A gURLs wURLd

After spending a year studying together in Singapore, three teenage girls; Ally, from Australia, Emma from Germany and Jackie, a Singaporean local are getting ready to say goodbye. But with one final dance performance before the end of the year, the girls have a major problem. Jackie's brother, Josh hasn't turned up with the music and with no music, there'll be no dancing. Devastated, the three best friends are convinced that everything they have worked for is about to go down the drain. In a lucky turn of events however, Michelle, their dance teacher changes the schedule, Josh finally arrives with the music and they are able to give the performance of their lives. The girls are elated. Next day however, they face the sad reality that they are about to split up as Ally and Emma must head back to their home countries. A present from Josh however lifts their gloom a little. He's found some new software that'll enable them to have their very own chatroom and the girls realise that they can continue their friendship through cyberspace. But when they first log in, something goes horribly amiss and they each become engulfed by an explosion of energy. Suddenly they find they've been instantly transported to a strange and featureless void. Terrified, the three friends wonder where they are and - even more important - Will they ever get back home?

While trying to connect to their personal chatroom, Emma, Jackie and Ally find themselves stranded in cyberspace. Then, when they realise that keying in their access codes backwards gets them home, their panic turns to exhilaration. Not only have they found a way to meet in cyberspace but they can do it any time they want! The girls can't wait to try it again. But as Emma and Ally experiment with their mobile phones something even more astonishing happens. They end up in Jackie's room in Singapore. The girls suddenly realise the full import of their discovery. The chatroom is a gateway to each other's countries. They can travel between Australia, Singapore and Germany any time they want. This is VERY cool!

As the excitement of their new chatroom kicks in, Emma invites Jackie and Ally to Hamburg for a dance battle she is performing in with her friend Nicholas. After confronting the problems involved in negotiating the time differences between their three countries, the girls finally end up in Germany and are thrilled to be in Europe together. When they get to the dance venue however, Emma is dismayed to learn that there is a surprise change in choreographers. Believing she can't do the routine on display, Emma somehow convinces Jackie to take her place. Jackie and Nicholas quickly build momentum, finishing with a flourish that leaves the crowd yelling for more. Afterwards, it's clear that Jackie and Nicholas are hitting it off - and not only on the dance floor. But while they revel in each other's company, Ally and Emma accidently mislay Jackie's backpack which contains her mobile phone. Quickly realising that Jackie can't return home without her phone, the panicking girls begin a feverish search. Just as they have all but given up, news finally arrives that someone has found it. To the girls' horror though, the bag and it contents accidentally end up in the nearby lake. With a wet and useless phone, the realisation hits - Jackie wont be able to return home to Singapore! How on earth can she possibly explain to her parents that she's half a world away in Germany?

When Jackie's dad forces her to quit dancing and concentrate on her schoolwork, the girls decide to secretly enter the National Dance Competition in Singapore, proving that she can dance and get 100% on her report card. Knowing that to have any effect on Jackie's dad, they will have to have to win the competition, they ask Michelle to choreograph a routine for them. When they discover that Chelsea's dad has also expressed interest in employing Michelle, they realise it's not just hard work they are competing with. For three days, the girls dance while they walk, work, study and sleep, knowing that Michelle will only train them if they prove their commitment. Hours before their performance however, tragedy strikes! Ally rolls her ankle leaving her with severe pain and weakness. As hard as she tries, it all gets too much for her and mid routine, she falters, leaving what should have been a perfect performance, insufficient. What's more, Chelsea and her dad arrive, assumingly to finalise lessons for Chelsea in return for a new dance studio. With the odds against them, it seems Jackie's last chance to impress her father is all but gone. Does this mean she will have to quit dancing for good?

