Superstar!

  For Sophie and Elizabeth ~ A M

  For Jena and Elyse ~ D R

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1 Talent!

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  2 Nature Detectives!

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  3 Girls United!

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Copyright

  Have you read the other

  Angela Nicely books?

  Coming soon…

  Angela’s class gathered on the carpet for News Time. This morning Miss Darling had some exciting news.

  “As you know, it’s nearly the holidays,” she said. “So to celebrate we have decided to hold a talent contest.”

  Angela’s eyes almost jumped out of her head. A talent contest? Yahoo!

  “Anyone can enter,” said Miss Darling. “Mr Weakly and Miss Boot have agreed to be our judges, and of course there’ll be a prize for the winner. Who’d like to take part?”

  Every hand shot in the air. Angela’s was the first to go up. This was a contest that was made for her.

  “Can we do any talent we like?” asked Tiffany Charmers.

  “Of course, Tiffany,” said Miss Darling.

  “Then I’m going to do the dance I did for my ballet exam,” said Tiffany. “I got a gold merit.”

  Angela rolled her eyes. Tiffany had told them a million times about her gold merit. From the way she went on anyone would have thought it was an Olympic gold medal.

  At break time, everyone was talking about the talent contest. They only had a week to rehearse.

  “I don’t think I’ve got a talent,” sighed Laura.

  “You can go cross-eyed,” said Angela.

  “Mmm, I don’t know if that would win,” said Laura.

  “I know,” said Maisie. “We could do a pop mime! You know, with dance steps and miming the words.”

  Angela wasn’t so sure. She’d already heard others in the class discussing a pop mime. “Don’t we need something a bit different?” she asked.

  “A pop mime is different,” argued Maisie.

  “Not if everyone else is doing one,” said Angela. “I might do something on my own.”

  Just then Tiffany twirled past, bumping into them. “Do you mind, I’m trying to rehearse here,” she sniffed. “So, ANG-ER-LA, what’s your talent then?”

  Angela shrugged. “I haven’t decided yet.”

  “I know, you could be a clown,” giggled Tiffany. “You wouldn’t even need make-up!”

  Angela ignored her.

  “Anyway, it doesn’t matter,” said Tiffany. “It’s obvious who’s going to win.”

  “Who?” asked Laura.

  “Me of course, cos I’m the only one with any talent!” smiled Tiffany. She shook her curly hair and danced away, pointing her toes.

  “She’s such a show-off,” said Angela.

  “Take no notice,” said Maisie. “She can’t win everything.”

  Angela sighed. That was the annoying thing about Tiffany, she did win everything. She was class monitor, came top in every test and had been Star Pupil of the Week a dozen times. It would take something special to stop her winning the talent contest. The question was – what, exactly?

  After school, Angela found her mum in the garden rooting out weeds. She told her the exciting news.

  “A talent contest? What a lovely idea!” said Mrs Nicely.

  “Yes,” said Angela. “I think I’ll enter.”

  “Well of course you will,” said Mrs Nicely.

  “But what shall I do?” asked Angela.

  Mrs Nicely threw another weed on to the pile.

  “A dance?” she said.

  Angela shook her head. “Tiffany’s doing ballet. The dance she got a gold merit for.”

  “Don’t remind me,” groaned Mrs Nicely. “If her mum tells me about it one more time, I think I’ll scream.”

  “That’s why I need a good idea – or Tiffany will win and never stop talking about it,” said Angela.

  “Well, why don’t you sing something?” suggested Mrs Nicely. “What about that lovely song you used to perform for me.”

  “Mu-um! That was at nursery school,” said Angela.

  “But I loved it, you were dressed as a teapot,” said Mrs Nicely, singing the words.

  “I’m a little teapot short and stout, Here’s my handle, here’s my spout…”

  Angela buried her face in her hands. She was never going to win the talent contest dressed as a teapot. Besides, not everyone liked her singing. Miss Crotchet at junior choir said her voice was loud enough to wake the dead.

