Sleepover Girls in the Ring Read online

  “Sorry, Mrs C,” I grinned. “I just love this song, don’t you?”

  “You might find it sounds better if the hairdryer isn’t actually on, Kenny,” she said suspiciously. “But then again…”

  She cast her eye over the throws and the rug, but thankfully the stains had gone.

  “Right, I think it’s time you tidied all this lot away.” She looked down at all the circus props we’d abandoned on the floor. “And get yourselves ready for supper. I would appreciate a bit of quiet this evening too. I’ve got a mountain of work to do for college.”

  We picked up the stilts, juggling balls and all the other stuff, and took them upstairs. Whilst we did that, Rosie sneaked outside and emptied the bucket of water.

  Before supper we had a peek in the lounge. It looked perfect. I couldn’t believe that we’d actually got away with it!

  But we nearly didn’t, because Adam did his best to land us in it with his mum.

  He’s really clever, is Adam. He might not be able to speak clearly because of his cerebral palsy, but he sure knows how to manipulate people. We ended up playing stupid games with him all night, because when we said we were going to do our own stuff, he called “MUM!” and we just knew that he was going to grass on us. I mean, normally I would just love to play football games on the computer with him, but we really had more important things to be doing – like practising our routines for the circus.

  When Adam finally went to bed, we looked as though we had our chance. We piled into Rosie’s room, pushed all our sleeping bags and stuff to one side and started rehearsing. Rosie was making us all laugh by dancing on her stilts when Tiff burst in.

  “If you lot don’t shut up right now, I’m going to tell Mum!” she shouted.

  “Tell me what?”

  Rosie’s mum was standing behind Tiff. She looked dead tired and kind of cross.

  “Erm that, that… we’re going to stay awake all night!” I blurted out. Well, could you have come up with anything better under the circumstances?

  “Oh no you’re not!” Rosie’s mum raged. “In fact, you’re going to get ready for bed right now, and I don’t want to hear another peep out of you! And if I do, there’ll be no circus performance for any of you tomorrow. Do I make myself clear?”

  Rosie certainly hadn’t been kidding about how mad her mum can get!

  I can’t ever remember us getting ready for bed so quickly before, or so quietly. We hardly spoke to each other.

  “Do you think your mum’s found out about the lounge?” Frankie whispered when we were tucked up in our sleeping bags.

  “She must have,” Rosie replied anxiously. “I don’t see why she’d be so mad otherwise. I bet Adam’s told her.”

  We were all silent again.

  “Well, you know what they say,” I told the others seriously. “When the going gets tough, the tough get eating!”

  “Kenny, you nutter!” The others all bashed me with their pillows.

  We scrambled in our bags for our goodies and spread them out in the middle of the floor. I took three marshmallows and tried to juggle with them, but I was hopeless and kept dropping them. Soon there were sugary marks all down my pyjamas and all over my sleeping bag.

  “Well, I hope you do better than that tomorrow night!” laughed Frankie. “We’re going to look a right load of saddoes if that’s the best we can do!”

  She had a point.

  I couldn’t get that thought out of my head. In fact, I had a terrible nightmare. I was trying to juggle with Rosie’s sofas, but I kept dropping them. Then Molly picked me up and started tossing me to Edward Marsh. Fliss and Frankie kept flying past me on a trapeze, but couldn’t reach me. And Lyndz was wheeling Adam about and they were both laughing crazily. It was horrible, just horrible.

  It was quite a relief to wake up the next morning, to be honest. But then it hit home. Today was the day that we were going to be performing in front of loads of people – and we hadn’t practised enough!

  At least we had a session at the circus in the morning to try to sort ourselves out. But that didn’t start well. Molly was already rehearsing with Edward Marsh and two of the circus jugglers when we got there. I couldn’t bear to watch.

  “Hey, your sister’s really good!” Ailsa gushed enthusiastically as soon as she saw us. “Have you been practising together?”

  “No way!” I told her scornfully.

  “Oh,” she shrugged. “Well, let’s see what you can do, then.”

