Olivia's Curtain Call (2 page)

Chapter Two

The Swans had a totally brilliant time on the dance floor and all of them, except Eel and Emmy, danced themselves into a state of utter exhaustion. Olivia had danced with Tom, and she thought how dashing and grown up he looked in his dark suit that made his emerald eyes sparkle. She suddenly felt a little shy with him, as if he wasn’t the same person she knew so well and with whom she spent so much time training and mucking about with on the
high-wire
.

Worn out from dancing, Olivia, Tom, Georgia, Aeysha and Katie moved to sit in a little bower covered with winter jasmine. From there they could watch the dance floor and keep an eye on Eel and Emmy. They were drinking
the rainbow cocktails that Sam had fetched for them all, and high above them the ceiling winked with tiny silver stars.

“It’s so magical,” sighed Georgia. “Imagine living every day like this. If you were a big star your whole life would be so dreamy.”

Aeysha laughed and shook her head. “You’d still have to cut your toenails and go to the dentist and do all the boring things like everyone else.”

Olivia nodded. “I think it feels so amazing because we don’t do it all the time. If you had rainbow cocktails and went to glamorous parties every day, it wouldn’t feel special at all. You wouldn’t notice after a while. It would just be dull and normal.”

“You, Olivia Marvell, could never be dull and normal,” said Kasha, and he slid smoothly on to the seat next to Olivia, making Tom shove along and almost fall off the other end. Then he added, “Not like my poor bro.”

“Where is he?” asked Olivia.

“Calculating the cost of the champagne and canapés and muttering about the disgraceful waste of money,” said Kasha gloomily. “I shouldn’t have brought him but I thought it
would do him good to get out for once. He’s getting old long before his time.”

“How much older than you is he, Kash?” asked Tom.

“Eighteen years,” replied Kasha. “I was an afterthought. Hamo was my mum and dad’s oldest son and heir, always marked out to take over the family business. My sisters and I always joke that he shot out of the womb dressed in a suit with a calculator in his hand.”

“Whereas you arrived with a guitar slung over your shoulder,” said Katie.

“Something like that,” grinned Kasha. “I think my dad thought I was a changeling, swapped at birth. Until I came along nobody in the Kasparian family had ever shown the slightest interest in performing.”

“So how on earth did you end up at the Swan?” asked Aeysha.

“That was my grandmother’s doing. She thought that all my showing off might actually be talent. When she died she left some money for my education, but she made sure it came with strings attached. If I won a place at the Swan, it was to be used for that; if not, it was to be held in trust for me until I was eighteen, when it could
be used for the further education course of my choice. It was Gran’s way of ensuring that I had control over my own destiny. She could see that I wasn’t cut out for the family business, and she knew that without the money I would have been press-ganged into the family firm. That’s what all the Kasparian boys do. It’s expected of them.”

“But your mum and dad supported you, didn’t they?” said Aeysha. “I remember seeing them at school concerts and plays.”

“Oh yes,” said Kasha. “Once they got used to the idea, and they realised that there was a serious academic side to the Swan, they were very proud of me. They even got friendly with some of the other parents, like Abbie’s dad. In fact, my dad did a business deal with Pete, which was going very well until Pete had a stroke. Then Abbie’s cousin, Tyler, took over and things started to go wrong. Hamo took over the business when our dad died and he doesn’t get on with Tyler at all. He actually thinks Tyler is on the fiddle, but can’t prove anything. So now there’s this silly family feud going on.” Kasha sighed. “It’s one of the reasons I brought Hamo tonight. I thought if he saw Abbie in the movie
and met her at the party, he’d realise how lovely she is and maybe it would help end the feud.”

“And has it?” asked Olivia curiously.

Kasha shrugged. “Hamo’s been so dismissive about the movie and the party that I haven’t dared introduce him to Abbie in case he’s rude to her. Sometimes I think my brother has a cash register where other people have a heart. Anyway, I can barely get near Abbie. She’s constantly surrounded by people.” He looked wistful. “I’d better go and look for Hamo before he runs into Pete or Tyler. I hadn’t realised they were going to be here. It could be tricky if they bump into each other.” He walked off and was immediately surrounded by party guests.

