Sari Sleepover

by Narinder Dhami

  Mr Patel started telling us about Hinduism and the gods, but it was a bit complicated. You really had to concentrate to understand it. I was getting very confused when Asha nudged me and whispered, “Don’t worry – I’m a Hindu, and I don’t really understand half of it either!”

  I turned to grin at her, and it was then that I got the shock of my life. Mrs Weaver was standing quite near me, and the M&Ms were standing either side of her (being major creeps as usual). Emma Hughes had her hand up by her neck, and she was touching something gold and red.

  I looked closer, and nearly fainted.

  Emma Hughes was wearing Mrs Chopra’s necklace!

  I stared and stared. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It just couldn’t be the same necklace – could it?

  After he’d told us all about the statues, Mr Patel announced that he was going to take us round to see the rest of the temple. As we all followed him, I deliberately moved a bit closer to the Queen so that I could get a better look.

  “Oi! What do you think you’re doing, Francesca Thomas!” Emma snapped as I accidentally trod on her toe.

  “Nothing,” I muttered, staring at the necklace so hard I went cross-eyed. It looked the same, but I couldn’t be sure. And if it was Mrs Chopra’s necklace, how on earth had Emma Hughes got hold of it?

  As everyone followed Mr Patel, I poked Kenny in the back.

  “Ow!” Kenny turned round crossly.

  “Move to the back!” I hissed at her. “Pass it on!”

  When everyone else had got the message, we all dropped back, so that we were a little way behind the others as Mr Patel led us down a long corridor to the temple kitchens.

  “What’s going on?” Rosie asked.

  “I’ve found the necklace!” I said dramatically.

  “What!” everyone said together, and Asha’s face lit up.

  “Where did you find it?” Kenny asked.

  “Oh, thank goodness!” That was Fliss.

  “Well done, Franks!” Rosie beamed.

  “Yeah, nice one, Frankie!” Lyndz added.

  Asha grinned and held out her hand. “Can I have it back then, please?”

  “That’s the difficult part,” I said. “Emma Hughes is wearing it!”

  Kenny, Rosie, Lyndz and Fliss stared at me as if I’d gone crazy. Asha just looked confused.

  “The Queen’s wearing Mrs Chopra’s necklace?” Fliss repeated, looking dazed.

  “Yep, it’s round her neck right at this very minute!” I whispered.

  “What’s the Queen got to do with this?” Asha asked, still looking puzzled.

  “The Queen’s what we call Emma Hughes,” Kenny reminded her. “Are you sure it’s the same necklace, Frankie?”

  “Not certain sure, no,” I admitted. “But it looks just the same. I thought Asha might be able to tell.”

  “Which one is Emma Hughes?” Asha said urgently.

  “The snooty-looking girl next to Mrs Weaver.” Rosie pointed her out. At the moment we could only see the Queen’s back, so we couldn’t get a good view of the necklace.

  “You know, she’s one of the M&Ms,” Lyndz added. “We told you about them in the playground this morning.”

  “I’d better go and find out if it is Auntie’s necklace before we do anything,” Asha said, and she hurried off to catch up with Emma.

  “I don’t get it.” Kenny was frowning. “If it’s Mrs Chopra’s necklace, how come it’s ended up round the Queen’s scrawny neck?”

  We all looked at each other. We hadn’t got a clue.

  “Maybe it isn’t,” I said, wondering if I’d imagined it all. “Maybe I’ve got Asha’s hopes up for nothing.”

  But then Asha came rushing back to us, beaming all over her face. “It’s Auntie’s necklace all right!” she gasped. “I’m sure of it!”

  “OK, so what do we do now?” Kenny asked, looking as if she was about to race up to Emma Hughes and rip the necklace off her there and then. Fliss and Lyndz obviously thought the same, because they both grabbed Kenny’s arms.

  “Don’t do anything silly, Kenny!” Lyndz warned her, also looking alarmed.

  “Yeah, but how are we going to get it back?” Kenny muttered crossly.

  Asha looked surprised. “I’ll just ask Emma to give it to me when the temple visit’s over,” she said.

  We all groaned and shook our heads.

  “No way!” Kenny said firmly.

  “You can’t do that, Asha!” I told her.

