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went to loads of trouble to learn all my lines, and I learned all Aunt March’s and Hannah’s lines, just in case… But Susie Perkins. Susie Perkins! I yanked the script out of my bag to see how many lines Susie Perkins had actually got. Then I rammed it straight back in again because I decided I didn’t care. I knew it was a pathetic little part and there was no way I was going to settle for that. In fact I didn’t want anything more to do with the whole stupid play. Cara Ravenscroft could go and stuff herself and so could Miss Pritchard. More subtle and refined, indeed!
    I crashed through the Hazeldean front door and went to find Mia. I expected her to be in one of the practice rooms but she wasn’t, and it made me even madder that I had to walk all round the stupid boarding house looking for her. Eventually I realized she must be in the dorm. My legs ached by the time I’d climbed the steps to the third floor, where our dorm is, and I felt too angry to speak to anyone. I shoved open the door and scarcely looked to left or right, just catching glimpses of Mia, Grace and Jess at their desks. Then I climbed up to my bed and flopped onto it, closing my eyes.
    For a few seconds there wasn’t a sound and I suddenly thought that maybe I’d imagined seeing Mia and the other two. Perhaps I was so mad with anger that I’d turned properly mad and I was seeing ghosts. But a second later Mia coughed.
    â€œOh dear…Georgie…” she said softly.
    Mia knows me better than anyone and she was able to see instantly that something was badly wrong.
    â€œWh…what…exactly…happened?” Grace asked in the same quiet voice.
    I sat up like a jack-in-the-box and felt my rage bubbling up all over again. “I’ll tell you what happened. What happened was that Cara was always going to get whatever role she went for because Miss Pritchard thinks she’s God’s gift to acting, just like everyone else in her fan club does. And loads of people didn’t speak up or use enough expression or anything. But I was told that I was speaking too loudly because it turns out that the stage in the stupid theatre is amplified and if I’d known that then obviously I wouldn’t have done it so loudly. And when I said that to the big Oscar-winning Cara Ravenscroft afterwards, she just said, ‘It’s not a pantomime, you know!’ And I honestly wish I hadn’t spent so long learning all those lines. The whole thing’s just so totally unfair and I don’t want any more to do with it. The end!”
    There was another silence, except that we could probably all still hear those last two words of mine hanging in the air. They sounded stupid. I wish I hadn’t said them. But I didn’t regret anything else I’d said.
    I flopped back down again and the next minute Mia was sitting beside me. “Oh, poor, poor Georgie! That was really cruel of Cara to say that.”
    I looked at the wall because I didn’t feel like seeing Mia’s sympathetic eyes. I knew it’d make me too sad.
    â€œBut did Miss Pritchard actually say that Cara had definitely got the part?” asked Jess.
    â€œNo, but it’s obvious she has.”
    â€œWas there anyone else auditioning for Amy apart from you two?” asked Mia.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWell then, you might still be in with a chance,” said Jess.
    â€œDid you do it as well as you did it for me?” asked Mia.
    They just didn’t get it, and it was making me even crosser. “Look, I told you, I never stood a chance against Cara!”
    â€œBut even if you don’t get Amy, you’ll get Aunt March or Hannah, I expect,” said Mia, in her cheeriest voice, and I realized I still had to explain about Pooh-sie Perkins, only I absolutely did not feel like it right then.
    Naomi and Katy came in at that moment and I groaned and buried my head in the pillow.
    â€œHow did you get