Vive le Sleepover Club!

by Narinder Dhami

  But we could hardly believe what happened next! Kenny must’ve decided to try and get Danni’s autograph quickly before the filming started and before the people with walkie-talkies noticed her. Anyway, she rushed forward, tripped over a cable and fell SPLAT! on the ground… right in front of Danni Hart.

  Danni was so surprised, she jumped backwards and bumped into one of the crew, who was holding a plastic cup of coffee. It went everywhere!

  “I’m soaked!” Danni Hart screamed, her face red with fury. “Look at my jacket!”

  “Oh no! Poor Kenny!” Fliss gasped.

  We all watched, horrified, except for the Queen and the Goblin. Of course, they were in fits and holding on to each other for support. Meanwhile, poor old Kenny was struggling to her feet, looking completely embarrassed.

  “What on earth is this idiot playing at?” Danni yelled, glaring at Kenny. “Someone get her out of here!”

  Suddenly something flashed past us like a bolt of lightning. Mrs Weaver was on the warpath!

  “Laura McKenzie! Get over here this minute!”

  Mrs Weaver raced over to the film crew, took Kenny by the arm and began apologising to everyone. We couldn’t hear what she was saying though, because Danni Hart was still yelling. I was going off her fast. She didn’t seem very nice at all!

  “Looks like we’ve won, Emily!” Emma giggled triumphantly. “High five!”

  “Oh, shut up!” Frankie snapped as the Queen and the Goblin slapped palms. “It’s not over yet!”

  But it was. A grim-faced Mrs Weaver was marching a sheepish Kenny back over to the queue. “Stand here where I can keep an eye on you, Laura,” she said in a freezing tone. “And if there’s any more of this sort of behaviour, you’ll spend tomorrow at the hotel writing lines!”

  “Yeah, write ‘I must not spill coffee over Danni Hart’ a thousand times!” the Queen whispered to the Goblin, and they both sniggered.

  “Are you OK, Kenny?” Lyndz whispered as Mrs Weaver stomped off to buy our tickets for the Tower.

  “Yeah, I just feel like a prize prat!” Kenny groaned. “And Danni Hart was really gross – I don’t even want her autograph now!”

  “Yeah, she was a bit over the top, wasn’t she?” I agreed.

  “She went mad!” Kenny said, her face red with embarrassment. “I mean, it was only one tiny little cup of coffee!”

  “Oh, Kenny,” Emma called silkily “I’ll have those Leicester City autographs as soon as we get back home, then.”

  “Hang on just one little minute, Rat-Face!” Kenny glared at her. “I haven’t given up yet!”

  The Queen and the Goblin stared at her, and so did the Sleepover Club.

  “What are you talking about?” Emma screeched. “You didn’t get the autograph, so we win!”

  “Yeah, but I still might.” Kenny looked even more determined. “I heard some of the crew talking, and it turns out they’re going to be filming in some more of the tourist places in Paris. So we might see them again!”

  “Oh, that’s totally stupid!” Emily began indignantly. “We won the bet fair and square!”

  But the Queen nudged her. “No, if Kenny wants to keep the bet going, that’s cool,” she said with an evil smile. “But there are a few more conditions. If you don’t get it by the time we go home, I want those autographs, and your new Leicester City shirt!”

  “Done!” Kenny snapped immediately.

  Frankie, Lyndz, Fliss and I groaned. Kenny was getting in deeper by the minute! But then I had a brilliant idea. It was obvious! We could forge Danni Hart’s signature! Emma would never know…

  “And don’t even think about forging Danni Hart’s signature!” the Queen went on. “We want to see you get the autograph in person - or it has to be on an official Westwood Street publicity photo!”

  Kenny nodded airily. “You’re gonna lose this one, Emma!” she said confidently as Mrs Weaver ushered us into the Tower.

  “Kenny, are you crazy?” Frankie hissed as we began to climb the stairs. “You’ve played right into Emma’s hands!”

  “Yeah, Mrs Weaver won’t let you go within a hundred metres of the filming!” Fliss pointed out. “Even if we do see them again!”

  “And the film crew won’t let you get near Danni Hart either,” Lyndz added.

  “And Danni Hart will probably run off if she sees you coming,” I said.

