Pop Star Princess (8 page)

The girls perked up a bit at this idea.

“Yes,” agreed Daisy. “We could call it
High School Blues
. That could work. But it won't be as cool as
Chocolate Sundae Girls
. That was the best song we've ever written.”

All the girls murmured their agreement, but they did not want to be left out of the contest so they settled down to some serious song-writing.

“How does this sound?” asked Lily.

“That's a great start, Lil!” said Daisy. “We could really work with that. But I can't think of a good dance idea and there's not enough time to ask Claudine.”

“Let's just concentrate on the song, shall we?” said Rose. “I don't feel in the mood for dancing anyway. Why do such unfair things happen? Why do the goodies always win in the movies, but in real life the baddies always win?”

“No, Rose,” Lily said sagely. “It's just that in real life the goodies take much longer to win. But let's not give up. Let's get on with this song – I'm sure we can make it work.”

Daisy burst into floods of
tears. “But the other song is great too – how dare she do this to us! It's so mean.”

The girls comforted their friend, who was normally so positive. Somehow they would get through this – they knew they were in the right.

BACK AT THE
Pebbles, Grandpa had some time to think and came up with another idea. He turned to his two distraught daughters, Lavender and Delphi, both nursing cups of tea and aching over the problems facing their beloved girls.

“What if you were to go down to the cave where Lilac and the Mermaids rehearse and keep their stuff? After all, that's where I overheard their song. Perhaps that way we could find some proof of what they've been
up to. Maybe our girls' lost song sheet will be there – who knows?”

Delphi and Lavender liked the idea and thought it was worth a try.

“Let's take the girls with us. They deserve to see what's going on in there,” said Mum.

“OK, why not wait until they're finished in the summer house?” said Grandpa. “Maybe I'll come too, to save you getting lost.”

So, after Daisy, Poppy and Honey had had some lunch, they all followed Grandpa down to the beach. As they passed the newsagent's, they saw yet another newspaper article with Lilac's face splashed below it.
MY SONG IS A WINNER
! screamed the headline.

Poppy and Daisy were furious.

“Ignore it!” said Mum. “We know the truth, and hopefully everyone else will know it soon too.”

Before long they were creeping around sand dunes and through long, jaggy grasses, scrambling over rocky outcrops, heading down to the beach. Soon they reached the mouth of the big cave. They entered as quietly as possible – they could hear girls' voices and see shadowy figures in the gloom. They had stumbled on Lilac and the rest of the Mermaids having a full-scale row. Poppy and her family hid behind a cluster of rocks near the entrance to the cave and listened to what was going on.

“This is all about you, Lilac. You don't care about us!
You just want to be famous. You're using us,” stormed Fern.

“You wouldn't even be in the contest if I hadn't found that song sheet!” retorted Lilac.

“So, you admit you found it then?” raged Lulu.

“They shouldn't have dropped it. Finders keepers, losers weepers,” said Lilac, who was beginning to sound a bit wobbly.

“But it's their song!” said Fern. “I feel sick. We're cheats and it's all your fault. You told us you'd written that song!”

Lilac burst into tears. “It's too late to back down now,” she sobbed.

Poppy and the others couldn't believe their ears.

Just then, Fern and Lulu stormed past them without even noticing that they were there.

“We're going to tell the judges the truth!” Fern called back to Lilac.

“No!” screamed Lilac. “I'll do anything. Please. Stand by me. I can't admit I lied. Can't we just withdraw from the contest and hope everyone forgets?”

“Stop it, Lilac!” yelled Fern. “Face the truth. I don't know how you thought you'd pull this off. We should have realized from
the start that we needed to spend more time on our song and to practise loads – like the Beach Babes did. We want to win too, but not like this!”

Lilac was still sobbing and shrieking.

Delphi, Lavender, Poppy, Daisy, Honey and Grandpa stayed out of view until a hysterical Lilac had also left the cave. They emerged from their hiding spot and walked over to the lovely ship Grandpa had found all those years ago.

“No wonder Dad's proud of it and so cross that the Colonel pretended he had found it himself!” said Poppy's mum to her sister.

“What a family!” agreed Aunt Delphi as they began to look around for Lily's original song sheet.

“It's not here. It must be in her house,” said Daisy.

“Don't worry, darling,” said Aunt Delphi.
“I think her friends are going to help us get to the bottom of this situation. Let's go back.”

Daisy looked at her younger cousin. “Truth will out!” she whispered.

Poppy grinned happily back at her.

When they got back from the cave, Poppy, Honey and Daisy called an urgent band meeting in the summer house. Daisy told the other girls what had happened in the cave and suggested that rather than preparing a whole new song and routine, they must just hope that Lulu and Fern would keep their word and that the truth would come out by Friday.

All the girls decided to go their separate ways for the evening, each desperately hoping that things would work out but trying really hard not to get their hopes up too much.

“Let's all meet in the Lighthouse Café in
the morning,” suggested Rose. “After all, we have no need to hide ourselves away. We've done nothing wrong.”

“Good idea,” replied Daisy.

It was agreed they would gather at ten o'clock. They all had an early supper and went to bed. No one could believe how the mood had changed since the beginning of the week. That night, everyone at The Pebbles was still nervous that Fern and Lulu would chicken out of telling the judges about Lilac.

The next morning, all the girls and their mums met at the Lighthouse Café as arranged. They had still not heard any official good news about Lilac and the Mermaids. The café was brimming with people, but as soon as they arrived, Fleur excitedly invited them into the kitchen to tell them the news she had been hearing all morning.

“Lilac's band members have apparently kicked her out, saying she can't sing for toffee. Which she can't! And they're furious that she is hogging all the attention and leaving them out in the cold. The word is that they admit she found your song sheet here and took it!” concluded Fleur, grinning from ear to ear.

At first the Beach Babes were silent. Then they began to whoop with delight. Maybe things were going be all right after all.

“I knew the truth would out,” Aunt Delphi said, smiling.

“Hang on a minute!” replied Mum. “Let's go down to the
You're a Star!
office to check all this before we get too excited, shall we?”