Olivia looked towards the dance floor. A large crowd had gathered around it, clapping and cheering. The Swans stood up and craned their necks and Olivia caught a glimpse of a crimson velvet party frock. She knew at once that Eel was the centre of attention. Olivia and the others moved towards the edge of the crowd and saw Eel and Emmy alone in the middle of the dance floor, dancing with joyous abandon – much to the enjoyment of the onlookers, who were roaring their approval.

Olivia put her hands to her reddening face. She found her little sister’s habit of playing to the crowd deeply embarrassing. But when she looked at the faces of those crowded around the dance floor, many of them hardened showbiz professionals, she saw nothing but pleasure and admiration on their faces. Even Tom and Aeysha and the others were clapping and encouraging Eel and Emmy on. Alicia walked towards the crowd and Olivia was sure that when her gran saw Eel and Emmy strutting their stuff, she would quietly insist that they stop immediately. But instead she just surveyed the scene and smiled quietly.

Olivia heard a distinguished man with a large moustache and a polka-dot bow tie murmur to her grandmother, “Your Swans are always so talented and so charming!” Alicia thanked him graciously. Olivia shook her head wonderingly. Maybe it was true and one person’s showing off was another person’s demonstration of talent? Eel and Emmy were both genuinely gifted, after all. Why should she feel embarrassed for them if they didn’t feel embarrassed for themselves? And they were so evidently dancing for their own pleasure and not
trying to draw attention to themselves. Olivia would hate to have all those people staring at her, but if it didn’t worry Eel, then why should it worry her?

Tom, Katie and Georgia stepped out on to the dance floor to join Eel and Emmy, and some of the other party guests started to join in too. But Olivia slipped away from the group before one of the others tried to make her dance. For all her delicacy and confidence on the high-wire and trapeze, dancing in public made her feel incredibly self-conscious.

She wandered back into the forest, pushing her way through the heavy branches. The trees seemed to become denser the further in she went, muffling the sound from the disco and making it feel as though she were in her own private world. She began to feel as if she had wandered into Narnia, and even thought she heard a nightingale singing.

Olivia stopped, suddenly aware that she was not as alone as she had first thought. Beyond the next bank of fir trees, as dense as a hedge, she could hear low voices. She suddenly recognised them. It was Kasha and Abbie. She guessed that they must have come here to escape the
endless attention they were both getting at the party. Who could blame them? She was about to leap out and surprise them, when she realised that their voices had dropped even lower, and then ceased entirely.

Olivia frowned. What on earth were they doing? She peered through the branches and immediately realised what the silence meant. Kasha and Abbie were gazing raptly at each other, before their lips touched in a tender kiss. Olivia averted her eyes and took a quick step backwards, feeling like a spy. She began to creep away as silently as she could so they wouldn’t realise they had been seen.

Even so, she heard Kasha call out, “Is somebody there?”

Olivia didn’t answer, but hurried on. Her heart was beating very fast. Kasha and Abbie had known each other since they were seven years old and they had always been good friends, looking out for each other. But it appeared as if that friendship had developed into something more.

If Kasha had feelings for Abbie, it explained why he was so keen to get his brother to drop his feud with Abbie’s family. It was, thought
Olivia, just like a real-life Romeo and Juliet. She just hoped that it all ended much more happily in real life. Well, she wasn’t going to tell anyone what she had seen. Kasha and Abbie’s secret was safe with her.

“Where have you been?” asked Tom, as Olivia emerged from a thicket. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you. Your gran thinks it’s time we went home because we’ve got school tomorrow.”

“I just went for a little explore,” said Olivia.

“Come across anything interesting?” asked Tom with a smile. Olivia shook her head but couldn’t stop herself from blushing. Tom thought it made her look beautiful. In recent weeks he had often found himself suddenly surprised by Olivia’s beauty. He wondered if she had always been beautiful and he just hadn’t noticed, or whether she was growing into the face that often reminded him of a Madonna in a medieval painting.

