The Sleepover Club Surfs the Net

by Fiona Cummings

  by Fiona Cummings

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Have you been Invited to all these Sleepovers?

  Sleepover Kit List

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Hi there. It’s good to see you again. You’re actually the first one here, but that’s cool. Rosie has just rung to say that she’ll be along as soon as her mum gets home. Kenny’s running late, playing football I expect, and Lyndz is probably still at the stables with her precious horses. Fliss is coming straight from her dad’s and she finds it really hard tearing herself away from his baby, Posie. But hey, I can understand that. I’m going to be like that myself in seven months’ time. I can’t wait until Mum has her baby. I’d pestered her to have a baby for ages. She used to roll her eyes and say, “Oh no Frankie, not again!” So hearing that she was pregnant was the best news ever.

  Anyway, come on in. We can go up to my room while we wait for the others. They shouldn’t be too long. And it’ll give me a chance to fill you in on the latest news. And you can have a go on the Internet in peace. You won’t get a look in when the others get here, believe me!

  I don’t know how much you know about the Internet, but it’s totally cool. When I heard Mum and Dad talking about it at first though, it all sounded a bit weird.

  “Isn’t it a bit nerdy?” I asked Dad doubtfully.

  “Nerdy?” asked Dad, pretending to sound shocked. “This is communication for the future, young lady, and you’d better get used to it!”

  I still wasn’t convinced. I mean, computers are boring, aren’t they? I’d heard a couple of kids at school going on about the Internet, but it never really sank in, to be honest. It was only when Mum became pregnant that it became an issue at home. You see, she’s kind of old to be having a second baby and Dad wanted her to take things a bit easier, so she’s started working from home a couple of days a week. She’s a lawyer and needs to keep up with other cases. And how can you do that? You’ve guessed it – on the Internet!

  So, one minute we had a perfectly ordinary computer, and the next we were hooked up to the Net. Dad spent ages fiddling about on it, so I went to see what he was doing. He tapped in a kind of code, and he seemed to be able to get any information that he wanted.

  “I don’t understand,” I told him after a while. “How come our computer knows so much stuff all of a sudden?”

  “Because our little computer is now hooked up to a huge network of lots of other computers,” he explained. “From computers in someone’s home to vast computers owned by some of the world’s biggest organisations. So when you go on to the Internet, you really do have the world at your fingertips! Why don’t you have a go?”

  Dad showed me which keys to press, and it was totally amazing. I mean, you really can find out everything – from the colour of Ronan Keating’s underpants to the temperature at the top of Mount Everest!

  “You’re a real surfer now,” Dad laughed.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, all confused. When had we started talking about the sea?

  “When you move around web sites searching for information, it’s called ‘surfing the Net’!” Dad explained.

  “Cool!” I’d always liked the sound of surfing, and this way I didn’t even have to get wet!

  “And I know how much you like spiders…!” said Dad, walking his fingers up my arm like some massive creepy-crawly.

  “Get off!” I screamed. “I hate spiders. What have they got to do with the Internet?”

  “Absolutely nothing!” grinned Dad. “But you often hear the word ‘web’ associated with the Internet. People talk about the ‘World Wide Web’. I know it sounds more like something created by a tarantula the size of Godzilla…”

  “Eeeuuuurgh!” I screeched, and pretended to faint really dramatically.

  “It may be a weird name,” laughed Dad, “but it’s just a way of storing and getting into all the information on the Internet.”

  “Oh right. But why couldn’t we have the Internet before?” I asked.

  “Because to access it, our computer needed a special modem,” Dad explained. “And it all works through the telephone system, which is pretty amazing really.”

  I think Dad could sense that my eyes were glazing over a bit at that point, because then he said hurriedly, “That’s all you really need to know. Why don’t you just play around with it for a while?”

  And I did – for hours and hours. He virtually had to drag me off in the end. There’s so much information on the Internet. And the great thing is that when you get bored looking at one thing, then it’s easy to look up something else! It’s just so great!