  “The Queen won’t give it back,” Fliss said, and Rosie and Lyndz nodded in agreement.

  “But it’s mine!” Asha wailed. “I mean, it’s my aunt’s. Emma can’t keep it!”

  “Believe me, she will,” I said grimly. “The Queen’d love the chance to get one over on us!”

  “Yeah, and you’re friends with us, so now you’re their enemy too!” Kenny pointed out.

  Asha looked worried again. “So what am I supposed to do?”

  “You could tell Mrs Weaver,” Rosie suggested. “Then Emma would have to give it back.”

  We all thought about that. We didn’t like going to Weaver or any other teachers in our battles with the M&Ms – we liked to sort it ourselves – but in this case it seemed to be the only thing we could do.

  “OK,” Asha said. “I’ll tell her when we get back on the coach.”

  “Wait till Emma Hughes isn’t around,” I warned her.

  “And the Queen had better not come anywhere near me,” Kenny muttered, giving Emma Hughes’ back a dirty look, “or I’ll jump on her and pull the necklace off!”

  When we’d visited the temple kitchens (which were enormous, and had the biggest cooking pots I’d ever seen!), the visit was over. Mr Patel saw us out and gave us each a lollipop, which was really nice of him. As we were walking back to the coach, we were right behind Mrs Weaver and the M&Ms. Kenny was pulling horrible faces at the back of Emma’s head, and we were all trying our hardest not to laugh.

  “That’s a rather pretty necklace you’re wearing, Emma.”

  I can tell you, we all stopped laughing pretty quickly when we heard Mrs Weaver say that!

  “Should you be wearing it to school, though? It looks quite expensive.”

  “Oh, it isn’t, Miss,” we heard the Queen say, “it’s only fake gold. My mum bought it for me from a shop in Leicester.”

  That gave us all a shock! I nearly swallowed my lollipop whole and started coughing.

  “Did you hear that?” Fliss whispered indignantly. “The nerve of that girl!”

  “Do you think she’s telling the truth?” Rosie asked doubtfully.

  “Huh! The Queen wouldn’t know the truth if it came up and bit her on the bottom!” Kenny snapped. “She’s obviously lying!”

  “It’s Auntie’s necklace, I’m sure of it,” Asha said. “I think…”

  “OK, we’ve got to be certain sure before we can do anything,” I said as we all climbed on to the coach. “We’ve got to find out if the Queen’s mum really did buy her the necklace or not.”

  “How do we do that?” Lyndz asked.

  Rosie grinned. “We just use our secret weapon!” she said.

  “What secret weapon?” we all chorused, looking puzzled.

  Rosie pointed down the coach at Alana Banana, who was sitting on her own in front of the Queen and the Goblin, sucking her lollipop.

  “Alana Banana!” she said triumphantly.

  When we got back to school it was lunchtime, so we all piled out of the coach into the playground. Luckily, the Queen and the Goblin went off into school with Mrs Weaver (being the suck-ups they are, they’d offered to stay in and tidy the bookshelves). So that meant we were able to get Alana Banana on her own.

  “Hey, Alana!” Kenny yelled, waving at her. Alana looked terrified and took a step backwards. Kenny has that effect on a lot of people!

  “Er… What do you want?” Alana asked nervously.

  “That necklace the Queen—I mean, Emma Hughes is wearing,” I said. “Do you know where
she got it from?”

  “She found it in the playground this morning,” Alana replied, and we all looked at each other.

  “So it was in my bag all the time!” Fliss whispered. “It must’ve fallen out!”

  “I thought she told Mrs Weaver her mum bought it for her,” Lyndz pointed out.

  Alana’s face fell. “Oh, yeah,” she muttered dozily. “That’s what I was supposed to say. I forgot.”

  “If Emma found it, why didn’t she give to Mrs Weaver?” Kenny asked crossly.

  Alana shrugged. “She liked it and she wanted to keep it,” she said and drifted off.

  “I’ll bet!” Kenny muttered furiously. “Trust the Queen to find a thousand-pound necklace and keep it!”

  “She’s got no right!” Asha said, looking very upset. “It doesn’t belong to her!”

  “Why didn’t we find it when we were going through my bag this morning?” Fliss groaned.

