Sleepovers Read Free Page B

too.
    â€œYes, let’s, Dad,” I said quickly. “Just you and me.”
    Lily couldn’t understand but I felt a bit mean even so. I got into her bed at night and snuggled up to her.
    â€œDo you really like swimming, Lily?” I asked.
    Lily went, “Ur ur ur,” as if she really did.
    â€œWell, when I get a bit bigger
I’ll
take you swimming,” I said.
    Lily went, “Ur ur ur ur ur,” as if she’d like that very much.
    I went swimming with Dad on Sunday and we had a great time. Dad showed me how to kick out with my legs like a little frog and I swam ever such a long way without putting my foot down once. Then we played jumping up and down and then Dad pretended he was a dolphin and I rode on his back.

    I found a special birthday present for Bella in the swimming pool shop too. Some super-cool turquoise goggles so that she could see under water. I didn’t need goggles myself because Ididn’t actually like going under water.
    I was still a bit worried about swimming even after my special practice with Dad – but it was
fine
on Bella’s birthday. Emily wasn’t very good at swimming either, so most of the time we paddled by the fountains and the plastic palms and played we were shipwrecked on a desert island. Chloe was too busy showing off how far and how fast she could swim to bother about us. Amy was quite good at swimming too, but Bella was the best. She really was brilliant. Bella’s dad called her his little water-baby. Bella wasn’t exactly
little
but she was certainly a star at swimming. She especially loved swimming underwater. So my turquoise-goggles birthday present was a big success!
    When Bella’s dad drove us all back to Bella’s house we found Bella’s mum had her birthday tea all ready for us. It was a HUGE tea. There were six different kinds of sandwiches: egg mayonnaise; chicken; prawn; banana and cream cheese; bacon, lettuce and tomato; and peanut butter and grape jelly. There were six different kinds of cake too:alphabet fairy cakes; chocolate crispies; chocolate fudge cake; blackcurrant cheesecake; carrot cake; and the special ginormous swimming-pool birthday cake. It had five little marzipan girls in swimming costumes standing in the middle. It was the most special birthday cake in the world. If I’d been Bella I wouldn’t have wanted to eat it, I’d have wanted to keep it for ever.

    Bella and I are very different. She cut it all up with a special cake knife and ate two huge slices straight off,
and
all the little marzipan girls.
    â€œWait till you see
my
birthday cake,” said Chloe.
    â€œWhat’s it going to be like?” said Emily.
    â€œ
Aha!
” said Chloe.
    I was
sick
of Chloe. I was starting to worry about the sleepover part of this party. I was sure I’d be the one left out again. But guess what, guess what, guess what! Bella’s mum and dad moved into the spare room. Bella and Amy and Chloe and Emily and I got tosleep in their great big double bed, all of us in together!
    It was the greatest fun ever. I was on the outside but I had Emily next to me. I secretly tucked Midnight in the other side, under the covers. We all got the most terrible giggles so that the whole bed wobbled. Bella had a big box of birthday chocolates and kept passing them round. Emily didn’t have any. I had two. Amy had three. Chloe had five. Bella had
thirteen
!

    We didn’t settle down to sleep for ages – and then we got the giggles again because whenever one of us turned over we all had to. Midnight turned too and Emily felt his furry paws. She gave him a special cuddle.
    â€œHe’s so sweet,” she whispered in my ear. “I’ve got a little teddy called Buttercup. Well,he was a present for my baby brother but
he
just chews his fur so Buttercup’s mine now. You’ll see him when you come to my house for
my
sleepover party.
If
my mum lets me have