photographers and journalists milling around outside the front steps.
Seriously, how do I have all this attention and yet NO ONE IS SUBSCRIBING TO MY VLOG?
Matthew organised a driver to pick me up from the side entrance, but the reporters weren’t fooled. Thanks to the constant flow of celebrities and high-profile guests staying at the Royale all year round, the paparazzi know the hotel layout pretty well and they’ve learned all our tricks. Some of them were covering the side entrance and as soon as I stepped out into the street towards the car, we were bombarded with questions and camera lenses.
‘Flick, why did you attack Nancy Rose?’
‘Do you have any comments about the incident?’
‘Flick, how do you feel about her comment this morning that you aren’t worthy of being the heiress to Hotel Royale?’
‘Flick, do you consider yourself a diva?’
‘Flick, did you attack Nancy Rose for attention?’
‘Would you describe yourself as a wild child?’
Mum slammed the door firmly behind me as I scrambled into the back seat and the driver, Peter, put his foot down. I let out a long sigh and buried my head in my hands as we pulled away. When I looked up I could see Peter glancing at me with concern in the rear-view mirror. Sky once told me never to listen to the questions and rumours that the reporters yell at you; she said they’re just looking for a reaction they can play on. But one question was still ringing through my ears as we arrived at the school gates.
‘Flick, how do you feel about her comment this morning that you aren’t worthy of being the heiress to Hotel Royale? ’
‘That’s ridiculous,’ Cal said, after I found him waiting by my locker with Grace and Olly, and had filled them all in about Nancy Rose’s new declaration. ‘Of course you’re worthy of being the heiress to Hotel Royale.’
‘What does that even mean anyway?’ Olly added, rolling his eyes.
‘It means that respected heiresses shouldn’t be horrible brats and attack journalists. Not that I did,’ I replied, opening my locker.
I yelped as all my books came exploding out at me, scattering across the floor.
‘When are you going to tidy your locker?’ Olly laughed as the three of them bent down to help me pick everything up. ‘This happens every day.’
‘This does not happen every day,’ I protested. Olly and Cal shared a smirk as Grace helped me battle my books back into my locker and slam the door shut before they could fall out again.
Since the events of last term, I’d been hanging out with Grace, her brother Olly, and Cal a lot more and we’d become a sort of oddball friendship group. I’d only got to know Grace and Olly last year, but Cal I’d known forever. We used to be best friends when we were little and got into loads of trouble around the hotel, but then he turned into a big nerd who always wore headphones round his neck like they were an accessory and only talked about things like books and Star Trek, so, in his words, I had swiftly ‘dropped him like a hot potato’.
Which is such a nerd way to put it. No one uses the phrase ‘hot potato’ any more.
Anyway, the three of them were very low maintenance compared to Ella, who I had a big fall out with last term.
It was nice having friends who weren’t using you for popularity points or free backstage passes. The more I thought about it, the less I could remember why Ella and I had been friends in the first place. It’s not like we ever had real fun or laughed together until our stomachs ached (this happens with Grace on an almost daily basis. Her teacher impressions are second to none). Ella had loved complaining about everything, making snide remarks about other people in our year, and only really cared about looking like she was having fun rather than actually having any. We spent our whole time making sure everyone knew we were the elite of the school.
Then, last term, she saw me waiting tables at the hotel and spread all these rumours about me, saying that I had been lying all the time about hanging out with celebrities and being best friends with Skylar Chase.
Which was only partly true. Technically I had told a couple of white lies about the people I’d hung out with at the hotel BUT becoming friends with Sky was a hundred per cent true. Anyway, Grace told her off for saying mean things about me to everyone and then Grace’s brother Olly broke up with Ella because she wasn’t being very nice and also because she kept pulling out his arm hair when she fawned all over him.
Ella totally blames me for both those things and never talks to me now. I tried to make amends at Christmas, before the start of the new term, but she wasn’t interested. She takes every chance she can to throw me a dirty look and then say something under her breath to whichever one of her adoring minions is standing next to her. You’d think she’d cut me some slack considering the number of outfits I’ve let her borrow over the years.
‘You don’t really listen to anything Nancy Rose says, do you?’ Cal asked. ‘She’s just annoyed with you because you attacked her. It will blow over and she’ll find someone else to torture.’
‘Just to reiterate, I did NOT attack her. She took Fritz’s bag and then I simply reminded her that it didn’t belong to her. She’s blown this whole thing out of proportion and made me sound like a diva. Which I’m absolutely not, as you know!’
I turned to the others for reassurance. None of them were looking me in the eye.
‘I’m not a diva,’ I said, in case they hadn’t heard the first time. ‘As you know. Right?’
‘Sure. Right.’ Olly nodded.
‘Absolutely not,’ Grace said.
‘So down to earth,’ Cal added seriously.
And then the three of them started sniggering. WHO ARE THESE TRAITORS I CALL MY FRIENDS?
‘Hey! I’m not a diva!’ I cried in exasperation.
‘Although up until recently you did have that diva strut going on.’ Cal grinned. ‘And there was that time you demanded the Hotel Royale chef make Fritz a three-tiered caked for his half birthday . . .’
‘I wanted Fritz to feel special!’ I protested. ‘And I did not demand it. I asked Chef Kian if he had time to —’
‘And the time she refused to walk to the shop, and made Peter drive her,’ Olly pointed out, nodding along with Cal.
‘OK, that is so NOT what happened. It was raining that day and Peter offered to drive me when he saw me setting off with all my bags and —’
‘Don’t forget the time she made us microwave her ice cream,’ Grace chimed in gleefully.
‘That ice cream was FREEZING!’ I crossed my arms grumpily. ‘I can’t believe this. I’m having the worst time because of Nancy Rose and now my own friends are attacking me for —’
Cal held up his hands, interrupting me. ‘Flick, calm down, we’re messing with you!’
‘Of course we know you’re not a diva!’ Grace giggled.
Just as I opened my mouth to speak, someone bumped my shoulder from behind, making me stumble forwards into Cal who had to steady me. I turned round to see Ella smirking.
‘Sorry, Flick,’ she said, not sounding sorry at all. ‘Didn’t see you there.’
‘No problem,’ I said through gritted teeth.
‘I really enjoyed Nancy Rose’s new vlog.’
‘Move along, Ella,’ Olly said quickly, looking at her in disgust.
Ella blushed, the harsh words from her ex-boyfriend