Mega Sleepover 4

by Fiona Cummings

  “Ouch!” cried a voice. We’d found Rosie!

  After another half an hour of looking we still hadn’t found Fliss. And we were bored. We shouted that we were giving up the search.

  “Do you suppose she’s heard us?” asked Rosie.

  “’Course she has!” I said. “She just wants to make us sweat. Let’s go and play something else. She’ll come to us when she’s fed up!”

  “What time is it anyway?” asked Lyndz.

  “Time you learnt to tell the time yourself!” Frankie and I shouted together.

  “It’s just after six,” said Rosie. “That means it’s almost time for doing makeovers.”

  “Can’t we play something else first?” I pleaded. Hopefully, we’d get so involved in another game, the others would forget about the stupid makeovers.

  “Let’s play ‘Tell Me’,” said Rosie. “I’ve set it up in the lounge, just in case.”

  “Crikey Rosie. You’ve thought of everything haven’t you?” said Frankie. You could see she was impressed. After that, Rosie’s face was just one huge grin. If Frankie was impressed by her organisation, she was on to a winner!

  We were in full flow with ‘Tell Me’, yelling and shouting at each other, when the door opened. In came Fliss. Boy, did she look angry!

  “Where’ve you been then?” I asked her as I spun the wheel.

  “Hiding. I thought we were playing ‘Hide and Seek’. I must have been wrong.” Her mouth was set in a thin, tight line and she spat the words out.

  “Keep your hair on!” I said. “Didn’t you hear us calling to tell you that we gave up. Where were you hiding anyway?”

  “In a cupboard in the bathroom. And it was very hot and very spooky in there by myself!”

  “Come and sit down, Fliss. You can play with me if you want,” said Rosie.

  “I thought you might have waited for me,” Fliss turned on Rosie. Rosie’s smile disappeared again. She looked sadder than ever. The rest of us gave Fliss some of our ‘black looks’. It had taken us ages to cheer Rosie up, trust Fliss to spoil it.

  “What?” asked Fliss. “Why are you all looking at me like that?”

  “Because…”

  But we couldn’t finish because an enormous CRASH shook the room and we all started to scream.

  While we were screaming, two things seemed to happen together: firstly, we noticed that the large window in the lounge had shattered, and secondly, Rosie’s mother appeared.

  “Mum! What have you done?” Rosie wailed. She was staring at her mother as though she had just made her entrance by leaping through the window.

  “Darling are you alright?” asked Mrs Cartwright. “Are you all alright? You haven’t been cut by flying glass have you? Are you sure?” She was looking at us all anxiously.

  “Why did you do that?” asked Rosie. She was still in a state of shock.

  “Do what?” asked Rosie’s mum. “I was just coming in the front door when there was an enormous gust of wind. I heard it shattering the window and I came in here. I didn’t realise that you were here. Are you sure that you’re alright?”

  She looked at us carefully, checking for cuts. I was all prepared with my First Aid if anyone needed any assistance. Unfortunately they didn’t.

  “Did the wind make you fly?” asked Fliss. “It made me fly, didn’t it Frankie?” Frankie sighed and nodded.

  “No, I’m afraid I didn’t fly Fliss,” said Rosie’s mum. “But that certainly sounds like fun.” Fliss smiled and nodded. Rosie began to cry.

  “Oh-oh,” I muttered under my breath.

  “What’s the matter darling?” asked her mum, putting an arm around Rosie’s shaking shoulders.

  “It’s not fair!” cried Rosie. “Why does everything always go wrong for me? I wanted this sleepover to be perfect. I bet it wouldn’t even have rained if it had been at someone else’s house. But whenever I do anything, it always goes wrong.”

  “Don’t be silly darling,” said her mum. “It would have been raining today, wherever the sleepover had been.”

  “Yes and we wouldn’t have had such a great time playing ‘Hide and Seek’ at anyone else’s house,” said Lyndz. “Your house is best for that.”

  Fliss tutted. She still hadn’t forgiven us for leaving her, and something told me it would be a long time before she did.

