Sleepover Girls on Safari by Angie Bates Read Free Book Online

only words I could get out.
    Between the tree-trunk legs of the enormous elephant I’d spotted four small, tottery, grey feet. My friends saw them at exactly the same moment.
    “It’s got a baby!” I gasped. “Ohh, look at its darling ears!!”
    “And that cute little trunk!” cooed Frankie.
    “I want one!” said Lyndz.
    “Don’t be stupid, what would you do with a trunk?” Kenny teased.
    “I meant I want a baby elephant, idiot,” Lyndz told her.
    “Watch her,” I told Kirstin. “Lyndz kidnapped a baby pig one time.”
    “You never told me about that!” Kirstin said to Emma.
    Emma blushed. “Didn’t I?”
    “She’s probably used to Lyndz nicking animals, aren’t you, Emma?” I said quickly. “She’s a total klepto.”
    “I AM not,” said Lyndz indignantly. “I’m a friend to Nature, that’s what I am.”
    “Keep moving everyone!” Mrs Weaver told the class. “We’ve got an extremely tight schedule.”
    “Those gates are awesome,” said Frankie as we finally stood waiting for the rangers to let us in.
    “Why do they make them so big?” asked someone.
    The park gates literally towered over us, making me feel like a little doll’s house doll.
    “They have to stop the animals getting out,” Rosie said.
    “What have they got in there? Dinosaurs?” asked Danny anxiously.
    I felt excitement prickling in the pit of my stomach.
    “In a few moments we’ll be going on a tour of the safari park in the estate Landrovers. You must stay inside the Landrover unless the ranger tells you otherwise. Is that understood?”
    Everyone nodded dutifully.
    “You may not open the windows and you may certainly not lean out, Danny McCloud!”Mrs Weaver said sharply. “You must follow the ranger’s instructions at all times. Those are dangerous wild animals on the other side of those gates. They are not, repeat not, cuddly pets. In a few moments you’ll meet the rangers who’ll be taking us on our safari,” Mrs Weaver explained. “After lunch we’ll go on a tour of the castle and grounds.”
    “Excellent! Wonder what’s for lunch?” said Kenny greedily.
    Frankie went into victim mode. “I hope they’ve got stuff for vegetarians. It would be so-o unfair if they—”
    But I never heard what Frankie thought would be so unfair, because at that moment the electric gates swung open and I heard the unmistakable, spine-tingling roar of a lion.

“Have you seen this humungous list of animals we’re supposed to spot?” Frankie waved a sheet of paper in my face. “I can’t BELIEVE how many types of animals there are. I think I’m going to fall off my bones with excitement if we see a lion!”
    “That would be interesting,” grinned Kenny. “I wonder what Frankie would actually look like with no bones?” she said to herself.
    As you can tell, Kenny has the WEIRDEST mind.
    We’d been on safari for twenty minutes, and so far the animals were keeping well out of ourway. We tried to get ourselves in the right safari spirit but it’s not easy when you’re all squashed into a Gawdy Park Landrover.
    When I say, “all” I mean all the Sleepover Club members, real and fake, plus, (GULP) Mrs Weaver. I know!! We weren’t too thrilled about that either. We were really depressed when she insisted on coming with us.
    “We’ll look like teacher’s pets,” Frankie hissed.
    “What’s wrong with that?” Emma hissed back.
    Kenny gave her a withering look. “You’re actually a Martian, aren’t you, Emma. But don’t worry, you’ll soon learn our earthling ways!”
    Emma sucked in her breath but whatever she was going to say, she quickly thought better of it.
    The Landrover went on bumping its way up a long, steep hill.
    When we reached the top, the ranger stopped, so we could see Gawdy Park spread out below like a crumpled green and brown bedspread. Microscopic animals were moving around in the distance. I couldn’texactly see what they were, but they could have been cows and I would have still been