‘Yeah, me too,’ agreed Lucy. ‘Let’s have an Angels-free day.’
Annabelle stood still for a minute. ‘But what should we do instead?’ she said. It felt weird not having any more challenges to plan for.
Bonnie laughed. ‘Lucy and I are going to play footy,’ she said. ‘Maddy and Erin are coming to play, too. You can stay with us, but don’t you want to catch up with your old gang?’
Nic! thought Annabelle guiltily. She’d forgotten all about her! On her way to find her bestie she ran into Chloe and Dani playing skippy.
‘Hi, guys!’ said Annabelle. ‘Do you want to play with me and Nic?’
Chloe smiled. ‘Maybe tomorrow,’ she said. ‘Dani and I just feel like doing our own thing.’
‘Oh, OK,’ said Annabelle, frowning. It was weird how suddenly none of the Angels wanted to hang out together.
Annabelle had trouble finding Nicole. She wasn’t in any of their usual hangouts. Annabelle finally found her chatting with Sarah and some of the other Super Stars.
‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere,’ said Annabelle, feeling a bit flustered.
Nicole shrugged. ‘I thought you had an Angels meeting,’ she said. ‘So I decided to hang out with these guys.’
‘Oh,’ said Annabelle. She felt an uncomfortable stab in her chest. What if Nicole ended up wanting to hang out with the Super Stars all the time instead of with her? It was a bad thought.
Suddenly, the PA system crackled into life and Mrs Clarke’s voice blared across the playground. ‘Attention, students. By now each of the Team Terrific teams should have chosen someone to be on the awards night squad.’
‘I’m one!’ said Annabelle.
‘Me too!’ replied Nicole.
‘Can all the squad members please meet in my office at lunchtime,’ continued Mrs Clarke. ‘We need to discuss the awards night details.’
Annabelle forgot about feeling bad. Now she was excited all over again. And looking at Nicole she could see she felt the same way!
I’m glad Nic and I are on the awards night squad together, thought Annabelle happily. It won’t take long until everything is back the way it used to be.
When Annabelle and Nicole got to Mrs Clarke’s office, there were already some other students waiting at her door. One of them was Dani, who was the squad member from the Zebras. ‘Hi, guys,’ she said. ‘Mrs Clarke said she’d be ready in five minutes.’
The floor outside Mrs Clarke’s office was very shiny and slippery. Annabelle did a spin.
‘Hey, Nic,’ she said. ‘Look!’ She did another spin and finished it with a clap.
‘Cool!’ said Nicole. ‘That looks a bit like the move we did in the Super Stars performance.’
‘We did one like it in our dance too,’ said Annabelle. ‘Lucy showed it to us. Lucy is the best dancer. She could probably be a professional. Actually the Angels are all good dancers. Except for Bonnie, I guess. But she can do heaps of other things.’
Annabelle was about to tell Nicole about how good Bonnie was at surfing, but Nicole wasn’t listening. She was doing a strange-looking wiggling thing with her fingers to Sarah, who had just walked around the corner.
‘What are you doing?’ asked Annabelle, curiously.
‘It’s the Super Stars’ signal,’ explained Nicole. ‘It’s like twinkling stars.’
‘The Angels have got a signal too,’ said Annabelle. Then she drew a halo around her head. ‘Chloe made it up. She’s really good at stuff like that.’
But again, Nicole wasn’t listening. ‘Yo, Sare-Pear,’ Nicole called, as Sarah came closer.
‘Yo, Nickel-Pickle,’ replied Sarah, twinkling back. ‘Got to go. See ya later!’
‘She calls you Nickel-Pickle?’ said Annabelle, wrinkling her forehead.
‘It’s an in-joke,’ giggled Nicole. ‘I could explain but it would take forever!’
‘Oh, right,’ said Annabelle, feeling a bit hurt. Nothing had ever been too long for Nicole to explain before! ‘We don’t have any nicknames,’ she said.
‘One of you does,’ said a voice behind her. ‘Bonnie Boomer!’
Annabelle groaned. She knew who it was even before she turned around.‘Please tell me you’re not on the awards night squad too, Luke,’ she said.
‘I sure am,’ Luke grinned back. His fringe was looking extra spiky today. And the spikier Luke’s fringe was, the cheekier he seemed to behave. Suddenly Annabelle wasn’t quite so sure she wanted to be on this squad after all!
