Free Film Star by Rowan Coleman

contract. So the next day after school Mum, Dad and I had a meeting in her office to talk about the money with Audrey Goldman my agent. She was sort of everybody’s agent really, and worked for more or less the whole school at one time or another because Sylvia said she was the best. She checked the contracts and negotiated the fees. I didn’t really see her much, though, because up until that moment my Kensington Heights contracts had always been more or less the same, so Mum talked to her about them over the phone. I had never been allowed to listen in on the money bits before so I was really excited to know how much I was getting.
    I was glad we had Audrey Gold because when they started to talk about the contract I understood about one word in two hundred. So I waited and waited and waited for them to talk about the one thing I was fascinated by—how much money was a lot of money. I mean of course I cared more about the actual opportunity than the money, and yes, I would have done it for nothing at all. But for all the years I was working on Kensington Heights all I got was an allowance every week, and that was less than some kids at school who didn’t work on a prime-time soap. And all because Mum wanted me to have a normal childhood and learn solid values, like not having the best mobile phone until it’s been out for a year and comes free with a pay-as-you-go tariff and by then everyone else has got a better one anyway. That sort of thing. And I had learned them, I thought. Nobody was more normal than me. And anyway, this was the first time I had ever been to a money meeting, so I waited through all the gobbledygook until they finally said what I had been waiting to hear.
    â€œTwo hundred thousand pounds,” Audrey Gold said. “How does that sound?”
    â€œBlimey,” I said, and all three adults looked at me as if they had forgotten I was there.
    â€œTo go into your trust,” my mum said promptly, looking at Dad who nodded.
    â€œMum!” I protested. “Dad!”
    â€œWell, maybe you can have a little bit,” she said. “Buy some new things and perhaps have a little wrap party for all your friends. We could redecorate your bedroom if you like? I know you think it’s too babyish.”
    â€œOnly because I’ve had that fairy wallpaper since I was six,” I said, trying to remember not to bring up anold argument. “Or,” I added casually, “we could always have a swimming pool.”
    â€œWe’d never fit one in the garden,” Mum said.
    â€œWe could buy a house with one built in?” I suggested. Mum smiled at me like I was next-door’s toddler saying something sweet and funny and said, “Two hundred thousand pounds isn’t enough to buy a house like that in London, dear.” And I felt sort of deflated. I still didn’t know exactly how much was waiting for me to turn twenty-one in my trust fund. And as far as I was concerned two hundred thousand pounds made me rich beyond my wildest dreams. Except that it turned out that that much money actually made me rich just a little bit short of one of my more tame dreams. A house with a swimming pool was way down on my list, after a private jet and my own paradise island.
    â€œIs it right, that amount?” my dad asked. “Is it worth negotiating?” Audrey Gold drew her mouth into a thin line and shrugged. “Well, Ruby has almost zero profile over the pond, unless you count Kensington Heights running on BBC America, but I’d say given that they start shooting in ten days it’s worth a shot.”
    And there were a lot of phone calls and lots of conversations and a lot of Mum and Dad spendingtime together talking about me, without arguing or falling out, and after a couple of days my mum came up to my bedroom and said, “We’re ready to sign, Ruby, but before we do, are you sure you want to do this? To be taken out of school and work really