So everything turned out all right in the end, didn’t it? There aren’t many sleepovers when that happens. I’m well in with Mum because nothing disastrous happened at the sleepover (or so she thinks), and also because we’ve persuaded my dad not to buy a camcorder. And I’m going on holiday. Excellent!
Look, that’s my house at the end of the street. Why don’t you come home and watch Mrs Doubtfire with us? My dad’s making the famous Thomas pizza, and we’ve got popcorn and lemonade too. And I know you won’t say a word to my parents about what I just told you.
Wait a minute, though.
See that red car parked outside our house?
Do you know whose car that is?
I do.
It’s Fliss’s mum’s car.
Panic stations! What do you think Fliss’s mum is doing at my house? Yes, she knows my mum, and yes, she does call round sometimes, but it’s a bit of a coincidence that she’s calling round the night after a sleepover. Especially a sleepover when something completely drastic happened…
Maybe I left something at Fliss’s house after the sleepover, and her mum’s come to return it? No, I know I didn’t. I remember unpacking everything.
So what’s Fliss’s mum doing at my house? It must be something important if she’s come round to see my parents in person, rather than just phoning up. Something important or something serious…
What did you say? No, that can’t be right. Fliss couldn’t be so stupid… I mean, she said she was going to wait a few minutes until her mum was asleep again, and then she was going to go downstairs and get the camcorder back. I’m sure she wouldn’t have forgotten. And if she’d got the camcorder, she definitely wouldn’t have forgotten to take our tape out and put a new blank tape in. Fliss is too scared of getting into trouble with her mum to have forgotten to make sure we were in the clear.
But then again, we were all really tired, including Fliss… Maybe she was planning to go downstairs, and she just fell asleep without meaning to? Kenny and I should have checked this morning when we were getting ready to leave, but we were in a hurry to go home and Fliss didn’t even wake up. Oh no. Do you think that the camcorder was still hidden behind the cushion this morning?
No, I don’t believe it. Fliss must have gone downstairs after the rest of us were asleep. We just didn’t hear her, that’s all. Come on, we don’t have to be nervous. Let’s just go home calmly and sensibly, and find out exactly what Fliss’s mum is doing here.
Quick, get behind that tree! Mrs Sidebotham’s coming out of our house right now!
Did she see us? No, she’s going over to her car. Can you see her face? What does she look like? Normal? Happy? Sad? Or just plain, downright FURIOUS? There’s only one way to find out. I’ll have to go home.
But you’ll come with me, won’t you? It’s probably better if you don’t come in at first, just in case mum and dad are waiting to tear me to bits. But I’m sure they won’t be. I hope.
Here we are then. Why don’t you go and wait by the living-room window, then you can see what’s going on? If everything’s OK, I’ll give you a thumbs-up. Wish me luck!
The door opens. It’s my mum.
“Oh, it’s you, Frankie. You were a long time.”
I look at my mum closely. She seems OK. She’s not red in the face, and she’s not glaring at me. That’s a good sign.
“Sorry,” I say. “It took me a really long time to choose a video.”
“What did you get?” my mum asks.
“Mrs Doubtfire.” I hold the video out to show her. “I know we’ve seen it before, but you liked it so much, I thought I’d get it out again.” Crawl, crawl.
“Good idea.” My mum opens the door wider, and I go inside. But hang on a minute, we’re not in the clear yet.
As soon as I see my dad pacing up and down the living room, I know that something’s not quite right. My dad’s not as good as my mum at keeping a straight face. I think you’d better stay outside the window for the moment. I’ve got a feeling things could start getting nasty in here.
“What video did you get, Frankie?” my dad asks in a voice that tells me something not very nice is about to happen.
“Mrs Doubtfire,” I say cautiously. No use going looking for trouble, as my grandma always says, let it come and look for you. And, boy, was it coming to look for me right now.
“Oh, Mrs Doubtfire’s a brilliant film,” my mum says. “But we’ve got an even better video than Mrs Doubtfire to show you.”
