Diamond Girls (30 page)

Mum and I have this constant battle. I am supposed to be on a diet but I don't stick to it. I eat my slither of chicken and my cherry tomatoes and my carrot sticks and my apple and my orange – and then I sneak upstairs and munch two Mars Bars and crunch a whole pack of Pringles.

Mum went bananas when she found all the empty wrappings under my bed. She shouted all sorts of stuff and I cried and that made her worse because she hates me being a cry-baby. She was furious with Wanda for letting me buy them. Wanda cried too.

Wanda is even more of a cry-baby than I am. Wanda is our latest au pair. We've had lots since I stopped needing a nanny. They never stay long. Mum never likes them. Dad likes the pretty ones so Mum gets rid of them sharpish. Mum and Dad had a big fight over Brigitte. And Selke. And Mai. So Mum decided to try an Australian girl.

‘Someone sunny-natured and strong,' said Mum.

‘And bronzed and bouncy and blonde!' Dad whispered to me, and we both giggled.

But the laugh was on us, because Wanda isn't at all the way we wanted her to be. She's certainly not sunny. She looks vague and misty most of the time, so the kindest way of describing her would be cloudy. When she cries she's downright dismal. She isn't strong. She can't manage more than one bag of shopping and she's always yawning and flopping down on the sofa and falling asleep. She's not bronzed and bouncy and blonde. She's papery-white and droopy, with long, dark, witchy hair. She washes it once a day, sometimes even twice, and walks around with it dripping wet.

Wanda takes me to school and fetches me in the afternoon and fixes me a few snacks. We've done a little deal. We chuck the cottage cheese and celery and carrots straight in the bin and buy secret supplies of sweets and stuff. It's not fair. Wanda eats as much chocolate and crisps as I do and yet she's ever so thin, even thinner than Mum.

Mum hoped she might use Wanda as a cheap personal assistant, taking phone calls and collecting material samples and contacting models, but Wanda wisely made such a mess of things Mum's banned her from having anything to do with the business.

My mum is Moya Upton, the children's clothes designer. She swapped from scarves five years ago, when she couldn't find any clothes she liked for me. So now
she
makes ultra-cool designer clothes for kids. There are three Moya Upton shops in London – in Notting Hill, South Kensington and Hampstead – one in Leeds, one in Glasgow, and there's a special Moya Upton section in Harrods' Junior Collection department. There was a five-page feature in
Vogue
last year, and heaps of stuff in the papers. All the girls in my school are mad about Moya Upton clothes.

The only girl in the entire country who
hates
Moya Upton clothes is me. They are little and I am big. They are tight and I need loose. They are bright and I like dark. They are sparkly and I like stark. My mum always says she started designing clothes to suit her daughter. I don't know which daughter that is. It certainly isn't me.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

NICK SHARRATT knew from an early age that he wanted to use his drawing skills as his career, so he went to Manchester Polytechnic to do an Art Foundation course. He followed this up with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design at St Martin's School of Art in London from 1981–1984.

Since graduating, Nick has been working full-time as an illustrator for children's books, publishers and a wide range of magazines. His brilliant illustrations have brought to life many books, most notably the titles by Jacqueline Wilson.

Nick also writes books as well as illustrating them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jacqueline Wilson is an extremely well-known and hugely popular author who served as Children's Laureate from 2005–7. She has been awarded a number of prestigious awards, including the British Children's Book of the Year and the Guardian Children's Fiction Award (for
The Illustrated Mum
), the Smarties Prize and the Children's Book Award (for
Double Act
, for which she was also highly commended for the Carnegie Medal). In 2002 Jacqueline was given an OBE for services to literacy in schools and in 2008 she was appointed a Dame. She has sold over thirty-five million books and was the author most borrowed from British libraries in the last decade.

Also by Jacqueline Wilson

There are oodles of incredible Jacqueline Wilson books to enjoy!

The Dinosaur's Packed Lunch

The Monster Story-Teller

 

The Cat Mummy

Lizzie Zipmouth

Sleepovers

 

Bad Girls

The Bed and Breakfast Star

Best Friends

Big Day Out

Buried Alive!

Candyfloss

Clean Break

Cliffhanger

Cookie

The Dare Game

The Diamond Girls

Double Act

Emerald Star

Glubbslyme

Hetty Feather

The Illustrated Mum

Jacky Daydream

Lily Alone

Little Darlings

Lola Rose

The Longest Whale Song

The Lottie Project

Midnight

The Mum-Minder

Sapphire Battersea

Secrets

Starring Tracy Beaker

The Story of Tracy Beaker

The Suitcase Kid

Vicky Angel

The Worry Website

The Worst Thing About My Sister

 

FOR OLDER READERS:

Dustbin Baby

Girls In Love

Girls In Tears

Girls Out Late

Girls Under Pressure

Kiss

Love Lessons

My Secret Diary

My Sister Jodie

THE DIAMOND GIRLS
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 407 04523 8

Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children's Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company

This ebook edition published 2008
Reissued 2012

Ebook edition copyright © Jacqueline Wilson, 2008, 2012
Ebook edition illustrations copyright © Nick Sharratt, 2008, 2012

First Published in Great Britain in 2004 by Doubleday

Copyright © Jacqueline Wilson, 2004
Illustrations copyright © Nick Sharratt, 2004

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.

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 unauthorized 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.

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