Rising Star (2 page)

A tall, thin girl had appeared in the doorway, with a stylish black leather bag over her shoulder. Following her was a man in overalls pushing an ancient, battered trunk on a dolly.

“Put it there,” the girl told him regally, pointing to the floor by the only spare bed. He dumped the trunk on the floor and disappeared. She didn't seem to have her parents with her.

The girl stared at Chloe for a moment and Chloe's heart sank. Of all the people to be sharing with! This was the girl who had been so horrible to Chloe on audition day. Tara! Chloe would have known her disapproving face anywhere. What a rotten start to her new life. Sharing with Tara was going to be awful!

“Hi,” drawled Tara, looking away. She didn't seem to have recognized Chloe, but it was plain she wasn't interested in being friendly.

“Hi,” Chloe muttered in reply, and picked up one of her plastic bags. She was just about to empty it onto the bed when two more girls arrived, the ones who had already taken the best beds. Chloe glanced up at them and hastily looked away again. Oh no! This was terrible. How could she possibly make friends with these two? They were Pop 'n' Lolly, the famous model twins who had been featured in Chloe's magazine last month!

Chloe had passed Pop 'n' Lolly on the stairs on audition day and had wondered what they were doing at Rockley Park. It hadn't occurred to her that they might have been there for an audition, too. Chloe knew Pop and Lolly were the same age as she was. She'd read loads about them in her magazine, but it hadn't said they were coming to Rockley Park. How wrong had Chloe been to tell her dad that no one here would be famous for years. How awful if she and Danny turned out to be the only ordinary people at this school.

Pop and Lolly were greeting Tara as an old friend. Chloe swallowed nervously. It was getting worse. She could see how it was going to be. It would be three against one. Perhaps if they were all horrible to her, she could ask to be moved to a different room.

Chloe shook the contents of her plastic bag onto the bed and started sorting it out. Those twins needn't think she would suck up to them because they were famous. Just because she had plastic bags and shabby suitcases, it didn't mean she wasn't as good as they were!

She stuck out her chin defiantly and picked up some photographs. One, in a frame, was of her and her best friend, Jess, pretending to be pop singers. Chloe had thought it was a great picture when she was at home. Now she was afraid these girls would think it was stupid, and laugh at her.

The other picture, of her and Ben, was less embarrassing. She propped it up against the lamp on her bedside table and tried to stop wishing she was at home.

“Hi!”

Chloe was too busy being determined not to feel homesick to realize that one of the twins was talking to her.

“Hi,” the girl said again, coming over to Chloe's side of the room. Chloe looked up and the photo of her and Ben chose that moment to slide off the table and onto the floor. “I'll get it!” the girl offered. Chloe didn't know if it was Pop or Lolly.

While the famous twin was crouching on the floor, reaching for the photograph, Chloe watched curiously. It was odd, seeing someone so well known scrambling about on the floor by her bed. It made Chloe feel a bit as if she were on the Ferris wheel at a fair—it was like that moment, just before you swoosh down, when your stomach isn't quite sure how it feels.

The girl grabbed the photo and got up, flicking her long, shiny black hair behind her shoulders. Even close up she was amazingly beautiful, with her almond eyes and flawless, coffee-colored complexion. She made Chloe feel terribly plain and dull.

“Here it is! Oh! Is that you with your little brother?” She plonked herself down on the bed by Chloe. “Isn't he gorgeous ... What's his name?”

“Ben,” said Chloe, furious with herself for feeling so shy.

“I'm Poppy, by the way, but everyone calls me Pop.

My face is fatter than my sister's, and she has a little mole on her cheek. That's how you tell us apart!”

“I'm Chloe,” said Chloe, wondering if the other twin chattered as much as this one.

“Well, hi, Chloe! Pleased to meet you,” Pop said. “Hey, Lol!” she called to her sister. “Come over here!” In a moment, the other twin was peering at the picture of Ben sitting on Chloe's lap in the garden. “This is Chloe,” Pop introduced them. “Chloe, this is my crazy twin sister, Polly, known as Lolly 'cause that was the only way I could say her name when I was little!”