  I hadn’t mentioned it to my friends before, because, as I said, I wasn’t that excited till Dad explained it. But once I’d got the hang of it, well that was a different story. I was dying to tell everyone about it.

  In the playground the next day, I leapt on Fliss as soon as she came through the gates.

  “Hey Fliss, you’ll never guess what happened last night!” I screamed.

  “Oh Frankie, I hate it when you say that. Millions of things could have happened,” she sighed. “And you only make fun of me when I try to guess.”

  “You were visited by aliens?” suggested Rosie, who had crept up behind me.

  “We’re not playing one of her stupid guessing games, are we?” asked Kenny, flinging her bag to the ground. “OK, you scored the winning goal for Leicester City. She shoots! She scores! YEAAH!” She started running around like a demented chicken. I don’t need to remind you, do I, that Kenny is obsessed with football.

  “No, you’ll never guess!” I squealed. “Dad’s only got us hooked up, hasn’t he?”

  The others were looking at me blankly.

  “You know – we’re on the Net.”

  Still no response.

  “We’re on the Internet, you dummies,” I told them. “Crikey, don’t all get excited at once, will you?”

  Kenny and Fliss still looked totally blank, but Rosie had suddenly come to life.

  “Wow! Adam is going to be so jealous when I tell him. He’s desperate to use the Internet!”

  You remember Adam don’t you? He’s Rosie’s older brother who has cerebral palsy, and he’s a total computer freak.

  Now Lyndz had appeared too. She’s always late, that girl.

  “Who’s on the Net then?” she asked.

  I beamed at her by way of an answer.

  “You lucky thing, Frankie!” she grinned. “My brother Stuart’s always going on about how great it is. Our grandparents in Holland use it a lot. It sounds brill!”

  Kenny and Fliss were still looking pretty confused, so we had to try to explain to them what the Internet was all about. But Fliss just couldn’t get her head round it.

  “You mean that all the computers in the world can talk to each other? I didn’t think they could do that.” She pulled a dramatic face. “I mean, that is really spooky.”

  Before I could explain it to her again, the bell went. We shuffled like penguins into the classroom. We often do stuff like that. Everybody seems to think we’re crazy – I don’t know why!

  Sometimes school can be really boring. Mrs Weaver tries her best, but let’s face it – the only way Maths could get exciting is if Boyzone and 911 got together to demonstrate the complicated bits. And somehow I don’t think that’s ever going to happen. I
love doing project work though, and that particular week we were in the middle of learning all about the Vikings.

  “Wouldn’t it be great if instead of just reading about them, we could actually see a proper Viking and ask him about his life? What he ate, what he wore, stuff like that,” said Rosie, looking up from her work.

  “That would be so cool!” I agreed.

  “Actually, there’s a place called the Yorvik Centre in York which does just that,” said Mrs Weaver, who had suddenly appeared from nowhere. “People dressed as Vikings show you round the exhibition and tell you all about their way of life 1,000 years ago. It’s a pity that it’s just a little too far away for us to visit.”

  “That’s too bad,” agreed Kenny. “We’ll just have to make do with boring books then!”

  Mrs Weaver flashed one of her ‘You’re-very-lucky-to-have-so-many-lovely-books-at-school’ looks and went to see what the M&Ms, Emma Hughes and Emily Berryman, were up to. You remember the deadly duo, don’t you? Well they were in full-on smarming mode. It turned out that they’d both been to the Yorvik Centre, so they managed to suck up to Mrs Weaver big time. That was when Kenny was struck by inspiration.

  “I bet you’ve found loads of stuff about Vikings on the Internet, haven’t you Frankie?” she asked me in a really loud voice, as though I was deaf or something.

  “I…I…I don’t…” I stuttered, all confused. Then I realised what she was doing. “Oh yes, there are loads of web sites about Vikings!” I replied, louder still.

  “And I bet they’re really exciting too, aren’t they?” Lyndz chimed in.

