“Well Fliss, I’ll certainly bear that in mind,” she smiled. “I must call your mum to thank her.”
When she had gone into the lounge, Fliss whispered loudly, “You know, Mum says that she thinks your mum is very brave having another baby at her age. She said she wouldn’t want to start with all that again!”
I just hoped that Mum hadn’t heard that. Fortunately there was another knock at the door. When I answered it, Kenny, Lyndz and Rosie all bundled in.
“I didn’t know that you were all coming together,” moaned Fliss. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Don’t get your knickers in a twist!” warned Kenny. “Lyndz’s dad passed Rosie and me on the way here and gave us a lift. OK?”
Oh-oh, trouble already. That was the last thing I needed.
“Coke anyone?” I asked quickly. “Then we can hit the keyboard, surf the Net and get ready to win this competition.”
Everyone dumped their stuff in the hall and we dived into the kitchen. Kenny was doing her usual trick with the Jaffa cakes when Dad walked in.
‘Oh no, Dad’s going to hit the roof!’ I thought.
“Really Kenny, what are you doing?” he boomed in his loud lawyer’s voice.
Even Kenny, who’s as tough as anything, went red and looked dead nervous.
“Look, you should do this with them,” Dad said, taking a whole pile of Jaffa cakes. He squashed them down until they were a crumby mush then shoved them into his mouth. It was too, too gross!
“Hey, cool Mr T!” gasped Kenny.
“Just remember, I’m grown-up and I’ve got a bigger mouth than you, so don’t overdo it, will you?” laughed Dad as he walked back out into the garden.
Maybe I had nothing to worry about after all.
We took our drinks upstairs, and then the others went back down for their sleepover kits. Kenny always shares my bed when we have a sleepover here, just because I’m used to the way she flings herself around in her sleeping bag. This time it was Lyndz’s and Rosie’s turn to go on the bunk beds, and Fliss was on the camp-bed. Of course, she moaned about that, but it was her turn and ‘fair’s fair’ as my gran always says.
When everyone had finally got their stuff sorted on the right bed, and Fliss had taken half an hour arranging her pyjamas just so, we were ready to go on the Internet. Mum came up and keyed in the password.
“I hope you’ve got some good ideas for this Home Page competition,” she said. “I bet there’ll be loads of entries for it.”
It was the first time that we’d really thought about it. I mean, the Leicester Mercury covers a wide area. There were bound to be thousands of other kids who were determined to win the first prize too.
“Don’t worry about us Mrs T,” said Kenny. “We’ll come up with a wicked design!”
“I’m sure you will Kenny,” laughed Mum, and left us to it.
“I thought we could see if anyone else has a Home Page for a Sleepover Club,” I explained, typing in the ‘search’ box. There were no matches found which was good in one way because it meant that no other Sleepover Club had a web site so at least our idea was original. But, then again we were really looking for ideas for our Home Page design.
“Well, can’t we go into another web site?” asked Rosie. “What about looking up Brownies?”
“Hey, that’s a good idea!” I nodded. I can always rely on Rosie for a sensible suggestion, which is more than I can say for the others.
I typed ‘Brownies’ in the ‘search’ box, and there were hundreds of matches this time. It was really cool going into some of the web sites and reading about different Brownie packs all round the country. Some of the stuff they’d been doing sounded really wild.
“We should set up one of these for our pack,” suggested Kenny. “Maybe we could get a computer badge out of it too.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” agreed Lyndz. “I’ve still got a few spaces on my sash to fill up.”
“Do you think we should be making notes?” asked Fliss quietly. “Just so we remember what kind of thing we should include on the design?”
“Good thinking, Batman!” I agreed. “Pens to the ready!”
Everyone dived into their bags for notebooks and pens and we started scribbling down ideas.
After a while there was a knock on my door.
