Читать книгу And the Rainbow Hearts - Lisa Clark - Страница 7

So far, so not so good.

I am not yet able to even tick the first thing off on my Tom Tootie Time to-do list.

This is a sad, sad state of affairs.

It should be simple. Gather gal-pals, form a band. Tick off list. Move on to item number two. At no point was item one ever meant to be difficult. In fact, like I said, it should be stupidly simple.

Well, not if you’re Lola Love apparently. Because if she of the pink-tinted disposition, she being me, obviously, thought getting Bell on board was tough, well I hadn’t reckoned on the curveball that is Angel.

Now Angel, by her own omission, is an attention-demanding diva. It’s actual real-life factuality. She’ll happily tell anyone who’ll listen how fabulous she is. Not in a big-headed way, just in a ‘I’m completely cool with who I am’ way. And if they’re not listening, she’ll shout a li’l louder until they do. When she walks into a room, people look at Angel. Yes, she’s got an afro the size of my house, and yes, she wears outfits straight out the pages of high-end fashion magazines, but it’s not just that. It’s the fact that she can demand attention without saying a world, that, mes amies, is star quality and that makes her pretty dang awesome, right?

Wrong.

Well it does, except for when she uses all that head-swishin’ ‘tude of hers to tell you that her Tambourine Queen performance was strictly a one-off and it was not something she planned to repeat in the foreseeable future.

“No way, Lo,” she said. ‘I don’t do rock.”

I really hadn’t seen that coming. I thought Angel would be as excited as me about being in a band. We’ve always wanted to do the same things together, always. We always wore the same matching jumper and long knee-high socks in our first year at school together. We both ate marmalade sandwiches by eating the crusts off first. We both think spending an entire weekend watching My Super Sweet Sixteen in our pjs is a doable option. We have always always always liked the same things. Well, except for now that is, and if I’m honest, I didn’t like how it was making my belly feel.

I persevered because, c’mon, this is Angel we’re talking about, of course she wanted to be in a band really, who didn’t? But so talented in the field of head-swishing is Angel, that she is even able to do it over the phone.

“But Angel,” I had pleaded, when I rang her up for the fifth time to try to persuade her, “if, I mean, when we win, we’ll get to meet Tom Tootie, it’ll be ah-mazing!”

“Tom who?” she replied nonchalantly.

The funniest thing is, she wasn’t even being funny.

What Angel may have in fashion know-how, she totally lacks in music 101.

“Tom Tootie, y’know from the band The Tootie? Hence the name and all…”

The line went silent for nearly an entire minute as she searched the million really important fashion designers and brand names that filled her pretty little head. “Nope, never heard of them.”

Seriously, what do they teach these people at boarding school? Angel’s parental is paying big bucks for her to be there. I wonder how he’d feel if he knew his only daughter was missing out on a hugely significant part of her cultural teen experience by not knowing who Tom Tootie is? It should be against the law, it really, really should.

Okay, so if the promise of meeting Tom Tootie wasn’t enough to make her join the band, I had one last trick up my rather cute pink cardi sleeve. If this didn’t work then nothing would.

“You can totally be centre stage!” There. I said it. I couldn’t have delivered the line any better than if I was Audrey Hepburn herself in the movie Roman Holiday.

“I could? Even though I’d just be shaking a tambourine?” It seemed to work, as Angel’s tone had changed from total indifference to one of slight perky interest.

Of course, I had not run this whole ‘centre stage’ business past Bella yet, but surely, she wouldn’t mind, would she? She’s all about the music. If all the attention is on Angel, she can concentrate on delivering a kick-ass performance. And she’ll have a guitar solo. A really long one that will show any potential record makin’ dude or dudess that she is indeed the best guitar playin’ girl they will ever see.

I was beyond certain that I could win Bella over, and right at that moment, I wanted more than anything for my BFF to be in my band and putting her centre stage would make that happen, I just know it.

“Yes, yes, yes!” I say not thinking about Bell’s response right now. “What’s not to love about a tam-tam playing fashionista?” I tell her. “It would be a total unique selling point, for sure! C’mon Angel-cakes, whadya say?”

“I don’t know Lo, I really don’t think being in a band is…y’know, really my thing.”

I sigh. What’s it going to take to make it her ‘thing’? “What if you were in charge of wardrobe design too?”

It’s all I had left, and while I may be stepping on Sadie’s super-cute tippy-toes, what with her being the customising design-o girl of the group, I just knew that she’d be okay if it meant we got a band together and got that much sought after Tom Tootie Time.

“Okay Lo-Lo, I’m in! I’m back at the weekend—get the girls together, we’re going shopping!”

Hurrah.

Form a band

Me, Angel, Bella and Sadie