314. High School Musical 2.

This is the second movie of the High School Musical series.  It is summertime, and Troy, Gabriella, Chad, Taylor and all the others enjoy the last day of school by singing and dancing.  That evening, Troy gets a call from a very luxurious resort for a part – time job.  That resort was owned by Sharpay Evans’s parents.  She is a rich spoiled girl.

Sharpay and her twin brother, Ryan, goes to that resort earlier than Troy.  After sometime, Troy comes there, but to Sharpay’s astonishment, all his friends come behind him.  She also found out that Gabriella is the new lifeguard in their pool.  Sharpay wants only Troy to come to the resort because he sang well and she wanted to sing a song with him that Kelsi the musician wrote, in the talent show conducted in the resort and win the Star Dazzler award.  But, when all the others and Gabriella came, Sharpay was sure that Kelsi would write a song for Troy and Gabriella and both of them would sing and win the award.  So, she told their assistant, Mr. Fulton, that she had asked him to make a call only to Troy, and not the others.  But, Mr. Fulton tells that it was the specific order of their mother, Mrs. Evans, to call the others too.  So, Sharpay plans to get rid of the others by making them hate the place.

At first, Mr. Fulton assign jobs for everyone in the kitchen, and does not allow anyone to talk to each other.  This continues for a few days, but Troy and his friends enjoy each day, even though it was tougher than the previous day. 

When Sharpay senses that Troy needs money for his college funds, she asks her dad to find some famous basketball players from the University of Albuquerque (U of A) and help Troy.  She also makes Fulton promote Troy and he no longer works in the kitchen.  After that, he ignored his friends, didn’t share any secrets with Gabriella, and changed a whole lot.  One day, Gabriella and Chad went to see Troy along with two other friends.  Just then, the famous players from the U of A came to pick up Troy for playing a game with them.  So, like this, Troy went on with his own things and ignored his friends.

Ryan sees all this and realizes that he was no longer needed for his sister, and went to join with the Wildcats.  He dances really nice, and choreographs their dance for the show.  Even without Troy, Gabriella and the others enjoy everything.  Meanwhile, Kelsi wrote a song for Troy and Gabriella, ‘You are the music in me’.  One day, Troy finds time and sings it with her.  Sharpay hears it and thinks that if both of them sing, the Star Dazzler Award will go to them, and orders Fulton to tell them that the show was not for staff, and that they should not participate. 

When she heard this, Gabriella went up to Sharpay and started telling her how she has changed Troy and how she was ruining their summer.  Sharpay becomes irritated and leaves.  Troy comes and asks Gabriella what happened.  She tells him the same thing, how he has changed and how he is ignoring everybody.  She also tells that she can’t take more of this and was going to quit.  She quit her job as the lifeguard and went back home.

That night, Troy did some thinking about everything.  He still doesn’t know that staff was not allowed to participate in the show, because, Sharpay never told it to him as she wanted to sing with him.  So, she changed the melodious ‘You are the music in me’ to a rocking version.  Troy was stunned by everything, but still he managed to sing some lines.

One day, at lunch, Taylor shows Troy the letter that told that staff should not participate.  He becomes angry and goes and tells Sharpay that he is a staff member and staff was not allowed to participate in the show.  Sharpay screams and calls back Ryan to do their original Hawaiian song, which they had practiced earlier.  But Ryan refused.

Troy goes back to the kitchen and apologizes to everyone for being so selfish and everyone, including Ryan, reunites.  Troy also tells that he was not singing with Sharpay, but Ryan tells that he should and that Kelsi had written a new song for them.  Troy learns it quickly and asks Sharpay why she had switched songs.  She tells that she did not but Troy does not listen to it.  Sharpay turns to Ryan and realizes that the Wildcats had planned something else.

Troy goes to the stage and starts singing.  But he was shocked when he heard Gabriella’s voice instead of Sharpay’s.  Gabriella came out from the crowd and both of them rock the stage.  They sing another song with all the Wildcats, Kelsi and even Sharpay.  And at last, Sharpay announced the winner of the Star Dazzler Award.  It was not Troy, Gabriella or herself.  It was her brother, Ryan Evans, who worked hard to make everything right from the beginning.  This movie also had a lot of songs, and it made me realize how important friendship is.  I liked this movie a lot.

