Hiya! You look a bit pale. Are you sure you’re all right? No medical problems I can help you with? No aches or pains, bumps or bruises? Are you sure now, because Dr Kenny is at your service. Hey, don’t look at me like that. I know what I’m talking about. I’ve spent a lot of time in hospital recently. Well not

that

much time, actually, but enough to know that I absolutely definitely still want to be a doctor. No, I haven’t been ill or anything. But Rosie has. Well not

ill

exactly… Look, you’d better sit down and I’ll tell you everything.

OK, well, the whole thing started a few weeks ago when we were round at Rosie’s for a sleepover. It was this really warm evening and we were getting pretty wild, as you do. Now you know what Rosie’s house is like, don’t you – it’s kind of big and ramshackle and needs doing up. Rosie’s always freaking out because her father keeps promising to come back and make a start on it, but he never does. He was pretty mean if you ask me, moving his family to this stonking great wreck of a house and then upping sticks and moving in with his new girlfriend as soon as they get here. Still, Rosie’s mum seems happy enough and so do Adam and Tiff, her brother and sister. It’s just Rosie who gets all wound up about it sometimes.

Anyway, there we were chasing around outside Rosie’s house, and Fliss – who else? – was being really boring.

“We shouldn’t be messing about round here,” she whined. “Mrs Cartwright told us not to. It’s dangerous!”

Now it was true that Rosie’s mum had warned us hundreds of times not to play round the back of the house because there was loads of rotten old junk on the patio area. You know the kind of thing – a cruddy old bedstead with springs poking out of it, rotten planks of wood, hundreds of rusty nails, you get the picture. But the trouble was that even though we knew we weren’t supposed to play there, it somehow drew us like a magnet.

But Fliss is such a goody-goody. She always does everything adults tell her. I mean, that’s not normal is it? So what can a girl do but rise to the challenge?

“Come on Fliss, live dangerously!” I mocked, climbing on top of the rusting heap of junk. “What do you think’s going to happen? Do you think the rubbish is going to leap up and BITE you?”

As I yelled that, I jumped up, and a load of old manky pipes came clattering down behind me.

“I think you ought to be careful Kenny,” warned Frankie. “It does look kind of dangerous over there.”

That’s typical of Frankie these days! Not too long ago she’d have been up on that pile of rubbish herself. But now? Oh no, she’s gone all responsible, hasn’t she? Just because she’s got Izzy her baby sister to think about. I mean, Izzy’s not even with her half the time, but Frankie still thinks she’s got to set some kind of example. Crazy if you ask me. And kind of boring. Now don’t get me wrong, she can still be kind of wild sometimes. It’s just that on this particular evening she definitely had her serious head on.

“Oh come on, you guys! What’s the matter with you?” I yelled exasperatedly. “I’m only trying to have some fun. You remember what that is, don’t you?”

The others were all standing at the bottom of the junk heap looking up at me.

“What about you Lyndz?” I asked. “You always like a laugh, don’t you?”

Lyndz has four brothers, so she knows how to hold her own. And she’s usually up for most things too.

“Nah,” she shook her head. “I think I’ll give it a miss, thanks.”

What a load of wimps! The only person who looked kind of intrigued was Rosie herself.

“Come on then Rosie-Posie!” I teased. “Let’s see what you’re made of!”

I climbed higher up the pile of junk and stared at her defiantly. “Don’t tell me you’re chicken as well,” I goaded her.

Rosie flashed her eyes at me and fixed her mouth in an expression of determination. She was just about to put her foot on the bottom of the pile when Lyndz said:

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Rosie. I’ve just heard your Tiff come in the gate. She’d be furious if she saw you.”

“Yeah, she’ll tell your mum and then we’ll all be in deep doom,” reasoned Frankie.

I was fed up with the others interfering. So I started to cluck and flap my arms about. But it was pretty tough keeping my balance, because I could feel all the rubbish shifting beneath me whenever I tried to move my feet. Rosie looked round, but there was no sign of Tiff – just Fliss and the others looking at her anxiously.

“Come on Rosie, don’t be a wimp. It’s ace up here!” I called, throwing my arms wide. The bedstead creaked ominously beneath me.

Rosie looked at me and grinned.

“Don’t do it Rosie. Please!” whispered Fliss.

But it was too late. Rosie took a step back and tried to run up the pile of rubbish. Even I’d taken it a bit steady at first. But Rosie had a devilish look in her eyes. She wanted to prove to everybody that she wasn’t chickening out of a challenge. The trouble was that the more she tried to run up the junk, the more it moved about and started to swallow her up. I’ll always remember how scared she looked.

