Sleepover Club Vampires

by Fiona Cummings

  She gestured to the pyjamas covered in Pokémon and Pikachu which were scrunched up on the gravel.

  “You ought to have seen her when she found out!” Rosie whispered. “She went ballistic. She flung everything out over the ground and started stamping on them.”

  “I bet Callum did the same when he found Fliss’s frilly knicks in his bag!” I grinned. “Where is he anyway?”

  “That’s just the point,” whispered Frankie. “He’s gone to stay with their gran for a few days. But when Lyndz’s mum rang Fliss’s mum to find out where they were, Fliss’s mum didn’t know and thought they’d gone off somewhere – with Fliss’s bag!”

  “Trust Fliss!” I snarled. “It can’t be that hard to check that you’ve got the right bag can it? Even for Fliss.”

  Was this holiday turning into a disaster or what?

  “So what are we doing now?” I demanded. “Waiting for Callum to turn up?”

  “No, Fliss’s mum is packing her another bag and Andy’s going to bring it over,” Lyndz explained. “He shouldn’t be long because Mum rang him ages ago. I’m really cross with Fliss, actually. Before this happened Mum was quite bright, but she’s gone all cross and narky again.”

  “She’s not the only one,” I said through gritted teeth.

  After what felt like an hour (but was apparently only five minutes) Andy’s van appeared. He leapt out brandishing a luggage bag identical to the one whose contents were now being tried on gleefully by Ben and Spike, Lyndz’s two youngest brothers.

  “Here you are love,” he smiled, thrusting it towards Fliss. “We managed to trace your gran and get your bag back. Now, now, there’s no need to cry!”

  Fliss was in full waterworks mode again and was sobbing into Andy’s jumper. Mum managed to prise her away, and before any more mishaps could occur bundled us all into Lyndz’s van.

  “OK Jim, I’ve got the directions and your mobile number. You’ve got mine, haven’t you?” Lyndz’s dad checked with mine. “Right then, all being well we’ll rendez-vous at Tebay service station. All aboard? Wagons roll!”

  At last! We were off! I have to admit that at one stage I seriously doubted that we would ever get out of Cuddington.

  “Can we have the Steps tape on, Mum?” Lyndz asked.

  “Yeah!”

  “Wheels On The Bus!” yelled Ben.

  “Steps!” we all chorused back.

  “Wheels On The Bus!” Ben’s chin was going all wobbly.

  “OK, you can have your tape on first, Ben,” Lyndz caved in. “But then it’s our turn, all right?”

  Ben grinned his big soppy grin and started doing all the actions to the songs on his tapes. The first time round we all joined in and it was a bit of a laugh. But when Ben insisted on having his tape on again, my heart sank. Not least because the alternative to his stupid tape was him shrieking at the top of his voice.

  “Just once more then.” Lyndz shrugged her shoulders apologetically at the rest of us.

  I wouldn’t have cared, but Mrs Collins just didn’t say anything at all. So we had to listen to “Wheels On The Stupid Bus” yet again. And let me tell you, by the fifth time I was ready to yank the wheels off the nearest bus and stuff them down Ben’s throat.

  Fortunately, five repeats of his tape seemed more than enough for Ben too, because he nodded off.

  “Great!” whispered Rosie. “Can we have Steps on now?”

  We handed the tape to Mrs Collins who put it on. Then, noticing that Ben was asleep, she turned the volume right down so we could barely hear it at all.

  “Could we have it up just a tiny bit, Mrs Collins?” Fliss asked.

  “I don’t want to wake up Ben, Felicity,” Lyndz’s mum replied coldly. “He wouldn’t be so tired if we’d managed to get off on time in the first place.”

  “Patsy!” Mr Collins looked crossly at his wife.

  Fliss went bright red and her eyes welled up with tears. Lyndz squeezed her arm and mouthed “sorry”. She looked as though she was about to start crying herself. The rest of us just looked miserable. So much for Mum’s plan of bringing Lyndz’s mum away with us to cheer her up. At the moment she just seemed to be making everybody else unhappy too.

  At least when we got to Scotland we’d be able to escape from her for a bit. Whereas right now we were stuck in the van with hardly any music, one snoring toddler and a baby who, by the smell of it, had just filled his nappy.

