Mega Sleepover 7

by Narinder Dhami

  “Sorry!” Frankie gasped. “My mum went shopping for baby clothes today and she wanted to show them all to us!”

  “Is the school still open?” Pilar panted.

  I nodded. “But we’ve got to be quick. The caretaker might start locking up any minute.”

  “What if Mr Coleman starts locking up while we’re inside?” Fliss asked nervously.

  “We will be shut in?” Isabella squeaked, looking scared.

  “‘Course we won’t!” I said confidently. “We can easily climb out of one of the windows! Now, let’s get a move on!”

  Quickly we divided ourselves up into three groups. Fliss and Maria and I were going in through the main entrance doors; Elena, Rosie and Anna were going round the back; and Frankie, Pilar, Isabella and Lyndz were taking the short route through one of the cloakrooms.

  Silently we crept in through the playground gates. It was still daylight so we had to run for cover behind a wall, and wait there for a few seconds to make sure that the caretaker hadn’t spotted us.

  “OK, let’s go for it!” I whispered. “Good luck – and I hope we all make it!”

  “Just a sec!” Frankie grabbed my arm as I was about to shoot off with Fliss and Maria. “Look over there!”

  Frankie was pointing at the teachers’ car park. To our horror, it was still full of cars – and Mrs Weaver’s red Metro was there too.

  “The teachers are still here!” Fliss wailed. “I thought they’d have gone home by now!”

  “What’re they doing here?” I groaned.

  “Ssh! Listen!” Elena held up her hand. We all listened hard – and in the distance we could just about hear a Spice Girls song playing very faintly. The windows of the staffroom were wide open, and the noise seemed to be coming from there.

  “They must be having an end-of-term party!” Lyndz said.

  “Oh, great!” I said. “And the staffroom’s really close to our classroom!”

  “We can’t give up now,” Rosie pointed out. “Anyway, they’ll probably be too busy having a good time to hear us!”

  “Rosie’s right,” said Frankie. “We’ve got to go for it!”

  We all took a deep breath and started slapping each other on the backs and doing high fives, trying to make ourselves feel braver. Then we split up and set off.

  “I’m scared!” Fliss moaned in my ear as the three of us hurried over to the main entrance. “What if we get caught?”

  “We just say we forgot something and we came to get it,” I replied. “Don’t say anything about the flour!”

  Fliss, Maria and I had the longest journey through the school to get to our classroom, but at first it wasn’t too bad. We went through the Infants, and cut through the hall, and then we were in the corridor that led up to Mrs Weaver’s room. The staffroom was at the end of the corridor, and although the door was shut, we could hear the sound of music and people laughing and talking.

  “Quick!” I grabbed Fliss and Maria, and dragged them along with me towards the classroom. The door was slightly ajar, and we rushed in. To our relief, the others were already there.

  “We all made it!” I exclaimed.

  “Yeah, but let’s get a move on!” Frankie whispered. “Maria’s got to get rid of that flour!”

  Maria was already standing by Mrs Weaver’s table, pulling a big black bin bag out of her pocket.

  “Stand back!” she said. She pulled the top drawer open a very little way, and slipped the black bag over it. Then she pulled it out further, and we saw a small puff of flour as it all disappeared neatly into the black bag – instead of over Mrs Weaver tomorrow!

  “Hey, that was cool!” I said admiringly. “How did you set that up?”

  “Not now, Kenny!” Fliss hissed. She and Isabella were the look-outs over by the door. “Come on, let’s get out of here!”

  “Don’t forget the flour in Kenny’s locker!” Lyndz reminded us. Lucky she remembered! Quickly I went across the room, and looked in my locker. It was empty except for a really old and smelly pair of trainers, an empty crisps bag – and two big packets of flour.

  “Creeps!” I muttered angrily as I took the flour out. It weighed a ton. “What am I supposed to do with this now?” Then I grinned as I had a really fab idea. “Hey, guys, what do you think of this?”

  But I didn’t get a chance to tell them what I was planning to do because Fliss and Isabella suddenly jumped away from the door, and gasped in fright.

  “What is it?” asked Elena.

