Video Rose and Mark Spark Read online

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  VIDEO ROSE, MARK SPARK AND MARK SPARK IN THE DARK

  Jacqueline Wilson writes for children of all ages. The Suitcase Kid won the Children’s Book Award, Double Act won the Smarties Prize, The Illustrated Mum won the Guardian Children’s Book of the Year Award, Lizzie Zipmouth won the Gold Smarties Prize and Girls in Tearswas named Children’s Book of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards.

  Jacqueline lives near London in a small house crammed with 10,000 books.

  Books by Jacqueline Wilson

  MARK SPARK IN THE DARK

  TAKE A GOOD LOOK

  VIDEO ROSE

  THE WEREPUPPY

  THE WEREPUPPY ON HOLIDAY

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia

  Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2

  Penguin Books India (P) Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India

  Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  www.penguin.com

  Video Rose first published by Blackie Children’s Books 1992

  Video Rose first published in Puffin Books 1994

  Mark Spark in the Dark first published by Hamish Hamilton 1993

  Mark Spark in the Dark first published in Puffin Books 1994

  First published in one volume 2005

  7

  Video Rose text copyright © Jacqueline Wilson, 1992, 2005

  Mark Spark in the Dark text copyright © Jacqueline Wilson, 1993, 2005

  Video Rose illustrations copyright © Janet Robertson, 1992, 2005

  Mark Spark in the Dark illustrations copyright © Bethan Matthews, 1993, 2005

  All rights reserved

  The moral right of the author and illustrators has been asserted

  Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

  ISBN: 978-0-14-192667-4

  Contents

  Video Rose

  Mark Spark

  Mark Spark in the Dark

  VIDEO ROSE

  Her right hand was glowing like a little electric fire. She was suddenly jolted forward, swooping through the table, through the flat, through time itself. She seemed to be hurtling on forever…

  1…

  ‘You’ll get square eyes watching videos all day long,’ said Mum.

  ‘I don’t care,’ said Rose, juggling her video collection. Did she want to watch The Wizard of Oz for the five hundredth time?

  ‘Square eyes to match her square shape,’ said Rick, tying up his new roller-skates.

  Rose ignored him, mumbling the Munchkin song to herself, but when he tottered past the television she stuck out her leg.

  ‘Rick!’ said Mum as he went sprawling. ‘I’ve told you not to wear those things in the house.’

  ‘It wasn’t my fault, Mum, old Square-Belly stuck her great fat leg out on purpose,’ said Rick.

  ‘Don’t you dare call me Square-Belly!’ Rose shrieked, attacking him with her Tom and Jerry video.

  ‘Rose, stop it! Calm down both of you, you’ll wake your Dad. Rose, did you hear me? Stop bashing your brother. Although really Rick, I absolutely forbid you to call your sister Square-Belly ever again.’

  ‘OK, OK. Ouch!’ said Rick, grabbing one of Mum’s aerobic exercise videos and making it whizz energetically in his defence. ‘Stop it, Rose. I won’t ever call you Square-Belly again. Square-Bum suits you much better!’

  ‘I’ll get you for that!’ Rose roared, picking up Pretty Woman in her other hand and attacking him on both sides.

  ‘Rose, cut it out! That’s not even ours, I hired it from Uncle Frank,’ said Mum, snatching Pretty Woman from Plain Girl.

  Baby Robbie started squawking in his baby chair, flinging his little arms and legs around. It wouldn’t be long before he was joining in the fights too.

  ‘Honestly, you’re like wild animals, all three of you,’ said Mum, separating Rose and Rick and then struggling with Robbie’s straps. ‘Come on, Robbie, we’ve got to get going.’

  Robbie stopped squawking. He went red in the face, concentrating.

  ‘Oh no,’ Mum moaned. ‘Have I got to change your nappy again? I’m going to be late for work.’

  It was the half-term holidays but Mum still had to go out to work in the shop during the day, same as Dad had to go out to the factory at night. Robbie went with Mum and stayed in the crèche while Mum served the customers. Rose and Rick were big enough to look after themselves, and they could always wake Dad in an emergency. Dad worked the night shift and slept right through the morning, so long as there wasn’t too much noise going on in the rest of the flat.

  ‘You two have got to behave,’ said Mum, laying Robbie on the floor and hurriedly unpopping his dungarees.

  ‘Yuck,’ said Rick, holding his nose. He’d been longing for a little brother but he didn’t rate him very highly so far. ‘I’m going out.’

  ‘Don’t roller-skate up and down the balconies, you go to the playground, do you hear me?’ said Mum. ‘Why don’t you go to the playground too, Rose?’

  ‘I don’t like it down that playground, it’s boring,’ said Rose. ‘I’d sooner stay in and watch videos.’

  ‘You’ll turn into a video yourself one day,’ said Mum. ‘Here, will you take Pretty Woman back for me?’

  ‘Can I hire a new video, Mum? Oh go on, Mum please. Give us two pounds, eh?’ Rose wheedled.

  ‘Look, this is ridiculous, I’m not made of money,’ said Mum, swabbing at Robbie’s bottom. ‘Hold still, you silly little sausage. Oh no! Rose, run and see if you can find a clean pair of dungarees for him, eh?’

  ‘OK Mum. And I’ll fetch the nappies. And I’ll get all the clothes out the washing machine and fold them ready for ironing. Gosh, I’m such a help to you, aren’t I, Mum? I don’t know what you’d do without me. So how about showing a little gratitude, eh? Two weeny teeny little pound coins for a video?’ said Rose, going down on her knees, pretending to beg.

  ‘You’re a shocker, you are,’ said Mum, swabbing at Robbie. ‘All right then, get the money out of my purse.’

  Rick was halfway out the front door, but he came zooming back indignantly.

  ‘That’s not fair, Mum! Why can’t I have two pounds too? Everyone else goes down to Macdonalds for their lunch so why can’t I have the money to go and all? Oh Mum, please, don’t be mean.’

  Poor Mum wasn’t a bit mean. She ended up being extremely generous before rushing off to work with a freshly-changed Robbie. Rick skated happily up and down the balconies, jingling the coins in his pocket. And Rose had a long happy browse in Uncle Frank’s video shop, sorting out her selection for the day. She was in luck. Uncle Frank was running a special promotion. All the children’s videos were down to one pound fifty per hire. Of course these were really babyish films. They weren’t meant for sophisticated girls like Rose. But no one need know. And then