“No, just trees and more trees,” Olivia said now, as casually as she could. Tom looked at her curiously. He knew Olivia well enough to know she was keeping something back.

“Come on then,” he said. “The others have
gone to the cloakroom to get our coats.”

“I’m just going to say goodbye to Theo,” said Olivia. “He’s over there. I won’t be a second.”

Tom waited patiently as Olivia kissed Theo goodbye and, as he did so, Kasha emerged from the forest at exactly the same spot where Olivia had appeared minutes before. Kasha looked a little awkward when he saw Tom, as if he’d been hoping not to be seen, but he raised a hand in greeting and sauntered away in a studiedly casual fashion.

Olivia ran back to Tom. “Ready?” she asked.

Tom nodded but he seemed a little nettled. “Looks like there was quite a party going on in the forest,” he said quietly.

Olivia was puzzled by his tone. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“Nothing,” said Tom. “Except Kasha just came out of the forest, looking shifty. What’s the big secret?”

Olivia turned even redder than before. “There’s no secret, it’s just a coincidence,” she said, and hurried Tom towards the cloakroom to get their coats, worried that if they hung around
he might spot Abbie emerging from the forest too.

They got their coats and were just heading towards the stairs when they heard shouts from the disco.

The Swans ran back to see what was happening. Two men, one of whom Olivia recognised as Kasha’s brother, Hamo, were standing in the middle of the dance floor shouting at each other. Kasha was trying to pull his brother back with some help from Sam and Theo. Olivia also recognised Abbie’s dad, Pete, who was trying to soothe the second young man, whose face was red with fury. A group of security guards plunged into the mêlée and separated the two. At that moment Abbie emerged from under the trees. Her eyes widened in horror at what was going on.

“Oh! Tyler! Please!” she began. She took a step towards her cousin, but before she could say anything more, the movie’s publicity people hurried her away, looking around anxiously to check that nobody had taken any photographs and no journalists had witnessed the fight.

Chapter Three

Olivia was sitting in Alicia’s office with her feet twisted around the chair leg, looking uncomfortable. Alicia gave a sigh. The last time her granddaughter had sat in her office like this, Alicia had been trying to convince her that she should audition for the title role in a movie called
Zelda
. It had been a waste of breath. Olivia had refused point blank, and Alicia felt pretty sure that her granddaughter, who continued to call herself a high-wire walker not an actor, was unlikely to be any more receptive to her latest proposition.

“It comes down to this, Livy,” she said. “The
Romeo and Juliet
producers, not surprisingly, are keen to get a big name to play opposite Kasha, and they will be seeing people over the
next couple of weeks. I’ve heard that various names are in the frame,” said Alicia. She gave a dramatic little pause and then added wickedly, “Including some who can’t act at all, like Amber Lavelle.”

Olivia looked completely horrified, and with good reason. Amber, a former Swan, had a voice like a songbird but the acting ability of a gerbil. Her knack of stripping a line of any emotion whatsoever had come near to scuppering the Swan pantomime last Christmas.

“Amber play Juliet?” cried Olivia passionately. “You can’t be serious! It would be a travesty. It would make
Romeo and Juliet
into a complete farce. The audience would be longing for Juliet to die.” Olivia was appalled to think that her beloved Shakespeare might be mangled like this.

“Indeed,” said Alicia. “And you are not the only one who’s worried. Jon James is beside himself at the prospect of having someone like Amber foisted on him.”

“Well, he must refuse! It would be a crime against Shakespeare. Can’t Jon think of someone else?”

“He can,” said Alicia lightly. “And he has.”

“Who?” asked Olivia, leaning forward with interest.

“You,” said her grandmother. Seeing Olivia’s disbelieving face she continued, “He asked me whether you might consider auditioning to play Juliet, Livy.”

Olivia opened her mouth in astonishment and then closed it again. “Me? Audition to play Juliet in the West End opposite Kasha Kasparian?”

Alicia nodded.

Olivia frowned and shook her head. “But that’s insane! I’m not a name. Nobody knows who I am. I’m not even old enough. Juliet’s supposed to be fourteen.”

