We all shut our eyes at exactly the same moment that Mrs Weaver looked round the door. She shone her torch into the room, and then we all pretended to wake up.
“Sorry to disturb you, girls,” said Mrs Weaver. “But someone’s been running around the museum playing tricks.”
“Oh, really, Miss?” said Frankie, doing a great imitation of a yawn.
“Is everything all right, Mrs Weaver?” Frankie’s mum had got out of her sleeping bag, and come across the room. “Has something happened?”
“Someone’s been frightening the girls in my group with a mummy mask,” said Mrs Weaver grimly. “I almost caught them, but then I got lost around the galleries.”
I glanced at Frankie. So Mrs Weaver had got lost too. That must’ve been why we made it back before her. Lucky or what?
“Well, I don’t think it was any of us,” said Frankie’s mum, looking round. “We’re all here.”
“So I see,” said Mrs Weaver, ‘I think I’ll go and check on Ryan Scott’s group.’ And she closed the door.
“Come on, girls, let’s get back to sleep,” said Frankie’s mum, “or you’ll be dead tired in the morning.”
We all snuggled down into our sleeping bags. But as soon as Mrs Thomas had gone back over to the other side of the room, we all started laughing and talking. We were just too hyped up to go to sleep right away.
“I can’t believe we got back here before Mrs Weaver,” whispered Fliss. “We nearly didn’t make it!”
“Thank goodness she got lost as well,” said Rosie, “or we’d have been nicked!”
“It was worth it though,” said Lyndz. “I just wish I had a photo of Emma’s face when she saw Kenny in that mask!”
We all started shaking with laughter. The more we tried to stop, the more we laughed. We had to stuff corners of our sleeping-bags in our mouths to stop ourselves from making too much noise.
“We trashed the M&Ms good and proper,” I said at last, when we’d finally stopped laughing. “I bet they know it was us, too.”
“Do you think so?” said Fliss, looking scared. “What if they tell Mrs Weaver?”
“So what if they do?” said Frankie. “They’ve got no proof.”
“They might have recognised Kenny’s mask,” said Rosie.
“My mask!” I said suddenly.
“Girls, will you please be quiet and get some sleep?” said Mrs Thomas from across the room.
“What about your mask, Kenny?” whispered Lyndz.
“I’ve lost it!” I whispered back. “I put it down somewhere when we were trying to make it back here, and I can’t remember where!”
“We’ve got to get it back!” said Frankie urgently. “If Mrs Weaver finds it—”
“She’ll know it was us who played the trick,” finished Rosie.
“Where did you leave it, Kenny?” asked Lyndz.
I thought hard.
“I think I put it down on the floor when I was trying to work out what that furry thing was,” I said at last. “D’you think I should go and try to get it back now?”
“NO!” said the others all together.
“Girls,” said Mrs Thomas, and she was starting to sound pretty annoyed, “will you please go to sleep now.”
“We’ll look for it first thing tomorrow morning,” Frankie whispered, and I nodded.
I wasn’t really that worried. After all, somebody else could have borrowed my mask to play a trick on the M&Ms. But I didn’t want Mrs Weaver getting suspicious. I wasn’t her flavour of the month as it was. I didn’t want to get into any more doom.
I yawned and closed my eyes. A picture of Emma and Emily’s horrified faces as they looked at the mummy looking in at them came into my mind, and I started giggling into my pillow.
I was still smiling when I fell asleep.
“Kenny?”
Someone was shaking me awake. I didn’t want to open my eyes, but whoever it was kept on shaking me, so I had to.
It was Rosie.
“It’s ten-to-eight, and we’re having breakfast in ten minutes,” she said. “I think we should go and look for the mask.”
“OK.” I rolled out of my sleeping bag, and reached for my jeans. The others were starting to wake up too, except for Frankie, who was snoring. I gave her a kick.
“Wakey, wakey, Francesca.”
“I think she’s gone to the loo,” said Rosie. “Me and Kenny are going to look for the mask.”
We left the others climbing sleepily into their clothes, and headed off down the corridor.
“Let’s try the stuffed animals room first,” I said. “I’m pretty sure that’s where I left it.”
It was a lot easier to find our way around the museum in daylight. We went into the animal gallery, and looked round.
“This is gross!” said Rosie, staring at a stuffed peacock. “Why would anyone want to stuff an animal?”
“D’you want to know how they do it?” I said. “First they—”
Rosie gave me a shove. “Not before breakfast, thanks. Why are you such a weirdo, Kenny?”
“I’m just so good at it.” I grinned, and took a look round the room. Most of the animals were inside glass cases, but some were just standing around on little platforms.
“I think that fox might have been the furry thing I was touching,” I said, pointing across the room.
We went over to it.
“It looks a bit moth-eaten,” said Rosie. “Are you sure this was where you left the mask?”
I closed my eyes, and thought hard.