“Erm, sorry, I must have the wrong room,” my Dad said, looking at us in amazement. “My daughter wouldn’t be working on a Saturday. Maybe you’re alien clones of her and her friends. You certainly look genuine enough!”
He picked up my hand and started to sniff it.
“Ooh Dad, don’t be gross!” I laughed.
“I came to tell you that pizza’s ready!” he said. “Did you know that you’ve been on the Internet over an hour? Surely you’ve got enough stuff by now!”
We all nodded, but I couldn’t believe we’d been there so long.
The pizza was fab, as usual. But we kind of gobbled it down because we were all really keen to get back to my room and start working on our competition design. As I left the table, Dad whispered,
“Thanks for being so quiet, Frankie. We really appreciate it!”
Actually I hadn’t had to say anything to the others. We were just so involved in our ideas that we didn’t want to act crazy. Famous last words or what?
We were all trying to come up with ideas for the Home Page, when Fliss suddenly piped up, “Who’s going to get the computer if we win it anyway?”
I hadn’t actually given that much thought. “We’ll have to share it I guess,” I replied.
“But you don’t need it because you’ve already got one,” Fliss pointed out. “And so has Rosie.”
“Well, the rest of you will have to share it then, won’t you?”
“But wouldn’t it be better if it was in one place?” Fliss asked. “I mean you can’t keep dismantling it every five minutes, can you? It’d never work then.”
“Oh I get it,” snarled Kenny. “You think you should have it, don’t you Fliss?”
“N…not really,” stammered Fliss. “Maybe we should have a competition ourselves. Whoever comes up with the best design for the Home Page gets to keep the computer!”
We all looked at her as though she’d gone crazy.
“I don’t think that’s fair!” Rosie piped up.
Kenny, Lyndz and I burst out laughing because it’s usually Fliss who goes on about things not being fair.
“Look, let’s not fall out about this now,” I said. “We’ve got to win the competition to start with. Let’s cross that other bridge when we come to it!”
“As your gran always says,” the others chimed in.
You can sense that there was a bit of bad feeling creeping in, can’t you? Well, let me tell you, it got much worse.
To be honest with you, at first I thought that everything was back to normal between us all. We settled down to sorting out our Home Page design and everything was cool. Lyndz suggested that we should have a photograph of the Sleepover Club all together at the top of the page.
“You mean so that anyone surfing the Net might stumble across it and think. ‘Wow! Who are those gorgeous creatures?’” Kenny said, putting on a silly voice.
“They’ll think it’s a horror show and surf on to something else, more like!” laughed Lyndz.
“We could have individual photos as well,” suggested Rosie, “and write a few lines about what we like and don’t like.”
Everybody was nodding and agreeing. So it was a complete shock when everything suddenly went pear-shaped.
I blame Fliss really. I know that we tend to blame Fliss for most things, but she never really knows when to keep quiet. I mean, when everybody was happy, was it really the right time to bang on again about who was going to look after the computer? No, of course it wasn’t. I don’t worry about things until I have to. And I certainly didn’t see any point in worrying about a computer we hadn’t even won yet. Fliss is different: she always has to have something to worry ab
out.
“I just think we ought to sort it out now!” she kept saying.
“But what’s the point?” I asked her. “We haven’t won it yet!”
“I just like to know these things!” Fliss replied.
“Why do you always have to make everything so complicated?” asked Rosie crossly. “If anyone should look after the computer, it should be me. My house has the most room and we could use my bedroom as the Sleepover Club Headquarters.”
Now we all turned to stare at Rosie.
“You’ve got a computer already!” I told her. “Besides, the Sleepover Club’s not that kind of club.”
“Well maybe it should be, we’ve got membership cards and everything, haven’t we?” she said. “We should make it official, and my room would be the best place to hold our meetings in.”
It was the first time Rosie had been so firm about something. She usually just goes with the flow. Now it looked as though she had her own ideas and wanted to change everything about the Sleepover Club.
