Free The Bed and Breakfast Star by Jacqueline Wilson Page B

hasn’t got curls (Mum did have a go with her curling tongs once when Pippa was going to a party but her hair ended up looking like it had exploded). She isn’t even little – she’s nearly as big as me though she’s half my age – and as for singing and dancing, well, Pippa can’t ever remember the words to any song, let alone the tune, and the only sort of dancing she can do is slam-dancing, though she doesn’t mean to barge straight into you.
    But I built her up into such a little Baby Wonder that the kids in my class were drooling, and they all wanted to see the show with me and this mega-brilliant little brat and our glamorous movie-star mummy.
    ‘Sorry, folks, we’ve been sold out for weeks because the show’s so popular,’ I said breezily, though my heart was beating fit to bust.
    That shut them up for a few seconds, but then I started to wonder about going-home time. Mum had caught me out yesterday by trailing round to the school. What if she did it again today? What if she’d just pulled on her oldest old T-shirt and leggings and hadn’t bothered to do her hair? All the children would see her for themselves. And even if I could somehow manage to convince them that she was just practising for a forthcoming searingly realistic drama on the telly about a careworn young mother ground down by the system, they’d see Pippa too.
    It might help matters if my whole family were present and correct. I could tell them that Mack was all set for a remake of King Kong. He didn’t even need to bother with a costume.

    I shot out of school the moment the bell went. It was a huge great relief to see that Mum wasn’t there, though I couldn’t help feeling a weeny bit miffed all the same, because she said she’d come. She wasn’t back at the hotel either. None of them were. I couldn’t get into room 608 because I didn’t have a key, so I had to mooch about the corridors for ages. Naomi came along but she was a bit narked with me because I hadn’t waited for her after school, and she couldn’t play with me now anyway because she had to help her mum with her brothers. Then Funny-Face sloped into view, scuffing his trainers and spitting. He was even more narked with me because my mum had stirred things up yesterday and the school had done a check on their registers and sent the truant officer round and now Funny-Face and the Famous Five had to turn up at school tomorrow or else .
    ‘Or else you’ll all get into trouble and Elsa’ll get into trouble for getting you lot into trouble,’ I said, pulling a funny face at Funny-Face.

    He didn’t pull one back. He called me a lot of rude names, even the infamous one he wrote on the wall that I had to correct.
    I swept away loftily and pretended I didn’t care. But I felt a bit friendless by now. And I was starting to get dead worried that I might be familyless too.
    Why had they all pushed off without telling me where they were going? What if they’d finally got fed up with me and packed up and scarpered? I knew Mack didn’t want me. He’d go like a shot and he’d take Pippa and Hank because they were his kids and he cared about them. But Mum wouldn’t walk out on me, would she? Although only this morning, when the drains all went wrong and someone else’s dirty water came bubbling up in our basin, she burst into tears and said she couldn’t stick this rotten dump a day longer. So maybe . . . maybe she had gone too.
    The ceiling suddenly seemed a long long way off. I felt I was getting smaller and smaller until I wasn’t much more than a squeak. I hunched up on the floor with my head on my knees and held on tight in case I disappeared altogether.

    ‘Elsa? What on earth are you doing? What’s up, eh?’ said Mum, coming down the corridor.
    Yes, it was Mum, and I was so very pleased to see her even though she sounded cross. And I was very pleased to see Pippa even though she was all sniffly with her nose running. And I was very pleased to see Hank even