Ellie worked hard on her article and, thankfully, apart from sending her out twice on errands for Angel, Piano mostly left her in peace.

As for Carlotta, Ellie hadn’t wanted to fall out with her, but reluctantly assumed that she’d lost her ally. However, to Ellie’s delight, Carlotta seemed to have forgiven her and was ready to be friends again. She wanted to know all about the interview, and Ellie tried to tell her as much as possible, without giving the impression she was bragging. It was great not to be shunned, but Carlotta seemed to be happy to chat all day, whereas Ellie wanted to get on with her article. In the end, Ellie simply had to ask her politely to stop talking, so she could work.

As the receptionist turned away with a pout, Ellie sighed. Now Carlotta would probably hate her again. It was an awful lot easier dealing with Piano. Ellie might not like Angel’s assistant, but at least she was consistent in treating Ellie as if she was some sort of pond life.

At one point, Francesca found time to come over and give her a bit of advice, which Ellie was most grateful for.

“Try hinting at the most exciting item at the beginning of your article, and then go into more detail about it towards the end. That’s the way to keep your readers hooked,” she said.

“Thanks, Francesca!” Ellie looked at the first sentence, and rewrote it.

I thought it was exciting enough to be photographed with two of my fave people, but Pop ’n’ Lolly hinted that they would give me and Heart an exclusive scoop too!

By the end of the day Ellie was happy with what she’d written. She had tried to answer most of the questions readers liked to ask, and had added a bit about Lolly’s hopes for her medical career. At the end she’d mentioned Pop’s new project, and tried to make it clear that Heart would be in a position to tell all when the time came.

“I’ll read it through as soon as I can,” said Francesca when Ellie described what she’d done.

Ellie pushed her notebook into her bag and got ready to leave. As she went through to change her shoes in the lobby she met Piano, who was coming back from an errand.

“Pop Lowther was having a good laugh earlier, wasn’t she?” Piano said, kicking off her outdoor shoes.

“What do you mean?” asked Ellie.

“Well…” Piano slipped on a pair of brilliant blue court shoes with see-through heels and smiled. “Saying she liked your dress. What a joke!” She pushed past Ellie and sauntered back to the office. Ellie stared at her back, trying without success not to feel upset. She was still smarting when Carlotta came for her coat.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t talk more to you today,” Ellie apologized. “But I really had to get that article written while the interview was fresh in my mind.”

Carlotta didn’t smile back. “You’ve got so up yourself,” she said. “It’s pathetic.”

Ellie was stung. “I’m sorry,” she said, swallowing her anger. “I do realize how lucky I am. But I’ll be out of here very soon, and I’m sure you’ll get your chance then.”

Carlotta looked even more angry. “Don’t patronize me,” she snapped. “And don’t bank on that article of yours getting into the magazine. It won’t.”

Ellie couldn’t help replying. “You don’t know that!”

Carlotta sneered. “It’s the photographs Angel really wanted. She’ll put them in and not bother with an article. Captions will do, and Piano or I will do those.”

“Well it was fun meeting the Lowthers,” said Ellie, determined to be positive in the face of Carlotta’s spitefulness. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

“I suppose it would have been a big thrill for you,” said Carlotta pityingly, ignoring the fact that she’d wanted to hear all about it not long ago.

Ellie couldn’t bring herself to reply. She flung on her coat and hurried off to catch the bus.

“Hey!” called Sophie, running to catch her up before she could reach the front entrance. “Come on! Tell all. Was it fabulous?” One look at Ellie’s face was all Sophie needed. She put her arm round Ellie and drew her back into the lift and down into the basement. “Did it really go badly? I’m sure it was better than you think.”

Ellie shrugged off Sophie’s arm, thumped into a chair and folded her arms. “It was brilliant,” she told Sophie, with a furious expression on her face. “The Lowthers were great, I remembered what to do, and I’ve finished the article. Thanks to a tip from Francesca I really think it’s got a good chance of being published. I was feeling fantastic until Piano and Carlotta got their teeth into me. And I thought Carlotta liked me. Then she didn’t for a bit, then she did, and now she doesn’t again. It’s crazy!”

Sophie sighed. “You just have to try and ignore them,” she said. “I know they can be pretty poisonous, but it’s only jealousy. They would love to be able to interview people instead of running errands for Angel, but all they get to do is make up readers’ letters and make sure the horoscopes fit the available space.”

Ellie sighed. “They can both be so…horrible.” She gave Sophie a weak smile. “They don’t really make up the readers’ letters, do they?”

Sophie smiled back. “I invented that. I bet Heart gets loads of letters from readers, without Piano and Carlotta having to make them up. Let’s go and see if Flynn has managed to get the car out of that shoebox they call a car park. We’ll give you a lift home.”

“But it’s not on your way,” said Ellie, feeling almost completely cheered up.

“Flynn won’t mind. It looks like rain and we can’t have our celebrity interviewer getting wet in the bus queue, can we?”

Flynn insisted on driving Ellie all the way home, and so Ellie invited them both in for a cup of tea. When Ellie’s mum got in a few minutes later she found Ellie and two new faces sitting round the kitchen table, laughing happily together.

Ellie introduced them and poured her mum a mug of tea. In no time they were all listening to Ellie relive her day. Then Georgia wanted to know about Sophie’s pots.

“If the company would only give me a rise, Soph could give up the post room job and be a full-time potter,” said Flynn wistfully. “Instead of having to cram it into weekends and evenings.”

Sophie put her arm round Flynn and gave him a kiss. “That’s kind, but I don’t mind,” she said. “I have to make my pottery pay for itself. And you’ll get a rise eventually. I’m sure you will.”

Flynn grinned. “Either that, or you’ll sell that pot you keep in the post room for a fortune to some celebrity who wanders down there by mistake. Then I won’t have to work at all and you can keep me.”

“You wish!” Sophie tried to look scandalized and failed dismally.

When Sophie and Flynn eventually left, Ellie and her mum waved them off and went back into the kitchen to tidy up and start dinner.

“What lovely people,” said Georgia, with her head in the fridge. “I feel a lot happier with you in that place knowing you have those two looking out for you. Sophie at least gives the impression that she has her feet firmly on the ground.”

“And isn’t Flynn good-looking?” said Ellie, stacking the mugs in the dishwasher.

Georgia withdrew her head and appeared with a selection of vegetables to chop. “He’s obviously devoted to Sophie,” she said primly. Then she looked at Ellie and grinned like a teenager. “And yes, he is totally gorgeous,” she agreed. “But obviously taken, and much too old for you and much too young for me.”

“Mum!”

There was silence for a few minutes while chopping got under way. Then Ellie cleared her throat. “Do you think Carlotta was right? Will they dump my article and just print the pictures?”

Georgia stopped what she was doing and gave her daughter a hug. “I have no idea, love, but no one can take today away from you, can they? And it’s all practice, isn’t it? After all, I thought you wanted to be one of the best. That takes time.”

“Yes,” said Ellie thoughtfully. “Of course. I can’t expect to breeze in there and become a brilliant journalist overnight. But it would be nice to see at least a few of my words in print.”

Ellie resumed her chopping, thinking furiously. Mum’s right, she thought. I want to be a good journalist…the best I can be. And I’ve got Dad’s words to spur me on. I don’t care how horrible Piano and Carlotta are. I’m determined that eventually I can do this!