The Overnight Fame of Steffi McBride Read Free

a bit down, brilliant for taking you out of yourself. The two visitors were still huddled in the corner, blowing their noses and talking in low voices, avoiding everyone’s eyes.
    ‘I want you to meet someone, Steffi,’ Dora said, taking me over. ‘This is Tom and Audrey, they’re the casting directors for
The Towers.’
    I don’t think I actually believed her for a moment. I mean,
The Towers
was the biggest soap in the country. All my life I’dbeen watching it and reading about the actors who starred in it. In fact, it was really a bit sad how addicted I was to the whole thing. I felt like I knew all the characters personally, as well as all the actors who played them. It didn’t seem possible that these two tatty old specimens were part of the world of glittering awards ceremonies and titillating tabloid scandals that were all part of
The Towers’
world. When I’d talked to Dave about my addiction to the series once, he suggested that I liked it so much because it reflected my own life on the estate.
    ‘Fuck off,’ I scoffed, ‘do you really think life on the estate is that exciting? There’s about three murders a week in
The Towers,
we’re lucky if we hear of one mugging.’ For some reason he thought that was incredibly funny, which gave me the right hump.
    ‘We’re looking for a young girl to be part of a new family moving into the area,’ the woman called Audrey was saying.
    ‘You mean into the Goddards’ flat?’ I said, slightly giving the game away that I was an avid fan when I probably should have been trying to show I was a bit cooler.
    ‘Yes.’ Audrey smiled rather sweetly at me, which made her look a lot younger. ‘You’re a fan, then?’
    ‘Yeah.’ I think I might have blushed.
    ‘We think you might be great for the part. Would you be interested in coming to the studios to audition?’
    ‘OK.’
    OK! That was all I could think to say, and I said it in the flattest, most pathetic little voice. I suppose I thought it would be uncool to jump about screaming and to throw my arms around Audrey and Tom and cover them in kisses and buggerthe germs, which was what I really wanted to do. Or maybe I was just frightened that if I once let my excitement out of the box I would never be able to get it back in again, that I would just explode into a million tiny pieces.

Chapter Two
    T his was a bit of news I wasn’t going to be able to keep to myself, no matter how uncool it might seem, and I blurted it out almost the moment I walked through the door that evening. The whole family was there and the noise level hardly faltered; they obviously didn’t believe me, or weren’t even bothering to listen.
    I tried again. ‘I’ve been asked to audition for a part in
The Towers.’
    ‘Fuck off, Steffi,’ Jeremiah, my older brother, said. ‘You are such a little liar. Since when do they go talent spotting in hotel kitchens?’
    ‘I’ve been doing some acting classes and these casting people from the telly company came to watch.’
    One or two of them had stopped talking and were taking in what I was saying.
    ‘You’re auditioning for
The Towers
?’ Mum asked, a puzzled look on her face.
    ‘Over my dead body,’ Dad growled and suddenly everyone was silent.
    ‘What do you mean?’ I asked, trying to keep the shake out of my voice.
    ‘You’ve got a perfectly good job, you don’t need to do that rubbish.’
    ‘Steffi might end up a star,’ one of my little sisters piped up – Jenny, I think. The girls were beginning to get the idea. ‘That would be so cool. She’d be able to get us into clubs for free and stuff.’
    ‘And have every slimy newspaper reporter in the world sniffing through our bins looking for stories,’ Dad exploded. ‘No thank you.’
    ‘There’s nothing to be ashamed of in my bins,’ Mum protested, which made some of them laugh and sort of defused things a bit, although Dad’s face was still like thunder.
    ‘OK.’ I shrugged, having no intention of causing a major