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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
Yo! How’s it going?
It’s Kenny here if you hadn’t guessed – yep, I’m back, fans! Well, let’s face it, there was no way I was letting any of the others tell you this story. I mean, puh-leeeze, it was all down to me that we went snowboarding in the first place…
Oops – getting ahead of myself as usual. My mum reckons I’m always doing that – charging off without warning. Maybe I’m just a bit too impatient to do everything properly all the time. So what, though! That’s just me – the original Action Girl – I like everything to happen fast! Hanging around is for wallpaper, that’s what I say…
So where was I? Oh yes. Snowboarding. Have you ever tried it? It is AWESOME!!!! It’s the most exciting, dangerous, scary, fun thing I can think of – well, except our sleepovers, of course… Mind you, not that I’ll be able to go on the slopes again for a while, ’cos—oops, I’ll have to tell you that later. Better not ruin the story on the first page, eh!
I like all sports really – especially football. And gymnastics. And I’m mad about swimming. And running. You get the idea. But snowboarding is something else altogether! As soon as I’m a rich and famous surgeon, I’m going to splash out on a no-expense-spared snowboarding holiday for the Sleepover Club, off in Colorado or somewhere – Nick says there are some WICKED slopes there.
Now I know you’ll be confused. Who’s Nick, then? you’re thinking. And you might even be thinking, who are the Sleepover Club when they’re at home?! Don’t worry – I’m about to explain everything!
There’s five of us in the Sleepover Club – me and Frankie, who are best mates, plus Fliss, Lyndz and Rosie. As a quick intro to the others, I’ll do this thing Mrs Weaver got us to do the other day at school.
OK, say the five of us were all different types of… I don’t know… bag. So I’d be a sports bag, right? That one’s easy. Frankie would be a sparkly, space-age kind of bag with cool gadgets and inventions all over it – she loves that sort of thing. Some people at school think Frankie is pretty weird because she comes out with these off-the-wall ideas all the time, but she’s just an original, which is a good thing if you ask me. You’ll recognise Frankie when you see her – she’s really tall and she’ll probably be wearing something freaky as usual.
Who next? Well, Fliss is another easy one. If Fliss was a bag, she would be a pink and fluffy girly kind of handbag with a lace trim and frills all over it. Yuck!!! Just the sort of thing I hate. Oh, and it would be a designer model too, of course – and very expensive. Fliss is big on things like that. She loves clothes, make-up, jewellery, doing people’s hair and the colour pink. Say no more! I suppose she’s quite pretty if you like that sort of thing – but there’s being pretty, and then there’s being pretty and really boring about it. Unfortunately, our Fliss is more like the second of the two…
That’s enough of me being horrible. Lyndz next – let’s see. Lyndz’s bag would probably have pictures of animals all over it – especially pictures of horses and dogs. Oh, and when you bought it, some of the proceeds would go to a kittens’ orphanage or a sanctuary for retired donkeys. Yes, Lyndz is truly nuts about animals – she’d do anything for them. Lyndz is kind of soppy sometimes too, but only in a nice way. She also gets the loudest hiccups you’ve ever heard in your life. Scary!!
Last but not least, Rosie. I’ve left her till last because she only joined our school fairly recently. Surprise surprise, Lyndz felt sorry for her ’cos she didn’t know anyone, and invited her to join our club. The rest of us were a bit mad at first because we don’t let just anyone join – but it turned out to be a good thing as Rosie is brilliant fun. The best thing about Rosie is her sense of humour though, so I reckon her bag would be quite trendy and nice, and would have something that made you laugh on it.
Anyway, the five of us are all in the same class at school, and we do just about everything together out of school too. Best of all, every weekend we have a sleepover at someone’s house. And guess what? That’s why we’re called the Sleepover Club! DERRRR!
Ever been to a sleepover? They are just the coolest thing. We all take our night stuff and torches and Sleepover diaries, and everyone brings loads of sweets that we can munch through the night. We play loads of ace games and then stay up all night telling horror stories or jokes. Sleepovers are the best!!
