Sleeping bag
Pillow
Pyjamas or a nightdress
Slippers
Toothbrush, toothpaste, soap etc
Towel
Teddy
A creepy story
food for a midnight feast: chocolate, crisps, sweets, biscuits. In fact anything you like to eat.
Torch
Hairbrush
Hair things like a bobble or hairband, if you need them
Clean knickers and socks
Change of clothes for the next day
Sleepover diary and membership card
Yeehah! If it ainât my perdy liddle friend. Letâs mosey on down to the OK Corral pardnâr and round up them there horses.
Hey, donât look at me like that! All I meant was âdo you fancy coming down to the stables with me?â Iâve kind of got this thing about the Wild West at the moment. The others are used to it now. In fact theyâre so used to it that Iâm driving them all crazy. Especially Fliss. She keeps saying:
âLook Lyndz, if you donât drop that stupid accent soon, Iâm going to ram that stetson down your perdy liddle throat!â
Now thatâs not very nice, is it? Particularly since the others were just as bad as me last week. If I remember rightly, it was Frankie who threw herself into the Wild West theme big time. And she even got everybody dressing up in cowboy gear into the bargain. You know how she organises everybody. Once sheâs got an idea in her head, you darenât argue with her!
Youâre looking a bit puzzled. You must have heard what happened down at the stables, surely? What! You mean you havenât? I thought everybody knew about that by now. Kenny certainly hasnât stopped talking about it, and you know what a motormouth she is. And now I come to think about it, Fliss is pretty pleased with herself too. And when sheâs like that, she usually tells the whole world!
I canât believe that none of them have told you about our latest sleepover adventure. But thatâs great, because it means that I get to tell you about it. And after all, it was because of me that we got involved in the first place. That goes without saying really, doesnât it? As my mum keeps saying, âIf horses are involved, Lyndsey Collins will be in the thick of it!â
I canât help it if I love horses, can I? You know where you are with horses, which is more than you can say for people. Take my four brothers for example (I wish someone would, they drive me mad!). Sometimes they treat me like dirt and expect me to run around clearing up after them. And sometimes theyâre OK and help me out of a jam. But you can never predict what theyâre going to be like. Now, horses are never like that.
Is that the phone? Hang on, Iâd better go and answer it.
âHello? Oh hi, Rosie. Yeah weâre just going down to the stables now⦠Youâre all coming too? Cool! Yeah, youâre right, no M&Ms! ⦠It was class, wasnât it? Yeah, the best yet⦠No, I wonât forget. OK, weâll meet you down there. Bye.â
That was Rosie. Ever since our last sleepover adventure, sheâs been going to the stables too. Not that she does much when sheâs there â she just sits and watches Bramble and Marvel munching away at the grass. And sometimes she watches her brother Adam, who does his Riding for the Disabled there. But the real attraction of the stables, as far as the others are concerned, is that we know we wonât be disturbed by our rivals the M&Ms. Because we have just got one over them in a major supertastic way!
Oh hey, sorry. My mum always tells me off for that â for coming into a story half-way through. âFor goodness sake, Lyndz, start at the beginning!â she tells me. So thatâs what Iâm going to do now. Itâll pass the time as we walk to the stables.
OK, well â do you remember when Mrs McAllisterâs stables burnt down? I know weâve had a lot of sleepover adventures since then, so Iâll remind you what happened. We were so worried about Mrs McA having to close her stables down for good that we went into fundraising overdrive. Our first attempt was a flop, thanks to those stupid M&Ms. But then I came up with the idea of a Stable Fun Day, which was brill. Unfortunately, the only thing people remember about it now is Fliss screaming her head off on a runaway horse! Her picture ended up on the front page of the Leicester Mercury and they started a campaign to save the stables. And thatâs where Sita Chandri stepped in. Sheâs this hot-shot businesswoman from around here. She read about the campaign and stumped up the dosh to rebuild Mrs McAllisterâs stables. Cool, eh? Fliss takes all the credit for everything of course, but then weâre used to that!
Well anyway, since the fire Mrs McAllister has had to keep her horses down at Mr Brocklehurstâs farm. And thatâs where I went to see her a couple of weeks ago. When I got there, she was really excited.