                               

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313. High School Musical.

Troy Bolton is the basketball superstar of his school, East High.  He loves basketball and is the captain of his school team.  Gabriella Montez is a genius.  She has won many prizes for various quiz competitions, but she studies in a different school.  On a New Year’s Eve, Troy and Gabriella attend a teen party, but they don’t know each other.  The host calls them on a little stage to sing a karaoke.  Both of them don’t know that much about singing, as they both have interest in only a particular area.  But, they try singing and enjoy it.  Then they get to know each other and become friends.

The next day, Troy, his best friend, Chad and his basketball team ‘Wildcats’ go to school.  When Troy goes to his classroom, he spots a girl who looks just like Gabriella.  Actually, it is Gabriella.  She transferred to East High, and she also spots Troy.  After class, Troy meets Gabriella and shows her around the school.  Just then, Sharpay Evans, a spoiled rich girl, and Ryan Evans, her twin brother comes in.  Their teacher, Miss Darbus, informs them about the Winter Musical which will be held in their school and tells them that they can sign up for it.  Sharpay and Ryan sign up for it, but they don’t want anyone else to get in their way.

Gabriella befriends a girl named Taylor McKessie, and both of them work hard for a quiz competition.  Troy and the Wildcats have a big basketball game at the end of the season.  Troy and Gabriella also want to audition for the musical, but they withdraw when they realize that they have their own programs.

On the day of audition, Troy and Gabriella sneak into the auditorium without the knowledge of their friends and watch other audition.  For the pair performance, only Sharpay and Ryan have signed up, and both do a great job.  Miss Darbus asks if anyone else wants to audition for the pair performance, but no one else came up.  But, when everyone else was leaving, Gabriella came out from her and Troy’s hiding place and tells that she wants to audition.  Troy tells that Gabriella has an awesome voice and that Miss Darbus should let her audition.  But, the teacher refuses and tells that auditioning time was over and that they should try for the next musical.

When the pianist, Kelsie, comes out after working on her piano, she trips and falls and all her notes fall to the floor.  Troy and Gabriella help her up and take a look at the notes.  They sing it and Miss Darbus hears it.  She tells that along with Ryan and Sharpay, Troy and Gabriella will be singing in the pair performance.

When Sharpay hears the news, she screams and wants to make Troy and Gabriella not come to the show at all.  Their basketball game and quiz competition were on a Friday and the musical was on a Thursday.  So, as the president of the drama club, Sharpay changes the musical to the Friday at 3:30 pm, the same time as Troy and Gabriella’s programs.

Both of them confess to their friends, who still don’t know, that they sing and that they are selected for the musical.  So, just because Troy confesses, all his friends start confessing.  So, Chad and Taylor make a plan.  The Wildcats ask Troy to come to their locker room and remind him about how he loved basketball and all.  But Troy tells that he could concentrate on both basketball as well as the musical.  But, somehow, Chad makes Troy tell that the musical and Gabriella are not important and make him concentrate fully on basketball.

Meanwhile, Taylor and all the others convince Gabriella to come out of the musical, but she refuses.  They show her the video of Troy telling that she is not important and make her not think about the musical at all.

When Troy meets Gabriella, he tells how he looks forward to the musical, but Gabriella tells that she is not going to sing.  After that, Troy could not focus and was depressed.  One day, his friends come to him and tell how they had planned and made him forget about the musical.  Gabriella’s friends also tell her.  Troy accepts, but Gabriella refuses.  So, Troy talks to Gabriella and reminds her about the first time they sang together.  This makes Gabriella accept.

The next day, when they come to school, Troy and Gabriella see the change in the date and time of the musical.  They were confused and didn’t know what to do.  But just then, Chad, Taylor and all the Wildcats tell them that they will help them.  So, on Friday, Troy and his friends, and Gabriella and her friends, take part in their competitions, while the musical was going on at the auditorium.  Being a genius, Taylor makes all the lights in the basketball gym go out by doing something in her laptop.  With no power, they could not continue the game.  So, Troy changes fast and runs to the auditorium.

