Rosie and Lyndz were waiting to start their match, but Ryan and Danny were arguing about which one of them was going to serve first. Fliss’s mum went over to sort them out. Meanwhile, we waved at Rosie and Lyndz, and yelled, “Good luck!”
I was really nervous, as I tried to remind myself of all the things Mark had told us. I threw the ball up into the air, and hit it. It bounced on the other side of the net, and zoomed past Seema. It was an ace!
“Fifteen-love,” called the umpire.
After that, I started to relax a bit. I wasn’t really very good, whatever Mark said (after all, I’d only been playing for a week!) but Seema and Zoë were worse than I was! They gave loads of points away because they kept hitting the ball out of the court. Anyway, Fliss was brilliant, and she won most of our points, although I did manage another couple of aces. By the end of the set, the score was six games to two, to me and Fliss. We’d won!
“Brilliant!” Kenny yelled, hobbling around on her crutches and getting a telling-off from her mum.
About ten minutes before our match ended, Rosie and Lyndz finished thrashing the pants off Ryan and Danny. They’d beaten them 6–0. Not surprising really, considering that Ryan and Danny spent the whole time arguing!
“Great stuff,” Kenny said, beaming all over her face when we went to speak to her.
“Looks like the M&Ms won as well though,” I said.
We looked at the M&Ms, who were strolling back from their court. They were so cocky, it was sickening.
“Well done, all the winners,” Mark called, “and bad luck to the losers. Now, I need the four winning teams over here, and we’ll draw the names again for the semi-finals.”
Mark asked one of the other parents to do the draw this time. The four winning pairs were me and Fliss, Rosie and Lyndz, the M&Ms and two girls called Tania and Natalie. We’d already worked out that either me and Fliss or Rosie and Lyndz could be playing the M&Ms. If we weren’t, we would be playing against each other. I didn’t know which was worse.
“Right, our first semi-final is between Natalie and Tania,” Mark called out, “and Fliss and Frankie.”
“That means Rosie and Lyndz have got the M&Ms,” I groaned to Fliss.
Rosie and Lyndz both looked glum. Meanwhile, the Queen and the Goblin could hardly stop themselves laughing.
“We’re going to walk it!” I heard Emma Hughes crowing.
Poor old Rosie and Lyndz looked really down as they trailed over to the court behind the M&Ms.
“Good luck,” Fliss and I said together.
Rosie and Lyndz were too depressed even to reply. They just nodded miserably.
“Oh no!” Kenny gasped, when Fliss and I went to tell her who we were playing. “Do you think Rosie and Lyndz will beat the M&Ms?”
“I don’t know,” I said doubtfully. “Emma Hughes is good.”
“You and Fliss could be playing the M&Ms in the final,” Kenny pointed out.
“We’ve got to win first,” Fliss said. “And Natalie’s pretty good too.”
The M&Ms were already knocking up on the court next to ours. Instead of hitting the ball straight back to Rosie and Lyndz, so that they could practise their shots too, they were showing off by belting it out of their reach. Rosie and Lyndz were looking gloomier and gloomier.
Meanwhile, me and Fliss started our game against Tania and Natalie. For the first few minutes, I kept squinting at the next courts, trying to see what was going on between Rosie and Lyndz and the M&Ms. But then I had to start concentrating on our game. Natalie was nearly as good as Fliss, and me and Tania were about the same, so it was a really close match.
“That’s four games all,” Mrs Scott, Ryan’s mum called, as Fliss did this really excellent, cross-court backhand to win us the fourth game.
“Try to hit the ball towards Tania, if you can, Frankie,” Fliss whispered to me, as Natalie got ready to serve. “She’s not very good.”
“About as hopeless as me, you mean!” I said. Natalie’s serves were quite powerful, and I’d hardly managed to return one of them yet. If it wasn’t for Fliss, we’d be losing.
I waited for Natalie to serve to me again. This time, for some reason, it wasn’t as hard as the others had been. I returned it with a forehand which sent the ball flashing right past Tania, who just stood and looked at it helplessly. It was a fluke, but we’d won the point!
“Love-fifteen,” Mrs Scott called.
“Well done, Frankie!” Fliss said, looking thrilled.
