Dancing Queen (Zodiac Girls) Read online

  Skye shook her head. ‘No. No. You’re really good, Marsha. Really good.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Amy. ‘You can see that you have a natural talent. That was awesome.’

  I felt very flattered and grinned back at her. ‘You’re just saying that.’

  ‘No, I’m not,’ said Amy.

  I looked at Skye. ‘OK. You’re next.’

  Skye took a deep breath and heaved herself up. ‘Hah,’ she said. ‘This is going to be such a mess, hip hop like you’ve never seen it before. Um. OK . . .’

  She began to hum a rhythm, which I soon picked up and Amy and I began to clap time as Skye went into her routine. It didn’t matter that her foot was strapped up and her movements limited. Anyone could see by the way she moved her upper body, that she could dance and she had great attitude, like laid back but street and sharp.

  She finished by doing a slow swirl with her crutch, then gave a short bow. Amy and I clapped and clapped. ‘Skye, you were fantastic. Really good. You would easily have won if you’d gone in for that competition,’ said Amy.

  Skye sighed. ‘Maybe.’

  ‘There will be other competitions. You can enter them,’ I said.

  ‘Yeah. Right back at ya. There will be other shows.’

  I sighed. ‘Not with guys like Michael Blake and Cat Slick in the audience.’

  Just at that moment, my zodiac phone beeped that I had a message. It was from Mario.

  Uri said to remind you about new friends.

  I looked over at Amy and Skye and texted back.

  Yeah. I have new friends.

  He texted straight back.

  New friends unite.

  ‘Another riddle,’ I said, and showed the girls my phone. ‘Remember I told you that I won this phone? Well, the guy that runs the website keeps sending me mysterious messages. Like new friends – I guess that means you two, but new friends unite – what does that mean?’

  Skye shrugged, but Amy’s eyes shone. ‘I know. I bet I know,’ she said. ‘Like what were we just talking about?’

  ‘The show that Skye was going in for,’ I replied.

  ‘Missed opportunities,’ said Skye.

  ‘That’s just it,’ said Amy. ‘Are they all solo performances in the competition?’

  Skye shook her head. ‘No, there are all sorts of entries, solo, duos, groups.’

  ‘Duos, groups,’ said Amy.

  Skye gave her a puzzled look then nodded as if she’d understood something. ‘Oh, I think I see where you’re going. No. Come on.’

  ‘What?’ I asked, then the penny dropped for me too.

  Amy nodded. ‘You’ve got the feet, Marsha; Skye’s got the arms and the crutch. You can both dance. Oh, come on. You’ve got to do it.’

  I glanced at Skye.

  ‘No way. We’d look insane. The people who enter these competitions are in a different league. We’d be wasting our time.’

  ‘Chicken,’ said Amy.

  ‘Chicken? I am not. You don’t know what it’s like,’ said Skye.

  ‘I know that life is short,’ said Amy. ‘I know that sometimes you have to go for it even when everything seems set against you. What have you got to lose? What do you think, Marsha?’

  ‘I . . . I . . .’ I glanced over at Skye. ‘I think Amy’s right, Skye. What have we got to lose? And, if nothing else, we can draw attention to the fact that the hospital needs funds for the new wing.’

  The beginning of a smile was breaking at the corner of Skye’s mouth. ‘You and me?’

  ‘Yeah. And . . .’ I suddenly had the most brilliant idea. ‘Yeah. Not just us. I have a few friends who may help out too. Friends who have always wanted to dance. So, yeah. I say, let’s do it. You in?’

  Skye nodded. ‘Nothing ventured, etcetera, etcetera.’

  ‘And, if I’m feeling better,’ said Amy, ‘I want to come. If this spell in hospital has taught me anything, it’s that life is too short to sit around moping when you could be out hip hopping.’

  She put up her hand to high five us.

  Chapter Twenty

  Auditions

  ‘So who are these other friends?’ asked Skye when we got outside the hospital after visiting Amy.

  ‘My zodiac chums. Remember I won the phone? Well, another part of the prize was that I got the help of these people who er . . . How can I explain? I think that they’re part of a club that likes dressing up, you know? Only they don’t exactly dress up, they um . . . pretend to be characters. Oh, I’m not explaining very well. Like some people join clubs where they dress up as characters out of books, other people dress up as knights of old and relive battle scenes, well the zodiac people all pick a planet to be. Something like that.’

