Katy Read online

  Contents

  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

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Jacqueline Wilson is one of Britain’s best-loved children’s authors, the creator of such memorable characters as Tracy Beaker and Hetty Feather. She has written more than a hundred books, which have sold over 35 million copies in the UK alone. Jacqueline has won numerous awards for her books including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award and the Children’s Book of the Year. In 2008 she became Dame Jacqueline Wilson in recognition of her services to children’s literature.

  Have You Read Them All?

  WHERE TO START

  THE DINOSAUR’S PACKED LUNCH

  THE MONSTER STORY-TELLER

  FOR YOUNGER READERS

  BURIED ALIVE!

  CLIFFHANGER

  GLUBBSLYME

  LIZZIE ZIPMOUTH

  SLEEPOVERS

  THE CAT MUMMY

  THE MUM-MINDER

  THE WORRY WEBSITE

  STORIES ABOUT SISTERS

  DOUBLE ACT

  THE BUTTERFLY CLUB

  THE DIAMOND GIRLS

  THE WORST THING ABOUT MY SISTER

  HISTORICAL ADVENTURES

  OPAL PLUMSTEAD

  QUEENIE

  THE LOTTIE PROJECT

  ALL ABOUT JACQUELINE WILSON

  JACKY DAYDREAM

  MY SECRET DIARY

  MOST POPULAR CHARACTERS

  HETTY FEATHER

  SAPPHIRE BATTERSEA

  EMERALD STAR

  DIAMOND

  LITTLE STARS

  THE STORY OF TRACY BEAKER

  THE DARE GAME

  STARRING TRACY BEAKER

  FAMILY DRAMAS

  CANDYFLOSS

  CLEAN BREAK

  COOKIE

  LILY ALONE

  LITTLE DARLINGS

  LOLA ROSE

  MIDNIGHT

  THE BED AND BREAKFAST STAR

  THE ILLUSTRATED MUM

  THE LONGEST WHALE SONG

  THE SUITCASE KID

  FIRST-CLASS FRIENDS

  BAD GIRLS

  BEST FRIENDS

  SECRETS

  VICKY ANGEL

  FOR OLDER READERS

  DUSTBIN BABY

  GIRLS IN LOVE

  GIRLS IN TEARS

  GIRLS OUT LATE

  GIRLS UNDER PRESSURE

  KISS

  LOVE LESSONS

  MY SISTER JODIE

  BOOKS INSPIRED BY CLASSICS

  FOUR CHILDREN AND IT

  KATY

  ALSO AVAILABLE

  PAWS AND WHISKERS

  THE JACQUELINE WILSON CHRISTMAS CRACKER

  THE JACQUELINE WILSON TREASURY

  For the amazing Nickie Miles-Wildin

  Plus great thanks to Jonathan Pollock and Elizabeth and Marina

  1

  I’m Katy Carr. I’m the eldest.

  When I was very small I was given a red car for my Christmas present. Not a little push-along car. A proper car I could climb into and pedal. I pedalled up and down the garden and all over the park and along the road to the shops with my mum. I’d shout out all the time I was pedalling, ‘I’m Katy Carr, I’m Katy Carr!’

  My mum knew I’d love that car. She understood that I wasn’t a girly girl. She didn’t give me dollies or dress me in pink. I had red dungarees and a red duffle coat and red wellie boots. I’ve got photos in my memory box of me in all these little scarlet outfits. The photo I like best is one of me in my car with Mum running along beside me. We’re down at the park swings. She’s wearing a T-shirt and jeans and her feet are bare. Her hair’s in a ponytail and she looks like my big sister, not a proper mum.

  Clover’s in that photo too. She’s my younger sister. She wasn’t much more than a baby then, and she’s slumped in one of those tiny swings, her fat little legs drooping. She looked a right little pudding, with rosy cheeks and amazing curly blonde hair. Well, she hasn’t changed much.

  Dad’s not in the photo. He must have been the one with the camera.

  I remember that day so vividly. Mum and me were having a race. I think she let me win. Then she sat me on one of the big swings and gave me a push, and I remember putting my head back and feeling wonderfully dizzy, as if I were really flying. I laughed and laughed as Mum pushed me higher and higher.

  Then we all went to the van to get ice creams. I got my Whippy all down my front but Mum just laughed and called me a mucky pup.

  Clover says she remembers that day too, but she doesn’t really. She sometimes makes up all sorts of stories about the things Mum did, the things Mum said, but they’re not real and true. Clover tells all sorts of fibs when she feels like it.

  Dad doesn’t get Clover the way I do. He thinks she’s this sweet, gentle little girl. She just has to bat her big blue eyes at him and he melts. The teachers at school are like that too. She hardly ever gets into trouble, though she’s actually almost as naughty as me.

  Even so, I don’t mind. I love Clover to bits. She’s always understood that I’m the oldest so I get to be the boss. Not in a bad way. It’s just that I’m the biggest. Actually, I think I’d be the biggest even if I was the youngest. I’m tall. Not just ordinary tall – really, really tall. And I’m skinny too, no matter how much I eat, so I look lankier than ever.

  Izzie was crazy enough to say that I could be a fashion model one day! I just fell about laughing at the idea. Dad did too, though not in an unkind way. I don’t think Izzie really meant it. I’m not the slightest bit pretty. I’m hopelessly untidy, always spilling stuff and tearing my jeans, and my hair always straggles loose if I scrape it into a ponytail. I’m also the exact opposite of graceful. In fact, I’m downright clumsy, always tripping over things. And I hate dressing up and can’t stick having my photo taken. I’ve probably got more chance of being a brain surgeon or an astronaut than making it as a model.

  Izzie was just sucking up to me. It really creeps me out when she does that. I’d sooner she nagged and moaned the way she usually does. I know that deep down she doesn’t really like me. I don’t care. I don’t like her. I mean, why would I? She’s just my stepmother.

  Izzie’s soooo different from my mum. She’s fussy and picky and downright irritating. You could never ever imagine her running races with her little kid or screaming with laughter or acting crazy. She’s always immaculately made-up and looks as if she’s just come back from the hairdresser’s all the time. If she wears jeans they’re always carefully ironed and her tennis shoes are snowy white. Why Dad chose her as his second wife I’ll never know.

  I actually asked him once.

  ‘Why did you marry Izzie, Dad?’

  Clover looked shocked and I got a bit scared that Dad would be cross or upset. But he sat us down, one either side of him on the sofa, and said gently, ‘I married Izzie because I love her.’

  ‘But not as much as you loved Mum,’ I blurted.

  Dad was quiet for a few seconds. Clover looked as if she might cry. We’d all loved Mum so very, very much. It was the worst thing in the world when she got ill and died. Dad’s a brilliant doctor but even he couldn’t save her.

  ‘I don’t love Izzie the way I loved your mum,’ Da