A Dream Come True by Cindy Jefferies

so?”
    â€œOf course. You’re full of ideas about everything that comes up. Let’s face it, almost every subject under the sun has been written about at some time. Journalism is all about finding different angles to engage a reader’s interest.”
    Ellie thought of her dad’s words in the notebook. “One day,” she said firmly. “Like you and your pots, Sophie.” She tidied away the remains of her lunch and got up. “Well, I’d better go and see what the dragons have got for me to do this afternoon. See you later!”
    Upstairs, everything was calm. Piano had a couple of Ferdinand’s costumes on her desk and was making a start on an article. Carlotta was dealing with what sounded like a rather difficult person on the telephone and Francesca emerged from Angel’s office looking the happiest she’d been all day.
    â€œYou said you’d done your article on the Lowthers, didn’t you?”
    Ellie nodded. “It’s on the system in my folder,” she said.
    â€œI’ll look at it now,” said Francesca. “I’ve got a few minutes. Make sure you don’t slope off anywhere until I’ve read it. Don’t worry,” she said, seeing the apprehensive expression on Ellie’s face. “Piano can always rewrite the article if yours isn’t quite up to our standard.”
    That wasn’t what Ellie wanted to hear, but at least Francesca was going to read it. She might have insisted that Ellie and Piano wrote it together, without even giving her a chance to do it on her own.
    While she waited for the verdict, Ellie unpacked a box of next season’s T-shirts that had been sent up by the Fashion Department. They were going to be in a chain of high-street stores, and Heart would be reviewing them. Piano drifted past and touched one of them with an immaculately polished nail.
    â€œI wouldn’t wear any of those, even if you paid me,” she said grandly. “But I suppose the designer took Angel out for lunch.” She sighed theatrically and glanced at Ellie.
    Ellie thought about how useful a favourable review would be to the designer and the high-street stores. Maybe designers did buy Angel lunch from time to time, but Ellie couldn’t imagine her being swayed by a meal. For the first time she realized how influential magazines could be. Ellie had never considered that she might be influenced by Heart , but she realized that every month she did take notice of articles and photographs, and she would quite often look out for something she’d seen in it. Magazines like Heart must be very important to shops and fashion designers. No wonder they tried hard to get into the pages as often as possible.
    Ellie had never fancied being a model, but it was exciting to see the new ranges before they even went into the shops. She must remember to ask Francesca about borrowing things to wear. She’d never get a straight answer from Piano or Carlotta.
    She was just clearing away the vast amount of tissue that had been used in the T-shirt packaging when Francesca appeared with an unreadable expression on her face. “Leave that,” she said. “I want you at my desk. Come on. Hurry up!”

“How on earth did you think this would do?” Francesca was looking more annoyed than Ellie had ever seen her before. “I thought you said you’d read our magazine?”
    â€œOf course I have!”
    â€œWell, if you had you’d know that our readers love Pop ’n’ Lolly Lowther. The last thing they want to read is subtle comments that hint at how big-headed Pop is without actually saying it.”
    â€œWhat? I didn’t write anything like that!”
    Francesca threw a couple of pieces of paper onto her desk. One slid onto the floor and Ellie bent to pick it up. It was a printout of her article, with comments all over it in red pen. “I think you’ll find you did,” she said