  It was a major relief when we finally pulled into the service station next to Dad’s car. But it made us feel worse then ever when we entered the café and found Molly and Carli in sickeningly high spirits.

  “We’ve had a wicked journey!” Molly gushed. “We’ve listened to two Westlife tapes and Robbie Williams. We even caught Dad singing along to them.”

  “Yeah, it was so funny I thought I was going to wet myself!”

  “Carli!” Mum pretended to sound shocked. “What kind of journey have you lot had then? Noisy, I’ll bet!”

  “Erm, not exactly,” I said truthfully, but I couldn’t expand on that because Lyndz’s mum had appeared looking tired and harassed.

  “I didn’t realise it was such a long way,” she sighed, flopping down on the seat next to Mum’s.

  “Not to worry Patsy, the bulk of it’s behind us now,” Mum reassured her. “There’s only a couple of hours to go.”

  “Two hours!” Frankie almost exploded. “I’m not sure I can stand that van for another two hours.”

  She said that last bit quietly because she didn’t want Lyndz’s mum to hear. It was true that the thought of two more hours cooped up with Mrs Trunchbull’s more gruesome sister didn’t seem a very exciting prospect. But it also meant that in two hours we’d be at Uncle Bob’s place with a week of adventures in front of us!

  In actual fact, the last two hours of the journey passed really quickly. It was very dark by the time we set off again, and we were soon in the countryside where there didn’t seem to be too many streetlights. The darkness and the rhythm of the moving van seemed to make us all drowsy and I can’t really remember anything much until Mr Collins suddenly shouted:

  “Wake up guys! We’re almost there!”

  It was amazing, because one minute I was fast asleep and the next I was wide awake, staring eagerly out of the window.

  For ages we couldn’t really see anything. We seemed to be driving up a long, long road with trees on one side and a huge expanse of water on the other.

  “Look, a lake!” I pointed to it eagerly. “I knew there’d be a lake!”

  Occasionally we caught sight of a startled pair of eyes on the road in front of us – rabbits, foxes, goodness knows what else.

  “This is amazing!” breathed Mrs Collins softly.

  Suddenly Mr Collins slowed down.

  “Oh my goodness!” he gasped. “I didn’t expect this!”

  We all peered eagerly out of the windows. Looming before us beneath a sinister swirling mist was the creepiest, spookiest house I had ever seen in my life.

  “Th-this is a joke, right?” spluttered Fliss, stumbling from the van. “We’re n-not really going to stay here, are we?”

  I was kind of wondering whether it was one of Dad’s jokes myself when the door of the house creaked open.

  “A monster!” screeched Fliss and Rosie together, ducking down behind the van.

  It was the funniest monster I’d ever seen. There in the doorway, silhouetted by the lights from the hall behind him, was a tiny little bloke dressed in a kilt and funny long socks. He was warbling Scotland the Brave and doing a strange little dance.

  I saw Mum raise her eyes at Lyndz’s mum. But miracle of miracles, Lyndz’s mum was actually doubled over with laughter.

  “Hello there, Bob!” Dad called out and climbed the steps to join him. “You’ve dressed the part for our Sassenach friends, I see!”

  “Indeed laddie,” Uncle Bob was shaking Dad’s hand with gusto. “Can’t be doing with the bairns thinking we Scots are a dour lot!”

 
; “What’s he talking about?” hissed Frankie in my ear. “I haven’t understood one word. I didn’t realise Scottish people spoke a different language!”

  “Me neither,” I agreed.

  “Come in, come in,” Uncle Bob gestured towards the rest of us. “You must be weary fit to drop. Mrs Barber’s preparing the best hot chocolate north of the border, so come in and rest your bones a wee while afore bed.”

  “Come on girls, let’s get you all inside.” Lyndz’s mum rounded us up with Ben asleep in one arm and Spike nodding off in the other. “This is going to be a fun week, I can just tell!”

  We all exchanged glances. She was like a completely different person, all bubbly and bright like she used to be.

  “It must be something in the air,” I muttered.

  “I’d better bottle some and take it home with us!” Lyndz giggled.

  “I want to go home!” Fliss sobbed. “This place is just too – weird!”

