Sleepover Girls Go Camping

by Fiona Cummings

  Tired, but happy, we all staggered back to our tents. We were almost there when Kenny stopped us. “Sssh!” she hissed. “There’s someone in our tent!”

  We stopped in our tracks and listened. Kenny was right, there was certainly somebody rustling about inside our tent. It just had to be those M&Ms.

  “Right, I’m going to get them for this!” whispered Kenny.

  She started to tie up the tent flap.

  “Don’t let them get out whatever you do,” she warned. “And try not to let them know you’re here.”

  She ran off towards Grange Hill. We didn’t know what she had in mind. We were too busy worrying about what we’d do if the M&Ms tried to get out.

  Kenny was back in a flash. She was carrying a huge tube of squirty cream.

  “You haven’t stolen that, have you?” Fliss looked shocked.

  “’Course not,” Kenny replied. “I’ve just borrowed it.”

  She bent down and quietly began to undo the tent flap. Then we all crouched on the ground, so that when the M&Ms appeared we would be ready for them.

  “I think they’re coming out!” hissed Rosie.

  We all stood up. My heart was beating like crazy. When the tent flap opened we all started screaming and Kenny sprayed cream like a demon. It was only when this tall blob started squealing and stumbling into us that we realised it wasn’t the M&Ms at all. It was Snowy Owl – Fliss’s Auntie Jill!

  “What on earth is going on here?” asked Brown Owl who had come across because of all the noise we were making.

  “We thought that someone had broken into our tent,” explained Kenny sheepishly.

  “Well as you can see, no one has,” said Brown Owl. “Fliss’s mum sent her some clean underwear and Snowy Owl was putting it in your tent.”

  Brown Owl looked furious, but fortunately Snowy Owl was laughing. “I finished my course this afternoon,” she explained, “so I came down to join the camp. I thought I’d surprise you, Felicity, as I haven’t seen you for such a long time! But I guess I should have just given you your underwear, rather than sneaking into your tent.”

  Fliss was as red as a beetroot. I think it was because everyone had heard about her mum sending down some clean underwear. She was more embarrassed about that than the fact that we’d covered her Auntie Jill with cream.

  All the other Brownies had gathered round us. Unfortunately the M&Ms were right at the front, sneering at us, which was just awful.

  “At least there’s one good thing,” said Frankie when Brown Owl had sent everyone away and we were cleaning up the mess.

  “Oh yeah, what would that be then?” asked Kenny.

  “The M&Ms haven’t managed to sabotage us today,” said Frankie gleefully. “I bet they couldn’t think of a way to get back at us. They’re just not bright enough. Shame, isn’t it?”

  We all laughed.

  We were ready to go to the shower block with our toilet bags when Kenny said, “Let’s sprint to the showers, do push-ups against the wall, shower and stuff, and then jog back!”

  Now I like Kenny as much as anyone, but this was getting a bit out of hand. It really was like being in the army. Besides, we were all totally exhausted.

  “Get real, Kenny!” moaned Frankie. “This camp is supposed to be fun.”

  “But we’ve got to win the Challenge!” said Kenny. It was like it was the only thing that mattered to her.

  “I’ve already told you I’m not going on the assault course again,” Fliss said. “And I’m going to tell Auntie Jill that I’m not tomorrow. She won’t make me do anything I don’t want to.”

  Kenny screwed up her eyes and looked at us all in a fury. “Well I’m going to beat the M&Ms, even if you’re all going to wimp out.” She spat out the words and sprinted off towards the showers.

  We all looked at each other, then trotted after her.

  Fortunately, it was quiet when we got there. I think the other Brownies must have washed while we were apologising to Snowy Owl and cleaning everything up. It had taken ages to wash all the cream off the tent. Some had even got onto Rosie’s sleeping bag.

  We were a bit sticky with cream ourselves, so we all decided to have a shower. There was a cubicle for each of us, but unfortunately there wasn’t any hot water left. We were all absolutely freezing by the time we’d got out and dried ourselves.

  “Well at least that’s cooled us down!” laughed Rosie. “Maybe we should jog back to our tent after all – just to warm up a bit!”

