Free Under My Skin by James Dawson Page A

brilliance from the rooftops. What was the point? She couldn’t do any better than the A-grades she was already getting. The last thing she needed was the likes of Melody calling her ‘swot’ and ‘nerd’ and ‘teacher’s pet’. Keeping her head down and playing the game had worked out well enough so far and she intended to keep it that way.
    Of course, now she had to stick her head way above the parapet.
    Sally’s palms were damp as she climbed the endless stairs to the top corridor, which led to the main hall, the venue for the first rehearsal. There was a giggly buzz as the cast assembled for the first time. Naturally, Melody was at the epicentre of the attention with Eleanor and Keira like bookends beside her. Sally noted that Melody had adopted her leading man, Joshua, as one of the gang.
Two-faced bitch
, thought Sally. She’d heard Melody calling him ‘gay boy’ and ‘faggot’ on numerous occasions. With utter horror, she wondered if she might get the same treatment until Melody threw her enough side-eye to cause her to stumble right into Stan’s arms.
    â€˜You drunk, Feather?’ he chuckled.
    â€˜Melody Vine death stare,’ she whispered. ‘DON’T look!’
    â€˜Oh, wow. She finally developed telekinesis. Bummer.’
    Sally turned to Stan, gripping both his arms. ‘Stan, can we just go? I don’t know if I can do this.’
    â€˜Of course you can. You’ll be dope.’
    She laughed despite herself. ‘Dope?’
    â€˜Yeah. What? I’m street. Just, y’know, sing.’
    â€˜Like it’s that easy.’
    Stan shrugged. ‘Why isn’t it? You’re the best singer in our year.’
    â€˜Yeah, right.’
    â€˜Don’t forget I can hear you across the back garden. I leave my window open because you’re better than whatever’s on the radio.’
    Sally considered him with a tilt of her head. ‘You listen to me sing?’
    He shifted uncomfortably, suddenly very interested in his feet. ‘Yeah, sometimes. You’re pretty loud, you know. But good. That’s how I know you can do this. Just look for your inner lion or something.’
    Or something
. Sally remembered the powerful creature at the base of her back and tapped into the strength in Molly Sue’s eyes.
What did Rosita say? Her own secret strength. She
could
do this. And she would
.
    Mr Roberts entered the hall, balancing a stack of photocopied scripts and song-sheets in one arm and a coffee in his spare hand. Immaculate as ever, today he wore a matching tangerine shirt and tie combo. He’d barely had a chance to set his coffee down atop the piano before Melody advanced on him, Eleanor and Keira still at her side.
    â€˜Mr Roberts,’ Melody said sweetly. She brushed her hair over her shoulder as if she were offering her bare neck to a vampire.
    Barking up the wrong tree there
, thought Sally.
    â€˜We had an idea we wanted to talk to you about.’
    Roberts sighed. ‘Can it wait, Melody? We need to get started.’
    â€˜It’ll only take a minute.’ She smiled. ‘We just thought it’d make much more sense if Eleanor was Chiffon instead of Sally. That way we could rehearse more because we always see each other outside of school.’
    Sally looked to her feet. The conversation wasn’t quiet and Melody knew Sally was in earshot. Luckily, the teacher didn’t look thrilled at having his directorial choices questioned. ‘No, Melody, absolutely not. I’m not changing the cast now.’ He looked worriedly over at Sally but she pretended she hadn’t heard.
    Suddenly a new voice rang around the room. It boomed in Sally’s ears. A strong, American voice with a distinctive southern twang. ‘WHAT A GODDAMN BITCH!’
    Sally hid a giggle behind her hand and turned around looking for the source, but only saw a last few stragglers arriving in the hall.