Hit the Beach!

by Harriet Castor

  “That’s incredible,” said Lyndz, who’d been watching with her mouth open.

  “But…they only look a bit older than us,” said Rosie.

  Bethany nodded. “Remember, though – they live round here and they’ve been surfing for years already.” She nudged Rosie. “You could be like that if you practised hard.” Rosie beamed.

  If the kids were that good, I wondered what the grown-up competition was going to be like. I could see Aidan standing ready with his board, and not far from him, in the middle of a huddle of friends, I spotted Jude.

  “We’re supporting Aidan,” I told Bethany. “D’you reckon he’ll win?”

  Bethany pursed her lips, thinking. “Aidan’s good,” she said. “But, to be honest, Jude is better.”

  None of us spoke. We didn’t want to believe it.

  “Always depends what happens on the day, though,” Bethany added. “Surfing can be so unpredictable – you’re affected by the wind, the waves, the guy you’re surfing against…”

  “I wish you were surfing,” Fliss cut in. “We’d be cheering for you!”

  “You’re my team!” Bethany held up her hand and did high-fives with each of us in turn. At this rate, I thought, we were going to have to make her an honorary member of the Sleepover Club!

  Soon the adult competition started and that grabbed all our attention. The format was different from the kids’ competition. Then, the contestants had surfed in heats of four and the best from each heat had gone on to the grand final. Now, the surfers were going out in pairs. One from each pair went on to the next round.

  “It’s really tactical,” Bethany explained. “The waves aren’t all the same size, of course. And you can only take off – you know, get going on a new wave – ten times; after that you have to come out of the water. So everyone wants to get the best waves for themselves – the ones they’re going to be able to perform their favourite moves on.”

  It was dead exciting seeing really good surfers trying to outdo one another. Before today, we hadn’t ever seen Aidan surfing, so when his turn came in the first round I was really interested to check out his skills. And he was majorly impressive. The water sprayed and swooshed as his board sliced across it, and at one point he even jumped into the air, taking his board with him!

  “Yeeaahh! Go, Aidan!” we cheered. And when it was announced that he’d got through to the second round, we cheered even harder.

  Next, though, he was going to be pitted against Jude.

  “This’ll be a tough one,” said Bethany. “Jude is a mean competitor.”

  Somehow, I wasn’t surprised.

  When the time came and they waded out into the water together, we all watched with bated breath. Aidan had won the toss, which meant that he had first pick of which wave to take off on. I was hoping that would give him a major advantage.

  After paddling out and sitting up on his board for a while, waiting for the bigger waves, Aidan turned his board around. He was off!

  From our vantage point on the sand, the six of us watched intently. Aidan rode the wave, turning at the bottom, swooshing up to the top and cutting back again. He looked so good – but I kept glancing at Bethany. I wanted to know how she thought it was going.

  Bethany was biting her lip. A little later I saw her check her watch.

  “They’ve got twenty minutes in total,” she explained. “Ade’s had the best waves so far, but Jude can pull out some radical moves under pressure. I should know – he’s beaten me that way.”

  The crowd around us was whistling and cheering – I tried to judge by the noises they made which moves were the best. Everything looked impressive to me. At one point, Jude got right under the curl of a wave and leaned back into the wall of water, trailing his hand across it. It was awesome.

  “Whoever wins this heat’s gonna win the whole competition, I reckon,” I heard someone say nearby. And it turned out that they were right.

  So, who won? Shall I give you three guesses? Yep, it was Jude, I’m afraid. And however much we didn’t like him, we had to admit that his surfing had been pretty gobsmacking.

  A man with a microphone did the presentation – the prize was a wad of vouchers for a surf shop and a bottle of champagne. After that, we watched as Bethany went to congratulate Aidan. Jude spotted her and tried to talk to her, but she gave him the cold shoulder.

  “Too right,” said Frankie, nodding approvingly. “I hope he’s feeling really guilty.”

  “He should give her the vouchers he’s won,” said Rosie. “And the champagne.”