  So after brushing our teeth, that’s what we did. We laughed and giggled all the way back, which sort of broke the tension a bit, because we were still feeling a bit annoyed with Kenny. She was so obsessed by the whole Blue Peter Challenge that she was starting to spoil the camp for the rest of us.

  When we got back we could hear the M&Ms in the tent next door. They were obviously having a midnight feast, although it was nowhere near midnight yet.

  “Aren’t these Choc Dips just scrummy!” Emma Hughes was saying.

  “Mmm, they can’t be as gorgeous as these milk bottles!” said Emily Berryman in her gruff voice. We sometimes call her ‘the Goblin’ because of her deep voice – and because she’s so small.

  The other Teletubbies were all cooing over their sweets too.

  “You’d think no one else had ever had a midnight feast before!” grumbled Kenny. “They’re just so pathetic.”

  She started to howl like a wolf and the rest of us joined in.

  “Oh grow up!” shouted Emily Berryman. “We know it’s you, Laura McKenzie. Couldn’t you think of anything more original?”

  Kenny looked furious. But before she could say anything Emma Hughes piped up, “Is Felicity there?”

  Fliss pulled a face then said, “Yes, what do you want?”

  “Hadn’t you better go and put on that underwear your mummy sent?” Emma Hughes asked in a sickly voice. “You dirtied your other knickers at the top of the abseiling tower, didn’t you? You’re a big baby, Felicity DirtyBottom!”

  We couldn’t see Fliss’s face because it was kind of dark, but I could tell that she was blushing by the heat that was coming off her! She hates people making fun of her, and she’s especially prickly about her surname – it’s Sidebotham, but nobody ever says it like that!

  Amanda Porter joined in taunting poor Fliss. “You’ll need even more clean underwear when we’ve wiped the floor with you in the Blue Peter Challenge!” she smarmed in her silly fat voice. “You all will!”

  “Come on!” Kenny said through her teeth. “We’re not going to listen to these idiots. They’re all talk – no action!”

  We scrambled back into our tent. Nobody spoke. We got undressed and ready for bed in complete silence, for just about the first time ever!

  After what seemed like ages Kenny said quietly, “Now do you see why we’ve got to train hard to beat them?”

  We all nodded. Except Fliss. “I’m still going to tell Auntie Jill that I don’t want to take part in the Challenge,” she mumbled.

  Before Kenny could have another go at her, Frankie leapt in. “Well, we’ll all need our strength, won’t we?” she laughed. “What about a few munchies before bedtime? If those stupid M&Ms can make such a lot of noise when they eat their midnight feast, we can make twice as much when we eat ours!”

  “Yes!” we all shouted at the tops of our voices.

  We all scrambled about around the tent pole, but before we could find the sweets we’d saved for that night’s feast a torch flashed through the tent flap. We all jumped, but it was only Brown Owl.

  “I don’t know what’s going on between you and Emma and her friends,” she said firmly. “But whatever it is, I want it to stop.”

  “It’s not just us—” Rosie started to protest.

  “I know and I don’t want to hear any more,” said Brown Owl. “I’ve spoken to the girls next door and they promised me that whatever petty squabbles you’ve had in the past are over. I hope you can say the same thing.”

  We co
uld feel her staring at us all, although we didn’t dare look her in the face.

  “Well?”

  “Yes, everything’s fine now,” mumbled Frankie. “There won’t be any more trouble.”

  We all nodded our heads reluctantly.

  “I’m very pleased to hear it,” Brown Owl smiled. “So get some sleep, because you’ve another busy day tomorrow. Breakfast round the camp fire first thing! Sleep well!”

  Kenny and I fastened the tent flap behind her, then we turned to the others.

  “What do you reckon to that?” said Rosie.

  “Well, I guess if that’s what the M&Ms said – and meant it – we’ll just have to play it cool with them until camp’s finished,” I said.

  “But what about the Challenge?” asked Kenny.

  “We’ll have to abandon it!” said Fliss sounding livelier than she had done for days.

  “I don’t know about that,” said Frankie quickly. She knew that Kenny wouldn’t give in so easily. “I think we should have our midnight feast and sleep on it!”