Natalie served to Fliss next, and Fliss won the point with a scorching backhand that just skimmed the top of the net. Love-thirty. I lost the next point when Natalie served an ace, which made it fifteen-thirty, but then Fliss won the next. Thirty-forty. We needed one point to win the game, and then one more game to win the set.
“Come on, Frankie,” I muttered, as Natalie prepared to serve to me again. “Concentrate.”
The ball bounced over the net towards me – and I completely mis-hit it! But it didn’t matter. The ball fell gently back over the net, and although Tania made a run forwards, it was too late.
Well, after we’d won that game, there was no stopping me and Fliss. She served for the match, and we won the last game in about two minutes. I think Tania and Natalie had given up by then!
“We’re in the final!” Fliss crowed, slapping me on the shoulder.
I suddenly remembered the other match. “Yeah, but who are we playing?” I asked.
We both looked over at the next court. Rosie and Lyndz were walking off, looking depressed, and the M&Ms were laughing and doing high fives.
“It looks like poor old Rosie and Lyndz lost,” Fliss said sadly.
“So that means you and me are playing the M&Ms,” I groaned.
I was so nervous, and it was so quiet, I thought that everyone watching would be able to hear my heart thumping away. I tried to stop my knees wobbling, and looked across the court at Emma Hughes. She was getting ready to serve to me, and she was taking ages, bouncing the ball and pulling her skirt down and fiddling with her racket.
“Emma, get on with it, please,” called Mark, who was umpiring the match.
Kenny had warned us that the Queen would try to distract us. She’d done the same in the match against Rosie and Lyndz. And she’d kept arguing that balls were in or out when they’re weren’t. Well, Fliss and I were ready for her…
Er – well, maybe we weren’t. Emma’s serve came zooming towards me, and I hit it weakly into the net. First point to the M&Ms. I heard Kenny groan from the side of the court.
The M&Ms won the first game without me and Fliss winning a single point, which was a bit worrying. As we swapped ends, I was beginning to feel more and more nervous. Fliss would have had a much better chance if she was playing with Kenny, I kept telling myself, and that made me feel even worse.
And now it was my turn to serve. I felt sick.
“Just take it slowly, Frankie,” Fliss said. “Remember the things Mark told us.”
I nodded. But that was easier said than done. My first serve didn’t even get over the net. Neither did my second.
“Love-fifteen,” Mark called.
My serving was hopeless. I just about managed to get the rest of them in, but they were so slow and pathetic, the M&Ms were banging the ball back all over the place. It was only because Fliss was so brilliant, and Emily Berryman not very good, that we actually won the game. Now it was 1–1.
I cheered up a bit when Emily Berryman had to serve. She was pretty rubbish. Her first serve was just over the line, and Mark called “Out.”
“I thought that was in,” the Queen said, glaring at him.
Mark shook his head. “Play on, please,” he said. He obviously wasn’t going to let the Queen get away with wasting time.
Emma looked furious, but she shut up. Anyway, the M&Ms won that game, and the score was 2–1.
It was Fliss’s turn to serve, to the Goblin. It was a really good one too, but Berryman just about managed to hit it back over th
e net. It came towards me, pretty slowly – I pulled back my racket, whacked it and it sailed right out of the court.
I felt terrible. And the M&Ms’ nasty grins weren’t helping. Luckily, Fliss just about managed to turn the game by serving two aces in a row, and then the Goblin fluffed an easy shot, and hit it into the net. So now it was two games each.
That was how it went on for a bit. 3–2. 3–3. 4–3. 4–4. I was so wrapped up in the game, I even forgot about the audience, although I could hear Kenny, Lyndz and Rosie cheering every time we won a point. But if it wasn’t for Fliss, we’d have been losing really badly.
The M&Ms had just won the last game, and the score was 5–4. They only had to win one more game, and they’d won the match. As we swapped ends, the Queen smirked at Fliss and me.
“You losers haven’t got a hope,” she said gleefully. “It’s Frankie’s turn to serve, and she’s useless!”
“Yeah, bye-bye, losers,” the Goblin added.
I clutched my tennis racket angrily. That had really wound me up.