Emma and Jackie are full of excitement about their Australian sleepover at Ally's farm. When they go for a horse ride however, things go horribly wrong. Emma's horse suddenly bolts away, leaves the trail and throws her, leaving her stranded and lost deep in the bush. Not knowing where their friend is, Ally and Jackie return to the house and Ally has to swallow her pride and ask Dan for help. The situation gets worse though because Emma's disappearance means Jackie has to travel alone to Hamburg to sort out an emergency involving Emma's dog, Strudel. After arriving safely, she then calls upon Nicholas who is more than happy to lend a hand. With Ally and Dan trying to find Emma in the Australian bush and - on the other side of the world - Jackie trying to find Emma's dog in a strange European city, the three girls have got themselves into a some significant muddles that will take quick thinking and a lot of luck from which to escape.

Just when the girls think they've got life with the chat room under control, things take a turn for the worse when Josh 'borrows' Jackie's computer to use in his job as a DJ at a Halloween party. Emma and Ally are suddenly stranded in Singapore and unable to return home. They have to act quickly or they'll all be in very serious trouble. Somehow they have to find a backup of Josh's music, infiltrate the Halloween party without being recognised, secretly retrieve Jackie's computer and then get Emma and Ally back to their homes before anyone notices they're missing. Easy! Or at least it would have been had not the untimely appearance of their arch-rival coincided to spoil their efforts. Chelsea hits the scene in full party mode and as ever, is determined to have her way. And to Emma's particular displeasure, that also includes outrageously flirting with Josh. The prospects of having a happy Halloween are not looking good.

Ally is deeply shocked and the future of the chatroom thrown into uncertainty when her father complains about her phone bills and threatens to confiscate her mobile. Desperate for money to pay her debts, Ally jumps at the chance of a dog-walking job for Ms Hoffman, a neighbour of Emma's in Germany. Things start well and Ally earns good money. But the reality of crossing time zones daily inevitably hits home and it's not too long before Ally becomes seriously fatigued. In an effort to be more productive she takes on five more dogs, hoping to earn more money in less time. This appears to be the perfect solution until Fidus, Ms Hoffman's prized dog, escapes when an exhausted Ally briefly dozes off. Emma and Jackie are called to help track down the escapee which - to Ally's horror - leaves a trail of destruction as it races through the city. Unable to find Fidus, the girls realise they have no option but to tell Ms Hoffman the horrible truth. What's more, Ally still hasn't found a way to pay her phone bill and the girls are falling way behind with their dance practice. Somehow or other, they need a miracle. Or perhaps two!

Ally, Jackie and Emma's plans for a day at the beach turn into a disaster when Damon, Ally's brother, plays with her phone and accidentally zaps himself into the chat room. The girls are horrified to learn that their secret has been discovered. Using all their powers of persuasion, the girls somehow manage to convince Damon that what he experienced was the latest in a virtual reality, computer game. But while he accepts their story, he is desperate to have another go at playing this 'awesome' game. So as soon as Ally's back is turned, Damon steals her phone and - to make matters even worse - invites his friends over to show them what he's discovered. Now the pressure is really on Ally and her friends. They have to come up with a way of dealing with this - and fast. Realising that simply recovering the phone won't be enough, the girls know they need to concoct an ingenious plan and execute it to perfection. All they have to do is think of one!

The girls dance practice becomes increasingly demanding after they learn that they have to be assessed by an official to actually enter the National Dance Competition. Forced to devote even more time to rehearsals, Jackie's obligations at home begin to weigh her down and she struggles to manage her very overcrowded schedule. It's no surprise then that on the day of the assessment, an exhausted Jackie collapses at the session and ruins their chance to qualify. When she considers giving up dancing all together, Ally and Emma realise the severity of her situation and quickly come up with a strategy. Sharing Jackie's chores between the three of them proves to be a good solution and provides a very grateful Jackie with some well-needed rest. Their biggest problem however, still remains. How can they qualify for the competition? Desperate to make amends to her friends and get back into the competition, Jackie comes up with a bold plan that might just do the trick.

