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

“And this is where you’ll be sleeping!” I threw open the door of my bedroom, and grinned at Maria. “My sister Molly the Monster’s gone to camp with her school, so you’ll be sharing with me. Cool, huh?”

Maria didn’t say anything. Which wasn’t surprising really because she’d hardly said a word to me at all. We hadn’t had much time to chat at school because the home bell had rung about fifteen minutes after the coach had arrived, and then my mum turned up in the car to drive us home. I could see the other Sleepovers looking just as puzzled as I was, as they went off with their mum or dad and the Spanish girl who was staying with them. It was weird.

I’d been mega-nice to Maria in the car when my mum took us home, but she’d hardly said a word to me. I’d told her all about the special sleepover at Rosie’s and even that hadn’t made any difference. She was fine when my mum spoke to her though! And that had really got right up my nose. I was getting seriously annoyed.

“Come on,” I said, still trying to be nice. “Let’s go and kick a ball around in the garden or something.”

“No, thanks.” Maria shrugged. “I want to unpack my suitcase.”

“OK,” I said. “Do you want some help?”

“Not from you!” Maria retorted rudely, and I almost choked with fury.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I not want you to help me!” Maria glared at me, and that just about did it. I was boiling.

“You’re really starting to get on my nerves!” I hissed, clenching my fists. “What’s going on?”

“Why you ask me what is going on?” Maria snapped. We were standing nose-to-nose now like a couple of heavyweight boxers. “You start it!”

“Start what?” I asked, bewildered. I totally didn’t have a clue what she was going on about.

Maria looked like she was about to say something, but then she just stuck her tongue out at me. If Molly the Monster had done that to me I’d have grabbed my pillow and whacked her round the head with it, but somehow I managed to stop myself. Instead I stomped out of the room, leaving Maria unpacking her suitcase.

I just couldn’t understand what was going on. Up until a week or two ago we’d all been great mates. So what had gone wrong?

When I got downstairs, I picked up the phone and called Frankie.

“Hey, Franks, how’s it’s going?”

“Gruesome!” Frankie groaned. “Pilar’s being a right pain!”

“So’s Maria,” I agreed. “Did Pilar tell you why they’re acting like total morons?”

“Nah, she won’t even talk to me!” Frankie said in disgust. “I just phoned Lyndz and she said Elena’s being just as weird!”

“Right, I’ll phone Fliss and you phone Rosie,” I decided. “Somehow we’ve got to find out what’s going on, or the next few weeks are going to be a total disaster!”

“Isabella’s driving me bananas!” Fliss complained when I got through to her. “She keeps on making nasty remarks about my teddy-bear collection – she says hers is much better!”

“Never mind that!” I said impatiently. “Has she told you why they’re all being so weird?”

“No,” Fliss replied. “I just phoned Rosie and she says that Anna won’t tell her either.”

“Well, maybe we’ll find out at the sleepover tonight…”

I said goodbye to Fliss, and put the phone down. I was beginning to wonder if the Grand Sleepover we’d planned so carefully was going to be quite so grand after all…

“Er – shall we start the sleepover now?” Rosie asked, looking round at us.

We all nodded silently. Rosie opened the French windows that led out of the Cartwrights’ living-room into the garden, and we all trudged gloomily after her. What a great evening this was going to be. Since we’d all arrived at Rosie’s place, no-one had said a word to each other. We’d all just sat on the sofas, the Sleepover Club on one and the Spanish girls on another, and we’d glared across the room at each other. Rosie was already looking pretty hassled, and I didn’t blame her. This was supposed to be her birthday sleepover, and by the look of it, it was going to be about as jolly as a three-hour maths test.

“Oh, hello girls.” Rosie’s mum was laying out loads of food on a table which had been set up near the tent. “I bet you’re looking forward to this, aren’t you?”

Nobody said anything. Mrs Cartwright took one look at our faces, blinked and then decided not to say anything.

“Have a good time!” she called as she went back to the house.

