Secrets of a Teenage Heiress by Katy Birchall (5)

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.’

For a few moments I just stared at her, taking in the fact that Skylar Chase, the most famous pop star in the world, was standing in front of me and had just heard me say ‘mwahahaha’ to myself for no apparent reason.

It wasn’t exactly the introduction I’d hoped for.

‘No, don’t worry about it,’ I said eventually, pulling myself together. ‘Sorry, I didn’t realise you were in here.’

‘I was just . . .’ She gestured to the piano as she came forwards to lean on its side.

I nodded. ‘Cool. Well, I’ll get out of your way.’

‘I recognise you,’ she said curiously. ‘Aren’t you . . . Felicity Royale?’

I gaped at her. ‘You . . .  you know who I am?’

‘I met your mom earlier, she showed me a picture of you.’

‘Oh no.’ I winced. ‘I’m sorry. Was she really embarrassing?’

She laughed. ‘No! No, she was very welcoming. It was nice to meet her.’

‘Yeah, well she’s not exactly up to date with the charts or anything,’ I explained as she giggled. ‘Don’t be insulted if she talks about music from hundreds of years ago.’

‘I’ll keep that in mind.’ She smiled, showing her perfect set of pearly white teeth.

This may sound stupid, but you know there’s that saying about how some people just have ‘star quality’? Well, Skylar Chase has it. Whatever it is. Her aura or something. It just radiates out, a sort of comfortableness in her own skin.

And the way she looked too. I was still in my school uniform, whereas she was wearing a white blouse, skinny black jeans, black heeled boots, and a black trilby hat which was resting perfectly on the top of her curly brown hair. She really did look every inch a pop star.

Despite the fact that I had just interrupted an international musician rehearsing her songs so should probably leave her to it, something about the way she leaned on the piano watching me made me feel like she wanted to keep talking.

‘Shouldn’t a famous pop star have an entourage or something?’

She rolled her eyes. ‘I actually do have a pretty big team staying here but I wanted to get away for a bit.’

‘Do they tell you how great you are the whole time?’

‘Not nearly enough.’ She grinned. ‘What was with the cackle?’

‘Huh?’

‘The cackle you did when you came into the room.’

‘I didn’t do a cackle.’

‘You did. You went, “Mwahahaha.” Like an evil villain laugh.’

‘No, I didn’t.’

‘You definitely did. It wasn’t a very good one, but it was one nonetheless.’

‘What do you mean it wasn’t very good?’

‘There was no power in it; you didn’t use your diaphragm. Like this.’ She threw me a mischievous smile before flinging her head back and really going for it. ‘MWAHAHAHA!’

‘Wow.’ I laughed, trying to ignore how surreal this all was and act as though I chat to famous pop stars all the time. ‘Much better than mine.’

‘Aha! Then you do admit you did it!’

‘Fine, I admit there was a slight cackle.’

‘So, then.’ She folded her arms triumphantly. ‘Why?’

I hesitated. ‘Long story short, I got in a bit of trouble recently so Mum grounded me and is making me help out around the hotel.’

‘If you’re grounded, doesn’t that mean you can’t leave your house?’ she asked, with furrowed eyebrows.

‘Right. I’m stuck here.’

‘Wait a second.’ She looked at me in disbelief. ‘You live here?’

I nodded.

‘In the hotel? In Hotel Royale?’

‘I know, it’s weird.’

‘Weird?’ Her expression broke into a wide grin. ‘It’s SO COOL!’

‘I guess it has its moments.’

‘You must order room service the whole time. I would.’

‘Mum doesn’t let me,’ I admitted, pleased to have someone else on my wavelength. ‘She likes to keep everything as normal as possible. Our flat has a kitchen and everything, so I’m not allowed to use any of the hotel perks.’

‘You have a flat in the hotel?’

‘Yeah, it takes up most of the fifteenth floor.’

She shook her head in amazement. ‘So, being grounded in your terms means you get to hang out in the most amazing hotel in the city?’

‘That’s one way of looking at it.’ I shrugged. ‘But it’s just home to me.’

‘And part of your punishment is helping out? Doesn’t sound like much of a punishment. Must be cool to see how it all works.’

‘Wait until you see the number of forks there are.’ I sighed. ‘Your turn.’

‘My turn what?’ she asked, baffled.

‘I told you why I did the evil cackle, now you tell me why you’re on your own hiding out in a piano room when you’ve only just arrived in London.’

It was her turn to sigh. ‘Sometimes all the photographers, and the fans, and being told exactly where to be and when, with no time to myself . . . I just haven’t stopped.’ She bit her lip. ‘Sounds selfish, doesn’t it?’

I shook my head. ‘Not really. I can see why sometimes you’d want to sneak away and have a breather from it all.’

‘Right.’ She nodded slowly. ‘I could have just played the piano in my room, I guess, but I didn’t want to kick my team out when they’re so busy sorting the schedule. I needed a bit of space and your mom mentioned you had a piano room so I thought I’d sneak out for a bit. Playing the piano is very calming. I feel much better now.’

‘Then you should sneak out more often.’

She smiled and then held out her hand. ‘I’m Sky, by the way.’

‘I know. And it’s Flick, rather than Felicity,’ I said, stepping forwards to shake it.

‘It’s really nice to meet you. Hey, do you –’

Suddenly the main door swung open and my mum marched in, followed closely by Audrey and a worried-looking Timothy.

‘Flick, I can’t believe . . . Oh.’ Mum came to a halt when she saw who I was talking to. ‘Miss Chase.’

‘Hi, Christine.’ Skylar gave her a cheery wave.

‘I’m so sorry,’ she said quickly. ‘I can’t believe my daughter has been disturbing you when you’ve obviously been trying to rehearse. She was meant to be helping Timothy with . . . Well, never mind. Flick, I thought I made myself clear, you were –’

‘Actually,’ Skylar interrupted, ‘this is all my fault.’

‘It is?’ Mum said.

‘It is?’ I squeaked.

‘Yes, of course,’ she said breezily. ‘You see, I’ve been writing a new song and I was desperate to show it to someone. I couldn’t tell if it was any good and I was going to call up to the room and see if anyone could come down, but I’m sure you understand, Christine, my team are extremely busy.’

‘I . . . I can imagine,’ Mum replied, looking from Skylar to me very suspiciously.

‘I didn’t want to disturb them so I popped my head through this door here and I saw Flick placing the . . . forks.’ She turned to me. ‘Right?’

‘That’s right.’ I nodded vigorously. ‘The fish fork, the dinner fork, the salad fork and the cocktail fork.’

Mum and Audrey looked surprised. Behind them, Timothy gave me a very proud thumbs up.

‘I asked her if she wouldn’t mind listening to my song and she came through to offer her criticism. She took a lot of persuading, because she was really focused on the . . . um . . . silverware, but I begged her to help. It was very kind of her to risk getting in trouble for me.’

‘Anything for a guest. Right, Mum?’ I smiled sweetly.

‘So, as you can see –’ Skylar sighed heavily – ‘it was all my fault and I’m sorry for causing trouble.’

‘No need to say sorry,’ Mum said quickly. ‘I hope we didn’t interrupt.’

‘It’s a good thing you did, actually –’ Skylar checked her sparkly diamond watch – ‘I better go back before my tour manager loses her mind.’

She strode past the three of them to the door and, pulling it towards her, she stopped to look back at me. ‘See you around, Flick.’ She grinned.

And with that she swanned out of the room, all of us watching her go.