  Skye raised an eyebrow. ‘They sound barking,’ she said.

  ‘Yeah, that’s what I thought, but they’re OK. Like that clown doctor – he’s one of them.’

  ‘Oh him? He was good,’ said Skye. ‘Yeah, I liked him.’

  ‘And the lady that did the pampering sessions, she’s another.’

  ‘Yeah, she was OK,’ said Skye.

  ‘Well, I was thinking, I only have another week of their help so why not get them into our group as well? Be pretty cool if you and I were out front, but we had this backing group behind us doing some cool dance steps.’

  Skye considered the idea. ‘Yeah, maybe, but we have a hell of a lot to do in one week, like the choreography—’

  I thought back to seeing Selene and Nessa dancing on the green and Dr Cronus hinting that he had always wanted to dance. ‘They like to dance and I’ve seen a few of them move. And we have to decide what to wear, don’t you think? Like should we all wear the same thing or dress individually?’

  ‘Same thing,’ said Skye. ‘Always looks slicker. And, jeez, we need a rap song. We’ll never do it in time.’

  ‘I’ve got the start of one already. It started in my head when we were up in the ward. I thought we could do it about the hospital.’

  Skye didn’t look enthusiastic. ‘Maybe, but who wants to hear about being in hospital?’

  ‘Let’s give it a go,’ I said, and I began to rap.

  ‘You’d have to be a dummy

  To find hospital funny.

  Ain’t no joke. Choke back a tear.

  Don’t wanna be here.’

  Skye put her head on one side and grinned at me. ‘Hey, newbie, that’s not bad. You just thought that up? Yeah. I like it.’ She started moving her arms and crutches criss-cross as she sang my words. ‘Hey, it’s OK. Yeah.’

  ‘So if we’ve only got a week, we should start right away, yeah?’

  Skye nodded. ‘And I think we should start by seeing your new friends. See if they really can dance.’

  ‘Good plan,’ I said, and I pulled out my phone. I texted in a message.

  Calling all planets. Now is your chance to dance.

  Auditions at

  ‘Hey, where shall we have the auditions? I don’t want to take them back to my house. My parents and sisters will want to butt in and be in the group too.’ I finished the text:

  the green at Osbury in one hour’s time.

  ‘Ditto. Families, huh? Always want to know what you’re up to.’

  ‘I’ve said the green at Osbury,’ I replied. ‘It’s a good space there and the sky is clear.’

  Skye nodded. ‘Lead on.’

  Dr Cronus was already there by the time the bus that Skye and I had caught from the hospital arrived. He was dressed in a long cloak that covered him from tip to toe.

  ‘Who’s the old codger?’ asked Skye as I gave him a wave.

  ‘He’s actually a headmaster at a local school, but in the zodiac game he plays Saturn.’

  ‘So what’s Saturn?’

  ‘The taskmaster of the zodiac, so I guess it fits that he’s a headmaster.’

  Skye giggled. ‘Yeah, but can he dance?’

  ‘We’ll see,’ I replied. ‘Everyone has their chance.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Skye. ‘This is so cool. It�
�s like we’re going to be the judges on one of those X Factor, looking-for-talent programmes.’

  ‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘I’ve always wanted to do that. We ought to have buzzers.’

  As we made our way over to Dr Cronus, I saw that Uri was coming over on his unicycle.

  ‘There’s the clown doctor – Hey!’ called Skye.

  Uri stood on the seat of his cycle and did a comedy wave like the Queen does. Behind him, I saw that Mario was coming, accompanied by Nessa, the beautician lady.

  I leaned into Skye’s ear and whispered, ‘The clown doctor is Uri for Uranus, and the hunky black guy is Mario for Mars and the lady is Nessa for Venus.’

  ‘She’s beautiful. Should you and I pick planets to be?’

  ‘Um, I don’t think it works like that.’

  ‘We have to pick a name for our group, though,’ said Skye.

  I nodded. ‘Yeah. But let’s see who’s in it first.’

  Mario caught up with us and gave Skye a nod. ‘So. Auditions? Marsha. What’s this about?’

