Sleepover Girls
in the Ring

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

Hiya! I haven’t seen you for a while. We’ve been having a pretty wild time lately – that’s why we haven’t been around much. Guess where we’ve been? Go on! It’s tough, you’ll never get it. Do you give up? OK then, I’ll tell you! We’ve only been in a circus, that’s where. I knew you’d be amazed! The whole thing’s amazed us, I can tell you. Not to mention our parents – although I don’t really want to talk about that right now, it’s too depressing. Because if they get their way, the Sleepover Club is finally finished – curtain down, finito!

Now you’re looking miserable too, and we can’t have that. If I tell you what we’ve been up to, it’s bound to cheer you up. But if you hear anyone calling out “Kenny!” in a bellyaching kind of voice, just ignore them. It’ll be Molly my stupid sister, and I’ve just about had enough of her. If it wasn’t for her, our parents wouldn’t be so mad with us now.

Anyway, I’m on my way to meet the others to decide how to get round our parents. I mean, we’ve been in messes before, as you well know, but nothing like this. This time it’s BA-AD!

How did it all start? I hear you ask. Well, I’ll tell you.

Right next to our school, there’s this piece of open land. People hold car-boot sales on it and stuff like that. But generally it’s empty, and kids just use it as a cut-through to school.

Well, one week there was loads of activity there. First they sealed it off so no-one could walk across it. Then loads of men in wellies appeared, making notes on clip-boards. After that, different men started marking things out on the ground. Fliss got all squeamish when she saw that and swore they were drawing around dead bodies! Then finally one day, a whole load of lorries appeared and started putting up all these really big metal poles.

“They must be building something,” remarked Rosie as we were walking home.

“They look like enormous tent poles to me!” Lyndz chipped in.

“Yeah, right!” I chortled. “Like anyone would just go and put up an enormous tent right next to school.”

But do you know what? That’s exactly what someone did do. It was there in all its glory when I walked to school the next morning. And by the time we left school in the afternoon, the land was full of caravans and cars and there seemed to be hundreds of people milling about.

“I know what it is!” shrieked Fliss when she saw all the activity. “It’s going to be a circus!”

“Cool!”

“Wicked!”

The rest of us were really excited, but Lyndz went all sniffy and frosty.

“It’s not cool having animals cooped up in cages just so they can come out and perform for ten minutes a night,” she said. “It’s cruel and unkind.”

Now I don’t know about you, but I was amazed to hear Lyndz say that. I mean, we all know how mad Lyndz is about horses, don’t we? I thought she’d love to see them with plumes and everything, prancing about in a circus.

Fliss must have been thinking the same thing, because she piped up, “I thought you liked seeing animals, Lyndz.”

“Not when they’re caged up with no freedom, I don’t,” Lyndz snapped back.

We could tell that there’d be no shifting Lyndz’s opinion, so the rest of us just exchanged glances and kept quiet. And we kept quiet every day when we passed the circus, and Lyndz tutted and sighed and said how terrible it all was. Part of me knew that she was right, of course, but part of me really wanted to go to the circus to see the clowns and the trapeze artists and all that other stuff.

So it was a huge relief all round when we saw the first poster advertising the circus. It announced:

“See that?” I prodded the poster excitedly. “It’s ‘all human’! That means there’s not an animal in sight.” I turned to Lyndz. “So now do you think you might just get the teensiest bit excited about there being a circus in town?”

Lyndz blushed. “I guess so,” she admitted.

“Hey guys, look!” Rosie was still studying the poster and jiggling up and down with excitement. “The first performance is on Saturday next week. That’s your birthday, Lyndz! Now that you approve of circuses, we could all come here to celebrate. What do you say?”

We all looked eagerly at Lyndz.

“We-e-ell,” she said very slowly. “Seeing as there are no animals involved, that sounds like a great idea!”

We whooped and cheered and did high fives.

“Wicked!”

“Brilliant!”

“Sad cases!”

That last comment was our arch-rivals, the M&Ms. Emily Berryman and Emma Hughes are these dweeby girls in our class who always try to spoil our fun, but there was no way that anyone was going to spoil our excitement today. We just pulled faces at them until they’d disappeared out of sight.

Before we split up to go our separate ways, Lyndz said, “Remember to ask whether you can come to the circus next week.”

“Will we be having a sleepover afterwards too?” Rosie asked expectantly.

The smile disappeared from Lyndz’s face and she shook her head. “Na-ah. Dad’s doing some work on the side of the house, so there’s a great gaping hole in one of the walls and part of the roof’s off. Mum doesn’t want the responsibility of anyone coming and injuring themselves. Sorry!”

