Read Online Victory and the All-Stars Academy by Stacy Gregg - Free Book Online

and Issie told the others about their conversation with Digger Murphy.
    â€œWe have to keep him here at the stables where he’ll be safe,” Charlotte agreed.
    â€œBut we can’t keep hiding him forever,” Kate pointed out. “And if he’s killing sheep…”
    â€œ If he’s killing them,” Issie said. “We don’t even know for sure that Wombat is responsible. Digger has no proof that it was him.”
    â€œAnyway,” Stella shot back at Kate, “it’s not his fault. He was hungry and abandoned!”
    At the sound of raised voices, the puppy gave a bark.
    â€œKeep it down!” said Morgan. “You’re upsetting him. He’ll start barking.”
    â€œMorgan’s right,” Issie agreed. “Anyway, we don’thave to decide right now. Let’s leave him locked in the stall for the night. We’d better get back up to the house before everyone starts wondering what’s going on down here.”
    Dinner that evening was a barbecue. On the verandah of the villa a long trestle table had been put up that ran the whole length of the west side of the building. Bench seats were set up on either side of the table, and the girls all took their dinner plates and sat down, while Avery manned the grill. There were hot dogs, cherry tomato and cucumber salad and big glasses of apple juice. There was steak too—but not quite enough to go around.
    â€œI could have sworn I bought more meat than that.” Avery was puzzled as he threw the steak on the grill. Issie and Stella looked at each other and tried not to giggle.
    The girls had figured out a plan before dinner and each of them had taken a plastic bag to the table, hidden inside a pocket. As they ate, they managed to smuggle a few scraps off their plates—a streak of steakfat here and a bit of sausage-end there. By the end of the meal they had enough leftovers between them to make a dog’s dinner.
    They pooled all their scraps together back in Kate and Charlotte’s room and prepared to go back down to the stables.
    â€œI need to get a sweatshirt first,” Issie told them. The days were boiling hot in Melbourne, but the nights were the opposite, and the evening air was chilly.
    â€œI need one too,” said Stella. “We can meet on the verandah in five minutes, OK?”
    The girls were heading back to their rooms when Issie heard the noise. It was an awful screeching sound and it was coming from inside her bedroom…She opened the door. The Mamma Mia soundtrack was blaring out of Dee Dee’s iPod speakers at full volume and Dee Dee was standing on her bed in a rock ‘n’ roll pose, dressed in jellybean-print pyjamas, singing ‘Dancing Queen’ at the top of her lungs into her hairbrush.
    â€œ You can jiii-iive! ”
    â€œDee Dee!”
    â€œ Oh, yeah! ” Dee Dee was bellowing so loudly intoher hairbrush ‘microphone’ that she didn’t hear Issie shouting at her.
    â€œDee Dee!” Issie stomped over and switched off the iPod.
    â€œOh!” Dee Dee smiled. “Hey, roomie! I didn’t hear you.”
    â€œDee Dee.” Issie was stunned. “What happened in here?”
    It looked like a bomb had hit the bedroom. Dee Dee’s bed was strewn with clothes and the floor was covered with her junk. Dee Dee’s mess had spread out like an oil spill and her stuff was all over Issie’s side of the room too. There was a half-eaten sandwich lying on a plate in the middle of the floor and magazines had been flung about as if a hurricane had swept through. Half-empty soft drink cans were lined up on the dressing table next to a wad of chewing gum actually stuck to the dresser! Dirty jods and grubby old socks—Dee Dee’s grubby socks—were lying on Issie’s bed! In the midst of all of this sat Dee Dee. The iPod was switched off now, but she was still loudly humming the tune.
    â€œDee Dee!”