Читать книгу Mega Sleepover 7: Summer Collection - Angie Bates, Narinder Dhami - Страница 10

“Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

You look like a monkey

And you smell like one too!”

“Thanks, Kenny!” Rosie gave me a shove as I finished singing and took a bow. “Now where’s my prezzie?”

I dived into my schoolbag and pulled out a square-shaped parcel wrapped in Bacofoil. “Sorry, I forgot to get any wrapping-paper!” I grinned as I gave it to Rosie, and the others started giggling.

“Typical!” Rosie snorted, rolling her eyes.

It was Monday morning, and we’d all got to school early so we could give Rosie her presents. Everyone was pretending to be really jolly and up-for-it, but that was just because we didn’t want Rosie’s actual birthday to end up being more of a downer than it already was. The weekend had been pretty grim. Our sleepover had been ruined, we were in deepest doom with the Oldies because of the food fight and I was having to put up with sharing my bedroom with Maria, which was nearly as gruesome as sharing with Molly the Monster! Luckily the Spanish kids had been taken out again on Sunday by their teachers – they’d gone to visit some local museums, so at least we hadn’t had to spend the day with them. We’d started making our fancy-dress costumes instead.

“Oh, that’s great, Kenny!” Rosie said as she unwrapped the scented bath stuff I’d bought her. She’d already got a box of choccies from Frankie, a set of different nail varnishes from Fliss and a groovy pink fluffy purse, shaped like a heart, from Lyndz.

“Now you won’t smell like a monkey even if you look like one!” I pointed out, and Rosie thumped me.

“Hey, take a look over there,” Frankie said suddenly in a low voice.

We all glanced across the playground. Pilar, Isabella and the others were standing in the corner chatting away to – you’ve guessed it, the Gruesome Twosome themselves, the M&Ms.

“They’re getting pretty matey, aren’t they?” Lyndz said.

“Not for long!” I said confidently. “You wait till we get into class and I show them Mrs Weaver’s computer list!”

We all started grinning and giving each other high fives. Pilar and the others were going to find out exactly what the M&Ms were really like!

“I guess we can’t blame the Spanish girls for being mad about those emails,” Lyndz said as we charged into school the minute the bell rang. “I mean, they must have thought we were being really nasty.”

“Yeah, well, they should have known we’d never do anything like that!” I retorted. “And they could have asked us about them first instead of getting their knickers all in a twist!”

“What, you mean, like you’d have done if someone had sent you nasty emails?” Lyndz said with a grin.

“Oh, yeah, right!” Fliss chimed in sarcastically. “As if Kenny wouldn’t have flattened them first and asked questions later!”

“All right, all right!” I groaned. “Let’s just get this sorted, OK?” I slung my tracky top on to my coat peg and headed for the classroom, the others right behind me. We’d rushed into school so fast that we were first through the door. We had to get our hands on that computer list before the M&Ms arrived and realised what we were up to!

The classroom noticeboard was behind Mrs Weaver’s table, next to the board. It was usually full of notices about the football and netball teams, the various school clubs and lots of other stuff, including the computer rota. Usually…

“Girls! One at a time, please!” Mrs Weaver snapped as we all tried to elbow our way through the door at the same time. She was standing by her table, sorting through a pile of folders. “I know it’s getting towards the end of term, but there’s no need to behave like a bunch of football hooligans!”

“Yes Miss, sorry Miss,” we all said together.

Then I stopped dead and nudged Frankie hard in the ribs. She nudged Fliss and Fliss nudged Lyndz and Lyndz did the same to Rosie. We all stared at the noticeboard on the wall. The empty noticeboard.

There wasn’t a single piece of paper pinned up on it at all. Everything had vanished – including the computer list!

“Miss, what happened to the stuff that was on the noticeboard?” I gabbled.

It was then that I noticed the two large, bulging black bags lying next to Mrs Weaver’s table.

“Oh, I’ve thrown all that away now,” Mrs Weaver replied, ripping up a couple of sheets of paper and shoving them into one of the bin bags. “The whole classroom’s got to be cleared by the end of term, so I’ll be needing some help this week.” She raised her eyebrows at us. “Any volunteers?”

We were too busy staring at each other in horror to reply. The computer list was now in one of those two bulging black bags! How were we going to get it back?

“Um – the thing is, Miss,” I said, “there was something on the noticeboard I really needed. Can I go through the bags and look for it?”

Mrs Weaver stared at me as if I’d gone mad. “Don’t be ridiculous, Laura! You’ll never find it – in fact, it’s probably been ripped into pieces!”

