Mega Sleepover 4. Narinder Dhami

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СКАЧАТЬ Mum!” I groaned. “It’s so boring!”

      We pulled up outside Rosie’s house. Two pathetic balloons were dangling from the gate. They made me feel a bit sad.

      “Oh no!” gasped Frankie. “It’s 5.02pm. We’re late!” I put my hand to my forehead in mock despair.

      “Oh no! How could we be so irresponsible?” I cried. “Rosie will never forgive us!”

      “Now girls,” warned mum quite sternly. “Don’t go upsetting Rosie. Oh look, here come Lyndz and Fliss.”

      Lyndz’s dad drew up in his large van and Lyndz and Fliss leapt out.

      “We’re late!” they both shouted and we all laughed. We were all wearing our special badges and we felt pretty cool.

      We started walking up the path and a huge gust of wind hit us. It lifted Fliss so far off the ground that she looked as though she was flying!

      “I always knew you were a witch Fliss!” I laughed.

      “You’re too skinny,” said Lyndz digging her in the ribs. “You need building up.”

      Fliss looked a bit flustered, then kept saying, “Did you see me fly? I actually got right off the ground. Did you see?”

      Frankie and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes. We would never hear the end of it now!

      When we got to Rosie’s front door, there was a soggy piece of paper stuck to it. It said ‘TIMETABLE’ in smudged ink. The first item – ‘Outdoor Games’ – had been crossed out.

      “Oh dear!” muttered Frankie.

      Rosie came to the door, even before we’d knocked.

      “Sorry we’re late,” we all said together.

      “Doesn’t matter,” mumbled Rosie. “You’d better come in.”

      It was almost as gloomy inside the house as it was outside.

      “Hi Adam!” I called, seeing Rosie’s brother in the hall. He just nodded. You remember Adam don’t you? He’s got cerebral palsy, and is in a wheelchair. He’s got a wicked sense of humour and he’s usually heaps of fun. Not on Saturday he wasn’t. He just sulked in a corner and looked miserable.

      “What’s up with him?” I asked Rosie as we went up to her bedroom.

      “Dad promised to take him fishing, but he had to cancel. He had a big job to finish or something.” Rosie sounded miserable too.

      We all looked anxiously at each other behind Rosie’s back. Somehow this wasn’t turning out to be the fun birthday party we’d expected.

      “Where shall we put our presents?” asked Fliss.

      “There’s a big sack in the room next to the bathroom. I’ve put mine in it already. If the rest of you put yours in, mum said I could lock the door and then get the presents out again at bedtime,” explained Rosie.

      “Cool!”

      We’d all arranged to wrap our presents in brown paper so that they would all look similar. We sneaked out of Rosie’s bedroom separately and put the presents in the sack. When it was my turn I had a feel at the ones that were already in there. They all felt very interesting, but I couldn’t tell what anything was. I couldn’t find mine either!

      When we had all put our presents in the sack, Rosie locked the door and put the key under her pillow.

      “Right then Batman. What have you got planned instead of outdoor games?” I asked Rosie.

      “Well, I haven’t really,” she muttered.

      “What! Nothing planned?” I shrieked. “That’s outrageous! We expect better of you Miss Cartwright! Don’t we girls!” The others looked very serious and nodded.

      Rosie began to smile.

      “Well I thought maybe we could play ‘Hide and Seek’,” she said quietly. “If that’s alright with you.”

      “Cool!”

      “Wicked!”

      “Brill!”

      Rosie looked happy again. Then Tiffany, her sister, burst into the room.

      “I hope you lot aren’t going to be noisy all afternoon!” she snapped.

      Noisy? That wasn’t noisy! She hadn’t heard anything yet! Her boyfriend, Spud, appeared in the doorway behind her.

      “Aw Tiff, give them a break,” he said. “Let them have a laugh.”

      Still scowling, she walked downstairs after him.

      “What’s her problem?” asked Frankie.

      “Mum’s had to go somewhere for one of her assignments at college. And she’s left Tiff and Spud in charge until she gets back. Tiff is not very pleased!” explained Rosie. She looked as though she was going to get miserable again, so I said,

      “I’ll be ‘it’. 1,2,3,…”

      The others screamed and I could hear them scampering away to hide.

      “… 99,100. Coming! Ready or not!”

      Rosie’s house is a pretty cool house to hide in – but not such a great place to do the seeking in! There seem to be so many secret places that you just couldn’t possibly know about. Usually Adam is a great help to whoever is seeking. He kind of gestures with his head, and creeps up behind you silently in his wheelchair and moves to where someone is hiding.

      “Any clues Adam?” I called to him when I passed him in the hallway. But he just sat there looking sad. Surely Rosie’s father’s job couldn’t have been that important. If Adam were my son, I’d always take him fishing when I promised him that I would.

      “Hie!”

      Lyndz is always easy to find. The excitement gets to her, then she starts hiccuping.

      “Easy-peasy!” I told her. Then she giggled even more and went bright red.

      “Honestly Lyndz. What are you like!” I laughed. “Come on. Help me find the others.”

      We eventually found Frankie in a cloakroom downstairs. She was under a pile of coats and it was only her big feet that gave her away! I would recognise those trainers anywhere! Rosie was harder to find, but that’s not surprising when it’s her house and she knows all its secret places. There’s a staircase, which leads to more rooms in the roof, and sort of tucked underneath it is a tiny hiding space. We only found it by accident because Lyndz tripped over and fell into it.

      “Ouch!” cried a voice. We’d found Rosie!

      After another half an hour of looking we still hadn’t found Fliss. And we were bored. We shouted that we were giving up the search.

      “Do СКАЧАТЬ