Rowan Coleman - Ruby Parker - Musical Star

For Lily

Cover Page

Title Page Ruby Parker Musical Star Rowan Goleman

Dedication For Lily

HIYA! BYE-A! HIYA! BYE-A! SHHHH! Confidential SPRING FEVER A GO-GO! We hardly know where to put ourselves in the Hiya! Bye-a! office this week, so excited are we by all the news and gossip that’s been landing on our desks. What could be more thrilling than the dramatic conclusion to Kensington Heights’ character Marcus Ridley’s rollercoaster of a storyline? Actor Danny Harvey must surely be hoping to cash in this award season after a spectacular climax involving an explosion, a train crash and a priceless Ming vase. We don’t give away secrets here in the Confidential column, so you’ll just have to watch the show to see what happens – but it’s pretty incredible. Is Danny leaving the show for good, we hear you cry? Not according to his people, who assure us the talented youngster is just taking a break to concentrate on his schoolwork and some other projects…

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Also by Rowan Coleman

Copyright

About the Publisher

We hardly know where to put ourselves in the Hiya! Bye-a! office this week, so excited are we by all the news and gossip that’s been landing on our desks.

What could be more thrilling than the dramatic conclusion to Kensington Heights’ character Marcus Ridley’s rollercoaster of a storyline? Actor Danny Harveymust surely be hoping to cash in this award season after a spectacular climax involving an explosion, a train crash and a priceless Ming vase. We don’t give away secrets here in the Confidential column, so you’ll just have to watch the show to see what happens – but it’s pretty incredible. Is Danny leaving the show for good, we hear you cry? Not according to his people, who assure us the talented youngster is just taking a break to concentrate on his schoolwork and some other projects…

After Danny’s hit single, is it possible that one of those projects could be the exciting one-off world premiere performance of a new musical by rock legend Mick Caruso?

Mick has been a global household name almost since before rock and roll was invented, and we all know and love classic tracks like Rock Me This Christmas and Rock Generation. Now Mick is putting together a new musical for young people to perform in, in schools and colleges across the land. Spotlight! The Musical.revolves around a hopeful young actress at a tough stage school and features some of the greatest hit songs of his career. Excited? We know we are – but wait there’s more…

The first ever performance of the musical will take place on primetime television in front of millions of viewers. And that’s not all! Televised open auditions for the lead roles and a special schools’ choir competition start around the country next week. If you are under sixteen and a star in the making, or you know anyone who is, then you can find out more about the auditions on

One fledgling star who’s taking UK TV by storm is the lead in the hit US imported show Hollywood High. Hunter Blakeis rumoured to be visiting these isles again in the next few weeks to investigate the possibility of making a film about the young Robin Hood, along with Hollywood golden girl Imogene Grant.We’ll keep you posted on any more details that come to us at Confidential because we know that’s one movie we want to target!

I’m normal now. Ruby Parker, girl – that’s me. Not an audition in sight, not a line to learn or an interview to do, not a single mention in Hiya! Bye-a! for weeks. I haven’t even had any fan mail for over a month. I used to be Ruby Parker, soap star and then for a while I was Ruby Parker, film star. For the briefest moment I was Ruby Parker, Hollywood star – but now I’m none of those things. ’m just Ruby Parker, who goes to an ordinary school and hangs out with ordinary kids.

It did take a bit of getting used to.

When I got back from Hollywood I think I was in shock. I don’t really know what being in shock is, but if it means feeling numb from the inside out, exhausted and frightened all at once, then I was in it. My life had changed completely in the few weeks I was in America and I wasn’t really prepared for how it was going to make me feel. But I decided to leave Sylvia Lighthouse’s Academy for the Performing Arts and give up acting for good, and I meant it. It took a while to persuade mum and dad to support me, and Nydia and Anne-Marie still can’t believe that I decided to come to a new school and leave them behind, but I did it. I gave up my dream because being in Hollywood taught me two things.

First of all it taught me that having a dream isn’t enough to make it come true. Wanting fame and fortune so badly that you feel twisted up inside doesn’t mean you deserve to get it, because you only deserve your dream if you’ve got the talent to make it happen. And secondly it told me about as clearly as possible that I do not have any talent. At least, not nearly enough to deserve my dream.

And that’s why I started at Highgate Comprehensive School three weeks ago, a school that doesn’t even have a drama society, let alone drama lessons. The nearest thing they have to anything theatrical is a choir and I hear even that is terrible. It’s a school where I can feel safe, which is funny really because on my very first day I discovered that someone here is really quite keen to beat me up.

It happened in the first minute of the first hour of my first day. I made mum drop me off round the corner, took a breath and marched the last few metres through the school gate on my own. I thought I was prepared.

I was prepared for the other kids to be a bit curious, to ask me questions about being on the telly and in a movie with famous actors like Imogene Grant or Sean Rivers. I was prepared for the fact that some kids would think I was posh and stuck up because I used to go to Sylvia Lighthouse’s Academy. But I wasn’t prepared for the threats of violence. Yes, that did throw me a bit.

“Are you Ruby Parker?” asked a tall girl, who appeared to be waiting for me.

This is nice, I thought. A welcoming committee. “I am,” I said with a smile, sticking out my hand. “Pleased to meet you!”

“I hate you,” the girl said. Well, more like growled.

I blinked at her. She had a sort of solid-looking body that would probably hurt you if you ran into it. As I was planning to run in the opposite direction, I hoped that wouldn’t be a problem.

“Really?” I asked her, with a grimace. “Was it the film? I know, I was terrible wasn’t I? That’s why I’ve given up acting, I just want to be normal now, like…”