Maya's Secret by Holly Webb Page A

they’re definitely able to be there get to audition.”
    Emily nodded. “Otherwise people might just not turn up on the night.”
    Maya smiled hopefully at Mr Finlay. “If we’re doing the letter, can we possibly use two computers, and do an invitation to the fashion show to go out too?” she pleaded. “Otherwise it’s a bit sad to ask for models and not have people know what it’s really for.”
    Mr Finlay rolled his eyes. “Yes. Now can we please do the register?”
    “Right,” Maya hissed to Poppy, as Mr Finlay moved names around on the whiteboard. “You’ve got till lunch time to design us a logo for the fashion show!”
    Poppy whipped round, staring at her in horror. “What?” she whispered back.
    “Ooh, good idea.” Emily nodded approvingly. “Do you want to borrow my felt pens?”
    “We’ll make sure Miss Grace doesn’t catch you,” Maya promised.
    Poppy huffed. “All right! What am I supposed to draw though? And it’s numeracy, Maya, you’ll have to fill in the sheet with your left hand so it looks more like my writing.” She hid Emily’s felt tips in her lap, and carefully tore a piece of paper out of the pad in her bag.
    “Clothes?” Maya shrugged. “You know I’m useless at that sort of thing. Look, I did start on the poster and the programme – so you’ve got this space here for something to make them look really gorgeous.” She beamed at Poppy. “And not too fancy, because it would be nice if it could go small on the ticket and the invitations.”
    “And it had better work in black and white as well as colour,” Izzy pointed out. “I can’t see Mrs Brooker letting us use the colour printer for anything more than the posters.”
    “Great,” Poppy muttered, staring at the piece of paper dolefully. “That really helped…”

    By lunchtime she had done it. Emily shot out of theclassroom to snag one of the coveted picnic tables at break, snarling so fiercely at a group of boys who wanted to swap football cards that they actually hurried away. The girls huddled round Poppy, who was muttering to herself and filling her pad with swirly designs.
    “Oooohh! That one!” Maya said. “It looks good upside down, anyway.” She was on the other side of the table from Poppy. “Are they birds?”
    “No, it’s an anteater,” Poppy snapped. She was getting a bit frazzled. “Yes, of
course
they’re birds.” She turned it round to show Maya the design properly. Two little birds were flying off the page carrying a pair of jeans between them. “You like that one best?”
    “Yes, it’s lovely. The birds are cute, and the jeans look really cool.”
    Emily nodded. “I like it.”
    “Me too. Can you colour it in for the posters?” Izzy asked.
    “Yes, but I’ll copy it first,” Poppy agreed. “Then I can go over bits to make the black-and-white one look clearer.”
    There was only one near miss, where Maya had to sweep a history worksheet over Poppy’s drawingvery quickly, when Mr Finlay got it into his head to check their table. When the bell rang for lunch, they hurried off to the information technology room to scan everything in. Maya emailed it all to herself at home so she could put the designs on the poster and programme, and then she worked on the invitations with Poppy, while Emily and Izzy bickered in an almost-friendly sort of way about how to write the audition letter.
    “How are you doing, girls?” Mrs Allwood came over to see. “That looks really lovely. You’ve only got a quarter of an hour of lunch left though – you need to go and eat something.”
    Maya checked her watch, frowning – surely it hadn’t been that long? But Mrs Allwood was right. “I think the invitation’s done. We just need to print them, and then cut them up – we put two on a sheet.”
    “I’ll print them for you, while you go and eat. Perhaps you can cut them up this afternoon? Mr Finlay said you were having more project time.”
    “The letters are done, too. We’ve said the