Sleepover Girls Go Camping. Fiona Cummings

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СКАЧАТЬ even more of a relief when Fliss turned up at the next Brownie meeting with the form and her money. There was no going back now – assault course or not!

      There were only two weeks between us handing in our forms and actually going away to camp. You can imagine how excited we were. We never seemed to talk about anything else.

      “I can’t wait!” laughed Kenny.

      We were all sitting in her room a couple of days before the camp. “There’ll be so many cool things to do! I’ve always wanted to have a bash at abseiling!”

      “Yeah, ‘having a bash’ is probably right!” laughed Frankie. “Knowing you, you’ll probably try to do it too fast and splat! – you’ll be squashed on the wall.”

      Fliss sort of shivered.

      “We’re only joking Fliss,” I reassured her. “It won’t be like that – there’ll be lots of fun stuff. It’s going to be brilliant!”

      “Do you think we ought to start practising for the Challenge?” Fliss asked.

      We all stared at her with our mouths open.

      “What, you mean you know?” asked Rosie.

      “Yes,” said Fliss slowly, as though we were all dummies. “And I really think we should practise so that the M&Ms don’t beat us.”

      “Cool!” shouted Kenny. “Maybe we should go outside now and start climbing a few trees or something. What about press-ups, they’re good.”

      I started to shake my head at Kenny, because I could see Fliss’s shocked face.

      “How will climbing trees help us to sing the best songs round the camp fire?” she asked.

      Kenny looked blank. It wasn’t often that she was speechless.

      “It’s something to do with opening your lungs properly.” Frankie leapt to her rescue. “I’ve heard that you should exercise before you sing.”

      Rosie and I rolled our eyes at each other, and I tried not to giggle.

      It was a relief when we were finally on the minibus heading for Foxton Glen. We knew that we couldn’t keep the assault course a secret from Fliss for much longer, but we figured that we’d cope with it when it happened. Besides, we already had enough to worry about, dealing with the low-down behaviour of the M&Ms.

      We’d all been lining up to get on the minibus, when they barged past us and nabbed the seats right in the middle. Alana Banana sat on the seat opposite them, which meant that we couldn’t all sit together. So Kenny and Frankie sat in front of the Gruesome Twosome, Rosie and Fliss sat behind them and I sat in front of Alana Banana with – get this – Brown Owl. So we had an excellent journey to Foxton Glen – not! And it was all the fault of those selfish M&Ms. We were determined that they’d pay for it over the next few days.

      “Here we are, girls!” Brown Owl called out, as we finally swung off the main road onto a twisty track. We all pressed our faces up to the windows so that we could see where we’d be staying for the next few days.

      “Wow, isn’t this cool!” yelled Kenny. “What’s that over there?” She was pointing to something in the distance.

      “That’s the tower for the abseiling and the climbing wall,” explained Brown Owl.

      The minibus stopped.

      “Right, can you please get off the minibus quickly and quietly,” said Brown Owl, “and remember to collect all your bags.”

      We pushed and shoved our way off as quickly as we could. Apart from Fliss, who always has to check anywhere a million times to make sure she hasn’t left anything behind.

      We were all hyper, laughing and joking as we looked around – it was awesome. But we also realised that the dreaded moment had finally arrived.

      “What are you so excited about?” Fliss asked, when she finally joined us.

      Together, we pointed at the sign in front of us, which said, in huge letters: ASSAULT COURSE THIS WAY.

      

      Poor Fliss! I’ve never seen anyone go as white so quickly. It was as though someone had sucked all the blood out of her face with a straw.

      “Are you all right, Felicity?” Brown Owl asked anxiously.

      But Fliss could only mumble and point to the sign.

      “Assault course does sound a bit grim, doesn’t it?” laughed Brown Owl. “But don’t worry, because it’s not going to be the assault course for much longer. I’ll explain when the other Brownies get here.”

      Another minibus was driving towards us. When it stopped, the Brownies from 12th Cuddington spilled out. We recognised a few of them from school. We certainly recognised Regina Hill and Amanda Porter, who headed straight for the M&Ms and Alana ‘Banana’. They stood in a silly little huddle screeching and chattering like chimps in a zoo.

      As soon as they had settled down, Brown Owl explained what she had meant about the assault course. This camp was going to have the theme of children’s TV programmes, so the assault course was going to be referred to as Blue Peter, the kitchen would be Grange Hill, and the toilet and shower blocks would be called Arnold and Doug!

      There were twenty Brownies altogether, eleven from our pack and nine from the other. So there were going to be four tents of five, plus a tent for the grown-ups. The Sleepover Club were in a tent together and we didn’t have to share with anyone else which was great. The M&Ms were sharing with Alana Palmer, the awful Amanda Porter and Regina Hill. Then there was a tent of Brownies from 12th Cuddington and another tent with girls from both packs, but it was OK because they all knew each other.

      Brown Owl called each group a ‘patrol’ and we all had a name. We were Rugrats, the M&Ms and their group were Teletubbies, the group just from 12th were The Simpsons and the mixed group were Wombles. Pretty cool, huh? We really laughed when Brown Owl said that we had to call her Tom and the Brown Owl from 12th, Jerry!

      A group of forest rangers had already started to put up our tents. Jerry said that three of them would be staying with us for the rest of the camp and we had to call them Paddington, Garfield and Scooby Doo!

      I wondered how I would ever remember all those new names.

      “Isn’t this great?” I said to Rosie, as we took our stuff over to the tents.

      “Yeah, but I don’t think Fliss is very happy,” she replied. I looked across at Fliss. She looked really sulky and miserable.

      “Right, Rugrats, this will be your tent,” said Brown Owl. “This is Paddington and her ranger friends. You can help them finish putting up your tent, but you must do exactly as they say.”

      The rangers were really cool and fun. And actually I think they were quite pleased with us, because Kenny and I are used to putting up tents. We go СКАЧАТЬ