Sari Sleepover

by Narinder Dhami

  “No, Kenny, we want to win fair and square,” Lyndz said firmly. “Don’t we, girls?”

  “Nah, we just want to win!” I joked.

  Mrs Chopra opened the door. Today she was wearing a deep purple sari with gold flowers, and she had a purple and gold bindi to match. The sari was so cool, even cooler than the turquiose one. I was definitely going to ask her if I could borrow it for the Diwali / Bonfire Night at school next week!

  “Come in, girls,” she said with a smile. “Asha’s arrived, and she’s dying to meet you!”

  I’d never been in the Chopras’ house before, so I was well interested in nosing around. It wasn’t that different from any other house, though, except that there were Indian paintings on the walls, and these big, carved wooden elephants in the hall which I really loved.

  “Oh, that’s funny.” Mrs Chopra stared round the empty living room in surprise. “I thought Asha was in here. She must have gone upstairs, I’ll just go and fetch her.” And she went out.

  “What are we going to do if Asha doesn’t speak English?” Fliss asked.

  “We’ll just use sign language like this,” Kenny said, waving her arms about and nearly taking Rosie’s eye out in the process. “Hello –” she bowed. “I’m Kenny!” And she pointed at herself.

  “Yeah, that’s OK,” Rosie said, “But what if you want to say something complicated like Can you help us with our rangoli patterns?”

  “Or Can I borrow your bindis?” Fliss added.

  “Don’t worry,” said a voice from behind us, “I speak English perfectly!”

  We all nearly jumped out of our skin! A girl had popped up from behind the sofa. She had short, cropped black hair, and she wore combat pants, a T-shirt and big gold earrings. It was Asha!

  “What are you doing behind there?” I gasped when I’d got over the shock. Asha wasn’t a bit like what we were expecting!

  Asha shrugged. “Waiting to see if I liked you or not before I met you!” she grinned.

  “What a cheek!” Kenny said, but she was grinning too.

  “It’s so great to meet you all!” said Asha when I’d finished introducing everyone. “I thought I was going to be stuck here with my Auntie and Uncle, and no friends!”

  “Don’t you like your aunt and uncle?” Lyndz asked.

  “Oh they’re OK,” Asha admitted. “But they’re not exactly cool.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll look after you!” Kenny said, slapping Asha on the back. “You can even come to our sleepover, if you like. It’s at Frankie’s house tomorrow night.”

  Asha’s face lit up. “Oh, I’d love to come! Me and my friends have sleepovers back home all the time.” Then her face dropped again. “But I’m not sure Auntie will let me.”

  “Why not?” Fliss wanted to know.

  Asha grinned. “Because my mum told her to keep an eye on me! I kind of got into a bit of trouble at school before I left…”

  “What sort of trouble?” Lyndz asked.

  “I played a joke on the school principal.” Asha winked at us. “I put powdered chilli in his tea – it nearly blew his mouth off!”

  “Oh, cool!” Kenny exclaimed.

  I could see already that Kenny and Asha were going to get on really well. I liked her too – she seemed like a real laugh!

  “That wasn’t the first trick I’ve pulled at school,” Asha admitted. “And Mum says I’ve got to behave myself while I’m staying with Auntie, or it’s boarding school for me when I get home!”

  “Oh, gross!” Fliss said sympathetically, and we all nodded.

  “So I mustn’t get into any trouble while I’m here,” Asha went on solemnly. “Or I’m dead!”

  “Don’t worry,” I grinned. “We’ll look after you and keep you straight!”

  The others thought that was hilarious, and roared with laughter.

  “Yeah, ’cos we’re never in any trouble ourselves!” Kenny spluttered.

  “Oh, thanks a lot!” Asha said gratefully, flinging her arm round my shoulders in a friendly way.

  Unfortunately, at the same time, she also knocked over an expensive-looking vase which stood on the table next to us. Luckily, though, it teetered a bit before falling over, and Kenny was able to catch it before it hit the floor with a fantastic goalkeeper save.

  “Oh, thank goodness!” Asha breathed. “Auntie would have gone mad if I’d broken that! By the way, I forgot to warn you – I’m a bit clumsy.”