  Lyndz and I took out our juggling balls and started throwing them to each other. Or at least we tried to. More went on the floor than anywhere else.

  There was a load of slow clapping behind us. My stupid sister!

  “Well, you’re going to really wow them with that display, aren’t you!” she jeered. “You might as well give up now and leave it to the professionals!”

  She turned back and started one of her intricate routines with Edward Marsh. But then, saviours of the hour, the Circus Jamboree jugglers came over.

  “It’s only your timing that’s a bit off,” one of them smiled. “Look, keep your eyes on the balls and concentrate. That’s all there is to it.”

  They encouraged us to start juggling slowly. Then, when we’d got our confidence, they started juggling with us, throwing balls to us and receiving ours. After almost an hour we’d really got it together, and I felt grrrreat!

  “Thanks, guys!”

  “No problem!” they grinned. “You’re going to be fantastic this evening. Just forget about the audience.”

  Whilst we’d been brushing up our juggling skills, the others had also been having extra tuition, so by the end of the morning we were full of beans and raring to go for the evening’s performance.

  “Shouldn’t we practise a clown routine?” asked Fliss anxiously. “I know Ailsa’s dad said we didn’t have to, but we don’t want to look stupid, do we?”

  “Look, Fliss,” I said, putting my arm round her. “The only person who’s going to look stupid is Molly. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve for the clown part. All you’ve got to do is follow my lead!”

  “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” asked Rosie. “It’s your plans that usually get us into trouble.”

  “Look, do you want to humiliate Molly or not?” I demanded.

  We looked over to where Molly was grinning and mouthing “Losers” to us.

  “I guess so!” the others agreed.

  “Well, that’s settled then,” I told them. “Just leave it to me, and meet me here half an hour before the show starts. I’ll fill you in on what you have to do then.”

  As soon as I got home, I shut myself in my bedroom. I put on my clown suit and went through all my routines. Then I worked out how I could get Molly once and for all.

  By the time I got to the circus for the evening performance, I was really pumped up. But the others seemed kind of nervous.

  “We’re going to have a blast!” I assured them. “And this is what you need to know for our clown section…”

  I got them all in a huddle and whispered the most important information to them. I’d brought a prop bag with me and I showed them what was inside.

  “Right you lot, curtain’s up in five minutes. Are you ready?” Ailsa’s dad called as he rushed past.

  The other performers were doing their warm-up exercises. I could see Molly messing about with Edward Marsh, laughing and stuff.

  “Well, you won’t be laughing when I’ve finished with you!” I grinned to myself.

  And I grabbed my juggling balls and started to practise.

  “Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Circus Jamboree!” Ailsa’s dad was already introducing us. “We are proud to present – our young circus students!”

  There was a blast of music, and the performers were pushing us out into the ring. This was it! There was no going back now!

  We ran out. I couldn’t BELIEVE how many people there were. I couldn’t pick out any faces because only the ring itself was lit up, bu
t you could tell that the Big Top was packed.

  I took up my position, threw my balls into the air and – something cannoned into me, making me drop them all on the ground. The crowd started to roar with laughter. That certainly wasn’t part of the plan. What was going on?

  Dazed, I turned to see Molly grinning at me.

  “Sorry, sis!” she smirked as she weaved her way across the ring, juggling her balls rhythmically with Edward Marsh.

  “OK Kenny, keep cool!” I told myself.

  I’d just got into my stride with my own juggling when there was a crash over on the other side of the ring. I stopped in my tracks to see Frankie scrambling up from the floor with her unicycle on top of her.

  “Molly walked into her on purpose,” Lyndz whispered to me. “I saw her.”

  Man, this was too much! I was getting so mad that steam was coming out of my ears.

  “She’s not going to get away with this!” I hissed.

  But looking across at Molly, it seemed like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. She was doing all these intricate routines, and they all seemed to involve making me and my mates look as stupid as possible. Like when they juggled right into Fliss’s spinning plates.

  “Over to you!” they kept yelling, and crash! One of their balls would knock one of Fliss’s plates off its pole on to the ground.

