Vive le Sleepover Club! (6 page)

“This is it then!” Frankie said grimly as we sat down at the back of the minibus the following morning. Breakfast had been even worse than usual, with the M&Ms going on and on about winning the bet.

“Yeah, but let’s not spoil our day at Disneyland by worrying about the stupid M&Ms!” Kenny said, trying to be cheerful.

“Here they come now!” Lyndz said in a low voice.

The M&Ms were getting onto the minibus, talking in loud voices. They were really
winding us up by discussing all the horrible things they were going to do when Kenny handed over her Leicester City autographs.

“I think I’ll tear them up really slowly bit by bit!” the Queen was saying with a big grin on her face.

“Or we could use them as loo paper!” the Goblin giggled.

We ignored them, although Kenny was looking a bit sick at the thought of her precious autographs being used as bog roll! If the M&Ms did win the bet, which looked pretty likely now, we’d have to get used to them going on about it for the next ten years!

Almost everyone was on the coach, when to our surprise, Pascal climbed on.

“Hey, Pascal!” called Ryan Scott, who was sitting a few seats in front of us. “Come and sit with us, mate!”

Pascal made his way down the coach, grinning at Ryan and Danny. “My mother says I can come with you to Disneyland! No school for me today!”

“Nice one!” said Danny.

Pascal dumped his bag next to Ryan and Danny, but he didn’t sit down. Instead he came down the coach towards us.

“I have some good news for you!” he whispered, looking sideways at the M&Ms to make sure they weren’t listening.

“What?” Kenny asked. “Did Chantal smile today or something?”

“No, better than that!” Pascal winked at us. “My older brother works at Disneyland. He told me last night that an English film crew are going to shoot some scenes for a soap opera there today!”

“What!”
we all screeched, hardly daring to believe our ears.

“Really cross-your-heart truly?” Fliss asked breathlessly.

“You’re not playing another joke on us, are you?” Frankie asked.

Pascal shook his head. “No, they will be there. All you have to do is find them!”

“Oh, we will!” Kenny told him. “And when we do, I’m going to enjoy seeing the look on the M&Ms’ faces!”

Pascal grinned, and went off to sit with Ryan and Danny. Well, that bit of news had
really
cheered us up! We all started bouncing up and down in our seats, talking at the tops of our voices and discussing what we were going to make the Queen and the Goblin do when we won the bet and they had to become our slaves!

“I’m going to make Emma Hughes carry all my luggage all the way home!” Frankie said with a grin.

“They can do all our packing as well as carry our bags!” Lyndz chimed in.

“And they can buy loads of chocolate for us!” Fliss added.

The Queen and the Goblin heard what we were saying. They turned round in their seats and stared haughtily at us. “No chance!” Emma Hughes said snootily. “Just get those Leicester City autographs ready for me as soon as we get home, Kenny!”

“That’s what you think!” Kenny winked at us, and we all grinned. The Queen and the Goblin were in for the biggest shock of their lives!

But it was the Sleepover Club who were in for the shock…

“This is it!” Fliss announced as suddenly we all caught sight of a huge white building with a red roof. “This is Disneyland Paris!”

We all started cheering and whooping and giving each other high fives as Mr Tate drove into the car park. Then, before we could get off the minibus, Mrs Weaver did her usual lecture thing about behaving ourselves and not getting into trouble, but we weren’t listening, of course! The only time we pricked up our ears was when she said we wouldn’t be allowed to go round Disneyland on our own. We were all annoyed, but Mrs Weaver explained that kids weren’t allowed on some of the rides without an adult. So we were all divided into three groups of five, and got one of the teachers to look after us. We got Mr Tate.

“Nice one!” Kenny said gleefully, giving the rest of us a thumbs-up. Mr Tate was OK, and much easier to fool than Mrs Weaver!

Then Mrs Weaver gave each of us a map, showing the five different ‘Lands’ inside the park. It was then that we started to get a bit worried.

“Hey, this place is enormous!” Frankie whispered.

