by Sue Mongredien

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

Hello! It’s Lyndz here. How’s it going? It’s ages and ages since I’ve seen you – sorry! Don’t think I’ve been neglecting you, but I’m just always soooo busy – I’ve been down at the stables helping out every chance I get, you see. Just for you, though, I’m going to make a real effort and tell you all about the time the Sleepover Club made a great big SPLASH!

I can remember the exact moment it all started. It was a Thursday morning and a horrible rainy February day. Ugh! February is just THE worst month, don’t you think? It’s so grey and gloomy – and all the nice things like summer and my birthday and Christmas seem ages and ages away. I was shivering in the playground before school that morning, wishing Spring would hurry up and come soon, so we might actually get a bit of sunshine again.

Also, to make it even worse, Mrs Weaver, our class teacher, had declared it ‘mental arithmetic week’ and was giving us these gruesome maths tests every single morning. Honestly! How mean can you get? I’m not very good at Maths – in fact, I’m rubbish – so I wasn’t looking forward to going into lessons at all.

Anyway, I soon cheered up when Kenny bounded into the playground, with a grin stretching from ear to ear. When she’s in one of her bouncy moods, she reminds me of our dog, Buster. He’s a little Jack Russell, and has more energy than any creature I’ve ever known. You can’t feel miserable with Buster around – it’s impossible!

“Guess what?” Kenny said excitedly, once she’d spotted us and run over.

“They’ve discovered life on Mars?” Frankie said hopefully.

“School has been cancelled today?” I suggested, thinking about the maths test.

“Something about football probably,” Fliss said, not looking terribly interested.

“You’ve cracked the meaning of life?” was Rosie’s guess.

Kenny beamed. “Oh, none of those,” she said airily. “This is MUCH better! I was at swimming club last night and guess what?”

“Do we really have to guess again?” groaned Fliss.

“We don’t know! Tell us, for goodness’ sake!” Rosie said, laughing.

“Well, there’s going to be a sponsored swim at Cuddington Baths in a couple of weeks, and I thought it would be a brilliant thing for the Sleepover Club to do,” Kenny said breathlessly. “And there’s going to be a big party afterwards and everything! So what do you all think?”

There was a pause while we took this in. Then…

Ooh! Hang on! I just thought. Have you met all of us in the Sleepover Club? How rude of me not to even ask, eh? Hopefully you’ll know everyone, but if you don’t – or if you’ve just plain forgotten – I’d better dish the details before I go any further, or you won’t have a clue what I’m on about.

Well! As I said, Kenny’s a bit like my bouncy Buster – she’s full of beans, full of fun, and full of get-up-and-go. She’s a total Sporty Spice, too – when she’s not swimming, she’s playing football in the park with all the boys, or doing back flips at gymnastics club, or netball training, or… She’s amazing! She’s one of those people who are just naturally brilliant at every sport they do.

She’s also an ace mate because she’s dead loyal, and would do anything for you. If anyone ever tries to pick on one of us, Kenny’s straight in there, backing us up with a fierce glint in her eye. And believe me, no-one in our class has the bottle to muck about with Kenny. She could out-fight everyone – even all the boys, I reckon!

Then there’s Frankie. Wherever Kenny is, Frankie’s usually with her, as the two of them are best friends. The only things they don’t do together are all Kenny’s sports stuff. It’s not like Frankie’s no good at sports, because she is, but she’d rather spend her spare time designing her very own rocket launch or painting her bedroom silver! Frankie’s a bit eccentric, if you hadn’t gathered. Sometimes I listen to her telling us about one of her brilliant ideas, and I just wonder what on earth she’s on about this time. She’s the cleverest one of us five by miles.

What else can I tell you about Frankie? Well, if Kenny’s a bit like a bouncy Jack Russell, I’d compare Frankie to a chameleon or maybe even one of those fabulously coloured butterflies! Something funky and exotic, anyway, as Frankie wears the brightest, most outrageous things you’ve ever seen. She especially loves silver, which is her all-time favourite colour, but she’s had a big purple phase lately. She even wanted to dye her hair purple, but her mum went mad at the thought and put her foot down in a big way. So sparkly purple nail varnish is about her limit right now.

I think Frankie always looks cool in a weird kind of style, but Fliss would disagree with that, I’m sure. Fliss – short for Felicity – is fashion queen of the Sleepover Club, although that’s not difficult, to be honest. What with Kenny permanently in footy top and tracky bottoms, me in my scruffy jodhpurs, Frankie in one of her wild and wonderful outfits and Rosie in her sister’s hand-me-downs, Fliss doesn’t exactly have a lot of competition, clothes-wise.

