Free Rebecca is Always Right by Anna Carey Page A

(Paperboy, of course).
    They seemed to like it (or if they didn’t, they are very good actors and should have been doing the acting part of the course instead of the rock camp). And the guitarist, Colin, had a useful suggestion about making the intro a bit longer, which we tried after they went back to their room and which worked really well. We are all giving each other feedback like some sort of cool artistic community!
    When our studio time was up, we went back to the art studio space part of the venue to meet Ellie, and who should be there but Sam and Lucy! It was very cool to see them. At the end of the summer camp Ellie vowed that she was going to make all her clothes from now on (apart from bras and things) and she has finally finished her first ensemble. It didn’t actually look too bad. Well, the skirt was pretty good. It was a plain denim skirt and the only thing wrong with it was a slightly wonky zip, and we wouldn’t have noticed if Ellie hadn’t pointed it out. She was also wearing a top she’d made herself, but it wasn’t quite as successful as the skirt because the shoulders were about twice as wide as the rest of her put together.
    ‘I made a couple of mistakes,’ she said. ‘The sleeves should be a bit more gathered and a bit less puffy. But I thought I’d just go with it. I think I’ve made it work.’
    I agreed with her because I didn’t want to rain on her clothes-making parade, especially as she’s just getting started. She needs lots of encouragement and she really can sew, so she’ll get better eventually. And, who knows, perhaps she’ll start a new trend? After all, huge poofy shoulders were all the rage back in the eighties. Maybe this is the beginning of a revival and we’ll all be wearing tops with giant sleeves soon.
    Anyway, we were all hanging out chatting for a while, and eventually Cass went off to meet Liz – they were going out to Liz’s house. Lucy was going to visit her cousins in Rathmines, so she went to get the bus with them. Alice went off with Richard to have dinner in his house, and Ellie had to go home straight away, so basically I ended up chatting to Sam outside the venue for a while. I told him I still had his book.
    ‘I am going to give it back,’ I said. ‘In case you thought I’d stolen it.’
    ‘I think I can trust you,’ he said. ‘Just give it back whenever you like. You’re going to be here fairly regularly, aren’t you?’
    ‘Yeah, I hope so,’ I said. ‘Every week, I think.’
    ‘Me too,’ he said. ‘This place is great, isn’t it?’
    And we talked about the Knitting Factory for a bit. We both agree that it makes a big difference when you have somewhere special to go and do something creative (making comics for him, band practice for me). Sam wants to go to art college and study illustration eventually.
    ‘I think my actual dream job would be sitting in a nice big studio and just drawing all day,’ he said. ‘What about you?’
    ‘Hmm,’ I said. ‘I think I’d like to spend half my time drumming and half my time writing stuff.’
    ‘Sounds doable,’ said Sam. I wonder has he grown since the summer? He looks taller. ‘I mean,’ he went on, ‘it’s probably more doable than my mate Daire’s dream of being a professional surfer.’
    ‘Is he not a good surfer?’ I said.
    ‘Well, he’s only done it once, in Donegal,’ said Sam. ‘So I’m kind of surprised he’s so convinced he could do it for a living. But he’s quite a good skateboarder, and he claims they use the same skills. I’m not sure how, though, apart from the whole “standing on a bit of board” aspect.’
    We just stood there chatting about rubbish for a while. He is very easy to talk to. But eventually my phone beeped – just a text from Rachel asking me to get some milk on my way home – and I realised we’d been talking for over half an hour.
    ‘God, is it that late?’ said Sam, when I mentioned the time. ‘I’m meant to be going out for dinner