We all looked at Frankie.
“Oh, all right,” Frankie agreed. “But my dad’s not going to be too pleased.”
This time we tiptoed upstairs, and stuck our heads round the door. Mr Thomas didn’t even notice us. He had his head bent over the computer, typing away furiously. The document he was working on looked pretty boring and complicated.
“Hi, Dad,” Frankie said sweetly. But Mr Thomas didn’t even turn round.
“Sorry, girls, I’ve got to get this done,” he said.
“But, Dad—” Frankie began.
“You can use the computer tomorrow,” her dad said firmly, still typing.
“Tomorrow!” Fliss grumbled, as we went downstairs again. “What if Katie Shaw’s replied? We won’t even know.”
“Yeah, say if she wants to meet us really early in the morning?” Rosie pointed out. “If we don’t read the email tonight, we might miss the meeting.”
“We could put the computer on when we’re supposed to be in bed tonight,” Kenny suggested, glancing at Frankie.
Frankie’s parents have this really strict rule that the computer is never put on after we’ve been sent to bed. When they first got the Internet, they had this password which Frankie didn’t know, so that she couldn’t get on the Net without them being there. But then Fliss found out the password, when we were doing our Vikings project for school, and ever since then, Mr and Mrs Thomas have let Frankie use it whenever she wants – but not when she’s supposed to be asleep.
Frankie looked a bit uncomfortable. “My parents’ll go mad if they find out,” she muttered. “They won’t let me use the computer for weeks.”
“So we’ll make sure they don’t find out!” Kenny urged her. “Come on, Franks, don’t you want to see if Katie Shaw’s replied yet or not?”
“Well, OK,” Frankie agreed. “But we’ve got to be really quiet. And no messing about.”
“Would we ever!” Kenny snorted. “Nothing’s gonna go wrong, Frankie. Trust me.”
“We may have been best mates since we were little kids, Kenz, but I’m not that crazy!” Frankie retorted.
Mr Thomas was just finishing off his document when we went up to Frankie’s bedroom to get our pyjamas and toothbrushes.
“OK, girls, I’ll get out of your way now,” he yawned. “And you remember the rules, don’t you?” He eyeballed us sternly. “No computers after lights out. Right?”
“Right!” we all agreed innocently.
There was the usual scramble for the bathroom, and we were in there for a while because Kenny started a wet flannel fight. But we were all tucked up in bed, looking as if butter wouldn’t melt in our mouths, when Frankie’s mum came in to turn off the light. I was sharing with Frankie, Fliss and Rosie were in the bunk beds and Kenny was on the pull-down bed in her sleeping bag.
“Night night, girls.” Mrs Thomas switched off the light. “And don’t let the bedbugs bite!”
We lay there and counted up to twenty, then we all reached for our torches and switched them on.
“Shall we have our midnight feast first?” Kenny asked, rubbing her tum. “I’m starving.”
“No, let’s check the emails first,” Frankie whispered. “I’m too wound up to eat anything until we’ve got that over with!”
We all climbed out of bed, and tiptoed over to the computer. Rosie rolled up her jumper and put it across the bottom of the bedroom door, so that the light from the computer screen didn’t shine out on to the landing. Then Frankie switched the machine on. The click sounded deafening, and we all held our breaths for a minute. But no-one came bursting in, yelling at us.
“Come on, come on,” Frankie muttered under her breath as we waited for our site to load. She was really jittery. So were the rest of us. We all watched silently as our Home Page opened up on the screen, and Frankie checked the messages.
“Look, Katie Shaw’s replied!” Kenny said triumphantly, and then immediately clapped her hand over her mouth.
“SSSHHH!” we all hissed. We probably made more noise than Kenny did!
Frankie opened up the email, and we all crowded round to read it.
So you’ve finally decided to see sense! This is what you’ve got to do. Wrap eleven pounds up in a plastic bag, and leave it in the park tomorrow morning, under the hedge behind the swings. The package must be there by 10 o’clock on the dot, or you won’t get the disk. The disk will be returned to you when I’ve got the money.
