“We’ll have to take the chance!” Frankie said. “We don’t want to alarm Jeanne.”
Kenny nodded. Taking a deep breath, she tapped gently on the door.
“Jeanne?” she hissed. “Jeanne, it’s us – the girls from downstairs. The ones you sent the note to. We’ve come to rescue you!”
No answer.
“Turn the torch off, Frankie!” Kenny hissed. “We’re going in!”
“Why do we have to turn the torch off?” Fliss groaned.
“Because if Chantal’s in there, we don’t want her to see us!” Kenny explained. “And we can make a better getaway in the dark!”
Frankie obediently switched the torch off, and we all gasped. It was so dark up there that we couldn’t see our hands in front of our faces.
“If we have to run for it, we’re all going to fall down the stairs and break our necks!” Lyndz whispered. I don’t think she was joking either!
“Right, here we go!” Kenny grabbed the key off the hook, and put it in the lock. It turned with a squeaking sound that grated on my ears. Kenny pushed the door, and it swung open with a loud CRE-E-E-AK! It was just like a horror film – but it was more scary that any horror film I’ve ever seen!
We all peered over Kenny’s shoulder, but we couldn’t see a thing. The room was in pitch darkness, just like the landing.
“Jeanne?” Kenny called cautiously, but there was still no answer. She fumbled for the light switch but couldn’t find it. “Put the torch on, Frankie.”
It was then that we heard it! A low, scary, spinechilling moan from inside the room!
“AAAAARRRRRGGGGH!”
“Wha-wha-wha-what’s that?” Kenny gasped. “Who’s there?”
The rest of us were too petrified even to scream. We just stood there, clutching each other’s hands. I don’t know about the others, but it felt like my blood had frozen in my veins and I couldn’t move a muscle!
Then, all of a sudden, we turned and rushed for the stairs. There was a clatter as Frankie dropped her torch in the mad panic, but we didn’t stop. We all hurtled down the staircase and back to our bedroom, panting hard. It was a wonder none of us tripped and hurt ourselves, we moved so fast! I was last into the room, and I slammed the door and locked and bolted it.
“What – what – what – what was that?” Fliss gabbled, her hair almost standing up on end. “It was horriblel”
“It was the worst noise I’ve ever heard in my whole life!” Frankie gasped.
“D’you think Jeanne’s a ghost?” Lyndz asked breathlessly.
“Maybe it was Chantal trying to scare us,” Kenny suggested.
“Well, she did a great job!” I spluttered. “I’m terrified!”
We all flopped down on to the big double bed, and tried to get our breath back.
“It couldn’t have been Chantal in there,” Frankie said with a frown. “The door was locked and the key was on the hook. Whoever was in there was locked in.”
“Then it must have been Jeanne.” Kenny looked puzzled. “So why did she scare us away? She knew we were coming at midnight!”
It was a complete mystery. We all stared at each other nervously. What on earth were we going to do now?
“I still think we should—”Fliss began.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, tell Mrs Weaver!” Kenny finished the sentence off for her. “But do you reckon she’d believe us?”
“No, she wouldn’t,” Frankie said. “She’d think we were having her on!”
None of us had a clue what to do next. But for the moment, we had some other things to worry about.
“Ow!” Lyndz groaned. “I banged my ankle running down the stairs!”
“And I left my torch behind!” Frankie muttered.
We all looked at each other in horror.
“Now Chantal will know we’ve been up there!” I said in a trembly voice.
“No, she won’t,” Kenny said confidently. “She won’t know that the torch is Frankie’s.”
“She might have seen it lying around when she cleaned our room,” Fliss pointed out. We all stared at each other, dismayed.
“We’ll have to take the chance,” I said.
Frankie cleared her throat. “Actually, it’s got my name written on it!” she admitted, and we all groaned.
“We’ll have to get it back then,” Lyndz said with a shiver. We all looked over at the locked and bolted door. None of us made a move.
“I think we should leave it till the morning,” Kenny suggested, and we all nodded thankfully. We’d had enough excitement for one night!
