Love Like Your Heart's On Fire (eBook)

1

The new English teacher, Mrs Mulligan, had been a professional actor before she started at the Kings School for Girls. She’d been on the telly in an episode of Midsummer Murders. If that wasn’t exciting enough, she sent the sixth form into a frenzy by announcing that this year the school play would be a joint venture with the boys’ School. Never had there been such enthusiasm to participate.

Vivienne Cooper, my best friend and drama diva, dragged me along to auditions.

‘Come on Pen, it’ll be loads more fun if we’re in it together.’ I had no interest in acting but I stumbled through the embarrassment of standing on stage in front of Mrs Mulligan and a teacher from the Boys’ School mumbling my lines, and was rewarded with a minor part as one of the girls in the chorus.

When the cast list was posted on the notice board a crowd gathered eager to see who had nabbed the major roles. No one was surprised that Coco Dunn was playing the sexy temptress. She was tall and slender with a sheet of platinum blonde hair that shimmered down to her waist. Her Mum was a model. But there was general confusion to find that Vivienne had got the starring role. At Kings, Vivienne was dismissed as the fat girl with a bursary who sold rejected chocolate bars from the Cadbury’s factory where her Mum worked. She was in a youth theatre group and had done loads of performing. But as she never mentioned this at school, I was the only one who wasn’t amazed at her landing the female lead. I’d seen her act. She was awesome.

Walking away from the notice board I could tell Vivienne was thrilled, but she was careful not to show her feelings until we were alone together in the library. Viv had learned that at Kings it was best to keep a low-profile if you wanted an easy life. I was working on my low-profile skills.

The library was an L-shaped room on the first floor. Viv and I had a favourite spot in the far corner out of sight of the door. There was a small table underneath a window that looked out over the hockey pitches. We could talk here without being overheard.

‘Oh my God Pen, it’s such a difficult role. Elizabeth Proctor, she’s the wronged wife, she’s got to be uptight and angry but still sympathetic. I need the audience to side with me rather than Coco. How am I going to do that?’

‘You’ll find a way.’

Vivienne sighed, looking worried, but then brightened.

‘And you got a part, that’ll be fun.’

‘I don’t know why I let you bully me into it. I’d much rather be dancing.’

‘You’re always on about wanting a boyfriend – now’s your opportunity.’

‘As if any of the boys will be fit?’

‘You never know, keep an open mind.’

Vivienne had met the man of her dreams when she was fourteen, whereas here was I, sixteen years old and barely been kissed. Seemed to me that loving someone was an open invitation to pain. Didn’t stop me from craving it though. I was desperate to throw myself into the flames. Passion at any cost. But I wasn’t convinced that the love of my life would be found in the Kings school play.

‘Welcome everyone.’ Mrs Mulligan stood at the front with Mr Andrews from the Boys’ School next to her. We were in the hall, sitting in a circle of chairs, boys on one side, girls on the other. There were two empty chairs between the last of the girls and the first of the boys. No one had planned it that way, but it was early days for inter-sex mingling.

Mrs Mulligan certainly knew how to hold the stage. She was tiny but dressed in a red sheath dress with shiny shoulder-length caramel-coloured hair and bright red lipstick. Her movements were quick and energetic, like a little bright-eyed bird, all peck and flap. There was an intensity that made her unlike any of the other teachers.

‘The play we’re doing is The Crucible by Arthur Miller, about the witch hunt trials in Salem in the late 17th Century.’ She handed a pile of play scripts to the boy on her left and he passed them around. ‘It’s a truly wonderful drama, the subject matter as shocking and relevant today as it was when Miller wrote it in 1952, and I’m confident we’re going to make a marvellous production. To kick off I’ll go through the cast list and can the actor playing the role stand up and I’ll introduce their character.’ And off she went.

Grant Barker was playing the leading man, John Proctor. He stood up and took a mock bow to much tittering from the girls’ side of the room. Vivienne was playing his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, hurt, loyal, and strong. As Vivienne rose from her seat Mrs Mulligan said, ‘Vivienne’s a member of the prestigious National Youth Theatre. I saw her performance as Mother Courage and she was excellent.’ Vivienne blushed deep puce and sat down. The other girls stared at her as if reassessing. This play was going to do wonders for her social standing. Coco was playing Abigail; the beautiful young girl whom John Proctor has an affair with.

