Diamond Star Girl (5 page)

But then why were they running? And why so quiet and nervous looking? Ro was up and out before all of us, so I didn’t get to ask her opinion.

The big news of the day so far: first thing this morning I got showered and dressed and bumped into NICK!!! on my way back to the bedroom. He was on his way to wake up the rest of the boys and explained that his dad had dropped him off early. Having flashed my best smile I was so cool with him, said I’d see him later and breezed back into the bedroom only to catch sight of the mirror and the reflection of my smug little head complete with
shower cap still on it
. Only
I
could manage to make
such a complete fool of myself with the guy I have been in love with for two years even before most people in the land are awake. I am
such
an over-achiever!

I am hoping against hope that he found it adorable. No, I am hoping against
all
reason
that he found it adorable.

Our cosy ‘family’ breakfasts are a thing of the past. The place was already milling with dozens of people. I felt as if they’d all invaded my house and it isn’t even my house. By the time I wandered outside I realised there were at least a hundred bodies running around looking either busy or lost. I hadn’t expected so many. The courtyard, driveway and one of the lawns were packed tightly with vans, trucks, cars and caravans. Ro says not to call them caravans, to call them trailers or Winnebagoes. There wasn’t much time to talk to her as she was running around and adults were coming up to her to ask her questions about where to put things. But she did tell me that Bob wasn’t there last night.

Because all of us girls and some of the guys are under sixteen, we need a chaperone for legal reasons, someone to keep watch over us on set. I was worried that it would be a school teacher kind of
person determined not to let us have any fun. The best news is that Miss Higgins has been given the job of chaperone! She told us last night and said that we could look after ourselves and she’d be there if we needed her. We were also warned that if we caused any trouble then she’d have to start to supervise us more closely. Lizzie is doubling as the assistant chaperone and warned us that if we upset her she’ll get Wendy from wardrobe to put us into hideous outfits and make sure we were at the front of each shot.

I went to report to Lizzie as Miss Higgins had told us to, and she pointed out this sort of catering van where people were lining up to get served breakfast. I wasn’t ready to eat, but felt I should. Then another person (I had no idea who anyone was) showed me a parked double-decker bus and said to eat in there. It had little rectangular café-tables inside and bus-type seats and to my relief Paul bounded on and sat beside me to eat.

I wanted to tell him about the two people acting strangely in the courtyard last night, and maybe chat about how different it was with all these people, but he just sat down with his breakfast and opened with, ‘I’m in love with Ro.’

He just out and said it, no lead up, no hints-and-maybes for a couple of weeks, not even, ‘You know your best friend Ro, yeah?’ or anything like that, just ‘I’m in love with Ro.’ I didn’t know how to take it, it was like my brain melted slowly. My brother feeling that way about my best friend!

So I snapped, ‘Well, she’s too busy today to be in love back, so finish your eggs.’

‘Fair enough,’ he shrugged and kept smiling.

I couldn’t believe it, I was so angry. I know she has no clue about all this as she would have told me. If Paul and Ro end up going out with each other then I will be
completely
the outsider, I won’t belong anywhere! I wolfed down the rest of my food, stormed off the dining bus and ran straight into Stephen who was wearing a regency soldier’s uniform. We collided so hard that my glasses bumped against his chin and it looked really sore. I just kept saying ‘sorry’ over and over as I walked away.

Then Gussy and Nick were standing right behind him, also wearing infantry uniforms and Nick laughed and said, ‘Oh look, is that your costume, Lemony? I didn’t know there were geeks in those days.’

By then I was wearing just my usual jeans and
what I thought was a really nice top. The ridiculous thing is that part of me was thrilled that he used my name even though he was insulting me! Everything in my life had unravelled within five minutes. I felt like I’d lost my brother, my best friend and all hope of Nick, all without even trying.

The one time I really needed to be on my own and there were swarms of people everywhere I looked. I tried to escape into the library, but the door to that and the billiards room have been locked and every other room is full of equipment and people.

Eventually Hanna and Sophie (who is thrilled that Hanna is hanging out with her even though Sophie is three years younger) dragged me off to get changed into our dresses and since then we’ve had five hours of doing nothing, waiting to be called on set. Right now I am back in the bedroom where Lorna and Alice are in their costumes and fast asleep, relying on me to wake them whenever we’re needed.