“Don’t get mad, Frankie,” Fliss whispered, as the game began again, “Get even!”
“I will,” I promised grimly.
The Queen was faffing around on the other side of the net, trying to put me off. I took no notice. I threw the ball into the air, and hit it. It was so fast, the M&Ms didn’t even see it.
“Fifteen-love,” Mark called.
I served again. This time Emma Hughes hit it back, straight into the net. Love-thirty.
The M&Ms were starting to look rattled, and that cheered me up no end. I fired down another ace! Love-forty.
The last point of the game was quite a long rally, and Fliss won it with a brilliant backhand. The score was now 5–5.
Emma Hughes was beginning to look really worried. It was the Goblin’s turn to serve, and we all knew she wasn’t very good. I gritted my teeth, telling myself to concentrate. Fliss and I now had a chance to win this match!
The Goblin was so nervous, she began by serving a double fault. Love-fifteen. The Queen started telling her off, and that made Emily even more nervous. She hit this pathetic, weedy serve that just about made it over the net, and I hit it back, a bit too hard. Luckily, it just stayed inside the white lines, and Emma returned it, in Fliss’s direction. Fliss sent it whizzing back, straight between the M&Ms, who both stuck their rackets out and missed.
The score was now love-thirty, and Kenny and the others were going mad at the side of the court. Two more points, and we’d won the match!
The Goblin did us a real favour then, by serving another double fault. The Queen was so furious, I thought she was going to bash Emily over the head with her tennis racket!
“One more point, and we’ve done it, Frankie,” Fliss whispered.
Emily was serving to me now, and pulling all these faces to put me off. I ignored her, and kept my eyes on the ball. It came over the net towards me, I stepped forward, I hit it – and what a shot, even though I say so myself! It zoomed across the court in front of the M&Ms, bounced neatly in the corner and rolled out of play. We’d done it!
“Frankie!” Fliss squealed, flinging her arms around me. “We won! We won!”
I just about had time to catch a glimpse of the M&Ms, red in the face and stomping off the court, when Rosie and Lyndz came dashing over to grab me and hug me too. Kenny couldn’t run, obviously, but she was waving one of her crutches in the air like a mad thing.
“You were great, Frankie,” she shouted.
“Thanks,” I yelled back. “Wimbledon, here I come!”
“Show us your winning forehand again, Frankie,” Kenny said, with a big grin.
“OK.” I got up from the grass, and picked up my new racket. “I kind of stepped forward like this, and hit the ball like this.”
Everyone clapped. It was Friday evening, and we were round at Lyndz’s house. We were having our tennis sleepover, and to start with, we’d been having a sort of game in the back garden. It wasn’t a proper court, of course, but it was good fun. Kenny had been umpire, and had made up all sorts of stupid rules, like we lost a point if a ball hit a tree, or if it bounced on the path. Or if Buster, Lyndz’s mad dog, ran off with the ball!
“I can’t believe I’ve got my own racket,” I said proudly. The prize for the winners of the tournament had been a new racket each, and Fliss and I were showing them off. Fliss had brought her old racket, too, for Rosie and Lyndz to share. After playing a game for a while, we’d had some daft competitions, made up by Kenny. One of them was seeing how long you could bounce a tennis ball on your racket for, and another was trying to balance the end of your racket on your finger!
“I’m going to ask for a racket for my birthday,” Rosie said.
“Me too,” Lyndz added.
“And me,” Kenny agreed. “Or maybe I could just use my crutches!”
“Stay where you are,” I ordered her, as she started to struggle to her feet. “Your mum said you’re not to move around.”
“Weren’t the M&Ms really sick at losing to us?” Fliss said with satisfaction. “I’ve never seen them so mad!”
“I thought the Queen was going to hit someone with her tennis racket!” Rosie said, and we all giggled.
Just then Lyndz’s mum called down the garden. “Tea’s ready, girls,” she said. “I’ve laid it all out on the patio.”
We were all starving, and we charged down the garden. Well, except for Kenny, of course! We couldn’t believe what we saw – Mrs Cartwright had really gone to town. She’d tried to make all the food something to do with tennis. There were racket-shaped sandwiches that must have taken her ages to cut out, and round things like Maltesers and cheesy footballs in bowls. There were strawberries and cream, of course, and right in the middle of the table was a big cake, with a tennis court iced on top of it. There were mini-rackets and tennis balls made of marzipan, and across the court was iced Well Done Frankie and Fliss!
