Sleepover Girls in the Ring (7 page)

“I feel most comfortable on the trapeze,”
sighed Fliss. “But I don’t suppose that counts, does it? I mean, I know yesterday was just a one-off and everything, but I was obviously a natural.”

The rest of us rolled our eyes,

“No Fliss, I think you’ll have to pick something else,” Frankie told her.

By the end of the afternoon, we’d all gone into different groups. But unfortunately I’d chosen to juggle, and so had Molly. I don’t know whether it was because there were quite a few of us in that group, or whether Ailsa’s dad had seen Molly and me looking daggers at each other, but he split the group into two and made sure that we were kept apart! But Lyndz was with me anyway, so that was cool.

First we started by flipping one ball up and over into each hand. Then we added another. It worked better than with doughnuts, to be honest. Then, when we felt confident with the way that felt, we added a third ball. Lyndz and I were pretty dreadful. Our balls were flipping about all over the shop. One of mine even landed on one of the
plates Fliss was learning to spin in the ring behind us. That didn’t go down too well, I can tell you. But then
I
didn’t take too kindly to Frankie crashing into me on her unicycle.

“Watch it!” I yelled as I ended up on the floor with all my balls hitting me as they fell.

“So-rree!” sighed Frankie, picking herself up. “This isn’t easy, you know!”

But, with a bit of practice, we all started getting the hang of things. We even started trying to juggle with a partner. Lyndz kept giggling because she said I was sticking my tongue out and I kept putting her off.

“I’m only concentrating,” I told her.

But just at that moment I saw something which made me lose my concentration BIG time. It was Molly and Edward. They were juggling together, and they looked really good (although I hate to admit it). They’d got their timing right and everything, and they didn’t drop a ball once.

“I don’t believe it!” I hissed to Lyndz.

“Molly’s actually
good
at something! But why does she have to be good at it in front of me?”

Before we went home, Ailsa’s dad called us all together again.

“I have an important announcement to make!” he told us, grinning from ear to ear. “We’re all so thrilled about how well you’re doing that we want you all to perform in the circus on Saturday!”

First there was an astonished hush. Then we all started chattering at once!

“I can’t do that!” squeaked Fliss. “It’ll be too embarrassing!”

“Get real, it’ll be brilliant!” I reassured her.

“In the first half we want you all to open the show by demonstrating the skills you’ve all just been practising,” Ailsa’s dad continued. “Then we’d like you to open the second half of the show by being those great circus favourites – yes, we want you all to be clowns! You don’t have to do anything special, just run about in silly costumes and have a laugh.”

How brilliant was that!

We couldn’t talk about anything else all the way home. And when I did get home, Molly was already blabbing about the
performance to Mum.

“It’s going to be great, because me and Edward have this great routine worked out and…”

“Nanananana,” I mimicked behind her back.

Molly spun round. “Will you just shut up? You’re only jealous because you’re so useless!”

“Oh, yeah? Well, at least I’m not all soppy and mushy over a stupid boy. I bet he’s really laughing at you behind your back.”

“That’s it!”

Before Mum could stop her, Molly had pushed me against the fridge and was yanking at my hair. I kicked her in the shins and left her writhing on the floor.

“Stop it you two,
now!
” Mum shouted. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

She hauled us up by our ears and held us there like we were two stinky socks. “It might surprise you to learn that
I
make the decisions around here,” she told us angrily. “So if I decide, in my infinite wisdom, that you’re too naughty and downright unruly to
even go back to the circus again, never mind to star in a performance, then my decision goes. Do you understand?”

We both grimaced and nodded.

“And remember, Kenny, that you’re already on a warning after that incident at Fliss’s,” Mum reminded me grimly.

Molly went, “Ha ha!” behind Mum’s back.

“I heard that!” Mum retorted. “There’s a mound of potatoes need peeling in the kitchen, Molly, and I suggest you go and do that right now.”

She shuffled off sulkily and I went upstairs. There was no way that I was going to let Molly get the better of me. And there was no way that I was going to let her upstage me in the circus performance. OK, so she was good at juggling. But if the rest of us practised hard enough, we could be pretty impressive, I felt sure. The question was, how were we ever going to practise without her seeing what we were doing?

We needed a plan. A big fat hairy plan. And I knew that it was in my head somewhere. I lay on my bed and started drifting off to
sleep. And that’s how it came to me. What we needed was a sleepover. And we needed to arrange one fast.

Now you’d think the others would be mega-excited at the thought of a sleepover, wouldn’t you? Well, their reaction when I suggested it to them the next morning was lukewarm, to say the least.

“What’s wrong with you guys?” I yelled at them. “We used to
live
for sleepovers, remember? We’re the Sleepover Club!”

“We know that,” said Frankie slowly. “But look what happened the last time we were together. You know, the, er, Jam Doughnut Incident. I can’t exactly see our parents being overjoyed at the thought of us all getting together again.”

“Well, there’s no way my mum would have you lot in my house,” mumbled Fliss. “And I doubt very much whether she’d let me go to a sleepover anywhere else, either.”

“I reckon my mum wouldn’t mind,” admitted Lyndz. “But our house is still like a bomb site, so we couldn’t have one there. What about your place, Kenny?”

“The whole point of us having a sleepover is to practise our routines without Molly finding out about them,” I reminded her. “So there wouldn’t be much point in you lot coming to my place and flaunting them under her nose, would there?”