Just then Mrs Clarke’s door opened. It was too late to back out now. ‘Come in and sit down,’ she said. Mrs Clarke had brought in extra chairs for them all.
Annabelle looked around the office curiously. She had hardly ever been in here. But Bonnie had been here heaps of times! She’d told the Angels what it was like. There beside Mrs Clarke’s desk was a tank containing two hermit crabs – Snippy and Snappy.
‘Bonnie reckons she’s here so often that Snippy and Snappy wave to her when she comes in,’ Annabelle whispered to Nicole. ‘How funny is that?’
Nicole shrugged. ‘That’s kind of funny,’ she said. ‘But wait till I tell you about some of the funny things we did in the Super Stars.’
Annabelle stared at Nicole in surprise. She was acting really weird. Nicole and Annabelle used to know everything about each other. Sometimes they even had the same thoughts at the same time. They called this ‘having a mind-meld’. But right now Annabelle couldn’t tell what was going on in Nicole’s head at all.
Then Mrs Clarke started speaking. ‘OK,’ she said briskly. ‘You are my awards night squad so it’s up to you to make the hall look amazing. There will be lots of people coming, and I want them to be really impressed when they walk in on Thursday night. It’s going to mean you have to use your imagination. Ms Diamond is organising some art supplies for us. But the most important part will be the ideas you come up with.’
Mrs Clarke looked around. ‘I need my squad to be hard-working and creative. Do you think you are these things? Because if you aren’t, I’ll have to find other students to take your place.’
Everyone nodded their heads firmly. No-one wanted to be taken off the squad!
‘Excellent!’ said Mrs Clarke. ‘Now, any questions?’
Annabelle put up her hand. ‘Mrs Clarke, where will the awards night actually be?’ Annabelle hoped it wouldn’t be just in the multi-purpose room at school. The awards night needed to be somewhere special!
Mrs Clarke smiled. ‘Haven’t I told you that yet?’ she said. ‘Well, the high school has kindly allowed us to use their hall. It has lots of seating and we are allowed to decorate it however we wish. What do you think?’
Annabelle nodded happily. She’d never been to the high school. But she could just imagine that it would be the perfect space for the awards night!
‘Right then,’ said Mrs Clarke, handing out a photocopied note. ‘Mr Paul is going to drive us over to the high school in the mini-van tomorrow lunchtime. Here is a note to take home to your parents to ask them to pick you up from the high school at 3.30pm. You’ll have the whole afternoon to work on the decorations.’
‘And the whole afternoon off from school tomorrow!’ whispered Annabelle to Nicole with a grin.
Mr Paul and Mrs Clarke were already in the van when Annabelle and the others arrived. Mr Paul was wearing a purple and green tracksuit. He revved the engine and tooted out a tune on the mini-van’s horn.
‘Quick! Jump in!’ he called. Annabelle jumped in and sat next to Nicole, who was wearing her green Super Stars T-shirt over the top of her school uniform. Dani was in front of them and Luke was sitting a row behind.
‘Mrs Clarke?’ Luke called out. ‘Seeing as we’re on the awards night squad do we get to find out who won before everyone else?’
Everyone laughed. Luke was so cheeky!
‘I’m afraid not, Luke,’ said Mrs Clarke, shaking her head.
Dani bounced on her seat. ‘I can’t wait until tomorrow night,’ she said. ‘My parents are
both coming.’
‘Mine too,’ said Nicole. ‘Although I’m a bit worried. My dad goes kind of crazy with the camera sometimes. It’s so totally embarrassing.’
‘You think you’re worried?’ said Luke. ‘Both my dad and my stepdad are coming. And they both take about a zillion photos.’
Annabelle went quiet. Her dad wasn’t around and sometimes she felt a bit left out when other people talked about theirs. Some people, like Luke, had two dads!
Nicole gave her hand a squeeze. ‘Annabelle’s mum claps really loudly,’ she said to everyone. ‘And her Uncle Bob takes more photos than anyone I’ve ever met!’
Annabelle gave Nicole’s hand a grateful squeeze back. That was the great thing about Nicole. She often seemed to know exactly how Annabelle was feeling.
