The Sleepover Club Sleep Out
Page 5
“It was worth it though,” said Lyndz. “I just wish I had a photo of Emma’s face when she saw Kenny in that mask!”
We all started shaking with laughter. The more we tried to stop, the more we laughed. We had to stuff corners of our sleeping-bags in our mouths to stop ourselves from making too much noise.
“We trashed the M&Ms good and proper,” I said at last, when we’d finally stopped laughing. “I bet they know it was us, too.”
“Do you think so?” said Fliss, looking scared. “What if they tell Mrs Weaver?”
“So what if they do?” said Frankie. “They’ve got no proof.”
“They might have recognised Kenny’s mask,” said Rosie.
“My mask!” I said suddenly.
“Girls, will you please be quiet and get some sleep?” said Mrs Thomas from across the room.
“What about your mask, Kenny?” whispered Lyndz.
“I’ve lost it!” I whispered back. “I put it down somewhere when we were trying to make it back here, and I can’t remember where!”
“We’ve got to get it back!” said Frankie urgently. “If Mrs Weaver finds it—”
“She’ll know it was us who played the trick,” finished Rosie.
“Where did you leave it, Kenny?” asked Lyndz.
I thought hard.
“I think I put it down on the floor when I was trying to work out what that furry thing was,” I said at last. “D’you think I should go and try to get it back now?”
“NO!” said the others all together.
“Girls,” said Mrs Thomas, and she was starting to sound pretty annoyed, “will you please go to sleep now.”
“We’ll look for it first thing tomorrow morning,” Frankie whispered, and I nodded.
I wasn’t really that worried. After all, somebody else could have borrowed my mask to play a trick on the M&Ms. But I didn’t want Mrs Weaver getting suspicious. I wasn’t her flavour of the month as it was. I didn’t want to get into any more doom.
I yawned and closed my eyes. A picture of Emma and Emily’s horrified faces as they looked at the mummy looking in at them came into my mind, and I started giggling into my pillow.
I was still smiling when I fell asleep.
“Kenny?”
Someone was shaking me awake. I didn’t want to open my eyes, but whoever it was kept on shaking me, so I had to.
It was Rosie.
“It’s ten-to-eight, and we’re having breakfast in ten minutes,” she said. “I think we should go and look for the mask.”
“OK.” I rolled out of my sleeping bag, and reached for my jeans. The others were starting to wake up too, except for Frankie, who was snoring. I gave her a kick.
“Wakey, wakey, Francesca.”
“Where’s my mum?”
“I think she’s gone to the loo,” said Rosie. “Me and Kenny are going to look for the mask.”
We left the others climbing sleepily into their clothes, and headed off down the corridor.
“Let’s try the stuffed animals room first,” I said. “I’m pretty sure that’s where I left it.”
It was a lot easier to find our way around the museum in daylight. We went into the animal gallery, and looked round.
“This is gross!” said Rosie, staring at a stuffed peacock. “Why would anyone want to stuff an animal?”
“D’you want to know how they do it?” I said. “First they—”
Rosie gave me a shove. “Not before breakfast, thanks. Why are you such a weirdo, Kenny?”
“I’m just so good at it.” I grinned, and took a look round the room. Most of the animals were inside glass cases, but some were just standing around on little platforms.
“I think that fox might have been the furry thing I was touching,” I said, pointing across the room.
We went over to it.
“It looks a bit moth-eaten,” said Rosie. “Are you sure this was where you left the mask?”
I closed my eyes, and thought hard.
“Yep,” I said at last. “I remember I had the mask in one hand, and I touched the fox with the other. I didn’t know what it was, so I put the mask down, so I could use both hands.”
Rosie looked at me. “Well, where is it then?”
We searched all round where the fox was standing, and then all round the rest of the room, but the mask was nowhere to be seen.
“You must’ve left it somewhere else,” Rosie said at last.
“I didn’t.” I knew I hadn’t. I remembered putting the mask down right next to the stuffed fox. So where had it got to?
“Have you lost something, girls?”
The voice behind us made us jump a mile. We turned round. Frankie’s mum was there, carrying a towel and a toothbrush.
“No, Mrs Thomas,” I said innocently. “We had a bit of time before breakfast, so we came to look at the animals.”
Frankie’s mum glanced at her watch.
“Well, it’s eight o’clock now, so we’d better go down to the café.”
“What are we going to do about the mask?” Rosie whispered in my ear.
I shrugged. “Not a lot. Maybe an early-morning cleaner’s chucked it in the bin or something.”
We met up with the others in the café. They were already getting stuck into bowls of Coco-Pops and plates of toast.
“Did you find the mask?” was the first question Lyndz asked us.
Rosie and I shook our heads.