To tell you the truth, that kind of put a damper on things. We always have a sleepover to celebrate our birthdays. But we didn’t want to go on about it too much because Lyndz looked dead upset.

“Never mind. We’ll have a great time at the circus, won’t we?” giggled Frankie, pretending she was a clown juggling with imaginary balls.

“What are you doing?” I ribbed her. “You look like a performing seal, and there aren’t any of those in this circus, remember?”

She whacked me on the back and, laughing, we all went our separate ways.

When I got home I was dying to tell Mum all about the circus, but Molly was already there, boring her to death about something Edward stupid Marsh had done.

You remember my brain-dead sister, don’t you? And how she has absolutely nothing interesting going on in her life? Well, now she spends all her time talking about this new boy in her class. He’s called Edward Marsh, and we hear his stupid name about a million times a day. “Edward Marsh said this…” “Edward Marsh did that…”. Bo-ring! To listen to Molly you’d think he was some kind of god.

Anyway, when I did manage to get a word in, I told Mum all about Circus Jamboree. But before Mum could say anything, Molly piped up:

“Edward Marsh told me about that. He said it’s supposed to be really brilliant.”

“Bully for Edward Marsh,” I spat back. “If he’s so wonderful I’m surprised he’s not starring in the circus. All by himself. He could manage that, couldn’t he?”

“Well actually, he’s—”

I groaned. I didn’t want to listen to any more about Edward Marsh, so I yelled over the top of her: “Mum! Is it OK if I go to the circus next Saturday for Lyndz’s birthday?”

That shut Molly up. She went all quiet and flounced out of the room. I called out after her:

“Ha-ha! I’m going to the circus and you’re not!”

I heard her stomp upstairs and slam our bedroom door. Yeah! One-nil!

The next morning we all met up by the poster advertising the circus.

“Well?” Lyndz asked eagerly. “Mum and Dad said they’d take us. Can you come?”

We all started chattering at once, and it took a while before we realised that everyone was up for it.

“And I’ve got even more news!” announced Fliss dramatically. “Mum says that we can celebrate Lyndz’s birthday at my house!”

“You mean a sleepover? Brill!”

We all started leaping about.

“Er wait, no!” Fliss squeaked. We all looked at her. “What Mum said was that we can have a birthday tea for Lyndz at my place on Sunday afternoon.”

“Oh!”

It was impossible to hide our disappointment, but Lyndz recovered the quickest.

“That’s great Fliss, really kind!” she smiled. “It means my birthday’s going to last all weekend. How cool is that?”

We all laughed, but we knew that no way was tea at Fliss’s going to be as much fun as a sleepover. I mean, for one thing, Fliss’s mum virtually dusts us down as soon as we get through the door. It kind of takes all the pleasure out of things, if you know what I mean. And now that she’s pregnant, she’s probably even worse. (Yup – with twins, would you believe? But that, I guess, is another story.) Still, tea at her place was better than nothing.

We somehow managed to get through the week before the circus, and by the time Saturday came round I was dead excited. I put on my clean Leicester City football shirt and my best pair of jeans and went downstairs to wait for Lyndz. Her parents have this great big van, so they were collecting us all on the way to the circus. Molly was downstairs too, looking anxiously out of the window.

“Don’t tell me. You’re going to rush out and tell Lyndz that I’m ill and that you’re going to take my place instead!” I teased.

“I’m going out too, if you must know!” she said smugly.

Actually, she was done up like a dog’s dinner: new skirt, best shoes, loads of make-up.

“You’re not going to be sad and wander about hoping that Edward Marsh will actually notice you, are you?” I chortled.

“Shut up, Kenny!” Molly thumped me hard on the back.

I would have flattened her, I swear, but I heard the van pull up and saw Lyndz running to the door.

The circus Big Top was amazing when we got there. I mean, it looked quite small from the outside, but when we got in and found our seats it seemed ENORMOUS. It smelt a bit damp and earthy, but it felt surprisingly warm.

“Look how high those trapezes are!” marvelled Frankie, pointing way up towards the roof of the tent. “And there isn’t a safety net either!”

Shivers spread down my spine. I love doing daredevil things, but that looked a bit too scary, even for me. Fliss said she felt sick just looking up there.

More and more people crowded in until the tent was packed. Then there was a drum roll and a spotlight shone into the centre of the ring. A tall figure in a fancy red suit ran into it and introduced himself as the Ringmaster of Circus Jamboree. He told us a bit about what we’d be seeing – then it was on with the show!