  We all looked around the tent again and rummaged about in our bags. But none of us could find any sweets.

  “OK, this isn’t funny!” Kenny sounded very agitated. “Who’s got the grub? One of you must have taken it from the tent pole.”

  We all shook our heads, then we looked in our bags again. And in our sleeping bags, our toilet bags and our wellingtons. Nothing!

  “You don’t think Snowy Owl took it, do you?” asked Rosie. “She was in here, wasn’t she?”

  “Don’t be crazy, she wouldn’t do that!” said Fliss indignantly. “I reckon it’s the M&Ms. They must’ve been eating our midnight feast!”

  Just then we heard lots of giggling outside our tent.

  “That’s right, Knicker Girl!” screeched Emma Hughes. “And very scrummy it was, too!”

  “OK, that’s it!” screamed Kenny. “This means war!”

  And by the look in her eyes, we knew that she meant it.

  I don’t think any of us slept well that night. It’s just not the same having a sleepover without a midnight feast! And I guess the rest of us were worried about what kind of revenge Kenny was planning for the M&Ms. She definitely had something in mind, because she kept mumbling about it in her sleep.

  “Splat Goblin’s face,” she murmured. “Kick Hughes water.”

  None of it made sense of course, and in the morning Kenny denied saying anything at all. But she was still determined to get back at the M&Ms. Big time!

  “We’ve got one more day to get ourselves in shape for the Assault Course Challenge!” she told us as soon as we woke up. “So we’re going to train for it in every spare minute we have.”

  The rest of us groaned. Fliss pursed up her lips but didn’t say anything.

  “Teletubbies are on cooking duty, aren’t they?” said Rosie.

  “I think so, why?” asked Frankie.

  “I was just thinking that we could raid their tent and try to get our midnight feast back while they’re busy,” replied Rosie.

  “We could do,” said Kenny, “but I’m starving. Let’s go for breakfast first, or I’ll waste away!”

  We got dressed as fast as we could and ran to the toilet block. Everybody else must have had the same idea because there was a massive queue.

  “Oh man!” moaned Kenny, jiggling about. “I’m going to wet myself if we have to wait much longer.”

  “You should all start wearing nappies!” smirked Emma Hughes, who was just emerging from Arnold. “We’ve always known that you were babies!”

  Frankie find I had to use all our strength to stop Kenny from swinging for her. But even by the time we’d got to the front of the queue, Kenny was still seething. “Stupid witches!” she was mumbling. “I’m going to get them!”

  Fliss, in contrast, hadn’t said anything. In fact she’d hardly spoken since we got up. She kept looking round as though she was searching for someone. As soon as we got to the camp fire and she saw Snowy Owl, she sprinted over to her.

  “Looks like she’s going to get out of the Blue Peter Challenge,” Rosie whispered to me. But I wasn’t so sure. Fliss wasn’t looking too happy. We left Frankie to try to calm Kenny down, snatched some toast from Emily Berryman in Grange Hill and wandered over to Snowy Owl.

  “But I’m terrified of going on the assault course, Auntie Jill!” Fliss was moaning. “And I’m no good at it anyway.”

  “That’s a ridiculous attitude, Felicity,” said Snowy Owl sternly. “You don’t know what you’re capable of until you try it.”

  We quietly went to sit down beside Fliss.

  “That’s what being a Guide is all about,” continued Snowy Owl. “It’s about gaining confidence in things and learning some independence.”

  “Fliss, don’t worry about the Challenge,” I said. “We’ll help you.”

  Rosie nodded and squeezed Fliss’s arm.

  Snowy Owl smiled at us. “And it’s about working as a team,” she said. “You can only try your best, Fliss, that’s all anybody asks of you. Right, girls, I’ll leave you to it.”

  She left us looking into the fire, not really knowing what to say to Fliss.

  “She’s changed,” said Fliss slowly. “Just because that course she went on from work used an assault course as a ‘team building exercise’ she thinks everybody should go on one!”

  Poor Fliss, her aunt had suddenly gone all assertive on her, and her chance of getting out of the Challenge had gone.

