“Look!” Frankie whispered, elbowing me in the ribs. “Maria’s coming over!”
Pretty shocked, we all stopped talking. But Maria was actually smiling. Well, sort of.
“Hi.” Maria stopped in front of us, looking a bit shy. “I come to say – we are sorry about the makeover.”
That was a big shock! Our mouths dropped open and none of us could say a word for a second or two.
“That’s OK,” Frankie said at last.
“And I’m sorry about breaking Isabella’s present for her mum,” Fliss chimed in quickly.
Maria shrugged. “It was accident, no? So, we are friends again?”
The Sleepover Club all looked at each other.
“What about the M&Ms?” I asked.
“Who?” Maria looked blank.
“Emma and Emily,” Rosie explained.
“Oh, we can all be friends, can’t we?” Maria asked.
“Not on your flippin’ life!” I began until both Frankie and Lyndz trod heavily on my toes under the table. “Ow!”
“Great!” Maria put her hand in her pocket, and popped a sweet into her mouth. “Sorry, you want one?” She pulled out a bag of liquorice and held it out to us.
“We’re not supposed to eat in class,” Fliss began virtuously, but Frankie gave her a look.
“Come on, Fliss, it’s the end of term! Take a risk!”
We all took a sweet from Maria and quickly popped them in our mouths before Mrs Weaver saw us. It looked like we’d managed to sort things out with the Spanish girls after all! Although there was no way we were going to be friends with the M&Ms…
“We see you at playtime, yes?” Maria winked at us and went back to the others, just as a man with a camera hanging round his neck popped his head round the door.
“Mrs Weaver? I’m James Robinson from the Evening Echo.”
“Oh, good, come in.” Mrs Weaver ushered him in, while Fliss grabbed her comb and started preening herself. “Now, what would you like us to do?”
“Well, if we could gather everyone at the front of the room, with the Spanish children in the middle, that would make it easier for me to get everyone into the picture,” the photographer said.
We spent the next few minutes pushing tables and chairs around, and being posed by the photographer.
“There’s no way I’m being best buddies with the M&Ms!” I muttered to Frankie as we carried a table between us. “Not even to make friends with Maria and the others again!”
“Let’s just wait and see what happens, OK?” Frankie replied in a low voice, still chewing on her sweet.
Finally, everything was ready. We hadn’t quite managed to get to the front of the photo because the photographer wanted the Spanish kids there, but we were right behind them, kneeling on a couple of tables, with the rest of our class around us.
“Right, now let’s have some nice big smiles please!” called Mr Robinson.
We all began to smile – and then we all nearly jumped out of our skins as Mrs Weaver gave a loud scream.
“Laura! Francesca! Lyndsey! Felicity! Rosie! What on earth has happened to your teeth? They’re all black!”
“What?” I said, puzzled. I didn’t have a clue what Mrs Weaver was going on about – until I glanced at Frankie. It looked like she had no teeth at all because they were totally black! And the rest of the Sleepover Club were just the same!
“You’ve obviously been eating something you shouldn’t have!” Mrs Weaver said grimly. “I suggest you go and wash your mouths out!”
“But, Mrs Weaver, we’ll miss the photo!” Fliss gasped.
“That’s OK, girls,” said the photographer with a grin. “You’ll only frighten the readers looking like that, anyway!”
Everyone started laughing, especially the Spanish girls and the M&Ms, who were just about killing themselves. Angrily the five of us stomped out of the classroom, and went into the girls’ toilets.
“We’ve missed our chance to be in the newspaper because of that trick Maria played on us!” Fliss said crossly as she rinsed her mouth out. “Those were joke sweets!”
“I thought they tasted a bit funny!” Lyndz said as she used her finger as a toothbrush.
“I guess that was to pay us back for breaking Isabella’s bowl,” I muttered. “They must have thought we did it on purpose.”
“And I bet the M&Ms have been egging them on as well!” Frankie added. “You know what those two are like!”
“Yeah, well, we’re not going to let them get away with it, are we?” I asked. “This means WAR!”
The others looked at each other and nodded, although they all looked a bit glum. It was a bit of a downer after we’d looked forward to the Spanish girls visiting for so long, but we couldn’t let the M&Ms walk all over us, could we?
By the time we got back to the classroom, the photographer had gone and the rest of the class were moving all the chairs and tables back into place.
“Oh, there you are,” said Mrs Weaver sternly as she stared at us. “I suppose that was meant to be funny! Well, if you girls have any more jokes like that lined up, you won’t be taking part in any of the end-of-term activities. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, Miss,” we mumbled together, trying not to look at the Spanish girls and the M&Ms, who were all grinning.
While we were putting our table and chairs back in place, the M&Ms came over to have a quick gloat.
“I don’t think Mrs Weaver’s too pleased with you!” Emma Hughes said gleefully. “And what a shame you aren’t going to get your picture in the paper!”
“Our friends the Spanish girls are really fed up with you!” Emily Berryman chimed in smugly. “They wish they were staying with us instead of with you lot!”
“Oh, take a jump off a very high cliff, you two!” I snapped.
The M&Ms went off, giggling. They went back over to Pilar and the others, and they all put their heads together and started whispering and sniggering.
“You know what?” I said to the others as we all sat down. “I’m going to think up a really gruesome trick to play on that lot on the last day of term!”
“No way, Kenny!” Fliss said firmly. “You know what Mrs Poole said about playing tricks at the end of term – she banned them!”
“Yeah, that was after some of the leavers flour-bombed her in the corridor!” Frankie giggled.
“Hey, I wish I’d seen that!” Rosie said.
“It was before you started here,” Lyndz said. “And they threw eggs at the teachers’ cars – it was really funny!”
“Quiet, please.” Mrs Weaver was looking round the room waiting for everyone to settle down. “Right, we have a couple of things to sort out. As you know, it’s Sports Day tomorrow and then it’s the school Summer Fair the day after.”
That