Sleep-over

by Rowan McAuley

  Sleep-over

  first published in 2005

  this edition published in 2011

  by Hardie Grant Egmont

  Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street

  Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia

  www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

  EISBN 978 1 742736 17 4

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and copyright owner.

  A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia

  Text copyright © 2005 Rowan McAuley

  Illustration and design copyright © 2011 Hardie Grant Egmont

  The moral rights of the author have been asserted

  Illustration by Aki Fukuoka

  Design by Michelle Mackintosh

  Text design and typesetting by Ektavo

  CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE

  COPYRIGHT PAGE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  It was six o’clock on Friday morning, the last day of school for the year. The alarm hadn’t gone off yet, but Olivia was already awake and dressed and sitting at the kitchen table, eating her toast and waiting for her mum to get up.

  She drank a glass of milk and ate an apple, but still her mum slept on. She brushed her teeth and made a sandwich for her lunch, but even then her mum did not stir.

  Olivia checked the clock on the microwave. Six-thirty. Surely her mum should be awake by now? She tiptoed along the hallway and looked in. Her mum was fast asleep, snoring lightly. Olivia knocked gently on the open door. Her mum didn’t move.

  Olivia cleared her throat. ‘Ahem!’

  Her mum rolled over and snored more loudly. Olivia was getting desperate.

  ‘Mum,’ she whispered.

  ‘Mum,’ she said gently.

  ‘Mum,’ she said more firmly.

  This was getting her nowhere.

  ‘MUM!’ she yelled suddenly, stamping her foot.

  ‘Hmm?’ said her mum, sitting up in bed, her hair all fluffy on one side. ‘What’s up, baby?’

  ‘Mum,’ said Olivia. ‘You have to get up. I am sleeping over at Ching Ching’s house tonight.’

  ‘Are you?’ said her mum. ‘Are you sure? Did we talk about this?’

  ‘Mum,’ said Olivia sternly, because she had to be strict with her mum sometimes. ‘You know we did. We talked about it on Monday, remember? You spoke with Mrs Adams on the phone.’

  ‘I know, baby,’ said her mum, yawning. ‘I’m just teasing you.’

  ‘Well,’ said Olivia. ‘Will you get up now?’

  ‘Mm,’ said her mum, still sounding tired. ‘What time is it?’

  ‘Six-thirty,’ said Olivia. ‘Or even later by now. We’ve been talking for at least five minutes.’

  ‘Six-thirty?’

  ‘Or six-thirty-five,’ said Olivia.

  ‘Is the sun even up yet?’ asked her mum.

  ‘Mum!’

  ‘OK, OK,’ said her mum. ‘I’m getting up. Even though it’s still the middle of the night,’ she grumbled.

  ‘Come on,’ said Olivia. ‘Here’s your dressing gown.’

  While her mum had a shower, Olivia checked her bag. As well as her lunchbox, she had packed her pyjamas, her bathers, some clean clothes for tomorrow, her hairbrush, and a small box of chocolates for Ching Ching’s mum, to say thank you. Was that everything?

  It was almost seven o’clock and Olivia was dancing with impatience, waiting for her mum to finish blow-drying her hair. Finally she was ready.

  ‘OK,’ she said to Olivia. ‘Now, are you sure you have packed everything you need?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Olivia.

  ‘Pyjamas?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Olivia.

  ‘Chocolates for Mrs Adams?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Olivia.

  ‘Clean knickers for tomorrow?’

  ‘Mum!’

  ‘Well, have you?’

  ‘YES!’ said Olivia. ‘Come on!’

  ‘All right!’ said her mum. ‘Just checking. I’ll just get the house keys …’

  But Olivia was already out the door and waiting at the front gate, her school bag on her back. Her mum locked the door and walked down the path (so slowly!) and together they walked to the bus stop.

  ‘I’m going to miss you tonight,’ said her mum.

  ‘Yeah, yeah,’ said Olivia, looking ahead for the bus.

  ‘I will. I won’t see you all day, I won’t have anyone to eat dinner with, and you’ll be at Ching Ching’s until tomorrow …’

  ‘I know,’ said Olivia.

