Sleepover Girls Go Karting

by Narinder Dhami

  “That’s what we like about you, Kenny,” Frankie remarked, carefully finishing off the bit she was doing. “You’re such a good sport!”

  “Fliss, what’s that in your hair?” Rosie asked. “It looks like paint!”

  “Kenny, you total idiot!” Fliss yelled, grabbing a rag and trying to clean herself up.

  “Sorry, I got a bit over-excited,” I said apologetically.

  “Hey, why don’t we all wear some hair mascara tomorrow as well?” Rosie suggested. “We could match it to our T-shirts.”

  “Oh, that’s a great idea!” Fliss brightened up immediately, so I was off the hook. Phew!

  We didn’t have time to help Charlie finish the kart because our practice session was due to begin. But Charlie promised that, in return for our help, she’d give us some driving tips before the team races tomorrow. So we were all well pleased when we went back into the arena.

  “I reckon we’ve got a great chance in these team races,” I said eagerly. “Especially if Charlie’s going to help us.”

  “Yeah, we can use today’s individual races to practise for tomorrow,” Frankie agreed.

  Meanwhile, Rosie was looking gloomy. “ I know I was the worst driver yesterday,” she said. “I’m not going to score many points, am I?”

  “I wasn’t that brilliant either, Rosie,” Lyndz said quickly. “So you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to pretend my kart’s a horse!”

  You know how crazy Lyndz is about horse-riding, but that was just a bit too weird! We all stared at her.

  “Well, it’s not that different, is it?” Lyndz muttered.

  “Oh no, every horse has got a brake and an accelerator!” I grinned.

  “And since when did you see a horse with a steering wheel attached to its neck?” Frankie snorted.

  “OK, OK,” Lyndz said, as we all fell about laughing. “But I still think it’ll help.”

  “Just don’t try giving your kart a lump of sugar!” I warned her, as we went over to get kitted up. Then Frankie grabbed my arm.

  “Hey, guys,” she said, a big grin spreading across her face as she pointed at the track. “Check it out!”

  We all looked over at the track, where the last practice session was just finishing. Most of the karts had already pulled into the pit stop, but there were a few still completing their last lap. There was one kart right at the back which looked as if it was being driven by someone who hadn’t got a clue what they were doing. The kart was going really slowly and weaving from side to side. The driver slowed down even more as they got near to a bend, so that the kart was practically crawling along. It was the worst bit of driving I’d ever seen.

  “Oh, I really hope that driver’s in my race tomorrow!” Rosie said longingly, as the kart pulled off the track. “I’ll be able to beat them for sure!”

  “A snail with a limp would beat that driver!” I said, disgusted. “I wonder who it is?”

  We all watched curiously as the driver took her helmet off. Then we all groaned loudly. It was only Alana Banana Palmer, the doziest girl in our school!

  “I might’ve known.” Frankie rolled her eyes. “Only Alana Banana could drive like that!”

  “I hope that doesn’t mean the M&Ms are here!” Fliss said anxiously.

  Alana Banana is kind of friendly with our big enemies, the M&Ms (otherwise known as the Gruesome Twosome), which is one reason why we don’t like her very much. But Alana’s generally a bit too dozy to seriously annoy us.

  “No, it looks like she’s here with her brother,” Rosie said with relief, as Alana wandered over to a younger boy and a couple of other kids.

  “Thank goodness,” Lyndz sighed. “It would’ve been awful if we had to try and beat Josh Stevens and the M&Ms.”

  “Nah, it would’ve been cool!” I said confidently. “We’re gonna do really well today – I can feel it in my bones!”

  “Just don’t break any, OK?” Frankie said jokingly.

  Guess what? Our short practice session went brilliantly! Frankie and Fliss were definitely the best drivers, but I wasn’t far behind, and even Lyndz and Rosie did much better. If pretending the kart was a horse meant Lyndz felt more at home, I didn’t care how weird it was! OK, I admit that a lot of it had been just talk when I kept saying we were going to do well in the team races tomorrow, but now I was really beginning to feel that we had a chance. And now that the practice sessions were over, if we could do well in today’s individual races it would give us a real boost for tomorrow.