  “Ooh yes,” I said enthusiastically. “They’ve just got so much, er, so much… stuff on them!”

  “Stuff?” Kenny mouthed to me. “Couldn’t you think of anything more exciting?”

  I just shrugged.

  “Well Francesca, I’m all for using new technology,” Mrs Weaver smiled. “Maybe you can look up Vikings on the Internet again and report back to us on all the exciting ‘stuff’ that you find.”

  The M&Ms sniggered, but I could tell that they were really peeved. They’re always the centre of attention, those two. It was nice to feel a bit special for once.

  “Hey, nice one Frankie!” laughed Kenny. “So when can we come round to your place to do a bit of surfing?”

  Poor Fliss looked absolutely panic-stricken.

  “The sooner we get Fliss used to the Internet, the better,” I decided. “I’ll ask Mum and Dad tonight, but I’m sure it’ll be fine if you come home with me after school tomorrow!”

  Little did I know then what chaos the Internet was going to lead me into…

  The next day was one of Mum’s days for working at home, so it was no problem for the others to come back with me after school. As soon as I opened the front door, my dog Pepsi leapt at me. She is one crazy dog!

  “What a welcome!” laughed Mum, making a grab for her collar. “Now calm down Pepsi, these girls need to save their strength for tackling the ‘Information Superhighway’!”

  The others looked at her like she was talking a foreign language.

  “She’s talking about us using the Internet,” I explained.

  “That’s right girls, you’re going to need a whole new vocabulary from now on,” Mum nodded. “It’s hi-tech stuff you know, floating around in cyberspace. You’d better make sure that you don’t get lost, Fliss!”

  Fliss looked terrified.

  “Don’t be mean, Mother!” I said. “It’s OK Fliss, it’s all perfectly safe, honest!”

  Fliss gave a strained sort of smile. I swear that she takes her sense of humour off with her clothes at night, and sometimes forgets to put it back on again!

  “There’s Coke and biccies in the kitchen,” Mum told us. “Just give me a shout when you’re ready and I’ll get you set up on your computer.”

  She disappeared upstairs to her study and we all piled into the kitchen with Pepsi dancing round our ankles.

  You wouldn’t believe what Kenny did as the rest of us were drinking our Coke. She only shoved three Jaffa cakes in her mouth at once, didn’t she? After she’d grossed us out with that, it was a relief to get upstairs to the computer!

  “OK Mum, you can do your stuff now!” I called.

  Before signing on to the Internet, Mum has to type in a special password, which only she and Dad know. They reckon it will stop me using it for hours in the middle of the night – as if! Dad thinks I run up a big enough phone bill as it is, talking to my friends all the time!

  Mum sat down at my computer and we all turned round with our backs to her. But I could see Fliss having a sneaky peek at what Mum was typing.

  “OK girls, you’re logged on now, but don’t be on too long, will you?” Mum got up and went back into her study.

  I sat down and asked the others which web sites they wanted me to find.

  “Will there be anything on Boyzone?” asked Rosie.

  “No, Leicester City!” shouted Kenny.

  “What about horses?” asked Lyndz.

  “I thought we were supposed to be finding out about Vikings!” said Fliss. “Mum told me that this would happen. She said that the Internet is just a big time-waster. I mean what can it tell you about Boyzone that you can’t read in a magazine?”

  Sometimes Fliss really annoys me. She was only putting the Internet down because she didn’t know anything about it. And I don’t suppose her mum did either. I was determined to prove them wrong, so I angrily typed ‘Boyzone’ in the ‘search’ box. After a few seconds, a list of web sites devoted to the band popped up. There were loads of them. I pointed the mouse, and clicked on the first one. A picture of Boyzone appeared on the screen. Lots of other boxes surrounded it, so I chose the ‘interview’ box and then clicked on the ‘audio’ box next to it. Suddenly the room was filled with their lovely voices.

  “Isn’t this just great!” I squeaked with excitement.

  “It’s totally wicked!” giggled Rosie.

  “And you certainly don’t get that in a magazine!” laughed Lyndz.

