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  Cathy Hopkins is the author of the incredibly successful Mates, Dates and Truth, Dare books, and has recently started a fabulous new series called Cinnamon Girl. She lives in North London with her husband and three cats, Molly, Emmylou and Otis.

  Cathy spends most of her time locked in a shed at the bottom of the garden pretending to write books but is actually in there listening to music, hippie dancing and talking to her friends on e-mail.

  Occasionally she is joined by Molly, the cat who thinks she is a copy-editor and likes to walk all over the keyboard rewriting and deleting any words she doesn’t like.

  Emmylou and Otis are new to the household. So far they are as insane as the older one. Their favourite game is to run from one side of the house to the other as fast as possible, then see if they can fly if they leap high enough off the furniture. This usually happens at three o’clock in the morning and they land on anyone who happens to be asleep at the time.

  Apart from that, Cathy has joined the gym and spends more time than is good for her making up excuses as to why she hasn’t got time to go.

  Thanks as always to Brenda Gardner, Yasemin Uçar and the lovely team at Piccadilly. To Rosemary Bromley at Juvenilia. And Becca Crewe, Alice Elwes, Jenni Herzberg and Olivia McDonnell for answering all their emails in answer to my questions.

  First published in Great Britain in 2002

  by Piccadilly Press Ltd,

  5 Castle Road, London NW1 8PR

  This edition published 2008

  Text copyright © Cathy Hopkins, 2002

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

  The right of Cathy Hopkins to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN: 978 1 85340 968 4 (paperback)

  eISBN: 978 1 84812 285 7

  3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4

  Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

  Typeset by M Rules, London

  Set in Garamond and Fineprint

  Cover design by Simon Davis

  Cover illustration by Susan Hellard

  Contents

  1. Grease Mania

  2. Auditions

  3. Parents’ Evening

  4. Show-time

  5. You Got to Have a Dream

  6. Pop Idol

  7. Round One

  8. Roller-Coaster Ride

  9. Practice Makes Perfect

  10. Moaning Minnie

  11. Round Two

  12. Journey Into Hell

  13. Christmas Sulks

  14. Complications

  15. Round Three

  16. Chocfest Blues

  17. The Final

  18. Duchess

  ‘ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH,’ I groaned as I walked into the living room at Cat’s house. ‘Not you as well. I can’t stand it.’

  Cat looked up from the sofa. ‘What? What’s the matter?’

  I pointed at the TV screen. ‘That. That DVD of Grease. Everywhere I’ve been today, everyone’s got it on – Lia, Mac’s watching it at Squidge’s . . . I can’t get away from it. What is wrong with everyone?’

  Actually, I thought, that should be: what’s wrong with me? All my mates were excited by the prospect of our school putting on Grease as the end of term show. The whole school was, in fact. Everyone except me. But I had my reasons.

  Cat sprang up and went into a dance routine. ‘Summer loving, had me a blast,’ she sang along with John Travolta on the TV. ‘Oh, come on, Becca. It’s the first time ever that we’re doing something decent for the end of term show. Makes a change from all those boring fairy stories we usually do.’

  I flopped down on the sofa. ‘I suppose this means that you’re going up for a part?’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Cat, sitting next to me and flicking off the video. ‘I thought about going for the part of Rizzo. What do you think?’

  ‘Perfect,’ I said. She would be. She looks the part exactly – small, with dark hair like Stockard Channing in the movie. And she can sing as well. ‘Yeah. And Rizzo has the best song, I think.’

  ‘I could flirt with all the guys,’ sang Cat.

  ‘Tease and tantalise,’ I joined in.

  ‘What about you, Bec? Don’t you want to be in it?’

  I shrugged. ‘Haven’t really thought about it.’ Actually, that was a lie. I had thought about it. We’ve got this new drama teacher at school called Miss Segal and she’s really cool for a teacher. It was her idea to put on something more contemporary and suddenly everyone in the school wants to be in the show. Secretly I do as well, but I’d like to play the lead, Sandra Dee. She was played by Olivia Newton-John in the film, though, so they’ll be looking for someone skinny and blonde. And that’s the problem. I’ve got red hair and nobody in their right mind would ever use the word ‘skinny’ to describe me. Curvy is what Cat says. Fat is what I say. My secret fantasy is that I lose half a stone miraculously overnight, go for the audition and get picked from the crowds for my astounding talent. Ha! Dream on, Becca.