From up here I can see most of the other teenagers rushing around outside. They all seem so happy hanging out and getting to know new people and I just feel so closed down. I felt really beautiful in this lilac dress yesterday and today it just makes me feel like a fraud, an ugly duckling who everyone will
laugh at in her swan’s clothes. I know I’ll look all wrong on set and the director will put me sitting behind a tree or something.

I have to go now as Miss Higgins has just called us to go into hair and make-up.

I’m in a movie and I’m miserable. Life is weird.

It’s now late at night and I’m on the large staircase writing this so I don’t wake anyone up. The day got much better and I stopped being such a misery to be around. I usually don’t wear make-up and it was incredible how they managed to make me look like a real person. The hairdresser and make-up artist, Dipti, made a huge fuss of my hair and spent ages doing a great ‘up’ hairstyle, set off with the hair-ornament, which she says she’ll teach me so I can start doing it myself. My glasses and huge anorak and oldest sneakers kind of ruined the whole effect, but once on set with no glasses and the right shoes I fancied myself as quite presentable. Alice told me that she caught Nick staring at me, and Amber said that the older extras in her ‘clump’ on set were commenting on me and thought I was one of the real actors!

The afternoon was pretty tiring, walking around as if we were in a park on a Sunday afternoon. When they yelled ‘Cut!’ we could stop walking and when they yelled, ‘Places please!’ we had to go back to the beginning to get ready to do it all again. My feet have huge blisters, which the set-nurse has put plasters and ointment on. Wendy was horrified and is finding me new shoes for tomorrow.

Gussy was hugely disappointed that they don’t actually say, ‘Lights, camera, action!’ on a film set after all, but ‘Rolling, speed and action’, instead. He feels a little short-changed by the whole experience especially as they wouldn’t let him ‘have a go of the camera’.

At lunchtime everyone stops and all the extras and crew eat on the two dining buses while the actors eat in their trailers. Alex warned us not to go up to the lead actors or ask for photos or autographs, although he’s having fun hanging out with them himself. I bet he introduces Lorna to them as a way of making her like him. Miss Higgins says, ‘People are people’, which I think means that the people you are with are just as important as film stars.

I saw Ro and Paul talking and it all seems like normal so I’m hoping that his love thing is a
temporary insanity brought about by the wearing of romantic soldier garb.

Today was pretty much identical to yesterday except my feet no longer hurt. Nick looked at me seven-and-a-half times. Paul and Ro are being the same as usual so I’m starting to think that Paul just meant that Ro had done something cool when he said he was in love with her. I mean, anyway, you don’t skip straight to love, there are stages: you have to get the hots for someone, then fancy them, then yearn for them, then realise who they are at a soul level, then and only
then
can you think about calling it love. You have to put some money into it too, buy things to impress them before calling it love. I’m not even sure if I’m joking here.

The extras were ‘wrapped’ (aka finished and sent home) early at around five today, which meant Nick was gone for the evening, and Ro got the night off so she was with the rest of us. Miss Higgins asked us to keep out of the way in the house as the director needed absolute quiet for a scene with two of the leads in the rose garden.

That’s how the eight Grangers ended up in the large sitting room again this evening, which was no longer sheltering adult extras, but still had the big signs that Ro had put on the doors about no tea and coffee and taking off your shoes before entering. Miss Higgins had set up a buffet for us at the far end of the room, and when Stephen locked the door we all felt ourselves heave a huge sigh of relief.

Paul had this idea about turning out the lights and telling ghost stories. The room had a magical feel to it, especially after Stephen found these old silver candlesticks, placed them around the room and lit the candles. Paul told ‘his’ ghost story, which Ro and I have heard a thousand times. Then Alex told a story that he swears is true about a car running on empty because a child needed rescuing from an earthquake in the middle of the night. Lorna and Alice almost told a story between them, but neither
could remember the ending. Gussy told a story about a guy he worked with last summer and it was slightly interesting, but not scary as he forgot it was ghost stories we were telling.

Much to everyone’s surprise Stephen volunteered to go next. He explained that his was a true story and (probably unlike Alex’s one) we could check it out in a book in the library.

