Emergency Sleepover (7 page)

“I am looking forward to tomorrow, girls,” he chuckled. “But you’d better not let me see that clue because then I’d have an unfair advantage!”

“You’re not going to take part, are you?” Frankie asked, amazed.

“No I’m not, but my daughter Katie can’t wait. She’s persuaded my wife to bring her, along with a couple of friends!” he beamed.

“Great!”

He gave us ten carrier bags and we put one of the clues in each one.

“I’ll set up a table right by the front entrance so that your contestants can’t miss it,” Mr Hicks told us.

From the supermarket we went to Dad’s surgery to give the clues to Miss ‘Battleaxe’ Snowdon, his receptionist, but we didn’t hang around. Then Fliss popped home with the clues for her mum whilst the rest of us waited outside. When she came out she wafted a freshly painted nail at us.

“This is the colour Mum’s going to put at the top of the clues. It’s called Mango Sorbet. So if anyone has another colour on their clue, they’ve been cheating.”

We all tutted. As if anyone would bother cheating!

Next we went to the church hall where Fliss’s Auntie Jill was waiting for us with a pile of Brownie leaflets to pin the clues to. We helped her with that, then made our way to Rosie’s garden. Lyndz’s father had already delivered some misshapen pots and vases for us to use. We rolled up the clues and stuck them inside so just the end was poking out.

“Do you think everyone will know what they’re looking for?” asked Fliss. “I mean, these pots are a bit hard to spot on the lawn, aren’t they?”

“Yes, but don’t forget my wonderful clue’s going to lead them here anyway!” said Rosie proudly, and she recited:

“And I’m sure Adam will point people in the right direction if anyone gets lost,” laughed Frankie, pointing to Adam who was weaving crazily in and out of the pots in his wheelchair.

“So from here it’s back to Pricebusters,” I said. “And how long does that take? Ten minutes?”

“Yeah, about that,” Rosie agreed. “So how long do you think it will take people to complete the scavenger hunt tomorrow?”

I looked at my watch. We’d been out over an hour and a half, but we had been stopping along the way. And of course, we had to go slower for Rosie, who was still hobbling on crutches.

“I reckon it will take people just over an hour. So we should have time to see how it’s all going before we have to get to Pricebusters to arrange my bath!” I looked at my watch again. “Well, guys, I don’t know about you, but I’m going home to chill out. We’ve a long day ahead of us tomorrow. Especially as we’ll have a mega-stonking sleepover afterwards to celebrate! See you all at mine at nine!”

And with that, we all split.

By the time the others arrived the next morning I’d been up for hours and was raring to go. So were they – apart from Fliss, who’d been panicking all night in case the whole thing turned out to be a disaster.

“Come on, it’s going to be fun!” I reassured her. “Besides, when it’s all over, we’ve got a sleepover to look forward to!”

At least that perked her up a bit. Once everyone had dumped their sleepover gear in my room, we made our way to school.

As soon as we got there, we set to work draping bunting over the school gates and hanging up a huge poster we’d made, which said
SCAVENGER HUNT STARTS HERE
! in huge letters.

“Well at least no-one will be confused about where they have to start from, even if they never make it to the finish!” giggled Rosie.

When Mrs Poole appeared, she seemed in great form.

“It’s probably because there’s no school for a week!” whispered Frankie.

“This is all very impressive!” Mrs Poole said admiringly. “You’ve all shown great initiative to get this organised!”

Fliss spluttered a bit, but the rest of us managed to keep our cool until she disappeared to see if anyone had arrived to take part.

“I hope she doesn’t say that again,” giggled Lyndz. “I just
know
I’m going to laugh in her face!”

“You won’t be laughing in anyone’s face when you see what I’ve just seen,” warned Rosie grimly.

We all turned to see what she was looking at. You’ll never guess who had appeared. Only the M&Ms and their stupid friends, that’s all!

“Ah, girls. It’s good to see you’re showing your schoolfriends some support!” cooed Mrs Poole. “Francesca will take your money, and we’ll wait for the other teams to arrive.”

They smarmed up to Frankie and handed over a five-pound note.

“We just thought we’d see what a pathetic shambles you’ve made of this, losers!” spat Emma Hughes. Her stupid cronies tittered.

I was seething. I just knew they were out to cause trouble, but with Mrs Poole watching us so carefully, there was nothing we could do. Besides, more people were turning up.

“Do you think we’ve left enough clues everywhere?” asked Fliss anxiously. “There might be more than ten teams taking part.”

“Nah, I think we’ll be all right,” said Frankie confidently. “It’s almost five to ten and only six teams have registered so far. Oh look Lyndz, here comes your mum!”

“What?” squealed Lyndz. “Mum! What are you doing here?”

“We’re taking part in the scavenger hunt, thank you very much, young lady!” retorted Mrs Collins, grabbing hold of Ben’s hand and holding tight on to Spike’s buggy. “Isn’t my five quid good enough for you, then?”

“’Course,” squeaked Lyndz.

“And this is my friend Carol and her son James,” her mum continued. “They’re going to be the rest of our team!”

Lyndz turned to us, red in the face. “I haven’t told Mum the route, honestly. She doesn’t even know about Dad’s pots!”

I looked around the playground. It seemed full of people of all ages. There were loads of people I didn’t recognise, but there were quite a few kids from school too – including Ryan Scott and Danny McCloud. And there was someone waving to me frantically from a wheelchair. It was Jake from the hospital. He gave me a big grin and a thumbs-up sign. He was with a couple of women and a girl I was sure I’d seen before. It took me a while to work out that it was Mr Hicks’ daughter Katie. I recognised her from the photograph on his desk.