  “Oh, shut up, you lot!” Kenny snapped. “I’m not going to let Emma Hughes get one over on me. It’ll be fine!”

  Then she looked down and gasped. “Hey, look at this – we can see right down to the ground!”

  It was a pretty weird experience going up the Eiffel Tower. The staircases were wide and sturdy, but you weren’t inside anything – only within the open framework of the Tower. We went up to the highest floor in a lift, and the view was awesome! Even Mrs Weaver stopped looking grim, and started to have a good time. Then we went down to the lower floors to look at the shops. There was a Post Office too, and we all sent postcards of the Tower home to our mums and dads. Frankie even sent one to her baby sister Isobel, even though Izzy’s only three months old!

  “That was fantastic!” Lyndz sighed as we all headed back to the hotel, clutching our souvenirs.

  “I hope my mum likes this,” I said, looking at the miniature model of the Eiffel Tower I’d bought.

  “I’ve got some French chocolate for our sleepover tonight,” Fliss then announced, showing us an outsized bar.

  “Excellent!” Frankie said. “Let’s see what we can get tonight when we have dinner.”

  “We could nick some French bread and some cheese and butter,” Lyndz suggested. “What d’you think, Kenny?”

  “Huh?” Kenny was deep in thought. “Yeah. Fine. Whatever.”

  “You’re worrying about getting that autograph, aren’t you?” Frankie said as we went into the hotel.

  “Nah, ’course not!” But we could tell Kenny was just putting a brave face on it. “I’ll get it, no problem.”

  “Yeah, ‘course you will!” we all agreed, but we couldn’t help pulling faces at each other behind Kenny’s back. It wasn’t going to be easy…

  But when we went upstairs to our room, we had something else to worry about. As Frankie unlocked the door, she gave a little scream.

  “What’s that?”

  “What’s what?” we chorused, all trying to push our way into the room at once. But Frankie got in first, and rushed over to her bed. There was a piece of paper lying on her pillow. It was a note.

  “Help!” the note read.

  “I am being kept a prisoner in the attic!”

  We all stood there staring at the note for about two minutes in silence, our eyes nearly dropping out of our heads. We could hardly believe what we were reading.

  “It can’t be real!” Lyndz said at last. “It must be a joke!”

  “But who wrote it?” Frankie asked, frowning at the piece of paper.

  “Oh, it’s obvious, isn’t it?” Kenny snorted. “It must be the M&Ms!”

  Fliss was shaking her head. “No, it couldn’t have been. The note wasn’t here when we went out this morning and locked the door.”

  “And we’ve been out all day and so have they,” Lyndz pointed out.

  “Yeah, there’s no way it could have been them,” I agreed.

  “It must be real then!” Fliss gasped. “Who do you think is up there?”

  We all stared fearfully up at the bedroom ceiling as if we were expecting someone to drop through it like Father Christmas! It was weird to think of someone being held prisoner right over our heads.

  “I told you I heard something up in the attic last night!” Frankie reminded us breathlessly. “It must have been that person, whoever it is!”

  “I bet it’s something to do with that spooky maid, Chantal.” Fliss shuddered. “She looks like something out of a horror film – maybe she’s a witch!”

  “Or a vampire,” Kenny suggested, baring her teeth. “And the attic’s where she keeps her
victims! We’ve got to go and find out.”

  “But we’re not allowed up those stairs,” I reminded her.

  “Oh, knickers to that!” Kenny snorted. “Of course they don’t want anyone going up there if they’re keeping someone prisoner! But that’s not going to stop us, is it?”

  “Well, actually…” Fliss began, looking absolutely terrified, but she stopped when Kenny glared at her.

  “Look, if we wait till everyone’s asleep, we’ll be fine,” Kenny said urgently. “Someone could be in real trouble up there.”

  We all looked up at the ceiling again. Kenny was right. If someone was in trouble we had to try and help

  “Come on, let’s go down and get something to eat.” Kenny went over to the door. “We can’t do anything till tonight, and I’m starving!”

  Frankie hid the note under her pillow just in case Scary Chantal came in, and we all went down to the dining room. The M&Ms were already in there, and they started giggling and whispering about us as we walked in. They obviously thought Kenny had no hope of getting Danni Hart’s signature, and they were looking forward to making Kenny keep her part of the bargain when we got home.

