Sleepover Girls Go Karting

by Narinder Dhami

  “Couldn’t your dad do something?” Lyndz asked hopefully.

  “He could, but he’s just gone to Hong Kong on business,” Charlie sighed. “He won’t be back till next week.”

  “Hey, wait a minute!” I yelled. I had a brill idea. “Charlie, couldn’t you be in our team instead of Frankie?”

  “That’s a great idea!” Frankie agreed, looking a lot more cheerful, and the others nodded. It looked like our problem was solved!

  But Charlie still looked glum.

  “Sorry, folks, I’m too old to race on the junior track,” she replied. “But I’ll ask around, and see if I can find you someone else. Look, come along tomorrow anyway.” She slapped Frankie on the back. “I might be able to persuade Josh to change his mind.”

  “Yeah, and pigs might fly!” I muttered, as Charlie went off. “What are we going to do now?”

  “If you need a driver, I could be in your team tomorrow,” said this dozy voice behind us.

  We all turned round. Alana Banana was standing there. She must have overheard everything we were saying.

  “What?” I spluttered.

  “I haven’t got a team to race with tomorrow,” Alana said helpfully. “I could take Frankie’s place.”

  “Aren’t you racing with your brother?” Rosie asked.

  “Kevin doesn’t want me in his team.” Alana looked puzzled. “I don’t know why.”

  “I can take a guess!” I muttered to Fliss.

  “Well?” Alana Banana looked at us eagerly. “Am I in or what?”

  “Over my dead body—” I began, but I shut up when Lyndz nudged me in the ribs.

  “Er – we’ll let you know, Alana,” Fliss said quickly.

  Alana Banana nodded, and wandered off, bumping right into one of the other drivers and nearly knocking him over.

  I groaned. “She can hardly drive herself in a straight line, let along a kart!”

  “But if we can’t get anyone else…” Fliss didn’t finish the sentence.

  She was right. Either we got Frankie back into the team, or we had to go with whoever else might be free to take part when we arrived at the track tomorrow. And that just might mean dopey Alana Banana Palmer…

  “Well, what about Callum?” Fliss said, for the sixth time. “He might be OK.”

  “He’s a bit young,” I said doubtfully. “And he’s a bit – well, you know…”

  “A bit what?” Fliss’s eyes started flashing dangerously. I’d been about to say that Fliss’s brother was a bit weedy – even weedier than Alex and Robin, in fact – but I decided not to. We were all feeling stressed out, and I didn’t want to start a row with Fliss.

  It was quite late at night, and we were round at Lyndz’s house for our sleepover. We were supposed to be having a great old time, making our T-shirts and discussing race tactics, but instead we were sitting around in Lyndz’s bedroom being miserable. We’d started off being really positive. We’d even started painting our T-shirts with fabric paint. We’d done silver stars round the necklines, and a big purple heart in the middle. Then we were going to write Sleepover Club Forever! underneath in silver paint – until Fliss pointed out that whoever took Frankie’s place wouldn’t be a Sleepover Club member. That had depressed us in a major way, so we’d left the T-shirts half-finished.

  “I was just going to say that Callum’s a bit inexperienced,” I said, crawling over Lyndz’s bed to grab a Wispa bar. We were having our midnight feast and we were all starving because we’d been too depressed to eat much dinner. “You said he’s never karted before.”

  “Yeah, but at the moment he’s our only hope,” Fliss pointed out.

  She was right. Callum was the only one of our brothers and sisters who was under eleven, but old enough to take part.

  “Maybe Charlie can persuade Josh to let Frankie race,” Lyndz said hopefully. She had her black kitten, Zebedee, on her lap and he was purring away like an engine.

  “No way,” I said. “Josh knows we’ve got a great chance of winning the team race with Frankie. Without her, we’re dead.”

  “No, you’re not,” Frankie butted in. She was lying on the floor, eating a Snickers bar. “You might turn up at the track tomorrow and find someone really brilliant to be in the team.”

  “Like who?” I snorted. “Anyone who’s any good will be in a team already. No, we’re more likely to end up with someone who’s never raced before, or a complete dork.”

  “Like Alana Banana,” Rosie muttered.

