Fiona Cummings - Sleepover Girls on the Range

Anyway, as I wanted to tell all the others my news at the same time, I had to wait. And by the time we were all settled down on the grass together, I was absolutely bursting with it.

“You know that I had something to tell you? Well, Mrs McAllister is planning something special for the opening of her new stable block—” I began.

“And she wants us to plan another Stable Fun Day?” asked Rosie. “Cool!”

“Well not exactly,” I tried to continue. “I think she’s planning more of an Open Day. But the thing is—”

“I’m not getting on a horse again!” snapped Fliss.

“You don’t have to, Fliss, because—”

Suddenly there were gales of laughter from the bushes behind us.

“You got a bit carried away the last time you were on a horse, didn’t you Felicity?”

It was the Gruesome Twosome! They’d only been earwigging, hadn’t they?

“Right that’s it!” Kenny leapt up and dashed into the bushes.

Branches snapped, and there were stifled screams and shouts of “Gerroff, you moron!” Then we heard the M&Ms scrambling out through the back of the bushes and running away.

When Kenny emerged, she was holding a fistful of hair and looking very pleased with herself.

“That should keep them quiet for a while!”

The rest of us were kind of shocked. I mean, there was enough hair there to stuff a cushion. The M&Ms would have bald patches for sure.

“Kenny! ” Even Frankie seemed shocked. “I mean, pulling their hair out, that’s a bit strong, isn’t it?”

Kenny snorted with laughter. “I didn’t pull it out, dumbo! It just got caught on all the branches as they tried to run away from me.”

There’s nothing we like better than getting one over on our rivals! Except perhaps …

“My news! I almost forgot!” I leapt up. “Mrs McAllister said that…”

“Come on, girls!” Mrs Weaver was heading towards us. “Didn’t you hear the bell? Hurry up, you’re going to be late!”

Talk about bad timing! Was I ever going to tell my friends my news, or was I going to end up having this treat on my own?

It didn’t help that I had to leave school early for the dentist, so I didn’t even have the chance to tell them about it later. Talk about fed up!

When I got to the van Mum laughed.

“Why the long face, Lyndz? Bad day?”

I nodded. “Something like that. I’ve got this great news to tell the others, but I just don’t think I’m ever going to have the chance.”

Mum gave me a funny look. She knows that when I have “great news” it usually leads to trouble one way or another.

“Well, can’t you tell them tomorrow?”

“Not if it’s anything like today,” I explained. “The M&Ms always spoil things for us.”

“OK,” Mum said. “What about if you invite your friends round after school? You can tell them then.”

“YEESS!!” I punched the air. “Thanks Mum!”

I couldn’t wait to tell the others. Thinking about it even got me through the dentist. As soon as I got home, I sat by the phone until I was sure that the others would be home too. Then I dialled Frankie’s number.

“Hi Frankie – it’s me, Lyndz. If you want to hear about my news you’ve got to come round to my place tomorrow after school. OK?”

I didn’t give her chance to ask any questions. I just said “bye” and put the phone down. And I did the same with the others. Those were the shortest phone conversations I’d ever had with my friends.

The next day they were all intrigued by the mystery.

“Can’t you tell us what this is about, Lyndz, please?” they begged. But I wasn’t going to give in. By the time Mum came to collect us all from school, they were really wound up about it!

“Come on Lyndz, we’re here now,” Rosie said as soon as we’d leapt out of the van at my place. “Won’t you please tell us what all this is about?”

“Yes!” I told them triumphantly. “But only after we’ve all dressed up.”

Well, they didn’t need telling twice. I have this fab box of dressing-up clothes, you see. And we all love to pile in and don all these weird and wonderful costumes. Fliss reached in and grabbed the bride’s dress (surprise, surprise), Rosie put on a clown’s outfit, Frankie dressed up as a gypsy, Kenny borrowed my leather chaps and cowboy hat, and I turned myself into a fire-fighting princess!

We all charged outside and chased round like loonies. Unfortunately, Ben heard us and wanted to join in. So just to keep him quiet we had a mock-battle, hiding behind bushes and leaping out to ambush him. Then we pretended we were in the jungle, climbing trees to escape from the poisonous snakes which I convinced everyone were slithering about on the ground. We must have looked really wild sitting amongst the branches in our dressing-up clothes.

When Mum had called Ben inside, we collapsed on to the grass, panting for breath.

“Hey Lyndz, we almost forgot about your surprise!” squealed Fliss suddenly, half-sitting up and squinting into the sunshine.

“Oh yes, the Open Day!” Rosie reminded me.

“Well, that’s not the surprise actually,” I reminded them. “I think Mrs McAllister wants to keep that a bit, you know, low-key.”

“Boring, more like!” Kenny chimed in.

“She just wants to show everyone that the stables are open again, so that she can get her business back,” I explained.

“Well if she wants to do that, she should make it fun” said Frankie, suddenly sitting up. You could tell by her voice that she was serious.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“The more exciting the Open Day is, the more people are going to want to go to her for riding lessons,” Frankie explained patiently.

“Yeah, remember how many people turned up for the Stable Fun Day?” Rosie reminded us.

“But I don’t think she really wants to involve the horses again,” I tried to explain. “After what happened last time.”

We all looked at Fliss, but she just started picking blades of grass from her dress.

“The horses needn’t be involved at all.” Frankie was getting excited now. “We could have a horsey theme and just go with that.”

“What, like the Wild West, maybe?” I asked. Dad’s always watching those old cowboy movies on TV.

“Yeah, good one!” Frankie went on, her eyes blazing. “There could be a Wild West fancy-dress competition for children—”

“And for adults!” Rosie chipped in. “Mum always fancies herself as a bit of a cowgirl. She goes line-dancing now.”

“Yeah, she goes with my mum,” Fliss suddenly piped up. “Maybe we could have a bit of line-dancing at this Open Day! I’m sure our mums could persuade some of their friends to come along.”

“That’s a good idea, Fliss,” Frankie nodded. “Because then Mrs McAllister could show off her stables to people who might not even know about them.”

“And we could have real cowboy food!” I giggled. “Round a big campfire like they always have in those films!”

“Yes!”

We started to dance around. This was going to be brilliant!

Then it hit me. We weren’t supposed to be organising Mrs McAllister’s Open Day at all.

“But guys, the Open Day isn’t really anything to do with us!” I stopped jumping around.

“It isn’t?” They all looked surprised.

“No!” I laughed. “As well as having the Open Day for everybody, Mrs McAllister wants to give a special treat to just the five of us. It’s her way of saying thank you to us for helping raise money for the stables last time.”

“Great! What is it?” asked Frankie.

I took a deep breath. This was the moment I’d been waiting for!

“Well, what about a sleepover? In one of the barns? We’ll be like real cowboys – it’ll be so cool! What do you say?”