Keeping it Real (12 page)

My poor friend was putting herself through the wringer, all because - for a whole ten minutes - I’d fancied dressing up in a cute retro jacket so I could flirt with Kelsey Hickman!

Karms was weeping openly now. “I miss her, Jax! I
really
miss her and I really miss the Shocking Pinks.”

To my horror Jax’s eyes filled with tears. “I miss her too,” she gulped.

Jools and I clutched each other’s hands in disbelief.

My friends were hugging
.

Jax swiped away her tears, trying to pull herself together. “Karms, don’t laugh, but when I came in just now I had this mad idea. I know you want to do something for Mel, but why can’t it be something she’d be proud of, something classy that we’d all be proud of?”

“Like Shakespeare you mean?” Karmen quavered.

Jax gave a tearful laugh. “Haven’t you even noticed what’s happening on that stage?”

“One little white boy is not a show, Jax!”

“Karmen, wake up! Loads of kids in this school perform in garage bands or whatever.”

“You seriously think we can put on a new show in two weeks?”

“Why not?” Mr Lupton chipped in unexpectedly. “As you said yourself, they build gardens in a poxy weekend on TV!”

“But
they
know what they’re doing,” Karms objected.

“And again, thank you children of Park Hall!” he said humorously.

“I meant we’d be doing this totally from scratch,” she explained.

“Karmen, it will just snowball, girl, trust me! Kids will text their mates and - bosh! - you’ve got your show!”

The kids on the stage had clocked that something was going on and came ambling down into the hall.

“Whassup?” demanded Jordie. “You guys plotting a revolution?”

Jax’s eyes glinted. “We’re gonna kill Mr Lupton’s musical!”

He snorted. “That musical been dead a while, man.”

Karmen was shocked. “That’s not what you said before, Jordan Hickman!”

Jax grinned. “Because he fancies you rotten, Karms!”

Omigosh
, I thought. No
wonder
I recognised that face! Stressed Jordie was beautiful Kelsey’s younger brother.

Jax started telling the others about her brainwave for a totally original production. “I’m talking a serious twenty-first century vibe, but totally positive and uplifting - none of your guns rubbish,” she told Jordie fiercely, as if she’d never had a violent thought in her life.

Mr Allbright once told us that when the time is really ripe for something to happen, you don’t always have to do that much. Everything just unfolds like a wonderful story.

That’s exactly how it was with this new show. In less than sixty earth minutes, it flashed from being an angel’s daydream to a genuine possibility.

Part-way through Jax’s explanation, everyone started texting their mates just like she’d predicted. In no time would-be performers were rolling up. By 11am, actual auditions were underway.

Hendrix and Brice turned up in the middle of a cool hip-hop number by a local posse who performed under the name of The Vibe Tribe.

I hadn’t seen Brice since our fight, but I’d decided to accept his fairy note as a genuine apology and gave him a friendly smile.

“You do realise this hall is buzzing with positive vibes?” he said accusingly.

We hadn’t actually noticed, but the air was literally shimmering!

Brice watched the hip-hop kids with a perplexed expression. “I thought Grease was that retro thing with motorbikes?”

We explained about the musical being killed off.

He frowned. “You think they can pull this together in two weeks?”

“With a little cosmic backup,” Jools smiled.

“You guys are taking on a lot,” I said doubtfully. “You work twenty-four-seven as it is, plus you’ve got this leak, plus I’d still appreciate some help with my mates.”

Jools patted my hand. “And you’ve got it, hon. But I’m actually wondering if your mates need more lessons. Just supporting their show will do wonders for these girls.”

But Sky isn’t in this show
, I wanted to say, when Brice said something that blew me away. “It won’t just do wonders for the girls.” He was trying to play it cool, but even he couldn’t keep a glint of hope out of his voice. “These vibes are off the scale, man, and this is just the auditions! Imagine an actual show with an audience of proud rellies and well-wishers. The PODS can’t stand stuff like that; it’s too real - and I should know!” Brice added, flashing me his pantomime baddie smile.