  “We might as well not bother entering the race if we have to go with Alana Banana,” I

  said firmly. “I’d rather let Zebedee drive for us!”

  “Maybe we just shouldn’t bother turning up tomorrow,” Fliss suggested.

  “That might be the best thing,” I agreed. I couldn’t bear to think of Josh Stevens being all smug because he’d beaten us.

  “But what if Charlie’s found someone else to be in our team?” Lyndz pointed out.

  We all sighed. We just couldn’t make our minds up.

  “I think we should vote on it,” Frankie suggested. “Let’s write down what we think in our diaries.”

  So we all grabbed our Sleepover diaries and got writing. Then we passed them round and read each other’s. Lyndz’s was covered in cat hairs, and read:

  I think we should go to the track tomorrow just in case Charlie’s persuaded Josh to change his mind, And if she hasn’t, we’re sure to find someone else to be in our team. It won’t be the same as having Frankie, though.

  Mine said:

  If Frankie’s not in our team, I can’t see much point in taking part. I mean, we’re supposed to be the Sleepover Club team. But if everyone else wants to go, I will.

  Fliss’s said:

  I think we should definitely ask Callum. But if he’s rubbish, then I’ll get the blame. Maybe we shouldn’t go at all. Oh, I don’t know… Help!

  Rosie’s was:

  I think we should go to the track tomorrow and find another driver. Charlie can help us to get someone good, not dopey Alana Banana.

  And Frankie wrote:

  I’d feel really bad if everyone pulled out of the race because of me. I think you should give it a go.

  So it was three votes to two. We were going to take part in that team race, with or without Frankie.

  “Looks like we’re gonna be back at the track tomorrow then, folks,” I said slowly.

  The others all looked at me solemnly and nodded.

  “Let’s just hope we find someone good to take Frankie’s place…”

  “How did you get on, Charlie?”

  “Did you find us another driver?”

  “Did you talk to Josh?”

  “Is he going to let Frankie race?”

  “What did the little creep say?” (That was me.)

  We’d just arrived at the track the following morning, and the minute we spotted Charlie, we rushed over to her. But one look at her face told us the news wasn’t good.

  “Sorry, girls,” she muttered, looking embarrassed. “I did my best, but he won’t withdraw that complaint. He was saying something about salt in a glass of Coke?”

  I turned pink. “Yeah, well, he deserved it.”

  “So now we’ve got to see about getting you another driver,” Charlie said briskly. “I’ve asked around some of my mates, but all their younger brothers and sisters are already in teams.”

  “So what are we going to do?” Fliss wailed.

  “Watch the practice sessions before the races,” Charlie advised us. “Then you can see which drivers are good, and ask them if they’d be interested in joining your team. And I’ll keep asking around, OK?”

  We all nodded gloomily. We hadn’t really expected Charlie to persuade Josh, but I guess we’d all been secretly hoping that she would. Now we knew for sure that Frankie wasn’t going to be taking part, we all felt a bit sick.

  “Oh, well, I didn’t really think Snooty Stevens would back down,” Frankie remarked, trying not to sound gutted
as Charlie hurried off.

  “No,” we all agreed sadly.

  To make things worse, Alana Banana suddenly appeared, and wandered over to us.

  “Hi,” she said dozily. “Have you found someone to take Frankie’s place yet?”

  “No,” I muttered. If Alana Banana was the only person at the track that morning who wasn’t in a team, we’d either have to have her in ours or go home without competing. Either way, Josh Stevens would be laughing his head off.

  “Oh,” Alana shrugged. “Well, I just came to tell you I can’t race with you. I’m going to be in Kevin’s team after all, because one of his mates dropped out.”

  “He must be pleased,” I whispered to Frankie. We both looked across at Kevin Palmer, who was stomping around in what looked like a complete sulk. I think I’d have been the same if I’d had to have useless Alana Banana on my team!

  “Well, that’s one problem solved at least!” Fliss breathed a sigh of relief as Alana drifted away.

  “Look, the first practice session’s starting.” Rosie pointed at the track. “We’d better go and check it out.”

  “Hang on a minute…” A brilliant plan had just popped right into my head. “I’ve got an idea!”