  Fliss looked kind of fascinated, but I knew that she wouldn’t say anything. If Fliss has made a stand about something, she doesn’t back down easily.

  “What about Leicester City now?” Kenny pleaded.

  “OK, OK, I’ll see what I can do,” I said.

  Sure enough, there was a web site devoted to Leicester City which Kenny thought was really great. It had a section for young supporters and everything.

  It looked as though Kenny was going to hog the computer all night, so I said, “Well I guess we ought to look up those Vikings. We don’t want to disappoint Mrs Weaver and the M&Ms now, do we?”

  I promised Lyndz that we’d look up horses another time, and typed ‘Vikings’ into the ‘search’ box on the screen. I held my breath. I mean, it would be just my luck if I’d been raving to Mrs Weaver about how much information I’d found about Vikings on the Internet, and there really wasn’t anything at all. Well, let me tell you – I needn’t have worried about that. There were just so many sites about them, we didn’t know where to start.

  We went into some of the web sites, but we knew that they weren’t for us. They looked kind of boring with too many long words and no pictures. Fliss looked very smug when she saw them. But then we hit gold. There was this really brilliant web site that told you loads of stuff about what Vikings ate and wore. But better than that, it also had loads of pictures and – get this – an audio track too. It was like a soundtrack of the stuff Vikings would have heard in their everyday lives. Kind of spooky, huh? Even Fliss had to admit that it was pretty awesome.

  “I’ve got to write some of this stuff down!” shrieked Rosie, reaching for her bag.

  “Me too!” yelled Lyndz.

  “I’ll remember it all, no problem,” said Kenny, her eyes glued to the screen. But even she jotted down a few notes when she thought no one was looking.

  “Hey you guys,” I laughed. “You do realise that we’re doing homework without a
nyone breathing down our necks about it? It’s a bit worrying!”

  “Maybe the Internet’s turning us into little swots!” shrieked Kenny. “Ah no, anything but that!”

  She pretended to start shaking. Then, clutching her head, she collapsed on to the floor. That was our cue to dive on top of her and create a human sandwich.

  “I thought it was too good to be true!” said Mum, coming into the room. “I knew all that silence couldn’t last!”

  She went over to the computer and checked that the Internet had switched itself off.

  “Well was that any help then?” she asked. “I mean surfing the Net, NOT the human pile-up!”

  “Totally!”

  “It was excellent!”

  “So cool!”

  “Really brilliant!” That was Fliss. I couldn’t help smiling when she said that. And it was Fliss who reminded Mrs Weaver the next morning that she’d asked me to report back about Vikings on the Internet.

  I explained about the web site and the noises and everything, and the others chipped in. Before we knew where we were, we’d been talking for about ten minutes. And all the rest of the class seemed to be listening to us too. I’m not sure about the M&Ms though because I didn’t look at them. When we’d finished, Mrs Weaver asked everybody to give us a clap.

  “Well girls, you’ve just solved a problem for me. As you know, it’s our class assembly next week and we’re doing it on the Vikings,” Mrs Weaver explained. “I was wondering who should have the major speaking parts. But as you five have shown so much enthusiasm by finding out about the topic yourselves, it seems only fair that you should be the ones to share your knowledge with the rest of the school!”

  To be honest, I didn’t know what to think about that. I like to feel important, but I’m just not sure whether I like feeling important in front of the whole school. One great thing though was that the M&Ms looked absolutely furious!

  I don’t know what your teacher’s like about class assemblies. I know some of them get really wound up, don’t they? Well, Mrs Weaver is actually quite cool. She let me, Kenny, Rosie, Lyndz and Fliss help her to write this one. We came up with some really great ideas to use and you could tell that she was dead impressed. The M&Ms were very freaked though. They’re so used to being the stars all the time; they couldn’t bear us getting all the attention. So of course we milked it for all we were worth! I kept bringing in things that I’d printed from the Viking web sites, and you should have seen their faces – MAD wasn’t in it!