Up until two years ago when I stopped trying, I was the lead in all the school plays. And obviously now I wouldn’t be seen dead auditioning for whatever lame production my school puts on next but, I have to admit, being in the spotlight was quite a lot of fun, and sometimes I do consider returning to the stage, but then I realise that doing so would mean spending a LOT of time with the drama club and, no offence to them, but they are exhausting.
For example, once I saw Hannah, the Queen Bee of the drama department, sitting on her own at a party, so I selflessly ditched my friends to go over to her so she wouldn’t feel like such a loner, but she was utterly ungrateful about the whole thing. All I was saying was how I thought the play she had just been in was nice, but the ending was completely predictable and it would have been really cool if they’d mixed it up a bit more and had the fairy queen do something totally dramatic, like kill that boring fairy king, who was topless and everything, but such a creep. She looked at me in disgust and went all narkily, ‘Sorry, but some of us don’t think Shakespeare’s works need “mixing up”,’ and then just got up and walked away.
Some people have no manners. And so, for that and several other reasons, I left my theatre career behind and believed that because of Mum’s unnecessarily strict vlogging rules, I had stepped out of the spotlight for good.
That is, until I went for dinner with Skylar Chase.
Because that is what it’s like when you walk around somewhere with her, it’s like being onstage all the time, followed by a constant spotlight. And that’s just walking from her suite to the dining room downstairs, it’s not even leaving the hotel and going out into the real world. People stared at us as we walked down the corridor, then they stared at us in the lift, and then they stared at us walking from the lift and into the restaurant. And it felt GREAT. In fact, the only time we weren’t being stared at was when I persuaded Skylar to hide with me behind one of the massive vases near reception for a few minutes on our way to the restaurant because Audrey was prowling about the lobby.
‘Is it always like this?’ I asked, as we reached the dining room and pretended not to notice all the turning heads.
‘Yes.’ Skylar nodded wearily.
‘It’s so much fun.’ I smiled, lovingly stroking the clutch bag she had lent me.
‘You think?’ Skylar shook her head. ‘It’s like being on a permanent catwalk.’
‘You say that like it’s a bad thing.’
She looked at me curiously. ‘You don’t think you’d get bored of it?’
‘Of being admired and adored?’ I flashed her a smile. ‘Oh, I think I could handle it.’
She laughed as Timothy came hurrying over to us, clutching some menus in his hands. He did a double take at me, possibly because when I usually come down to the restaurant I’m accompanied by a sausage dog in a tailored suit, not a world-famous pop star. Or it might have been down to my hair – Skylar had plaited it into a pretty braid across the top of my head like a halo and clipped a blue flower into it, matching the blue pleated skirt she’d chosen for me.
‘Miss Chase, we have your table ready and your guests have arrived,’ he began, before glancing at me. ‘And will Miss Royale be joining the party?’
‘She will.’ Skylar beamed at me.
‘No trouble at all. I’ll sort out another setting.’
As he scampered away to huddle together with the other waiters and rearrange the settings, a boy approached us with his arms outstretched towards Skylar.
‘You finally made it to the best city in the world.’ He grinned, as she squealed and embraced him. ‘Took you long enough.’
I recognised him straight away: Ethan Duke, the YouTuber. Grace would have passed out on the spot. We’d spent hours at school watching his vlogs in lunch breaks. According to the ‘About Me’ section on his website, which Grace had memorised word for word, the story went that he happened to grow up next door to, and become best friends with, the son of a director, who let him tag along to a load of movie sets. Ethan started asking the super famous actors if they’d let him interview them for his YouTube channel during their filming breaks, and before long he had millions of followers and a queue of celebrities wanting to appear in one of his vlogs. Sometimes they were interviews, sometimes they were dares and sometimes he and a celebrity would team up to play a big prank on another celebrity.
He also happened to be the hottest person on the planet. In person he was more good-looking than in his videos, which I’d thought impossible. His sleek brown hair swept perfectly across his forehead, just above the thick eyebrows that framed his hazel-coloured eyes and he had these really full lips. I could not stop staring at his perfectly square jaw. How was anything that chiselled? I had to stop staring at it.
Look away from the jaw, look away from the jaw, look away from the jaw . . .
‘Flick, this is Ethan.’
I was so deep in my examination of his angelic face, that when Skylar addressed me, I wasn’t ready to form words.
‘Jaw!’
Oh my God.
Skylar blinked at me. ‘Huh?’
