Free Sleepover Girls in the Ring by Fiona Cummings

the path of Rosie on her stilts.
    “No..no..NO!” Rosie yelled as she came crashing to the ground – right on top of Lyndz!
    “Look out!”
screamed Lyndz, dropping her juggling balls. But it was too late. Frankie had already run into Rosie and toppled off her unicyle again. And although I’d seen it all happening, it was almost like I was watching it on a film and couldn’t do anything about it.
    “Move, Kenny! NOW!” Frankie screamed at me – but it was no good. With a thud, I landed on the ground on top of her.
    “Right, you’ve got it coming, Molly!” I yelled, and made to storm over to her. But just at that moment, the lights dimmed and we were being ushered out of the ring by Ailsa’s dad and the other performers.
    “Weren’t they wonderful!” Ailsa’s dad roared to the audience. “Let’s give them a big hand! And don’t worry – we’ll be seeing more of our students later in the performance!”
    It was like he hadn’t even
noticed
what Molly had been doing!
    “You two were fantastic!” I heard Simon, one of the jugglers, congratulating Molly and Edward. “You could get a job with us any day!”
    That was too much to bear, it really was. The last straw, the final frontier, the END.
    “We’ve
got
to make sure we sort out Molly and her stupid little friend next time!” I snarled at the others.
    “You’re not kidding!” moaned Frankie. “My bum’s black and blue, she knocked me over so many times.”
    “And did you see what your two-faced sister did to my plates?” wailed Fliss. “It was horrible the way the audience kept laughing as though it was part of the act!”
    “Well, Molly will be laughing on the other side of BOTH her faces when the audience see our clown act!” I assured them bravely. “Let’s all get changed so we can sort everything out.”
    We went into the smaller tent next to the Big Top which served as a dressing room. We’d left our costumes in there earlier, along with my prop bag.
    “What if Molly sees us?” asked Lyndz.
    “I wouldn’t worry about that,” Frankie said. “She was too busy lapping up praise last time I saw her.”
    We peeped out of the tent, and could just see Molly giggling and joking with some of the other performers.
    “Told you!” Frankie said with a sigh.
    By the time we were all changed, the tent was empty because all the other performers were involved in the show. I tossed my secret props to the others and we got to work. I’d brought cans of shaving foam and paper plates. I’d also got one of those fake flowers filled with water, and loads of cans of custard which we emptied into two big bowls.
    “How are we going to hide all this lot, then?” Rosie asked.
    “We’ll just keep it in here until the start of the second half,” I told her. “Then, whilst I’m doing all my funny stuff, all you’ve got to do is run on with everything and mess about with it a bit. You know, pretend you’re going to throw it into the audience and stuff. Butmake sure you watch me for my cue!”
    The others all nodded nervously.
    There was a burst of applause from the Big Top.
    “It sounds like the first half’s finished!” I said. “It won’t be long now…”
    We all hung around because we didn’t want to leave our things unattended and risk Molly discovering them. Then Ailsa rushed over to us. She was in a green spangly costume and was looking flushed after her acrobatic display.
    “Hey, you did well,” she grinned. “It’s a pity your sister spoilt it, though.”
    “Don’t worry, it’s pay-back time now!” I told her grimly.
    She looked puzzled. “What are you going to do?”
    “Oh, you’ll see. There isn’t any water around here, is there?” I asked.
    “For a drink, you mean?” she asked.
    “No, in a bucket or something.”
    “Well, there are fire buckets standing by all the exits, just in case,” she explained. “But it’s kind of dangerous to use water inthe ring, in case the other performers slip and hurt