  ‘What time am I picking you up?’

  ‘Lunchtime,’ said Olivia. ‘Ching Ching and I will have breakfast together, and play in the morning, and then you can pick me up at lunchtime.’

  ‘Lunchtime it is,’ said her mum, giving her a hug and a big smoochy kiss.

  The bus was just arriving at the corner.

  ‘Bye, Mum,’ said Olivia, yelling back over her shoulder as she ran to catch it.

  At last she was on her way.

  On the bus, Olivia tried to relax. She looked out the window and noticed how few cars there were on the road. She looked around the bus and saw all the empty seats. She wasn’t going to be late at all. In fact, she was early.

  It felt funny to sit on the same old bus, wearing her same old school uniform and carrying her same old school bag, knowing that inside the bag were her pink and green pyjamas. What if she got to school and Mrs Delano asked her to fetch something and she accidentally pulled out her new blue knickers instead?

  She would die!

  Or what if somebody found the box of chocolates for Ching Ching’s mum and ate them, and she had nothing to give her? Or what if …

  Olivia was not very good at relaxing.

  By the time the bus arrived outside school, she was exhausted. She had thought up a hundred different disasters and had worried about each and every one, and it wasn’t even eight o’clock yet.

  Olivia dragged her bag off the bus. She was starting to feel slightly sick.

  Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to sleep over at Ching Ching’s, even though they were best friends. What if she and Ching Ching had a fight and they weren’t even friends by the time Ching Ching’s mum came to pick them up from school? Maybe she should tell Ching Ching that she had changed her mind. She could just give the chocolates to Ching Ching, and then phone her mum and say she would come home for dinner after all.

  Across the playground, she saw Ching Ching waving at her, a huge smile on her face. Ching Ching’s mum was a teacher and her dad was a headmaster, so Ching Ching and her brothers were always at school early.

  ‘Hi, Olivia!’ said Ching Ching, running over. ‘Isn’t tonight going to be cool?’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Olivia, running to meet her halfway. ‘It’s going to be the best!’

  She gave Ching Ching a hug, threw her bag under a tree and they went to play with the other kids until the bell rang.

  The last day of school always dragged on forever. Everyone was itching to get out and be on holidays, but first they had to empty their lockers, tidy up the classroom and collect all the art they had done that year.

  Nobody could concentrate.

  Dylan kept pestering Mrs Delano, asking, ‘But why, Miss? It’s the last day of school. Can’t we just play?’

  By lunchtime, Mrs Delano had given up.

  ‘OK,’ she said. ‘You win. We’
ve done enough and it’s too hot to work anyway.’

  So they spent the rest of the day singing and talking about what everyone was doing for the holidays.

  When home time came, everyone was lined up and ready to go. Bags on their shoulders, they crowded at the school gates, straining their ears for the bell.

  Then the bell went and they were off, flying out to freedom. Some ran to buses, others went up the hill to the train station. Some walked home, and some, like Olivia and Ching Ching, waited to be picked up.

  Ching Ching’s parents both worked at the high school where Ching Ching’s brothers went. Ching Ching was adopted and didn’t look anything like her brothers. They were big, loud boys, all with the same short, spiky blond hair. Their names were Henry, Daniel and William.

  Olivia had met them lots of times before, of course. The first time had been at Ching Ching’s birthday party at the zoo. The boys were funny and rough, and had teased Ching Ching, picking her up and carrying her around the zoo, shouting to one another.

  ‘Throw her to the seals!’

  ‘No — too little! Not enough for a seal to eat. Here — catch!’

  And Daniel had thrown — actually thrown — Ching Ching to Henry. Olivia had been astonished, watching her friend sail through the air like a doll. And Henry had caught her and called to William, ‘Shall we chuck her to the monkeys?’

  ‘Yeah!’ said William. ‘She looks like a monkey.’

  ‘Smells like one, too,’ said Daniel.

  ‘Let’s go!’ said Henry, and all three boys had carried Ching Ching away, hooting and chattering like monkeys as they went.

