‘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.
What’s she like then?
Who is this? I don’t have this number saved
Ouch. That hurt. No, wait. I don’t care. What’s Skylar Chase like?
WHO IS THIS?
Caps lock, eh? Must be getting angry
?!?!?!?!?!
When’s your vlog going to be up and running? I need to subscribe. But WAIT! How can you possibly do anything without your selfie stick?! PRINCE GUSTAV, YOU ROGUE! CALL THE NATIONAL GUARD! ALERT THE QUEEN! TELL MI6 TO SEND THEIR BEST AGENT!
Cal. I should have known it was you
From my wit and charm?
From how annoying you are. What do you want? How did you get this number?
Audrey gave it to me. She said you and Skylar were hanging out
What’s it to you?
No need to get so touchy
Look, I’m very busy. In answer to your question, Skylar is very nice. OK? Leave me alone now
