Sleepover Girls Go Gymtastic! (9 page)

As soon as we were all there, we joined a queue of other girls waiting to get inside. And once we were at the front we gave our names to a woman with a clipboard. Another woman showed us to a section of the main hall that had been screened off as a warm-up area.

“You’re in Group One in the first competition area,” she told us.

Apparently there were two sets of judges simultaneously judging competitors on two exercise floors. They would each choose five groups who would go on to the proper final the following weekend.

“Look, there’s a camera over there!” Fliss suddenly shrieked excitedly. “It’s just like
Popstars
!”

A camera crew was moving around the edge of the warm-up area, filming people going through their paces. Some girls were completely ignoring them and doing the most amazing stretches, you know, with their legs behind their ears, or doing the splits on the floor.

“They’ve got to have done this before,” Rosie whispered.

Other girls were crowding round the cameras and the presenter from the local news.

“Look, we’ll just have to ignore them and get on with practising our own routine,” Frankie told us seriously. “We’re never going to win this competition if we don’t even warm up.”

We stripped off to our leotards and followed her on to the warm-up area. I was kind of used to stretching out because of all the sports I play, but Lyndz and Rosie were looking a bit lost.

“Just do what I do,” I hissed, and stood on one leg pulling my other foot to my bottom.

“This stretches out your quads,” I told them.

“You what?”

“That’s the muscle down the front of your thigh, dimbos!” I grinned.

Fliss meanwhile was trying desperately to look as though she stretched out every day of her life. As the rest of us started to run through a few of the moves from our routine, she flew over to us in a fluster.

“The camera crew is coming this way!”

Sure enough, the presenter was heading straight for us. We tried to act all cool and relaxed. But it wasn’t easy when Fliss was dribbling with excitement.

“Hi girls, I’m Julia Ward,” the woman smiled at us. “Would you mind if I had a quick chat to you about the competition?”

For a few seconds we all froze with terror.

“Nah, ’course not,” I grinned. “As long as you don’t mind Fliss cracking your camera!”

Fliss smacked me, the cameraman started laughing and that was it really; there was no stopping us.

“So what made you enter the competition?” Julia asked.

“Well it keeps us out of mischief,” I replied, straight-faced.

“You’re not kidding. Kenny’s been making us practise for
weeks
!” Lyndz sighed, and Rosie and Frankie pretended to faint with exhaustion.

“Even when I was
really
ill I kept practising,” Fliss told her seriously. “We really want to win the competition you see, because…”

The rest of us were mugging away and pulling faces behind Fliss’s back but Frankie suddenly turned into Mr Sensible.

“What Fliss means is that we’re really looking forward to entering the competition for the experience,” she explained. “Being part of the whole thing is much more important than winning.”

Fliss flashed her a look, but Julia seemed very impressed.

“And just one last thing, girls. I see you’re wearing badges with ‘SC’ on them. What does that stand for?”

“The Sleepover Club!” we all shouted back.

“Well it’s been great to meet you.” She turned back to the camera and said, “We’ll look forward to seeing the Sleepover Club later, but now let’s see some of the groups already performing.

“Bye girls!” she waved as she followed the camera crew to the arena.

“That was amazing!” Fliss gushed. “Just think, we’re going to be on telly!”

“I don’t know about that, but the competition’s already started, look.” Frankie pointed to our competition area. “We’d better run through our routine one more time and then watch some of the others. It might be our turn soon.”

The warm-up area was pretty deserted with most other groups crowding round one of the two arenas. The routine seemed to go pretty OK, although of course we didn’t have the music to guide us.

“You have got the cassette, haven’t you Kenny?” Fliss asked me for about the millionth time.

“No, actually I’ve just eaten it, Fliss,” I snapped back. “’Course I have. Will you stop panicking?”

But I guess we all started panicking a bit when we saw the other competitors in action. Some of them were amazing, performing really complicated moves with backflips and flick-flacks and everything.

“We don’t stand a chance, do we?” Rosie moaned.

“They’re looking for raw talent,” I reminded her. “Some of these people look as though they’ve been going to gym class since they were in nappies, and that’s not what the competition’s about. They’re trying to encourage new people to take it up, remember.”

“Well I hope you’ve noticed that everyone else is performing to show tunes,” Fliss hissed nastily. “If they don’t like our music, it’s all your fault.”

“I bet the judges are bored out of their brains by show tunes now,” I told her. “They’ll be really relieved to hear something different.”

“Well we’re about to find out,” Frankie told us. “The woman over there has just called for ‘The Sleepover Club’ to come forward. We’re on next!”

It’s hard to describe how I felt as we were waiting to run out into the arena. Part of me was really fired up and I wanted to punch the air and yell, “Bring it on!” But part of me wished I could run away. Because the hall had been divided into two areas there wasn’t much room for spectators, so the only people watching were other competitors. But that made it worse in a way, because they obviously wouldn’t be wanting us to do well.

We held hands as we waited for the woman to announce us, and as soon as we heard, “And our next competitors are – The Sleepover Club!” we ran into the middle of the floor together.

Julia Ward was standing at the side with the cameraman. She gave us a big grin and a thumbs-up sign.

