Ruby Parker Hits the Small Time Read Online Free Page A

at pretty faces. It is important and, well, if you-know-who is worried about it, then we have to be too. That’s just the way it is: for a lot of people out there, she is the show.”
    I heard Trudy sigh and someone shuffled some papers. It felt like a dream, like one of those nightmares when you walk into class in your knickers and nothing else and everyone laughs and you think it’s real. And just for a second when you wake up you feel sick and terrible. Except this wasn’t a dream. And I wasn’t going to wake up. I wanted to run away, but I couldn’t. I was sort of glued there.
    â€œSo,” Liz said after a pause, “what are our options?”
    â€œWell,” Trudy said crossly, “bearing in mind that we’re talking about a child here, we have a few options. Option one: We send Angel away to America or something and she comes back as a different actress—a more photogenic one.”
    I felt my stomach turn over and my mouth go dry. And there was a wave of panic in my tummy just like when a roller coaster starts going down really fast.
    â€œOption two,” Trudy continued, “and my favorite—a bit of a cliché, but always a hit—we give Angel a makeover. Maybe put a few highlights in her hair, get her some colored contacts, and let her wear a bit of lip gloss.”
    I remembered wearing lip gloss at the British Soap Awards and feeling like I had raspberry pudding glued to my lips. Yet before I could get used to the idea, Simon chimed in: “But do you think Ruby’s got anything to work with? I’m not sure a makeover will cut it.”
    There was a short silence and it was like I was watching a live link on satellite telly—like there was a two-second delay between him talking and me hearing what he was saying.
    â€œOption three is that we kill her,” Trudy said.
    Bang. Just like that. My knees went weak and I had to grab on to the wall to stop myself from falling off the world. It was just like someone really had told me I was going to die. In that second it all caught up with me and I realized that if I went from the show, everything else that was just about holding things together in my life would go too.
    I’d never get to see Justin again, which meant he’d never get to know me properly and realize one day that it was me he loved and not his stupid girlfriend. And, worst of all, Mum and Dad would be so disappointed in me, so angry with me that they might stop trying altogether, and then …
    And then I had to stop thinking about it. I had to stop before I started crying and they heard me or something.
    â€œOh, yes,” Simon said. “I like that option. Let’s kill her. She could have some sort of disease. We could tie it in with National Kids Dying Week or something like that.”
    Trudy moaned. “Oh, Simon, you are such a—” I think Trudy was going to swear, but Liz stepped in before she could.
    â€œRuby is such a great little actress,” Liz interrupted.
    â€œI know she’d give that story line everything, but, well …”
    I couldn’t listen to any more after that because suddenly I felt sick. My head was throbbing and my cheeks were burning. I ran out of the building and onto the lot and tried to get as far away from everyone as I could. I ran into one of the Portaloos and locked the door. My face was all hot and I felt like I should cry, but my eyes were dry and prickly. I get letters from girls who are picked on at school because they’re fat, because they wear glasses, or sometimes just because they’re different. And I write back to them and say I know how they feel, because everyone feels isolated sometimes and it’s best to be true to yourself and talk to a parent or teacher. But I didn’t know. It wasn’t until then that I knew how they felt—so alone in the world that there was nothing they could do to fit in, because it wasn’t anything