I think Fliss gets her girly side from her mum, who’s also mega into having perfectly groomed hair, manicured hands, and immaculate clothes. Fliss’s idea of heaven is being able to spend thousands of pounds on clothes and beauty stuff. Her bedroom is amazing. As well as blinding you with its pinkness and girlyness, it’s like being in a clothes shop, complete with matching accessories for EVERYTHING!

If you ask me, Fliss is a bit like a peacock – especially the boy peacocks who have those beautiful tails and are always showing them off. Sometimes, before she even says “Hello”, Fliss is asking you if you like her new top and telling you how much it cost. Definitely peacock behaviour!

Now, the big news about Fliss is that she’s just become a big sister all over again – this time to two tiny baby twins!! Her mum had them a couple of weeks ago and they’re just soooo cute. One boy and one girl, called Joseph (Joe for short) and Hannah, with identical snub noses and bald heads. Oh yeah, and not forgetting the identical screams!

I think Fliss was secretly hoping for two girls as she’s not mad keen on little brothers (she’s already got one – Callum). But she’s dead chuffed with the twins, and loves helping her mum dress them up in all their cute little outfits. All together now… AHHH!

So as well as being a peacock, our Fliss has also become something of a mother hen these days. Although she does get cross when they cry all the way through Neighbours so she can’t hear what anyone’s saying.

And last but not least there’s Rosie. Now, if Rosie were an animal or bird, I think she’d be a crab. First of all, because that’s her birth sign, Cancerian, but also because she can be quite crabby at times. Most of the time she’s great fun and really makes me laugh, but, just like a crab, she’s got this very sensitive side under her hard shell. And boy, can she get in a mood at times!

Mind you, she has her reasons, I suppose. I won’t make a big deal out of it, because she hates that, but Rosie’s family are pretty hard up most of the time. Her dad left them a year or so ago and her mum really struggles with money. Tiffany, Rosie’s big sister, has got a Saturday job so she’s helping out a bit now, but there’s still not really enough cash to go round.

Also, even though Rosie would never say so, I think she feels a bit left out at home sometimes. Her brother, Adam, has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair, and so their mum gives him a lot more attention than she does to Rosie. It would probably be different if her dad was still around, but when there’s just one parent and three kids to look after, someone’s bound to miss out on the attention somewhere, don’t you think?

And last but not least there’s me – Lyndsey Marianne Collins, although everyone just calls me Lyndz. Much easier, don’t you think? I’ve got two big brothers and two little brothers and NO sisters – aaargh! Yes, it’s wall-to-wall boys in our house, apart from me and Mum. You might think that’s a nightmare if you hate boys, but it’s actually OK. My favourite is my little baby brother Sam. Everyone calls him Spike because he has this great big tuft of hair sticking up at the front. He’s soooo sweet and cuddly!

Now, if you know anything about me, you’ll know that I absolutely love animals with a mad, mad passion. Sometimes I think I get on better with animals than people! I go horse riding every weekend, which is just my favourite thing in the world. My brother Stuart works part-time at a farm down the road from us, and I sometimes help muck out the horses there. Horses are just gorgeous, don’t you think? They’re so beautiful and strong and clever.

My favourite horse at the riding school is called Alfie. He’s a gorgeous bay gelding with a white star in the middle of his forehead. I always take him some sugar lumps for a treat because they’re his absolute favourite. Whenever he sees me, he nuzzles at my pockets with a hopeful whinny!

As well as Buster the dog, we’ve got three cats at home – Toffee, Truffle and Fudge. Truffle is my top cat because she’s lovely and snuggly and sometimes sleeps in my bed with me. The three of them pick on Buster though, if they catch him eating their cat food. They all gang up on him and chase him round the garden together. It’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen!

So what animal am I like, then? Well, the others gave me the nickname of Squirrel for a while, as Frankie reckoned I always had some sweets squirrelled away in my desk or in my bag. But I think that makes me sound more like a PIG!

If I could choose what animal I was, I’d be a horse, as I think they’re just the best animals in the world. In fact, I think I’d choose to be Alfie, as he’s so completely beautiful. Anyway, as I’m the one telling you all this, I think it’s only fair that I should be allowed to pick what I’d be.

