Diamond Girls
Authors: Jacqueline Wilson
Contents
Read on for Chapters 1 and 2 of
SECRETS
About the Book
âYou're all my favourite Diamond girls,' said Mum. âLittle sparkling gems, the lot of you . . .'
Dixie, Rochelle, Jude and Martine â the Diamond girls! They might sound like a girl band but these sisters' lives are anything but glamorous. They've moved into a terrible house on a run-down estate and after barely five minutes Rochelle's flirting, Jude's fighting and Martine's storming off. Even though Dixie's the youngest, she's desperate to get the house fixed up before Mum comes home with her new baby. Will the Diamond girls pull together in time for the first Diamond boy?
Another hit novel for older readers from the bestselling Jacqueline Wilson â with a new introduction written by the author!
For Nick and Jon
I feel very fond of all my Diamond girls and think they're a fantastic family, though maybe I'm glad they don't live next door to me! I was prodded into action to write their story by a Christmas newspaper feature. Various celebrities were asked to name the worst book they'd ever read. I was idly leafing through this over my breakfast when I suddenly spotted the title of one of
my
books,
The Illustrated Mum
. A well-known politician chose this as her worst book ever, partly because she said the two sisters in the book had different fathers. I thought this was so bizarre I laughed out loud. Why on earth would anyone think this a reason for disliking a children's book? How can children help it, anyway, if they've got different fathers? I wanted to show by the end of the story that their family is warm and caring and loving in spite of their chaotic lifestyle, while Dixie's little friend Mary in her neat mock-Tudor villa comes from a very cold and troubled background.
Dixie's the youngest sister, the gentle dreamy girl who tells the story. She's my favourite Diamond girl, though I also have a very soft spot for Jude. My best friend gave me the idea for Dixie's toy budgie Bluebell. We were talking about the pets we'd longed for when we were children, and she said she'd longed for a budgerigar but her mum wouldn't let her have one. She'd therefore bought a plastic budgie from a pet shop and walked round with it perched on her finger, pretending it was real. I liked this story so much I had to let my Dixie do exactly that.
I made much of the horrors of moving house in
The Diamond Girls
â and almost as soon as it was published
I
moved house too. I had more friends to help me than poor Sue Diamond, but it was still pretty traumatic â especially as I have around 15,000 books! But now I'm happily settled in my lovely new house, with all my books in specially built beautiful bookcases. My Diamond girls might decide to move away from the Planet Estate but I intend to stay exactly where I am for ever!
1
âI'VE GOT A
surprise for you girls,' said Mum. âWe're moving.'
We all stared at her. She was flopping back in her chair, slippered feet propped right up on the kitchen table amongst the cornflake bowls, tummy jutting over her skirt like a giant balloon. She didn't look capable of moving herself as far as the front door. Her scuffed fluffy mules could barely support her weight. Maybe she needed hot air underneath her and then she'd rise gently upwards and float out of the open window.
âQuit staring at my stomach, Dixie,' Mum snapped.
âHow can she
help
staring?' said Jude. âIt's so gross.'
âOh yuck, it's
moving
!' Rochelle squealed.
Mum cradled her tummy, patting the little bulgy bit wiggling about beneath her navel. I hoped it wouldn't wiggle too much. Mum's navel looked ready to pop out like a cork.
I used to think that's how babies were born. That was weird enough. The real explanation seems worse. I'm sure I don't want any babies myself, ever.
âHe's giving me a real old kicking today,' Mum said proudly. âGoing to be a right little footballer. Aren't you, baby David Beckham?'
She hung her head over her swollen tummy as if she was waiting for an answer. â
Yes, Mummy!
' she said, in a tiny baby voice.
âYou're nuts, Mum,' said Jude. âYou've been a bit bonkers ever since you knew the baby was a boy. What's so special about
boys
?' Jude threw her arms out wildly, as if she'd like to whack every boy about the head just for being male.
âWatch it,' said Martine, snatching her cup of tea out of Jude's way. âWhat are you on about anyway, Mum? We don't want to move again. We've played musical chairs all round the blooming Bletchworth Estate.'
We started off in South Block. We moved there when a three-bedroom flat became vacant, but then Mum had a row with the people on our landing. We swapped to the ground floor of North Block, but it was so damp we had rotten colds and coughs all winter, so then we moved up to the top floor. It wasn't a good idea to be right under the roof. Whenever it rained Jude and I had to squeeze into Mum's room because we had too many leaks coming through our ceiling. The council never came to get it fixed no matter how many times we phoned.
We liked living there even so.
Martine liked living on the top floor because her boyfriend Tony lived right next door in number 113. Martine's the oldest of us Diamond girls. She's just sixteen. She says that makes her an adult and she can do whatever she likes. She looks exactly like Mum but she tries very hard not to. She's got Mum's lovely thick
black
hair but Martine dyes hers blonde. Mum likes to wear short skirts so Martine wears jeans, low slung so you can see the top of her thong when she bends forwards.
Jude liked living on the top floor because she knew how to get through a secret trapdoor onto the roof. She claimed it as her own private territory. Lots of the boys in our block wanted to climb up there too but Jude wouldn't let them. She can get the better of all the boys, even though she's smallish and only fourteen. She might be small but she's squat and very very tough. Jude looks out for me and squashes people flat if they start teasing me. We're not supposed to have favourites in our family but if I did have a favourite sister then it's definitely Jude.
Rochelle liked living on the top floor because Martine was round at Tony's so often she generally had the bedroom to herself. She could prance around pretending to be a pop singer, hairbrush for a mike, watching herself in the wardrobe mirror. She's always watching herself. I suppose I'd want to watch myself if I looked like Rochelle. She's only twelve but she tries to look much older. She's very pretty with long curly blonde hair and a heart-shaped face and pink pouty lips like one of those loveheart sweets. There is absolutely nothing else sweet about her. A lot of the time I simply can't stick my sister Rochelle.
I liked living on the top floor because I could stare out the window and pretend Bluebell and I were flying over the rooftops, high above the tower blocks, over the ocean, all the way across the world to Bluebell's birthplace in Australia. I knew that was where real budgerigars came
from
. When I made Bluebell talk she always started off saying, âG'day, Dixie.' However, if you were rude enough to look up Bluebell's bottom she had this little white label saying â
MADE IN CHINA
'. She didn't talk Chinese but I sometimes fished out left-over cartons of chow mein and chop suey from the dustbins and Bluebell dug her beak in very happily.
I felt for Bluebell up my cardie sleeve. I didn't often walk round with her perched on my finger now, even at home, because everyone acted as if I was a total nutcase. I stuffed her up my sleeve instead like a little paper hankie. I gave her feathers a secret stroke every now and then. I needed to stroke her now because Martine and Jude and Rochelle were all shouting and I knew it bothered her.
âWe want to stay here, Mum, OK?' said Jude, sticking out her chin. âNorth Block's much the best. South Block sucks.
And
Middle Block. North Block's my
territory
.'
âI've got my bedroom just the way I like it,' said Rochelle. âIt's not fair, Mum â you never think about us.'