The good thing about living at number 5 Odd Street is that all my best friends are either next door or next door to next door.
I desperately HAD to know who’d won Sing, Wiggle and Shine, so while the cake was baking I went round to number 7 and rang the bell. There was a big noise like thunder BAM BAM BAM as mad Ivy came jumping down the stairs four at a time and then the door flew open. (That’s the same Ivy as the Ivy who turned blue back on page 10.)
‘It’s AGATHA!’ said Ivy and then she grabbed me and gave me a big hug as if she hadn’t seen me for a million years even though she sits next to me at school all day.
‘Hey Ivy,’ I said. ‘Did you see who won Sing, Wiggle and Shine?’
‘When’s it on?’ asked Ivy.
‘It’s BEEN on,’ I told her. ‘Didn’t you see it?’
‘Aw no, I missed it,’ said Ivy. ‘Who won?’
So that was useless, so then me and Ivy went to number 9. Their doorbell is broken, but you don’t need doorbells when you’ve got Ivy.
‘Hey ELLIE!’ shouted Ivy through the letter box. ‘Are you in there? Did you see Sing, Wiggle and Shine?’
The door opened and Ellie was there holding her tiny baby sister who is just SO cute. The baby was only wearing a nappy and was wrapped in an old sweatshirt. Her little toes sticking off the end of her feet looked just like Rice Krispies and she had the most brilliantly snotty nose.
‘I had to give Bubbles a bath,’ said Ellie proudly. ‘She had jam stuck in her tummy button.’
‘A jammy tummy button? Oh that’s well cool!’ said Ivy.
Bah. A jammy tummy button might be well cool but it didn’t help me so next we went to number 1. Bianca opened the door holding her trombone and we asked her if she knew who’d won.
‘Sorry, I was traying my plum bone,’ she said.
‘Eh?’ said me and Ivy.
‘Like this,’ said Bianca and then blew a big blast BWARB!
‘Oh!’ we said. ‘She was PLAYing her TROMbone!’
We love Bianca. Don’t always understand her but love her.
The only door left to try was number 3. Ivy got Bianca to point her trombone at the letter box. I held the flap open and Bianca did a big BWARB-WABWARRRRB in through the hole ha ha wicked!
We could hear Martha laughing even before she opened the door because she’s big and jolly and laughs at everything.
‘Agatha! Perfect timing,’ she said when she appeared. It was like she was expecting me. ‘Here’s that stuff your dad wanted to go on his cake.’
Martha held up a huge carrier bag from the shop her mum works at. It’s called Spendless and everything they sell has funny wrappings and it’s made by people you’ve never heard of. Martha opened it up to show us. ‘There’s icing, jam, chocolate sauce, crisps . . .’
‘CRISPS? Honestly Martha you can’t put crisps on a cake!’
‘Why not?’ asked Martha holding up a packet with strange writing on. ‘They’re pink so we think they’re prawn cocktail flavour. They go with anything. Besides they’re well past their use-by date so Mum put them in for free.’
‘Free?’ said Dad who had just stuck his head out of our front door which is next door. ‘YUM! Do thank your mum for me.’
He reached over the fence, took the bag and went back in. Martha was about to go back in her house too but I stopped her.
‘Did you see Sing, Wiggle and Shine?’ I asked.
‘Absolutely no way!’ said Martha. ‘We’re watching the football.’
‘But it’s Rovers playing,’ I said. ‘You hate Rovers.’
‘Too right I do,’ grinned Martha. ‘And they’re losing three-nil. It’s awesome!’
Martha hurried back inside her house. Ellie had already shut her door and Bianca did another BWARB and went back in too. That just left me and Ivy who was swinging on our gate.
‘How come YOU didn’t see the programme anyway?’ asked Ivy. I told her all about the evilness of James. ‘You can’t let him get away with that!’ she said.
I must have pulled a face or something because Ivy fell off the gate and banged her head on the fence in excitement. ‘Oh WOW!’ she blurted out. ‘You’ve already done something haven’t you? I know. I can tell.’
‘Yes you have, yes you have, yes you have,’ said Ivy. ‘What what what?’
Honestly! We were standing right outside our house with the door open and James could have been listening. There was no way I was going to tell Mrs Big Mouth Ivy anything.
‘Tell me the truth or I’ll HATE you,’ said Ivy.
So Ivy just had to go back into her own house and hate me. I can be dead tough like that.
