I couldn’t help gasping, even though I clapped my hand over my mouth to muffle the sound. Fliss jumped a mile into the air, and nearly dropped the camcorder box.
“What’s the matter with you?” she said under her breath.
“Did you know there’s a headless person over there in the corner?” I said breathlessly.
“That’s my mum’s dress-making dummy, you idiot.” Fliss pushed me towards the door. “Come on. If anyone wakes up, we’re dead.”
We hurried back to Fliss’s bedroom. As soon as we got there, the others crowded round us as Fliss put the camcorder box carefully on the bed.
“Excellent!” said Kenny. “Come on, let’s get started.”
“Just a minute,” said Lyndz. “Fliss’s mum is going to know we borrowed the camcorder, isn’t she?”
“What do you mean?” asked Kenny.
“Well, when we watch the video tomorrow morning, she’s going to see all the bits we record now, when we’re supposed to be asleep,” said Lyndz.
We all looked at each other.
“Oh, rats,” said Kenny. “What do we do now?”
“Easy,” said Rosie. “We take the film out of the camcorder when we’ve finished, and put in a new blank tape. Then Andy and Fliss’s mum will think it didn’t record for some reason.”
We all stared admiringly at Rosie. My mum says I’m devious, but I’m just a beginner compared to Rosie.
“Excellent idea,” said Kenny. “Fliss, you have got a spare blank tape, haven’t you?”
Fliss nodded.
“We’ve got loads.”
“Great.” Kenny gave a sigh of relief, and opened the camcorder box. “OK, let’s get started!”
“We’ll have to put the light on,” I said. “Our torches won’t be bright enough.”
“What if someone sees the light under my door?” Fliss said nervously.
“Oh, you just put some clothes or a towel down to block it out,” said Rosie. “I do it all the time when I want to read late. My mum never knows.”
It was right at that very moment that we heard footsteps coming softly down the hall.
“Quick!” hissed Lyndz. “Someone’s coming!”
For a second we were all frozen to the spot. Then we turned off our torches, and leapt for our beds and sleeping bags. Because Fliss’s room is so small and we were so panicked, we kept bumping into each other in the dark before we managed to grope our way to our beds. It took me a few seconds to fold all my arms and legs in, and it was only when I was safely inside with my eyes tight shut that I remembered the box with the camcorder in it. But it was too late now.
Someone was opening the door…
It was Fliss’s mum. She put her head round the door and whispered, “Are you girls asleep?”
No one made a sound. I don’t know about the others, but I was holding my breath so hard my lungs were bursting. Fliss’s mum stood there looking into the room for what seemed like hours. Then she shut the door gently, and we could hear her footsteps going down the landing. We waited until we heard her bedroom door close. Then we all sat up, and Kenny crept across the room and flipped the light switch on.
“Wow, that was close,” she said. “We only just made it.”
“I thought she’d see the camcorder on Rosie’s bed, and we’d be done for,” said Lyndz. “She must have heard Fliss and Frankie walking around.”
Fliss was as white as a sheet.
“Thank goodness my mum didn’t notice the camcorder!”
“By the way, where is the camcorder?” I said.
We all looked at Rosie’s bed. We’d left the camcorder box sitting right there on the pink bedcover. But it wasn’t there now.
“Don’t panic,” said Rosie calmly. She threw back her duvet cover, and there was the box nestling underneath. “I managed to grab it just before Mrs Sidebotham came in.”
Fliss almost collapsed with relief.
“Thanks, Rosie,” was all she could manage to say.
“Come on, then, are we going to make a video or what?” Impatiently Kenny grabbed the box, and began pulling the cardboard flaps open.
“Be careful!” Fliss hissed under her breath. “Let me do it!”
We all waited expectantly as Fliss unwrapped the camcorder from its box as carefully as if it was the Crown Jewels.
“We ought to decide what we’re going to do,” said Lyndz.
“Oh, don’t be so boring,” said Kenny. “Let’s just mess around. What do you reckon, Rosie?”
“Yeah, that sounds cool,” Rosie agreed. “As long as Fliss doesn’t mind,” she added quickly.
Fliss was too busy fiddling with the camcorder to hear.
