Mega Sleepover 6: Winter Collection. Sue Mongredien

around and we all charged back from school for the sleepover at my house. Sleepovers are a bit tricky at my house because of me and Molly sharing a room. Molly usually sulks if she has to move into Emma’s for the night, and makes a big fuss about letting my friends sleep on her precious half of the room. Like we’re really going to trash the place! Us!

      This week we had a bit of a result though, as she went to stay with Carli for the night. YES!!! Mum was going to pick them up on the way to the snow centre. So I suppose something good had come out of Molly going snowboarding with us – just about…

      The first thing we did at Friday’s sleepover was make an assault course in my bedroom. The only good-ish thing about sharing with Molly is it means we have a fairly big room between us – plus there are two beds which are good for playing trampolines on!

      The assault course went like this. Three big bounces on my bed and a leap off, then a forward roll over to Molly’s bed. Then we had to get on the floor and swarm under Molly’s bed (past the smelly trainers, poo! That was an assault course in itself!) then cartwheel over to the bedroom door. Finally, a wriggle under our big saggy beanbag, a jump up to the windowsill, crawl along it and jump from there back on to my bed. Phew! What a brilliant course!

      The only problem was the cartwheels. We were all going round in turn, but somehow Lyndz managed to kick Rosie in the face and then we all got a bit bunched up and kept bumping into each other. Excellent fun, though!

      When we’d gone round a few times, I jumped up. “I know!” I said. “I’ll teach you a few snowboarding tricks that Nick showed me.”

      “Ooh, Nick!” said Rosie at once.

      “Nick says…” giggled Frankie.

      “Nick knows everything!” said Fliss, clasping her hands to her chest and looking all dreamy and pathetic.

      “Very funny,” I said sarkily. “Now, then, I’ll tell you how to strap your feet to the—aaaarghir

      “Know-all!” said Lyndz.

      “Show off!” said Frankie.

      I couldn’t get any further because suddenly the others were all pelting me with pillows, school bags and Molly’s teddy bear. Somehow we ended up having this huge, throwing match, all screaming and giggling hysterically.

      “Knickers to Nick!” Lyndz screeched. “Big baggy white knickers to Nick!”

      “Big Dad’s Y-fronts to Nick!” Rosie gurgled. “He’s not going snowboarding tomorrow – and we are!”

      

      I could hardly get to sleep that night, I was so excited. And then when I finally did get to sleep, I dreamed about skimming around corners, deep white snow, speeding down mountains. I guess you could say something was on my mind!

      I was the first to wake up, as usual. Why is it that on a school day, Mum has to practically drag me out of bed, but on a Saturday, my eyes ping open about six in the morning and I’m ready to go-go-GO!?

      I lay in my sleeping bag, listening to the others breathing, and I hugged myself tight with excitement. My tummy felt like it was fizzing up as I lay there, grinning away to myself like an idiot! HOOOORAY!! It was Saturday! We were going!!!

      Mum was being super-nice that morning, and when we all came down for breakfast, she put plates of bacon, egg, mushrooms and fried bread in front of us. “It’s a snowboarder’s breakfast,” she told us with a wink. “Need to build your strength up, don’t you?”

      “Definitely,” I said, through a mouthful of eggy toast. “Thanks, Mum!”

      Once we’d eaten our snowboarders’ breakfasts, we piled into the cars. As Fliss, Lyndz and Rosie all got into my mum’s car, I glumly agreed to go in the other car with Molly and Carli and my dad.

      “I’d better keep you company, then,” Frankie said, climbing in next to me. “Can’t leave you to face the monsters on your own, can I?”

      “Thanks,” I said, sighing. “You’re a true friend, Frankie Thomas!”

      On the way to Carli’s house, Dad made the mistake of asking Frankie how her mum was. Instantly Frankie got her worried face on all over again.

      “I didn’t really like leaving her today,” she confessed. “She’s got her hospital check-up – and then, even worse, her and my dad were talking about going shopping! I mean, the stress of going into Leicester will send her blood pressure right up again, don’t you think? She’ll be on her feet all day – and there’ll be all those people bumping into her…”

      Frankie looked out the window as we sped along the road. “Maybe I should have stayed with her,” she said softly.

      “Don’t be daft!” I said in alarm. Frankie looked like she was about to change her mind about coming with us – which would be AWFUL!

      “She’ll be fine, pet,” Dad said gruffly. I think he’s got a soft spot for Frankie, even if he does call her “Mad Frankie Thomas” sometimes. “The doctor will tell her if she’s not fit to do anything strenuous, I’m sure. And just think, if she does go out, and has a really awful day shopping, at least it’ll put her off going again for a good while, eh?”

      “That’s true,” I said quickly. “And we’re gonna give her a ring from the snow centre to check she’s OK, yeah?”

      “Yeah,” Frankie agreed. “I’m probably worrying about nothing.”

      Phew – that was a close one! I found myself breathing out so heavily, I steamed the window right up.

      It took us about half an hour to get there – and boy, was I glad to get out! Molly sat in the front with Dad, which meant that Creepy Carli sat in the back with me and Frankie. Triple YUCK. I’m not joking – nearly all the way there, she was digging her elbow into me. You know me – just can’t ignore anyone if I think they’re trying to have a pop at me, so after a bit, I was digging my own elbow into her, just as hard. Next thing you know, we’re having an elbow fight on the back seat, and Dad has to pull over and shout at us to stop scrapping.

      Why does Molly have to have such a HORRIBLE best friend?!

      I was just thinking up plans to bury Molly and Carli in deep, deep snow, when Frankie nudged me. “Look – that must be it!” she said excitedly, pointing to a big white building in the distance.

      The snow centre – COOL!!!

      “Wow!” I breathed, unable to take my eyes off it. I felt like I was about to burst!

      It was about eleven o’clock when we got there, so we had an hour to kill before our lesson at twelve. We met up with Mum and the others in the car park. I started jumping up and down, partly with excitement and partly ’cos it was so cold.

      “Right, girls,” Mum said. “Me and your dad are going to go to the gym for an hour while you have your lesson, OK? Then we’ll meet up with you and we can all go for a swim. Then we can have a late lunch before coming home. What do you think of that?”

      “Perfect!” I said. “Can we go in now? It’s freezing!”

      Dad laughed. “I really don’t think the snowboarding area is going to be any warmer, do you?” he said.

      Mum and Dad took us round the complex so we knew exactly where everything was. We finished up in the spectators’ gallery.

      “Look,” Frankie said with interest, “there’s a snowboarding lesson going on!”

      We all looked down eagerly. A row of people were wobbling about and falling all over the place.

      “It looks a bit