Free Sleepover Girls Go Gymtastic! by Fiona Cummings

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