  Later, she spoke to her dad.

  “Dad, what do you think is my best talent?” she asked.

  “Ah, well, that’s a hard one. You’ve got so many talents,” smiled Mr Nicely.

  “Yes I know, but which one’s my best?” asked Angela.

  Her dad thought it over. “I’d say your tickling.”

  “That’s not a talent,” said Angela.

  “Okay then, standing on your head. That’s definitely a talent,” said Dad.

  Angela nodded. It was true she could stand on her head longer than anyone she knew, but would it win the talent contest? No, to outshine Tiffany, she’d need something different, something special. On Britain’s Got Talent they had all kinds of acts – a dancing poodle, a rollerskating granny and a man who could hippo-notize people.

  Wait, maybe that was it! If she could hippo-notize someone it would be incredible. Maybe she could do it on Miss Boot and make her less cross?

  “Dad, what’s that hippo thing?” she asked. “You know, where you can make people do anything you tell them.”

  “You mean hypnotism?” said Dad.

  “Yes, is it easy to learn?” asked Angela.

  “I’ve no idea,” said Dad. “I imagine it takes a bit of practice.”

  “That’s okay,” said Angela. “I’ve got time to practise.” All she needed now was someone to practise on.

  Maisie and Laura were rehearsing in the classroom.

  “I said left foot!”

  “That IS my left!”

  “That’s your right, Laura!”

  Angela came in and switched off the CD player. “How’s it going?” she asked.

  “Terribly,” said Maisie. “Laura can’t dance.”

  “Not with you shouting all the time,” grumbled Laura.

  “Well, you can have a rest now because I need help with my act,” said Angela.

  Maisie folded her arms. “I thought you wanted to perform on your own,” she said.

  “I do,” said Angela. “But I need an assistant, someone I can hypnotize.”

  “Is it dangerous?” asked Laura. “You’re not going to make me disappear, are you?”

  “That’s magic,” said Angela. “Being hypnotized is different, it’s like doing things in your sleep.”

  “Laura will be good at that,” said Maisie. “She’s always daydreaming.”

  Angela stood in front of Laura.

  “Watch my finger,” she said. “Keep watching.”

  “I am,” said Laura. “It’s making me go cross-eyed.”

  She followed Angela’s finger as it moved back and forward, back and forward.

  “Your eyes are feeling droopy … ve-ry, ve-ry droopy,” said Angela.

  Laura blinked.

  “You are falling into a deep sleepy sleep,” said Angela.

  Laura’s eyes fluttered shut. Her head lolled forward. SNRRRRK! SNRRRRK! she snored.

  Angela couldn’t believe it. It was working!

 
; “I did it,” she whispered. “I really actually hypnotized her!”

  “Now make her do something,” urged Maisie.

  “Laura, stick out your tongue,” said Angela.

  Laura stuck out her tongue.

  “Say ‘Eeenie meenie miney moe’,” said Angela.

  “Eeenie meenie miney moe,” said Laura.

  “Say ‘Angela is amazing’,” said Angela.

  “Angela is a nutcase,” said Laura.

  “Eh?”

  “HA HA! FOOLED YOU!” cried Laura, opening her eyes. “Did you really think you’d hypnotized me?”

  Angela’s shoulders drooped. For a moment there she’d actually believed that she could hypnotize people. This was going nowhere. If she couldn’t hypnotize Laura how could she do it to anyone else? But wait … if Laura had fooled her, maybe she could fool an audience?

  “That’s it!” she said. “You can pretend.”

  “Pretend what?” asked Laura.

  “Pretend to be hypnotized, like you did just then,” said Angela.

  Maisie frowned. “You mean you’re not actually going to hypnotize anyone?”

  “I won’t need to,” said Angela. “As long as everyone believes I’ve done it to Laura, it will work!”

  “But wait, what if it’s not me?” asked Laura. “What if you get someone else?”

  “I won’t,” said Angela. “I’ll ask for a volunteer from the audience and you can put up your hand. You just have to do what I tell you.”

