Читать книгу Sleepover Girls Go Snowboarding - Sue Mongredien - Страница 5

Right. Story. Well, I suppose it started on a Saturday. It was the beginning of November, and of course Fliss the Virgo wanted us all to go Christmas shopping. No offence if you’re a Virgo or anything, but they’re just a bit too organised for me. You should see Fliss’s bedroom – everything’s arranged in neat little piles or hidden away in storage units, and everything matches. Pink. Very pink. Personally, my “storage unit” is the space under my bed, where I stuff everything. At least that way if I lose something, I’m pretty sure where it will be.

But anyway, Felicity “Miss Organised 1999” Sidebotham wanted us to go Christmas shopping, even though Christmas was absolutely weeks and weeks away. Christmas shopping’s for Christmas Eve, that’s what I say, but sometimes you just can’t argue with Fliss. She gets that stubborn look on her face, and you know that’s it! You’ve got to go along with her.

Rosie talked me into it in the end. “I’m not going to be buying anything either, ’cos I’m skint,” she said, frank as ever. “But we could go Christmas wish-shopping – where we look for things we want as presents from other people!”

Ooh! I liked the sound of that much more. “Brilliant one, Rosie,” I said. “The new sports shop it is, then!”

The others all groaned. “Ooh, surprise us,” said Frankie, rolling her eyes. “Let me guess… Could it possibly be something to do with…”

“Football!” everyone yelled out together.

I grinned. Did I mention that I love football?!

Ahh. I already told you.

“C’mooooon you Foxes!” I shouted, jumping up and down. “I want to have a look at the new strip – I mean, we’re three months into the season and I haven’t even got the new top yet!”

Us five always have a good laugh in town – even if Fliss does drag us round every single clothes shop most of the time. YAWWWWWN! First of all, we went into Boots because Lyndz wanted to get some bubble bath for her mum. Fliss spent ages examining every type of nail varnish while we were in there, leaving me, Frankie and Rosie in front of this shelf of all sorts of yucky things like wart cream and sprays for smelly feet.

“OK, who can find the grossest thing?” Rosie said. “We should club together and buy it for someone we don’t like.”

“How about these drops for hard ear wax?” Frankie suggested. “That’s pretty gross.”

“Here’s some athlete’s foot powder,” I said, and started reading from the label. “For flaky, itchy feet. Yuck!! No thanks!”

“What about this spray for bad breath?” Rosie giggled. “Ugh! Just imagine how embarrassing it would be, buying that!”

Lyndz came up just then. “What are you lot all sniggering about?” she asked. “Fliss wants us to help her choose some perfume – she’s going to ask her mum for some for Christmas.”

I couldn’t help groaning. “Poo, you won’t catch me wearing any stinky perfume,” I said, as we started walking to the perfume counter. “It all smells horrible!”

“What – even this one?” Frankie said – then grabbed a tester bottle and sprayed this yucky sickly perfume all over me.

“Aaaargh!” I shouted, coughing and choking. It really was foul! “Right, Frankie Thomas,” I said, “you’ve asked for it now!” And I grabbed another tester bottle and squirted her with it. “Now you stink too!”

Fliss was so embarrassed, she dragged us out of the shop. As we all walked along the street, people kept giving us funny looks. We really did pong!!

Then I stopped dead on the pavement. “My turn!” I said. “We’re going in here next.”

The others groaned as I led them into the new Mega Sports shop that had just opened in Cuddington. I’d been badgering my mum and dad all week to take me into town to check it out – and at last I was going to get to see it.

Woweee! It was a wicked shop. Heaven! I wanted to move in! Loads and loads of footy stuff, which of course I checked out straightaway. Loads of nice trackie tops and trainers – definitely a few to put on the Christmas wish-list there…

And then I found this whole surf and ski section at the back of the shop, which was just awesome. Lots of boards and all the gear – and there were these three tellies on the wall showing snowboarding videos. The sight of the snowboarders skimming down impossible slopes, doing jumps and turns, just made my legs go wobbly with excitement. It looked f-f-fantastic!!

“Hey, Frankie, check this out!” I shouted, waving some snow goggles in the air. “Snowboarding!”

I think I must have shouted quite loudly – me? Loud? Impossible! – because suddenly this guy appeared next to me.

“Ahh, a snowboarding fan!” he said. He sounded like someone off Neighbours so I guessed he had to be an Aussie.

“I wish,” I said to him. “I’ve never tried it, but it looks wicked.”

“Oh, it’s the best,” he said, enthusiastically. “It is so cool! You go so fast, the world’s like a blur – and then once you get in the half-pipe, you can really start having some serious fun.”

“Wow,” I breathed. I wasn’t quite sure what he was on about, but it sounded good.

“Yeah, it is pretty wow!” he laughed. “You should try it – get out on those slopes. It’s the most exciting thing you can get into. Believe me, I’m an addict!”

“Mega!” I said, just as Frankie wandered over.

“Well, it’s quite easy to pick up,” he said. “You should give it a go. All you need is good balance, good co-ordination – and nerves of steel!”

“And snow,” I pointed out.

“Snow helps,” he agreed. “Fingers crossed we get some soon, eh?”

“Fingers crossed,” I said fervently, crossing as many as I could.

“Well, if you ever want any advice or tips about snowboarding, just come and have a chat with me any time,” he said, smiling. “The name’s Nick.”

“Kenny,” I said, suddenly feeling shy as we shook hands. “Thanks.”

Nick suddenly coughed and wrinkled his nose. “Can you smell something?” he said. “I think the cleaner’s gone a bit mad with the air freshener this week!”