I can’t really begin to describe everything to you, there was too much to take in all at once. There were these amazing contortionists who actually sat on their own heads! And whilst they were performing, there were also acrobats doing flick-flacks and cartwheels, not just by themselves but in sort of formation. If they’d got their timing wrong, well – I don’t even want to think about how badly they’d have been injured. And there were jugglers who juggled with everything from chairs to balls of fire. Amazing! And that was only in the first half! By the time the Ringmaster announced that there was going to be an interval, I felt totally exhausted!

“Isn’t it brilliant!” gasped Rosie. “I didn’t know where to look next!”

“And did you notice that there are three performers who look about our age?” asked Fliss. “Fancy being able to do all that! It was just unbelievable!”

“Are you enjoying it, girls?” asked Lyndz’s mum. “Anyone fancy an ice-cream? I think there’s someone selling them over there.”

Frankie nudged me. “That’s not… no, it can’t be!” she said.

“Who?”

“I thought I saw Molly, that’s all.”

“WHAT? WHERE?”

She pointed. Just in front of the woman selling ice-creams, there did appear to be someone who looked suspiciously like Molly. And she was sitting with a couple of girls I recognised from her class.

“Come on!” I urged Frankie, and I started picking my way through the crowds towards them.

“Are you going to have a word with her?” asked Frankie, following me.

“Yeah, you could say that!” I smirked.

I’d had this great plan. I was going to embarrass her in front of the whole circus, and particularly in front of her stupid mates. It was obvious that Molly still hadn’t spotted me, so I got down on all fours and crawled along the empty row of seats at the back of her. And as I crawled, I planned what to do. Making her jump wouldn’t be enough. I’d have to do something really loud to attract the maximum attention.

Then it hit me. What is Molly always boring us at home with? You’ve guessed it. When I was immediately behind her I stood up and yelled at the top of my voice:

“EDWARD MARSH!”

The whole place went silent. Then a voice piped up.

“Yes! Who wants me?”

Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather. I hadn’t actually expected Edward Marsh to be there, I’d just wanted to embarrass Molly by shouting out his name!!

Someone tapped me on the shoulder.

“I said, who wants me?” the same boy’s voice addressed me coolly.

I turned round – and found my face covered in ice-cream.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” smirked this blond creep of a boy, holding a more than slightly splodged cone. “It must have slipped!”

Molly was sitting back on her seat again and was spluttering with laughter. “Ignore my stupid sister, Edward,” she said, flashing a creepy smile at the boy. “She must have a personality disorder!”

“At least I’ve got a personality!” I snarled back, wiping ice-cream off my cheeks.

“Who was that boy?” squealed Fliss when we came back again. “Babe or what? Er, Kenny – did you know you had ice-cream on your face?”

That was the last thing I needed, everybody thinking Molly had got some dreamboat boyfriend.

“He’s a moron!” I snapped. “Just like my stupid sister.”

I was seething inside, and my face was still sticky from the ice-cream. I wished I’d never come to this stupid circus in the first place.

I held that thought for precisely thirty seconds, because once the performers started doing their stuff again, I was totally entranced. There were people spinning plates and people on stilts and people who combined the two. There were unicyclists who went up and down ramps, and one who even rode on the tightrope!

But the most amazing were the trapeze artists. They were so elegant and graceful, but all the time you knew that one false move and they could be dead. We all cheered like mad when they came down and took their bow, even Fliss, and she hadn’t seen any of their act because she’d had her hands in front of her eyes all the time.

But I think my favourite act was the clowns. They were just sooo funny. We all still had tears streaming down our faces as we were driving home.

“That was the best birthday ever!” grinned Lyndz.

“No kidding!” I agreed. “It’s going to take some beating!”

“Well don’t forget you’ve the tea party to look forward to tomorrow!” Fliss chimed in.

The rest of us looked at each other.

“How much excitement can we handle?”

Frankie mumbled under her breath.

I was home before Molly, because apparently Edward precious Marsh’s parents had taken Molly and the other girls out for a pizza.

I was asleep before Molly came in, and I got up before she did in the morning so I didn’t have to go over the whole Edward Marsh at the circus thing. Although I was sure that she would have told Mum and Dad all about it anyway.