‘When The Grange was built three hundred years ago, a young woman came to stay here,’ he began, and it became obvious that he could tell a good story so we settled down to listen. ‘She would spend most of her days reading in the library,’ he continued, ‘and no one paid much attention to her until one day she began to speak in this weird language no one could understand. She acted perfectly normally apart from these strange words, which she didn’t seem to realise she was saying. Her sister came to visit and see if she could help, and she noticed that the young woman was wearing an unusual necklace with a huge diamond and ten smaller diamonds in a circle around it, a necklace that the sister had never seen before. When they tried to take the necklace from the young woman’s throat she went into a frenzy of spitting and cursing and scratching at them. They
called in the local holy-man who did everything in his power, but all that happened was that the clear diamond in the centre of the necklace started to shudder and turn cloudy and dark.’

At this point it was too scary for Alice who said she needed to use the bathroom anyway and got the key from Stephen to leave the room, locking it behind her as she went.

‘Er, we’re locked in now,’ said Ro, and the guys started making horror sounds.

I was desperate to hear the rest of the story and urged Stephen to go on.

‘For ninety days and nights it continued until the young woman suddenly returned to normal, with no recollection of the previous three months, and the diamond turned clear once more. The only thing that she would acknowledge was that she had hidden the diamond necklace for safe keeping, and she said nothing about why the shape of the pendant part of the necklace with the large stone surrounded by ten smaller ones was burned into the palm of her hand. The woman went on marry the heir to the estate and lived to be a hundred years old. During that time people began to believe her claim that if the necklace was ever taken from The Grange then the building
would fall to the ground, like with the ravens in the Tower Of London. On her deathbed she confessed that she herself had buried the diamond necklace somewhere in The Grange to be sure the house would always be safe. Her grand-daughter went to fetch pen and paper so she could draw a map, but when she returned the frail old woman was speaking in the same strange language as years before, talking faster and faster until she could no longer breathe, and she died right there on the spot, and the secret of the cursed necklace was buried with her on the grounds of the estate.’

‘Where on the grounds?’ asked Paul excitedly.

‘I bet she’s buried in the utility room,’ Lorna piped up. ‘There’s a funny smell from there.’

I was too involved in the story to notice until then that Ro was gripping on to Paul’s sleeve really tightly from fear, or from something anyway.

Then Alice returned and insisted we turn the lights back on, closely followed by Ro reminding us we need to get some sleep.

I guess that means me too.

I was so tired today from staying awake to write, and my hoped-for morning nap didn’t happen as they were ready to shoot almost immediately after breakfast. The monotony of doing the same thing over and over was relieved to some extent by chatting with some of the adult extras and Sophie who was also in my group of ‘walkers’ today. Sophie was a bit annoyed that none of the other teens were in our group and also that she has to wear this white sort of cap that children wore in those days while we all get to look more like young adults.

We were all talking about the fact that someone broke into the trailer of one of the lead actors, we think it was Antonia’s, but no one is saying for sure. Apparently nothing was taken, but the police came around to check it out anyway. Gussy thought the police were extras dressed up, not thinking that perhaps their ‘costumes’ might be from the wrong century.

At lunch, Nick was visible from my viewpoint beside Wendy, Lizzie, and Sophie. No one was fooled by my pretending to listen as my focus was on the blonde lady talking to Nick who I suddenly realised was the woman I’d seen in the courtyard that night. When I went to fetch dessert for me and Sophie, Nick was there too and I asked, ‘You know that blonde lady you were talking to, what does she do here?’

And instead of the answer I expect like, ‘Oh, she’s one of the lighting crew,’ or whatever, he started saying, ‘Oh,
jealous
are we?’ and really making fun of me.

For the first time ever I was glad to see Stephen who came over and told Nick he was needed by Lizzy.

I can hear the click of billiard balls, but the door is
locked so I’m guessing he’s hiding out there. I didn’t mean to insult him, I just wanted him to swap partners.

