®
Lights, Camera,
Girl Power!
SCHOLASTIC INC.
Written by Cathy Hapka
Illustrated by Ameet Studio
Lights, Camera,
Girl Power!
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded,
decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information
storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic
or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written
permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to
Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY
10012.
eISBN 978-0-545-76604-3
LEGO, the LEGO logo, and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of
the LEGO Group. ©2013 The LEGO Group. Produced by Scholastic Inc. under
license from the LEGO Group.
Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks
and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First printing, March 2013
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Seeing Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 2: The Contest. . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Chapter 3: Write On, Stephanie! .......... 13
Chapter 4: Picture-Perfect Emma ...... 19
Chapter 5: Mia’s Animal Surprise ........ 25
Chapter 6: Olivia on Her Own . . . . . . . . 31
Chapter 7: Andrea’s Night to Shine . . . . 35
Chapter 8: A Friendly Idea . . . . . . . . . 41
Chapter 9: We Can Do It! . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Chapter 10: And the Winners Are . . . . . . . 55
Chapter 1:
Seeing Stars
1
“Heel, boy!” Olivia called as she ran across town.
A happy brown puppy was scampering ahead of
her. When he heard Olivia’s voice, he stopped and
wagged his tail. He had been chasing a butterfly.
Olivia laughed and bent down to pet him. “Good
boy!” she said. A gray kitty on her shoulder purred.
She patted her, also.“You, too, Maxie.”
Helping her aunt Sophie train pets for the local
vet clinic was Olivia’s second-favorite thing about
her new home in Heartlake City.
2
Her favorite thing? That was easy. Olivia loved
hanging out with her four best friends—Stephanie,
Andrea, Mia, and Emma. In fact, she was on her way
to meet them right now.
“Hi, Olivia!” Mia called from a bench when
Olivia reached the park. “I got here early to watch
the people riding horses on the trails.”
Olivia smiled. That was typical of Mia. She loved
animals of all kinds and even had her own horse
named Bella.
“How’s the pet training going?” Mia asked.
3
Before Olivia could answer, Stephanie and
Emma hurried over to join them. “Hi, guys!”
Stephanie exclaimed. “Sorry we’re late. We would
have been here on time. But
someone
had to stop and
look at the new headbands at the boutique.”
“What?” Emma shrugged, adjusting a pretty
purple headband in her perfectly brushed hair. “The
new season’s styles just came out. Besides, Andrea’s
not even here yet.”
“Maybe she’s working on a new song,” Olivia said.
“I think Marie is letting her sing at the café every
Friday this month.”
The girls all nodded. Their friend Andrea was a
fantastic singer. She worked during the summer as a
waitress at the City Park Café and spent most of her
time dreaming up new song lyrics. The café’s owner,
Marie, didn’t mind as long as the food orders came
out right. Everyone in town knew Andrea’s dream
was to become a big star one day.
Just then, Andrea came sprinting up to the
4
bench. She was out of breath. “You guys . . .never . . .
believe . . . saw.”She panted.
“Slow down.” Stephanie laughed. “We can’t
understand you.”
Andrea took a deep breath. “What I meant was,
you guys will never believe who I just saw!” she said.
“Look over there!”
Andrea pointed to a woman riding a horse near
the edge of the woods.
Mia giggled. “There are always people riding
horses in the afternoon, silly,”she said.
“Forget the horse—look at the
rider
,” Andrea
insisted. “Isn’t that . . .
Cassie
?”
Emma gasped. “Cassie? You mean
the
Cassie—as
in the host of
Girl Power
?”
“That’s my favorite TV show!” Stephanie cried.
“What’s Cassie doing here?” Olivia wondered.
“I don’t know, but let’s go ask for her autograph!”
Andrea exclaimed.
The five girls raced to the other side of the park.
5
But before they could get there, Cassie turned her
horse onto a trail and cantered out of sight.
“Oh, no! There’s no way we can catch up to her
on foot!” Andrea groaned.
Emma frowned. “Then how are we going
to find her?”
