Mega Sleepover 6: Winter Collection. Sue Mongredien

time I ever even think about my hair is when Mum is brushing out the tangles and I’m yelling with pain. Some people are weird, aren’t they?

      “This way,” Lyndz said, shepherding us into the burger joint. “Unless you want me passing out from hunger, that is?”

      I started telling them all about the things I’d seen on the snowboarding videos in the shop while we were queuing up to get some lunch.

      “And then I saw this one bloke doing a jump like this, right,” I said, whizzing round quickly in the queue just like the guy on the video.

      Uh-oh. Bad idea…

      “Whoops!”

      “Oh, look where you’re going, young lady!”

      I’d just sent someone’s vanilla milkshake flying! It shot through the air and splattered all over the floor, spraying our feet with sticky white goo.

      I bit my lip. Things like that are always happening to me – I don’t know why.

      “Sorry,” I said to this lady who was looking furiously at me, and I scrabbled in my purse. “I’ll get you another one.”

      “I should think so too!” she snorted. Stuck-up prune. Didn’t she know a snowboarder in the making when she saw one?

      We finally got to sit down with our lunches and the others all started teasing me again about Nick. Rosie started doing her terrible Aussie accent, every time she said anything.

      “I bet he likes hanging out in Summer Bay,” she drawled. “Awww, surf’s up – chuck another shrimp on the barbie, willya?”

      “You sound like Rolf Harris – go back to Animal Hospital, will you?” I growled. “And get yourself a brain operation while you’re there!”

      “Ahh, fair dinkum, Sheila!” Frankie giggled.

      “Tie me kangaroo down, sport!” Lyndz added, laughing so hard that milkshake shot straight out of her nose – both sides!!

      “Eeeeurggghhh!” squealed Fliss, turning away hurriedly.

      “Gross!” Frankie said, sticking her tongue out and laughing at the same time.

      “Yeee-uck!” Rosie wailed.

      “Can you tell what it is yet?” I yelled, doing my own Rolf impression.

      By now we were all laughing hysterically, and were creased up over the tables. For a minute I even forgot all about the idea of going snowboarding. Not for very long, though…

      

      Well, the next thing that happened was that I went home and found out that my parents had been abducted by aliens – and even better, the aliens had taken my gross sisters too!

      Nah, not really. Just checking to see if you’re paying attention, or if you’re skimming through to get to the best bits. Sneaky, eh? Mind you, I’m the biggest skimmer in our class. Sometimes you just want to skip ahead to see what’s going to happen at the end, don’t you? I can’t stand waiting!

      Anyway, no aliens in this story unfortunately. No, the next thing that really happened was that after being dragged around a few boring clothes shops by Fliss, we all went back to our own homes.

      Saturday tea-time means chips and everything in our house. YUM! My favourite tea – I’m a champion chip-eater. Even better, Emma (oldest sister – OK but a bit bossy) is going through this teenage “Don’t want to get fat, don’t want to get spots” phase at the moment so she isn’t touching anything remotely greasy. You know what that means, don’t you? All the more for ME! I’ve got her so sussed that if she even looks at a chip, all I have to do is say, “Terrible for your skin, Em,” and she’ll back away as if it’s going to infect her with the plague, just by sitting there on a plate. Fantastic!

      Of course, Molly (other sister – and horrible pig I have to share a bedroom with) still shovels them down her neck like the Cuddington Potato Famine has broken out, worse luck. And she wonders why I call her Molly the Monster… Plus, she’s skinny as anything and hasn’t got a spot near her, so I can’t use my Emma tactics on her. YET!

      Anyway, I decided I might as well start on the Kenny-Goes-Snowboarding campaign straight away.

      “Mum, you know for Christmas this year…” I started saying through a mouthful of sausage and tomato ketchup.

      Mum raised her eyebrows. “Yes…” she said.

      “I sense our daughter is about to put in a request for something,” Dad said, clapping a hand to his forehead. “I just get that feeling…”

      I ignored him. “Well, you know we always go to Grandma’s, or Granny Mack’s for Christmas?”

      “Yes…” Mum said in a suspicious what-does-Kenny-want-this-time? kind of voice.

      “Spit it out, love,” Dad said.

      “Well, what do you think about going abroad this year? Going on holiday? Maybe somewhere snowy,” I said, crossing my fingers under the table so tightly I nearly cut my blood supply off.

      “Laura, what are you getting at?” Mum said. “What’s all this about?”

      “I just thought it would be nice to do something different,” I said casually, shrugging as if I hadn’t really thought about it. (Yeah, right!)

      “She wants to go snowboarding, Mum,” Molly the Monster said smugly. “I heard her talking to Frankie about it on the phone.”

      “Shut up!” I said crossly, kicking her. “Mind your own business!”

      “What’s snowboarding?” Mum asked, looking puzzled.

      “It’s like skateboarding but without snow,” Dad said. “Kind of.” He didn’t look very impressed. “Andrew McCarthy broke his leg doing it – he’s still on crutches because of it.”

      “Oh, it’s not dangerous,” I said breezily. “You could always go skiing if you didn’t want to snowboard.”

      “I don’t know why we’re even having this conversation,” Mum said, putting her knife and fork down. “What makes you think we can afford a holiday at the moment anyway? Because I’ll tell you now – we can’t.”

      “PLEEEEEASE,” I said, going down on my hands and knees in front of them and making my eyes go as puppy-dog as they could. “Please, please, please – you don’t have to buy me a Christmas present or anything if you say we can go!”

      “Who said you were getting anything anyway?” my dad said – joking, I hope.

      “Oh, go on, Mum,” I said, trying to ignore my dad. “You’d say yes if you luuurrrved me…”

      “I’m saying no because we love you – because we don’t want our little girl to break her leg!” Mum said. “Now eat your tea before it gets cold.”

      I scowled. Little girl – ugh!! Sometimes I can’t wait to be old. It’s so unfair that parents get to decide everything all the time.

      “Don’t cry, little girl,” Molly said sarcastically, pulling a horrible face at me. “Ahhh, diddums!”

      I whacked her one. “You’ll be crying in a minute,” I warned her.

      “Girls, if you keep fighting, we won’t be going anywhere – not even to Grandma’s,” Dad warned.

      I sulked and stabbed a chip, wishing it was Molly I was plunging a fork into. GRRR! Sometimes she is just…

      “How about one of those indoor places?”