Sleepover Girls Go Karting (3 page)

“You’ve got a big mouth, Kenny!” Frankie groaned, as Josh and his mates sauntered off, laughing.

“Well, I couldn’t let him have a go at us like that, could I?” I retorted. “It’ll be cool. We’ll do much better in the proper races.”

The others looked at me doubtfully. Fliss was obviously scared to death, and Rosie and Lyndz looked like they were ready to go home. Even Frankie, who’d done so well, seemed pretty down.

“Oh, stop being such major wimps!” I said impatiently.

“We’ll
never
beat that horrible Josh,” Fliss said gloomily.

“We can
try
.” I glanced over at Mum, who was sitting in the spectator area. “Come on, let’s go and ask my mum if we can get a drink from the café. Looks like there’s a few more practice sessions before the races start.”

My mum smiled at us sympathetically as we went over to her. “Hi, girls,” she said. “Well done, Frankie. Never mind, the rest of you. I’m sure you’ll do better next time.”

Fliss’s face dropped even further, and Rosie and Lyndz both looked really depressed.

“Maybe we should just go home and forget the racing,” Frankie suggested. “We can always try again tomorrow.”

“No way!” I said firmly. “Josh’d laugh at us even more then! Is the Sleepover Club a bunch of wimps?”

“No,” Frankie, Rosie and Lyndz muttered reluctantly. Fliss looked like she couldn’t make her mind up, though!

We moved over to the café, and had some drinks and a big creamy cake each, which seemed to calm everybody down a bit. Then
we went to find out which heat of the race we would be driving in. It turned out that me and Rosie would be in Heat 2 with one of Josh’s weedy mates, Alex, while Frankie was in Heat 4. Lyndz and Fliss were drawn in Heat 3, along with Josh Stevens. Fliss nearly wet her knickers when she found out.

“Oh no!” she wailed. “I don’t want to race against
him
!”

“You’ll be fine, Fliss,” I said, sounding a lot more confident than I felt. But I swear you could hear the noise of Fliss’s knees knocking together, even over the sound of the karts!

The races were taken pretty seriously. There was even a race commentary on each heat which was broadcast over the tannoy, and made the whole thing even more exciting. We went over to watch Heat 1, which was won by the boy who’d had the row with Josh. Then it was mine and Rosie’s turn.

“I’m scared!” Rosie muttered as we climbed into our karts.

“Don’t panic,” I replied. “Only one of us has to win, and we’ve got a Sleepover Club member into the final!”

“In your dreams!” said a rude voice. I looked round. Alex was standing by his kart, grinning at us.

“What’re you laughing at?” I snapped, giving him the evil eye. Alex looked petrified, and jumped backwards as if I was about to attack him. What a weed!

“Will the drivers in Heat Two please take their places on the starting grid,” said the commentator.

We all climbed into our karts. I looked across at Frankie and the others and waved as I revved my kart up. I could hardly wait to get started. It was a shame that we couldn’t all go through to the final, but only the winner of each heat would make it.

I glued my eyes to the marshall at the side of the track who was holding the chequered flag. As soon as it dropped, my foot hit the accelerator and I was off like a rocket! It felt really cool to be going so fast.

“And kart number five is first away from the starting grid,” I heard the commentator say as I headed towards the first bend. “Kart number fourteen is second, and kart three is third.”

Rosie was in kart number 18, so she’d already fallen behind. I was dying to glance back over my shoulder to check it out, but as I was coming up to a sharp bend, I didn’t dare.

“Right, don’t brake,” I muttered to myself as I swept round the corner. I remembered Mike telling us that the kart would slow down automatically when you were cornering, so only to use the brake when you came up to the bend, and not when you were actually going round it. To my complete amazement, I managed to get round the corner in one brilliant movement (even if I say so myself), and then I was on a straight bit of the track again – and I was still in front! I was really pleased with myself. In fact, I was so pleased that I decided to risk a quick glance back over my shoulder to see where Rosie was.

Big mistake. I dunno what happened, but just as I looked back, I lost control of my kart! I spun right round and stopped. My kart was stuck across the middle of the track, and the other karts were heading straight towards me!

“Help!” I yelled, desperately trying to get my kart moving again. But it wouldn’t budge.

Luckily the other karts in the race, including Rosie, all managed to get round me, so there weren’t any accidents. Then two marshalls ran on and helped me to point the wheels in the right direction and get the kart moving again. But I was
miles
behind everyone else. There was no way I was going to qualify for the semi-finals unless everyone else crashed out of the race.

“Go on, Rosie,” I muttered as I drove under one of the bridges. “It’s up to you now!”

Poor old Rosie wasn’t doing so well, though. She was behind everyone else, and she didn’t look like catching them up either. In fact, she was going so slowly that I almost caught up with her. We finally crossed the finishing line at almost exactly the same time. And we were both last.

Alex the Weed had won our heat, which was really sickening. By the time Rosie and I climbed out of our karts, Alex was already celebrating with Josh and Robin, doing high fives and grinning all over his stupid face.

“Better luck next time, girls!” Josh called smugly. If I’d still been in my kart, I would’ve run him over!

“Sorry, Kenny,” Rosie muttered, as we left the track. “Karting’s fun, but I don’t think I’m ever going to be much good at it!”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t exactly brilliant either,” I comforted her. “Let’s hope Fliss and Lyndz can do better.”

As we went over to join Frankie, who was still waiting her turn to race, Lyndz and Fliss came towards us, carrying their helmets.

“OK, it’s up to you two now,” I said. “Good luck!”

