I’d have liked to give my step-dad a hug actually, but my official train-management duties made this impossible. So Andy made do with giving me a huge wink, and I gave him a very dignified bridesmaid’s smile!
The ceremony passed in a flash. I know you’ll be relieved to hear that absolutely no-one tripped over, and Lyndz didn’t have an attack of her famous hiccups, thank goodness!
But the star of the show was definitely my little brother. I don’t think I mentioned what a terrible time we’d had getting Callum into his page-boy clothes earlier? I was probably trying to forget it!
Mum’s idea was for Callum to walk along with the wedding rings carefully balanced on a small velvet cushion. I had serious doubts about this. He’s not the most co-ordinated boy in the world, and his shoes had seriously slippy soles. He wasn’t walking really, so much as skating over the carpet.
But somehow, even with total strangers watching him, Callum managed to walk down that long strip of red carpet in his strange new page-boy outfit, plus he hung on to those rings like grim death!
I don’t think anyone minded that the tip of his tongue was sticking out the whole time. It was only because he was concentrating so hard. And even our vicar laughed when Callum puffed out his cheeks with relief and said, “So now can we have that cake, Mum?”
And suddenly it was over. Mum and Andy were married. For real!
The wedding lunch was held in this big marquee. The food was just amazing. We’d all been loads too nervous to eat a bite of breakfast, so everyone was starving.
Mum and Andy had arranged for us bridesmaids to have a special table of our own. But for the first few minutes we all just stuffed our faces, and now and then one of us would go, “Wow, we actually did it.”
But eventually, we were all chatting away at once, like we always do.
“It’s so great of you guys to invite me to your big wedding sleepover tonight,” Amber said suddenly.
“Well, as we’re all going to be staying in Fliss’s house,” grinned Kenny, “it would be pretty rude to have it without you!”
Rosie looked shocked. “You didn’t have to say it like that,” she said. “Amber might think you mean it.”
But Amber just burst out laughing. In a funny way, I think Kenny teasing her made her feel like she was really one of us.
By this time, all the speeches had started. I don’t know why grown-ups insist on having them, do you? Next to school assembly, speeches have to be the most boring invention on this planet.
While they were all going on (and on), everyone at our table carried on talking in whispers. Which is when Kenny shared her secret survival strategy to being a bridesmaid.
“I pretended I was invisible,” she said calmly. “You guys didn’t realise, but the sixth bridesmaid was totally invisible the whole time.”
Well, honestly – we all fell about. Can you seriously imagine an INVISIBLE bridesmaid helping to hold up a train? Spooky or what!
But by this time, all those angels who’d been busily protecting Lyndz all morning must have gone off duty. And you know what happens when Lyndz gets the giggles? That’s right. That girl just EXPLODED into big-time hiccups.
She’d only just gone back to her normal colour (i.e. not purple) when everyone in the marquee suddenly went completely wild, all clapping and cheering and laughing.
I looked up in amazement, just in time to see Andy return to his seat beside Mum. For some reason they were both grinning like idiots.
“Wow,” breathed Amber. “I don’t know what your dad just said, Fliss, but everyone really, REALLY loved him.”
And all at once Mum was beside me, hugging all the breath out of me.
“Sorry you had to hear it like that, sweetheart,” she babbled. “We’d planned to tell you before we went away on our honeymoon. I don’t know what got into Andy, blurting it out in front of everyone like that!”
I struggled up for air. Mum was glowing with excitement.
“So what do you think?” she demanded. “I can’t believe I’ve been worrying myself to death all week, thinking something was wrong. And all the time everything was perfectly normal.”
I stared at her. “Mum, I haven’t a clue what you’re on about. What do you mean, normal?”
“Normal for twins, of course,” she cried. “Isn’t it amazing! I had the scan yesterday.”
I bet you’ve never seen six bridesmaids in flowery crowns with their mouths hanging open, have you!
