Free Izzy's River by Holly Webb Page B

explained, before Poppy hauled her out of the room.
    Alex was lying on the sofa with his phone balanced on his stomach, texting. “What do you want?” he growled at Poppy, looking slightly confused by the line-up of his sister’s friends.
    “You,” Poppy told him sweetly. “You and your canoe. Next weekend.”
    Alex stared at her. “What for?”
    “You know we’re doing this big tidy-up of the river,” Poppy explained.
    “We can’t reach the rubbish that’s in the water,” Izzy told him. “We’ve just been to see it. There’s loads.”
    “Umm…” Alex seemed to feel a bit embarrassed about telling his sister’s friends to get lost, which was obviously what he wanted to do. “That’s sad, but––”
    “If you don’t come and help us, we’ll tell Jake about you and Maddy.” Poppy smiled even more sweetly.
    “You wouldn’t!”
    “Yes, we would,” all the girls chorused.
    “You could bring Maddy too – she’s got a canoe,hasn’t she?” Poppy suggested slyly. “It might be a fun date.”
    “I hate you…” Alex growled. “All right. I’ll do it.”
    “Could you ask other people at your canoe club?” Izzy asked him hopefully. “It would be easier if there were more of you. There’s quite a lot of stuff in the river…”
    “I’ll ask,” Alex muttered. “Now get lost.”
    “Bye, Alex!”
    “Thanks, Alex!”
    “We love you, Alex!”

    The girls lay around Poppy’s bedroom, their damp clothes steaming gently.
    “Is there anything else we have to do?” Maya asked Izzy.
    “I don’t think so.” Izzy had her list in front of her. “Just hope people turn up, I suppose. We have to pick up the gloves and the high-vis vests and the litter-pickers on Friday, but Dad says we can do that after school.”
    “And the bags are in the boot of my mum’s car,” Emily volunteered. “So there’s no way we can forget them.”
    Izzy looked at the copy of the poster she hadstapled to the back of her list.
Big River Clean-Up Weekend, Saturday and Sunday, 10 till 4, drop in any time!
    Ten till four. She wrinkled her nose, thoughtfully. What were they going to do afterwards? Perhaps they could go and have tea somewhere – it would be a bit miserable just going straight home. Then her eyes widened, as the vague thoughts turned into an idea.
    “Izzy! Your dad’s here!” Poppy’s mum was calling from downstairs.
    “Aww…” Poppy moaned, but Izzy had leaped up and was already dashing for the stairs.
    “She’s keen!” Emily said, sounding surprised.
    “She’s left her coat.” Poppy picked it up.
    “And the list, more importantly,” Maya pointed out. “Do you think she’s OK?”
    Izzy flung her arms round her dad, and he stared down at her in surprise. “What did I do to deserve that, Iz?”
    “Well… You haven’t actually done it yet…”
    “OK. What are you after?” Her dad heaved a huge, exaggerated sigh.
    “Can I have a sleepover?”
    “A what?” Her dad’s face developed a hunted sort of look.
    “A sleepover. All four of us, next weekend, on the Saturday, after we’ve had the first day of the clean-up, because it would be really grim just going home by ourselves afterwards, wouldn’t it?”
    Her dad didn’t look as though he thought it would be grim at all. He looked over at Poppy’s mum in a worried way. “Um, I don’t know much about sleepovers…”
    Poppy’s mum rolled her eyes. “They
can
be fun… Poppy has had a couple. I have to say, hers were less trouble than when the boys have them. The mess!”
    “Please, Dad! We wouldn’t make a mess at all! I promise!”
    “What are you talking about?” Poppy asked curiously, as the others came down the stairs.
    Izzy looked at her dad with huge, hopeful eyes.
    “Oh, all right. I suppose…” he murmured.
    Izzy hugged him again. “You really deserve it now!” Then she turned to the others. “Dad says we can have a sleepover on Saturday!”
    Her dad sighed. “Hopefully you’ll all be really, really