  “M-M-M-Mrs Weaver!” Fliss stuttered, looking absolutely terrified. “She’s just come out of the staffroom, and she’s coming this way!”

  Everyone had a major panic. If Mrs Weaver came into the classroom, we’d had it because there was nowhere we could hide.

  “Close the door, Fliss!” Frankie hissed. “Quietly!”

  Fliss’s hands were shaking so much she could hardly manage it, but she did it. Meanwhile the rest of us crawled under the tables and tried to make ourselves as small as possible. If Mrs Weaver went past the classroom we were OK. If she just glanced through the glass at the top of the door as she went by, we would probably be OK. But if she opened the door and came in… we were dead meat.

  I kept my eyes on the door. I saw Mrs Weaver’s head appear in the glass at the top – and then she went by. I heaved an enormous sigh of relief.

  “She’s gone!”

  “Let’s get out of here then!” Fliss wailed.

  “No, wait!” Frankie cut in. “It might be better to stay here till she’s gone back to the staffroom. Otherwise there’s a chance we might bump into her while we’re trying to escape!”

  We couldn’t argue with that, although none of us were very keen on staying in the classroom a minute longer than we had to. But I had something to do before we left anyway.

  “Kenny, what’re you up to?” Frankie asked as I picked up the two bags of flour.

  “Oh, just paying back the M&Ms for getting us into this mess!” I said cheerfully. “Maria, give me a hand, will you?”

  Maria and I had just finished setting up our surprise for the M&Ms when Elena and Rosie, who were being look-outs, started waving madly at us.

  “Mrs Weaver’s coming back!” Rosie mouthed silently at us. We all dived under the tables, and waited. Mrs Weaver went past again, and then we heard the staffroom door open. A blast of noise came out.

  “What’s that!” Frankie gasped, covering her hands with her ears. “It’s horrible!”

  “It sounds like a dog howling!” Fliss added.

  “No, it isn’t.” I started laughing. “It’s Mr Coppins singing! The teachers are doing karaoke!”

  We all started giggling and we had to stuff our hands in our mouths to muffle the sound. Rosie opened the door a bit wider so that we could hear it better. After Mr Coppins had finished murdering a Boyzone song, Mrs Weaver did a Madonna impression! We all nearly died laughing.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here!” Frankie said at last. “We’ve wasted enough time already!”

  Still giggling, we tiptoed across the room, and peered out of the door. Luckily the staffroom door was closed, but the teachers were making so much noise, I don’t think they’d have noticed if we’d dropped a bomb on them!

  “Right, shall we split up again?” I whispered.

  “Nah, no point,” Frankie whispered back. “Let’s just get out of here as fast as we can!”

  We all ran down the corridor. We were nearly back at the main entrance, when suddenly Elena, who was at the front, stopped dead in her tracks, and the rest of us all bumped into each other as we skidded to a halt.

  “I can hear noise!” Elena gasped. “Someone is outside!”

  We all listened. She was right. There were definitely footsteps approaching!

  “Quick, hide!” Frankie hissed, diving into a nearby classroom.

  We all scattered. Isabella, Fliss and Rosie followed Frankie, while Lyndz, Anna and Pilar dashed into the hall. Maria, Elena and I raced into the Infants’
cloakroom, and flattened ourselves against the wall.

  The footsteps got louder. Someone was coming in through the door.

  “Hello?” said a familiar voice, and I nearly dropped dead with fright! It was Mrs Poole, our headmistress! “Who’s there?”

  She’d heard us! I glanced at Maria and Elena, who both looked as scared as I was.

  “I said, who’s there?” Mrs Poole repeated. “You’d better come out, whoever you are!”

  None of us moved.

  “Right, I’ll have to come and find you then!”

  We heard the sound of heels tapping across the entrance hall – and they were coming in our direction! Mrs Poole was coming over to the cloakroom!

  “What we do now?” Maria whispered urgently in my ear.

  For once I didn’t have a single bright idea. Mrs Poole was going to catch us red-handed, and there was nothing we could do about it. I just hoped the others kept quiet and managed to get out safely after we’d been captured…

  “Betty! We’ve been waiting for you!”

