Dance-off!. Harriet Castor

Чтение книги онлайн.

      Oops! I’m getting ahead of myself. I shouldn’t be talking about Fliss’s disaster yet. I must tell you the story in the right order, or the others will be on my back! So, where was I?

      Ah, yes. The week of Kenny’s sleepover. Well, I was looking forward to that sleepover, big time – and I knew I wouldn’t be the only one. But when I met up with the others at school the next morning, Fliss seemed to be in an odd mood. She looked about as happy as a wet weekend.

      “Ready for our prancing class, then?” asked Kenny, slapping her on the back.

      “Huh? Oh, yeah…” said Fliss uncertainly.

      “What’s up, Fliss?” said Lyndz, getting all concerned. “Has something happened at home?”

      “No,” said Fliss. “Well – kind of…” She fiddled with one of her plaits. Then she blurted out, “Mum says we’re going skiing in the holidays!”

      There was a split second of silence. Then Frankie and Kenny screamed together: “Skiing??” And Lyndz said, “But that’s a brilliant thing!”

      “I know it is,” said Fliss. “And I’ll get a gorgeous tan, Mum says. And we’ll have to go shopping for the special clothes and everything…”

      Kenny was rolling her eyes by this point. “What’s eating you, then?”

      “Well, being away for the whole of the time we’re off school,” said Fliss. “It’ll be weird, not seeing you lot. And…” She hesitated. “I’ve not skiied before, and I’m kind of nervous.”

      “You’re right to be,” said Kenny, nodding, and putting on her really serious BBC2 documentary voice. “Skiing is very dangerous. If you don’t keep exactly to the right path, you might fall down some hidden ravine. And you’ll lie at the bottom with both your legs broken, and no one will be able to hear your cries for help…”

      “Kenny, cut it out!” squeaked Lyndz. Fliss looked terrified. Kenny cracked a grin. She wants to be a doctor and loves scaring us with tales of horrific ER-type injuries – the gorier the better.

      “I’m so jealous!” said Frankie. “Fliss, it’ll be brilliant! Are you all going? Callum too?”

      Fliss nodded. “There are some little kids’ lessons that Callum can go to,” she said.

      Just then the bell rang, so there was no more time to discuss the hardships of Fliss’s luxury holiday – or tomorrow’s sleepover, which it struck me we’d hardly planned at all yet.

      It turned out that it was going to be our turn for the dance workshop after morning break. When the time came and we’d all got changed, we trooped into the school hall. Some of the class were looking excited, some (the boys and Kenny, mainly) looked like they were about to go to the dentist’s.

      The dancers – a man and a woman – were already there waiting for us. They were both lean and fit-looking, and were standing up really straight, as if they had broom-handles instead of spines. Their smiles were friendly, though. Still, everyone immediately went shy and started shuffling around the edges of the room.

      “I thought they’d be a bit more glamorous,” Fliss whispered to me. She had a point. The dancers were dressed in faded, frayed old T-shirts and leggings that my mum would’ve put in the bin if they’d been mine.

      “I’d like to welcome our visitors to Cuddington Primary,” Mrs Weaver said, looking a bit flushed. “Children, this is Miss Lorna Baker, and Mr Sean Goldman. I’m sure we’d all like to thank them for giving up their valuable time to be with us.”

      The bloke, Sean, was pretty good-looking, with very dark curly hair. “D’you reckon Fliss’ll fall for the tall dark stranger?” Kenny whispered, nudging me in the ribs. Despite her disappointment about the clothes, Fliss looked bright-eyed and excited.

      We tease Fliss quite a lot about boys. She’s definitely soppier than the rest of us, mainly about Ryan Scott, this boy in our class she wants to marry when she’s older. I mean – Ryan Scott? Yeuch! But that’s Fliss for you. I guess she’s into romance and hearts and flowers and all that stuff. The rest of us are more into girl power, thank you very much.

      I was convinced that Lorna and Sean were going to have us pointing our toes and skipping about, just like Kenny had said. But what we actually did came as a big surprise.

      First off, there were a few warm-up stretches. Nothing fancy, just reaching to the ceiling and touching your toes-type stuff. Then we played a game.

      “It’s called the Newspaper Game,” explained Lorna. “First of all you need to find a partner.”

      The Sleepover Club dived for one another, of course. But – major problemo. There are five of us! Because of where we were standing, Kenny and Frankie dived for each other and so did Lyndz and I. That left Fliss, of course, looking a bit miz.

      “Grab Ryan!” hissed Kenny teasingly, but Lyndz called out, “Come with us in a three!” and seized Fliss’s wrist СКАЧАТЬ