  “Yes, but what about the window?” said Rosie. “I bet that wouldn’t have happened at one of your houses.”

  “That could have happened anywhere with this wind,” Mrs Cartwright reassured her. “It’s just that our house is quite old, and some of the windows need replacing.”

  Rosie lost it completely when she said that.

  “It’s not fair. S’not fair,” she sobbed. It was awful. I felt bad for Rosie and everything. But I couldn’t see what the big deal was. I’d love it if a window smashed in our lounge. Nothing like that ever happens at my house.

  Tiff and Spud appeared with brushes and newspaper and bin liners.

  “Thanks you two,” said Mrs Cartwright. “You can sweep the glass into a pile, but leave it for me to pick up.”

  Tiff sighed and stomped off with the brush.

  “I’m just going to phone your father to see if he’ll come round and board up the window…” continued Rosie’s mum. Rosie let out another howl. “… You girls go upstairs to Rosie’s room,” said Mrs Cartwright, shooing us through the door, “and I’ll call you when your food’s ready.”

  We all trooped off upstairs. Frankie and Lyndz had their arms around Rosie. Fliss was pretending to fly up the stairs. And I was thinking what a crummy party this was turning out to be. It wasn’t Rosie’s fault, it was just that everyone seemed so wet sometimes. What we needed was a good old Gladiator fight or something. But when I suggested it Frankie went ballistic.

  “Kenny, for goodness sake! Can’t you see how upset Rosie is? I don’t think bashing each other about is exactly what she needs right now!” she said.

  So much for that idea. I knew that I could do with bashing someone about to make me feel better.

  It was pretty gloomy in Rosie’s room. We had to turn on the light even though it wasn’t very late. The dark sky and rain outside made it feel like November again.

  I hate it when everyone is really quiet. I felt that I should say something to break the silence.

  “The way that window smashed! It was way cool!” I said. The others shot me a look.

  “Kenny!” warned Frankie. “Shut up can’t you?”

  “Sorry for breathing!” I snapped back. What was wrong with everybody?

  “It’s going to look like a squat isn’t it?” mumbled Rosie through her tears.

  “What do you mean?” asked Lyndz.

  “With the window boarded up. Everybody’s going to think that I live in some run-down shack,” Rosie wailed.

  “Don’t be silly!” I said. “It’ll only be for one night, then someone can replace the window tomorrow, or Monday at the latest. No one’s even going to notice it.” Rosie stopped crying.

  “Actually Rosie, you look pretty awful,” I laughed. “We’ll have to do something about those red eyes. It’s just not a good look for you, darling!” The others laughed too.

  “Come on then Fliss. Do your stuff with that make-up!” I said.

  “Are you having make-up on as well?” asked Rosie.

  I could feel the others all staring at me. Now you know me and make-up. Yeuch! is all I can say. But this was an exception, and I only did it for Rosie because she was so upset. I’ll admit it: for the first – and last – time, I let Fliss make me up. The others were more bothered about that than having their own make-up done. And usually they all argue about who should have theirs done first and which eye shadow they should wear. On the birthday Saturday, they stood about watching me with their chins scraping the floor. I mean p-lease! Anyone would think I was some rare animal in a zoo or something.

  “So, how do I look?” I asked pouting and posing like a model.

  “Wicked
!”

  “Coo-el!”

  “You really ought to wear it more often. It really suits you,” said Fliss standing back to admire her handiwork.

  “Ta very much!” I shrieked, pretending to be upset. “Are you saying that I’m ugly the rest of the time?”

  “Well yes actually, we are!” Frankie laughed.

  I grabbed her by the arms and wrestled her to the floor. That was more like it! Everyone seemed to be having fun, piling on top of us and shrieking. It was almost worth the embarrassment of wearing blue eyeshadow and pink lipstick to have everyone back to normal again. But I knew that it was too good to last. The light suddenly flickered, then it went out completely.

