I glued my eyes to the marshall at the side of the track who was holding the chequered flag. As soon as it dropped, my foot hit the accelerator and I was off like a rocket! It felt really cool to be going so fast.
“And kart number five is first away from the starting grid,” I heard the commentator say as I headed towards the first bend. “Kart number fourteen is second, and kart three is third.”
Rosie was in kart number 18, so she’d already fallen behind. I was dying to glance back over my shoulder to check it out, but as I was coming up to a sharp bend, I didn’t dare.
“Right, don’t brake,” I muttered to myself as I swept round the corner. I remembered Mike telling us that the kart would slow down automatically when you were cornering, so only to use the brake when you came up to the bend, and not when you were actually going round it. To my complete amazement, I managed to get round the corner in one brilliant movement (even if I say so myself), and then I was on a straight bit of the track again – and I was still in front! I was really pleased with myself. In fact, I was so pleased that I decided to risk a quick glance back over my shoulder to see where Rosie was.
Big mistake. I dunno what happened, but just as I looked back, I lost control of my kart! I spun right round and stopped. My kart was stuck across the middle of the track, and the other karts were heading straight towards me!
“Help!” I yelled, desperately trying to get my kart moving again. But it wouldn’t budge.
Luckily the other karts in the race, including Rosie, all managed to get round me, so there weren’t any accidents. Then two marshalls ran on and helped me to point the wheels in the right direction and get the kart moving again. But I was miles behind everyone else. There was no way I was going to qualify for the semi-finals unless everyone else crashed out of the race.
“Go on, Rosie,” I muttered as I drove under one of the bridges. “It’s up to you now!”
Poor old Rosie wasn’t doing so well, though. She was behind everyone else, and she didn’t look like catching them up either. In fact, she was going so slowly that I almost caught up with her. We finally crossed the finishing line at almost exactly the same time. And we were both last.
Alex the Weed had won our heat, which was really sickening. By the time Rosie and I climbed out of our karts, Alex was already celebrating with Josh and Robin, doing high fives and grinning all over his stupid face.
“Better luck next time, girls!” Josh called smugly. If I’d still been in my kart, I would’ve run him over!
“Sorry, Kenny,” Rosie muttered, as we left the track. “Karting’s fun, but I don’t think I’m ever going to be much good at it!”
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t exactly brilliant either,” I comforted her. “Let’s hope Fliss and Lyndz can do better.”
As we went over to join Frankie, who was still waiting her turn to race, Lyndz and Fliss came towards us, carrying their helmets.
“OK, it’s up to you two now,” I said. “Good luck!”
Lyndz looked really nervous, and Fliss looked as if she was about to faint! I couldn’t help feeling a bit guilty. I mean, we were supposed to be having fun! If I hadn’t gone on about beating Josh, we wouldn’t have been so wound up, I guess.
“Look, just do your best,” I said, trying to be nice. “Don’t worry about beating that creep Stevens.”
“Really?” Fliss looked relieved.
“Yeah. But if you do manage to beat him, it’ll be brilliant.” You know me. I just couldn’t help it!
Lyndz and Fliss grinned, and went over to their karts. Josh Stevens was already on the starting grid, fussing about the position his kart was in.
“I’d like to go over there and rip that stupid helmet right off his head!” I muttered to Frankie. “I mean, King of the Track – honestly!”
“The trouble is, he is pretty good,” Frankie sighed.
“And he knows it!” I glared at Josh, who was now waving at his mates with an I know I’ve won this already look on his face.
So me, Frankie and Rosie got a REAL shock when the heat began. Josh roared off in front from the start, but guess who was right behind him? FLISS!
“Go, Flissy!” I yelled, dancing up and down as they went round the first bend. “Don’t let him get away!”
Fliss was doing really well. She kept losing a bit of ground every time they went round a corner or a bend because Josh was more experienced, but then she’d make it up on the straight runs. Now they were heading for the bridge for the second time, and she was right behind him. Poor old Lyndz was way down the field in second-to-last place, but at least she was still going without any disasters.