It seemed ages to wait until going to Fliss’s for tea, so I decided to practise a few circus skills. I mean, juggling a few balls couldn’t be that difficult, surely? Well, let me tell you, it’s a lot more difficult than it looks. I started messing about with two tennis balls, just throwing them from hand to hand. Easy-peasy. Then I tried to add a third. It was impossible. I dropped them, I threw them all at the same time, I just couldn’t get the hang of it at all. I was getting really frustrated by the time Mum called me in for lunch.

“You’d better not eat too much if Nikky’s put on a spread for tea,” Mum told me.

“Are you kidding?” I scoffed. “Fliss’s mum will have made a few sandwiches cut into pretty little shapes and some fairy cakes. I wouldn’t even feel full if I ate everything she put out on the table!”

“Let’s hope there’s ice-cream, though,” said Dad dryly. “You like ice-cream, don’t you Laura?”

Mum, Dad, Molly and my older sister Emma all started to laugh. I don’t know what I was madder about – the others making fun of me or Dad using my horrible name. At least they weren’t going to give me a lecture about my behaviour though, which was a result.

“Just try to behave this afternoon, Kenny,” Mum said firmly as she dropped me at Fliss’s. “Nikky’s a bit delicate now that she’s pregnant, and you know what happens when she gets upset.”

Yeah, she goes into a five-star tizz, that’s what – and we didn’t want that at all. Especially as she’s expecting twins. She might go into a ten-star tizz!

So there I was on my best behaviour, and everything seemed to be going well. We all managed to smile and be polite, even when Fliss’s mum made us take off our shoes the minute we walked through the door. We even grinned and entered into the party spirit when she made us play silly children’s games like we were three or something. I mean, it was dead embarrassing sitting there playing Pass the Parcel and Musical Statues. And you couldn’t really tell whether Fliss’s mum was having a laugh or whether she was practising for future birthday parties with the little baby twins. I wasn’t wrong about the tea either.

“Another little sandwich, Kenny?” Fliss’s mum asked, fluttering in front of me with a plate. “Or how about a fairy cake?”

What I really fancied was a jam doughnut, and I’d seen a plate of them on the side. Fliss’s mum must have read my mind because she went to pick up the plate. But then she put it down again.

“No, I think these might be too much after all that other food. We don’t want you being sick, do we?” She gave a little giggle. “Now, are you going to go and play quietly to let your tea settle? No running about, please.”

We all trooped out of the kitchen and into the lounge.

“Will the fun never start?” I whispered in Frankie’s ear.

“Right, what should we do?” said Fliss.

We all sat on the floor in a circle.

“I bet those kids in the circus aren’t just sitting around now,” I said wistfully. “I bet they’re walking the tightrope or something.”

“Yeah, wasn’t that cool!” Frankie agreed. “Wouldn’t it be ace to be able to do something like that? You could impress people wherever you went!”

We were in full discussion about the circus when Fliss’s mum popped her head round the door. She beamed when she saw us sitting down. She probably thought we were playing ‘ring-a-ring-a-rosies’ or something.

“I’m just going upstairs to change the beds. Andy and Callum should be back from the park soon. You will be all right, won’t you?”

“Yes Mum!” Fliss sighed. “I think we’ll manage.”

Her mum pulled a face, then closed the door behind her.

“We could always practise a few circus skills,” I suggested.

Fliss looked horrified.

“I don’t mean tightrope-walking or plate-spinning with your mum’s best china, you idiot!” I said hastily. “What about juggling, or acrobatics? They’re nice and quiet, aren’t they?”

Fliss still didn’t look too sure.

“We’ll be dead quiet, honestly,” I reassured her. “Your mum will never know.”

“Has she got any wool or anything?” suggested Frankie. “We could practise juggling with that and it’ll be silent if we drop it.”

Fliss went upstairs to look for some wool, and the rest of us crept about downstairs. I went into the kitchen, and what should I see first? Yep, the jam doughnuts. My first thought was that I could sneak one to eat – but then I had a brainwave! They were ball-shaped, weren’t they? Perfect for juggling! And they didn’t have that much sugar on them, so they wouldn’t make too much mess if we dropped them. And we could scoff them down before Fliss’s mum reappeared. I mean, she’d obviously bought them for us to eat anyway. Sorted!

I took them back into the lounge, and Rosie appeared with a couple of those plastic plates you take on picnics, a broom and a mop.

“I thought I could practise plate-spinning with these,” she explained. “They won’t break when they fall. Good, eh?”

In the middle of the room, Frankie was trying to walk on her hands, with Lyndz holding her feet.

“’S not as easy as it looks, y’know,” she said in an upside-down garbled voice.

