Rowan Coleman - Ruby Parker - Hollywood Star

“No, it wouldn’t happen to Jeremy,” Augusto agreed. “Or Miss Grant, but for other actors, younger actors, maybe who were just starting out – well it could mean their career is ended before it even really began.”

“Oh,” I said, eyes wide. “Well, that would be terrible. I mean, you spend all that time working hard on a—” I stopped talking and looked at Augusto. “Like me, you mean?” I asked, feeling sick in the pit of my stomach.

“Don’t worry, Ruby,” Augusto said. “If anyone can turn things around it’s Jeremy and, like you say, it’s only a few comments in one magazine. It might be nothing to worry about at all.” He smiled his big warm smile at me, but I thought about the conversation that Micheal had just had with Jeremy and I didn’t feel very much better.

“I can see by the look on your face that you aren’t really looking forward to my sushi,” Augusto said sympathetically. “Anything else I can whip you up for lunch?”

“A plane ticket home?” I asked him miserably. “I think I’m finished in Hollywood.”

“Don’t be silly,” Augusto told me. “You haven’t even begun yet.”

Suddenly David leapt up and, putting his paws on my shoulder, licked my neck.

“Look, even David’s trying to make you feel better,” Augusto said with a chuckle. “You’re honoured that dog likes you.”

“Either that,” I said, squirming “or he wants to eat me.”

When I went back to tell Mum and Jeremy the sushi was ready, Mum seemed happier and brighter, even though her face was still smudged with tears.

“You’re sure that’s what you want?” Jeremy was asking her as I approached. He had one hand on each shoulder as he looked into her eyes. “Because I want you to know that I think you are utterly perfect exactly the way you are. “

I nearly turned round and walked back out the room to simultaneously die of embarrassment and throw up. But my curiosity won out and I stood my ground. I wanted to know what it was that Mum was absolutely sure about.

“I am,” Mum said with a brave little smile. “And besides, if I am going to be with you, then I have to be prepared for this kind of attention.”

At that point I realised that Jeremy was probably going to kiss my mum in front of me, possibly with tongues and everything. I like to think that I’ve been quite cool about things like my dad’s so-called girlfriend and my mum’s megastar man, but witnessing that would be a step too far.

“A- hem! ” I coughed loudly enough to make the pair Jump apart and had to suppress a smirk. “The raw fish thing is served, but I’m having a cheese toastie because frankly it looks disgusting to me.”

Jeremy and Mum smiled indulgently at me and as we walked back to the kitchen Jeremy patted me on the back and said, “Are you sure, Ruby? It’s good to broaden your horizons, you know, take a chance every now and then.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “And I want to do that, but I don’t want to eat raw fish. Because it’s fish and it’s raw.”

I waited for either one of them to tell me what they had been talking about, but they clearly weren’t going to. “So?” I asked as we sat down at the table and I saw my mum looking rather fondly at my cheese toastie. “What have you two decided?”

“Oh!” Mum said, looking at Jeremy in a secretive way I didn’t like at all, like I was an outsider. “Nothing much. We were just planning what to do after New Year. Jeremy says we’ve got to make the most of our time left here. I am going to a day spa and salon to have a few treatments, get my hair and nails done, that sort of thing…”

“Really?” I said, thinking a few highlights and some false nails might make her feel better. “Good idea. Am I coming too? Can I go blonde, please, Mum? I am nearly fourteen.”

Jeremy smiled. “No, Ruby, you are coming with me. While you were helping Augusto, I phoned Michael. You and I are going into Wide Open Universe Studios. We’re going to watch a screening of The Lost Treasure of King Arthur, and talk about publicity with Art and Imogene and all the studio people.”

“Are we?” I cheered up. “It will be nice to see Imogene again, and Art – but what about Harry?” Harry McLean was Imogene’s leading man, although I never really got to know him very well as he spent a lot of time in his trailer.

“Ah, nooo, I’m afraid not,” Jeremy said, looking down at his sushi. “He’s not very well at the moment. He’s in a special type of hospital getting better.”

“Better from what?” I asked him.

“Well – let’s just say that too much of anything is bad for you, Ruby,” Jeremy told me with a shrug.

“Even sushi?” I asked him, annoyed not only that he wouldn’t tell me, but that he wouldn’t tell me in such a smug way. After all, I’d had plenty of experience with celebrity health problems before. Brett Summers, my old TV mum, was always in and out of clinics because of her intolerance to alcohol, and Imogene Grant had told me herself about the eating disorder that had nearly killed her. And even though she isn’t quite a celebrity yet, even my best friend Nydia had collapsed and banged her head badly because she’d stopped eating to try and make herself thin. I knew what the pressures of fame could do to a person. I didn’t need Jeremy to keep it from me.

“Anyway” Jeremy went on, smiling at me like I was next door’s toddler, “perhaps if there is time we might be able to show you the set of my new film. The actors are all still on break, but you’ll enjoy seeing the sets, won’t you?”

I should have been over the moon. I should have been cart-wheeling in excitement, but nobody, except possibly David, seemed to have noticed how the events of that morning, the column in People’s Choice Magazine and its sly digs at The Lost Treasure of King Arthur, might affect me. All of that, topped off with Jeremy and Mum kissing, and his smug, smiling ways had put me in a sulk.

“Whatever,” I said quite rudely, pushing my plate away so that it skidded across the polished granite surface. “So for the rest of today I can do what I like, right?”

They nodded, Mum with her thin lips pressed together and a “I’ll talk to you later, young lady” look on her face.

“Can I phone Dad then?” I asked.

“Of course you can, Ruby,” Jeremy answered. “Use the phone in your room if you want to be private.”

“I was going to anyway,” I said, knowing I sounded childish, but not quite able to stop myself. “And then I’m going to see if I have any e-mails and I might have a swim after and then I’ll…” I looked around the room for something else to list. “I’ll take David for a walk. I expect I’ll be busy until dinner, so don’t worry about me – if you were going to anyway, which I doubt. Oh, and Happy New Year!”

And then I flounced. I flounced out of the kitchen and up the stairs and (because I was too busy flouncing with my chin in the air) I flounced into the laundry cupboard and slammed its door shut. Hoping they hadn’t realised, I waited for a moment or two and then ran down the hall to where my room really was and slammed that door too for good measure.

It was a horrible way to behave. Rude and, as my mum would no doubt tell me later, very unattractive. But I couldn’t help it. That was the way I felt. I was all churned up and cross, and I suppose a bit jealous and left out, and I didn’t like it.

I found the phone next to the bed and the piece of paper Jeremy had written down the international dialling code on for me and dialled Dad’s number.

It would be evening back at home, so I was certain that Dad would answer. I was wrong.