Fiona Cummings
Contents
Have you been Invited to all these Sleepovers?
Did someone just call my name? I could have sworn that I heard someone shout âLyndzâ!
Oh hi! I didnât see you there. Iâm glad youâre here. Do you think you could give me a hand with this scenery? The Sleepover Club are putting on a play in my garden. Itâs just for our parents but it should be pretty cool. We wrote it ourselves, so we could play exactly the parts we wanted.
Fliss is going to be a princess who ends up marrying a handsome prince â surprise, surprise! You know how she loves a good wedding! And of course dressing up is like her favourite thing in the whole world. Come to think of it, most of Flissâs clothes are all frilly like a princessâs. And she acts like royalty too â most of the time she thinks that our Sleepover Club stuff is way too childish for her.
Kenny is going to play a footballing genius who scores the winning goal in the FA Cup. Donât ask how that fits in with the princess, it just does. She said that she wouldnât be in the play at all unless she could be a footballer. Kennyâs greatest love in life is Leicester City and she really thinks sheâs going to play for them one day â as well as being a doctor like her dad. When sheâs not being a footballer in the play, sheâs lots of different monsters and villains as well, but we tell her that she canât really call that acting! You know Kenny â sheâs a bit wild at the best of times, so a lot of people think sheâs a monster anyway. But itâs her sister whoâs the real monster â Molly the Monster, as we call her.
Rosie plays sort of a Cinderella character who triumphs against the odds, and thatâs kind of like Rosie too. When she came to Cuddington at first she was all sort of lost and didnât really fit in. Her dad had just left and she was finding it quite hard to cope. Now sheâs one of our best friends and is really sensible and gets things organised.
She doesnât get things as organised as Frankie though â now she can be really bossy. Thatâs why she fancies herself as the director of our play. Sheâs also its narrator, which is a really important role. She fills in as different characters too and sort of holds the whole thing together. I sometimes think itâs Frankie who holds the Sleepover Club together, because the rest of us would fall out too much if she wasnât there.
What character am I playing? Well, I dash around on a horse a lot helping people out. I said I didnât mind what role I played as long as it was something to do with horses. I live for horses! We havenât got a real horse in the play of course. Sometimes Kenny pretends to be my horse and I ride on her back, but we usually end up collapsing in a heap on the floor.
Frankie said that I should be a kind of magical character who always does good things, because she says that Iâm always nice to people in real life. I donât know about that. She hasnât seen some of the awful things Iâve done to my four horrible brothers!
Youâre looking a bit confused. I know all this play stuff sounds a bit strange, but you see, weâve caught the acting bug. Big time! Itâs all Flissâs fault really. I know, I know â poor Fliss seems to get the blame for everything. But this time, I mean it in a good way.
You know how sheâs always going on about wanting to be a supermodel? For all those nice clothes, that fame and stuff? Well then, it shouldnât surprise you that one day she announced that she wanted to become an actress instead. Actress, supermodel â it was all the same to Fliss.
âIâll still be famous and earn loads of money,â she explained, âbut thereâs not the same pressure on you to be beautiful all the time, is there?â
The rest of us rolled our eyes. I mean, what is she like?
âI donât think you can just decide to be a famous actress and wham â youâve got the starring role in the next High School Musical,â said Frankie. âYouâve got to go to drama school first.â
âAnd Iâve heard that most actresses are usually out of work,â continued Rosie. âThereâs only a few who make it to the top.â
âWell, Iâm going to be one of those!â said Fliss firmly. And when Fliss is in one of those moods, thereâs no arguing with her.
So for the next week or so we had to put up with her prancing about with her actress head on. Whenever Mrs Weaver asked her something in class, Fliss would take a deep breath, smile and speak v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y and very clearly. The first time she did it, Mrs Weaver said:
âAre you feeling quite all right, Felicity?â
The rest of us nearly wet ourselves laughing. But Fliss didnât care. She just seemed to be acting all the time, as though her life was being filmed for one long soap opera.
Kenny thought it would be a laugh if we all started acting too â or maybe that should be overacting⦠So Frankie would say something like, âI say old beans, can I interest anyone in a game of rounders?â and Rosie would reply, âOh super! A game of rounders would be simply spiffing on such a wonderful warm afternoon!â And we would all clap our hands and do really false laughs. It was like some really bad over-the-top crackly old movie. It was great fun though. Fliss got really cross with us at first.
âActingâs