the time, because there were quite a lot of Sam’s friends trying to get in, some of them a bit pushy. They got upset when I insisted on checking with Sam first. Then Olivia came in and seemed fine but when I gave her the note she looked really upset and just ran off. I was dealing with a really nosy photographer at the time so I couldn’t do anything.”
“Note? What note?” asked Tom urgently.
“Somebody left it on my counter,” replied Bert. “I thought it was probably from one of you. So I gave it to her.”
“If only we knew what it said!” said Eel tearfully.
“If it’s so important, I expect I could let you read it,” said Bert.
“You’ve still got it!” cried Pablo.
“Yes,” said Bert. “She dropped it on her way out the door. I picked it up. It’s private really, but in the circumstances…” He handed the note to Pablo. The others gathered around to
read the few words and the signature.
“Oh, Tom,” whispered Eel. “How could you?”
Tom looked at their horrified faces. “But I didn’t. I swear I didn’t…” He groaned. “I wrote it to
Katie
, not Liv.”
Eel turned the note over and saw the name Olivia on the front in block capitals.
“Phew,” she said. “For just a moment, Tom…” But she was talking to thin air. Tom had gone. They all ran out of the stage door after him.
“Where are you going?” yelled Eel.
“To find Liv,” he yelled back. “I’ve got to sort this out.”
Olivia fumbled as she put her key in the lock of the side door of the Swan. Eventually she managed to open it. It was eerily quiet. At night it always felt to Olivia as if the building was sleeping, worn out by all the activity it witnessed during the day. She had often thought that if the Swan had ghosts – which as far as she knew it didn’t – they would be of an all-singing, all dancing variety. She stood on the wide staircase and listened. All was silence.
She knew that Alicia would be in the flat at the top of the school, awaiting her and Eel’s return. She didn’t want to go up there. She didn’t want to have to face Alicia’s penetrating gaze and searching questions. She just wanted to be on her own. She suddenly thought about
Jack. It was Jack that she wanted to speak to most in the world. Her dad was the only person she knew who would really listen to her and try to understand how she felt. He couldn’t wave a magic wand and make everything better for her, but he would listen and she knew that if he thought she deserved it, he would be on her side. He would understand her deep sense of injustice and hurt.
Perhaps if she explained everything that had happened very slowly, right from the beginning outside the Duke’s Theatre on final audition day to Tom’s horrible note tonight, Jack would be able to make some sense of it and tell her how she could make everything all right again. How she wished she could roll back time! If she could go back to that moment when Tom and Georgia had chosen
The Sound of Music
over
Romeo and Juliet on the
High-Wire
, she would behave so differently. She would be pleased for them and control her own disappointment and hurt feelings rather than behaving selfishly. But it was impossible to have your life over.
She felt for her phone. The red light was flashing on the front. When she flipped it open it said eleven missed calls. She ignored them,
and called Jack’s number. She heard the ringing tone, and then it went directly to voicemail. Hot tears swarmed down her cheeks. Even her dad wasn’t there for her when she really needed him. She felt as if she was the loneliest person in the universe.
Olivia prowled around the foyer like a caged cat before wandering into the school hall. The trapeze seemed to be calling her. She knew that up there she would forget everything in the thrilling sensation of flying through the air. She started to climb the rope.
“The Swan Academy. Please hurry!” said Pablo to the taxi driver as they all piled into the vehicle. They caught up with Tom at the end of the street and he jumped in. Eel, Abbie and Georgia all kept calling Olivia’s phone but there was no answer.
“Maybe we should split up and look for her on the streets?” said Pablo.
“I’m sure she’ll go back to the Swan,” said Tom. “I know Liv. In times of crisis she’s like a homing pigeon. I reckon she’ll be on the
high-wire
. That’s where she goes to forget herself.”
Pablo was suddenly seized by a feeling of
panic. He leaned forward and said to the taxi driver, “Please, drive as fast as you can. This is an emergency.”