  “Come on Fliss, we’re just tired, that’s all,” Frankie reassured her. “Things will look different in the morning – I promise!”

  “I-if we’re still here by then,” Fliss stammered. “We’ll probably have been b-bitten by a v-vampire or something!” And she burst into tears again.

  “Now don’t you worry about that, Fliss,” I comforted her as I helped to carry her bag inside. “Frankie and I are expert vampire slayers, aren’t we Franks? No big-toothed bloodsucker would dare mess with you, OK?”

  I executed a few high kicks along with a bloodcurdling scream to prove my point. Unfortunately the entrance hall was so vast that my scream sort of magnified and bounced off the walls. It sounded as though a mass-murderer was on the rampage in one of the rooms upstairs.

  Frankie rolled her eyes at me as Fliss went off on another of her sob-fests.

  “Now Kenny, you’ll arouse the ghosties with noises like that!” Uncle Bob appeared in the hall in front of us. “This way for hot chocolate, then I’ll show you all to your rooms.”

  We followed him in silence, trying to take in the vastness of the house. I know that I’d sort of dreamt that Uncle Bob lived in a castle, but I never thought it would be anything as enormous as this. The ceilings were so high that you had to strain your neck to look up at them. The walls were all wood-panelled with various deer heads mounted on plaques above us.

  “Ooh, gross!” Frankie (the vegetarian) shuddered theatrically. “Killing animals like that is just disgusting!”

  Fortunately Uncle Bob didn’t seem to have heard. He led us into a room where an enormous fire roared in a massive stone fireplace. On a huge wooden table were steaming cups of the most gorgeous hot chocolate you have ever tasted in your life. Mmm, I can still taste it now – scrummy!

  “It looks to me like you all need your beds,” Uncle Bob grinned as we were starting to doze by the fire. “Bairns first, follow me.”

  We all stared at him.

  “He means you lot!” Dad laughed, pointing to Molly, Carli, my mates and me. “Off you go then, sleep well!”

  Uncle Bob bounded up the stairs as we followed as quickly as we could, lugging our bags up with us.

  “Here we have Molly and Carli’s room.” He flung open a door to reveal a pretty room with two enormous beds covered in rose-patterned eiderdowns. The curtains were all swagged and lamps cast a rosy glow.

  “Cool!” Molly gasped.

  Fliss looked in jealously. “It looks nice in there,” she agreed. “I wouldn’t mind sleeping in there myself!”

  “With Molly?” Lyndz groaned. “You must be mad.”

  “Now I thought you lassies would all like to be together for your sleepover shenanigans,” Uncle Bob told us as we walked a little further down the landing. “So I’ve put you all in here.”

  He flung open the door to reveal an absolutely ginormous room. It looked about as big as one of our classrooms. There were five beds all covered in sprigged bedspreads with a mountain of blankets underneath.

  “I’ll need a leg up to get in there!” Rosie giggled.

  “The bathroom’s just across the way,” Uncle Bob pointed. “And don’t you go minding the strange noises. Things tend to go bump in the night but it’s usually only the hot water pipes. Nightie-night, sleep well.”

  He closed the door and left.

  “I’m n-not sure about this.” Fliss leant against her bed. “It’s s-so s-spooky!”

  “No it’s not Fliss, it’s exciting. Look at that!” I went to the far end of the room and pulled back the curtains. The night outside was thick and dark.

  “Look at the moon! It’s just—”

  But I couldn’t go on, because something had just flown past the window. It was something small and black, I was sure it was. I blinked hard. Maybe I was more tired than I thought and was imagining things. No, there was another one. Something with big wings. A shiver crept down my spine.

  “What’s up, Kenz?” Frankie demanded, coming to join me.

  “I-I’ve just seen something fly past the window,” I told her. “But I don’t know what it was.”

  Fliss started howling and Rosie and Lyndz ran to comfort her.

  “That’s enough, Kenny,” Frankie said sternly, snatching the curtains and drawing them together roughly. “You never know when to stop, do you? Fliss is already freaked out and you pull a stunt like that. Enough, OK?”

  “But…” I protested, but I could tell by the look on Frankie’s face that there was no point continuing.

  “I’m sorry Fliss, I guess we’re all a bit tired.” I leapt up on to her bed. “I didn’t mean to scare you – honest!”

