Sugar Secrets…& Flirting Page 4

  The Loud were due to take the stage shortly and, one by one, the girls - including Meg but minus Cat - had arrived at the Railway Tavern and gathered around a table, chatting and catching up with the latest gossip.

  “Oh, yeah - it was the first time you’d seen Alex since your holiday,” Kerry remembered.

  “It was OK,” said Maya, wrinkling her nose. It had been totally weird actually, but Maya didn’t feel like analysing the details in depth, even with her best friends - it felt too raw. Just seeing this person she’d recently been so close to, and now trying to be polite and friendly in a distant way, had felt strange and uncomfortable. Was this how you were supposed to feel? Maya just didn’t know.

  The strangest moment of all had been when Alex had said, “Glad to have you back at the club - we’ve missed you.” Maya suddenly looked into his grey eyes and realised that she would never again kiss this person or feel his arms wrap themselves around her…

  “What about the others?” asked Anna. “Do they know you guys have split up?”

  “Yeah, it’s filtered through to everyone - thanks to Billy and Andy letting people know - and, to tell you the truth, everyone was really sweet.” Maya gave a sad little smile. “Especially Ashleigh.”

  “Wasn’t she the one who gave you a hard time?” asked Sonja. “The one who thought Alex entered your photo for that big competition just ‘cause you were his girlfriend?”

  “Yes, but she’s fine now,” Maya shrugged, keen to forget that talk of favouritism. “She even told me last night that she thought my entry was the best out of everyone’s at the club, which was really sweet of her. Not that I think I’ve got a hope of winning…”

  “When is the winner going to be announced?” asked Kerry, leaning forward so she could hear the conversation better, now that the pub was filling up and getting noisier.

  “Next week sometime, I think. But don’t hold your breath - I’m not going to get anywhere with it,” Maya laughed, seeing Kerry’s hopeful expression. “‘Specially since, as Alex pointed out, there’s going to be thousands of entries from camera clubs up and down the country!”

  “Well, I don’t know about this competition,” Meg chipped in, tucking her layered black hair behind her ears as she spoke, “but I’m really impressed that you’ve managed to stay friends with Alex. I’ve never stayed on speaking terms with any of my exes!”

  “Hey, I’ve just had a thought…” grinned Sonja. “Can you imagine if Cat didn’t speak to her old boyfriends? It would mean she’d never talk to most of the male population of Winstead!”

  “Son! Don’t be so unkind!” scolded Maya, even though she couldn’t stop herself smiling. “Anyway, where is Ms Osgood tonight?”

  Sonja rolled her eyes. “Cat’s giving The Loud a miss tonight - she’s too busy sorting out what she’s going to wear tomorrow for her first day of filming with Ben Fitzpatrick!”

  “Wow - of course!” gasped Anna. “Matt was telling me about this yesterday. It’s so incredible! I still can’t work out how she’s landed this starring role!”

  Kerry and Sonja looked at each other and giggled. “Matt didn’t explain it very well, obviously.” Sonja grinned, enjoying the chance to put Anna straight about what was really going down in her cousin’s life. “The fact is, her and Vikki have just been roped in to this production as a couple of extras; you know - walk-on parts in the background. The TV company contacted the college, and they were two of a lucky few available during the holidays.”

  “Still, that’s pretty exciting, even just being an extra!” said Anna positively.

  “The trouble is,” said Sonja, “Cat’s really convinced herself that she’s going to get to hang out with Ben Fitzpatrick. In her mind, they’re practically engaged! It just hasn’t sunk into her head that they keep stars well away from ordinary mortals.”

  “Does she reckon that getting to know Ben could mean he’ll give her a head start with her own acting career or something?” asked Meg.

  “Probably!” snorted Sonja. “Though I hate to think what sort of harebrained schemes she’s brewing up to make him notice her.

  “Oh, don’t be so rotten!” Kerry gently chastised her best friend. “I can understand how excited she is - not many girls get the chance to meet the man of their dreams in real life. Every girl in the world goes through a phase of drooling over film stars or singers, and having fantasies about going out with them! It’s not so long ago you had that poster of Brad Pitt pinned on the back of your wardrobe door, Sonja Harvey.”