“We’re sure to beat her back to the Swan,” said Abbie brightly. “Even Livy can’t run as fast as a taxi, and when she gets there we’ll all explain that she’s fallen victim to another of Katie’s nasty tricks.”
But luck wasn’t on their side, and the taxi got caught up in a traffic jam caused by a bus that had jackknifed across the road. All the side streets were snarled up too, and in the end Pablo paid the cab off and they just ran as fast as they could.
In Idaho, Jack was sitting in a plane on the runaway of the local airport ready to do another late afternoon recce of Snake Canyon when he realised he’d missed a call from Liv. He was missing both girls enormously. It was harder to be away from them than he had ever imagined.
He knew that he wanted to spend the whole summer with them. Maybe he’d even try to get a little circus tour together if he could get his hands on a tent. He wondered whether he could get Pablo to fix something up. Eel
could do acrobatics and Olivia could do some high-wire walking, maybe even some swinging trapeze if Pablo thought she was good enough and they could rig the tent.
He looked at his watch. It was eleven p.m. in London. He knew Olivia wouldn’t be calling that late without a reason. He asked the pilot to wait a moment before taking off and pressed the button to return the call. The phone rang and rang and then went to voicemail. He left a message telling Olivia how much he loved and missed her. Then he signalled to the pilot and the plane taxied down the runway and took off into the sunset over the wilderness of Idaho.
As she monkeyed up the rope, Olivia heard her phone ringing again. She ignored it, and ignored the bleep that followed. The trapeze was rigged and ready to go. She climbed on to it and started to swing. She flew higher and higher. She bent and curved her body, sending herself upwards. When she had gained sufficient momentum she let go and flipped downwards so she was sailing through the air with her knees hooked over the bar.
After a few seconds she pulled herself
upwards again, stood on the trapeze and swung higher. She felt utterly exhilarated. She arched her body backwards and forwards, and the trapeze obeyed the instructions she was sending it and flew through the air. She sat down again on the bar, and when the trapeze reached its peak she somersaulted backwards, fell momentarily through space and then caught the bar with her ankles. She swung upside down like a beautiful bat, before using the momentum to swing herself back on to her feet again. She pushed harder so that the trapeze reached another peak, and she was poised to repeat her previous feat, counting the beats in her head because success was all in the timing, when the door to the hall was flung open.
“Liv!” cried Tom.
Startled, and about to launch herself into space, Olivia lost her grip. The trapeze juddered and gave a violent twist, and she slipped. She clutched for the rope but it was beyond her grasp and she fell towards the ground like a wounded bird shot down by a hunter. She hit the mats with a terrible, final thud.
There was a moment of shocked silence. Then Georgia screamed, and Tom and the others
ran towards Olivia’s crumpled body. She was lying on her side. Her eyes were closed, and her face was lily white and her lips bluish. A bruise blossomed on her forehead.
“Livy, Livy,” wailed Eel as she knelt beside her.
“Don’t move her,” said Pablo, dialling
nine-nine
-nine on his mobile. He spoke tersely into his phone, giving the address for the ambulance. Olivia’s eyes fluttered and then opened.
“Oh, she’s alive, she’s alive,” wept Eel.
Olivia saw Tom kneeling over her. “Tom,” she whispered.
He took her hand. “Liv. Please forgive me.” She said nothing but he felt her fingers make the tiniest pressure on his hand.
Olivia felt a jolt of pain and she drifted into unconsciousness.
“Can we try and make her more comfortable?” asked Georgia tearfully.
“No,” said Pablo grimly. “It is forbidden. She could have spinal or neck injuries. If we move her, we might do a lot of damage. She might never walk again.”
“Never walk…?” said Tom, horrified.
There was a noise behind them. It was
Alicia. “What on earth is going on…?” She saw their pale, shocked faces and Olivia lying on the floor.
“Oh, Livy, my little Livy,” she whispered. “What have you done to yourself?”