At the same time, the genius Taylor also did something to an acid there and it started bubbling and giving out a lot of smoke.  So the people there run out and Gabriella also runs to the auditorium.  By the time both of them make it there, Ryan and Sharpay have finished their performance and Kelsie the pianist was ready to go.  But on seeing them, she goes right back to her piano.  All the Wildcats and Gabriella’s friends come rushing into the auditorium to see their friends perform, and there was so much audience when Troy and Gabriella sang than there was when Sharpay and Ryan sang.   Gabriella was a little nervous at first, but then, she began singing confidently.  They ended their song and the crowd gave them a standing ovation.

After the musical, Troy goes back to his game and Gabriella goes back to her quiz, and both of their teams win.  This shows that even though they came from different backgrounds, they did a totally different thing together.  If we try, we can do anything.  I liked this movie very much.

                                 

                                                            

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312. Dear Dork.

This is the fifth book of the ‘Dork Diaries’ series.  This book started with Nikki, Chloe and Zoey having a sleepover at Zoey’s house.  It was New Year’s eve.  They were playing the game Truth or Dare while eating some snacks.  It was Zoey’s turn to assign Nikki a dare.  The dare was to toilet – paper the house of Mackenzie Hollister, their no.1 enemy.  Nikki bravely took some toilet paper and went to Mackenzie’s house.

When they were halfway toilet – papering, suddenly the door opened and Mackenzie came out with her dog.  The three friends freaked out and quickly hid behind some bushes.  Just then, Mackenzie’s dog spotted them and started barking.  Seeing that, the trio got afraid and admitted that they were the ones who toilet – papered her house.  But, Mackenzie told them that someone liked her a lot and did it to show that they liked her.  So, the next day, in school, Mackenzie started a gossip about Brandon, Nikki’s friend. 

Nikki wanted to keep an eye on her.  So, she joined the school newspaper committee where both Mackenzie and Brandon were working.  There were many kids who wanted to join the paper.  When the sign-up sheet was passed, Nikki signed her name next to Photo Layout Artist.  The teacher, Mr. Zimmerman called out the names.  To Nikki’s amazement, she found that Photo Layout Artist position had been given to Britney Chung, Mackenzie’s friend, and not her. 

Nikki knew that it was Mackenzie’s trick.  Mackenzie did not want Nikki to be in the newspaper department, so she crossed out her name and wrote her friend’s name instead.  Nikki tried to talk to Mr. Zimmerman about it but he kept on ignoring her.  When she told all this to Chloe and Zoey, they encouraged her to go to the teacher again and explain to him properly.  When Nikki went in, the teacher, for once, listened to her properly.  He planned to bring back the advice column, which was not there in the paper for a long time, for her.  Nikki became really excited and asked him what to do.  Mr. Zimmerman told that she should have a nickname and all the letters from the people asking advice will be in the box outside the newspaper office.

So, from the next day onwards, Nikki started working with the nickname of ‘Miss Know-It-All’.  At first, there were no letters in the box, but as days went, the box was overflowing with letters and Nikki was finding it difficult to answer all of them.  So, Chloe and Zoey helped her answer them.  Her answers were a hit.  Whoever sought her advice followed it and ended up getting what they wanted.  When the number of letters increased, Mr. Zimmerman told that she can maybe seven to eight letters a day.

Brandon’s birthday was nearing.  He had invited Nikki, Chloe and Zoey to his party.  Mackenzie and her friends were not invited.  Mackenzie threatened Nikki that if she did not get invitations to Brandon’s party for her and her friends, she would tell about the toilet – paper incident to the principal and get Nikki suspended.  But, however hard she tried, Nikki could not get invitations.

One day, in the middle of their class, Nikki, Chloe and Zoey were called to the principal’s office.  They saw Mackenzie sitting there and were afraid that she had told about the incident to the principal.  Suddenly, the new student, Marcy, came out of the principal’s office and told that she wanted to interview Mackenzie.  Mackenzie thought that Marcy wanted to interview her about the toilet – paper incident and got ready to speak.  But she was wrong.  Marcy wanted to interview her about the incident of locking the trio up in a locker during the ‘Holiday on Ice’ ice – skating event. 

Mackenzie became very humiliated and Nikki, Chloe and Zoey breathed a sigh of relief.  Just then, the principal came out and asked what they wanted.  Mackenzie was shocked and could not tell anything.  So, she made up an excuse and the principal sent all of them back to their classes.  The trio also asked Marcy, who had no friends before, to be their friend.

