“I wonder if Maria and the others are going to dress up too?” Rosie said. “They’re going to be there on the last day of term, after all.”
“Maybe we could offer to help them with their costumes,” Lyndz suggested.
“Yeah, that might be a good way of making friends with them again,” Frankie agreed, as we arrived at the park.
“They’re back from Leicester,” said Lyndz. “There’s the minibus.”
“All right,” I said as we walked up to the park gates. “Now everyone just stay cool and calm. Nobody loses their temper, OK?”
“What’re you telling us for, Kenny?” Fliss sniffed. “You’re the one who’s likely to thump them if they won’t listen to us!”
“What a cheek!” I began indignantly, but then I stopped. I’d just caught sight of the Spanish pupils sitting around on the grass in groups, eating their picnic. Maria, Pilar, Elena, Anna and Isabella were sitting near the swings, surrounded by lots of carrier bags full of shopping. And they weren’t on their own either. They were laughing and chatting and sharing their picnic… with the gruesome M&Ms!
We all stood and stared at them. Honestly, we must have looked like a bunch of stunned goldfish, standing there with our mouths open! The Spanish girls and the M&Ms didn’t notice us though because they were too busy having a laugh together. It was unbelievable!
“They’re making friends with the M&Ms!” Rosie gasped. “They must be crazy!”
“What’re the M&Ms doing here anyway?” Lyndz asked.
“Who cares!” I was burning with fury. “They’re here, and they’re trying to get in with our mates! I’m going over to tell them exactly what I think of them!”
“No, Kenny!” Frankie grabbed one of my arms and Lyndz clutched at the other. “You’ll just make things worse!”
When I get mad though, there’s no talking to me! I pushed Frankie and Lyndz off and stormed across the grass towards Maria and the others. They glanced up and saw me coming, and they started to laugh and nudge each other. Meanwhile the Queen and the Goblin looked so smug, I could have pushed them both into the boating lake.
“What do you want?” Maria snapped. “Go away, we try to eat our picnic.”
“I want to talk to you!” I retorted. “About those emails!” I saw Emma Hughes flash a grin at Emily Berryman when I said that, and that wound me up even more. “If you want to know who sent them, just take a look over there!” And I pointed at the M&Ms.
“Oh, stop being a pain, Kenny, and go and play in the traffic!” said Emma Hughes with a pretend yawn. “Nobody wants to listen to you!”
Pilar and the other Spanish girls were all glaring at me. “Yes, go away, Kenny!” they chorused.
“We want to eat our picnic with our friends,” said Maria pointedly.
Their friends! I almost choked. The M&Ms had done their best to split us up, and now they’d won and they were taking our mates away from us!
“You’d better tell them the truth, Emma Hughes!” I said threateningly, “or else!”
The Queen was beginning to look a bit worried by now, but just at that moment the other Sleepovers caught up with me and grabbed my arms again.
“Back off, Kenny!” Frankie hissed in my ear. “You’re just making things worse!”
Even though I was mad, I could see what she meant. Pilar, Maria, Isabella, Elena and Anna just didn’t believe what I was saying – not now that the M&Ms were being as nice as pie to them. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down.
“Look, we just want to talk to you,” I said.
“Well, we not want to talk to you,” said Elena, and the others nodded in agreement.
“’Bye, Kenny!” said Emily Berryman with an infuriating grin.
“Come on, Kenny,” Frankie whispered. “We don’t want to talk to them with the Gruesome Twosome here anyway!”
“Yes, come on, Kenny!” Fliss tugged at my arm and took a step backwards. She accidentally trod on one of the bags of shopping lying on the grass, and there was a loud CRACK.
“My bag!” Isabella squealed. She pulled the carrier bag open, and took out an object wrapped in tissue paper. Inside was a pretty blue bowl. Well, it would have been a pretty bowl if it hadn’t been in two pieces.
“I buy that for my mother!” Isabella yelled, her face turning red with fury. “Now you break it!”
“I didn’t mean to,” Fliss stammered.
“She did it on purpose!” Emma Hughes had to stick her nose in and try to stir things up as usual. “I saw her!”
