The Fairest Stars

Chapter Two: 'Strange Nature'

A/N: Thank you so much for reading the last chapter! Hope you enjoy this one :) have a lovely day/evening, whatever it is whereever you are! hugs! Maddie xoxo

‘Come on, Freya,’ Isis McKinley coaxed, holding out one hand towards her younger sister. This was no mean feat, seeing as she was already balancing her sister’s lunch box, school bag and shoes, along with her own school bag in her arms, the entire jumble balanced precariously.

Freya frowned, tugging the end of the blonde plait Isis had so recently tied into her hair, blinking innocently up at her sister. ‘But I really do feel ill,’ she explained. ‘I feel sick, and I have a headache, and I have a sore foot.’

Isis held in a sigh. Over the past few minutes, Freya’s various illnesses had grown more and more abundant. Instead of voicing how over the top it was, she merely handed Freya her shoes and nodded. ‘Yes, I know, but you have to go to school anyway, I’m afraid.’

‘What if it’s contagious?’ Freya asked, a tone of desperation slipping into her voice as she realised she was losing the argument.

‘It’s not,’ Isis assured her. ‘I can tell.’ Freya didn’t look convinced. ‘Shoes, Frey.’

Reluctantly, the nine year old took the proffered shoes and shoved her feet into them. They were already too small, Isis noted, with dismay, and that wasn’t even taking into account the horrendous scuff marks around the sides, and the hole forming between the sole and the tip of the shoe. That meant another pair would soon be unavoidable, and she had no idea how the budget they lived on could be squeezed to fit them in.

‘Now get a move on, or we’ll be late.’

 Freya grumbled something under her breath, but to Isis’ relief, she came.

 The school run. She hated the school run.

 Quickly checking through her own bag, her eye caught on the thick wad of paper resting on the arm of the sofa, and her heart flew into her mouth. The script. Oh damn. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn.

 Scooping it up with one hand, opening the door with the other, Isis glanced quickly at the top of the sheet. AUDITIONS: 11th November. Oh damn.

 She’d been so busy last night and this morning, the auditions had completely slipped her mind. She hadn’t even read the script through, let alone learnt her lines.

 What an idiot she was. Marching Freya along the road to school, she attempted to read it through. Several near death experiences later, involving cyclists and lampposts, she admitted defeat.

Thankfully Freya’s school was only a short distance from their house, meaning she only went slightly out of her way to drop her off. Once she’d been delivered to the school gates, melodramatically clutching her stomach in one last attempt to get the day off, Isis increased her speed even more, realising time was vanishing rapidly. And school was a long walk away.

Her one chance. Those auditions which had meant so much to her, the ones she’d been so eager to do well in, and she’d forgotten them. 

Maybe forgotten wasn’t the right word, she thought, as she jogged through the school gates quite a while later, the bell ringing just as she passed. If she hadn’t been so busy last night, helping Freya with her homework, then attempting to get her to eat all of her dinner, doing what remained of the housework and then her own homework, she probably would have had the chance to remember that she was meant to be learning lines.

The auditions meant a lot to her. Having no real skills at anything else, she had always focused her efforts on Drama, knowing it wasn’t likely to lead to a job, but knowing that she loved it more than any other subject, and that that was all that mattered. Sometimes, she felt as if the only place she belonged was onstage.