“I didn’t realise it was so big!” Kenny groaned, scanning the map anxiously. The five Lands were Frontierland, Adventureland, Fantasyland, Discoveryland and Main Street USA. The place was absolutely huge. How on earth were we going to know where the film crew were?

“Why didn’t you say it was so big, Fliss?” I groaned.

“I didn’t think.” Fliss was looking as dismayed as the rest of us.

“Oh, well, we’ll just have to do our best,” Lyndz said hopefully. We all nodded. But we were feeling a bit depressed as we trailed off the minibus.

That didn’t last long though! I mean, we were at
Disneyland!

The big white building was the entrance,
and Fliss said it was a hotel where she and her family had stayed last time they visited. In front of the entrance were some pretty gardens, and there was a big Mickey Mouse face made out of flowers! We all cheered up when we saw that. We could hardly wait to get inside!

“Wow!” Frankie gasped as we walked into Main Street USA. “This is awesome!”

We were standing on a big white street, lined with big buildings. It looked like a scene from an old American film. Horse-drawn carts were taking people up and down the street, there were restaurants and shops, and Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck were walking around, shaking hands with people! Right at the end of the street was a huge fairytale castle with lots of turrets.

“That’s Sleeping Beauty’s Castle,” Fliss said as we all looked at our maps to try and work out what it was. “It’s the entrance to Fantasyland. Shall we go there first?”

“No, Adventureland first!” Kenny begged.

“No, Discoveryland!” said Frankie.

“Make your minds up!” said Mr Tate with a smile. So we decided on Fantasyland first.

We were all so excited, we forgot about the film crew for a while. We went into Fantasyland, and saw the dragon in his lair underneath Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. We went on Captain Hook’s pirate ship and flew to Never-Never Land. We went on a canal boat cruise through Storybook Land. We even had a ride on Dumbo! We didn’t see the film crew, but we had a fab time.

“Right, Adventureland next!” Kenny said as we studied our maps to see which way we had to go.

“Just a minute!” Lyndz whispered suddenly. “I thought I just saw Danni Hart!”

“Where?” we all yelled.

“There!” Lyndz said, pointing. So we all rushed off in that direction.

“Hey! Adventureland is the other way!” Mr Tate shouted, running after us and waving his map in the air, but we ignored him!

So we ended up in Discoveryland. Of course, we just had to go on Space Mountain,
even though we had to queue for ages. Space Mountain was brilliant! You sit strapped in on a rocket train, and then you go shooting up and down through space, and you see all kinds of things like asteroids and meteorite showers. It was awesome! Although Mr Tate looked a bit wobbly when we got off!

After that we went to Honey, I Shrunk The Audience. We had to queue up for ages for that as well, but it was worth it. It was brilliant, because we (the audience) were supposed to have shrunk and everything else was really big. My favourite bit was when this gi-normous dog stuck his head out into the audience!

“Right, it’s time to meet the others for lunch,” said Mr Tate, glancing at his watch. “Come on, we’ve got to go back to Main Street USA.”

“And keep your eyes open for that film crew!” Frankie told us.

It took us a while to get back to Main Street because there was so much to look at, and Kenny insisted on having her photo
taken with Baloo the Bear! When we finally made it, the others were waiting for us. The first thing we noticed was that the Queen and the Goblin were grinning fit to bust.

“What’s up with them?” Frankie muttered. We soon found out.

“Oh no!” Fliss groaned.
“Look!”

We looked down Main Street. There were the film crew. There was Danni Hart and the other actors – and they were just leaving!

“Oh no!” Kenny gasped. “We’ve missed them!”

“Yeah, you sure have!” Emily Berryman said between uproarious giggles, and she and the Queen laughed so much they could hardly stand. We all looked at each other in complete dismay.

“So much for winning that bet!” Kenny muttered gloomily. “I’m done for – and so are my autographs!”

“Hey, girls!” Pascal was standing with Ryan Scott and Danny McCloud, but when he spotted us, he came over. “I have something for you!”

He dived into his bag, and pulled out a piece of paper. Guess what it was!

