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Authors: Jean Ure

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BOOK: Dazzling Danny
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Chapter Six

Countdown. Four days, three days, two days, one day… lift off!

The morning of the show Mum said to me, “So you’re going to be helping out backstage, then?”

I’d told her that once! I bent my head over
my cereal bowl and muttered, “Yeah.”

“You mean, there’s no point us coming along?” said Dad.

I’d told Mum that, as well!

“You couldn’t come, anyway,” I said. “Tickets’ll be all gone.”

“That’s a pity,” said Dad.

Why was it a pity? I looked at Dad, and frowned. He and Mum were behaving in a very odd way.

“I’m not
in
it,” I said.

“How about Darryl?” said Mum. “Is he in it?”

“Yeah,’ I said. “Darryl’s in it.”

Surely they wouldn’t want to go and see
Darryl
!

“I thought you said it was all singing and dancing?” said Mum.

“Mm.” I made a mumbling sound, through a mouthful of toasty pops.

“So can Darryl sing and dance?”

I shook my head. “He’s useless.”

“So why is he in it and not you?”

Why do mums always have to ask so many questions? I said, “I dunno,” and stuffed another spoonful of toasty pops into my mouth. Carrie giggled. I zapped her with laser beams across the table, but my sister is totally INSENSITIVE. In this very tuneless voice that she has, she started singing.

“GO for it
!
Just – GO for it
!”

“What is this silly song you keep singing?” said Mum. “Is it the latest hit?”

This time, Carrie giggled so much she nearly fell off her chair. Darryl doesn’t know how lucky he is, not having a sister.

The show didn’t start until seven o’clock that evening, but Miss Pringle wanted us all to be there by half–past five. Darryl and his mum and dad were stopping by to pick me up. They were going to bring me back again, afterwards. As soon as I saw their car pull up, I went racing to the door. I didn’t want Mum getting out there, talking to them.

“See you later,” said Mum. “Hope it goes well!”

Dad then came to the door and called after me: “Break a leg!” I thought this was a strange sort of thing to say, until Darryl’s dad explained that
break a leg
was a theatrical way of wishing someone good luck.
But why should Dad think that I needed good luck? I was only helping out backstage!

When we reached school, I almost wished that I was just helping out. I felt like a big wobbly jelly, trembling on a plate. And I couldn’t remember a single one of my steps! I’d been practising them all day in my bedroom; and now, suddenly, they’d gone.

“You nervous?” I said to Darryl, as we made our way to the boys’ changing room.

“What’s to be nervous about?” said Darryl.

“Might forget your lines,” I said.

“Only got two,” said Darryl.

He meant that he only had two that he spoke by himself. It wouldn’t matter if he forgot the rest, because they were spoken by everybody. Even I could remember two lines!
But I had whole long sequences of steps. Coral would never forgive me if I went and messed things up!

Clint was in the changing room. He’d already had a good laugh at me at the dress rehearsal, but he couldn’t resist starting up again. He said, “Hallo, girly!” in this silly squeaky voice. “Sure you’re in the right room? This one’s for boys!”

Darryl snarled, “Shut your cakehole, dummy, or I’ll shove your teeth down your throat!”

A bad moment! I couldn’t let Darryl fight my battles for me, but I really didn’t want a
scrap. Not right then. Maybe later, but not before I’d done Miss Pringle’s dancing for her. I didn’t reckon she’d be very pleased if I went on stage with a black eye. Not that I’d have been the only one. Clint would have had one, too; you could count on that. Fortunately it didn’t happen, because Clint backed down. Just as well! I would have thrashed him.

Lots of people had been sent Good Luck cards, which they stuck on the wall. To my surprise, my mum and dad had sent me one. They’d sent it to the school, and Mr Hubbard gave it to me when he came round to check we were all getting changed. I thought that was quite nice of them, though it did make me feel bad about all the lies I’d told. In spite of that, I was still glad they weren’t there! If
Mum and Dad had been in the audience, I would have been too embarrassed to dance.

I was embarrassed enough as it was. The thought of going out there, in front of all those people, wearing tights and
dancing
– with six girls! Plus I still wasn’t sure I could
remember any of the steps. My head felt like a big ball of cotton wool. My legs felt like strips of spaghetti. And I
couldn’t remember what I had to do.

It was Coral who rescued me. As I stood there shaking in the wings, waiting to go on, she whispered, “Just do what your feet tell you!”

She said afterwards that it was what her dance teacher had once said to her when she was in a panic. And it worked! I stopped trying to
think
and just let my feet do their own thing. My feet were brilliant! They did it all by themselves.

“Told you so,” hissed Coral.

She was rather cocky about it, but I forgave her. Her and me got the biggest round of applause of anyone! At the end, we had to take a bow all by ourselves.

“Man,” said Darryl, clapping me on the back, “that was great! I bet you’re glad, now, that your mum and dad came.”

I looked at him, in horror. I said, “
What
?”

“Your mum and dad” said Darryl. “They’re out there… didn’t you see them? Sitting in the front row, next to mine.”

Mum and Dad – and Carrie – had been there all the time! It was my sister’s fault.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “They got it out of me.”

Mum and Dad couldn’t understand why I’d tried to keep it from them.

“What do you think we are?” said Mum.

“Monsters?” said Dad.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“We’re
proud
of you!”

I didn’t believe them. I thought they were
just saying it, to make me feel better. I still didn’t believe them even when my gran rang up and said, “What’s all this I hear? My grandson the dancer? Stealing the show?”

“It wasn’t me,” I muttered. “It was Coral!”

“That’s not what I heard,” said Gran. “I heard it was both of you. My! Wouldn’t your granddad have been proud!”

Next day, the local newspaper came through the letterbox. And there, right on the front page where you couldn’t help seeing it, was a big colour picture of me and Coral! Over the picture, in huge great capital letters, it said:

But it wasn’t until Dad got a copy of the original photograph and had it framed and
hung on the wall that I finally believed him. He and Mum were really proud of me! Just as proud as if I’d won the junior athletics trophy.

I got my sister to pay me back for all those times I’d cleaned the car for her.
And
I got her to do my share of the washing–up, the wiping-up and the vacuuming for the next two weeks.

I also bashed Clint the next time he called me girly. You have to stick up for yourself.

Now they all call me Dazzling Danny, but like I said, it doesn’t really bother me. Danny the Dazzle… I can live with that!

BOOK: Dazzling Danny
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