Sleepover Club 2000 (5 page)

Obviously Andy was inviting himself on this insane expedition too!

The others started pulling on sweaters and socks, chatting away. I put mine on too. I mean, I didn’t exactly have a
choice.

This is what they mean by “Millennium Fever”, I thought. People rushing round doing stupid things they’d never usually dream of doing.

Like squandering precious sleepover hours in a cold, dark field, with a bunch of hairy weirdos.

“Cheer up, princess,” grinned Andy as we piled into the car. “It may never happen.”

I folded my arms across my chest, to show my parents I was totally
not
impressed. “Huh!” I said.

The main road was deserted as we drove out of the village. I decided anyone with any sense was in the warm, watching telly. A huge moon floated over the snowy fields. Isn’t it peculiar, the way the moon always seems to be, like, personally following your car?

Mum and Andy were chatting about the wedding. Well, Mum did most of the talking. Andy said stuff like “Mmm” and “Nice one” and “Ouch. That’s a bit pricey, Nikki.”

Suddenly Kenny gave me a poke in the ribs. “Aren’t you going to stand up to Frankie, you wally?” she growled.

“What?” I said stupidly

Can you guess what the quarrel was about? Frankie was only telling everyone
she
was going to operate our camcorder! I can’t
believe
that girl sometimes.

“The protest was MY idea,” Frankie was saying. “If it wasn’t for me, the rest of you wouldn’t even BE here.”

Boy, did Kenny get mad then! “And YOU wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Fliss,” she told her. “Look, we’re a team, OK? That means we all work together.”

“I know what ‘team’ means, thanks very much,” snapped Frankie. “It means we all do the job we’re best at. And filming is my thing. Everyone knows that.”

“We don’t know that at all,” I said. “Admit it! You’re just peeved because the M&Ms got the Media Zone.”

Actually, I think Andy would make an excellent secret agent. Can you believe he was earwigging our back-seat quarrel at the same time he and Mum were having their wedding chat!

“No offence, girls,” he chipped in. “But there’s no way I’m letting any of you loose with my new camcorder.” He sounded friendly but dead firm.

“Oh,” said Frankie in a shocked voice. And she totally shut up.

One – nil to Andy, I thought. I could have hugged him. Well, if he wasn’t driving.

“But I don’t want to be a party pooper,” Andy went on. “So how about if Fliss and Frankie share the interviewing, and I tag along as, like, your loyal cameraman?”

Frankie cheered up at once. I told you she fancies herself as a media star.

Personally I hate being videoed. Especially for something that’s going to be seen by the whole school. Even if I did the interview hiding behind the camera, you’d still hear my voice. I HATE the sound of my voice on tape. It’s so-o weedy Like a squeaky little gerbil.

“Frankie can do it,” I said. “I don’t know what to say.”

“’Course you don’t, princess,” said Andy. He flashed me a huge grin. “There isn’t anything TO say, yet! This film crew is still in transit!”

He flicked on the indicator and turned into Browses Lane. “Hello,” he said. “We’ve hit a traffic jam.”

He was exaggerating. There were four cars crawling along in front of us. The lane hadn’t been gritted and was incredibly slippy.

Suddenly the back end of the car began to slide sideways. I heard a scared gerbil squeak coming from somewhere. Then I realised it was me!

Luckily Andy’s an excellent driver. He corrected the skid really quickly. “No cause for alarm, girls,” he said. “Just checking you’re all still awake!”

“If they do build this DIY place,” said Mum, as if we hadn’t all nearly died in a ditch, “wouldn’t they have to build a proper road?”

“The DIY outfit is just the start, if you ask me,” said Andy. “Before you know it, they’ll sneak in one of those massive supermarkets and I don’t know what else.”

But I’d stopped listening again. Apart from the moon and the car headlights, it was totally dark. I felt a tingle of excitement.

OK, I’ll admit it! I was a tiny bit thrilled to be here. Even if the rest of me wished it was safe at home in the warm.

Suddenly, red and yellow flames kind of sprang out of the dark. My heart gave a big jump inside my chest. Like it was saying, “Yippee! Adventures!” I think the others felt the same, because we all started grinning at each other.

“Ace,” said Kenny. “Camp fires.”

“This is
such
a radical sleepover,” said Lyndz.

“Yeah, Fliss,” said Rosie. I felt myself blushing in the dark.

Andy stopped the car. To my surprise, there were loads of cars parked there already.

“Oh-oh, I recognise that Volvo!” Rosie hissed.

Guess what! Andy had parked right next to Mrs Poole’s car.

I had a horrible thought. “You don’t think the M&Ms will be here as well, do you?” I asked the others.

“You
are
kidding,” said Kenny. “Coming here would be WAY too dangerous for them! I expect they’re at home by the fire, knitting themselves a life.”

“Now, now,” Andy teased. We were all still giggling as we piled out of the car.

In case you didn’t know, Browses Piece used to be part of some huge, really ancient forest. I didn’t know myself until recently. To tell you the truth, it was all just grass and trees to me. And you don’t think of them as being in
danger
, do you?

