Melody 5 - Rising Stars

5 (ii) - Amy

--- AMY ---

“What was all that about?” said Jadine, as she tucked into her lunch.

“No idea,” said Amy, sipping her Diet Coke.  So far today she’d been ignored by Derren, yelled at by Derren, and humiliated by Derren.  This was not how she’d imagined her 21st Birthday! 

Not that she’d actually told anyone it was her birthday.  She didn’t want anyone to know she was turning the grand old age of 21.  She’d managed to niftily avoid revealing her age when the topic had come up with the girls the other day.  She had no intention of revealing that she was actually five years older than the youngest in the group – Rhian.

She’d even told her mum and dad not to send any birthday cards or presents to the house.  Her mum had taken some persuading, as she didn’t think it was right that Amy shouldn’t get any presents on her birthday, but Amy had promised to visit them at the weekend to make up for it.  She’d just have to prepare herself for the inevitable disappointed looks from her dad whenever she talked about the band.

“You’ve worked with Derren before right?” asked Molly.

“Yes,” said Amy.

“And was he a total dickhead then, too?” asked Jadine.

“I think he’s alright,” said Rhian. 

“Rhian, you think he’s a bit of alright,” laughed Jadine.  “That’s very different.”

Amy and Molly chuckled.

“It’s his job to tell us what to do,” snipped Olivia.

The other girls shared a look and carried on eating.  Amy was surprised that Olivia had joined them for lunch.  She’d headed off on her own for the past three days.  Amy suspected Molly might have had a word with her and gently suggested that she come along and be part of the group. 

Molly had also asked Amy and Jadine to make a special effort and at least try to be nice to Olivia.  Not that it was easy.  Olivia seemed to do everything within her power to annoy and irritate everyone she came into contact with.  After four days of rehearsals, Amy could at least appreciate part of the reason Sherri had chosen Olivia to be in the group – she was an amazing dancer (not that Amy would ever tell her that), her singing voice was decent, and her ‘look’ really complemented the rest of the group – she was the classy, sophisticated one.  (Although Amy still preferred to think of her as the stuck-up one.) 

Amy glanced at her watch – they had ten minutes until they had to be back for more torture from Derren.

“I’m going to head back and brush up on my moves,” she said.

“There’s no need,” sighed Molly.  “You were perfect.  I don’t know why he’s giving you such a hard time.”

“Maybe it’s because he knows I can take it,” shrugged Amy.

“It’ll be different when we start doing our own material,” said Jadine.  “We’ll have more input then.”

“Fingers crossed,” said Amy, as she swung her bag over her shoulder and headed back to the Dance Studios.  She didn’t have any intention of practicing anything - she wanted to find Derren and ask why the hell he was on her case!  They’d agreed to cool their relationship for a while, so that no one would suspect anything, but this was getting too much. 

She peered through the window in the rehearsal room door and saw him on his phone.  Bingo!  As she breezed in, she saw Derren imperceptibly flinch.