“D’you think Fliss’ll qualify for the next round?” Rosie asked anxiously, her eyes fixed to the track.
“There’s still twelve laps to go,” Frankie replied, “but she’s got a great chance!”
By the eighth lap, Fliss was still right behind Josh. Until…
“Why is she slowing down?” I asked anxiously.
“Look, she’s pulling off the track!” Frankie groaned. “There must be something wrong with her kart!”
We could hardly believe it. Fliss had had to drop out of the race because her kart had conked out. Honestly, I could have cried. And guess who won the race by a mile? Mr Smarmy Stevens, that’s who!
“OK, Frankie,” I said urgently, as the drivers for Heat 4 were called. “It’s all up to you now.”
“I’ll do my best,” Frankie promised. Then she slapped palms with each of us for luck, and went off to get into her kart. She looked pretty calm, but I’d already nearly chewed all my fingernails off by the time the race started.
Frankie drove brilliantly, but there was a girl in her heat who was pretty good. Frankie chased her all the way, with us screaming our heads off, but she couldn’t catch her and she only made it into second place. It was a great result, but it wasn’t good enough for her to get into the final. So there were no Sleepovers taking part at all. And didn’t Josh Stevens just love it.
“Oh dear, girls!” he called, waving at us while Alex and Robin, who’d won Heat 6, stood around, sniggering. “Keep practising and you’ll get better. In about ten years’ time, maybe!”
That did it. I was steaming mad. I charged over to him – or at least I would have done if the others hadn’t grabbed me and hung on. Frankie and Lyndz had hold of my arms, Fliss grabbed the collar of my race suit and Rosie flung her arms round my waist, and held on tight!
“OK, OK,” I muttered crossly. “I won’t kill him this time!”
“Maybe we’ll do better tomorrow,” Lyndz said hopefully.
Maybe she wasn’t too wrong either. After all, Frankie and Fliss had turned out to be good drivers, and I wasn’t too bad, as long as I didn’t look over my shoulder! Lyndz and Rosie still needed a bit more practice, but we had two more days left on our free passes. If one of us could just beat Josh Stevens in just one race, it’d be brilliant…
Our karting session for the day was over. We could have stayed and watched the final, but none of us felt like it. After all, Josh Stevens was bound to win, and I’d had enough of his ugly mug to last me a lifetime!
“Where’s your mum gone, Kenny?” Lyndz asked, as we came out of the changing area, having taken off all our racing gear.
“Dunno,” I shrugged, and looked around. “She must be around somewhere. Maybe she’s gone to the café again.”
“Hey, guys!” That was Frankie, and she sounded really excited. “Come and look at this!”
There was a door standing open at the side of the arena, which led outside. Frankie was peering through it, and when we joined her, we saw what she was looking at. There were loads of old, beaten-up karts piled up in big heaps on the grass, some of them covered with tarpaulin.
“Come on, let’s take a look,” I said eagerly. I was about to rush through the door when Fliss grabbed my arm. “Look at the sign, Kenny.”
I looked. There was a sign on the wall which read Strictly No Entry for Members of the P
ublic.
“Oh, poo!” I scoffed. “Who’s gonna know?” And I took a quick glance over my shoulder, and legged it outside. The others followed, although Fliss was worrying, as usual.
“What if Josh Stevens sees us?” she asked anxiously. “He might tell his dad!”
“Josh Stevens is too busy trying to win that race,” I replied, as we heard the sound of the karts starting off again. “And anyway, we’re OK. There’s no-one out here.”
“Hi, can I help you?” said a voice from behind us.
We all jumped two metres into the air, and Fliss actually screamed! There was a girl standing behind us, holding a screwdriver in her hand. She was a bit older than us, about fourteen, with long dark hair, and she was wearing scruffy jeans and a sweatshirt.
“Er – we just came out to look at the karts,” I spluttered. “We didn’t see the sign.”
Frankie groaned and nudged me. “If you didn’t see the sign, how do you know there was a sign?” she hissed.