I tell a pretty mean horror story if I say so myself – Fliss gets scared sometimes and says she feels sick (what a wuss!!) while the rest of us get all giggly and screechy. You know when just the slightest thing gets you all scared and hysterical, and your heart starts beating dead fast, and then someone makes you JUMP?! Like that. EEEEEEK!!
Like the other week, when we were sleeping over at Lyndz’s, I told the others this story I’d got from my dad (he’s a doctor, so he tells me all the goriest, grossest things!!). He told me that in the olden days, about five hundred years ago, the doctors used to cure people by sticking leeches on them – ’cos they thought that while the leeches were sucking out your blood, they’d suck out all the bad stuff in you that was making you ill as well! Is that just gross or what?! YUCK!!
You know what’s it like if you’re lying there in the dark and getting all scared about something, though. Anything sets you off! Everyone was groaning and making “ugh” noises at my leech story – and of course Fliss was saying she felt sick as usual – so I decided to play a trick on Frankie, who I was lying next to.
“Imagine all those leeches on your body slurping away at your blood,” I said in a deep spooky voice, “and imagine them slithering over you to get to another juicy bit!” And then I made this huge slurpy noise and scrabbled my fingers through Frankie’s hair.
“Aaaaaargh!!!”
She let out this ginormous scream and I collapsed in giggles. Frankie can be mega LOUD sometimes! All the others jumped – but then when they heard me laughing, they all cracked up too.
Frankie whacked me round the head with a pillow. “Cow!” she yelled at me.
“Leech-brain!” I yelled back, whacking her so hard I toppled over and landed on her.
Somehow we had totally forgotten it was the middle of the night and we were meant to be quiet. Soon all five of us were having this free-for-all pillow fight in the dark. Ever done that? It is so funny! You don’t know where anyone is, and you’re just whacking away, hoping to get someone – and now and then you hear a scream and know you’ve hit a target!
Suddenly – crash! The door was flung open and there was Lyndz’s dad standing in the doorway.
“It’s a giant leech!” Lyndz yelled and we all screamed hysterically.
Lyndz’s dad switched the light on and blinked at the mess everywhere. Pillows thrown all over the place, sleeping bags tangled up where we’d scrambled out of them – and the five of us all out of breath and looking a bit spooked! Lyndz’s dad is a teacher at the comprehensive, so he’s a pro at telling kids off if he’s narked. He was a bit cross ’cos we’d woken baby Sam up. Uh-oh…
So sometimes my horror stories get us into trouble – but most of the time we can get away with it!
Anyway, back to this story. Ready? Tell you what – why don’t we go and sit in my garden while I tell you the whole lot? We can swing on the swings while I’m telling you – and then we can do some of those flying swing jumps off when we get really high. Come on – this way. Then I’ll tell you EVERYTHING!
Right. Story. Well, I suppose it started on a Saturday. It was the beginning of November, and of course Fliss the Virgo wanted us all to go Christmas shopping. No offence if you’re a Virgo or anything, but they’re just a bit too organised for me. You should see Fliss’s bedroom – everything’s arranged in neat little piles or hidden away in storage units, and everything matches. Pink. Very pink. Personally, my “storage unit” is the space under my bed, where I stuff everything. At least that way if I lose something, I’m pretty sure where it will be.
But anyway, Felicity “Miss Organised 1999” Sidebotham wanted us to go Christmas shopping, even though Christmas was absolutely weeks and weeks away. Christmas shopping’s for Christmas Eve, that’s what I say, but sometimes you just can’t argue with Fliss. She gets that stubborn look on her face, and you know that’s it! You’ve got to go along with her.
Rosie talked me into it in the end. “I’m not going to be buying anything either, ’cos I’m skint,” she said, frank as ever. “But we could go Christmas wish-shopping – where we look for things we want as presents from other people!”
Ooh! I liked the sound of that much more. “Brilliant one, Rosie,” I said. “The new sports shop it is, then!”
The others all groaned. “Ooh, surprise us,” said Frankie, rolling her eyes. “Let me guess… Could it possibly be something to do with…”
“Football!” everyone yelled out together.
I grinned. Did I mention that I love football?!
Ahh. I already told you.
