Olivia Flies High (3 page)

Chapter Four 

The next morning, Olivia was waiting just inside the glass doors of the Swan, hopping from one foot to another. She had two good luck cards in her hands that she had stayed up late making while Eel had gone to see Matthew Bourne's
Nutcracker!
at Sadler's Wells with one of her friends. One was for Tom and the other was for Georgia.

She also had a little “Sorry” card stuffed inside her pocket that she'd made for Eel and which she had wanted to give to her at breakfast but, inspired by
Nutcracker!
, Eel had rushed off early for an extra ballet class.

Olivia knew that the children's rehearsals for
The Sound of Music
started that afternoon and, having taken everyone's words to heart,
she wanted to make it up with her friends before they were swept up in the hard work of preparing for the show. The cards were a peace offering and she had been really creative with them.

She looked impatiently out of the glass doors as the bell rang for morning lessons. Where on earth were they? Then she saw Aeysha hotfoot it up the road and take the steps outside the school two at a time, laden down with her saxophone and a bag full of practice clothes.

“Hi, Livy, what's up?” Aeysha asked a little hesitantly. She felt wary of Olivia in case she snapped at her.

“I'm waiting for Tom and Georgia,” said Olivia. “Do you know where they are?”

Aeysha saw the cards in Olivia's hands and guessed what they were. “Oh, Livy, you've missed them,” she said. “They're not coming to lessons this morning. They've got a costume fitting before rehearsals start this afternoon. They only heard about it late yesterday afternoon when we were in the park. I met them for breakfast. They were both so excited. If only you'd come to the park, you'd have known about meeting up for breakfast today and
could have joined us.”

“Oh,” said Olivia in a small voice.

“You can give them the cards tomorrow.”

“It won't be the same,” said Olivia sadly. “I wanted Tom and Georgia to know how sorry I am about being mean before they started rehearsals.”

“Why don't you call Tom?” suggested Aeysha.

“I don't have a phone, remember. Gran won't let me have one until my birthday in May. She thinks you have to be thirteen to have a mobile phone, unless you've got a good reason like you lot do, travelling to and from school each day on your own. It's so stupid, and makes me feel like a freak. I'm the only person in the year without one.”

“You can use mine,” said Aeysha kindly. Olivia was smiling at her gratefully when they heard a voice behind them.

“Come along, girls, you shouldn't be chatting here, you should be in double maths,” said Miss Hanbury, the voice teacher, who had spotted them in the hallway. “Quick, or I'll have to give you both a misconduct.” Olivia and Aeysha hurried off to the classroom.

“You can borrow it at lunchtime,” said Aeysha, and she reached out for Olivia's hand and squeezed it. “It's good to have you back, Livy.”

But when lunchtime arrived, Olivia got cold feet about ringing Tom. What if he didn't answer and she just had to leave a message? What would she say? Or even worse, what if he answered and put the phone down when he realised it was her and not Aeysha? She wouldn't blame him. She had been so unreasonable over the whole
Sound of Music
thing, she thought that by now he might not want to make up with her at all.

“Thanks for the offer of the phone, Aeysha,” she said, “but I've changed my mind; I'll see them tomorrow. Some things are easier said face to face.”

Leaving Aeysha staring after her, she rushed off to find Pablo. She'd promised to help run the first lunchtime
castell
session. There was a big turn-out of children, including William Todd and Libby Oakham from Olivia's class who had already proved themselves keen
tightrope-walkers.
Olivia was quite surprised to see Katie Wilkes-Cox's former friend Kylie Morris, who
had previously shown a disdain for anything to do with the circus. She guessed that Kylie might have come to get a closer look at Pablo, whose long curls made him look like the hero from a nineteenth-century romantic novel. Judging by their giggles, some of the older girls were there for the same reason.

But it was the presence of Kasha Kasparian and his Year Eleven friends, Ryan O'Connor and Jazz Quarshie, that was creating a buzz. Kasha, a talented singer who had just signed a solo recording contract, didn't turn up for any
non-compulsory
class unless it was cool to be seen doing so. Word that he was at Pablo's lesson spread in a twinkling and there was a late rush to join the class that had been given the Kasha stamp of approval.

“Now you are all here we shall make our very first
castell
,” said Pablo. “This will make me very proud because in Catalonia, where I come from, we make the human castles very often. They can be very tall, as high as a big house. Even very tiny children like Emmy here,” he pointed to a ringletted cherub who was a great friend of Eel's in Year Three, “climb to the very top of these towers without fear because they
know that everyone at the base will be strong and keep them safe. Olivia, please show the video.”

Olivia had wangled two laptops from the office which she had connected to YouTube. The children split into two groups to gather around the computers. Olivia pressed play and a video of a group of
castellers
building a tower began. The largest and strongest people moved into position, their legs braced and their arms tight around each other to create a sturdy foundation. As soon as the base was in place, more people scrambled up over their friends' bodies to create the next tier. In the space of a few seconds the structure seamlessly grew taller and taller; it was like watching the speeded-up film of a tree growing, although in this case the trunk was made entirely of people. When they had gone as high as they could, the tower was slickly dismantled in what seemed like a second.

Everyone clapped when the brief video came to an end.

“It's really cool; it's like a human wedding cake,” said Kasha.

Pablo nodded.

“I want to go right to the very top,” said Emmy.

“Then we must start immediately,” grinned Pablo, pleased by their enthusiasm. He looked around and pointed at the older boys and some of the girls.

“You too, duckling,” he said to Kylie Morris. “I need the stout people to make the
pinya
, which is what we call the base in my country.”

“Oh!” shrieked Kylie. “He thinks I'm fat!”

