Sleepover Girls on the Range (8 page)

But before we could even
begin
to get back at the M&Ms, we had to get some sleep. But that looked impossible. How on earth could we get any sleep when our sleeping bags were ruined?

“We’ll have to put our clothes back on. At least they’ll keep us warm,” Frankie suggested.

But once we were back in our jeans and jumpers, we still had the problem of what we were going to lie on.

“I know!” I leapt up. “What about lying on horse blankets?”

“What about telling Mrs McAllister what’s happened and seeing if we can sleep in her house?” mumbled Fliss wearily. “Or better still, phoning for our parents to collect us!”

“Where’s your spirit of adventure, Fliss?” snapped Kenny. “It’ll only panic our parents if we ring now. And Mrs McAllister would never trust us to do anything again if she thought we’d messed this up.”

“But
we
haven’t messed anything up,” Fliss reminded her. “It was those stupid M&Ms.”

“Don’t remind me!” snarled Kenny.

Meanwhile I’d climbed into Alfie’s stall and retrieved a couple of blankets.

“I’ll have to go and get some from the other horses,” I told the others.

“How are you going to do that without the security light going on?” Rosie asked.

“Well I can’t,” I agreed. “You lot will have to pretend to go to the loo, so if Mrs McAllister looks out she’ll think that’s why the light’s gone on.”

“Great idea!” agreed Frankie. “Right, what are we waiting for?”

We all crept out of the barn and across the yard. The lights came on with a blinding flash, and sure enough, a light went on inside Mrs McAllister’s house.

“It’s OK!” I called out when I saw her face at the window. “We’re just going to the loo!”

Mrs McAllister just nodded, in a resigned kind of way. But we had to walk to the toilet block anyway, just in case she was still watching us. When we got there, we peeped round the wall to make sure that the light in her house had gone out. It had.

“Right you lot, keep watch,” I hissed. “Frankie, you come with me and give me a leg up over the stable doors.”

Fortunately the horses all know me, so they didn’t totally freak when I suddenly appeared in their stables. And it was quite lucky because in the first stable I found four blankets all neatly piled up in the corner.

“Will this be enough?” I whispered, handing them over to Frankie, who was waiting outside.

“We could do with a couple more to go over the top of us,” she hissed back.

I climbed over into Bramble’s stable. All the time my heart was thudding inside my ribcage. If Mrs McAllister caught me, she’d think I was trying to steal something and she’d never let me near her stables again! I found two more blankets and handed them out to Frankie. Then we ran like crazy back to the barn, knees buckling beneath the weight of the blankets. As soon as the others saw us, they ran across the yard too.

“You were lucky there. Mrs McAllister’s just appeared at the window again,” Kenny gasped as they flew through the door.

“You don’t think she saw
us,
do you?” I asked Frankie anxiously.

“Nah!”

It took ages for us to get settled. We put the blankets next to each other on the hay, then lay down and pulled the spare blankets over the top of us. They smelt of hay and horses, which I loved. But of course, Fliss started whingeing.

“If she doesn’t shut up, I’m going to tell her there are rats in here,” Kenny whispered.

“Don’t you dare!” I whispered back.

I can’t honestly say I slept much. And it was kind of a relief when the first strains of daylight started filtering in.

“That’s the worst night’s sleep I’ve ever had!” moaned Rosie, rubbing her eyes.

“Me too!” agreed the others.

“What’s for breakfast, then?” asked Kenny.

Breakfast! We hadn’t even
thought
about that. Usually we sleep over at each other’s houses, so we just grab something there.

“Oh, don’t tell me we’re going to be starving as well as sleepy when we go on this pony trek!” moaned Rosie.

That was all the excuse Fliss needed to let her go home. Or so she thought!

When we went across the yard to have a wash, there was a
fabulous
smell of eggs, bacon and toast wafting on the air.

“I hope you’re hungry, girls,” Mrs McAllister called out from her kitchen. “Because I’ve cooked enough here to feed an army!”

That was the best news in the world!
And
it was the best breakfast ever.

