Hannah in the Spotlight Read Online Free PDF Page B

like that!’
    ‘My mum says it should keep us out of trouble for a bit,’ I joked, trying to lighten the mood. Whatever was going on there was a real tension in the air. Cordelia was still frowning, and Meg wouldn’t look at her. She grabbed her hoodie from the bottom of the stairs and stepped out past her.
    ‘Just … be careful, OK?’ Cordelia said.
    ‘I will,’ Meg said, sighing.
    We walked towards Ruby’s. Neither of us said anything for a minute. All the questions were whirling around in my head once again. Why on earth would Meg’s mum not want her to be in a drama club? She didn’t mind us hanging out together – she certainly didn’t seem like one of those mums who thought you should spend all your holidays visiting relatives or something – so what was the problem with the club? Suddenly I found myself blurting out, ‘Why didn’t youwant your mum to know what we’re doing?’
    ‘It’s … it’s complicated, Hannah,’ Meg said, not looking at me. ‘I can’t really explain it just yet. I will some day, OK?’
    ‘OK,’ I said. I didn’t know what else I could say. I wished Meg would just tell me what was going on.
    Laura was just arriving on her bike when we got to Ruby’s. Laura lives a few streets away, and she’s allowed to cycle over here to meet up with us. I, on the other hand, am not allowed to cycle over to hers because of crossing the main road. Mum says maybe when I start sixth class in September. I’m not sure how that’s going to make it magically safer for me to cross the road, but that’s Mum for you. And it’s not like Laura is any more careful than me – actually, if anything she’s less careful. When she’s got a new idea for a story rattling around in her brain she goes into a world of her own and could quite easily cycle right into the road, thinking she was in the middle of a field in wartime France or something like that. But her mum is a bit more laidback than mine about letting her do things. It’s probably something to do with her being the youngest instead of the oldest like me.
    ‘Great, you guys are early! Come on in!’
    Ruby led the way up to her room, which is the pinkest room in the history of the earth. Everything in it is pink, from the walls to the curtains to the duvet cover, and eventhe tassles on the lampshade. It’s a bit girly for my taste, but it suits Ruby, and it certainly makes the right backdrop to the ballet posters all over her walls.
    We all found somewhere to sit. Meg sank into a beanbag on the floor, and Laura sat beside her on a fluffy cushion (pink, of course). I took the desk chair because it made me feel more official, although I turned it around so that I had my back to the desk and was facing the others. Ruby stretched out on her side on her bed, unselfconsciously lifting one leg as high as she could and holding it there, before gracefully lowering it again. She repeated this a few times, hardly seeming aware of what she was doing. I smiled to myself.
    ‘Right,’ I said, ‘we’re all here, so I hereby call to order the first meeting of … oh. What are we calling ourselves? Maybe that should be the first item on the agenda. Has anyone got any suggestions?’
    ‘How about Woodland Green Drama Club?’ Ruby suggested.
    ‘Or Woodland Green Players,’ said Meg. ‘Drama groups are often called players.’
    I tried to think of a tactful way to say I thought it sounded like a pretty boring name, but thankfully Laura came to my rescue.
    ‘That makes it sound like anyone who lives in Woodland Green can join,’ she pointed out. ‘We don’t want that.Also, you might remember I’m not actually from Woodland Green, so unless you want me to leave and one of your neighbours to join …’
    ‘That’s a good point, actually,’ Meg admitted.
    ‘It’s also a bit too … grown-up,’ I said, managing to find a more diplomatic word than boring. ‘We’re just kids doing this for fun, so we should have a fun name.’
    ‘How about