Lyndz looked really nervous, and Fliss looked as if she was about to faint! I couldn’t help feeling a bit guilty. I mean, we were supposed to be having fun! If I hadn’t gone on about beating Josh, we wouldn’t have been so wound up, I guess.

“Look, just do your best,” I said, trying to be nice. “Don’t worry about beating that creep Stevens.”

“Really?” Fliss looked relieved.

“Yeah. But if you
do
manage to beat him,
it’ll be brilliant.” You know me. I just couldn’t help it!

Lyndz and Fliss grinned, and went over to their karts. Josh Stevens was already on the starting grid, fussing about the position his kart was in.

“I’d like to go over there and rip that stupid helmet right off his head!” I muttered to Frankie. “I mean,
King of the Track
– honestly!”

“The trouble is, he
is
pretty good,” Frankie sighed.

“And he knows it!” I glared at Josh, who was now waving at his mates with an
I know I’ve won this already
look on his face.

So me, Frankie and Rosie got a REAL shock when the heat began. Josh roared off in front from the start, but guess who was right behind him? FLISS!

“Go, Flissy!” I yelled, dancing up and down as they went round the first bend. “Don’t let him get away!”

Fliss was doing really well. She kept losing a bit of ground every time they went round a corner or a bend because Josh was more
experienced, but then she’d make it up on the straight runs. Now they were heading for the bridge for the second time, and she was right behind him. Poor old Lyndz was way down the field in second-to-last place, but at least she was still going without any disasters.

“D’you think Fliss’ll qualify for the next round?” Rosie asked anxiously, her eyes fixed to the track.

“There’s still twelve laps to go,” Frankie replied, “but she’s got a great chance!”

By the eighth lap, Fliss was still right behind Josh. Until…

“Why is she slowing down?” I asked anxiously.

“Look, she’s pulling off the track!” Frankie groaned. “There must be something wrong with her kart!”

We could hardly believe it. Fliss had had to drop out of the race because her kart had conked out. Honestly, I could have cried. And guess who won the race by a mile? Mr Smarmy Stevens, that’s who!

“OK, Frankie,” I said urgently, as the drivers for Heat 4 were called. “It’s all up to you now.”

“I’ll do my best,” Frankie promised. Then she slapped palms with each of us for luck, and went off to get into her kart. She looked pretty calm, but I’d already nearly chewed all my fingernails off by the time the race started.

Frankie drove brilliantly, but there was a girl in her heat who was pretty good. Frankie chased her all the way, with us screaming our heads off, but she couldn’t catch her and she only made it into second place. It was a great result, but it wasn’t good enough for her to get into the final. So there were
no
Sleepovers taking part at all. And didn’t Josh Stevens just
love
it.

“Oh dear, girls!” he called, waving at us while Alex and Robin, who’d won Heat 6, stood around, sniggering. “Keep practising and you’ll get better. In about ten years’ time, maybe!”

That did it. I was steaming mad. I charged over to him – or at least I would have done if the others hadn’t grabbed me and hung on. Frankie and Lyndz had hold of my arms, Fliss grabbed the collar of my race suit and Rosie
flung her arms round my waist, and held on tight!

“OK, OK,” I muttered crossly. “I won’t kill him this time!”

“Maybe we’ll do better tomorrow,” Lyndz said hopefully.

Maybe she wasn’t too wrong either. After all, Frankie and Fliss had turned out to be good drivers, and I wasn’t too bad, as long as I didn’t look over my shoulder! Lyndz and Rosie still needed a bit more practice, but we had two more days left on our free passes. If one of us could
just
beat Josh Stevens in just
one
race, it’d be brilliant…

Our karting session for the day was over. We could have stayed and watched the final, but none of us felt like it. After all, Josh Stevens was bound to win, and I’d had enough of his ugly mug to last me a lifetime!

“Where’s your mum gone, Kenny?” Lyndz asked, as we came out of the changing area, having taken off all our racing gear.

“Dunno,” I shrugged, and looked around. “She must be around somewhere. Maybe she’s gone to the café again.”

“Hey, guys!” That was Frankie, and she sounded really excited. “Come and look at this!”

There was a door standing open at the side of the arena, which led outside. Frankie was peering through it, and when we joined her, we saw what she was looking at. There were loads of old, beaten-up karts piled up in big heaps on the grass, some of them covered with tarpaulin.

“Come on, let’s take a look,” I said eagerly. I was about to rush through the door when Fliss grabbed my arm. “Look at the sign, Kenny.”

I looked. There was a sign on the wall which read
Strictly No Entry for Members of the Public
.

“Oh, poo!” I scoffed. “Who’s gonna know?” And I took a quick glance over my shoulder, and legged it outside. The others followed, although Fliss was worrying, as usual.

“What if Josh Stevens sees us?” she asked anxiously. “He might tell his dad!”

“Josh Stevens is too busy trying to win that race,” I replied, as we heard the sound
of the karts starting off again. “And anyway, we’re OK. There’s no-one out here.”

“Hi, can I help you?” said a voice from behind us.

We all jumped two metres into the air, and Fliss actually screamed! There was a girl standing behind us, holding a screwdriver in her hand. She was a bit older than us, about fourteen, with long dark hair, and she was wearing scruffy jeans and a sweatshirt.

“Er – we just came out to look at the karts,” I spluttered. “We didn’t see the sign.”

Frankie groaned and nudged me. “If you didn’t see the sign, how do you know there
was
a sign?” she hissed.

I turned red, but the girl just laughed.

“Hi, I’m Charlotte, Charlie for short,” she said with a friendly grin. “Are you interested in karts?”