Diary of a Lottery Winner's Daughter (6 page)

Monday 30th August

Today was frighteningly normal, considering that we’re now millionaires. Chelsea wanted to go shopping again, but Mum said half the shops would be shut on a bank holiday so Chelsea started to look on the internet for a new house. Then a fight broke out because Spencer needed the internet as well and we’ve only got the one computer. Dad broke it up and told Chelsea to let Spencer use it because he needed it more.

‘What could be more important than finding us a new house?’ shouted Chelsea.

‘Finding me a new school,’ Spencer shouted back.

It turned out that Spencer had decided he wanted to go to a new school, and now Mum and Dad could afford for him to go to a private school they’d agreed that he could have a look at some.

‘That’s not fair,’ shouted Chelsea. ‘What if I want to go to a new school as well? Can’t I go to one of those posh boarding schools?’

I thought that was a brilliant idea and held my breath, hoping that Mum would agree. ‘Nobody is going to boarding school,’ said Mum firmly. ‘I didn’t have children just to let someone else bring them up.’

I don’t think she’s thought that one through. I’d be happy if Chelsea went to boarding school. The only boarding school I’d want to go to is Hogwarts and that’s never going to happen.

In the end, Chelsea stomped off to our room and Dad and Spencer looked up schools in our area. I could hear Spencer telling Dad that perhaps he should think about sending Chelsea to Brat Camp now we could afford it.

‘You might be right, son,’ Dad muttered back.

I went round to Lauren’s house.

Tuesday 31st August

Mum, Dad and Spencer went out this morning. They’ve managed to get an emergency interview with the headmaster of the school that Spencer wants to go to. Spencer was dead nervous in case he had to sit an exam, but Dad said it was unlikely and his reports from Avon Comp should be enough to get him a place.

I was just settling down with a good book when Chelsea wandered into the room. She was all dressed up and looked amazing. I wondered if she’d finally got a date with Josh and decided she must have, because she kept looking out of the window like she was expecting someone.

She was re-doing her mascara in the hall mirror when the doorbell rang. I peeped through the window to get a look at her hot date and nearly died from shock. There were loads of people on the doorstep! There was even a bloke

with a television camera balanced on his shoulder. I ducked down and crawled across the room, then peered round the door. Chelsea had flung the door open and was standing on the doorstep talking to them! I was nearly blinded by the flashes going off on their cameras but Chelsea stood there striking a pose. They all started firing questions at her and she was laughing and chatting away like she was used to having the paparazzi camped on her doorstep.

Her moment of fame didn’t last long though. As soon as the reporters discovered that it wasn’t her who had bought the lottery ticket, the flashes stopped going off and the man with the TV camera wearily lowered it off his shoulder. ‘So when will your mum be back then?’ said one of them, looking at his watch.

‘Any minute now,’ said Chelsea. ‘Maybe you could do an article on what it’s like to be the daughter of a lottery winner,’ she added desperately. None of them looked convinced that that would be a good idea. One of the reporters’ phones went off and he peeled away. The others were eyeing him nervously and I could tell that they were all worried that he’d got a bigger, better story and they were wondering whether or not to follow him. I was worried that Chelsea would get so desperate to keep them there that she’d end up doing something stupid, like strip off or something.

Thankfully, at that moment, our car pulled up and Mum and Dad got out, so all the reporters dashed over there and the flashes started going off again. Chelsea pouted. Then Spencer slunk up the garden path, so I followed him into the kitchen to find out how it went at the school. He was really excited and said it was awesome and the science labs were excellent and the headmaster had said he could start there at the beginning of term. Spencer gets longer holidays now so he doesn’t have to go back to school tomorrow like me. He didn’t rub it in 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 thing about being back at school is that I don’t get the strange feeling I’ve had at home recently;that everything isn’t quite real. I’ve stopped waking up in the morning and getting a shock when I remember that we’re rich now. We still have to get ready for school and do all the normal things that we’ve always done but somehow, at home, it feels like we’re in limbo. I suppose, when we’ve found a new house and moved in, everything will feel more normal.

No one could believe it this evening when Dad said he was going to keep his job as a delivery van driver. Only Grumps agreed with him that it was a good idea.

‘I like my job,’ explained Dad. ‘It gets me out and about and I like meeting people. I’ve got a lot of regular customers and they’d miss me if I stopped.’

Mum said her ladies were going to have to miss her because she wasn’t going out cleaning houses any more. Except for Miss Evans. She’d keep Miss Evans on, because she reckoned that sometimes she was the only person Miss Evans spoke to all week and she didn’t like to abandon her, though she would feel guilty about taking her money because she didn’t think Miss Evans had a lot.