Free Star Struck by Anne-Marie O'Connor

drift … But you’re not allowed to say anything or I’m dead meat. The show controls all the press stuff. We’ve all got to sign confidentiality agreements which means that Richard Forster can eat our spleens if we blab anything to the press if she gets down to the finals.’
    Cara and Rachel looked at each other and burst out laughing. ‘Whoa! Back up. How has that happened?’ Cara asked.
    ‘She can sing,’ Jo said. And then she remembered the really good bit of the story. ‘And I’m probably going to be on telly.’
    ‘Why? Because you’re just so goddamn photogenic?’ Cara asked.
    Jo shoved her. Her friends always teased her about her looks.
    ‘Don’t be a div. No because we went in there – the whole family!’ As Jo told the story Cara and Rachel roared with laughter. Jo loved telling her friends stories, they always appreciated them and always egged her on to elaborate. She had been looking forward to imparting this priceless anecdote all day.
    ‘All of you?’ Cara asked.
    ‘The entire Reilly clan?’ Rachel added.
    ‘The lot of us. Dad included.’
    Cara and Rachel let this piece of information settle and then burst out laughing again.
    ‘Yes, Mick Reilly got out of his pit long enough to get himself on national TV,’ Jo said, finishing her drink with a flourish. Jo went on to tell the girls about the total show they’d made of themselves and how her father had shouted at Richard Forster.
    ‘What’s a robber baron?’ Cara asked, wiping tears from her eyes.
    ‘That’s what we said,’ Jo replied. ‘So our Catherine is off to Boot Camp …’
    ‘What’s going to happen with your dad? She does everything for him, doesn’t she?’
    ‘I’m going to show him a picture of his arse and his elbow and once he’s worked out which is which, he’s on his own,’ Jo said, rising from her seat. ‘Another drink? All this business of having a famous sister is making me thirsty,’ she said, smiling before heading for the bar.

Chapter 3
    THE DAY OF Boot Camp finally arrived. The last few weeks had seemed like months; in which time Catherine had become something of a local celebrity. The
Star Maker
people had made her sign all sorts of legal documents, stating who she could and couldn’t talk to, stressing how important it was that people didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes. But they had informed her that it was fine to tell people that she was going to Boot Camp. Until then she hadn’t even thought about the repercussions of telling people her good news. People weren’t just interested in it, it seemed, they somehow felt that they had a vested interest in Catherine’s future. Because
Star Maker
was such a national institution, Catherine quickly realised, people saw her success in getting through to the next stage as somehow their own success. They knew her, they were pleased for her and therefore they were now involved in the whole process. She didn’t begrudge anyone feeling this way; on the contrary she was delighted to have people support her. It was just odd to be the centre of attention for once. She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about it yet.
    It had started when she had to ask at work for time off. Catherine worked in a call centre in Trafford Park, an industrial area that stretched from the M60 ring road to Old Trafford. The most exciting thing that had happened to anyone on her team in the last five years was when her colleague Ray had appeared on
Eggheads
. He had come a cropper against Judith Keppel and still hadn’t got over it. He would wander around work, muttering ‘The Hoover Dam’. Catherine didn’t know what that meant but it obviously upset Ray.
    When Catherine asked her boss Gloria for time off and told her the reason, Gloria had been so excited that she had screamed and spilled Slim Fast all over her keyboard. ‘Take all the time you need,’ Gloria said. ‘As long as we get tickets to the live finals.’
    Catherine didn’t think she’d get that far