Sleepover Club Goes For Goal! (5 page)

Lyndz looked chuffed to bits, and you could tell that she was getting more confident too.

“Girls! If you want to play football I suggest that you find Mr Pownall. This is a netball court!” Trust Miss Burnie to spoil our fun.

“You really are good at football!” I told Lyndz as we were waiting for the netball practice to start. “You should play more, you know. You’d run rings round the boys.”

“I don’t think so!” Lyndz said, blushing. “My brothers all laugh at me when I try to play with them.”

“Well, they’re just jealous,” I told her confidently. “Just think if you did play, it would be like proving to your brothers that they’re wrong about you. I bet they’d take you more seriously too.”

Well, that
really
got Lyndz thinking, you could tell. Now all I had to do was work on Frankie.

Actually, as it turned out, Frankie was smarter than I’d figured. She came up to me one lunchtime the following week, after I’d been telling Fliss how much Ryan Scott admired sporty girls.

“He says that they’re much more fun,” I told her. “Look how well I got on with him after the five-a-side practices.”

I could see that she was getting pretty jealous.

“If
you
turned up at one of those practices, you’d knock his socks off for sure!” I reassured her. “Ow!”

Frankie very rudely interrupted me by nipping my arm and dragging me off to a corner of the playground.

“I know what you’re doing,” she hissed, “and I’m not sure that it’s going to work.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, all innocent.

“You’re trying to force us all to form a five-a-side team for the competition, aren’t you?” she asked menacingly.

“Might be.”

“Look Kenny, we know how much the
competition means to you, and I for one would love to help out,” she went on. “But we’re not going to make fools of ourselves for you or for anybody.”

“You won’t!” I promised. “All we need is some practice.”

“Even Fliss?” asked Frankie. “She’s not exactly Alan Shearer, is she? Neither is Rosie, come to that.”

“Well one of them can go in goal,” I reasoned. “And between you, me and Lyndz we should be able to pull it off. Thanks, Frankie – you’re the greatest!”

“Talk about twisting my arm!” laughed Frankie. “OK then, I’ll help, but haven’t you forgotten something? We’ve still got to persuade the others what a brilliant idea this is, remember? And another thing McKenzie,” she added in her best gangster’s voice, “if this comes off, you owe me. Big time!”

All week I kicked a football around whenever I got the chance, and Frankie always joined in. Sure enough, after a few minutes the others
joined in too, and we had a right laugh. So what if Fliss kept missing the ball, or Rosie kept tripping up? They were having a good time. Whenever any of the boys appeared, we pretended we’d just found the ball and were mucking about with it. The last thing I needed was those stupid idiots making fun of us – that would put Fliss and Rosie off for life.

“You know what we need?” I asked the others on the Wednesday. “A football-themed sleepover, that’s what!”

“Why?” asked Rosie and Fliss together. “We’ve never had one before.”

Frankie and I looked at each other.

“That’s precisely why,” Frankie burst in quickly. “We’ve never had one and it would be kind of different. Remember that great horse-themed one we had? That was fun, wasn’t it?”

Everybody started giggling about the clothes and the games, not to mention the food we’d had at our horsey sleepover.

“So is everybody agreed that a football sleepover is a good plan?” I shouted.

“Yes!”

“Right, my place, Saturday. Be there or be a banana!” I laughed, throwing a load of invitations at everyone. It had taken me ages to write them all the night before, and it had taken me even longer to bribe Molly the Monster into letting me have our bedroom without her poking her nose in every five minutes. (I did threaten to leave my rat Merlin in her bed one night, but she said that I was disgusting and that she’d tell Mum. So in the end I had to promise to buy her a bag of crisps every day for a week. What a creep!)

Anyway, I’ve got a spare copy of the invitation here. What do you think? Cool eh?

Kenny is having a
FOOTBALL SLEEPOVER
On Saturday 25th September
Wear togs to play football in
Bring ‘football-type’ food
for the Midnight Feast!
Party on, dudes!

So at least everybody knew what to expect at the sleepover – it wasn’t as though I’d conned them or anything. It’s just that I hadn’t exactly told them that they would be forming our five-a-side team either. But hey, it was my job to show them how great it would be, and Frankie had promised that she would help.

It all started out well enough. Saturday was a really warm sunny day, so I’d set up loads of stuff in the garden. Everybody knows that I’m a bit wild and I like to let off as much steam as possible. In fact I was charging about like a mad monkey when everyone appeared.

“So what exactly has that got to do with football?” asked Frankie as soon as she saw me. “I know that some players act like animals, but that’s ridiculous!”

“Ha ha ha!” I laughed. “Hey you all look wicked. Let’s have a look at you!”

Fliss paraded about in the new tiny white shorts and stripy top she’d got for her birthday. It’s true that I’d never seen a footballer wearing make-up and plaits before, but at least Fliss had entered into the spirit of things.

“I’ve brought my tracksuit in case it gets cold,” she explained. “I really wanted to show you my new skirt though. I mean, this isn’t really
me,
is it?”

“You look fab!” I gushed. “If only Ryan Scott could see you now!”

Frankie shot me a warning glance. We’d agreed that we wouldn’t mention the actual competition until everyone was chilling out – probably when we were having our midnight feast.

“If you tell them too early everyone will freak out and the sleepover will be a disaster,” she had warned me.

I thought that Frankie was wrong about that, but I didn’t say anything else to Fliss all the same. Instead I turned my attention to the others. When I saw Rosie I didn’t really know what to think.

