âIâll tell you what,â I said. âWhy donât we glue all the Watson-Wadesâ windows and doors shut so they canât get out? Or we could parachute on to their roof, and drop stinkbombs down the chimney. Or we could dress up in white sheets and haunt them?â
Frankie grinned, and poked me in the ribs with her elbow. âYouâre always so full of good ideas, Kenny!â she said.
âYou know me,â I said modestly. âIf you want a good idea, Iâm the main man!â
âYeah, wasnât it your idea to try and decorate my bedroom?â Rosie said thoughtfully âWe got banned from having any more sleepovers for a while after that.â
âAnd it was your idea to have that stupid bet with the M&Ms when we went to Disneyland, Paris,â Fliss chimed in. âWe nearly got trashed by our worst enemies!â
âNever mind, Kenny,â Lyndz said kindly. âYou do have really good idea sometimesâ¦â
Aah, thatâs Lyndz all over. She wants to be nice to everybody.
â⦠Itâs just that I canât think of any at the moment!â she finished.
Yep, these guys are my best mates! With friends like these, who needs enemies? Only kidding. Our real enemies are the snotty old M&Ms, but you probably already know all about them, and theyâre not in this story anyway, so we can forget all about them (hurrah!).
Anyway, letâs get on with it! Iâve got this really coo-ell story to tell you all about what we did at half-term. Youâll never believe what happened. We had a fab time andâ
Hang on a minute. What do you mean, you donât know who we are? You mean to say thereâs at least one person in the world who hasnât heard of the mega-fantastic, ultra-cool, completely class Sleepover Club???
Oh. Apparently there is one person whoâs never heard of us. OK, for that personâs benefit, hereâs the rundown. I suppose you can sort of guess why weâre called the Sleepover Club, canât you? âCos we sleep over at each otherâs houses, of course â duh! Thereâs me, Kenny (or you can call me Laura if you really want to wind me up), Frankie, Rosie, Lyndz and Fliss. Youâll figure us all out as we go along, I expect.
Anyway, it was half-term, and we were sitting in the Proudlovesâ garden. Thatâs Flissâs family, if you didnât know. She used to be called Sidebotham, poor thing â but now her mumâs remarried, thank goodness! We were having a sleepover at Flissâs that night. Mind you, weâd be lucky if we got any sleep. Flissâs mum has just had twins called Joe and Hannah, and they cry a lot. Thatâs why the Proudlovesâ neighbours, the Watson-Wades (or the Grumpies, as we call them) had been moaning. Mrs Proudlove was really getting ratty about it, which was winding Fliss up â and when Fliss is wound up, the rest of the Sleepover Club really know about it! So I was trying to think how we could get our revenge.
âWe could climb over the fence and steal their fish!â I suggested with an evil grin. âThatâd really annoy them.â
We all looked over into the Grumpiesâ garden. They had a really posh pond with gold and silver fish in it, and lots of plants around the edge. I donât know if you remember because it was ages ago, but when we had a sleepover at Flissâs once, we burnt a whole load of toast and chucked it over the fence into the Watson-Wadesâ pond to get rid of it! They were not pleased.
âAnd what would we do with the poor old fish?â Frankie asked. âAnd donât say âeat themâ!â
Frankieâs a veggie, remember?
âWeâd be doing them a favour,â I pointed out. âWeâd be saving them from the Watson-Wades!â
âHonestly, theyâre so grumpy, it just isnât true,â Fliss groaned.
âWho, the fish?â I joked. âThey seem pretty laid back to me, just swimming around there!â
âOh, ha ha, Kenny, very funny.â Fliss gave me a shove. âNo, the Watson-Wades, of course. They moan all the time!â
âYeah, itâs a real pain.â I winked at the others, who grinned. Fliss can moan for England herself if she puts her mind to it!
âI mean, babies cry,â Fliss went on. âThatâs what they do!â
âAnd wet their nappies,â Frankie added.
âAnd worse!â Lyndz said. She should know â sheâs got two baby brothers.
âHavenât the Grumpies got a baby of their own anyway?â I asked.
âYeah.â Fliss put on this really snooty voice. âBruno Watson-Wade!â
âYour mum should go round and complain when he makes a noise, Fliss,â Frankie suggested.
âBoring, Francesca Thomas!â I snorted. Frankieâs far too sensible â well, some of the time. âI still think we should dress up and haunt them. Thatâd soon shut them up!â
âThe Grumpies must be pretty weedy if they moan about the sound of a couple of babies crying,â Rosie remarked. âIt canât be