“We need to figure out what she’s doing in
Heartlake City,” Stephanie declared. “Come on, I
have an idea.”
6
Chapter 2:
The Contest
Soon the friends were sitting in Stephanie’s
backyard. Even Stephanie’s cat, Kitty, could tell
something big was going on. She wandered into the
yard and circled the girls’ feet.
“Okay,” Stephanie said. “Emma, you look
through the Heartlake City newspaper and see
what’s going on around town. And, Mia, you turn
on the radio. If Cassie’s here for her television show,
maybe there will be an announcement.”
Olivia smiled.
Leave it to Stephanie to take
charge of the situation!
she thought.
7
Mia turned on the radio. A pop song was just
finishing.
“
Goooood
morning, Heartlake City!” The DJ’s
voice came on. “We’ve got big news to share today.
Some of you may have noticed a special visitor
around town. Cassie, the host of the television show
Girl Power
, is here!”
“It
was
her!” Emma exclaimed, jumping up and
down eagerly.
“
Ssh!
Maybe he’ll explain why she’s visiti
ng,”
Olivia said, leaning closer to the radio.
“Now, fans, Cassie has just announced an exciting
contest,” the DJ continued. “She is so impressed by
our beautiful city that she wants to feature it on an
episode of
Girl Power
. And one lucky girl has the
chance to win a guest-star appearance on the show!”
“Wow!” Stephanie cried. “That sounds like it
would be amazing!”
“Definitely,” Andrea said. “I was
made
to be on
TV. If I win, maybe I can sing with Cassie.”
8
“The contest theme is
The Heart of Heartlake
City,
” the DJ said. “Whichever girl submits the
most creative entry—from photos to videos to
scrapbooks—about what makes our city special will
win the grand prize. All entries are due at City Hall
by five o’clock on Friday afternoon. That’s four days
away. So get to work, girls!”
As the pop music started back up, Stephanie
clapped her hands. “This is going to be awesome!”
“We should enter together!” Olivia cried.
9
“Yeah!” her friends agreed.
“Wait a second,”Mia said suddenly. “Didn’t the
one
girl could win?”
“You’re right.” Emma’s face fell. “I guess we’re not
allowed to enter as a group.”
“Oh.” Olivia sighed. “That’s too bad. We could
have made the best entry
ever
.”
“I know.”Stephanie shrugged.“We should all still
enter, though. That will give us five chances to win.
Maybe at least one of us will get to meet Cassie.”
Andrea nodded. “And then I—um, I mean,
whoever
wins can tell the rest of us all about it.”
“Okay,”Olivia said. She still felt disappointed.
But she didn’t want to spoil her friends’ excitement.
“What should our projects be?”
Stephanie grinned. “I know what I’m going to do.
Wait here!” She ran inside her house.
“I think I’ll do something about Heartlake City’s
animals,”Mia said.
“Of course!” Emma exclaimed. “That’s perfect.
10
Heartlake is special to you because of the animals.”
“What about you, Emma?”Olivia asked.
“I’ll probably do something about fashion,”
Emma said, twirling a strand of her hair. “I can take
photos of great outfits and write about them. It will
be like a Heartlake City fashion magazine.”
“And I’m going to write my very own song,”
Andrea announced. “What about you, Olivia?”
“I’m not sure,” Olivia said.
Just then, Stephanie returned holding a book.
“What’s that?” Mia asked.
“It’s a book about the history of Heartlake City,”
Stephanie explained. “I need it to research my
own
book.”
Emma gasped.“You’re going to write a
whole
book by Friday?”
“Wow!” Olivia exclaimed. That sounded like
a lot of work. But if anyone could do it, it was
Stephanie.
Stephanie smiled. “This book only talks about
11
12
old stuff that happened here,” she said, flipping
through the pages. “I want my book to be about stuff
that’s happening now. Like all the fun things there
are to see and do around town.”
“That’s really cool.”Olivia looked around at her
friends. “All of your projects sound amazing. I bet
Cassie will have a hard time picking a winner.”
Mia nodded. “But you still need to think of a
project to do, Olivia.”