  That was Mrs Weaver’s voice! I groaned silently. How many more teachers were we going to have to get past before we could escape?

  “Oh, hello, Jane,” Mrs Poole replied. “I was just wondering if some of the staff were lying in wait for me – you know, to play an end-of-term trick on me!”

  “Not this time!” Mrs Weaver said with a laugh.

  “Yes, I still remember last term when you turned all the furniture in my office upside-down!” Mrs Poole started to laugh too. “How’s the party going?”

  “Fine, but we’re waiting for you to come and give us a song!”

  “Right. Funny though, I could have sworn I heard someone moving around…” Mrs Poole was coming closer to the cloakroom. “Maybe we ought to check the classrooms.”

  I held my breath.

  “Oh, come on, you’re missing all the fun!” Mrs Weaver said firmly. “We’ll ask the caretaker to look around if you’re worried.”

  Mrs Weaver and Mrs Poole walked off down the corridor together. We waited till the sound of their voices had died away, and then we sneaked out of our various hiding-places.

  “Did you hear that?” I asked indignantly. “The teachers are allowed to play tricks at the end of term, but we’re not!”

  “I didn’t know the teachers behaved like this at the end of term!” Frankie grinned as we tiptoed out of the door. “I thought they spent all their time tidying the classrooms and moaning at us!”

  “They’d die if they knew we’d heard them doing karaoke!” Rosie giggled.

  It was still light when we got out into the playground, and we had to be careful making our way over to the gates. When the last one of us had finally dashed out, we all heaved a big sigh of relief.

  “We made it!” I said triumphantly.

  “Just about!” Frankie grinned. “Mrs Weaver nearly caught us a few times!”

  “I’ve got to get home right now,” Rosie said, glancing at her watch. “I’ve got to finish off my fancy-dress costume for tomorrow.”

  “Me too,” said Lyndz and Frankie together.

  “Let’s get out of here.” I walked off up the road, and the others followed. “I’ve had enough of school to last me a lifetime!”

  “This was all my fault,” said Maria. “I am very sorry.”

  “Yes, if we did not listen to M&Ms, this would not happen,” Pilar chimed in.

  “No, it wasn’t your fault,” Frankie said, slapping her on the back. “This was all down to the M&Ms! They were the ones who started everything off by sending those emails!”

  “Yeah, and tomorrow they’re going to get exactly what they deserve!” I said with a big grin. “And I’m really looking forward to it!”

  “Hey, Kenny!” The others were already waiting in the playground the following morning when my mum drove me and Maria to school. When they saw me, they all started laughing like drains.

  “D’you want some help, Kenny?” called Frankie as I tried to climb out of the car. “You look like you’re having problems!”

  It was a bit hard getting out of a car with my mummy case on. I had my mask on top which was really big, and then the cardboard boxes Frankie and I had stuck together covered me from my neck almost down to my feet. Frankie and Lyndz had helped me to paint the boxes all over with hieroglyphics. Underneath I’d wrapped some bandages round myself too, so that I could burst out of the boxes just like a mummy in a horror film! I looked cool, even if I did say so myself!

  “’Bye, girls!” My mum waited patiently until I’d managed to heave myself out of the car. Maria, who was dressed in her Real Madrid football strip, gave me a hand. “Have a good day.”

  “’Bye, Mummy!” I said and the others giggled.

  “You look gruesome, Kenny!” said Fliss, who was just wearing a pink dress and a pink headband to match. It must have taken her all of thirty seconds to come up with that Barbie costume!

  I stuck my arm out of one of the armholes in the side of the box. “Like my bandages?”

  The others fell about.

  “Hey, Maria, Kenny – guess what?” Rosie, who was dressed as a black and white cat and had a really fab mask with long whiskers, was nearly bursting with excitement. “I nagged my mum all evening yesterday, and she gave in and said we could have another sleepover at mine tonight!”

  “Excellent!” I gasped. “An end-of-term sleepover!”

  “And a goodbye sleepover because we go home tomorrow,” Maria added.

  “Let’s have a really good one,” Frankie said. “But no makeovers!”

