Sleepover Girls Go Karting by Narinder Dhami Read Free Book Online

wasn’t before,” Frankie replied, picking up her helmet. “But I am now!”
    We all slapped palms, and then Frankie went over to her kart. I couldn’t sit still as we waited for the race to start. I was jumping around like I had ants in my pants – I wanted her to win sooo badly and show Josh Stevens just how stupid he was!
    The commentator’s voice boomed out of the loudspeaker above our heads. “And the karts are all lined up ready for today’s final. I wonder who’s going to win?”
    “FRANKIE!” the four of us yelled. Everyone looked at us, but we didn’t care.
    We were all nearly wetting ourselves when the marshall lifted the flag to start the race.
    Fliss was hanging on to my arm, and I was holding on to Lyndz’s hand, and Rosie was leaning on Lyndz’s shoulder. If one of us had tried to move suddenly, we’d all have fallen over!
    There was a roar of engines as the flag fell, and the karts took off from the starting grid like rockets. We all strained our eyes impatiently to see where Frankie was, and there she was – in front!
    “She’s beating Josh!” Fliss squealed, looking as if she was about to faint with excitement.
    “Calm down, Fliss!” I yelled, even though my own heart was pounding with adrenalin. “There’s fourteen laps to go yet!”
    “Look at Josh,” Rosie said gleefully. “He can’t stand being behind Frankie!”
    She was right. The black and gold kart was on Frankie’s tail, and was constantly twisting and weaving, trying to find a way through. But Frankie wasn’t letting him. The question was, how long could she hold out?
    We soon found out. As they raced towards a hairpin bend, Snooty Stevens made hismove. He pulled up alongside Frankie, and, as he did so, he gave her kart a little nudge with his own.
    “Did you see that?” I yelled furiously. “He bumped Frankie out of the way! That was a definite foul, ref!”
    “Kenny, this isn’t a game of footie,” Lyndz pointed out.
    “I think we should complain!” Fliss muttered, her face red. “Mike said we shouldn’t bump into anyone on purpose – it’s against the rules.”
    Our hearts sank right down into our shoes as we watched Josh overtake Frankie on the inside and zoom off into the lead. He waved as he went round her – probably pretending he was apologising, but we all knew he’d done it on purpose.
    “Yeah, but Mike also said that sometimes you can’t help bumping into people,” Rosie pointed out. “Smelly Stevens would only say it was an accident.”
    “And he didn’t get a black flag, so he’s got away with it,” I said, clenching my fists. “Come on , Frankie!”
    We all fixed our eyes on Frankie’s kart, willing her on. If the whole building had collapsed right at that minute, we wouldn’t even have noticed!
    “She’s catching him up!” Fliss shouted suddenly.
    Frankie was now right behind Josh Stevens. She was so close their karts were almost touching.
    And then it happened.
    Suddenly Frankie’s kart smashed right into the back of Josh’s. Both karts locked together, spun out of control and ended up crashing into the side barriers with a loud BANG!
    We all stared with our mouths open for a good few seconds. We just couldn’t believe it. A couple of the race marshalls had to rush on and pull the karts apart because they were stuck together, and Frankie and Josh Stevens had to leave the track. They were both out of the race.
    “What happened?” I asked the others urgently. “It looked like Frankie smashed into Josh on purpose!”
    The others were looking as sick as I felt.
    “I know,” Fliss groaned. “And Frankie knows that bumping isn’t allowed!”
    Frankie and Josh Stevens were standing by the side of the track yelling at each other. We couldn’t hear what they were saying, but, from the way they were both waving their arms around, it wasn’t nice. We rushed over to them, but before we got there, Josh had stomped off in a complete fury.
    “Frankie, are you OK?” Lyndz