Chapter 3
After Frankie had her brainwave we were all eager to get home to design our creative masterpieces. The trouble is that I'm about as good at drawing as an elephant is at roller-skating. If we'd been competingfor something like the Athlete's Badge, then I would have started putting up the party streamers. As it was, I knew that I would be going somewhere else for the tenth birthday sleepover party. The question was, where?
My money was on Lyndz winning the competition. She's brilliant at making things. I can sort of see things in my head, but when I try to put my ideas down on paper, they come out all wrong. Lyndz seems to have good ideas, and be able to carry them out. Fliss is very prissy and fussy about things. They never quite turn out as she expected them to, but they are always very neat and tidy. And adults always like that don't they?
Frankie is a bit hit-and-misss. Once in art at school, she made this really great dinasour out of a papier-maché. It was wicked. it stood outside Mrs Poole's office for weeks. parents would come into school and stand for ages admiring it, like it was by some famous sculptor or something. Then the next time Frankie made a model it was worse than one of those piles of junks you bring home when you're nursery class. She can be weird like that. You never know what to expect.
I'd never really seen much that Rosie had made. Her last sleepover invitation was pretty neat. But Adam had helped her design it on the computer, so that didn't really count. All I knew for sure was that although I had tried my best with my birthday card, it wasn't going to be good enough to win our competition.
We all met up at Frankie's house a couple of days before Brownies. All the others seemed very confident that their card was going to be the best. But everybody acted like their design was the biggest secret in the universe. Frankie had even asked her father to lock hers away in his filing cabinet. I ask you, how ridiculous can you get?
"If it's a birthday sleepover, are we going to buy presents?'' asked Lyndz.
"Oh, we've got to, I love presents!'' said Fliss. "This is great. It means we'll all have two birthdays. Like the Queen.''
"Hang on one second!'' I said, putting on a cheesy American accent. "I mean I love you guys and everything, but I have a serious shortage of dosh. you know what I'm saying?''
"Me too,'' admitted Rosie. "I never seem to have any money.''
Frankie and lyndz agreed.
A brainwave suddenly hit me:
"Why don't we just give one present each? We don't need to buy it either, we could make it,'' I said. "I'm sure I could knock something up out of a washing-up bottle and a bit of string. I've seen 'Blue Peter' often enough!''
Who says Frankie should have all the bright ideas?
'' I know it's the thought that counts,'' laughed Lyndz. But would we really want something you'd made, Kenny?''
The cheek of it! I couldn't let her get away with that. I wrestled her to the ground until she was hiccuping and begging for mercy.
"I'd, hic, love anything you made, hic, Kenny! Really I would!'' she spluttered.
"But how would we decide who we were getting the present for?'' asked Rosie whilst Frankie dealt with Lyndz's hiccups. She tried a cold marble down her T-shirt for a change. And it worked!
"We could have a lucky dip,'' said Frankie. "We'll all write our names on a peice of paper, put them in a hat and pull one out. As long as no one picks their own name, it'll be cool."
"And we could keep it a secret. Whose name we've got I mean,'' said Lyndz. "Then when we get the presents at the party, we'll all have to guess who bought them.''
