Sleepover Girls Go Camping

by Fiona Cummings

  Everyone nodded.

  “I hope we’re not teamed against the stupid M&Ms,” I whispered to Frankie.

  “Right, listen up,” said Brown Owl. “The Simpsons and the Wombles will be competing together and Teletubbies will be teamed against Rugrats.”

  We all groaned.

  “Just our lucid” said Rosie.

  “So if those of you taking part for The Simpsons and Wombles can line up here, we’ll get started!”

  We moved away from the starting line, which was pretty crowded. Everybody seemed to be deciding on who was going to go first from each team. The M&Ms were skulking around, too.

  “So which of you has wimped out then?” Kenny asked them.

  Amanda Porter went bright red.

  “Well that’s no surprise, is it? You’re so big you’d probably get stuck in the underground tunnel!” laughed Fliss.

  I don’t like people being criticised just because they’re a bit bigger than everybody else, especially as Fliss once did that to me. But Amanda Porter is truly awful, so she deserved it.

  “Where’s my bear, anyway, you thieving little snakes?” asked Emily Berryman.

  “You’ll only see it again if you agree to play fair in this challenge,” Frankie told them firmly. “If you try to pull any stunts, your bear will be a dead ted. Understood?”

  The Goblin looked shocked. She looked round at her friends and they all, reluctantly, nodded.

  “OK then. May the best team win!” laughed Kenny.

  We went back to join everybody else at the start of the course.

  There was a lot of cheering as the first two teams set off. The Wombles were awesome. A girl called Rachel Sunderland went off first for them. She was like a real little monkey swinging her way over all the obstacles.

  “Wow! Look at her go!” cooed Kenny. “I hope you’re all taking notes!”

  Fliss started jiggling up and down. I could sense how nervous she was. With the next two girls, The Simpsons started catching up a bit, so by the time the fourth competitors were going over the obstacles it was really tight.

  The Wombles last competitor was Hannah Williams. We knew her from school and she’s brilliant at games, in fact she’s the captain of our netball team. She flew over the scramble nets as though they weren’t there. It was amazing.

  “We’ll never beat their time!” I said.

  “Yes we will!” Kenny told us confidently. “Right, we’re on. Lyndz, you go first to give us a good start, then Fliss, then Frankie. Rosie, you’re last, so you’ve got to be prepared to do the business for us!”

  We all huddled together.

  “Do this for me!” Kenny told us. “And let’s whip the pants off those stupid M&Ms!”

  We all broke away and did a high five.

  “Pathetic!” spat Emma Hughes.

  “We’ll soon see who’s pathetic!” said Kenny knowingly.

  Then it was my turn to go.

  As soon as Brown Owl blew her whistle I charged down the course. I could hear Kenny yelling, but I wouldn’t let myself look at her. I raced over the hurdle and balanced on the log without falling in. It was wicked! I felt like I was flying. It was almost as good as galloping on a horse.

  “Come on, Lyndz! You’re miles ahead!” shouted Kenny. “Regina Hill’s rubbish!”

  By the time I had crawled through the tunnel and back over the scramble nets, I knew that I was way in front. It was a great feeling swinging across the ditch on the rope swing, I could have done it all day. But there were more important things to think about. I just had the swinging tyres to negotiate, before handing over to Fliss. I could see her at the line waiting for me. I’ll never forget her face. She was dead white and looked as though she was about to throw up. I whizzed through the tyre swing and threw myself at the line.

  “It’s a piece of cake, Fliss. You’re way ahead, just enjoy yourself!” I panted.

  Fliss didn’t look capable of enjoying herself, but as soon as I’d touched her hand she set off. We all held our breath. This was Fliss’s moment to shine, if only her nerves didn’t get the better of her.

  Now, I have to tell you that from the start it didn’t look good for Fliss. It took her about three attempts to get over the hurdle, and that wasn’t even high. I thought she was going to have kittens when she had to run across the log and risk falling in the mud underneath.

  “Come on, for goodness’ sake,” Kenny was muttering under her breath. “Alana ‘Banana’ is catching up.”

  “You’re doing great, Fliss,” I shouted. “Take your time and you’ll be fine.” And don’t look at Kenny’s angry mush, I wanted to add.

  “You’ve got to encourage her,” I told Kenny. “That’s what Fliss responds to.”

  Kenny tutted and shouted, “Great Fliss! It’s running through the tyres next and that’s no problem.”

  Actually, it really wasn’t a problem. Fliss is so light and nimble that she just danced through them as though they weren’t there.

  “Great stuff!” Kenny and I cheered.

  Alana ‘Banana’ had fallen off the log twice by now and was looking really muddy and fed-up. Fliss was way in front. But the dreaded scramble nets were looming.