‘Who do you think’s going to win?’ asked Mr Paul from the front.
‘The Devils!’ yelled Luke. He put his fingers up to his forehead and wiggled them like horns.
‘No way!’ said Nicole. ‘Your raft sank in the Use Your Brain challenge, remember. And you lost your soccer game.’
‘True,’ agreed Luke. ‘But we completely rocked our performance last week.’
Nicole rolled her eyes. ‘You guys were OK,’ she said, ‘but there’s no way you were the best. The Super Stars are going to beat you easily. Everyone said our performance was really cool. Plus we won our sporting challenge against the Zebras.’
Annabelle listened as everyone argued. She’d been pretty sure that the Angels were going to win Team Terrific. They’d won the soccer match against the Devils. And she’d been really happy with their dance.
But it seemed like everyone else was just as sure that they would win. Was it possible that the Angels might lose?
Maybe it doesn’t matter if we lose, thought Annabelle. It had been heaps of fun just doing all the challenges. But then she thought about the other Angels. How would they feel?
‘OK, guys. We’re here!’ said Mr Paul, as he turned into the driveway of the high school.
Annabelle couldn’t help smiling. Mr Paul got so excited about everything. Sometimes it was like he was just another kid, rather than a teacher.
Annabelle looked out the window. The high school seemed much bigger than their school. It had two ovals and lots more buildings. It’s so strange to think I’ll be coming here one day, thought Annabelle. I’ll never find my way around!
‘Wow,’ said Nicole, pressing her nose against the glass. ‘I will get so totally lost when I start at this school.’
Annabelle laughed. ‘Hey, Nic, mind-meld!’ she said, tapping her forehead.
Nicole giggled and tapped her forehead too. ‘Well, at least we’ll be getting lost together,’ she said.
‘Exactly,’ agreed Annabelle happily. Finally things were feeling more normal with Nicole! ‘Lola’s coming to this school too,’ she added. ‘And she’s as bad as we are with directions.’
Straight away Nicole’s face changed. It went from looking happy to looking really unhappy, and she stared out the window.
What’s wrong with Nicole? Wondered Annabelle. But before she could ask, Mr Paul pulled into a parking space. ‘Everybody out!’ he said.
It looked like Annabelle would have to wait to ask Nicole what was wrong.
Mrs Clarke was first out of the mini-van. She held up a set of keys. ‘OK, squad. These are the keys for the hall,’ she said, handing them to Nicole. ‘And here are the art supplies,’ she added, handing a big box of materials to Annabelle. ‘The hall is down that pathway. It might be a bit messy as the year twelve play was on last night. I’ll be in the corner if you need me.’
Annabelle was very excited as they walked down the pathway. This was what she’d been waiting for!
The hall came into view. It looked very big and grand from the outside. Annabelle felt her heart beating fast as Nicole unlocked the front door.
Nicole stepped inside. Then she stopped. ‘Uh-oh,’ she said.
‘What?’ said Annabelle, following her inside.
The moment she was inside she saw what Nicole meant. The hall was a total mess! The props from the school play were still all over the stage. And the floor was filthy from the audience walking over it.
For a moment, no-one said anything. Then Dani shook her head. ‘This is never going to work,’ she said. ‘This place is a total disaster. We’ll never get it clean in time for tomorrow night, let alone make it look cool.’
‘Dani’s right,’ sighed Nicole. ‘It’s impossible.’
Annabelle looked at the rest of the squad. Everyone looked so gloomy. Even Luke! It was probably the first time she’d ever seen him without his cheeky grin. Annabelle frowned. If she didn’t come up with a plan soon everyone was going to give up completely. And then the awards night really would be a total disaster!
‘You know,’ she said quickly. ‘It’s not actually so bad. I mean, OK, the floor’s a bit gross. But there are some brooms and mops over there and if we all do a bit it won’t take long. It might even be fun.’
Annabelle forced out a smile. She hated cleaning. But she wanted the others to think it would be OK. She was determined to make this awards night a success.
‘What can we do with all the stuff on the stage?’ said Luke.
Annabelle looked up. The stage had been made to look like an old-fashioned ballroom. There was even a big chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It was going to be a lot of work to clear it all away. And they didn’t have much time.