“It’s gone,” I said, “don’t ask me where.”
“Maybe Mrs Weaver found it,” said Fliss, looking terrified.
We all stared hard at Mrs Weaver, who’d just walked in. She looked all right. Meaning, she didn’t have steam coming out of her ears.
“Good morning, children,” she said, with a smile.
“Looks like we’re in the clear,” I said to the others. Then we all started to giggle. Behind Mrs Weaver were the M&Ms. They both had black circles under their eyes, and they looked as if they hadn’t had any sleep all night.
“Bad night, Emma?” I said, with a huge grin.
“Yeah, we heard about that mummy coming after you,” said Frankie. “Funny, we were in the same room with it, and it didn’t come after us.”
“We didn’t even hear it get up and go out,” added Rosie, with a totally innocent look on her face. “We were all fast asleep.”
The M&Ms looked fit to bust, they were so furious. And that just cracked us up even more.
“We know it was you!” spluttered Emma Hughes. “You’re totally pathetic!”
“And we’re going to tell Mrs Weaver!” growled Emily Berryman.
“Go on then,” I challenged them coolly. “You’ve got no proof.”
The M&Ms opened and shut their mouths a few times like a couple of angry goldfish, but they knew I was right. Mrs Weaver wouldn’t give them the time of day, unless they could prove for certain that it was us who’d played that trick on them.
“Hey, Emma!” Ryan Scott and his mate Danny McCloud walked into the café with their hands held out in front of them like a couple of zombies. “We’ve risen from the dead, and we’re coming to get you!”
We all fell about. The Queen and the Goblin were going to be the joke of the whole school for the next few weeks, and didn’t they deserve it. They both turned bright red, and stalked off.
“Result!” I said, holding up my hand to Frankie for a high five. Then I did the same to all the others. What a radical sleepover that had been. I’d never thought my idea would work out so brilliantly.
“More toast, anyone?” said a voice from behind us. It was Frankie’s mum. That shut us all up.
“You’ve obviously had a good time, then,” Mrs Thomas remarked after she’d handed round the toast.
“Yes, we have,” we all chorused politely. She just didn’t know how good.
Mrs Thomas looked pleased.
“Good. Well, when you’ve finished eating, go and pack your stuff away, and collect your masks. The coach is coming at nine
to pick us up.”
“I wish I knew where my mask had gone,” I moaned to Frankie as we packed our sleeping bags away after breakfast. “I wanted to keep it as a souvenir of the night we crushed the M&Ms.”
“What were you going to do, frame it and stick it on your bedroom wall?” Rosie asked.
“Something like that.” I grinned evilly. “I was thinking about trying the same trick on Molly Monster-Features.”
Just then Fliss and Lyndz, who’d gone to collect Fliss’s mask, came in, carrying a black bin-liner. Frankie’s mum was behind them.
“The coach is here, girls,” she said. “Kenny, have you collected your mask?”
That threw me. I stared at Frankie’s mum, and for a second, I couldn’t think of anything to say.
It was Fliss who saved the day.
“I’ve got the masks here, Mrs Thomas,” she said, waving the black bin liner.
“Right, let’s go then.” Frankie’s mum picked up her bags, and went out, while the rest of us sagged with relief.
“Nice one, Flissy,” I said gratefully. “Thanks.”
Fliss turned pink. “I’m not as stupid as I look,” she said.
“No, of course not,” I agreed. “Nobody could be that stupid.”
We all cracked up at that, even Fliss. We picked up our bags, and I took one last look around the room.
“I wish I hadn’t lost that mask,” I muttered. “I don’t suppose I’ll ever see it again now.”
Guess what? I was wrong!
So now I’ve told you almost everything that happened at the Great Museum Sleepover. Almost. But not quite.
We decided that we’d all go round to Frankie’s on Saturday afternoon, so that we could talk over what had happened. Oh, and to have a good laugh at the M&Ms, of course.
It was a sunny day, so Frankie’s dad had put their sun lounger out on the patio. It was one of those swinging ones, and we all piled onto it, even though it was a bit small for the five of us. It’s really old as well, so it creaked every time we swung it backwards and forwards.
“I can’t wait till Monday,” said Fliss. “Everyone in the whole school’s going to know what happened to the M&Ms.”
“And if they don’t, we’ll soon tell them,” I said, swinging the sun lounger to and fro a little bit faster. Rosie, who was squashed in the middle and had hardly any seat at all, flew off as the seat swung back, and landed on the patio on her bottom.
“Ow!” she complained, while the rest of us howled with laughter. “Can’t somebody else sit in the middle?”
We all squashed up, so that Rosie could get in on the end. Now Fliss was in the middle. I raised my eyebrows at Frankie. “How long to knock Fliss off the seat, and onto the patio?”
