Read Online Phoebe Finds Her Voice by Anne-Marie Conway - Free Book Online Page B

pleased?”
    â€œYeah, I suppose,” I mumbled. “Except that I’ve got to sing by myself, which is like the biggest joke.”
    â€œNo, it isn’t, you’ll be wicked.”
    Neesha came over and helped herself to some of Catharine’s crisps. “I thought for sure I was gonna be Gobstopper but I’m one of the other Jelly-Skulls,” she said, stuffing the crisps in her mouth. “And, oh my God, yeah, have I ever told you about the time when I was actually eating a Gobstopper and I was talking really fast, and I breathed in at the wrong moment and the Gobstopper—”
    Just then Ellie burst into the hall. “Mandy’s really upset!” she cried, interrupting Neesha. “She’s out in the corridor on the phone to Arthur, and she said that if he doesn’t get the hall sorted by next week we won’t be rehearsing here any more.”
    â€œShe’s just bluffing,” said Sam. “Anyway, never mind about the hall, I’ve got a far more serious problem than that. I’m Ice Bomb, the President’s wife, which is like the best part, but it means I’ve got to be married to Adam !”
    She pulled a face as if it was the most awful thing in the world but I knew she was putting it on. She was crazy about Adam.
    â€œThere will be no pulling faces in my factory!” Adam called over, grinning at Sam. “No pulling faces, no laughing, no smiling, no talking, no burping and definitely no breathing.”
    As he was talking, Monty B crept up behind him and burped right into his ear and then for some reason he turned round and burped into mine.
    â€œUrrghh! That is so disgusting,” Polly Carter shrieked. She leaned over and whispered something to some of the other girls, probably something about how stupid my hair looked, and they cracked up.
    â€œDon’t worry, Frankie,” Monty B called over his shoulder. “I promise I won’t burp when we do our kissing scene.”
    I looked at him, horrified. I could feel my face start to burn up. Why was he always doing that? Calling me Frankie and talking to me in front of the others as if we were best friends or something?
    â€œOh my God, I’m not kidding you, yeah, but I so pity anyone who’s got a kissing scene with you, Monty B,” said Neesha, and Polly and her cronies practically fell off the stage laughing.
    We spent the rest of the session reading through the script and learning one of the main songs in the show, Scream! Arthur never turned up at all, Tara Perkins had to go home early because the dust had made her wheezy, and it was actually a huge relief at one o’clock to get out into the fresh air.
    â€œWhy don’t you come over to mine, Phoebs?” said Ellie, rolling up her script and using it as a telescope to try and spot her mum. “Sam’s coming and my mum said you can both stay for tea.”
    â€œOkay. I’ll just ask my dad, hang on a sec.”
    Dad seemed a bit upset. He mumbled something about how he never gets to see me any more, and how he had something important to ask me, but that if I really wanted to go it was okay, he’d tell me later. I could’ve pointed out that he never seems all that bothered about seeing me when he’s got something important on at the centre, like renaming himself for instance, but I just jumped into the car with Ellie and Sam before he could change his mind.
    â€œI know what we could do when we get back to yours, Ellie,” said Sam. “Let’s start making up a dance to Don’t Let the Bed-Bugs Bite and then show it to Mandy next week.”
    â€œOh yeah, I love that one,” said Ellie, peeling a banana and then stuffing a huge piece into her mouth. “It’s like my favourite song in the whole show.”
    Sam screwed up her face. “Oh gross , Ellie! I can see your banana all mushed up in your mouth, it’s disgusting! And we didn’t understand a