“It’s Danni Hart’s autograph!”
I yelled excitedly. Not only that – it was written on a colour publicity photo of Danni dressed up as her soap character Billie Johnson! ‘Danni Hart as Billie Johnson’ was written across the top, and it also had the
Westwood Street
logo printed on it. Danni had scrawled her signature at the bottom of the picture.

“Where did you get it, Pascal?” Frankie gabbled.

“How
did you get it?” Fliss asked, her eyes wide.

“You’re wicked, Pascal!” Lyndz exclaimed.

For once, Kenny was speechless. She just held out her hand and took the photo, staring at it as if she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“I asked my brother to get it if he have a chance,” Pascal grinned. “And he did!”

The M&Ms were looking over at us uncertainly, knowing something was going on, but not quite sure what!

“I don’t believe it!” Kenny was looking completely dazed. “I just don’t believe it!”

“Maybe we’d better let the M&Ms know right away!” Frankie nudged Kenny and winked.

Immediately Kenny went over to the Queen and the Goblin, keeping the photo out of sight behind her back, and we all followed, including Pascal. We weren’t going to miss a minute of this!

“Er – Emma, can I talk to you for a minute?” Kenny said in a gloomy voice.

“What about?” the Queen asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Look, Emma, let’s forget all about that
stupid bet, shall we?” Kenny said pleadingly, pretending to look all depressed. “It was daft. I shouldn’t have done it.”

“Forget about it? No way José!” Emma screeched. “We’ve won that bet fair and square, and I want those football autographs
and
your shirt when we get home!”

“You sure about that?” Kenny asked while the rest of us tried not to laugh.

“Positive!” Emma replied snootily.

“Well, that’s a shame,” Kenny said coolly. “Because I win!”

And she produced the photo from behind her back like a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat.

The Queen and the Goblin stared at it as if they were hypnotised.

“It – it can’t be!” Emily spluttered.

“It’s – it’s a fake!” Emma roared. “It must be!”

“Oh, get real!” Frankie put in as Kenny shoved the photo right under Emma’s nose. “The autograph’s on an official
Westwood Street
publicity handout!”

We all looked smugly at the Queen and the Goblin, waiting for them to give in.

“How did you get it?” Emma demanded weakly.

“Doesn’t matter,” Kenny retorted. “The point is, we’ve got it, and that means …”

“You LOSE!” we all chorused, and then burst out laughing.

Purple in the face, the Queen and the Goblin turned away, but Kenny wasn’t finished with them yet.

“Hold on, slaves!” she called. “We want a drink. Go and get us some Coke, will you? And hurry up about it!”

I’ve never seen two people look more like they were about to explode with fury! As the Queen and the Goblin stomped off, yelling at each other, we all cheered and slapped Pascal on the back.

“Thanks, mate!” Kenny said. “We couldn’t have done it without you. I could kiss you -if I didn’t hate boys!”

We all laughed, but Fliss looked quite keen!

“Right, now we’ve sorted out the M&Ms,
let’s enjoy the rest of the day at Disneyland!” I said firmly.

“Yeah, and we’ll have a massive sleepover tonight too!” Lyndz put in. And we all cheered again!

“My favourite was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril,” Kenny said as she munched a piece of cheese.

“Mine was Phantom Manor,” said Lyndz.

Fliss shuddered. “Ooh, I didn’t like that. Mine was Honey, I Shrunk The Audience.”

“I liked the Peter Pan thing best,” I said, grabbing the last doughnut.

“My favourite was Space Mountain.” Frankie leapt on me, trying to get the last bit of doughnut, and I had to fight her off!

We’d got back from Disneyland, tired but happy. We decided we’d buy Pascal a present to say thanks, so we’d bought him the biggest bar of chocolate we could find in the whole of Disneyland. We were going to give it to him the next day before we went home. Mrs Weaver had told us to pack our bags after
dinner, so we’d got the Queen and the Goblin to help. They weren’t very pleased! But they were our slaves until tomorrow, so it served them right.

