Free Annabel's Starring Role by Holly Webb Page A

for her. It was time to leave for school, and Annabel was actually looking forward to it. Not only was there a rehearsal that afternoon, but everyone seemed to be getting into a Christmassy mood now that there were only three weeks left until the end of term – even the teachers! OK, this meant that Mr Hatton was having a blitz on “festive vocabulary” in French (Annabel was sick to death of hanging tresse on the sapin de Noël ),but everyone seemed to have lightened up suddenly. Manor Hill was trying to raise enough money to build a swimming pool, which was what the ticket money from the play would be used for, and there was going to be a Christmas Fair on the Saturday after the play, too. Loads of lessons were being borrowed for Fair stuff, and Annabel was all for it.
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    That afternoon’s rehearsal was meant to be a full run-through – the first one. Now that Annabel had almost entirely learnt her words (she only made the odd mistake, and she could generally catch herself and work out what she’d done wrong before Katie had to prompt her) the rehearsals were getting better and better. Not having to look at the script meant that Annabel could concentrate on moving more naturally, and looking at the faces of the people she was talking to, as she would in real life. This was especially good in her scenes with the prince, aka Josh Matthews. Annabel giggled – she was quite happy to look at his face as much as possible…
    When she and Saima got to the hall Ms Loftus was running round like a mother hen, looking panicked, and all the cast were feverishly flicking through their scripts, as this was meant to be a no-books rehearsal, and it seemed to have crept up on everybody. By the time they got to the second half, Ms Loftus was looking a bit calmer, but quite a lot of the cast were developing clever techniques for hiding their scripts up their sleeves and writing their lines on their arms. Annabel was feeling smugly virtuous, and very grateful to Katie and Becky for spending all that time helping her learn her words.
    Not everyone had been so successful. Annabel tried not to look smug as Amy stumbled through her scene with Josh. She obviously hadn’t got a Katie to point out the trick about learning your cues as well as your lines, and she kept mixing up which line went where. Josh was sighing dramatically every time she made a mistake, which was wrong-footing her even more.
    Eventually Ms Loftus called a halt. “Amy, this is a run-through .You ought to know your lines by now. I need you word-perfect for the next rehearsal, you’re letting everyone down. Josh, well done.”
    Josh managed to look modest, long-suffering and very hard-working all at once – it was quite impressive.
    â€œI know I ought to feel sorry for Amy,” Saima purred. “But somehow I just don’t .Strange, isn’t it?” She beamed at Emily and Cara, who were quite obviously eavesdropping, and preparing to carry tales back to Amy. They didn’t have a words problem, they were only being onlookers with the odd line to say here and there.
    Annabel smirked at the pair of them. “Poor Amy. Learning lines is so difficult. I’m sure she just needs to put a bit of effort in and she’ll be fine.”
    They watched as Emily and Cara scuttled off to meet Amy when she came offstage.
    â€œWe shouldn’t stir, should we?” Annabel said in a very serious voice.
    â€œNope,” agreed Saima, grinning.
    Josh followed Amy off the stage and passed close by Saima and Annabel.
    â€œHi Annabel! Did you think that went OK?” He smiled charmingly at her, but practically ignored Saima.
    Annabel flushed slightly pink. “Yes, it was great – you know your lines really well.”
    â€œI’m really enjoying being in this play, are you?” He lounged up against the wall next to them, as though he was settling in for a good chat. “Have you done lots of acting