Rascal the Star Read Online Free PDF

grip.
    The filming wasn’t nearly as exciting as Ellie had thought it would be. There seemed to be endless stops and starts, as the crew tinkered with lights and moved screens here and there to reflect the artificial sunlight around.
    Rascal was bored too. After Ellie had stopped him exploring the garden, he had to sit and wait by the chairs, and every so often he was taken to stand under hot lights. He didn’t have any idea why, and he didn’t like them very much.
    “OK, let’s start filming the rolling-over sequence.” Dan beckoned to Ben, Ellie and Rascal to come and join Lucy underthe lights. “We want him to roll over and over, and then leap up. Right?”
    Ellie nodded, but she was panicking inside. She really wasn’t sure if Rascal could do that, especially when the instructions were coming from Ben and not her. But she didn’t want to say so in case they decided to get Freddie the “trained” dog back, and to take Lucy’s part away from her.
    She watched anxiously as Ben said, “Down, Rascal! Roll over!”

    Rascal simply put his head on one side and stared at Ben curiously.
    The film crew laughed. He was very cute, with his head on one side like that, looking at Ben as if he thought the man was rather strange.
    “Shall I try?” Ellie asked nervously. “He’s not used to other people telling him what to do…”
    Ben looked slightly annoyed, but he nodded, and Ellie grabbed the treats she’d brought with her. “Down! Roll over, Rascal!” She rattled the bag of dog treats temptingly, and Rascal eyed it.
    “Roll over!” Ellie tried to make her voice as encouraging as possible, and Rascal seemed to suddenly remember what he was supposed to do. He lay down, and then flipped over on to his back, wavingall four paws in the air, and wagging his tail at the same time.
    “Good boy!” Ellie told him, wishing she could get a bit closer. But she couldn’t be in the shot with Rascal. “Roll over. Roll over.”

    Rascal did it twice more, as she’d asked, and then he got up, and marched out of shot and determinedly over to Ellie, as if he’d given up waiting, and he’d like his treats now, thank you very much.
    Ellie gave him several out of the packet, and looked up hopefully at Dan. Had that been what they wanted?
    Dan was frowning at the laptop where they were playing back the last shot. “I’m still not totally happy with the light,” he mused. “Oh, and can he do it faster, please?”
    Ellie shook her head. There was really no point pretending. “I’m sorry, it’s not his best trick. I don’t think he can go any faster.”
    Dan sighed. “Well, we’ll do another take, and see if we can improve the light anyway.”
    Eventually, Dan was happy with the shots of Rascal rolling over, and they moved on to Lucy’s “mum” putting down a bowl of delicious Barkers food. She cooed delightedly at Rascal while she did it, as though she thought he was gorgeous. Ellie was impressed – she was obviously a very good actress.
    Rascal was supposed to wolf the food down eagerly, and this was the one part of the ad that Ellie hadn’t worried about. Rascal ate everything, all the time. Even things that weren’t food.
    So when the actress put down the big bowl of Barkers, Ellie wasn’t expecting Rascal to look thoughtfully at it, and then lie down as though he were planning a nap.
    Everyone was rather surprised, and they did it all over again.
    Rascal walked off set, looking bored.
    “Yummy food, Rascal!” Ellie hissed. It was no good. She didn’t know if Rascal just wasn’t hungry after all the dog treats, but there was no way he was going to eat the dog food.
    Ellie giggled nervously as he did it a third time. It was quite funny that the whole ad was meant to show how delicious Barkers was for growing dogs, and Rascal clearly didn’t like it at all! “Um, I don’t think he likes it,” she told Dan apologetically.
    “This is ridiculous!” snapped a man in a suit, who’d been standing behind the