Diary of a Lottery Winner's Daughter by Penelope Bush Read Free Book Online Page A

though.
    Later we all watched the local news and Mum and Dad were on it. Mum looked a bit shocked, which I guess anyone would if they’d just got out of their car and found themselves in the limelight. Chelsea was furious, because all the bits she’d done before Mum and Dad got back had been cut and she wasn’t on it at all.
    ‘I wonder how they found out,’ said Mum. ‘I suppose the people at Tesco must have tipped them off.’
    I didn’t point out that they couldn’t have known where we lived or that Chelsea was even more tarted up than usual.

Wednesday 1st September
    It was great to be back at school. As usual, Lauren called for me on her way past and then we met up with Karly and Tiffany. I was a bit nervous because I didn’t know if news about our win had got round the school. It wasn’t too bad though. Everyone was over-excited anyway about meeting up with all their friends again.
    Chelsea caused a bit of a scene this morning when she realised she wasn’t going up to London with Mum and Dad, but then she calmed down because she didn’t want to miss her first day back and all the fuss our win would cause at school. I could tell she was dying to tell Sophie and Amber about it.
    Some of the other girls in my form were standing about having a laugh at the newbies in Year 7. Their uniforms were too big and too tidy and they either looked really nervous or overly cocky. I was trying not to get hung up on the fact that most of them were taller than me.
    Occasionally someone would come up to me and say,’ Is it true your mum won the lottery?’ and Lauren would tell them to go away.
    Of course, Karly and Tiffany wanted all the news and I didn’t mind telling them about it. I had been terrified that they might be funny with me but I needn’t have worried. They were my friends and it was so good to be back. Every one was talking at once and saying what they’d buy and which clothes shops they’d go in and where they’d go on holiday. I was about to say that it was my mum who’d won the money and it wasn’t as if I suddenly had millions to personally dispose of, but I kept quiet in the end because they were having so much fun.
    ‘I’d buy shoes,’ said Karly. ‘Thousands of them, and a whole room to keep them in.’
    Tiffany said she’d get a horse. ‘A proper one, one of those Arabian stallions, not a pony or anything. Please say you’ll get a horse, Charlotte, and then I can come and ride it.’I didn’t like to point out that a horse in the middle of Bristol just wasn’t going to work. It got me thinking though. I’d always wished I could have a pet but Mum always said the house was too small. I brought the school hamster home for the holidays once to try and convince her that no house was too small for a hamster, but it kept everyone awake all night going round on its wheel; even when we shut it in the kitchen, so I guess she was right.
    Some of the boys took to calling me Charlottery for a bit, but it wasn’t that funny so it soon wore off. I wondered what was happening in the Sixth Form. I was sure that Chelsea would be milking the attention.
    The only lesson I don’t have with Lauren this year is maths, because she’s in the top set and I’m in the bottom set. However hard I try I’m just hopeless at it. Not like Spencer, who seems to have been born with a calculator embedded in his brain.
    Everything was so reassuringly normal. We had the same form tutor as last year, Mr Lawson. The school had decided that we’d stick with the same form tutor all through lower school, so we’d get him next year as well, which was fine because he was nice and funny but not in a sad ‘I’m trying to get down with the kids’ way. I feel sorry for the other form though, because they’re stuck with old Beecham for three years and she’s horrible. She’s definitely had a sense of humour bypass. She takes us for RE and I’m sure she goes out of her way to make it as boring as humanly possible.
    The best