Ally's school is holding a 'formal' dance and she's not looking forward to it. The whole idea of getting dressed up for an event she doesn't want to attend is bad enough but even worse, she doesn't have a date. Emma and Jackie promptly go into match making-mode, persuading a surprised Dan to ask her. Before Ally knows it, she's backed into a corner that she can't get out of and has no option but to unenthusiastically accept Dan's invitation. In spite of Jackie and Emma's enthusiastic support, Ally becomes increasingly convinced that the event ahead has all the hallmarks of turning into a major disaster. Come the big day and a very nervous Dan arrives to meet a very reluctant Ally. Things suddenly take a dramatic turn however when the Henson's prized stallion escapes into the bush. Instinctively, Ally and Dan -still formally dressed for the dance - rush to the stables and jump onto the two nearest horses. Eventually they track the stallion down but at the expense of trashing of their clothes and being late for the dance. It's not the best way to prepare for an evening out but it certainly puts the relationship of Ally and Dan onto a new and interesting level.

Convinced that Jackie is once again being overwhelmed by her hectic life style, Ally and Emma drag her to Australia in the hope of getting her to relax with a bush-walk and picnic. But the generosity isn't appreciated by Jackie who is quick to express her frustration at being hauled away from her serious commitments in Singapore. She insists that the girls return home early. Ally and Emma are left very disenchanted by Jackie's attitude and a growing tension starts to appear between the girls. The situation gets worse when Ally unwittingly comes across Jackie's diary and -unable to resist taking a quick peek - is shocked to see that Jackie has written some scathing comments about her and Emma. Oblivious to the discovery, Jackie can't work out why her friends become increasingly distant from her. In an attempt to get some answers, she turns up at Emma's house only to find Emma in an embrace with Nicholas. Seeing that Emma has stolen her boyfriend, Jackie is now the one who's shocked. With their friendship in tatters, Ally, Emma and Jackie are all in a quandary. They know they have to do something to rectify their situation - and soon. Because if they don't, any hopes of winning the National Dance Competition will be over and the fun of sharing the chatroom will disappear from their lives altogether.

Emma needs help because she's delayed doing an art class assignment until the last minute. As the task requires her to create a work in the style of another culture, Ally lends her an Indigenous Australian dot painting given to her family as a gift. Grateful, Emma takes the painting, intending to use it as inspiration for her own artwork and promises Ally that she'll return it the following day. But Emma loses track of time and ends up handing in the dot painting as her own! Impressed, her art teacher places the painting on the classroom display board and asks Emma to give a dot-painting demonstration later in the week. Now Emma is really in trouble. Not only does she have to get the painting back to Ally before her father sees that it's missing, she has no idea of how to do a dot painting and so will be found out as a fraud. When she reports her dilemma to Ally, her friend has no hesitation about sneaking into the school after hours and reclaiming what is rightfully her father's property. But the expedition proves futile and the girls fail to retrieve the painting. Emma realises that the only way she can sort out this situation is to do what she should have done much earlier - tell the truth. But that's easier said than done.

Ally's world comes to a crashing halt when her father organises a surprise party for her mother on the same day as the first dance elimination contest is to be held in Singapore. As if the need to qualify in the top three isn't pressure enough, Ally is now forced to travel back and forth between Singapore and Australia trying to attend both events at the same time and hoping no one will notice. But people do notice and Michelle especially becomes increasingly frustrated by the girls' distracted behaviour. Josh is also puzzled when he sees Ally - who he thinks is in Australia - and Emma -who he believes is in Hamburg. The girls have to work furiously to explain their way out of this one. The situation goes from bad to worse when Jackie arrives at Ally's house to pick her up. Hoping for a quick exit, her escape plan backfires terribly when Ally's father sees her and insists she join the party. Now both Jackie and Ally are stuck in Australia leaving Emma alone at the contest in Singapore. With only minutes before their performance is due to commence, the girls are in a situation from which there's no easy way out.