  ‘You could play one of the Pink Ladies,’ said Cat. ‘Frenchy. You know, the one who goes to beauty school – she has red hair like you.’

  ‘Er, she does in the beginning, then she has pink hair, then yellow hair later. Remember the scene where one of the boys says she looks like a beautiful pineapple?’

  ‘Ah, so you have been watching it,’ said Cat.

  ‘Can’t avoid it,’ I said. ‘I told you, Mac and Squidge are watching it round at Squidge’s. That’s why I came here, to get away from it. Squidge wants to be one of the T-Birds, you know, John Travolta’s sidekick.’

  ‘He’s called Kenickie,’ said Cat.

  ‘Mac and I were supposed to be going out, then Squidge talked him into going for a part. I think he wants to be a T-Bird as well.’

  ‘He probably wants to because they’d get to wear cool leather jackets, jeans and shades. But Squidge can’t sing for toffee and I don’t think Mac can either.’

  ‘Nor can Lia,’ I said, ‘but she can dance. I think she’s hoping to get into the chorus. And Jade – well, we all know what Jade wants to play.’

  ‘The lead.’ said Cat. ‘What a joke. Whoever plays Sandra Dee will have to be all wide-eyed and innocent in the first half of the show, and sorry, but I just can’t see Jade singing lines like, “I’m wholesome and pure, oh so scared and unsure”. Er, Jade? No way. You should go for it, Bec. Your voice is just as good as hers.’

  ‘I’m not blonde like Jade,’ I said.

  ‘You could wear a wig.’

  I shook my head. ‘Nah. I don’t think so. Anyway I’m too fat.’

  ‘No way you’re fat, you idiot. Oh, come on, Becca, it will be fun. And you have to go public some day. You can’t spend your whole life singing into a hairbrush in front of the mirror or in the shower.’

  ‘I sing in our band.’

  ‘Yeah right,’ said Cat. ‘And when did we last have a rehearsal? Months ago. Anyway, I don’t think Jade wants to be in it any more. I think she wants to go solo.’

  ‘No loss,’ I said.

  Jade is Mac’s younger sister and she’s in the year above us at our school. At first our band was just me and Cat, then we let Jade join as she has a great voice and we thought it would be good to have three. All the girl bands seem to have three . . . But Jade can be a bossy cow and she took over, always telling us what songs we should do and how we should move and what we should wear. The band was called Diamond Heart but it was turning int
o Jade and the Diamond Hearts.

  Cat switched the DVD back on.

  ‘Oh no. Please, Cat, let’s go out for a bit. It’s Sunday. Call Lia and ask her to meet us at Cawsand Beach. Please. You can work on your part later.

  In the end, everyone wanted to come. I couldn’t believe it when we got to the square down near Cawsand Beach – Lia and Squidge were acting out the dance routine to ‘You’re the One That I Want’, with Mac singing the ooh, ooh, ooh’s in the background. Actually, it was funny, as Squidge and Lia are both completely tone-deaf and it sounded dreadful. It’s a shame that Lia can’t sing, because she has the looks to play Sandra Dee – slim, with long blonde hair and a beautiful angel face.

  A man walked past on the way to the pub and laughed when he heard the singing. ‘I’d stick to the day jobs if I were you,’ he called out, putting his fingers in his ears.

  ‘Yeah, give us a break,’ I said to Lia and Squidge. ‘You’ve already frightened the tourists away.’

  Cat laughed. In the summer, it’s heaving with tourists around here, but as the autumn sets in, there’s nobody but the locals to be seen.

  ‘The auditions are tomorrow after school,’ said Squidge and started jiving with Lia. ‘And Kenickie doesn’t have a solo song, so I’ve just got to get the moves right and dye my hair back to its normal colour.’