“Oh?” I say, with a sinking heart. Now I know exactly why Fliss’s mum had come round to our house.
“Sit down.” says my dad.
“Well, actually, I don’t feel much like watching a video right now,” I start babbling nervously. “I think I’ll go up to my room—”
“Sit down, Frankie,” my mum says grimly.
I sit.
My dad picks up the remote control, and turns the TV on. A very familiar scene fills the TV screen. That’s Kenny, Rosie and me, sitting in a row on Mrs Sidebotham’s cream-coloured sofa. Then the camera swings round a little jerkily to show Fliss coming out of the kitchen, beaming all over her face and carrying a tray of orange squash and biscuits. We all watch in silence as Fliss puts the tray down on the coffee table, and then picks up the plate of biscuits. She turns to offer the biscuits to Rosie, and there, just at the very side of the picture, we can see Kenny’s fingers dip into the jug of orange squash, and pull out some ice cubes. Then we see Kenny jump up and tip the ice down Fliss’s pyjama jacket.
I have to say that Lyndz would make a great film director when she grows up. She had managed to catch Fliss’s horrified face perfectly, right in the middle of the screen, followed by the plate cracking against Rosie’s chin. Then the camera had followed me quickly as I jumped up onto the back of the sofa, and it had captured my fall to the carpet in every detail. There is just one more shot of me in a heap on the floor with the headless figure of the china lady next to me, and then the picture goes black. That must have been when Lyndz switched the camera off.
No one says anything. Even though I know I’m now in deep doom forever, I just want to laugh my head off. I’ve never seen anything as funny as that video, not even on You’ve Been Framed. It’s a classic. But I dare not even smile. If I do, I know I’ll be in even bigger trouble.
When it’s finally over, my dad turns off the TV.
“I think you’d better go to your room,” says my mum. “We’ll talk about this later when you’ve had time to think over what you’ve done.”
Oh no, I hate it when they do that. Why can’t they just give me my punishment now? At least then I know what I’m letting myself in for. But I’d better not argue.
I go quietly out of the room. Look, I think you’d better go. I’m going to be grounded for at least a year, so there’s no point in you hanging around any more. Still, it was almost worth being grounded just to see that video. It’s a shame we’ll never get to send it to You’ve Been Framed now. I bet we would have got on TV, no problem.
As I’m going upstairs, I hear funny noises coming from the living-room. So I tiptoe back down, to find out what’s going on. I put my ear to the door, and listen.
Guess what?
My mum and dad are laughing their heads off!
“Frankie and the others are going to have to pay for that figure they broke,” my mum is saying.
My dad is too busy laughing to reply for a few seconds.
“Come on, let’s watch it again. I’ve never seen anything as hilarious in my whole life!”
I hear the sound of the video being rewound, and then the sound of my mum and dad laughing again.
“That’s just a classic,” says my dad. “You know what? It’s a shame we can’t send this to You’ve Been Framed. I’m sure they’d show it.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Parents! Aren’t they enough to make you sick?
But maybe that means I’ll get off without being grounded for the rest of my life.
> Wish me luck.
See ya!
Have you been invited to all these Sleepovers?
The Sleepover Club at Frankie’s
The Sleepover Club at Felicity’s
The Sleepover Club at Lyndsey’s
The Sleepover Club at Rosie’s
The Sleepover Club at Kenny’s
Sleepover Kit List
1. Sleeping bag
2. Pillow
3. Pyjamas (nice ones for the video)
4. Slippers
5. Toothbrush, toothpaste, soap etc.
6. Towel
7. Teddy
8. A creepy story
9. Yummy food for a midnight feast
10. Torch
11. Hairbrush
12. Hair things, like a bobble or hairband, if you need them
13. Clean knickers and socks
14. Sleepover diary and membership card
15. Best clothes for looking cool on video!
Copyright
First published in Great Britain by Collins in 1997
Collins is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 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, plots
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 9780007401017
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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Starring the Sleepover Club Page 6