  We were all in a pile on the floor and I was at the bottom. So I thought I was going to get squashed when Fliss started screaming and didn’t move. What is it about lights going out that makes people scream? I mean, what did she really think was going to happen? Did she honestly think that there was some monster lurking about who had turned out the lights so it could come in and eat us all up? I don’t think so.

  “Fliss! Shut up and get up!” I gasped.

  By that time Rosie had started screaming too. Thank goodness Frankie is a bit more together. She forced her way out of the pile of bodies and stumbled to the window. We could see that it was completely dark outside – no street lights, nothing.

  “It’s OK,” she said. “Nobody’s got any lights on. There must have been a power cut!”

  We all crowded round the window to have a look out. It’s funny isn’t it?

  You think you know somewhere really well, but when you look at it differently, like when there are no lights on, it’s like you’re seeing it for the first time. Rosie’s front garden looked massive. And because it had been raining so hard, it looked as though there was a stream running down the middle of it.

  “This is wicked!” I said.

  “It’s a bit spooky!” said Fliss, shivering.

  The door creaked open. We all jumped about a mile. All we could see at first was a light shining towards us.

  “Are you alright girls?” It was Mrs Cartwright. “It’s only a power cut. Have you brought your torches? I could only find this one.”

  We always take our torches to sleepovers. We scrambled about in our sleeping bags and found them.

  “Do you want to come downstairs and stay with us until your food’s ready?” asked Rosie’s mum.

  “No thanks Mum. We’ll be fine up here,” said Rosie.

  “OK I’ll call you. It won’t be long,” said her mum and closed the door behind her.

  “Rosie, this is so cool!” Lyndz squeaked, hugging Rosie.

  You could tell that Rosie wished she’d planned the whole thing herself. At last the tenth birthday sleepover was turning into a party worth remembering!

  Rosie has this big double bed in her bedroom. But then you probably remember that, right? Well, it was really cool, because we could all sit on it and spook each other out. We held the torches under our chins and pulled gruesome faces. Fliss kept screaming and hiding her face in Rosie’s shoulder. What is she like?

  Then we started to tell ghost stories and that really scared Fliss. She kept screaming “Shut up! Please shut up!” But of course the more she did that, the more we thought of even spookier stories. Frankie’s brill at all that stuff, but she knows she is and acts really cool about it.

  “There was once a haunted house, very much like Rosie’s house actually,” she started. Nobody moved. “It had lots of rooms, it had cellars and attics, very much like here. And under the attic stairs there was a secret passage that no one knew about. Except the ghost!”

  We all squealed a bit and huddled closer together.

  “It was the ghost of a man who used to live in the house. It was the only place he’d ever been happy. So he slid through the walls and watched over the family who lived there now. They never saw the ghost, they just felt an icy chill whenever he came into the room.”

  We huddled closer together still, so that we could almost feel each other breathing.

  “One day the girl of the house, who was very much like Rosie, was in her bedroom with some of her friends when…”

  Rosie’s bedroom door squeaked open and a rush of cold air filled the room. We all screamed with fright. We clung to each other and kept our heads down. If that was the ghost, we didn’t want to see him.

  “Well, I know I’m irresistible girls, but I didn’t know I was that irresistible!” It was only Spud. “Your mum asked me to tell you that ‘grub’s up’!”

  I could feel my heart booming inside my chest. I didn’t think it would ever get back to normal.

  “That was chilling, Frankie!” I told her.

  “How did you arrange with Spud to come in at just the right moment?” asked Fliss. You could tell she was still shaken, but she was desperate not to let the rest of us see.

  “Well, you know Fliss, I didn’t,”

  Frankie said very seriously. “I reckon the ghost must have told him when to come in!”

  “Aaah! Frankie don’t say that!” Fliss seemed to have gone very pale, although it was hard to tell by torchlight.

  We all trooped downstairs, stumbling a bit as we went. Tiffany was at the bottom of the stairs, shining a torch to show us the way into the dining room.

  “Hey Tiff, you could get a job in the cinema,” laughed Rosie.