  Squidge’s mum, who’s a hairdresser, dyed his hair blond at the beginning of term, as he was going through his spiky phase and wanted to look like the guy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

  ‘Becca, do you think I should dye my hair?’ asked Mac, running his hand through his blond hair. ‘Most of the guys in Grease have dark hair.’

  ‘It won’t matter,’ I said, beginning to feel left out. ‘And anyway, we came out here for a break. From now on, this is officially a Grease-free zone. Let’s do something else, at least for half an hour.’

  ‘I can’t believe you’re not going in for it,’ said Squidge. ‘You’ve easily got the best chance of getting a role, apart from Cat. Isn’t there anything we can do to persuade you?’

  ‘Nope,’ I said and headed off towards the bay.

  ‘Chicken!’ Squidge called after me.

  ‘Stick and stones Squidge,’ I called back. ‘I’ve made up my mind.’

  I turned to look at them as I walked away and noticed that Squidge was whispering something to the others, who all looked at me then nodded. What were they up to? A moment later, they came after me and we all walked down together to the café on the beach. When we got to it, we saw that it was closed for the season, so we went and sat on the wall to watch the boats. There weren’t many at this time of year, but it was still good to sit there, watching them bobbing up and down on the waves and breathe in the salty air.

  Mac stood behind me and put his arms around me. He felt solid and warm, which was nice, as even though it was bright, there was a chill wind.

  ‘So Becca . . .’ said Cat, with a sly look at the others.

  ‘What?’ I asked, looking at her suspiciously.

  ‘Mates,’ said Lia. ‘Mates do things together, don’t they?’

  ‘Yeah. Course,’ I said.

  ‘Together through thick and thin?’ asked Squidge.

  ‘Yeah,’ I said.

  ‘So you wouldn’t leave any of us to go through a nerve-wracking experience on our own?’ asked Cat.

  ‘No, course not,’ I said.

  ‘Excellent,’ she said. ‘So that means you’ll be auditioning with the rest of us tomorrow.’

  ‘No way. I told you already. I’m not going up for it.’

  ‘Oh, come on,’ said Lia. ‘I’m giving it a go and I can’t even sing. Please. As mates, moral support. Then we’ll all be in it together.’

  Mac squeezed my shoulders. ‘Yeah. Come on, Bec. One for all and all for one and all that.’

  ‘But . . .’ I began.

  ‘No buts,’ said Mac. ‘We think you should go for the part of Sandra Dee. Someone needs to give my sister a run for her money.’

  ‘And if I don’t?’ I asked.

  Squidge looked out to the sea then back at the others. ‘It’s awfully cold in there at this time of year . . .’ He grinned, then nodded at Mac. Mac moved his arms from my shoulders and slipped them under my arms as Squidge picked up my feet. Suddenly, they’d hauled me up between them and were running with me, heading towards the sea.

  ‘If you don’t . . .’ Mac laughed as they started swinging me over the waves lapping up on to the sand. They were ready to chuck me in!

  ‘NOOO!!!’ I screamed, half laughing, half panicking. ‘No. OK. OK. I’ll do it.’

  ‘T-BIRDS NEXT,’ called Miss Segal, sticking her head out into the corridor outside the assembly room. ‘Then we’ll see the Pink Ladies.’

  A group of boys in fifties gear got up and trooped in after her. They looked great, especially Mac and Squidge who had dressed the part exactly. Both of them had slicked their hair back with gel, turned the collars on their leather jackets up and looked really cool in their shades. I gave them the thumbs-up.

  Most of the school had turned up for the auditions. It was one of the few days in the school calendar when there wasn’t a rush for the gate to go home as the bell went at the end of the day. The corridor looked like a scene from Rydell High, the school in the movie. So many people had changed from their school uniform into costumes, and some of the girls were even wearing pink bomber jackets with ‘The Pink Ladies’ sprayed on the back. There was an air of excitement as everyone buzzed about talking about what they were going to sing and who were the favourite contenders for the parts. The lead role of Danny Zucko was bound to go to Jonno Appleton, a complete dish from Year Eleven, and he was strutting up and down making everyone laugh by doing the ‘Travolta’ walk.