I just couldn’t believe it. That list had been our one chance of proving to Maria and the others that we hadn’t sent those emails. Now we didn’t have a hope!

“But, Miss—” I began.

“Leave it, Kenny.” Frankie grabbed my arm and pulled me away as the rest of the class began to come in. “There’s nothing we can do about it!”

“Rats!” I muttered under my breath as Mrs Weaver picked up the bags and went out to throw them into the huge steel bins behind the canteen. “What about if I climb into the bins at lunch time and try to find it then?”

“Urgh, don’t be so disgusting!” Fliss wrinkled up her nose. “Anyway, Mrs Poole said anyone who climbs into those bins is going to be in big trouble.”

“Yeah, that was just because Ryan Scott did it last year for a dare and got stuck!” I retorted. “But that wouldn’t happen to me.”

“Forget it, Kenny!” Frankie said firmly. “You wouldn’t know which bin it was – you wouldn’t even know which bag it was. It’d take forever!”

“We can’t just give up!” I muttered as Isabella, Maria, Pilar, Elena and Anna came in, talking and laughing with the M&Ms. What was worse, they even went over to sit on their table with them!

“Hurry up and settle down,” Mrs Weaver called, as the rest of the Spanish kids came in with Miss Moreno and Mr Cortez. “We’ve got a visitor arriving in a moment or two – a photographer from the local newspaper!”

We all looked at each other in surprise.

“The paper has heard about our visitors from Spain, and it wants to do a piece about them,” Mrs Weaver went on. “So we’re all going to have our photo taken, and hopefully it will be in the newspaper tonight!”

Everyone started talking at once, while Mrs Weaver went over to speak to the two Spanish teachers.

“We’re going to be in the paper!” Fliss squealed. “Quick, where’s my comb?”

“Cool!” said Rosie. “Let’s make sure we get to the front!”

“Yeah, we will!” I said in a determined voice, “Even if we have to trample all over the M&Ms to do it!”

“Look!” Frankie whispered, elbowing me in the ribs. “Maria’s coming over!”

Pretty shocked, we all stopped talking. But Maria was actually smiling. Well, sort of.

“Hi.” Maria stopped in front of us, looking a bit shy. “I come to say – we are sorry about the makeover.”

That was a big shock! Our mouths dropped open and none of us could say a word for a second or two.

“That’s OK,” Frankie said at last.

“And I’m sorry about breaking Isabella’s present for her mum,” Fliss chimed in quickly.

Maria shrugged. “It was accident, no? So, we are friends again?”

The Sleepover Club all looked at each other.

“What about the M&Ms?” I asked.

“Who?” Maria looked blank.

“Emma and Emily,” Rosie explained.

“Oh, we can all be friends, can’t we?” Maria asked.

“Not on your flippin’ life!” I began until both Frankie and Lyndz trod heavily on my toes under the table. “Ow!”

“Great!” Maria put her hand in her pocket, and popped a sweet into her mouth. “Sorry, you want one?” She pulled out a bag of liquorice and held it out to us.

“We’re not supposed to eat in class,” Fliss began virtuously, but Frankie gave her a look.

“Come on, Fliss, it’s the end of term! Take a risk!”

We all took a sweet from Maria and quickly popped them in our mouths before Mrs Weaver saw us. It looked like we’d managed to sort things out with the Spanish girls after all! Although there was no way we were going to be friends with the M&Ms…

“We see you at playtime, yes?” Maria winked at us and went back to the others, just as a man with a camera hanging round his neck popped his head round the door.

“Mrs Weaver? I’m James Robinson from the Evening Echo.”

“Oh, good, come in.” Mrs Weaver ushered him in, while Fliss grabbed her comb and started preening herself. “Now, what would you like us to do?”

“Well, if we could gather everyone at the front of the room, with the Spanish children in the middle, that would make it easier for me to get everyone into the picture,” the photographer said.

We spent the next few minutes pushing tables and chairs around, and being posed by the photographer.

“There’s no way I’m being best buddies with the M&Ms!” I muttered to Frankie as we carried a table between us. “Not even to make friends with Maria and the others again!”

“Let’s just wait and see what happens, OK?” Frankie replied in a low voice, still chewing on her sweet.

Finally, everything was ready. We hadn’t quite managed to get to the front of the photo because the photographer wanted the Spanish kids there, but we were right behind them, kneeling on a couple of tables, with the rest of our class around us.

“Right, now let’s have some nice big smiles please!” called Mr Robinson.

We all began to smile – and then we all nearly jumped out of our skins as Mrs Weaver gave a loud scream.

“Laura! Francesca! Lyndsey! Felicity! Rosie! What on earth has happened to your teeth? They’re all black!”