Festival Frenzy Read online

  JESSIE

  Isn’t this cool?

  ABBY

  I could just lie out here and get a tan. Or do my nails . . .

  SASSY

  I think some people do yoga routines and stuff out on their paddleboards.

  JESSIE

  H? How you doing?

  HERMIONE

  OK, I guess. It’s not as scary as I thought it would be. Our instructor Razzy’s been very reassuring . . .

  SASSY

  (shouting)

  Look out, H! There’s a dark shape coming up behind you . . .

  Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun . . .

  HERMIONE shrieks and looks round anxiously.

  HERMIONE

  What? What is it? Where?

  SASSY

  (laughing)

  Gotcha!

  JESSIE

  Moving on! How about a race? We could go out to that buoy a bit further out in the harbour?

  ABBY

  (annoyed)

  Why are you so full of beans?

  Can’t you just laze about like the rest of us?

  LUCY

  Come on, Abs! L-let’s do it!

  HERMIONE

  I’ll stay here and be the referee. Ready, steady, go!

  Suddenly we see the front of the paddleboard and paddle moving quickly through the water. The film is from the POV of JESSIE’s GoPro strapped to her head. Lots of shrieking and laughing. Suddenly a big splash. JESSIE’s GoPro turns and films ABBY, who has fallen in the water.

  ABBY

  Argh! Not again!

  HERMIONE

  (shouting)

  Go, Luce! You can do it!

  JESSIE’s GoPro shows another paddleboard coming into view alongside JESSIE. It’s LUCY paddling hard. With a big stroke, she pulls ahead of JESSIE and reaches the buoy first.

  ABBY, SASSY and HERMIONE

  (shout together)

  Result! Hooray! You won!

  JESSIE

  Well, done, Luce! You really pulled it out of the bag!

  LUCY

  (laughing)

  I’m knackered! Now, I’m j-just gonna chill.

  CUT TO: JESSIE and RAZZY back on shore.

  RAZZY

  So you really seem to have taken to this like a duck to water!

  (laughs)

  Excuse the corny expression. You’ve got a good sense of balance.

  JESSIE

  Well, I love sports: gymnastics, snowboarding, skateboarding . . .

  I was really hoping to try surfing today – it looks so cool.

  RAZZY

  Yes, sorry about that, but I’m sure you’ll get another chance. I think you’d be good at it and learn quickly.

  JESSIE

  So how did you get to be here? Sorry if that sounds nosy.

  RAZZY

  (laughs)

  No worries. Well, I’m from Australia, and I began bodyboarding as a little kid. Then I started surfing in my early teens, so I’ve been doing it for years!

  JESSIE

  How do you become an instructor?

  RAZZY

  Well, there’s a course with a qualification. You need lots of experience surfing, but you also have to be very fit. You have to pass a beach lifeguard course, which includes first aid.

  JESSIE

  But you did that in Australia. Are you able to work anywhere?

  RAZZY

  Yeah, the qualification is recognized internationally, so I’ve been travelling around the world, teaching as I go. I’ve been to Bali, New Zealand, Hawaii, and now I’m in England for the summer.

  JESSIE

  What an awesome way to live! I’d love to do that!

  RAZZY

  I can’t complain – it’s a great lifestyle.

  JESSIE

  So what’s the best part of the job?

  RAZZY

  Meeting lots of people, travelling the world, being outside in the elements, doing what I love.

  JESSIE

  And the worst?

  RAZZY

  The water in the UK can get a bit . . . chilly, and there’s a short surfing season here, but I tend to just move on to somewhere warmer. I’m heading off to South Africa in October.

  JESSIE

  I’d love to have your life! You’re so lucky.

  RAZZY

  (laughing)

  There’s nothing special about me. You could do it if you wanted to, I’m sure. It’s all about having the courage to live your dreams.

  JESSIE

  Thanks, Razzy, this has been so inspiring! OK, guys, so that’s it from us at Maxwell’s Bay. If any of you have been surfing or SUPing, let us know in the comments down below! And give us a thumbs-up if you enjoyed this video.

  FADE OUT.

