Free Maya's Secret by Holly Webb

something like that.”
    “We could ask if our school would let us use the hall,” Izzy put in. “We could send letters home to all the parents about it.”
    Tara was smiling. “I’d really like to try and raise some extra money for one of the groups we buy from. What gave you girls the idea of doing all this?” She sounded a little surprised, Maya thought. As though she wasn’t used to people their age wanting to organise things.
    “We’re studying Fairtrade.” Maya saw Emily blink at her, but she didn’t want to say it was a school project. Studying sounded more serious somehow. “We’ve been doing some research. And then we saw your shop. It was luck, really,” she admitted. “We actually want to
do
something, not just write about Fairtrade stuff.”
    “Could you let us borrow clothes from the shop for a show?” Izzy asked. “If we sold tickets, you could give the money to the group you were talking about.”
    “That would be amazing,” Tara agreed. “They’re trying to raise money to build a school. They’re the ones who make these T-shirts.” She stroked the blue T-shirt Izzy was carrying. “All this printing is doneby hand, you see. It’s a group in Bangladesh – they want their workers to be able to survive in their own villages, instead of having to move to the cities, which are really overcrowded.”
    “We should put lots of their clothes in the show then,” Maya suggested. “I don’t know if our school would let you sell clothes there. But we could ask. And even if they don’t, you could put a leaflet on all the chairs.”
    “If your school will let us use the hall, I’d love to do it.” Tara looked shell-shocked, but really pleased.
    Maya and the others looked at each other happily. It was actually going to happen!
    “Now we just have to get Mrs Angel to agree…” Emily pointed out.

SIX
    “If we’re going to talk to Mrs Angel, we need to look really organised,” Izzy explained. “And we need to be able to answer any questions she’s got. So I looked this stuff up on the net. It’s sort of a how-to-put-together-an-event info sheet.”
    “Wow… Show producer… Backstage manager… We haven’t got enough people for all of this,” Poppy said worriedly, leaning over their table to stare at the list Izzy had printed out.
    “I think a lot of the jobs can be put together,” Izzy explained. “And Tara will do some of it, won’t she? We don’t have to do all this bit about finding outfits. And she mentioned getting her daughter to find models at the sixth-form college. But we have to decide when we do the show – not the date, that’ll be up to Mrs Angel, I suppose, but what time. If we want parents to come, it’s got to beafter school, or in the evening.”
    “Evening, definitely,” Poppy said. “My mum couldn’t come if it was after school, not unless she got an afternoon off work.” Poppy went to after-school club most days.
    “Yes, but if we have it in the evening, we might need more than just the fashion show,” Izzy explained. “It says so here. About an hour and a half altogether, with an interval. And when you go to a concert or something, people always have a coffee in the interval, don’t they? So we might have to organise that too.”
    “That’s a lot,” Maya said thoughtfully. “But I suppose people might not come for just, say, twenty minutes of clothes.”
    “Exactly. We can say it’s a whole evening out.” Izzy nodded. She looked really excited, Maya realised, and now she wasn’t staring at her feet whenever she wanted to say something. Emily had stopped scowling at her all the time. She wasn’t exactly being friendly to Izzy, but at least she wasn’t muttering behind her back.
    “How’s your project going, girls?” Mr Finlay asked. “Ready to show me anything? Mrs Angel says you can go and see her tomorrow morning.”
    “Tomorrow!” Maya squeaked.
    “Tomorrow’s fine.” Emily glared at her. “Please can we just have a bit