Read Sleepovers Online

Authors: Jacqueline Wilson

Sleepovers (4 page)

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.

“What's up with you, Emily?” said Chloe. “You're not sleepy already, are you?”

“No. 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.

“I won't actually
be
sick,” said Emily, but she didn't sound too sure.

Amy's mum said we really had to get into
bed 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.

“Are you asleep, Emily?” I asked.

“No,” said Emily.

“You're not still feeling sick, are you?” said Chloe.

“No,” said Emily – but after a minute she got out of bed and ran to the bathroom.

“Yuck yuck yuck! She
is
going to be sick,” said Chloe.

“Maybe I should call my mum,” said Amy.

“I'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.

“You're so kind, Daisy,” she whispered, hugging me back. “I wish you were my best friend.”

“I 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.

 
 

IT WAS BELLA'S
birthday next. “I'm going to have a sleepover party too,” she said.

“Who's coming?” said Chloe.

I worried.

“We're
all
coming, silly!” said Bella. “It's going to be great. I'm going to have a h-u-g-e cake.”

“Is it going to be a chocolate cake?” Emily asked weakly.

“No, it's not. It's going to be a big
blue
cake, and you don't get blue chocolate.”

“I didn't think you got blue
cakes
,” said Chloe.

“Ah! This is a special one, because my party's going to be extra specially-special,” said Bella.

“We'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.

“What?”


Aha!
” she said.

“I 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.”

“Never mind, Emily. We don't all have to have sleepover parties,” I said quickly. “I'm not sure
my
mum will let me.”

“Why? You haven't got a baby brother too, have you?” said Chloe, frowning at me.

“No. I've got a sister, but . . .”

“But 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.

“But 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.


I
can swim ever so fast now, Mum,” I said. “Hey, did I tell you, Bella's having a special swimming party?”

“You told me lots of times, Daisy,” said Mum.

“I 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.”

“Shall I take you swimming on Sunday morning?” said Dad. “Then you can have a little practice swim.”

“That's a lovely idea,” said Mum. She looked at Lily. I worried that
they
might want to come too.

“Yes, 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.

“Do you really like swimming, Lily?” I asked.

Lily went, “Ur ur ur,” as if she really did.

“Well, 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.

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