Secret Singing Superstar

Thirty-seven ~ ♫♪♫

Claire's never-failing insistence finally convinced everyone to allow the six girls to go ice-skating that very same day as Caitlin's tennis competition - on the condition that Elaine could come with a few of her friends as well. Claire agreed. Claire had also invited another friend of hers to come too, but Caitlin didn't know who she was. Claire said she had wanted them to know this particular friend of hers because they were close.

She wished that Theresa and Helina could come along and have fun with them too, but they couldn't. They were busy - for the whole day. She had no idea what Theresa was doing, but she knew exactly what Helina was doing, although everyone else didn't. Helina was going to the doctor with her family to see if she needed therapy or not. Her condition had been getting better, but she wasn't sure if she was good enough to not need it. She had only told Caitlin, and told her not to tell anybody, especially Cailyn, because she didn't want to ruin her happy mood.

She was worrying about Helina, but she had done a good job of putting all her stress into the tennis match. Since she won, she decided she might as well take a break and stop worrying. She felt a little guilty, but she knew that Helina would want her to have fun instead of moping because of her.

Claire's mum was taking Caitlin, Claire and Leanne, and Claudia's mother took Claudia, Anna and Cailyn. Claire was tapping her feet on the floor of the car. Leanne had told her to stop, but Claire said her ankle didn't hurt when she did that, so she kept doing it. Turns out Claire could be really stubborn when she wanted to be.

Caitlin was starting to think that Claire had no emotion whatsoever when it came to worrying about herself. It was as if she didn't even care for her own wellbeing! Which was cool and all, but when she was the one that was injured, that was a big no-no. Caitlin was almost determined to tie Claire to the seat of the car so she couldn't get out to ice-skate. Whatever Claire said about her ankle being nearly fixed, Caitlin didn't believe it. Claire's sprained ankle definitely did not take just three weeks to heal. She swore to herself that when Claire showed the first sign of pain, she was going to drag her off the ice-skating rink, no matter how hard Claire protested or tried to go back.

When they arrived at the ice-skating place, the others had got there first - but someone else was there too. Claire literally almost ran out of the car as she went to hug the new and unfamiliar girl. This new girl had short hair, like Claire, and she had a big and friendly smile.

"Who is that?" Caitlin asked.

"Joy," Leanne replied. "Claire's friend from primary school. They haven't met up in a while."

"I know her too," said Claudia.

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "Of course you do."

Claire then introduced Joy to everyone else. They went inside the ice-skating place and paid (the fee was $21), and then they grabbed their ice-skates and chose a spot to sit. Well, Claire chose the spot to sit - and she chose the highest seats on the left. Everyone started putting on their ice-skates, except Leanne, who had forgotten to get her ice-skates and had to go back down for them.

The minute she left, Claire said, "Okay, everyone, it's time to watch Leanne f*cking fail."

"Claire!" Caitlin exclaimed. "That's rude!"

"I'm just saying," said Claire, shrugging. "Leanne is the only one here who doesn't know how to ice-skate."

Anna let out a growl of frustration. "I can't even tell which skate is the left or right!"

"Just look at the ends. If it curves in to the right, it's the left. And the other way around is the right," Claire explained, getting up to help Anna identify her skates, with Claudia's help.