Candyfloss Read online

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Book

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  About the Author

  About the Illustrator

  Also by Jacqueline Wilson

  Copyright

  About the Book

  Floss loves spending weekends with her dad in his greasy spoon cafe, even if it isn’t the smartest place in town. When Floss’s mum and her new husband Steve move to Australia, Floss decides to stay at home with Dad. He’s not much good at ironing or putting up swings, but they muddle along on a diet of chip butties and candyfloss from the local funfair. But then disaster strikes and they find themselves homeless. Will their new fairground friends help out? Could Dad and Floss be destined for a life on the road?

  To Robbie and Callum

  1

  I HAD TWO birthdays in one week.

  My first birthday was on Friday. Mum and Steve woke me up singing ‘Happy Birthday to you’. They’d stuck candles in a big fat croissant and put a little paper umbrella and a cocktail stick of cherries in my orange juice.

  My little half-brother Tiger came crawling into my bedroom too. He’s too tiny to sing but he made a loud he-he-he noise, sitting up on his padded bottom and clapping his hands. He’s really called Tim, but Tiger suits him better.

  I blew out all my candles. Tiger cried when the flames went out, so we had to light them all again for him to huff and puff at.

  I had my birthday breakfast in bed. Mum and Steve perched at the end, drinking coffee. Tiger went exploring under my bed and came out all fluffy, clutching one of my long-forgotten socks. He held it over his nose like a cuddle blanket, while Mum and Steve cooed at his cuteness.

  Then I got to open my presents. They were wrapped up in shiny silver paper with big pink bows. I thought they looked so pretty I just wanted to hold them for a moment, smoothing the silver paper and fingering the bows, trying to guess what might be inside. But Tiger started ripping them himself, tearing all the paper and tangling the ribbon.

  ‘Tiger, stop it! They’re my presents, not yours,’ I said, trying to snatch them out of the way.

  ‘He’s just trying to help you unwrap them, Flossie,’ said Steve.

  ‘You need to get a bit of a move on, darling, or you’ll be late for school,’ said Mum.

  Tiger said He-he-he. Or it could have been Ha-ha-ha, meaning Ya-boo-sucks-to-you.

  So I lost my chance of savouring my five shiny silver presents. I opened them there and then. I’ll list them. (I like making lists!)

  A pair of blue jeans with lots of little pockets fastened with pink heart-shaped buttons. They matched a pink heart-patterned T-shirt with a cute koala motif across the chest.

  A pink shoebox containing a pair of trainers, blue with pink laces.

  A little wallet of gel pens with a stationery set and stickers.

  A pink pull-along trolley suitcase.

  I left number 5 till last because it was big but soft and squashy, and I hoped it might be a cuddly animal (any kind, but not a tiger). He had torn off half the paper already, exposing two big brown ears and a long pointy nose. I delved inside and found two tiny brown ears and a weeny pointy nose. It was a mother kangaroo with a baby kangaroo in her pouch.

  Tiger held out his hands, trying to snatch the baby out of the pouch.

  ‘No, Tiger, he wants to stay tucked in his mummy’s pocket,’ I said, holding them out of his reach.

  Tiger roared.

  ‘Just let him play with the baby kanga a minute. He won’t do him any harm,’ said Steve, going off to the bathroom.

  Steve talks a lot of rubbish sometimes. Tiger grabbed the baby kangaroo and shoved him straight in his mouth, ears, snout, his entire head.

  ‘Mum, Tiger’s eating him!’ I protested.

  ‘Don’t be silly, Floss. Hang on!’ Mum hooked her finger into Tiger’s bulging mouth and rescued the poor little baby kangaroo.

  ‘He’s all covered in Tiger’s slobber!’ I said.

  ‘Just wipe it on the duvet. Don’t be such a baby, Birthday Girl,’ said Mum, giving me a little poke. ‘Do you like your presents, Floss?’

  ‘Yes, I love them,’ I said, gathering them all up in my arms away from Tiger.

  I supposed I loved my little half-brother, but I wished we could keep him in a cage like a real tiger.

  ‘There’s actually another extra present,’ said Mum. Her eyes were shining as brightly as my birthday candles. She raised her voice, shouting to Steve in the bathroom. ‘Shall I tell Floss now, Steve?’

  ‘OK, yeah, why not?’ he said, coming back into my bedroom, shaving soap all over his face.

  He put a little blob of shaving soap on the tip of Tiger’s chin and pretended to shave him. Tiger screamed delightedly, rolling away from his dad. He wiped shaving soap all over my special cherry-patterned duvet. I rubbed at the slimy mark, sighing heavily.

  ‘So, OK, what’s my extra present?’ I asked warily.

  I very much hoped Mum wasn’t going to announce she was going to have another baby. One Tiger was bad enough. Two would be truly terrible.

  ‘It’s a present for all of us. The best present ever, and it’s all due to Steve,’ said Mum. She was looking at him as if he was a Super Rock Star/Footballer for England/Total God, instead of a perfectly ordinary actually quite boring guy who picks his nose and scratches himself in rude places.

  Steve smirked and flexed his muscles, striking a silly pose.

  ‘Steve’s got promotion at his work, Floss,’ said Mum. ‘He’s being made a manager – isn’t that incredible? There’s a sister company newly starting in Sydney and Steve’s been asked to set things up there. Isn’t that great?’

  ‘Yeah, I suppose. Well done, Steve,’ I said politely, not really taking it in at all. The stain on my duvet wasn’t budging.

  ‘Sydney!’ Mum said.

  I blinked at her. I didn’t quite get the significance. Sydney was just an old-fashioned guy’s name.

  ‘She doesn’t have a clue where it is,’ said Steve, laughing. ‘Don’t they teach kids geography nowadays?’

  Then I got it. ‘Sydney in Australia?’

  Steve clapped me. He made Tiger clap his little pink fists too. Mum gave me a big big hug.

  ‘Isn’t it exciting, Floss! Think of all the sunshine! You just step out of the city and there you are, on a fabulous beach. Imagine!’

  I was imagining. I saw us on a huge white beach, with kangaroos hopping across the sand and koalas climbing palm trees and lots of beautiful skinny ladies like Kylie Minogue swimming in the turquoise sea. I saw Mum and me paddling, hand in hand. I sent Steve way way out to sea on a surfboard. I stuck Tiger in a kangaroo’s pouch and sent them hopping far off into the bush.

  ‘It’s going to be so wonderful,’ said Mum, lying back on the bed, arms and legs outstretched, as if she was already sunbathing.

  ‘Yeah, wonderful,’ I echoed. ‘Wait till I tell Rhiannon and everyone at school!’ Then I paused. ‘What about school?’

  ‘Well, Steve reckons we’ll be in Sydney a good six months, though we’re not permanently emigrating. You’ll go to a lovely new Australian school while we�€