“You’re having a BABY!” I breathed.
“Two,” Kenny corrected me quickly. “She said twins, dummy!”
Mum’s eyes were bright with tears. “I wanted to tell you, Flissy,” she said. “But the doctor was worried something was wrong. And you had so much on your plate with the wedding and everything, I couldn’t bear you to have any extra worries.”
Andy appeared beside her. “So what’s the verdict?” he said shyly. “I know we must have acted really weird sometimes this week. Are we forgiven, princess?”
But I just jumped into Andy’s arms and buried my head in his shoulder.
“Yes,” I said in a muffled voice. “You are both totally totally forgiven, but don’t you DARE keep me in the dark like that again, OK.”
After that, as you can imagine, all of us partied away like mad. And then it was time for Mum and Andy to go off on their honeymoon.
Sometimes I feel deeply depressed at the end of a party, don’t you? But by this time, Mum and Andy’s news was sinking in just enough for me to realise this party wasn’t like an ENDING. It was the beginning of an amazing new life. And that made me feel incredibly safe and happy somehow. You know what I mean?
All the guests turned out to wave and throw confetti as Andy and Mum made a mad dash for their car. At last they got away and everyone started gradually drifting back to the marquee.
Everyone except me. I stood there by myself, with my long dress fluttering in the breeze, and watched the car disappear down the drive. And I stayed there, watching and watching, until it was a teeny weeny dot in the distance.
And then I went back to the marquee, to do some SERIOUS bopping with the others!
Phew! That’s the big water splash out of the way. Now you can really relax and enjoy the rest of the ride. We’re almost home and dry!
There’s just a few (very tiny) surprises to go…
Hope you’ve forgiven me for having that tiny freak-out back there? I mean, how many girls have to cope with getting an official new dad AND find out they’re getting two new babies in the family, all on the same day? Not many, is my guess!
It’s funny – my mates and I generally think of sleepovers as like, the MAJOR exciting event of our school week or whatever. But after all the excitement of the wedding (AND some!) our actual wedding sleepover felt almost, well – RESTFUL.
Like Lyndz said, you’d think that after stuffing ourselves with all that gorgeous wedding food, we’d be totally full to bursting, wouldn’t you? But luckily, by the time everyone had stopped watching videos, we were all feeling nicely peckish again! Which was just as well, because when we finally went up to bed, it turned out everyone had brought LOADS of goodies.
In honour of our special guest, we’d decided to give the sleepover feast an American theme! After Jilly and Patsy had been in to say goodnight, we waited till they’d gone back downstairs, then we turned on our torches and shared out our American loot.
Want to know what we had?
We had real American jelly beans – both kinds. The sweet kind and the really sour ones which make your eyes water. They actually make Lyndz shudder all over, but she says they’re so delicious that it’s worth it!
We also had some real melt-in-your-mouth chocolate brownies. Good old Frankie brought them. She said she just had to make it up to me for my horrendous cabbage soup experience! Plus, we had a HUGE family pack of marshmallows. I truly don’t understand how something that is basically just a mouthful of fluff can have so many wicked calories, do you? Oh, yes, and
we had Oreo cookies. Everyone else raved about them. Personally I didn’t think they were that special.
But the Sleepover Club’s unanimous favourite were these totally HEAVENLY sweets that Amber provided. They’re called Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses, would you believe? Kenny joked that it was the first time in her whole life that she’d seen the point of anyone giving you kisses!
Then it was time for everyone to write in their sleepover diaries. Amber didn’t own one, obviously, so I said she could write a few lines in mine. This is what she wrote.
When I get back home, I’m going to invite all my friends to a sleepover at my house, first chance I get! I have had the most fabulous time here. Plus I haven’t laughed so much since Lauren McGravy slid down our stairs on a tea tray, sneezing nonstop!!
“Tell us what you put!” everyone pleaded.
