Sleepover Girls in the Ring (5 page)

“What?” I gasped, looking shocked. “Can’t I help my own mum with the washing-up if I want to?”

“Well, you could, Kenny,” Mum agreed. “But the only time you ever do is when you want something.”

“OK, I’ll come clean!” I giggled, pointing at the dirty water. Then I got serious. “Well you see, the thing is…”

I checked that Molly wasn’t anywhere around and closed the door before continuing.

“Ailsa is this girl who belongs to Circus Jamboree and she’s in our class for a term. We’ve kind of been looking after her and making sure she settles down at school. Well, yesterday we met her parents, and they said they’d like to teach us circus skills in the half-term holiday.”

“Oh?” Mum raised her eyebrows. “You mean they volunteered, just like that?”

“Yes – well, no. Ailsa’s mum teaches the people in the circus how to be acrobats, and we said how much we’d like to learn.”

“Hmm,” Mum looked doubtful. “Is it safe?”

“Oh yes!” I promised. “Ailsa’s mum is fully trained, and Ailsa’s dad is really hot on safety.”

“Hmm,” Mum said again.

“Well?” I asked. “Can I go?”

“I don’t know.” Mum wiped her hands on a towel. “We did agree that after that last
catastrophe we were going to keep you apart for a while, didn’t we?”

“But Mum—” I moaned.

“But Mum nothing,” Mum said crisply. “I’m going to have to think about this.”

“Well, you won’t mention it to Molly, will you?” I pleaded. “I don’t want her sticking her nose in.”

I dragged myself upstairs and flung myself on the bed. I couldn’t see what Mum’s problem was. I mean, it was Fliss’s mum who had blown the Jam Doughnut Incident out of all proportion. It wasn’t our fault that she can be so neurotic sometimes. I consoled myself with the fact that the others must be having the same grief from their oldies. But I was wrong about that too.

When I got to school the next day, Frankie, Lyndz and Rosie were all chattering to Ailsa.

“It’s going to be so great next week, isn’t it Kenny?” Frankie grabbed me excitedly. “Who’d have thought we’d be learning how to juggle and stuff, in a real Big Top?”

All the air seemed to get sucked out of me,
and it took a few moments before I could find my voice.

“What? You mean you’re allowed to go?” I gasped.

“Well, yes,” Frankie said, sensing that something was wrong. “Izzy has colic and Mum’s really tired. I think she thought it would give all of us a break if I did something with you lot during half-term.”

“Oh,” I mumbled. “Can you go, Lyndz?”

“Yep,” Lyndz nodded, smiling. “Our house is always a bit crazy during school holidays with there being five of us at home. And when I told Mum about being able to go to the circus every day, she leapt at the idea.”

“Yeah, I think my mum thought it would be cheaper if I was there rather than being at home,” Rosie admitted. “She’s just splashed out on new throws and rugs and stuff for the lounge, and I think she’s a bit strapped for cash now. And if I’m at home, we’ll only end up going shopping or ice-skating or something. So she was kind of relieved when I told her about Ailsa’s parents teaching us circus skills.”

“I see.” My misery had just multiplied.

But at least Fliss understood how I felt. When she arrived she was almost in tears.

“Mum says there’s no way I can come along to the circus next week,” she sobbed. “I bet she won’t even let me out of the house!”

So that meant that all the others would be having the time of their lives, and I would be stuck at home with not even Fliss to mess about with. It was
so
unfair.

At break time, Frankie pulled me aside as the others went to get their coats.

“It won’t be any fun without you next week,” she whispered. “You’ve got to get your mum to change her mind. Do you want my mum to have a word with her?”

That was the best suggestion anybody’d had for ages. I mean, Frankie’s mum’s a lawyer! If anyone could put up a persuasive argument for me to be allowed to learn circus skills with the others, it was her.

“It’s got to be worth a try,” I shrugged.

I tried to be cool about it, but all evening I was in a permanent state of panic just waiting for the phone to ring. I had a couple of
false alarms when patients called wanting Dad’s advice. But third time lucky. I knew it was Frankie’s mum on the phone when Mum said “Hello, Helena,” then didn’t manage to say anything else except “yes”, “no” and “I agree” for the next half an hour.

When she came off the phone I dived out of the lounge to see what she’d decided – only for her to shoo me away whilst she made another phone call. I was
desperate
to know what was going on. I mean, my happiness depended on her decision! But did she put me out of my misery? No, she did not. She was still on the phone when I went to bed. And in the morning I didn’t have a chance to ask Mum either because we were in such a rush and Molly was always there.

I felt
terrible
when I got to school, especially when I saw Fliss leaping about with the others in the playground.

“Great, that’s all I need,” I told myself through gritted teeth. “Little Miss Prissy can go to the circus and I’m the only one who can’t.”

As soon as they saw me the others all came
hurtling towards me.

“Isn’t it great?” they squealed.

“Marvellous!” I said sarcastically.

“Aren’t you pleased that you’re coming to learn circus skills too?” Ailsa looked at me, amazed. “I thought you wanted to.”

“But…”

“You don’t know, do you?” shrieked Fliss.

I shook my head, dazed.

“My mum rang your mum and told her that everyone was going and we’d all promised to be on our best behaviour,” gabbled Frankie. “So your mum rang Fliss’s mum and they both agreed that you two could come as well!”

“YESSS!” I clenched my fists in a victory salute. I was going after all!!

