Did someone just call my name? I could have sworn that I heard someone shout “Lyndz”!

Oh hi! I didn’t see you there. I’m glad you’re here. Do you think you could give me a hand with this scenery? The Sleepover Club are putting on a play in my garden. It’s just for our parents but it should be pretty cool. We wrote it ourselves, so we could play exactly the parts we wanted.

Fliss is going to be a princess who ends up marrying a handsome prince – surprise, surprise! You know how she loves a good wedding! And of course dressing up is like her favourite thing in the whole world. Come to think of it, most of Fliss’s clothes are all frilly like a princess’s. And she acts like royalty too – most of the time she thinks that our Sleepover Club stuff is way too childish for her.

Kenny is going to play a footballing genius who scores the winning goal in the FA Cup. Don’t ask how that fits in with the princess, it just does. She said that she wouldn’t be in the play at all unless she could be a footballer. Kenny’s greatest love in life is Leicester City and she really thinks she’s going to play for them one day – as well as being a doctor like her dad. When she’s not being a footballer in the play, she’s lots of different monsters and villains as well, but we tell her that she can’t really call that acting! You know Kenny – she’s a bit wild at the best of times, so a lot of people think she’s a monster anyway. But it’s her sister who’s the real monster – Molly the Monster, as we call her.

Rosie plays sort of a Cinderella character who triumphs against the odds, and that’s kind of like Rosie too. When she came to Cuddington at first she was all sort of lost and didn’t really fit in. Her dad had just left and she was finding it quite hard to cope. Now she’s one of our best friends and is really sensible and gets things organised.

She doesn’t get things as organised as Frankie though – now she can be really bossy. That’s why she fancies herself as the director of our play. She’s also its narrator, which is a really important role. She fills in as different characters too and sort of holds the whole thing together. I sometimes think it’s Frankie who holds the Sleepover Club together, because the rest of us would fall out too much if she wasn’t there.

What character am I playing? Well, I dash around on a horse a lot helping people out. I said I didn’t mind what role I played as long as it was something to do with horses. I live for horses! We haven’t got a real horse in the play of course. Sometimes Kenny pretends to be my horse and I ride on her back, but we usually end up collapsing in a heap on the floor.

Frankie said that I should be a kind of magical character who always does good things, because she says that I’m always nice to people in real life. I don’t know about that. She hasn’t seen some of the awful things I’ve done to my four horrible brothers!

You’re looking a bit confused. I know all this play stuff sounds a bit strange, but you see, we’ve caught the acting bug. Big time! It’s all Fliss’s fault really. I know, I know – poor Fliss seems to get the blame for everything. But this time, I mean it in a good way.

You know how she’s always going on about wanting to be a supermodel? For all those nice clothes, that fame and stuff? Well then, it shouldn’t surprise you that one day she announced that she wanted to become an actress instead. Actress, supermodel – it was all the same to Fliss.

“I’ll still be famous and earn loads of money,” she explained, “but there’s not the same pressure on you to be beautiful all the time, is there?”

The rest of us rolled our eyes. I mean, what is she like?

“I don’t think you can just decide to be a famous actress and wham – you’ve got the starring role in the next High School Musical,” said Frankie. “You’ve got to go to drama school first.”

“And I’ve heard that most actresses are usually out of work,” continued Rosie. “There’s only a few who make it to the top.”

“Well, I’m going to be one of those!” said Fliss firmly. And when Fliss is in one of those moods, there’s no arguing with her.

So for the next week or so we had to put up with her prancing about with her actress head on. Whenever Mrs Weaver asked her something in class, Fliss would take a deep breath, smile and speak v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y and very clearly. The first time she did it, Mrs Weaver said:

“Are you feeling quite all right, Felicity?”

The rest of us nearly wet ourselves laughing. But Fliss didn’t care. She just seemed to be acting all the time, as though her life was being filmed for one long soap opera.

