Free Emergency Sleepover by Fiona Cummings

virtually impossible. I was laughing so much I fell off my chair, and that just made the others worse.
    But then Molly did something really mean. She actually started to tickle Fliss. And Fliss hates being tickled – big time! She squirmed in her chair and looked pleadingly at the rest of us with her eyes. I could tell she was getting really mad so I got out of my chair to sort Molly out, but it was too late.
    “MOLLY! JUST STOP IT! NOW!”
    The silence was broken!

Well, I bet you thought that was Fliss, didn’t you? To be honest with you, so did I at first. But when Mum leapt up from her chair, she looked so furious that we all knew it must have been her who’d shouted. In one movement she grabbed hold of Molly’s arm and dragged her out of the room. The rest of us all looked at each other and tried not to splutter with laughter. Lyndz was still hiccuping, and we had to make sure that we got through the rest of the meal without any silence-breaking mishaps.
    I think it was the first time in my life that I hadn’t enjoyed Mum’s chocolate cake. All I could think about was getting outside and screaming at the top of my voice. I didn’t realise keeping quiet could be so
difficult!
    It was such a relief when Mum came back in. We’d almost finished eating, apart from Fliss who seems to take twice as long as everybody else to finish her food. When she’d finally picked at the last few crumbs of cake Mum spoke.
    “Well I’m really impressed that you managed to keep so quiet,” she marvelled. “Especially with Molly provoking you like that.”
    I put up my hand.
    “Yes Kenny, what is it?” Mum asked.
    “Can we speak now?” I mouthed at her.
    “Yes, yes, you can speak as much as you like!” she laughed.
    We all burst out cheering and whooping.
    “Well, that sponsorship money should boost your total some more!” Dad grinned.
    “And I’ve told Molly that she has to give you her pocket money too, for being such a pain,” Mum told us.
    “Hey, that’s great!” squealed Rosie. “We must have raised enough to buy loads of new toys for the Children’s Ward now, mustn’t we?”
    “I would imagine so,” Dad nodded.
    We all beamed at each other and danced about. Then we raced into the garden to really let off some steam. First we wrestled Rosie to the ground and tickled her until she was screaming for mercy.
    “That’s because it was your mum who suggested the sponsored silence!” I told her, when we had finally collapsed, panting, on to the grass.
    “Well you should tickle
her
then, not me!” she said huffily, then started to giggle at the thought of it.
    After we’d got our breath back we had one of our barging
Gladiators
games. I leapt on to Frankie’s back and Rosie leapt on to Lyndz’s. You’re supposed to push the other team into the flowerbed and it usually turns into a big free-for-all, but Fliss had other ideas. She was the referee and kept making up all these crazy rules.
    “Peep!” she pretended to whistle. “Bentknee barges aren’t allowed, free push to the opposing team!”
    It was a scream. I think Fliss was quite chuffed with herself for making us laugh too.
    We stayed outside for ages playing our crazy games. And when Mum finally called us inside, it was getting dark.
    “Just look at the state of you!” she shrieked when she saw us. “You look as though you’ve been down a mine for a month!”
    We were so dirty and grimy that she made us all have a bath. Bad move! By the time we’d finished in the bathroom, the mirrors were all fogged up and the floor was swimming with water! Mum was not pleased at all.
    “Chimpanzees from the zoo wouldn’t make as much mess!” she sighed.
    She made us get down on our hands and knees and mop up the water with some old towels. Molly thought it was hysterical and kept jeering at us from the doorway.
    “I’m exhausted!” moaned Fliss when Mum finally agreed that the bathroom was clean enough. “I feel that I could sleep for a