Could she?
Fliss and Rosie were in the kitchen for what seemed like ages, but eventually Rosie came out.
“Fliss says she’s ready to bring the tray of squash and biscuits in,” she announced. “She wants me, Frankie and Kenny sitting on the sofa, and Lyndz ready with the camera.”
Lyndz gave Rosie a thumbs-up.
“I’m ready.”
“So are we,” Kenny said. “Did Fliss remember to put some ice cubes in the squash?”
Rosie nodded, and sat down next to me.
“What’s with the ice cubes?” I said in Kenny’s ear. “That’s the second time you’ve mentioned them.”
Kenny shrugged.
“I’m just thirsty, that’s all.”
“We’re not supposed to be stuffing our faces here, you know,” I reminded her.
Kenny stuck her tongue out at me. “So what? I can still get a drink, can’t I?”
I looked hard at her. There was something going on, but for the life of me I couldn’t see what it was. I didn’t have time to say anything else, because right at that moment Fliss popped her head round the kitchen door.
“I’m ready,” she said, nodding at Lyndz. “Let’s try and get it right first time, or we’ll be running out of tape.”
We all nodded solemnly. Personally, I couldn’t see that it mattered whether we ran out of tape or not. Fliss spilling a plate of biscuits over Kenny was hardly going to provide laugh-a-minute stuff for a TV programme. But it was easier to sit there and do it than to argue with Fliss, so I stayed where I was between Rosie and Kenny.
Fliss came out of the kitchen with a silly smile on her face. She was carrying a large blue tray which held four glasses, a plate of Hobnobs and a big jug of orange squash with ice cubes in it. It took her a while to get across to the sofa where we were sitting because she kept stopping to smile at the camera. But she made it eventually.
“Would everyone like some squash and biscuits?” she asked brightly, putting the tray down on the coffee table.
“Yes, please,” we all chorused dutifully.
“I’ll hand the biscuits round first,” Fliss said meaningfully. She had her back to Lyndz, and she started winking at Kenny like mad. Kenny grinned at her, and nodded.
“Would you like a biscuit, Rosie?” Fliss asked, picking up the plate. I suppose she was going to ask me next, and then would come the Big Moment when she tipped the biscuits all over Kenny. Hilarious. But, of course, we didn’t get that far. Rosie didn’t even get a chance to reply to Fliss’s question.
Because, as soon as Fliss turned to offer Rosie one of the Hobnobs, Kenny pounced. She leaned forward, scooped a couple of ice cubes out of the jug of squash and tipped them down the neck of Fliss’s pyjama jacket.
From that moment on, everything moved so fast I’m still not sure what really happened. Of course, Fliss leapt a mile into the air when the ice cubes connected with her bare skin, although by some miracle she managed not to scream. When she leapt a mile, though, she still had the plate in her hand. Biscuits flew everywhere, as Fliss accidentally cracked the plate hard against Rosie’s chin. Rosie gasped, and flung out her arms in shock. I was sitting next to her, and I didn’t want to get hit in the eye, did I? So I leapt backwards onto the top of the sofa, out of harm’s way.
Silly me. I leapt too hard. I teetered and wobbled on the top of the sofa for a few seconds, a bit like Lyndz had done on the bed earlier, and then I went over. My heels flew over my head, and I landed on the thick, fluffy carpet on the other side. Unfortunately I hit the little table on my way over, and I took the painted china lady in the nasty green dress with me. Well, most of her. Her head fell off when she hit the floor, and it rolled away under the dresser.
Feeling a bit dazed, I pulled myself upright. Four horrified faces were hanging over the sofa, looking down at me and at the headless body of the painted china lady lying next to me. In fact, Fliss’s face was exactly the same nasty green colour as the lady’s dress.
“Frankie, what have you done?” Rosie gasped.
“Me!” I said indignantly. “It wasn’t my fault. Thanks a lot, Kenny.”
“Sorry, Fliss,” Kenny muttered. “I didn’t know that was going to happen, did I?”
Fliss was almost crying.
“My mum’s going to kill me. That ornament cost eighty pounds!”
“Calm down, Fliss,” I said. “We might be able to fix it.”
“Where’s the head gone?” Lyndz asked.