“They’re not going to be filming us, are they?” Fliss whispered under her breath.

“Dunno, but give it your best shot,” I whispered back.

I handed our cassette to a woman and we took up our starting positions. Suddenly the music boomed out. I think it was a bit of a shock to most people because it was so different. It was almost as though you could hear everyone gasp. But, and I know this is going to sound kind of stupid, we could feel a sort of buzz coming from the audience. And soon everyone’s toes were tapping for sure.

We tried to pretend we were just performing for ourselves and that nobody was watching, which kind of calmed the nerves a bit. I performed my solo routine first and it was pretty darned perfect. My walkover-cartwheel combo was spot-on, even if I say so myself. That kind of gave the others a boost and Frankie did just about the best arabesque and forward roll I’d ever seen her do. And even I have to admit that Fliss was absolutely brilliant. She was like a gazelle and went about a mile in the air when she did her stag leap.

Rosie was next, and when she held her handstand I thought she’d never come down again. She never wobbled or anything, but I think she was so pleased with herself she missed her cue for her forward roll which meant she was late finishing her solo.

Poor Lyndz. She was worked up about things beforehand, but when she realised that she’d have to start her routine before Rosie had quite finished hers, you could see the panic spread across her face. She looked just like a rabbit caught in the headlights – scared is the understatement of the year!

Actually, old Lyndz was really very good in the end. Her log-roll went a bit off-course though and her ‘SC’ badge came unstuck and dropped off. She hesitated a bit before sitting up, not quite knowing whether she should pick it up or not. But she didn’t, and followed straight through with her backward roll. Unfortunately the badge decided to re-attach itself – to the top of her head.

Rosie saw it first and started to splutter. Then I realised what was up, and had to swallow hard so I didn’t start snorting with laughter. Somehow we all got through our circle roll finale, which went down a storm. By the time we finished I swear that everyone was cheering much louder for us than they had for anyone else.

“Did you hear that?” I gabbled excitedly when we’d taken our bows and run off. “The crowd loved us!”

“We’re bound to be picked for the final now, aren’t we?” Fliss gushed. “And the camera crew is coming over too! That’s got to be a good sign!”

Julia Ward was full of praise for us, and we chatted and laughed about how nervous we’d been. I was on such a high that I can’t really remember
what
we talked about. Or for how long. All I do know is that it only seemed a couple of minutes before someone told us that the judges were going to announce which groups would be going through to the final.

“Is it OK if we stick with you and film your reactions?” Julia asked us.

“Of course it’s OK!” Fliss beamed smugly. Then she whispered to the rest of us, “We’re hardly going to refuse to have our moment of glory captured on film, are we?”

My heart was almost bursting out of my chest as the chairperson made a speech about how impressed they’d been by the standard of competitors, and how it gave her confidence for the future of gymnastics in this country.

“And finally the moment you’ve all been waiting for…”

She read out five names which we didn’t even recognise.

“They must have been the ones in the other group,” Frankie whispered.

Then she started with names from our part of the competition. Every time she spoke, my heart beat even harder. I was sure you’d be able to see it popping out of my chest. I don’t really remember the camera filming us, but I do remember us all clinging to each other and Fliss chanting, “Please let the next one be us!”

By the time there was just one more group to announce, Fliss was clinging to my hand so hard that I’d lost all feeling in my fingers.

“And finally,” the chairperson announced. “The last group to go through to the final is… The Sleep…”

“… The Sleeping Tigers!”

Just for a second there, I really thought we’d won. In fact Fliss had already leapt off the ground before she realised it wasn’t us. A cheer went up from the back of the hall – it was from one of the groups of boys. They were all jumping around, punching each other and doing high fives.

I turned to the others. They were looking dead miserable and Fliss had big tears welling up in her eyes. Unfortunately there was still a great big camera pointing right in my face. I’d almost forgotten that we were still being filmed. It wasn’t going to look good if we were big cry-baby losers, now was it?

“Well,” I looked straight into the camera. “I guess we were just too good for this lot!”

Julia Ward laughed. “Aren’t you disappointed that you haven’t got through to the final?” she asked. “Wouldn’t you have liked the chance to learn to do gymnastics properly and be filmed at the same time?”

We all looked at each other.

“Nah!”

We cracked up laughing, although Fliss was still looking a bit tearful and wobbly.

“We’ve really had a great time and everything,” Frankie explained. “But to be absolutely honest, gymnastics is much harder work than we thought.”

“You’re not kidding!” I agreed. “We’re absolutely
exhausted
now.”

I stuck my thumb in my mouth and pretended to fall asleep on Fliss’s shoulder.

“Gerroff!” she shrugged, but even she had started laughing.

“But at least Lyndz has discovered a new hair accessory,” I said seriously, and pulled my SC badge from my leotard and stuck it on my head.

The others did the same and we started striking mad model-type poses in front of the camera.

Julia Ward was cracking up, but she managed to say, “Well girls, although you didn’t win, you’ve certainly given us a lot of pleasure.”

Then she turned to the camera and said, “Now let’s go and interview some of the successful finalists.”

She gave us a wave and mouthed, “well done” before heading into the throng of excited bodies crowding round the judges’ tables.