JULIA JONES - My Worst Day Ever! - Book 1: aged 9 - 12
Read JULIA JONES - My Worst Day Ever! - Book 1: aged 9 - 12 Online
Authors: Katrina Kahler
Julia Jones’
Diary
Katrina
Kahler
Copyright © KC Global Enterprises
All rights reserved
Book 1
My Worst Day Ever!
Table of Contents
is how it all started…
The last thing I remember is the look of
horror on the faces of the audience. But what had caused me to feel the most
humiliation was when I noticed Blake Jansen, the coolest boy in our class, staring
down at me in disbelief.
My memory of that night still fills me with
shame. Everyone says that I was lucky to get away with only a mild concussion
and a huge lump on my head. But the disgrace I had felt at being the laughing
stock of the whole school was still very fresh in my mind. I’d really like to
try and forget that entire day, erase it from my memory banks forever, but
right now it keeps coming back to haunt me. Loser with a capital L! That’s the
way I feel about myself right now. I still can’t believe the events of that
fateful day. If only it were a nightmare I could wake up from and never ever have
to think about again. But unfortunately, that is just not the case!
Mom says that time heals all wounds and
that everyone else has probably completely forgotten the incident, but I think
it’s going to take quite a while for me to get over it. For some reason though,
I suspect that one particular girl in our class had something to do with it
all. Call it gut instinct or intuition, but I have a sneaking suspicion that
somehow she was involved.
Thinking back before that doomed day, life
had been pretty good. My best friend, Millie and I had auditioned for the
school musical and we were both selected for major roles. Being in grade seven
gave us an advantage over the younger kids, that and of course the fact that we
were both dancers. The best part was that we’d also been asked to choreograph
sections of the performance and this was a huge honour.
Miss Sheldon, the performing arts teacher
who was in charge of the production, had given us the responsibility of coming
up with some routines and teaching the other kids the dance moves they needed
to learn. We were so excited about this, especially because we’d been left in
charge. Miss Sheldon is the coolest teacher ever!
There are some great dancers in our grade;
even some of the boys are particularly good. One boy named Alex has been
dancing pretty much his entire life and is probably the best dancer in the
whole school. When he was younger, he said that the other kids had bullied him
and called him a girl as well as a heap of horrible names that he really didn’t
want to mention. But I could see that everyone had finally developed a huge
amount of respect for Alex and those who were still unaware of his talents were
in for a big surprise. Hip hop is his specialty and he’s so cool to watch. I
kept telling him that when he’s old enough, he should audition for “So You
Think You Can Dance” and he told me that he’d really like to.
As well as Alex, there’s another kid in our
grade who is kind of overweight and dorky looking. But it turns out that he has
an awesome voice. I had no idea that our school has so much talent and it certainly
came as a huge surprise to find out that Liam can actually sing really well.
The look of amazement when we heard his audition pretty much spread like wild
fire. I even caught the teachers raising their eyebrows in astonishment. It
just goes to show you that you can’t judge a book by its cover! I never really
understood what that meant until hearing Liam sing. Now, I don’t think I’ll
ever look at him in the same way again. It’s also a really big lesson for me.
From now on, I will never judge a person by their looks alone. I’ll wait till I
get to know them because I’ve found out that until you do get to know people,
you really don’t know what type of person they are or what hidden talents they
might have.
Anyway, the musical was shaping up to be a
huge success. The dance troupe we had put together was really coming along and
we rehearsed during every lunch break and sometimes even after school. Then one
afternoon, an amazing thing happened; Blake Jansen, who I’ve had a secret crush
on since the fourth grade, turned up at rehearsals with his friend, Jack.
At first I was embarrassed to see them
watching us and to make matters worse, some of the girls actually starting to giggle
and carry on. One girl was even fluttering her eyelashes! I’d heard about that sort
of thing but had never seen it in action before. Talk about humiliating! I just
tried to ignore the boys at first but after about ten minutes of observing our
routine, they walked towards Millie and I and actually asked if they could join
in.
I couldn’t believe it! Blake Jansen really
wanted to join our dance troupe! I was sure it was because Alex was involved
and everyone was starting to hear how cool he was. But I didn’t care about the
reason. Having a couple more boys included would just make it so much better! Although,
I was reluctant to admit to myself that I was particularly glad one of the boys
just happened to be Blake.
Millie grinned at me and whispered quietly,
“Julia…can you believe Blake is joining us!” I pretended I didn’t hear her and
went into a spiel telling the boys that if they wanted to be involved, they’d
have to commit to rehearsals and put in one hundred per cent effort.