  “Only most girls understand it’s just a fantasy,” said Sonja, conveniently ignoring Kerry’s last point, “whereas Cat believes it can - and will - happen!”

  “I guess it’s pretty simple really,” shrugged Maya. “Cat loves flirting - and, whatever her motives, flirting with a TV star is the ultimate flirt!”

  “Too right!” grinned Sonja. “Yep - today, Ben Fitzpatrick hasn’t a clue who Catrina Osgood is. But, from tomorrow, the poor boy won’t know what’s hit him! Count on it!”

  “Derek - is it OK if I put one of these notices up?” asked Ollie, holding up a sign that read: Drummer wanted. Joe is leaving The Loud - in term-time anyway. Can you fill the gap? If you think you can, call Nick or Ollie…

  Derek - the landlord of the Railway Tavern - scanned the A4 sheet, and nodded. “Course you can!” he grunted. “I don’t want my Thursday night crowd-puller dying on me for want of a drummer, now do I?”

  “Thanks, Derek!” Ollie grinned, his floppy, dark-blond hair still plastered to his forehead after The Loud’s energetic set. “I thought about putting a couple up at either end of the bar, and one in the Gents, too.”

  “yeah,” shrugged Derek, “wherever you want, mate. But how come you’re doing it? I thought your manager was supposed to sort out this kind of thing?”

  Derek nodded over at his old buddy Nick, who was sitting at a table in front of the stage, along with Cyndi and the rest of the boys in the band.

  “Yeah, well, I think Nick’s kind of preoccupied at the moment…” said Ollie as tactfully as he could.

  Easy-going as Ollie was, he could see that things in the café and the record shop - never mind the band - seemed to be taking second place to Nick’s unquestioning adoration for his new wife.

  “Can’t blame him, though, can you?” chuckled Derek. “Beautiful woman like that…”

  “Uh, mm…” said Ollie dubiously, looking over to where Cyndi was giggling and hanging on Nick’s every word.

  Ollie liked Cyndi well enough, but he was finding it hard to concentrate at work with her incessant chattering, her insatiable need to change everything in the place and the fact that she stole Nick away from his work at every possible opportunity. It was a bit like having a tornado in the End: lots of noise and activity and, when the dust finally settled, nothing was where it had been before. Ollie still couldn’t get over how many flowery, girly things had sprung up in the café overnight. Basically, he was finding it all a bit bemusing - but he knew it was driving Anna mad.

  Still, he thought as he left Derek and headed back to the table to get more flyers out of his bag, as long as all this mushy stuff doesn’t go on too long and Nick gets back into action soon, it’ll be fine.

  “Hey, Ollie honey!” Cyndi trilled, patting the seat next to her.

  Ollie hesitated - he wanted to get the notices up as quickly as possible, before the punters in the pub started to drift away. Still, he could hardly refuse his new aunt…

  “I was just sayin’ - you guys are amazin’!”

  “Thanks!” Ollie smiled, settling himself down on the stool.

  “Yeah! And you know what else I was just sayin’ to these guys?” beamed Cyndi, indicating Joe and the others.

  “No…” Ollie replied warily, sensing somehow that Joe was telepathically trying to let him know what little gem Cyndi was about to impart.

  “Well, I really think that the one thing you guys are missin’ is an image!” said Cyndi, slapping her palms down on
the pub table for emphasis. “You need to get away from them old, skanky army-type pants and T-shirts you wear, and get some style! Somethin’ to make you stand out from the crowd!”

  “Like?” asked Ollie, raising his eyebrows and feeling a bubble of hysterical laughter rising in his chest.

  “Maybe like you could all wear matching shirts!” Cyndi suggested. “Y’know, somethin’ smart an’ eyecatchin’, like a blue and white gingham check!”

  “Well, we’ll certainly think about it, won’t we, boys?” Ollie answered, keeping his face as straight as he could and glancing round at the faces of his friends.

  “Oh, hey sorry, lads!” Nick interrupted as he waved over at someone by the bar. “I’ve got to introduce Cyndi to Derek’s missus…”

  As soon as Nick and Cyndi had threaded their way through the customers in the busy pub, the five lads exploded.

