Emergency Sleepover (5 page)

“But I thought
we
were organising this?” Fliss complained.

“We’re going to do as much as we can, but we can’t do everything, can we?” I reasoned. “And we don’t want it turning into a total disaster. Just lay it on thick that we’re raising money for the Children’s Ward, and our parents are bound to help. OK?”

The others nodded, even Fliss.

“And you’d better ask for permission to go to the supermarket after school tomorrow as well. Because if we don’t get any joy from there, we might as well give up on the whole idea,” I told them very firmly.

“But we’ll still have the sleepover, right?” asked Rosie.

“Of course!” I snorted. “We’d need a major disaster before we called
that
off!”

Fortunately for me, the others all came to school the next day with lots of positive news. It goes without saying that everyone was up for the sleepover, and they were allowed to come to the supermarket with me after school too. What’s more, their parents seemed keen on helping out with the scavenger hunt as well. My Dad even agreed to us having a clue at the surgery on a piece of his headed notepaper. Which was very brave of him, considering that his receptionist is a real battleaxe who was going to be furious about being invaded!

“Dad says we can have some of his misshapen pottery to stick clues in if we want,” Lyndz announced. Her Dad’s an art teacher, and even has a workshop at home where he makes pots and stuff.

“And Mum said we could plant clues in our garden too. As long as we steer clear of the old pile of junk, that is!” Rosie giggled. “Adam would love it, actually. He’s quite excited about it already!”

“Mum and Dad said they’d help where they could, depending on Izzy of course,” Frankie told us. “What about your mum, Fliss?”

“Well, she’s kind of busy getting ready for the wedding and everything,” she said.

The rest of us pulled faces at each other. Her mum’s getting married in a couple of months’ time, and Fliss goes on about it endlessly.

“But,” Fliss went on, “I told Auntie Jill, and she said she was sure that we could use the church hall for one of the clues. She said that if we pinned them to Brownie leaflets we might encourage more girls to join our pack. She’s even going to hand them out herself.”

“Fliss, that’s brilliant!” we all laughed. “What a great idea!”

We were all really pumped up when we went into school. And it just got better. The M&Ms were still mad with us about the netball incident the previous day, and they got even madder when Mrs Weaver told the class about the project we were going to be doing in art.

“It’s very special, because the posters we design are going to be promoting fundraising activities organised by students in this class. Perhaps you’d like to tell everyone about them, Laura?”

I
hate
it when she calls me Laura. But even that couldn’t spoil my pleasure when I clocked the M&Ms’ faces – they were FURIOUS! And I just had to rub it in by telling them how enthusiastic Mrs Poole had been about our ideas. Both Emily and Emma looked so sick with jealousy when I’d finished that I thought they were going to barf right there in the classroom!

We all worked in our groups and designed posters for Mufti Day. Ours was well cool. But surprise, surprise – the M&Ms kept spilling paint over theirs so they didn’t have anything to hand in. Childish or what? We couldn’t help laughing about how sad they were as we walked to the supermarket after school.

“At least
they
won’t be taking part in the scavenger hunt,” grinned Lyndz. “They’ll be too jealous!”

Our high spirits calmed down a bit as we approached Pricebusters. You know me, I’m never really nervous about anything (well, hardly ever), but when we got to the supermarket, butterflies were flying relays in my tummy.

“If the manager doesn’t agree to our plans, we’re done for,” said Fliss grimly.

“What if he’s a real ogre too?” Rosie shuddered. “He might be really nasty!”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, guys!” I tried to sound much sparkier than I felt.

We were just standing inside the doorway trying to decide where the manager’s office would be, when a big bear of a man came up to us. He was absolutely
ginormous.

“Can I help you, girls?” he boomed. “You’re looking a little lost.”

“W-w-we were looking for the manager’s office,” I stammered.

The man flashed this enormous grin. “Well, you’re in luck. I’m going there myself.”

We all trooped behind him down a maze of corridors, Rosie clicking along on her crutches. We eventually stopped in front of a door with a sign saying MANAGER. The man opened the door and ushered us all in.

“Now then what can I do for you?” he asked, still grinning. “Let me introduce myself. I’m Ian Hicks, manager of this establishment!”

“W-well, erm the thing is…” I spluttered.

“We’re organising a scavenger hunt to raise money for the Children’s Ward at Queen Mary’s,” Frankie continued calmly. “And we were wondering if you, that is, if Pricebusters would be able to help us out.”

“I see,” Mr Hicks was still grinning. “You mean you want me to provide the carrier bags to collect your clues in?”

“Well, no…” Frankie looked a bit flustered. “I meant…”

“Well yes, that’s a great idea!” I leapt in, thinking on my feet. “The first clue could send people here and then they could collect a carrier bag to put the rest of their clues in.”

“What about the prize?” I could hear Fliss whispering to Lyndz. “I thought we wanted him to donate a prize.”

Now Fliss’s whispering was about as quiet as an elephant walking through a packet of cornflakes. We all looked dead embarrassed when we realised that Mr Hicks had heard her as well, but he just guffawed.

“I see! I thought I was getting away a bit lightly just having to provide carrier bags,” he laughed. “Well, I think we can arrange something. What about a minute’s trolley dash for the winning team? How does that sound?”

“Cool!”

As we were all giving each other thumbs-up signs, I noticed Mr Hicks looking at a photograph on his desk. It showed a little girl in a pretty dress grinning at the camera.