“You’ll have to stay for the pony trek now, Fliss!” we teased her. “Because you’ll have to work off that breakfast!”

“Of course Felicity is staying!” Mrs McAllister sounded very indignant. “I’ve told her before that she has the making of a fine horsewoman!”

Fliss blushed and looked dead chuffed. The rest of us rolled our eyes. Mrs McAllister had told her the same thing when she’d managed to cling on to the runaway horse at the Stable Open Day, and she’d not shut up about it for weeks! Still, it meant that Fliss wouldn’t dare wimp out of the pony trek now.

When the trek was about to start, we were in the stable yard wondering how many people were going to turn up, when a voice piped up behind us.

“Sleep well, did you?”

The M&Ms! I couldn’t believe that they’d dared to show their faces again.

“You’d better watch it!” Kenny narrowed her eyes and pointed a menacing finger at
them. “I’m going to have you!”

“Oooh! We’re so scared!” the stupid M&Ms pretended to quiver.

If Mrs McAllister hadn’t started to speak, I swear that Kenny would probably have pulverised them, she was so mad.

“The most important thing is that everyone wears a hard hat,” Mrs McAllister was saying. “No-one in my stable is ever allowed on a horse without one. I have a box of them here, and Miranda and I will make sure that everyone is wearing one which fits correctly.”

Miranda helps Mrs McAllister around the stables a lot, and she was riding with us on the trek. So whilst she and Mrs McAllister kitted everyone out with a suitable hat, the rest of us looked round again.

Nine people had turned up for the pony trek, plus Mrs McAllister and Miranda of course. There were just two other people besides us and the M&Ms. They were two girls who seemed nice enough and about our age, but they were a bit shy and just talked to each other.

When we all had a hat, Mrs McAllister sorted out the ponies. I had Bramble, who I’m sort of used to riding. Frankie was on Marvel, Kenny had Trojan, Rosie was on Bailey, and Mrs McAllister put Fliss on Snowflake because she’s ever so gentle and a real poppet. Then she divided us into two groups, and kept the five of us together which was really cool. Mind you, I never thought we’d ever get anywhere because Fliss took so long to actually mount Snowflake. I could hear the M&Ms spluttering from their horses, and that really put Fliss off.

“Ignore them Fliss, they’re just stupid morons!” Kenny told her very loudly.

Sensing that trouble was brewing, Mrs McAllister helped Fliss on to Snowflake and went to have a word with Miranda. Then she swung herself on to Sinbad, her own horse, and called:

“Right Lyndsey, you and your friends are coming with me. We’re going to meet the others for lunch at Pike Brook. Stick together, and if anyone has a problem, shout!”

So off we set, with Fliss wobbling about all over the shop.

“Just relax,” I told her. “You won’t fall off!”

“Don’t even mention it!” she hissed back.

We started off walking slowly across the fields. Then we went into the valley, where we had a brilliant view of the countryside. There were birds and butterflies and all kinds of flowers, the kind of things you see every day but never really notice.

“Isn’t this brilliant!” I marvelled, and I could tell that the others thought so too. Even Fliss looked more relaxed and was smiling into the sunshine.

When we started to climb up a gentle slope, Fliss went all ashen again. But when she realised that Snowflake was used to that kind of terrain, she relaxed into it and started to enjoy herself.

I couldn’t believe it when Mrs McAllister called:

“We’re almost at Pike Brook now!”

We’d been riding for an hour or more and it only felt like ten minutes! We could see the others ahead of us, and it was as though a
weight had suddenly dropped on to my shoulders. I had actually forgotten all about the M&Ms.

Mrs McAllister brought us to a halt in front of the gurgling waters of Pike Brook. When we’d dismounted and handed over our reins so that Mrs McAllister and Miranda could secure the horses, we all took off our hats.

Then Kenny pulled the five of us together.

“This is an ace place to get our own back on the M&Ms,” she said. “I’ve got a plan. All you’ve got to do is distract them when I give you the nod. OK?”

“Sure!” we all agreed, not knowing quite what we were agreeing to.