“Are you saying this little show could save the school?” asked Hendrix, amazed.

I felt a whoosh of excitement. “Omigosh, Jools! That’s what you meant about it being down to the kids!”

“That was just a hunch, you know,” she said softly.

By midday everyone was ready for a break. My mates shared Karmen’s lunch while they discussed various artists they’d seen.

After their snack, Jax and Karmen went to freshen up. I was suddenly curious to know what they’d talk about.

I mimed that I’d be back and followed my mates into the skanky cloakroom.

“Could you smell this, like,
perfume
?” I heard Karms say in an awed voice.

Jax shook her head. “More like flowers. What’s that pinky bush in your mum’s garden?”

“Omigosh, lilacs! You’re right! After she’d gone I could smell lilacs for hours!” Karmen’s words were almost tripping over themselves she was so excited. “Jax, this is so incredible! Was it like she was there with you, talking?”

“Totally! She said I was magic. She went on about that a LOT.”

Karmen gasped. “That’s
exactly
what she said to me!”

“She kept saying I wasn’t alone, and when I woke up my dead cactus had a
flower
, Karms! A freaking shocking-pink flower!”

“No
way
!” Karmen breathed.

Two girls came in and my friends continued their conversation in whispers. I heard Jax hiss, “Then we’ve got to
make
her talk to us. This is more important than some poxy boy. I mean if Mel came back—?”

“—then Sky totally has to know,” Karmen whispered.

I practically floated out of the cloakrooms.

Almost the first thing I’d noticed about Heaven was how the air smells almost exactly, but not quite, like lilacs. Without me knowing, the sweet and magical vibes of Heaven had followed me all the way to Earth!

Suddenly anything seemed possible. Karmen and Jax were determined to make it up with Sky, and we might actually save the school!! It looked like my mission was succeeding beyond my wildest dreams.

Trust Brice to burst my bubble.

“You’ve got that good fairy look again,” he said accusingly when I wafted back into the hall.

“Say what you like, angel boy,” I said airily. “But you can’t bring me down. Just look around the hall - is this, or is this not, fabulous?”

“Yes, Tinkerbell, it’s fabulous and you’re fabulous. Just imagine how even more fabulous you’ll be when you figure out what your real—” Brice broke off, looking oddly embarrassed.

Jools had joined us. She’d been called out to the children’s hospital. A newborn was having trouble adjusting to terrestrial vibes.

“Want to come, Mel?” she offered. “These auditions could go on for hours.”

I was suddenly torn. “I’d love to but if I’m not needed here I’d really like to spend some time with my family.” Mum and Des always took Jade to the park on Sunday afternoons.

To my secret dismay, Brice asked if he could tag along. Since that Tinkerbell crack, I wasn’t keen, but I couldn’t really think of a way to say no, then of course, being Brice, he immediately had to take over. “There’s loads of parks in London. I hope you know which one?”

“No, but it’s bound to be one of three,” I shrugged.

I was wrong. My family weren’t in any of the London parks within easy reach of my old home, and they weren’t at home.

It took Brice to figure out where they’d gone.

Chapter Fourteen

B
rice wouldn’t say where he was taking me, but I felt the chilling vibes of the cemetery seeping into me, even before we beamed down.

My chest went tight as I watched them trudging stoically along the endless rows of stone crosses and marble angels, looking desperately vulnerable in this bleak open space.

They’d bought bunches of hothouse daffodils, tight little buds in sheaths of cellophane. I saw Des wipe his eyes. He put his arms around my mum and I wanted to put my arms around both of them.

This might sound weird, but I was terrified I’d accidentally catch sight of my own headstone.

“Whatever it says, you know that’s not you,” Brice told me with unusual gentleness.

“I don’t care, I’m still not looking,” I told him through stiff lips.