“What are you like!” I gasped when I saw her. She was wearing this mega-long pair of baggy shorts and a really thick long shirt.

“It’s what my grandad used to play football in,” she explained. “Mum found it in a box in
the attic. What do you think?” She pretended to do a catwalk turn.

“I bet Ryan Scott wouldn’t fancy you if he saw you in that!” sniffed Fliss.

“I wouldn’t want him to,” Rosie snapped right back. “I only came in this as a joke. I wish I hadn’t bothered.”

“Don’t be daft, you look great!” Frankie laughed. “Too great!” She grabbed Rosie and wrestled her to the floor. The rest of us piled on top.

“We’ve got to make those clothes a bit dirtier so you all look like proper footballers,” I squealed, making sure that Rosie and Fliss got the dirtiest of all of us.

“I thought you were going to be playing football!” Dad suddenly appeared on the patio. “That looks more like a rugby scrum to me!”

We all scrambled up from the ground.

“We’re just getting into the swing of things,” I explained. He looks a bit straight, my dad, but he’s kind of cool really.

“So I see,” he smiled. “Well it’s good to see the rest of you girls. And it’s really good of you
to help Kenny get over her disappointment with that five-a-side thing like this. I’m sure you’ll be splendid when you form your…”

“Thanks Dad,” I butted in quickly. “I think Mum’s calling for you.”

“I didn’t hear… oh, right, I can take a hint!” Dad disappeared inside again.

“What did your dad mean, Kenny?” Lyndz was looking very suspicious. “How are we helping you and what are we going to form?”

The others were all looking at me expectantly.

“Well, erm, you’re cheering me up with this sleepover, aren’t you? And we’re, erm, going to, erm, form, erm…”

“Cheerleaders!” Frankie exploded. “We’re going to form a group of cheerleaders!”

“Great!” squealed Fliss.

“Fantastic!” screamed Rosie. “I’ve always wanted to be a cheerleader!”

I shot Frankie a nasty look and mouthed, “What have you done?”

She shrugged.

“Hey what about playing football?” I called, running to fetch a ball. “That’s what we’re here
for. We won’t bother about teams yet. For the moment it’s every girl for herself!”

“Then can we be cheerleaders?” begged Fliss.

“Sure!” I agreed. “When we’ve finished our games.”

We piled on to the makeshift pitch in the garden. The grass is a bit bare from where I run around on it so much, but we’ve got a proper set of goalposts and everything.

To start with, the football went really well. Fliss was hopeless, but then, what’s new? But Rosie wasn’t too bad at all. In fact, the more she played, the better she got. She even tried some pretty daring shots and that’s really where the trouble started.

She did this one amazing shot which looped way up in the air and sort of did a banana bend at the last minute.
Ping
! It flew into the back of the net.

“That was amazing, Rosie!” I flung my arms round her. “To think I was worried about you playing in the team! If you play like that, we’ll definitely walk off with the trophy!”

The others all stopped hugging and turned to stare at me. It was like a cross between a film and a bad dream – everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.

“What did you say?” asked Rosie at last.

I took a deep breath.

“I just said that when we enter that five-a-side competition, we’ll have a good chance of winning it. Now that you’re playing so well.”

“Five-a-side team?” screamed Fliss. “That’s why we’re having this stupid football sleepover, isn’t it? You were only thinking of yourself, as usual. You’re a selfish cheat, Laura McKenzie! You dropped us for all that time just to play football, and now you’re expecting us to help you out again. Well I’ve had enough!”

She stormed across the lawn and picked up her sleepover kit, which she’d dumped there earlier. Rosie ran after her and they both headed for the door.

This was supposed to be a fun sleepover, and it was turning into a disaster! Just as Frankie had predicted it would.

“Hey you guys, wait!” I flew across the lawn after them with Lyndz and Frankie in hot pursuit.

I reached the front door at the same time as Fliss and managed to lean my full weight against it so that it was impossible to open.

“What on earth’s going on?” asked Mum, who had come out of the kitchen to investigate what all the noise was. “You’re not going, are you Felicity? Rosie?”

“It’s nothing Mum, just a misunderstanding,” I reassured her. “We’ll sort it out, don’t worry.”

“Well, if you’re sure.” She looked reluctant to leave us. “Call me if you need me.”

She went back into the kitchen, and as soon as we heard the door close, all hell let loose again.

“You should have told us about the five-a-side team,” Rosie accused me. “
Especially
as we’d already told you that we weren’t interested.”

“But Kenny was only trying to show you how much fun it can be,” Frankie tried to explain.

“Yeah, well, it’s one thing having a kick-around in Kenny’s garden, and quite another showing ourselves up in front of everyone else,” Fliss muttered, but she didn’t look quite so cross.

“I’m sorry, I was being selfish,” I admitted. “I just wanted to play in that competition so badly. I guess I just assumed that as we’re all friends, you wouldn’t mind helping me out. I’ve always helped you out in the past, haven’t I?”

The others looked at each other.

“We don’t mind helping out, Kenny,” Rosie
explained. “It’s just that we’re not very good at football.”

“But you
are
!” I assured them. “And all Fliss needs is a bit of practice and a lot more confidence. Besides, she could work to our advantage. If we stick her in goal, the guys on the other teams will probably take one look at her, fall in love and forget that we’re playing football!”

Fliss blushed and went all giggly which started the rest of us off. Fliss is such a total sucker for flattery. I swear to you, if ever you want a favour from her, just tell her she looks wonderful and she’ll do whatever you ask! Easy!