Читать книгу The Sleepover Club Surfs the Net - Fiona Cummings, Louis Catt - Страница 4

Hi there. It’s good to see you again. You’re actually the first one here, but that’s cool. Rosie has just rung to say that she’ll be along as soon as her mum gets home. Kenny’s running late, playing football I expect, and Lyndz is probably still at the stables with her precious horses. Fliss is coming straight from her dad’s and she finds it really hard tearing herself away from his baby, Posie. But hey, I can understand that. I’m going to be like that myself in seven months’ time. I can’t wait until Mum has her baby. I’d pestered her to have a baby for ages. She used to roll her eyes and say, “Oh no Frankie, not again!” So hearing that she was pregnant was the best news ever.

Anyway, come on in. We can go up to my room while we wait for the others. They shouldn’t be too long. And it’ll give me a chance to fill you in on the latest news. And you can have a go on the Internet in peace. You won’t get a look in when the others get here, believe me!

I don’t know how much you know about the Internet, but it’s totally cool. When I heard Mum and Dad talking about it at first though, it all sounded a bit weird.

“Isn’t it a bit nerdy?” I asked Dad doubtfully.

“Nerdy?” asked Dad, pretending to sound shocked. “This is communication for the future, young lady, and you’d better get used to it!”

I still wasn’t convinced. I mean, computers are boring, aren’t they? I’d heard a couple of kids at school going on about the Internet, but it never really sank in, to be honest. It was only when Mum became pregnant that it became an issue at home. You see, she’s kind of old to be having a second baby and Dad wanted her to take things a bit easier, so she’s started working from home a couple of days a week. She’s a lawyer and needs to keep up with other cases. And how can you do that? You’ve guessed it – on the Internet!

So, one minute we had a perfectly ordinary computer, and the next we were hooked up to the Net. Dad spent ages fiddling about on it, so I went to see what he was doing. He tapped in a kind of code, and he seemed to be able to get any information that he wanted.

“I don’t understand,” I told him after a while. “How come our computer knows so much stuff all of a sudden?”

“Because our little computer is now hooked up to a huge network of lots of other computers,” he explained. “From computers in someone’s home to vast computers owned by some of the world’s biggest organisations. So when you go on to the Internet, you really do have the world at your fingertips! Why don’t you have a go?”

Dad showed me which keys to press, and it was totally amazing. I mean, you really can find out everything – from the colour of Ronan Keating’s underpants to the temperature at the top of Mount Everest!

“You’re a real surfer now,” Dad laughed.

“What do you mean?” I asked, all confused. When had we started talking about the sea?

“When you move around web sites searching for information, it’s called ‘surfing the Net’!” Dad explained.

“Cool!” I’d always liked the sound of surfing, and this way I didn’t even have to get wet!

“And I know how much you like spiders…!” said Dad, walking his fingers up my arm like some massive creepy-crawly.

“Get off!” I screamed. “I hate spiders. What have they got to do with the Internet?”

“Absolutely nothing!” grinned Dad. “But you often hear the word ‘web’ associated with the Internet. People talk about the ‘World Wide Web’. I know it sounds more like something created by a tarantula the size of Godzilla…”

“Eeeuuuurgh!” I screeched, and pretended to faint really dramatically.

“It may be a weird name,” laughed Dad, “but it’s just a way of storing and getting into all the information on the Internet.”

“Oh right. But why couldn’t we have the Internet before?” I asked.

“Because to access it, our computer needed a special modem,” Dad explained. “And it all works through the telephone system, which is pretty amazing really.”

I think Dad could sense that my eyes were glazing over a bit at that point, because then he said hurriedly, “That’s all you really need to know. Why don’t you just play around with it for a while?”

And I did – for hours and hours. He virtually had to drag me off in the end. There’s so much information on the Internet. And the great thing is that when you get bored looking at one thing, then it’s easy to look up something else! It’s just so great!

I hadn’t mentioned it to my friends before, because, as I said, I wasn’t that excited till Dad explained it. But once I’d got the hang of it, well that was a different story. I was dying to tell everyone about it.

In the playground the next day, I leapt on Fliss as soon as she came through the gates.

“Hey Fliss, you’ll never guess what happened last night!” I screamed.

“Oh Frankie, I hate it when you say that. Millions of things could have happened,” she sighed. “And you only make fun of me when I try to guess.”