  ‘I’ll tell you.’ With Skye’s help, I got up on the bench at the shelter. ‘OK, gather round, everyone. We’ve had another idea about how to raise money for the recreation wing at the hospital. There’s a competition next Saturday night.’ I pointed across the green. ‘It’s being held in the church hall over there and there are going to be some very important people there. Celebrities, agents, but, most importantly, the prize is ten thousand pounds. I know it’s not a million and that’s what I was hoping to raise, but it’s a good start.’

  All the gathered nodded as if they approved.

  ‘My friend Skye and I are getting a group together. The type of dance is hip hop. If you want to audition, get in a line.’

  All the planet people started pushing and shoving. Dr Cronus was the worst of all.

  ‘Hey, hey,’ I called. ‘That’s no way to behave. OK, Dr Cronus, if you’re so desperate, you can go first but stop shoving.’

  Dr Cronus looked sheepish, but he did as he was told.

  Skye sat on the bench in the bus shelter and I pulled Mario aside. ‘I thought that there were ten of you planets? I have ten names listed on my phone. Why haven’t I met all of you and why isn’t the whole group here?’

  ‘It depends on the individual chart,’ Mario replied. ‘It depends on which planets are strongly aspected in your chart at the time of you being Zodiac Girl. Some Zodiac Girls meet some of the planets, some meet the others. Everyone here today is here because they are prevalent in your chart. In fact, Jupiter should be along in a moment.’

  ‘You mean Joe, the deli man?’

  Mario nodded and, indeed, Joe’s tubby figure was soon seen puffing his way across the green. He arrived with a big grin and a basket of goodies, which he proceeded to hand out.

  ‘A troupe can’t dance on an empty stomach,’ he said, and passed me a cheese and ham sandwich.

  ‘Let’s get on,’ Skye called from the bench. ‘It’s going to be dark soon. If it’s not your turn, please sit. Dr Cronus, when you’re ready.’

  Dr Cronus turned his back to us, then flung off his cloak with a dramatic gesture. He turned round. I felt my mouth fall open and I desperately had to resist the urge to laugh. I daren’t look at Skye in case I did. Dr Cronus was wearing a deep-pink ballet leotard, cream tights and ballet shoes. He stood up on his toes, did a pirouette, then danced away. He did look funny, because he was very skinny and had the knobbliest knees I had ever seen, but he was light on his feet and did have a certain grace about him. He did a leap to his left, spun round and ended with a curtsey. We all clapped and he looked so pleased with himself as he picked up his cloak and sat with the others.

  I leaned over to Skye. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘Um, it’s not exactly hip hop, but the old codger can move. What do you think?’

  ‘We could give him a chance. Explain that it’s a different style of dance to his audition, but I think we should let him join us. He’d be so upset if we turned him down.’

  Skye nodded. ‘My thoughts too and our group is about giving a chance to people who might not have one.’

  ‘Exactly,’ I said, then called, ‘Next.’

  Joe got up and he beckoned to Nessa to join him. They put their arms round each other like old-fashioned dancers and danced a waltz.

  ‘Nice, but nothing special,’ I commented to Skye, and she nodded back at me.

  When they had finished, they did low bows. ‘Er, thank you,’ I said. ‘We’ll let you know.’ The enthusiasm that I’d felt earlier was beginning to fade. We would be a laughing stock. A bunch of fools. Two girls with injuries, an old timer with skinny legs and knobbly knees, a couple who belonged in the 1950s. Oh well, I thought, I doubt if Uri and Mario can be any worse.

  ‘Next,’ I called.

  Mario got up. He had brought a CD player with him. He pressed START and some rap music began to play. Skye and I clapped along as he began his steps, leading first with his right elbow then shoulder. He was absolutely brilliant, as good as any of the street artists I’d seen on TV. Halfway through the routine he did the splits, then up he bounced as if he were made of rubber. He sprang down lightly on to his hands and danced while doing handstands.

  ‘Ohmigod,’ said Skye as he stood on his head and spun round. We were about to start clapping when he got up, ready to do a few more steps. Uri got up and began to dance with him in perfect time, perfectly in the beat, perfectly in tune. They had rhythm, they had attitude, they had charisma.

  ‘Who are these guys?’ asked Skye.

