Best Friends Rock! by Cindy Jefferies

one thing for her to consider pulling out of the interview, but quite another if he thought she wasn’t worth talking to.
    â€œYeah, well. It’s not easy pretending to be someone else.”
    Ellie stared at the frowning boy in front of her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said at last. “Do you mean you’re trying to behave like your father but don’t really want to? Actually, I was going to ask if you felt very different from your dad.”
    Now it was his turn to stare at her. “No!” he said, taking a handful of the crisps she was holding and throwing himself back into his chair. “No way!”
    Ellie sat down and waited until he’d chomped the crisps and brushed the worst of the crumbs from his T-shirt. “Well what do you mean?”
    Joe Steel was having difficulty meeting Ellie’s eyes. “I feel kinda bad.”
    â€œYou don’t need to feel bad,” said Ellie, sympathetically. “It can’t be easy.”
    He looked at her now, and the smile was back, reaching his eyes as well as his mouth. “You’re really great, you know that? I thought you’d be some old lady journalist, but you’re my sort of age. That was a real shock. That’s why I can’t do this. It’s not fair.”
    Ellie couldn’t help smiling back at him, but she was even more confused than before. “I still don’t understand what the problem is,” she said. “All I wanted to do was ask you a few questions about what life is like, spending the summer touring around with your dad.”
    â€œThat’s just it,” he said. “I’m not spending the summer with my dad.” He must have seen the confusion in her expression because he leaned forward until he was looking right into her face. “Rocky Steel isn’t my dad.”
    Ellie was thrown into turmoil. If Rocky wasn’t Joe’s real father, who was? And what did that do to the interview? She wished she’d done more research. How long had Joe’s mum and Rocky been together? Had Joe only recently become the stepson of a rock star? If so, surely the whole interview was pointless? She had to try and rescue something out of this mess. Then another thought struck her. Could this be something to do with the divorce? Had it just come out that Joe wasn’t really Rocky’s son?
    Ellie didn’t really want to say anything about that sorry mess, but she had to do something, so she looked at him sympathetically. “So he’s actually your stepfather?”
    Joe was shaking his head.
    â€œNo! No! I’m trying to explain but you just don’t get it. Rocky Steel isn’t my dad…because I’m not Joe.”
    Ellie fumbled to put the bowl of crisps onto the table without dropping them. “You’re not Joe Steel?” she said faintly.
    â€œNo.” The boy studied his shoes. “I’m not…Sorry.”
    Ellie was reeling from this piece of information, but she tried to remain calm. “Then who are you?” she asked at last.
    â€œI’m Connor.”
    â€œConnor who?”
    â€œConstantis…but you won’t have heard of me.”
    â€œYou’re right. I haven’t.” The thought struck Ellie that she had jumped to conclusions when he…Connor had appeared. Had she asked him who he was? No, she didn’t think she had. She’d simply introduced herself, and assumed that he was the boy she’d been expecting. It must all be her fault…but then…surely any normal person would have put her right straight away? Why hadn’t he? Ellie’s embarrassment quickly turned to annoyance. How dare this… person come strolling in here, impersonating Joe Steel. How had he managed it? He’d seemed nice , but maybe he wasn’t as nice as she’d thought. He’d been taking advantage of her. He’d been eating Heart ’s nibbles, and