“Is that your daughter?” I asked.

“Yes,” he smiled, but he suddenly seemed a bit sad. “It’s funny you should come here today to tell me about your fundraising for the Children’s Ward, because Katie’s in Queen Mary’s at the moment.”

“What’s wrong with her?” asked Rosie.

“She has a few problems with her liver and has to go into hospital every few weeks for tests. They’re to make sure that she’s OK while she waits for an operation.”

We all went very quiet and didn’t know what to say.

“That’s why it’s so great that you’re raising this money,” Mr Hicks perked up again. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

The others all shook their heads.

“Well there is one more thing actually,” I told him. “I’m going to sit in a bath of baked beans to raise money too, and I wondered…”

“… whether Pricebusters could provide the beans, right?” he grinned.

I nodded. He was dead quick off the mark, this guy.

“You know, I’ve always wanted to do that myself,” he told us seriously. “I’m sure we can stump up enough baked beans to give you a decent bath. I can even provide the bath if you want. We’ve got a couple at the back left over from a promotion for a new bubble bath which we ran last month.”

“Can we finish the scavenger hunt here, then?” I asked eagerly. “Pricebusters is always packed on Saturdays, isn’t it? And if I had my baked-bean bath here, we’d be sure to raise loads of money. Oh, did we tell you the scavenger hunt’s going to be in two weeks’ time?”

I knew that I was gabbling, but I was just so excited that everything was coming together so well.

“That’s fine. Just let me have a few posters to put up and let me know what your plans are,” Mr Hicks told us. “Now, if you’ll excuse me girls, I’ve got a mound of paperwork that needs attending to. Let me show you out first.”

He led us down the maze of corridors to the front door and waved to us as we left.

When we were out of sight we all started leaping around.

“Well that was easy enough!” giggled Fliss.

“Yeah! This whole fundraising lark is going to be easier than we thought!” Frankie shouted, leaping on to my shoulders.

Yes Frankie, and pigs might fly!

Do you fancy doing a few cartwheels? Come on, let’s do five and I bet I get the furthest.

WHEEE! That’s better!

Cartwheels are easy-peasy when you know how, aren’t they? Well, after our meeting with Mr Hicks, we figured that organising Mufti Day and the scavenger hunt was going to be dead easy too. Then reality hit home.

Firstly we had to make sure that the whole school knew about Mufti Day. It wouldn’t be any good if some people turned up in their own clothes and some were still in their uniform, would it? And you couldn’t rely on everybody reading the posters either. At least, that’s what Mrs Poole said when we had our first meeting with her. Rosie suggested that all the staff should keep reminding their classes about it. But Mrs Poole had a better idea. She said that we had to stand up in assembly and tell everybody about it.

Boy, was
that
tough. Especially as the stupid M&Ms kept putting up their hands and asking these really dumb questions.

“What should we wear instead of our uniform?” they asked, like they haven’t got a brain between them (which is probably true anyway).

“Anything you like,” replied Frankie.

“What, like our pyjamas?” giggled Emily Berryman.

“Yes, if you’re sad enough!” I spat.

I think Mrs Poole sensed that things might be getting a bit nasty, so she took over. But right up to Mufti Day itself, the M&Ms kept needling us.

“We’ve told everybody you’re not going to give the money to the hospital, you’re going to keep it for yourselves,” sneered Emma nastily. “So don’t be surprised if no-one pays any attention to your stupid Mufti Day.”

“And the scavenger hunt’s bound to be rubbish if
you’ve
organised it,” continued stupid Emily. “So I don’t suppose anyone will turn up for that anyway!”

I was going to swing for them, I swear, but Frankie pulled me back.

“Don’t give them the satisfaction,” she said quietly.

“But how dare they say that?” I fumed. “As if we’d keep the money ourselves!”

“But what if they’re right?” asked Fliss.

“What?” We looked shocked.

“I mean, what if nobody does take part in Mufti Day or the scavenger hunt?”

“Get real!” said Frankie firmly. “You know how enthusiastic everybody’s been at school. They’re really looking forward to Mufti Day.”

“And when I took some posters about the scavenger hunt to Pricebusters yesterday, Mr Hicks said that he’d already told loads of people about it and they were all really interested,” Rosie told us proudly.

“Well, we’ll just have to make sure that everything runs smoothly then, won’t we?” I told the others decisively.

But that was easier said than done. I mean, have you
any
idea how much work is involved in organising a scavenger hunt? Tons, that’s how much!

We all got together at Frankie’s house one afternoon, determined to sort it out once and for all. And the first thing we had to do was decide what route we should send everybody on.

“We’re going to start at school, aren’t we?” said Frankie. “So the first clue should send everyone to Pricebusters to collect their carrier bag.”

“And the second clue can be inside the bag!” suggested Fliss. Then she hesitated. “But we can’t put clues in
all
the bags at the supermarket, can we?”

“We’ll have to set up a special table outside,” Rosie said. “But we’ll need someone to look after it.”

“That shouldn’t take long as it’s the first clue. I’m sure Mum or Dad will do it,” Frankie volunteered.

“Great! And the next clue can send them to Dad’s surgery,” I suggested. “But where can they go after that?”

We organised clues at the church hall and Rosie’s garden. And then the hunt was going to wind up back at the supermarket.