“C’mooooon you Foxes!” I shouted, jumping up and down. “I want to have a look at the new strip – I mean, we’re three months into the season and I haven’t even got the new top yet!”
Us five always have a good laugh in town – even if Fliss does drag us round every single clothes shop most of the time. YAWWWWWN! First of all, we went into Boots because Lyndz wanted to get some bubble bath for her mum. Fliss spent ages examining every type of nail varnish while we were in there, leaving me, Frankie and Rosie in front of this shelf of all sorts of yucky things like wart cream and sprays for smelly feet.
“OK, who can find the grossest thing?” Rosie said. “We should club together and buy it for someone we don’t like.”
“How about these drops for hard ear wax?” Frankie suggested. “That’s pretty gross.”
“Here’s some athlete’s foot powder,” I said, and started reading from the label. “For flaky, itchy feet. Yuck!! No thanks!”
“What about this spray for bad breath?” Rosie giggled. “Ugh! Just imagine how embarrassing it would be, buying that!”
Lyndz came up just then. “What are you lot all sniggering about?” she asked. “Fliss wants us to help her choose some perfume – she’s going to ask her mum for some for Christmas.”
I couldn’t help groaning. “Poo, you won’t catch me wearing any stinky perfume,” I said, as we started walking to the perfume counter. “It all smells horrible!”
“What – even this one?” Frankie said – then grabbed a tester bottle and sprayed this yucky sickly perfume all over me.
“Aaaargh!” I shouted, coughing and choking. It really was foul! “Right, Frankie Thomas,” I said, “you’ve asked for it now!” And I grabbed another tester bottle and squirted her with it. “Now you stink too!”
Fliss was so embarrassed, she dragged us out of the shop. As we all walked along the street, people kept giving us funny looks. We really did pong!!
Then I stopped dead on the pavement. “My turn!” I said. “We’re going in here next.”
The others groaned as I led them into the new Mega Sports shop that had just opened in Cuddington. I’d been badgering my mum and dad all week to take me into town to check it out – and at last I was going to get to see it.
Woweee! It was a wicked shop. Heaven! I wanted to move in! Loads and loads of footy stuff, which of course I checked out straightaway. Loads of nice trackie tops and trainers – definitely a few to put on the Christmas wish-list there…
And then I found this whole surf and ski section at the back of the shop, which was just awesome. Lots of boards and all the gear – and there were these three tellies on the wall showing snowboarding videos. The sight of the snowboarders skimming down impossible slopes, doing jumps and turns, just made my legs go wobbly with excitement. It looked f-f-fantastic!!
“Hey, Frankie, check this out!” I shouted, waving some snow goggles in the air. “Snowboarding!”
I think I must have shouted quite loudly – me? Loud? Impossible! – because suddenly this guy appeared next to me.
“Ahh, a snowboarding fan!” he said. He sounded like someone off Neighbours so I guessed he had to be an Aussie.
“I wish,” I said to him. “I’ve never tried it, but it looks wicked.”
“Oh, it’s the best,” he said, enthusiastically. “It is so cool! You go so fast, the world’s like a blur – and then once you get in the half-pipe, you can really start having some serious fun.”
“Wow,” I breathed. I wasn’t quite sure what he was on about, but it sounded good.
“Yeah, it is pretty wow!” he laughed. “You should try it – get out on those slopes. It’s the most exciting thing you can get into. Believe me, I’m an addict!”
“Mega!” I said, just as Frankie wandered over.
“Well, it’s quite easy to pick up,” he said. “You should give it a go. All you need is good balance, good co-ordination – and nerves of steel!”
“And snow,” I pointed out.
“Snow helps,” he agreed. “Fingers crossed we get some soon, eh?”
“Fingers crossed,” I said fervently, crossing as many as I could.
“Well, if you ever want any advice or tips about snowboarding, just come and have a chat with me any time,” he said, smiling. “The name’s Nick.”
“Kenny,” I said, suddenly feeling shy as we shook hands. “Thanks.”
Nick suddenly coughed and wrinkled his nose. “Can you smell something?” he said. “I think the cleaner’s gone a bit mad with the air freshener this week!”