Ally's brother, Damon is becoming increasingly suspicious of the mysterious comings and goings of Jackie and Emma. The situation is brought to a head when, having made it through the first round of eliminations, the girls have to learn a new dance routine in only two days. But because this period coincides with 'Open Day' at the Henson's farm, Jackie and Emma are forced to travel back and forth to Ally's place to rehearse. Having to time their practice sessions in between Ally's trail ride duties, the girls use the chatroom to constantly move from their homes to the farm throughout the day. Their ability to almost 'magically' appear and disappear arouses Damon's curiosity even further and he's more convinced than ever that something very weird is going on. Damon decides to go into full-on detective mode, setting up traps and a video camera to find out the truth. Fortunately for the girls, they manage to discover Damon's plot before he can gather any evidence. But now they have to devise some compelling counter-move that will throw him off the scent for good.

Emma, Ally and Jackie are thrilled when Michelle tells them that they have been enrolled in an elite, dance development camp. Their excitement quickly wears off though when, soon after arriving they discover that archrival Chelsea and her entourage are also attending. Expecting to have to engage in their usual battles with her, the three girls are astounded to learn that Chelsea wants a truce. She declares that she's happy to leave their troubled relationship in the past and to go forward peacefully in the future. Ally and Jackie are pleased to hear this and endorse Chelsea's stand. But Emma smells a rat. As the first day of dance classes descends into a series of disasters, she's more convinced than ever that Chelsea is out to undermine them. Things come to an alarming head when Josh unexpectedly turns up at the camp and is caught visiting an unsuspecting Emma in her room. The Artistic Director decides Emma's behaviour is unacceptable and to her dismay, she's expelled from the camp. This is bad enough but the expulsion could also result in Emma's group being disqualified from the semi-finals of the National Dance Competition. Now forced to agree that Chelsea is behind it all, Ally and Jackie will have to go all out to clear Emma's name before it's too late.

When Nicholas insists on delivering a birthday present to Jackie at her house, he sets the girls some serious problems. He naturally thinks Jackie lives in Hamburg and so the first task for Emma is to find a house that they can pretend is Jackie's family home. Using a friend's vacant villa, the three girls quickly set about decorating the place as if it's about to host a party. When Nicholas arrives it looks like their efforts are successful and all goes to plan. Even when he asks Jackie all sorts of questions about the house and the neighbourhood, Jackie is able to answer quite convincingly. But the perfect plan starts to become seriously unstuck when an unexpected visitor arrives. Mrs Schultz, an immaculately dressed old lady who is the grandmother of the house's owner shows up. Assuming Emma is the housekeeper, the old woman's incessant demands cause chaos as the other two girls try to hide from her while also keeping Nicholas away and pretending to him that things are all going along normally. Then Emma accidentally activates the house's alarm system which instantly brings the police around. Unless Emma, Jackie and Ally can come up with some very persuasive arguments, they are going to find it extremely difficult to talk their way out of this one.

Ally isn't happy when she learns that Dan will be staying at her house for a few weeks. Even though she gets on okay with Dan these days, her main worry is about ensuring that the chatroom remains a secret. So relations between the two grow a little tense as Ally tries to make sure that Dan keeps his distance from things. Matters take a turn for the worse though when Dan is bitten by a red-bellied black snake while out on a trail ride with Jackie and Emma. The girls have no option but to use the chatroom to transport an unconscious Dan to Singapore to get the medical attention he needs. Realising that this almost certainly means the existence of the chatroom will be discovered, the girls also know that if Dan's life is to be saved then that's the price they'll have to pay. With the anti-venom administered just in time, Dan groggily wakes up to find himself in Jackie's bedroom. Looking at the strange buildings outside the window, Dan naturally starts to question his whereabouts. Jackie desperately tries to convince Dan that the skyscrapers he 'thinks' he can see are really an hallucination and that he's still really in the Australian bush. While Dan is still only half awake, there's a chance that he might actually believe Jackie. But there's also a chance that he might not.

