Rebecca is Always Right (19 page)

‘Are you okay?’ I said.

‘Meh, I dunno,’ she said. ‘The film was good, but it was all about a couple breaking up and … ah, it just made me think of the whole Tom mess.’

‘Have you talked to him?’ I said. ‘Since that time you met up.’

‘No,’ she said. ‘We’ve sent each other a couple of texts and messages. And …’ She looked a bit embarrassed. ‘I’ve kind of checked him out on, um, various social media things. More than once. But I think I should unfriend him and stop looking at anything online. I mean, I dunno. A clean break. You don’t get over people otherwise.’

She’s right. I know we didn’t drop all contact, but I felt much better about the whole Paperboy thing once I stopped expecting contact from him (and being disappointed). It’s still sad, though. I tried to remember those ‘how to cheer up your dumped friend’ tips. The only doable thing I could think of was ‘make them laugh’. So I suggested that we have a sitcom box-set binge.

‘Okay,’ said Rachel. ‘I’ll make my special hot chocolate.’

Twenty minutes later, we were in front of the telly and she was laughing so much she nearly rolled off the coach. So that tip really did work. And I was having a good time too. It’s good having a sister who finds the same things funny as you. I nearly told her about Sam, but I was trying to keep her mind off all things romance-related, so I didn’t.

Very exciting news – we’re going to play a gig in three weeks! Veronica turned up when a bunch of us were arriving at the Knitting Factory and told us the news. She has arranged for the Knitting Factory to let us put on an under-eighteens show. We were lucky to get on the bill because only four bands can play this first one – there’ll be another one happening next month, though, and hopefully it’ll become a monthly thing after that. Anyway, first up are us, the Wicked Ways, Puce and Bad Monkey, which is an excellent line-up. I wonder if Puce have made their stage show even more dramatic since the summer? They did a lot of jumping on top of things and dancing around in front of back-drops – it was very impressive.

Exquisite Corpse and Small Paula, who were all at the Knitting Factory today for the first time in a few weeks, will be playing the second one along with two other bands we don’t know. Tall Paula is glad that they got the second gig.

‘We’ve been working on some new songs,’ she said, ‘and there’s no way they’d have been good enough to play live for the first session. But we should be okay for the next one after that.’

Small Paula didn’t say much, as usual, but she seemed pleased.

‘Have you written lots of new stuff since the summer, Paula?’ asked Cass.

‘Lots? I don’t know,’ said Small Paula. ‘You’ll see.’

She is still very mysterious. I do like her, though. I wish I could be as enigmatic as her. I tried it during the summer, but it just confused people.

Richard and the Wicked Ways are excited about playing the gig too, though Richard is a bit worried that he won’t be able to steal his big brother’s cool suit, which is what he usually wears to gigs.

‘He’s hidden it in a new place,’ he said. ‘I have no idea where it is. It’s not at the back of his wardrobe anymore.’

‘Well, you’ve got a few weeks to find it,’ said Cass comfortingly. ‘Maybe it’s up in the attic or something?’

‘And if you don’t find it,’ said Alice, ‘you can wear that cool shirt your uncle got you in London, and those black trousers.’

‘Yeah, I suppose I can,’ said Richard. ‘I think the suit’s spoiled me, though. Nothing else is as good once you’ve worn a suit like that.’

‘Maybe Ellie could make you one?’ I said.

‘I know Ellie’s very good at clothes-making, but I don’t think she’s up to suits yet,’ said Cass.

‘I don’t know,’ said Alice. ‘Those shorts were pretty good.’

‘There’s a big difference between a pair of shorts and a whole suit,’ said Cass. ‘Especially as Ellie is a short girl and Richard is a tall boy.’

But Richard looked thoughtful.

‘I dunno, she did help Mrs Limond alter all the suits when we were doing the musical,’ he said, running a hand through his quiff (which isn’t quite as big as it was during the summer, when he seemed to be subconsciously imitating his musical idol Ian Cliff, but is still quite impressive).

‘Well, you can ask her later at my big birthday bash,’ said Cass. ‘After I ride in on my pink pony.’

‘Your what?’ said Tall Paula. So we had to explain about Vanessa’s attempt to be on the telly show.

‘And now she’s in a stupid ad,’ I said. ‘For Bluebird Bakery cookies.’

‘Oh my God, is she Kookie?’ said Tall Paula.

‘I’m afraid so,’ I said with a sigh.

‘Half my class are singing that song,’ said Tall Paula. ‘Some of them are even dressing like her. Everyone’s gone Kookie mad!’

‘“Mad” being the perfect word,’ said Cass grimly.

