Rebecca is Always Right Read Free Page B

of the best friend of a part-timevolunteer librarian. Anyway, I got out three books, so at least I have some decent entertainment to console me for having to not only go back to school, but spend all day listening to Vanessa go on and on about how she’s going to be ‘the face of Bluebird Bakery Yummy Scrummy Cookies’.
    Cass, by the way, is totally convinced that Vanessa is going to get the job.
    ‘The thing about Vanessa,’ she said, when we were walking down Griffith Avenue on our way home, ‘is that, even though she’s a bit deluded, she’s not totally deluded. At least when it comes to her acting skills. Maybe she actually was amazing at her audition.’
    ‘Maybe she was,’ I said. ‘But she is still a bit … unreliable.’ When we’d last seen Vanessa, she was in the cloakroom telling some unsuspecting second year that she was a professional actress, which is a barefaced lie because she hasn’t got that job (yet) and she’s definitely never done any professional work before. ‘And remember when she was totally sure that theatrical agents were going to come to the summer camp and sign her up?’
    ‘I know,’ said Cass. ‘But I’m telling you, I have a feeling she’s going to be in that ad. It’d just be our luck to have to put up with Vanessa on our tellies as well as at school.’
    ‘And on posters too,’ I said. ‘Don’t forget the posters.’
    Vanessa isn’t the only one around here who is confident about a future in showbiz. Tonight Mum and Dad’s musical society held their auditions for their next production,
My Fair Lady
. Their last show,
Oliver!
, was a big success, not least because Dad took over one of the lead roles at the last minute and, to my great surprise, he was totally brilliant.
    Anyway, their old director has had to take a break from the musical society for a while because of some work thing so now they have a new director. She was just the assistant director last time and apparently she wants to put on quite a spectacular show. After Dad’s amazing performance in the summer, he is sure he is going to get another big part. Well, he won’t admit it, but I know it’s what he’s thinking. Every time I ask him about it, he gets all bashful and says things like, ‘Oh, it’s up to the director, there are lots of good people in the musical society’, but there’s a strangely confident look on his face that says, ‘I know they will remember my triumphant performance as the Beadle!’
    In fairness, he’s probably right to be confident. I still can’t believe what a good dancer he turned out to be. It seems quite unfair that neither Rachel nor I have inherited his amazing dancing skills. And he can jump into the air and click his heelsto the side too! It’s really impressive. I’ve been trying for years and I still can’t do that. And I only weigh half as much as him, so you’d think I’d be a bit more nimble.

    How come I am only fifteen years old and already have not one nemesis, but two? And both of them are younger than me! First of all, of course, there’s Daisy’s terrible baby. I know Mum thinks it’s impossible for a baby to hate another person, but literally every single time I’ve met that baby it’s yelled and puked on me, and if that doesn’t show hatred I don’t know what does. And now, with the headbutting, it’s resorted to physical violence! God knows what it’ll do when it’s actually big enough to, like, attack me properly. At least at the moment I can easily escape it because it’s too young to crawl after me. And of course, apart from the headbutting (and I’ll watch out for that in future), it can’t do any serious damage yet. I mentioned this to Rachel after dinner today, and she laughed and laughed in a callous way.
    ‘I bet that baby could take you in a fight now if it really tried,’ she said. ‘You’re pretty weedy, really.’
    A bit much coming from her – she’s hardly the pinnacle of physical fitness. I’d say she’s