  “Pppfffffffffff!” Ollie spluttered with laughter. “What was she going to suggest next? That we come up with a line-dancing routine and wear matching cowboy hats?”

  “She - she said we should all think about getting our hair tidied up too,” Billy managed to say, between splutters.

  “What’s going on?” asked Kerry, scurrying over from the girls’ table to see what the band conference had been about.

  “Cyndi wants to do a make-over on the band,” Matt cackled. “Wants to turn them into cowboys!”

  “Well, at least I don’t feel so sad about quitting the band and moving to London now,” Joe grinned. “I don’t think my head is the right shape for a stetson!”

  “Hey, that reminds me!” Ollie suddenly said, turning to face Joe. “You know your little problem?”

  “Oh, yeah, what’s this, Joe? Some secret you don’t want to tell us about?” joked Billy. “Is this problem animal, vegetable or medical?”

  “Trying to get a flat sorted in London, you idiot,” Ollie spelt out to Billy, nudging him in the ribs with his elbow.

  “What about it?” asked Joe, curious to know what his best mate was about to say.

  “Well, Joey boy,” Ollie grinned, “I might just have the perfect solution for you…”

  CHAPTER 7

  MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

  “…And Lewis said he didn’t want to be in my game any more - not if girls were playing too,” said Ravi, explaining why he and Kerry’s brother had fallen out last time they played in the park together.

  “Doesn’t he like girls any more?” asked Maya as she and her little brother strolled along the pavement together.

  “He says girls are silly,” said Ravi matter-of-factly, seemingly unaware that his sister was a girl.

  “Does he? Why?” Maya quizzed him, fascinated to know what the average little boy had to say about his female counterparts.

  “He says they go all soppy about boys and stuff,” he shrugged, scuffing his trainers with every step. “He says that - oh, look, Maya! That’s your friend!”

  As they approached the junction by the park, it didn’t take Maya more than a second to spot Cat hurrying across the road towards them. It was hard not to notice her, as a couple of toots from passing cars proved.

  “Hi, Maya!” said Cat breathlessly as her kitten-heeled mules slapped on to the pavement beside them. “Where are you two going?”

  “Urn, just heading for the dentist - Ravi’s due for a check-up,” Maya said casually, her eyes flickering over her friend’s outfit.

  Working up from the turquoise embroidered mules, there was a matching turquoise, silky, knee-length dress with a ruffle at the hem, and a black fringed shawl (also embroidered) tied around Cat’s hips. Her bright-blonde, shoulder-length hair had been woven into two short, stubby plaits and around her head she’d tied a trendy denim headscarf, edged in pink velvet.

  “Well, I can’t stop - I’m on my way to my first day of shooting!” said Cat, her pink-painted lips breaking into an excited smile.

  Maya checked out Cat’s outfit again. The whole look was great - for a party. But for a TV shoot? Maya was decidedly unsure, but she said nothing.

  Was Cat told to dress up like that? she wondered, trying to remember what the drama was meant to be about. Cat had evidently gone to a lot of effort - was it really worth it? Surely they’ll have stuff for her to change into, won’t they?

  “I mean, can you believe it?” Cat gushed, clutching her hands to her chest. “I’m actually going to meet the gorgeous Ben Fitzpatrick!”

  “Well, I’m dying to hear all about it - you’ll have to get lots of gossip!” smiled Maya, feeling Ravi tugging at her hand. She ignored him. She had a feeling that her kid brother might be about to say something tactless. The way Cat was acting, she was certainly living up to Lewis’s theory that girls went all soppy over boys.

  “I know we’re going to get on really well,” Cat continued. “Turquoise is his favourite colour - I read it - so he’s got to notice me right away, don’t you think?”

  “Maya…!” whined Ravi.

  “Not now, Ravi, we’re talking,” said Maya gently but firmly.

  “I was just going to say that Ben Fitzpatrick is in Sunny’s room,” he continued none the less, gazing up at his big sister with his deep brown eyes.

  “Huh?” queried Maya, furrowing her finely arched dark eyebrows.

  “What do you mean?” demanded Cat.

  “She’s in love with him!” shrugged Ravi. “She’s got posters of him all over her walls!”

