Louis Catt - Mega Sleepover 5

“It’s nothing,” she said in the sort of voice that means “Yes, I am very clever and I know I am!”

“It’s OK, Mum,” I said. “All we’ve got to do is bung the slime in the fridge and then we’ll go upstairs.”

“Fine,” Mum said. “But don’t forget—”

“Not to spoil anything of Emma’s!” I finished her sentence for her.

We finished our stuff in the kitchen and galloped up the stairs to Emma’s room.

“Come on,” I said, “let’s make ourselves some space here. Emma’s away all weekend, so she’ll never know. We can put everything back tomorrow.”

“Isn’t that spoiling things?” Fliss asked.

“No,” I said. “It’s moving things. If we move everything against the wall we can really spread out tonight. The way it is now we couldn’t swing a cat.”

Fliss giggled. “Poor cat!”

“I can swing a teddy!” Frankie said, and she whirled Emma’s white bear round her head.

Crash ! Emma’s bedside lamp leapt off the table, and Rosie, Lyndz, Fliss and I cackled with laughter.

“Ooops!” Frankie got down on her hands and knees and picked it up again. “Maybe you were right, Kenny! There isn’t any room to swing anything!”

We heaved and shoved and pushed the furniture right up against the walls, and piled Emma’s clothes and shoes on one of the beds. Then we looked round.

“Wow!” Lyndz was dead impressed. “There’s room to swing dozens of cats in here now!”

“Whoopee!” Frankie grabbed the white teddy again and swung it madly round her head. “Room to swing a teddy!”

Lyndz snatched up a green frog, and Rosie and Fliss fought over a fluffy bunny. Fliss won, so Rosie pounced on a pink giraffe. I found a squashy elephant… and we swung them all round and round and round!

“Room to swing a jungle!” I yelled, and I let the elephant fly… and the elephant hit Rosie, and Rosie fell over onto Fliss, and Fliss whacked Lyndz with her fluffy bunny and Lyndz sent her green frog zooming across the room and—

Crash ! The bedside lamp went flying for a second time.

This time the lamp broke. Seriously broke. Doom! The bottom bit was made of pink china (it was typical of Emma to have everything in prissy pink!) and the pink china was now in bits. The shade was bent too.

We went rather quiet for a moment as we looked at the wreckage.

“Sorry,” Lyndz said.

“We’re all to blame,” Frankie said, and I nodded.

“If it’s anyone’s fault it’s the frog’s,” Rosie said, and Frankie giggled. “Ground that frog!”

“Stop its pocket money!” I said.

“We could try and mend it,” Fliss said. She was picking up the pieces. “Have you got any of that Super Glue stuff?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “There might be some in the kitchen. But Emma’s bound to notice.”

“Let’s try anyway,” Lyndz said.

“Mum’ll still be cooking,” I said. “We can go and look for the glue later. Anyway, there’s no hurry. Emma’s not back until Sunday night.”

Down in the hall the telephone began to ring. Someone – or some thing ! – must have heard what I’d just said, because two minutes later Molly came thundering up the stairs and stuck her head round the door. “Emma’s got to come home tonight,” she said with a great big silly grin on her face. “Jade’s house has been burgled, and Emma can’t stay after all!”

Molly looked round Emma’s room at all the piled up furniture. “Ha! Looks like you’ll be in big trouble now!” And she flounced out.

Emma coming home? We stared at each other.

Fliss put on her drama queen face. “I knew it!” she said, and she waved her arms. “It’s because it’s Friday 13th! Everything’s bound to go wrong!”

“I’m going to ask Mum if it’s true,” I said, once I’d got over the shock. “The monster might have made it up – it’s just the low-down kind of trick she likes to play.”

As it turned out it was true – but it wasn’t quite as bad as Molly had made it sound. Emma couldn’t stay the night, but she and Jade had gone out to have a pizza, and Dad was going to collect her on the way back from his meeting.

“It’s going to be quite late, so Emma may as well sleep in your room with Molly tonight,” Mum said.

I heaved a huge sigh of relief – inside. Outside I just nodded. “OK,” I said.

Mum gave me a suspicious sort of look. “I hope you haven’t been making a mess up there,” she said. “Molly says you’ve been moving furniture.”

“We only moved things a little,” I said. “And we do that in my room.”

“Fine.” Mum went on stirring something in a saucepan. “Molly and I are eating with Dad, so you lot can do your feasting on green cake afterwards in peace.”

“Thanks, Mum, you’re the best,” I said, and gave her a hug.

I was going back up the stairs when I heard Dad coming in. I gave a quick wave over the banisters, and then shot back into Emma’s room to tell the others not to panic – yet!

“We can sort the room out in the morning,” I said.

Fliss was peering out of the window. “I’m sure I heard a strange noise,” she said. “Do you think there’s someone down there?” She was looking twitchy again.

“I expect it’s Dad,” I said. “He’s just come home.”

“Oh,” Fliss said, but she didn’t sound very convinced.

“Let’s go and see!” Frankie said, and she made a face at me behind Fliss’s back, and mouthed, “ Blood trail !”

“Oh no!” Fliss squeaked. “We ought to stay inside!”

“It’ll be OK with all of us,” Lyndz said, and she grinned. “What burglar would take on the Sleepover Club?”

Even Fliss smiled a little. “I still don’t think we shou—” she began, but she didn’t sound so certain.

“Come on!” Lyndz grabbed her hand. “We can make sure it’s all clear down there while it’s still light! We’ll check out the bushes!”

“Only a mini burglar could hide in your garden,” Rosie said.

“That’s it!” I said. “The burglar’s only sixty centimetres tall – and that’s why no one’s found him yet!”

We were halfway down the stairs when Frankie suddenly stopped. “Sssh!” she said. “We sound like a herd of elephants! From now on we’ve got to go on tiptoe!”

“Tippytoe! Tippytoe! Hunting burglars! Here we go!” giggled Lyndz, and we got in a line and tiptoed down the rest of the stairs and out of the front door. (We made sure we left it on the latch this time. Frankie and I weren’t taking any more chances!)

It was beginning to get dark as we crept round the side of the house. Frankie was in front, then me, then Lyndz, then Rosie, and then Fliss.

“Tippytoe! Tippytoe! Tippytoe!” sang Lyndz, and we all tiptoed in time down the path, until—

“Look!” Frankie did her mega-thrill, over-the-top acting voice and stopped dead on the path.

We all crashed into each other, and somehow Fliss ended up at the front – so she saw the trail of blood before Lyndz or Rosie. And she screamed…

I think the rest of us were as frightened by Fliss’s scream as she was frightened by the blood. I know my heart gave a huge walloping leap inside my chest, and I heard Lyndz gasp beside me. When someone really truly screams for real, it’s not a nice noise at all – it’s really scary! And then Fliss turned and she ran back into the house, and of course we all tore after her.

If it had been me I think I’d have headed straight for the grown-ups, but Fliss didn’t – luckily for us. She zoomed up to Emma’s room, and when we got there she was shaking all over and trying to stuff her pyjamas into her bag.