  “Look Fliss, try to look at this in a positive way,” said Rosie soothingly. “You’re as sporty as any of us. You can easily manage the assault course, it’s just a case of believing in yourself.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “So instead of looking at the scramble net and thinking, I’m going to get stuck at the top of that, you’ve got to think, it’s just like climbing up a wobbly fence and that’s easy!”

  Fliss looked at us and smiled a watery kind of smile. “I guess so!” she mumbled.

  Before we had time to reassure her some more, Kenny came flying towards us. “Operation Sweety Rescue is on for lunchtime!” she said. “We’re going to raid the M&Ms tent while they make lunch.”

  It sounded fun, but I wasn’t so sure it was going to be that easy.

  Before lunch our patrol had a go at archery. It was well cool. And Fliss was good at it, which boosted her confidence no end. In fact she became quite a pain, reminding us how much better she was at archery than the rest of us.

  “It’s a pity there’s no archery in the Challenge then, isn’t it?” said Kenny sharply.

  That soon shut Fliss up.

  Kenny was still way too obsessed with the Challenge. At lunchtime, as we were walking back to the campsite, she even told us all what our weaknesses were.

  “You don’t take it seriously enough,” she told Frankie. “And Lyndz, you don’t put enough effort into it. Rosie, you’re always looking round to see what everybody else is doing, and Fliss, well you’re just a wimp, aren’t you?”

  That was really the last straw. We were all sick of Kenny telling us that we should be training all the time. I mean this wasn’t the Olympics, was it? It wasn’t even Gladiators. It was just some end-of-camp competition, which was supposed to be a bit of a laugh.

  “If that’s your attitude, Kenny, maybe we shouldn’t compete at all,” said Frankie angrily. “I’m sure you’re more than capable of beating everyone else single-handed.”

  It was really weird hearing Frankie speak to Kenny like that. They’ve been best friends like forever. But I guess that’s why she could say what the rest of us were only thinking.

  Back at the campsite Frankie headed straight for our tent. The rest of us followed her, but Kenny slunk off on her own.

  “I’m sick of her going on like that,” Frankie told us. “She’s spoiling everything.”

  “Imagine how I feel!” said Fliss. “She’s always calling me a wimp and putting me down.”

  “I know, and it’s not fair,” Rosie
reassured her.

  I looked out of the tent flap and I could see Kenny just sort of mooching around by herself. I felt kind of sorry for her. She was only trying to get one over the M&Ms and the rest of us wanted to do that, too. It’s just that sometimes Kenny gets too carried away. I left the others to their complaining and went to see if she was all right.

  “Hiya, Lyndz,” she said kind of sheepishly when she saw me. “Is everything OK?”

  “Pretty much,” I told her. “But I think you’ve upset everybody.”

  Kenny just shrugged. Then she brightened up. “Maybe they’ll forgive me if I get our midnight feast back from the Gruesome Twosome’s tent,” she said excitedly. “Will you help me?”

  I wasn’t so sure. I mean it’s all right when all five of us do something like that together, but what would happen if just the two of us got caught?

  “Come on, Lyndz, please,” Kenny pleaded. “The M&Ms are preparing lunch, I’ve just checked. It won’t take a minute.”

  Kenny was already undoing the flap of the M&Ms tent. Well I couldn’t let her do it all by herself, could I? I went and joined her.

  “I’ll stay here,” I whispered, “to keep a lookout!”

  “It’ll take too long for me to look through their stuff by myself,” Kenny whispered back. “You’ll have to come in, too, and we’ll keep checking to make sure that no one’s coming.”

  Very reluctantly, I crept inside.

  Although the M&Ms were sleeping in the same kind of tent as us, it looked completely different. In our tent there was stuff all over the place, whereas in theirs everything was in neat piles at the bottom of each sleeping bag. It had this nasty smell of very stinky socks, too.

  I didn’t really like rummaging about in other people’s things, but I told myself that they’d done it to us

  “I can’t find anything. What about you?” I asked Kenny. “You don’t suppose they ate everything, do you? Or maybe they took the sweets with them, just in case we did this.”