  It would work, thought Angela, and what’s more it would be the best act in the talent show – far better than Tiffany Charmers galumphing round the stage in a tutu.

  Angela waited in the wings to go on. The talent show was reaching the last few acts. So far the programme had included: Ryan’s monkey impression, Dora’s recorder solo, Tiffany’s Sugar Plum Fairy dance and the terrible twins fighting each other on a judo mat. Laura and Maisie were on stage finishing their pop mime.

  THUD!

  Backstage, a door slammed. The Sugar Plum Fairy stomped out of the dressing room, followed by Amanda and Suki, who were also wearing tutus.

  “Tell them, Miss!” complained Tiffany. “Tell them they can’t!”

  Miss Darling put a finger to her lips. “Shh! What’s the matter, Tiffany?” she whispered.

  “They copied me!” grumbled Tiffany.

  “I’m sure they didn’t,” said Miss Darling.

  “No, we didn’t!” said Amanda.

  “But it’s ballet and that’s my talent!” wailed Tiffany.

  Miss Darling sighed. “Tiffany, I think you should calm down and go back to your seat,” she said.

  Tiffany stamped her foot and stormed off. Angela raised her eyebrows. For once it didn’t look like Tiffany was getting her own way.

  Laura and Maisie finished their act and went back to their seats. The judges, Miss Boot and Mr Weakly, scribbled on their notepads.

  “Thank you, girls,” said Miss Darling. “Our next act is The Amazing Angela and her Hair-Raising Hypnotism!”

  Angela slipped through the curtains. She wore her dad’s jacket, a bow tie and a false moustache. The moustache was falling off and looked like a hairy caterpillar trying to escape.

  “Thank you,” she said. “For this act I will need one volunteer.”

  A dozen hands went up, but none of them belonged to Laura.

  Angela coughed loudly. “AHEM!”

  “Mmm? Ooh me! I’ll do it!” cried Laura, jumping up to come on stage.

  “Now I want you to look at my finger,” said Angela. “Forget everything else – just my finger.”

  “I know,” said Laura.

  Angela began the hypnotism.

  “You are feeling sleepy,” she said. “Ve-ry, ve-ry sleepy. When I count to three you will fall fast—”

  SNRRRRK! SNRRRRK!

  Laura was snoring already. The audience giggled. Hypnotism was much funnier than they’d expected.

  “Now, I want you to do what I say,” said Angela.

  “Do what I say,” repeated Laura.

  “Raise your right arm,” ordered Angela.

  Laura raised her left arm. Angela decided that was close enough.

  “Stand on one leg,” said Angela.

  Laura stood on one leg, wobbling unsteadily.

  “Now when I snap my fingers, you’re going to dance,” said Angela.

  SNAP! Laura clomped around the stage like an angry Sugar Plum Fairy.

  This brought the house down and everyone howled with laughter – except Tiffany, who sat stony-faced.

  Finally, Angela clicked her fingers and Laura opened her eyes. People clapped wildly as Angela bowed low, losing her moustache.

  “Very funny. Why don’t you hypnotize me?” said a loud voice.

  Angela looked up to find Tiffany had jumped to her feet.

  “If you’re so clever, why don’t you try it on me?” she repeated.

  “Um… Actually we don’t have time,” mumbled Angela.

  “Don’t be silly,” said Tiffany.

  Angela looked around in panic. This wasn’t part of the plan. Laura was a good actor, but Tiffany would just stand there like a lemon. The act would fall flat – which was probably what Tiffany wanted.

  “Come on, ANG-ER-LA, we’re waiting,” said Tiffany.

  Angela stuck on her moustache. It was too late to back out now.

  “Right, um, look at my finger,” she said.

  “I am – your nails are dirty,” said Tiffany.

  “Just watch my finger. You are feeling sleepy, ve-ry sleepy,” said Angela.