‘I mean, four!’ I said quickly, trying to save the situation. ‘Four . . . forks. That’s how many forks there will be. Four.’
‘Flick, what are you talking about?’
‘The number of forks at a place setting. I was just . . . uh . . . checking that everything was in order. Timothy!’ I croaked, waiting for him to sidle up to me. ‘Are there four forks at each place? As usual?’
‘Yes . . .’ he replied slowly, as though expecting it to be a trick question.
‘Excellent,’ I said, patting him on the arm awkwardly. ‘Well done. You can go now.’
‘Thank you, Miss Royale.’ He backed away, his eyebrows knitted in confusion.
‘Royale?’ Ethan repeated in wonder. ‘As in, Hotel Royale?’
CHANGE IN CONVERSATION = VERY GOOD RIGHT NOW.
‘Yes.’ I nodded, enthusiastically. ‘You know it?’
‘Hotel Royale? Yes. We’re in it.’
CHANGE IN CONVERSATION = DID NOT GO SO WELL.
‘Right, of course. Sorry, I drank a lot of coffee today.’ I laughed nervously.
‘I know the feeling. Nice to meet you, Flick, I’m Ethan.’
Skylar, still watching me strangely, gestured towards another guy and a girl who had come over while I had been yabbering about forks.
‘This is Carly, my drummer, and you might recognise Jacob. He’s a model.’
I thought it wise not to say anything this time, and nodded hello to both of them. We were guided across the room by Timothy, receiving plenty of stares and whispers around the room in the process. I made the conscious decision to try to sit away from Ethan (as apparently his jaw was all too much for my brain to handle) but somehow we ended up next to each other.
Well, this was going to be interesting.
‘These guys are all coming to the Hotel Royale Christmas Ball,’ Skylar announced. ‘I’ll be flying back from LA especially.’
‘It’s one of the highlights of the year,’ Ethan claimed. ‘I love it.’
‘You’ve only been once before.’ Carly laughed.
‘Yeah, and it was great. I’m sure it will be great this year too,’ he said defensively.
‘Did you all know that Flick actually lives here in the hotel?’ Skylar informed the table excitedly. ‘This is her home.’
‘You live at Hotel Royale?’ Ethan’s eyes widened as he pulled in his chair. ‘You must know everything there is to know about this place then.’
‘Not really,’ I said shyly, fiddling with the silver napkin ring.
‘She has invaluable knowledge about the forks,’ Jacob teased.
Skylar rolled her eyes. ‘Ignore Jacob, Flick, he’s pretending not to care but he’s still smarting from losing out on a big modelling campaign today.’
‘I couldn’t care less,’ he replied breezily, clearly lying. I know because he made the same trying-not-to-look-bothered face that Ella made whenever someone else got what she wanted, like the time Zoe got partnered with Aidan in a science project. I had to listen to her go on about how much she ‘didn’t care’ for THREE DAYS and nod along while she made constant snide remarks about Zoe, until Aidan finally asked Ella on a date to the cinema and the whole world rejoiced in the change of her conversation.
‘Ask him who he lost the campaign to, Flick.’ Skylar laughed across the table to me as Carly sniggered.
‘Who did you lose it to?’ I asked.
Jacob sighed. ‘Dolly.’
‘And who is Dolly?’ Skylar pushed, leaning forward on to the table and cupping her chin in her hands faux-innocently.
Jacob mumbled something.
‘Sorry, what was that? I don’t think Flick heard you,’ Carly said, winking at Skylar.
Jacob clenched his jaw and said, through gritted teeth, ‘A hamster.’
The table exploded into laughter.
‘The brand decided to go in a different direction,’ Jacob explained grumpily.
‘The brand is clearly deluded.’ Ethan chuckled, holding up his crystal glass of water. ‘Anything with you as the face of it would sell in a second.’
‘Hear hear! Or whatever it is you Brits say,’ Skylar said as Jacob smiled, lifted his glass and clinked it with Ethan’s.
Timothy came over to explain the menu and, after recommending the chef ’s specials, he left to give us time to decide. Skylar and Carly began to discuss Dolly’s appeal with Jacob, and Ethan turned his attention to me.
‘What was it like growing up here?’ he asked.
‘It was . . . uh . . . it was great,’ I answered, wishing I had something more interesting to say.
‘I bet this place has a cool history.’
‘Yes. It does.’
‘Fill me in.’
‘Sorry?’
