Hello! Itâs Lyndz here. Howâs it going? Itâs ages and ages since Iâve seen you â sorry! Donât think Iâve been neglecting you, but Iâm just always soooo busy â Iâve been down at the stables helping out every chance I get, you see. Just for you, though, Iâm going to make a real effort and tell you all about the time the Sleepover Club made a great big SPLASH!
I can remember the exact moment it all started. It was a Thursday morning and a horrible rainy February day. Ugh! February is just THE worst month, donât you think? Itâs so grey and gloomy â and all the nice things like summer and my birthday and Christmas seem ages and ages away. I was shivering in the playground before school that morning, wishing Spring would hurry up and come soon, so we might actually get a bit of sunshine again.
Also, to make it even worse, Mrs Weaver, our class teacher, had declared it âmental arithmetic weekâ and was giving us these gruesome maths tests every single morning. Honestly! How mean can you get? Iâm not very good at Maths â in fact, Iâm rubbish â so I wasnât looking forward to going into lessons at all.
Anyway, I soon cheered up when Kenny bounded into the playground, with a grin stretching from ear to ear. When sheâs in one of her bouncy moods, she reminds me of our dog, Buster. Heâs a little Jack Russell, and has more energy than any creature Iâve ever known. You canât feel miserable with Buster around â itâs impossible!
âGuess what?â Kenny said excitedly, once sheâd spotted us and run over.
âTheyâve discovered life on Mars?â Frankie said hopefully.
âSchool has been cancelled today?â I suggested, thinking about the maths test.
âSomething about football probably,â Fliss said, not looking terribly interested.
âYouâve cracked the meaning of life?â was Rosieâs guess.
Kenny beamed. âOh, none of those,â she said airily. âThis is MUCH better! I was at swimming club last night and guess what?â
âDo we really have to guess again?â groaned Fliss.
âWe donât know! Tell us, for goodnessâ sake!â Rosie said, laughing.
âWell, thereâs going to be a sponsored swim at Cuddington Baths in a couple of weeks, and I thought it would be a brilliant thing for the Sleepover Club to do,â Kenny said breathlessly. âAnd thereâs going to be a big party afterwards and everything! So what do you all think?â
There was a pause while we took this in. Thenâ¦
Ooh! Hang on! I just thought. Have you met all of us in the Sleepover Club? How rude of me not to even ask, eh? Hopefully youâll know everyone, but if you donât â or if youâve just plain forgotten â Iâd better dish the details before I go any further, or you wonât have a clue what Iâm on about.
Well! As I said, Kennyâs a bit like my bouncy Buster â sheâs full of beans, full of fun, and full of get-up-and-go. Sheâs a total Sporty Spice, too â when sheâs not swimming, sheâs playing football in the park with all the boys, or doing back flips at gymnastics club, or netball training, or⦠Sheâs amazing! Sheâs one of those people who are just naturally brilliant at every sport they do.
Sheâs also an ace mate because sheâs dead loyal, and would do anything for you. If anyone ever tries to pick on one of us, Kennyâs straight in there, backing us up with a fierce glint in her eye. And believe me, no-one in our class has the bottle to muck about with Kenny. She could out-fight everyone â even all the boys, I reckon!
Then thereâs Frankie. Wherever Kenny is, Frankieâs usually with her, as the two of them are best friends. The only things they donât do together are all Kennyâs sports stuff. Itâs not like Frankieâs no good at sports, because she is, but sheâd rather spend her spare time designing her very own rocket launch or painting her bedroom silver! Frankieâs a bit eccentric, if you hadnât gathered. Sometimes I listen to her telling us about one of her brilliant ideas, and I just wonder what on earth sheâs on about this time. Sheâs the cleverest one of us five by miles.
What else can I tell you about Frankie? Well, if Kennyâs a bit like a bouncy Jack Russell, Iâd compare Frankie to a chameleon or maybe even one of those fabulously coloured butterflies! Something funky and exotic, anyway, as Frankie wears the brightest, most outrageous things youâve ever seen. She especially loves silver, which is her all-time favourite colour, but sheâs had a big purple phase lately. She even wanted to dye her hair purple, but her mum went mad at the thought and put her foot down in a big way. So sparkly purple nail varnish is about her limit right now.
I think Frankie always looks cool in a weird kind of style, but Fliss would disagree with that, Iâm sure. Fliss â short for Felicity â is fashion queen of the Sleepover Club, although thatâs not difficult, to be honest. What with Kenny permanently in footy top and tracky bottoms, me in my scruffy jodhpurs, Frankie in one of her wild and wonderful outfits and Rosie in her sisterâs hand-me-downs, Fliss doesnât exactly have a lot of competition, clothes-wise.