Girl Wonder to the Rescue Read Online Free Page A

worked. We’d finally got Anthony to shut up!
    For the rest of the day Anthony was very quiet. I think he missed making up his rhymes. I didn’t!
    But the very next day, Edward and I were forced to eat our words.

The Zappers!
    The next morning, the moment we walked into school, we knew that something was going on. Charlotte, my best friend, dashed over to me.
    “Have you heard the news?” she asked.
    “What news?” I said.

    “There are notices like this all over the school.”

    “Are you going to try for it, Maxine?” Charlotte asked me, very excited.
    “I don’t know. A talent show . . . That’ll be fun,” I said.
    “Maxine, we must go for it,” said Edward, excited. “Wow! A talent show.”
    “We’ve got to try,” Anthony agreed.
    “But what are we going to do?” I said. “Has anyone got any ideas?”
    Anthony and Edward shook their heads.
    We wandered away from the noticeboard and out into the playground.
    “I could sing,” Edward suggested.
    “Only if you want us to get booed off the stage.” Anthony wrinkled up his nose.
    He was quite right too! Edward sings like a frog with a sore throat! Still, his voice
is
better than mine, so maybe I shouldn’t say much!
    “How about dancing?” said Anthony. “We could always do a dance.”
    “Ballet dancing?” I asked, doubtfully.
    Anthony and Edward started jumping around, their arms waving about in the air like tree branches in a force twelve hurricane.
    “How does this look?” asked Anthony, anxiously.
    “Yeah, how does this look?” asked Edward.

    “Like we need a few more lessons before we dance for anyone else,” I sighed.
    “Ballet dancing is hard work,” Anthony gasped.
    “Maxine, what
are
we going to do?” asked Edward.

    So I said, “That is a job for Girl Wonder . . .”
    “And the Terrific Twins,” said my brothers. And we all did ballet pirouettesand jumps until I landed on Edward’s right foot by accident!
    Then I had the best idea of my life.
    “I’ve got it.” I clapped my hands and waved them in the air over my head. “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!”

    “What?” said Anthony.
    “Got what?” Edward repeated.
    “Anthony, you can do one of your rapping rhymes and Edward and I willdo the backing vocals and dances. If we practise at break-time, we’ll be ready for the auditions at lunch time.” I grinned.
    “A brilliant idea,” said Edward.
    “Extra-super-duper brilliant,” I agreed.
    But Anthony didn’t say a word.
    “What’s the matter, Anthony?” I asked. “Don’t you like my idea?”
    “You two told me yesterday to stop making up rhymes and raps,” Anthony reminded us.
    “That was yesterday,” I said.
    “Yeah, and this is today,” Edward added.
    “I’m not going to do it,” said Anthony. And he walked off!
    I looked at Edward and he looked at me and we both ran after Anthony.
    “Anthony, what’re you talking about?” I frowned. “You have to do it. We haven’t got time to practise anything else andyou’re brilliant at rhyming.”
    “That’s not what you said yesterday,” said Anthony. “You said I didn’t have any talent.”
    “No, we didn’t . . .” I began, but Anthony wouldn’t let me finish.
    “You said I didn’t have any talent, because if I did you’d appreciate it,” Anthony said huffily.
    “We do appreciate it, don’t we, Maxine?” Edward said.
    “Prove it,” said Anthony.
    “Prove it? How?” I asked.
    Then Anthony got a glittering gleam in his eye.
    Oh-oh! I thought. Oh-oh! I don’t like the look of this.
    “I’m not going to make up any more raps or rhymes until you two promise never to ask me to stop doing them . . .” Anthony began.

    “We promise,” I said.
    “Yeah, we definitely promise,” Edward agreed.
    “And until you both go down on your knees and say I’ve got lots and lots of talent!”
    What could we do? I didn’t want to go down on my knees to Anthony but I wanted to audition for the talent show. With Anthony’s help I