Although we were all so tired, we’d managed to have a brilliant sleepover. We’d had a midnight feast and talked about Disneyland. Then we’d written all about Disneyland in our diaries. And after that, Kenny’d had the brilliant idea of acting out scenes from some of the Disney movies we’d seen. Now we were all yawning, although we didn’t really want to go to bed just yet.

“This has been an
excellent
holiday,” Kenny said through an enormous yawn. “What shall we do now?”

“Wake Fliss up – she’s snoring!” Frankie said, and she poked Fliss in the back. “Hey! This sleepover isn’t over yet!”

“I wasn’t asleep!” Fliss sniffed, rubbing her eyes.

“It was really great of Pascal to get that autograph for us, wasn’t it?” Lyndz remarked sleepily.

“Yes, maybe we should have invited him to the sleepover to say thank you,” Fliss suggested.

We all began shouting at once!

“Boys at our sleepover! No way!” Kenny yelled.

“I’m not having a sleepover with boys!” Frankie exclaimed.

“Pascal’s nice but he’s not that nice!” I added.

“I think I’ve got hiccups!” Lyndz wailed. “Hic!”

We were just about to try out one of our fail-safe cures for Lyndz’s hiccups, when we heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

“Quick, into bed!” Kenny whispered urgently, rushing to turn off the light.

We all dived under the duvets and pretended to be asleep in silence. Even Lyndz’s hiccups had stopped – it must have been the shock! A few minutes later the door opened and we heard Mrs Weaver’s voice say, “Is everything all right, girls?” When nobody answered, she went out and closed the door quietly.

We all lay there for about five minutes to give her a chance to go back downstairs, and then I sat up.

“Shall we sing our sleepover song now?” I asked.
“Down by the river there’s a hanky-panky…”

But no-one else joined in. All I could hear was the sound of deep breathing and Fliss snoring. They’d all gone to sleep! So I lay down and went to sleep myself.

We were so tired after the sleepover and all the excitement with the M&Ms that we could hardly get up the following morning. We were having breakfast early too because we were going home, so Mrs Weaver came banging on our door at seven o’clock. We managed to drag ourselves out of bed and downstairs, but we nearly fell asleep over our croissants!

“I hope we see Pascal before we leave,” Lyndz said anxiously, as we stood outside the hotel while the teachers loaded up the minibus with our luggage.

“Hey, Emma!” Kenny called. “Put our bags on the coach, will you? And hurry up about it!”

The Queen and the Goblin stomped over and picked up our bags, their faces like thunder. We all started laughing.

“Ah, I am just in time to say goodbye!” Pascal came running down the stairs, pulling his jumper over his head.

“Thanks again, you were great!” Kenny beamed at him.

“And this is for you!” I said, handing him the big bar of chocolate.

Pascal looked pleased.
“Merci.
Thank you.” Then he lowered his voice. “But I have a little secret to tell you…”

We all gathered round him curiously.

“That autograph,” Pascal began. “It is not Danni Hart’s!”

We were all so shocked we couldn’t say anything at first.

“But – but you’ve got the official publicity photo!” Frankie stammered.

Pascal nodded. “My brother got that from the film crew. He asked Danni Hart for her
signature, but she was in a bad mood and she didn’t do it!”

“So whose signature is it?” Kenny whipped out the photo and studied it carefully.

“I asked my brother to sign it ‘Danni Hart’!” Pascal whispered.

We all glanced at the minibus. The Queen and the Goblin were staggering on to it, carrying our luggage and arguing bitterly. We all howled with laughter.

“That makes it even better!” Kenny said triumphantly. “Thanks, Pascal!”

Pascal winked at us. “I will not say goodbye, I will say
‘Au revoir’.
That means we will meet again sometime!”

So that was the story of our holiday in Paris – and how we discovered that some boys aren’t all that bad! The M&Ms still haven’t forgiven us, so I bet they’ll be out for revenge sometime soon… but we’ll be ready for them!

See ya! I mean,
au revoir!