Free Candyfloss by Nick Sharratt Page B

dressing table with the velvet stool?’
    ‘I’ve got all my clothes and books and art stuff here. The curtains are still at Mum’s and the other things have been put into storage. They wouldn’t fit in my bedroom here.’
    I
scarcely fitted in my bedroom at Dad’s. It was not much bigger than a cupboard. There was just room for the bed and an old chest of drawers. Dad had started to paint it with some special silver paint, but it was a very small tin and it ran out before he could cover the last drawer. He’d propped a mirror on top of the chest and I’d laid out my brush-and-comb set and my china ballet dancer and my little cherry-red glass vase from my dressing table at home. They didn’t make the chest look much prettier.
    ‘Dad’s going to finish painting the chest when he can find some more silver paint,’ I said. ‘And he ’s going to put up bookshelves and we’re going to get a new duvet – midnight-blue with silver stars – and I’m going to have those luminous stars stuck on the ceiling
and
one of those glitter balls like you get at dances – and fairy lights – and – and—’ I was running out of ideas.
    Rhiannon looked at me pityingly. ‘What sort of house is your mum going to have in Australia?’ she asked.
    ‘They’re just renting. It’s just some little flat,’ I said.
    I was lying. Mum had shown me a brochure showing beautiful modern flats with balconies and a sea view. They’d deliberately chosen a flat with three big bedrooms so that I could have the room of my dreams.
    ‘It couldn’t be littler than this flat,’ said Rhiannon. ‘You must be a bit nuts to want to stay here rather than go to Australia.’
    ‘I want to be with my
dad
,’ I said.
    ‘Do you love your dad much more than your mum then?’
    ‘No, I love them both the same. But Dad needs me more,’ I said.
    ‘Well, it still seems crazy, if you ask me,’ said Rhiannon, sitting down on the bed beside me. It creaked in protest. She peered down at it, shaking her head in disgust.
    ‘Well I’m
not
asking you,’ I said. ‘And anyway,
you
were the one who said I didn’t have to go. I thought you wanted me to stay so we could be best friends for ever. Don’t you want to be my best friend now, Rhiannon?’
    ‘Of course I do.’
    ‘We’re best friends for ever?’
    ‘Yes, like for ever and ever, dummy,’ said Rhiannon, sighing and shaking her long hair over her shoulders.
    She was saying all the right words but she was saying them in this silly American accent.

 
    9
    I HAD MORE bad dreams that night. I wished I’d kept my great big Kanga to cuddle in bed. I couldn’t believe I’d actually thrown away all my old teddies. All I had was the limp lopsided elephant and dog that Grandma had knitted me. I reached out of bed and tucked one on either side of my head. They didn’t look very fetching but they
felt
warm and soft, like a special scarf.
    I lay awake worrying that the bad dreams would come back the minute I closed my eyes. It helped that every time I wriggled round on my pillow a soft little knitted paw patted me.
    I fell asleep just as it was starting to get light – and then woke with a start. Something was ringing and ringing and ringing. The telephone! I stumbled out of bed and ran to answer it. Dad lumbered behind me in his pyjamas, huffing and puffing.
    ‘Hello?’ I said into the phone.
    ‘Oh,
there
you are, Floss! I’ve been ringing for ages !’ said Mum. ‘I thought you and Dad must have left for school already. What are you doing, having breakfast?’
    ‘Um – yes,’ I said, not wanting to tell Mum we’d slept in. She sounded so
close
, as if she was back in our house across town. ‘Oh Mum, have you come back?’ I said breathlessly.
    ‘What? Don’t be silly, darling, we’ve only just got here. My Lord, what a journey! Do you know, Tiger didn’t sleep a wink the entire flight. Steve and I were just about going demented.’
    ‘I can imagine,’ I said.
    ‘But never mind,