Free The Sleepover Club Bridesmaids by Angie Bates Page B

up. “How mushy?” she demanded. “You know, on a scale of one to ten?”
    “Twelve at least ,” I giggled.
    She wriggled her toes. “I can’t WAIT,” she said gleefully.
    Just then Andy yelled upstairs. Luckily for all our rumbly tummies, my thoughtful step-dad had brought back a carload of pizza for everyone.
    “I know it’s not very healthy,” Mum kept saying merrily, as she handed round massive slices dripping with melted mozzarella cheese. “I’m so disorganised today. But it can’t be helped.”
    She caught me staring at her.
    “What?” she said. “I’ve got tomato sauce on my nose again, haven’t I?”
    “No,” I said. “It’s nothing, honestly.”
    But a wave of wonderful relief washed over me.
    Mum was totally her old self again. The scared little wobble in her voice had disappeared. All those stress crinkles in her forehead had been smoothed out. And though she was only wearing the teeniest touch of make-up, my mother looked exactly like brides are supposed to look.
    For the first time in over a week, she was really and truly radiant.
    And with one of my psychic flashes, I knew I totally didn’t need to worry about her scary secret any more. I could tell that it was now well and truly over, and that’s all that mattered.
    By the way, Amber and I never did get to watch that mushy film.
    You see, while we were stuffing ourselves with pizza, I had a private word with Patsy, who immediately set us to work on a secret late-night project. And you’re just going tohave to wait till the end of the story before I tell you what the project was!
    “Mind if I keep the light on?” I asked Amber, when we finally got to bed some time after midnight. “I want to write in my diary for a while.”
    “I don’t know how you can keep your eyes open,” she yawned. “I’m exhausted. That Patsy is such a slave-driver.”
    She settled down to sleep, and I started scribbling in my Wedding Diary. I showed you some of this stuff earlier. Plus I also wrote this:
    This has been the most amazing week of my life. And now it’s almost over, I feel much older and a (tiny) bit wiser. It’s like I had this fairy tale going on in my head, where Amber was the beautiful princess who totally didn’t have a heart. And I definitely had Patsy pegged as the mean old witch with her evil potions and scary ways!
    Well, it turns out I was wrong. (Though Andy’s mum does have very useful magic powers. Heh heh heh!)
    And here’s the icing on the cake. I successfully completed my mission, yippee! Thanks to Patsy’s powers, those four somethings are totally sorted. Not only has the wicked ladder spell finally been broken, but I’ve also got a completely fab and groovy wedding present for Andy and Mum – it’s
    Oops, I only just shut my diary in time or I’d have ruined the big surprise! I’m not being funny, but I truly can’t let you read any more, just yet. These are like, official wedding secrets, OK? Which means they can only be unveiled at the actual wedding!
    Are you KIDDING? Of course you’re invited. I’m just working up to the most exciting bit of the whole story, you nutcase!
    So jump back on the wedding rollercoaster, and get ready to go “ooh!” and “aah!” and “wow!” because that great big water splash is coming up, any minute NOW!

This is SO embarrassing.
    I’ve been building up to this like, HUGE moment in my story, and now I’ve come over all wobbly.
    It’s not just stage fright. You see, in the middle of the celebrations, I got some news which completely blew me away. I took it really calmly at the time. But now I’m in this total DAZE.
    I mean, I’ve been talking all along like this was just about Mum’s wedding. But it turns out that the whole time, there was this other mega dramatic stuff going on behind thescenes. So now I’m feeling like, “Fliss, how could you be so DIM!”
    OK, OK, I’m probably being about as clear as mud! But my head is just spinning. If you could see my