I was playing one of the young servant girls who, egged on by Abigail, accuse the Proctors of witchcraft. ‘Mercy Lewis – Pen Flowers,’ Mrs Mulligan called out and I stood up, ‘described by the playwright as a fat, sly servant girl who’s been seen dancing naked in the forest.’ I sat down quickly, glaring at Vivienne. I had not signed up for this! Some of the boys were sniggering and whispering to each other. There was no way I was staying for this. I started to get up, but Vivienne put her hand on my arm and pulled me down.

‘Keep calm,’ she whispered.

Mr Andrews drew a finger across his throat to tell the boys to cut it out and they stopped. Mrs Mulligan looked over to their side of the room and said, ‘Sixth formers or six-year-olds? Obviously, Pen is lovely and slim, but,’ she turned to look at me, ‘I’m told you’re a dancer and I’ve got an idea for the start of the show.’ She moved on to the next name.

‘See?’ Vivienne whispered. ‘She’s great, isn’t she? No-nonsense.’

‘Reverend Hale – Mark Burrows,’ Mrs Mulligan continued and a tall thin boy with a strangely small head stood up. He was the one who had come up with the name Giant Arse Movie to describe a film of me dancing that had been shared around the Boys’ School last year. The video featured a zoomed-in shot of my school skirt tucked up and my bum cheeks filling the screen. Thinking about it still filled me with shame. I knew my face had gone red.

Once everyone had been introduced there was a read-through of the play. It went on forever and as I only had three lines, there was a lot of sitting still and listening which I wasn’t good at. Vivienne was the only one who brought any of the words alive. Once we’d done my first scene I drifted off. I’d won a scholarship to Kings, one of the best schools in Birmingham, and Dad had insisted that I stay on into the sixth form to do A Levels. But because I was determined to be a dancer, there’d been much painful negotiation until both Kings and Dad had finally agreed that I could go to City College, one day a week, to do Dance A Level. I liked History and English, but dancing was my true passion.

Tomorrow, we had our first choreography assignment and I wanted to try out the impro exercises I’d learnt in the summer with Tartan Fling. I moved my feet on the floor, tapping out different rhythms.

‘Ouch!’ I cried out as Vivienne elbowed me viciously in the side. Mrs Mulligan was looking at me with a raptor’s gaze. My third and final line had arrived.

‘It’s on the beam, behind the rafter,’ I said with none of the drama the line deserved. The room’s attention moved swiftly off me and back to Coco. This was the part where the girls go hysterical and see evil spirits attacking them. The room livened up. The end of the play was also good with Vivienne’s voice quivering with emotion as she forgave Proctor for his infidelity and declared her love. Grant Barker came over as way too full of himself, but wasn’t as bad as I’d expected. When he went to the scaffold, I felt tears gathering in my eyes. Vivienne got the last line of the play which she delivered with power and dignity.

As we got up to leave Mrs Mulligan came over to speak to Viv.

‘Excellent start Vivienne, you’ll have the audience in floods.’

Vivienne blushed from her chest to her parting.

‘Thank you,’ she mumbled.

‘But it’s actually Pen I wanted to talk to.’ My head jerked up. With luck she’d been so appalled by my terrible acting that she was going to drop me from the play. ‘This idea for the start of the play.’

‘There’s no way I’m dancing naked.’ I said quickly. Vivienne might be mesmerized by Mrs Mulligan’s wide bright smile, but I could see the arrows of determination in her eyes. This woman would stop at nothing to get what she wanted.

She dismissed my concerns with a flick of her wrist as if waving away an irritating fly.

‘Totally inappropriate. But the girls are seen dancing in the forest, so I want you to choreograph a short primitive dance sequence. Shades of voodoo, led by Tabitha, the slave. I’m imagining dim, shadowy lighting, a backdrop creating the forest, and the girls in loose shifts. Can you do it?’

I could see it immediately. Green light on white cotton, rhythmical African dance moves, something raw and shocking.

‘It would make a provocative opening to the play,’ Mrs Mulligan continued. I was about to say I’d think about it when Viv could contain herself no longer and burst out.

‘Oh, that would...