“No, I didn’t!” Fliss snapped. “You can shut up, Emma Hughes!”
“Make me!” Emma sneered.
“OK, if Fliss won’t, I will!” I lunged forward, but Frankie caught my sleeve and dragged me back. She and the others hustled me away across the grass, leaving the Spanish girls furious and the M&Ms laughing.
“That Emma Hughes is history!” I snapped as Frankie and the others pulled me over to the park gates. “This mess is all down to her!”
“And now she’s made friends with Anna and the others, they won’t believe us if we try to tell them what she and Emily are really like,” Rosie pointed out.
“No, I bet the Queen and the Goblin are being really nice to them!” I said, clenching my fists. “You know how two-faced Emma Hughes is!”
“Well, there’s not much we can do about it, is there?” Frankie muttered, and nobody could think of anything to say.
We all trailed back miserably to my place, and went out into the garden. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, it was warm, and in just over a week’s time we’d be finishing school for the summer holidays. But we couldn’t help feeling fed up. We’d been looking forward to Pilar and the rest of the gang coming over so much, and now the M&Ms had gone and ruined it all.
“Why don’t we design our fancy-dress costumes?” Lyndz asked.
No-one was that keen, but it was better than sitting around doing nothing. So I went inside and nicked some paper and pens from my dad’s study, and then we lay around on the grass, sketching. I can’t draw though, so I just doodled.
“I think I might go as the Tin Man,” said Lyndz.
“What?” I glanced over at her.
“The Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz,” Lyndz explained.
“That sounds like a hard costume to make,” said Fliss.
“No, I’ll just use loads of cardboard boxes and paint them silver,” Lyndz said. “And I can make myself an oil-can to carry. It’ll be great!”
“Well, I want to dress up in something glamorous!” said Fliss. “I don’t want to be a rusty old Tin Man!”
“You could go as Barbie,” I suggested, winking at Frankie. Fliss has got long fair hair, she’s dead skinny and she’s got about as many clothes as Barbie has! I meant it as a joke, but Fliss immediately looked interested.
“That’s a good idea – then I wouldn’t have to make a costume! I could just wear one of my dresses.”
“I think I might go as the Witch from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe,” said Frankie. “Then I can still wear my silver nail varnish! What about you, Rosie?”
“I don’t know,” Rosie said gloomily, “I can’t think of anything!”
“We’ll help you,” Lyndz told her.
“Hey, I’ve just had a great idea for my costume!” I said triumphantly. “And it’s not my Leicester City strip either!”
I jumped to my feet and ran into the house. It took me a while to find what I was looking for, but when I did, I took it outside.
“Remember this?” I said with a grin, holding it up.
“The mummy mask!” squealed Lyndz and Fliss together.
“I didn’t know you’d still got that!” said Frankie.
Remember when went on that school trip to the museum and slept over, and we frightened the M&Ms to death with the mummy mask I’d made? That was just so cool!
“I’ll go as a mummy!” I announced, putting the mask over my face. “All I’ve got to do is nick some ba
ndages from my dad’s surgery, and I’m sorted!”
“Maybe you can scare the M&Ms into telling the truth about those emails!” Lyndz suggested.
“Yeah, what are we going to do about that?” Rosie asked.
Everyone looked gloomy again.
“I wish I hadn’t broken that bowl of Isabella’s,” Fliss sighed.
“If only there was some way we could prove that the M&Ms sent those emails,” Frankie said. “Then everything would be OK.”
“And maybe I could buy Isabella another bowl,” Fliss added.
“Well, we could find out what time the emails were sent by checking them,” Lyndz pointed out. “But that doesn’t help us very much because we can’t prove who was using the computer at the time—”
“Lyndz!” I gasped, “you’re a genius!”
Lyndz looked at me blankly. “I am?”
“Yeah, you are!” I said triumphantly. “We can prove who was using the class computer when those emails were sent!”
The others stared at me. They still didn’t get it.
“Look,” I gabbled impatiently, “how do we always know whose turn it is to use the computer?”