Yeah, right. We were really going to enjoy ourselves when everyone was walking around with their faces down to their knees. Well, it looked like it was up to me to get this party going a bit!

“OK, what shall we do first?” I asked loudly, making everyone jump. “Shall we play International Gladiators?”

“Nah, let’s eat!” said Lyndz.

“We could give Rosie her presents first,” Frankie suggested.

“No, let’s have makeovers first!” Fliss chimed in. “I’ve borrowed some make-up from my mum.”

“Yes, I think makeover is a good idea!” Pilar said suddenly. She looked at the other Spanish girls, who nodded.

“Yeah, OK,” I agreed. I’m definitely not into trying out hairstyles and make-up like Flissy is – I was just trying to be friendly.

“We give you makeovers first!” Isabella announced, grabbing the make-up bag Fliss had just taken out of her rucksack. “We make you look beautiful!”

Frankie had brought some make-up and nail varnish too, as well as brushes and combs, and Rosie ran into the house to get some mirrors. Then we started the makeovers. Maria was doing mine, and although I told her not to use too much make-up because I didn’t like it, it felt like she was using tons of it.

“What are you doing, Maria?” I asked, trying to twist round a bit so that I could get a look at the others.

“Keep still!” Maria grabbed my arm and pulled me round to face her again. “I cannot make it right if you move!”

“Hey, that tickles!” I heard Frankie complaining. “What’s that, Pilar?”

“I use lipliner and lipstick,” Pilar said. “Now stay quiet!”

The other Spanish girls started giggling, and that made me a bit suspicious. Then we heard barking, and Adam came into the garden with three of his mates and his dog Jenny. Adam’s got cerebral palsy and he’s in a wheelchair. He can talk, sort of, but mostly he uses a computerised voicebox.

“Hey Adam,” I called. “You all right?”

Adam stopped in his chair and stared at us. Then he and his mates all started to roar with laughter.

“Maria, what’ve you done?” I yelled, grabbing one of the mirrors.

I had loads of black eyeliner slapped on all round my eyes and a big red mouth. I looked like Bobo the clown! And the others weren’t any better.

“Look at me!” Frankie gasped. Pilar had drawn a pair of glasses and a fake moustache on her face with eyeliner!

“My hair!” Fliss wailed, grabbing a mirror. “What’ve you done to my hair?” Isabella had backcombed it so that it was all frizzy and looked like a bird’s nest.

“I look stupid!” Rosie spluttered. She had enough blusher on her cheeks to sink the Titanic, and her hair had been gelled into spikes which stuck up all over her head. She looked gruesome.

“I look like I’ve got the measles!” Lyndz howled, glaring at Elena, who’d put little black spots of eyeliner pencil all over her face.

“Right, that’s it!” I leapt to my feet, rubbing hard at the make-up with a tissue. “You lot are dead!”

Maria and the others were rolling on the grass, crying with laughter.

“It serve you right!” Isabella said triumphantly.

“You should not send us those emails!” Pilar added. “Now we pay you back!”

“What are you talking about?” I stared at them. “What emails?”

“You know what we talk about!” Maria said scornfully. She put her hand in her bag and pulled out some papers. “These emails!”

She shoved them into my hand and I read the one on top, which was dated a week or so ago.

Dear Spanish girls

Why don’t you learn how to talk English properly?

Kenny, Frankie, Rosie, Lyndz and Fliss

“You say other things too,” Elena said. “Nasty things about our country!”

“Yes, we are proud to be Spanish!” Anna added fiercely.

“We didn’t send these!” I said, showing them to the other Sleepovers. “No way!”

“We’ve never seen them before!” Frankie backed me up, and the others nodded.

Maria and the other girls obviously didn’t believe us. “So who send them then?” Maria asked.

I looked at the others. “I bet I know who it was!” I hissed. “I bet it was—”

“Kenny!” Maria called, and I spun round.

“AARGH!”

A cream doughnut hit me right in the middle of my face!