  Views:12,011

  Subscribers: 26,499

  Comments:

  PrankingsteinJosh: so cool!

  girlscanvlogfan: looking great out there, Jessie xx

  funny internetperson54: Razzy is hotttttt!

  miavlogs: you guys are always trying new things together, it’s so inspiring

  letsgosurfing: paddle over to my channel and watch some of my surfing vlogs!

  MagicMorgan: Stoked that you guys are SUP-ers now!

  Anyadoesthesplits: Fantastic Jessie!

  ‘Right, let’s get to work,’ said Sassy as they all sat round the picnic table with cups of coffee the following morning. Mr and Mrs Lockwood had taken Maggie back to the adventure playground after breakfast, and Sassy felt kind of relieved as she still didn’t know them that well. It was always slightly intimidating getting to know your friends’ parents, even though the Lockwoods seemed friendly.

  Sassy felt really pumped about her video idea. Over the last few years, she’d loved growing her channel, SassySays, which now had 5,000 subscribers. She didn’t make any one particular kind of video, just whatever sparked her imagination and whatever she thought her viewers would enjoy. She’d been so excited to join the Girls Can Vlog channel a couple of months ago because it gave her the opportunity to work with a group. She loved doing collabs and bouncing ideas off other people.

  The girls all seemed really nice too, and she’d never had a friendship ‘group’ before, not that she had opened up to them about that. She’d noticed some tension between Abby and Jessie, but as of last night it seemed like that situation had blown over. Abby had told her to take the lead on the scary movie, and she was raring to go. She was eager to prove she could do something more original than stupid lipstick challenges.

  ‘We have some decisions to make, and then we can start planning,’ she began, sounding more confident than she felt. ‘First of all, we need to decide what sort of film we want to make—’

  ‘I love monster and alien movies,’ interrupted Jessie. ‘They’re my faves cos they’re scary but also funny.’

  ‘Yeah, but then you need costumes, which we don’t have here,’ pointed out Sassy. She didn’t want to shoot down anyone’s ideas too soon, but she thought Jessie would be cool about this.

  ‘True,’ agreed Jessie. ‘That can be our next movie, once we’re back home.’

  ‘Perfect!’ said Sassy happily.

  ‘Maybe we could film a story that’s about somewhere haunted . . . sort of ghostly and mysterious,’ suggested Hermione.

  ‘Sounds good,’ said Sassy. She knew Hermione was a huge bookworm and book tuber, so she would probably have loads of ideas for a mysterious setting. ‘Everyone agree?’

  They all nodded.

  Sassy sipped her coffee. ‘The next step is the most important, and I think you’ll be great at it, Hermione: we need a good story. Our setting is here in the woods, but what’s going to happen and who are the characters?’

  ‘Scary films always start with a happy, normal-looking situation,’ said Abby.

  Everyone nodded and tried to think of ideas.

  ‘So it could be a camping trip, like ours, which goes wrong,’ began Hermione tentatively. ‘There’s something dodgy lurking
in a haunted place.’

  ‘What would the haunted place be?’ asked Sassy, taking notes on her phone. ‘Maybe the toilet blocks?’

  ‘The ghost of last night’s curry!’ Jessie giggled.

  ‘The ghost of s-someone who got locked in the toilet – that would be fun!’ said Lucy.

  ‘Nooo!’ said Abby. ‘That actually happened to me once at school, when Kayleigh locked me in a toilet backstage at the theatre. Waaay too close to home!’

  ‘Oh yeah!’ said Lucy. ‘Sorry, I forgot. That was s-so out of order!’

  They all laughed, and Sassy started to feel a tiny bit left out until Lucy continued, ‘We’ll have to tell you the f-full story some time.’

  She nodded gratefully. ‘Sounds like one I definitely need to hear.’

  ‘Dakota was behind it, as usual!’ said Hermione. ‘Just you wait till you meet her – you’ll see what we’ve all been dealing with.’

  Sassy groaned. ‘She’s bad enough on her YouTube channel, not sure if I could cope IRL.’ Dakota came across as a total nightmare. She glanced back at her notes. ‘OK, so . . . not the toilet, then.’

