In The Shadows

Chapter 16

Perrie was over at Jade's house the next day.

"You know Jade, you and I should be best friends." She said from the floor.

Jade sat in front of her. They were going through Jade's old sketchbooks. "Why do you say that?" That came out of nowhere to Jade. They had been pretty quiet until Perrie said that.

Perrie admired a realistic drawing of a leaf with a drop of water on it. "Jade if you're drawing like this at nine then you're gonna be an icon by the time you're a big lady."

Jade came to watch at her side. Her face bathed with heat from the compliment. "Well I do try. That's not even one of me best ones if I do say so myself. Me favourite drawing is one I did of a tree at a park I'd gone to. I'd gotten every detail of the grass and the sky and the tree and it was just perfect." She kissed her fingers.

Perrie wanted to see that one. "Where is it?"

"It's back home in me room but take my word for it when I say it was good."

Perrie nodded. "Mmm. When did you even draw most of this stuff? You're real good at acting but your drawings are quite good too."

Jade smiled. "I think you're an incredible actress as well. I thought the acting experience would be more challenging but after meeting everyone and getting acquainted I'm just having a lot of fun."

"I know right? It's easier than being in a musical because in a musical you don't only have to remember lines but you also have to remember all the lyrics to your song and you've got to know how it goes and it's in front of a crowd and if you make a mistake you can't just do it over and . . . ugh. I liked being on stage and I'd do it again in a heartbeat but acting in a series is so much easier." Perrie closed the sketch book.

"I did singing too but not as advanced as you." Jade crossed her legs. "All of you have done professional things while this is my first. I hope it won't be obvious that I'm a rookie when people start watching."

"Jungkook was in something before this? What? A diaper commercial? Ha ha. Get it? 'Cause he's young?" Perrie was usually the youngest wherever she went so it was nice to have someone else to fill that position.

"Perrie we're all really young." Jade giggled. "And he was in something pretty big. Just for a short moment. It was something on Broadway."

"What play? He can sing?" Perrie didn't know that.

"I think they went for theatre kids except for Jesy and Leigh-Anne. Jesy and Leigh-Anne are the big names while the rest of us are the fresh faces. Although with Leigh-Anne she's way more massive than Jesy is. Everyone knows Leigh-Anne." Jade sighed dreamily at first but it became sad by the end.

"Yeah but they don't know about how bad her mam is. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Her dad seems nice and he's here but nothing's gonna change. I think her mam's controlling him too." Perrie was scrolling through her phone.

Jade was thoughtful. "Why do you say that?" Her mother had told her that she acquired the phone number of Leigh-Anne's dad and would contact him soon. But how soon is soon? They needed to do this quickly. Me mam's maybe thinking about it. Especially since they didn't know how dangerous Leigh-Anne's mom could be.

"He looked mad that Leigh-Anne had work to do on the weekend but he couldn't even do anything about it. That's really sad if you ask me. Why should a ten year old have to work on both Saturday and Sunday? And if she's his kid then why can't he just cancel the meetings? I bet her mam could beat Leigh-Anne up in front of him and he couldn't do a thing 'cause he's scared of her too." Perrie had come up with her own theory yesterday. "But that just makes the whole thing real sad 'cause there's no getting out for Leigh-Anne you know?" She sighed. "Oh well. In the next eight years she'll be her own person and she can leave."