Midnight by Jacqueline Wilson Read Free Book Online Page A

Marnie and Terry’s visit. They kept looking up hopefully whenever they heard his floorboards creaking. They might still frequent Bears- and Beanie-Babyland but they were boy-mad too. And especially mad about my brother Will.
    It was total torture. Mum fixed one of her terrible old-fashioned high teas, the sort she had when she was a little girl, the sort
Granny
has – cold meat and crisps and salad with the radishes and tomatoes pointlessly cut I’d asked Mum if they could come round, half hopinginto patterns, fruit salad and ice cream, then jam tarts and chocolate swiss roll and fairy cakes.
    â€˜Fairy cakes,’ said Marnie, nudging Terry.
    I went as red as my raspberry jam tart. They were sending me up. It was agony being sneered at by the likes of Marnie and Terry.
    My fairies had been an embarrassing disappointment to them. They stared up at them, their brows wrinkled.
    â€˜They’re not like
proper
fairy dolls,’ said Marnie.
    â€˜I didn’t realize you meant they were just little ragdolly things,’ said Terry.
    â€˜They’re not dolls. They’re models,’ I said stiffly.
    The Rose Fairy and the Crow Fairy and all their sisters dangled sadly from their strings, wings limp, heads lolling.
    â€˜Did you make them yourself, Violet?’ said Marnie.
    â€˜My brother helped,’ I said truthfully.
    Will always cut out and sewed a tiny green satin heart for each fairy and I inserted it in each small cloth chest. But this was our special secret. I knew he’d die if I told Marnie and Terry, so I kept quiet about his contribution.
    I couldn’t completely protect him though. Marnie announced she was going to the bathroom. The door was open so she couldn’t have mistaken it. But she walked straight past and barged her way into Will’s bedroom.
    â€˜Ooh, sorry, Will – wrong room!’ she squealed, and then started giggling explosively.
    Terry scurried after her, going, ‘Oh Marnie, trust you!’
    Will slammed the door in their faces.
    â€˜Oops!’ said Marnie, hand over her mouth, her shoulders still shaking.
    â€˜Why did he slam the door like that? What was he
doing
?’ Terry asked.
    â€˜He wasn’t doing anything, I don’t
think
,’ said Marnie.
    They talked about Will for the next half hour, giggling all the while. I knew Will could hear everything. I knew he’d be so angry with me afterwards.
    I decided to break friends with Marnie and Terry after that. I avoided them at school the next day and stalked round by myself. I knew I should try to join up with another little gang of girls but it was impossible. I couldn’t just go up to someone and ask if we could be friends. I knew I could probably find Will in the library but I didn’t dare seek him out. He’d made it very plain from my first day in Year Seven that we were to behave like strangers while we were at school.
    So I drifted back to Marnie and Terry, because there was no one else. And now I’d given up on ever finding a congenial friend. But when I went to school the Monday after the bat weekend I got a surprise. There was a new girl in our class even though it was the middle of the term.
    She was standing at the front, by Mrs Mason’s desk, wearing her own clothes instead of our brown school uniform. They were amazing clothes too, a tiny black lace top, a silver and white embroidered waistcoat, a purple-velvet tiered skirt edged with crimson lace, and black pointy Goth boots with high heels. She had brightly coloured Indian bangles jingling all the way upboth arms and beads plaited into her hair. And what hair! Long blonde fairy princess waves all the way down to her waist.
    I fell in love with her instantly.

Dear C.D.,
    I keep thinking about that blonde woman who accepted your prize.
    I know you like blonde women. Nearly all the fairies and nymphs and dryads in your books are blonde, from moonbeam white to tawny yellow. I so love your