Suddenly Rosie froze beside me. “You didn’t tell me Browses Piece was haunted!” she whispered.

I felt all the tiny hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Dozens of pale little lights were flitting around in the dark.

But they weren’t ghosts, just live human beings trying to find their way in the pitch dark with torches, storm lanterns, even tatty bits of candle. Now and then, someone tripped over a guy rope and said something rude. We couldn’t believe it. Browses Piece was full of people!

There were tents all over the place. Some of them were dead basic, just bent tree branches covered with heavy-duty polythene. I think they belonged to the serious protesters. It was like
Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.
Only better, because you could actually smell wood smoke.

Frankie slipped her arm through mine. That’s one good thing about her. She never holds grudges very long. “You’ve got to clock this,” she giggled. “They’ve built these cute little Ewok houses in the wood.”

To humour her, I craned my neck and peered into the smoky darkness. Guess what? Frankie wasn’t kidding. There were lights high in the branches. Just like that wild tree-top town in
Return of the Jedi
!

Don’t laugh, but I thought some of the protesters looked dead unfriendly. Body-piercing doesn’t bother me – well, you know, in Leicester city centre, by daylight. But it’s different when you’re in a field, miles from anywhere.

Every time Andy caught someone in the beam of the torch, there was this totally scary glitter of metal. Honestly, they were like some weird kind of alien. Some of them had shaved most of their hair off. You could see, like, their bare skulls. And I don’t just mean the boys!

“Bet you they’ve got serious tattoos under those big coats,” Rosie whispered.

“Are
all
these people protesters?” said Lyndz.

“I think some of them are just well-wishers,” said Andy.

“There’s Mrs Diggins,” said Mum, sounding surprised. And she went over to say hello.

Mr and Mrs Diggins are this sweet old couple Mum has known for ever. Mr Diggins is always in and out of hospital. But his wife is still totally full of beans. In fact, she’s a bit outrageous. She does yoga and belly-dancing and all sorts! Also, Mum says she has perfect skin. You know, for an old person.

Mum was waving us over.

“Do we have to?” I moaned to Andy.

Before Mum’s interruption, Mrs Diggins had been chatting to some really heavy-duty protesters. Now they were all staring at us.

I felt really out of place. You could tell they were the type of people who would automatically despise a person just because she wore Dizzy Disco Pink nail varnish.

One of the protesters was this, like, bald
giant
, with major body-piercing. After I’d clocked him, I didn’t even dare
look
at the others! But Mrs Diggins was totally at home.

“Hello Fliss, dear,” she said. “I was just telling Travis that Dan and I did our courting here, over fifty years ago. In fact, this is where Dan asked me to marry him. And ever since then, it’s been our special place. So when I heard about this protest, I simply
had
to come. I think you young people are wonderful.” She beamed up at the giant.

People can really surprise you sometimes. I mean, Travis can’t have chatted to Mrs Diggins longer than five minutes, yet he’d winkled all this really personal information out of her.

Travis turned to me. “Your mum says you want to film us,” he said. “For your Millennium project.”

I’m such a sad person. When I get nervous, I don’t make any sense at all. “Erm, thank you,” I said. “Well, actually it’s all of us. Also, it’s not quite exactly a film—”

Frankie rescued me. “Yes, it is,” she said quickly. “And it’s going to be mind-blowingly brilliant.” She gave a cheeky grin. “Want to be in it?”

“No fear,” shuddered Travis. “I go to pieces in front of a camera. Anyway, I’ve got a better idea.”

Without another word, he strode away. Then he looked back. “Come on,” he said. “I want you to meet someone.”

I tugged Andy’s sleeve. “Andy,” I said. “Erm…”

He grinned. “I’m right behind you, princess,” he said.

And we followed Travis into the dark.

As we followed Travis through the crowd, Andy filmed everything in sight. Boy, Mum went to town when she bought that new camcorder! You can even film in slo-mo. Is that cool or what! And it has a funky little monitor which gives instant play-back. So you don’t have to wait until you can get to a video machine.

You’re probably wondering what anyone could find to film in a dark field, aren’t you?

Well, believe it or not, the protest site was turning out to be unexpectedly interesting. Andy was right. It WAS like the circus!

We saw a fire-eater and stilt walkers, and a girl juggling with brightly coloured clubs – you know, glittery metallic-type ones. They looked dead magic, whizzing around her in the dark. Kenny said they looked like flying fish. I didn’t know fish could fly, did you?

All around us there were people chanting and drumming. One protester actually started playing a didgeridoo. I always thought digeridoos were a bit sad, like saying you play the triangle or tambourine or something. But the sound was so incredible it made me break into major goosebumps. The atmosphere was amazing. I really started getting into it. So did Andy.

“Reminds me of Glastonbury Festival,” he sighed.

“I never knew you went to Glastonbury,” I said.

“Twice,” said Andy. “Mind you, I was a young man then.”

“Did they have festivals in the olden days?” said Kenny cheekily.

“Sweetheart, we
invented
festivals,” Andy told her.