Sleepovers Read Free

clapped and said we were great.
    Then we had our tea and there was the chocolate cake Amy had promised. It was chocolate sponge inside with three layers of chocolate cream and there were even little chocolate drops all round the frosted chocolate icing on the top of the cake. I had a big slice and it tasted wonderful at first but I couldn’t actually finish it. Bella finished it for me. She had her own slice
and
a second helping. Bella is astonishing.

    When we were all full – even Bella – we watched cartoons on television for a bit, and then we went upstairs with Alison and Abigail and they let us dress up in their special glittery clubbing clothes and stagger round in their high heels. We looked
wonderful
. Almost grown up!
    Amy is so lucky having big sisters like Alison and Abigail. Abigail is only three years older than Lily. I imagined what it would be like if Lily’s brain hadn’t been damaged and she could dress me up in cool clothes and teach me dances.
    I felt a little bit sad but then we watched some more funny shows on television – Amy can get ever so many different channels – and I cheered up. I felt especially pleased that when we all sat together on the beautiful red velvet sofa I was in the middle, with Amy one side and Emily the other.
    I didn’t get so lucky when we all went up to Amy’s bedroom to sort out who was sleeping where. Amy has bunk beds so Bella got to go on the top bunk above Amy. Amy’s mum had made up a mattress on most of Amy’s floor for two more girls.
    â€œThat’s fine for Emily and me,” said Chloe.
    â€œIt’s a very big mattress,” said Emily. “I’m sure there’s heaps of room for Daisy too.
    â€œNo, it would be much too much of a squash,” said Chloe firmly. “Daisy had better have that camp bed thing in the corner.”
    So I had to make do with the camp bed. It didn’t really matter at first because we didn’t get
into
bed for hours after we got into our pyjamas. We all played trampolines on the mattress and sang along to tapes on Amy’s cassette recorder and painted our nails all different colours with nail varnishes.

    Amy’s mum put her head round the door at ten o’clock and said she thought we should start settling down. We didn’t settle down for ages and ages. After we’d all gone to the bathroom together and cleaned our teeth (and squirted each other with Amy’s dad’s shaving foam) Bella said she felt peckish. Amy ran down to the kitchenand came back with a big bag of crisps and the remains of the birthday cake.
    We nibbled crisps and ate baby slices of cake as if we were sitting up properly at the tea table, but then we started messing around, scraping icing off the top of the cake with our fingers and seeing how many crisps we could put in our mouths all at once. Bella made herself a chocolate cake crisp sandwich. She said it tasted totally delicious. She wanted us all to try a bite but I decided not to. Emily had a big bite to please Bella – and then went very, very quiet.

    â€œWhat’s up with you, Emily?” said Chloe. “You’re not sleepy already, are you?”
    â€œNo. I just feel a bit sick,” said Emily in a tiny voice. ‘Yuck! I’m not sure I want to share the mattress with you now. You’re not to be sick on me,” said Chloe.

    â€œI won’t actually
be
sick,” said Emily, but she didn’t sound too sure.
    Amy’s mum said we really had to get intobed now. She looked a little fussed about the crisp crumbs and chocolate smears but she couldn’t get really cross on Amy’s birthday. She made us all go and clean our teeth again and do a last wee, and then we all got into our different beds and she said good night and switched off the light.
    We didn’t go to sleep of course. Amy and Bella and Chloe and I talked and talked. Emily didn’t say anything.
    â€œAre you