  “One of us ought to go and tell him,” said Lyndz.

  Silence. No one moved. We were all just staring at Jude and his smug-looking friends.

  “Well, when someone’s that bigheaded, it’s probably better just to ignore them,” suggested Fliss.

  “Absolutely.” Frankie, Lyndz and Rosie nodded quickly.

  Slowly, I got to my feet. I had made it into that scary café the other day. After that, how could Kenny McKenzie, brave Leicester City supporter and founder member of the glorious Sleepover Club, be frightened of some weedy, puff-headed surf boy?

  Never mind how. I could. I was.

  But I wasn’t going to let that stop me.

  Heels digging into the sand, I marched across to where Jude was crouching, putting something into his bag.

  “Excuse me,” I said when I got there. Somehow, it came out a bit squeaky. I cleared my throat and repeated it, more loudly.

  Jude looked up. “Yes? Who are you?” He frowned. “Oh, I know,” he said, “you’re one of those babies Bethany’s been teaching.”

  I wasn’t going to let his sneering put me off. “We know the accident was your fault,” I said, staring him right in the eye. “You did it because you were scared of Bethany beating you. We think you’re a coward and you should give the prizes you won to Bethany.”

  I stood there, breathing hard, my heart thumping so loudly I thought everyone must be able to hear it.

  For a moment, Jude looked completely blank. Then he started to laugh. At that moment, one of his friends came up. “Munchkin trouble, Jude?” he said, looking at me like I was a manky bit of seaweed that the tide had left behind.

  Jude shrugged. “Oh, you know how I love the little darlings,” he said. And he reached out a hand and ruffled my hair.

  He ruffled my hair. I told you I couldn’t stand anyone fiddling with my barnet, didn’t I? Well, this was the last straw. I was just about to go for him, really go for him – practise my kung fu kick and my karate chop, when Frankie suddenly appeared at my side and said, “C’mon, Kenny. Forget these losers – Bethany said she’d buy us all pancakes!”

  I would’ve got him. I would’ve had him begging for mercy. Honestly. But…pancakes? Hot pancakes with melted chocolate and vanilla ice cream inside? No contest! Giggling like crazy, I turned and raced with Frankie across the beach.

  I wasn’t disappointed, either: the pancakes were delish. But the reaction of my friends was even better. Never mind that Jude wasn’t going to hand over his prizes to anyone in a million years, they still made me feel like I’d just saved an entire city from an evil super-villain.

  “Wow, you were so brave!” said Rosie, looking at me with wide eyes. “The way you just went up to him – it was awesome!”

  “You told him!” said Lyndz. “You didn’t let him get away with it! You gave him a piece of your mind!”

  “It was heroic!” said Frankie, grinning a chocolatey grin and clapping me on the shoulder.

  “Well, maybe just a bit,” I admitted modestly. “And you know what? Dealing with the M&Ms’ll feel like nothing after Rude Jude!”

  I was right. We’ve been back in Cuddington for almost two weeks now and the M&Ms have barely registered on my radar. For one thing, I’ve been too busy plotting how to get Mum and Dad to change their plans for our summer holiday. We just have to go somewhere where I can catch some surf. I’ve even threatened to start practising on the ironing board!


  And it’s not just me. Every member of the Sleepover Club has been having serious withdrawal symptoms since we left Rawnston. Rosie’s determined that we’re going to be the first surf-dudes ever to be based in Leicestershire – but boy, do I wish that we could wave a magic wand and turn Cuddington into Cuddington-on-Sea! That’s why I invited everyone round to mine today, in fact, to hang out in the garden and pretend that all this grass is actually golden sand…

  Oops – have you seen the time? I can’t believe we’ve been gassing so long! Listen, I’d better go and fix everyone some drinks in a sec or I’ll have a gang of parched sunbathers giving me a hard time. But I must just tell you one more thing: we got a postcard from Bethany the other day. (She sent it to us at school, cos she didn’t have our home addresses.) She wanted to let us know that her leg had healed. And she mentioned – just dropped it in – that she and Jude are good friends now. I mean…how completely weird is that? Don’t you think? We’ve all talked about it loads, of course, and it’s Aidan we feel sorry for. Fliss thinks he’s in lurve with Bethany, but that’s Fliss for you – it’s all those soppy films she watches.

