Narinder Dhami - Sari Sleepover

“I love Lyndz’s one,” said Rosie. “That shocking pink is so cool!”

“I like that gold stuff on Fliss’s,” said Lyndz.

“I think Frankie’s is ace with all that blue and silver glitter,” said Kenny.

“Well, I think Lyndz’s rangoli pattern is the best,” I said.

Mrs Chopra had actually shown us how to draw some rangoli patterns. They were pretty complicated, because they were kind of symmetrical, and some of them had interlocking bits like a jigsaw puzzle. Lyndz’s was good and so was Fliss’s, because they were both really neat, but Kenny’s looked like a spider had walked all over the paper with a pen attached to each of its legs!

“So what do you think Asha’s going to be like?” Fliss asked for about the millionth time.

“Quiet and shy,” Rosie suggested.

“She’ll wear Indian clothes,” I said.

“I wonder if she’ll be able to speak English?” Lyndz said.

“I hope she’s got lots of bindis and bangles we can borrow!” Fliss added eagerly.

“You can’t even wear all the bindis you’ve got, Fliss!” I pointed out.

“Yeah, maybe you should wear them all at the same time,” Kenny suggested wickedly. “Put them all over your face and start a new fashion!”

“Shall we invite Asha to our sleepover at Frankie’s house on Saturday night?” Lyndz asked. That was typical of Lyndz, she’s always nice to everybody!

Kenny shrugged. “Yeah, why not?”

“You know,” I said thoughtfully, staring at the M&Ms, “if someone went over to the M&Ms’ table and accidentally knocked against the table, I bet all those books would fall down.”

Kenny was already bouncing out of her seat. “I’m up for that!”

“No way, Kenny!” I said firmly. “You’d probably knock the M&Ms and their table right over! It was my idea – I’ll do it.”

I got up, keeping a sharp eye on Mrs Weaver who was busy at her desk, and wandered over to the M&Ms’ table. As I went by, I gave it just a slight nudge with my hip. Immediately all the books fell down with a crash, and the Queen and the Goblin screamed.

“You did that on purpose!” the Queen huffed.

“Emma, Emily, put those books away right now and stop being so silly,” Mrs Weaver said crossly.

I had a good nose at the M&Ms’ designs while they were picking the books up, and then I sauntered back to our table.

“Well?” Fliss demanded.

“Emily’s rangoli pattern is as bad as Kenny’s,” I said, and Kenny elbowed me hard in the ribs.

“Flippin’ cheek!” she grumbled.

“But Emma’s is pretty good,” I admitted.

“Come on, we’ve got to do better than them!” Kenny said in a determined voice. “Hey, maybe Asha will be able to help us out! She must know all about Diwali.”

The rest of us nodded. Maybe Asha was going to be our secret weapon in our Diwali war against the M&Ms!

“Maybe we could sabotage the Queen’s Diwali card?” Kenny suggested as she rang the Chopras’ doorbell. School was over for the day, and we’d gone straight round to meet Asha. “My Dad’s got one of those shredding machine things in his study—”

“No, Kenny, we want to win fair and square,” Lyndz said firmly. “Don’t we, girls?”

“Nah, we just want to win!” I joked.

Mrs Chopra opened the door. Today she was wearing a deep purple sari with gold flowers, and she had a purple and gold bindi to match. The sari was so cool, even cooler than the turquiose one. I was definitely going to ask her if I could borrow it for the Diwali / Bonfire Night at school next week!

“Come in, girls,” she said with a smile. “Asha’s arrived, and she’s dying to meet you!”

I’d never been in the Chopras’ house before, so I was well interested in nosing around. It wasn’t that different from any other house, though, except that there were Indian paintings on the walls, and these big, carved wooden elephants in the hall which I really loved.

“Oh, that’s funny.” Mrs Chopra stared round the empty living room in surprise. “I thought Asha was in here. She must have gone upstairs, I’ll just go and fetch her.” And she went out.

“What are we going to do if Asha doesn’t speak English?” Fliss asked.

“We’ll just use sign language like this,” Kenny said, waving her arms about and nearly taking Rosie’s eye out in the process. “Hello –” she bowed. “I’m Kenny!” And she pointed at herself.

“Yeah, that’s OK,” Rosie said, “But what if you want to say something complicated like Can you help us with our rangoli patterns ?”

“Or Can I borrow your bindis ?” Fliss added.

“Don’t worry,” said a voice from behind us, “I speak English perfectly!”

We all nearly jumped out of our skin! A girl had popped up from behind the sofa. She had short, cropped black hair, and she wore combat pants, a T-shirt and big gold earrings. It was Asha!

“What are you doing behind there?” I gasped when I’d got over the shock. Asha wasn’t a bit like what we were expecting!

Asha shrugged. “Waiting to see if I liked you or not before I met you!” she grinned.

“What a cheek!” Kenny said, but she was grinning too.

“It’s so great to meet you all!” said Asha when I’d finished introducing everyone. “I thought I was going to be stuck here with my Auntie and Uncle, and no friends!”

“Don’t you like your aunt and uncle?” Lyndz asked.

“Oh they’re OK,” Asha admitted. “But they’re not exactly cool.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll look after you!” Kenny said, slapping Asha on the back. “You can even come to our sleepover, if you like. It’s at Frankie’s house tomorrow night.”

Asha’s face lit up. “Oh, I’d love to come! Me and my friends have sleepovers back home all the time.” Then her face dropped again. “But I’m not sure Auntie will let me.”

“Why not?” Fliss wanted to know.

Asha grinned. “Because my mum told her to keep an eye on me! I kind of got into a bit of trouble at school before I left…”

“What sort of trouble?” Lyndz asked.

“I played a joke on the school principal.” Asha winked at us. “I put powdered chilli in his tea – it nearly blew his mouth off!”

“Oh, cool!” Kenny exclaimed.

I could see already that Kenny and Asha were going to get on really well. I liked her too – she seemed like a real laugh!

“That wasn’t the first trick I’ve pulled at school,” Asha admitted. “And Mum says I’ve got to behave myself while I’m staying with Auntie, or it’s boarding school for me when I get home!”

“Oh, gross!” Fliss said sympathetically, and we all nodded.

“So I mustn’t get into any trouble while I’m here,” Asha went on solemnly. “Or I’m dead!”

“Don’t worry,” I grinned. “We’ll look after you and keep you straight!”

The others thought that was hilarious, and roared with laughter.

“Yeah, ’cos we’re never in any trouble ourselves!” Kenny spluttered.

“Oh, thanks a lot!” Asha said gratefully, flinging her arm round my shoulders in a friendly way.

Unfortunately, at the same time, she also knocked over an expensive-looking vase which stood on the table next to us. Luckily, though, it teetered a bit before falling over, and Kenny was able to catch it before it hit the floor with a fantastic goalkeeper save.

“Oh, thank goodness!” Asha breathed. “Auntie would have gone mad if I’d broken that! By the way, I forgot to warn you – I’m a bit clumsy.”

Just as Kenny was replacing the vase carefully on the table, Mrs Chopra walked in.

“Oh, Asha, there you are,” she said. “And I see you’ve met the girls.”