  “OK, guys,” I said confidently, as we went to find out which heats we would all be racing in. “Let’s go for it today, and see how many of us can get into the final!”

  “I’ll tell you how many,” Smarmy Stevens’ snooty voice chimed in from behind us. “Zilch!”

  “Oh, it’s you.” I turned round, and smiled sweetly at him and his two sad mates. “Enjoy your Coke?”

  Josh turned a sort of dark red colour, and stomped off without saying anything.

  “You shouldn’t wind Josh up like that,” Alex said accusingly.

  “Why not?” I said. “I enjoy it!”

  “Josh’ll be out to get you now!” Robin said, and then the two of them rushed after him.

  Frankie frowned. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

  “Oh, relax, Franks,” I shrugged. “They’re just trying to annoy us. What can Josh Stevens do to us?”

  Good question…

  “Oh, rats!” I groaned, as I shot across the finishing line in second place. I’d had a great drive and done well, but I needed to be first in the heat to qualify for a place in the final. I’d just missed out – and so had Rosie, who was in the same heat as me. She was just coming in, in fourth place.

  “Bad luck, Kenny,” Rosie panted, as we took our helmets off. “You were so close!”

  “I know,” I said gloomily.

  “Never mind, at least we’ve got a good chance in the team competition tomorrow,” Rosie pointed out, as we went over to join the others. “We’re all doing much better today.”

  It was true. Fliss and Lyndz had gone in the heat before us, and Lyndz had come third and Fliss was actually second. Mind you, I could have sworn I saw Lyndz stroking her kart before the race started, and whispering things to it.

  Snooty Stevens had gone through to the final, of course, and so had his mate Robin. Alana Banana had crashed out of her heat though, and had nearly taken half the other karts with her!

  We only had one chance left to get into the final, and that was Frankie. But my heart sank when the drivers lined up in their karts, and I saw that she was in the same heat as Weedy Alex, Josh’s mate. Alex wasn’t quite such a good karter as Josh, but he wasn’t bad.

  “Come on, Frankie!” I muttered, as the karts revved up, waiting for the flag. It would give us all a boost for the team race tomorrow if one of us got through to the final today.

  The race began, and the karts shot away. Frankie didn’t get a very good start, so she was only in fourth place as they all completed the first lap. Weedy Alex was first. It was the same for the next three laps. But by the fifth lap, Frankie suddenly began to move up a bit. The driver in front of her didn’t take one of the sharp bends very well, and Frankie swept round the side of him, and moved up into third place.

  We all cheered and clapped and did loads of high fives. In fact we were so busy doing high fives that we almost missed Frankie moving up into second place! She’d put her foot down on the accelerator, and somehow managed to get round the kart right in front of her. Now, on the tenth lap, she was gaining fast on Alex.

  “She’s going to catch him!” Rosie squealed, grabbing Lyndz round the neck and nearly choking her.

  “Come on, Frankie!” Fliss yelled, jumping up and down like a mad thing.

  “OW!” That was me. Fliss had just stepped on my toe. “Go, Frankie!”

  We all started chanting “Go, Frankie! Go, Frankie! Go, Frankie!” at the top of our voices. There were only two laps to go now, and Alex a
nd Frankie were almost neck and neck. Then Frankie managed to pull level.

  “There’s only one lap to go!” Lyndz shrieked.

  “Don’t let him get past you, Frankie,” Fliss wailed.

  “I can’t watch!” I groaned, and buried my head in my hands. ’Course, I went and missed the most exciting bit, didn’t I?

  “SHE’S OVERTAKEN HIM!” Rosie shouted in my ear. “Look!”

  I couldn’t believe it. I looked up just in time to see Frankie roar across the finishing line with Alex right behind her. She’d won her heat, and at last we had a Sleepover in the final!

  We all went completely crazy. We were hugging each other and slapping each other on the back and jumping up and down, and when Frankie got out of her kart and ran over to us, we started doing it all over again.

  “Hey, wait a minute!” Frankie protested, as we all tried to hug her at once. “It was only the heat. I’ve still got to race in the final!”

  “Yeah, but you won,” Rosie pointed out breathlessly. “You might win the final too!”