  “It might have fallen out when we weren’t looking,” Rosie pointed out.

  “Or it might have fallen out when you came into the playground, and you didn’t notice,” Lyndz said.

  “Or it might have fallen out of one of the pockets we hadn’t looked in when we were on our way into school,” I added.

  “Never mind all that now,” Asha said impatiently. “What are we going to do? I’ve got to get that necklace back somehow!”

  “Well, it’s no use telling Mrs Weaver now,” I pointed out glumly. “It’s our word against Emma’s.”

  “And Emma’d love that!” Fliss added.

  “I might as well go home and pack my things and go straight to boarding school!” Asha said sadly.

  “No, I don’t think so,” Kenny said slowly, a big grin starting to spread across her face. “I’ve got a plan!”

  Asha immediately looked interested, but the rest of us didn’t exactly jump up and down with joy. We all know what Kenny’s plans are like!

  “I hope there’s no violence involved, Kenny!” I said.

  “Yeah, we don’t want to get into trouble with Weaver,” Lyndz pointed out, “Or she might ban us from the Diwali Night!”

  “I’m not going to bash Emma Hughes, and we won’t get into any trouble,” Kenny assured us gleefully. “Trust me…”

  Whenever Kenny says Trust me, I always start to worry. But when she told us her plan this time, I have to admit it sounded pretty good. But would the M&Ms go for it? There was only one way to find out!

  “Let me do most of the talking,” Kenny instructed us as we went across the playground in search of the Gruesome Twosome.

  “OK,” we all agreed. We had to pull this off, because if it didn’t work, we didn’t have any other ideas. It all depended on Kenny being totally convincing.

  The M&Ms were sitting on the low wall at one side of the playground, and the Goblin was putting silver nail varnish on the Queen’s nails. They didn’t notice us coming towards them.

  “Right, act normal!” Kenny whispered to us as we got nearer to the M&Ms.

  We all started laughing and chatting and slapping each other on the back and ‘acting normal’. The Queen and the Goblin weren’t taking any notice of us at all – until Kenny suddenly stopped dead and stared at Emma Hughes and said “Oh, my God!” in a really horrified voice.

  “Eek!” The Goblin was concentrating so hard on painting Emma’s nails that she hadn’t noticed Kenny right behind them. She jumped and dropped the bottle of nail varnish which splattered on to the surface of the playground, and the Queen gave a screech of rage as silver nail varnish went all over her trendy trainers! Meanwhile, me, Asha and Rosie, who weren’t expecting Kenny to stop so suddenly, cannoned right into her.

  “Kenny, what do you think you’re doing?” I snapped crossly. I wasn’t pretending either, which made it look really realistic!

  “Just look what you’ve done, Laura McKenzie!” the Queen roared, trying to wipe nail varnish off her trainers and getting it all over her hands.

  “Sorry, Emma,” the Goblin muttered. “It was all her fault – she made me jump!”

  Kenny was ignoring them both, and staring at the necklace round the Queen’s neck as if she was mesmerised.

  “What’re you looking at?” Emma Hughes asked rudely.

  Kenny started slightly. “Nothing,” she said, still staring.

  “Come on, Kenny.” I took her arm. “Let’s go.”

  Kenny didn’t move. Instead she nudged me. “Have you seen that?” she whispered, nodding towards the necklace.

  I nodded. “Yeah, but it doesn’t matter. Come on.”

  “What’re you staring at my necklace for?” Emma Hughes asked suspiciously, finally twigging what Kenny was looking at.

  “Maybe they’re jealous of it,” Emily Berryman said in her gruff voice, and she and the Queen grinned at each other.

  Kenny shook her head firmly. “You’re joking!” she said. “I wouldn’t have that necklace back for a million pounds!”

  “Shut up, Kenny!” Rosie said urgently.

  “Yeah, don’t tell them, Kenny,” I warned her.

  “Come on, let’s go and sit on the grass,” Lyndz said, taking Kenny’s arm and trying to drag her away.

  “Tell me what?” the Queen snorted. Kenny’s plan was working! “Hang on a minute…” Emma’s eyes narrowed. “You said you wouldn’t have this necklace back.”

  “Do you mean the necklace was yours?” the Goblin asked, catching on at last.

