Phoebe Finds Her Voice Read Online Free Page A

her eyes and grinning at me. “What are you – a traffic light?”
    â€œVery funny, Neesha. But did you know that, statistically speaking, people with red hair are more likely to succeed than people with brown hair like yours?”
    â€œSo you’ll be a really successful traffic light!” said Neesha. “Congratulations.”
    I sneaked a look at Monty B while they were talking, but he caught me peeking and winked at me. I couldn’t believe he was the same annoying little boy I used to ride my bike with, and roll down the hill in the park with, and do other horribly embarrassing things that I didn’t even want to think about.
    We did loads more games in our groups, had a quick break, and then Miss Howell called us over to the piano to teach us a song.
    â€œThe auditions for The Dream Factory will actually be next Saturday,” she said, handing round some sheets with the words on. “I know it doesn’t give you much time to prepare but we’re going to be performing the show in February, so I’d really like to get going. This is the song I want you to learn for the singing audition. It’s…”
    â€œOh, I just love auditions,” cried Sam. “I did this audition once and I was nearly chosen to be on telly. It was so amazing.”
    Personally I couldn’t see what was so great about nearly being chosen to be on telly, but then Sam has this way of making everything she does sound like it’s so amazing.
    â€œIt’s sung by Sabine right at the beginning of the show,” Miss Howell went on, giving Sam a look. “Sabine is one of the main characters. She lives in the factory with the Sweet-Dreamers, who make all our sweet dreams, and the Jelly-Skulls, who make all our nightmares. Her parents, Baron-Von-Bolt and Ice Bomb, run the factory and they’re really cruel to her. They treat her like a servant – kind of like Cinderella – so this song is all about how wretched her life is.”
    Name games and thumbs up and audition songs – I didn’t know what I was doing there, or why I ever thought I was the sort of person who could join a drama club, let alone audition for a part in a show. Talk about nightmares and wretched lives. There was no way I was going to come back – not in a million years.
    But then Miss Howell started to play Sabine’s song on the piano and, by the time she’d played it through twice, all that other stuff had flown straight out of my head. I don’t even know why, or how, or what happened, but it was as if Sabine’s song had cast a spell over me.
    So what if I was Phoebe Franks, World’s Shyest Person ? So what if Sabine was one of the biggest parts in the show? So what if I could barely say my name in front of the others, let alone sing a solo? I knew in that instant – as the music filled my head – that I had to be Sabine, no matter what.

As soon as we got home, I left Mum and Dad arguing on the doorstep and raced up to my room to start practising. Whenever Dad drops us back on a Saturday they end up shouting at each other. Well, Mum shouts and Dad just stands there, which totally winds Mum up and makes her shout even more. They argue about me and Sara and arrangements and money and a whole load of other boring stuff.
    I usually hide under my covers with my earphones in until Dad leaves, but today I sat on my bed and sang Sabine’s song to drown them out. Miss Howell had given us the Dream Factory script and I could still hear the tune playing in my head. I sang it through three or four times, getting louder and louder, as Mum started screaming at Dad and Sara started to wail. Then I grabbed a hairbrush to be my microphone and stood in front of my full-length mirror to sing it again – even louder.
    I felt so different up in my room where no one could see me, it was like magic , and for a few minutes I was right there, in that wretched factory, singing about