Clean Break (10 page)

‘Will Mum come visiting too?'

‘Yes, of course. I'll take her on holiday and make her happy.'

‘And Dad?'

‘He'll come too,' I said. ‘He'll have made this fantastic Hollywood movie and be ever so rich and famous so he'll have his own special holiday beach house. We'll all go and stay, and swim and laze on the beach and be happy happy happy.'

‘Happy happy happy,' Vita murmured. Then she was still, suddenly asleep.

I lay awake for a long time, trying to tell stories to myself. I could make them seem real enough to comfort Vita, but it was much harder trying to
convince myself. I eased Dancer off Vita's hand and made her stroke my head with her furry paws.

‘Cheer up, dear old Em,' Dancer said. ‘Don't you start crying now. Chin up, big smile, that's my girl. Now, close your eyes and snuggle down and go fast asleep. Fast asleep. Fast fast asleep.'

I didn't manage to go
fast
asleep. It was a very
slow
process, and even then I still woke up very early. I decided to fix myself a bowl of cornflakes and have a private early breakfast with my book. I was rereading
Elsie No-Home
by Jenna Williams. Elsie was good fun, even though she told terrible jokes. I understood exactly how she felt having to look after her little sister and brother all the time.

Mum was sitting at the kitchen table in her nightie, sipping a cup of tea. We both jumped. Mum spilled half her cupful into her black nylon lap.

‘I'm sorry, Mum! I didn't mean to startle you,' I said quickly, scared she might get cross with me again.

‘It's not your fault, Em,' said Mum. ‘Oh come here, love. Don't look so worried. I'm sorry I've been so snappy with you.'

She dabbed at her nightie and then I climbed onto her damp lap. I must have really squashed her but she didn't complain. She held me and rocked me like a little baby.

‘My Em,' she said. ‘What would I do without
you, eh? We've come through thick and thin together, you and me, babe. Do you remember your real dad?'

‘A bit,' I said cautiously. I didn't like remembering.

‘Whenever he yelled or hit me you'd come and find me crying. You'd put your chubby little arms round me and tell me not to cry, remember? You've always looked after me, Em. And now you look after Vita and Maxie too.'

‘So I'm not really useless?'

‘Oh don't! I was so mean to say that. I'm sorry, love. Hey, how about coming to the Palace with me today? You be my best girl and help out, yeah?'

I was thrilled at the suggestion. I went off to work with Mum, while Vita and Maxie had to stay at home with Gran.

I loved Violet, the lady who owned the Rainbow Hair Salon. She was quite old, about Gran's age, but she dyed her own hair a crazy pink, and crammed her plump body into very small girly clothes. She always wore hugely high heels, though by the end of the day she usually kicked them off and shuffled round in her stockinged feet.

She pretended not to recognize me. ‘So you're the new apprentice, are you, sweetie?' she said. ‘How do you do! I'm glad you're coming to work for me. We'd better find you an overall.'

She wrapped a big blue robe round me. It came right down to my ankles but it didn't really matter. I rolled the sleeves up and started cleaning the washbasins and sweeping the floor. When Mum had her first client I rinsed off all the shampoo and wrapped a fresh towel round her neck and then I passed Mum the brush and comb and made the client a cup of coffee while Mum tinted her hair. It was great fun, especially when the client gave me a couple of pounds as a tip! I wasn't sure whether she was joking or not.

I showed the money to Violet, asking if I should put it in the till.

‘No, darling, don't be silly! It's all yours. You've jolly well earned it too. You're a nice willing little worker. Your mum can bring you along any time you're off school.'

I grinned at Violet.

‘So where's that dad of yours? His fairy shop is still shut up. Can't he get out of bed these days?'

My grin faded. I looked anxiously at Mum.

‘Oh, Vi, you know what Frankie's like,' she said lightly.

‘Yeah, I know all right,' said Violet, shaking her head. She was looking at Mum intently, her eyes narrowed. She took three pound coins out of the till.