“This is brilliant!” Fliss gasped.
We all stuffed ourselves silly, then we went inside to watch some of Fliss’s tennis videos, which she’d brought with her. This time we didn’t complain at all – we were glued to the screen. Watching the world-class players made you realise just how difficult it was to play tennis properly. Anyway, I was determined to get better, now that I had my new racket!
“Time for bed, girls,” said Lyndz’s mum, coming into the living room. “Kenny, you’d better go upstairs and use the bathroom first.”
“OK.” Kenny pulled herself to her feet, and grinned at us. “We really showed the M&Ms, didn’t we?”
“Yeah, we did!” we chorused gleefully.
“Let’s carry on playing tennis over the summer,” Rosie suggested, as Mrs Cartwright helped Kenny upstairs. “When Kenny’s ankle’s better, we could go to the courts at the park.”
“Maybe my mum will take us back to Green Lawns,” Fliss said hopefully. “Or maybe Mark will, now that he’s going to be my uncle!”
“When’s the wedding?” Lyndz asked.
Fliss shrugged. “I don’t know,” she replied. “But Auntie Jill’s asked me to be a bridesmaid.”
“Maybe all the bridesmaids should wear tennis dresses!” I joked.
Fliss gave me a look. “I don’t think so,” she snorted, as we went upstairs. “I want a proper bridesmaid’s dress, thank you!”
Kenny was already in bed when we went upstairs. Usually we all lie in our sleeping bags on the floor, but Lyndz’s mum thought that Kenny would be better in Lyndz’s bed, what with her bad ankle. So Lyndz was on the floor with the rest of us.
“I was thinking,” Kenny said, as the rest of us came back from the bathroom. “We ought to carry on playing tennis for the rest of the summer, once my ankle’s better.”
“That’s just what we were saying.” I replied, chucking my toothbrush into my sleepover bag.
“We could have our own tournament at the end of the summer,” Kenny suggested, as everyone unzipped their sleeping bags, and crawled in.
“EEK!” Rosie shrieked suddenly. She was the first one to snuggle down into her sleeping bag. “There’s something hairy at the bottom!”
“There’s something in mine too!” Fliss screamed, wriggling out again.
“And mine!” Lyndz yelped.
I could feel something too. I pulled myself out of my sleeping bag, and turned it upside-down. Three tennis balls fell out.
“Very funny, Kenny!” I said, as the others did the same and more balls bounced out. Meanwhile, Kenny was laughing her head off in the corner!
“Fifteen-love to me!” she said gleefully.
“No way,” I said. I picked up the balls and began chucking them at her, and so did the others. Kenny gave a yell, and tried to hide under the duvet. “Fifteen-all, I think!”
Have you been invited to all these sleepovers?
The Sleepover Club at Frankie’s
The Sleepover Club at Lyndsey’s
The Sleepover Club at Felicity’s
The Sleepover Club at Rosie’s
The Sleepover Club at Laura’s
Starring the Sleepover Club
Sleepover Girls go Pop!
The 24-Hour Sleepover Club
The Sleepover Club Sleeps Out
Happy Birthday Sleepover Club
Sleepover Girls on Horseback
Sleepover in Spain
Sleepover on Friday 13th
Sleepover Girls go Camping
Sleepover Girls go Detective
Sleepover Girls go Designer
The Sleepover Club Surfs the Net
Sleepover Girls on Screen
Sleepover Girls and Friends
Sleepover Girls on the Catwalk
The Sleepover Club Goes for Goal!
Sleepover Girls go Babysitting
Sleepover Girls go Snowboarding
Happy New Year, Sleepover Club!
Sleepover Girls go Green
We Love You Sleepover Club
Vive le Sleepover Club!
Sleepover Club Eggstravaganza
Emergency Sleepover
Sleepover Girls on the Range
The Sleepover Club Bridesmaids
Sleepover Girls See Stars
Mega Sleepover 7 Page 23