Hannah in the Spotlight by Natasha Mac a'Bháird Read Free Book Online

with Emma. I knew it was one of the things she missed during the summer holidays – not because of singing ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ five hundred times in a row, but because afterwards the adults got to have a cup of tea and a chat while the babies crawled around and played with the tambourines and xylophones and bells.
    Mum liked meeting up with the other parents, but she couldn’t very well drag Maisie, Bobby and Zach along, so she usually just gave it a miss when we weren’t in school. This time though, I’d tell her she should go. And there was something in it for me as well – if I’d minded the others all morning, surely she wouldn’t mind if I spent the afternoon at the club meeting at Meg’s.

    Mum was all in favour of the plan, so the next morning she and Emma headed off to Tiny Tunes. I rounded up Maisie, Bobby and Zach for our library trip. Actually, that makes it sound a lot easier than it was.
    First of all Maisie couldn’t find her shoes, and instead of looking properly for them she trailed around the house, as if expecting them to pop out from somewhere. Next Bobby couldn’t find the library books he wanted to return.
    ‘Where did you have them last?’ I asked patiently.
    ‘I don’t know,’ Bobby said. ‘I think Zach borrowed them.’
    ‘No I didn’t!’ Zach said. ‘I wouldn’t read your babyish old books anyway.’
    It was about to turn into a full-blown row, so I sent them into separate rooms to search there, while I started a search of my own. I found Maisie’s shoes (in the laundry basket) and Bobby’s library books (one underneatha cushion on the couch, and the other, surprise surprise, right in plain view on Zach’s locker).
    At long last we were ready. The walk to the library took us approximately one-tenth of the time it took us to actually leave the house. I quickly got Maisie settled down with some crayons and colouring pages and sent Zach off to explore the science section and Bobby to pick out a new novel. I sat down with Ballet Shoes and started reading.
    I soon found myself totally lost in the story. I loved all three of the Fossil girls, and as I was reading I was picturing how they should be played on stage. Petrova is so independent-minded and way more interested in cars than in anything to do with the theatre. Posy has this amazing self-confidence and her only focus in life is her ballet. Pauline has all the sense of responsibility of being the oldest and she is also the one who is head over heels in love with the theatre and wants to learn all she can about being on the stage.
    They were all such great characters, but there was no doubt in my mind which one I wanted to play. From the very first time I read Ballet Shoes (and this, I reckoned, would be my seventh time to read it) I had identified with Pauline.
    Our lives were worlds apart. There was Pauline living in London, nearly a century ago and attending a professionaltheatre school. And here was I in this small Irish suburb, not even able to go to drama camp and just planning a little show with my friends. But our dreams were the same – filled with bright lights and sweeping curtains and the thrill of stepping on to a stage.
    I really hoped no one else would want to be Pauline. Ruby would be Posy, of course, that was obvious. Either Meg or Laura would be great as Petrova – but what if one of them would prefer to be Pauline? As I imagined what it would be like to have to watch someone else playing the part I wanted so much I almost felt like crying. We were a team, of course we were, and we’d have to agree on it together – I knew I couldn’t go making demands or this club was never going to work out. I just had to hope no one else would want the part as much as I did.
    I was so totally absorbed in my thoughts that I’d pretty much forgotten where I was until a shadow fell across my book.
    ‘Some babysitter you are!’
    Standing over me was my arch-enemy – the horrible Tracey Dunne. ‘You shouldn’t