There you are then, that’s us five. The Sleepover Club, yay! It’s great being in a club with your four best mates. We try and have a sleepover every Friday night unless someone’s on holiday or poorly, and we always do loads of cool stuff together at the weekends and in the school holidays. Best of all, someone’s always coming up with an awesome idea of what the club can do next.

And that was where I’d got up to, wasn’t it? Kenny’s awesome idea. Let me start another chapter and I’ll tell you more about it!

If you can remember that far back, before I so rudely interrupted the story, Kenny had just suggested that we all went in for this sponsored swim at Cuddington Baths.

“I’m going to go for my personal best – one hundred lengths!” she said, eyes gleaming with excitement. Kenny’s a brilliant swimmer, of course. She’s got her gold lifesavers’ medal already, which is pretty spectacular for someone her age, apparently.

“A hundred lengths?” echoed Fliss, looking a bit faint at the thought. “We don’t all have to swim that far, do we?”

“No, of course not, silly,” Kenny said. “You just do as much as you can, and people sponsor you per length. Or, if you don’t think you’re going to manage many lengths, you can get them to give you a lump sum, like two pounds or something, just for taking part.”

“I could probably only do about ten lengths – if that!” I said doubtfully. “I mean, I like the idea, but I can still only do doggy paddle. I haven’t really got the hang of any other strokes yet.”

“Ten lengths would be excellent!” Kenny said warmly. “We can all practise together at weekends. And I could teach you breaststroke if you want – it’s dead easy. If you can do doggy paddle, you can easily do that.”

“All right, thanks!” I said.

“I reckon I can do fifteen lengths – or maybe even twenty,” Fliss said thoughtfully. She had a load of private swimming lessons last summer and is quite good now – even if she does hate getting her hair wet!

“I’m going to go for half a mile – thirty-two lengths,” Frankie said excitedly. She goes swimming quite a lot with her dad, and often with Kenny, too, so she’s pretty fit. “Half a mile – it sounds a long way, doesn’t it?”

“Oh, you can do that, no problem,” Kenny said confidently. “How about you, Rosie?”

“Ooh yes, of course, because you’re a water sign, aren’t you, Rosie?” Fliss said at once. We called her ‘mystic Flisstic’ for a while last summer, because she got really into horoscopes and fortune-telling. “You should be the best swimmer of the lot, then!”

Rosie went a bit pink. “I don’t think so!” she said. She was trying to laugh but she looked a bit awkward about it. “Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be able to do the swimathon with you guys. Sorry, but…”

“But what?” Frankie said. “One for all, and all for one, remember, Rosie?”

Rosie bit her lip. She was looking dead shifty, which is unusual when she’s normally such a down-to-earth person. “Well, the fact that my cozzie is so ancient and small that it’s practically unwearable for starters,” she said, with this embarrassed sort of laugh. “I don’t think Cuddington is ready to see my bare bum hanging out!”

“Oh, I’ve got loads of swimming costumes,” Fliss said at once. “You can borrow one of mine! Not my new one, obviously, as I’ll be wearing that, but I’ll dig out another one for you, if you like!”

“Nice one, Fliss!” I said. Fliss isn’t often very generous with her things. She’d never lend me or Kenny any of her clothes, I’m sure, simply because she would worry that we’d rip them or stretch them! Mind you, I suppose a swimming costume is pretty hard to break, isn’t it?

“Thanks, Fliss,” Rosie said, but she still wasn’t looking anyone in the eye. “But—”

“Anyway, you’ve GOT to take part,” Kenny said suddenly. “Because I haven’t told you the rest of it yet. All the money that we raise goes to Whizz-Kidz, I forgot to say! NOW tell me you won’t take part!”

“Whizz-Kidz?” asked Frankie. “Who are they?”

“Oh!” Rosie said. She looked delighted at the news. “Whizz-Kidz is that charity for disabled kids. They make all these amazing customised wheelchairs and trikes and stuff. You know that day centre that Adam goes to? They helped them out with a load of new wheelchairs, remember me telling you?”

“Yeah, and that’s not all,” Kenny said. “I can’t believe I forgot to tell you all about this! After the swimathon, there’s going to be this mega party at the pool for all the swimmers who take part, plus all their families. It should be really fab!”

Fliss’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, I hope the lifeguards are good-looking!”

“Yeah, one of them’s gorgeous, actually,” Kenny said, winking at the rest of us. “Nige, he’s called. I reckon you’ll like him, Fliss.”