“Ah, he's so sweet,” said Lolly, shoving Chloe's belongings aside and sitting down, too.

“Not always,” said Chloe.

“I wish
I
had a little brother. He can't be worse than Lolly,” Pop told her. “She's
so
annoying sometimes.”

“Only when you're annoying
me,
” Lolly replied.

“See what I mean?” said Pop. “She's impossible!”

“Don't tell Chloe how horrible we are, Pop, or she won't want to be friends,” said Lolly mildly. She picked up the other photograph. “Who's this?”

Chloe blushed. “My friend Jess and me.”

“She looks nice,” Lolly commented, and put the picture down. Pop giggled and grinned at Chloe. “We've got lots of pictures like that. We love dressing up, too!”

Chloe couldn't believe what was happening. Pop and Lolly, the famous twin models, were being friendly with her. Perhaps things
would
be all right after all.

“Hey, Tara,” Lolly called over. “Come and look at this sweet picture of Chloe's brother.” Without turning around, Tara muttered something that Chloe couldn't catch.

Lolly shrugged. “Pay no attention to Tara,” she whispered in Chloe's ear. “She's a bit weird, but she's all right once you get used to her. Her mother's a fashion journalist, and sometimes we've been dragged to the same parties by our parents.”

“Snacks!” said Pop. “That's what I want. Come on.

I'm starved!” So the three of them left Tara unpacking her trunk and headed over to the main house.

It was fun being with Pop and Lolly. Lots of people stared at the twins. They were so famous almost everyone recognized them.

“Just ignore them,” Lolly told Chloe. But Chloe found herself starting to giggle.

“They all know who
you
are,” she muttered to Pop. “But they must be wondering who I am!”

“You're the next big thing!” said Pop firmly.

“Absolutely!” agreed Lolly, pulling Chloe's arm through hers. “What have you come to Rockley Park to study?”

“Singing,” said Chloe.

“Like us! So you're the next pop diva, then,” Pop said with a grin. “You must be, because I say so. And I'm
never
wrong,” she added grandly.

“We've come to study here because our agent said we should add another string to our bow,” Lolly told Chloe.

“After all, modeling work doesn't last forever!” said Pop. “Sooner or later, magazines will want new faces.”

Chloe couldn't imagine the twins
ever
being turned down for a modeling job, but before she could say so, she caught sight of another face she recognized. “There's Danny!” she said excitedly. “He was at my last school.”

“He looks nice,” Lolly said. “Let's go and sit with him. Is he a singer too?”

“No,” Chloe explained. “He's a drummer.”

“Wow! I've never met a real drummer before,” said Pop.

“Come on, then,” Chloe urged the twins. “I'll introduce you.”

The day was turning out to be much better than Chloe had imagined. Pop and Lolly were more than making up for having to share with Tara. It was going to be such fun being friends with them.

Danny was sitting by himself at a small yellow table.

“Save me a seat,” said Lolly, “while I grab some drinks.”

“I'll get food,” said Pop. “You'll have to save us
two
seats, Chloe!”

Chloe and Danny grinned at each other. Although she wasn't homesick at all now, it was great to see Danny's familiar face. “You got here all right, then?” she said.

“Yeah, I just arrived. I haven't missed the welcome meeting, have I?”

“No,” Chloe reassured him. “Don't worry, we haven't had it yet.”

Danny looked over at the food line. “I see you've made friends already.”

“I'm sharing a room with them,” said Chloe. “Do you have nice roommates?”

“Dunno,” Danny said with a shrug. “I just dropped my bag off and came straight over here. This place is a bit different from Beacon Comp,” he added. “It's more like a hotel than a school.”