  Olivia had been so upset, she was nearly in tears. How could they be so horrible to Ching Ching? And on her birthday!

  But Ching Ching had come back giggling, sitting on William’s shoulders and waving to everyone.

  So they weren’t bad boys, exactly. It’s just that Olivia didn’t have any brothers and wasn’t quite sure what to make of them.

  ‘Hey!’ said Ching Ching. ‘There they are!’

  She pointed to a car slowly driving by, looking for somewhere to park. Olivia could see that it was full of Ching Ching’s brothers. Ching Ching’s mum waved her hand out the driver’s window.

  ‘Come on,’ said Ching Ching, and they ran to the car.

  Mrs Adams parked the car a long, long way up the street from the school. Ching Ching and Olivia were puffing by the time they got there.

  It was a hot summer afternoon, and their school bags were heavy with all the things they had brought home from their desks and lockers. Olivia had her clothes for the sleep-over, too, so her bag was bulging at its zip.

  Henry was sitting up the front next to Mrs Adams, and Daniel and William and their school bags were filling the back seat, so Ching Ching and Olivia decided to sit in the special backwards-facing seats in the car boot.

  Olivia loved sitting back there, watching the traffic come towards them, waving to the drivers in the cars behind as they waited at the lights. Mrs Adams opened the boot and helped them climb in.

  ‘Hello, Olivia,’ she said, after kissing Ching Ching.

  ‘Hello, Mrs Adams,’ said Olivia.

  ‘Now,’ said Mrs Adams. ‘Did you remember everything?’

  Standing behind her, Ching Ching rolled her eyes at Olivia. Olivia tried not to laugh.

  ‘Yes, I think so,’ said Olivia.

  ‘Your pyjamas?’ said Mrs Adams.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Your toothbrush?’

  ‘Ye—,’ Olivia began, but then stopped.

  Her hand covered her mouth. Her eyes were as round as saucers. She felt herself blushing from her neck to her hair. She was horrified — she had forgotten her toothbrush.

  ‘Oh no,’ she said sadly.

  ‘That’s OK,’ said Mrs Adams. ‘I have to stop at the shops on the way home anyway. We’ll buy you a toothbrush there.’

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ said Olivia.

  ‘It’s no problem,’ said Mrs Adams. ‘You jump in with Ching Ching and we’ll be off.’

  Olivia was miserable. She had mucked up her sleep-over with Ching Ching even before they got to her house. How could she be so forgetful? How could she have left her toothbrush behind? She had been so careful with everything else. She felt like crying.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Ching Ching. ‘I always forget my toothbrush. That’s why Mum asked.’

  But it was too embarrassing and Olivia couldn’t be cheered up. If only she knew that things were about to get worse!

  Mrs Adams pulled into the car park. All the kids streamed out. Mrs Adams sent Henry and William to the grocer’s to buy some potatoes, green beans and broccoli. She sent Daniel to the supermarket to buy milk and rice, and she went with the girls to the chemist to pick up some tablets for Mr Adams and a toothbrush for Olivia. Ching Ching found a purple one with stars.

  ‘You have to get this one, Mum,’ she said. ‘Please? I have a pink one and now Olivia and I can have the same.’

  So Mrs Adams bought the toothbrush and they met the boys outside the butcher’s. When the butcher saw them all standing there — Henry and William with the vegetables, Daniel with the milk and rice, and Mrs Adams with the girls — he looked amazed and said, ‘What a lot of children!’

  He leant over the counter and smiled at Olivia.

  ‘And you’re having a friend over to play! Aren’t you lucky!’ he said.

  Oh, this was bad! Too, too terrible.

  Olivia looked at Mrs Adams and her long, blonde hair and light blue eyes. She looked at Henry, Daniel and William. They had blond hair and light blue eyes, too.

  She looked at Ching Ching with her shiny black hair and dark brown eyes and realised that to strangers, Ching Ching did not look like she belonged. Instead, the butcher thought Olivia was Mrs Adams’ daughter and Ching Ching was just a friend.

  This was much, much worse than forgetting her toothbrush. Worse even than the thought of Henry, Daniel and William accidentally seeing her knickers.

