"Why are you all still here?" Sophia Cressington said, standing in the doorway to the Flare Dormitory.

"Mm?" Bubbles replied, lifting her sleepy head from a pillow. A strand of drool from her mouth seemed to attach her to the soft cushion, like a parasite drawing all her energy and leaving her an inert mass upon the bed.

"We have agreed to support our friend in this difficult time," the soft tones of the Xenia heiress said from her draped corner opposite.

"Commendable loyalty," the games captain sniffed. "I hope it extends to the school as a whole, for Miss Allouette will at some point be representing Miss Plazenby's before crowds of many thousands two weeks from today." She stepped further into the room and gave the twins a distasteful glance. The Massking girls were still fast asleep this time of the morning, not being obliged to get up for lessons, and were all of a tangle in the same bed, long blonde pigtails scattered everywhere. Strangely, when one breathed in the other breathed out, such was their symbiotic closeness.

"I have come to give the Flare volunteer her formal schedule for the coming days. We are close to Foam Fullness when the other competitors will travel to Blossom Bay in time for the competition, and there will be a celebratory greeting followed by, ahem, a wild party."

As if only pretending to be lost in entangled slumbers, Fizzy and Divvy sat up and whooped so loud it made the games captain jump.

"A party!" one said.

"A wild party!" the other corrected her sister and they looked at each other with wide eyes devoid of any hint of sleepiness.

"Wild!" they both said in perfect unison.

"Well, ahem," the Cressington girl forged on, slipping a coloured sheet of paper from a folder held tight to her chest. "I'll just leave this here," and she dropped it on the curly dark head of Sunshine, who after several days of strenuous coaching was dead to the world and all other worlds besides.

"Mm," Bubbles responded from her own bed, having not moved a jot during all this, and not being sure whether she had been spoken to. Her own curly head then flopped back on the pillow to resume her morning's repose.

"Thank you, on behalf of Miss Allouette," Princess Rapture said politely, gathering her silk dressing gown around her, slipping dainty feet into furry slippers and crossing the room to usher the games captain out with dignified ceremony. "Goodbye," she said as the door clicked shut. Then she whirled on her heel, darted to Sunshine's bed and picked at the sheet carefully so as not to disturb her fatigued friend. The twins were at her side in an instant and Sharshua had by this time appeared, towel, toothbrush and shower sponge in hand, ready to begin her own day. She too peered at the writing upon the schedule.

"Oh my," she said, noting the itinerary. "Look at all the potential penalty points for tardiness or absence."

"Yes indeed," Rappy said, glancing at Sunshine's slumbering form sympathetically. "We must ensure our friend makes every appointment on time for these ceremonies, lest it impinge on the Plazenby score. The competition has truly begun."

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"The first is today, in an hour!" one of the twins pointed out frantically so that the other brutally shook Sunshine's bed.

"Get up!" she shrieked. "We're all going to die else," she added somewhat dramatically.

It was a seriously formal occasion to greet all the Frangea Winkel schools who were contributing their teams for the competition so everyone had to be in their yellow and skyblue blazers with straw boaters for the summer term.

"My hat, my hat," panicked Bubbles, "where did I throw it?" vaguely remembering a frisbee session in a nearby park and some dispute with a tree that refused to give back its prisoner, until Arry the spider retrieved it like a faithful dog, or monkey, or mechanical spider, truth be told.

"You're not bringing that thing to the hall?" Sunshine shuddered as she stuffed her crisp locks into her own slightly dented boater for it had been the victim of target practice. "It's hymns and more hymns and most likely a cheer with thrown hats at the end." Her objection was to Arry sitting upon Bubbles's auburn curls beneath the straw crown during the ceremony. The girl pouted and scooted her mechanical pet into a cupboard where it settled upon a nested blanket obediently.

"Remember, if anyone opens this door who isn't one of us, give them a fright," she advised the six-inch spider. "But do not kill," and she waggled a finger warningly.

"Come, we have but minutes," Rappy ushered the girls out the door, letting Lady Sunshine lead the way for she was the invited and honoured competitor. They would be mere spectators.

The Great Hall was attached to the main building of Miss Plazenby's by a terraced walkway festooned with decorations for the occasion in the school colours. Prefects guided each year to their appointed place in the banner hung space of dark wood and coloured glass. Only the four lower years were present of course for the fifths and sixths were too busy with important exams this time of year and never competed in the Summer Swim Fest. The twins thought this hilarious.

"They're going to be examined! They're going to be examined!" they chortled in unison. "Every little particle of them. If just one eyelash is a microbe too long they fail!"

"Hush, a prefect has noted our presence, and even Miss Plazenby herself I fear glanced this way a moment," Rappy admonished the boisterous girls, who were obviously getting over excited at all the goings on around them. The various schools took the stage before the welcoming headmistress and made speeches, offered banners and pledged to honour the rules and regulations of the competition. The Flare girls hooted with delight when Sunshine staggered onto the stage with the other Plazenby competitors to make their pledges.

"Smash them to bits!" one of the twins was heard to say before being shushed again.

"Hey," Bubbles side-whispered to Sharshua in the audience, "isn't that Cressington's mother up there in the pink frock and huge hat?"

The latter consulted her notes.

"She is one of the judges," the Octora girl confirmed, nodding.

"Unfair advantage to us?"

"The judges come from all the provinces and when the other Winkel schools arrive with the abeyance of storm barriers they too will form judging panels," Rappy added softly.

"By the sacred hamster of Ragadoon," Fizzy leaned across her twin while spouting this now favourite saying, "what does obey ants mean? Is it part of an insect ritual?"

"To be in abeyance, is to be reduced or lowered," came the calm answer, the princess trying her best to hide her amusement at the crazy antics of the blonde menaces sat alongside her in the audience as the ceremony proceeded.

"Abeyance them to bits!" Divvy declared, making a fist. Thankfully this shout was drowned out for everyone suddenly stood to begin the hymn recitals.

It was with great relief to Sharshua Dragonsong as she consulted her notes carefully on the ceremony again that no points would be deducted for tunelessness in the singing for she could distinctly hear Sunshine Allouette's fine voice wandering through all sorts of irrelevant octaves during several hymns, so tired and dispirited seemed the poor girl.