  Just as Kenny was replacing the vase carefully on the table, Mrs Chopra walked in.

  “Oh, Asha, there you are,” she said. “And I see you’ve met the girls.”

  We all nodded. But I bet I wasn’t the only one of the Sleepover Club who was wondering just how difficult it was going to be to keep Asha out of trouble for the next month!

  “Hey, Izzy, what do you think?”

  I bent over my little sister, who was propped up on the sofa, to show her my best bindi. It’s kind of tear-drop shaped and purple-coloured round the outside with gold and black in the middle. It was Saturday afternoon, and I was waiting for the rest of the Sleepover Club, plus Asha, to arrive.

  Izzy grinned and gurgled and tried to grab the bindi off my forehead. I could still hardly believe I’d got a sister after all this time. I mean, I kept going on and on to my parents about having another baby, and they always said no, then all of a sudden, it happened! Why are parents always so annoying like that? Still, at least the baby was a girl – I wouldn’t have liked a whole load of smelly old brothers like Lyndz.

  “Be careful, Frankie,” my mum said, coming in from the kitchen. “Keep those bindis away from Izzy, or she might put them in her mouth.”

  “Don’t worry, I will!” I said. I moved away from Izzy and she immediately began to bawl. My dad says she’s got the Thomas lungs all right – my mum and dad are both lawyers, and we can all talk for England.

  “So what’s Asha like?” my mum asked, picking Izzy up and rocking her.

  “She’s cool!” I said enthusiastically. “But her mum says she mustn’t get into any trouble while she’s in England or she’ll get sent to boarding school when she gets home.”

  My mum rolled her eyes. “So has anyone warned her about the Sleepover Club?”

  “Oh, Mum!” I said with dignity. “We promised Asha we’d look out for her and keep her out of trouble!”

  “This I’ve got to see!” my mum muttered as the doorbell rang, and I charged down the hall to the front door.

  Fliss, Lyndz and Rosie were outside with their sleepover bags.

  “Hi!” I said. “Come in.”

  “Are Asha and Kenny here yet?” Fliss asked eagerly. She was just dying to get her hands on Asha’s collection of bindis and bangles!

  “Not yet,” I said. But just as I was about to close the door, Dr McKenzie’s car drew up, and Asha and Kenny dived out.

  “They’re here!” Fliss squealed.

  Asha and Kenny got their sleepover bags out of the car. Then another bag appeared. Then another. And another. In fact, there were so many carrier bags stuffed full with something or other, that Dr McKenzie had to help Kenny and Asha carry them up the path!

  “What’s all this?” I asked, staring at the bags.

  Asha shrugged. “I’ve brought some dressing-up clothes,” she said. “And some Indian jewellery and some bindis – oh, and some henna so I can do some mehndi patterns for you.”

  “What?” Rosie asked.

  “You know, those red patterns on your hands,” Fliss said breathlessly. She was looking well excited, and so was I. I could see loads of interesting-looking materials and fabrics sticking out of the carrier bags in all these fantastic colours!

  “Come on, let’s go up to my room,” I said, leading the way.

  We all charged upstairs. My bedroom’s pretty big – but it seemed a bit more squashed with Asha there as well. We didn’t mind though – not when we saw what she’d brought with her.

  “These are some of my Indian clothes,” Asha said, tipping u
p one of the carrier bags. A whole lot of pink, purple, gold and blue floaty clothes and scarves fell out, as well as a pile of gold bangles and earrings. “These things with the top and trousers and matching scarf are called shalwar kameez.”

  Fliss had already pounced on a pale pink shalwar kameez with silver embroidery and a matching scarf sprinkled with silver stars, while the rest of us were busy rooting through the other bags.

  “Hey, look – I’m a magician!” Kenny hooted. She was pulling a very, very long piece of green sari material out of one of the carrier bags. It seemed to go on for ever!

  “You don’t wear saris, do you, Asha?” Lyndz asked. “I thought only the women did.”

  “Nah, I don’t,” Asha grinned. “I’d be tripping over all the time! That’s one of my aunt’s.”

  “Oh, so Mrs Chopra’s lent us some dressing-up stuff?” Rosie said. “That’s really cool of her!”

