Grayson Primary School, August 2003.
"Is your mother really Viva Valery, the film star?" The voices chatter. Olivia desperately wants to swat them away, clamp her palms over her ears and hum to herself, drown out the noise, but her mother has taught her better. Instead, she puts her mothers teachings to use. Deep breath, facial expression set to one of nonchalance, tone of voice giving off an attitude of boredom, as though she has been asked this many times before, and she is tired of replying.
"Yup."
She smirks.
She winces inside, peering at the gaggle of girls surrounding her.
She wonders how many would still be there if the answer had been no.
Olivia is thankful that her mother is an actress, at times like this. Passing on her wisdom has helped Olivia in so many ways that Viva Valery (Vivienne Vertigo, to her friends and family) will never know. In less than a year, she has gone from the misfit girl with the overactive imagination (sitting in the corner, too many imaginary friends to name, surely she's grown out of them by now?), to one of the most popular girls in school (imaginary friends trapped in the cupboard at the back of her mind, amongst the glitter and glamour of the ill-fitting masks she may need one day).
But it's just an act. She's acting. The girls are acting. They're all acting.
It's just that some are better actresses than others.
Bloors Academy, February 2005
"Mum, are you sure? I don't want to go." Olivia mumbles, grey eyes drowning in her mothers perfect blue, knuckles white against the car door.
"Of course, darling. The Bloors asked specifically for you. They don't just let anyone in, you know. Mainly the endowed. Think about it that way, darling. They must think you're good to get a place here!" her mother exclaims, kissing her quickly on the forehead before heading round to the car boot to get the large, lilac suitcase that holds a weeks worth of washing.
"I don't want to go. I want to go to Stagecoach."
"Livvy, don't start this now. The Bloors asked for you specifically. They don't take no for an answer. Baby, believe me, I tried. Besides, they have a very good drama department here, so I'm told. Go knock 'em dead. Let them see why you got offered that scholarship!"
With a final kiss to the cheek, Olivia Vertigo is left standing outside the vast, imposing walls of Bloors Academy, a suitcase in one hand, a purple cape in the other, and a thousand different ideas on how to make herself known here flitting through her head.
Bloors Academy, August 2005
"I got the role of the Evil Stepmother!" Olivia tells her mother excitedly, after hopping off the purple bus and digging through the large suitcase, producing the lengthy script for the Christmas production of Snow White.
"That's great, dear!" Vivienne exclaims, enveloping Olivia in a bear hug. "I told you that you would fit in better if you were just yourself!"
Olivia nods enthusiastically, pushing past her mother into the kitchen to grab a snack. She doesn't tell her mother that she is not entirely herself at that school. Part of her is 'famous' for her amazing acting skills (and that's about the only truth there). Part of her is famous for her cheek and her outrageous fashion sense (she hasn't told anyone that her mother is an actress. Maybe when her popularity begins to slip…). The other parts of her have either been trapped in the cupboard with the imaginary friends, or have had a glamorous mask slipped over their eyes.
She slips up to her room, dumps her suitcase on the floor (she'll unpack later) and throws herself on the bed. The problem with good actors, she finds, are that once they are so immersed in a role, it takes them a while to come out of that characterisation. Method Actors, isn't that what they're called?
Olivia is faced with this problem. She's been pretending for so long, she doesn't know how to stop. She doesn't think she can.
But she finds herself liking the new Olivia. The 'new' Olivia is better than the girl who had so many false friends all those years ago.
Thing is, it's now Olivia who is playing the role of the false friend. They love the 'new' Olivia. They don't know about the 'old' Olivia.
What will happen when (if) they figure it out?
Bloors Academy, September 2005
Olivia crashes into a figure. Olivia stumbles to the floor. Olivia gets a face full of blue material.
She screeches as she loses her balance, her plum-coloured stilettos helping in no way whatsoever.
(Stay. In. Character. Stay in character. Stayincharacter…)
"Sorry! Shoes'll be my downfall, or falldown!" she giggles, disregarding the rules clearly in an attempt to impress this new boy, and to prove to Manfred that no matter how dark his eyes are, no matter how hard he can glare, no matter how threatening he can be, he has no power over her.
Well, that's what she wants him to think. Quite frankly, he terrifies her.
But she remembers primary school, and another mask is presented with her mothers old words of wisdom.
Asa Pike appears, and Olivia wants to show this boy sprawled on the tiles behind her, and the ginger, yellow-eyed boy in front of her, that she is not weak. She is not like everyone in this school. She will not join the flock.
She spots Fidelio along the corridor, staring at the commotion, and her heart does a little somersault.
Then she realises he's staring at the boy on the floor.
Must be his tour guide round the school. Yep. They're both in blue, and the boy seems to be looking for the musical genius in a panic.
She has the sudden need to be in the spotlight again. But not just any spotlight, the only spotlight. The brightest spotlight. Pulling on another metaphorical mask, she performs for Fidelio. She wants to be noticed.
"Olivia Vertigo, what are the rules? Recite!" Asa barks. Olivia turns to Fidelio, smirks, and turns back.
"Silence in the hall,
Talking not at all,
Silence if you fall,
Never cry or call,
Blah! Blah! Blah!"
She turns to see Fidelio's reaction with a grin, but with dismay, finds him looking in the complete opposite direction.
(Silly girl. Fidelio was always slightly afraid of masks. And clowns. Didn't you know that?)
Bloors Academy, August 2006
Illusions. How fitting. Her whole life is an illusion of sparkles and stage lights and scripts. Why shouldn't her endowment be an illusion, too?
She's one of the endowed now, according to Charlie (why is she bummed out, wasn't it always her dream to work her way to the top ranks of the school?), but she's their 'secret'. Their little stagehand backstage. Shoved out of the spotlight, waiting patiently for the soliloquy that might never come.
Her outer layer acts like it's an amazing thing, being endowed, that she is now 'one of the crowd'. Like it's amazing that she can help with this so-called 'war' against the Bloors (she never was a fighter, just a liar, and a damned good actress who never stuck to the stage directions).
Underneath all that, she acts like she always has – the false girl. The girl that craves attention that she hardly ever gets from her 'busy' parents, but gets from her peers. The girl who hogs the spotlight.
And underneath all that, the old Olivia is threatening to break out of the cupboards with the imaginary friends (the overactive imagination was released an age ago, to help with the acting).
"At least I can eat an apple now…" she tells herself in an attempt to make the situation sound a little more appealing.
A/N: Written for the 'Screaming Fans' competition on the Charlie Bone website. Never actually finished it in time...