  She looked sideways at Ching Ching to see if she was angry, or if she was as upset and embarrassed as Olivia was, but Ching Ching was looking at her mum with an odd smile on her face.

  Mrs Adams looked at the butcher and said, ‘What?!’ Mrs Adams hugged Ching Ching tightly to her.

  ‘Only this one is mine,’ she said loudly. ‘I don’t know where the rest of them came from.’

  Ching Ching giggled in her mum’s arms.

  ‘Really?’ said the butcher, looking surprised.

  ‘Yes, it’s true,’ said Henry. ‘We’re all adopted, except for Ching Ching.’

  ‘Oh,’ said the butcher. ‘Well. What can I get you?’

  ‘Three kilos of sausages, please,’ said Mrs Adams.

  Back in the car, Olivia whispered to Ching Ching, ‘That was awful.’

  ‘Oh, we don’t care,’ laughed Ching Ching. ‘It happens all the time. Mum made it into a game and now the boys compete to see who can say the silliest thing with a straight face. Henry always wins, of course.’

  Ching Ching’s house was very different from Olivia’s. At home, it was just Olivia and her mum. They lived in a small flat. They had one bedroom each, a sitting room where they ate their dinner off the coffee table in front of the TV, and a balcony where they hung their washing and grew herbs in pots. Everything was crowded but very neat.

  Ching Ching’s house was much bigger. There were four bedrooms. One for Mr and Mrs Adams, one for Henry, one that Daniel and William shared, and one for Ching Ching.

  They had a huge kitchen and lounge room, and a big backyard with trees and a swimming pool.

  There was lots of space, but everything was untidy and cluttered. There were books and papers on every surface, footballs and tennis balls and sports shoes all over the place, coffee mugs and pencil cases and calculators and toys and even bits of cold toast. It was a mess!

  Olivia loved it. She was a quiet girl, but secretly she loved all the noise and chaos of Ching Ching’s house.


  At her house, Olivia would have some fruit and yoghurt for afternoon tea, and then she would do her homework until her mum came home from work. Then they’d cook dinner together and watch TV.

  At Ching Ching’s house, Mrs Adams gave them biscuits and sponge cake for afternoon tea and sent them all outside. The boys played cricket and Olivia and Ching Ching swam in the pool until Mr Adams came home from being headmaster.

  Then they all sat down to dinner at the dining table. At Olivia’s house, her mum cooked spicy things like chilli beans and curry, and they served up dinner straight from the pots on the stove. If Olivia wanted seconds she had to go back to the kitchen.

  Mrs Adams cooked quite different food, in enormous pots. The food was laid out on the table in serving dishes and everyone helped themselves. That night they were having sausages, mashed potato, beans and broccoli.

  The mashed potato was OK, and Olivia was used to beans and broccoli, but her mum never cooked sausages. Olivia really didn’t like them, but Mrs Adams put three on her plate without asking, and now she had to eat them.

  She looked around the table. Mr Adams and Henry were putting barbeque sauce on their sausages. Mrs Adams was sprinkling hers with salt and pepper. Ching Ching was having tomato sauce.

  ‘Do you want some?’ she asked Olivia.

  ‘Yes, please,’ said Olivia.

  She liked tomato sauce, and maybe if she had enough of it she could get through the sausages. She took the bottle from Ching Ching. It was a big bottle, but it was nearly empty and the sauce was taking forever to trickle out. Olivia shook it gently over her plate.

  Nothing.

  She shook it again.

  ‘Where’s the tomato sauce?’ said Daniel.

  ‘Olivia’s using it,’ said Ching Ching.

  ‘Hurry up,’ said Daniel, rolling his eyes.

  Olivia blushed. She could feel everyone looking at her and the stupid bottle of sauce. The sauce still hadn’t come out.

  ‘Daniel,’ said Mr Adams. ‘Don’t be so rude. Take your time, Olivia. Daniel’s in no hurry.’

  ‘Yes, I am,’ said Daniel. ‘I’m starving. Look, just give the bottle a good thump,’ he said to Olivia.