The following week on the Monday morning, the five of us met outside Circus Jamboree. Ailsa’s father opened the gates and let us through. Then he looked up and down the road.

“You’re eager beavers!” he grinned. “Come on through, we might as well wait for the others in the Big Top.”

He led the way towards the circus tent.

“Others?” We looked at each other.

“He must mean the other circus performers,” Rosie said. “Maybe we’ll be practising with them.”

The Big Top seemed even larger than when we’d last been in it. There was no-one else about, until Ailsa appeared.

“Hi there.” She was looking a bit sheepish. “There’s something I’d better tell you…”

“Your mum’s not ill, is she? We can still learn circus skills?” I asked anxiously.

“Yes, but—”

Ailsa was interrupted by a volley of laughter. More people were entering the tent.

“The rest of the group’s already here,” Ailsa’s father was saying breezily.

We all looked at each other. There must have been some mistake! We hadn’t planned to meet anyone else. We turned round to see who had joined us – and I got the shock of my life.

“Molly?”
I shrieked. “What are YOU doing here??”

I just couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought at first that Molly was playing a trick on me, but you could tell from the expression on her face that she hadn’t been expecting to see me either.

“So,” I glared at her. “What
are
you doing here?”

“Erm, that’s what I wanted to tell you.” Ailsa had sidled up beside me. “The older kids from the circus found out that you lot were coming, and asked whether their new classmates could come too.”

“Yeah, André invited us, ice-cream girl!”

Standing grinning before me was the loathsome Edward Marsh. I just
knew
that he had to be involved in this somewhere. Beside them was a tall, dark-haired boy with olive skin. I kind of remembered seeing him in the circus, but Molly had never mentioned that he had joined their class.

“I really do not believe this,” I hissed under my breath, and went back to join my friends.

“I’m sorry,” Ailsa kept saying. “I only found out that there were other people coming last night. And by then it was too late to warn you.”

“It’s not the other people we mind,” I told her. “It’s my stupid sister and her gruesome boyfriend.”

“Well, maybe if you and Molly were actually
talking
to each other this might not have happened,” Frankie suggested coolly.

Ailsa’s father clapped his hands for our attention. He was standing with Ailsa’s mum and this clown who was wearing an enormous blue wig, a shiny hat and the longest shoes you’ve ever seen.

“I’m the Ringmaster at Circus Jamboree,” he said to everyone, “which means it’s my job to keep everything running smoothly. So first I’m going to split you into two groups…”

Frankie, Lyndz, Rosie, Fliss and I grinned at each other.

“… but I thought it might be fun if we mixed you up a bit so you could make new friends.”

We all looked at each other in horror!

Ailsa’s dad started pointing at us. “You lot go in that group over there with my wife Carina, and the rest of you go and stand with Bobby the clown.”

This whole thing was rapidly turning into a
nightmare
! Ailsa’s dad had only put me in a group with Fliss, Ailsa, two other girls I didn’t know and, wait for it –
Molly the big ugly Monster.
I mean, come on! There was no way I was going to spend half-term week with
her!

It was pretty obvious that she felt the same, because she snarled as soon as she joined me. Then, when she thought no one
was looking, she pinched my leg, hard. I yelped, then I pinched her back, harder. To start with, no one realised what was going on. But by the time we had progressed to thumping each other and yanking each other’s hair, everybody had wised up to the fact that we really couldn’t stand being in the same group.

When Ailsa’s dad and Bobby the clown finally pulled us apart, Molly and I stood panting, scowling at each other. Ailsa’s dad looked horrified.

“Well, I didn’t realise that splitting you up would lead to the outbreak of World War Three. I think maybe we’d better stick to the groups you came in.”

We all reassembled. He went on rather sharply:

“Can I just say that we don’t have animals of any description in this circus, and what we just witnessed looked very much like a cat fight to me. If there’s a performance like that again, I’m afraid you can
all
say goodbye to learning circus skills. Is that understood?”

We all nodded sheepishly, and I felt really
bad. I mean, Ailsa’s family were putting themselves out for us here, and we’d already spoilt it. Although Molly
had
started it, of course.

Anyway, once me and Molly were away from each other, we started with the real circus stuff. But whereas I had hoped to be walking the tightrope at the very least, we were with Bobby the clown. That should have been cool, but he was making balloon elephants like we were at a kids’ party or something!

“Boy, is this tame!” I whispered to Frankie. “We didn’t need to come here to learn how to do that. I thought we’d be learning all the good stuff!”

Frankie ignored me, and Fliss went “Sshh!” and looked really annoyed.

I gazed over to where Ailsa’s mum was teaching Molly’s group. Some of them were practising walking on their hands with a partner and some were testing out some baby stilts.

“Hey, look at them!” I nudged Frankie again. “D’you think we’ll be doing that soon instead of this boring stuff?”

I don’t know if Bobby the clown heard me or not, but he let go of the balloon he was holding and it ended up flying right in my face, making a disgusting noise.

“Well, excu-u-use you!” he said, holding his pretend red nose and making it squeak. “You seem to have a bit of a wind problem!”

The others fell about as though it was the funniest thing they’d ever heard.

“So what’s your name?” Bobby asked.

“Kenny,” I replied quietly.

“Well Kenny, thank you for volunteering for this next section. Just step this way…”

I had to go and walk round the ring after him, but he walked really strangely because of his big shoes and he made me do the same. At first I felt a right dill, but soon I got into it and started goofing around after him. Suddenly he stopped.