I couldn’t believe it when the hooter sounded again. I mean, I know that a minute isn’t very long, but it had to be longer than that, surely! Mr Hicks led them to one of the checkouts, where a cashier processed their goods so they could find out how much money they’d saved. We weren’t really interested in that, so we pushed our way outside.
“Isn’t it cool to think that they won that prize because of us!” Frankie grinned. “It makes you feel good, doesn’t it?”
We all had to agree that it did.
“Hey, McKenzie!” shouted a voice behind me. It was Ryan. He was walking towards us bouncing a football on his knee.
“Yeah?”
“I wondered if you wanted this.” He kicked the ball towards me. “Me and Danny got one each and this was, like, a mistake.”
“Oh charming!” I laughed.
“You want it or not?” he asked, sounding a bit cross.
“Yeah, thanks,” I said gruffly. “You can never have too many footballs, can you?”
Ryan walked away, and I started to bounce the ball from my foot to my knee and back again. I even forgot to tease him about being with his mum!
“He didn’t get you anything, did he, Fliss?” Frankie teased.
“I wouldn’t want him to,” she snapped. “He only gave Kenny that ball because it was a mistake, remember?”
“Ooh, touchy!” mocked Rosie.
“Look, there’s Mum!” Lyndz shouted, pointing to her parents’ van. “Hey Mum, you’ve just missed the trolley dash. You could have won that if you’d done better at the scavenger hunt.”
Her mum laughed.
“I did have Spike and Ben slowing me down, don’t forget!”
The rest of our parents were there too. They all seemed to be having a laugh about us keeping quiet for the sponsored silence.
“Maybe we should pay you to do that more often!” suggested Frankie’s mum.
“No way!” we all said together.
During half-term, we took all the money we’d raised to the bank and paid it into Dad’s account. No, the M&Ms hadn’t been right about us keeping the money for ourselves. It’s just that Dad said that was the best way of looking after the money until we could hand it in to the Children’s Ward Appeal Fund. When we did, he wrote out a cheque for £300, which included the money for Mufti Day, the money raised from the scavenger hunt and my baked-bean bath, our sponsored-silence money, Molly’s pocket money and Dad’s money to make it up to “a nice round figure”.
It was really cool, because when we called into the Children’s Ward to give them our cheque, everybody was really thrilled.
Sister Kay, who is in charge of the ward, told us, “We should really have a proper presentation for this.” So she arranged something for the following week.
We couldn’t believe it when we went there after school and the ward was filled with balloons and bunting and a big sign saying:
THANK YOU, SLEEPOVER CLUB!
And that wasn’t all. They’d arranged for a reporter and a photographer to come from the Leicester Mercury as well. They took loads of photographs and asked us how we’d raised the money. Jake even told them how brilliant the scavenger hunt had been.
Our photographs ended up on the front page of the paper. That really wound up the M&Ms. We’re never going to let them forget it, but I have a nasty feeling that they’re already planning their revenge on us.
Still, we’re not going to worry about that now. Fliss has got a copy of the photograph, do you want to come and see it? We’re meeting there for tea and she’ll probably invite you too. But whatever you do, don’t let her give us any baked beans!!!
Have you been invited to all these sleepovers?
The Sleepover Club at Frankie’s
The Sleepover Club at Felicity’s
The Sleepover Club at Rosie’s
The Sleepover Club at Kenny’s
Starring the Sleepover Club
The Sleepover Girls go Spice
The 24 Hour Sleepover Club
The Sleepover Club Sleeps Out
Happy Birthday, Sleepover Club
Sleepover Girls on Horseback
Sleepover in Spain
Sleepover on Friday 13th
Sleepover Girls at Camp
Sleepover Girls go Detective
Sleepover Girls go Designer
The Sleepover Club Surfs the Net
Sleepover Girls on Screen
Sleepover Girls and Friends
Sleepover Girls on the Catwalk
The Sleepover Club Goes for Goal!
Sleepover Girls Go Babysitting
Sleepover Girls Go Snowboarding
Happy New Year, Sleepover Club!
Sleepover Club 2000
We Love You Sleepover Club
Vive le Sleepover Club!
Sleepover Club Eggstravaganza
Sleepover Kit List
Sleeping bag
Pyjamas or a nightdress
Slippers
Toothbrush, toothpaste, soap etc
Towel
Teddy
A creepy story
food for a midnight feast: chocolate, crisps, sweets, biscuits. In fact anything you like to eat.
Torch
Hairbrush
Hair things like a bobble or hairband, if you need them
Clean knickers and socks
Change of clothes for the next day
Sleepover diary and membership card
Copyright
The Sleepover Club ® is a registered trademark of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
First published in Great Britain by Collins in 2000
Collins is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
77–85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London, W6 8JB
The HarperCollins website address is www.fireandwater.com
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Text copyright © Fiona Cummings 2000
Original series characters, plotlines and settings © Rose Impey 1997
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © JUNE 2012 ISBN 9780007401185
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.
About the Publisher
Australia
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77–85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollins.com