  Frankie grinned. “Well, I’ll have a good try anyway.”

  I glanced across at Josh Stevens. He looked absolutely furious, and he was giving poor old weedy Alex a good telling-off.

  “That really wound Bighead Stevens up,” I said with satisfaction. “You can beat him, Frankie, I know you can.”

  Josh happened to look over at us right at that moment, so we all waved smugly.

  “Looks like some girls are better at karting than some boys!” I called pointedly.

  “Huh! That was just beginner’s luck!” Josh snorted. He glared at Frankie. “You don’t stand a chance of winning the final.”

  “We’ll see,” Frankie said coolly. She didn’t look nervous at all. What a star!

  That was the last heat, so we didn’t have to wait very long before the karts that were in the final were flashed up on the display screen. We all gathered round Frankie to wish her good luck.

  “Now watch that bend at the far end of the track,” I instructed her. “It can be really tricky.”

  “And remember, don’t look over your shoulder, even if you think someone’s about to overtake you,” Rosie chimed in anxiously.

  Fliss added her bit. “Don’t forget not to brake when you go round the corners.”

  “And don’t be nervous,” Lyndz said kindly.

  “I wasn’t before,” Frankie replied, picking up her helmet. “But I am now!”

  We all slapped palms, and then Frankie went over to her kart. I couldn’t sit still as we waited for the race to start. I was jumping around like I had ants in my pants – I wanted her to win sooo badly and show Josh Stevens just how stupid he was!

  The commentator’s voice boomed out of the loudspeaker above our heads. “And the karts are all lined up ready for today’s final. I wonder who’s going to win?”

  “FRANKIE!” the four of us yelled. Everyone looked at us, but we didn’t care.

  We were all nearly wetting ourselves when the marshall lifted the flag to start the race.

  Fliss was hanging on to my arm, and I was holding on to Lyndz’s hand, and Rosie was leaning on Lyndz’s shoulder. If one of us had tried to move suddenly, we’d all have fallen over!

  There was a roar of engines as the flag fell, and the karts took off from the starting grid like rockets. We all strained our eyes impatiently to see where Frankie was, and there she was – in front!

  “She’s beating Josh!” Fliss squealed, looking as if she was about to faint with excitement.

  “Calm down, Fliss!” I yelled, even though my own heart was pounding with adrenalin. “There’s fourteen laps to go yet!”

  “Look at Josh,” Rosie said gleefully. “He can’t stand being behind Frankie!”

  She was right. The black and gold kart was on Frankie’s tail, and was constantly twisting and weaving, trying to find a way through. But Frankie wasn’t letting him. The question was, how long could she hold out?

  We soon found out. As they raced towards a hairpin bend, Snooty Stevens made his move. He pulled up alongside Frankie, and, as he did so, he gave her kart a little nudge with his own.

  “Did you see that?” I yelled furiously. “He bumped Frankie out of the way! That was a definite foul, ref!”

  “Kenny, this isn’t a game of footie,” Lyndz pointed out.

  “I think we should complain!” Fliss muttered, her face red. “Mike said we shouldn’t bump into anyone on purpose – it’s against the rules.”

  Our hearts sank right down into our shoes as we watched Josh overtake Frankie on the inside and zoom off into the lead. He waved as he went round her – probably pretending he was apologising, but we all knew he’d done it on purpose.

  “Yeah, but Mike also said that sometimes you can’t help bumping into people,” Rosie pointed out. “Smelly Stevens would only say it was an accident.”

  “And he didn’t get a black flag, so he’s got away with it,” I said, clenching my fists. “Come on, Frankie!”

  We all fixed our eyes on Frankie’s kart, willing her on. If the whole building had collapsed right at that minute, we wouldn’t even have noticed!

  “She’s catching him up!” Fliss shouted suddenly.

  Frankie was now right behind Josh Stevens. She was so close their karts were almost touching.

  And then it happened.

  Suddenly Frankie’s kart smashed right into the back of Josh’s. Both karts locked together, spun out of control and ended up crashing into the side barriers with a loud BANG!