“Good morning, ladies and gentleman. It’s good to see so many of you here…” Mrs Poole was off on her welcome speech. “Fundraising blah, blah, blah… Children’s Ward blah, blah, blah… Laura McKenzie, Francesca Thomas…”

Everyone was clapping, so we sort of made a little bow and felt really stupid.

“The rules of the scavenger hunt, blah, blah, blah… whichever team is the first to arrive at the correct destination at 11.15am with all the correct clues will be the winners. I have your first clues here. May the best team win!”

Mrs Poole blew a whistle, and there was a mad scramble as everyone rushed up to her, almost knocking her over. Then they all scattered, huddling in small groups to make sense of the clue. Lots of people seemed to rush from the playground at once, and the M&Ms were among the first to go.

“We’ve got to stop the Gruesome Twosome from winning!” I warned the others. “Let’s each go to one of the clues and try to put them off the scent. Meet back at Pricebusters at ten to eleven, OK?”

By some amazing coincidence, we all seemed to know where we should be going… We started running in different directions, leaving Mrs Poole to gather up the money and shout after us that she would see us at the supermarket later.

I headed for Dad’s surgery and hung around. Before too long, there was a whirlwind of activity at the other end of the High Street. All these people seemed to be flying towards me, some clutching Pricebusters carrier bags, others clutching their clues. Some weren’t clutching anything, but were running hell for leather towards me. And in the middle of the pack were the dreaded duo.

“This was a bit of an obvious clue, wasn’t it McKenzie?” sneered Emily Berryman in her gruff voice. Meanwhile Emma Hughes had barged past me and rushed into the surgery. A few minutes later she hurried out clutching a piece of Dad’s headed notepaper and the next clue. It was the one Fliss had written. It read:

“Columbine Close?” puzzled Berryman. “Isn’t that where your whingey mate Felicity Bigbottom lives?”

“Ooh, aren’t you clever to have worked it out so fast!” I pretended to sound really pleased for them. “Go on, you’d better hurry before the others work it out too!”

Emma Hughes and her mates looked at me in amazement. I grinned at them and turned to go. As I was leaving I heard one of them say:

“It can’t be right if McKenzie said it was. She’d
neuer
tell us the right answer!”

I couldn’t help laughing to myself. That’s exactly what I’d wanted them to think. I am a genius!

I hurried off to Pricebusters and was the first one there. The others were still out spotting the M&Ms. I went over to speak to Frankie’s mum, who was still there.

“It seems to be going well, Kenny!” she assured me. “I think Mr Hicks is looking for you. He’s wheeled a huge tub and loads of baked beans over there. I take it that’s for your grand finale!”

“Sure is!” I called over my shoulder, and ran to where I could see Mr Hicks unloading some boxes. This was going to be so cool!

I’d started to help him when Fliss joined me.

“Those M&Ms are unbelievable!” she stormed. “They were so rude to Mum, saying that if her business was any good she’d have a salon in the High Street. Mum was furious!”

“Oh, they got there then,” I sniffed. “Pity. Did you see anyone else?”

“Only Ryan Scott. He looked dead embarrassed when he saw me!” she smiled. “But I don’t know who else is in his team because I only saw Danny McCloud.”

“Wotcha!” Frankie ran up behind us. “I’m afraid I never saw the M&Ms. I thought I’d better come back and help you with these baked beans. Time’s running out so we’d better get this lot open. Where’s the tin opener, then?”

“Oh, PANTS!” I yelled. “I
knew
there was something I’d forgotten!”

“You stupid ’nana!” shouted Frankie. “How could you forget something so important?”

“Well, I didn’t see any of you reminding me!” I yelled back.

“It wasn’t
our
idea to sit in a bath of baked beans!” snapped Fliss.

I didn’t need all that aggro, I really didn’t. And just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did. Molly appeared. She was skulking along behind Mum, who’d come to see how everything was going. But as soon as Molly clocked the situation, there was no stopping her.

“I always knew you were an idiot!” she guffawed. “You’ve talked about nothing but this stupid baked-bean stunt for weeks, and then you forget your vital piece of equipment. I mean,
derr
!”

She pointed to her head and crossed her eyes.

“Just shut up, OK!” I yelled. I was beginning to wish the ground would swallow me up when Mr Hicks appeared.

“Haven’t you started opening the tins yet?” he asked. “I thought you were planning to have your bath as soon as the scavenger hunt had finished.”

“Well there’s just a teeny little problem…” I began.

“My stupid sister’s forgotten the tin-opener!” shrieked Molly.

“Oh dear,” Mr Hicks looked at me sympathetically. “I’m sure I can rustle up a few from the store, hang on!”

He rushed inside, and was back in a couple of minutes carrying four new tin-openers.

“There we are. With four of you on the job, you should be finished in no time!” he laughed, handing them out to Frankie, Fliss, Molly and me.

“Hang on a minute. This is nothing to do with me!” squealed my stupid sister.

“Oh, but I think it is,” Mum said firmly. “It’s the least you can do after embarrassing poor Kenny like that!”

Class!

We got blisters and everything opening so many tins, but it was worth it just to see Molly moaning and grumbling as she emptied tin after tin into the tub! Even when Rosie and Lyndz finally appeared, Mum made Molly carry on. Which was just as well, as the other two couldn’t speak for laughing.