‘Here, Em, call these your wages. So now you've got a fiver, right? Why don't you have a little skip
round the Palace and see what you want to buy with all this lovely lolly.'

I knew she wanted me out of the way so she could have a proper talk to Mum about Dad. I looked at Mum. She nodded at me. So I sloped off, clutching the five coins in the palm of my hand. I jingled them around, trying to feel pleased I had so much to spend. It was all mine. I didn't have to divide it into three to share with Vita and Maxie. They hadn't earned it, I had.

I went to the T-shirt stall and looked at the five-pound bargain rail. I liked a purple T-shirt with a little cat with diamanté eyes on the front, but it had some funny words on it too.

‘Maybe your mum and dad might mind. It's a bit rude,' said Manny, the T-shirt guy. He had some very very rude words on
his
T-shirt. ‘Maybe your dad could find you a fairy T-shirt,' he suggested.

‘Maybe,' I said.

I spent ages at the Fruity Lips make-up booth, trying out all the nail varnish testers, purple, silver and navy blue. My nails were so bitten and stubby I could only fit a slither of colour on each finger. I smeared some sample lipsticks round my mouth and smudged mascara on my lashes experimentally.

‘You look beautiful, Em,' said Stevie, the guy who owned Fruity Lips. I think he was maybe kidding me.

‘Hey, is Frankie around? I just have to tell him what happened to me over Christmas. I need his advice. It's been the best Christmas ever! Did you guys have a great Christmas?'

‘We had lovely presents,' I said carefully.

‘Kids!' said Stevie. ‘That's all you care about, your presents.'

I didn't argue with him. I wandered down the aisle to the Jewel in the Crown and gently ran my finger along the hanging bead necklaces so that they tinkled. Angelica just laughed. She was always specially friendly to me and let me try on any jewellery I fancied. I tried on every green bangle and bracelet so that they clanked right up to my elbows.

‘You're going for the co-ordinated look, right?' said Angelica, flicking her long hair out of her face. She wore so many rings and bangles herself she jangled when she moved.

‘Yeah, to match my emerald ring,' I said, showing it to her proudly.

‘Oh wow, that's lovely,' said Angelica, holding my hand and admiring my ring from every angle. ‘Is it your mum's?'

‘No, it's my very own ring. Dad gave it to me for Christmas,' I boasted.

‘Your dad is just so wonderful,' said Angelica, sighing. ‘His stand is still shut up. Is he coming in
today? I was wondering about buying a really big fairy to display some of my jewellery. Do you think he could find one for me?'

‘I'm sure he could. I'll tell him when I see him,' I said, and slipped away.

I went right to the end of the aisle. I peered through the white security railings into Dad's darkened Fairyland. The luminous stars stuck on the ceiling shimmered softly. A single strand of fairy lights flicked on and off, on and off, on and off, red and deep blue and amber and glowing emerald green. I looked at the fairies inside, grey and ghostly in the half-light, wings limp, wands trailing.

‘Wish for Dad to come back,' I whispered. ‘Wish wish wish.'

I shut my eyes and imagined every single fairy waving her wand and wishing, all the big fairy dolls and the little fairy ornaments, all the fairies on the prints and postcards, all the carved fairies on the rosebud soap and the lavender candles, all the pouting baby fairies on the dolls' china tea sets and all the beautiful painted fairies inside all the Casper Dream books.

I WAS VERY
worried about going back to school. Dad still hadn't come back. I didn't know whether to tell Jenny and Yvonne, my best friends.

We hadn't been friends for that long. I'd only been at this school since we moved in with Gran. It had been horrible trying to fit in with a new class of kids. They didn't treat me like a proper person at first. I was simply Fatty and Greedy-guts and Hippo and The Lump.

Dad heard them calling me names one time last year when he came to collect me from school. He acted like he hadn't heard a thing, but next Monday morning he dropped a handful of tiny silver glittery fairies inside my school bag.