‘It’s a very catchy song, though,’ said Tall Paula. ‘I mean, it’s terrible. But it’s catchy.’

‘Kooky little day?’ said Small Paula. ‘Huh!’

And she walked off to her studio.

‘That’s the best response to Vanessa’s ad I’ve heard yet,’ said Cass, admiringly.

Then we all realised we were wasting precious practice-room time, so we went off to our various studios. Our practice went very well. The song with the lyrics about standing up for yourself is now called ‘What Tastes Better (Is Honesty)’ and it’s pretty much finished now – I think we’ll be able to do it at the gig. In fact, considering each band’s set at the gig will have to be pretty short, we won’t be able to fit all our songs into it – we’ll have to decide what to leave out. And just think, a year ago we only had one original song to play at the Battle
of the Bands! Now we have almost a whole album’s worth of songs. If we were going to record an album. Which we might, you never know.

Anyway, after the practice we met Richard and Liz, who were of course coming to Cass’s birthday celebrations. Cass had told Ellie we’d meet her outside the Knitting Factory, so we all went out to wait for her – and for Emma and Jane, who were joining us too. After a few minutes, Ellie walked out with Senan and Lucy. My heart rose at the thought of seeing Sam, but alas there was no sign of him.

‘No Sam today?’ I said, as casually as I could. I avoided Cass’s eye as I said it, in case she looked at me in a meaningful way.

‘No, he had to leave half an hour early,’ said Lucy. ‘Daire’s taking part in a skateboarding contest thing and Sam promised he’d go and cheer him on.’

‘Ah, okay,’ I said. I hope I didn’t sound as if I was bothered one way or the other. Even though I was really disappointed. I didn’t mind about not getting to talk to him for long today, but I did want to just see him and say hello.

‘Do you two want to come along to the Milk Bar?’ said Cass. ‘It’s my birthday party. Well, sort of a party. I bet they could fit a couple of extra seats.’

Senan had to go to his brother’s football match, but Lucy happily accepted Cass’s invitation. Then Emma and Jane arrived, so we all headed over to the Milk Bar, settled into our giant table near the window and ordered a giant and delicious feast (well, some burgers and milkshakes and Coke floats).

‘If only we could do this every week,’ I said.

‘Well, it’s my birthday fairly soon,’ said Alice. ‘So we can have a bit of a celebration then.’

Richard asked Ellie about the suit. She looked thoughtful.

‘I definitely couldn’t make one from scratch, I’m afraid,’ she said. ‘It’s too complicated. I mean, most tailors train for years.’

Richard looked a bit disappointed.

‘Oh well,’ he said. ‘Maybe in a few years, then.’

‘But!’ said Ellie. ‘I did learn quite a bit about alterations from Mrs Limond. So if you happen to have a suit that isn’t as perfect a fit, I could change it a bit.’

‘Wow, really?’ said Richard. ‘Thanks! I have a cheapish one that I had to get for my cousin’s wedding back in February. Maybe you could do something with that?’

‘Well, I’ll give it a try,’ said Ellie. ‘But I can’t promise miracles.’

Jane wanted to know how Vanessa’s fame had affected her at school.

‘Just as badly as you can imagine,’ I said.

‘I’m kind of intrigued by Vanessa,’ said Liz. ‘I’ve only seen her on stage in
Mary Poppins
and she was pretty good.’

‘Just count your blessings you don’t have to put up with her off stage,’ said Cass, eating a chip.

‘Vanessa’s mum has basically become her publicist,’ said Jane. ‘Every time she sees my mother – or me, for that matter – she starts telling us how brilliantly Vanessa is doing and how it’s only a matter of time before she’s a superstar and what a pity it is that I’m not so committed to my acting career.’

‘She sounds just as bad as her daughter,’ said Cass.

‘Not quite, but almost,’ said Jane. ‘My mum is getting really sick of it, even though Mrs Finn is her friend. She says when I start putting on plays, she’ll go on about it to Mrs Finn all the time, but to be honest I don’t think Mrs Finn would be impressed. Oh well.’

Then Ellie said, ‘God, look who it is! Outside, over there.’

We all looked where she was pointing.

‘Ugh,’ I said. ‘Charlie!’

It was awful Charlie, the sexist, pervy bully who said horrible things about Cass at the end of the summer camp. He was strutting along the street with Robbie, who had been in his band the Crack Parrots. The band broke up when two of
the members walked out because they couldn’t bear hanging around with Charlie anymore.

‘I think he’s noticed us,’ said Alice. ‘Yes, he definitely has.’

