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  The next morning, all the girls and their mums met at the Lighthouse Café as arranged. They had still not heard any official good news about Lilac and the Mermaids. The café was brimming with people, but as soon as they arrived, Fleur excitedly invited them into the kitchen to tell them the news she had been hearing all morning.

  “Lilac’s band members have apparently kicked her out, saying she can’t sing for toffee. Which she can’t! And they’re furious that she is hogging all the attention and leaving them out in the cold. The word is that they admit she found your song sheet here and took it!” concluded Fleur, grinning from ear to ear.

  At first the Beach Babes were silent. Then they began to whoop with delight. Maybe things were going be all right after all.

  “I knew the truth would out,” Aunt Delphi said, smiling.

  “Hang on a minute!” replied Mum. “Let’s go down to the You’re a Star! office to check all this before we get too excited, shall we?”

  Chapter Ten

  MUM AND AUNT Delphi squeezed hands – there really was no way this could be just a rumour – Fern and Lulu must have revealed everything just as they’d threatened to the day before. Daisy, Poppy, Honey, Lily and Rose kept very quiet but were bursting with excitement inside – they so wanted it to be true.

  The whole gang headed down to the You’re a Star! office. When they got there, they saw an announcement posted on a board in the reception.

  Aunt Delphi read it out loud so all the girls could hear what it said. They didn’t jump or yell or laugh. They just cried with relief and joy. They were going to be able to perform Chocolate Sundae Girls after all!

  “Hey, I was just about to ring you,” said Johnny McDonald as he strolled into reception. “Why don’t you all come into my office for tea and cakes while I try to make it up to you girls?”

  “Yes, please,” they chorused, hardly able to contain their excitement about being back in the contest.

  After juice and flapjacks with Johnny, Poppy and Honey were desperate to rush back to The Pebbles and tell everyone the wonderful news. They found Grandpa deep in conversation with Colonel Forster. It was clear that the Colonel knew what was going on and was in the process of explaining everything to Grandpa.

  “Joseph, I can only apologize, old fellow,” said the Colonel. “I don’t know what came over Lilac. I can only think that we’ve put too much pressure on her, particularly her father, and she just couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing us. The poor girl is very upset and very sorry for what she’s done. She just always wants to win. I suppose she might have inherited her competitive streak from me. But you know how it is, Joseph – you love them whatever they do wrong. And I’m sure she’ll learn from this and try to make it up to your girls and their friends.”

  Grandpa nodded, feeling very sorry for his old friend, and for Lilac too, and he was just a little bit ashamed of himself for still being so competitive. Friendship was all that mattered – life was not a competition. Grandpa wished his friend well and saw him out.

  Poppy and Daisy hugged their grandpa. No one wanted to dwell on what had happened; they just wanted to get on with the show. After a very thorough rehearsal on the stage at tea time, when the girls were allowed to try out the mikes and sound system as they hadn’t had a chance on Wednesday, all the Beach Babes collapsed into an early bed.

  The next day, just before lunch, Saffron, Holly Mallow and Lily Ann Peach arrived from Honeypot Hill.

  “Look what we’ve brought!” exclaimed Saffron. She showed Poppy and Honey the five gorgeous dresses she had made. They all had simple bodices and flower petal skirts. For Poppy there was a bright red dress; for Honey, a yellow one. Saffron had made a pink one for Rose, a cream one for Lily and a pure white dress for Daisy.

  “Wow! They are so pretty!” said Poppy. Holly had brought gorgeous jewellery for them to choose from, while Lily Ann had picked fresh flowers to decorate their hair.

  “Thank goodness it’s all back on!” said Granny Bumble, seeing the trouble their friends had gone to. “My nerves can’t take any more!”

  By mid-afternoon, all the girls were dressed in their new flower dresses, and their hair looked stunning with their namesake flowers woven in place. They couldn’t wait to get on stage and sing their song.

  When they arrived at the beach venue with all their friends and family in tow, the Beach Babes were surprised to find Lilac Farrington waiting for them. Her face was very puffy and she looked like she had been crying. Her parents, both looking rather awkward and uncomfortable, gently nudged her towards Poppy and the others.

  “I . . . I w-w-want t-t-to s-s-say sorry,” she sniffed. “I’m really, truly, very sorry. I just wanted to win so much. Lulu and Fern didn’t know anything about what I’d done. It was all me. I have learned my lesson and I’ll never do anything like that again. Please don’t hate me for ever,” she sobbed.

  Her mum, Martha, began to cry too.

  Even though Poppy and her friends were still upset about what had happened and cross with Lilac for what she had done, they felt really sorry for her. Yes, she had caused them a lot of pain and suffering, but her parents had made her feel she always had to win or come top, so it wasn’t really all her fault. And it was very brave of her to say sorry to them face to face.