“Here, Rosie – take my hand!” I called, bending down to try to grab hold of her. But I couldn’t quite reach her. She reached up as far as she could, but then she lost her balance completely and went crashing down from the junk heap. It was horrible. She just sort of crumpled up and thudded to the ground, hitting her head on the concrete slabs of the patio.

It was just the worst sound ever. I’ll never forget that CRACK! But worse than that was all the blood that started to ooze out of her head. I’d never seen anything like it, and I spend my life watching stuff like

Casualty

on the TV. This was a zillion times worse than anything I’d ever seen on that programme.

It must have taken a minute to happen, but it felt like an hour. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. I was vaguely aware of the others screaming and crying, but it was like it was background noise or something. It was only when Fliss started wailing, “You’ve killed her, you’ve killed her!” that I was finally brought back to my senses.

“Don’t be stupid!” I told her in my calmest doctor’s voice. “She’s just had a fall.”

I bent down and put my ear to her mouth. She was still breathing, thank goodness. But her eyes were closed and she seemed completely out of it.

“Go and call for an ambulance!” I shouted, and Frankie ran inside.

Just at that minute Tiff and Spud came round the corner.

“What’s all this screaming?” complained Tiff, sounding all superior. “I thought Mum told you not to play here!”

Then she saw Rosie lying in a pool of blood and started screaming herself.

“Oh no! Oh no! What’s happened?” She bent down and looked as though she was going to try to make Rosie sit up or something.

“Don’t move her!” I told her sharply. “I think she’s got her foot caught, and if we try to move her we might cause more damage. We should leave it to the ambulance people.”

I couldn’t believe how calm I sounded. Because inside I was a trembling mess who just wanted to throw up.

“Rosie! My baby!” Mrs Cartwright, Rosie’s mum, pushed her way through. She knelt beside Rosie and started to stroke her hair. “It’s all right my precious, the ambulance is on its way. Everything’s going to be fine.”

I felt terrible. This had all been my fault.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled.

Rosie’s mum looked up at me. She looked like she was about to ask what had happened, but then she just shook her head.

“The ambulance will be here soon, Kenny. Do you think you could ring your father and ask him to come and pick the rest of you up?”

I nodded and ran into the house. Trembling, I dialled my home number. When Dad answered I just lost it completely. I never

ever

cry. I think the shock must have got to me.

“Can you come and fetch us from Rosie’s?” I sobbed. “There’s been a terrible accident and Rosie’s going to hospital and it’s all my fault!”

“You just stay there Kenny, I’m on my way,” he told me calmly.

Outside I could hear the screeching of a siren. I ran to the gate and started waving frantically so the ambulance would know where to stop. The paramedics were really calm. They grabbed their bag and asked me what had happened. I explained about Rosie falling and hitting her head.

“Now you just stay calm, she’s going to be fine!” they reassured me as I showed them where Rosie was lying. “There’s always a lot of blood in head injury cases. And they usually look a lot worse than they are.”

Everyone stood right back to let the paramedics through. One of them checked Rosie over and talked to her in a reassuring way, even though she was still unconscious. The other one dealt with her ankle. He had to cut it free. It was all swollen and twisted –

gross

When they were ready they lifted her on to a stretcher and put a mask over her face. It was dead frightening seeing her being wheeled away like that.

Just as they got to the front gate, Dad arrived. He put a comforting arm around Mrs Cartwright’s shoulders.

“She’ll have the best of care at Queen Mary’s Hospital,” he reassured her. “Try not to worry. Is there anything we can do to help? What about Tiff and Adam, will they be all right?”

Mrs Cartwright nodded. “Adam’s round at his father’s anyway, and Tiff’s going to go round there too, aren’t you?” She looked at Tiff, who raised her eyes then nodded sulkily.

“Give me a ring when you’ve got any news of Rosie,” Dad called to her as the ambulance doors closed.

Then the ambulance sped off with its siren blaring.

“Right you lot, look sharp and get your stuff together,” Dad said. “Kenny’s mum has called all your parents, so they’re expecting you back. Hey, come on now, cheer up! I know you’ve all had a shock, but I’m sure Rosie’s going to be fine. She’s going to the right place to be looked after.”

We all went up to Rosie’s bedroom to collect our sleepover stuff. It felt kind of weird being there without her. I guess we were all thinking the same thing because none of us spoke. It was only when we were in the car that Fliss broke the silence.

“I

knew

that something awful was going to happen!” she sobbed. “I tried to tell you Kenny, but you wouldn’t listen, as usual. Well Rosie’s dead and it’s

all your fault

!”

I felt just terrible. It didn’t matter how much Dad reassured everybody that Rosie most certainly wasn’t dead and would be just fine. I couldn’t help blaming myself for what had happened. And you could tell that the others blamed me too. They didn’t say anything, they just wouldn’t look at me when they got out of the car. Even Frankie, and she’s my best mate.

