been celebrating finding your voice by having a Christmas swim!â
âNot quite,â Chloe said. âBut I should go and get changed.â
âWell done with that voice,â Judge Jim said with a smile, offering his hand. She took it. But that didnât seem like enough. She was so happy, and she didnât want him to think she hadnât appreciated his advice, even though she hadnât been any good at taking it.
âThank you!â she said, and found herself giving him a big hug. At first he seemed surprised, and she wondered if sheâd done the right thing. Then he hugged her back, and she could hear his big, booming laugh echo through his chest.
Chloe hurried back to her room. Pop and Lolly had just showered and were drying their hair.
âHow are your dresses?â Chloe asked anxiously.
âWe rinsed them out and Mrs. Pinto is tumble-drying them,â Pop said. âSheâs keeping an eye on them. They should be all right if they donât get too hot.â
âThe seams might not dry in time,â added Lolly. âBut it wonât matter. We can wear them a bit damp. Howâs your voice?â
Chloe gathered her breath and powered up through a scale with the sort of volume Mr. Player had been asking her for all term. Pop shook her damp hair.
âThat is one truly awesome voice,â she said. âI canât believe youâve had that amazing sound locked away for so long!â
âGreat,â said Tara, lounging on her bed. âThereâll be no peace in this room now.â But even she was smiling slightly.
Time was ticking on. After a quick shower, Chloe took the twinsâ shoes into the bathroom and did her best to clean them up. They wouldnât look too bad onstage, she decided, but they looked pretty awful close up. You couldnât expect to tramp around the muddy shores of a lake in diamanté sandals and expect them to stay as good as new. She hoped Pop and Lollyâs mother wouldnât be too angry.
Everyone was having lunch with their parents except for Chloe, Tara, and Danny, so they sat together.
âHowâs your voice?â Danny asked as they wolfed down their lasagne.
âDonât encourage her!â warned Tara.
âSorry.â
Chloe laughed. âItâs fine. I feel really confident. Thanks, Danny.â He met her eyes and they grinned at each other. With the concert starting in a few minutes, the atmosphere in the dining hall was fizzing. If Tara hadnât been with them, Chloe might even have given Danny a hug!
âLook! Thereâs Mr. Player,â she said instead. âI must go and tell him.â She went over to where he was in line for his lunch. âItâs back!â Chloe told him excitedly. He knew what she meant right away.
âOh, well done!â he said. âWhat was it? The throwing-up exercise, or calmly leaving it alone to recover on its own?â
âNeither!â said Chloe. âIt was my friends.â
âOh? Well, Iâm very pleased for you. Donât let it disappear again, will you? I have some great songs for you to learn next term. Youâre going to have to work really hard to catch up, but I know you can do it.â
All the students, parents, and teachers were assembling in the theater. The backstage area wasnât used for Rising Star concerts. The performers all sat at the front, where it was only a few steps up onto the stage. This way, everyone could enjoy the concert, and perform and vote as well. Each person had a program and a pen to score each act on a scale of one to ten. Over the vacation, the staff would analyze the results, and when the students came back they would see which performance had been awarded the most Rising Star points.
Even though Chloe was not performing, she had been allowed to sit with her friends down at the front. Danny glanced at her, and she could see he was thinking the same