‘On the history,’ he explained enthusiastically. ‘I love that kind of thing, and I’ve always been so intrigued about Hotel Royale. There’s just something so . . . grand about this place. How did it all begin?’
I gulped.
Hotel Royale does have a really interesting history. I know that because I’ve heard people say it over and over again. When Mum talks about it, I do try really hard to be interested, but she can go on, and it’s usually at really inconvenient times, like when I’m following a YouTube tutorial on curling my hair and trying not to burn my scalp. Stuff like that takes a lot of concentration. Mum never understands, though, and gets all naggy with me. I don’t know why she thinks it’s important for me to fill my brain with all those boring historical facts when I’m not the one in charge. Now, though, it would have been quite handy to impress Ethan with some hotel secrets. I was going to have to wing it. ‘It was founded by my great-great-grandfather in the early 1900s,’ I stated, which was a true story . . . I just didn’t know what happened after that.
He nodded thoughtfully and I waited apprehensively for his question.
‘Who runs it now?’
YES. I knew the answer to that one.
‘My mum.’
‘Wow,’ he said, sounding genuinely impressed, for some reason. ‘So it stayed in the family? Which means, you’ll be taking the reins in the future, I’m guessing?’
I stared at him. ‘Huh?’
‘Unless you have any siblings?’
‘No, just me.’
‘So you’ll be running this place one day.’ He whistled, his glance sweeping across the dining room before coming round back to me. ‘Not bad.’
‘I haven’t really thought about it,’ I admitted with a shrug, fiddling with the menu.
‘Seriously?’ He looked stunned. ‘Man, if it was me, that would be on my mind all the time.’
He picked up the menu and studied it.
‘Every time I eat in this place, I can never decide what to pick. It all looks so good,’ Ethan informed the table. I pretended to consider everything on the menu myself, even though most of it sounded gross. Duck liver? BLEUGH. Smoked eel? Ew! What was Chef thinking? I was going to have to have a word with him.
‘You must know the menu off by heart,’ Carly commented, smiling at me. ‘Does it change a lot?’
‘Not sure.’
They all looked surprised.
‘You don’t know about the menu in your own restaurant?’ Ethan asked. ‘But –’
Thankfully, Timothy arrived at that very moment to take our orders and I was let off the hook for a few minutes as he scribbled down our choices. As soon as he was done, I jumped in quickly to change the subject.
‘Carly, did you do all the drumming on Skylar’s album or just her tour?’
Carly happily launched into her answer and as everyone listened politely, I breathed a sigh of relief. I was getting a headache from all their questions.
‘Flick, are you coming to Sky’s London party?’
Skylar gasped at Ethan’s question. ‘That is such a good idea, Ethan! Yes, Flick, you’ve got to come. It’s in a few weeks in, like, the coolest club in the city. Will you come?’
‘Wow! I’d love to. Are you sure?’
‘Yes, I’m sure.’ Skylar laughed. ‘You are my hostess after all, it would be rude not to invite you.’
‘I can’t believe you live here,’ Carly said, shaking her head.
Oh no. Not this again.
‘I know, right?’ Skylar nodded. ‘Imagine growing up in this place.’
‘It’s really not that big a deal,’ I said quickly, taking a sip of water as my face grew hot again.
‘Don’t play it down.’ Ethan smiled encouragingly. ‘Tell us about it. Do you live in one of the suites?’
‘Do you have your own butler?’ Carly asked, leaning forward, fascinated.
‘Do you order vats of ice cream from room service, like in Home Alone 2?’ Jacob chuckled.
‘Have you always held your birthday parties here? They must have been amazing.’ Sky smiled. ‘You must have met some amazing people too.’
‘Hey, you should go on Ethan’s vlog,’ Jacob suggested.
‘What a brilliant idea!’ Skylar clapped her hands together as the other two nodded. ‘What do you think, Ethan?’
‘I think it sounds cool. Flick?’ he said, as everyone waited for my answer. ‘What do you say? Want to be a guest star on my vlog?’
That was when I saw Audrey, stopping at the door to proudly survey the scene and make sure everything was in order. If she saw me, she would come thundering over to the table and probably tell me to go to my room. I had already embarrassed myself enough this evening in front of the coolest people on the planet. If Audrey spotted me, my life would literally be over. There was only one thing to do. Without any explanation, I threw myself dramatically on to the ground and crawled under the table.
‘Well . . .’ I heard Ethan laugh, as the table fell into stunned silence. ‘I think that might be a no.’