“What a cheek!” Kenny whispered, clenching her fists. “You wait – we’ll be ready for her tomorrow!”
“Hang on a minute,” I said. “Are we going to pretend we’ve left the money, before we hide and try to catch her?”
“Yeah, good idea,” Frankie said. “Katie Shaw might be hiding and watching us, waiting to see if we leave the money where she said.”
“OK, we need to make up a dummy package then!” Kenny said gleefully. “What can we use?”
“We could use a bit of paper, folded up,” Fliss suggested. “That would feel like a five-pound note.”
“I’ve got some plastic coins somewhere,” Frankie said. “From years ago when I used to play Shops. I think it’s in a box in the garage.”
“Excellent!” Kenny rubbed her hands together. “Maybe you’d better send a reply, Frankie. Just to let Katie Shaw know that we’ve got her email.”
Frankie sent a reply, and gave a sigh of relief. “OK, now we can have our midnight feast!”
“I can’t wait to see who Katie Shaw is tomorrow,” Rosie said, as Frankie logged off the Internet. “Do you really think it’s someone we know?”
“Sure to be,” Kenny said grimly. “Like Frankie said, they could just be hiding behind someone else’s email address.”
“What was that?” Fliss squeaked suddenly.
We all froze. It sounded like a bedroom door opening, followed by footsteps across the landing. And Frankie was still closing the computer down!
We all panicked. Frankie started trying to hit all the buttons as fast as possible. Me and Rosie both jumped backwards, and bumped heads, and Kenny tried to leap over to her bed, and banged straight into Fliss, who went flying and ended up sprawled over the computer keyboard.
“Fliss!” Frankie hissed frantically, trying to push her off. “Get out of the way!”
I don’t know how we managed it, but somehow we got ourselves into bed and under the covers in about ten seconds flat. Frankie was last, because she had to switch the computer off. She just about had time to dive under the duvet and close her eyes before the door opened softly, and Mrs Thomas looked in.
“Phew! That was close!” Kenny whispered, as we heard Frankie’s mum go into the bathroom.
“Never mind, at least we didn’t get caught,” Rosie said cheerfully. “I’ve got some Milky Way Stars. Does anyone want one?”
Fliss, Kenny and me started pulling our midnight feast stuff out of our bags too. But Frankie was sitting up in bed, frowning.
“What’s the matter, Franks?” Kenny asked, biting into a king-size Snickers bar. “Look, everything’s sorted now, and your mum didn’t know we were on the computer. It’s cool.”
“No, it isn’t,” Frankie said in this kind of strangled voice.
“Why not?” I asked.
“You know my dad’s document, the one he was working on?” Frankie looked even more worried. “Well, I saw it when I was closing the computer down. But then Fliss fell on the keyboard – and I didn’t see the document then after that.”
“What?” Kenny stared at her. “You don’t mean – Fliss accidentally deleted it?”
“I couldn’t have done!” Fliss was aghast.
“Maybe the document was still there, and you just didn’t notice because you were panicking about your mum coming in,” Rosie suggested.
“Perhaps we should check the computer again, just to make sure,” I said.
Frankie nodded, and climbed out of bed. She turned the computer on, and we all stood there waiting for it to fire up.
“See all those little symbols?” Frankie pointed at the screen. “Well, there was one there to click on which was called Work Document. That was Dad’s stuff. And now it’s gone”.
We couldn’t believe it. We’d only gone and deleted the document that Frankie’s dad had been working so hard on all evening.
“I think the Sleepover Club is jinxed when it comes to computers!” Rosie said miserably.
“It’s all your fault, Fliss,” Kenny moaned. “If you hadn’t fallen on the keyboard, this would never have happened!”
“Well, you’re the one who pushed me!” Fliss retorted. “And anyway, you started all this by losing Tom’s disk.”
“Look, let’s not argue,” I said quickly, trying to calm things down. “We’ve got to decide what we’re going to do.”
“What do you mean?” Frankie asked. “We’ve deleted the document, and that’s it. It’s gone.”
