Sue Mongredien – Sleepover Girls on the Catwalk (страница 2)

“Where are you off to this year then, Fliss?” Frankie asked me quickly before a scrap broke out.

“Majorca,” I said. “I told you before, remember? I’ll just show you this sun-dress I’ve got. It’s gorgeous! It’s got spaghetti straps and everything!”

“What, so you can eat them if you get peckish?” Kenny said, winking at Frankie.

I ignored that remark. “Look!” I said, pulling it out from the wardrobe.

“Ooh, it is nice,” said Lyndz. “Dead summery.”

Thank goodness! Someone taking an interest at last! “And I’ve got these shorts…” I said, showing them some new denim cut-offs.

“You want to take those back, Fliss, they’re fraying at the bottom!” said Frankie, all seriously.

“They’re meant to be like that!” I said. “Honestly, Frankie, you—”

But Frankie and Kenny had collapsed in giggles and were rolling around on my bed, gurgling with laughter.

“I think she was joking, Fliss,” said Lyndz.

“Oh,” I said, feeling a bit silly. “Right. Anyway, I’ve got these trousers too, for the evenings when it’s a bit cooler…”

“Let’s see them properly, then,” Rosie said. “Show us what they look like on you, not the hangers!”

“Yeah, if you’re gonna bore us with your clothes, you might as well go the whole hog!” Kenny said. “Joking, Fliss!” she added before I could strangle her.

“Shall I put them on, then?” I said, hoping Rosie hadn’t just been joking too.

“Yeah, do it!” said Lyndz.

“Shall we all do it?” I said suddenly. I didn’t want them thinking I was selfish or anything. “Shall we all try my holiday clothes on for a giggle?”

“What, like a fashion show?” Frankie said, sitting up on the bed. She’d stopped snorting with laughter by then, thank goodness.

“Yes,” I said. “Exactly like a fashion show!”

It was quite funny, seeing the others all getting dressed up for a change. The sight of Kenny in my new white mini-skirt and her own scruffy old trainers was sooo hysterical. You should have seen her!

“What’s the big joke?” she growled crossly, as we all burst out laughing at the same time.

“Ooh, darling, you look so… femininer!” Frankie said. “Go on, try on this cropped top with it – let’s see your belly button!”

“Ugh, no chance!” Kenny said. “I’ve decided, I don’t suit skirts – this one’s coming off straightaway!”

“Careful, Kenny, don’t crease it,” I said anxiously, watching her wrenching it off. You could tell she wasn’t used to wearing nice things. “Why don’t you try these velvet trousers instead?”

As for me, of course I was totally into the whole thing. I started being silly to make them all laugh – wiggling my bum and tossing my hair about.

“Ooh, Fliss the supermodel!” giggled Lyndz. “Go, girl, flash us a smile!”

“Strut your stuff, babe!” Frankie yelled as I pranced up and down the bedroom.

“More like Babe the pig, if you ask me,” came a voice from outside the room.

Guess who? I marched over and pulled the door open. You got it – Callum, the brat brother.

“Babe the pig, Babe the pig!” he chanted at me, sticking his tongue out. He is such a…

“Get him!” Kenny shouted, and chucked one of my teddies at him.

“Babe the pig, Fliss looks like Babe the pig,” he shouted over his shoulder, running off down the stairs. “Oink! Oink!”

“It’s war!” I yelled fiercely. “Come here, you pain!”

We all piled down to the living room, and were just about to kill him – death by suffocation from Kenny’s stinky trainers – when unfortunately Mum put her head round the door.

“What on earth do you think you’re doing?” she shouted. “Girls, leave Callum alone. And Callum, stop climbing on the sofa. If you’ve left any marks on it, you’re in trouble!”

Callum scuttled off, and the five of us stood there panting, all wearing different outfits. Mum wasn’t impressed.

“Felicity, those clothes are for your holiday, not to go charging around the house in!” she said in this awful tight little voice. “Now, all of you – get back into your Brownie uniforms, quick! It’s almost time to go!”

When Mum gets that cross note in her voice, you kind of do what she says, and fast – unless you enjoy serious amounts of getting told off, that is.

We pelted back upstairs and put our Brownie uniforms on again.

“Typical of that nerd to interrupt,” I grumbled, fastening my belt. “I was enjoying that.”

“Yeah, we could tell,” Frankie said.

“I wouldn’t mind being a model,” I told them. “It must be brilliant, having everyone make a fuss of you all day, and wearing lots of gorgeous, expensive clothes in the fashion-shoots.”

“I can’t think of anything more dull,” Kenny said in a muffled voice, as she pulled her Brownie dress over her head.

“It’d be OK having lots of wicked make-up on, and having hair stylists doing loads of mad things with your hair, I suppose,” Frankie said thoughtfully.

“Wedding dresses would be good…” I said.

“What, with Ryan Scott modelling the groom’s outfit?” Rosie said, elbowing me in the ribs. “I get it!”

The others started making kissy noises and saying “Oh, Ryyyan!” in silly voices, and I felt myself going a bit red.

“Well, he is good-looking enough to be a model,” I protested. I mean, he really is!!

“Oooh, Fliss, got it all planned, have you?” Lyndz said, giggling.

“Here comes the bride, all fat and wide!” Kenny sang. Well, I say “sang” but Kenny’s got one of the worst singing voices I’ve ever heard.

“I am not all fat and wide!” I said crossly, sticking my tongue out at her. “I’m the perfect size for my age, the doctor told my mum, so there!”

“Ooh, get you!” Frankie said. “Ooh, I so wish I could be as perfect as Fliss!”

“Girls! Time to go!” Andy shouted up the stairs. Just as well – I was getting a bit sick of this conversation.

“Go on, model, lead the way,” Rosie said.

“Go for it, gorgeous,” Frankie added.

I ignored them, and swished out of the room, nose in the air. Still… it had got me thinking.

It had got me thinking that suddenly I really reeeeally wanted to be a model!

I like Brownies. I even like the uniform, even though brown’s my worst colour by miles. We always have good fun, and it’s brilliant getting badges. Kenny gets all the sporty ones, and Frankie and Rosie like the arty-farty ones, but I prefer getting the badges where you have to use your brain a bit more, like Safety in the Home, which is very useful. I think it’s sensible to know about things like that. I’ve got more badges than anyone in my Six, actually.

This week, I was wondering what we were going to do next. Our whole pack had just gone for the First Aid badge, and we’d all passed it the week before. It was good, apart from when they talked about blood and things like that, which made me feel a bit sick. Surprise, surprise, that was gore-monster Kenny’s favourite bit…

Anyway, like I was saying, I was kind of wondering what Brown Owl was going to get us doing next. Usually we do lots of things in our Sixes or play games, all together. But there’s always something that the pack work on as a group – often a badge we’re all doing, or our Brownie Highway stuff.

Brown Owl had us sitting in a ring as usual, and we all paid our subs into the toadstool in the middle, and said the Brownie promise. Then Brown Owl stood up in the middle and looked serious.

“Tonight, I want us to think about holidays,” she said. “Obviously you’re all off school at the moment for the summer holidays, and some of the luckier Brownies may be going away on holiday soon, or have already been. What does holiday time mean to you?”

“Going abroad and getting a good tan!” I said straightaway. I only meant to mutter it to myself because I’m not normally the sort to speak up in front of the whole Brownie pack like that. Frankie and Kenny are usually much louder than me, but because I’d been thinking about it, it just kind of burst out of me, louder than I meant it to.

“Thank you, Felicity. Hands up, please,” Brown Owl said. “Rosie?”

“No school!”