So Amber read it out to us in her laid-back Hollywood voice (which sounded even better by torchlight, for some reason). And this time I don’t think the others even noticed her using the word ‘fabulous’!
Of course, then Amber had to explain to the others all about her ex-best buddy Lauren, with the famous Disney sneeze. But she didn’t seem quite so sad when she told it this time. Then Amber gave my diary back to me, and I wrote this:
This has definitely been the most amazing twenty-four hours of my life.
Not only have I been a bridesmaid, got a new dad, AND found out I’m getting two new baby sisters or brothers (or maybe one of each!), but I also finally found out what I want to do when I grow up. I have decided to be a fashion designer. Andy’s mum promised that when I’m older, she’ll teach me how to make really stylish clothes, just like she used to do at that posh French fashion house in London.
I read this out to everyone. Then the others read out all these sweet things they’d written, about what a great time they’d had, being bridesmaids. Then we all totally ran out of steam. The wedding sleepover was over!
You’d think I’d have gone to sleep really quickly, wouldn’t you, after the day I’d had? But it’s like Mum says. Sometimes it’s possible to get TOO tired.
I did almost drift off, but then suddenly I spun off into a serious doom spiral.
For the first time, it really hit me that in a few months my lovely quiet life was going to be disrupted by – shock, horror (durn durn DURN!) –
TWIN BABIES!!!
Aaaargh!! What if Mum and Andy’s twins turn out to be rude little boys, I panicked – the kind who go on about bottoms all the time and mess up their big sister’s things, and track mud across her nice pink carpet?
Honestly, I lay there worrying for HOURS. Until finally I fell asleep, completely worn out.
And guess what? The sleepover angels must have come back on duty or something, because I had the sweetest, funniest dream. (Don’t tell the others though, because it’s private.)
In my dream, I walked out into our garden. Suddenly I heard all these soft little cooing sounds drifting over our neighbours the Watson-Wades’s hedge, so I peered over to see what was going on.
And there, where grumpy old Mr Watson-Wade always plants his garden peas, were two gorgeous newborn babies, nestling inside a giant pea pod. (For some reason this didn’t seem at all weird at the time!)
“You can SO totally tell they’re twins,” I said to myself in the dream. “They’re as alike as two peas in a pod.”
Then I realised what I’d said, and woke myself up laughing!
And I felt so ridiculously happy that I tried to stay awake a few minutes longer, to enjoy the joke…
Have you noticed how everything’s slowing down now? That’s because we’ve almost reached the end of the sleepover wedding rollercoaster trip. But there’s one last thing I’ve got to tell you.
I expect you noticed that those lucky somethings kind of dropped out of the story? Also that wedding present?
You thought I’d forgotten about them! Well, thanks a BUNCH!!
You didn’t seriously imagine that a superstitious girl like me could let her parents drive off into the sunset with all those clouds of bad luck hanging over them? No WAY!
So don’t go just yet, OK, because it’s time to unveil Patsy’s mysterious late-night project at last.
Can you believe that Andy’s mum actually came up with a way to combine my four lucky somethings in a totally unique wedding present?
Here’s how we did it. With help from Patsy and Amber, I stitched Mum a beautiful little evening bag. And by the time it was finished, my mind was totally at rest. This bag didn’t just LOOK good, I knew it had good luck built into every stitch.
We made it from a piece of gorgeous blue satin (something blue and something new). Then Patsy kindly donated one of her lovely lace handkerchiefs, so we could edge it in antique lace (something old).
OK, OK, so you can’t imagine Andy getting too excited about an evening bag. Plus I’ve got to admit the “something borrowed” gave me a real headache. But then Amber said she’d lend me her smart new pen so I could write a special message for both my parents, to put inside the bag.
But I had a better idea.
I did borrow the pen, but I didn’t use it to write a message, so much as a rather unusual gift voucher.
This is what it said:
This entitles Nikky and Andy Proudlove to one whole year of good behaviour from their children.