I turned red, but the girl just laughed.
“Hi, I’m Charlotte, Charlie for short,” she said with a friendly grin. “Are you interested in karts?”
“Well, we’ve only just started karting,” Frankie explained. “But, yes, we are.”
“Come and see mine,” said Charlie, and she led us over to a really sad-looking kart. It wasn’t even painted, it was just made of bare metal.
“Er – very nice,” said Fliss awkwardly.
“Don’t worry, I’m doing it up!” Charlie said with a grin. “I’ve just got to tinker with a few bits and pieces, and then I’ll paint it.”
“You’re not going to paint it black and gold, are you?” I asked, winking at the others. “Because there’s someone who might not be too pleased if you do!”
Charlie grinned even wider. “Oh, you’ve met Josh, I see.”
“Yeah, worse luck!” I replied.
“He’s a right creep,” Frankie chimed in.
“And smug with it,” Rosie added.
“He keeps winding us up,” Lyndz explained.
“Do you know him?” Fliss asked.
“You could say that,” Charlie replied. “He’s my brother!’
We all nearly died. If a big hole had opened up right in front of us, we’d have jumped straight into it, I swear. We all started saying sorry, and that we didn’t really mean it. Meanwhile, Charlie was laughing fit to bust.
“It’s OK,” she said. “I know he can be a right pain sometimes. He’s been getting up my nose ever since Dad bought this place a few weeks ago.”
“Are you into karting too, then?” Rosie asked.
Charlie nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been karting for years. But I prefer doing up old karts, while Josh likes to have the latest model on the market. That one he’s driving at the moment cost a fortune.”
“So what does Josh think about you karting?” Frankie asked. “He says it’s a man’s sport!”
Charlie shrugged. “Yeah, more boys than girls are into it, that’s true. But the girls are just as good. Josh is just winding you up!”
“Hey, Kenny, we’d better get a move on.” Frankie slapped me on the shoulder. “Your mum’s probably looking for us.”
“OK,” I said reluctantly. I would’ve liked to stay and chat to Charlie a bit longer – she was cool!
“Are you coming on Saturday?” Charlie asked. “We’ve got a special race day on, with team races and prizes.”
“Team races?” Frankie said, looking interested.
“Yeah, teams of five.” Charlie grinned at us. “So you’ll be OK!”
“Hear that, guys?” I said excitedly, as we waved goodbye to Charlie and went back into the arena. “The team races sound mega-cool!”
“And we’ve still got tomorrow to practise for them,” Lyndz pointed out.
“Maybe we could all wear the same T-shirt or something on Saturday,” Rosie suggested. “To show we’re a team.”
“Yeah, we could customise them with fabric paints,” Fliss said. “Like we did when we played five-a-side football that time.”
“We could do that tomorrow night when we sleep over at Lyndz’s,” Frankie added.
When we went back into the arena, there was some sort of presentation going on. There was a little stage to one side of the track, a bit like those platforms the medal-winners stand on in the Olympics, and Josh Mr Smug Stevens was standing on top of it, looking as if he’d just won a gold medal.
“Oh, knickers!” Frankie groaned. “He must’ve won the final!”
“Yeah, well, he won’t be winning everything for much longer,” I said confidently, “because the Sleepover Club is on hot on his trail!”
“Uh-oh!” I nudged Frankie hard in the ribs with my elbow. “Creep alert! Pass it on!”
It was the following day, and we were back at the Silver Streak karting centre. My mum had moaned a bit about having to spend the morning there again, so this time she’d dropped us off and was coming back for us later. Meanwhile, we were all totally fired up about taking part in the team races on Saturday. We were taking our plain white T-shirts round to Lyndz’s place tonight so that we could paint them, and we were going to discuss race tactics too (OK, so none of us knew very much about race tactics but it sounded good!).
Anyway, we’d just arrived in the arena when I spotted Josh. He was sitting in the café with a glass of Coke in front of him, and Alex and Robin were in the queue at the counter. We were all glaring at him when Josh happened to look round and see us. He grinned, and beckoned us over.