I could hardly keep a straight face as he went off to serve someone. As soon as he was out of earshot, Frankie elbowed me and we collapsed in giggles.

“Air freshener!” I snorted. “I knew that perfume smelled horrible!”

“Maybe Fliss should just ask for a can of that for Christmas instead!” Frankie giggled. “Save her mum a bit of dosh, anyway!”

Once we’d pulled ourselves together, I noticed the others had left the shop and were waiting outside for us. “We’d better go, I suppose…” I said reluctantly.

“Found the footy top you want, then?” Frankie asked.

“I think I’ve found something better,” I told her, pointing up at one of the videos where someone was going a 90-degree turn in mid-air, like it was the easiest thing in the world. “Snowboarding,” I said. “That’s what I want!”

You know what I’m like. Once I get one of my brilliant ideas in my head, it’s impossible for me to think about other stuff. Suddenly I really really really wanted to go snowboarding, more than anything else in the world!

I could just imagine myself whizzing down those slopes, a spray of snow flying up behind me, hat and sun-goggles on, arms out to keep my balance… WOW!! What a thought!

Lyndz had something else on her mind, though.

“Lunch time!” she said loudly as soon as we got out of the shop. “I’m STARVING!”

“Lyndz, you’re always starving,” Fliss said disapprovingly. Fliss’s mum thinks we should all live off carrot sticks and sunflower seeds – and sometimes I think Fliss agrees with her. Fliss even went on a diet once – I mean, D-U-M-B or what?!

“Maybe you’ve got worms, Lyndz,” I said to wind her up. “Dad says they make you feel hungry all the time.”

“Eeeeugh!” Rosie said, pretending to be sick. “Gross, Kenny!”

“I have not got worms!” Lyndz said hotly. “I just feel like a cheeseburger, that’s all.”

“Yeah, you look a bit like one, too,” I said, dodging out of her way as she tried to whack me with her bag.

“You’re in a good mood for someone who hates shopping,” Fliss said suspiciously. “What’s got into you?”

“I wish a cheeseburger would get into me,” Lyndz was moaning. “Like, now.”

“I’m on a mission, that’s what,” I said mysteriously.

“What, with that bloke in the shop?” Frankie said, winking at me. “They looked very cosy when I walked over there!”

“Get knotted!” I said crossly, but they’d all creased up giggling and Lyndz started making smoochy kissing noises in my ear.

“He was quite a babe actually, wasn’t he?” Fliss said thoughtfully. “Not as nice as Ryan Scott, though.”

“Well, now we know what Kenny’s type is like,” Lyndz said between giggles. “Action Man! What a perfect couple you two would make! Mwaaah!!”

“Shut up!” I said.

“Ooh, getting a bit hot and bothered, are we?” Rosie teased, elbowing me. “You must like him!”

“I don’t like him – well, he was OK, I suppose,” I said. For some reason I was blushing like anything. “It’s snowboarding I’m into now! That’s my mission!”

“Oh, here we go,” Fliss sighed. “I thought it was trampolining you wanted us all to get into?”

“That was last week,” I said. “But this sounds much more fun! Even better – it sounds much more dangerous! You have to have nerves of steel to try it, Nick said!”

Fliss did this big dramatic groan like she’d rather eat worms. As I told you, she’s a bit of a wuss sometimes, especially when it comes to my brilliant ideas. Nerves of steel? Nerves of cotton wool, more like!

In fact, me and Fliss are pretty different in a lot of ways. When we have a sleepover at hers, she always tries to get us to play hairdressers and girly stuff like that – and sometimes she won’t join in my ideas for games because she thinks they’re “too rough” or she doesn’t want to mess her hair up. Honestly! The only time I ever even think about my hair is when Mum is brushing out the tangles and I’m yelling with pain. Some people are weird, aren’t they?

“This way,” Lyndz said, shepherding us into the burger joint. “Unless you want me passing out from hunger, that is?”

I started telling them all about the things I’d seen on the snowboarding videos in the shop while we were queuing up to get some lunch.

“And then I saw this one bloke doing a jump like this, right,” I said, whizzing round quickly in the queue just like the guy on the video.

Uh-oh. Bad idea…

“Whoops!”

“Oh, look where you’re going, young lady!”

I’d just sent someone’s vanilla milkshake flying! It shot through the air and splattered all over the floor, spraying our feet with sticky white goo.

I bit my lip. Things like that are always happening to me – I don’t know why.

“Sorry,” I said to this lady who was looking furiously at me, and I scrabbled in my purse. “I’ll get you another one.”

“I should think so too!” she snorted. Stuck-up prune. Didn’t she know a snowboarder in the making when she saw one?

We finally got to sit down with our lunches and the others all started teasing me again about Nick. Rosie started doing her terrible Aussie accent, every time she said anything.

“I bet he likes hanging out in Summer Bay,”

she drawled. “Awww, surf’s up – chuck another shrimp on the barbie, willya?”

“You sound like Rolf Harris – go back to Animal Hospital, will you?” I growled. “And get yourself a brain operation while you’re there!”

“Ahh, fair dinkum, Sheila!” Frankie giggled.

“Tie me kangaroo down, sport!” Lyndz added, laughing so hard that milkshake shot straight out of her nose – both sides!!

“Eeeeurggghhh!” squealed Fliss, turning away hurriedly.

“Gross!” Frankie said, sticking her tongue out and laughing at the same time.

“Yeee-uck!” Rosie wailed.

“Can you tell what it is yet?” I yelled, doing my own Rolf impression.

By now we were all laughing hysterically, and were creased up over the tables. For a minute I even forgot all about the idea of going snowboarding. Not for very long, though…