  “Hey, watch it!” Fliss squeaked. She was so shocked that she forgot to keep spinning the other plates. And as soon as she remembered, Molly and her stupid sidekick juggled another of their balls into them anyway. Soon, all poor Fliss’s plates were lying on the ground and Fliss was nearly in tears.

  “You were never much good at things like this, were you Fliss!” Molly smirked as Fliss scrambled to pick her plates up. “And that trapeze act was just a fluke, too!”

  “It was not!” Fliss spat angrily, and looked up just in time to see Molly walk right into the path of Rosie on her stilts.

  “No..no..NO!” Rosie yelled as she came crashing to the ground – right on top of Lyndz!

  “Look out!” screamed Lyndz, dropping her juggling balls. But it was too late. Frankie had already run into Rosie and toppled off her unicyle again. And although I’d seen it all happening, it was almost like I was watching it on a film and couldn’t do anything about it.

  “Move, Kenny! NOW!” Frankie screamed at me – but it was no good. With a thud, I landed on the ground on top of her.

  “Right, you’ve got it coming, Molly!” I yelled, and made to storm over to her. But just at that moment, the lights dimmed and we were being ushered out of the ring by Ailsa’s dad and the other performers.

  “Weren’t they wonderful!” Ailsa’s dad roared to the audience. “Let’s give them a big hand! And don’t worry – we’ll be seeing more of our students later in the performance!”

  It was like he hadn’t even noticed what Molly had been doing!

  “You two were fantastic!” I heard Simon, one of the jugglers, congratulating Molly and Edward. “You could get a job with us any day!”

  That was too much to bear, it really was. The last straw, the final frontier, the END.

  “We’ve got to make sure we sort out Molly and her stupid little friend next time!” I snarled at the others.

  “You’re not kidding!” moaned Frankie. “My bum’s black and blue, she knocked me over so many times.”

  “And did you see what your two-faced sister did to my plates?” wailed Fliss. “It was horrible the way the audience kept laughing as though it was part of the act!”

  “Well, Molly will be laughing on the other side of BOTH her faces when the audience see our clown act!” I assured them bravely. “Let’s all get changed so we can sort everything out.”

  We went into the smaller tent next to the Big Top which served as a dressing room. We’d left our costumes in there earlier, along with my prop bag.

  “What if Molly sees us?” asked Lyndz.

  “I wouldn’t worry about that,” Frankie said. “She was too busy lapping up praise last time I saw her.”

  We peeped out of the tent, and could just see Molly giggling and joking with some of the other performers.

  “Told you!” Frankie said with a sigh.

  By the time we were all changed, the tent was empty because all the other performers were involved in the show. I tossed my secret props to the others and we got to work. I’d brought cans of shaving foam and paper plates. I’d also got one of those fake flowers filled with water, and loads of cans of custard which we emptied into two big bowls.

  “How are we going to hide all this lot, then?” Rosie asked.

  “We’ll just keep it in here until the start of the second half,” I told her. “Then, whilst I’m doing all my funny stuff, all you’ve got to do is run on with everything and mess about with it a bit. You know, pretend you’re going to throw it into the audience and stuff. But make sure you watch me for my cue!”

  The others all nodded nervously.

  There was a burst of applause from the Big Top.

  “It sounds like the first half’s finished!” I said. “It won’t be long now…”

  We all hung around because we didn’t want to leave our things unattended and risk Molly discovering them. Then Ailsa rushed over to us. She was in a green spangly costume and was looking flushed after her acrobatic display.

  “Hey, you did well,” she grinned. “It’s a pity your sister spoilt it, though.”

  “Don’t worry, it’s pay-back time now!” I told her grimly.

  She looked puzzled. “What are you going to do?”

  “Oh, you’ll see. There isn’t any water around here, is there?” I asked.

  “For a drink, you mean?” she asked.

  “No, in a bucket or something.”