‘These aren't selling very well in Fairyland,' he
said. ‘Maybe you'd like to give a few of your special friends a present?'

He knew I didn't
have
any friends, special or otherwise. The fairies were a cunning bribe. I wasn't sure they would work though.
I
thought the fairies were magical but probably the other girls would think them pathetic or babyish.

I decided I'd keep them incarcerated in my school bag along with my secret comfort Mars bars and Galaxies, but one fell out as I was taking my homework out of my bag and Jenny picked her up.

Jenny was the girl who sat in front of me. She had very glossy neat black hair, bright blue eyes and pink cheeks, just like one of those little wooden Dutch dolls. I'd always liked the look of Jenny. She liked reading and always had a spare storybook stuffed in her school bag. She sometimes read underneath her desk in maths. She wasn't too clever at maths like me, but she didn't seem to care. She wasn't that great at sporty things either. Her cheeks went even pinker when she ran, and her arms and legs stuck out stiffly as if she was really made of wood. She never joined in any games of football or rounders or skipping in the playground. She liked to go over to the brick wall by the bike shed, hitch herself up and sit swinging her legs, reading her book. I always wanted to clamber up beside her and read my book too, but there was one small problem. Yvonne.

She was Jenny's best friend. She really
was
small, only up to Jenny's shoulders, a little skinny girl with a mop of curly red hair. She didn't seem to think much of reading. She didn't sit on the wall beside Jenny, she did handstands up against it, showing us her matchstick legs and her white knickers. She was so-so at most school things but brilliant at arithmetic, so lucky Jenny got to copy off her.

Jenny and Yvonne had very little in common but they'd been best friends since their first day at nursery school together, so it didn't seem remotely possible that they'd ever split up so that
I
could be Jenny's best friend.

They weren't mean to me like some of the other kids. They were so caught up in their own happy best-friend world they barely noticed me. Until Jenny picked up my fairy.

‘Oh look! She's so lovely. Where did you
get
her, Emily?' Jenny asked, balancing the fairy on the palm of her hand.

‘She comes from Fairyland,' I said.

Jenny looked at me. I blushed scarlet in case she thought I meant a real fairyland.

‘It's a stall in the Pink Palace; down near the market,' I said quickly. ‘It's called Fairyland. My dad runs it, when he's not acting.'

‘Is he that guy with the long hair?' said Yvonne.
‘Yeah, I think I've seen him on telly. I saw him in
The Bill
once. So he's your
dad
, Emily?'

‘Yes. Well. My stepdad,' I said.

Yvonne rolled her eyes. ‘Uh-oh. I've got a stepdad. I can't stick him.'

‘Well, my dad's lovely,' I said quickly.

‘What a cool thing for your dad to do,' said Jenny, gently throwing the fairy in the air and then catching her. ‘Look, she can fly!'

‘You can have her if you want,' I said.

‘What, just to play with for today?'

‘No, to keep.'

‘Oh Emily! Really? How wonderful!'

‘You lucky thing,' said Yvonne enviously.

‘You can have one too,' I said, digging in my school bag.

I didn't particularly want to give a fairy to Yvonne. I liked Jenny much more, but I couldn't really leave Yvonne out.

‘Oh wow! Thanks. She can be my lucky mascot,' said Yvonne.

‘Em, have you ever read any of Jenna Williams's books?' Jenny asked, floating her fairy through the air.

‘Like she's my favourite writer ever,' I said.

‘Have you read
At the Stroke of Twelve
? These fairies are just like the ones Lily makes in that book.'

‘I know, that's why I like them too,' I said. I thought quickly. ‘So, what's your favourite Jenna Williams book, Jenny?'

We had this wonderful long conversation about books while Yvonne sighed a bit and did cartwheels round us and told us were both boring-boring-boring old bookworms. But she was just having a little tease, she wasn't really being nasty. She kept interrupting to ask about my dad and what it was like to be the daughter – well, stepdaughter – of someone famous.