‘That’s the infamous Charlie?’ said Liz. ‘Hmmph. Let’s just pretend we can’t see him.’

‘No,’ said Cass firmly. ‘Let’s not. Let’s give him a big wave.’

‘What?’ I said.

‘Well, look at us,’ said Cass. ‘There’s a big gang of us, hanging out, having a good time. And he’s stuck with Robbie because half his mates ditched him for being so horrible.’

‘It’s true,’ said Richard, who goes to the same school as the Crack Parrots boys. ‘He hasn’t been the same since the summer. Thank God.’

So, as he went past, we all cried ‘Hi, Charlie!’ and waved at him with big fake smiles on our faces. Cass put her arm around Liz and kissed her on the cheek. Charlie looked really embarrassed and walked past really quickly, and we all cracked up. In fact, we were laughing so loudly he could probably hear us halfway down the street.

And then Liz brought out a big birthday cake her mum had made for Cass (she checked with the Milk Bar that it was okay to bring our own cake, and they were cool about it). And we all sang happy birthday and everyone in the restaurant
joined in. It was a brilliant afternoon. In fact, I didn’t think about Sam the whole time. I’m thinking about him a bit now. But mostly I’m remembering how great it was when we all showed Charlie that his stupid bullying had just made us stick together more.

Vanessa was on the front page of the
Irish Independent
today. Seriously. There was a photo of her in a posh southside shopping centre surrounded by gullible members of the public, all dressed as Kookie! What a terrible sight. She is, of course, delighted with herself. She took the paper into school and kept showing it to everyone.

‘It was so great to meet my fans,’ she said.

‘The song was on the radio twice this morning,’ said Karen. ‘No wonder people are lining up to meet you!’

I couldn’t help thinking of how Karen behaved when I accidentally ended up in the paper after Mum’s book came out. How things have changed.

On the plus side, I think Alison has totally given up on Karen at last. I hope Alison becomes a super successful tech
genius millionaire and leaves both Karen and Vanessa far behind. She spent all of lunch today with Emma talking about this computer course they are both doing. I chatted with them for a while. It sounds pretty interesting, actually. You can do all sorts of impressive things if you learn code, which is basically computer language.

But I don’t have time to take on any extra challenges myself. I’m busy enough as it is. It feels like all our teachers were going on about it being an exam year again today. And it’s not like I’m not studying. I spent all of yesterday (well, at least an hour) doing my homework! I’m doing my bit! And I’ve just done tonight’s homework, even though the awful Mulligan child popped up at her window and danced at me for a while. Thank God the clocks are going back soon and it’ll get dark earlier. She won’t be able to taunt me when my bedroom curtains are drawn.

Had to go to the dentist for a check-up after school today. I live in fear of the dentist even though I have no fillings (yet). I keep feeling that my luck will run out eventually. I also worry
that she’ll tell me I need to get braces. My teeth look pretty straight, but so did Ellie’s last year and then the dentist told her she needed train-tracks to correct her bite. She told him her bite seemed to be working perfectly, but he disagreed. She’s used to her braces now, though. And they’ll be off in another six months or so. Still, I’m glad I don’t have to get any braces (yet. Touch wood). And I was very relieved that my teeth are fine and will stay filling-free for the moment. I ate a Wispa to celebrate, though I’m not sure that’s what my dentist would have wanted. I did brush my teeth straight afterwards, though.

Mum and Dad’s rehearsal went well tonight. At least, they claim it did. Mum said it’s still all ‘coming along nicely’, but they are both a bit more subdued after rehearsals these days than they were a few weeks ago, presumably because Dad is still pushing his luck with the rest of the cast. On the plus side, Rachel and I had a very civilised evening watching Jack Rosenthal try to get out of jail in
Laurel Canyon
. It was very exciting and it definitely distracted Rachel from her woes.

In fact, though there are still times when she goes to her room and plays sad music and is probably crying, Rachel has been pretty normal this week. It seems like she really is getting a bit better, slowly but surely. Which is why it’s so awful about Jenny and Tom. And weirdly, her seeming like her normal self
makes it even harder for me to think of telling her the truth than when she was upset – I can’t bear the thought of making her miserable again. Ugh, I can’t think about it now. I’m going to go and read for a while and think about imaginary people’s problems. They generally have a happy ending. Though not always – I’ve read a few brilliant books lately that made me cry buckets at the end.

Cass, Alice and I are debating whether to put together a stage set for the gig. Cass, unsurprisingly, is in favour.

‘It’d be easy!’ she said. ‘Remember what Puce did at the summer-camp gig. It looked really good and it didn’t take much stuff. All we need is a few old sheets and some paint! And maybe a standard lamp or something.’

