Free Sleepover Girls Go Wild! by Ginny Deals Page B

friend?”
    “Squeak,” said Fliss solemnly.
    “Oink,” added Rosie.
    “GrrrRRRRrrr!” roared Kenny, making us all jump.
    “Yeah, yeah,” grinned Lyndz, looking totally relieved. “Squeak and oink and grrr to you too. So it’s still on then?”
    “Of course it is, you great lummock!” I laughed. “Ever since Dad came up with the idea, it’s been, like, on . He’s even got the tickets!”
    “Fantastic!” squealed Fliss.
    “So I’ll see you all tomorrow at nine, then?” I said. “Round at mine?”
    “Too right!” breathed Lyndz, in total ecstasy at the thought of all those animals she’d see tomorrow.
    “Er…” said Kenny, consulting an imaginary diary. “Well, I’m not sure if I can fit you in between feeding Merlin my rat and winding up big sis Molly. But I’ll see what I can do.”
    “OK – but when we get there, I’m not going anywhere near the snakes, right?” said Fliss. “Just so that’s clear.”
    “It’s clear,” we all said together. It was only about the zillionth time Fliss had said it.
    “Rendezvous-ing at oh-nine-hundred hours at the Thomas establishment,” nodded Rosie. “Unless I have a spy mission to attend to first, of course. I take my career in the Secret Service very seriously, you know.”
    Saturday dawned bright and misty – a perfect April morning, with just a little breeze in the air. Today was the day we were going to Animal World, and today was my birthday!
    I shot out of bed like my pyjamas were on fire, and hurtled down the stairs.
    “Hey!” laughed Dad, swerving out of the way as I bombed off the third last step in a huge, flying leap. “Happy birthday, Frankie love!”
    “Thanks, Dad!” I grinned. “What’s for breakfast?”
    Now, you might think I’m a total greedy-guts for asking that straight off, but it’s a Thomas tradition that we ALWAYS have fab birthday breakfasts. Eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans and veggie sausages for me – mmm! And Mum and Dad usually decorate the table too, with flowers and candles and, of course, PRESENTS piled round my plate. Coo-ell or what?
    “Happy birthday, love!” Mum gave me a big sloppy kiss and a hug. “Would you like scrambled or fried eggs?”
    Oh, man – birthdays are just the best, you know? Eggs for breakfast, presents to open, totally being the centre of the universe to everyone you meet, and a birthday outing with your best friends to look forward to! I hugged myself secretly with a lovely little shiver, and tried not to think of the worst thing about birthdays – that when they are over, you have to wait another 364 days till the next one. Or even 365 days, if it’s a leap year.
    “One, two three, Happy Birthday to you …” warbled Dad.
    Mum joined in, and even Izzy burbled a couple of notes and banged her spoon on the table, more or less in time. Pepsi barked hysterically the whole time. I don’t reckon she thought much of Dad’s singing voice, to tell the truth!
    Breakfast was ace. Mum and Dad gave me a wicked watch with funky silver sparkles in the strap, the latest S Club 7 CD and a new pair of fantastic flared trousers with beads sewn all round the bottom. Gran gave me a little gold-edged book of proverbs – she loves proverbs, my gran. I got a really cool top from Pepsi with a groovy silver logo on the front, and Izzy gave me a baseball cap, some nice smelly soaps and a bottle of nail varnish with lots of teeny little glittery lovehearts floating in it.
    I’d hardly got dressed (in my new flares) when the doorbell went for the first time. BING BONG! It was Lyndz – early, of course.
    “Happy birthday, Frankie!” she said breathlessly, passing me a squashy parcel wrapped up in cute paper covered in tigers. “Are the others here yet?”
    I looked at my new, sparkly watch. “Lyndz,” I said patiently, “it’s only quarter to nine. Give them a chance!”
    Lyndz had given me a little purse made of shaggy blue fur. “I just thought it was kind of cuddly,” she giggled. “You