“Because Mrs Weaver puts a list up on the classroom noticeboard,” Fliss replied.
“Exactly!” I grinned round at the others. “So all we’ve got to do is check out the list to see who got to use the computer and when last week, and compare it with the dates and times on the emails! Simple!”
“Kenny, you’re brilliant!” gasped Frankie. “I’d like to see the M&Ms talk their way out of this one!”
“They won’t be able to!” I said confidently. “We’re going to prove to Maria and the others that the M&Ms are the bad guys – not us! I can’t wait to see Emma Hughes’ face on Monday morning!”
“Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
You look like a monkey
And you smell like one too!”
“Thanks, Kenny!” Rosie gave me a shove as I finished singing and took a bow. “Now where’s my prezzie?”
I dived into my schoolbag and pulled out a square-shaped parcel wrapped in Bacofoil. “Sorry, I forgot to get any wrapping-paper!” I grinned as I gave it to Rosie, and the others started giggling.
“Typical!” Rosie snorted, rolling her eyes.
It was Monday morning, and we’d all got to school early so we could give Rosie her presents. Everyone was pretending to be really jolly and up-for-it, but that was just because we didn’t want Rosie’s actual birthday to end up being more of a downer than it already was. The weekend had been pretty grim. Our sleepover had been ruined, we were in deepest doom with the Oldies because of the food fight and I was having to put up with sharing my bedroom with Maria, which was nearly as gruesome as sharing with Molly the Monster! Luckily the Spanish kids had been taken out again on Sunday by their teachers – they’d gone to visit some local museums, so at least we hadn’t had to spend the day with them. We’d started making our fancy-dress costumes instead.
“Oh, that’s great, Kenny!” Rosie said as she unwrapped the scented bath stuff I’d bought her. She’d already got a box of choccies from Frankie, a set of different nail varnishes from Fliss and a groovy pink fluffy purse, shaped like a heart, from Lyndz.
“Now you won’t smell like a monkey even if you look like one!” I pointed out, and Rosie thumped me.
“Hey, take a look over there,” Frankie said suddenly in a low voice.
We all glanced across the playground. Pilar, Isabella and the others were standing in the corner chatting away to – you’ve guessed it, the Gruesome Twosome themselves, the M&Ms.
“They’re getting pretty matey, aren’t they?” Lyndz said.
“Not for long!” I said confidently. “You wait till we get into class and I show them Mrs Weaver’s computer list!”
We all started grinning and giving each other high fives. Pilar and the others were going to find out exactly what the M&Ms were really like!
“I guess we can’t blame the Spanish girls for being mad about those emails,” Lyndz said as we charged into school the minute the bell rang. “I mean, they must have thought we were being really nasty.”
“Yeah, well, they should have known we’d never do anything like that!” I retorted. “And they could have asked us about them first instead of getting their knickers all in a twist!”
“What, you mean, like you’d have done if someone had sent you nasty emails?” Lyndz said with a grin.
“Oh, yeah, right!” Fliss chimed in sarcastically. “As if Kenny wouldn’t have flattened them first and asked questions later!”
“All right, all right!” I groaned. “Let’s just get this sorted, OK?” I slung my tracky top on to my coat peg and headed for the classroom, the others right behind me. We’d rushed into school so fast that we were first through the door. We had to get our hands on that computer list before the M&Ms arrived and realised what we were up to!
The classroom noticeboard was behind Mrs Weaver’s table, next to the board. It was usually full of notices about the football and netball teams, the various school clubs and lots of other stuff, including the computer rota. Usually…
“Girls! One at a time, please!” Mrs Weaver snapped as we all tried to elbow our way through the door at the same time. She was standing by her table, sorting through a pile of folders. “I know it’s getting towards the end of term, but there’s no need to behave like a bunch of football hooligans!”
“Yes Miss, sorry Miss,” we all said together.
Then I stopped dead and nudged Frankie hard in the ribs. She nudged Fliss and Fliss nudged Lyndz and Lyndz did the same to Rosie. We all stared at the noticeboard on the wall. The empty noticeboard.
