My Sister Jodie Read online

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  My Sister Jodie

  www. kidsatrandomhouse.co.uk

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  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 & BREAKFAST STAR

  BEST FRIENDS

  BURIED ALIVE!

  CANDYFLOSS

  THE CAT MUMMY

  CLEAN BREAK

  CLIFFHANGER

  THE DARE GAME

  THE DIAMOND GIRLS

  DOUBLE ACT

  DOUBLE ACT (PLAY EDITION)

  GLUBBSLYME

  THE ILLUSTRATED MUM

  JACKY DAYDREAM

  THE LOTTIE PROJECT

  MIDNIGHT

  THE MUM-MINDER

  SECRETS

  STARRING TRACY BEAKER

  THE STORY OF TRACY BEAKER

  THE SUITCASE KID

  VICKY ANGEL

  THE WORRY WEBSITE

  Collections:

  THE JACQUELINE WILSON COLLECTION

  includes THE STORY OF TRACY BEAKER and THE BED AND BREAKFAST STAR

  JACQUELINE WILSON’S DOUBLE-DECKER

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  JACQUELINE WILSON’S SUPERSTARS

  includes THE SUITCASE 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

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  DOUBLEDAY

  London•New York•Toronto•Sydney•Auckland 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.

  Adobe ISBN: 9781407043333

  Version 1.0

  www.randomhouse.co.uk

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  MY SISTER JODIE

  A DOUBLEDAY BOOK 978 0 385 61012 4

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

  This edition published 2008

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  Copyright © Jacqueline Wilson, 2008

  Illustrations copyright © Nick Sharratt, 2008

  The right of Jacqueline Wilson to be identified as 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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  For Trish

  With special thanks to Natasha West and Annelies Hofland

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  ‘I told you so!’ said Mum triumphantly.

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  1

  Jodie. It was the first word I ever said. Most babies lisp Mumma or Dadda or Drinkie or Teddy. Maybe everyone names the thing they love best. I said Jodie, my sister. OK, I said Dodie because I couldn’t say my Js properly, but I knew what I meant.

  I said her name first every morning.

  ‘Jodie? Jodie! Wake up. Please wake up!’

  She was hopeless in the mornings. I always woke up early – six o’clock, sometimes even earlier. When I was little, I’d delve around my bed to find my three night-time teddies, and then take them for a dawn trek up and down my duvet. I put my knees up and they’d clamber up the mountain and then slide down. Then they’d burrow back to base camp and tuck into their pretend porridge for breakfast.

  I wasn’t allowed to eat anything so early. I wasn’t even allowed to get up. I was fine once I could read.

  Sometimes I got through a whole book before the alarm went off. Then I’d lie staring at the ceiling, 7

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  making up my own stories. I’d wait as long as I could, and then I’d climb into Jodie’s bed and whisper her name, give her a little shake and start telling her the new story. They were always about two sisters. They went through an old wardrobe into a magic land, or they went to stage school and became famous actresses, or they went to a ball in beautiful long dresses and danced in glass slippers.

  It was always hard to get Jodie to wake up properly. It was as if she’d fallen down a long dark tunnel in the night. It took her ages to crawl back to the surface. But eventually she’d open one eye and her arm went round me automatically. I’d cuddle up and carry on telling her the story. I had to keep nudging her and saying, ‘You are still awake, aren’t you, Jodie?’

  ‘I’m wide awake,’ she mumbled, but I had to give her little prods to make sure.

  When she was awake, she’d sometimes take over the story. She’d tell me how the two sisters ruled over the magic land as twin queens, and they acted in their own daily television soap, and they danced with each other all evening at the ball until way past midnight.

  Jodie’s stories were always much better than mine. I begged her to write them down but she couldn’t be bothered.

  ‘ You write them down for me,’ she said. ‘You’re the one that wants to be the writer.’

  I wanted to write my own stories and illustrate them too.

  ‘I can help you with the ideas,’ said Jodie. ‘You can do all the drawings and I’ll do the colouring in.’

  ‘So long as you do it carefully in the right 8

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  colours,’ I said, because Jodie nearly always went over the lines, and sometimes she coloured faces green and hair blue just for the fun of it.

  ‘OK, Miss Picky,’ said Jodie. ‘I’ll help you out but that won’t be