  “Hey, Kenny!” called Ryan Scott, who’s in our class. As we went past his table, he stuck out his foot, trying to trip one of us up. We all glared at him, except Fliss who giggled. She’s had a bit of a thing about Ryan Scott for ages. “Did you enjoy your trip today?”

  Then he and his best mate Danny McCloud roared with laughter, and the stupid M&Ms joined in. So did all the other kids from our school.

  “Oh, ha ha, very funny,” Kenny said shortly.

  “Yeah, I thought so!” Ryan spluttered.

  “Bet Danni Hart didn’t though!” Danny McCloud pointed out, and everyone laughed even harder.

  “I’ve got to get that autograph!” Kenny said grimly as we sat down at our table looking gloomy. “If the M&Ms get one over on us, we’ll never hear the end of it.”

  “Oh, let’s forget about the M&Ms!” I said. “I want to enjoy our sleepover tonight.”

  The thought of the sleepover cheered us all up a bit. While we ate our dinner, we talked about what we were going to do that evening. We were also busy squirrelling away bits of bread and cheese to have later at our midnight feast. Mrs Weaver was sitting quite near us, so it was a good laugh trying not to let her see us stuffing bits of French bread into our pockets!

  The hotel had a big games room, and after dinner we all piled in there to play table tennis and watch TV. We couldn’t really understand much of the TV though, because it was all in French! Anyway, we were only filling in time before our sleepover, so when the teachers came to round us all up for bed, we were quite pleased. At least it meant we got the M&Ms out of our hair.

  “I can’t wait to find out who’s in the attic,” Kenny muttered as we went upstairs to our room. “Maybe we can help them to escape!”

  “If we do find someone, I think we should tell Mrs Weaver,” said Fliss firmly. “‘Specially if that Chantal’s got anything to do with it!”

  “Yeah, yeah, ‘course we will,” Kenny assured her. “I reckon Mrs Weaver can sort Chantal out, no problem!”

  “Ssh! Someone’s coming down the stairs!” I hissed.

  We turned the corner and came face to face with Pascal. He nodded and smiled politely at us.

  “Bon soir, bon soir” he said.

  We all looked at each other blankly.

  “I think that means goodnight,” Frankie said with a frown.

  “Bon soir, Pascal!” we all chorused, and he looked quite impressed!

  “Hey, Pascal, come with me.” And Kenny suddenly grabbed Pascal’s arm and started pulling him up the stairs.

  “Kenny, what are you doing?” I asked as we all chased after them. Pascal looked a bit bewildered to say the least.

  “I just want to show him the staircase to the attic,” Kenny called back over her shoulder. “He might be able to help us!”

  “Kenny, he doesn’t even speak English!” Frankie grumbled. But Kenny ignored her. She took Pascal to the bottom of the staircase outside our room, and pointed upwards.

  “What is up there?” she asked slowly.

  Pascal stared at us. He looked really scared all of a sudden. Then he shook his head, gabbled something in French and dashed down the stairs, nearly falling over himself in his hurry to get away.

  “What’s up with him?” Fliss said in a quavery voice. “He looked really frightened!”

  “That settles it!” Kenny said, sounding very determined. “There is definitely something weird about that attic – and we’re going to find out what. Tonight!”

  “Bonjour, everyone, and welcome to our French sleepover!” Frankie announced, bouncing up and down on her bed in her bright purple pyjamas.“Ça sent très mauvais ici!”

  “What does that mean?” Kenny asked as we all looked impressed.

  “I read it in my phrasebook.” Frankie grinned. “I think it means ‘I hope you all have a very good time’!”

  “No, it doesn’t, Frankie, you fibber!” Lyndz announced after flipping through the phrasebook. “It means ‘There is a very bad smell in here’!”

  “Oh, well, I must have got it wrong!” Frankie yawned. We all attacked her with our pillows, and ended up in a tangled heap on her bed.

  “What shall we do now?” Fliss asked.

  “Let’s have our midnight feast,” Lyndz suggested.

  “We could write our diaries,” I said.

  “Nah, let’s do the Can-Can!” Kenny grinned.

  We all thought that was a great idea, so we stood in a line between the beds and linked arms.

