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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, evenmy 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.
    It was Dad’s so-called girlfriend who answered.
    From: Danny[[email protected]]
    To: Ruby [[email protected]]
    Subject: Re: Hello
    Hi Ruby
    How is it going over there? Sorry I haven’t e-mailed sooner I’ve been really busy with the new family that have just started on Kensington Heights because I have a lot of scenes with the daughter, a girl our age called melody Butler. She’s playing a character called Lacey St Claire. I spent Christmas Day at my dad’s this year which was quite a laugh as my little brother is still really into it and nearly had a heart attack when he saw Dad had got him a bike! And then I spent Boxing Day at my mum’s which was DK. I got some good presents. Rn mp3 player [but not an iPod], some trainers and, wait for it…R Christmas number one! I know it’s amazing, isn’t it? I can’t believe that Liz finally talked me into recording that awful song, but anyway now Kensington Heights [Vou take me to…] is ahit and it was only released the week before Christmas! I don’t know what they did to my awful voice, but it sounds all right and loads of