Diary of a Lottery Winner's Daughter (7 page)

Thursday 9th September

Chelsea’s taken it upon herself to find us a new house. She’s gone completely mental. She spends all night on the internet looking at property sites and selecting new houses to go and look at. The only problem is, she needs Mum and Dad to make the appointment with the estate agents to go and view them. When her wheedling doesn’t work and they refuse to go and look at the latest ‘amazing’ house, she goes off in an enormous sulk.

Mum and Dad finally agreed to go and look at one house she’s found. I think they’re only going to keep her quiet. Also, Chelsea’s so enthusiastic about it all that it’s hard not to get caught up in her excitement and Mum always tries to encourage us in our hobbies. Like when I was really into my project on Amy Johnson, she got Dad to drive us all the way to the aviation museum so I could see the kind of plane Amy would have flown. I think Dad enjoyed it more than me. He got quite excited and Mum had to drag him away before we all got locked in there for the night.

So on Saturday we’re all going to look at the house that Chelsea has decided is going to be our new home.

Saturday 11th September

It was weird looking round someone else’s home and trying to imagine living there. I know I did it when I went with Mum to the Bings’, but that was just pretend whereas this is real.

Not that anyone except Chelsea could see themselves living in that house.

It was massive and very, very modern. It seemed to have more windows than walls, and it even had a swimming pool. Chelsea says we have to have a swimming pool now we’re millionaires.

Dad said that the kitchen looked like an operating theatre and he wasn’t sure he wanted to eat anything that came out of a place that reminded him of major surgical procedures.

I could see Mum eyeing the two storey windows and all the polished surfaces. I bet she was wondering what the best cleaning products would be to use on them and worrying about how she’d keep them clean.

Chelsea loved every minute of it. I could see that she was imagining all the parties she could have there and how all her friends would be impressed. The pool certainly put Sophie Jacobs’ hot-tub in the shade.

I wish Spencer had come with us. We could have had a good laugh at all the pictures and sculptures. They were everywhere and were all nude people in some pretty contorted positions. I was dying to impersonate some of them but only Spencer would have found it funny. He didn’t come because he said he had too much homework. The new school have sent him work to do so that he’s not behind with it when he starts there. I can’t imagine Spencer being behind with his work. Personally, I think it was just an excuse. I honestly believe he doesn’t care where we live.

The estate agent was working really hard to try and sell the house to Mum and Dad but I think he knew that they didn’t really like it. Chelsea tried to get me on her side by telling me that I could have the best bedroom. Obviously, I wasn’t taken in. I knew that the moment we moved in she’d nab that room because it had a roll top bath in the en suite and a walk-in wardrobe.

It
was
an amazing house, but I couldn’t really see us living there. It wasn’t what you’d describe as cosy or homely.

Now we’ll have to put up with Chelsea raving about it for the next two weeks until Mum and Dad eventually buy it just to keep her quiet. Chelsea has that effect on people.

When we got home, it was kind of sad. Going to see such a lovely house made our three-bedroom council house feel even more pokey and shabby than usual, even though it’s not that bad really, and it does feel like home. Although I really want to move because I want my own room, I’ll be sorry to leave this house. Also, Lauren only lives down the road and we can see each other whenever we want. I wonder if I can persuade Mum and Dad to buy a house not far from here.

Monday 13th September

We got our diary homework back today from Mrs Harper. She’d put ‘very good’on mine. I didn’t think it was that good. I’d only written a load of rubbish about Weston-super-Mare. I didn’t put all the stuff about Chelsea going off or the cave guide being a troll, like I put in my real diary. I wonder what comment Mrs Harper would make about this one.

Spencer started at his new school today. He did look funny in his smart new uniform. I felt nervous for him but he seemed to be totally unfazed, though he did check his bag about six times to make sure he had everything.

He will have to go on the bus, but Dad said he would give him a lift there for the first few days, just until he’s settled in. I wonder what they’ll make of Dad’s delivery van pulling up in front of such a posh school. I mentioned

this to Spencer, but he said it wasn’t a problem and that the school wasn’t
that
posh really. It was just a normal school, except you had to pay to go to it and have really good grades. It wasn’t like one of those boys’ public schools or really expensive boarding schools. I felt better after that. I hoped that, if all the people there were clever, then Spencer wouldn’t get picked on for being brainy. When Lauren and I got to school this morning there was a bit of a buzz in the playground. There were groups of people hanging around, chatting, and when we walked by some of them gave me funny looks. I immediately felt paranoid and wondered what I could have done. Apart from the lottery win, which people still occasionally asked me about, I couldn’t think of anything. We found Karly and Tiffany and asked them what was going on.

‘There’s just been a stand-off between Sophie and Chelsea at the school gates,’ said Karly.

I groaned. I thought Chelsea had vowed never to speak to Sophie again, although I didn’t really know what had been happening because the Sixth Form block is so separate from the rest of the school.

Apparently, Chelsea had been describing, in a very loud voice, the house we had been to see and how, when we’d moved in, she was going to have the most amazing pool party. Sophie had been passing and said,’ You can take the girl out of the council estate, but you can’t take the council estate out of the girl.’

Chelsea had come back really quickly with, And you’ll never take the Nob out of Snob.’According to Karly, who had seen it all, this had got a huge laugh from everyone. Even Josh had laughed and that had really wound Sophie up and she’d hit him with her bag and stormed off. Josh had just shrugged and winked at Chelsea.

I knew it wouldn’t take much to spark off a war between the Ratcliffe estate kids and the rich kids. And if that happened, where would Chelsea and I stand? We might be rich now, but we weren’t in with that crowd - all our friends were Ratcliffe estate and they all tended to stick together. When we moved, would they think we weren’t one of them any more? I was so upset I was shaking. But I knew I was being silly. Lauren wasn’t suddenly going to stop being friends with me just because we’d moved house!

Tuesday 21st September

There are definite tensions at school. Chelsea and Sophie are now openly hostile towards each other. Sophie must have made it up with Josh though, because I saw them snogging at the bus stop. It’s not just the Sixth Formers either. I heard two Year 7s talking about it at break time, and Chelsea is going round with the estate girls now, the really hard ones that live in the flats and that she’s always avoided until now. I think the teachers have got wind of it though, because they’ve started patrolling the playground and corridors at break and lunchtimes so I don’t think anything will happen.

Lauren, Karly, Tiffany and I have all decided to rise above it and not get involved.

Lauren and I spent the lunch hour trying to decide which after-school club to join. I fancied the book club but Lauren hated that idea. She fancied the choir because the music teacher is male and good-looking. I had to remind her that I’m tone deaf and I’d be thrown out for singing out of tune. In the end, we decided not to bother because there wasn’t anything we both wanted to do. As we were leaving, I saw Alec putting his name down for the War Hammer club. I said hi to him because he looked so lost without Spencer. Alec’s really brainy too and they’ve always stuck together. I felt bad for him being on his own now. I wonder if Spencer will still meet up with him on Saturdays to go to the Games Workshop or whether he’ll be too busy with all his new friends.