Much to my surprise, they were really
enthusiastic about the whole thing and couldn’t wait to get started. I thought it
was awesome they were keen to take part. And surprisingly enough, they turned
out to be pretty good. It was shaping up to be a highlight of the musical and I
began to really look forward to every rehearsal. Of course having Blake there
helped to keep my enthusiasm levels high but I just had to make sure I didn’t
give him too much attention. I didn’t want him thinking that I actually liked
him. That would just be too embarrassing!
But, apart from Blake Jansen and constant
rehearsals, I really had no idea what was ahead for us. If I had only known at
the time, I probably would never have volunteered to take part in the musical
at all.
The
new girl…
The weeks passed by and school went on as
usual. However, as the final performance day drew closer, our practice sessions
became more frequent and we were kept very busy. Millie and I had been asked to
choreograph the dance routines for several additional scenes as well, so we had
little time for anything else.
Then one morning, just as the bell was
ringing and everyone was heading into class, a very pretty girl with blonde
wavy hair who looked to be about our age, happened to arrive at our classroom
door.
“Come in, Sara!” I heard Mrs. Jackson call
out in a friendly manner. “I’ve been expecting you!”
Everyone looked curiously in the girl’s
direction. “Girls and boys, I’d like you to meet Sara Hamilton. She has just enrolled
at our school and will now be joining our class.”
Sara smiled shyly as she followed Mrs.
Jackson towards an empty desk next to mine. “Julia, I’m sure you’ll be happy to
look after Sara and show her around the school during break times today. Please
make her welcome.”
“Yes of course, Mrs. Jackson,” I answered
enthusiastically as I smiled encouragingly towards Sara. “Hi, Sara! My name’s
Julia and this is my friend, Millie,” I added, pointing towards Millie who was
seated on the other side of me.
Millie smiled brightly and jumped up to
help Sara unpack her bag and put her books and other belongings into her desk
drawer. It was an unusual event to have a new student come to our school and
when it happened it was always very exciting. I could see all the other kids in
the class looking towards Sara with interest and by the time the bell rang for
morning break, Sara was surrounded by girls who were desperately keen to meet
her.
We all headed down the stairs towards the
area where the grade seven kids sat to eat their morning tea. There was a large
group trying to get Sara’s attention, so Millie and I sat back in order to
avoid overwhelming the poor girl who was swamped with people asking her
questions. As I looked around, I realized that she also had the attention of
pretty much every other kid in the grade, the boys included.
Sara was very pretty and was wearing the
coolest clothes. I noticed her white sandals; they had straps around the ankles
and chunky heels, the latest in fashion and very expensive. I also realized
that she was wearing the pleated suede skirt I had been eyeing off in the
window of a local designer store on the weekend. Judging by the reaction of all
the girls, I could tell that she was going to be very popular and I wondered suddenly
if she was good at dancing.
When the opportunity arose, Millie and I
moved closer to Sara and began chatting. She was super friendly and seemed
really nice. We found out that she and her family had just moved into town the
week before, as her dad had been transferred to a new job in the area. Sara
told us how much she had been looking forward to starting at a new school. She
didn’t say too much but I kind of got the feeling that the kids at her last
school weren’t very nice to her. I reassured her that she wouldn’t have that
problem at our school as all the girls in our class got on really well.
“I’ve noticed that there are some cute boys
here as well,” she said to Millie and I with a huge grin.
We grinned back and Millie said, “Yeah,
some of them are ok!” with a wink in my direction. I could see that Sara was
watching my reaction to Millie’s comment and I couldn’t help but blush. Trying to
change the subject I asked Sara, “Do you like dancing?”
“Oh, I love dancing!” she exclaimed. “It’s
my favorite thing to do. I was taking hip hop classes before I left my old
school and I’m really keen to start up again.”
“Oh wow!” I replied. “If you’re good at hip
hop, you could probably join in our hip hop dance for the musical. It’s in four
weeks, so you’d have time to learn the routine. Do you want to come to
rehearsals at lunch time?”
“I’d love to!” Sara answered. “Thank you so
much for inviting me.”
“That’s alright,” I beamed in response.
“I’ll just have to check with Miss Sheldon but I’m sure it will be fine. She’s
keen to have as many kids involved as possible.”
Chatting excitedly, we headed back to
class, explaining what the musical was about and the different dances that
Millie and I had choreographed. “It’s going to be the most awesome thing ever!”
Millie gasped. “The costumes are amazing and we can hardly wait for the night
to come.”
“This is really cool!” Sara grinned
excitedly. “I had a feeling about this school. I knew that it was going to be
the right place for me.”
As we walked up the stairs, I felt a shiver
of excitement run down my spine. “What an unexpected surprise,” I thought to
myself. “I certainly hadn’t expected to be making a cool new friend when I
arrived at school this morning.”
And with beaming smiles, the three of us
headed towards our desks and sat down to get on with the work that Mrs. Jackson
had put on the board.