  ‘What about the boathouse?’ suggested Hermione. ‘It could be haunted by someone who kept falling off their kayak.’ She glanced coyly at Abby.

  ‘Mean!’ said Abby, a smile spreading over her face. ‘But I like it! So we need a reason for them to go into the boathouse at night.’

  ‘Who are the characters?’ asked Jessie.

  ‘Well,’ said Sassy, ‘usually there’s a main character with a sidekick or two. The main character is often impulsive and foolhardy, so they head straight for danger. They have to be likeable, though, so you care about what happens to them. Then they’ve usually got a friend who’s more reluctant and cautious, who warns them not to go, and stuff like that.’

  ‘Too bad we don’t have a dog like in Scooby Doo,’ joked Jessie. ‘Abs, you should have brought Weenie.’

  ‘Ha ha – can you imagine his little face?’ Abby giggled. ‘So, who’s going to play the main character?’ she asked, looking hopeful.

  ‘Let’s get the story sorted before we get into casting,’ replied Sassy quickly, avoiding the question. She knew that Abby loved acting, but she didn’t know if she should automatically get the lead role. Sassy actually had someone else in mind.

  ‘Maybe we have two girls on a camping trip who are making a film about some mystery,’ Hermione said, getting into her stride.

  She looked so cute, her face the picture of concentration. Sassy could totally picture her as an author in front of an old-fashioned typewriter, tapping out her next bestseller.

  ‘Perhaps,’ continued Hermione, her face lighting up, ‘their older sister disappeared mysteriously years ago at the lake, and they’ve come back to try to find out what happened. They’re both kind of incompetent – that’s where the humour comes in.’

  ‘S-someone needs to warn them not to go to the l-lake and especially not the b-boathouse. It could be some old man at the shop or a caretaker . . . or some really over-the-top scary m-music . . . but, anyway, they need to be warned,’ added Lucy.

  ‘So there are lots of warnings, but then something needs to make them go anyway,’ summed up Sassy.

  ‘Maybe there’s a thunderstorm and they have to shelter in the boathouse?’ suggested Hermione.

  ‘Yes!’ said Sassy, high-fiving her across the table. ‘Hermione, I could kiss you!’

  It took them a couple of hours to work out the storyline, and by the time they had finished, the Lockwoods had returned. They’d tried to drag the girls out to the lake, and had been sent packing. So they’d gone out again and left them to it, setting the girls up with some snacks and drinks and warning them to stay in the shade as the day was hotting up quickly.

  Sassy was buzzing with how good the story was. ‘Now we should make a storyboard – it can be really rough – but just to plan what we are filming scene by scene,’ she said, opening a packet of crisps. She ate one then gestured around with the second one. ‘We should plan some jump scares in a few key places, but not too many or they’ll have less impact.’

  ‘What’s a j-jump scare?’ asked Lucy.

  ‘Oh, I know that from video games,’ replied Jessie. ‘It’s when you scare the audience by surprising them with a quick change of image, usually together with a loud, frightening sound, right? Something that makes them jump with fear.’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Sassy.

  ‘So what about the music and sound effects?’ asked Abby.

  ‘We’ll do that later when we’re editing back home. We’ll be able to plan it carefully to really enhance the filming. There are websites where we can get free music and sound effects like footsteps and heavy breathing, and maybe some canned laughter too, for the funny bits.’

  ‘And what about lighting?’ asked Hermione. ‘We’re filming at night, but we only have our torches and some lanterns. How’s that going to work?’

  ‘I think it’s a f-full moon,’ said Lucy. ‘That sh-should help.’

  ‘We’ll need to use a lens opening for shooting in low light and we should try to light our subjects from behind,’ replied Sassy, thinking back to the videos she’d watched.

  ‘Wow, someone’s done their homework!’ said Hermione.

  Tired and sweaty after their morning’s work, they took a break for lunch and went down to the dock for a swim. The boys weren’t there, as they’d gone off on a day trip, but the girls had fun messing about on the inflatables. That was until Sassy started thinking about the movie again . . . It was taking over her brain – it was going to be the coolest thing ever!

