Maria shrugged. “You start it with all your nasty emails!”
“We didn’t send them!” I began, but I could see it was no use. They just didn’t believe us.
Rosie was looking really upset. “This has been my worst birthday ever!” she groaned. “And it isn’t even my birthday till Monday!”
“Never mind, you’ve still got your prezzies to look forward to,” said Lyndz.
“Mum’s so mad with me, I probably won’t get anything!” Rosie muttered.
“What’re we going to do now?” Frankie asked as we began to pick up squashed cakes and rolls from the grass and put them into bin bags. The Spanish girls started clearing up too, but they kept well away from us, and they were whispering to each other and giving us filthy looks.
“We’re just going to have to prove to them that it wasn’t us who sent those emails!” I said.
“How?” asked Lyndz.
“We need to find out who sent them,” I said. “And I’ve got a pretty good idea who it was too…”
“Right, hands up everyone who thinks it was the gruesome M&Ms who sent those emails!” I announced.
Everyone’s hand immediately went up, and I grinned.
“Yeah, so do I!” I agreed. “So what’re we going to do about it?”
It was the day after the not-so-Grand Sleepover, and Frankie, Lyndz, Fliss and Rosie were round at my place to discuss exactly what we were going to do. We’d all been well and truly roasted alive by our parents when we got home after the food fight, and Pilar and the others had been told off by their teacher, Miss Moreno. We’d also been told that we couldn’t have a sleepover next weekend. For once, we didn’t care that much though. It wouldn’t have been any fun with Maria and the rest of her Gruesome Gang!
“I tried to talk to Elena last night,” said Lyndz, “but she was still in a right mood.”
“Yeah, Anna was too,” Rosie agreed. “She even asked my mum if she could sleep in a different bedroom instead of sharing with me!”
“Well, Isabella wouldn’t speak to me either,” Fliss chimed in. “And she snores!”
“I got the big freeze from Pilar too,” Frankie said. “What about you, Kenny?”
“I tried talking to Maria when we went to bed,” I said. “But she wouldn’t listen. She put her headphones on so she couldn’t hear me, and she had her Walkman on really loudly!”
“They’re really mad with us,” said Rosie. “Those emails must have been pretty bad.”
“I could murder the M&Ms!” I muttered. “They’re not gonna get away with this!”
“We’ll have to have another go at talking to Pilar and the others,” I said. “What time do they get back from Leicester?”
“They should be back pretty soon,” Lyndz replied. Miss Moreno and Mr Cortez, the Spanish teachers, had come round in a minibus that morning and collected the pupils to take them to Leicester on a shopping trip. “Then they’re going to the park for a picnic.”
“Right, let’s get over there then and tell them about the M&Ms!” I jumped to my feet. “We’ll make them believe us even if we have to sit on their heads and bounce up and down on them!”
“Oh, right, like that can’t fail!” Frankie said sarcastically. “They’ll really want to be friends with us after that!”
“Just keep cool, will you Kenny!” Fliss said nervously. “We don’t want to start another fight!”
I gave her a shove. “That wasn’t my fault, it was Maria’s. You know me, I’m just not the fighting type!”
The park wasn’t far away from my place, and we were allowed to go to it on our own, so we set off.
“We ought to start thinking about making our fancy-dress costumes soon,” Lyndz remarked. “We’ve only got a week and a bit to get them ready.”
We always have a fancy-dress competition at school on the last day of the summer term, which is really wicked. Even the teachers dress up, and there’s prizes for the best home-made costumes.
“I was just going to wear my Leicester City football strip,” I began, but everyone else started groaning loudly.
“Bor-ing, Kenny!” said Frankie. “That’s what you’ve worn for the last three years!”
“My mum says she’ll hire a costume for me,” said Fliss. “It’ll be a lot easier than making it.”
“Even more bor-ing!” the rest of us said together.
“You’ve got to make it yourself or you can’t win a prize,” Lyndz added.
“I think I might go as an alien,” Frankie said. “Then I can wear my cool new silver nail varnish.”
“I could go as a clown,” I suggested. “Then I could get Maria to do my make-up!”
The others started to laugh.
“You’d probably frighten the kids in the Infants to death!” Fliss pointed out.
“I wonder if Maria and the others are going to dress up too?” Rosie said. “They’re going to be there on the last day of term, after all.”
“Maybe we could offer to help them with their costumes,” Lyndz suggested.
“Yeah, that might be a good way of making friends with them again,” Frankie agreed, as we arrived at the park.
“They’re back from Leicester,” said Lyndz. “There’s the minibus.”
“All right,” I said as we walked up to the park gates. “Now everyone just stay cool and calm. Nobody loses their temper, OK?”
“What’re you telling us for, Kenny?” Fliss sniffed. “You’re the one who’s likely to thump them if they won’t listen to us!”
“What a cheek!” I began indignantly, but then I stopped. I’d just caught sight of the Spanish pupils sitting around on the grass in groups, eating their picnic. Maria, Pilar, Elena, Anna and Isabella were sitting near the swings, surrounded by lots of carrier bags full of shopping. And they weren’t on their own either. They were laughing and chatting and sharing their picnic… with the gruesome M&Ms!
We all stood and stared at them. Honestly, we must have looked like a bunch of stunned goldfish, standing there with our mouths open! The Spanish girls and the M&Ms didn’t notice us though because they were too busy having a laugh together. It was unbelievable!
“They’re making friends with the M&Ms!” Rosie gasped. “They must be crazy!”
“What’re the M&Ms doing here anyway?” Lyndz asked.
“Who cares!” I was burning with fury. “They’re here, and they’re trying to get in with our mates! I’m going over to tell them exactly what I think of them!”
“No, Kenny!” Frankie grabbed one of my arms and Lyndz clutched at the other. “You’ll just make things worse!”
When I get mad though, there’s no talking to me! I pushed Frankie and Lyndz off and stormed across the grass towards Maria and the others. They glanced up and saw me coming, and they started to laugh and nudge each