  “OK, right leg first!” Kenny instructed us as we began high-kicking into the air. “No, right leg, Fliss, you dummy!”

  We all tried to hum the Can-Can tune as we kicked our legs up, but we were giggling so much we were nearly choking. Then Lyndz tried to kick her leg a bit too high. She overbalanced and fell back on to the bed, pulling the rest of us with her.

  “I think we need a bit more practice!” she spluttered. “Hic!”

  “No hiccups allowed!” Kenny thumped Lyndz on the back.

  “Yeah, if you hiccup, you’ve got to do it in French!” Frankie added. Lyndz started laughing and that seemed to cure her!

  “Can-Can dancers do the splits as well,” said Fliss. “Can anyone do them?”

  We spent about ten minutes all trying to do the splits, but it was pretty hopeless. Then Frankie managed the splits after all – she split her pyjama trousers right along the middle! The rest of us nearly died laughing. Finally we had our midnight feast, and we scoffed all of Fliss’s chocolate and all of the bread and cheese.

  “What shall we do now?” I asked.

  “Ssh!” Kenny hissed as she snaffled the last square of chocolate. “Listen!”

  We all listened hard.

  “What is it?” Fliss asked fearfully. “I can’t hear anything.”

  “Neither can I!” Kenny grinned at us. “Which means that everyone’s asleep. So come on!” She bounced off her bed, and grabbed her torch from her bag. “Let’s go and explore the attic!”

  We all climbed off our beds, and followed Kenny over to the door. My heart was thumping hard. I think everyone else’s was too, by the looks on their faces.

  “I’m not going first,” Fliss said in a shaky voice. “Or last.”

  “I’ll go first,” Kenny said bravely. “Follow me!”

  We all tiptoed out of our bedroom door – Kenny first, followed by me, Lyndz, Fliss and then Frankie. We looked up. Above us, the old dusty staircase wound out of sight into the darkness.

  “Maybe we should just tell Mrs Weaver about the note,” Fliss suggested weakly as Kenny put her foot on the first step. It creaked like mad.

  “SSSHHHH!” the rest of us hissed.

  “OK, don’t panic!” Kenny whispered back. She put her foot on the second step, and it creaked like a door opening in a horror movie.

  Then we all froz
e in terror as we heard another noise. Footsteps were coming swiftly up the stairs behind us which led to our room. We could see a long, thin shadow on the wall, getting closer and closer… Someone was coming! We were so shocked we couldn’t even nip back into our bedroom.

  “Quick!” Kenny gabbled, trying to rush down the stairs and only succeeding in bumping into the rest of us. “Let’s get out of here!”

  But it was too late.

  “Qu’est-ce que vous faites là, exactement?” said a loud, angry voice.

  Chantal the scary maid was standing there, glaring at us, hands on her hips. We were all rooted to the spot.

  “0ù allez-vous?” Chantal snapped angrily. “Retournez à votre chambre immédiatement!”

  We couldn’t understand what she was saying, but we could tell by the look on her face that she wasn’t offering us a nice cup of tea! We all scurried down the stairs and back into our bedroom. Chantal stood in the doorway with her arms folded, glaring at us as we scrambled into bed. She didn’t move until we were all under our duvets. Then she sniffed loudly and turned off the light, closing the door behind her.

  “Whew! That old battle-axe definitely does not want us looking in the attic!” Kenny bounced out of bed and rushed over to switch the light back on. “Why do you think that is?”

  “It’s probably where she keeps her broomstick!” I said with a grin.

  “Ssh, she might be listening outside the door!” Fliss shivered. “I nearly died when she came round the corner!”

  “She must know that there’s someone being kept prisoner up there,” I pointed out. “That’s why she was so mad.”

  “What are we going to do?” Lyndz asked. “If there is someone being kept prisoner in the attic, we can’t just leave them there.”

  “We’ll have to give it another go,” Frankie decided. “Tomorrow night. Chantal can’t possibly watch us the whole time.”

  “Cool!” said Kenny. “We’ll show Chantal she can’t mess with the Sleepover Club and get away with it!”

  I was the first one awake the next morning. I sat up in bed yawning and rubbing my eyes. Everyone was still flat out, and Fliss and Lyndz were snoring a bit.