  Oh help! That’s Frankie now, yelling for lemonade! Tell her to keep her hair on, will you? I’ve got to run. Catch you later. Byeeee!

  Top Sleepover TIPS

  Kenny’s Beach Picnic Treats

  Hi everyone!

  Here are my fave recipes for chilling out on a hot summer’s day…

  Kenny xx

  Homemade Lemonade

  You will need:

  6 lemons

  150g (5oz) granulated sugar

  Squeeze the lemon juice into a bowl, removing all pips.

  Add the sugar and 2.5 pints of boiling water, stir and let it cool.

  Leave in the fridge overnight.

  Now you have a refreshing drink for a hot summer’s day, or a cool wake-up drink for the morning after a sleepover!

  Fruit Kebabs

  You will need:

  Wooden skewers

  Pineapple, cut into chunks

  Strawberries (whole, with the green stalks removed)

  Mango, cut into chunks

  Grapes, green and red (whole)

  Kiwi fruit, peeled and cut into chunks

  Thread the fruit chunks on to the wooden skewers for an outdoor snack in the sun.

  Try dipping the strawberries into melted chocolate and refrigerate on sheets of greaseproof paper before adding them to the kebab. Yum.

  Summer Berry Crush

  You will need:

  1 litre carton of cranberry and raspberry juice

  150g (5oz) raspberries

  150g (5oz) strawberries

  150g (5oz) blueberries

  Mix the ingredients together in a blender and liquidise until smooth.

  Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to each glass, or pour over crushed ice.

  Fliss’s Funky Flip-flops

  Bored with your plain old flip-flops? Why not jazz them up for your sleepover?

  You will need:

  Plain flip-flops

  Buttons, sequins, rhinestones, bows (anything small and pretty)

  Adhesive craft pads or double-sided sticky tape

  Work out a pretty design using the buttons, or whatever you can find.

  Use the pads/sticky tape to attach them to the strappy part of your flip-flops!

  Have your own summer sleepover, whatever the weather!

  Bring bathing suits, sarongs, sunglasses and flip-flops and get dressed up.

  Make Kenny’s refreshing picnic treats.

  Blow up a balloon, split into two teams and stand facing each other on either side of the room. Play indoor beach volleyball. Watch the ornaments!

  Have a brilliant time at your own sleepovers, whatever you do! See you next time – for another purrrfect sleepover story…

  Kenny x

  Have you been Invited to all these Sleepovers?

  The Sleepover Club Best Friends

  The Sleepover Club TV Stars

  The Sleepover Club Dance-off!

  The Sleepover Club Hit the Beach!

  Coming soon…

  The Sleepover Club Pet Detectives

  The Sleepover Club Hey Baby!

  The Sleepover Kit List

  Sleeping bag

  Pillow

  Pyjamas or a nightdress

  Slippers

  Toothbrush, toothpaste, soap etc

  Towel

  Teddy

  A creepy story

  Food for a midnight feast: chocolate, crisps, sweets, biscuits. Anything you like to eat!

  Torch

  Hairbrush

  Hair bobble or hairband, if you need them

  Flip flops, sarong and shades

  A change of clothes

  Sleepover diary and membership card

  Acknowledgement

  With major thanks to Kate Trant, who knows about surfing.

  (But any errors are my own.)

  Copyright

  The Sleepover Club ® is a registered trademark of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

  First published in Great Britain as Sleepover Girls go Surfing

  by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2003

  This edition published by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2008

  HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,

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  FIRST EDITION

  Text copyright © Harriet Castor 2003

  Original series characters, plotlines and settings © Rose Impey 1997

  The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

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