“I think it rolled under the dresser,” I said.
Kenny climbed off the sofa.
“I’ll have a look.” She lay down on the carpet, and pushed her arm under the dresser as far as it would go. “Got it!”
She pulled the lady’s head out, and we all crowded round to look at it. Apart from the fact that it wasn’t attached to her body anymore, there wasn’t any other damage.
“Look, it’ll be easy to repair it,” Lyndz said, taking the head from Kenny and the body from me. “It broke off right around the neckline of the dress.”
We all looked. Lyndz was right. It had been a clean break.
“We can fix it, Fliss,” Lyndz said kindly, “And your mum will never even notice it’s been broken, I swear.”
“Really?” Fliss sniffed.
“No problem,” said Lyndz. “But we need some glue.”
Fliss frowned. “I’m not allowed to use the superglue,” she said. “But I’ve got a Pritt stick in my school bag. Will that do?”
Lyndz nodded, and Fliss went out to fetch it.
“You seem to know a lot about mending things, Lyndz,” Rosie said admiringly.
Lyndz shrugged. “When you’ve got four brothers, you get used to it,” she said.
Fliss came back with the Pritt stick, and Lyndz carefully rubbed it over the top of the body and the bottom of the head. The rest of us picked up the broken biscuits, and then swept up the crumbs. Then we had to sit and wait for the pieces to stick. It took ages, even though we all took turns at pressing the two halves together. By this time it was 1.30 am, and we were all dead tired.
At last Lyndz said she thought the bits had stuck. We did a few tests like turning the lady upside down ten times in a row to see if the head fell off or not. It didn’t.
Lyndz put the lady gently down on the coffee-table, and we all stood back and looked at it. It was amazing. You just couldn’t tell that it had ever been broken. Well, only if you got down on your hands and knees and took a close look.
“Thanks, Lyndz,” Fliss said gratefully. “You’ve saved my life.”
“So can we please go to bed now?” Kenny said with an enormous yawn.
“We could have gone to bed ages ago if you hadn’t been such an idiot,” Fliss retorted with a sniff.
“OK, OK,” said Kenny. “I said sorry, didn’t I?”
“Sorry isn’t enough,” said Fliss. “You can be my slave for a week.”
Kenny groaned. “Oh, all right then.”
Fliss’s eyes gleamed. I could tell that she was already starting to think up tasks for Kenny to perform.
“I have to go to bed NOW,” said Rosie. “I’m falling asleep on my feet.”
“I’m going to have some squash first.” Kenny picked up the jug, and poured herself a glassful. “Oh, rats, all the ice cubes have melted.”
“I should think you’ve had enough of ice cubes for a while,” I remarked.
“I have,” said Rosie. “And I never want to see You’ve Been Framed again, either.”
“I never want to see a camcorder again,” I said between yawns. “Ever.”
“Where is the camcorder?” Fliss asked suddenly, looking wild-eyed with panic.
“It’s OK, I turned it off when Frankie went over the sofa,” Lyndz said. “I left it over there on the chair.”
Lyndz went over to get it, but just as she bent over to pick the camcorder up, we all got a shock.
The living-room door was flung wide open.
Fliss’s mum was stan
ding in the doorway, blinking at us. We all nearly dropped down dead with shock.
“What on earth are you girls doing down here?” Mrs Sidebotham exclaimed. “It’s a quarter to two!”
“Sorry, Mrs Sidebotham,” we all mumbled. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lyndz sit down carefully in the armchair, so that the camcorder was hidden behind her. Meanwhile, Kenny had moved slightly closer to me, so that we were shoulder to shoulder and blocking Mrs Sidebotham’s view of the china lady in the green dress who now had a broken neck.
“Well?” Mrs Sidebotham raised her eyebrows at us.
“We woke up and felt hungry,” Fliss said quickly.
“And thirsty,” Kenny chimed in.
“So we came downstairs for some squash and biscuits,” Rosie finished off.
Mrs Sidebotham looked suspicious.
“You haven’t been doing any cooking, have you?” she asked.
We all shook our heads virtuously.
“No, Mrs Sidebotham.”
“Good.” Fliss’s mum looked mightily relieved. “Off to bed then, please. I don’t know what your parents would think if they knew you were up at this time of night.”
