Free Rebecca's Rules by Anna Carey

difference. I still miss him. I don’t care about other boys. I can’t believe Rachel thinks I’m so shallow.
    ‘I bet if Tom went off to Canada, you wouldn’t run off with the first boy who … who tripped over your paint pot!’ I said.
    Rachel sighed in an annoying, grown-up way.
    ‘No,’ she said. ‘But after a while … well, you know, people break up and go out with other people all the time …’
    Just hearing her say that about breaking up made me want to burst into tears. But I didn’t. I just sniffed.
    ‘We haven’t broken up,’ I said.
    ‘Oh,’ said Rachel. ‘Okay. Anyway, I’m going to ring Tom. Can you keep the noise down?’
    ‘No,’ I said, childishly.
    Rachel sighed again. ‘Well, try.’ And off she went. I felt rotten. I know that me and Paperboy haven’t broken up, but are you really going out with someone who hasn’t bothered to contact you in weeks and weeks? I don’t know if you are.
    Anyway, I can’t think about it now. I must practise my song again. And if it disturbs Rachel’s conversation with her precious Tom, then GOOD.
LATER
    I told Mum about the musical and she was surprisingly encouraging about it for someone whose usual mission seems to be to destroy all my hopes and dreams. And listen to this: she told me that she was not only in the college drama society, but in third year she was also in the musical society, and so was Dad! In fact, they did a musical together! I knew thetheatre was in my blood.
    ‘It was a lot of fun,’ she said. ‘We did
The Pirates of Penzance.
I must dig out the photos.’
    The last thing I would normally want to see is a load of pictures of my parents poncing about in tights, but now I am planning to be a musical star I need all the background information I can get.
    ‘Did you have a proper part?’ I asked.
    ‘Well yeah,’ said Mum. It turns out she was the Pirate King, which is the biggest part of all! I asked why a girl was playing the Pirate King and she said they were a very open-minded musical society.
    ‘A group of us women said it wasn’t fair that the men always got all the best parts and the girls just had to stand around being soppy, so they decided to open it up a bit,’ she said fondly. ‘It was great fun. I got to swing around the stage on a rope.’
    I wanted to find out more about Mum’s youthful stardom but I have to practise a bit more first. Still, now it looks like she will be able to give me lots of advice on becoming a musical star. Who knew my mother could actually have a positive effect on my life? I didn’t think this was possible.
    Still no mail from you-know-who. But I don’t really have time to worry about it. I need to do more practising now.
FRIDAY
    I don’t believe it. I do NOT believe it. I already knew the world wasn’t fair, but now I have proof. The cast was announced today. And there is truly no justice in the universe because I still can’t believe who got the lead role.
    I was feeling quite optimistic before the auditions at lunchtime yesterday. Everyone who wanted to sing and dance on stage had to go to the school hall and everyone who wanted to work backstage went to language lab. So I headed off to the hall with Jessie and Alice (she has decided to try for the chorus too, which makes sense because, to be honest, she can sing better than I can) while Cass and Ellie went to offer their services designing sets and costumes and whatnot. You had to write your name on a list when you came in so we did that and then took a seat to wait for our names to be called.
    I was kind of surprised by who was there. Karen and Alison, for example. Maybe falling in love with a fairytale prince(called Bernard) has transformed Karen in all sorts of ways. And Vanessa was there, looking as smug as ever.
    ‘Wow, nothing can stop her,’ said Jessie. ‘Not even being pushed over by a pony. She’s like an old-fashioned diva. Or an evil robot.’
    ‘Maybe going to that music, dance and whatever class has gone to