  The others didn’t react quite like I was hoping.

  “Not another of your mad ideas, Kenny!” Frankie groaned.

  “I hope you’re not going to attack Josh Stevens,” Fliss said sternly.

  “Then we’d all get banned from the race,” Rosie added.

  “Just forget about it, Kenny,” Lyndz suggested.

  “You lot are weedier than Alex and Robin!” I grumbled. “This is a great idea – and it might just work. Follow me!”

  I marched over to where Josh Stevens was standing with Alex and Robin, plus two other guys who had to be his other team-mates, Ben and Nathan. They had exactly the same weedy look as the other two. The others reluctantly followed me, muttering amongst themselves. I think they were sorting out a back-up plan in case I attacked Snotty Stevens!

  But it wasn’t violence I had in mind – not this time anyway! I went straight up to Josh, who looked pretty surprised to see me.

  “Hello, girlies!” he sneered. “I didn’t expect to see you again after your pathetic attempt to beat me yesterday.”

  “Oh, we’re not giving up,” I retorted, keeping my cool even though my blood was boiling. “We still think we’ve got a pretty good chance in the race, even without Frankie.”

  Snooty Stevens laughed. “What makes you think that?”

  I went in for the kill. “Well, you obviously thought we could beat your team – that’s why you deliberately got Frankie chucked out of the race. You were scared we’d beat you, so you set us up!”

  I knew that was probably true, but I was secretly hoping that Josh would immediately deny it, get mad and say Frankie could take part in the race and he’d beat us fair and square. My dad calls it reverse psychology!

  Josh had turned red with fury. “That’s a load of rubbish!” he declared. Then suddenly he started laughing himself silly. “Hey, I know what you’re up to. You’re playing mind-games…”

  “It’s reverse psychology,” put in Alex, who obviously wasn’t as stupid as he looked.

  “Yeah, you want me to get mad and say OK, let her race, and I’ll beat you all.” Josh grinned mockingly at me. “Well, tough! Because I’m not going to.”

  OK, so I’d been rumbled. It was our last shot, and I’d run out of ideas.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here,” I muttered to the others, my face bright red.

  “Hang on a minute,” Snotty Stevens called after us, as we sloped off. “You really want Frankie to take part in that race, don’t you? Well, maybe she can…”

  That made us all turn round.

  “If this is a stupid trick, I’m gonna thump him this time, and no-one’s going to stop me!” I growled, as Josh strolled over to us.

  “I’ve been thinking,” he began. I didn’t like the look of the nasty gleam in his eyes. “Maybe I will go to Mike and ask him to let Frankie race.”

  “Why would you do that?” I asked suspiciously. There just had to be a catch.

  There was.

  “OK, here’s the deal.” Josh hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his combat trousers in a pathetic effort to look cool. “I’ll get Frankie back into the race, but if my team beats yours, you stay off this track from now on…”

  I was a bit surprised as I looked at the others. That sounded OK. I mean, we all enjoyed karting, but it was quite expensive if you didn’t have free passes, so we weren’t sure how often we’d come back anyway. Besides, there were other karting centres we could go to if we wanted.

  “OK?” I raised my eyebrows at the others, and they all nodded. I turned to Josh.

  “All right,” I agreed, hardly believing we were getting off so lightly. “We’ll stay away from the centre if you beat us.”

  “Hang on…” Snooty Stevens gave us an evil grin. “I didn’t say I wanted you to keep away from the centre. Just to stay off the track.”

  We all looked really confused.

  “But why would we bother coming here if we can’t race?” Frankie asked, puzzled.

  “Oh, you’ll be here all right,” Josh replied airily. “As my cheerleading squad!”

  We all stared at him in amazement.

  “Your what?” I roared.

  “Yep, I fancy having a cheerleading squad to support me when I’m racing,” Josh explained smugly. “You’d have to sort out a uniform. You could have T-shirts with my name printed on the front or something.”

  “You’re joking!” Lyndz’s mouth had dropped open.

  “And you’d have to jump up and down and cheer me while I’m racing,” Josh went on, ignoring her. “And if you could dance like Britney Spears, that’d be good.”