  I grinned and had a good look at everyone else’s costume. Lyndz’s Tin Man was brilliant! The silver paint she’d used was really shiny, and made the cardboard boxes look just like tin, and she’d made a wicked oil can as well.

  “Can you guess who Elena is?” Lyndz asked.

  I looked at Elena. She was wearing a blue dress with a white apron, and carrying a little basket with a stuffed dog sitting inside it. I didn’t have a clue who she was meant to be – until I looked down and saw the red shoes she was wearing.

  “Hey, you’re Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz too!” I said.

  Elena grinned and nodded.

  “So what do you reckon, Kenny?” Frankie did a twirl so that I could see her The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe costume. It looked pretty good. It was a long dress all in white and silver, and she had a wand with a big glittery star at the end, silver make-up and silver nail varnish.

  “Good one!” I nodded. Then I glanced at Anna who was all in green with a funny hat on her head. “What’re you, Anna? A pixie?”

  “What is pixie? No, I am Robin Hood!” Anna said, looking a bit put out. “I made a – how you say – a bow and arrow, but Maria sit on it and break it!”

  “Sorry!” Maria said with a grin.

  Isabella and Pilar looked pretty good too. Isabella was a butterfly, with big chiffon wings in bright colours, and Pilar was Mickey Mouse! She had the trousers and the white gloves, and she’d made herself some mouse ears out of some cardboard and a pair of black tights!

  “I reckon one of us is bound to win a prize!” I said. “That’ll be one in the eye for the M&Ms!”

  “I’m not so sure about that!” Frankie nudged my mummy case. “Look over there…”

  We all looked across the playground. The Queen and the Goblin were just getting out of Mrs Hughes’ car. They were both dressed up like Victorian ladies, and they were wearing long dresses with big skirts and bonnets and high-heeled lace-up boots. Emma was carrying a lacy parasol and so was Emily. We all stood and stared at them, our mouths open. They were the Gruesome Twosome – but we had to admit they looked good.

  “They didn’t make those costumes themselves – no way!” I said angrily. “You’re supposed to make the costume yourself to win a prize!”

  “It looks like their parents have been slaving over those cozzies for weeks!” Frankie complained. “They’re bound to win!”

  “I do not
think so!” said Maria, winking at me. “We have surprise for them, remember?”

  That started us all giggling.

  “Come along, girls, didn’t you hear the bell?” Mrs Weaver came hurrying across the playground from the car park, looking a bit the worse for wear. She was dressed up as a clown in a baggy white suit and she had a big red nose stuck on too!

  “You look good, Miss!” Frankie said, winking at the rest of us.

  “Oh, thank you, Frankie.” Mrs W. gave a huge yawn. “So do all of you!”

  We all filed into class, having a good laugh when we saw what other people were wearing. I had to go in sideways so I could get my mummy case through the door! Ryan Scott was an alien, Danny McCloud was Dracula and other kids in our class were dressed up as a werewolf, a Teletubby, Superman and lots of other things.

  “Mrs Weaver looked a bit sick, didn’t she?” Frankie said with a grin. “Where is she anyway?”

  “Probably gone up to the staffroom to take some aspirin!” I replied. “That was some wild party last night!”

  At that moment the M&Ms swept into the room, holding up their dresses and looking snooty. We all started nudging each other and giggling.

  “Hey, Emma, what’re you and Emily meant to be then?” called Ryan Scott, looking puzzled.

  “We’re Victorian ladies, you wally!” Emma snorted.

  “Bor-ing!” Ryan stuck his tongue out at her. “Why didn’t you come as something decent?”

  Emily glared at him. “You wait – Emily and I are going to win the prizes for best costume!” she snapped, as she rustled over to her locker. Emily followed her, and we all glanced at each other. Obviously we knew what was going to happen next, but we didn’t want to give it away!

  Emma reached out to open her locker.

  “EEEK!” she roared as the booby-trapped bag of flour tipped over and showered her dress and face with white powder. Emily saw what had happened and tried to jump back out of the way, but it was too late. She’d already started opening her locker, and the same thing happened to her! They were both covered from head to toe!

  “W-w-who—w-what—!” Emma spluttered, coughing as she got some flour in her mouth.