I Bet

Chapter 3

The next day seemed to last forever. Me and Nat painted for hours, adding bright, quirky colours to the drab home and doodling our own decorations on the walls also. We scrubbed and sanded old furniture found in charity shops and sales to redecorate and paint to fit each room. It was slowly coming together, but with so much paint needed we soon ran out before we had even finished the third room.

"Will you go nip down that shop you went to buy some more paint?" Natalie asked, dragging her paintbrush around the empty tin to catch any last drops of paint lingering in the bottom.

"Oh yeah Nat, because tiny convenience stores obviously sell flipping buckets of paint!" I sarcastically remarked, slightly angry that she wanted to send me out again like some little slave.

"No need to get cocky! We'll just have to drive down to Wickes, I have no clue if there's one round here though." She suggested, rummaging in the box we kept our money in. She emerged with one ten pound note.

"That's all we have?" I questioned, blinking at the meagre amount of money in her hand.

"Well I have some money in the bank but I promised I wouldn't start eating into that until I got a proper job..." She mumbled, fiddling with the paper money. Her face looked squished up as if in deep thought about how we could even manage to scrape some money together.

I sighed. "I'll look through some of my bags, see if I have any money in them. There's surely a purse somewhere with thirty quid in it or something."

I trundled across the landing and into the main bedroom, pulling bags out of the wardrobe and sifting through them to see if there was any money. There wasn't. I found two pound coins in one of my coat pockets but that was about it. Grabbing the last bag I dangled it over the bed and turned it upside down, shaking any of the remains onto the soft mattress. Tissues, chocolate, phone, lipstick, leaflet. No money. I picked up the stuff and rammed it back into my bag, angered at the fact we were skint and we had nothing to do. I unfolded the leaflet and peered at it, reading again what was printed on.

Auditions for a new singing sensation! Abbey Road Studios are looking for a new singer and it could be you! Come and show us your voice!

I didn't read the rest. This could be what we needed. What did this little studio want? Probably just someone to sing a few things for some backing track and then they get paid, right? I could earn some money with this. Okay, so I wasn't perfect at singing. But I wasn't terrible and I couldn't think of any other way of getting cash. I looked at the date printed on the bottom of the leaflet; yesterday and today. I smiled and folded it up, slipping it into my pocket and scrambling through my wardrobe to get changed out of my grubby, paint splattered clothes. I slipped some light-wash skinny jeans on and a pink floral shirt, grabbing my brown bag with the tassels dangling from the bottom and slid it onto my shoulder. I gave my hair a quick brush and quickly placed a flower crown on my head before hurrying down the stairs and heading to the door.

"I'll be back in a bit!" I shouted to Natalie and pushed my feet into my brown loafers, scrambling out of the door and up the street. Wait, was this studio the place where all them girls were lining up yesterday? Ugh, there was so many people there. Surely there wouldn't be anyone here today after all that. They probably all auditioned then. I clicked my tongue, quickening the pace as I forgot to bring a coat so my arms were collecting goose bumps from the wind. When I was quite close to the building I realised it was large and looked very fancy. There was nobody hanging around outside the door apart from a man in a suit having a fag. Was I the only one here today? Good, maybe they'd remember me more. I pushed open the large glass door and the warm air suddenly hit my body, making me tense my muscles for a split second before relaxing again. I hurried into the big room, heading towards the desk where a friendly lady sat, her jet black hair tied up in a pristine ponytail and her red lipstick brighter than a tomato. I smiled at her and fiddled with a tassel on my bag. "I'm here for the singing auditions?"