My Secret Diary Read online

  'Well, just so long as one of you gets her back safely. She's such a daydreamer, she'd never find her way back on her own,' said Biddy, but she was smiling. 'Off you go then.'

  I ran off with Cookie and Colin. We walked along the water's edge, suddenly all of us at a loss for words, even Colin. He started messing around, barging into Cookie, splashing him, trying to wrestle with him. I edged away, not wanting to get my lilac skirt splashed. Maybe I should have changed back into my swimming costume? No, maybe not. They both stared at me a bit too much as it was.

  'What's up, Jacky? Come in paddling,' said Colin, kicking his way through the waves.

  'I don't want to get all wet again,' I said.

  'Have you been swimming this morning then?' Cookie asked.

  'Yep. Well, surfriding,' I said.

  'She's really good at it,' said Colin, though he'd never seen me.

  'So are you a really sporty girl then?'

  'No fear! I hate most sports. It's my worst thing at school,' I said. 'I can't catch a ball and I can't run for toffee.'

  'But you like swimming?'

  'Yes, I love it.'

  'Maybe you're a mermaid,' said Cookie. 'Perhaps you've got green scales under your pretty skirt.'

  We both blushed. Colin sighed and went tearing along, kicking hard, lost in a plume of spray.

  The sun came out from behind a cloud and shone on the blue water. I looked at the sea, the sky, the sands.

  'It's so lovely here,' I said.

  'I know. We come every year.' Cookie looked up the beach to the rocks. 'There are caves in there. We could go exploring.'

  'I don't think I've ever been in a proper cave before. Do they go back a long way?'

  'Some of them do. When I was little I used to like setting up camp in them. I'd take a rug and my spade and some chocolate and stuff and crouch there in the dark, kidding on I was in some Enid Blyton book.'

  'The Cave of Adventure! I read heaps of those. I love reading. Not Enid Blyton now, of course.'

  'What do you like reading now then?' asked Cookie.

  I had enough sense not to try and answer him properly as it would have taken all afternoon.

  'I've just read a book called Billy Liar,' I said.

  'Oh, I've read that,' said Cookie. 'It's good, isn't it. Funny. Those calendars!'

  He really had read it.

  'I wish he'd gone to London in the end,' I said.

  'I'm going to go to London one day,' said Cookie. 'And I'll come and visit you and we'll go to . . . ?' He looked at me for suggestions.

  'We'll go to all the coffee bars and jazz cellars in Soho,' I said, as if I frequented them every day. I thought hard, remembering my trips to the Royal Dental Hospital. 'And we'll have a meal at the Golden Egg in Leicester Square and then go dancing at the Empire Ballroom.'

  'Jiving,' said Cookie, suddenly taking hold of my hand and whirling me round.

  'Come on, you two,' Colin yelled. 'What are you doing?'

  'We're dancing,' said Cookie.

  'Oh, right. OK, so am I,' said Colin, and he started capering around too, splashing more than ever.

  It took us ages to get to the beach hut, but Cookie's parents seemed entirely unfazed. His dad just smiled and waved at Colin and me and then went back to his paper. His mum went into the beach hut and brought back four cans of Tizer and a mound of egg sandwiches in a big Oxo tin. The fourth can was for Cookie's sister, a shy, sweet girl several years younger than me. She looked admiringly at my flowery skirt and coral lipstick. My heart was beating fast again. I wasn't the shy young girl this time. I was the older girl with the cool clothes and make-up, the one the boys liked.

  We ate and drank and then played a silly game of deck quoits, where luckily you didn't need much skill at all. Then Cookie and Colin and I went down the beach near the sea where the sand was firm and started making a giant boat with some old spades that had been propped up inside the beach hut. Colin dug wildly of course, flinging sand over his shoulder, but he had bags of energy and got a lot done. Cookie was good at organizing the shape of the boat, smoothing and sculpting carefully. I wandered around collecting shells to stud the sides of the boat and carved stylized waves all around it.

  It took us hours but it was a truly magnificent boat by the time we'd finished it. We clambered gingerly inside on the sand seat, begging Colin to be extra careful. Then the three of us sat there, feeling proud and yet a little foolish too, because we weren't children any more.

  'What are we supposed to do now?' said Cookie.

  'We row the boat to China,' said Colin, using his spade like an oar.

  We all three rowed wildly, singing the Row-row-row- your-boat song, waiting for the sea to come splashing up around us.

  'I wish we could keep it. It's a magnificent boat,' I said wistfully.

  'We can build another boat tomorrow,' said Cookie.

  'Yeah, we'll build an even bigger boat tomorrow,' said Colin. 'A houseboat, with a proper room inside, with beds and benches and all sorts.'

  'No, no, a cruiser the length of the beach,' said Cookie.

  'Like the Queen Elizabeth. Only we'll call it the Queen Jacky!' said Colin, cackling with laughter.

  Cookie came with us back to the hotel. 'I wish I was staying here too,' he said.

  'Yeah, I shall have Jacky all to myself every evening and every morning before breakfast.' Colin thumped his chest Tarzan-style and gave a loud jungle yodel.

  I shook my head at him. 'Idiot!' Then I looked at Cookie. 'See you tomorrow then?'

  I saw him every single day. I wanted to stay with them all the time but I was forced to go on all the outings Biddy and Grace had planned, though I always had several hours on the beach with Cookie and Colin. I plucked up the courage to go swimming with them – at least I could retire into the beach hut to change into my costume, rather than struggling inelegantly under a towel.

  I blushed as I stepped outside in my blue and white swimming costume. It suddenly seemed much too skimpy and revealing. Colin wolf-whistled, inevitably, but Cookie smiled at me and held out his hand to take me down to the sea. We ran right into the water and started jumping each wave and then diving like otters until our eyes were stinging with the salt.

  We queued at the surf shack another day and I showed off my surfboard skills to both boys, and then we went back to the beach hut and wrapped ourselves in big towels and ate sandwiches from the Oxo tin.

  Biddy was worried that the Cooksons might think I was sponging off them, so she gave me money to treat everyone to ice creams. Mrs Cookson invited Biddy and Harry and Ron and Grace to the beach hut and the adults all had a cup of tea together while we fidgeted and fussed, and then declared we were going off for a walk.

  We splashed along at the sea's edge, Colin and Cookie often wrestling and fooling around or telling idiotic jokes or making stupid noises. I'd get impatient and think, What am I doing here with these two loonies? and I'd wish myself back with my books and my journal. Then Cookie would suddenly take my hand or Colin would say something so utterly silly I'd burst out laughing, and I'd realize I wanted to be with them more than anyone else in the world.

  Well . . . I liked Colin very much, fool that he was, but I liked Cookie much more. Whenever Colin whooped off by himself for a minute or two we talked hurriedly, suddenly serious. Once or twice Cookie said, 'Let's push off, just you and me, just for a little while, please.'

  'But what about Colin? Wouldn't it hurt his feelings if we push off by ourselves?' I asked anxiously.

  'Oh, never mind Colin,' said Cookie – but he was just as concerned about upsetting him as I was. We stayed a threesome all week.

  We went exploring in the caves one afternoon. I was initially disappointed. They were damp and chilly and rather smelly. Every now and then you slipped on empty crisp packets or tripped over beer bottles. Still, it was fun feeling our way through all the winding passages. There was always a thrilling clutch of fear that we would get totally lost and end up going further and furthe