Howdy, fans, Kenny here. You know, the quiet, shy, retiring, polite one! What do you mean, you donât believe me? Oh, OK, then â Iâm the loud, rude one whoâs always getting us into trouble. Satisfied?
Hey, what are you doing upside-down like that anyway? What? Youâre NOT upside-down? Oh â silly me! You just LOOK upside-down, thatâs all. In fact, everything looks upside-down â because Iâm upside-down! Derrr! Iâve been practising for the world record in standing on your head, you see. The only thing is, after a while, you forget youâre the wrong way round and it seems perfectly normal to be staring at peopleâs feet. My dad keeps saying that being upside-down all the time means my brain is getting squashed, and itâs only a matter of time before it turns to mush. I donât THINK I believe him, but then he IS a doctor, so maybe he knows something I donât?
Hang on a second while I turn the right way again. There, thatâs better! Letâs go and sit out in the garden, shall we? I hate staying indoors when the weatherâs nice. Why stay inside four boring walls when you can practise your cartwheels up and down the lawn?
Anyway, Iâm glad I saw you, because the others voted for me to tell you all about the Cuddington Carnival and what we did for it. âKenny,â they said, âas the best, funniest, cleverest and most entertaining storyteller of all of us, you MUST tell all the Sleepover Club fans what happened at the carnival. Weâre begging you!â
OK, OK, so the others didnât quite say all of that. But as Frankie pointed out, a lot of what Iâm about to tell you is MY story. And as animal-mad Lyndz would say â you might as well hear it straight from the horseâs mouth! (Not that Iâm a horse, but⦠Oh, you know what I mean.)
Have you ever been to a carnival? Believe it or not, I HADNâT until last week. Now Iâve been to one, I want to go to lots more â they are so megatastically awesome! And the only thing thatâs keeping me from being completely gutted that this yearâs carnival is all over, is the fact that itâs half term now. Weâre off school for a week, yippee! But if the carnival had just finished and we still had to go back to school â that would just be too traumatic for words!
Anyway, Iâd better get on with the story. The rest of the Sleepover Club is coming over for lunch in a bit, and you know what a load of blabbermouths they are â theyâll just want to interrupt me all the time. And we donât want that, do we?
Well, the first I heard about the Cuddington Carnival was from my mum. Sheâs a pretty good source for juicy gossip, and always knows whatâs going on around Cuddington. She helps out as a receptionist at my dadâs surgery and also does some hairdressing from home, so one way or another, people are always telling her their news â which she then tells to my grandma on the phone. Thatâs when I start earwigging.
Over the years, Iâve built up quite a good gossip radar in my ears. There are certain words that my radar always picks up on, however boring the rest of the talk is. For example, hereâs a typical conversation between Mum and Grandma on the phone. Mum tends to do most of the talking so this is what I hear:
âRecipe for lemon cake⦠drone, drone⦠Alison Parkerâs new baby⦠drone, drone-Mrs Ellisâs sciatica⦠drone, drone⦠Emmaâs boyfriendâ¦â
PING! Thatâs where my ears prick up. Emmaâs my oldest sister and she never tells me anything about her love life, even though Iâm always trying to find out the gory details. Excellent blackmailing material, you see â not to mention all the fun I can have winding her up! But although Emma wonât tell ME anything, she often confides in Mum, and thatâs where the gossip radar comes in handy. It means that once Mum starts yakking on to Grandma about it, yours truly gets to find out whatâs going on, too!
So a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in my favourite eavesdropping position â at the kitchen table, pretending to flick through one of Emmaâs magazines, with one ear firmly tuned to Mum. This time, I heard:
âCathy Claytonâs new hairdo⦠drone, drone⦠Jimâs working too hard⦠drone, drone⦠Mollyâs piano exam⦠drone, drone⦠plans for the carnivalâ¦â
PING! Carnival? What carnival? What was she talking about? I immediately tuned in fully to hear more.
âYes, Sheila Adams told me about it,â Mum was saying. âAt the end of the month⦠Oh, you know, floats and dressing up and bouncy castles, I should think⦠Mmm, well, sheâs asked me to help out with some baking, as there are going to be stalls in the main street. I was wondering if I could get your chocolate cheesecake recipe off you⦠Yesâ¦â