Rebecca's Rules (12 page)

‘See you tomorrow, Richard?’ he said.

‘Yeah, see you then,’ said Bike Boy.

John Kowalski turned to me, Cass and Alice.

‘Ladies,’ he said. Then he smiled properly for the first time, which completely changed his face and made him look much nicer, raised his right hand to his brow in a sort of joking salute, and turned on his heel and strode off down Griffith Avenue, his big khaki wool overcoat whirling behind him.

Heavens.

Anyway, Cass and I said we’d better go too (so Alice could have a few moments alone with her true love) so we said bye to her and Bike Boy and went down the road in the same direction as John Kowalski. We crossed to the other side in case there was an awkward catching-up moment, but actually he walks so fast that he was way too far ahead of us to catch. He is a mysterious fellow.

Anyway, Cass and I had a good chat on the way down the road. She asked if I’d heard from Paperboy, and I had to say I hadn’t, and she said not to worry because he was probably just overwhelmed by the wild landscape of Canada.

‘Maybe he’s got lost in a forest, or something?’ she said.

I knew she was trying to cheer me so I didn’t remind her that I do know he’s in Vancouver and is unlikely to have got lost in any wilderness (unless that school trip went horribly wrong. Surely not).

SATURDAY

I didn’t even bother trying to have a lie-in today. I knew my mother would come in and drag me out of bed so I just got up early. Of course, when I came downstairs at an ungodly hour (half nine) my parents stared at me and pretended to be shocked.

‘Look, Rosie, she’s awake!’ said my dad. He is so not funny even though he thinks he’s hilarious.

Anyway, it was quite a good thing that I was up early because Jane sent me a text asking about Alice and saying she’d be in town later if we happened to be around. As it happened, Cass
and I had been talking about the possibility of going in to try on make-up testers (Rachel says this is a bad idea because all those tester products are full of germs but we’ve never caught anything off them. Yet.) so we decided to meet up in the Pepperpot Café, which sells the most beautiful hot chocolate in the world (it is not cheap, though, so sometimes Cass and I just share one).

‘So,’ said Jane. ‘Has Vanessa changed her ways?’

Cass and I just looked at each other.

‘No,’ I said. ‘In fact, she’s almost worse than ever.’

Jane sighed. ‘I was afraid this might happen,’ she said. ‘Her mum was in our house the other day and said that they were really impressed by how hard she was working at the musical and they think she’s really learned a lesson from the party. So they’ve been lavishing her with praise to encourage her.’

‘Oh my God, like she needs any encouragement,’ said Cass, gloomily.

‘It’s alright for you, Cass,’ I said. ‘You’re back stage designing, I dunno, merry-go-rounds and chimney pots and things. I’m the one who has to look at her!’

‘Well, I can hear her,’ said Cass. ‘All the lead actors practise down our end of the hall, so I can’t avoid it. She keeps saying
things like “I can’t really understand my motivation in this scene, Cathy, can you help me?”’

We all felt quite gloomy at the thought of Vanessa. But the hot chocolate helped us cheer up a bit and we spent ages just talking nonsense about telly programmes and our equally hideous schools (Jane was quite impressed by Miss Kelly, she says her geography teacher is much more boring). It was a fun afternoon really. And a few weeks ago I never thought I’d write those words again. I think my life might actually be getting better.

MONDAY

I knew this would happen. Being
Mary Poppins
has completely gone to Vanessa’s head. It was only a matter of time. And we should have known that if the whole party humiliation didn’t dent her confidence than nothing would. She was bad enough in the rehearsals last week, but today she went TOO FAR. And I bet it won’t stop here.

The rehearsal was going on as usual – the lead parts were working on some scenes, we were at the other end working on songs, and then we came together towards the end. We were
practising our stopping and starting and Cathy was going through each actor’s parts so there were times when Vanessa had nothing to do. This meant she was just standing there on the ‘stage’. Or at least, she was meant to. Instead she walked over to us in the chorus and said, ‘Hey, can I get a chair over here?’

Like she was a film star and we were her minions! Of course, we all just stared at her. Which of course made her even worse.

‘Come on,’ she said, and gave a horrible little laugh. ‘Go and get me a chair, someone. It’s not like you lot have got anything better to do.’ A few of the chorus laughed or snorted with rage, but no one dared say anything out loud because Cathy and Ms Byrne would have noticed.

Then a voice came from the other side of the stage.

‘If you really have lost the use of your legs,’ it drawled, ‘I suppose you can take my seat.’

It was John Kowalski, who wasn’t in this scene either and had been sitting to the side of the rehearsal area. He got up and handed Vanessa his chair.

