Sleepovers Read Free Page A

asleep, Emily?” I asked.
    â€œNo,” said Emily.
    â€œYou’re not still feeling sick, are you?” said Chloe.
    â€œNo,” said Emily – but after a minute she got out of bed and ran to the bathroom.
    â€œYuck yuck yuck! She
is
going to be sick,” said Chloe.
    â€œMaybe I should call my mum,” said Amy.
    â€œI’ll go and see if she’s all right,” I said.
    I went to help Emily. When she’d finished being sick I mopped her up and gave her a drink of water and put my arm round her. She was shivering.
    â€œYou’re so kind, Daisy,” she whispered, hugging me back. “I wish you were my best friend.”
    â€œI wish I was too.”
    We both sighed. Then we went back to Amy’s room and Emily got into bed with Chloe.
    I very quietly fished in my bag and found Midnight. He came underneath the covers with me and we cuddled up in the lonely little camp bed.

 
    Â 
    IT WAS BELLA’S birthday next. “I’m going to have a sleepover party too,” she said.
    â€œWho’s coming?” said Chloe.
    I worried.
    â€œWe’re
all
coming, silly!” said Bella. “It’s going to be great. I’m going to have a h-u-g-e cake.”
    â€œIs it going to be a chocolate cake?” Emily asked weakly.
    â€œNo, it’s not. It’s going to be a big
blue
cake, and you don’t get blue chocolate.”
    â€œI didn’t think you got blue
cakes
,” said Chloe.
    â€œAh! This is a special one, because my party’s going to be extra specially-special,” said Bella.
    â€œWe’re all going swimming. My birthday cake’s going to have blue icing because it’s in the shape of a swimming pool.”
    We all agreed this
was
specially-special. Even Chloe seemed impressed. “I’m brilliant at swimming. Great idea! Though wait till you hear what I’m doing for
my
sleepover party,” she said.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œ
Aha!
” she said.
    â€œI still don’t know if I can
have
a sleepover party,” said Emily. “I keep asking my mum and she says there’s no point anyone coming to my house because you can’t get any sleep as my baby brother cries all night. I
hope
she’s just joking. Though she doesn’t make many jokes now. She’s too tired.”
    â€œNever mind, Emily. We don’t all have to have sleepover parties,” I said quickly. “I’m not sure
my
mum will let me.”

    â€œWhy? You haven’t got a baby brother too, have you?” said Chloe, frowning at me.
    â€œNo. I’ve got a sister, but . . .”
    â€œBut what?”
    I shrugged, my heart thumping. “Oh. You know,” I said – though of course they
didn’t
know.
    I started madly hoping that Lily might start to get a lot better so that it wouldn’t be so bad. Mum said Lily was improving in leaps and bounds now she was at her new special school. Lily couldn’t
really
leap or bound. She couldn’t walk. She couldn’t even crawl.
    â€œBut she’s on the way to becoming more mobile,” said Mum. “She loves her swimming, don’t you, Lily? You bob along like a little duck.”
    Lily’s special school had its own small swimming pool. Lily couldn’t
really
swim. They just held her in the water while she splashed a bit.
    â€œ
I
can swim ever so fast now, Mum,” I said. “Hey, did I tell you, Bella’s having a special swimming party?”
    â€œYou told me lots of times, Daisy,” said Mum.
    â€œI do sometimes have to put my foot on the bottom though,” I said. “I think Bella and Amy and Emily and Chloe might be able to swim a bit better than me. Especially Chloe.”
    â€œShall I take you swimming on Sunday morning?” said Dad. “Then you can have a little practice swim.”
    â€œThat’s a lovely idea,” said Mum. She looked at Lily. I worried that
they
might want to come