“Six seconds,” said Frankie.
“What?” asked Fliss.
“Nothing,” I said. “I don’t reckon we’ll get any bother from the M&Ms now for a while, do you?”
“They’ll want to get their own back sometime,” Lyndz said. “I’ve never seen Emma Hughes that mad.”
“We’ll be ready for them,” I said, swinging the seat back as hard as I could. Fliss gave a squeal, and slid off onto the patio with a thump.
“Five seconds,” said Frankie, looking at her watch. “Good one.”
“Very funny,” sniffed Fliss, climbing to her feet.
“What are we going to do this afternoon then?” asked Lyndz.
“Let’s just sit around and talk,” suggested Frankie. “I’ll make us some Coca-Cola floats.”
“Cool!” I said. “And I’ll show you my impression of Emma Hughes’ face when she saw the mummy. I’ve been practising it since yesterday.”
I pulled open my mouth and popped out my eyes as far as they would go. The others howled.
“And this is Emily Berryman.” I stopped, and put on a really deep, gruff voice. “HELP! THE MUMMY! IT’S ALIVE!!!”
I didn’t get to finish my impression of Emily, because Frankie’s mum came into the garden out of their garage. She was wearing old clothes and rubber gloves, and she had a black bin-liner in her hand.
“Frankie, if you girls want anything to eat, you’ll have to get it yourself,” Mrs Thomas said. “I’m going to make a start on cleaning out the garage.”
She didn’t look too happy about it, and I wasn’t surprised. Frankie’s family are like squirrels. They keep everything. The garage has so many boxes and bags in it that they have to park their car on the drive.
“Oh, by the way,” said Mrs Thomas, “I thought you might like this.”
She opened the bin-liner, and pulled out a cardboard mask. A mummy mask. My mask.
“I think it’s yours, isn’t it, Kenny?”
I was too gobsmacked to say anything, and so were the others. I just nodded.
“I found it in the stuffed animals gallery this morning,” Frankie’s mum went on. “Funny. I can’t think how it got there!”
This time it was us who looked like goldfish. We opened our mouths, couldn’t think of anything to say, and shut them again. Frankie’s mum put the mask back in the bin-liner, and gave it to me. I knew then that she knew. Mrs Thomas knew that it was us who’d played that trick the night before.
The question was, what was she going to do about it?
“Well, I think I’d better get on with clearing the garage,” said Frankie’s mum. “Of course, I’d get on a lot quicker if you girls gave me a hand!”
“We’d love to,” we all said together.
“It’s a bit of a dirty job, and it’s going to take a while,” Mrs Thomas pointed out. “Sure you don’t mind?”
“Oh, we don’t mind,” I said. “Not one bit.”
Frankie’s mum went back into the garage, and we all looked at each other.
“She knows!” babbled Fliss nervously.
“And she’s let us off,” Rosie added.
“Not quite,” said Frankie. “You haven’t seen our garage.”
“Your mum knew the M&Ms played that trick on Kenny,” said Lyndz. “That must be why she didn’t give us away.”
“Your mum’s really cool, Frankie,” I said.
“Yeah, but we’d better not push it,” Frankie warned us, sliding off the sun lounger. “Come on, let’s get started.”
So that was what I mean when I said we’d sort of got away with it. Although after an afternoon clearing out Frankie’s garage, I think I’d rather have been grounded for a week. It was cool of Mrs Thomas not to give us away though. Mrs Weaver would have chewed us to bits if she’d found out.
That’s it. End of story. I didn’t do so badly, did I? I was just as good as Frankie.
Look, there are the others over there by the playground gate. Come over, and say hello. Oh, and here come the M&Ms, with their faces down to their knees. I’m really going to enjoy this. I’ve been looking through all my joke books, and finding loads of jokes about mummies, so that I can annoy the Gruesome Twosome all day.
I’ll catch up with you again really soon.
By-e-e-e-e!
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
Happy Birthday, Sleepover Club
Sleepover Kit List
1. Sleeping bag
2. Pillow
3. Pyjamas or a nightdress
4. Slippers
5. Toothbrush, toothpaste, soap etc
6. Towel
7. Teddy
8. A creepy story
9. Food for a midnight feast: chocolate, crisps, sweets, biscuits. In fact anything you like to eat.
10. Torch
11. Hairbrush
12. Hair things like a bobble or hairband, if y
ou need them
13. Clean knickers and socks
14. Change of clothes for the next day
15. Sleepover diary and membership card
Copyright
First published in Great Britain by Collins in 1997
Collins is an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
77–85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith,
London, W6 8JB
3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Text copyright © Narinder Dhami 1997
Original series characters, plotlines
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 9780007400492
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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