Read Tthe Sleepover Club on the Beach for Free Online

a minute. “Erm, how about one of the guests at the B&B turns out to be a dangerous international jewel thief?”
    “No,
I
know,” I said. “One of us sees a frightened face at the window. Some villains are holding a millionaire’s daughter to ransom, but no-one believes us.”
    “I’d like to find treasure,” said Rosie wistfully. “Hidden treasure would be
really
cool.”
    Kenny put on her Young Scientist voice. “Not everyone knows this,” she said. “Butsunset is the best time to find treasure on the beach.”
    “How come?” said Frankie.
    “Because you’ve got the sun behind you, so you can see all those emeralds and rubies like, sparkling madly.”
    Of course, we all started fanatically scanning the pebbles. Everyone kept spotting thrilling gleams of colour and swooping with shrieks of excitement. But when we examined our “treasure” close up, it always turned out to be bits of stone or glass.
    “That sunset theory is rubbish,” Rosie complained.
    “Yeah, wet pebbles
always
sparkle,” I said. “Then you get back home and they’re as dull as – as…”
    “Things which are really dull,” supplied Rosie helpfully.
    Kenny scowled. “It’s
not
rubbish, and it’s
not
a theory. It’s a well-known—”
    Her voice trailed off. She squatted down and started scrabbling madly in the sand.
    “Does this count?” Kenny’s voice wassharp with excitement. She triumphantly held up a large green bottle with a cork in it. Rolled up inside it was a scroll of stiff, ancient-looking paper.
    We’d found a message in a bottle.

Five minutes later we were still struggling to get the cork out.
    We tried using our teeth, our nails, also the awesome combined mind-power of the Sleepover Club. But the stupid thing
still
wouldn’t budge.
    “We’ll have to borrow a corkscrew from your aunt,” Kenny sighed.
    “Yeah right,” I snorted. “I can just see Mum’s face.”
    “It’s not like we’re alcoholics,” Frankie objected. “We just want to get the message out.”
    “
Exactly
,” I told them. “I mean, suppose, just suppose, this message is like, a genuine clue to hidden treasure?”
    My mates stared at me.
    “Do you really think it might be?” Rosie breathed.
    “I’m just saying
suppose
,” I said. “But if grown-ups get wind of it, they’ll totally take over. Before you know it, people will be scouring the countryside with metal detectors. There’ll be reporters, press photographers.”
    “Cool,” said Fliss. “We’ll get our pictures in the papers.”
    “Don’t be stupid. It’ll be the total
opposite
of cool,” I said irritably.
    Frankie nodded. “Lyndz’s right. We’ve got to keep this to ourselves.”
    “Think about it, Flissy,” I said earnestly. “This way we get to have an adventure. A bona fide summer hols adventure.”
    Fliss looked bewildered. “Is that to do with dogs?”
    “Bona fide means ‘the real thing’,” Kenny explained. “It’s Greek or Latin or whatever.”
    Rosie suddenly peered at her watch. “Yikes, we’re going to get killed. We should have been back ages ago!”
    We hurried back to our bikes and went rattling back over the watermeadows. The wild-flower scents seemed sweeter than ever in the dusk, and the sky was full of birds winging their way back to the bird sanctuary before it was totally dark.
    We rode breathlessly into the courtyard. Mum came out looking stressed. “We were just coming looking for you,” she said. “You should have been home half an hour ago.”
    “Sorry,” I began.
    “So you should be,” Mum snapped. “Riding around in the dark in a strange place. Anything could have happened to you. Go and get into your night things. I’ll come and check on you in a minute.”
    “Yes, Mrs Collins,” said my mates meekly. They went trailing off to the stables.
    “I’ll erm, just get a drink of water from the kitchen,” I said. (Well, the kitchen seemed like the obvious place to look for a corkscrew.)
    But Mum firmly barred