There wasn’t a single piece of paper pinned up on it at all. Everything had vanished – including the computer list!
“Miss, what happened to the stuff that was on the noticeboard?” I gabbled.
It was then that I noticed the two large, bulging black bags lying next to Mrs Weaver’s table.
“Oh, I’ve thrown all that away now,” Mrs Weaver replied, ripping up a couple of sheets of paper and shoving them into one of the bin bags. “The whole classroom’s got to be cleared by the end of term, so I’ll be needing some help this week.” She raised her eyebrows at us. “Any volunteers?”
We were too busy staring at each other in horror to reply. The computer list was now in one of those two bulging black bags! How were we going to get it back?
“Um – the thing is, Miss,” I said, “there was something on the noticeboard I really needed. Can I go through the bags and look for it?”
Mrs Weaver stared at me as if I’d gone mad. “Don’t be ridiculous, Laura! You’ll never find it – in fact, it’s probably been ripped into pieces!”
I just couldn’t believe it. That list had been our one chance of proving to Maria and the others that we hadn’t sent those emails. Now we didn’t have a hope!
“But, Miss—” I began.
“Leave it, Kenny.” Frankie grabbed my arm and pulled me away as the rest of the class began to come in. “There’s nothing we can do about it!”
“Rats!” I muttered under my breath as Mrs Weaver picked up the bags and went out to throw them into the huge steel bins behind the canteen. “What about if I climb into the bins at lunch time and try to find it then?”
“Urgh, don’t be so disgusting!” Fliss wrinkled up her nose. “Anyway, Mrs Poole said anyone who climbs into those bins is going to be in big trouble.”
“Yeah, that was just because Ryan Scott did it last year for a dare and got stuck!” I retorted. “But that wouldn’t happen to me.”
“Forget it, Kenny!” Frankie said firmly. “You wouldn’t know which bin it was – you wouldn’t even know which bag it was. It’d take forever!”
“We can’t just give up!” I muttered as Isabella, Maria, Pilar, Elena and Anna came in, talking and laughing with the M&Ms. What was worse, they even went over to sit on th
eir table with them!
“Hurry up and settle down,” Mrs Weaver called, as the rest of the Spanish kids came in with Miss Moreno and Mr Cortez. “We’ve got a visitor arriving in a moment or two – a photographer from the local newspaper!”
We all looked at each other in surprise.
“The paper has heard about our visitors from Spain, and it wants to do a piece about them,” Mrs Weaver went on. “So we’re all going to have our photo taken, and hopefully it will be in the newspaper tonight!”
Everyone started talking at once, while Mrs Weaver went over to speak to the two Spanish teachers.
“We’re going to be in the paper!” Fliss squealed. “Quick, where’s my comb?”
“Cool!” said Rosie. “Let’s make sure we get to the front!”
“Yeah, we will!” I said in a determined voice, “Even if we have to trample all over the M&Ms to do it!”
“Look!” Frankie whispered, elbowing me in the ribs. “Maria’s coming over!”
Pretty shocked, we all stopped talking. But Maria was actually smiling. Well, sort of.
“Hi.” Maria stopped in front of us, looking a bit shy. “I come to say – we are sorry about the makeover.”
That was a big shock! Our mouths dropped open and none of us could say a word for a second or two.
“That’s OK,” Frankie said at last.
“And I’m sorry about breaking Isabella’s present for her mum,” Fliss chimed in quickly.
Maria shrugged. “It was accident, no? So, we are friends again?”
The Sleepover Club all looked at each other.
“What about the M&Ms?” I asked.
“Who?” Maria looked blank.
“Emma and Emily,” Rosie explained.
“Oh, we can all be friends, can’t we?” Maria asked.
“Not on your flippin’ life!” I began until both Frankie and Lyndz trod heavily on my toes under the table. “Ow!”
“Great!” Maria put her hand in her pocket, and popped a sweet into her mouth. “Sorry, you want one?” She pulled out a bag of liquorice and held it out to us.
“We’re not supposed to eat in class,” Fliss began virtuously, but Frankie gave her a look.
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