Read Girl, 16: Five-Star Fiasco for Free Online Page B

. .’
    ‘No, no, sorry.’ Jodie backed off. ‘I’m hopeless at all that stuff, and anyway, my nan is coming for the weekend – I’ll have to spend all my time with her. Gotta go. See you!’ She strode swiftly off towards the cloakrooms.
    ‘Well done,’ whispered Flora. ‘That got rid of her.’
    ‘Fred!’ Jess grabbed his sleeve. ‘We have to get going with Chaos! It’s in three weeks’ time!’
    ‘I know,’ said Fred. ‘That’s why I said going to Dorset was a bad idea, remember?’
    ‘So what’s the latest with the bands?’ demanded Jess. Fred twitched in an uneasy way.
    ‘I’m, er, negotiating with Goldilocks.’
    ‘So nothing’s fixed yet?’ asked Jess fearfully. Fred shook his head. ‘Oh my goodness!’ Jess gabbled, her eyes wide, her heart pumping. ‘We haven’t got a band, we haven’t organised any food – we’ve seriously got to get going with this or it’ll be a disaster!’
    ‘I was wondering, if Goldilocks aren’t available, whether Poisonous Trash would like to reform, just for this one gig.’ Fred turned to Flora, and the look in his eyes could only be described as desperate and pleading. Poisonous Trash was a band that Mackenzie and Ben Jones had had for a while, and Flora had been lead singer. Singing was the one thing (so far – apart from art) which Flora had been rubbish at, and the band had bombed big time.
    ‘No way!’ Flora shuddered. ‘I’d rather run naked through the town centre at Saturday lunchtime, wearing the head of a pantomime horse!’
    ‘Hmmm.’ Fred tried to look relaxed and jokey. ‘Well, maybe we could work that into the cabaret, if you’re offering.’
    ‘Haven’t you fixed the music up yet?’ asked Flora nervously. She was kind of out of touch because she spent such a lot of time with Jack these days, and when she and Jess were together, they tended to talk incessantly about really important things, like the shape of their eyebrows. ‘It’s getting quite near the time now, isn’t it?’
    ‘Oh, we’ve got a DJ,’ said Jess hurriedly. ‘But it’s only Gordon Smith – need I say more? I mean, he’s OK for short bursts, but we must have a band!’
    ‘And what about the other stuff you were going to have?’ asked Flora tactlessly. ‘Fire-eaters? And lasers? And a chocolate fountain!’
    Jess and Fred exchanged a panic-stricken, paralysed glance.
    ‘Wow! Sounds like the event of the year – not counting my annual bath,’ said Fred, putting on a wry smile even though Jess knew he was shuddering in fear. ‘I dunno. What happened about all that stuff?’
    Jess’s blood froze. ‘At least we haven’t mentioned those things on the posters or the tickets,’ she pointed out, trembling.
    ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry!’ said Fred. ‘It’ll all be all right on the night!’
    ‘It so won’t, unless we get our act together – and fast,’ snapped Jess, exasperated.
    ‘We’ll just give it everything from now on,’ said Fred. ‘We can finalise everything the weekend before – have a kind of rehearsal or something.’
    ‘But, Fred,’ cried Jess in dismay, ‘the weekend before is our trip to Dorset!’
    ‘Oh, that,’ muttered Fred. ‘Do you really think we can manage it?’
    Jess felt a hot surge of anger. How could he call it ‘that’ in front of Flora? It was so rude! Flora and Jack had invited them for a whole weekend, and it was going to be utterly brilliant.
    ‘Maybe you can manage both,’ suggested Flora. ‘You could always sort out the final details from a distance by phone or something.’
    ‘Yeah, but . . .’ Jess was feeling queasy again ‘. . . we’ll be in Dorset – that’s miles away, a hundred miles, probably!’ Geography wasn’t Jess’s strong point. ‘We’ll have to have everything fixed up before we go! Argh, this is so stressful!’ Jess could feel her heart banging away against her ribs like a vicious dog trying to escape from a steel-mesh cage.
    ‘If you get everything organised in