Sleepover Girls Go Karting by Narinder Dhami Read Free Book Online Page A

asked.
    “I’m fine,” Frankie muttered, although she was as white as a sheet. “Sorry, guys. I really messed up out there.”
    “Never mind,” I said quickly, “As long as you’re OK…”
    “What happened?” Fliss asked. “Didn’t you remember that bumping someone else’s kart isn’t allowed?”
    Frankie looked a bit sheepish. “Yeah, I did… But Josh’d just done it to me, so I thought I’d get him back.”
    “Get him back!” Rosie said. “You nearly blasted him off the track!”
    “Yeah, I don’t know how that happened,”Frankie frowned. “I only meant to give him a little tap. Then next minute – kaboom!”
    Just then one of the race marshalls came over to Frankie. “Mike wants to have a word with you,” he said.
    Frankie groaned. “I bet I’m going to get a right telling-off!” she muttered in my ear.
    “Oh, well.” I turned to the others and tried to look on the bright side. “At least now we know we’ve got a great chance in the team races tomorrow, what with Frankie doing so well before the crash.”
    “Yeah, she’s our star driver,” Lyndz agreed.
    “But we’re all doing pretty OK,” Fliss chimed in.
    “Even me!” Rosie added.
    Frankie came back over to us. Her face was as long as the wettest weekend ever.
    “What’s up?” I asked with a frown.
    “Josh has complained about my driving,” Frankie told us gloomily. “I’ve been banned from taking part in the team races tomorrow…”

“ WHAT! ” we all shrieked.
    “Josh made a right fuss about me being a dangerous driver,” Frankie went on. “I tried to tell them I didn’t mean to bump him so hard, but they wouldn’t listen.”
    “This just isn’t fair !” I raged. I glanced over at Josh Stevens, who was standing chatting to his pathetic mates. He looked well pleased with himself, and when he saw me staring, he gave me a smug grin. “I’m finally going to tell that little toad exactly what I think of him!”
    “Hold on, Kenny.” Frankie grabbed my arm. “If you go and thump Josh, you’ll getbanned as well!”
    “Yeah, Kenny, and we’re already one team member down,” Rosie pointed out.
    I stopped and thought about that. Apart from the fact that Frankie was our best driver, you had to have five people to take part, and now we only had four.
    “Maybe we should just drop out of tomorrow’s race,” Lyndz suggested. “It won’t be half such a good laugh without Frankie anyway.”
    “Yeah, Lyndz is right,” Fliss agreed gloomily.
    But Frankie was shaking her head. “I don’t want you guys to lose out,” she said bravely. “If you can find someone else to take my place, you should just go for it.”
    Just then Charlie came running over to us.
    “I just heard about what happened from one of the race marshalls,” she said breathlessly. “Bad luck, Frankie. I’m really sorry.”
    “I didn’t mean to bump Josh that hard,” Frankie said in a wobbly voice. “I just don’t know how it happened.”
    Charlie frowned. “Well, Josh probably guessed what you were going to do, and puthis brakes on slightly, right at the last second. That would mean you’d hit him a lot harder than you thought you would.”
    “I bet he did that on purpose so he could complain, and get Frankie banned from tomorrow’s race!” I said furiously.
    “Yeah, and Mike’s just given in to Josh because Dad owns the track,” Charlie added angrily. “They wouldn’t have done it for anyone else.”
    “What shall we do, Charlie?” Fliss asked anxiously.
    “I’ll have a go at Josh and see if I can get him to withdraw his complaint,” Charlie replied. “But don’t hold your breath.”
    “Couldn’t your dad do something?” Lyndz asked hopefully.
    “He could, but he’s just gone to Hong Kong on business,” Charlie sighed. “He won’t be back till next week.”
    “Hey, wait a minute!” I yelled. I had a brill idea. “Charlie, couldn’t you be in our team instead of Frankie?”
    “That’s a great idea!”