It’s true, Puce’s stage set was simple but really impressive.

‘But when are we going to find the time to paint sheets?’ said Alice. ‘We’ve only got two and half weeks!’

‘That’s loads of time,’ said Cass.

‘What if we can’t find sheets at all?’ I said. ‘I think all the old sheets in my house have patterns on them.’

‘Stop looking for problems!’ said Cass. ‘We’ll find plain sheets somewhere. Now, what will we paint on them?’

We discussed this for some time. I suggested lots of dolls’ faces, but Alice said people mightn’t know they were dolls and think they were just random people. She suggested something simple but colourful, like a rainbow. Cass said a rainbow was too boring and she wanted more of a challenge.

‘What about a giant version of our band logo?’ I said.

‘In rainbow colours!’ said Alice. ‘Like, it can look as if the letters are windows and you can see a rainbow through them.’

‘Hmmm,’ said Cass. ‘That might work. I’ll get working on some sketches.’

I think it could look really good. I hope we do have enough time to do it. I know the gig is over two weeks away, but we’ll be at school for most of it.

Oh dear. I knew it was going to happen and it has. Our parents went off as usual to their rehearsal, and Rachel and I were watching telly when, at around half past nine, we heard a sound from the hall.

‘Was that the door?’ said Rachel.

‘It can’t have been,’ I said. ‘I don’t hear any singing.’

But a moment later Mum and Dad came in. Mum looked a bit stressed and Dad looked downright miserable.

‘Is everything okay?’ said Rachel. ‘What happened?’

I already knew the answer.

‘Ah, the rehearsal didn’t go that well,’ said Mum.

‘It was fine,’ said Dad. ‘I just … misjudged a few things. About the part.’ He yawned. ‘I’m too knackered to talk about it, actually. But it’s all fine. Let’s just watch some telly.’

But when Dad went to the loo, I asked Mum what really happened.

‘It was all a misunderstanding,’ she said. ‘But … well, a few of the other cast members had a word with your dad and Laura. They don’t think Ed’s contributions are really working.’

‘So what does that mean?’ said Rachel. ‘Has he lost the part?’

Mum looked shocked.

‘Oh no!’ she said. ‘Nothing like that. He’s just going to have to, well, tone it down a bit. Stick to the scenes where Henry Higgins usually appears.’

‘Are they all really annoyed?’ I said. I hated the idea of that. Dad does drive me mad, but he’s a decent person really, and I
know he didn’t want to steal anyone else’s thunder.

‘Oh no, not now,’ said Mum. ‘They know he means well. Everyone’s fine. But they just found it really distracting and … well, they just didn’t think it worked. So he’s going to have to go back to the usual Henry Higgins.’

I know this is the right thing to do – I mean, just the bit I saw of Dad’s jazzed-up version looked completely insane. And I shudder to think what he would have been like leaping around the stage when Eliza Dolittle was trying to sing a song on her own. But it does seem like a shame that he can’t get to do some more dancing. It really is what he does best. Well, I suppose he must be quite good at teaching history and writing research papers about it too, considering that’s his job, but he definitely seems to have more fun dancing. Poor Dad.

Today Mrs O’Reilly showed us some examples of the Junior Cert paper. I have to admit it freaked me out a bit. It made the exams and stuff seem even more real. I was so worried about it I didn’t even take advantage of the fact that Mrs O’Reilly seems to have forgotten she forbade me and Cass
to sit together last week. I could easily have done one of my trademark historical Cass portraits, but I was too busy worrying about whether I’ll be able to cram so much historical stuff into my brain by next June.

Mrs O’Reilly did point out that we haven’t actually done some of the topics in class yet, so we shouldn’t be too freaked out by the fact that some of the questions were on unfamiliar things, but it was still very unsettling. And it’s got me worrying again about geography. I mean, we’ll be sorted if the exam is all about eating bugs and cities being submerged by giant tidal waves, but what if it isn’t? And I’m also worried about German. After all, the thing about languages is you either understand them or you don’t. You can waffle a bit in some exam subjects (even geography), but you can’t really waffle at all if you don’t have any of the right words. Or, even worse, if you don’t understand the questions. Right, that’s it. I’m going to try and get the others to practise Deutsch with me tomorrow.

Oh, and at lunchtime today I was giving back one of my library books and Jenny was behind the counter. She tried to talk to me, but I basically ignored her (I said ‘Hi’ but that was about it) and got the other sixth-year girl to check my books. Jenny may think she can walk all over Rachel, but she can’t walk all over me.