Free Olivia Flies High by Lyn Gardner Page B

come!” cried Aeysha. “I’m starting filming next week. Tomorrow’s my last day at school. I’m so sorry.”
    “I’ll come; I want to come every night, especially the first night, if that’s when the critics will all be there and lots of famous people.” Eel skipped about the room happily.
    “Tickets will be in short supply,” warned Georgia, “but maybe your gran will be back by then and can take you.”
    “I hope so,” said Eel. “Maybe she’ll take Livy, too.” At the mention of Livy’s name, there was an awkward silence and Georgia and Aeysha both looked embarrassed.
    “I wish you were all friends again,” Eel said sadly. “Livy’s like a rag doll without you. She’s all sad and floppy. What could she possibly have done that was so awful? She won’t tell me. She told me to buzz off when I asked her.”
    Georgia and Aeysha looked at each other.
    “You don’t want to know, Eel. Really you don’t,” said Georgia. “But we’re only behaving as she behaved towards us; she was the one who made it quite clear she doesn’t want to be friends with us.”
    “But I think she does,” said Eel. “I know Livy and I think it’s what she wants most in the whole wide world.”

Chapter Eleven
    Alicia Swan was sitting in the Green Room of the Duke’s with Jon James, Josie Cutwell and the producer, Chuck Daniels. They were all looking at her intently. She had been back in London only a few hours and she was feeling terribly jetlagged, but as soon as she had arrived at the Swan, Sebastian had told her that there was to be a meeting about Tom that afternoon at the theatre and Alicia wasn’t going to let a little thing like jetlag stop her from being there to defend one of her Swans.
    “Of course I appreciate how serious this is,” she said gravely. “It reflects badly not just on Tom McCavity, but also on the Swan Academy. But I have to say I’m not just surprised by what you’re telling me, I’m completely astonished.I’ve never had the slightest of doubts about Tom’s attitude. He’s bright, he’s always been tremendously hard-working and he shows every sign of being a professional down to his little toes.”
    “Well, there must be some explanation,” said Jon. “I thought he was a really nice kid at first, but he’s turned into a real pain. Frequently late, turning up in the wrong place at the wrong time in the wrong clothes. Apparently he also almost missed his cue last night, and he would have done if one of the cast hadn’t been right on the ball and sorted him out. Katie Wilkes-Cox is a complete professional. Endlessly helpful and bright as a button. Talented, too.”
    “Ah, Katie Wilkes-Cox,” murmured Alicia. “I’m familiar with her work.”
    “She’s my niece,” said Chuck Daniels proudly, “and clearly a star in the making.”
    “So I’ve heard it said, many times,” said Alicia, imperceptibly raising an eyebrow.
    “Tom behaves as if the production rules don’t apply to him,” said Jon. “It’s been drilled into the children that they have to hang up all their costumes at the end of the performance. No excuses. They all do it, even the littlest oneslike Freya, but not Tom. Oh, no. Every night this week, when wardrobe have checked the boys’ dressing room, they’ve found his clothes in a mess all over the floor. They’re not happy; they’ve got enough washing and ironing and mending to deal with without him making more work for them. But when he’s been challenged about it, he swears blind that he’s hung everything up before he leaves.”
    “I’ve always known him to be a truthful boy—” said Alicia.
    “I haven’t,” cut in Josie. “He was outrageously late one day because he’d gone to the wrong place, and he tried to put the blame on me. He said that I’d rung his house and told him there had been a change of plan. Of course I hadn’t. He just hadn’t bothered to read the call sheet.”
    “Look, Alicia, I’m going to tell it to you