  Tiffany scowled. Angela had never seen her in such a temper. Her cheeks were pink and her mouth turned down. It gave Angela a wild idea. It was risky but worth a try.

  “When I count to three you will become Miss Boot,” she said.

  The audience gasped. Miss Boot’s eyebrows came together in a frown.

  “One, two, three,” counted Angela.

  Tiffany put her hands on her hips. “Really Angela, DON’T BE RIDICULOUS!” she snorted.

  The audience giggled. This sounded exactly like Miss Boot when she was cross.

  “STOP IT! DON’T LAUGH!” shouted Tiffany. “IT’S NOT FUNNY!”

  This made the audience giggle even more. Tiffany was Miss Boot. Her face had gone red and it looked as if steam might come out of her ears at any minute. The real Miss Boot did not look amused either.

  “STOP IT OR I’LL … I’LL … ARGHHH!” yelled Tiffany, stamping her foot in fury.

  “Very good, you can stop now,” said Angela, snappingher fingers.

  Tiffany stood speechless as everyone clapped and Angela took another bow. “Thanks, Tiffany,” she grinned. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

  The show came to an end and the judges met to compare their scores. Angela held her breath as she waited to find out who was the winner.

  Miss Boot took the stage and waited for silence.

  “In third place came Ryan, well done,” she said. “In second place was Tiffany. But in first place was the act we all loved … Dora and her recorder.”

  Angela let out a long sigh.

  Laura patted her arm. “Never mind,” she said. “Your act was by far the funniest.”

  “Definitely,” agreed Maisie. “Although I don’t think Miss Boot gave you high marks.”

  Angela didn’t care too much. She hadn’t won but then neither had smarty pants Tiffany. In any case, there was always next year. Maybe she could borrow some of her mum’s dinner plates and learn to juggle?

  It was a bright, breezy day and Angela’s class was outside. Miss Darling wanted them to collect things for the Nature Table, which so far only had a few twigs and a carrot stick. She had split the class into two halves, with Mr Weakly leading Angela’s group. He’d brought along his binoculars, magnifying glass and The Pocket Guide to Bird Spotting.

  “Now today we are all going to be Nature Detectives,” he told them. “What kind of things do you think we
are looking for?”

  Tiffany Charmers raised her hand. “Flowers,” she said.

  “We might see a butterfly,” said Laura.

  Mr Weakly nodded. “Good, what else might we find? Angela?”

  “Bears and wolves,” said Angela.

  “Well, ha ha! I’m not sure we’ll see any of those,” laughed Mr Weakly.

  “We might if they’ve escaped from a zoo,” replied Angela.

  Mr Weakly had met Angela before. She seemed to be a rather over-imaginative child.

  “Let’s stick to smaller things like plants and leaves, shall we?” he said. “Why don’t we all spread out and see what we can find.”

  Angela went off to hunt by herself. She didn’t think she’d find anything very interesting on the school field. Mostly it was grass and mud. If she were Mr Weakly she’d have chosen somewhere more exciting to explore – like the Amazon rainforest, for instance. Think what you could bring back for the Nature Table – a snake or maybe a baby gorilla!

  She poked around in the long grass. After ten minutes she’d found – a lolly stick, some dandelions and a soggy green tennis ball. They didn’t seem like the kind of thing Miss Darling would put on the Nature Table.

  Mr Weakly clapped his hands to call them back. “Well then, let’s see what we’ve found, shall we?” he said.

  “I found some leaves,” said Laura, showing her collection.

  “I got some seeds,” said Maisie.

  Tiffany was hopping up and down, desperate to speak. “Look what I found – a snail shell!” she cried.

  Everyone crowded round to get a better look at Tiffany’s shell. Mr Weakly agreed it was definitely something that should go on the Nature Table. He hardly even glanced at Angela’s dandelions.

  Mr Weakly led the group through the field to a gate and a small pond. They poked around for a while, looking for tadpoles or frogs. Angela fished out some smelly bits of weed. She was starting to think she didn’t want to be a Nature Detective.