Sean said. “But I know Mom would never let me see Dad. The only way I’m going to get the chance to see if he’s changed is if I go to Hollywood and pretend that I want to audition for that part.”
“And try and see your dad in secret?” He nodded.
“But what are you going to do when they offer you the part?” I asked. “It’ll be the biggest news in Hollywood since – well, since you quit acting.”
“I’ll worry about that if it happens,” Sean said, smiling at me, but with none of the usual sparkle. “Right now I have to figure out a way to see my dad once we get there.”
“I can’t help feeling that your plan is nearly as bad as my plan to run away from Hollywood to London in the middle of the night,” I told him.
“Maybe, but it’s the only plan I’ve got,” Sean said ruefully.
“Have you told Anne-Marie?” I tried to imagine what my friend would think about his crazy scheme.
“Nope,” Sean said. “I haven’t told anyone but you, Ruby Parker.”
“Why me?” I asked, feeling pleased and worried at the same time.
Sean smiled at me, and this time there was a real warmth that was difficult to resist. “Because I know I can trust you. And besides, every hero needs a sidekick, right?”
“Oh, so now I’m your sidekick!” I’d said, unable to stop myself smiling back.
“You bet,” Sean said. “And so much more.”
I’d walked back from the park and round to Nydia’s house feeling confused and worried. I was glad Sean had talked to me, but I had seen how mean his dad was to him. I didn’t know if it was a good idea for Sean to try and contact him, especially without his mum knowing. But Sean had trusted me with his secret, me alone, and I knew that as one of his best friends, I would keep that secret and help him in whatever way I could.
But I had the distinct feeling that it wasn’t going to be easy.
teen gril!
Magazine’s
Where has all the talent gone?
We at the TGM! newsdesk can confidently predict that our readers’ celeb-spotting photos page will be empty of your snaps this week. Why? Because all of our favourite stars are flying off to Hollywood in the hopes of winning a role in the movie of Mick Caruso’s hit musical Spotlight!
The brilliant leads for the UK telly hit Nydia Assimin and cute newcomer Gabe Martinez will be hoping they get to play Arial and Sebastian again in the film, but they’d better watch out because they are up against some top competition. Making a comeback AT LAST is our favourite former soap star Ruby Parker, who will also be hoping to score a role in the film, and even more excitingly TGM! can exclusively reveal that former international teen heart-throb Sean Rivers himself has gone with them. We seriously hope that rumour is true because we know that all our TGM! readers would love to see Sean on the big screen again.
Meanwhile, it’s official. Danny Harvey has left Kensington Heights for good. He exclusively told TGM! that he’s decided he wanted to try something new and exciting, and he’s certainly achieved that. TGM! can exclusively reveal that our Danny has landed the part of the young Guy of Gisborne in the new Disney movie The Young Robin Hood. Danny told TGM! that he’s really looking forward to filming this summer and especially to playing a baddy. One thing we at TGM! know is that Danny is going to have to work hard to stay at the tip of our top ten hottest lads poll as the actor playing the title role of Robin Hood is none other than Hollywood High hunk Hunter Blake. Pack a picnic, girls, it looks like Sherwood Forest is going to be the top tourist spot this summer!
“I can’t believe it,” Anne-Marie said, whisking the copy of Teen Girl! Magazine that I’d bought at the airport out of my hands and staring at the article.
“Can’t believe what?” Nydia was sitting between us with her eyes closed. It turned out that Nydia didn’t like flying. None of us had known this because until today Nydia hadn’t flown anywhere. The minute that the plane’s engines had begun to roar in preparation for take-off, she had given a little shriek and closed her eyes. That was about twenty minutes ago.
“I can’t believe it either,” I said, reaching across Nydia and grabbing the magazine back. “Danny and Hunter together on a film? The only two boys I have ever kissed working together all summer! How did that happen?”
“Really?” Nydia opened one eye. “That’s massive.”
“That’s not what I can’t believe,” Anne-Marie said. “I can’t believe they didn’t mention my name once. Not once! Everyone else was: Nydia, you, Gabe, Sean – but not me. Why not? I’m on this plane too. I got good reviews in Spotlight! Why wouldn’t they mention me?”
Nydia opened her other eye and looked at me. “Danny and Hunter are working together? How come this is the first we’ve heard of it?”
“They’ll hang out,” I said miserably. “They’ll be friends. They’ll get to like each other and then they’ll talk about me. They will discuss me.”
“Not a mention,” Anne-Marie said, scanning the article again. “Not even a photo.”
“That’s not true,” Nydia said, sitting up and leaning over. “There you are in that one.”
“Where?” Anne-Marie scrutinised a photo of me and Nydia, grinning like Cheshire cats at the aftershow party of the TV broadcast.
“Look, that’s your elbow, just in the corner there,” Nydia said, winking at me.
Anne-Marie scowled. “Ha ha – very funny. Amazing how you can be so funny when we are thirty thousand feet up in the air in barely more than a flying tin can that could crash to the earth at any moment.”
Nydia shut her eyes again. “I think I might be sick,” she said.
“You’ve got a point though,” I said, shaking my head at Anne-Marie. “Why didn’t we know about The Young Robin Hood? After all, if anyone at the Academy gets a part Sylvia Lighthouse tells everyone. It’s announced in assembly. And they must have cast it ages ago – soon after Danny dropped out of Spotlight! I know he’s not talked to me since that party, but he still hangs out with Sean sometimes, doesn’t he?”
“No, actually.” Anne-Marie glanced a few rows back to where Sean was sitting next to Gabe playing his Nintendo DS. “They haven’t hung out for ages. Danny’s spent more time with Jade than anyone this term, though they aren’t going out together I don’t think.”
“Maybe there was a confidentiality clause,” Nydia said. “Maybe that’s why it wasn’t announced.”
I sighed and looked out of the window at the clouds below. At the aftershow party I’d thought that Danny was on the verge of asking me out again. Even after I told him that basically he was one of the worst singers I had ever heard, and that all the time he thought he had a brilliant voice it was really the Auto-tune Miracle Microphone making him sound good. Even after he had to drop out of the lead role in Spotlight! because of me I thought that maybe he still liked me, because I knew that I still liked him. But then we’d been interrupted and he hadn’t said anything. And I hadn’t heard from him since.
In the last few weeks I’d been busy helping Jeremy Fort (my mum’s boyfriend and legend of film and theatre) find