Pop Star Princess Read Free Page A

she?”
    â€œDad, can we buy a paper, please?” asked Poppy.
    Dad agreed and the girls decided to tuck it into Poppy’s bag and take it to read with the rest of the band.
    â€œHi, girls!” said Rose as Poppy and Honey walked into the summer house.
    â€œHi!” they replied as they both flopped onto a beanbag and joined in the general chat.
    â€œHow’s the house you’re staying in?” asked Daisy. “I can’t wait to see it.”
    â€œOh, it’s amazing!” Poppy replied. “We’re having such a cool time here.”

    â€œIt’s brilliant that you’re staying in the Cove,” said Lily. “We’ll be able to fit so much more practice in before the contest.”
    â€œI’m worried that Lilac Farrington and her band are going to win,” Daisy said.“Lilac always wins everything and comes top in all the exams at school. Our song is really good, but they
look
so good. Plus, Lilac was telling me they have a great song too. They’re doing all their rehearsals down in a cave near Sandy Bottom because they don’t want to let anyone hear it before the sound check.”
    â€œOh, that reminds me,” said Poppy as she fished around in her bag for something. “Dad bought us a local paper. There’s something in it about the contest and Lilac. Look!”
    Daisy grabbed the paper and quickly scanned through the article, reading certain bits aloud:
    â€œâ€˜
I’m feeling lucky – I really think we could win this,’ said Lilac. ‘And
You’re a Star!
is my all-time favourite show!’ she continued
. . .”
    â€œHow is it that she gets asked to give interviews in the newspaper and we never get the chance?” wondered Lily.
    â€œThat’s because her dad, our beastly headmaster, Mr Farrington, is friends with one of the judges. They always ask one local person, apparently, and our local judge is Mr Simms, the bookseller, who provides the school with all their textbooks,” explained Daisy.
    â€œIt’s so not fair,” complained Rose.
    â€œI know,” agreed Daisy. “But as long as we’re original and we practise loads, I suppose we’ve got as good a chance of winning as Lilac has, even if our dads aren’t friends with one of the judges and we’re not being interviewed in the local paper.”
    She pulled out her file all about thecontest. “See – on this entry form it says:
Original material will be favoured
.”
    â€œWell, our song is
totally
original, because we wrote it ourselves,” said Rose. “Let’s forget about Lilac and concentrate on us. There’s nothing we can do about it anyway.”
    â€œWho else is appearing in the contest?” asked Honey, trying to steer the conversation away from the gorgeous Lilac, who seemed to be denting everyone’s confidence.
    The older girls told them about a local Elvis impersonator called Jamie Johnston. And a sweet little girl called April, who was singing a medley from
Grease
.
    â€œHey, guess what my brother told me about the boys’ band, Caves ’n’ Rocks?” said Lily. “Apparently they’ve written a song all about cars called
Gearhead
.”
    â€œWow, that sounds super dull – nothing to worry about there then,” smiled Rose.
    Although no one said it aloud, they were quite convinced it was only Lilac and the Mermaids that stood between the Beach Babes and the big finals in the City.
    â€œLet’s get on with our rehearsal, shall we?” said Daisy positively. “We’ve really got to work on the tricky musical bits to make sure we’re note perfect on the big day. Your dad will be collecting you and Honey for supper soon, Poppy, so we haven’t got much time today.”
    The next morning, the girls met at the Lighthouse Café. With all the fuss about the contest – some of the people from the local TV station were