Sleepover Girls Go Gymtastic! Read Online Free PDF Page B

papers. Some of you did extremely well…”
    The M&Ms (arch-enemies, urgh) grinned at each other like Cheshire cats.
    “… whilst others of you didn’t. I have to say that I was very shocked when I saw some of the papers.” Mrs Weaver gazed deliberately over at Fliss and me. We both blushed like beetroots and stared at the table.
    “Now, before I speak to you individually, we will all go over the correct answers.”
    Talk about embarrassing. I couldn’t even remember seeing the questions before, never mind remember what I’d put for the answers. It’s a wonder I’d got any of them right at all.
    The annoying thing was that I knew nearly all the answers as Mrs Weaver was going through them. Why had I been so distracted by our gymnastics routine? I felt really ashamed when she handed back my paper and I saw great big crosses all over it.
    Just as the bell went for break she plonked her bottom down on my desk.
    “I think we need to talk, Laura,” she said seriously.
    Oh-oh, trouble! As soon as she’d dismissed everyone else she launched forth in her “very concerned” tone of voice.
    “You know Laura, I was very shocked when I marked your paper. I had no idea that you were struggling with science. I get the impression that perhaps it’s the whole concept of the examination situation which you find hard. Your paper certainly gave the impression of someone who wasn’t very focused on the subject. In fact, I’d say that you were positively distracted. Is that fair comment, do you think?”
    I nodded and looked at my feet. I could hardly admit that my mind had been focused on planning a routine for a gymnastics competition, could I?
    Mrs Weaver frowned. “Well, I think the best plan is to learn from this experience and attend a few revision sessions to settle you down before the SATs proper. I’ll give your mother a call now and ask for her permission. Right then, off you go and enjoy the rest of break.”
    I was doomed with a big fat D. Sure, my mum had already given me the speech about trying my best. You know the one: “All we want is for you to try your best. Results aren’t important, it’s trying your best that matters, blah, blah, blah.” You’ve had that one too, right? Well they don’t mean it, do they? What they mean is, “get good marks, or else!”
    So it was with a heavy heart that I went home that evening. I was expecting fireworks and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. Mum went absolutely ballistic. And it didn’t help that Molly had already opened her mouth and rammed her Nike trainers right in it. It turned out that she knew all about the competition because she’d found the factsheet in our room. Not only that, but she’d been taking sneaky peeks at our rehearsals too. And as she was already well cheesed off because I’d broken one of her precious ornaments whilst I was trying to do those backflips upstairs, she’d wasted no time in dobbing me in.
    “Really, Laura,” Mum said in her quiet but extremely angry voice. “I used to think that you were quite intelligent, but now I’m beginning to wonder. To waste your talents on some gymnastics competition when your SATs tests are just around the corner is stupid in the extreme. How many times must I tell you that however important it is to have interests, at this stage of your life your education must come first?”
    (Yawn, yawn, heard it all before.)
    “And if you persist in looking at me with that insolent expression on your face I’ll make sure the Sleepover Club is disbanded forever, do I make myself clear?”
    Man! Mum sure can bring you back to earth and make you feel about a centimetre high sometimes. By the time I’d promised her that I was going to get down to some serious work for the SATs, and that I definitely wouldn’t be wasting any more time even thinking about the gymnastics competition, I felt like an old chewed up piece of Hubba-Bubba gum.
    But if I thought I’d had a rough deal, it was nothing compared to