  “Oh, look!” Fliss squealed. She’d just found a bag full of nothing but gold jewellery, and she’d tipped it out on to the bed.

  “Wow!” Kenny’s not into girly things at all, but even she was impressed by the glittering pile of gold. “That looks really expensive!”

  “Don’t worry, it’s all fake!” Asha replied casually.

  “This is nice.” Fliss pulled a gold chain set with red stones out of the pile. “Can I wear it, Asha?”

  “’Course you can!” Asha said, shrugging her shoulders. “Wear whatever you like.”

  “We’ve got to have a fashion show!” I said. I’d already nicked a deep purple shalwar kameez with gold embroidery and a matching gold scarf for myself. “Come on, let’s get changed.”

  Even Kenny, who wasn’t normally up for a fashion show, didn’t moan too much today. We all got dressed up – me and Fliss in the purple and pink shalwar kameez, Rosie in a lilac-coloured one and Asha in a fantastic bright red one. Kenny, of course, wanted to be different and tried to put on Mrs Chopra’s green sari. She made a complete mess of it, naturally.

  “You look like a parcel that hasn’t been wrapped up properly!” Rosie said with a grin.

  “Here, let me do it,” Asha said, between giggles. She showed us how to tuck the sari material into the matching underskirt, and then wind it round and round.

  “Hey, Asha, is it supposed to be this tight?” Kenny complained as Asha carried on tucking and winding. “I can hardly breathe!”

  “It has to be tight or it won’t stay up,” Asha said calmly, but she turned and winked at us. We all tried not to laugh.

  “There you go, Kenny!” Asha flung the last section of the sari up and over Kenny’s shoulder. “Now walk across the room so I can make sure I’ve put it on properly.”

  Kenny tried to take a step forward, tottered and collapsed in a heap on my bed. “It’s too tight! I can’t walk!” she grumbled, as the rest of us fell about.

  “Well, maybe I did put it on a bit too tight!” Asha said with a grin, and Kenny’s eyes widened.

  “You did that on purpose!” she gasped, and then she began to laugh too.

  We put on a fashion show in the dining room for my mum and Izzy, and even my dad stopped watching the sport on telly and came to have a look. The bit they liked best was when we all had to help Kenny to get down the stairs in her sari. Even when the fashion show was over and we sat down to watch a video, we carried on wearing our Indian clothes. Asha had brought a Hindi film for us to watch – we didn’t understand a word of it, but she kept telling us what was going on. I liked the songs and the dancing best – the costumes were just excellent.

  “What’s it like in India, Asha?” Rosie asked when we all went upstairs to get changed again. It was time for tea, and my mum insisted that we change back into our ordinary clothes in case we spilt anything.

  “Yeah, what kind of house do you live in?” Fliss asked. I think she thought Asha might live in a mud hut!

  “Oh, we’ve got a house in Delhi,” Asha said casually. “It’s pretty big. We’ve got eight bedrooms and a swimming pool. And lots of servants.”

  “Wow!” That made Fliss’s eyes open wide. “I thought people in India were poor!”

  Asha grinned. “Not everyone, although a lot of people are very poor.” She looked a bit more serious. “I want to be a doctor like my uncle when I grow up, so I can help them.”

  “Is Delhi a town or a village?” Fliss asked. Geography’s not her best subject.

  “It’s a huge city,” Asha replied. “We live there most of the time, but sometimes we go to stay with my aunt in Bombay, or my gran in the village where my dad was born.”

  “What’s the village like?” Lyndz asked.

  “Excellent!” Asha grinned. “I can go out on my own into the sugar-cane fields, and there are loads of animals around.”

  “Does your Gran’s house have a loo or electric lights?” Fliss asked, her eyes round.

  “’Course it does!” Asha screeched with laughter. “She’s even got a TV! And the house has got a flat roof where you can sit and watch the monkeys playing in the trees and the peacocks walking about.”

  “It sounds great,” Kenny said, unwinding herself from the sari bit by bit. “What’s the weather like? Is it hot all the time?”

  “Not all the time.” Asha shook her head. “We have the monsoons, then it rains even more than it does here.”

  “My big sister Tiffany is talking about going to Goa with her mates next year,” Rosie told her.