“Who does he think he is, the king?” I muttered, as we reluctantly went over to the rail which separated the café tables from the main arena. I would’ve ignored him, but I didn’t want him to realise just how much he was winding us up.
“Well, I didn’t expect to see you here today, girls,” Josh said mockingly, raising his eyebrows. “I mean, you’re obviously rubbish at karting! Why don’t you just give up?”
“Why don’t you go and play in the traffic?” I retorted.
“Not if you lot are driving!” Josh replied, and then laughed his head off as if he’d said something really funny.
“Hey, Josh.” That was Robin calling from the front of the café. “Do you want another Coke?”
Josh turned round. “Yeah, and get me a fudge brownie, a Crunchie and a Mars Bar. No, wait a sec, I’ll have a Twix instead of a Crunchie.”
While Josh was talking to Robin, he had his back to us. Quick as a flash, I leaned over the rail, grabbed the salt cellar off the table and up-ended it into his glass of Coke. I had just enough time to dump a whole lot of it in there before he turned back to us again. By the time he did, we were all standing there looking like butter wouldn’t melt in our mouths.
“Like I told you, girls,” Josh went on, “karting’s for boys.” He picked up his glass of Coke, and we all held our breath. “You could practise all day and you’d never be as good as me in a million years—URRRRGH!”
We all roared as Josh took a huge mouthful of Coke, pulled a disgusted face and then spat it out all over the table.
“That’s horrible!” he spluttered furiously, wiping his mouth. “It tastes salty!”
By this time we were almost weeping with laughter. I was laughing so much I couldn’t even stand up straight, and I had to hold on to Fliss because my knees were giving way.
“You did that!” Josh leapt to his feet, looking as if he was about to explode with rage. “You put salt in my drink!”
“Prove it!” I retorted coolly, as we all sauntered off, still grinning.
“Serves him right,” Fliss said with satisfaction, as we heard Josh yelling at Alex and Robin to get him a glass of water.
“Brilliant move, Kenny!” Rosie slapped me on the back.
“Yeah, class, Kenny!” Lyndz agreed.
“That was one of your better ideas, Kenny,” Frankie remarked.
“Thanks,” I said modestly. Now all we had to do was beat Josh Stevens in today’s races, and our reve
nge would be complete!
We had to wait a little while to take part in our first practice session as one had already started, so we went over to watch the action on the adult track for a bit. It was only a practice session, but there was one kart which was well ahead of the others all the time. The driver was really good, and when the kart pulled off into the pit stop, we realised that it was Charlie Stevens. So we went over to say hello.
“I’m just about to start painting my kart,” Charlie explained, taking off her helmet and shaking her hair out. “D’you fancy giving me a hand for a bit?”
“Sure,” I replied, and the others looked really keen too.
We followed Charlie outside. She’d already put the base coat on to the metal, so the kart was ready to paint.
“What colours are you using?” Rosie asked.
“Purple and silver,” Charlie replied, prising the lids off the tins of paint with a screwdriver. “I thought I’d call it Silver Flash.”
“Hey, my favourite colours!” Frankie grinned. “You could paint some lightning flashes on it, Charlie.”
“Good idea,” Charlie agreed.
While we were painting, we asked Charlie what would happen in the team races on Saturday. She told us that each member of the team would take part in two races each, and everyone got points, even if they came last. The team who got the most points overall would be the winner.
“So it’s really important to keep trying hard, even if you’re only third or fourth,” Charlie explained. “The higher you finish, the more points your team gets.”
“Will Josh be in the team races?” I asked, trying to finish off the part I was painting without getting any in Fliss’s hair. She was crouched down in front of me doing a bit near the wheels.
“Oh yeah, with Alex and Robin and another couple of his mates.” Charlie grinned at me. “I’ll let you into a little secret. His other mates, Ben and Nathan, aren’t as good at karting as Josh is.”
“Oh, excellent!” I crowed. “That means we stand a better chance of beating them!”
Sleepover Girls Go Karting Page 3