  For a moment, I let myself fantasise about playing the female lead opposite him. It would be brilliant and everyone would be dead jealous. All the girls fancy him; he’s cute and tanned, with dark hair and even has a dimple in his chin like John Travolta’s. My mum and dad would come to the opening night and clap like crazy whenever I came on and everyone would admire me for my amazing performance . . .

  I began to wish I’d made more of an effort. I hadn’t even thought about dressing for the part and I still wasn’t sure which of the songs I was going to do. Still, it should be OK, I thought, as long as Miss Segal didn’t want to hear a whole song. Last night, I’d learned the opening bars of ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’ and the chorus to ‘Summer Loving’, enough to show that I could actually sing in tune (unlike some of the others). What I hadn’t realised, though, was that everyone was going to take it so seriously. Relax, I told myself as we heard various voices blast out the chorus of the T-Birds’ song ‘Greased Lightning’ from the assembly room. I could wing it.

  The boys came out a short while later. Mac and Squidge had been told there and then that they didn’t have a part, but they both looked quite happy.

  ‘Don’t you mind?’ I asked Squidge.

  ‘Not at all,’ he said, grinning. ‘I didn’t really expect to get in, and anyway, Miss Segal asked if I would video the show. Much more my scene.’

  We call him Squidge because he videos everything and his eye is always squidged up to look through his camera. He wants to be a film director when he’s older, so I reckoned Miss Segal had picked the best person in the school to record the show.

  ‘What about you, Mac?’ I asked.

  ‘She’s asked me to get involved in painting the scenery and stuff,’ he said.

  ‘Good idea,’ I said as I watched the next group of girls, including Cat and Lia, go in to try out for the Pink Ladies parts.

  She’s smart, this Miss Segal, I thought. She seems to have sussed everyone’s talents already and she’s only been at the school a short while. It really got me thinking. All my mates are really good at something, I realised. Lia’s an excellent dancer, Cat’s top at singing, Squidge is a really good photographer and Mac is ace at drawing. But what about me? What do I shine a
t? I might be OK at a lot of things, but the truth is, I don’t stand out at anything.

  Then a shiver of anxiety went through me when I realised that the ‘Sandra Dees’ would be next to be called.

  I sat down and mentally went through my lines. It didn’t seem long before Cat and Lia came back out to join us in the corridor. Cat looked flushed with excitement and punched the air.

  ‘Got the part?’ I asked.

  She nodded. ‘Think so, though it’s not official until it’s on the notice board tomorrow. And it’s pretty definite that Josie Donaghue is going to play Marty, Kimberley Coleman’s playing Jan and Chloe Barker is Frenchy.’

  ‘So that’s all the Pink Ladies. What about you, Lia?’

  ‘She said I could be in the chorus.’ She grinned. ‘As long as I don’t sing too loud. I’m cool with that. I just wanted to be in it.’

  At that moment, a posse of Sandra Dee lookalikes lined up for their turn to audition. Some had dressed in white nighties with Alice bands in their hair, like Sandra Dee in the sleepover scene where she sings ‘Hopelessly Devoted’, and a couple were in tight PVC pants for the ‘You’re the One That I Want’ song at the end. Suddenly I felt hopelessly unprepared, especially when Jade wafted past in a fifties-style gingham dress and looked at my jeans and trainers with disdain. She was just about to say something when we heard Miss Segal calling for the ‘Sandra Dees.’

  ‘Go get ’em, girl,’ whispered Cat.

  Jade was third up and I have to admit, she was good. She wasn’t wearing any make-up, except for a slick of natural lip-gloss, and if you didn’t know her better, you might have said she passed for innocent. She sang brilliantly, not a word wrong.

  Before I knew it, it was my turn and I made my way up on to the stage. As I stood there, I felt very small and wobbly inside, and everyone in the assembly hall turned to watch. The pianist played the opening notes of ‘Hopelessly Devoted’ and I opened my mouth to start, but I missed my timing and the pianist glanced up at me.

  ‘Can I start again?’ I asked.

  Miss Segal nodded and the pianist started up again.

  This time I managed the opening lines and Miss Segal nodded and turned to say something to Mr Walker, who was sitting next to her.