One Whole and Perfect Day by Judith Clarke

Author:Judith Clarke [Clarke, Judith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-09-22T10:39:33+00:00

24 THE DRAMA SOCIETY

Lily knocked on the door of the staffroom and waited.

No one came.

She waited longer, a little uneasily, for there were girls who developed crushes on teachers, and came to the staff-room door pretending they had homework problems, simply for the delight of speaking to Mr Hallam or Mr James. Lily glanced nervously up and down the corridor – surely no one could mistake her for that kind of person? After all, it was Mr Corcoran she needed to see, and no one could suspect any girl, even a weird Year 8, of having a crush on Mr Corcoran, who was stout and middle-aged, and quite bald except for a tuft of gingery hair perched above each ear. He looked like a dozy old koala.

Mr Corcoran taught Drama, he ran the Drama Society, he organised the school production.

Daniel Steadman was in the Drama Society; Daniel Steadman was playing Hamlet in the school production. ‘Share his interests,’ Bestie said.

Lily knocked on the door again, and this time it opened, the merest little slit, and the cold grey eye of Ms Jossop, the Phys Ed teacher, peered out at Lily. ‘Yup?’

‘I – I’d like to talk to Mr Corcoran.’

Ms Jossop chuckled. ‘Really?’

‘It’s about the school production,’ said Lily quickly.

‘School production, eh? Good excuse.’ Ms Jossop winked at her.

‘What?’

Ms Jossop winked again.

‘No, really,’ protested Lily. Was Ms Jossop mad? Or was she simply joking? ‘I just want to ask him about joining up,’ she said, trying to keep a note of exasperation from her voice. ‘I don’t take Drama so I couldn’t ask him in class and –’

‘Jerry!’ Ms Jossop hollered back into the room. ‘Fan of yours out here!’

A fan. Lily’s face flamed. It was still flaming when Mr Corcoran appeared at the door, wobbling a little, as if his ample flesh hadn’t settled from the effort of rising from his orange vinyl chair. ‘Yup?’

Why did they all say ‘yup’?

‘I’m Lily Samson, Mr Corcoran, from 10B.’

‘Don’t take that lot.’

‘I know, Mr Corcoran. That’s why I’m here.’

‘Too late in the year to change classes.’

‘I know. I’ve come about joining the Drama Society, and the school production. It says on the noticeboard, ‘New members welcome.’

‘Old notice, that. Cast list for the production’s already filled.’

‘Oh, I don’t mean the cast, Mr Corcoran. I meant, something sort of – subsidiary.’

‘Subsidiary?’ Mr Corcoran scratched at an orange tuft, as if he wasn’t quite sure of the meaning of the word, or, had he been a real koala, the right kind of gum leaf to chew. Wasn’t Drama like English? Shouldn’t he know what ‘subsidiary’ meant? ‘Something sort of minor,’ Lily amended, just in case.

‘No miners in Hamlet, lassie. Only gentlemen and soldiers.’

Could he be serious? ‘I meant something like scene painting,’ she ventured. ‘Do you need anyone for scene painting?’

‘Year 7 has that dubious pleasure, lassie. Thursday nights, it is, in the art room.’ He snorted, his broad chest expanding slightly beneath a T-shirt which said, ‘Yorick Rules.’ ‘Reckon their parents think they’re safely down the pub.

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