Read Sleepovers Online

Authors: Jacqueline Wilson

Sleepovers (9 page)

“Ur ur ur ur ur,” said Lily.

I thought for a little while.

“I'm sometimes mean to you, Lily,” I said. “Do you hate me sometimes?”

“Ur ur ur ur ur,” said Lily. “Ur ur ur ur
ur
.”

I hoped she was saying she didn't hate me at all, she loved me because I was her sister.

“Well, I love you because you're
my
sister, Lily,” I said. “And if Chloe is mean to you I'll smack her hard, you just wait and see.”

 
 

Mum and Dad sang
Happy Birthday
to me on Saturday morning. Lily sang too, screeching louder and louder: “UR UR UR UR UR!”

“She's getting over-excited again, Mum,” I said.

“Never mind,” said Mum.

“We're
all
over-excited because it's your birthday, Daisy,” said Dad.

I had a special birthday breakfast of croissants and cherry jam and hot chocolate – yummy yummy.

“Do you think we can have more hot chocolate later on for my party?” I said. “I think Bella would like it a lot.”

“Yes, of course,” said Mum.

“But Emily doesn't like chocolate any more,” I worried.

“We'll find something else for Emily.”

“Something special – because Emily's my almost best friend,” I said.

“What shall we serve Chloe?” said Dad, winking. “A mug of greasy lukewarm washing-up water?”

I fell about laughing. Mum frowned, but she couldn't stop herself giggling too.

After breakfast Mum got Lily ready and then Dad took her for a long walk in her wheelchair while Mum and I cleared up and then made my birthday cake together. Mum let me stir the mixture and spoon it out into the cake tin. She let me scrape the mixing bowl with the spoon (and then my finger and
then
my tongue!). We made white chocolate crunch biscuits while the cake was cooling and
then
we did the decorating.

Mum got a very sharp knife and started cutting the cake.

“Mum!
I
cut the cake. It's my birthday. What
are you doing? The cake isn't even finished yet.”

“I know. I
am
finishing it. I'm turning it into a special cake,” said Mum. “Watch.”

I watched. Mum cut delicate little wedges out of the cake every so often. She was turning the cake into a particular shape. Then I suddenly realized.

“It's a
daisy
! Oh Mum, how brilliant!”

Mum defined each petal perfectly. Then we mixed up some bright white icing and carefully covered it all over.

“It looks lovely!” I said, putting a little smear of icing on one of the cut-off wedges. “Yum! It tastes lovely too.”

“It's not quite finished yet,” said Mum.

She coloured the left-over icing yellow and spread that in a neat circle in the middle so that
the cake looked just like a real daisy. When it was all dry she iced
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAISY
in pink on top. It looked
so
beautiful, especially when Mum slid the cake onto our best green plate. All round the edges she put little daisy hairslides. I counted. Twenty four. Enough for everyone to have four – and Emily and I could have six.

“No, no, four each,” said Mum.

“Emily, me, Bella, Amy and Chloe, yuck yuck. Five times four is twenty.”

“There are six of you, silly. What about Lily?” said Mum.

“But Lily isn't part of the sleepover party,” I said.

“Of course she is! She's your sister.”

“Lily can't do her own hair so she doesn't need hairslides.”

“You could do her hair for her. And I'm sure she'll love her daisy hairslides,” said Mum. “Oh, there's Lily and Dad back now. Did you have a lovely walk, Lily? What's all that silly noise for?”

“UR UR UR UR UR!” Lily wailed.

“I took her round the shopping centre. I thought she'd like those giant teddies.
Big
mistake,” said Dad, mopping his brow.

“Oh yes, she's scared of them,” said Mum, sighing.

“Well, you could have told me,” said Dad.

“Lily's been scared of them for ages,” I said. “Oh, Dad, you know she doesn't even like my teddy, Midnight.”

“Come on, Lily, let's mop those weepy eyes and wipe that poor nose,” said Mum. “And stop that noise,
please
!”

“Ur ur ur ur ur,” Lily mumbled, sniffling.

Mum started to carry Lily upstairs.

“Oh dear, she needs changing too. Look, you two had better get started on Daisy's bedroom. Though how all four girls are going to squash in there I just don't know.”

“Lots of girls use the living room for sleepovers,” I suggested.

“There's even less space in our living room,” said Dad, “what with Lily's special chair and her rug and all her other stuff. Then he looked at the window. He looked out of the window.

“I know!” said Dad. “Daisy, how about having your sleepover in the garden? We could get the tent out the loft.”

“Oh, Dad! Magic!” I said.

We went racing up the stairs past Mum and Lily so that Dad could climb up in the loft. We bought all the camping stuff last year for our summer holiday. We can't usually stay in a hotel because it's so difficult with Lily. It was difficult camping with her too. She cried most of the night. And the next, even though I got in her sleeping bag with her. She didn't like it because it was different. The third night Lily cried and Mum cried too. Dad didn't cry but he said, “This is ridiculous,” and we packed up the tent and drove home in the middle of the night.

“I knew that tent would come in useful eventually,” Dad said now, and he unpacked it and took it out into the garden.

“It's going to be so cool!” I said.

“Too cool, literally,' said Mum. “It'll be freezing cold in the middle of the night.”

“The girls can all wrap up really warmly. They'll have a whale of a time,” said Dad.

“But Lily won't be able to join in any of the fun. You know what she's like in that tent,” said Mum.

“You don't have to remind me!” said Dad.

I didn't say anything.

I couldn't help feeling very glad indeed that Lily wouldn't be able to join in.

 
 

I WORE MY
starry T-shirt and my new birthday-present jeans with embroidered daisies up and down the legs. I couldn't wait to have the daisy hairslides in my hair to match.

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