Olivia shrugged. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll
keep brainstorming. For now, I’m happy to help you
guys out with your ideas.”
“Okay.”Andrea grinned. “Well, then, may the
best girl win!”
13
Chapter 3:
Write On,
Stephanie!
As soon as Stephanie’s friends left, she started
scribbling down an outline.
“I can write a chapter about the beach,” she
murmured to herself.“And another about our school,
and the shops
and restaurants
downtown.”
She picked
up the history
book and flipped
through it.
14
What else should she write about?
“I’d better go out and do some research,” she told
Kitty. “Wish me luck!”
The cat purred as Stephanie gave her a pat. Then
Stephanie hurried off.
Stephanie spent the rest of the day wandering
around town, jotting ideas in her notebook. Soon,
she had collected details about the stables, the
flight school, the café, the pet salon, and even the
Heartlake City Pool. By that evening, she was
exhausted!
Tuesday morning, Stephanie headed to the park.
It was beautiful outside, and she wanted to organize
her notes for the first few chapters in the bright
sunshine. When she got there, Mia was sitting on
along the trails.
“Hi,”Mia called. “How’s the book going?”
15
“Great,” Stephanie said. “How’s your project?”
Mia sighed. “Actually, it’s harder than I thought,”
she confessed. “I’ve been taking photos of cute
animals all morning. But I’m not sure how to turn
them into a project Cassie will like.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll figure it out,” Stephanie
assured her. “I know you can do it!”
“Thanks,” Mia said. “Actually, the one I’m really
worried about is Olivia. When I talked to her this
morning, she still didn’t know what she’s doing.”
“Olivia’s supersmart,” Stephanie pointed out.
“She’s always inventing cool science projects. She
will probably do
something about
science that will
show Cassie how
smart Heartlake
City girls are.”
“I didn’t think
of that,” Mia said.
16
Suddenly, Andrea ran up to them. She was
clutching some papers and looked excited.
“Guess what?”Andrea said breathlessly. “I’m
going to sing my song for the contest at the café on
Thursday afternoon! Will you guys help me tape it
for Cassie?”
“Of course!” Stephanie and Mia exclaimed.
“Fabulous!” Andrea waved the papers she
was holding. “I have some of the lyrics worked
out already. Olivia has been helping me with the
17
rhymes.” She squinted at the paper. “I just wish
she’d helped me with my handwriting. I can hardly
read what I wrote.”
Stephanie giggled. “Great artists don’t always
have good handwriting.”
“True.”Andrea grinned.“Speaking of writing,
how’s your book going?”
“It’s all under control,”Stephanie said.“Almost,
anyway.”She frowned and wiggled her fingers. “My
hand hurts from all the writing.”
“You’re
hand
writing your book?” Mia asked,
surprised. “How come you’re not using a computer?”
Stephanie smiled. “Oh, don’t worry. I’m only
handwriting my notes. For the book itself, I know
just what to do.”
A short while later, Stephanie ran up to her dad’s
study at home. “Hey, Dad,”she said, rushing in.
“May I borrow your laptop?”
18
Her father looked up from his desk. “Sorry,
Steph. It’s not working right now. It keeps freezing
every time I load a video or computer game. I need
to have it repaired.”
“I don’t need to play games,”Stephanie said. “I
only need it to write my book.”
“Oh. It should work okay for that if you’re
careful.”He placed the old laptop on his desk.
Stephanie turned it on and held her breath.
“Yes!” she exclaimed when the screen lit up. It
worked! With all her notes, Stephanie was certain
she could finish her book by Friday.
Maybe, just maybe
, she thought,
I will be the one
to win the contest!
19
“Now stay just like that,” Emma said, looking
through her camera lens.
“Like this?” Olivia struck a pose. It was
Wednesday morning,
and she was standing
in Emma’s backyard.
Her friend had
asked each of the
girls to be in her
Heartlake City
fashion shoot.
Chapter 4:
Picture-Perfect
Emma
20
Emma snapped the picture. “Perfect! Thanks for
helping me. What’s your project, by the way?”