Sleepovers (10 page)

“You look lovely, Daisy,” said Mum.

“Our special birthday girl,” said Dad.

“Ur ur ur ur ur,” said Lily softly. I wondered if she really knew it was my birthday. I wondered if she ever knew when it was her birthday. I wondered if Lily wished she could wear tiny T-shirts and embroidered jeans. Lily mostly wore big towelling tops because she dribbled and spilt so much and they stopped her getting too wet. She wore loose jogging trousers because they were easy to whip on and off when she needed changing. Lily's
clothes were practical but they weren't
pretty
.

Lily wasn't pretty either. Mum kept her very clean but her face went funny and she always looked lopsided because she couldn't sit up properly. She did have lovely long hair though.

“Wait till after my party, Lily,” I said, giving her a hug. “We'll play hairdressers and I'll fix your hair with daisy slides. You'll like them. You'll look dead cool in them.”

“Ur ur ur ur ur!” said Lily excitedly.

“Try not to get her too worked up, pet,” Mum said gently.

“We don't want her roaring her head off when your party guests come,” said Dad.

We all waited. We were all a bit worried. I was sure Chloe was going to say something terrible about Lily. And I wasn't sure that Amy and Bella would be ultra-tactful. And maybe even Emily would act oddly about Lily and then what would I do?

My new birthday jeans suddenly seemed much too tight. I had a horrible squeezy feeling in my tummy. I wished I wasn't having a sleepover party. I wished Mum would take Lily and hide her away for the whole weekend.

Amy arrived first. “Hi, Daisy. Happy birthday!”

She gave me a pink plastic make-up bag with silver nail varnish and a pot of silver face glitter. I was so thrilled I forgot all about Lily for one tiny moment.

“Ur ur ur,” said Lily in the background, determined not to be forgotten.

Amy jumped, startled. She looked at Lily in her special chair.

“That's Lily,” I said. “She's my sister.”

“Hi, Lily,” Amy said uncertainly.

“Ur ur,” said Lily.

“What's wrong with her?” Amy hissed.

“Something happened to her brain when she was born,” I said.

“Oh dear,” said Amy. “So can't she walk?”

“No.”

“Well . . . she can sort of talk,” said Amy.

“Yes, she can. And she can shout too!” I said.

I felt a lot, lot, lot better. I
did
like Amy. Maybe second best to Emily instead of Bella.

Bella arrived next.

“Hello, Daisy. Here, happy birthday!”

She gave me a big box of chocolates with a puppy picture on the lid and a purple ribbon which would come in useful for future hairdressing sessions. Bella glanced at Lily and nodded. Then she looked back at the chocolates. Hopefully.

“Are you going to open them now?” said Bella.

“OK. Oh, they look really yummy!” I said.

I handed the box to Bella.

“You should choose first as it's your birthday,” Bella said, which was good of her, because she was staring hard at the biggest white chocolate in the middle.

“You have that one as you gave them to me,” I said, offering it to her. Bella didn't need persuading. I chose a round chocolate with a rose petal on top. Amy chose a chocolate wrapped in gold paper.

Bella took the box over to Lily.

“Do you want a chocolate?”

“Ur ur ur,” said Lily.

“What did you say?” said Bella.

“Lily can't really say stuff,” I said, going over to her. “She likes chocolate, but just a weeny bit, so she can't choke.” I broke a tiny piece off my rose chocolate and popped it in Lily's open mouth.

“Poor Lily. Fancy choking on chocolate!” said Bella.

I decided I liked Bella and Amy second-best equal to Emily.

Emily arrived next. She had a star T-shirt on exactly the same as mine! “Happy birthday, Daisy,” she said. “Hey, we're the star twins. We can go twinkle twinkle!”

She gave me my birthday present. I felt it first. It was quite squashy, with a little round bit. The round bit went grur-grur-grur when I squeezed it.

“Ur ur ur!” said Lily excitedly, as if they spoke the same language.

Emily looked surprised.

“Hello,” she said.

“This is Lily,” I said. “She's my sister.”

“Hi, Lily,” said Emily. She paused. “I like your hair. I'm trying to grow mine but it's taking
ages
.”

“Ur ur ur,” said Lily. She smiled as if she understood.

I smiled too. I knew Emily was the nicest friend in the whole world.

