Sleepover Girls on the Range. Fiona Cummings

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      “Yes!” I told them triumphantly. “But only after we’ve all dressed up.”

      Well, they didn’t need telling twice. I have this fab box of dressing-up clothes, you see. And we all love to pile in and don all these weird and wonderful costumes. Fliss reached in and grabbed the bride’s dress (surprise, surprise), Rosie put on a clown’s outfit, Frankie dressed up as a gypsy, Kenny borrowed my leather chaps and cowboy hat, and I turned myself into a fire-fighting princess!

      We all charged outside and chased round like loonies. Unfortunately, Ben heard us and wanted to join in. So just to keep him quiet we had a mock-battle, hiding behind bushes and leaping out to ambush him. Then we pretended we were in the jungle, climbing trees to escape from the poisonous snakes which I convinced everyone were slithering about on the ground. We must have looked really wild sitting amongst the branches in our dressing-up clothes.

      When Mum had called Ben inside, we collapsed on to the grass, panting for breath.

      “Hey Lyndz, we almost forgot about your surprise!” squealed Fliss suddenly, half-sitting up and squinting into the sunshine.

      “Oh yes, the Open Day!” Rosie reminded me.

      “Well, that’s not the surprise actually,” I reminded them. “I think Mrs McAllister wants to keep that a bit, you know, low-key.”

      “Boring, more like!” Kenny chimed in.

      “She just wants to show everyone that the stables are open again, so that she can get her business back,” I explained.

      “Well if she wants to do that, she should make it fun” said Frankie, suddenly sitting up. You could tell by her voice that she was serious.

      “What do you mean?” I asked.

      “The more exciting the Open Day is, the more people are going to want to go to her for riding lessons,” Frankie explained patiently.

      “Yeah, remember how many people turned up for the Stable Fun Day?” Rosie reminded us.

      “But I don’t think she really wants to involve the horses again,” I tried to explain. “After what happened last time.”

      We all looked at Fliss, but she just started picking blades of grass from her dress.

      “The horses needn’t be involved at all.” Frankie was getting excited now. “We could have a horsey theme and just go with that.”

      “What, like the Wild West, maybe?” I asked. Dad’s always watching those old cowboy movies on TV.

      “Yeah, good one!” Frankie went on, her eyes blazing. “There could be a Wild West fancy-dress competition for children—”

      “And for adults!” Rosie chipped in. “Mum always fancies herself as a bit of a cowgirl. She goes line-dancing now.”

      “Yeah, she goes with my mum,” Fliss suddenly piped up. “Maybe we could have a bit of line-dancing at this Open Day! I’m sure our mums could persuade some of their friends to come along.”

      “That’s a good idea, Fliss,” Frankie nodded. “Because then Mrs McAllister could show off her stables to people who might not even know about them.”

      “And we could have real cowboy food!” I giggled. “Round a big campfire like they always have in those films!”

      “Yes!”

      We started to dance around. This was going to be brilliant!

      Then it hit me. We weren’t supposed to be organising Mrs McAllister’s Open Day at all.

      “But guys, the Open Day isn’t really anything to do with us!” I stopped jumping around.

      “It isn’t?” They all looked surprised.

      “No!” I laughed. “As well as having the Open Day for everybody, Mrs McAllister wants to give a special treat to just the five of us. It’s her way of saying thank you to us for helping raise money for the stables last time.”

      “Great! What is it?” asked Frankie.

      I took a deep breath. This was the moment I’d been waiting for!

      “Well, what about a sleepover? In one of the barns? We’ll be like real cowboys – it’ll be so cool! What do you say?”

      No-one said anything. They just stared at me.

      

      Fliss was the first to speak.

      “A sleepover in a b…barn? I don’t think so, Lyndz.”

      She looked round at the others for encouragement. Now I had expected problems from Fliss, but not from everyone else. I thought they’d be thrilled.

      “You mean, you want us to sleep where Alfie sleeps?” asked Rosie incredulously. “What if he tramples us or something?”

      “And wouldn’t it be a bit, you know, stinky?” sniffed Frankie. “You know what a mess it is when you’re mucking out.”

      I started to laugh.

      “De-err!” I put my finger to my head. “We’d be sleeping in an empty barn, dumbos, not a stable! We’d probably give Alfie nightmares if we pitched down our sleeping bags with him!”

      “Well, it sounds brill to me!” Kenny suddenly leapt up and flicked the brim of her cowboy hat with her finger. Then she put on a terrible American accent. “There’ll be a wild time in that ol’ barn when the Sleepover Club move into town. Yes siree!”

      “I’m still not sure,” Fliss mumbled. “It’ll be kind of spooky in a barn at night, won’t it?”

      “Mrs McAllister does have lights in there, you know,” I explained. “She’s had a full security system fitted too, and her house is right next door to the barn anyway. Come on Fliss, it’ll be as safe as anything. What do the rest of you think?”

      “I think it’s a brilliant idea. Count me in!” Kenny came to stand next to me. “What about you, Frankie? You’re not wimping out as well, are you?”

      “Nope.” Frankie stood up and came over to join us. “As long as the horses aren’t sleeping over with us, you can count me in too!”

      “And me!” Rosie leapt up. “It’ll be great, really different. It’s a brilliant idea, Lyndz!”

      Phew – that was a relief!

      “Well Fliss, are you in or out? Because you’re definitely outvoted, four to one,” Kenny told her firmly. “So we’ll be having this sleepover whether you’re there or not!”

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