We all climbed wearily into bed, and for once, we all left our bedside lights on. We didn’t talk much, and we didn’t sing our sleepover song. But it was a very long time before any of us got to sleep…
“Right, let’s go!” Kenny said in a determined voice, stomping over to the door. It was morning, and we’d all got up for breakfast even though we hadn’t had much sleep. “We’re gonna get Frankie’s torch back, and show Chantal that she doesn’t scare us!”
It’s a lot easier to be brave in daylight than it is in the dark! Even Fliss didn’t look too scared as we marched over to the door behind Kenny.
“We’re going to solve this mystery once and for all!” Kenny announced as she pulled the door open, “And then—”
She stopped. Frankie’s torch was on the floor, standing neatly on its end just outside our door.
“My torch!” Frankie grabbed it. “Who put it there?”
“Maybe it just rolled down the stairs and landed outside our door,” Fliss said hopefully.
“What, on its end?” Lyndz said. “Someone must have put it there!”
“Yes, but who?” I asked.
We all began feeling a bit jittery again, but Kenny made for the stairs. “Come on,” she called over her shoulder. “There’s something weird going on here!”
The staircase wasn’t half as scary by daylight as it was at night, but I think we were all feeling rather nervous. I know I was! We went up to the attic door and stopped. The big key was back on the hook, and Kenny lifted it off, and inserted it in the keyhole.
“Someone must have put that back after we unlocked the door last night,” Kenny said.
“Just hurry up and open the door!” Fliss said in a trembling voice.
“Right, get ready!” Kenny instructed us.
“What for?” I asked.
“I dunno.” Kenny turned the key. “But be ready just in case!”
She pushed the door. It creaked open and we all craned our necks so that we could see into the room.
It was a large room. And it was stuffed with buckets, mops, dusters and cans of polish, plus lots of cardboard boxes filled with old clothes, old books and other junk. We all stared. We just couldn’t believe our eyes.
“It’s just a junk room!” Kenny said, dazed. “There’s no prisoner here!”
“And it looks like Chantal keeps her cleaning stuff here too!” I added.
We all started shuffling our feet and feeling a bit stupid.
“Maybe we should look around in case all this is just a front,” I suggested.
So we did. We got all dusty and dirty looking behind the boxes and checking out every corner of the room. But there was no-one being kept prisoner up there at all!
“Someone sent those notes, though!” Frankie frowned. “Who could it have been?”
“I don’t know,” Kenny said grimly. “But when I find out, they’re dead!”
We locked the door up, and trailed down the stairs. We were beginning to feel really stupid by now!
“Thank goodness we didn’t go to Mrs Weaver!” Fliss said. “I always said it was a bad idea!”
As we turned the corner of the stairs, we got a bit of a shock. Pascal was standing at the bottom by our bedroom door. He waved to us, and then began to laugh. In fact, he laughed so hard it looked like he was going to be sick!
“What’s the matter with him” Frankie asked, puzzled.
“Noth
ing is the matter,” Pascal said. In perfect English! We all gasped. “I was wondering if you liked my little surprise last night!”
“You – you – you speak English!” Fliss spluttered.
“Yes.” Pascal grinned. “I overhear you talking about going up to the attic on the day you arrived, so I think to play a little joke on you!”
We couldn’t believe it.
“So you wrote those notes?” Kenny stammered.
Pascal nodded. “You played a joke on me, remember? You teach me some English?” We all turned pink. “So now I play a joke on you!”
“Well, I guess that’s fair enough!” Kenny tried to keep a straight face, but then she began to laugh. “But you really had us going there for a while!”
Pascal looked pleased with himself. “Yes, I think it was a good joke too! A prisoner in the attic!”
We all started to laugh then. We’d been well and truly done, and it served us right! But I think we were all secretly relieved too.
“But how did you manage to lock yourself in the attic, and leave the key outside for us?” Frankie asked.
Pascal dived into his pocket and pulled out a key which was an exact copy of the one on the hook upstairs. “I have a spare!” he said triumphantly.
“We thought Chantal was the one who was keeping Jeanne prisoner!” I told him. “We’re all a bit scared of her!”