  “OK, Fliss, take your time!” I shouted. “Just think about a wobbly fence, that’s all it is!”

  Fliss’s face was a picture of concentration. You could almost hear her grit her teeth as she put her head down and went for it. Snowy Owl was at the bottom of the net shouting encouragement. But I think it was Kenny shouting “The M&Ms are watching Fliss, show ’em what you’re made of!” which really inspired her. She shinned up the nets like Catwoman and threw herself over the top. It was awesome.

  “Way to go, Fliss!” Kenny and I shouted, leaping about like lunatics. “You’re miles ahead, just keep going.”

  Everything else after that was a piece of cake. It was as though Fliss had totally conquered her fears and was really enjoying herself. When she got to the second lot of scramble nets she climbed up them like she’d been doing it all her life. Was this really our wimpy Fliss? Maybe the real one had been abducted by aliens and this was an extra-terrestrial replacement! But why should we care? We were beating Teletubbies by miles.

  There was one sticky moment when she lost her grip on the rope swing and had to have two attempts to get over the ditch. But by that stage it didn’t matter because she was so far ahead of Alana ‘Banana’ anyway.

  We were virtually hysterical by the time Fliss ran home. Of course Frankie and Rosie still had to go over the assault course, but we weren’t worried about them. We were home and dry – or so we thought!

  The first thing to go wrong was that Frankie wasn’t quite ready when Fliss ran home. I think she’d expected her to take much longer and she was still tying up her shoelace when Fliss appeared. Because of that, she didn’t take full advantage of the lead our team had over Teletubbies. And she was up against Emma Hughes.

  At least Frankie had me, Kenny and Fliss cheering her on. We ran the length of the course yelling encouragement. Fliss was still all hyper and kept shouting how ‘easy’ everything was, which was a bit of a laugh considering what she’s normally like. I don’t think Frankie appreciated it too much, either. Especially when she got her foot caught in the scramble netting and was hanging almost upside down for a few seconds.

  Emma Hughes didn’t have much support at all. Amanda Porter was too fat to keep running alongside her, Alana ‘Banana’ was too traumatised after her experiences, Regina Hill was exhausted and Emily Berryman was waiting next to Rosie at the starting line. Still, you could tell that Emma Hughes was desperate not to be beaten by us and she raced with Frankie right to the line. So when it came to Rosie’s turn, she and Emily Berryman were neck and neck.

  My heart was in my mouth as they raced over the first few obstacles. But at the first scramble net it became obvious that this was going to be no contest. Berryman was green with fear – she just couldn’t hack it. My friends are always telling me that I’m
too soft on people, but I felt really sorry for her, even if she is one of our deadly rivals.

  The noise on the course was just crazy because all the other teams were cheering as well. Rosie and Emily were the last competitors in the Blue Peter Challenge and the whole contest would be decided on their times.

  “Easy-peasy, Rosie!” yelled Kenny as Rosie flew over the top of the nets. “No contest, man! The Goblin’s gone to pieces.”

  I could sense Rosie hesitate as she looked back to where Emily was struggling. But Kenny urged her on and she ran on to the underground tunnel while her competitor was still struggling over the top of the nets.

  “She’s miles ahead and I bet we’re faster than those Wombles, too!” laughed Kenny. “I’m going to ask Brown Owl what their time was.”

  She hobbled off to the finishing line where Brown Owl was standing with her stopwatch, and she didn’t see that Rosie was slowing down. Emily Berryman had crawled out of the underground tunnel and looked as though she was going to throw up again. Emma Hughes was yelling at her to carry on. Her face was all screwed up in anger – not a pretty sight!

  Rosie had heard all the commotion behind her as she started to climb the second set of scramble nets. She looked back and saw that Emily Berryman was in difficulties. You could tell that she really didn’t know what to do.

  Frankie, Fliss and I were yelling like demons so Rosie carried on climbing to the top of her net. She was just about to swing herself over when Emily started crying below her. She was clinging to the net and unable to move. Without thinking, Rosie climbed back down and said something to her, then they slowly climbed the nets together. Rosie watched Emily climb over the top first then she swung herself over. When she’d checked that Berryman was OK, she leapt down and ran like crazy. She hurled herself at the rope swing then sprinted on to the tyre swing, which was the last obstacle.

  “What were you doing?” Kenny screamed at her as she crossed the line. “We were miles in front and then you threw it away. You lost us the Challenge to help one of the M&Ms of all people!” She spat the accusation out as though it was the most disgusting thing she could think of.

  Rosie was still out of breath. “I’m sorry,” she panted, “but I could see how frightened she was. I couldn’t just leave her there, could I?”

  “I would’ve done!” snarled Kenny. “Wombles only won by thirty seconds. That’s thirty seconds, Rosie. You lost us that by going back to help that stupid dead-head! Some get-well present that turned out to be!”