When Ally has to do an architecture assignment for school, Emma suggests that she and Jackie join her in Germany to see some real Baroque buildings in the nearby town of Luneburg. The girls spend a delightful time exploring the picturesque town and marvelling at its quaint architectural heritage. Then Jackie spots a lost child by the river. With Emma off somewhere buying lunch, Ally and Jackie have no choice but to take the boy to the nearest police station. Unfortunately their good deed backfires on them when the two girls are asked to provide an official statement. With no documents to prove otherwise, Jackie and Ally realise that legally they have no right to be in Germany. Not wanting to answer any awkward questions, they make a run for it, but disastrously leave their bag in the police station! No bag means no phone and without that, they can't contact Emma or return home. To make matters worse, they are completely lost. With one policeman trailing them and another randomly calling numbers on the speed dials of their phones, they have to find Emma to help get them out of this mess. But before they can do that the police find them and take them back to the station. With no passports, their bag confiscated and two very curious policeman wanting some straight answers, Jackie and Ally realise they're in very serious trouble.

Having been chosen to appear in a photo shoot for the cover of a dance magazine, Emma, Jackie and Ally head to Sydney to find some new costumes. The fun filled shopping expedition takes a turn for the worse however when Jackie's neighbours from Singapore accidentally spot her! The girls manage to make a quick getaway but when it comes time to return home, the chatroom won't allow Jackie back to Singapore. She discovers that because of a huge electrical storm over the island, her computer has been turned off. Jackie is forced to make up a stack of excuses to explain why she hasn't arrived for work at her grandmother's store. The situation gets worse though when her mother asks her to also do the shopping for dinner that evening. It's a seemingly simple task but exotic, Chinese groceries are not easily obtained in the outer suburb where Ally lives. The girls realise they'll have to seriously improvise if they are going to save Jackie's hide. They manage to pull off the impossible but at the end of the day, the one thing they failed to achieve was to find new costumes for their photo-shoot. Then again, if they could improvise their way around Jackie's problems, maybe they can tackle the costume issue with the same inventiveness.

It's exam time for Emma and she's suffering from exhaustion. On top of studying all night, it's coming up to the dance semi-finals and daily rehearsals are intense. Hoping to use her school holidays to get as much practice as possible, Emma is shocked to hear that her father has arranged a family holiday for the entire period. Desperate to get out of going away, Emma tells her parents that Ally and Jackie are coming to stay and she has to remain in Hamburg to look after them. Instantly, Emma's parents happily agree to stay home as well and help her look after the two girls. This was definitely not the response Emma was hoping for. To their horror, Ally and Jackie learn that they'll have to be in Hamburg ten hours per day as well as be up and about for another ten hours in a different time zone in their own countries. Not only is this going to seriously affect their training, they have no idea how they're going to stay active and awake for twenty hours a day! With no time to practise, the three girls see their hopes of successfully competing quickly slipping away. To make matters worse, Emma's father has arranged to take them all on a trip to Berlin on the same day as the semi-finals. They have to find a way to get out of the trip without hurting the feelings of Emma's dad. Even more than this, they somehow have to find the energy to properly compete in the dance competition.

The girls' leisurely boat trip off the Australian coast takes a dramatic turn when their dinghy has an engine malfunction. With no oars and no phone reception, Ally is forced to swim to shore to try and get help. For the first time in their lives, Jackie and Emma are alone at sea and naturally become very nervous when they start drifting towards the open ocean. Fortunately, the currents take them within range of an island and they decide to brave the depths, jump off the boat and pull it to shore using the bow rope. Finally making it to the beach they head for higher ground only to realise the tide has risen, washing their dinghy away. After trekking to a high cliff top in the hope of finding phone reception, Emma accidentally drops her phone down among some large rocks. When she goes to retrieve it she slips, slides down some rocks and grazes her hands. It's now up to Jackie, who's very afraid of heights, to go down and help Emma back up the cliff. In the meantime, Ally has made it to shore, found Dan and they've gone back out to sea and found the abandoned dinghy. Now can they find Emma and Jackie?

