Check out Princess Poppy’s website
to find out all about the other
books in the series
www.princesspoppy.com
Contents
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
Dedication
Map
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Copyright
To Lindsey Fraser, with grateful thanks
for all your help
POPPY LOVED COSY nights in, especially Fridays. School was over for another week, and when the weather was cold, there was always a roaring fire in the sitting room at Honeysuckle Cottage, which made things seem even cosier. The smell of Mum’s home-baked bread and Victoria sponges, both regular weekend treats, wafted in from the kitchen stove. But tonight Poppy was even happier than usual because she was having her first ever sleepover. Honey, Mimosa, Sweetpea and Abigail had come over straight after school and were all staying the night. They had been planning and looking forward to the sleepover for weeks.
“My cousin Daisy and her friends have sleepovers all the time, although she has hers in the summer house, not in her bedroom,” explained Poppy as she laid out everybody’s sleeping bags neatly on the cushions Mum had put out for the girls to sleep on.
“Don’t Daisy and her friends do lots of beauty treatments when they have sleepovers?” piped up Honey, who was quite a fan of Poppy’s older cousin. “I wish we could do that.”
“Well, actually, we can. Come and see,” said Poppy excitedly. “I went to see Lily Ann Peach today at the Beehive Beauty Salon and she’s given me all this stuff. Look!”
“Wow! Make-up!” said Sweetpea. “My mum never lets me wear make-up. This is so cool. I love that bright red lipstick!”
“And sparkly eye shadow,” gasped Abigail.
“Look at all the creams and lotions too!” said Honey as she examined the pretty bottles and jars. “Yippee!”
“I told you I’d sort it out, didn’t I?” laughed Poppy.
“Ugh, what’s that?” wondered Mimosa, pointing at a glass jar of what looked like guacamole. “Do we eat it with dipping chips?”
“No, silly,” said Poppy knowledgably. “It’s avocado face pack. Lily Ann said to spread it on our faces then wash it off after about half an hour.”
“Cool . . . but what’s it for?” asked Abigail.
“Um . . . it makes your face glow or something,” muttered Poppy, who wasn’t quite sure of the point of it herself but knew it seemed incredibly grown-up, if a little disgusting and slimy.
“Right,” she continued, “I’ve made a plan for tonight. We can’t waste a single nanosecond because this doesn’t happen very often. Have you all brought the things we agreed on?”
Everybody nodded.
“OK then. Let’s run through the list of what everyone should have with them,” said Poppy, clutching her very efficient-looking clipboard.
All the friends rummaged about in their backpacks.
“Yes,” they chorused. “Got everything.”
“Good. So here’s the plan. Let’s start with the posters for cousin Daisy’s band, the Beach Babes. Have you brought your art set, Honey?”
Honey produced a fabulous box of art materials which her mum and dad had given her on their last visit to Honeypot Hill, complete with several big sheets of white paper, some stencils, stickers and a calligraphy set.
“Check,” she said.
“Good, that’s the posters sorted then,” continued Poppy. “After that we can start the beauty treatments. I’ve got all that stuff which we’ve just seen. Very well done, Poppy Cotton, good job,” she said, patting herself on the back.
All the girls laughed. Poppy was great fun, even if she did have a bit of a bossy streak.
“After that, we need to practise our dance routine for the Beach Babes’ next gig. Mimosa, did you bring your big sister’s cool CDs?”
“Yep, here they are,” replied Mimosa, and held up the bright pink CD player and karaoke machine she had brought with her as well.
“Excellent. After that it will be supper time. Yum-yum! Mum’s cooked something ‘sensible’. Have you got the goodies, Sweetpea?”
“Yes, I most certainly do!” said Sweetpea proudly, showing off a large bag of mixed sweets from the General Store. The girls were hardly ever allowed to eat sweets.
“Wow!” said Abigail. “I hope my dad doesn’t find out!”
“And after supper, when Mum’s tucked us up in bed, it’s officially ‘Scary Story Time’. I’ve been to the library and got these!” announced Poppy.
The girls drew closer to examine the books Poppy was holding out: Ghostly Galleons: Pirate and Mermaid Spirits, plus Highwaymen and Other Robbers. And the worst ever was Witches’ Way.
“Oooh, they all sound horrible,” shuddered Honey. “My granny won’t let me read Witches’ Way. She says it’ll give me bad dreams.”
“Um, Honey,” said Mimosa, “the whole point of a sleepover is to do things you aren’t normally allowed to do!”
“I don’t care what you say,” said Honey, “I don’t want to have nightmares. I’m going to stick with my Care Fairies magazine. You’ll wish you’d done the same when you’re too spooked to sleep!”
“Well, I think the creepy books sound brilliant!” announced Sweetpea. “I’ll read The Highwayman poem out loud. It’ll totally freak you out.”