Star Crazy Me

Josh said yes, stars would do fine.

Indy beamed. “Stars for a star! Cos that’s what she’s going to be.”

“I dunno.” I shook my head. “It’s all very well getting stuff to wear, but what am I gonna sing?”

“We’ll work on it,” said Josh. “Maybe write something special.”

Yesss! I felt like flying at him and hugging him, only he’d probably just have got embarrassed. But I was really excited by the idea. A song written specially for the occasion! It might even gain me some extra points.

As soon as I got home, Mum demanded to know what I’d bought. “Put it on, so I can see!”

I was a bit wary, cos Mum is just, like, so critical, but I could tell at once that she approved.

“Wonderful,” she said, “to have a boyfriend who can choose clothes for you!”

I have told Mum so many times that Josh is not my boyfriend. He is just a friend who happens to be a boy. Mum doesn’t believe that is possible. She once said so in front of Nan. She said, “You can’t have a boy as a friend. Not just an ordinary friend.” Then she laughed and said, “Well, I never could.”

Nan, quick as a flash, said, “No, and look what happened to you!” Nan could be quite sharp, and she always, always defended me. I do miss her loads. She used to tell Mum to leave me alone, especially when Mum nagged at me about my weight, or said if Josh wasn’t my boyfriend then wasn’t it about time I got one?

I’ve had boyfriends! Two, in fact. One was Sam Wyman that lives in our block, and the other was Judd Priestley at juniors. They were both unimaginably boring. You couldn’t ever talk to them like I can with Josh. When I said this to Mum she raised both eyebrows and said, “Who wants a boyfriend for talking to?”

I said, “I do!” To which Mum retorted that I would “sing a different tune one of these days”. Well, pardon me, but I don’t think so!

Next weekend, I got together with Josh and we wrote a song for me to sing in the talent contest. We’ve been writing songs for ever. We started back in Year 7, and we’re still doing it. We work really well together. Sometimes we argue, but we never fall out. We tend to bounce ideas off each other, like Josh will say, “How about this?” and I’ll say, “Or maybe this?” and that will set us off and get us all inspired in a way that I don’t think would happen if we were doing it separately. We work out the music together, too. I play the guitar – well, just chords mainly, on account of being self-taught – but Josh is like a demon on the keyboard and the drums. He knows about music because his mum and dad are musicians. His dad is a violinist and plays in an orchestra, his mum teaches at a local school. Josh always claims not to be musical – he says I am far more musical than he is – but he knows things that I don’t, so I’ll, like, sing a phrase and Josh will pick it up and run with it. Between us, we’re an ace team!

This is the song that we wrote:

.

Star crazy me

Floatin’ free-ee-ee

Into the ether of

Eternity

Now do you see me

Ridin’ high

Ridin’ high

Streamers of song

’Cross the sky-y-y

Nobody nothing

Ain’t gonna stop

This crazy crazy crazy gal

This crazy gal

Will reach the top

Oh yeah

Oh yeah

Just watch me, babe

I’m floatin’ free

I’m flyin’ high-igh-igh

Gonna get there

Gonna be

Up there for all eternity

Oh yeah

Oh yeah

Star crazy me

I’m floatin’ free

I said to Josh that we should both enter the contest, me as vocalist, him on the keyboard, but he wouldn’t. He said, “Don’t bully me! You’re always bullying me.”

I said, “Me bully you? That’s a joke!”

If either of us gets to be bullied, I’d say that it was me. Josh can be really bossy at times! Like he’ll tell me, for instance, that “You can’t possibly wear that top with that skirt, it makes you look like a parcel,” and I will immediately rush back indoors and change, cos I know that he knows about such things. I mean, I will just go and do it. No argument! Josh, on the other hand, tends to go all quiet and dig his heels in.

I said, “I’m just trying to give you your share of the limelight. Credit where credit’s due.” As Nan used to say.

Josh said he didn’t want credit. “And I don’t want limelight! I’m not like you.”

“You’re just scared!” I said.

“I’m modest,” said Josh.

I teased him about that. I said, “Aah, sweet! He’s all shy and retiring!” And I chucked him under the chin, really yucky, just to get him going, and he said “Gerroff!” and we had a bit of a tussle, all over the bed and round his bedroom, until his mum yelled at us up the stairs.

“What are you doing up there? You’ll bring the ceiling down!”