“Maybe we could type it up again,” Rosie suggested.
“Yes, great idea!” Kenny said eagerly. “Frankie, do you know which document it was?”
“I suppose it’s the one that Dad left lying on the dining-room table,” Frankie said doubtfully.
“All right, you go and get it then,” Kenny replied, “and we’ll take turns at typing it up.”
Frankie tiptoed over to the door. “Come with me, Lyndz,” she whispered.
“OK.” I followed her out of the bedroom, and on to the landing. Mr and Mrs Thomas’s bedroom light was off by now, so it was really dark out there.
“Hold my hand, Lyndz,” Frankie whispered. “I can find my way around, no problem – ouch!”
“Are you OK?” I asked.
“I stubbed my toe on the banister!” Frankie groaned. “Come on, once we get down the stairs a bit, I’ll put my torch on.”
We hurried downstairs and into the dining room. A red folder was lying on the table.
“I think that’s it,” Frankie whispered.
I picked up the folder and took a look. It was a legal document, so I couldn’t understand a word. It was full of really old-fashioned language, and my eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw how long it was.
“Frankie, this is enormous!” I hissed. “It’s going to take us all night to copy this!”
“I know,” she said grimly.
The others nearly fainted with shock when we took the document back upstairs. But we didn’t have any choice. We just had to get on with it. Frankie created a new file with the same name as before, and she offered to do the first few pages. Meanwhile, the rest of us were yawning like mad, so we crawled into bed to get a bit of sleep.
It seemed like I’d only just closed my eyes when Frankie was shaking me by the shoulder.
“Lyndz, it’s your turn,” she yawned. “Wake Kenny up next.”
I could hardly keep my eyes open as I sat down at the computer. Frankie snuggled down into bed, and I started typing. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I’d understood what I was doing, but the document was so complicated, I didn’t have a clue what it was about! I struggled on for the next hour, and then shook Kenny awake.
“Eh? Wassup?” Kenny mumbled, her eyes still firmly closed.
“It’s your turn to type, Kenny!” I said. Then I jumped into bed, and was asleep just about the moment my head hit the pillow…
“Lyndz! Wake up!”
Someone was shaking me again, and I didn’t want to wake up this time. I’d already got up twice more during the night to take my turn at typing the document again, and now I wasn’t getting up for anybody!
“Lyndz! Wake up!” Frankie pulled the duvet off me. “It’s ten past nine! We’ve only got a little while before we meet Katie Shaw.”
“Yikes!” I gasped. I forced myself to sit up, and rub my eyes. They felt really heavy and sore. I looked blearily round at the others, who were rolling reluctantly out of bed too. They didn’t look any better than I felt.
“Did we finish the document?” I asked anxiously.
Frankie nodded. “I finished it off at three in the morning,” she said, “And I spellchecked it too.”
“I bet there were loads of spelling mistakes,” Rosie said with a grin. “I was so tired, I didn’t even know what I was typing!”
The door opened, and Mrs Thomas looked in. She was carrying Izzy.
“Goodness me, I thought you were never going to get up!” she said. “Breakfast’s ready, so hurry up and get washed and dressed. Your dad wants to come in and print out his document.”
We all glanced at each other.
“Let’s hope he doesn’t notice anything funny,” Fliss said.
“He won’t,” Frankie said confidently. “We did a great job!”
“Have we got time for breakfast?” Kenny asked in a low voice.
“Just about,” Frankie replied. “Anyway, my mum’ll get suspicious if we shoot off without eating.”
We didn’t bother with washing. We just got dressed and raced downstairs. We were scoffing the pancakes and maple syrup that Mrs Thomas had made, when we heard Frankie’s dad coming down the stairs. He came into the kitchen, looking rather peculiar.
“I think there’s something wrong with that computer,” he said, looking puzzled. “You know that document I typed up last night?”
Frankie’s mum nodded, while we just all looked down at our plates.
“Well, I’ve just printed it off,” Mrs Thomas went on, holding up a pile of papers, “and it’s a different document to the one I typed up last night!” He stared round at us. “Anyone like to tell me how that happened?”