He was right. All the walls were newly painted, the floors were polished, and the beautiful plasterwork on the dining-room ceiling was picked out in blue and gold. But the food bar was the same as at Beacon Comprehensive, and there were enough students talking loudly around the plastic tables to remind Chloe that she really was at school.

“Here you go!” Pop and Lolly dumped a couple of trays onto the table and sat down on either side of Chloe.

“Help yourselves,” added Lolly, handing out some plates and pushing a mug of tea and some soda in Chloe's direction. “I didn't know what you like to drink,” she added. “Cake?” she offered Danny. “Go on. It looks really good! We got plenty.”

“Okay. Thanks.” Danny took a piece of chocolate cake. “Have you seen a schedule yet?” he asked Chloe. She shook her head, munching cake.

“I think they're up in the hall,” Lolly told him.

“Oh, right. I'll go and have a look,” Danny said, finishing his cake and getting up. “I want to see when my first drum lesson is. See you later. Nice to meet you,” he added to the twins awkwardly.

“Is he always so interested in school?” Pop asked, watching Danny weave his way between the tables and out of the room.

“Just drum lessons, I think,” Chloe said.

“There's nothing wrong with liking classes,” Lolly said.

Pop laughed. “It's all right for you!” she told her sister. “You're good at them! Come on,” she added. “The meeting will be starting any minute. We'd better go!”

There was no need to follow the signs. The girls tagged on to the cluster of new students filing into the theater. There were only about twenty-five seventh graders including Chloe and the twins. In Chloe's last school there had been six seventh-grade classes, but here there would probably only be one. Looking around and seeing how few students there were at this school, Chloe realized just how lucky she had been to get her place at Rockley Park.

The theater was very new and modern. The tiered seating looked comfortable, and the bank of lights over the stage seemed very professional. Chloe stared at the stage in excitement. One day soon, she would be performing right there. She couldn't wait!

Mrs. Sharkey, the principal, walked onto the stage and the buzz of excited voices quieted down.

“Welcome to Rockley Park,” she said, smiling at everyone. “I hope you've enjoyed your snack and are beginning to feel at home. Because we only have room for two hundred students here, we are more like a family than a school. But that doesn't mean we don't expect you to work hard! The teachers will give you grades for all the usual subjects, like any other school. However”—she paused—“they will also be grading you for your musical endeavors. Every music lesson and every piece of creative work will be assessed, and your progress noted in points. You will also perform at regular school concerts, where your fellow students, as the audience, will have the chance to award you points as well. These points will be added up over each term, and at the end of the school year, the best students will be chosen by the teachers to perform at a special concert called Rising Stars.”

I'm going to be a Rising Star,
Chloe told herself excitedly.
As soon as I possibly can!

But Mrs. Sharkey hadn't finished. “The annual Rising Stars concert is important because it is shown on local television, and is watched with great interest by A and R people.”

A buzz of excited voices ran round the auditorium. Chloe had heard of A&R, though she didn't know what it stood for, but
television
! She couldn't wait to text Jess. And how proud her parents would be if only she could do it! She must work hard at her singing lessons and perform really well at every concert to get lots of these Rising Stars points.

“The first school concert will be the Christmas one, at the end of term, so you only have a few weeks to practice.”

Chloe was too excited about the concert to take in the rest of the talk, so she was glad when Mrs. Sharkey said, “You can make your way back to your rooms now. Pick up your schedules in the hall, and don't forget to look on the bulletin board for the time of your first individual lessons. Good luck, everyone. I hope you all enjoy your time at Rockley Park School.”

Everyone was chattering noisily as they pushed out of the theater.

“What are A and R people?” Chloe quickly asked Lolly.

“It's short for Artists and Repertoire. They're talent scouts,” Lolly said. “They work for recording companies. So it's really cool if one spots you.”

“Wow!” Chloe's head was full of hopes and plans for her performance in the first concert. Should she sing her audition song or would her singing teacher help her choose a new one?

“Remember audition day?” said Pop as they wandered through the main hall. “And how scared we all were?”