“Oh, Chantal is OK,” Pascal shrugged. “When you know her!”
“That was a really good joke, Pascal,” Kenny said. “You and I should get together and talk about jokes sometime!”
We all groaned.
“You know, Pascal?” Kenny went on as we all clattered downstairs to breakfast. “If you have any more good ideas for jokes, you should play them on the M&Ms!”
“The M&Ms?” Pascal looked puzzled.
We explained about Emma Hughes and Emily Berryman. Pascal nodded. “Ah, yes, the snob girl and the one with the voice like a man!”
We all fell about laughing.
“That’s them!” Kenny said. Then she turned to the rest of us. “We’ve just got to get that autograph today! Where are we going?”
“Mrs Weaver said we were visiting the Palace of Versailles,” Lyndz said.
“Well, let’s hope Danni Hart’s there too, or I’ve only got tomorrow left to get that autograph!” Kenny muttered.
Pascal was looking confused, so Frankie filled him in on Kenny’s bet with the M&Ms.
“Good luck!” he said with a grin as we went into the dining room. “Bonne chancel”
“What’s that mean?” Fliss asked, and we all groaned.
“Good luck, of course!” Kenny said as we went over to our table.
“We’re going to need it,” I muttered as the Queen and the Goblin sauntered into the dining room, throwing incredibly smug looks in our direction.
“Only two days to go, Emily!” the Queen remarked as they passed our table.
“I know, they don’t stand a chance!” the Goblin gloated happily.
“That’s what they think!” Kenny muttered bravely, but the thought of losing the bet to the M&Ms almost put us off our croissants.
The Palace of Versailles was completely brilliant. In fact, the only thing that was wrong with the Palace of Versailles was that the Westwood Street film crew weren’t there! So we couldn’t do very much about getting Danni Hart’s autograph. Mrs Weaver told us that the palace was built by a French king called King Louis the Fourteenth, whose nickname was the Sun King. He wanted it to be better and more beautiful than any other palace. And it was. It was really big, with loads of rooms full of paintings and gold furniture and huge crystal chandeliers. My favourite room was the Hall of Mirrors, where Mrs Weaver said the King and Queen would hold dances for all their courtiers. The gardens were amazing too, with enormous fountains and lakes.
Of course, Kenny managed to fall slap-bang right into the middle of one of the fountains! She had a bet with Frankie (yes, another bet!) that she could walk all round the edge without falling in. Well, what Kenny didn’t realise was that the edge of the fountain was really slippery… As you can guess, Mrs Weaver wasn’t too thrilled, and neither were the two gardeners, who came rushing to fish her out!
“Maybe that’ll stop you from making bets now!” Frankie grinned as we all climbed back on to the minibus to go home.
Kenny ignored that. “I’ve just got to get that autograph!” she said gloomily. She was wearing Mrs Weaver’s jumper because her sweatshirt had got soaked. “And now we’ve only got one day left.”
“Let’s hope the film crew are at Disneyland tomorrow,” I agreed. “Otherwise the M&Ms are going to get one over on us, big time!”
“This is it then!” Frankie said grimly as we sat down at the back of the minibus the following morning. Breakfast had been even worse than usual, with the M&Ms going on and on about winning the bet.
“Yeah, but let’s not spoil our day at Disneyland by worrying about the stupid M&Ms!” Kenny said, trying to be cheerful.
“Here they come now!” Lyndz said in a low voice.
The M&Ms were getting onto the minibus, talking in loud voices. They were really winding us up by discussing all the horrible things they were going to do when Kenny handed over her Leicester City autographs.
“I think I’ll tear them up really slowly bit by bit!” the Queen was saying with a big grin on her face.
“Or we could use them as loo paper!” the Goblin giggled.
We ignored them, although Kenny was looking a bit sick at the thought of her precious autographs being used as bog roll! If the M&Ms did win the bet, which looked pretty likely now, we’d have to get used to them going on about it for the next ten years!
Almost everyone was on the coach, when to our surprise, Pascal climbed on.
“Hey, Pascal!” called Ryan Scott, who was sitting a few seats in front of us. “Come and sit with us, mate!”
