Everybody goes away and everywhere is really quiet.
“Do you think we’re the only people in Cuddington who haven’t gone away on holiday?” asked Frankie as we were lazing about in the park.
“Yet.” said Fliss. “I’m going to…”
“Tenerife. In three weeks.” The rest of us said together.
Fliss had told us about her holiday a zillion times already, and we weren’t likely to forget.
“I was only saying!” grumbled Fliss and stomped off to the pond to look at the ducks.
“Get her!” laughed Lyndz.
“I wish I was going to Tenerife,” moaned Rosie. “I wish I was going anywhere. We never go on holiday now.”
Frankie, Lyndz and I pretended to play violins. We do that when Rosie is in one of her ‘Poor-Little-Me’ moods.
“We don’t go on holiday much,” said Lyndz. “There are too many of us. But I don’t mind. There’s always lots to do at home.”
“But we used to go away a lot. Before dad left,” mumbled Rosie. She looked as though she was going to cry. I’m not very good with people who cry. I don’t know what to do with them. Lyndz is pretty good, and so is Frankie. I just don’t cry very much myself. When I saw Rosie’s lip going all wobbly, I thought it was a good time to see what Fliss was up to. She was probably still sulking, but we’re used to that by now.
I wanted to see how many cartwheels I could do before I got to the pond where Fliss was standing. I thought it would be about twenty. One, two, three… twelve, thirteen, fourteen…
“Hey, watch it!” I cartwheeled right into Fliss and we both nearly ended up swimming with the ducks!
“Sorry Fliss,” I spluttered. My head was in a major spin after being upside down so many times.
“You know Kenny,” sighed Fliss, examining her legs for bruises. “You really are very clumsy.”
She sounded like Mrs Weaver, our teacher. I wished I’d stayed with the others. Rosie crying would have been better than Fliss moaning.
“And I was trying to work something out before you nearly drowned me!” snapped Fliss.
She started muttering something and counting on her fingers. Fliss was certainly one strange dude!
Suddenly, she leapt into the air.
“I thought so. We’ve had nine! We’ve had nine!” she shouted.
Yep! That confirmed my original diagnosis – our Fliss had finally flipped!
“Nine what?” I asked. “Nine fights? Nine doughnuts? What?”
Frankie, Lyndz and Rosie had joined us. They had obviously seen the commotion Fliss was causing. What an embarrassment!
“What’s she on about?” asked Lyndz. I shrugged my shoulders.
“We’ve had nine sleepovers!” Fliss shrieked. “That means that the next one will be our tenth!”
“Hey Fliss, go to the top of the class and give the teacher a banana!” I said. “I always knew that you’d learn to count one day!”
“Hang on a minute,” said Frankie. “We’ve had loads of sleepovers. I’m sure we’ve had more than ten.”
“I mean we’ve had ten since we formed the Sleepover Club with Rosie and everything,” explained Fliss very slowly, as though she was talking to a bunch of three-year olds.
“Oh right,” Frankie nodded.
“Anyway, as I was saying,” continued Fliss. “Ten’s an important number, isn’t it? We ought to have a special sleepover to celebrate.”
Yeah. One-nil! For once, Fliss was right. If we had a sleepover to plan, we couldn’t get bored. Especially when it was a special birthday sleepover.
We all felt pretty excited and you know how hyper we can get. We all started talking at once, and laughing and doing high fives as though we’d all just won Olympic medals or something. Somehow I don’t think we would have been so enthusiastic if we had known then what trouble this tenth sleepover was going to cause.
The thing is that we’re all so different. And I know that that’s a good thing, even though it has caused problems in the past. But we always managed to sort them out. And anyway, for our normal sleepovers we just sort of go with the flow, because it’s the sleepover that matters and not really what we do there. But for this tenth birthday sleepover, boy did things get out of hand! It was like it wasn’t just a sleepover anymore it was some major celebration. We all got very selfish and only wanted to do what we wanted to do. Crazy I know. I think we all went a little bit mad for a while.
“We should have a proper party, a dressed-up party, with music and dancing and a proper meal and maybe a marquee and…” said Fliss excitedly.
“What planet are you on Fliss?” I asked. “A marquee? The nearest you’ll ever get to a marquee is the tent you sleep in at Brownie camp!”
“Alright Kenny Clever Clogs, what do you think we should do for the sleepover?” Fliss snapped back. She had those bright-red patches on her cheeks, which is never a good sign.
“What about a day out at one of those paintball courses?”
The others all groaned.
“You only want to do that because you know you’d win. This has to be something special for all of us you know.” I was surprised when Frankie said that. Us being best mates and everything.
“Alright then, what did you have in mind?” I asked.
“What about a children’s party, with silly games and jelly and ice-cream, and balloons…”
“Don’t you think we’re a bit old for that?” asked Lyndz.
“That’s the point,” sighed Frankie, coming over all grown-up. “We don’t have parties like that anymore because we think we’re too old, but I think they’re kind of fun.”
“Oh please Frankie,” moaned Fliss. “Everybody’d laugh at us if they ever found out!”
“What about going out to the cinema and having a pizza or something,” asked Rosie.
“Bor-ing!” the rest of us sang together.
“I was only trying to help!” mumbled Rosie. “I know when I’m not wanted. I might as well go home.”
She started walking towards the gate. The rest of us just watched her go. Then we all turned on each other.
“Now see what you’ve done!”
“What I’ve done. It was your fault.”
“You always think you know best don’t you?”
And before we knew where we were, we were all yelling at each other. And I mean really yelling. That’s when it looked like the Sleepover Club would never even reach it’s tenth birthday!
So, it was the summer holidays. We were bored. But now the Sleepover Club couldn’t even be bored together because we weren’t speaking to each other. Crazy hah?
I bet you’ve done that too haven’t you? I mean, I bet you’ve fallen out with your friends over something really small and stupid. Only it seems really important at the time. It’s only later that you realise how dumb the whole thing is. But by then it’s too late. The damage is done.
It