Free The Real Rebecca by Anna Carey Page A

are quite good at the pencils,’ said Cass.
    This evening I got two wooden spoons and tried playing the drums on the sofa cushions. It was pretty easy, really. I was playing along to the songs on Phantom FM when Rachel came in and burst out laughing.
    ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ she said. ‘You do realize that playing the drums isn’t the same as playing a… a couch, don’t you?’ And she started laughing again.
    ‘It won’t be that much different,’ I said.
    ‘Yes it will! You’ve got to use your feet!’
    ‘What? No I don’t!’
    ‘Of course you do! How do you think they play that big bass drum? The big drum facing the audience, with the band logo on it? You have to play it with a foot pedal. Oh my God, I can’t wait to see you try the real thing, it’ll be hilarious.’ And she went off, sniggering. She’s so superior and annoying.

Later
    She does have a point, though. I didn’t know about the feet thing. Perhaps playing the drums is harder than it looks.
Later
    Oh, it can’t be though, look at some of the people who do it.
Friday
    I had an actual conversation with Paperboy! Well, sort of. He looked particularly good this evening. I think he gets better every time I see him. I ran out to answer the door when the bell rang but unfortunately just as I reached the hall I tripped over the straps of Rachel’s stupid bag which of course she had left in the middle of the floor. She is so careless. But I had regained my composure by the time I opened the door. I think. I have a horrible feeling my hair was all over the place. Anyway, Paperboy sort of smiledand said, ‘So, you weren’t in the paper again this week. I thought this was going to be a regular thing.’ I tried to think of something really funny and smart to say so he would go away thinking what a witty, attractive girl I was but all I could think of was ‘um, no, my mum decided to stop embarrassing me for a while.’ And he laughed and said, ‘Good for you,’ and then he asked for the paper money and I gave it to him and he said, ‘Cheers, see you’ and went off, and, to be honest, I was quite relieved because, although of course it is brilliant actually having a conversation with Paperboy, it is also a bit stressful.
    Drums tomorrow!
Saturday
    I HAVE DRUMS!
    Well, not in my actual possession. They’re in Alice’s garage. But they’re mine (for the moment) and I played them and I hate to admit it, but Rachel was right and they are a bit harder than the cushions. But I wasn’t that bad (even Sam said so, so HA! to Rachel).
    Mum and Rachel (she had to come because she knows Sam) and I all went out to Sam’s house at about ten o’clock. Sam was really nice. He is one of Tom’s best friends. The drums were in the dining room and he had left them up so he could tell me what each drum was called and give me a quick lesson while Mum and Rachel had a cup of tea with his parents in the kitchen. So I had my first drumming session, and it was actually pretty hard – I could play a beat for a couple of minutes but then I’d get a bit confused about which of the drums I was meant to be hitting. And the cymbals were quite tricky too. Working the pedal was the hardest, though – every time I concentrated on getting the pedal beat right, I’d forget what I was meant to be doing with my hands.
    But Sam said I’d get the hang of it soon enough. Then he showed me how to take the drum kit apart (you’ve got to unscrew lots of weird little keys and things) and put it back together again (I’m glad he did that because I wouldn’t have been able to do it properly on my own). He even did a little diagram for me! He is quite good looking too (although not as good looking as Paperboy). I asked him if he was looking forward to going to America and hesaid not really because he’ll have to come back next year and do sixth year again (well, sort of again, he’s just started sixth year now), but he’s looking forward to seeing New York (his