“Right, I’m going to start recording,” she announced, putting the machine up to her eye. “I’m starting now.”
Kenny immediately leapt forward and stuck her face right up to the lens.
“Welcome to the Sleepover Club!” she said with a huge grin.
Fliss leapt backwards as if she’d been bitten.
“You nearly frightened me to death, Kenny!” she said, while the rest of us rolled around in fits of laughter. “Do it properly, or I’ll put the camcorder away right now.”
“OK, Mum,” said Kenny. “How about this then?”
She grabbed a hairbrush from Fliss’s dressing-table, and spoke into it as if it was a microphone.
“We’d like to welcome you all to this very special meeting of the Sleepover Club. My name is Kenny, and if you ever call me Laura MacKenzie, I’ll thump you.”
“Don’t make me laugh,” Fliss said between giggles, “or the camera will shake too much.”
“Let me introduce you to the other members,” Kenny said into her hairbrush. “This is Lyndsey Collins, known as Lyndz.” Kenny pointed at Lyndz, who was sitting on Fliss’s bed. “She’s the nicest person I know, and she’s always got the hiccups.”
“Oh, don’t, Kenny!” Lyndz said in between giggles, as Fliss turned the camera on her. “Don’t start me off!”
“Well, you ought to be hiccuping,” said Kenny. “It won’t be a proper sleepover if you don’t. Come on, can’t you manage just one little hiccup for the camera?”
Just for once, Lyndz couldn’t. She was laughing so hard she had to hide her head under Fliss’s pillow.
“Over here, Fliss.” Kenny pointed at me. “Frankie next. Come on, Fliss, do I have to be the director as well as the star?”
“Give me a chance,” Fliss moaned, turning the camera slowly in my direction.
“This is Frankie, my best mate,” said Kenny. “No, you’re not seeing things. She really is as tall as a house. We reckon her parents water her with liquid manure every night.”
“Shut up, lamebrain,” I said, and chucked a pillow at her.
“And this is Rosie…” Kenny waited for Fliss to turn slowly in her direction. “Rosie’s got loads of good ideas for fooling parents. She’s really cool.” Kenny chucked the hairbrush onto the bed, “OK, that’s everyone.”
“What about me?” Fliss wailed from behind the camera.
“Oh, yeah, sorry, I forgot about you. Here,” Kenny held out her hand, “give me the camera and I can film you. Then we’ll all be in it.”
“No way,” said Fliss. “No one’s doing any videotaping except me.”
Kenny shrugged. “Please yourself.” She picked up her hairbrush again. “Sorry, I missed out Fliss. Fliss is the Queen of the Sleepover Club, because this is her sleepover and her camcorder, and she’s letting us use it, which is really excellent.”
Fliss grinned.
“That’s better,” she said. “Now stop hogging the camera, Kenny. Let someone else have a go.”
“It’s a shame we’ve eaten our midnight feast,” said Lyndz. “We could have filmed ourselves stuffing our faces.”
“Never mind, you can talk about it instead,” said Kenny, and she pushed the hairbrush into Lyndz’s hand.
Lyndz began to giggle as Fliss turned the camera on her.
&n
bsp; “Um – OK, midnight feasts. We always, always have a midnight feast when we sleepover—”
“More like a ten-thirty feast,” I butted in.
“Sssh!” Kenny slung one of Fliss’s cuddly toys at me. “Lyndz is talking.”
Lyndz wasn’t, actually She was still giggling.
“Stop it, Lyndz!” said Fliss. “Say something interesting.”
So Lyndz did. She gave a huge hiccup. We all burst out laughing, and had to bury our heads in our pillows to muffle the sound.
“Don’t just – hic! – sit there – hic! – laughing!” said Lyndz. “Someone – hic! – help me!”
We’ve tried all the usual ways of getting Lyndz’s hiccups to stop, but the best way is for someone to press down hard with their thumbs on the palm of her hand while she holds her breath. Don’t ask me why this works. It just does.
The others were laughing too hard to be of any use, so I grabbed Lyndz’s hand, and pressed down hard. Lyndz held her breath for so long, she started to turn crimson, but when she finally breathed out, her hiccups were gone.
“Thanks, Frankie,” she said, gulping in a huge lungful of air.