We all looked pretty embarrassed, and started squirming in our seats.
“Sorry, Dad,” Frankie muttered. “We kind of deleted your document by accident…”
Mrs Thomas raised her eyebrows. “That must have been difficult,” she remarked, “seeing that you’re not allowed on the computer after lights out.”
“We were on the computer after lights out,” Kenny muttered. “Sorry, Mrs Thomas.”
“So you thought you’d type up my document again, only it was the wrong one!” Frankie’s dad said sternly.
This was awful! We were in REAL trouble this time. I was so worried that it took a few seconds before Mr Thomas’s next words sank in.
“Good job I can get my proper document back again!”
“WHAT?” we all yelled with relief. “How?”
“You click on the symbol labelled Recycle Bin.” Frankie’s dad actually looked as if he was trying not to smile. “Documents which have been deleted always hang around in there for a while, in case you change your mind and want them back.”
“Frankie! You idiot!” Kenny said crossly.
“Well, how was I supposed to know?” Frankie defended herself. “I’m not a computer expert!”
“I’m not very happy with you at all, Francesca,” said Mrs Thomas coolly, and we knew that we were in for a real roasting.
We all had to sit there then and listen to Frankie’s mum and dad going on and on about how we’d betrayed their trust, and really let them down. I don’t know how the others took it, but I felt pretty bad. Frankie was banned from using the computer for two weeks, and they said if she did it again, she wouldn’t be allowed to have it in her room any more. They calmed down a bit when we hinted that the reason we’d been using the computer was something to do with Tom’s birthday website, and that we weren’t just messing around, but they were still pretty mad.
Meanwhile, we were all glancing anxiously at the clock every few minutes. It was now quarter to ten, and we hadn’t even made up the dummy package yet. Finally, Mr and Mrs Thomas thought that they’d told us off enough, and they let us go.
It was ten to ten when we dashed into the living room. Kenny quickly folded up a small piece of paper, while Rosie fetched the plastic bag her midnight feast stuff had been wrapped in, and Frankie nipped out to the garage to find the fake coins. She was ages.
“Where is she?” Kenny muttered. She was so impatient, steam was
nearly coming out of her ears! “We’re going to be late!”
Just then Frankie dashed in again. “Sorry, it wasn’t where I thought it was!” she panted. “But I found it in the end.”
Quickly we put the folded piece of paper and the plastic coins into the carrier bag, and knotted the top tightly. Then we ran out of the house, and down the road.
“It’s nearly ten o’clock!” Rosie gasped, looking at her watch as we dashed through Cuddington. “Do you think Katie Shaw will wait for us?”
“Dunno,” Kenny panted. “Just keep running!”
We got to the park at just after five past ten. We were all so tired, we could hardly even limp across the play area to where the swings were.
“I can see something under the hedge!” Frankie said eagerly, as we made our way over to it.
“It’s probably just a bit of litter,” Kenny replied.
But it wasn’t. It was a note. And it wasn’t a very nice note either.
“Oh, rats!” Kenny groaned furiously, ripping the note into tiny shreds. “Katie Shaw was here – and we missed her!”
“We were only a few minutes late as well,” Fliss wheezed, clinging on to Rosie for support. We were all huffing and puffing and panting as if we’d just run the London Marathon.
“Hang on a minute.” Frankie shaded her eyes, and looked round the play area. “Fliss is right – we were only a few minutes late.”
“So?” I said.
“Well, maybe Katie Shaw’s still here,” Frankie suggested. “In the park, I mean.”
“What!” Kenny clenched her fists. “Do you really think she might be?”
“Well, we know she was here about five minutes ago, because she left the note for us,” Frankie pointed out. “She could still be close by.”
We all stared around the play area. It was pretty empty because it was still quite early, and there was only a mum with her toddler, who was playing in the sandpit.
“I don’t think it’s them, do you?” Rosie grinned.
“Let’s take a look around the rest of the park,” Kenny suggested. She looked really wound up by now – Katie Shaw was in for a right earful if we ever caught up with her!
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