Trick or Treat by Jana Hunter Page A

Club.”
    That did it.
    How dare she call the Sleepover Club soppy? Our Sleepover Club is the best, the most brilliant fun in the world, and nobody calls it names. For a start it’s got me, Kenny, in it (Laura McKenzie to people who want to get on the wrong side of me). But it’s also got my best mate Frankie (Francesca Thomas) in it, so that makes it fantabulous, cos Frankie’s a real laugh. Then there’s Lyndz (Lyndsey Collins) the soft-heartedgiggly one, Fliss (Felicity Sidebotham) the sugar-and-spice one and Rosie Cartwright the most down-to-earth grown-up one. We’re the five most coo-ell girls in Cuddington School.
    And we are not soppy!
    That’s why when Molly called us that, I had to get my own back by pretending to sigh a huge great sigh. “What a shame there won’t be room for your dear little friend to sleep over…” I went. “I s’pose the only thing you can do is camp out in the garage.
    ’Course, you’ll have to share your sleeping bag with Merlin…” Molly hates my rat more than a double dose of poison. “I’m sure Merlin would love to nibble your toes.”
    That got Molly’s back up, big time!
    Molly went for me. I went for her. And in no time we were rolling about on the floor like those mad wrestlers you get on telly.
    “Ooof!”
    “Ouch!”
    “Aaargggh!”
    It was well good. And I was winning too, whenMum had to spoil it by coming back into the kitchen.
    “Stop it you two! Stop it right now!”
    “She started it…”
    “You started it!”
    “I don’t care who started it. Just stop it, or else!”
    So because Mum sounded like she meant business this time, my dear sister and I did what she said, although Molly had to carry on making dorky faces at me behind Mum’s back.
    “Now listen to me,” Mum ordered. “I’ve just been on the phone to Mrs Thomas, and she says since it’s an emergency the Sleepover Club can decamp over at Frankie’s tonight.”
    “But everyone’s coming here!” I couldn’t bear to think of my spider and web decorations upstairs going to waste. “Mum, I’ve been decorating my room all afternoon.”
    “I’m sorry, Kenny,” said Mum.
    “So-rry,” mimicked Molly, being her usual super-annoying self. But before I had a chance to thump her, I saw something that would shut her up good and proper.
    I saw it loom up out of the dark and float eerily up to the kitchen window, like something out of a horror movie. A sight so gruesome, so horrible, that it sent shivers all the way down to my size three trainers. It was big. It was green. And it had wicked red-rimmed eyes.
    “Aaaargh!” screamed Molly, seeing it for herself. “It’s a witch!”
    “A what?”
    “A witch at the window!”
    Sure it was a witch. But I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t shocked. Not me. I just opened my mouth and yelled at the top of my voice:
    “Frankie!”

I raced to the front door, and yanked it open. With the force of a jet-propelled broomstick, the wicked witch herself fell across our hall floor in a heap.
    “Come in!” I laughed as the rest of the Sleepover Club tumbled in on top of her. “Oh, I see you already did!”
    “Heh, heh, heh…” cackled Frankie-the-witch, looking up at me from the pile of my friends. “Want a bite of my poisoned apple?”
    “Save it for Molly,” I said. “She deserves it.” I helped Frankie with her pointed hat while the rest of the Sleepover Club tried to untangle themselves from the heap of sleeping bags, sweets, cuddly toys, pillows, bags and Hallowe’en costumes strewn across the floor.
    “You look well ugly!” I told her, dead admiring.
    “I know.”
    “Molly’s face!” giggled Lyndz, crawling about the hall floor, collecting all the scattered sweets. “She thought it was a real witch come to cast a spell on her.”
    “No such thing,” said Fliss in her usual bossy way, as she folded up her sleepover kit ultra neatly. Fliss is a bit scared of supernatural things and she tries to cover it up by acting superior. She’s