“Mum probably would let me have a sleepover if I talked her round a bit,” Frankie said. We all started grinning. I mean no-one can talk her parents round like Frankie. “Only Izzy’s still poorly, so it’ll have to wait,” she added.

We all sighed despondently again.

Rosie was being very quiet. We all turned to her.

“Well, Rosie-Posie, it looks like you’re our last hope,” I put my arm round her. “What do
you say?”

“I..I..I don’t know,” she stammered. “I mean, Mum was cool about me coming here, but I don’t know whether she’d let me have a sleepover. Not when she’s just got the lounge nice and everything.”

“But we won’t be going in the lounge,” I reassured her. “All we’ll be doing is rehearsing our stuff outside and sleeping in your room. Simple. She can lock the lounge door for all we care, can’t she girls?”

The others nodded enthusiastically.

“Right, that’s settled then,” I slapped her on the back. “You work on your mum this evening and tell her that we’ll be as good as gold. And tell her our reputation is at stake. Today we’ve got to start practising like crazy so we don’t look total lame-brains on Saturday. And remember to spy on my stupid sister whenever you get the chance. I’m not having her showing us up, OK?”

We went into the Big Top to find the others all busy rehearsing. Molly started giggling with Edward Marsh as soon as she saw us.

“Ignore them,” I hissed.

But it wasn’t easy. Their juggling was just so darned
good.
So good, in fact, that some of the regular jugglers let them practise a few of their routines with them. Whilst Lyndz and I were struggling to keep two balls in the air, there were Molly and Edward tossing hoops about in complicated sequences and hardly making a mistake at all! Gutted!

At least Frankie, Rosie and Fliss looked pretty impressive with their skills. Frankie could ride her unicycle at speed without tumbling off it, Rosie was quite a star on stilts, and Fliss could keep four plates spinning at once with only a
teensy
amount of dithering on her part.

As we were leaving at the end of the day, Molly brushed past us.

“We’re going to wipe the floor with you, suckers!” she smirked.

“Not if we’ve got anything to do with it!” I shouted back.

When she’d gone I turned to the others. “Now do you see why we’ve got to have this
sleepover? I’ll never live it down if she shows me up! My whole life will be cursed. Please, Rosie – you’ve GOT to help me.”

Rosie looked at me slowly and grinned.

“Well if you put it like that,” she said, “I’d better get pleading with my mum. I don’t want you on my conscience for the rest of my life!”

That night I couldn’t concentrate – mainly because I was wondering how Rosie was getting on, but also because Molly kept tormenting me by juggling with a load of fruit, right in front of my face.

“Pack it in!” I yelled, taking a swipe at a banana.

“Jealous, are you?” she sneered.

I would have whacked her, but the phone rang. I flew to answer it, and all I heard was Rosie yelling:

“It’s on! Friday night!”

“Yippee!” I jigged about in the hall.

“But we can’t pull any crazy stunts, Kenny, I mean it,” warned Rosie, getting serious. “Mum says if we mess up her new lounge, we’re done for. And believe me, when Mum
gets mad, she gets MAD. We could even be talking about severed body parts here.”

“Phew, heav-y!” I sighed. “But hey, we’re not going to mess up, are we? So there’s no problem.”

Fortunately that’s what the others said too. And by some miracle, Fliss had actually persuaded her mum to let her go to the sleepover without too much of a fight. (I put that down to hormones myself, with her being pregnant and everything. She probably didn’t really know what she was saying!) We finally had a real live sleepover to look forward to! And as I said to the others, we’d be so busy perfecting our circus skills that we wouldn’t even have time to
think
about getting up to any mischief. Well, that was the theory anyway.

By the time Friday night came, we were all pretty stressed out, to tell you the truth. It was obvious that Molly was MILES better than Lyndz and me at juggling. And the others weren’t very confident that their own skills would be enough to take the limelight away from her.

But we still had a trump card up our sleeves. When it came to being a clown, I was the KING! Molly was about as funny as a cup of cold sick. And hopefully that would be what everyone remembered.

“OK then, let’s dump our stuff and get practising!” I commanded as soon as we arrived back at Rosie’s.

“But I’m hungry,” moaned Rosie. “Who’s for Coke and crisps first?”

“Yes!”

Anybody would think the others
wanted
Molly to make them look stupid at the circus. I was a bit disgusted that they were more bothered about their stomachs than our performance, to be honest. But I figured that I should join them, just to make sure that they didn’t eat too much. So when we’d all had a snack and put our stuff in Rosie’s room and got our circus equipment together to practise with, we all trooped downstairs. And who should meet us there but Tiff, Rosie’s boot-faced older sister.

“Now you lot, if you set foot in the lounge, you’re dead. I mean it. No-one’s to go in
there, understood? Spud’s just finished painting the other side of the door, so we’ve got to leave it open so it won’t stick. But just keep away from there, OK?”

We all nodded and smiled sweetly, then stuck our tongues out at her behind her back. Spud, her boyfriend, appeared and nodded hello. He never really speaks, does Spud, just nods and grunts a bit. Very strange. Anyway, he went into the kitchen to wash out his paintbrushes and we got ourselves ready to start rehearsing.

“Come on, let’s go outside!” I urged the others. But when I opened the front door, I saw that it was already dropping dark and was starting to rain.

“We’ll have to go to my room,” Rosie said.

“But there’s not enough space there now, with all our sleepover things laid out,” Frankie reminded her.