could find out how much money they’d saved. We weren’t really interested in that, so we pushed our way outside.
“Isn’t it cool to think that they won that prize because of us!” Frankie grinned. “It makes you feel good, doesn’t it?”
We all had to agree that it did.
“Hey, McKenzie!” shouted a voice behind me. It was Ryan. He was walking towards us bouncing a football on his knee.
“Yeah?”
“I wondered if you wanted this.” He kicked the ball towards me. “Me and Danny got one each and this was, like, a mistake.”
“Oh charming!” I laughed.
“You want it or not?” he asked, sounding a bit cross.
“Yeah, thanks,” I said gruffly. “You can never have too many footballs, can you?”
Ryan walked away, and I started to bounce the ball from my foot to my knee and back again. I even forgot to tease him about being with his mum!
“He didn’t get you anything, did he, Fliss?” Frankie teased.
“I wouldn’t want him to,” she snapped. “He only gave Kenny that ball because it was a mistake, remember?”
“Ooh, touchy!” mocked Rosie.
“Look, there’s Mum!” Lyndz shouted, pointing to her parents’ van. “Hey Mum, you’ve just missed the trolley dash. You could have won that if you’d done better at the scavenger hunt.”
Her mum laughed.
“I did have Spike and Ben slowing me down, don’t forget!”
The rest of our parents were there too. They all seemed to be having a laugh about us keeping quiet for the sponsored silence.
“Maybe we should pay you to do that more often!” suggested Frankie’s mum.
“
No way
!” we all said together.
During half-term, we took all the money we’d raised to the bank and paid it into Dad’s account. No, the M&Ms hadn’t been right about us keeping the money for ourselves. It’s just that Dad said that was the best way of looking after the money until we could hand it in to the Children’s Ward Appeal Fund. When we did, he wrote out a cheque for £300, which included the money for Mufti Day, the money raised from the scavenger hunt and my baked-bean bath, our sponsored-silence money, Molly’s pocket money and Dad’s money to make it up to “a nice round figure”.
It was really cool, because when we called into the Children’s Ward to give them our cheque, everybody was really thrilled.
Sister Kay, who is in charge of the ward, told us, “We should really have a proper presentation for this.” So she arranged something for the following week.
We couldn’t believe it when we went there after school and the ward was filled with balloons and bunting and a big sign saying:
THANK YOU, SLEEPOVER CLUB!
And that wasn’t all. They’d arranged for a reporter and a photographer to come from the
Leicester Mercury
as well. They took loads of photographs and asked us how we’d raised the money. Jake even told them how brilliant the scavenger hunt had been.
Our photographs ended up on the front page of the paper. That really wound up the M&Ms. We’re never going to let them forget it, but I have a nasty feeling that they’re already planning their revenge on us.
Still, we’re not going to worry about that now. Fliss has got a copy of the photograph, do you want to come and see it? We’re meeting there for tea and she’ll probably invite you too. But whatever you do, don’t let her give us any baked beans!!!
Have you been invited to all these sleepovers?
The Sleepover Club at Frankie’s
The Sleepover Club at Lyndsey’s
The Sleepover Club at Felicity’s
The Sleepover Club at Rosie’s
The Sleepover Club at Kenny’s
Starring the Sleepover Club
The Sleepover Girls go Spice
The 24 Hour Sleepover Club
The Sleepover Club Sleeps Out
Happy Birthday, Sleepover Club
Sleepover Girls on Horseback
Sleepover in Spain
Sleepover on Friday 13th
Sleepover Girls at Camp
Sleepover Girls go Detective
Sleepover Girls go Designer
The Sleepover Club Surfs the Net
Sleepover Girls on Screen
Sleepover Girls and