Secret Singing Superstar

Forty-four ~ ♫♪♫

One thing that Caitlin didn't expect of Claire was that she would be working so soon, at such an early age. When she asked, Claire only told her that it was for work experience, and she was only working for two weeks (she would receive $200 in total). Caitlin knew she was nowhere near qualified to work yet - she was only thirteen!

She also talked to Cailyn after the dark-haired girl had told them about how she was moving temporarily to the countryside to live in the second week of the school holidays. She was staying there for a month. The reason was because of her father's work. Cailyn was pretty upset about it, but she made an effort to cheer herself and the others up by saying that at the farm cottage that she was staying at, there were two horses that Cailyn's family had rented named Scarlett Belle and Angel Dust to keep Cailyn company so she didn't feel too homesick (Cailyn loved horses).

"You guys can come to visit me in the countryside if you like," Cailyn had said. Helina immediately said she would, and so did everyone else, although they were unsure if they could come or not, because they did live in the city after all, and the countryside was more than an hour's drive away.

Seeing that Helina looked like she was on the verge of crying, Caitlin decided to change the subject. She knew Helina didn't need therapy, but still, she wasn't going to risk her friend being dragged back into constant crying tantrums.

"Leanne, when's your national singing competition?" she asked.

"It's on Saturday, first week into the holidays," Leanne replied. "So the second Saturday of the holidays, technically."

"Cool," said Claire. "I'm coming."

Leanne gaped at her. "But you're working, aren't you?"

"Not on weekends, and there's no way you can stop me from coming."

Cailyn was more nervous than Leanne about the national singing competition, since she was singing a song that wasn't even in English - it was Japanese.

"You'll be fine," Claudia comforted her. "And I really want to go to the countryside. I've always wanted to ride a horse."

"It's fun," said Cailyn, smiling a little. Caitlin was sad that she was leaving, but on the bright side, Cailyn was coming back...it was just that Caitlin might not see her for a whole month or more.

But since next week was Claire's last week of being at school for third term, everyone decided to make it memorable.

At recess they all sat together in their usual spot under the large tree. Rufina, who was also sitting with them (she seemed to sit with them a lot lately) then proceeded to tell them about how she totally shipped Joy (she also knew Joy from primary) and a guy named Joshua together - only because Joshua put Joy under his umbrella when it was raining and Joy was getting soaked.

"I mean they're perfect together!" she gushed. "They're both the same age and both their names start with J, and their parents know each other! What more could you want?"

Caitlin facepalmed.

"Well, both their names start with J-O," said Cailyn. Then she covered her mouth as she evidently remembered that that was the wrong thing to say - for Joy's sake.

"Exactly!" Rufina beamed. "Even more perfect!"

"I feel sad for Joy," was all Cailyn said in response.

Meanwhile, Leanne and Claudia had planned for everyone to bring food on Claire's last day to celebrate. Cailyn had put together a scrapbook album with plenty of pictures of all of them; starting from pictures of them playing volleyball together at Claire's house to the time when they all went rollerblading together to Theresa and Anna doing everyone's makeup to the singing concert which led to pictures from the slumber party and the time when Theresa made breakfast for everyone, along with much, much more.