“This is great!” I laughed, taking hold of the doughnuts. “It beats those poxy kids’ games any day of the week!”

I tossed one of the doughnuts into the air a couple of times. Easy-peasy. A bit of sugar sprinkled on to the carpet, but nothing major. I picked up another one and started to throw that as well. When I was comfortable with that, I grabbed the third one and tried to juggle with that too. A doughnut fell to the floor. I tried again. One landed on the sofa.

“OK Kenny, you can do this!” I told myself.

I grabbed the doughnuts and slowly, slowly threw them into the air. And do you know what? I actually started to juggle with them. I couldn’t believe it!

“Hey guys, look at me!” I yelled.

Lyndz stopped to watch, and let go of Frankie’s legs. THUD! Franks tumbled on to the carpet. That kind of made me lose my concentration, so I bumped into Rosie and dropped one of the doughnuts. Which wouldn’t have been so bad if Fliss hadn’t chosen just that moment to come through the door.

“Whaddayadoing?” she shrieked. Then – SQUELCH. She trod on the doughnut.

Well, you would not believe the amount of jam that spurted out of it and shot across the carpet in a red streak. I mean, when you eat a doughnut there never seems to be that much jam in the middle, does there?

Fliss kind of yelped, then went white.

“Mum’s going to kill us!” she squealed.

“It’s not that bad,” I reassured her, and scooped up the jam with my finger.

Unfortunately, the trail of jam now looked worse than ever against the cream carpet.

“I think I can hear someone coming!” hissed Rosie.

I quickly grabbed the other two doughnuts, shoved one in my mouth and the other in the back pocket of my jeans.

“Baaborginagaig!” I commanded, although my mouth was so stuffed with doughnut I couldn’t make myself understood.

The others looked at me blankly. I got down on the floor and did a handstand to show them what I meant, balancing over the jammy stain so that if Fliss’s mum did come in she wouldn’t see it.

“Gotcha! You mean you want us to carry on doing handstands and stuff, don’t you?” Frankie grasped at last. “Well, why didn’t you just say so?”

But I was upside down with a mouthful of doughnut, wasn’t I? Not a great place to be in, all in all… I started to splutter, I started to cough, then I started to choke.

“Are you OK, Kenny?” Rosie asked. “You don’t look too good!”

“Come on Kenny, deep breaths!” Lyndz slapped me hard on the back.

I gasped and coughed and the remains of the doughnut sprayed out all over the lounge – and all over Fliss’s mum, who had come in to see what all the noise was about.

It was hard to tell what her first reaction was going to be. She went kind of red, then very, very white. I thought she was going to cry, or maybe collapse with shock. But none of us was prepared for the ear-splitting shriek that eventually burst from her lips.

“GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! N-O-O-O-W-W!”

Well, we weren’t going to argue with that! We left the house running, grabbing any old shoes on the way out of the door. We ran down the path and on to the pavement, only stopping when we were well out of sight. Gasping, we exchanged shoes so that somehow we ended up with the right pairs.

“Poor Fliss!” said Frankie at last. “Do you think she’s going to be all right?”

“I hope so,” I murmured.

But I think we all knew then that “The Jam Doughnut Incident” was going to have serious consequences for the Sleepover Club.

It was pretty obvious to my parents that something was wrong when I arrived home from Fliss’s so early. Plus, Dad was already standing in the hall holding the phone receiver about a mile from his ear. I could hear someone screaming and yelling on the other end. No prizes for guessing who that was! Mum reluctantly took the receiver from Dad and leant against the hall table.

“Hello Nikky, it’s Valerie. I think you’d better start from the beginning.”

The sobs from the other end of the phone quietened a little, and Mum went into her patient-listening mode. I crept up the stairs and sat down near the top. I kind of wanted to know what Fliss’s mum was saying, but I daren’t really go any closer.

After what felt like about six hours, Mum finally put the phone down and had a muted conversation with Dad. Then she called upstairs angrily:

“Laura McKenzie! Get yourself down here, now!”

Oh-oh. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all.

As I walked into the lounge, Molly shuffled out, smirking.

“You’re for it now, dog-breath!” she goaded.

I didn’t even feel like punching her.

“Sit down!” Both my parents had their “this-is-very-serious” expressions on.

“That was Fliss’s mum on the phone,” Mum began, like I couldn’t guess that for myself. “She is very upset…” BLAH BLAH BLAH… “we’re very disappointed in you…” BLAH BLAH BLAH… “thought we could trust you but you’re obviously still acting like a toddler…”

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