I was looking everywhere
but
my headstone, at the winter sky with its criss-crossing vapour trails, at Jade sulkily kicking stones…

“I could read your epitaph to you if you want?” Brice suggested. “It’s not
so
bad.”

I pulled a face. “Does it say I’m sleeping with the angels?”

“Along those lines,” he agreed. He flashed a mischievous grin. “Had much sleep lately?”

“I wish!” I spluttered.

I don’t know why but being able to crack bad-taste jokes was making me feel better. We watched Jade kicking up gravel as she stomped on and off gravestones, complaining loudly to herself.

“She’s cute,” commented Brice.

“I’m amazed you can tell!”

Jade’s woolly hat was pulled down so far you could just about see her little nose! Mum had dressed my little sister in so many layers of clothing, she looked like a tiny Arctic explorer.

“Jade, stop that, you’re scuffing those new boots,” Mum said crossly.

“I don’t like this stupid ol’ cemetery,” my sister complained. “Why do we always have to come? Melanie’s not even here anyway!”

“Smart as well as cute,” Brice said in my ear.

A young cat was picking its way daintily between urns and headstones, clearly heading in our direction. Cats just adore angels. This particular cat looked like a miniature panther, with his glossy black fur and huge, tawny-gold eyes. He started weaving ecstatically between us, purring so loudly he sounded like a dial tone.

“Mum, Mum, there’s a kitty!”

Jade came charging up, scattering gravel.

The cat looked understandably panicky, but Brice crouched down and whispered something in the special language we use for animals, and he instantly relaxed, allowing my sister to pet him.

Jade started confiding secrets to her kitty friend. “My sister’s not under that stupid stone, you know,” she explained in a hoarse whisper. “She goes to a big school in the clouds and she fights all the baddies and monsters with her angel kung fu.”

“She’s got that almost right!” Brice said in my ear.

“My mum says angels don’t fight,” Jade told the cat, “but I’ve seed her doing it in my dreams.”

I felt slightly dizzy. Had I been sharing Jade’s dreams or had she been sharing mine?

Sometimes in nightmares you just have to think of something scary and it immediately appears.

Under her woolly hat, Jade’s brown eyes looked worried. “Oh, poor kitty, what’s happening to your tail?”

Wild-eyed with terror, the cat had fluffed itself out to almost twice its normal size. Ears flat to its skull, it fled, yowling, into the bushes.

I spun to see what had freaked it so badly and almost screamed with shock as I saw the bald shambling beast stumbling towards Jade.

It was a hellhound!

My first thought was that the engraver had got it wrong. Apart from its sick-white skin, which made it look like it was already dead, the hellhound was almost ordinary. It was even behaving like an average family mutt, snuffling along paths and rooting intensely in dark corners. Then, as we watched, the hound lifted its huge naked head, letting out a gargling howl that made every tiny hair stand up on my neck. For a bizarre instant I saw three hounds, all somehow occupying the exact same space.

I didn’t need to have a second thought. Brice and I didn’t say a word. We instantly put ourselves between my little sister and the huge hell beast, taking up defensive martial-arts crouches.

I’m not sure if Jade totally realised we were there, but she’d definitely clocked the hellhound. She seemed fascinated more than scared. “Oh,
wow
,” she breathed. “That’s a really ugly monster.”

“Don’t suppose Sam gave you any flares?” Brice muttered out of the side of his mouth.

“Actually he did!” I tore open my bag and pulled out two flares, tossing one to Brice.

He quickly bit off the end and was instantly brandishing a huge pillar of golden-white angel fire. I hastily lit mine the same way.

You’d think two torch-wielding angels would be enough to grab its attention, but the hellhound was busy snuffling obsessively round my tombstone.

Like the majority of hell creatures, this hound wasn’t a real animal; it was a PODS
remix
of a dog, basically, a collection of evil thoughts trapped inside a nightmare.

Waiting for a hell beast to notice your existence is v. stressful I have to say. “Why won’t it
see
us,” I said in frustration.