  “Lilac, it was a horrible and cruel thing to do to us but we don’t want you to worry any more. We understand why you did it, even if it was still really wrong. Why don’t you come and support us in the contest?” suggested Daisy. “If you cheer us on, everyone will see that you didn’t mean us any harm and that there are no hard feelings.”

  Lilac nodded through her tears. “I’ll sit in the front row and scream as loud as I can for you!”

  Everyone smiled and the Beach Babes went backstage to prepare, hugging all their families and friends before they did so.

  Poppy felt as though she was entering another world as they went into a makeshift dressing room. They were brought bottles of water, which they desperately needed as their mouths began to go dry with nerves. All the runners who were helping on set were wishing them good luck, and the friends discussed tricky bits of their act and chatted while the clock ticked round to their appearance time.

  Caves ’n’ Rocks were on before them and sang brilliantly. They received a rapturous response from the audience and the girls felt sick with stage-fright.

  Now it was time to be bold. This was the moment they had been waiting for; the moment they thought had been snatched away from them for ever. They walked out onto the stage with their arms linked together. The crowd stood up and cheered, which was very unexpected but gave the girls a huge boost of confidence. Then they all took their positions. Daisy sat at the drums. Rose walked over to the keyboard. Lily adjusted her guitar strap and Poppy and Honey grabbed their tambourines and microphones. They were ready.

  Just as Daisy began the intro to the song on the drums, Poppy noticed Lilac standing on her chair right at the front, clapping and screaming wildly. She had kept her promise. Everything felt just right as they launched into their performance.

  The girls were note-perfect and Poppy and Honey’s dance routine was superb. It passed in a blur of concentration, nerves and fun for Poppy, and when they finished, everyone in the audience stood up and clapped and cheered.

  “Again! Again! Encore!” called the audience.

  Daisy looked over to the judges, who all nodded. So the girls sang it all over again. Finally they left the stage to a rowdy standing ovation.

  The moment when the judges revealed their decision came quickly. Johnny McDonald stood up, reading from a sheet in front of him. He began the torturous in reverse order.

  “In third place, we have little Blossom Darling with Ballet School Rap. It was sweet, original and we liked it – you’ve got real potential, so keep at it. In second place is Caves ’n’ Rocks. What a great boy band, really promising. Keep going, guys! But in first place, the band that will be going to the finals in the City, by unanimous
decision of the judges, is . . . the Beach Babes with their brilliant song, Chocolate Sundae Girls!”

  The crowd’s reaction sounded like thunder. Poppy thought she would faint as they went back on stage and sang their song for a final time.

  There was a huge fuss after the results, with cameras flashing and reporters crowding around. But as she was smiling and laughing with the rest of the band, Poppy saw Lilac and her family slip off and walk away quietly, all looking very sad, especially Lilac.

  “Mum,” said Poppy as she was being tucked into bed later that night, exhausted from all the excitement and the celebrations, “why do there have to be winners and losers – it means that the winner is happy and the loser is sad. I don’t like other people to feel sad.”

  “I know what you mean, Poppy. But we all have a mixture of happy times and not so happy times. We should never set out to make other people unhappy though, never, and if you lose something, you should always try to be happy for the winners, just like Lilac was for you in the end. Did you see her clapping and cheering?”

  “Yes, Mum,” said Poppy, yawning. “but she looked so sad after the competition, and even though what she did was wrong, I don’t want her to be sad.”

  “I’m sure she’ll feel better soon, darling. What Lilac did was wrong and it was brave of her to confess, but it is always better to be honest in the first place and then, hopefully, you’ll never feel the way Lilac is feeling right now.”

  Poppy nodded drowsily and reached out to hug her mother. “I just can’t wait for all those free chocolate sundaes Fleur promised us!”

  Mum giggled. “My little pop star princess,” she said, feeling very proud of her eldest daughter, and not just because she had won the contest.

  About the Author

  Janey was born in Edinburgh and grew up by the seaside just outside the city. Janey published the first two Princess Poppy books herself (with her own illustrations) and the books were so popular that Random House Children’s Books soon bought the series and re-packaged the books. The series is now going from strength to strength, including picture books, activity books and sumptuous gift books. Janey has also written two Princess Poppy novels for young readers, Pocket Money Princess and A True Princess, both of which have been very successful.

  Janey read English at Edinburgh University specializing in the Victorian novel. Following this she became a teacher – a career that she absolutely adored – and then, with her husband, set up The Jelly Club, which has become an extremely successful chain of children’s activity centres in Scotland. She still very much enjoys visiting schools and talking to children to find out what they like doing and what makes them laugh. Janey and her husband live in Edinburgh with their three sons.

  POP STAR PRINCESS

  AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 407 09811 1

  Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,

  an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK

  A Random House Group Company

  This ebook edition published 2012

  Copyright © Janey Louise Jones, 2008

  Illustrations copyright © Random House Children’s Books, 2008

  Illustrations by Samantha Chaffey

  First Published in Great Britain

  Young Corgi 2008

  The right of Janey Louise Jones to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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