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

all misty-eyed about the night they stayed at a friend’s house, and Jilly got this sudden chocolate craze, and Miggsy (or maybe Buzz) baked them this amazingly gooey cake.
    “The trouble was, it wasn’t ready until after midnight,” Mum giggled. “We were dying to go to bed, but she refused to let us go to sleep until we’d eaten every last crumb!”
    Mum always gives everyone the impression she was a real Nikky No-Mates when she was growing up. Now it seemed she’d been sharing midnight cake with crowds of kids, all with cool and groovy nicknames. It made me feel like I didn’t really know her.
    Quite suddenly I pushed my plate away.
    “I think Fliss has had enough,” said Amber sweetly. “Don’t worry, it won’t go to waste.”
    And she actually took my last doughnut off my plate and popped it into her mouth!!
    If I wasn’t feeling so miserable (also REALLY sick), I’d have shoved her smiling face right into my plate, saying, “Then DO have the rest of my sauce, Amber, while you’re at it!”
    But we both knew she’d won, so I just stared straight ahead, waiting for my ordeal to end.
    Only it didn’t.
    That night Mum came to find me in the kitchen, where I was gulping down water, trying to dilute the ill-effects of my fudge-fest.
    “Sweetheart,” she said. “I’ve got something to tell you.”
    I had my second psychic flash of the day. You’re not going to like this, Fliss, I thought.
    “The thing is, Jilly isn’t just my best friend. She’s a real soul mate,” Mum blurted out.
    I stared at her.
    “And that makes Amber really special too,” she said awkwardly. “Which is why I want her to be one of my bridesmaids.”
    “You’re kidding,” I whispered.
    “I realise this is a bit sudden,” said Mum. “But I just know it would make Jilly really happy.”
    I didn’t plan to sit down – it was more like my legs gave way underneath me, so that I kind of fell into a kitchen chair. My head was spinning with all this urgent stuff I needed to say. But in the end, I just croaked, “But there’s only five dresses.”
    “I know,” said Mum sadly. “It’s a shame, but there it is.”
    I couldn’t speak. It had been touch and go for some time, but the happy sparkling wedding of my dreams had finally morphedinto a total nightmare.
    Because in order for Awful Amber to be a bridesmaid, one of my friends would have to stand down.

You know those agony aunts they have in women’s magazines? We just lurve reading out those letters, don’t you? Kenny swears they’re made up. She says no-one in their right MINDS would parade their bizarre personal problems for complete strangers to snigger over.
    There’s two reasons Kenny believes this.
    1) She never watches those totally riveting American chat shows.
    And:
    2) Unlike me, she is not a girl who easily gets her knickers in a twist.
    It’s like that shopping trip mix-up. My other friends fibbed themselves blue in the face, trying not to hurt my feelings. But Kenny just came clean, like it was no biggie. I’d LOVE to be more like Kenny. I really would. (I just wouldn’t want to DRESS like her! Miaow! )
    But that night when I’d closed my diary (my deadly secret one) and finally switched off my torch, I lay in the dark, composing a letter to some wise agony aunt in the sky.
    Dear Auntie Whoever,
    Due to circumstances beyond my control, I must inform my friends that one of them can no longer be a bridesmaid at my mother’s wedding. I have absolutely no idea how to do this without hurting someone’s feelings, and maybe even losing a friend. Can you help? Also, could you please reply by tomorrow, which is when I have to break this disappointing news?
    Yours Sincerely
    Felicity Sidebotham
    But by the time I’d finished, I realised that it wasn’t an agony aunt I needed after all. What I needed was a miracle.
    I could hear gentle breathing from the other side of the room, final proof that Amber totally didn’t have a heart. After what she’d done