  “Well, there are fire buckets standing by all the exits, just in case,” she explained. “But it’s kind of dangerous to use water in the ring, in case the other performers slip and hurt themselves. You’re not going to do anything stupid, are you?”

  “No, ‘course not,” I assured her, my fingers crossed behind my back. “I just want to be prepared.”

  Molly brushed past us.

  “Well, that was a pathetic display, I must say,” she smarmed. “I don’t think anyone will be inviting you to join the circus, will they?”

  We pulled gruesome faces at her, but she just laughed. When she’d gone, Rosie said, “I hope your plan works, Kenny, because I’m really SICK of your sister.”

  We all had to agree with that.

  Suddenly Ailsa’s dad appeared.

  “Are you ready for your clown acts?” he smiled. “It’ll only be for a few moments, so just go out there and enjoy it.”

  Then he ran into the Big Top and announced:

  “Now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for! Tonight we have some very special clowns for you. Put your hands together for… our students!”

  Loud clown-type music started blaring out.

  “Have you got your props?” I asked the others quickly. “Just remember, we’ve got to humiliate Molly – TO THE MAX!”

  We all ran out into the ring. Then, one minute I was on my feet – the next I was making my entrance skidding across the sawdust on my front.

  “What the…?” I looked up, dazed.

  “Enjoy your trip, sucker?” laughed Molly. She’d only stuck out her leg to make me fall over hadn’t she, the creep!

  By the time I’d limped over to the others, they were all pretending to throw the foam pies at the audience, then pulling away at the last minute. When Molly got closer to us, I went up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned round – and I twanged my braces in her face.

  “Take that, dog breath!” I grinned.

  That was the cue! Suddenly the whole Sleepover Club crowded round Molly so that she was cut off from her little friend Edward Marsh.

  “Let me go, you creeps!” she said through gritted teeth.

  “Not likely!” I beamed. “You know w
hat the clowns taught us. You’ve got to interact with other people, remember?”

  I poked my plastic flower right in Molly’s face, but she was a bit too quick for that. She ducked and I ended up squirting Fliss in the eye.

  “GidoutofitKenny!” Fliss squeaked, trying to wipe her eyes and at the same time hang on to the plate she was holding.

  “I’m going to show you what real clowning is all about, creeps!” Molly spat, and looked round for Edward Marsh.

  Catching her off guard, Frankie got her right in the chops with a foam pie. SPLAT!

  “You morons!” Molly spluttered, wiping the foam flecks away.

  “Oh, morons, are we?” Fliss asked menacingly – and whammed Molly with a second pie. THWACK!

  I poured a bowl of custard down the front of her trousers as well. And all the while, the audience was in complete hysterics.

  “Do you think she needs some water to wash her down?” I called out to them, running to one of the exits for a water bucket. “Should I throw this at her?”

  The kids in the audience were going crazy! “YESSS!” they were screaming.

  I ran back towards Molly – but suddenly the bucket was whipped out of my hands. Molly had wrenched it from my grasp.

  “Gimme that, scuzz brain!” she snarled, and swung the bucket back.

  “Don’t do it, Molly! it was only a jo—”

  We ducked down just before she threw the whole lot over the audience. And it wasn’t just any part of the audience, either.

  “Mrs Weaver… Mrs Poole!”

  Frankie went white as she recognised our teacher and headmistress. Their hair was plastered to their faces and their make-up was starting to run. This had turned into a disaster of earth-shattering proportions!!

  Ailsa’s dad rushed on, blew his whistle and ushered us all from the ring. The rest of the audience were still shrieking and clapping. Then suddenly, I heard a voice that I knew all too well…

  “You little idiots!” roared Dad, grabbing me and Molly. “You’ve gone way too far this time!”

  What a way for the show to end!

  When me and Molly got home, we were subjected to an hour’s lecture on behaving responsibly in public and how we had let everybody down. Wah, wah, wah. I had the most miserable weekend ever. And when I saw the others on the following Monday at school, it seemed that they had endured similar tortures. And Mrs Weaver gave us loads of extra homework, although she didn’t mention anything about Saturday night.