The Sleepover Club Bridesmaids by Angie Bates Read Free Book Online Page A

suffers from dreadful travel sickness,” Mum announced to the world.
    Amber rolled her eyes. “Great,” she muttered.
    “I’m fine,” I said stonily. “Don’t you worry your head about me.”
    There was another long silence.
    “I don’t know what you girls want to do,” Mum said at last. “But I’ve got to find the perfect going-away dress, for after the wedding.”
    “I’ll help,” said Amber at once. “I know just the style which will suit you. You are so lucky, Nikky. You’ve got bone structure most supermodels would die for.”
    I watched Mum turning pink in her driving mirror.
    “Honestly, all this fuss!” I burst out. “I suppose next you’ll have to get a coming- back dress? I mean, get real, Mum, you can’t close your wardrobe as it is. What do you need another dress for?”
    You’re shocked, aren’t you? So was I! I had no IDEA all this spiteful stuff was going to come splurting out of my mouth.
    Suddenly Mum went all efficient. “It’s probably best if I park in the shopping centre,” she said. She gave a hurt little laugh. “If I don’t miss the signs, that is.”
    “Perhaps you’d like me to look out for signs for you, Nikky?” Amber said at once, in her fake helpful voice. “I do that for Mom all the time, back home.”
    “Would you, Amber? That would be really useful,” said Mum warmly.
    Goldilocks was the perfect name for thatgirl. In the space of one school day, this golden-haired girl wonder had totally taken my place.
    Can you see what Amber was doing? She was being ME, only better! The Hollywood version of Felicity Sidebotham – the sweet, helpful, style-conscious daughter of my mother’s dreams.
    I trailed after them out of the car park, watching them all being giggly girls together. So what was I meant to do now? Disappear in a puff of smoke?
    Suddenly this cold rage came over me. Huh, you wish , Goldilocks, I growled. So they wanted me to be Amber’s long-lost twin, did they? Then that’s what I’d be. The scary wicked twin who gets her revenge!!
    I really went for it. I sulked and sighed and rolled my eyes all around the shopping centre. I’m not exaggerating. I was so bad, I made Wednesday Addams look like the Milky Bar Kid! Well, OK, so I’m exaggerating slightly. But you get the picture.
    The spooky thing was, once I started I totally couldn’t stop.
    When Mum came out of a cubicle looking drop-dead gorgeous in this sweet dress and asked me what I thought, did I tell her how great she looked? I did not. I just yawned, and said “Whatever,” as if I couldn’t care less. I hated myself for doing it, but it was like my wicked twin sister had totally taken me over.
    And that meant that Amber got to say MY lines. “Andy is going to go crazy when he sees you in that colour,” she cooed.
    “He’ll go even crazier when he sees the bill,” I muttered.
    Instead of going for pizza, we went to some new pancake parlour Amber liked the sound of. By this time I’d figured out the perfect way to punish Mum for preferring Amber to me. I probably told you, Mum is really diet-conscious? So I ordered this TOTAL calorie-fest. Pancakes, waffles, doughnuts with hot fudge sauce.
    Guess what that scheming little Goldilocks did then?
    “My, those waffles look so-o good,” she cried, like some kid in The Waltons . And she ordered EXACTLY the same things!
    Our mothers didn’t have a clue what was going on. Only Amber and I knew she had just declared war.
    The trouble is, I don’t like sweet stodgy food that much. And after stuffing my face for fifteen minutes or so, I was already slowing down. But Jilly’s daughter kept right on going – dipping, chewing and swallowing.
    I’ve got to admit, all Amber’s acting classes had totally paid off. She had this unbelievably innocent expression, like she truly had no idea that she was subjecting me to Death by Doughnut!
    Not only that, but my revenge ploy didn’t even work . Mum actually thought it was funny. She and Jilly got