“Look here, Rosie-Posie,” said Kenny menacingly. “You haven’t been a member of the Club as long as the rest of us, so don’t try to change how we do things. We can always withdraw your membership, you know!”
I couldn’t quite believe that she’d said that. Kenny sometimes opens her mouth before she’s put her brain into action. But I guess she was just mad about someone wanting to change the Sleepover Club.
Lyndz could see that things were getting a bit hairy, with Rosie and Kenny glaring at each other, so she did her usual peace-making bit.
“Look guys, the whole point of the Sleepover Club is to have fun, isn’t it?” she asked. “You remember fun, don’t you?”
“You mean this?” asked Kenny and wrestled Rosie on to the ground. A big bottle of Coke for our midnight feast was in the way and it crashed to the floor. Fortunately it didn’t burst – that would have been a disaster.
I wasn’t sure whether the wrestling was fun or serious to be honest, so I was really relieved when Mum knocked on the door and came in.
“Hey girls!” she said, looking at Kenny and Rosie writhing on the ground. “Is everything all right?”
“Yes, of course!” I said, almost too brightly. Kenny and Rosie stopped their wrestling and, rather flushed, stood up.
“Well I just came in to say goodnight,” Mum continued. “I’m kind of tired and I’m going to bed. It might be a good idea if you went too. It’s after ten.”
“OK Mum,” I said. “We’re ready for bed anyway.”
“Good, and if you could keep the noise down I’d appreciate it,” Mum smiled. “I need enough beauty sleep for two now!”
When she’d gone, Kenny and Rosie were still glaring at each other.
“Please can you two just make up?” I pleaded. “Let’s get ready and have our midnight feast. We’re always happier with chocolate inside us!”
We were all kind of subdued getting ready for bed, which was not like us at all. I felt desperate to make everything all right again.
“Look, food!” I said, tipping everybody’s goodies all over my bed. “Come and get it!”
“I’m thirsty!” said Rosie, grabbing the bottle of Coke from the floor. She opened it – and I’m not kidding, it fizzed up and flew everywhere. It went all over Kenny’s sleeping bag, all over the sweets spread over the bed and all over the computer. But worse than that, it went all over Kenny.
I don’t know how the next bit happened, but somehow, as soon as she was caught in this shower of Coke, Kenny ducked and sort of lost her balance. She seemed to be staggering about for ages, but it can’t really have been more than a few seconds. Unfortunately though, she staggered right into the computer table and ended up knocking the keyboard on to the floor with a huge crash.
Whilst all that was happening the rest of us were either laughing or screaming. Whatever we were doing, we were doing it pretty loudly, because before we knew it Mum and Dad had come haring into my room and were surveying the scene of destruction.
“What on earth…!” shouted Dad. “What’s happened to the computer?”
He picked up the keyboard from the floor and examined it. Then he wiped the sticky mess off the computer screen.
“Luckily for you the computer was turned off!” he said crossly. “I’d hate to think what might have happened if it had still been on. I’ll have to check the keyboard properly in the morning.”
He looked tired and angry at the same time.
“I might have known that you couldn’t stay quiet for too long!” he said with a sigh. “I’m disappointed in you, Frankie, I thought you were more mature than that.”
Lyndz started to explain that it wasn’t my fault, but he just held up his hand.
“Save it Lyndsey,” he said. “I’m too tired for all this now.”
He went out. Mum just looked at me and shrugged her shoulders. Then she left too.
I felt awful. I really felt as though I had let them down.
“I’m really sorry Frankie,” said Rosie, rushing over to me. “That was all my fault.”
“It was mine too,” admitted Kenny. “We’ll explain everything in the morning, won’t we?”
Rosie nodded.
Lyndz could see that I looked upset. “Don’t worry Frankie, it’ll be OK. Everyone’s just tired, that’s all. I know that I am.” She gave a massive yawn. “I just need a few fizzy fish to help me to sleep!”