  Kenny nodded, looking down at the ground and shuffling her feet nervously. She was acting so brilliantly, she deserved an Oscar!

  “Come on, Kenny, you don’t have to tell them anything!” Fliss said.

  The Queen had stuck her nose in the air, looking as if she thought she might catch some nasty disease from Kenny’s necklace.

  “I don’t believe you, Laura McKenzie!” she snapped. “You’ve never worn a necklace in your life!”

  “My grandmother left it to me when she died,” Kenny said sadly, and I smothered a grin. Both of Kenny’s grans were alive and well, but the Queen didn’t know that! “I don’t really like jewellery, but at first I thought it was quite pretty –” she pretended to shiver at this point “– until strange things started to happen…”

  “What strange things?” Emily Berryman butted in. I could see that the Queen was glad she had, because she was dying to know what Kenny was going on about. But she wouldn’t have asked for a million quid!

  “It’s bad luck!” Kenny muttered as Lyndz gave her arm another tug.

  “Come on, Kenny!” she said impatiently. “If Emma wants to wear the necklace, that’s up to her!”

  “Bad luck?” the Goblin demanded gruffly. “What do you mean?”

  Kenny shook her head. “I can’t tell you,” she sighed. “Just be careful, that’s all.”

  “You’re winding us up!” the Queen snapped, but she sounded less certain. “What sort of bad luck?”

  “All sorts.” Kenny shrugged. “From the moment I got that necklace, everything went wrong. I got into trouble with my mum and dad every day and I didn’t do well at school any more, but that was just the start of it.”

  “The day you got it, you broke your finger, didn’t you?” I chimed in. Kenny had actually broken her finger a few months ago, swinging from a tree in the McKenzies’ garden, so that tied in pretty well!

  Kenny nodded. “Yeah, and I did wear it once for my dad’s birthday meal. That was the time I fell down the stairs and sprained my ankle.”

  The M&Ms were by now hanging on Kenny’s every word. The Goblin’s mouth was wide open, and even though Emma was still trying to look sneering and superior, she was listening hard to what Kenny was saying.

  “But the worst thing was –” Kenny lowered her voice “– that whenever I put the necklace down, it was never in the same place when I went back to it!”

  “What do you mean?” Emily Berryman asked, her eyes as round as dinner plates.

  “Well, one time I put it on my mum’s dressing tab
le, and when I went back for it, it was on my bed,” Kenny explained softly, looking absolutely terrified. I can tell you, she was making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I knew it was all a story! “Then another time I left it on the TV and it turned up on the kitchen table. It was spooky!”

  “Maybe someone just moved it,” the Queen said, trying to scoff but not quite managing it.

  Kenny shook her head. “Once it moved when I was in bed,” she said in a hollow voice. “I’d left it on my desk, but when I got up to go to the loo, it had moved to my chest of drawers!”

  “That’s really spooky!” Emily Berryman breathed. “Isn’t it, Emma?”

  “I don’t believe a word of it!” the Queen snapped, but she was staring down at the necklace as if it was going to strangle her all of a sudden.

  “That’s why I threw it away this morning,” Kenny said solemnly. “And if you’ve got any sense, Emma, you’ll do the same!”

  We all held our breath as the Queen frowned. And who knows what would have happened next if dopey Alana Banana hadn’t popped up behind us.

  “Why are you lot still going on about that necklace?” she wanted to know.

  I glanced at Kenny and raised my eyebrows in desperation. Alana Banana was going to give the whole game away!

  The Queen immediately looked dead suspicious. “What do you mean, Alana?”

  “Kenny was asking me about it before,” Alana replied. “Where you’d got it from and all that.”

  The Queen gave us a filthy stare. “There’s something funny going on here!” she frowned.

  “Yeah, there is,” the Goblin chimed in. “Why did you pretend you’d only just noticed that Emma was wearing the necklace if you were asking Alana about it before?”

  For once Kenny was speechless, which was a first! Luckily the bell for the end of lunchtime rang out, and we all legged it, leaving the Queen and the Goblin staring after us suspiciously.

  “I was so close!” Kenny groaned as we went into school. “I’d almost convinced the Queen to throw it away, and then Alana Banana had to go and stick her big fat nose in!”