“Come on,” said Fliss impatiently. “I’m wasting loads of tape when you’re not doing anything interesting.”
“What about our sleepover song?” said Lyndz.
“Yes, let’s sing it,” said Rosie.
“But we don’t sing that till we’re about to go to sleep,” Kenny groaned.
“We don’t have to go to sleep,” Lyndz argued. “We can just sing it so Fliss can video us.”
“Go on then,” said Fliss. “Don’t bother with the actions, just do the song.”
When we do our sleepover song, we’re usually all tucked up in our sleeping bags with our torches on. When we get to the end of the song, the first one of us to lie down flat turns her torch off, and then we carry on till everyone’s out.
“You three do the song,” said Kenny. “I’m going to have a rest. I’m tired out.” She put her hand up to her head and said in a fake American accent, “Being a star is so exhausting.”
“Get her,” I scoffed. “Come on, let’s do the song then.”
So we started singing:
“Down by the river there’s a hanky-panky With a bullfrog sitting on the hanky-panky—”
I could just see Kenny looking in her sleepover bag out of the corner of my eye.
“—With an Ooh Aah, Ooh Aah,
Hey, Mrs Zippy, with a One-Two-Three – OUT!”
Just before we got to “OUT!”, which is when we try to be first to lie down if we’re doing the actions, Kenny popped up behind us. When we sang “OUT!”, she belted Rosie with her teddy bear.
“Ow!” Rosie jumped onto her bed. “I’ll get you for that, Kenny!” She grabbed her own teddy bear, and waved it round her head. “Come on then, if you think you’re hard enough!”
“Ooh, you don’t frighten me!” Kenny scoffed. She jumped onto Rosie’s bed, and next minute they were battling away whacking each other with their teddies, trying to knock each other’s bear out of their hand. I love teddy fights, because my bear Stanley, who’s as tough as old boots, always wins. Stanley was sitting on my pillow looking really left out, so I grabbed him and shoved him under Lyndz’s nose.
“Stanley’s challenging your bear to a fight to the death,” I said.
Lyndz groaned. “Do I have to? We always lose.”
“Come on, Lyndz!” I jumped onto Fliss’s bed. “You don’t want your teddy to be known as the wimp of Teddyland, do you?”
Lyndz grabbed her teddy, and climbed up onto Fliss’s bed. We started jumping up and down and whacking each other, while Fliss videoed us.
“Be quiet – please!” Fliss kept pleading from behind the camera, but it’s hard to be really quiet when you’re playing teddy fights. Anyway, we all know that we can be fairly noisy when we sleep over at Fliss’s, because her mum’s bedroom is right at the other end of a very long landing. In fact, we know exactly how much noise we can make before Mrs Sidebotham comes charging in to tell us off.
Kenny and Rosie were still fighting it out on the other bed, and Lyndz and I were battling away too. At first I let Lyndz get a few whacks at Stanley in, so she didn’t get too downhearted, but then I went in for the kill. Stanley headbutted her bear so hard that Lyndz went flying. She managed to stop herself on the edge of the bed, but she was wobbling so much she couldn’t get her balance. She wobbled and she teetered and she wobbled, and for a second or two she looked as if she was going to make it. It was touch and go, and it was so funny that even Kenny and Rosie stopped bashing each other’s bears to watch. But in the end the force of gravity was just too much for Lyndz. She went head-over-heels, and landed flat on the floor. Luckily the sleeping bags were piled up in a heap, so she didn’t hurt herself, or make too much noise.
“That was brilliant, Lyndz!” I laughed. “Just like a stuntwoman!”
“I loved the way you just wobbled around on the edge of the bed for about five minutes!” said Kenny. “It was so cool.”
Lyndz sat up, rubbing her behind.
“Thank goodness the sleeping bags were there, or I might have broken my leg!”
Rosie was looking thoughtful.
“Hey, you know what?” she said, and she sounded really excited. “I’ve just had a brilliant idea.”
And that was when things really started to go downhill…
Come on, let’s choose a film, and I’ll tell you the rest of the story on the way home. How about Mrs Doubtfire? I’ve seen it before, but I don’t mind seeing it again. I’ll just take it up to the counter, and get it checked out.