  This was news to Maya. It was hard avoiding someone who was a member of your own family and living in the same house but, whenever and wherever possible, Maya did just that because she and her sister did not get on. It was as simple as that. One of Sunita’s main pleasures in life was to be obnoxious - especially to Maya; for her own sanity, Maya kept as much distance as possible between them. To find that spiteful Sunny had a soft spot for someone or something was quite a revelation.

  “Well,” said Cat, folding her arms and looking down at Ravi, “just you tell your sister Sunny that I’m going to be spending the next week with him. In person. Me. That should make her good and jealous, shouldn’t it!”

  Maya winced - she knew Cat was only fooling around, but she didn’t really think that her friend’s remark was a particulary healthy one for Ravi to hear-or pass on.

  “Listen, Cat, we’d better go or we’ll be late for the dentist,” said Maya, trying to make a swift exit. “And you don’t want to be late on your first day of filming…”

  “No, I don’t!” Cat agreed, wide-eyed. “See you in the End tomorrow morning and I’ll tell you all about it!”

  “You’re on! Good luck!” Maya called as Cat click-clacked her way along the paving stones.

  “Maybe I’ll even be able to tell you about our first date!” came floating back over her friend’s shoulder.

  Maya towed her little brother in the opposite direction. “Close your mouth, Ravi,” she sighed. “You know what? I think maybe I understand what Lewis means about some girls…”

  Cat blew a large pink balloon of bubblegum and sucked it back in again. She was sitting the wrong way round on a wooden bench by the river, her legs sticking through the gap between the seat back and the seat itself, dangling her pretty mules idly from her toes.

  Her chin rested on her hands, her elbows rested on the mossy-green streaked bench-back and her eyes scanned the movement going on at the top of the riverbank, beside the road.

  What’s taking Vikki so long? She only went for a wee! Cat wondered as she watched for her friend among the small groups of people hanging around by the two location vans.

  It had been more than two hours since Cat and Vikki had turned up and presented themselves to Daniel, the TV crew’s production assistant. And precisely nothing much had happened since then. They’d met up with Louise, Jason and Darren from Vikki’s drama course, as well as some other - older - extras. They’d seen various technical crew wandering around, doing important-looking technical things, and watched as some portable metal fencing had gone up to keep
nosy onlookers from getting too close to the action (not that there was any, as far as Cat could see).

  And, so far, Ben Fitzpatrick had been absolutely nowhere in sight.

  At last, Cat spotted Vikki walking round the side of the larger of the two vans and making her way back down the grassy slope towards her.

  “Where have you been?” Cat demanded. “You’ve been ages!”

  “I got talking to Daniel,” Vikki explained as she approached.

  “Oh, yeah?” said Cat, perking up. “What did he say? When do we get to find out what we’re doing? And when’s Ben arriving?”

  “OK, so do you want the bad news or the good news?” said Vikki, leaning her weight on the back of the bench and looking down into Cat’s expectant face.

  “Bad news, I s’pose,” moaned Cat, lifting one side of her mouth up.

  “Ben’s not scheduled to shoot anything today,” shrugged Vikki. “He’s at his hotel, doing press interviews.”

  “You’re kidding!” Cat whined. “But that’s not fair! What’s the point in us being here?”

  Things were not going at all as Cat had anticipated. She had been certain that she was going to be noticed - that the moment Ben spotted her obvious talent she would be catapulted into stardom, not to mention that he would also, of course, immediately fall head over heels in love with her. But he hadn’t even turned up!

  Vikki looked slightly irked by Cat’s childish response. “What’s the point? I’ll tell you what the point is, Cat. How about, to get acting experience? To see how filming a TV drama actually works? To make the most of the opportunity?” she suggested irritably.

  “Yeah, OK,” Cat acknowledged, still sounding down in the dumps at the news of Ben’s no-show. “So what are we supposed to do today? And which of the actors are we working with?”

  “Erm, that’s the other bad news - they’ve decided they don’t need us after all today,” said Vikki, biting her lip.

  “What?!” squeaked Cat, mortally offended. “Why not?”

  “Well, Daniel says they’re shooting a scene with two of the other actors in it - the ones playing the older detectives - and the only extras they need are a few people feeding the ducks and walking along the path.”