Star Crazy Me. Jean Ure

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      I’ve had boyfriends! Two, in fact. One was Sam Wyman that lives in our block, and the other was Judd Priestley at juniors. They were both unimaginably boring. You couldn’t ever talk to them like I can with Josh. When I said this to Mum she raised both eyebrows and said, “Who wants a boyfriend for talking to?”

      I said, “I do!” To which Mum retorted that I would “sing a different tune one of these days”. Well, pardon me, but I don’t think so!

      Next weekend, I got together with Josh and we wrote a song for me to sing in the talent contest. We’ve been writing songs for ever. We started back in Year 7, and we’re still doing it. We work really well together. Sometimes we argue, but we never fall out. We tend to bounce ideas off each other, like Josh will say, “How about this?” and I’ll say, “Or maybe this?” and that will set us off and get us all inspired in a way that I don’t think would happen if we were doing it separately. We work out the music together, too. I play the guitar – well, just chords mainly, on account of being self-taught – but Josh is like a demon on the keyboard and the drums. He knows about music because his mum and dad are musicians. His dad is a violinist and plays in an orchestra, his mum teaches at a local school. Josh always claims not to be musical – he says I am far more musical than he is – but he knows things that I don’t, so I’ll, like, sing a phrase and Josh will pick it up and run with it. Between us, we’re an ace team!

      This is the song that we wrote:

      .

       Star crazy me

      Floatin’ free-ee-ee

       Into the ether of

       Eternity

       Now do you see me

       Ridin’ high

       Ridin’ high

       Streamers of song

      ’Cross the sky-y-y

       Nobody nothing

       Ain’t gonna stop

       This crazy crazy crazy gal

       This crazy gal

       Will reach the top

       Oh yeah

       Oh yeah

       Just watch me, babe

       I’m floatin’ free

      I’m flyin’ high-igh-igh

       Gonna get there

       Gonna be

       Up there for all eternity

       Oh yeah

       Oh yeah

       Star crazy me

       I’m floatin’ free

      I said to Josh that we should both enter the contest, me as vocalist, him on the keyboard, but he wouldn’t. He said, “Don’t bully me! You’re always bullying me.”

      I said, “Me bully you? That’s a joke!”

      If either of us gets to be bullied, I’d say that it was me. Josh can be really bossy at times! Like he’ll tell me, for instance, that “You can’t possibly wear that top with that skirt, it makes you look like a parcel,” and I will immediately rush back indoors and change, cos I know that he knows about such things. I mean, I will just go and do it. No argument! Josh, on the other hand, tends to go all quiet and dig his heels in.

      I said, “I’m just trying to give you your share of the limelight. Credit where credit’s due.” As Nan used to say.

      Josh said he didn’t want credit. “And I don’t want limelight! I’m not like you.”

      “You’re just scared!” I said.

      “I’m modest,” said Josh.

      I teased him about that. I said, “Aah, sweet! He’s all shy and retiring!” And I chucked him under the chin, really yucky, just to get him going, and he said “Gerroff!” and we had a bit of a tussle, all over the bed and round his bedroom, until his mum yelled at us up the stairs.

      “What are you doing up there? You’ll bring the ceiling down!”

      “You are just so childish,” said Josh.

      “And you are just so stubborn!” I said.

      He still wouldn’t budge. He said that I was the performer, not him, and I think that is probably right. Josh is more of a behind-the-scenes person, which wouldn’t do at all for me. I just love the buzz of being out there, in the spotlight, in front of an audience. Actually, to be honest, I hadn’t ever really performed in front of an audience at that point, except once in Year 6 when we put on a little end-of-term show and I was chosen to sing a Christmas carol. I belted it out at the top of my voice and Mrs Deakin, our teacher, got really upset. She seemed to think I was showing off. She said, “Honestly, Carmen! That was totally inappropriate.”

      Well, but I did enjoy it! And I got a round of applause. So you can imagine I was really looking forward to the talent contest and singing our song. As soon as the notice appeared on the board – Entrants for Top Spot, sign here – I rushed to put my name down.

       Carmen Bell Year 8 Vocalist

      And that was when Marigold Johnson called me a fat freak, and ruined it all.

       CHAPTER TWO

      This is where it happened: in the locker room at school. Me and Indy were already down there, putting stuff away and sorting out what we needed for afternoon classes. The Year 8 lockers are in two rows, back to back, with a few odd ones tucked away in a corner, out of sight. Me and Indy were in the tucked-away part. In other words, nobody knew that we were there. We weren’t eavesdropping! We weren’t crouched on the ground with our ears pinned back. But when Marigold came bursting in with her usual crowd of gawkers and her mouth clattering on at about a hundred miles per hour, we couldn’t help hearing.

      What she was clattering on about was the Top Spot contest. How her sister, Mary-Louise, that was in Year 10, was almost certain to win because she had professional experience. She had appeared in a commercial. She had made a demo disc.

      “It СКАЧАТЬ