“You were visited by aliens?” suggested Rosie, who had crept up behind me.

“We’re not playing one of her stupid guessing games, are we?” asked Kenny, flinging her bag to the ground. “OK, you scored the winning goal for Leicester City. She shoots! She scores! YEAAH!” She started running around like a demented chicken. I don’t need to remind you, do I, that Kenny is obsessed with football.

“No, you’ll never guess!” I squealed. “Dad’s only got us hooked up, hasn’t he?”

The others were looking at me blankly.

“You know – we’re on the Net.”

Still no response.

“We’re on the Internet, you dummies,” I told them. “Crikey, don’t all get excited at once, will you?”

Kenny and Fliss still looked totally blank, but Rosie had suddenly come to life.

“Wow! Adam is going to be so jealous when I tell him. He’s desperate to use the Internet!”

You remember Adam don’t you? He’s Rosie’s older brother who has cerebral palsy, and he’s a total computer freak.

Now Lyndz had appeared too. She’s always late, that girl.

“Who’s on the Net then?” she asked.

I beamed at her by way of an answer.

“You lucky thing, Frankie!” she grinned. “My brother Stuart’s always going on about how great it is. Our grandparents in Holland use it a lot. It sounds brill!”

Kenny and Fliss were still looking pretty confused, so we had to try to explain to them what the Internet was all about. But Fliss just couldn’t get her head round it.

“You mean that all the computers in the world can talk to each other? I didn’t think they could do that.” She pulled a dramatic face. “I mean, that is really spooky.”

Before I could explain it to her again, the bell went. We shuffled like penguins into the classroom. We often do stuff like that. Everybody seems to think we’re crazy – I don’t know why!

Sometimes school can be really boring. Mrs Weaver tries her best, but let’s face it – the only way Maths could get exciting is if Boyzone and 911 got together to demonstrate the complicated bits. And somehow I don’t think that’s ever going to happen. I love doing project work though, and that particular week we were in the middle of learning all about the Vikings.

“Wouldn’t it be great if instead of just reading about them, we could actually see a proper Viking and ask him about his life? What he ate, what he wore, stuff like that,” said Rosie, looking up from her work.

“That would be so cool!” I agreed.

“Actually, there’s a place called the Yorvik Centre in York which does just that,” said Mrs Weaver, who had suddenly appeared from nowhere. “People dressed as Vikings show you round the exhibition and tell you all about their way of life 1,000 years ago. It’s a pity that it’s just a little too far away for us to visit.”

“That’s too bad,” agreed Kenny. “We’ll just have to make do with boring books then!”

Mrs Weaver flashed one of her ‘You’re-very-lucky-to-have-so-many-lovely-books-at-school’ looks and went to see what the M&Ms, Emma Hughes and Emily Berryman, were up to. You remember the deadly duo, don’t you? Well they were in full-on smarming mode. It turned out that they’d both been to the Yorvik Centre, so they managed to suck up to Mrs Weaver big time. That was when Kenny was struck by inspiration.

“I bet you’ve found loads of stuff about Vikings on the Internet, haven’t you Frankie?” she asked me in a really loud voice, as though I was deaf or something.

“I…I…I don’t…” I stuttered, all confused. Then I realised what she was doing. “Oh yes, there are loads of web sites about Vikings!” I replied, louder still.

“And I bet they’re really exciting too, aren’t they?” Lyndz chimed in.

“Ooh yes,” I said enthusiastically. “They’ve just got so much, er, so much… stuff on them!”

“Stuff?” Kenny mouthed to me. “Couldn’t you think of anything more exciting?”

I just shrugged.

“Well Francesca, I’m all for using new technology,” Mrs Weaver smiled. “Maybe you can look up Vikings on the Internet again and report back to us on all the exciting ‘stuff’ that you find.”

The M&Ms sniggered, but I could tell that they were really peeved. They’re always the centre of attention, those two. It was nice to feel a bit special for once.

“Hey, nice one Frankie!” laughed Kenny. “So when can we come round to your place to do a bit of surfing?”

Poor Fliss looked absolutely panic-stricken.

“The sooner we get Fliss used to the Internet, the better,” I decided. “I’ll ask Mum and Dad tonight, but I’m sure it’ll be fine if you come home with me after school tomorrow!”

Little did I know then what chaos the Internet was going to lead me into…