Right, let’s go – and make sure Nathan Wignall isn’t following us. I wouldn’t put anything past that little creep.
OK, we’re in the clear. And remember, you’ve got to promise not to tell anyone what I’m going to tell you now…
Well, Rosie had this brilliant idea which turned out to be totally non-brilliant, but we all loved it at the time.
“Look,” she said, “Why don’t we send that video of Lyndz to You’ve Been Framed?”
“What a totally cool idea!” Kenny said immediately. “The Sleepover Club on TV – excellent!”
“We could make loads of money too,” Rosie said breathlessly. “They pay for the best videos.”
“How much?” Lyndz asked, her eyes wide.
“About two hundred pounds,” Rosie said. “Or it might be more.”
“Two hundred quid!” Kenny gasped. “I’m in!”
“Before you start counting the money,” I said, “there’s just one thing you’ve forgotten. If we end up splashed all over the TV, our parents are going to find out we borrowed the camcorder without Mrs Sidebotham’s permission.”
We all looked at each other. Then Kenny shrugged. “So what? They’ll probably be so proud to see us on TV, they won’t care.”
“Or we can try to make sure our parents don’t see the programme,” Rosie chimed in.
“We can talk our way out of it somehow,” Kenny added. “Come on, Frankie, don’t be so boring.”
“Oh, all right,” I said. I didn’t need much persuading. I was dying to be on TV. It was one of my biggest ambitions.
“What about you, Lyndz?” Kenny said. “You’re the star, after all.”
Lyndz giggled.
“Let’s go for it,” she agreed, “What do you think, Fliss?”
It was then that we realised that Fliss hadn’t said anything for the last five minutes. She was red in the face, and looked completely miserable.
“What’s up with you?” I asked her. “You’ve got a face like a wet week-end.”
“We can’t send the video to You’ve Been Framed,” Fliss muttered.
“Why not?” we all said together.
“I just don’t think it’s a good idea,” Fliss said stiffly.
“Oh, come on, Fliss, don’t be a wimp all your life,” Kenny urged. “If it does get on TV, we can get round our parents
, no problem.”
Fliss blushed. “It’s not that.”
“Well, what then?”
Fliss looked down at her feet. “I wasn’t – er – actually filming Lyndz when she fell off the bed,” she mumbled. “Sorry.”
“What?” We all stared at her.
“You mean you missed the sleepover stunt of the century?” I said. “So what were you doing? Filming Kenny and Rosie on the other bed?”
“Um. No,” said Fliss. “I was filming the teddy fights. Then I got bored…”
“So what were you filming then?” Rosie asked.
Fliss looked even more sheepish. “My cuddly toys on the windowsill.”
“Oh, great big fat hairy deal,” said Kenny in disgust. “So now we’ve got pathetic little cuddly toys in the middle of our radical sleepover vid.”
“Plus we’ve lost the chance to win loads of money,” I pointed out.
Lyndz shook her head sadly. “I really wanted to see myself somersaulting off the bed as well,” she said.
“I said I was sorry,” Fliss muttered miserably.
“Never mind, Fliss,” Rosie said quickly. “I’ve just thought of something.” She turned to Lyndz. “You could do it again, couldn’t you, Lyndz?”
“Do what again?” said Lyndz. I told you she was a bit slow on the uptake.
“Wobbling about on the edge of the bed, and somersaulting off it. You could do it again, couldn’t you?”
Lyndz looked doubtful.
“I dunno—”
“Course you can!” Rosie grabbed Lyndz’s arm, and hauled her onto Fliss’s bed. “That’s what we’ve got to do. Lyndz does the stunt again, and this time Fliss videos her!”
“Good idea!” Kenny slapped Rosie on the back. “Don’t you think that’s a good idea, Fliss?”
Fliss was suddenly looking a lot happier now that she was well and truly off the hook. “Yeah, good one. Come on then, Lyndz.”
Lyndz picked up her teddy bear.
“OK, I’ll give it a go.” Then she frowned. “Isn’t it cheating though?”
“No, course not,” Kenny said. “I mean, it’s not like you didn’t do it at all, is it?”
“And anyway,” I said, “I swear some of those videos on the telly are set-ups.”
Starring the Sleepover Club Page 3