The noise on the bus was shocking. I watched as Miss Bower and Matua Gary tried to get us to be quiet and gave us a pep talk. “Okay everyone, I know this is our first performance but we have to just make it work. Yeah?” Matua Gary, our male instructor, called out. “Yeah!” we replied with a lot of enthusiasm. The bus lurched into a stop. We’re here, I said to myself in my head. Everyone was flowing and buzzing with excitement, whispering about what they should fix, practising all our actions and adjusting their outfits.

We hopped off the bus and lined up, ready to stride in. As we did, we got stares, oohs and ahhs when walking past everyone. We entered the library and could see the little kids gasping, then the room fell silent. More people gathered around to see what was happening. I could see the curious looks on their faces as they glanced in our direction. We lined ourselves up and then we heard the commands from our female instructor. At that time I wasn't the leader but I was jammed right in the middle where I was most visible.

I felt extremely nervous and my hands started to get sweaty. I pulled my hands apart from Wency’s and Vera’s and shook them dry. “Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww” I muttered. I realised everyone could see me so I quickly went back to my position and put on a big smile. We sang all our songs and everyone clapped, so many warm smiles looked at us. We took a bow and tried to do a pukana to end our performance. A pukana is a face used in Māori tradition to look scary in order to ward off enemies. Now it’s selfie time, I peeked through the corner of my eye and saw Chloe taking photos with her Dad. I joined quite a few friends and took photos with them too.

We were all starving since we had practised from 8:30 to 10:30 am at school. It was just how I remembered it from last year when I joined the group. The food came out on trays and was laid out separately on tables. Everyone rushed towards the food but Miss Bower told us to line up. I was in the front of the line because I reacted fast. There were two lines and the people in front went first to get their food. I busied myself with some fruit, bread and orange juice. We could get as many refills as we wanted.

I was away chatting with my friends and then I heard we had to go. When everyone finished their food and drinks, we said goodbye to whoever was there and left. We triumphantly hopped back on the bus knowing we had skipped half a day of school! Extreme happiness surged through me after doing the performance and I returned to my class with a memorable feeling.

Written by Qinty Huang - Year 6 Writers Group in Pūtahi Akoranga