  We all stared with our mouths open for a good few seconds. We just couldn’t believe it. A couple of the race marshalls had to rush on and pull the karts apart because they were stuck together, and Frankie and Josh Stevens had to leave the track. They were both out of the race.

  “What happened?” I asked the others urgently. “It looked like Frankie smashed into Josh on purpose!”

  The others were looking as sick as I felt.

  “I know,” Fliss groaned. “And Frankie knows that bumping isn’t allowed!”

  Frankie and Josh Stevens were standing by the side of the track yelling at each other. We couldn’t hear what they were saying, but, from the way they were both waving their arms around, it wasn’t nice. We rushed over to them, but before we got there, Josh had stomped off in a complete fury.

  “Frankie, are you OK?” Lyndz asked.

  “I’m fine,” Frankie muttered, although she was as white as a sheet. “Sorry, guys. I really messed up out there.”

  “Never mind,” I said quickly, “As long as you’re OK…”

  “What happened?” Fliss asked. “Didn’t you remember that bumping someone else’s kart isn’t allowed?”

  Frankie looked a bit sheepish. “Yeah, I did… But Josh’d just done it to me, so I thought I’d get him back.”

  “Get him back!” Rosie said. “You nearly blasted him off the track!”

  “Yeah, I don’t know how that happened,” Frankie frowned. “I only meant to give him a little tap. Then next minute – kaboom!”

  Just then one of the race marshalls came over to Frankie. “Mike wants to have a word with you,” he said.

  Frankie groaned. “I bet I’m going to get a right telling-off!” she muttered in my ear.

  “Oh, well.” I turned to the others and tried to look on the bright side. “At least now we know we’ve got a great chance in the team races tomorrow, what with Frankie doing so well before the crash.”

  “Yeah, she’s our star driver,” Lyndz agreed.

  “But we’re all doing pretty OK,” Fliss chimed in.

  “Even me!” Rosie added.

  Frankie came back over to us. Her face was as long as the wettest weekend ever.

  “What’s up?” I asked with a frown.

  “Josh has complained about my driving,” Frankie told us gloomily. “I’ve been banned from taking part in the team races tomorrow…”

  “WHAT!” we all shrieked.

  “Josh made a right
fuss about me being a dangerous driver,” Frankie went on. “I tried to tell them I didn’t mean to bump him so hard, but they wouldn’t listen.”

  “This just isn’t fair!” I raged. I glanced over at Josh Stevens, who was standing chatting to his pathetic mates. He looked well pleased with himself, and when he saw me staring, he gave me a smug grin. “I’m finally going to tell that little toad exactly what I think of him!”

  “Hold on, Kenny.” Frankie grabbed my arm. “If you go and thump Josh, you’ll get banned as well!”

  “Yeah, Kenny, and we’re already one team member down,” Rosie pointed out.

  I stopped and thought about that. Apart from the fact that Frankie was our best driver, you had to have five people to take part, and now we only had four.

  “Maybe we should just drop out of tomorrow’s race,” Lyndz suggested. “It won’t be half such a good laugh without Frankie anyway.”

  “Yeah, Lyndz is right,” Fliss agreed gloomily.

  But Frankie was shaking her head. “I don’t want you guys to lose out,” she said bravely. “If you can find someone else to take my place, you should just go for it.”

  Just then Charlie came running over to us.

  “I just heard about what happened from one of the race marshalls,” she said breathlessly. “Bad luck, Frankie. I’m really sorry.”

  “I didn’t mean to bump Josh that hard,” Frankie said in a wobbly voice. “I just don’t know how it happened.”

  Charlie frowned. “Well, Josh probably guessed what you were going to do, and put his brakes on slightly, right at the last second. That would mean you’d hit him a lot harder than you thought you would.”

  “I bet he did that on purpose so he could complain, and get Frankie banned from tomorrow’s race!” I said furiously.

  “Yeah, and Mike’s just given in to Josh because Dad owns the track,” Charlie added angrily. “They wouldn’t have done it for anyone else.”

  “What shall we do, Charlie?” Fliss asked anxiously.

  “I’ll have a go at Josh and see if I can get him to withdraw his complaint,” Charlie replied. “But don’t hold your breath.”