It was Brandon’s birthday.  The party was at a friend’s house.  Nikki left a note, that contained the address of the house, so that her father could pick her up.  But, the one humiliation was his van, which had a large plastic cockroach on its top as her father was a bug – exterminator.  So, Nikki told her father to park his van a few blocks away from the house.  Nikki gave her gift to Brandon and he was very happy.  Nikki, Chloe, Zoey and Brandon spent their time chatting, playing, etc., and had a blast.  Finally, it was time and Nikki’s father came to pick her up.  But, there are still incidents going to happen the next day.  All these incidents will be there in Nikki’s next ‘Dork diary’.

                                      

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311. Frozen Fiasco.

This is the latest book of the Thea Sisters.  In this story, the latest mystery book of a famous writer, Vigmar Ratsson was being sold.  All the mouselings of Mouseford Academy were in the bookstore, trying to buy a copy of the book.

The Thea Sisters – Colette, Nicky, Pamela, Paulina and Violet – were a huge fan of Vigmar Ratsson.  The writer’s motherland was Iceland.  They remember their friends, Roska and Arna from Iceland and e-mail them, asking them how they were and if they liked Vigmar Ratsson’s books.

They get an e-mail back from Roska and Arna, inviting them to Iceland.  So, the five of them pack their bags and go to Iceland.  Their friends meet them there and take them on a tour of the place.  The Thea Sisters were surprised to hear that Vigmar Ratsson was Roska and Arna’s uncle. 

The next day was the reading of his latest book ‘The Volcano Chase’.  Everybody, including the Thea Sisters, Roska, Arna and their friend Stefan, were waiting for the writer, but he did not come there till the end.  The program got cancelled and everybody became worried.

Roska and Arna said that if there was any program featuring their uncle, he would be sure to be there and would never be late.  So, the Thea Sisters, Roska, Arna and Stefan plan to find out where the writer was.

At first, they went to his house – a wooden one with many plants on top – and to their astonishment, they find the door half opened.  Someone had cracked the lock.  Inside, his rooms were ransacked.  They were sure that whoever ransacked it had been searching for the manuscript of his latest novel ‘The Black Tide’.  But, the writer had been sure to hide it safely somewhere.

He had left clues for them to find him.  His clues were brilliant.  With each clue, there was a USB drive, which had a chapter from the upcoming book.  Violet, being the bookworm of the group, read the chapters and explained them to her friends.  His book was based on ecological mystery.

And finally, they all found where he was.  When they were getting closer, two rats captured them and locked them inside a dark room.  Those rats told that if only the friends gave them the USB drives containing the chapters would they let them go.  But when the friends refused, the rats locked them up in a dark room.  Inside the room, they found Vigmar Ratsson.

He explained that he wanted to do some research on ecology and the threats to the environment, when the criminal rats caught him and locked him up.  The friends also find Bryndis, the writer’s editor, who too had wanted to get hold of the manuscript.  She had been following the friends on their journey and now, she also was trapped along with them.

Suddenly, Orri, a journalist who had always followed the eight friends for the manuscript, opened the door.  He told that even though they told him not to follow them, he still followed them and found out that they were trapped.  So, everyone planned to trap the two criminal rats.  They called out to the rats saying, ‘We will give you the manuscript, if you free us.’

When the rats came to receive the manuscript, the friends push the two rats inside, lock the door and escape.  After the police had taken their statement, everybody was free to go.

It was parting time.  The Thea Sisters were a little sad to leave Iceland and their friends.  They came back to Mouseford Academy and one day, in the middle of their class, the postmouse interrupted and gave a package for the Thea Sisters.  When they opened, they were surprised to see that they got five brand – new copies of the new book ‘The Black Tide’.  Inside the book, in the page 125, there was a surprise for them.  They were five of the characters in the book.  In the note attached to the package, the writer had written that without the Thea Sisters, he would not have been able to write and publish this book, and so, as a token of thanks, he had made the five of them characters in the book.  The Thea Sisters were excited and happy that they have helped someone.

                                    

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310. 'Dork Diaries': Skating Sensation.

