Jean Ure - Star Quality

“Hey!” Tiffany suddenly leaned across and prodded me. “Maddy! Why was it again that you didn’t come here at eleven, same as most of us?”

It was the second time she’d asked me. The first time I hadn’t lowered myself to reply. I hadn’t liked the way she’d asked the question! All superior, like anyone that was any good would have joined the school ages ago. What business was it of hers why I hadn’t come when I was eleven? Now here she was, at it again, poking me, hoping to hear that I’d initially been turned down and had had to reapply.

You can tell with some people that they just want to score a point. I knew why she wanted to score a point. We’d hardly gathered for registration before Mei had recognised me and squeaked, “Oh! You’re Sean O’Brien’s sister! I saw your photo in a dance magazine!”

“Not just me,” I said, hurriedly.

It had been all of us. Mum, Dad, me, Sean. Even Jen, who wasn’t dancing any more. Ballet’s Royal Family was what it had said. It had made me want to cringe. Caitlyn, needless to say, had been triumphant. She’d laughed and said, “Royal family … I told you so!”

I wished Mei hadn’t seen it. I hadn’t asked to be photographed. It’s incredibly embarrassing when you’re doing your best to be just another dance student and no different from anybody else. It hadn’t bothered me at school when my friends had gone round boasting to everyone that “Maddy’s family is famous! ” They weren’t actually famous, except in the ballet world, and no one at school had been particularly impressed. Being a ballet dancer isn’t exactly the same as being a pop star. But now I was with people for whom ballet was the most important thing in the whole world. The last thing I wanted was to be singled out. I didn’t mind them knowing who my mum and dad were, or that Sean was my brother. It wasn’t like I was trying to keep it a secret. I couldn’t have done, anyway. Almost everyone already knew. The dance world is quite small and Mei wouldn’t be the only one who’d seen the photograph. But drawing attention to it had obviously got right up Tiffany’s nose! And now she was getting right up mine. Was I the one who’d mentioned my family?

“I’d have thought,” said Tiffany, dipping her spoon into her yoghurt pot, “that you wouldn’t have wanted to waste any time. Personally I couldn’t wait to get here!”

“Me neither.” Amber nodded, eagerly. “I knew I wanted to come here right from the very beginning.”

“Maddy knew from the very beginning that she was going to come,” said Roz.

“So why didn’t she?”

“What d’you mean, why didn’t she? She has. She is . Isn’t she?”

Roz stared round as if to say, or am I seeing things?

“She is now, ” said Amber.

“You surely must have been ready for it?” Tiffany was leaning forward again. A clump of yoghurt went splodging on to the table. “Oops!” She scooped it up and put it into her mouth. “I mean, it would be rather odd if you weren’t.”

I seethed, inwardly. I’d told Mum this would happen!

“I could have come earlier if I’d wanted,” I said. I probably could have, if I’d nagged hard enough. It had just never occurred to me. I’d always been quite happy to wait till I was thirteen. Until now.

A wave of doubt suddenly engulfed me. Could it mean that Mum was right? That it wasn’t until starting to teach Caitlyn that I’d developed a proper sense of commitment?

“You honestly didn’t want to?” said Tiffany. She and Amber exchanged glances. They shook their heads. Unbelievable!

“You probably didn’t need to come earlier, did you?” said Mei. “Not if you had your mum to teach you.”

“Yes, cos Maddy’s mum,” said Roz, “she’s f—”

“Yeah, yeah!” Tiffany rocked back on her chair. “We all know who her mum is. And her dad. And her brother.”

“This is what I’m saying,” said Roz. “Maddy could have come here any time. But when you’ve got one of the best teachers in the world …”

I cringed. Mum is one of the best teachers. Roz was trying so hard to be loyal! But she was just making matters worse. And now Caitlyn was chipping in, as well.

“If anyone wasn’t ready,” she said, “it was me.”

“Oh?” Tiffany’s gaze immediately switched direction. “Why’s that?”

“Cos I didn’t even start learning till I was eleven.”

“You didn’t start learning ?” Amber’s gaze had also switched direction. It was like Caitlyn was some kind of creature from outer space, the way they were studying her.

Mei said, “That’s amazing! You must have loads of natural talent.”

“She has,” I said.

“But I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you! It’s all thanks to Maddy,” said Caitlyn. “She was the one that believed in me. She gave me my first opportunity! And she was my first teacher.” She giggled. “She was really strict! Not as strict as her mum, but she did used to bully me.”

I said, “What cheek! I never bullied you.”

“You did,” said Caitlyn. “You were always lecturing me, saying how I didn’t have any backbone. And then –” she turned back to the others – “you’ll never guess what?”

“What?”

Everybody, now, was craning forward to listen.

“She made me learn her part for the end-of-term show at our school and right at the very last minute she went and twisted her ankle – pretended to twist her ankle – and said I had to go on instead cos I was her understudy. I’ve never been so terrified in my life. I was, like, shaking in my shoes!”

“Why?” said Tiffany. “What were you terrified of? That’s what being an understudy’s all about.”

“So long as you knew the part,” agreed Amber.

“She knew the part,” I said. “She just wasn’t properly trained. She’d never had a single lesson till I started teaching her. And I’d only been doing it for a couple of months! So going on in my place was incredibly brave, if you ask me.”

“I’ll say,” said Alex, who’d heard the story before. “You wouldn’t have got me doing it!”

“I didn’t want to,” said Caitlyn. “It was only cos of Maddy, bullying me.”

“So what happened?” said Mei.

“What happened,” I said, “was that she gave a totally brilliant performance and Sean saw it and told Mum and Mum said Caitlyn had better let her see what she could do, and as soon as she saw her she said she’d take her on.”

“She gave me this special scholarship,” said Caitlyn. “Cos she knew my mum couldn’t afford lessons.”

“That is so romantic,” breathed Mei. “Like something out of a fairy tale!”

Tiffany said, “Hmm.”

What did she mean, hmm ? What was she implying?

“Mum doesn’t take on just anybody,” I said.

“I’m sure,” purred Tiffany.

“It just helps,” said Amber, “if you know the right people.”

Earnestly Caitlyn said, “Yes, it does! I was just so lucky.”

“It’s the sort of thing,” agreed Roz, “that will go in your biography.”

“Oh,” said Tiffany, “is someone going to do a biography of her?”

“Probably,” said Roz. “When she’s famous. They might even make a movie.”

Tiffany looked at Roz with distaste. Then she looked at Caitlyn and her lip curled. I knew what she was thinking. How could someone so utterly ordinary ever hope to become famous?

It’s true that Caitlyn isn’t striking like Tiffany, with her long limbs and her blond hair. She isn’t especially pretty, like Roz, and she doesn’t have Mei’s daintiness. It’s only when she dances that she really comes alive. Offstage she can seem quite mouse-like and unremarkable. On stage she has what Mum calls star quality. It’s not something that can be taught; you either have it or you don’t. Sean has it, in buckets. By all accounts, Mum also used to have it. I am not sure that Jen did. I hoped that I might. I knew I came across, as they say. Across the footlights, that is. I don’t just fade into the background. But whether I actually had star quality … Mum had never told me that I had. On the other hand, maybe she wouldn’t. She’d never actually told Caitlyn; only said it to Dad one day, when she didn’t realise I was listening.