I could hardly keep a straight face as he went off to serve someone. As soon as he was out of earshot, Frankie elbowed me and we collapsed in giggles.
“Air freshener!” I snorted. “I knew that perfume smelled horrible!”
“Maybe Fliss should just ask for a can of that for Christmas instead!” Frankie giggled. “Save her mum a bit of dosh, anyway!”
Once we’d pulled ourselves together, I noticed the others had left the shop and were waiting outside for us. “We’d better go, I suppose…” I said reluctantly.
“Found the footy top you want, then?” Frankie asked.
“I think I’ve found something better,” I told her, pointing up at one of the videos where someone was going a 90-degree turn in mid-air, like it was the easiest thing in the world. “Snowboarding,” I said. “That’s what I want!”
You know what I’m like. Once I get one of my brilliant ideas in my head, it’s impossible for me to think about other stuff. Suddenly I really really really wanted to go snowboarding, more than anything else in the world!
I could just imagine myself whizzing down those slopes, a spray of snow flying up behind me, hat and sun-goggles on, arms out to keep my balance… WOW!! What a thought!
Lyndz had something else on her mind, though.
“Lunch time!” she said loudly as soon as we got out of the shop. “I’m STARVING!”
“Lyndz, you’re always starving,” Fliss said disapprovingly. Fliss’s mum thinks we should all live off carrot sticks and sunflower seeds – and sometimes I think Fliss agrees with her. Fliss even went on a diet once – I mean, D-U-M-B or what?!
“Maybe you’ve got worms, Lyndz,” I said to wind her up. “Dad says they make you feel hungry all the time.”
“Eeeeugh!” Rosie said, pretending to be sick. “Gross, Kenny!”
“I have not got worms!” Lyndz said hotly. “I just feel like a cheeseburger, that’s all.”
“Yeah, you look a bit like one, too,” I said, dodging out of her way as she tried to whack me with her bag.
“You’re in a good mood for someone who hates shopping,” Fliss said suspiciously. “What’s got into you?”
“I wish a cheeseburger would get into me,” Lyndz was moaning. “Like, now.”
“I’m on a mission, that’s what,” I said mysteriously.
“What, with that bloke in the shop?” Frankie said, winking at me. “They looked very cosy when I walked over there!”
“Get knotted!” I said crossly, but they’d all creased up giggling and Lyndz started making smoochy kissing noises in my ear.
“He was quite a babe actually, wasn’t he?” Fliss said thoughtfully. “Not as nice as Ryan Scott, though.”
“Well, now we know what Kenny’s type is like,” Lyndz said between giggles. “Action Man! What a perfect couple you two would make! Mwaaah!!”
“Shut up!” I said.
“Ooh, getting a bit hot and bothered, are we?” Rosie teased, elbowing me. “You must like him!”
“I don’t like him – well, he was OK, I suppose,” I said. For some reason I was blushing like anything. “It’s snowboarding I’m into now! That’s my mission!”
“Oh, here we go,” Fliss sighed. “I thought it was trampolining you wanted us all to get into?”
“That was last week,” I said. “But this sounds much more fun! Even better – it sounds much more dangerous! You have to have nerves of steel to try it, Nick said!”
Fliss did this big dramatic groan like she’d rather eat worms. As I told you, she’s a bit of a wuss sometimes, especially when it comes to my brilliant ideas. Nerves of steel? Nerves of cotton wool, more like!
In fact, me and Fliss are pretty different in a lot of ways. When we have a sleepover at hers, she always tries to get us to play hairdressers and girly stuff like that – and sometimes she won’t join in my ideas for games because she thinks they’re “too rough” or she doesn’t want to mess her hair up. Honestly! The only time I ever even think about my hair is when Mum is brushing out the tangles and I’m yelling with pain. Some people are weird, aren’t they?
“This way,” Lyndz said, shepherding us into the burger joint. “Unless you want me passing out from hunger, that is?”
I started telling them all about the things I’d seen on the snowboarding videos in the shop while we were queuing up to get some lunch.
“And then I saw this one bloke doing a jump like this, right,” I said, whizzing round quickly in the queue just like the guy on the video.
