Party Time. Fiona Cummings
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Название: Party Time

Автор: Fiona Cummings

Издательство: HarperCollins

Жанр: Детская проза

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isbn: 9780007383214

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СКАЧАТЬ then?” cooed Emma’s sidekick Emily Berryman.

      “I always knew you were a big baby, Thomas!” cackled Emma. “I grew out of dolls when I was about four. You lot have never grown up, have you?”

      Kenny was seething, I could sense it.

      “Frankie’s taking part in some scientific research, if you must know,” she said in her weariest voice. “Not that you’d understand.”

      “Oh right, that’s the first time I’ve heard playing with dolls called ‘scientific research’,” sneered Emily. “Why don’t you face it? You’re a load of little kids!”

      They both screamed with laughter and tottered down the high street on their platform wedges.

      “I don’t believe that!” Fliss had her head in her hands. “Of all the people to see us with that stupid doll!”

      “They’ll never let us forget it,” moaned Rosie. “It’ll be all round the school on Monday!”

      “Not if I’ve got anything to do with it,” fumed Kenny through gritted teeth.

      And when Kenny spoke like that the rest of us knew that it meant trouble. Trouble with a capital T!

      

      To be honest with you, seeing those two galumphing gorillas put a real damper on our whole weekend. We didn’t even discuss the New Year sleepover again, so you can tell how bad we were feeling. And Kenny went totally weird. I mean, even weirder than usual. When the rest of us were panicking about the M&Ms, she was like, lost in a trance. Then she suddenly leapt up and announced that she had to go to the shop to buy some – get this – JELLY CUBES. I mean, here we were, facing doom and disaster from our biggest rivals, and Kenny’s planning a party tea! But she just had this crazy look on her face and kept saying that she needed jelly cubes to make everything all right. I prefer chocolate to cheer myself up actually, but each to their own, as my gran always says.

      Anyway, before we said goodbye to each other on Saturday, we arranged to meet outside school on Monday morning. That way we could all face the Gruesome Twosome together.

      I had a really bad feeling as I walked to school that morning. Doom and panic whizzed about in my stomach like one of Kenny’s disastrous cooking experiments. Fliss and Rosie were already standing together by the wall, and they looked as green as I felt. Only Lyndz seemed as bright and breezy as usual. I swear that if that girl was any more laid back, she’d be permanently asleep!

      “Oh come on, we’ve taken flak from the M&Ms before,” she reasoned. “How bad can it be this time?”

      Nobody answered.

      When we got to the gate we could see the M&Ms in a little huddle with their stupid mate Alana ‘Banana’ Palmer.

      “I wonder where Kenny is? She ought to be here by now,” mumbled Fliss. Her teeth were chattering, and I don’t think it was because of the cold.

      Rosie stuck her tongue out and pulled gruesome faces at the M&Ms – well, at their backs, to be precise. Then she mumbled something no one could understand.

      “What?”

      Rosie stopped pulling faces. “I said ‘I don’t know but she seemed really mad on Saturday’!” she explained.

      Just before the whistle went, Kenny came flying up to us, holding tightly on to her school bag. She didn’t look mad now. In fact, she looked positively perky.

      “What’s up with you?” I asked her suspiciously.

      “You’ll see,” she grinned. “Just distract the M&Ms for a couple of minutes when we get inside.”

      “What?” Fliss looked horrified. “But we’re trying to stay out of their way!”

      “We can’t avoid them for ever,” Kenny told her calmly. “Better to get all their sarky comments over with at once.”

      Now it wasn’t like her to be so rational, so I knew she had something majorly wicked up her sleeve.

      Just then the whistle sounded, so we had no choice but to go into school.

      “Remember – distract them!” hissed Kenny as we headed towards the classroom.

      As it was December, we were all muffled up in coats and scarves, so we knew that we’d be in the cloakroom with the M&Ms for a few minutes. When we got there, Kenny gave me this big wink, and headed behind the coat rack. The M&Ms were already tugging off their boots. As soon as they saw us they started laughing in a really OTT way.

      “Have you got your doll under there then, Frankie?” asked Emma loudly so that everyone could hear.

      “We were wondering if you’d like to start a little dolly crèche in the corner of the classroom,” Emily Berryman rasped in her gruff voice.

      “Or better still, go back to the nursery class!” guffawed Emma. “Four-year-olds are about on your level, aren’t they?”

      We just took off our coats and ignored them. I could see Kenny ferreting about in the M&Ms’ bags and there was a bit of a weird smell, but I couldn’t tell what she was doing. All I did know was that when the M&Ms looked ready to go into the classroom, I had to stall them.

      “I was conducting an experiment, that’s all!” I blurted out. The others looked horrified.

      “You make me laugh Thomas, you really do!” sniffed Emma.

      “What kind of experiment?” asked Emily curiously.

      I didn’t really want to tell them about Mum being pregnant and everything. It felt like if they knew, they’d make fun of that too and it would spoil everything.

      As I was trying to think of an answer, Kenny appeared and said, “She’s not going to tell you is she? It’s classified information.”

      “Get real!” snapped Emma, and gathering up their bags, they walked into the classroom.

      “What were you doing?” I asked Kenny when they’d gone.

      “You’ll find out soon enough!” she smiled, and tapped her nose.

      At least Mrs Weaver had something exciting to take our mind off the dreadful duo. At the end of the Christmas term, each class performs in a concert. This year Mrs Weaver told us that we would be writing our own play.

      “Well it’s not a play exactly,” she explained. “It’s going to be a series of sketches about the twentieth century.”

      We all looked pretty blank.

      “Say someone born in 1900 was still alive,” Mrs Weaver continued. “What changes would they have seen?”

      “There’s СКАЧАТЬ