I unwrapped my birthday present. It was a beautiful new pair of pyjamas, white with yellow buttons and a pattern of little yellow teddy bears – and in the pyjama pocket there was a tiny toy teddy.

“He's called Little Growler. Press his tummy!” said Emily. “That was him growling before. Lily liked it.”

But Lily hadn't realized grur-grur-grur was Beartalk. Lily hates bears. She's even scared of tiny teddy bears like Little Growler.

She saw him – and she started. “UR UR UR UR UR!” Lily wailed.

“Oh goodness, what's the matter?” said Emily.

“
UR UR UR UR UR!
” Lily screamed.

“What's the matter?” said Amy.

“Has she hurt herself?” said Bella.

“She's just a bit frightened. She'll be all right in a minute,” I said. But she wasn't.

Mum had to cart Lily upstairs to calm her down. Lily wouldn't calm down one bit. She roared.

We heard her being sick.

“Oh dear,” said Emily. “Will she be all right now?”

“I think she'll need to go to sleep for a while,” said Dad.

We listened. Lily's cries were getting weaker.

“Poor Lily, she'll miss all the fun,” said Amy.

“She'll miss her tea if she goes to sleep,” said Bella.

I crossed my fingers. I hoped Lily would sleep for hours and hours and hours.

CHLOE WAS SO
late I began to think she wasn't coming. My heart started thumping under my twinkle-star T-shirt. My sleepover party would be just for four. Amy and Bella – and Emily and me! Emily might be
my
best friend. I felt I was flying right up to the real stars.

But then I came down to earth with a bump. There was a knock at the door. Chloe was here.

“Happy birthday, Daisy,” she cooed, all smiles in front of her mum. (
My
mum was still upstairs sorting out Lily.)

Chloe had a new T-shirt on too. It had sparkly pink lettering. It said:
The Bestest Little Girl in all the World
. Chloe had pink sparkles on her cheeks and
pink lipstick and pink strappy shoes with real heels.

Her present was wrapped up in sparkly pink paper too. I opened it gingerly. I was expecting a parcel of anchovies. But it was a video. It had
101 Dalmations
on the cover. But 101 Doubts rushed round my head like little dogs. I didn't trust Chloe. Not one bit.

We went into the living room to play. Mum had tried to tidy it up but Lily's special bouncy chair was still there.

“What a weird chair!” said Chloe.

“It's my sister's,” I said.

“But it's ginormous. She must be a
huge
baby.” Chloe blew out her cheeks and waddled like a giant toddler. “Where is she then? Has she crawled off somewhere?” said Chloe, pretending to look under the table.

“She's upstairs with my mum. She's putting her to bed because she got over-excited.”

“Oh, poor little baba. You'd better watch out, Daisy Diddums. You might get over-excited and put to bed too,” said Chloe. She paused. “Well, what are we going to do, then?”

I hadn't quite sorted it out.

“Let's dance,” said Amy.

But I didn't have the right sort of music.

“Yuck, this is all baby stuff – or
ancient
,” said Chloe, flipping through our CDs.

“Maybe we can have tea now?” said Bella.

But it was still a bit early for tea, and anyway, Mum was still upstairs with Lily.

“Shall we go out in the garden and play football?” said Emily.

So we went out in the garden, but nearly all the grass was taken up with the tent. Dad was just sorting out the last few tent pegs, hitting them with a wooden mallet.

“Hi, girls!” he said.

“Ooh, a tent!” said Emily.

“I've always wanted to go camping,” said Amy.

“Can we have campfire food?” said Bella.

“We can't play football with that stupid tent there. Shame you've got such a
little
garden.”

“Ah, it's Daisy's special friend Chloe,” said Dad, giving her a funny smile. “Are you having fun, girls?”

“Yes,” said Emily politely.

“No,” said Chloe.

“We don't know what to do, Dad,” I said desperately.

“Ah. I think Mum was going to sort you girls out before tea – but she's still with Lily, is she? Tell
you what! Why don't you play party games?”

“Party games? Like what?” I said.

“Like,
boring
,” said Chloe.

“No, no, they're good fun,” Dad insisted. “Let's all go indoors and play.”

When Chloe turned to go Dad mimed hitting her over the head with his wooden mallet. Emily and Amy and Bella and I all fell about laughing. “What's so funny?” said Chloe crossly.