Candyfloss Read online

  ‘No one has a clue. Oh well. Can’t be helped. Look, they’ve got a pub garden. Would you care to join me for a glass of something fizzy, sweetheart?’

  Dad had a beer and I had a lemonade sitting huddled up on the wooden furniture. There was a little plastic slide and a Wendy house in the garden, Tiger-size. I wondered what he was up to in Australia. Maybe he’d forget all about me in six months. Steve probably wanted to forget about me. But I knew Mum was missing me. She kept phoning me, and once or twice it sounded as if she might be crying.

  ‘Dad, what are we going to do about Mum phoning? Will we give her Billy the Chip’s number?’

  ‘Oh dear, I don’t know. I – I wasn’t actually going to tell her we were moving, as it were. I know she’ll think it’s not suitable, our living at Billy’s.’ Dad put his pint mug down, sighing. ‘Who am I kidding? It’s not suitable, dragging you off to some funny old man’s house. Goodness knows what state it’s in. He seemed a bit fussed about it, didn’t he? Oh Lordy, Floss, I hope this works out.’

  ‘Of course it’ll work out, Dad.’ I put my glass down too and felt in my jeans for my pocket-money purse. ‘Right, it’s my round now, Dad. What are you having, another beer?’

  Dad laughed and ruffled my curls but wouldn’t let me pay. He bought another pint for himself, another lemonade for me, and a packet of crisps each.

  We walked home holding hands. Lucky greeted us sleepily when we came in, giving us little mews of welcome, as if she’d been our cat ever since she was a newborn kitten.

  14

  WHEN I GOT to school on Monday Rhiannon was strolling round the playground with Margot and Judy. They had their arms linked, their heads close together. I hovered, not sure whether to run up to them or not.

  ‘She’s like so boring now,’ said Rhiannon. ‘But Mum says I’ve got to be kind to her, though I don’t see why. We bought her, like, the most exquisite outfit because her clothes are, like, so pathetic.’

  ‘And babyish,’ said Margot.

  ‘And smelly,’ said Judy.

  They all tittered.

  ‘But it was, like, a waste of time because she barely said thank you!’

  I started trembling. I ran right round them and shouted, ‘Thank you thank you thank you!’ right in Rhiannon’s startled face.

  ‘Hey, cool it, Floss!’ said Rhiannon, giggling uneasily.

  ‘I didn’t want the denim outfit. I didn’t want to go out with you on Saturday! I wanted to see Susan and I wish wish wish I had!’ I shouted.

  Rhiannon stopped laughing. Her face hardened, the delicate arches of her eyebrows nearly meeting in the middle. ‘Yeah, it figures. You and Swotty Potty. You’re a right pair. You deserve each other. You be friends with her then, Smelly Chip.’

  I wanted to be friends with Susan, but I wasn’t sure she still wanted to be friends with me. I saw her way over at the other end of the playground, walking by herself, tapping each slat of the fence. I hurried towards her but she saw me coming and ran into school.

  ‘Susan! Wait! Please, I want to talk to you,’ I shouted, but she didn’t even turn round.

  I ran to the school entrance and rushed to the girls’ cloakrooms, where we’d always met before. I barged straight through two girls giggling together.

  ‘What’s up with Floss?’

  ‘Maybe she’s got galloping diarrhoea?’

  They cackled with laughter while I ran up and down the toilets. They were all empty. There was no sign of Susan.

  I set off down the corridor, charged round the corner and ran right into Mrs Horsefield, nearly knocking her flying.

  ‘Oh! I’m so sorry, Mrs Horsefield,’ I gabbled.

  ‘It’s good you’re in such a hurry to come to school on Monday morning, Floss,’ said Mrs Horsefield. She held me at arm’s length. ‘But you don’t look too happy, my dear. You’re not running away from someone, are you?’

  ‘No, no, I’m trying to run to someone,’ I said.

  ‘Well, I hope you find them,’ said Mrs Horsefield. She paused. ‘If that someone’s Susan, I think I saw her going into the library.’

  ‘Oh thank you, Mrs Horsefield.’

  ‘Don’t be too long finding her now. Registration’s in five minutes.’

  I set off for the library. Susan was standing by the shelves, fingering her way along the first row of books as if she was playing them like a piano.

  ‘Susan!’

  She jumped, and dodged round the other side of the bookshelves.

  ‘Susan, you can’t keep running away from me like this! You’ll be sitting in front of me in five minutes. Please listen to me. I’m so so sorry I wasn’t completely honest about Saturday. I was just so stupid and I feel awful now. I don’t know why I went to Rhiannon’s. I didn’t have a good time at all. I don’t want to be friends with her any more. I want to be friends with you. Please say you forgive me. Will you come to my place next Saturday and we’ll have fun together and eat Dad’s chip butties?’

  Susan blinked at me as I spoke, twitching her fingers. There was a little pause when I stopped.

  ‘Do you know, you said exactly one hundred words,’ she said in a matter-of-fact way.

  ‘Susan, please, did you listen to what I was saying?’

  ‘Yes, I listened. You want to be my friend now because Rhiannon’s gone off with Margot and Judy.’

  ‘No! Well, yes, she has, but I broke friends with her, I truly did.’

  ‘Yes, well, whatever. Only the thing is, Floss, I don’t really want to be your second-best friend.’

  ‘No, I want you to be my first-best friend. Will you come next Saturday?’

  Susan shrugged. ‘I think I’ve probably got something on next Saturday.’ She paused. ‘I have to go to this conference thing with my parents. Maybe the Saturday after?’

  ‘That won’t be any use. Oh Susan, we won’t have the café any more. Please don’t tell anyone, but my dad hasn’t kept up all his payments and we have to move out and we’re going to stay at Billy the Chip’s place but it sounds like it’s going to be really weird and Dad’s going to run his van outside the station and that’s going to be weird too and what am I going to do when Dad’s out working and I’m a bit scared about it but I haven’t liked to say because Dad’s so fussed about everything.’

  ‘Oh Floss!’ said Susan, and she put her arms round me.

  I started crying and she patted me on the back.

  ‘You won’t tell anyone, will you?’

  ‘Of course not! I won’t say a word. I’m sure I’ll be able to come on Saturday. I don’t want to go to my parents’ conference one bit – they just haven’t got anyone to leave me with. Hey, Floss, did you know you said another exact hundred words. It’s like you’ve got this weird gift! One hundred is my all-time lucky number too.’

  ‘So we’re friends now?’

  ‘Best friends,’ said Susan, giving me a squeeze. ‘I’ve wanted to be your best friend ever since I came to this school. Are you sure you’re OK about it though? Rhiannon might start being your worst enemy now.’

  ‘I don’t care,’ I said, though my heart began thudding at the thought. ‘I wish I didn’t still have to sit next to her.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Susan. ‘If she tries any funny business I’ll turn round and yank her off her chair again.’

  ‘Yes, she looked so surprised when she landed on her bum,’ I said, and we both giggled.

  ‘She’ll be even more nasty and totally mean when she finds out about Dad and me leaving the café and going to live with Billy the Chip. And I don’t know what will happen when he comes back from seeing his son. Dad says I should go to Australia to be with Mum, and there’s a bit of me that wants to, but I can’t leave Dad, I’m all he’s got. Well, he’s got Lucky too, but she’s really my cat. OK, we’ll have to see if she belongs to anyone else but I’m hoping like anything she’ll be mine.’

  Susan was counting on her fingers as I spoke. She stared at me in awe. ‘That’s another hundred! You are a to