Sleepovers Read online

  It was another white witchy ghost movie. This one was even worse. It's about a girl walking in the country by herself. She keeps looking round anxiously and you hear these footsteps and then there's this awful waily breathing noise, a bit like Lily having one of her spells but worse, so the girl starts to run and she sees this camping site and she runs harder and shouts but then something grabs at her and you see her face and she screams and screams and screams.

  I had to suck my thumb hard to stop myself screaming too.

  "Look at little suck-a-thumb! Baby!" said Chloe. "She's scared of a silly film."

  "I'm scared too," said Emily.

  "And me," said Amy.

  "Can't we do something else, like see if there's any cake left?" said Bella.

  "No, no, you've got to watch the bit that comes next. It's so cool!" said Chloe.

  We were at the camping site now. The girl is inside her tent, just waking up and stretching, and then she sees something poking at her tent from the outside and she laughs at first, thinking it's one of her friends. She even calls out to them, but there's no reply, there's just this awful waily noise and then suddenly a terrible white claw rips through the tent and I had to shut my eyes tight and I nearly bit right through my thumb.

  "Watch it, Daisy. Don't close your eyes!" said Chloe.

  "I don't want to watch it," said Bella.

  "She doesn't have to watch it if she doesn't want to," said Amy.

  "Shall we switch it off?" said Emily, getting up.

  "Sit down, Emily. You're all babies. Of course we're not switching it off," said Chloe.

  But then we heard my Dad calling just outside and Chloe shot up quick and stopped the video. A film on television flashed on instead just in time.

  "How are you doing, girls?" said Dad, putting his head round the door. "Are you OK, Daisy?"

  "Yes, Dad," I said.

  "I thought you were watching 101 Dalmatians?" said Dad, looking at the television.

  "Oh, we were. But we just wanted to peek at this film on the telly too," said Chloe in this cutesy-pie tone she uses for her own dad.

  My dad didn't look as if he totally believed her. He blinked at the television.

  "Well, I don't think you should be watching this old film. I saw it years ago and it gets a bit scary," said Dad.

  Compared to Chloe's white witchy ghost films it was about as scary as Teletubbies, but I was glad when Dad switched the television off, even so.

  "Anyway, I've come to announce that your sleeping quarters are now fully prepared, noble ladies," said Dad in a daft voice, bowing low.

  He'd got it beautifully cosy inside the tent, with the big cushions from the sofa to sprawl on and the special garden fairy lights rigged up inside the tent so it glowed precious jewel colours, amber, emerald and ruby. There were lots of our old shawls and rugs and cardis too so that we were still ever so cosy when we were changed into our pyjamas.

  Then we talked and talked and talked and talked: about our favourite singers (I copied Emily) and footballers (I copied Emily again) and the boys in our class at school (I didn't need to copy because they're all gross). Then we made up our favourite clothes and this time I went first and invented this seriously cool black-and-silver outfit with black high heels and Emily copied me because she said she liked the sound of mine so much. We chose our favourite colours (black and silver, naturally) and our favourite animals (Emily and I both said "bears" together and burst out laughing). Then we all said what we wanted to do when we grew up. Emily said she wanted to be a footballer and if she couldn't she'd teach PE in school and I said I wanted to be an artist but if I couldn't I'd teach Art in school. Chloe said I was a useless copycat which wasn't fair because I've always loved Art and I'm good at teaching too. I teach Lily lots, even though she doesn't learn very quickly. Chloe said teachers were boring anyway and she was going to be a famous actress. Amy said she was going to be a famous dancer and Bella said she was going to be a famous TV chef. Then she said she felt a bit peckish and at that exact moment Mum came out with big mugs of hot chocolate (and a hot blackcurrant for Emily) and a bowl of popcorn.

  "Wow! This is the best sleepover party ever," said Bella. "Even better than mine."

  "It's nowhere near as good as mine," said Chloe.

  "We've all had super sleepovers," said Emily. "But yours is just great, Daisy," and she reached for my hand under the rug and gave it a squeeze.

  While we sipped our drinks and munched popcorn we swapped our Most Embarrassing Moments (I'm not going to tell you!) and we laughed so much the bowl tipped over and we had to play hunt the popcorn in our sleeping bags. Then we played Double Dare and some of the dares were amazingly outrageous (I'm not going to tell you again, though I will just say that one of us took her pyjamas off and went into the garden and ran right round the tent, but it was dark by then so no-one could see – I hope!)

  Then we started to tell ghost stories and that was fun at first but Chloe's started to get a bit too scary.

  "Do shut up, Chloe," Emily begged, putting her hands over her ears.

  "Don't be stupid. It's just a story. Ghosts aren't real," said Chloe.

  "Yes, they are! My granny kept seeing the ghost of my grandad after he died," said Amy.

  "Let's play ghosts," said Bella, and she pulled the white pillow case off her pillow and put it over her head and made funny who-o-o-o ghost noises. Then she went oooh instead because she'd found some more popcorn inside the pillowcase and went gobble gobble munch munch.

  "You are a piglet, Bella," said Amy.

  So Bella made piglet noises and then we all played a daft game of Farmyard and got the giggles so badly our tummies hurt. Then we sang all the songs we knew and then we played making up a poem together.

  I started it.

  "We are the special Alphabet Girls." "Some of us have straight hair, some of us have curls," said Emily.

  "We all like to dance if we get the chance," said Amy.

  "We eat lots of chocolate yum yum yum," said Bella.

  "Chloe and Emily, Amy and Bella, and Daisy Diddums Fat Bum," said Chloe.

  "Daisy isn't a bit fat," said Emily.

  "I am, but I don't care," said Bella. "Daisy, do you think your mum might have some more popcorn in the kitchen?"

  "I think my mum and dad have gone to bed now. But tell you what we have got . . . my birthday chocolates!"

  I handed round the box. Emily said she was far too full up to have even half a chocolate. Amy took one. Chloe chose the special caramel and hazelnut, my favourite. Bella took one – and then another and another – and then even she said sleepily that she was almost full up.

  We were all starting to feel very, very s-l-ee- p-y . . .

  Bella fell so soundly asleep she started to snore a little bit and we all got the giggles. Then Amy curled up and went quiet. After a long time Chloe dropped off too. Emily and I whispered very, very quietly together. I decided to close my eyes just for a minute and then I was suddenly asleep too . . .

  I woke up with a start. I heard this rustling nearby. Then something grabbed hold of my shoulder. The white witchy ghost was coming to get me!

  "Help!" I gasped.

  "Shut up, stupid."

  It was only Chloe, wriggling right out of her sleeping bag.

  "What are you doing, Chloe? It's still the middle of the night."

  "I know. I need to go to the loo. You'll have to show me where it is."

  "It's upstairs. Mum left the back door ajar so we'd be able to nip in."

  "I won't be able to find it in the dark," said Chloe, shaking me. "You'll have to come with me."

  "Oooh, I'm so sleepy, Chloe," I said. Then a thought occurred to me that made me wake up properly.

  "Hey, you're not scared of the dark, are you?"

  "Of course not, idiot," said Chloe, but when we crept out of the tent into the black garden a cat suddenly yowled and we both squealed and clutched each other. We trekked through the wet grass in our bare feet. We were still hol