Sari Sleepover. Narinder Dhami

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СКАЧАТЬ 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.”

      We all nodded. But I bet I wasn’t the only one of the Sleepover Club who was wondering just how difficult it was going to be to keep Asha out of trouble for the next month!

      

      “Hey, Izzy, what do you think?”

      I bent over my little sister, who was propped up on the sofa, to show her my best bindi. It’s kind of tear-drop shaped and purple-coloured round the outside with gold and black in the middle. It was Saturday afternoon, and I was waiting for the rest of the Sleepover Club, plus Asha, to arrive.

      Izzy grinned and gurgled and tried to grab the bindi off my forehead. I could still hardly believe I’d got a sister after all this time. I mean, I kept going on and on to my parents about having another baby, and they always said no, then all of a sudden, it happened! Why are parents always so annoying like that? Still, at least the baby was a girl – I wouldn’t have liked a whole load of smelly old brothers like Lyndz.

      “Be careful, Frankie,” my mum said, coming in from the kitchen. “Keep those bindis away from Izzy, or she might put them in her mouth.”

      “Don’t worry, I will!” I said. I moved away from Izzy and she immediately began to bawl. My dad says she’s got the Thomas lungs all right – my mum and dad are both lawyers, and we can all talk for England.

      “So what’s Asha like?” my mum asked, picking Izzy up and rocking her.

      “She’s cool!” I said enthusiastically. “But her mum says she mustn’t get into any trouble СКАЧАТЬ