Earlier, just after we wrapped, Lizzy told us that for the next few days of ballroom scenes she was pairing us up with each other. She automatically put Lorna with Alex, much to his delight, Alice and Paul were cool with being put together, and then she told me that Stephen would be my partner, which makes sense because of the height thing. Sophie almost cried because she isn’t considered old enough to dance in the scenes and has to sit with two old lady extras. When Bonnie found out she’d be paired with Nick she came rushing over to me saying she’d be happy to switch. Nick doesn’t know yet as he’d gone home by the time Lizzy made the announcement. Lizzy said the switch was fine as long as Nick was the same height as me or taller and if Stephen didn’t mind, but he’d wandered off by then so I had to go find him.

I figured Stephen couldn’t possibly have a problem with it as Bonnie is way more fabulous than me, and her peach dress looks like a red-carpet thumbs-up after what Wendy did with it. With this all making perfect sense to me I took myself off to ask Stephen
to be Bonnie’s partner for the next few days instead of mine.

I thought maybe I hadn’t made myself clear as he just stared at me, so I began to talk through it again when he stopped me and said, ‘I got it the first time,’ and stalked off, no doubt to ask his dad for the keys to the billiards room. I’ll just hang out here and explain the background history (or lack of) between me and Nick, although he must be the only person on set, or in this town even, who is not yet aware of the fact.

I was sitting on the stairs writing when Stephen stormed out of the billiards room, and as soon as he saw me he marched into his dad’s office and came out with two sheets of paper. He sat down on the step above mine and handed me the paper.

‘I’d like you to do something for me, Lemony,’ he said. His voice was steady, but kind of strained. ‘I know you like writing. I’d like you to write down everything I’ve ever done wrong to make you hate me so much. I’ve been trying to work it out, but as far as I can tell I’ve only ever been nice to you and helpful, so I need you to put it on paper for me. I may not be
able to joke about and dance around the way your brother and the other guys can, but I don’t think that’s reason enough to get all snappy with me and pull away every time I walk into a room. I don’t understand and I like to understand things so please do me this one favour and I promise I will stay far away from you for the rest of the summer.’

I felt completely stunned so I just took the paper from him and as he walked off, I blurted, ‘It’s just that you speak Chinese and picked the onion bits out of the quiche.’

He looked really angry with me although his voice was still calm as he said, ‘I can’t help speaking Chinese and I get severely embarrassed when my dad shows it off like I’m some prize pig, sometimes to the point of merely being able to sit there and grin like an idiot. And I’m
so
allergic to eating onions that my face and hands turn red and blow up like a puffer-fish, so I was either in a position of offending your mum’s cooking or ending up in a hospital or a freak show. Lemony, I know I don’t exactly fit in sometimes, it’s just that I don’t have any brothers or sisters, and at school I’m working so hard to keep my scholarship that I don’t have time to hang out and party like Alex. I really hope that Chinese and
onions aren’t my only crimes.’

I might have seen the beginnings of smile but I couldn’t be sure.

And he was gone.

I know he’s been really annoying me, but I didn’t think it showed. If I’m honest it’s that he reminds me of myself so much and I don’t really like being me. I sat there for about five minutes feeling sort of sick and hating myself, especially since his chin had been all bruised from where my glasses hit against him yesterday. When other people are mean to someone I’m always the first to stick up for them and now I realise that
I’ve
been the horrible one.

I went back upstairs to the attic and Lorna was still awake. She’s not a girl to pull her punches so I asked, ‘What do you think of Stephen?’

‘Stephen? Why? He’s cool.’ Lorna is not as fluent in girl-talk as the rest of us.

I was hoping she’d say he was really annoying or geeky or something so I’d feel better, but instead she said, ‘He’s much more mature than the rest of them, and more intelligent.’ By then she was on a roll. ‘He always notices other people and how they’re feeling, like yesterday he went and gave your cousin Sophie a hug because he could tell she was hating having to
do the scene over and over and feeling left out when we were laughing about that time with Dairne at the café.’

‘Who are we talking about?’ Alice was now awake.

‘Stephen,’ Lorna said, ‘Lemony wants to know what I think of him.’

‘Just because I don’t really know him as much as I know everyone else,’ I said way too quickly.

‘Stephen?’ Ro now joined in.

‘Lemony wants to know him better,’ Alice explained.

‘Is that so?’

‘Forget it!’ I said, ‘Goodnight.’

Now they all think I have gone off Nick and am into Stephen, which is not true, but is a lot less embarrassing than the truth.