  Fliss sniffed and smiled weakly.

  “Let’s push the beds closer together so it feels more cosy,” Lyndz suggested.

  “Good idea, Batman,” I agreed, and we heaved and shoved until they were all together at the end of the room nearest the door.

  “Come on, let’s get the bathroom stuff over with,” Rosie suggested. “I don’t know about you but I feel I could sleep for a week!”

  “Well don’t do that, Rosie-Posie,” I punched her lightly on the arm. “’Cos we’ve got a week of Scottish fun ahead of us, remember!”

  Now we might have had a week of excitement ahead of us, but that night was no picnic, I can tell you. Fliss was moaning and shivering on one side of me, and Lyndz was snoring her head off opposite. Fun it was not. We didn’t even have a midnight feast because we were so tired. I was glad when it was morning so we could start to explore.

  Over a mammoth breakfast of porridge and toast Uncle Bob told us, “Just you lassies make yourselves at home. It’s good to have some young blood in the house again.”

  “Do you reckon he’s a vampire then?” I whispered to Frankie.

  She just mouthed, “You idiot!” and whacked my leg under the table.

  “Just steer clear of the loch, it is very deep,” Uncle Bob continued. “And it might be sensible to come inside when it starts dropping dark – you can see all sorts of shapes lurking among the trees at dusk. I wouldn’ae want you to be scared now!”

  Fliss gasped and looked very anxious again.

  “He is joking Fliss,” Mum said firmly, frowning as Uncle Bob left the room. “But I don’t want you roaming about in the dark anyway, it can get very cold. Just go and amuse yourselves quietly and we’ll see you back here for lunch at one.”

  We all ran off, whooping and hollering. The first room we discovered was a library lined with books from floor to ceiling.

  “Wow!” breathed Frankie. “I didn’t think one person could own so many books!”

  Then we practised skidding down the hallway in our socks for ages, until Ben found us and wanted to join in.

  “’Snot fair!” he whimpered as Lyndz’s mum scooped him up and carried him away.

  “Sorry girls!” she called over her shoulder.

  “Your mum certainly seems a lot happier!” Rosie said.

  “I know!” Lyndz grinned. “She said she’d had the best night’s sleep she’s had in months
. And she’s really excited about helping to get everything ready for the party too. It’s great!”

  It certainly was great to see Lyndz looking so much happier too.

  Running upstairs we could hear music thumping out of Molly and Carli’s room.

  “We come all this way and they stay in their room listening to tapes!” I tutted. “They could do that anywhere. How could they pass up the chance to explore this great house?”

  “Where do you suppose this leads?” asked Fliss, turning a door handle. “It’s not one of the bedrooms.”

  She opened the door a crack and we peered into the darkness.

  “There are some stairs,” said Rosie excitedly. “It must lead to the attic!”

  We all looked at each other and shrieked, “Jeanne!” Then we burst out laughing.

  We must have told you about the time we stayed in a hotel in Paris and nearly scared ourselves stupid because we thought someone was being held prisoner in the attic?

  “I hope exploring up here’s not going to be as terrifying as last time!” Fliss shivered. “At least there’s no creepy maid this time. Boy, was that Chantal scary!”

  “Wasn’t she just!” Rosie laughed.

  We’d reached the top of the stairs and the attic looked pretty empty.

  “No prisoners here!” Frankie announced.

  “Only that blimming noise from Molly’s stupid tapes!” I snarled.

  “If we follow the noise we can work out where her room is!” Frankie suggested.

  “Excellent!”

  The attic itself was vast with not much in it at all, just a few piles of dusty papers and some empty packing cases. We crept silently along, occasionally stopping to listen to the noises below us.

  “Listen, I can hear Mum talking to Spike,” Lyndz whispered. “We must be above the boys’ room.”

  “And we’re definitely getting nearer to Molly’s room,” Fliss whispered. “The noise is getting louder.”

  We crept on a little further until we were standing directly over the music. The floor felt as though it was moving slightly from the vibrations.

  “I’m surprised she’s not deaf listening to it that loud!” Rosie murmured.

  “If we leap up and down she’ll probably think it’s part of the song!” Lyndz laughed.