‘Ooh, thanks!’ said Vanessa. I swear she batted her eyelashes at him. I didn’t think anyone actually did that in real life.

But John Kowalski didn’t say anything, he just raised his
eyebrows and went back to the side of the space, where he leaned against the wall and folded his arms. He really is very tall.

Vanessa looked at the rest of us in a smug way and said, ‘At least someone has some consideration for what us real actors are going through!’

And I swear I saw John Kowalski roll his eyes. He didn’t look like he’d given away his chair because he liked Vanessa or thought she needed a seat. He looked like he’d done it to shut her up.

She didn’t seem to think this, though. She looked even more smug than ever as she sat down on her new throne. She’s probably missing having Caroline around to do her bidding. I actually feel sorry for Caroline; she must be feeling very left out of all this musical stuff. I think she and Alison should team up and leave Karen and Vanessa to each other. I mean, I’m not hugely fond of either Caroline or Alison, but I don’t dislike them. They deserve better than their bossy pals.

Bike Boy and Alice had another little chat at the end of the rehearsal so Cass and I left them to it. I have to admit that I do feel a little bit jealous of Alice because my own love life is such a misery and a sham (still no mail, of course). But I am
trying my absolute best to stick to my life rules and be happy for her. I feel very noble.

TUESDAY

I am starting to wish my parents hadn’t been in that musical after all. They keep going on about it. I’m almost scared to mention rehearsals because the word ‘musical’ and indeed ‘rehearsal’ sends them off on a terrifying trip down memory lane. Tonight Mum finally found the photos of their performance and I have never seen anything like it in my life.

‘I thought
The Pirates of Penzance
was set in Victorian times!’ I said. ‘What on earth are you wearing?’

‘Oh, we thought we’d bring it up to date a bit,’ said Mum. ‘A sort of post-punk, New Wave, New Romantic thing.’

I have no idea what any of that means, but the results were terrifying.

‘Why is your hair like that?’ I said.

‘It’s just back-combing,’ she said. ‘And a LOT of hairspray. Quite a scary amount really’

‘You nearly went on fire when that girl Fiona lit a cigarette backstage,’ said Dad.

But his ‘look’ for the musical wasn’t much better.

‘What are you wearing there?’ I said. ‘I thought you were meant to be a pirate! Pirates don’t wear golden harem pants and … is that a purple blouse?’

‘It was the fashion!’ said Dad quite defensively. ‘Everyone thought I was very cool, I’ll have you know.’

I bet they didn’t.

‘It was fun!’ said Mum.

It’s made me count my blessings, anyway. As far as I know we’re going to have fairly ordinary costumes. The famous Mrs Limond is meant to be coming in soon and Ellie is very excited. All she’s got to do so far is measure members of the cast and make lists. But this week she should actually get to make something. She’s been practising on her mum’s sewing machine and everything, though she couldn’t practise for long last night because her mum wanted to make some new robes for their Spring Goddess Renewal ceremony which is coming up soon.

WEDNESDAY

Miss Kelly isn’t the only teacher who’s getting fed up with the
musical. Mrs O’Reilly was pretty annoyed today too.

‘I can always tell when it’s one of your rehearsal days,’ she said crossly. ‘Half the class are even more distracted than usual. Don’t you want to do well in your Junior Cert?’

‘But Mrs O’Reilly,’ said Vanessa loudly. ‘We’re learning lots of important skills in the musical. It’s part of a well-rounded education.’

We all froze. No one talks back to Mrs O’Reilly. Ever. Even the cheekiest girls. When she gives out to you, you just have to sit there and take it.

‘Miss Finn,’ said Mrs O’Reilly, dryly. ‘You may be the star of the musical, but in my classroom you are a student of history. And that’s the part of your well-rounded education I want you to concentrate on today. If you disagree, I’m sure we can arrange a trip to the principal’s office and we can see what she thinks your priority should be.’

I have to admit I was torn. A part of me actually agreed with Vanessa (for the first time ever), but then again, it was Vanessa. It is very hard for me to feel as though I am on her side. Anyway, even she’s not stupid enough to push Mrs O’Reilly so she said sorry in a surprisingly humble voice and shut up.

She didn’t stay humble for long, though. At rehearsal, it appeared that she really has decided that John Kowalski is her new victim! She kept sort of sidling up to him and chatting at him. I am pleased to say that he didn’t seem to be very impressed. In fact, at one stage she said something to him and he just went ‘Really? How fascinating,’ and walked off. I have to admit that I was glad to see this. Not, of course, that I care about John Kowalski. But it’s nice to see Vanessa not getting just what she wants for once.

Sadly this didn’t seem to deter her. When we were getting our coats to go home she said, ‘That John guy is so into me, it’s getting embarrassing.’