Pascal made his way down the coach, grinning at Ryan and Danny. “My mother says I can come with you to Disneyland! No school for me today!”
“Nice one!” said Danny.
Pascal dumped his bag next to Ryan and Danny, but he didn’t sit down. Instead he came down the coach towards us.
“I have some good news for you!” he whispered, looking sideways at the M&Ms to make sure they weren’t listening.
“What?” Kenny asked. “Did Chantal smile today or something?”
“No, better than that!” Pascal winked at us. “My older brother works at Disneyland. He told me last night that an English film crew are going to shoot some scenes for a soap opera there today!”
“What!” we all screeched, hardly daring to believe our ears.
“Really cross-your-heart truly?” Fliss asked breathlessly.
“You’re not playing another joke on us, are you?” Frankie asked.
Pascal shook his head. “No, they will be there. All you have to do is find them!”
“Oh, we will!” Kenny told him. “And when we do, I’m going to enjoy seeing the look on the M&Ms’ faces!”
Pascal grinned, and went off to sit with Ryan and Danny. Well, that bit of news had really cheered us up! We all started bouncing up and down in our seats, talking at the tops of our voices and discussing what we were going to make the Queen and the Goblin do when we won the bet and they had to become our slaves!
“I’m going to make Emma Hughes carry all my luggage all the way home!” Frankie said with a grin.
“They can do all our packing as well as carry our bags!” Lyndz chimed in.
“And they can buy loads of chocolate for us!” Fliss added.
The Queen and the Goblin heard what we were saying. They turned round in their seats and stared haughtily at us. “No chance!” Emma Hughes said snootily. “Just get those Leicester City autographs ready for me as soon as we get home, Kenny!”
“That’s what you think!” Kenny winked at us, and we all grinned. The Queen and the Goblin were in for the biggest shock of their lives!
>
But it was the Sleepover Club who were in for the shock…
“This is it!” Fliss announced as suddenly we all caught sight of a huge white building with a red roof. “This is Disneyland Paris!”
We all started cheering and whooping and giving each other high fives as Mr Tate drove into the car park. Then, before we could get off the minibus, Mrs Weaver did her usual lecture thing about behaving ourselves and not getting into trouble, but we weren’t listening, of course! The only time we pricked up our ears was when she said we wouldn’t be allowed to go round Disneyland on our own. We were all annoyed, but Mrs Weaver explained that kids weren’t allowed on some of the rides without an adult. So we were all divided into three groups of five, and got one of the teachers to look after us. We got Mr Tate.
“Nice one!” Kenny said gleefully, giving the rest of us a thumbs-up. Mr Tate was OK, and much easier to fool than Mrs Weaver!
Then Mrs Weaver gave each of us a map, showing the five different ‘Lands’ inside the park. It was then that we started to get a bit worried.
“Hey, this place is enormous!” Frankie whispered.
“I didn’t realise it was so big!” Kenny groaned, scanning the map anxiously. The five Lands were Frontierland, Adventureland, Fantasyland, Discoveryland and Main Street USA. The place was absolutely huge. How on earth were we going to know where the film crew were?
“Why didn’t you say it was so big, Fliss?” I groaned.
“I didn’t think.” Fliss was looking as dismayed as the rest of us.
“Oh, well, we’ll just have to do our best,” Lyndz said hopefully. We all nodded. But we were feeling a bit depressed as we trailed off the minibus.
That didn’t last long though! I mean, we were at Disneyland!
The big white building was the entrance,and Fliss said it was a hotel where she and her family had stayed last time they visited. In front of the entrance were some pretty gardens, and there was a big Mickey Mouse face made out of flowers! We all cheered up when we saw that. We could hardly wait to get inside!
“Wow!” Frankie gasped as we walked into Main Street USA. “This is awesome!”
We were standing on a big white street, lined with big buildings. It looked like a scene from an old American film. Horse-drawn carts were taking people up and down the street, there were restaurants and shops, and Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck were walking around, shaking hands with people! Right at the end of the street was a huge fairytale castle with lots of turrets.
Vive le Sleepover Club! Page 5
