Little Darlings Read online

  DOUBLEDAY

  Contents

  Cover

  Title

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Also available by Jacqueline Wilson

  1 Destiny

  2 Sunset

  3 Destiny

  4 Sunset

  5 Destiny

  6 Sunset

  7 Destiny

  8 Sunset

  9 Destiny

  10 Sunset

  11 Destiny

  12 Sunset

  13 Destiny

  This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  Version 1.0

  Epub ISBN 9781409096399

  www.randomhouse.co.uk

  LITTLE DARLINGS A DOUBLEDAY BOOK 978 0 385 61443 6

  Published in Great Britain by Doubleday, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books A Random House Group company

  This edition published 2010

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  Text copyright © Jacqueline Wilson, 2010 Illustrations copyright © Nick Sharratt, 2010

  The right of Jacqueline Wilson to be identified at the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

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  THE RANDOM HOUSE GROUP Limited Reg. No. 954009

  A CIP catalogue for this book is available from the British Library.

  Printed and bound by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc

  For Lisa and Millie

  Also available by Jacqueline Wilson

  Published in Corgi Pups, for beginner readers:

  THE DINOSAUR’S PACKED LUNCH

  THE MONSTER STORY-TELLER

  Published in Young Corgi, for newly confident readers:

  LIZZIE ZIPMOUTH

  SLEEPOVERS

  Available from Doubleday/Corgi Yearling Books:

  BAD GIRLS

  THE BED AND BREAKFAST STAR

  BEST FRIENDS

  BURIED ALIVE!

  CANDYFLOSS

  THE CAT MUMMY

  CLEAN BREAK

  CLIFFHANGER

  COOKIE

  THE DARE GAME

  THE DIAMOND GIRLS

  DOUBLE ACT

  DOUBLE ACT (PLAY EDITION)

  GLUBBSLYME

  HETTY FEATHER

  THE ILLUSTRATED MUM

  JACKY DAYDREAM

  THE LOTTIE PROJECT

  MIDNIGHT

  THE MUM-MINDER

  MY SECRET DIARY

  MY SISTER JODIE

  SECRETS

  STARRING TRACY BEAKER

  THE STORY OF TRACY BEAKER

  THE SUITCASE KID

  VICKY ANGEL

  THE WORRY WEBSITE

  Collections:

  THE JACQUELINE WILSON COLLECTIONincludesTHE STORY OF TRACY BEAKERandTHE BED AND BREAKFAST STAR

  JACQUELINE WILSON’S DOUBLE-DECKER

  includes BAD GIRLS and DOUBLE ACT

  JACQUELINE WILSON’S SUPERSTARS

  includes THE SUIT CASE KID and THE LOTTIE PROJECT

  Available from Doubleday/Corgi Books, for older readers:

  DUSTBIN BABY

  GIRLS IN LOVE

  GIRLS UNDER PRESSURE

  GIRLS OUT LATE

  GIRLS IN TEARS

  KISS

  LOLA ROSE

  LOVE LESSONS

  Join the official Jacqueline Wilson fan club at

  www.jacquelinewilson.co.uk

  1

  DESTINY

  ‘Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you . . .’

  I wriggle up from under my old teddy-bear duvet and prop myself on my elbows.

  ‘Happy birthday, dear Destiny, happy birthday to you!’

  Mum takes hold of the duvet, trying to work the two big bears’ mouths like puppets, doing growly bear ‘happy birthdays’. She’s played this game with me ever since I can remember. I suppose I’m way too old for it now I’m eleven, but never mind, it’s only Mum and me.

  ‘Thank you, Pinky, thank you, Bluey,’ I say, giving each duvet bear a kiss.

  I know they’re not very exciting names, but I christened them when I was only two or three. ‘And thank you, Mum.’

  I put my arms round her and hug her close. She feels so skinny I’m scared of snapping her in half. She doesn’t diet, she just doesn’t find time to eat very much. Now we’ve moved to Bilefield she’s got three jobs: she has her cleaning job at the university early in the morning, then she does her home-helping all day, and then Friday and Saturday and Sunday nights she’s started working the evening shift at the Dog and Fox, only that’s our secret, because she has to leave me on my own when she’s down the pub.

  I don’t mind one little bit. She leaves me pizzas and oven chips, and any fool can heat them up, I can watch whatever telly I want or play all my secret games, and when I go to bed Mum’s always left me a little scribbled note. Sometimes it’s a Danny Kilman quiz – complete the last line of the chorus, silly stuff like that. Sometimes it’s a message: Night-night, my best girl. Sleep tight and hope the bugs don’t bite.

  We really did have bed bugs once, when we lived on the Latchford Estate. Mum let this friend of hers and her two kids from the balcony above live at our flat for a couple of weeks after the friend left her husband, and they must have brought them with them. They moved on, but their bugs stayed – awful little black wriggly things. Mum used to catch them with a bar of carbolic soap and she’d scrub and scrub the mattress, but they kept on wriggling. So eventually we gave up on the mattress altogether and hauled it in and out of the lift and lumbered it to the waste ground behind the dustbins where everyone dumps their rubbish.

  Mum went down to the Social and begged for a new mattress. It was, like, well, you live on the Latchford Estate so you’re the pits. We can’t help it if you’re dirty, we can’t go providing you with new mattresses every five minutes. So Mum said stuff them and we made do without a mattress for months, huddled up together on the sofa cushions with Mum’s duvet underneath us and my teddy duvet on top. I quite liked cuddling up together but it hurt Mum’s back.

  I think that was the main reason she took up with Steve. We went and lived in his posh house and he bought us all sorts of stuff. He didn’t just buy us both a mattress, he bought us brand-new beds. Their bed was a really fancy four-poster bed just like in a fairy story. My bed was just ordinary. Mum wanted to get me a pretty new pillowcase-and-duvet set. She had one all picked out with white lace and embroidered pink rosebuds. I’d have loved it, but I didn’t want to hav