Kasha raised his eyes heavenwards and shook his head. “Don't be dumb, Kylie. He means strong, not fat.”

Kylie, who didn't know whether to be outraged that Kasha had called her dumb or delighted that he even knew her name, was mollified and joined the others who stood barefoot, shoulder to shoulder, their arms wrapped around each other. Pablo selected another group of children.

“Now,” he said, “you must slither like eels up their backs and form another layer of the wedding cake.” With much laughing and the occasional “ouch” as a foot was placed on a head rather than a shoulder, they created
another layer. Pablo was impressed: the Swans' years of training in dance had made them both strong and agile, essential qualities needed to create a
castell
.

“We will try one more level,” said Pablo. “The littlest ducklings must climb now like the naughty little monkeys they are.”

Emmy and her friends giggled as they climbed over the shoulders of the other Swans. The base began to sway with the added weight. Kasha said something rude under his breath. The second tier began to wobble dangerously and suddenly the whole thing collapsed like a deflating soufflé. Everyone ended up on the rubber mats in a great big laughing heap just as Alicia walked into the hall.

Pablo shot Olivia a worried look. He suspected that Alicia might not be too happy to see some of her best dancers falling into a heap of twisted arms and legs, but she was so preoccupied that she hardly noticed the collapsing
castell
.

“Ah, Olivia, there you are. Could you come up to the flat just as soon as you're finished here, please? I need to talk to you urgently.”

Olivia was puzzled. She couldn't think of
anything she'd done that merited her returning to the flat during the day. Normally if Alicia wanted to talk to pupils, she did it in her office, and during the school day she treated Olivia and Eel like pupils, not grandchildren. Olivia could see the others eyeing her curiously. She hated it when the other Swans were reminded that she was Alicia's granddaughter.

“I'll be up in just a tick,” she said.

Alicia nodded briskly and swept away. Nobody would know from her graceful movements how badly her arthritis affected her.

Everyone started to put away the mats. “That was buff. Can we try again tomorrow?” said William.

“If you'd like to,” said Pablo, delighted by the response.

“Yes,” said Kasha. “We would. We want to make the tallest human castle in the world.”

Pablo grinned, and went to help Olivia put the last of the mats away. “I'm free after school tonight if you want to do some more trapeze?” he said.

“Yes, please,” said Olivia. “I love it,” she added shyly. “It makes me feel so free and
dreamy. It must be how birds feel when they are soaring in the sky.”

Pablo smiled. It was exactly how it made him feel too. “Go, Livy. You must not keep Miss Alicia waiting.”

Olivia climbed up the stairs to the flat. She pushed open the door and was surprised to see two suitcases in the hall. She wondered whether Alicia had a guest to stay. But when she walked into the living room, Alicia was wearing a coat, and her handbag and passport were sitting on the table. Alicia was going somewhere. During term-time. Olivia knew it must be very important for her to leave her beloved Swans. Her heart started thumping and she felt a sudden terror.

“It's Dad, isn't it? Something's happened to Dad!”

Alicia looked perplexed. “Jack?” Then a look of understanding passed across her face. “No, Olivia darling, nothing terrible like that,” she said, walking across the room and putting her arms around Olivia. “How silly of me to frighten you. You always think the worst. Jack's fine. I spoke to him only an hour ago.”

“Then where are you going?” asked Olivia.

“To Hollywood!”

Olivia's eyes widened. “Are you going to make a movie?”

“Yes,” said Alicia. “With Peter Jackson, who made
The Lord of the
Rings
.”

Olivia swallowed. “That took three years,” she said and hugged Alicia fiercely. Alicia was very touched; spontaneous demonstrations of affection from her eldest granddaughter were few and far between.

“I'll only be gone for three weeks,” said Alicia. “Mine is just a tiny part. My real job will be to try and coax a good performance out of the Wood twins. They're the stars, but it seems that Wood is a very good name for them.”

Even Olivia had heard of Cosmo and Cosima Wood. They were the youngest members of a great American acting dynasty and had been appearing on TV since they were a few days old. They launched their own fashion range when they were six and for the last few years had starred in their own TV show that was shown all over the world. They were the same age as Olivia but were already said to be worth millions.

“Livy, this has all happened so quickly I haven't had a chance to discuss it with you
and Eel. I only heard about the possibility a few days ago and it was just this morning that they called to say that if I was going to come, it had to be today. But if you really don't want me to go, then of course I'll stay.”

Olivia looked at her grandmother's face. She knew that the chance to act again meant a great deal to Alicia. “Of course I think you should do it!” she said. “But how will the Swan run without you?”

“Like clockwork,” said Alicia, smiling broadly. “Sebastian Shaw will be in charge and all the rest of the staff will pull together. I'm doing this for the school too, not just for me. They are paying me very handsomely indeed. So well that I'll finally have enough to secure a mortgage on the land next door where that derelict building is. It means the Swan will be able to expand.”

“That's brilliant!” A sudden thought struck Olivia. “What about Eel and me while you're away? Where will we live?”

“I discussed it with Jack. Eel is sorted. I spoke to her while you were helping Pablo. She's going to go and stay with Emmy Lovedale's family around the corner. They all
adore her. You've been invited too; they say they'd love to have you, but you could stay here if you would prefer. Miss Hanbury has offered to move in while I'm gone. It will save her the journey each morning.” Her grandmother's face grew serious. “You're my main concern, Olivia darling. If you're not happy, I'll cancel the taxi and ring them to say I'm not coming, and we'll say no more about it. I know you've been slow to settle at the Swan and I promised Jack I'd look after you, so if you don't want me to go, I'll quite understand.”