  I shrugged. ‘Dunno. Blooming good, though, aren’t they?’

  ‘Awesome,’ said Skye. ‘The best. We could win with them on our side.’

  I grinned back at her. ‘I know.’

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Preparation

  ‘What have we got so far?’ asked Skye.

  We were sitting on either side of Amy’s bed working on the rap song with her after school. Amy was looking good today, with more colour in her cheeks, and was proving to be a whiz at writing songs.

  Skye read from the pad of paper in front of her.

  ‘LEDs twinklin’,

  People sleepin’,

  Heavy breathin’,

  Tubes a leakin’,

  Hi-tech bleepin’.’

  She nodded. ‘OK, what next?’

  ‘Try this,’ said Amy.

  ‘Me silently freakin’.

  I want to scream out,

  But I know I can’t shout.

  I’m stuck here alone,

  Just want to go home.’

  ‘Brilliant,’ said Skye. ‘You’re really good at this, Amy. OK. Chorus.’

  ‘You’d have to be a dummy to find hospital funny,’ we all sang. ‘Ain’t no joke. Choke back a tear. Don’t wanna be here.’

  Amy smiled. ‘It’s sounding good. How are the rehearsals going?’

  Skye laughed. ‘Apart from Mario and Uri, it’s like trying to teach a bunch of kindergarten kids, but they’ll get there. The routine is really simple.’

  ‘And it’s going to look so good with all of us doing it if everyone can keep in time,’ I said. ‘Course, my sisters got wind of it and insisted on being in it too, and my mate Lois didn’t want to be left out, so the group is growing.’

  ‘What are you all going to wear?’ asked Amy.

  ‘Nessa’s sorting that,’ said Skye. ‘She’s the beauty lady who came in, remember? She said she could get us a job lot so we’ll see tonight.’

  ‘Yeah. We’re meeting every night after school because we don’t have long to get it together,’ I said. ‘So, come on, we need another verse. Er . . . how about . . . um . . . Whispers comin’ down the hall—’

  ‘Yeah, good,’ said Skye. ‘And shadows slidin’ on the wall—’

  ‘An emergency,’ Amy added. ‘Thank God it ain’t me. Some kid’s fighting for life—’

  ‘Me, I got no strife,’ said Skye.

  ‘Just feelin’ scared,’ said Am
y. ‘Wish somebody cared. We may be sick—’

  We were all quiet for a few moments.

  ‘But when all’s said an’ done,’ I continued, ‘we still need some fun.’

  ‘And chorus,’ said Skye, and she began to click her fingers in time.

  ‘You’d have to be a dummy to find hospital funny,’ we all sang. ‘Ain’t no joke. Choke back a tear. Don’t wanna be here.’

  ‘Yay,’ I said when we’d finished. ‘Read back that last verse, Skye.’

  ‘Whispers comin’ down the hall,’ she read.

  ‘Shadows slidin’ on the wall,

  An emergency.

  Thank God it ain’t me.

  Some kid’s fighting for life.

  Me, I got no strife,

  Just feelin’ scared,

  Wish somebody cared.

  We may be sick. But when all’s said an’ done

  We still need some fun.’

  ‘Sounds great to me,’ I said. ‘Well done, team. Another verse and I think we’re just about there.’

  After visiting Amy, Dad gave me and Skye a lift to the church hall in Osbury where the competition was going to be held. Luckily for us, Mario had the keys because he taught a self-defence class there a couple of nights a week. The whole crew was there. Dr Cronus (who mercifully was dressed normally this time in trousers and a shirt), Joe the deli man, Nessa, Uri, Lois, Cissie and Eleanor were waiting for us with one new addition: Nurse Cheryl.

  ‘When Amy told me about this, I just had to come. Is it OK?’ she asked.

  ‘OK? It’s fantastic,’ said Skye. ‘So, everybody ready?’

  Everyone nodded so Skye hobbled over to a CD player in the corner and put in a disc. Seconds later, the hall filled with the sound of hip hop music.

  She indicated her foot and her crutch. ‘OK, so you all have to be patient with me,’ she said. ‘We have our own song, but the CD will give us the back beat and then Marsha and I will do our hospital rap over it. OK. I’ll run through it then just follow what Marsha and I do.’