CHAPTER 1

I close my eyes and try to sleep. I pull up my warm doona cover over me and think about the day ahead. Tomorrow I have Zone! 

Zone is a race where people from the top 6 to 10 competitors in your school cross country go into the next round to

verse other schools. In my own school cross country I came 1st for my age group which is 8/9 girls. I am just so excited for tomorrow!

I soon drift off to sleep dreaming about tomorrow. 

''Selena!" my mummy calls. "Wake up or you'll be late! It's 8 o'clock!"

"Uh... sorry. My alarm didn't go off. Let's go have breakfast now." I mumble. 

I take off my pyjamas and put on my school sports uniform. I wonder how I'll go today. I am a super runner, though. I'm sure I'll win, I thought as I ran downstairs.        

                         LATER...        

"Hey Selena. We thought you were away today!" My BFF Lily calls as I run into the school dragging my heavy backpack.

"No, I was just a little late. No need to worry." I explain.

"... Lily?" Mrs Allie the deputy principal says as she marks the roll.

"Uh... yeah, I'm here." Lily replies.

"...Bob?..." Mrs Allie continues.

"Here!"

"Millie?"

"...Present!..."

"...uh, Selena?... Are you away? Oh, girls stop talking. Selena, are you here?"

"um, yes I am. Sorry Mrs Allie" I say. I stop my conversation with Lily and listen to the teacher.

CHAPTER 2

"Are we there yet?" Millie asks Mrs Allie.

"Almost"

"Where on earth are we?" asks Myra a super-fast Year 6 runner.

"Let me ask the bus driver because I also have no idea where we are." Mrs Allie replies.

"PSST, PSST, PSST. PSST, PSST, PSST."  The

bus driver and Mrs Allie whisper.

"I wonder what they're saying. Maybe we're lost," Lily says.

"I hope not. What if we're la-"

CLAP - CLAP - CLAPPITY - CLAP  Claps Mrs Allie. The class echoes the claps. I wonder what happened? I thought.

"Year 4, we have some bad news. It's 8:55 and the event starts at 9 o'clock. So, there's 5 minutes until it starts. Unfortunately, we are lost. I've already told the Zone organisers that we'll be 

late," Mrs Allie explains. "It's just that we can't find the way there- I mean, the bus driver doesn't know the way."

"Oh, no. It's 9:30 but we're almost there. I can see it. It's on this street..." Mrs Allie says "No need to worry. And we're here! It's only 9:3o. They've already probably walked the course but that's alright. You can always follow the person in front of you but if you're first I'm sure you'll be fine. We're here! Please say thank you

to the bus driver,” says Mrs Allie.

“I HATE that bus driver. He’s so slow. We’ve probably already missed all our races now. Look, it’s now 9:32!” complains Bob.

(Bob is just an ordinary kid that’s going to Zone in case you are wondering.)

“BOB! STOP BEING DISRESPECTFUL OR WE’LL TAKE YOU BACK TO SCHOOL! Now, everyone else, get your bags and everything you brought here and stand up. Start walking out of the bus now and get in 2 straight 

lines. Don’t go anywhere without me. Once we get out of the bus and we’re all ready, we’ll walk to our school tent and sit down. Then I’ll mark the roll again to see if everyone is here.” Mrs Allie explains.

Chapter 3

“Where is he? Did he leave because I screamed at him?”

“I don’t know. We’ve got to go find him.”

“But you’ll miss your races. You guys stay here, listen out for your races AND DO NOT LEAVE THE TENT UNLESS IT’S TIME FOR YOUR RACE! And also, ask another teacher because I won’t be here if 

you need to go to the toilet or want to go to the canteen, ok? And always go with a friend. Bye everyone! I’m going to go find Bob now!” Mrs Allie says.

“Why would Bob run away?” Lily asks me.

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s sad that Mrs Allie screamed at hi-” I reply.

“GOOD MORNING EVERYONE! I AM VERY SORRY THAT I HAVE TO SCREAM BUT I NEED EVERYONE TO HEAR ME. OUR FIRST RACE TODAY IS THE 8/9 GIRLS RACE. EVERYONE IN THAT RACE PLEASE LINE UP IN THE CENTRE

OF THE OVAL. SO JUST CONFIRMING THAT THAT’S THE 8/9 GIRLS RACE PLEASE. THANK YOU.” shouted one of the Zone organisers.

“Ooooh! That’s us! Come on, let’s line up! JINX!” Lily and I exclaim at EXACTLY the same time.

We line up in the centre of the oval and listen to the organisers. My legs are shaking. I'm so scared and nervous I thought.

"We are going to be running 2 laps of

this oval. And also, the cones will be on the left so just follow them, plus we've already walked the course. Except for some schools that were a bit late. ON YOUR MARKS, GET SET...GO!!"