  After their swim, Sassy bought them all slushies. ‘OK, so back to work, guys,’ she said as she handed the bright pink and blue drinks round. ‘We need to cast the parts and decide who’s doing what. I’d really like to do the main filming. I hope that’s OK with everyone?’

  ‘Makes sense,’ said Hermione, ‘because you’re the director and you have a vision for the film.’

  The others nodded, and Sassy smiled gratefully.

  ‘Thanks, guys. Next, I’d really like Abby to help with the lighting, which will need to be done during the filming,’ continued Sassy.

  Abby looked momentarily disappointed, but nodded in agreement.

  ‘Also, Abs, I’d like you to do the make-up of the ghost of Ghost Girl. I hope you brought some products with you!’

  ‘Never go anywhere without my make-up!’ Abby laughed. ‘And I did bring quite a lot for Chesterbury.’

  Sassy was relieved. She’d expected Abby to throw a tantrum about not playing the lead.

  ‘So that leaves Lucy, Jessie and Hermione to play the various parts,’ Sassy continued.

  ‘I really don’t want to be in this,’ said Hermione. ‘I know I’ll be rubbish.’ She smiled apologetically at Sassy. ‘Ask anyone. I’m no good at acting.’

  ‘Well, you can be the ghost who doesn’t say anything but just looks creepy,’ said Sassy, smiling. ‘And makes them laugh – Ghost Girl should be soaking wet with mascara running down her face.’

  ‘You can d-do that, H,’ said Lucy encouragingly. ‘Come on.’

  ‘No problem for you to look frightening!’ joked Jessie.

  Hermione shoved her. ‘Well, maybe . . . if I don’t have to speak,’ said Hermione reluctantly.

  ‘Jessie, I think you’d make a great lead,’ suggested Sassy, ‘and you, Luce, can be her friend. How does that sound?’

  ‘Cool!’ said Jessie.

  *

  They started filming the daytime shots that afternoon: arriving at the campsite with its sign, panning shots of the dark woods and lake, and even a shot of the camp caretaker in front of the boathouse. Sassy persuaded him to stand leaning on his broom scowling at the camera.

  ‘Terrific!’ she said, and thanked him. ‘You’ll be famous!’

  Over supper they talked excitedly about what they’d been doing with Lucy’s parents.

  ‘It sounds very impressive,’ said Lucy�
��s dad. ‘And very creative.’

  ‘Will you be filming more this evening?’ asked Lucy’s mum.

  ‘Yeah, we need to do the night scenes,’ replied Sassy. ‘We’ll need to use the lanterns, if that would be OK?’ she asked politely.

  ‘Sure,’ said Lucy’s dad. ‘But I want you to be extra careful in the dark, and no going out on the water for this Ghost Girl. Understood?’

  ‘No fear!’ said Hermione.

  ‘And I want you back by ten at the latest,’ said Lucy’s mum.

  The actors went to get ready in the tent. Sassy supervised as Abby put some make-up on Jessie and Lucy, and then she got to work on turning Hermione into a damp and annoyed-looking ghost. She put on thick white foundation and made Hermione’s eyes very dark so that they looked hollow. Then she applied deep red lipstick and mascara streaks, plus a couple of fake spots, before drenching her with a jug of water over the head.

  ‘Whoa!’ exclaimed Jessie. ‘She looks amazing – you’re kind of scary and pitiful at the same time, Hermione.’

  ‘That’s f-fantastic, Abs,’ said Lucy.

  Even Hermione smiled when she looked in the mirror. ‘Let’s hope I don’t bump into Leo tonight, ha ha.’

  ‘Good job, Abby,’ praised Sassy, feeling pumped. ‘Now, are we ready to roll?’

  They trudged off into the woods with their lanterns and headed down towards the boathouse. The moon was rising over the lake, and it all looked perfect.

  ‘Lights, camera, action!’ called Abby, who was assisting, and Sassy started to film.

  All too soon it was 10 p.m. and they went back to the campsite, laughing and talking non-stop. They snacked on popcorn and drank the expensive cocoa Lucy’s mum had made them.

  There’d been lots of giggling, screaming, running and falling down clumsily, and Jessie had been hilarious as a scared teenager about to wet herself when she first saw Hermione’s ghostly face appear.