Sleepover Girls Go Gymtastic! (10 page)

“I know they’ve filmed us and everything, but do you think we will appear on TV?” Rosie asked wistfully as we watched Julia interviewing other people.

“I doubt it,” Frankie said. “It’ll only be on the local news for about a minute, so I bet they’ll just concentrate on those people who’ve got through.”

“I hope so,” Lyndz sighed. “I look really awful in this leotard.”

We collected our stuff and walked out of the Leisure Centre.

“Look guys, we might not have won, but it’s been an experience hasn’t it?” I asked. “We’ve been filmed even if we don’t end up on television this time. I mean, at least when we do get the chance to appear on TV again, we’ll know what to expect. We’ll be like old pros!”

“But I wanted to appear on TV
now,
” Fliss groaned. “It’s so unfair.”

“No it’s not, Fliss. The others must have been better than us, that’s all,” Frankie reasoned. “I mean, we’re not exactly natural gymnasts, are we?”

“Nope,” Rosie admitted. “But you were right before, Frankie. All that gymnastics lark
was
too much like hard work. Let’s face it, none of us are really cut out for it, are we?”

Fliss sniffed and narrowed her eyes meaningfully.

“Not even you Fliss,” Frankie agreed. “You’re much more model material, aren’t you?”

Fliss grinned and admired her reflection in one of the shop windows we were passing. Frankie raised her eyes at the rest of us and we had to stifle our giggles so as not to give the game away.

“Anyway guys, there are two good things as far as I can see,” Lyndz began seriously. “The first is that I can finally do a backward roll properly…”

We all cheered.

“… and the other is that we’ve got another sleepover to look forward to. It’s round at your place at four, isn’t it Kenny?”

“Sure is,” I grinned. “And we’ve no SATs to revise for, and no gymnastics to practise. Tonight girls, we’re just gonna have fun!”

Whooping and yelling, we all ran down the road like loonies. And it kind of carried on that way round at my house later. In fact we only flopped down in front of the television in the middle of the evening because we were so exhausted after charging round in the garden playing crazy chasing games.

“Aw no, it’s the news, bor-ing,” Rosie moaned as I channel-hopped.

“Turn it back Kenny,” Frankie ordered. “The gymnastics competition should be on.”

I flicked back. Sure enough, after a report on escalating car crime, there was Julia Ward at the Leisure Centre.

“This is it!” we all squealed. “Can anyone see us? Is that you, Frankie?”

We squinted at the screen trying to pick ourselves out from the background.

“Quick, record it Kenny, just in case.”

I didn’t have time to find a new videocassette so I slammed down the record button and prayed that whatever was on the video already in the machine, it wouldn’t be one of Dad’s precious documentaries.

“Look, look!” Fliss suddenly shrieked. “It’s us!”

And there we were, in full colour. It showed the interview before our performance, with us messing about and pretending to faint and everything. Then there was just a tiny glimpse of our performance in amongst loads of clips of other people’s.

“You’d think they could have shown all of ours,” Fliss tutted.

“But we didn’t win Fliss,” Rosie explained. “Oh no, here we are again.”

That was the bit with us listening to the results and larking about afterwards.

“I don’t believe it!” Lyndz grinned. “They featured us more than anyone else, even though we didn’t make it through to the final.”

“Star quality you see!” I grinned. “The offers will be pouring in now.”

We started to pretend that we were appearing in our own television series, until we were interrupted by Molly the Monster.

“All right saddos, clear off. I’m going to watch the programme Mum recorded about Robbie Williams now and you’re not, so GET OUT!”

We all looked at each other, and at the video recorder. Oh-oh. Time to make ourselves scarce! We raced up to the bedroom as fast as we could and locked the door behind us. Sure enough after about ten seconds there was a banging on the door, accompanied by Molly screaming:

“You did that on purpose didn’t you, you evil little cow! I’m going to kill you for this! And all your stupid friends too!”

It was class! I couldn’t have planned it better if I’d tried. Mum gave me a telling-off about being irresponsible and I had to apologise to Molly (puke) but it was still worth it just knowing how fuming she was.

We had to keep a pretty low profile for the rest of the evening. But even that was cool because we paraded about in my bedroom pretending we were TV stars. And of course we had to have the inevitable run-through of our gymnastic routine one more time – or one hundred and one more like!

But the absolute
best
thing was that when we got to school on Monday morning we were treated like superstars. Everyone had seen us on the television and they all wanted to know what it was like. Kids from Year One came up to us and just stared at us like we were great big international film stars or something. Brilliant! And the ultimate highlight was that we got right up the M&Ms’ noses because they couldn’t bear us having so much attention. When Mrs Weaver asked us to tell the rest of the class all about our experiences you should have seen their faces! They went so red with anger that I thought they were going to explode all over the classroom.

The whole thing was totally, totally wicked. And even though we didn’t win the competition, we’d only entered it in the first place so we could get on television and that had certainly come true.

Fliss of course is sure that some big talent scout is going to sign her up at any moment and give her her own TV show, but that’s Fliss for you. The rest of us are just thrilled it worked out like it did. Even Lyndz, because although I don’t think she’ll ever make a gymnast, she’s much more confident in PE now. And of course the fame thing is wicked – we’re milking it for all it’s worth. We’ve got to get into practice, you see, so when we’re major stars we can take it all in our stride.

I can’t believe now that we almost didn’t enter the competition because of the stupid SATs. It seems such a long time ago since we did them. We’re trying to forget about them actually because we won’t know how we got on ‘til summer. At least we all tried our best, so that should keep our parents happy.

Anyway, I’d better go now to sign more autographs for my adoring fans. I can’t keep them waiting, you know.

Catch ya’ later, dude!