  “Shut your face!” said her sister, but even she looked happier than she had done earlier.

  Eating is one of my favourite things, after Leicester City of course, and I was getting very hungry. It seemed like the others were too, because we all barged into each other and bundled into the dining room. We couldn’t believe what we saw there. It was mega-wicked. Everywhere was glowing with candlelight. There were loads of candles in jam jars down the middle of the table and on the fireplace. There were even a couple of lanterns hanging in the window.

  “Oh wow!” said Rosie. “This is brilliant, Mum!”

  The rest of us gasped and just stood there gawping. It was like we couldn’t even move.

  “I know that I don’t need to tell you this, because I know that you’re all sensible girls,” said Mrs Cartwright. “But candles are dangerous, so I don’t want you touching them. OK? Right, lecture over. Who’s for pizza!”

  “Me!” we all shouted and made a dive for the table.

  In the other room we could hear voices. One was Spud’s.

  “Is Dad here?” Rosie called to her mum.

  “Yes, he’s just doing the window. Spud and Adam are helping him,” she called back.

  “I’d forgotten about that,” said Rosie glumly.

  “Don’t worry,” I told her. “It’s so dark we won’t even be able to see it.”

  “I suppose not,” she said, but she’d gone all sad again.

  “Oh come on Rosie, cheer up!” said Frankie. “This is one of the best parties I’ve ever been to. And it hasn’t really started yet! What’s next on your timetable?”

  Rosie pulled out a scruffy bit of paper from her pocket. She held it up to one of the lanterns on the table.

  “Oh no!” she yelled, slamming her fist down. “I didn’t think anything else could go wrong!”

  “What’s up?” I asked. “Don’t tell me we’ve run over time with the meal! We haven’t even had the cake yet!”

  “Nope. It’s worse than that,” sighed Rosie shoving the paper back in her pocket. “I’d got everything ready for a disco…”

  “We can dance by candlelight. It’ll be cool!” shouted Lyndz.

  “There’s just one little problem,” mumbled Rosie.

  “What?” we all asked.

  “No power. How can we play my cassettes if we’ve no electricity?”

  She was right. That certainly was a problem.

  “How come your mum’s cooked the pizza and garlic bread if there’s still a power cut?” asked Fliss.

  “We’ve got a gas cooker Fliss,” said Mrs Cartwright who had just come in
to collect our plates.

  “Mum…” Rosie called, but she’d gone out of the room again.

  “We could play Twister by candlelight,” suggested Frankie. “It’ll be a laugh.”

  “I suppose we’ll have to,” said Rosie. “Unless anybody can think of something else we can do instead.”

  “I know!” I shouted. “Let’s have the birthday cake! Seeing as I helped to make it!”

  “You?” shouted the others.

  “I don’t think holding a sieve actually counts as ‘helping’ does it?” asked Frankie. I was suddenly bombarded by handfuls of crisps and popcorn. Charming! So that’s all the thanks I get for losing my cred in the kitchen!

  “Oi! Watch it you lot!” shouted Tiffany.

  We looked up. She had just come into the room and was carrying our cake. Ten candles were flickering on top of it. It was class! I know we’d all seen birthday cakes before, but this was really special. It might have been because we’d made the cake ourselves. Or it might have been because the room looked pretty cool anyway with all the other candles. Whatever it was, for a few moments none of us could speak. Then we all sort of squealed together. I know that it sounds a bit nerdy now. I guess you just had to be there.

  “We’ve all got to blow the candles out together and make a wish,” said Fliss.

  So we sang ‘Happy birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday dear Sleepover Club, Happy Birthday to us!’, then we all took an enormous breath and whoosh! All the candles were blown out. I can’t tell you what I wished for, obviously, or else it won’t come true. But you can have a guess.

  As far as the actual cake was concerned, well, I’d be lying to you if I said it was the best cake I’d ever tasted. But it wasn’t too bad. None of us went down with food poisoning anyway.

  When we’d all finished, Rosie said “Right then, we might as well go into the lounge and play Twister.”