asking Lyndz’s family to come up to Scotland with us for the week. Uncle Bob has plenty of rooms, and according to your dad he just loves having a house full of people. What do you think? I wanted to run it by you first before I phoned Patsy.”
“That’s a great idea!” I ran over to Mum and gave her one of my Kenny Specials (that’s when I hug someone so tightly they go red in the face and start gasping for air!).
“Phew! I’m glad you’re so pleased,” Mum spluttered, releasing herself from my grip. “I think it will do them all the world of good. I’ll go and phone Patsy now.”
As she was dialling the number, she added, “And it means that you’ll have a friend there too, seeing as Molly’s taking Carli.”
“She’s WHAT?” I screamed. “Since when?”
“Since last night when she asked me. Is there a problem? Oh, hello there, Patsy…”
A problem, she says! Not much! Molly the horrible Monster is bad enough on her own, but when she’s with her gruesome best mate Carli it’s Nightmare City!
Still, at least if I had Lyndz with me it would be two against two. And I was sure that with all our devious Sleepover tricks we could get the better of them!
Actually, just thinking that made me a bit sad. I wished ALL the Sleepover gang could come up to Scotland with us. I mean, I really really like Lyndz and everything, but it seemed a bit mean going away with just one of my friends. I felt guilty somehow, as though I’d sort of betrayed the others.
“Pull yourself together, McKenzie!” I told myself sternly. “The others won’t see it that way. They’ll just be glad that Lyndz is going to have a good holiday!”
Boy was I wrong about that!
The next morning when I got to school, Lyndz was as frisky as a new puppy. She was laughing and joking and larking about.
“What’s got into you?” Frankie was teasing her as I walked up to them. “Has someone put happy sugar in your Ready Brek or something?”
“Kenny! Kenny! I’m so glad you’ve arrived!” Lyndz rushed up to me and almost swung me off my feet. “I didn’t want to say anything until you were here too.”
The others looked at me questioningly.
“Isn’t it great?” Lyndz gushed. “Kenny’s mum rang last night to see if we’d all like to go up to Scotland with them at half-term. Isn’t that brill?”
“Fantastic!”
“Excellent!”
The others all started leaping about too. They were taking the news better than I’d expected.
“Where will we stay?” Rosie wondered.
“What kind of clothes will I have to bring?” Fliss demanded.
Whoa, girls!
“Erm, no, I think you’ve got it wrong,” I mumbled. “Mum asked Lyndz and her family.”
“Mrs McKenzie told Mum we’d be doing her a favour because she could do with some sensible adult company,” Lyndz explained quietly, suddenly aware that she’d just rammed her great size nines into her gob. “But Stuart and Tom aren’t coming,” she carried on, as if that made the slightest bit of difference. “Mum’s sister Lorraine is going to stay at our place to keep an eye on them.”
“Kenny?” Frankie stared at me. “Why didn’t you tell us about this?”
“I-I-I didn’t know until yesterday,” I stammered. “I didn’t really…”
My voice trailed off as I suddenly saw Lyndz looking very troubled.
“I’m really glad you’re coming, Lyndz,” I told her truthfully. “We’ll have a great time. IT’LL DO YOU GOOD!” I added meaningfully, looking at the others.
The whistle went for the start of school, and I’ve never been as glad to hear it in my life! I felt bad about the others, but I couldn’t help thinking that they were being a bit mean to poor old Lyndz.
During the morning when we had to split up into groups for project work, Fliss, Rosie and Frankie quickly huddled together, leaving Lyndz and me by ourselves. Even Mrs Weaver our teacher raised her eyes at that. And at breaktime, although they hung round with us they kept making catty remarks about how they were going to have the “best sleepover ever” during half-term.
“What a pity you two won’t be there to join in!” Fliss told me and Lyndz sarcastically. “But you obviously prefer each other’s company nowadays.”
By lunchtime Lyndz was a dithering wreck. We were all sitting on a bench when she announced:
“Look, I’m going to tell Mum that we can’t come away with you, Kenny. It’s my fault that we’ve all fallen out and I can’t bear it!”
Her chin started to tremble and her eyes filled with tears.
“Right then, are you satisfied now?” I turned on the others angrily. “Lyndz needs a holiday more than anyone. It just so happens that it’s going to be with me. If there was a way to invite you all up to Scotland I would, believe me. But Great Uncle Bob’s about ninety or something. I don’t think it would be very good for his health if we all descended on him, do you?”
The others shook their heads and looked suitably ashamed. They gave Lyndz an extra big hug.
“Sorry for being so mean,” Frankie told her. “You go and have fun – just not too much, OK?”
At least we were all friends again, which was the main thing. But my big speech back there had got me thinking. Why couldn’t we all go up to Scotland? Uncle Bob wasn’t really ninety, and Dad had already said that he had loads of rooms and loved having his house full of people. What could be better than having it full of my friends? I knew that Mum would be speaking to him that night to confirm the arrangements, so I’d have to ask her if the rest of the gang could come with us before she phoned.
All afternoon I rehearsed how I would ask her. The only problem was that as far as Mum was concerned, us Sleepover girls together meant only one thing – TROUBLE. And it was one thing coping with that in your own home, but quite another transporting it hundreds of miles up into the wilds of Scotland.
I decided to just grab the bull by the horns and ask Mum straight out as soon as I got home. But it was just my luck that she was tackling Dad’s paperwork. Now if there’s one thing I’ve learnt in my ten years on this planet, it is never to disturb Mum when she’s got her business-head on. The fall-out can be pretty spectacular – I still have the scars to prove it! And it was the worst luck ever that she had her business-head on all through dinner and all through the rest of the evening. In fact she only snapped out of it when the phone rang.
“Oh Uncle Bob!” she spoke crisply into the receiver. “I was just about to ring you.”
Drat, drat and double blooming drat covered in bogies. I was too late – there was no way that the rest of the Sleepover gang could come up to Scotland with us now!
Whilst Mum chatted to Great Uncle Bob, I sat on the stairs and put my head in my hands. I’d let my chums down big time. I know that they weren’t expecting to go to Scotland with us or anything, but I’d kind of got used to the idea in my head.
I’d never been to Great Uncle Bob’s house before, but I imagined it was like this enormous castle overlooking a lake. I figured that it would have about fifty bedrooms and they’d all have four-poster beds and jacuzzi baths just like the one Fliss has, only much bigger.