To her great dismay, Ally finds herself stuck in the chatroom when her mobile phone fails. Her hopes of a speedy escape are dashed when she learns that Jackie and Emma's phones are also playing up. Deciding that they should run a check on the program that Josh used to set up the chatroom, Emma and Jackie concoct a plan to get him out of the house so that Jackie can use his computer and diagnostic software. Meanwhile, Ally is alarmingly sent at random around the world without being able no control over where or when she goes anywhere. Finally ending up back in the chatroom, Ally watches in terror as it begins to disintegrate around her. It appears to be getting smaller and smaller, the familiar white glow gets dimmer and everything seems to be closing in on her. The source of the problem is quickly traced to a virus that's infected the phones of all three girls. But finding the cause of the problem is one thing - solving it is another and neither Emma nor Jackie have much of a clue about what to do. Fortunately - without knowing the full extent of the girls' problems - Josh is able to provide an answer. But can he apply it before the chatroom disappears altogether and even more important, before Ally disappears with it?

The girls decide to celebrate the end of their chatroom fourteen days before it's programmed to shut down completely. Then they can concentrate on what really matters - winning the dance finals. Choosing to have one fun activity in each country, they decide on jet-boating on Sydney Harbour, taking a bungee chair in Singapore and attending a dance party in Hamburg. But the day takes a curious turn when Jackie's in a shopping mall in Singapore and spots a teenage girl putting stolen CD's into Chelsea's bag. When she tries to inform her arch-rival about the incident, Chelsea arrogantly dismisses Jackie with her usual air of lofty superiority. Inevitably, when Chelsea tries to leave, the store security alarms are triggered and she is subsequently charged with shoplifting. Even worse, her father bans her from competing in the dance finals. Although Chelsea's exclusion would make the girls life a whole lot easier, their conscience kicks in and they decide to put their differences aside and try to help her. But when they approach Chelsea's father and tell the truth to him, he refuses to believe Jackie's story. Now the girls must really bite the bullet and choose between the dance party in Hamburg that they've so looked forward to attending or finding a way to prove the innocence of their main competition.

With the dance finals only days away, the girls run into some sudden and serious problems. Not only do they have to figure out a way to get their parents to sign their competition entry forms [an impossible situation for Jackie, whose father has forbidden her to dance] but Chelsea is growing more and more suspicious about where Emma and Ally actually live. Convinced that they are somehow disappearing and reappearing through Jackie's computer, she steals the laptop and heads directly to a computer repair shop. Unaware of this, Emma prepares to Zap herself through to Singapore. Ally and Jackie frantically try to contact her and stop her but they fail to get through. Fortunately for Emma she arrives out of sight and scurries into hiding as the repairman and Chelsea return to discuss the computer's erratic behaviour. The girls desperately try to think how they can get Jackie's computer back before the repairman pulls it apart and leaves them all stuck in Singapore. As well, they'll also have to somehow convince Chelsea that there is nothing especially strange about it. At the same time, Jackie still needs to get someone from her family to sign her competition entry form. It looks like being a challenging day ahead!

With only twenty four hours before the dance finals, a mixture of nerves and excitement fills the chatroom. Having worked towards this day for the past six months the pressure is on, especially for Jackie. Forbidden to dance because of study commitments, this is the one opportunity she has to prove to her father that she can combine dancing and schoolwork. But she's too scared to tell her father about the final because she believes he'll refuse her permission to participate. Ally and Emma however come up with a plan. They manage to get both of Jackie's parents to attend the final and watch their daughter perform a flawless routine with her two friends. Ally and Emma are barely able to contain their excitement but Jackie's quickly dismayed when she sees her father leave the venue clearly upset. Knowing she has no alternative, Jackie has to summon up all her courage and confront her father and tell him the truth about what she's been doing - hoping that he'll understand and be sympathetic. But she knows that it will be an extremely difficult discussion and the outcome very uncertain. As well as this, all three girls now have to come to grips with the fact that the chatroom is about to close down and their ability to travel between each other's homes and countries is going to be taken away forever. After six glorious, exciting and adventurous months, it's a sad moment for them. At the same time, they can't help but acknowledge that they've enjoyed a remarkable experience together - one which they'll never, ever forget.