‘Let’s leave it there,’ said Annabelle. ‘It looks kind of cool.’
‘Nah,’ said Luke. ‘It looks dumb. Let’s do a pirate theme instead. We could make the stage look like a big ship.’
But Nicole shook her head. ‘Annabelle’s right,’ she said. ‘There’s no time to move the set. And once we’ve added our own decorations it’ll look really good.’
The others nodded in agreement. Only Luke didn’t look very happy about it.
The squad set to work. Some people swept and some people mopped. Luke was supposed to be sweeping but instead he pretended to be a pirate and swished the broom around like a sword.
Annabelle and Nicole mopped and, to Annabelle’s surprise, she actually almost enjoyed it.
‘Hey, this is fun!’ giggled Nicole, as she swooshed the mop across the floor. ‘Cleaning is much, much better with a big group.’
‘Total mind-meld,’ agreed Annabelle. ‘Maybe you could come round whenever I have to tidy my room, Nic. Or the Angels could come. Then the time would really fly by.’
Suddenly, Nicole stopped. She gave Annabelle a funny look. It was almost like she was about to cry. And then she started cleaning the same patch of floor she’d already mopped.
Annabelle dropped her mop and went over to her friend. ‘What’s wrong, Nic?’ she said softly. ‘You seem mad at me.’
‘It’s nothing,’ said Nicole, looking down.
Annabelle sighed. ‘Ah, hello Nic?’ she said. ‘This is me you’re talking to. Your bestie, remember?’
‘Well, it doesn’t feel like you’re my bestie anymore,’ Nicole blurted out. ‘All you ever talk about is the Angels.’
Annabelle almost laughed. Was that what Nicole was so upset about? ‘Nic,’ she said, ‘I’ve been worrying about exactly the same thing with you and the Super Stars.’
‘Really, Belle?’ said Nicole, looking surprised. Then she rubbed her nose. ‘I’ve been worried that you won’t want to hang out with me anymore,’ she admitted.
‘That’s silly,’ said Annabelle, hugging her friend. ‘I mean, the Angels are cool.
But you are my bestie forever. There’s none of this stuff with them.’ And she did the mind-meld action, tapping her forehead.
‘Really?’ said Nicole. She looked a lot happier.
‘Really,’ said Annabelle. She felt much better, too!
‘Hey, guys!’ called Dani from the other side of the room. ‘We’re ready to put up the decorations now. What colour streamers do you think we should use
?’
Annabelle and Nicole hurried over to the art supplies. ‘Let’s use all the different team colours,’ suggested Annabelle.
‘That’s a good idea,’ said Nicole. ‘And there’s some balloons. Let’s use them too.’
Soon everyone was busy hanging streamers and blowing up balloons. When Mrs Clarke came over, she smiled as she looked around the hall. ‘Good work, squad,’ she said. ‘The hall looks fantastic.’
Everyone stopped and looked around. The mess had been tidied away and the floor was spotless. And the decorations made the hall look very colourful.
‘It looks so much better now,’ said Nicole, happily.
‘It looks good,’ agreed Annabelle, doing a little skip. ‘But I can’t help feeling it needs something else.’
‘There is another key on that keyring I gave you, Nicole,’ said Mrs Clarke. ‘It opens up the props room at the side of the stage. Why don’t you all take a look in there and see what you can find?’
Quickly, Nicole went and unlocked the props room. Everyone crowded inside. The room seemed to be mostly filled with bits of furniture.
‘There’s nothing here we can use,’ said Dani, disappointed.
‘Hey, there’s some pirate stuff here!’ said Luke. ‘Let’s hang up this big skull and crossbones.’
‘No pirates, Luke!’ said Nicole, rolling her eyes.
Then Annabelle noticed something hidden right at the back of the room.
She went over to take a closer look. She couldn’t believe what she saw! It was a red carpet, rolled up like a big sausage.
‘This is exactly what we need to make this awards night awesome,’ said Annabelle excitedly.
‘It’s a bit dusty,’ said Nicole doubtfully.
‘That won’t matter,’ said Annabelle. ‘Everyone! Help us!’
The carpet was heavy, but by working together the squad managed to pull it out of the props room. Then they rolled the carpet out down the middle of the hall. A big cloud of dust billowed up into the air.
Angels Page 13