With love from
Fliss and Callum
xxx
by Narinder Dhami
“Well, I think we should do something really cool and totally exciting,” said Kenny. “Something we’ve never done before, like hang-gliding. Or parachute jumps. Or mountain-climbing.”
We all fell about laughing. That’s Kenny for you. She’s totally mad. But you know that, don’t you? Or maybe you don’t! And if you don’t, where have you been all this time? Haven’t you heard of the Sleepover Club?
“There aren’t any mountains in Cuddington,” I pointed out. Cuddington’s the village where we all live. (What do you mean – who are we? Keep reading, and you’ll find out!)
“I wouldn’t jump out of an aeroplane,” Rosie said with a shudder. She took a drink of Coke, and put the can down on the grass. Kenny winked at me, and quickly dropped something into the open triangle on the top of the can. Rosie and Lyndz didn’t notice. “What if your parachute didn’t open?”
“Ker-splatttt!” Kenny said. “That’s what!”
“I don’t like heights,” Lyndz said. She opened a bag of prawn cocktail crisps and offered it round. “Anyway, I’d rather go riding.”
“Oh, you lot are so boring!” Kenny moaned. “Look, we’ve got six whole weeks of holidays, and we’ve got to decide what we’re going to do. Any ideas?”
We all thought for a bit. It was the last day of term, and we were sitting in the playground after lunch. In a few hours, we’d be free for the whole summer.
“We can have lots of sleepovers,” Lyndz suggested.
OK, so now you know why we’re called the Sleepover Club. Frankie, Kenny, Lyndz, Rosie and Fliss – that’s us.
“Yeah, we can talk about the holidays at the sleepover at Fliss’s place tonight,” I said.
“Where is Fliss, anyway?” Kenny asked.
“She said she had some books to return to the school library,” I replied. “She should be here in a minute.”
“Oh, well, she’ll only want to do girly things,” Kenny said, pulling a gruesome face.
“There’s loads of stuff on the school noticeboard,” Lyndz said, “all about summer camps and courses. There’s things going on at the local library too.”
“Maybe we should take a look,” Rosie said, having another drink. She tipped up the can to finish it, then frowned. “Hey, there’s something in here!”
“What?” Lyndz asked.
Rosie spat it out into her hand. “Urgh!” she yelled in disgust. “It’s a fingernail!”
“Is it one of yours?” Kenny asked, keeping a perfectly straight face. Meanwhile, Lyndz and I w
ere in hysterics.
“No, why would I put a fingernail in my can of Coke?” Rosie screeched. Then she took a closer look. “Hang on, this is plastic!”
“Oh, sorry,” Kenny said innocently. “Did you want a real one?”
Rosie burst out laughing. “I’m going to kill you, Laura McKenzie!” she said between giggles.
“Let’s all help,” I said. “Get her!”
Kenny gave a yell as Rosie, Lyndz and I piled on top of her.
“No more jokes for the whole summer, Kenny!” I ordered her. “Is that a deal?”
“No way!” Kenny groaned. “If the summer’s going to be dead boring, I’m definitely going to carry on playing jokes.”
“There must be something we can do,” I said, as we all rolled off her. “What kind of things were on the noticeboard, Lyndz?”
“There’s a Book Week at the library,” Lyndz replied. “And a nature trail walk, and a visit to the local museum.”
“Cool,” Kenny said sarcastically. “I think I’m going to pass out with all the excitement!”
“Anything else?” Rosie asked.
“There’s a week’s tennis coaching at the local college,” Lyndz added.
“Tennis!” Kenny said in disgust. “I hate tennis. It’s so boring.”
We were a bit surprised. There’s not many sports Kenny doesn’t like.
“It’s so dull,” Kenny moaned. “All they do is hit a ball over a net.”
“Well, all footballers do is try to kick a ball into a net!” I pointed out. Kenny’s football-mad. But I knew what she meant. I wasn’t that keen on tennis either.
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