“Yep,” I said at last. “I remember I had the mask in one hand, and I touched the fox with the other. I didn’t know what it was, so I put the mask down, so I could use both hands.”
Rosie looked at me. “Well, where is it then?”
We searched all round where the fox was standing, and then all round the rest of the room, but the mask was nowhere to be seen.
“You must’ve left it somewhere else,” Rosie said at last.
“I didn’t.” I knew I hadn’t. I remembered putting the mask down right next to the stuffed fox. So where had it got to?
“Have you lost something, girls?”
The voice behind us made us jump a mile. We turned round. Frankie’s mum was there, carrying a towel and a toothbrush.
“No, Mrs Thomas,” I said innocently. “We had a bit of time before breakfast, so we came to look at the animals.”
Frankie’s mum glanced at her watch.
“Well, it’s eight o’clock now, so we’d better go down to the café.”
“What are we going to do about the mask?” Rosie whispered in my ear.
I shrugged. “Not a lot. Maybe an early-morning cleaner’s chucked it in the bin or something.”
We met up with the others in the café. They were already getting stuck into bowls of Coco-Pops and plates of toast.
“Did you find the mask?” was the first question Lyndz asked us.
Rosie and I shook our heads.
“It’s gone,” I said, “don’t ask me where.”
“Maybe Mrs Weaver found it,” said Fliss, looking terrified.
We all stared hard at Mrs Weaver, who’d just walked in. She looked all right. Meaning, she didn’t have steam coming out of her ears.
“Good morning, children,” she said, with a smile.
“Looks like we’re in the clear,” I said to the others. Then we all started to giggle. Behind Mrs Weaver were the M&Ms. They both had black circles under their eyes, and they looked as if they hadn’t had any sleep all night.
“Bad night, Emma?” I said, with a huge grin.
“Yeah, we heard about that mummy coming after you,” said Frankie. “Funny, we were in the same room with it, and it didn’t come after us.”
“We didn’t even hear it get up and go out,” added Rosie, with a totally innocent look on her face. “We were all fast asleep.”
The M&Ms looked fit to bust, they were so furious. And that just cracked us up even more.
“We know it was you!” spluttered Emma Hughes. “You’re totally pathetic!”
“And we’re going to tell Mrs Weaver!” growled Emily Berryman.
“Go on then,” I challenged them coolly. “You’ve got no proof.”
The M&Ms opened and shut their mouths a few times like a couple of angry goldfish, but they knew I was right. Mrs Weaver wouldn’t give them the time of day, unless they could prove for certain that it was us who’d played that trick on them.
“Hey, Emma!” Ryan Scott and his mate Danny McCloud walked into the café with their hands held out in front of them like a couple of zombies. “We’ve risen from the dead, and we’re coming to get you!”
We all fell about. The Queen and the Goblin were going to be the joke of the whole school for the next few weeks, and didn’t they deserve it. They both turned bright red, and stalked off.
“Result!” I said, holding up my hand to Frankie for a high five. Then I did the same to all the others. What a radical sleepover that had been. I’d never thought my idea would work out so brilliantly.
“More toast, anyone?” said a voice from behind us. It was Frankie’s mum. That shut us all up.
“You’ve obviously had a good time, then,” Mrs Thomas remarked after she’d handed round the toast.
“Yes, we have,” we all chorused politely. She just didn’t know how good.
Mrs Thomas looked pleased.
“Good. Well, when you’ve finished eating, go and pack your stuff away, and collect your masks. The coach is coming at nine to pick us up.”
“I wish I knew where my mask had gone,” I moaned to Frankie as we packed our sleeping bags away after breakfast. “I wanted to keep it as a souvenir of the night we crushed the M&Ms.”
“What were you going to do, frame it and stick it on your bedroom wall?” Rosie asked.
“Something like that.” I grinned evilly. “I was thinking about trying the same trick on Molly Monster-Features.”
Just then Fliss and Lyndz, who’d gone to collect Fliss’s mask, came in, carrying a black bin-liner. Frankie’s mum was behind them.
“The coach is here, girls,” she said. “Kenny, have you collected your mask?”
That threw me. I stared at Frankie’s mum, and for a second, I couldn’t think of anything to say.
It was Fliss who saved the day.
“I’ve got the masks here, Mrs Thomas,” she said, waving the black bin liner.
“Right, let’s go then.” Frankie’s mum picked up her bags, and went out, while the rest of us sagged with relief.
“Nice one, Flissy,” I said gratefully. “Thanks.”
Fliss turned pink. “I’m not as stupid as I look,” she said.
“No, of course not,” I agreed. “Nobody could be that stupid.”
We all cracked up at that, even Fliss. We picked up our bags, and I took one last look around the room.
“I wish I hadn’t lost that mask,” I muttered. “I don’t suppose I’ll ever see it again now.”
Guess what? I was wrong!