Uh-oh. Bad idea…
“Whoops!”
“Oh, look where you’re going, young lady!”
I’d just sent someone’s vanilla milkshake flying! It shot through the air and splattered all over the floor, spraying our feet with sticky white goo.
I bit my lip. Things like that are always happening to me – I don’t know why.
“Sorry,” I said to this lady who was looking furiously at me, and I scrabbled in my purse. “I’ll get you another one.”
“I should think so too!” she snorted. Stuck-up prune. Didn’t she know a snowboarder in the making when she saw one?
We finally got to sit down with our lunches and the others all started teasing me again about Nick. Rosie started doing her terrible Aussie accent, every time she said anything.
“I bet he likes hanging out in Summer Bay,”
she drawled. “Awww, surf’s up – chuck another shrimp on the barbie, willya?”
“You sound like Rolf Harris – go back to Animal Hospital, will you?” I growled. “And get yourself a brain operation while you’re there!”
“Ahh, fair dinkum, Sheila!” Frankie giggled.
“Tie me kangaroo down, sport!” Lyndz added, laughing so hard that milkshake shot straight out of her nose – both sides!!
“Eeeeurggghhh!” squealed Fliss, turning away hurriedly.
“Gross!” Frankie said, sticking her tongue out and laughing at the same time.
“Yeee-uck!” Rosie wailed.
“Can you tell what it is yet?” I yelled, doing my own Rolf impression.
By now we were all laughing hysterically, and were creased up over the tables. For a minute I even forgot all about the idea of going snowboarding. Not for very long, though…
Well, the next thing that happened was that I went home and found out that my parents had been abducted by aliens – and even better, the aliens had taken my gross sisters too!
Nah, not really. Just checking to see if you’re paying attention, or if you’re skimming through to get to the best bits. Sneaky, eh? Mind you, I’m the biggest skimmer in our class. Sometimes you just want to skip ahead to see what’s going to happen at the end, don’t you? I can’t stand waiting!
Anyway, no aliens in this story unfortunately. No, the next thing that really happened was that after being dragged around a few boring clothes shops by Fliss, we all went back to our own homes.
Saturday tea-time means chips and everything in our house. YUM! My favourite tea – I’m a champion chip-eater. Even better, Emma (oldest sister – OK but a bit bossy) is going through this teenage “Don’t want to get fat, don’t want to get spots” phase at the moment so she isn’t touching anything remotely greasy. You know what that means, don’t you? All the more for ME! I’ve got her so sussed that if she even looks at a chip, all I have to do is say, “Terrible for your skin, Em,” and she’ll back away as if it’s going to infect her with the plague, just by sitting there on a plate. Fantastic!
Of course, Molly (other sister – and horrible pig I have to share a bedroom with) still shovels them down her neck like the Cuddington Potato Famine has broken out, worse luck. And she wonders why I call her Molly the Monster… Plus, she’s skinny as anything and hasn’t got a spot near her, so I can’t use my Emma tactics on her. YET!
Anyway, I decided I might as well start on the Kenny-Goes-Snowboarding campaign straight away.
“Mum, you know for Christmas this year…” I started saying through a mouthful of sausage and tomato ketchup.
Mum raised her eyebrows. “Yes…” she said.
“I sense our daughter is about to put in a request for something,” Dad said, clapping a hand to his forehead. “I just get that feeling…”
I ignored him. “Well, you know we always go to Grandma’s, or Granny Mack’s for Christmas?”
“Yes…” Mum said in a suspicious what-does-Kenny-want-this-time? kind of voice.
“Spit it out, love,” Dad said.
“Well, what do you think about going abroad this year? Going on holiday? Maybe somewhere snowy,” I said, crossing my fingers under the table so tightly I nearly cut my blood supply off.
“Laura, what are you getting at?” Mum said. “What’s all this about?”
“I just thought it would be nice to do something different,” I said casually, shrugging as if I hadn’t really thought about it. (Yeah, right!)
“She wants to go snowboarding, Mum,” Molly the Monster said smugly. “I heard her talking to Frankie about it on the phone.”
“Shut up!” I said crossly, kicking her. “Mind your own business!”
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