“Oh, really?” Fliss said, smoothing her hair down. “What’s he like, then?”

“Well…” said Kenny, but just then Mrs Poole blew the whistle and we had to go inside for registration. But from the wink Kenny had just given, I had a fair idea that ‘Nige’ wasn’t going to be quite as hunky as Fliss was hoping!

Not even the morning maths test could dampen our spirits now we had the swimathon to get us excited! I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and I could tell the others felt the same.

The only person who still didn’t seem that interested was Rosie. But I guessed it was because she didn’t have a swimming costume and felt embarrassed about it. Rosie’s dead proud like that. When we first started hanging out with her, she wouldn’t let us come round to her house for ages because she thought we’d turn our noses up at it, just because it’s in a bit of a state!

To be honest, I think our house is much scruffier than hers, because my dad’s one of these people who’s always starting things off and never finishing them. So we’ve got a half-built wall here, a half-painted room there, a frame out the back for a conservatory that he’s never managed to finish… It drives you mad sometimes!

Anyway, I don’t mind the others seeing our mad half-built house because that’s the way it’s always been, but I guess Rosie’s a bit different. I knew she’d hate having to wear one of Fliss’s swimming costumes because she hates not being able to “pay her own way”, as she says. But if something’s offered to you, you might as well take it, in my book.

I was just imagining myself doing the most graceful breaststroke ever up and down Cuddington Baths with crowds of people cheering me on, when Mrs Weaver called out, “OK, time’s up! Pens down!” and I realised with a jump that I’d barely started on the maths test. Uh-oh – I’d been daydreaming again.

“OK, swap tests with the person next to you,” Mrs Weaver said briskly. “Here are the answers. One – three nines are twenty-seven. Two – eighteen plus sixteen is thirty-four. Three – six fours are twenty-four…”

Luckily, I had Kenny marking mine, and being a complete star and fantastic friend, she scribbled a load of answers in for me so that I wouldn’t get too bad a score. Now that’s what I call a mate! I was marking Rosie’s paper and she’d done nearly as badly as me by the looks of things, so I tried to put a few answers in there, too. Rosie was obviously thinking about the swimathon as well, judging by all the empty spaces on her answer sheet!

Unfortunately, our little bout of “helping” was spotted by beady-eyed Emma Hughes, one of our sworn enemies, the M&Ms. BAAAD news…

“Mrs Weaver, Kenny and Lyndsey are cheating!” she said at once, sticking her hand in the air.

Kenny scowled at her and I gave her a dirty look. Interfering cow! Just because she was a mega-brain maths-head!

Mrs Weaver hates people telling tales, but she’s also pretty hot against cheats, too. “Kenny and Lyndsey, bring your answer sheets here,” she said crisply. “I think I’ll mark the rest of those, thank you very much.”

Emma gave us this whopping great smirk, like she’d just won a prize. In fact, if there was a prize going for smugness, she would have won the gold medal.

Mrs Weaver soon cut her down to size, though. “And Emma, we don’t like tell-tales in this class, so you can wipe that grin off your face,” she said. “Now then! Let’s see if we can get through the rest of this test without any more dramas!”

Kenny and I exchanged looks. Trust one of the M&Ms to stick a big fat nose into our business.

As you probably guessed, me and Rosie didn’t do very well on the maths test in the end, thanks to old supergrass Hughesy. Mrs Weaver handed our papers back, not looking very impressed.

“Tomorrow’s Friday, and it’ll be the last test of the week, as you all know,” she said, “so let’s see if we can get some better scores, please! I don’t know what’s up with you all this morning but some people obviously aren’t at their brightest. Let’s do some long division, to see if THAT will get your brains in gear.”

Ugh! She was in a bad mood now, if she was making us do MORE maths. We were all relieved when it was break time, and we could get outside for a breather. But by now, Rosie was grumpy and fed up, I was feeling completely thick as I’d got all the long-division sums wrong, and even Kenny was still a bit growly after being told off.

Luckily, Fliss managed to cheer us up. “I’ve been thinking,” she started, as we went out into the playground.

“Does it hurt?” Kenny muttered.

Fliss ignored her. “Shall we have the sleepover at mine tomorrow night?” she said. “We could make it a swimming theme, you know, because of the swimathon!”