Kenny thought it would be a laugh if we all started acting too – or maybe that should be overacting… So Frankie would say something like, “I say old beans, can I interest anyone in a game of rounders?” and Rosie would reply, “Oh super! A game of rounders would be simply spiffing on such a wonderful warm afternoon!” And we would all clap our hands and do really false laughs. It was like some really bad over-the-top crackly old movie. It was great fun though. Fliss got really cross with us at first.

“Acting’s not like that!” she snapped. “You’re supposed to be natural!”

“Oh like you, you mean!” snorted Kenny. She put on a really posh voice and started to speak really slowly. “Of course I know what five times six is, Mrs Weaver. It’s forty-six of course!”

The rest of us cracked up.

“I never said that!” said Fliss crossly. “I know that five times six is thirty!”

We laughed even harder.

“Oh Fliss, where’s your sense of humour?” giggled Frankie. “We’re just saying that you seem to be taking this actress thing a bit far. If you’re so keen, why don’t you go to a drama class? There’s got to be one somewhere near here.”

That sounded like a great idea. At least that way we wouldn’t have to suffer Fliss trying to be the next Lindsay Lohan. Or so we thought…

It was just our luck that when we went to Brownies a couple of days later, someone had put up a brand new poster on the notice board. It was luminous yellow so it sort of hit you right in the eyes. It said:

“Look at that!” said Fliss, hopping around from foot to foot as she read it. “Don’t you see? It’s a sign! I wanted to go to a drama class and suddenly there’s one right here on our doorstep! We’ve got to go to it! It’s going to make me a star!”

“Hang on a minute!” insisted Kenny. “What’s all this we business? It’s you who wants to be the actress. You’re on your own!”

Fliss pouted and made her eyes all big and wide. She’s always doing stuff like that to make people feel sorry for her, but it doesn’t usually work with us.

“Actually, it might be a laugh,” admitted Frankie. “My gran’s always calling me a ‘little actress’. It might be kind of fun to go to a proper drama class.”

“Well I’ve always fancied being a TV presenter, and I guess a few drama lessons might help,” said Rosie. “Then I might get a big break myself and end up presenting Blue Peter. That would be so cool!”

“The point is that going to drama class would be good for all of us,” said Fliss seriously. “Come on, let’s all go, it’ll be great! Please? Pretty, pretty per-lease?”

Before we had time to decide, Brown Owl came in and we had to get into our packs. The poster definitely gave us a lot to think about, though. Fliss, Frankie and Rosie all seemed really keen on the idea of going to drama classes, and I was certain that Kenny would go too – she’ll do anything for a laugh. I wasn’t sure that it was exactly my kind of thing, but was I going to miss out? No way!

After the Brownie meeting Fliss was still excited about the drama class.

“You will all be able to go, won’t you?” she kept asking.

“Oh Fliss, give it a rest!” groaned Frankie. “We’ll ask when we get home. OK?”

I knew that Mum and Dad wouldn’t mind me going, as long as it didn’t affect my school work. As it was kind of near the end of term anyway, I couldn’t see that happening. Unfortunately my stupid brothers found out about the drama class too, and wouldn’t stop taking the mickey out of me.

“You might get a part in one of those vet programmes,” suggested Stuart my eldest brother, who helps out on the local farm whenever he can.

“Yeah, as one of the animals!” laughed Tom. He’s fourteen, so you’d think he might be a bit more mature than that. Listening to Ben and Spike laugh, you’d think he’d cracked the funniest joke ever. But I suppose when you’re four like Ben, anything’s funny – and Spike is only a baby, so he doesn’t know any better.

Still, their endless teasing about me trying to act really got on my nerves, and I thought about not going to the drama class after all. Of course I didn’t, because when I saw the others the next day they were still all really up for it and we always tend to do stuff together.

So the next week, on Wednesday 26th May, we found ourselves at St. Mark’s Church Hall in Cuddington, not really knowing what to expect. But you know what? It was the start of one of our craziest adventures yet!