Narinder Dhami - Vive le Sleepover Club!

“I want to see Honey, I Shrunk The Audience!” Frankie said. “That’s new, isn’t it?”

Fliss nodded. “That wasn’t there when I went.”

“Can I have a bit of quiet, please?” called Mrs Weaver, who was standing at the front of the minibus and waving her clipboard. We all shut up reluctantly to listen. We didn’t want to get on the wrong side of Mrs Weaver right from the start!

“Now, we’ll be boarding the train which will take us through the Channel Tunnel in about ten minutes,” Mrs Weaver went on. “Before we do, I’ve got something very important to say to you all.”

“Oh, here it comes!” Kenny groaned, “The Big Lecture!”

“Did you want to say something, Laura?” Mrs Weaver glared down the minibus in our direction.

“No, Miss,” Kenny muttered, and the M&Ms sniggered.

“Right, it goes without saying that I expect all of you to be on your very best behaviour.” Mrs Weaver glanced in our direction again. I don’t know why. “When you’re abroad, you are representing your country as well as your school, and we want to make a good impression, so…”

Kenny wasn’t listening. Suddenly she bent down in her seat, so that me, Fliss and Lyndz, who were behind her, couldn’t see what she was doing.

“What’s up with Kenny?” Lyndz hissed.

“Maybe she’s fainted!” Fliss giggled.

“Ssh!” Frankie turned round and winked at us. “Pass it on!”

We didn’t have a clue what was going on – until suddenly one of Emma’s posh leather bags appeared from under Kenny’s seat! Emma had been showing off about her matching luggage, and she’d put the smallest bag under her seat. Now Lyndz, who was sitting behind Kenny, bent down and pushed the bag backwards to me.

“Pass it on, Rosie!” she whispered.

I grabbed the bag and shoved it under my seat. Meanwhile, we all sat there listening to Mrs Weaver, and trying not to laugh.

“And although we want you to have a good time, there are a few important rules you all have to remember,” Mrs Weaver was saying sternly.

“My bag!” Emma Hughes jumped up from her seat. “Mrs Weaver, my bag’s gone!”

Kenny turned round and nodded to me, so I immediately pushed the bag back under the seat to Lyndz, who quickly pushed it back to Kenny. By the time Mrs Weaver made it to the back of the minibus, we were all sitting there, looking as if butter wouldn’t melt in our mouths.

“Where did you put your bag, Emma?” Mrs Weaver raised her eyebrows.

“Under my seat, Miss!” Emma said furiously, “And I bet I know who’s taken it too!” She turned round and glared at Kenny.

“Well, thanks very much!” Kenny said indignantly, and we all nearly bust a gut trying not to laugh.

Mrs Weaver bent down and looked under the Queen’s seat. “Is that the bag you’re looking for?” she asked in a frosty voice.

Emma bent over and took a look. “Er… yes!” she stammered. “But it wasn’t there before!” She jumped up from her seat, eyes narrowed, and shot Kenny an evil stare. “You took it!”

“No way!” Kenny retorted airily.

“Hm, well, no harm done as you’ve got the bag back safely, Emma.” But Mrs Weaver fixed us with a beady-eyed glare. “I hope you girls have been listening to what I’ve been saying? I want you all on your best behaviour and doing what you’re told without any exceptions. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Mrs Weaver,” we all chorused.

Mrs Weaver turned round and went back to the front of the bus.

Straightaway Kenny turned round and winked at the rest of us. “But that won’t stop us having the biggest sleepover of all time, will it!”

“We’re in!” Kenny yelled, grabbing the last Wispa bar from under Fliss’s nose. “Just think, there’s thousands and thousands of tons of water over our heads right at this very moment!”

“Oh, shut up, Kenny!” said Fliss. The train had just entered the Channel Tunnel, and everyone on the minibus had started whooping and cheering.

“You look a bit green, Fliss,” I said sympathetically.

“She’d look a lot greener if we were on top of the water instead of underneath it!” Kenny remarked, screwing up her chocolate wrapper. She leaned over the seat and dropped it gently on top of Emma’s head. Emma was talking to Emily and didn’t notice. “I wonder what would happen if the tunnel collapsed, and all the water came pouring in?”

“The French word for water is eau,” said Frankie, who had her nose in her phrasebook again. “Pronounced ‘oh’.”

Kenny clasped her hands and pretended to look scared. “Eau no! I’m up to my eyeballs in eau!”

“Oh, shut up, Kenny!” Fliss wailed, looking even greener, although she was giggling too. “The tunnel isn’t going to collapse on us!”

“It’d be just like Titanic, only worse!” Frankie said with a grin.

“Fliss wouldn’t mind if Leonardo DiCaprio came to save her!” Lyndz remarked, and we all fell about, even Fliss.

“Eek!” Emma Hughes had just realised that there was something on top of her hair,and she was shaking her head around like crazy. “Emily, is that a spider in my hair?”

“Keep still,” Emily instructed her, while the Sleepover Club chortled behind their seats. “No, it’s a Wispa wrapper!”

“What?” Emma shot to her feet, her face bright pink, and threw the wrapper back over the seats at Kenny. “You’re so childish, Laura McKenzie!”

“Me!” Kenny exclaimed. “How do you know it was me?”

Emma gave her a haughty stare, and then leaned across the aisle. Alana Banana Palmer was sitting in the seat opposite. She’s kind of a mate of the M&Ms, so that makes her kind of our enemy too. But we don’t exactly worry about her too much. Alana Banana’s too dozy to scare anyone!

“Alana, change seats with me and Emily,” Emma ordered.

“OK.” Alana Banana didn’t even bother arguing with Emma. She picked her bag up off the seat next to her, got up and moved across the aisle. Meanwhile, Emily and Emma picked up their bags too, and, giving us a smug look, switched seats.

“I could put a thousand Wispa wrappers on Alana’s head, and she’s so snoozy she wouldn’t notice!” Kenny whispered as Alana settled herself into the seat in front of her.

We all started laughing. Then Emma suddenly jumped to her feet again.

“Urggh! There’s chewing gum stuck on this seat!” she squealed, trying to look over her shoulder at her backside.

We all bounced up to have a look – and sure enough, there was a large wodge of pink chewing gum stuck to the back of Emma’s pedal-pushers. It looked like it had been well chewed too! We all roared.

“Alana, it must have been stuck to the bottom of your bag!” Emma snapped, her face as pink as the chewing gum.

“Oh, was it?” Alana said dozily.

“Nice one, Alana!” Kenny called, giving her a thumbs-up, and the Queen looked fit to bust.

The rest of the tunnel journey was pretty boring, because the teachers wouldn’t let us get off the minibus and explore, but at least it was only thirty-five minutes. Soon we were out of the tunnel and into the sunshine again, racing through the French countryside along the motorway.

“We’re in France!” Frankie announced. But although the countryside was quite pretty, it didn’t look that different from England. Anyway, motorways are the same boring concrete things wherever you go, aren’t they?

We were all getting a bit restless when suddenly Lyndz had a brill idea.

“The first person to spot the Eiffel Tower gets fifty pee – I mean fifty francs – from the rest of us!” she said.

“Fifty francs! Wow!” Frankie’s eyes lit up.