Mrs McAllister took loads of packets of sandwiches from her saddle-bags, and Miranda handed round cups of squash. We all sat down on the banks of the brook with our hats beside us, munching into our food.

“It’s certainly thirsty work, this riding!” Fliss giggled, glugging down her drink. “I kind of enjoyed it though. I must be a natural rider after all!”

“You! A natural rider! Do me a favour!” The
M&Ms had wandered over. “You’d be more natural riding ‘My Little Pony’. That’s made just for little girls like you!”

While they were talking, Kenny had somehow manoeuvred herself behind the Gruesome Twosome and was nodding furiously. At first I thought she was agreeing with them – but then I realised she was trying to put her plan into operation.

“Well you should know!” I snapped back. “I thought your cupboards would be full of toys like that. It was a pretty childish trick you pulled last night.”

“Oh, you liked that, did you!” smirked Emma Hughes. “I thought ‘now what can I do to make their cosy little sleepover even better’!”

“And we thought you’d like some nice cold beans to keep you going!” chortled Emma Berryman gruffly.

“You’re pathetic, you know that?” snapped Frankie. “It’s time you grew up!”

“Is everything all right over here?” Mrs McAllister must have been alerted by the raised voices. “Where’s Kenny?”

“I’m here!” Kenny appeared behind her. “I was just rinsing out our cups in the brook!”

“That was good of you, thank you.” Mrs McAllister took the plastic beakers from her. “Right everybody!” she clapped her hands. “Could you all please bring any rubbish to me and put your hats back on. Miranda and I will help you mount your horses if necessary, then we can make our way back to the stables.”

When the M&Ms had gone, Kenny turned to us with a wicked gleam in her eye.

“This should be interesting!” she smirked.

“Will you two please get a move on? We’re all waiting for you!” Mrs McAllister was glaring at the M&Ms.

The rest of us were all ready mounted on our horses and had been hanging around waiting for the Queen and the Goblin for ten minutes or more.

“I told you this would be good, didn’t I?” hissed Kenny. “And look at Mrs McAllister’s face! She’s not a happy bunny!”

Indeed she was not. She was frowning and red in the face and looked MAD!

The M&Ms meanwhile were rummaging
about in the bushes next to the brook and muttering angrily to each other.

“You put them down, didn’t you?”

“No, you did!”

Mrs McAllister swung herself down from Sinbad and stomped over to them.

“Right, I’ve just about had enough of this!” she told them crossly. “Where are your hats?”

“W…we don’t know,” admitted Emma sheepishly.

“What do you mean,
you don’t know?”
stormed Mrs McAllister. “How can you possibly have lost them?”

Then Kenny suddenly piped up, cool as you like:

“Erm, Mrs McAllister? I can see something floating in the middle of the brook down there. And it looks like a couple of hard hats!”

I thought Mrs McAllister was going to blow a fuse. I really did.

“What!
she yelled. Then she went closer to the brook to investigate.

Sure enough, caught up in a tangle of
weeds in the middle of the water were two very soggy riding hats.

“How on earth did they get there?” Mrs McAllister fumed. “No, don’t answer that! The most important thing is getting them out, and I know who’s going to do that!”

She gestured for the M&Ms to follow her, and walked with them downstream until they were level with the hats. She took a stick and tested the water with it.

“Well, luckily for you two it’s quite shallow here,” she told them. “Now, in you go and mind your step – the pebbles on the bottom can be quite slippery.”

For one moment, I thought Emma Hughes was going to tell her that she wouldn’t go in. But she took one look at Mrs McAllister’s face and thought better of it. Very gingerly, she stepped into the brook and waded out into the middle. It was deeper than it looked, and by the time she could reach the hats, the water was up to her knees. Emily Berryman picked her way behind Emma, and was so busy trying to keep her balance that she didn’t see that her friend had stopped.

We nearly wet ourselves when we saw what happened next. Emma turned round with the hats and knocked into Emily, who was caught completely off-balance and slipped over. And as if
that
wasn’t funny enough, Emily started flailing around – and knocked Emma over as well!