Yawning, we all stumbled over to the door. Except for Lyndz. She stayed where she was in the armchair.
“Come on, Lyndsey,” said Fliss’s mum impatiently. “Time for bed.”
Lyndz stood up reluctantly. I guessed she was waiting for Mrs Sidebotham to go out of the room first, so she could grab the camcorder and bring it upstairs with her. But it was obvious that Fliss’s mum wasn’t going anywhere until she’d checked us all one by one.
As Lyndz came over to the door, we all looked anxiously at the chair where she’d been sitting. Fliss was standing next to me and I could feel her shaking in complete panic. But we needn’t have worried. There was no sign of the camcorder anywhere. There was a big, fat, green cushion in the middle of the armchair, and somehow Lyndz must have managed to shove the camcorder behind it.
We all gave such a sigh of relief at exactly the same moment that I’m surprised Mrs Sidebotham didn’t notice it. But then she wouldn’t have. She was too busy staring at her painted china lady in the green dress.
“What have you girls been up to down here?” she asked suspiciously. “You’ve moved my Victorian lady.”
We all froze to the spot. Fliss’s knees were shaking so much, I swear it was only Rosie and me standing shoulder to shoulder on either side of her that held her up. The only one of us who had the nerve to say anything at all was Kenny.
“Oh, sorry, Mrs Sidebotham. That was my fault.”
We all turned to stare at Kenny in amazement, and if looks could kill, Fliss would have murdered Kenny on the spot. But Kenny didn’t take any notice.
“It’s so pretty, I picked it up to have a closer look at it,” she went on. “I hope you don’t mind.”
Fliss’s mum looked pleased.
“Yes, it is pretty, isn’t it? I don’t mind you looking at my things, Laura, but do be careful, won’t you?” She reached out, and turned the figure slightly to the left. Holding it by its head. We all watched in breathless terror. We expected the head to come off in her hands like something in a horror movie, but it didn’t.
“Now – BED,” said Fliss’s mum firmly, and we all scrambled up the stairs as fast as we could. None of us could believe quite how lucky we’d been that evening, and the sooner we were all tucked up in bed, the better. Besides, we were all asleep on our feet.
Fliss’s mum came with us, and watched us crawl into our beds and sleeping bags. “Now I don’t want to hear a sound until morning,” she warned us. “Not a single sound.”
I yawned hugely. I wasn’t going to argue with that. I’d never felt so tired in my whole life. Mrs Sidebotham switched the light out, and went away.
Then Fliss said in a low voice, “Lyndz, what did you do with the camcorder?”
“I shoved it behind the cushion,” Lyndz said sleepily. “I couldn’t think what else to do.”
“We can’t leave it there,” Kenny said. “It’s still got our tape in it.”
“I’ll go down and get it in a few minutes,” Fliss said, in between yawns. “When my mum’s gone to sleep again.”
There was silence for a little while. No one even suggested singing our sleepover song because we were just too worn out. I curled up snugly inside my sleeping bag, and closed my eyes. What a night.
I started to drift off into sleep. But then Kenny, who was lying on the floor next to me, began to giggle softly.
“Shut up, MacKenzie,” I said drowsily.
“Sorry,” Kenny muttered. “I was just remembering Fliss’s face when I dropped those ice cubes down her neck.”
I thought back to that moment, and a picture of Fliss’s horrified face swam into my mind too. I began to laugh, and I had to turn over and bury my face in my pillow.
“What are you two sniggering at?” asked Lyndz, who was lying on the other side of me.
“Fliss’s face when those ice cubes went down her neck!” I blurted out between giggles. Kenny was too paralysed with laughter to say anything herself. There was silence for a few seconds, and then Lyndz’s sleeping bag began to shake too.
“Shut up, you lot!” Rosie whispered. “I’m trying to get to sleep here!”
“What about when Fliss cracked Rosie on the chin with the plate of biscuits?” Lyndz spluttered helplessly. That set the three of us off again, and this time Rosie couldn’t help joining in. We were practically all weeping with laughter.
“Shut up,” said Fliss from the other bed. “I don’t think it was very funny at all. Any of it.”
“What, not even when Frankie went over the back of the sofa?” Kenny said. “With her arms and legs, she looked like a daddy-longlegs having a fit.”
