Free It's a Girl Thing by Grace Dent

asks. “Blackwell Live, wasn’t it?”
    â€œUhhh, yes, miss?” Claude replies, smiling widely.
    â€œBlackwell Live!” repeats Mrs. Guinevere. “I like that name, it has a ring to it, doesn’t it? So as I say, ladies, get shaping with a plan, have a root around for some bands, singers and, well, whatever you can come up with, then give me the latest news in a few days’ time. We’ll take it from there.”
    Mrs. Guinevere turns on her heel and clip-clops away down the administration corridor.
    â€œI’m sure it will be great craic, girls . . . great craic!” she says as she walks away. “The best of luck with your planning!”
    And then she’s gone.
    â€œDid that really just happen?” asks Fleur, grinning not just from ear to ear, but somewhere around the back of her head too.
    â€œOH. MY. GAWWWWWD,” I squeal. “That was a yes! It was a yes!! . . . Hang on, that was a yes, wasn’t it, Claude?” I double-check.
    â€œToo right it was a yes!” says Claude. “We’re putting on Blackwell Live! We’re going to do it, just like we talked about last night!!”
    SCREEEEAAM!
    After confirming and double confirming that Jimi Steele isn’t anywhere in close proximity . . . I throw my arms in the air, wave ’em like I just don’t care, holler, whoop, then join with the LBD in a celebratory Funky Monkey dance routine right along the administration corridor, through the middle school cloakrooms, then twice around the school pond. Life has taken a fantastic, brilliant, amazing upturn!
    How glad am I now that, when I put the oven on last night and threatened my dad that I’d commit suicide by sticking my head in if he didn’t allow me go to Astlebury, I changed my mind at the last minute and just made a baked potato instead? Imagine if I’d have missed this!

and there’s more
    I’m back home at the Fantastic Voyage now. I’ve just finished playing a few rounds of “Guess My Mood Today” with Mum (today’s answer, in case you’re wondering, was Distant and Angry). But this won’t depress me tonight, not after so many amazing things have happened today.
    For example, the bit when McGraw spotted the LBD stacking our trays in the dining hall after lunch and was forced to, through Britain’s tightest lips, tell us he was “really pleased” to see us “taking on such a worthwhile project.” That was great. Especially as it was quite clear that it was giving McGraw physical pain similar to hemorrhoids to say so.
    Another fab bit was sticking up our first Blackwell Live audition posters, just outside the assembly hall, and watching the first small crowd of looky-loos gathering to read all the details. How cool is that?
    By the way, our posters say:
    CALLING ALL BLACKWELL SINGERS,
    MUSICIANS, DANCERS, ROCK BANDS
AND BUDDING POP IDOLS!
    We need you for Blackwell Live on Saturday, July 12th—
Blackwell School’s very own
    Â 
    MUSIC FESTIVAL
    Auditions are this Monday, June 23rd, 4:00 P. M. in the gym.
Speak to Claudette Cassiera, Veronica Ripperton or
Fleur Swan for further details or simply show up and
show us what you can do.
    Within less than an hour, people began stopping the LBD in the corridors, in the school yard and on the playing fields to ask us what the devil we were playing at, or even funnier still, to sing us a few verses of their favorite songs, do a bit of break-dancing, or tell us about the Grade 3 piano exam they’d just passed! One lad even jumped out from behind the geography shelf in the library and serenaded me at the top of his voice:
    â€œHas anyone ever seeen my bay-beee?
The one with the beautiful eyes
Cos there ain’t nooooooo dis-guisin’
The way I luuuuurve her!”
    Then he did a bit of a tap dance . . . which would have been quite flattering, except that the lad was Boris Ranking, a sturdy fourth-year lad with