thing that’s ever made her a tiny bit nicer was Alison finally standing up to her at the Battle of the Bands.’
‘I wish Alison had got together with a fairytale prince instead of Karen,’ said Cass, and we all agreed with her. ‘She deserves it much more. Not that that prince is my type at all.’
‘His name is Bernard,’ said Emma. ‘Alison told me. It’s notreally a very prince-y name, is it?’
‘In fairness,’ said Jessie, ‘he did actually look quite fairytale prince-ish. I mean, he wasn’t my type either. He was really cheesy-looking. But he looked quite, you know. Glamorous.’
‘Karen Rodgers has a glamorous fairytale prince,’ said Cass. ‘And meanwhile poor Alice has a fractured wrist. Life isn’t fair.’
It really isn’t. As yet more proof that they have forgotten how miserable I am, Mum and Dad made me peel about ten million potatoes for dinner tonight. It felt like that many, anyway, but Mum said I was being ridiculous and there were only five potatoes. She also said that when she was a kid she had to help make dinner every single day and that me and Rachel were spoiled rotten in comparison. Dad said that he thought peeling potatoes was fun which was a barefaced lie because it clearly is not. And as I said to him, if it was so much fun then why didn’t he do it tonight? But he said he had essays to correct. Huh.
LATER
I am still writing poetry to deal with my general angst. It is quite cathartic, really. I feel quite proud of myself for rhymingFar away in Vancouver’ with ‘I am forced to hoover’. It shows the contrast between Paperboy’s glamorous exile and my horrible life as a lonely domestic servant.
TUESDAY
I have had an amazing brainwave. I know how me and Cass and Alice can bond again. We’re going to be in a musical. I don’t mean we’re going to, like, start singing in the streets like loons. Or put a musical on ourselves. No, we can be in the school musical!
My great idea came to me this morning in Room 7. It was an English class. Mrs Harrington was going on about some poem or other (luckily she has more or less stopped going on about my mother’s books all the time. I think the novelty of having Rosie Carberry’s daughter in her class has worn off at last, thank God). Anyway, even when she is not being incredibly annoying she is very boring so I was looking off into space and suddenly I realised that I was staring at the class noticeboard. And that’s when I saw the notice about the musical auditions. Obviously I had seen it before as it had been up for weeks, and Jessie and Ellie have been talking about theauditions for a while, but this time it was like a lightbulb went on and I had my brilliant idea. What could be a more perfect way of getting us all to spend proper bonding time together than doing the musical? Apart from, I dunno, going on holiday together, which isn’t very practical in February.
And the thing is, if we try out for the musical we’ll definitely get to do something because it’s just for our year. Every year a different year gets to put on the show (it used to be open to the whole school, but the fifth and sixth years kept getting all the decent parts, which wasn’t very fair, so now they move it around so everyone gets a chance at some stage) and this year it’s the second year’s turn. The school collaborates with St Anthony’s down the road so some BOYS get to take part too, but it was our school’s idea so it’s mostly us. They only get a few boys in to do a couple of the really deep parts and do some heavy lifting.
I hadn’t thought about it much this year because I was so caught up in my woe (and to be honest I would rather have been going to band practice after school than prancing about with my classmates in the school hall). But now there is (a) no band practice for weeks until Alice gets better and (b) I have to try and stop being so miserable all the time. So it seems likethe perfect thing to do. We’d be spending time
‘I wish Alison had got together with a fairytale prince instead of Karen,’ said Cass, and we all agreed with her. ‘She deserves it much more. Not that that prince is my type at all.’
‘His name is Bernard,’ said Emma. ‘Alison told me. It’s notreally a very prince-y name, is it?’
‘In fairness,’ said Jessie, ‘he did actually look quite fairytale prince-ish. I mean, he wasn’t my type either. He was really cheesy-looking. But he looked quite, you know. Glamorous.’
‘Karen Rodgers has a glamorous fairytale prince,’ said Cass. ‘And meanwhile poor Alice has a fractured wrist. Life isn’t fair.’
It really isn’t. As yet more proof that they have forgotten how miserable I am, Mum and Dad made me peel about ten million potatoes for dinner tonight. It felt like that many, anyway, but Mum said I was being ridiculous and there were only five potatoes. She also said that when she was a kid she had to help make dinner every single day and that me and Rachel were spoiled rotten in comparison. Dad said that he thought peeling potatoes was fun which was a barefaced lie because it clearly is not. And as I said to him, if it was so much fun then why didn’t he do it tonight? But he said he had essays to correct. Huh.
LATER
I am still writing poetry to deal with my general angst. It is quite cathartic, really. I feel quite proud of myself for rhymingFar away in Vancouver’ with ‘I am forced to hoover’. It shows the contrast between Paperboy’s glamorous exile and my horrible life as a lonely domestic servant.
TUESDAY
I have had an amazing brainwave. I know how me and Cass and Alice can bond again. We’re going to be in a musical. I don’t mean we’re going to, like, start singing in the streets like loons. Or put a musical on ourselves. No, we can be in the school musical!
My great idea came to me this morning in Room 7. It was an English class. Mrs Harrington was going on about some poem or other (luckily she has more or less stopped going on about my mother’s books all the time. I think the novelty of having Rosie Carberry’s daughter in her class has worn off at last, thank God). Anyway, even when she is not being incredibly annoying she is very boring so I was looking off into space and suddenly I realised that I was staring at the class noticeboard. And that’s when I saw the notice about the musical auditions. Obviously I had seen it before as it had been up for weeks, and Jessie and Ellie have been talking about theauditions for a while, but this time it was like a lightbulb went on and I had my brilliant idea. What could be a more perfect way of getting us all to spend proper bonding time together than doing the musical? Apart from, I dunno, going on holiday together, which isn’t very practical in February.
And the thing is, if we try out for the musical we’ll definitely get to do something because it’s just for our year. Every year a different year gets to put on the show (it used to be open to the whole school, but the fifth and sixth years kept getting all the decent parts, which wasn’t very fair, so now they move it around so everyone gets a chance at some stage) and this year it’s the second year’s turn. The school collaborates with St Anthony’s down the road so some BOYS get to take part too, but it was our school’s idea so it’s mostly us. They only get a few boys in to do a couple of the really deep parts and do some heavy lifting.
I hadn’t thought about it much this year because I was so caught up in my woe (and to be honest I would rather have been going to band practice after school than prancing about with my classmates in the school hall). But now there is (a) no band practice for weeks until Alice gets better and (b) I have to try and stop being so miserable all the time. So it seems likethe perfect thing to do. We’d be spending time
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