  Kenny limped off angrily and poor Rosie looked distraught. “I didn’t know what to do!” she kept saying, over and over again.

  When it came to the prize ceremony we couldn’t bear to watch. The trophy for the winners was all gold and shiny. We’d have loved to have been the ones raising it up as though it was the World Cup.

  “So near and yet so far!” muttered Frankie.

  Then Brown Owl surprised us all. “We usually only have one prize in this Challenge,” she told us all seriously. “But I think what we saw today deserves another one. Rosie, in the Rugrats’ team, demonstrated what being in the Brownies and Guides is all about – taking the initiative to help other people even if it sometimes means losing out yourself. Today Rugrats lost the Blue Peter Challenge because of Rosie’s actions. But I’m going to create a special Sportsmanship Award, and Rugrats will be the first team to receive it.”

  We all went wild, and everybody else was cheering us, too. Apart from the M&Ms of course! Kenny actually started to smile again and soon she was back to her normal noisy self, laughing and larking around.

  Before leaving the campsite we went to retrieve Egbert, Emily Berryman’s teddy bear. It wasn’t as easy to get down from the bush as it had been to put up there, but we managed to hook it towards us with a stick. Kenny took great pleasure in throwing it at the M&Ms when we got on the minibus.

  “Here’s your bear!” she snarled. “You should’ve put him in your team for the Blue Peter Challenge. He’d have been better than you were, Berryman!”

  Emily Berryman went bright red and looked as though she was going to cry. Emma Hughes just looked furious.

  Just to annoy the M&Ms even more we sang ‘We Are The Champions’ at the top of our voices for most of the way home.

  Until Emma Hughes said nastily, “But you’re not champions, are you? I don’t see any trophy.”

  Surprisingly, it was Fliss, of all people, who said, “Well, we would’ve been if your team hadn’t been a complete bunch of wimps who needed rescuing every five minutes!”

  We all screamed with laughter when she said that. Emma Hughes blushed the colour of a beetroot and Emily Berryman looked as though she wished she could slip through a hole in the minibus floor.

  We haven’t actually got our award yet. We won’t be getting it until we go back to Brownies next term. Brown Owl says she’s going to have a trophy made, which is well cool. Especially as ours will be the first names on it. Kenny keeps telling us that the trophy is really hers because we said our performance in the Blue Peter Challenge was her get-well present. I don’t think we meant it quite like that though.

  Kenny’s ankle is much better now, by the way. Her dad said she shouldn’t run about on it too much so we keep threatening to wheel her about in a pram. She doesn’t seem too keen on that idea. I can’t think why!

  Going back to our trophy – we can’t wait to see it and we’re all totally blissed about it, but winning trophies isn’t the most important thing in life, is it? I mean, even if we didn’t win the Assault Course Challenge we all had a brilliant time at camp. And in some ways we’d all changed a little when we came home. We all seem to have learnt a bit about ourselves. Fliss, is still boring us stupid about her triumph of course, but at least Kenny hasn’t been teasing her quite so much as she did before.

  We’re nearly at the playground now. Can you see it, just at the corner of the street? Everyone’s there by the look of it. Fliss seems to be recreating her exploits on the assault course for about the hundredth time. And Kenny looks as though she’s about to swing for her. Come on, we’d better hurry up and join Frankie and Rosie in trying to keep the peace. It doesn’t look as though our reputation for good sportsmanship is going to last that long, does it?!

  Anastasia Krupnik

  Anastasia opened her green notebook and, in a secret corner, very small, she wrote the most terrible name she could think of. She closed the notebook, and smiled.

  Anastasia Krupnik is ten, and two very important things are happening to her: A small pink wart appears on her left thumb: and she discovers that she’ll soon be having a quite unnecessary baby brother.

  Serious action is called for, but the only reason she hasn’t left home yet is that she has been allowed to choose the baby’s name…

  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 Kenny’s

  Starring the Sleepover Club

  The Sleepover Girls go Spice

  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 Kit List

  Sleeping bag

  Pillow

  Pyjamas or a nightdress

  Slippers

  Toothbrush, toothpaste, soap etc

  Towel

  Teddy

  A creepy story

  Enough food for three midnight feasts

  A torch

  Hairbrush

  Hair things like a bobble or hairband, if you need them

  Clean knickers and socks

  Sleepover diary and membership card

  Copyright

  The Sleepover Club ® is a Regis
tered Trademark

  of HarperCollinspublishers Ltd

  First published in Great Britain by Collins in 1999

  Collins is an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

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  London, W6 8JB

  1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

  Text copyright © Fiona Cummings 1999

  Original series characters, plotting and settings © Rose Impey 1997

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

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub Edition © JUNE 2012 ISBN 9780007400607

  HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

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