“Will your mum mind us coming round?” I asked. Everything’s been a bit hectic at their house lately, what with the twins coming along. Even Fliss hasn’t looked her usual immaculate self – which tells you how much hard work they must be!

Fliss shrugged. “No, I’m sure she won’t mind,” she said. “She suggested it, anyway. Said she didn’t want to let appearances slip, just because of the twins.”

“What a trooper!” Frankie said. “That’s what we like – a mum who knows the importance of a good sleepover.” Then she frowned. “What do you mean by a swimming theme though?”

Fliss’s face fell. “Well… actually, I couldn’t think of anything specific,” she confessed. “I was hoping one of you lot would have some ideas.”

“We could… er… all wear blue, like water,” Rosie suggested, screwing her face up as she said it. “No, that’s far too boring!”

“Practise swimming up and down the bath?” I said.

“We could watch Titanic!” Fliss said, brightening. She must have seen that film about fifty times by now. “Although I suppose that’s more about drowning than swimming, isn’t it?”

“It’s a shame it’s not summer – we could have had a water fight in the back garden,” Kenny said wistfully.

Frankie looked up at the grey cloudy sky, and shivered. “Not on your nelly!” she said firmly. “We’d all get hypothermia!”

“Well, everyone get their thinking heads on, anyway,” Fliss said. “We’ve got a whole day to come up with other stuff we can do – so everyone bring something with a swimming theme to my house tomorrow night, six o’clock sharp!”

Most Fridays, without fail, my first thought when I wake up is, “Yay! Sleepover day!” My mum reckons it’s the only day of the week when she doesn’t have to physically drag me out of bed! I always wake up feeling really excited and raring to go. OK, so there’s a day of school to get through before we can start having fun, but somehow, that goes much faster when you know there’s a lovely sleepover waiting for you at the end of it. And then after THAT, it’s the weekend!

I was halfway through my breakfast when I suddenly remembered the swimming theme Fliss had suggested.

“Mum, have you got any ideas about what I can take to Fliss’s tonight?” I asked, and then told her the whole story. My mum used to be a teacher and now runs a playgroup, so she always has lots of good ideas.

She thought for a minute as she buttered her toast. “Does it have to be strictly swimming, or could it stretch to playing in water, do you reckon?” she said. “Because we’ve got beach balls and rubber rings and things you could take along.”

“I’ve got Jaws on video if you want to borrow it,” said Tom, my second oldest brother. “As long as you PROMISE not to wreck it.”

“And as long as no-one’s going to have nightmares,” Mum put in at once.

“Hmm, maybe,” I said slowly. Even though I love all animals, sharks are a bit scary, I think – but I certainly wasn’t going to tell Tom that!

“There are lots of silly swimming hats in the dressing-up box, too,” Mum said. “You know, the ones Auntie Vera gave us, with all the plastic flowers on them?”

“Yeah, excellent!” I said, with a giggle. “I can just see Kenny in one of them!”

“Come on,” she said, standing up and taking her toast with her. “Let’s see what we can find!”

The others must all have been thinking hard about what to bring for the sleepover, too, because on Friday night, when we got to Fliss’s, there was a whole heap of weird and wonderful goodies.

Kenny had brought flippers, face masks and a blow-up lilo.

Frankie had a rubber ring, two pairs of arm bands and some goggles.

Fliss had her Titanic video (surprise, surprise!) and had dug out a selection of swimming costumes for Rosie to choose from.

And Rosie had brought along her Supa Scuba board game, plus a huge bag of mini Mars bars. “I thought we’d get hungry with all this talk of swimming,” she explained.

“Right,” said Fliss uncertainly. “So what are we going to do with this lot, then?”

We looked at the wacky assortment in front of us, and all five of us burst out laughing at the sight. Good point – what WERE we going to do with it all? Kenny put on a bright pink swimming hat with plastic daisies that I’d brought along and batted her eyelashes, and we all laughed even harder.

“Suits YOU!” we all chorused, still giggling.

Frankie was getting a familiar kind of gleam in her eye, though. The kind of gleam that said, “Idea alert!”.

“Uh-oh – Frankie’s brain is ticking away,” I said. “Any second now she’s going to say…”

“I’ve got an idea!” she said, grinning. “How about a dressing-up obstacle race?”

“A what?” Rosie spluttered.

“We’ll race against the clock, one by one,” Frankie told us. “You start off over here, by the door, yeah? Then you have to jump into the rubber ring, pull it up over your head and off again, then put on the flippers and run over to the window…”

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