  “Goa’s great!” Asha said enthusiastically. “The beaches are fab!”

  We were all back in our own clothes now, apart from Fliss who was hanging on to the red and gold necklace.

  “Can I keep the necklace on, Asha?” Fliss asked. Asha nodded. Fliss’d taken a real shine to that necklace. I reckoned Asha would have to fight her for it to get it back when they went home tomorrow!

  After tea we watched the rest of the video, and then Asha painted some mehndi patterns on our hands. We’d tried out henna ink tattoos before, but I’d never seen real henna. It was a bit gross, kind of like a brown mud when Asha mixed it up. When Fliss saw it, she frrrreaked.

  “I’m not putting that on my hands!” she wailed.

  “It’s OK,” Asha told her. “When it’s dried, you wash it off and then you get the lovely red pattern underneath.”

  Fliss didn’t look that convinced, but she let Asha paint all these complicated patterns on her hands and fingers with the brown mud. So did the rest of us, except for Kenny who wanted LCFC on both her hands. Then we sat around playing Pictionary while we waited for the henna to dry. When we finally washed the henna off, even Fliss was thrilled – we had fantastic red decorations all over our hands.

  “This has been one of our best sleepovers ever!” Fliss said happily as we all piled into my bedroom at the end of the evening. We’d changed into our pyjamas, and were trying to have a quiet pillow fight so that we didn’t wake Izzy up. Then my mum stuck her head round the door.

  “Into bed now, girls,” she said firmly. So we all dived in – me and Kenny in my double bed, Asha and Fliss in the bunks and Rosie and Lyndz in their sleeping bags on the floor. As soon as my mum had turned the light off and gone, though, we sat up and put our torches on as usual.

  “What shall we do first?” Rosie asked.

  “Midnight feast!” said Kenny.

  “Tell stories,” Lyndz suggested.

  “Practise our new dance routine,” Fliss said eagerly. We’re always making up dance routines – sometimes Mrs Weaver lets us do them in assembly, and then we feel like real stars!

  “I can teach you some Indian dancing if you like,” Asha said. “I go to classes back home.”

  “Oh, excellent!” Fliss said, but I shook my head reluctantly.

  “Not now, Mum’ll go ballistic if we wake Izzy up.”

  “Eating’s nice and quiet!” Kenny pointed out, so we had our midnight feast instead. Asha had brought samosas and pakoras and little onion bhajis, which were fab, and made a change from our boring old cris
ps and chocolate biscuits. She’s also brought these sweet things called jelabi, which looked as if they were made of orange plastic, but tasted great. They were so sweet, though, that after eating three of them, one after the other, Fliss began to look a bit green.

  “I don’t think I want to eat any more!” she gulped.

  “Hey, Fliss, you’ve still got that necklace on,” I said as I ate my third onion bhaji. “It looks a bit funny with your teddy-bear pyjamas!”

  “Can I keep it till tomorrow, Asha?” Fliss asked. “I really like it.”

  Asha shrugged. “Sure,” she said. “Just don’t forget to give it back to me before you go.”

  You know what? That was when everything started to go wrong…

  Not at first, though. At first we all thought it had been a brilliant sleepover. Kenny said the next morning that it was one of the best sleepovers we’d ever had, and everyone agreed. We hadn’t even got into trouble, which is always a bonus! Everyone had gone home that morning, and now I was tidying up my bedroom. That was when the phone rang.

  “Frankie!” my mum called from downstairs. “It’s for you.”

  I came out on to the landing. “Who is it?”

  “Asha,” my mum replied. “You can use the phone in our bedroom if you want.”

  I rushed across the landing into my parents’ room, bounced on to their bed and picked up the extension.

  “Hi, Asha!” I said, and heard the click as my mum put other phone down. “Hello?”

  For a minute I thought there was no-one there. Then I heard a very faint whisper at the other end.

  “Asha?” I said, puzzled. “Can you hear me OK?”

  Another whisper. I was getting a bit worried by this time.

  “Asha!” I yelled at full volume. “Are you there or not?”

  “All right, all right, I can hear you!” Asha whispered crossly. “Keep your voice down! I don’t want my aunt to know I’m ringing you!”

  I laughed. “Why not? What’ve you done?”