Never a Perfect Moment by Cathy Cole Page B

strange for me, you know?”
    Her lip wobbled as she turned back to her locker, pulling out her weekend bag with a little more force than necessary.
    Being an outcast instead of a queen , Polly thought. Eve would never have experienced anything like this before. It was all very character-building, her mother would have said. But no fun at all.
    She pulled herself out of her Ollie gloom. “What an idiot,” she said aloud. “Forget him, Eve.”
    Eve straightened her shoulders. “You’re right. I’m not letting some little rat spoil this weekend.”
    â€œFunky Fox, here we come!” Lila hooted, and banged hard on the lockers with her fists. Rhi jumped about a mile in the air at the noise.
    â€œLila,” Polly warned, as a teacher put his head out of the classroom door and frowned at them.
    â€œDon’t make that face at me, Polly.” Lila pulled a mascara wand from her blazer pocket and added a long lick of shiny black mascara to her already heavily mascaraed eyes. “You’re not my dad.”
    Polly sighed. Lila still hadn’t explained about the bartender, or her recent string of footballer conquests. She was in her “girls just want to have fun” mode, and there was no reasoning with her. Polly really hoped Lila wouldn’t get into any trouble this weekend. Anything could happen at a festival. She was starting to wonder what she’d got herself into.
    â€œRight,” said Eve, shouldering her large, brand-new rucksack with some difficulty. “How do we call the bus?”
    Rhi giggled. “You can’t just call it like a taxi, Eve. We have to get to the bus station and wait.”
    â€œWhat kind of arrangement is that?” Eve demanded. “I wish you’d let me call Paulo. He could get us there in less than an hour.”
    â€œThat’s cheating,” said Lila, shouldering her own infinitely scruffier bag. “You won’t get into the festie vibe, Eve. Besides, we might meet some cute guys on the bus.”
    Rhi clapped her hands with excitement. “This is going to be such an awesome weekend. I can’t believe we’re going to see Polarize live!” She started humming a Polarize track, one that had been playing on the radio for weeks.
    â€œHarry Lawson is hot ,” Lila giggled, humming along as they walked out of school and into the bright afternoon light. “I might hang around backstage and see if I can get his number.”
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    The sun was setting as the four girls struggled through the farm gate. Polly’s rucksack straps were biting into her shoulders and her feet were wet. She hadn’t banked on trudging two miles from the bus stop to get to this point. She thought longingly of her cosy bed. She wouldn’t be seeing it for two whole nights. Already, that was feeling like a lifetime.
    â€œWhew!” Eve wiped her forehead. “This festival had better be as good as everyone says. I haven’t walked that far since our ski lift broke down in Chamonix.”
    Polly found herself looking down at a great field full of people. Tents were already crammed in, forming brightly coloured lines down the hillside. Pennants fluttered from the bigger marquees, and there was a smell of barbecue in the air. Way down at the bottom of the field stood the main stage with its distinctive, point-eared Funky Fox canopy. The more she stared at the scene, the harder she was finding it to breathe. It was massive . She had no idea the festival would be this big, or this crowded.
    â€œI can’t believe we’re here,” said Rhi in excitement, surveying the scene.
    Lila whooped.
    Polly concentrated on not being sick. The anxiety was creeping up on her in familiar, nagging waves. There was no running water or proper toilets. The crowd was getting bigger by the minute, multiplying like some horrible kind of virus. She gritted her teeth.
    I’m stuck here for forty-eight hours, she thought in