  “You’re not serious!” Frankie spluttered.

  “Yeah, I am.” Smarmy Stevens grinned at us. “I go to loads of race meetings, and no-one’s got cheerleaders. I’d be the first!”

  “That’s it!” I charged forward. “Let me at him!’

  Everyone rushed in between us right at that moment, so Smarmy Stevens just about got away in one piece.

  “That’s my offer,” he yelled from behind the rest of his team-mates. “Take it or leave it!”

  “We’ll leave it, thanks very much,” Frankie began, but stopped when I grabbed her arm.

  “Hang on a sec, Franks. Let’s think about this.”

  “What?” the others all said together, staring at me.

  “Well, why not?” I’d calmed down a bit, and I was thinking things out. “We’ve got a great chance of winning with Frankie back on our team.”

  “But what if we lose?” Frankie pointed out in a tragic voice. “We’ll be Smarty-pants Stevens’ cheerleaders – we’ll look like a bunch of twits!”

  “I’d quite like to be a cheerleader,” Fliss remarked. “But not for him,” she added hastily, as we all glared at her.

  “We’ll win,” I said confidently. “So, are we in?” I looked round at everyone. “Or are we out?”

  After a moment or two, everyone nodded. I turned back to Josh.

  “All right,” I snapped. “We accept your offer!”

  “Cool.” Josh and his mates began sniggering. “See you on the race track.”

  “Yeah, you will,” I said coldly. “Because we’ll all be in front of you!”

  Just then Charlie came hurrying over to us.

  “I thought you were going to watch the practice sessions,” she began. Then she spotted Josh and frowned. “What’re you up to now, Joshua Roland Stevens?”

  “Roland!” I spluttered, and we all howled with laughter as Charlie winked at us. Even Alex and the others were smirking.

  “Actually, I’m just about to go and talk to Mike,” Josh snapped, his face bright red. “I’m going to withdraw my complaint about Frankie.”

  Charlie looked totally amazed as Josh went off, surrounded by
his team-mates. “Oh, that’s brilliant!” she gasped.

  “Yeah, but things aren’t quite that simple,” I said grimly, and explained what would happen if we lost. Charlie looked stunned.

  “That little creep!” she said crossly. “That’s just like him.” Then her eyes narrowed, and she grinned. “Well, we’d better make sure he doesn’t win then, hadn’t we? Come on.”

  And she hurried off across the arena. Curiously we all followed her outside to where the karts were parked behind the building.

  “Here we are!” Charlie pulled off the tarpaulin which was covering Silver Flash, and we all gasped. Charlie had finished the painting, and the kart looked fantastic. “It’s all yours, Frankie,” she went on.

  “You mean…?” Frankie gasped.

  “Yep, you can drive Silver Flash in the team races today,” Charlie said with a grin. “All you’ve got to do now is win!”

  Frankie couldn’t believe her luck – and neither could the rest of us!

  “It’s a shame we haven’t got our team T-shirts with us,” Rosie said. “The purple and silver would have gone really well with Silver Flash.”

  Fliss grinned at us. “Just call me a genius!” she said modestly. She put her hand in her bag, and pulled out – the team T-shirts! And she’d finished them off too, painting Sleepover Club Forever! underneath the purple hearts.

  “I got up early this morning when the rest of you were still asleep, and finished them off,” Fliss confessed. “Just in case! And look…” She delved into her bag again, and pulled out a tube of silver hair mascara.

  We all cheered.

  “Yes!” I exclaimed. “The Sleepover Club is back in business!”

  “Now listen up, all of you,” Charlie said, as we gathered round her in a huddle like a team of American football players. “Josh has got quite a few tricks up his sleeve that you need to know about.”

  We all nodded solemnly. It was nearly time for the races to start, and we were already kitted up with our race suits open at the front so that everyone could see our T-shirts. We all had a silver streak in our hair too – we looked fab!

  We were really hyped up about the races, but we knew that Charlie would give us some really good advice, so we were trying to listen hard. She’d just brought Silver Flash into the arena, and the look on Josh’s face when he’d realised that Frankie was going to be driving Charlie’s kart made us all laugh our heads off.