This time we all laughed, even Fliss. We just couldn’t help ourselves. We laughed for ages. And we still had smiles on our faces when we fell asleep.
So now you know just about everything. You also know why we don’t want anyone to find out what really happened last night. You can keep a secret, can’t you? Course you can! You’d better – or I’ll set Kenny on you.
Only kidding. I know I can trust you.
Well, there isn’t really that much left for me to tell you. We all overslept this morning, because of going to bed so late last night. Usually we like getting up early when we sleepover at Fliss’s because her mum makes great breakfasts. They’ve got a juicer and the famous waffle-maker, so we always pig out. But not this morning.
Even Andy and Fliss’s mum overslept. The only one who didn’t was Fliss’s little brother Callum, who didn’t bother waking anyone else up. Typical. We were all still snoring away when Kenny’s dad arrived at ten o’clock to collect her, so the first we knew about it was Callum banging on Fliss’s bedroom door. I was getting a lift home with Kenny, so I had to get up too.
“You look like the walking dead,” Kenny remarked as we shoved our stuff into our sleepover bags.
“Yeah, well, you’d win a Miss Baggy-Eyes contest, no problem,” I said.
The others were still dead to the world. Rosie opened one eye and said goodbye to us, but Fliss and Lyndz were just lumps under the bedclothes. Yawning, Kenny and I staggered out onto the landing, just as Fliss’s mum hurried out of her bedroom.
“I’m sorry, girls,” she gasped. “We should have been up hours ago. I’ll make you some breakfast.”
“It’s OK, Mrs Sidebotham,” Kenny said politely. “My dad’s here to collect us.”
“Oh dear.” Fliss’s mum looked guilty. “What on earth is he going to think?”
Kenny shrugged. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. But when we got downstairs, where Kenny’s dad was waiting in the hall, Mrs Sidebotham spent about ten minutes apologising for oversleeping.
“—and the girls never even got to watch their sleepover video!” she finished up. “I was looking forward to seeing that myself.”
Kenny and I glanced at each other. W
hoops. I didn’t think Mrs Sidebotham would be that keen on the video if she saw the uncensored version. Anyway, she wouldn’t be seeing it at all because Fliss would have collected the camcorder from behind the cushion and replaced our tape with a blank one by now.
“Oh, well, never mind.” Dr MacKenzie opened the front door. “They can watch it another time. Are you ready, girls?”
“Thanks for having us, Mrs Sidebotham,” we said politely, then we legged it down the path, and jumped into the car. For once, I was going to be glad to get home.
“I feel like I could sleep for a week,” Kenny muttered in my ear.
“Me too,” I said. “I was so tired last night, I didn’t even hear Fliss go downstairs to get the camcorder.”
“Me neither,” Kenny said.
We looked at each other.
“But she must have done,” Kenny went on confidently. “She wouldn’t have forgotten.”
“No,” I agreed.
When I got home, my mum took one look at me and started tutting.
“Late night, Frankie?”
“What makes you think that?” I said.
“You could carry home ten pounds of potatoes in those bags under your eyes.” My mum looked at me critically. “How was your video?”
“All right.” I managed to look her straight in the eye. “We didn’t get a chance to watch it though, because we all overslept.”
“What a shame,” my mum said. “Oh, well, you’ll be pleased to know that your dad’s now thinking of buying a camcorder. I’ve tried to put him off, but you know what your dad’s like. He gets an idea into his head, and then it sticks.” She smiled at me. “A bit like someone else I know.”
“Oh, Mum,” I yawned. “Dad’s crazy. Camcorders are so over-rated. They’re not that cool, really.”
My mum looked at me suspiciously.
“You’ve changed your tune. What happened at Fliss’s last night?”
“Oh, nothing,” I said cautiously. “But once you’ve seen one camcorder, you’ve seen them all.”
So that was that. I think my mum was a bit suspicious about what had gone on at Fliss’s sleepover, but when nothing happened (Fliss’s mum didn’t ring up to complain, like she usually did), she stopped worrying. Anyway, my mum and I ganged up on my dad and told him that instead of having a camcorder, we’d rather use all that money to go on holiday.
Starring the Sleepover Club Page 5