“Well, you’ll be fourteen in a couple of weeks, won’t you, and that makes you the perfect age. Jon wants to play the whole thing ferociously young and give it a mix of the timeless and the distinctly twenty-first century. It’s going to be very modern. He wants a Lady Capulet who’s in her early thirties and he’s already cast Cassie Usher as the nurse and she’s only in her late twenties. You and Kasha would be pretty much the same age as Shakespeare
intended Romeo and Juliet to be. And that would drum up huge amounts of press interest. Maybe even more than a big name would.” Alicia paused, watching Olivia closely. “So Jon would like to see you, and if none of the ‘names’ are any good and he thinks it would work, he reckons he might just be able to sell you to the producers.”

Olivia still seemed to be in shock. “But – Juliet! I couldn’t. I’m too young. I couldn’t manage it. The emotions … the verse … I don’t have the technique…”

“Your mother was only just sixteen when she played Juliet…” said Alicia softly, and her eyes clouded with the memory that was so painful and yet so sweet.

“I know,” said Olivia. “But my mum was an actress, a great actress. Everyone says so.”

“
You
are an actress, Olivia,” said Alicia quietly. “You may yet be as great an actress as Toni. Maybe even greater. But unless you give yourself the chance to find out, you’ll never know just how good you might be.”

“But I’ve so little experience,” said Olivia.

“You played Wendy in the West End. Only one night, I know, but you did it. You were a
remarkable Hermia in
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
at Campion’s. You made every line seem as if Shakespeare had just written it.”

Olivia snorted. “Oh, and don’t forget my astonishing turn as the back end of a pantomime horse. I’m sure that’s really going to persuade the producers that I’m a shoo-in for Juliet.”

Alicia tried not to let Olivia see her exasperation. “Jon wouldn’t even suggest it if he didn’t think you were a real talent and a genuine possibility, Livy. And I wouldn’t, either. I wouldn’t dream of exposing you in that way. It would be terribly cruel. But Jon thinks you could do it, and do it well, and so do I. And so does Sebastian.” Olivia raised her eyebrows at that. She had great respect for the Swan’s acting teacher.

“But you’ve got to want to do it, Livy,” continued Alicia, “because there are thousands of girls out there who would die for a chance like this. And of course it is only a chance. Jon may decide after the auditions that you’re too much of a risk, or one of the star names may turn out to be brilliant. And even if Jon does decide that he really wants you, his choice may be vetoed by the producers. So you are no shoo-in, my dear.
Just a girl with a chance. A big chance.”

“So I might put myself through the auditions for nothing?” asked Olivia.

Alicia nodded. “Happens all the time. It’s part of being an actor, putting yourself through the audition process day after day and week after week without any return. Endlessly hearing that dreaded phrase ‘We’ll be in touch’, and feeling the door slam in your face. It goes with the job.”

“Yes,” nodded Olivia. “I guess it does, and if you want to be an actor you have to learn to live with it, even though it’s really tough.”

Olivia stood up. Alicia tried not to show her frustration. The battle was obviously lost. The prospect of having to audition had frightened Olivia away. Alicia had clung to the hope that Olivia’s passionate love of Shakespeare might win her over. She was so certain that Olivia would make a glorious Juliet, so wanted her granddaughter to recognise the talent that was so obvious to everyone else. She couldn’t stop herself from bursting out, “Oh, Livy, I wish you wouldn’t just dismiss the idea. At least think about it. Please.”

Olivia looked puzzled. “But, Gran, I already have. I’ll do it. I’ll give it a try. You’ve
persuaded me that it’s worth a go.”

Alicia sank back into her chair in surprise. “Oh, Livy, I’m so thrilled,” she said, her eyes suspiciously damp. “I’ll ring Jon and tell him immediately.”

Olivia gave her a big hug. “Don’t get too excited, Gran. I’ll probably make a complete idiot of myself.” She grinned. “Anyway, I’m only doing this because if Shakespeare knew about Amber Lavelle, he’d be spinning in his grave.”