“Come on love, I’m sure everything’s going to be fine,” Dad tried to reassure me when we got home.

“But you didn’t see her, Dad!” I protested. “She was all white. And there was so much blood!”

“Well, that’s something you’re going to have to get used to if you’re going to become a doctor,” he said.

“But you don’t understand. It was all my fault! What if I’ve caused her some permanent damage?”

“It’s not like you to get so wound up. You must be very upset,” Dad said gently.

I could feel tears welling up in my eyes again. I wiped them away angrily I hated crying, but somehow I just couldn’t help it. “Look love, there’s no point worrying,” Dad told me. “We’ll just have to wait for Rosie’s mum to ring.”

I swear to you that waiting for that phone to ring was the worst time in my life. I’ll tell you how bad I felt – I couldn’t even kick a football about, and that’s BAD. And it didn’t help that my horrible sister, Molly the Monster, kept winding me up.

“I knew your stupid wild ways would get you into trouble one day,” she said. “I’m just sorry it’s not you in hospital!”

“Why don’t you just shut your mouth before I put my fist down your throat?” I snarled.

“Oooh, temper temper!” she mocked. “I think one injury’s quite enough for one day, even for you!”

I think I would have thumped her anyway if the phone hadn’t rung. I ran to answer it, but Dad had got there first.

“Hello Karen. How’s the patient? Good… Oh, that is good news… Ooh dear, that will be painful… Well, yes, that’s very wise… Oh yes, I’m sure they would. Yes, yes – I’ll tell her. Send our best wishes to Rosie, won’t you? Bye.”

“Well?” I asked anxiously.

“She’s fine,” Dad smiled, “apart from a badly sprained ankle and a bit of a headache. They’re keeping her in hospital for observation because she was unconscious, but she should be back home in a couple of days’ time.”

“Can I…?”

“Yes, you can go and see her. Rosie’s been asking for you all.”

“Right then! What are we waiting for?” I rushed to the door.

“Not so fast, young lady,” Dad pulled me back. “It’s way past visiting time now. You can go tomorrow afternoon. But what you can do now is ring your friends. I’m sure they’re all anxious to know how Rosie is. But make it quick, OK?”

Frankie and Lyndz were both really relieved to hear that Rosie was all right and said that they’d come to the hospital with me the next day. But Fliss just couldn’t resist having a go at me again.

“Well that’s no thanks to you!” she spat when I told her the news. “Mum said that she was lucky not to be paralysed after your antics.”

Fliss’s mum is a real prophet of doom – like mother, like daughter… She didn’t even want Fliss to come to the hospital with the rest of us, in case she picked up some terrible disease! But I shamed Fliss into it by saying she’d look a real misery-guts if she didn’t come.

So three o’clock the next afternoon found us outside the main entrance of Queen Mary’s Hospital.

“I hate the way hospitals smell,” moaned Frankie. “Although I didn’t mind it so much when I went to visit Mum after she’d had Izzy.”

“I hate hospitals, full stop!” Fliss whimpered. “In fact I think I might just wait out here.”

I glared at her, and the others flapped until she agreed to come in with us.

“I’m going to go to the hospital shop to buy Rosie some sweets,” said Lyndz.

“I’ll come with you,” Frankie told her. “I’m going to buy her a magazine to read.”

I’d already bought her a puzzle book and Fliss had brought some nail varnish to cheer her up. But we went to the shop with the others anyway because we couldn’t bear the thought of just talking to each other.

I don’t know if you’ve been into many hospitals, but it seems to me that they make it as confusing as possible for you to find your way to the wards. There were hundreds of corridors to walk down. And just when we thought we’d found the Children’s Ward, we had to go up another flight of stairs.

“I’ll never find my way out of here!” grumbled Fliss.

Eventually we got to a huge set of double doors covered by a painting of a jungle scene. This just

had

to be the Children’s Ward. Unless they’d started treating gorillas on the quiet!

We burst through the doors – and who should be the first person we saw?

Rosie!

All trussed up like something out of a horror movie. She had a great big bandage covering the top of her head and her foot looked really swollen. That had a bandage round it too, and was raised up on a sort of pulley thing.

“You look terrible!” said Fliss, plonking herself down on the chair next to the bed.

“Charming!” laughed Rosie. “I thought I was looking pretty stylish actually!”

The rest of us cracked up and handed over our presents.

“You’re too kind, guys!” Rosie grinned. “I ought to get myself into hospital more often.”

“I’m sure it can be arranged!” I told her in a silly voice.

I looked up and saw Fliss looking at me accusingly. My good mood at seeing Rosie suddenly disapp

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Emergency Sleepover

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