This is the fourth book of the ‘Dork Diaries’ series.  This book was awesome.  Nikki Maxwell writes all her experiences in her ‘Dork’ diary.  She has three friends, Chloe, Zoey and Brandon.  A mean girl, Mackenzie Hollister, always picks on her.

This book started with Nikki’s gym teacher announcing a skating competition called ‘Holiday on Ice’ to raise funds for charity.  Each team has to choose a charity to raise funds for.  Mackenzie was participating in the singles skating event and brags that so many charities are begging her to skate for them.  But, Nikki, Chloe and Zoey, who form a team, have still not found a charity.

Just then, Brandon informs Nikki that he was volunteering to work for a pet charity after called ‘Fuzzy Friends’.  The charity was in need of money.  So, the trio decide to skate for them.

Nikki visits the place with Brandon one day and loves all the pups there.  But, unfortunately, a couple of days later, they found out that the owner of the place, Phil Smith, broke his leg and was in the hospital.  His wife, Betty Smith, was not able to manage the place single – handedly and they were planning to close it.

Nikki visit Betty in person and explains to her all about the skating competition and how they have planned to skate for them.  Betty was very grateful and she told that, if they don’t have any money to run the place, they would soon close it and move to Florida.  This would affect their grandson too.

When Nikki was going home, she found a boy playing with some dogs in the charity’s backyard and thought that she recognized him.  When the boy suddenly turned, Nikki found that it was Brandon!!  That’s why he was so keen on helping the animals in the charity and raising funds for it. 

Nikki did not want to let down Brandon, so she decided to skate for the charity, even though she could not skate at all.  There were two practice sessions before the big event, which would be monitored by a professional figure – skater, Victoria Steel.  She was so strict, that during practice sessions, if anybody falls down during their skating routine, she would reject them from the event.

Fortunately, Nikki, Chloe and Zoey made it through the practice sessions, by distracting the judge and giving all sorts of excuses.  The big day had come.  The prize was $3000.  Additionally, $10000 would go to the team which was crowd favorite.

The trio were to be dressed up as fairies.  Their costumes had been selected by the costume director.  But, when they went somewhere and came back, their three fairy costumes were replaced by three ugly clown costumes and clown wigs.  Nikki immediately found out that it was Mackenzie’s stupid prank.  Still, they did not lose hope and wore those clown outfits.

Soon, they got a note that their costumes had been found and are told to come to a certain locker to collect their costumes.  When the three of them enter the locker, they realize that it was a trap because someone had locked the door behind them.  Only Chloe had her cell phone with her, so she tried to contact their parents, but no one picked the call.

Suddenly, Nikki remembered that her phone was in the dressing room and her little sister, Brianna, was begging to play games in her phone.  Nikki knew that Brianna would still be around her phone, trying to snatch it.  So, Nikki told Chloe to call her phone and within five rings, Brianna picked the call and asked them where they were.  She also told that Brandon was there.  So, Nikki told Brianna to give the phone to Brandon and when Brandon got the phone, she explained everything to him and when she was about to tell him to rescue them, the phone went off without battery.

The three of them thought that they won’t be able to participate in the event, but just then, the door opened and to their surprise, Brandon and Brianna were standing there.  Nikki, Chloe and Zoey thanked both of them for rescuing them and hurried to the event.

In the event, the first show was Mackenzie's routine.  She performed beautifully and Nikki thought that she would be the crowd favorite.  The next show was the trio’s routine.  Just then Nikki got a brilliant idea.

Nikki did not know to skate.  When she did her first movement itself, she fell down.  She thought that Victoria Steel, the judge, would shout at her and asked them to leave the place.  But, to their surprise, the crowd was laughing and Victoria did not shout at them.  Nikki realized that they were wearing clown costumes and the job of clowns was to make people laugh.

They did their routine very funnily, with the three of them falling down and bumping into each other very often.  At the end of the routine, there was a surprise for everyone.  Brianna jumped out from a box, like a jumping jack.  This was Nikki’s brilliant idea.  The crowd gave them a standing ovation.  When the results were announced, they were shocked to hear that they were the crowd favorite and got the $10000 cash prize, while Mackenzie, being only the winner, got only $3000.

Brandon was also very happy.  Somehow, the four friends had helped Fuzzy Friends charity to function again.  I liked this book very much. 

                                                      

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