We all giggled and made a grab for the rather sticky sweets that were scattered over Kenny’s sleeping bag. By the time we’d been munching in to our feast for five minutes or so, we were all laughing and joking. It was as though all the friction between Kenny and Rosie had never happened. I was glad about that. I just hoped that in the morning all the tension between Dad and me would have gone too.
To be honest with you I didn’t sleep very well. I felt so bad that I’d let Mum and Dad down. I was awake really early and crept downstairs to make them some tea.
“I’m really, really sorry about what happened,” I told them when I took it into their bedroom. “It won’t happen again.”
“I hope not,” said Dad, but he didn’t sound angry like he had done the night before.
When I got back to my room the others were all awake and up, which was a miracle. Even Kenny was sorting out all her stuff and Kenny is not a morning person!
“What are you up to?” I asked them suspiciously.
“We thought we’d get up and help you make breakfast, then your Dad might not be so cross with us,” explained Lyndz.
They’re pretty great, my friends. But looking at their faces, I couldn’t help thinking that there was another reason for this sudden burst of generosity. I puzzled over it all the time we were making breakfast.
As Rosie was making the toast she said, “Do you think your parents will ever let us come round again? To sleep over, I mean?”
“I should think so,” I said. “In 2010!”
“Not next week then?” asked Kenny, as she set the table.
“You must be joking!” I laughed. “If the computer’s damaged, he’ll never want to see you lot again. Neither will I, come to that.”
The others were looking at each other again, and I was beginning to feel left out.
“Stop doing that!” I shouted. “What is your problem?”
“Well the thing is…” began Lyndz.
“…we didn’t design our Home Page last night and the deadline for the competition is a week on Monday,” spluttered Fliss.
“…and with homework and netball practice and stuff, we won’t have time to do it in the week,” continued Rosie.
“So we really need another sleepover…next Friday,” concluded Kenny.
“Can’t we have it at one of your houses?” I asked.
“We really need the Internet for reference,” explained Lyndz. “You know, to make sure we put the right sort of stuff on our Home Page.”
That certainly made sense. But then I remembered how cross Dad had been the
night before. And to make matters worse, I could hear him and Mum coming downstairs.
“Look,” I told the others, “you’ll have to leave it with me. Don’t mention it now, for goodness sake. I’ll have to pick my moment.”
I’m sure that Mum and Dad must have known that we had something up our sleeves, but they didn’t say anything. Rosie and Kenny apologised about the night before and everyone seemed happy enough.
When the others went home I told them, “I’ll work on Mum and Dad about the sleepover, don’t worry!”
But to be honest with you, I was worried. Getting Dad to let my crazy friends have another sleepover so soon was going to take absolutely all my powers of persuasion.
Mum and Dad didn’t know what had hit them over the next few days. When I wasn’t apologising I was washing up, making cups of tea or running errands. But I just couldn’t find the right moment to ask them about having another sleepover. Every time I thought about it, I got butterflies in my tummy, my tongue got stuck to the roof of my mouth and I just couldn’t do it.
By Wednesday my friends were getting a bit annoyed.
“You’re going to have to ask them tonight,” said Rosie, “because we’ve got to get the Home Page finished for the competition.”
“When’s the deadline?” I asked.
“Monday at 5pm,” Rosie replied. “So if we finish it on Friday night, we can post it on Saturday and it should get there in time.”
“But we haven’t even decided what to put on our Home Page!” I said, feeling really flustered.
“Look Frankie, anybody would think you didn’t want us to win or something,” said Kenny. She sounded quite cross. “We’re going to use a photograph of us all together at the top of the page and we each need to find an individual photo that we like. Then we’ve got to write a few lines about our likes and dislikes…”
“…and mention a few of our favourite sleepovers,” explained Fliss patiently.
It certainly sounded as though the others knew what we had to do, even if I didn’t.
The Sleepover Club Surfs the Net Page 3