In The Shadows

Chapter 6

Perrie's mom was kind of nervous to host one of the girl's actor friends today.

Perrie did her part to help by fluffing the pillows on the couch. "Jade said she's coming."

"Yup. You told me that a second ago Perrie." The mother took a seat on the couch. Was she really in Canada to supervise Perrie for a major role? As if West End wasn't enough. They were simple people. She and Perrie's dad had never gotten married but they had two kids. Their son was an average boy but their daughter happened to be some kind of singing genius. All she did was send Perrie to singing lessons and before she knew it, the teacher was telling her to take the child to auditions for West End. I thought she was crazy but I did so anyway. Perrie went in, did her thing and to her surprise, the kid had gotten a part. The rest is history. They'd initially lived in South Shields but had had to move to London for convenience.

Two years went by and some agent was telling her about auditions for a show that Perrie seemed to fit the 'aesthetic' for. I'd wanted to say no since the auditions seemed far but talked about it with her and her dad and she really wanted to do it so that happened. And lo and behold, Perrie got the part again. Fearsome Four. She used to read those stories as a child. They'd been running since the seventies and were still running now. Loads of people were looking forward to this. 

She had not thought about it much until chatting with the other moms. The moms of the little boys kept saying how glad they were that the industry was different from how it was back in the day. There were still dangers out there but way before, things had been insane. Diane had been part of the population who watched child star meltdowns and laughed. The industry's gotten a bit better but it's not impossible that something horrible could happen to my Perrie.

Perrie sat next to her to flick through shows on Netflix. "Jade's so nice. I think we're best friends."

Diane got out of her head. "You think so?"

Perrie nodded.

"That's nice." She wanted Perrie to follow her dreams but was also scared of her not having a normal childhood. Naomi was saying a lot of crazy things about that Pinnock child's mam. Stuff that Jade had overheard. Explains a lot. Leigh-Anne seemed to have . . . issues. She's brilliant in her shows and movies though.

Someone knocked at the door at that point and Perrie knew who it was. "Coming!" The happy child skipped to the door with her mother following slowly behind.

Jade and her mom were indeed behind it when they opened.

"Hi!" Jade said.

"Hi, hi. Come in, come in." Perrie gave Jade room to enter.

"Hi Perrie's mam." Jade greeted.

"Hi lovely. Nice to see you." Diane patted her head as she ran off with Perrie. She allowed Naomi to come into her kitchen for a little chat.

Perrie brought Jade to her room straight away. "I know it's kind of small but it's nice right?"

"It's not small. Mine's about the same size." Jade said after coming in. "Wow."

"I have plushies too." Perrie sat on her bed and told Jade to join her.

Jade kicked off her sneakers to get next to Perrie.

Perrie picked up a white elephant wearing an overall and a plush rabbit. "Ta-da."

Jade giggled. "I have as well so I'm not surprised. They just make sleeping easier right?"

"Definitely. But I don't bring them with me to places. Not like Leigh-Anne. I really like her puppy Maverick." She sighed. "But he makes me miss my dog Hatchi. Meeting that dog in the park gave me the saddies." Perrie pouted.