Fiona Cummings - Sleepover Club Goes For Goal!

It was quite a relief to get outside at break time. I did a few cartwheels on the grass next to our classroom, then went to join the others. They were all standing around watching Ryan Scott kicking a ball about with his mates.

“Aw, come on, we could do better than that!” I moaned. “They’re useless.”

“They look pretty good to me!” said Rosie.

“All right then,” I reasoned, “if you come to the five-a-side practice you’ll soon be good enough to join in with them.”

“Uurgh, we wouldn’t want to!” Frankie shuddered. “I couldn’t think of anything worse. Stupid football AND horrible boys. Gross !”

Frankie just wasn’t being reasonable, but I wasn’t giving up yet.

“You wouldn’t mind spending more time with the boys at the practice, would you Fliss?” I asked. She was going all moony-eyed looking at stupid Ryan Scott.

“Leave it out Kenny!” she snapped. “I can’t play football and everybody would laugh at me. I have enough of that with you lot!”

“Ah, diddums!” we all yelled, and grabbed her so hard in one of our group bear hugs that soon she was squealing for mercy!

“What about you, Lyndz?” I asked when we finally let Fliss go. “You’ll come to the practice won’t you? It’ll be fun, honest!”

Lyndz didn’t look too sure about that.

“I don’t think so Kenny,” she replied. “I promised Mrs McAllister that I’d go down to the stables after school on Wednesday. She’s got a show the next day and I said I’d help to groom the horses.”

“You and your horses!” I grumbled. I’d kind of been banking on Lyndz coming with me.

“Hey, what about you, Rosie?” I then asked. “You’re good at sports. Wouldn’t you love to show those boys that we’re just as good as them?”

“Well, yes,” said Rosie slowly.

“Thanks Rosie, my great mate!” I slapped her on the back. “I knew that you wouldn’t let me down!” I scowled at the others, especially Frankie.

“Hang on a minute, Kenny,” said Rosie. “I only said that I’d like to teach the boys a lesson. I don’t think I’ll be doing that at the five-a-side practice though.”

“What do you mean?” I yelled.

“Look, it’s all right for you,” Rosie explained. “You’re always playing football, so you know what it’s all about. We don’t. I can’t even kick a ball for my dog. The last thing we want is to show ourselves up in front of Ryan Scott and his stupid mates. They’ll never let us forget it. I’m afraid you’re on your own on this one. Sorry!”

I couldn’t believe it. My so-called friends were all going to let me down.

The whistle blew and the others ran inside. It was our turn to choose books from the library and they were all excited about which ones they were going to borrow. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the practice on Wednesday. It felt a bit funny knowing that I’d be going on my own. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t scared or anything. I do tons of stuff by myself outside school. It’s just that we usually do school-based activities all together. It would have been a laugh having the others there, that’s all. As it was, it looked as though I would have to stand up for Girl Power on the football pitch all by myself!

I didn’t exactly give up hope about the others coming to the practice with me, but by Wednesday afternoon I knew for sure that I’d be going by myself. I’d spent all of Tuesday and most of Wednesday morning trying to persuade them to come along – but no joy. I mean, what does a girl have to do to get a bit of support from her friends?

I tried threatening them by saying that if they didn’t come with me I’d never speak to them again.

“Sounds like a great idea to me!” laughed Frankie. “What do you think, Lyndz?”

Lyndz giggled and said, “You bet!” so that didn’t work.

“What about if I buy you all loads of sweets?” I asked.

“You?” shrieked Rosie. “You’ve never got any money! What do you plan on buying them with? Buttons?”

Hmm, I guess I hadn’t thought that through either.

“All right then,” I told them. “If you don’t come with me, I’ll put up a poster saying how much Fliss is in love with Ryan Scott.”

Frankie just said, “Like everybody doesn’t already know!”

Fliss meanwhile blushed and went all silly and giggly. If you ask me, she actually wanted me to put up a poster. That girl has a serious problem!

Well, after that it was no surprise when the clock hit 3.30pm that the others all went home giggling and shouting, “Bye Kenny, have fun!”

And I headed for the gym – alone.

I went in to the girls’ changing rooms first and pulled from my bag my trackie bottoms and my favourite Leicester City football shirt. I couldn’t wait to take off my stupid school uniform. I hate it. It’s the only time that I EVER wear a skirt. I’m sure that I’d work much better if I could wear what I wanted at school. I’d probably even be able to do maths. But I guess if Fliss could wear what she wanted, she’d never get to school in the first place because she’d be dithering between her mini-skirts and her bootlegs. Then of course school would turn into one big fashion show. Maybe uniforms aren’t such a bad idea after all. But I still think girls should be allowed to wear trousers if we want to.

I was thinking about the school uniform thing the whole time I was getting changed. And let’s face it, I had plenty of time because no-one else came in to disturb me. But by the time I’d pulled on my trainers, I didn’t really care. I’d got myself all pumped up and I was ready to face Ryan Scott and his stupid cronies.

When I got out into the gym, everything looked different. A new pitch had been marked out in the middle and there were a titchy pair of goals at either end. I knew it must be a five-a-side pitch so I went to investigate.

“It’s Laura McKenzie isn’t it?” a voice suddenly boomed behind me. I spun round so quickly I went all dizzy. The voice belonged to Mr Pownall. He must have come into the gym when I wasn’t looking.

“Th… that’s right!” I stuttered.

“I wondered if you’d be coming along to my five-a-side practices, Laura,” Mr Pownall continued. “I’ve heard how much you like football. It’s good to see you!”

I smiled at him, but there was something that I just had to put right. I was going to feel really stupid in front of the boys if he went around calling me Laura all the time.

“Actually, I hate being called Laura,” I told him. “My friends all call me Kenny.”

“Right, Kenny it is,” smiled Mr Pownall. “Ah, here come the rest of our happy band. For a moment then I thought we might have to devise a new game: one-a-side football!”

There was a great clatter as the doors from the boys’ changing room burst open and Ryan Scott and Danny McCloud stalked across the gym. They were pretending to be Gladiators. Pathetic! They were followed by a group of younger boys who were all looking at Ryan Scott as though he was Alan Shearer or something. I mean, come on! The boy looks more like Chuckie from Rugrats!

As soon as Ryan Scott saw me he asked angrily, “What’s she doing here?”

“I’ve come to show you a thing or two about football!” I snapped back.

“Yeah, right!” sneered Scotty-chops. “Don’t you think we should see if she knows how to kick the ball, sir? She’s only going to slow us down if she can’t, and that wouldn’t be fair!”

(You see – Ryan Scott and Fliss do have a lot in common! Fliss is always going on about things being ‘fair’.)

Before Mr Pownall could answer, Danny McCloud had tossed a football towards me.