The Sleepover Club Bridesmaids by Angie Bates Read Free Book Online

think I’d enjoy Amber’s kind of shopping. Plus, I totally wouldn’t enjoy her company!”
    I stared at them. “But you said you’d love to come!”
    “We hadn’t met Miss Fabulous then,” Kenny pointed out.
    “But then it’ll just be me and Amber,” I said. The thought made me break into a cold sweat.
    My friends looked sheepish.
    “It’s just a shopping trip,” I pleaded. “You don’t have to marry her. You don’t even have to talk to her if you don’t want.”
    “No,” said Lyndz unhappily. “But we’d have to listen to her.”
    Frankie put her arm around me. “It’s not personal.”
    “Yeah, right,” I said gloomily.
    “Just tell your mum you won’t go,” said Kenny. “That’s what I’d do.”
    I shook my head. “I can’t.”
    “Why not?” everyone said at once.
    “Then she’d guess me and Amber don’t hit it off.”
    “So what?” said Kenny. “There’s no LAW which says you’ve got to be buddies with your mum’s friend’s daughter!”
    “It would hurt Mum’s feelings,” I said.
    Kenny rolled her eyes. “Fliss, you are such a lightweight.”
    I clamped my lips together and counted to ten. You don’t know you’re born, Laura McKenzie, I thought darkly. You have NO idea what I’m going through.
    I think Rosie did, though. She said softly, “Probably Fliss thinks her mum has got enough stress with the wedding and everything.”
    “Yeah,” I said. “I do actually.”
    “So how’s it going with those foursomethings?” Lyndz asked, to change the subject. Then the whistle went and it was time to go into school.
    As the day went on, I got more and more depressed. Then on the way home, I had another one of my psychic flashes. This trip was bad news, I just KNEW it.
    The instant I stepped inside the house, I heard Amber in full flow. “Nikky, I had the best time today. That olde worlde house had such an awesome atmosphere! Gosh, I just came out in goosebumps all over!”
    I was in the living room by this time, but no-one noticed me for ages. Mum and Jilly were too busy listening to Amber gushing on about Lady Jane’s awesome house, until I thought I’d totally throw up!!
    I went to give Mum a hug. “Mum,” I hissed in her ear. “I’m really tired. Mrs Weaver made us work incredibly hard today. Maybe you should go to Leicester without me.”
    Mum laughed. “You’ll feel better once you get out of those school clothes! I’ll give you ten minutes to get changed, then we’ll go.”She beamed at Amber. “Once that girl hits the shops, she just shops till she drops.”
    Amber went into fits of laughter. “Gosh that is SO spooky! Are you sure Felicity and I aren’t long-lost twins?”
    I looked up in surprise. But it was my mum that Amber was merrily bonding with, not me.
    Poor old Callum was looking glum. Patsy had offered to babysit, and I think he was terrified she’d be cooking his tea!
    “I’ll bring you back a treat,” I told him.
    “Fizz Bombs,” he said at once. “‘They blast your buds’. Two packets. No, THREE!”
    “Get out fast, before he demands a plane to Cuba,” Jilly giggled.
    But my brother flung his arms round me, giving me one of his desperate cling-on hugs. Mum had to peel him off me like Velcro. We closed the door on frantic yells of “It’s not fair! It’s not fair!”
    “I’m sorry I didn’t meet your friends, Fliss,” said Jilly, as we drove out of the village. “Amber’s been telling me all about them.”
    I bet she has, I thought.
    Amber was staring out of the window, so I took the opportunity to pull a horrible face. It sounds babyish, but it made me feel a very tiny bit better!
    Mum and Jill were nattering about all these people they used to know, back in the days before I was born. People with nicknames like Buzz and Miggsy, so you couldn’t tell if they were male or female.
    “You’re very quiet in the back, girls,” Mum said suddenly.
    “Uhuh,” we both mumbled.
    “Not feeling sick are you, Fliss? My daughter