Free Musical Star by Rowan Coleman Page B

really know how he feels about it. I shouldn’t think he’ll mind though. And today Mum and Jeremy are going to look at houses. They’re going to rule out all of the rubbish ones and then call me in for an opinion when they’ve got a shortlist.”
    “To think that Jeremy Fort fancies your mum,” Nydia said. “You can see that he really, really loves her like mad.”
    “It’s so romantic,” Anne-Marie said wistfully. “And so A-list.”
    “What really worries me,” I said, keen to change the subject, “is the competition tomorrow.” I looked at Dakshima. “It’s going to be really tough.”
    “Ruby Parker, choir member,” Anne-Marie said. “Now that is a turn up. No offence, Dakshima, but your choir must be awful if Ruby’s one of the best.”
    “She can sing,” Dakshima protested. “It’s just that in a school full of singers nobody noticed. Mr Petrelli says she will be really good if she works at it.”
    “Really?” Even Nydia sounded disbelieving.
    “It doesn’t matter anyway,” I said. “Because we are not going to win and my singing career will be over before it began.”
    “I reckon we’re going to win,” Dakshima said with a shrug.
    “How do you work that out?” I asked her. “We only formed the choir a couple of weeks ago, we’ve got less experience, less talent and less…everything than probably any other choir that’s entering.”
    “So?” Dakshima said. “Aren’t you forgetting my favourite film?”
    I looked blank.
    “The Underdogs?” Dakshima reminded me. She lookedat Nydia and Anne-Marie. “You’ve all seen it right?”
    “Only about a million times,” Anne-Marie said. “Did I mention that my boyfriend is in that film?”
    “Only about a million times,” Nydia said.
    “What does Sean’s character say in it?” Dakshima went on. “If a little person has a big enough heart, then anything is possible.”
    “That film is so bad,” Anne-Marie said. “But Dakshima’s right. It’s possible. Unlikely, but possible.”
    “Anyway,” I said, keen not to think about me singing solo in front of a panel of judges. “Are you two ready for tomorrow?”
    The auditions to find the finalists for the lead parts were on the same day as the choir competition, in the same West End conference centre.
    “I am,” Anne-Marie said, still not touching her coffee. “I’m going to sing ‘There’s a Place for Us’ from West Side Story. I’m going to wear a black T-shirt, a red skirt and a red scarf round my neck like they did in the olden days.”
    “I’m doing ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’ from Grease,” Nydia said. “I borrowed a Pink Ladies jacket that my next door neighbour had from a school play.”
    “Aren’t you dying with nerves?” Dakshima asked them both.
    Anne-Marie shook her head. “I don’t get nerves. If you’ve prepared as much as you possibly can and you know you have talent, what is there to be nervous about?”
    “Pooing in your pants?” Dakshima said, making us all laugh.
    “I get nervous,” Nydia said. “But I think that after Anne-Marie’s party and the way she threw Jade and her friends out of it, there’s no chance that either of us are going to get through to the finals, so I’m just going to relax and enjoy myself.”
    “That Jade girl can’t run the whole thing,” Dakshima said. “She’s just a kid. Her dad’s not crazy, is he? He won’t give all the parts to her friends just because she says so?”
    “Maybe not,” Anne-Marie said. “But what Jade wants Jade usually gets.”
    “Serious? My dad won’t even let me have a Nintendo DS,” Dakshima exclaimed miserably.
    “I know how you feel,” Anne-Marie said. “My dad wouldn’t even let me have McFly – how tight is that?”
    “So what are you lot wearing?” Nydia asked me and Dakshima.
    “Our uniforms,” Dakshima said with a shrug.
    “Your school uniforms?”
    “Yep, that’s what Mr Petrelli said,” I told Nydia. “Clean, ironed uniforms.”
    “Every