Diamond Girls by Jacqueline Wilson

Rochelle.
    â€˜
Now
who’s the baby?’ said Jude. ‘You’ll have to stay, Rochelle, as we haven’t got a door key. Besides, Martine will be coming back sometime.’
    â€˜I bet she doesn’t. I bet she hitches a lift back to Bletchworth. She’s not daft. I wish I could go with her.’
    I wished she would too. I thought how peaceful it would be, just Jude and me. And Mum, of course. Though now there would be the baby too.
    â€˜It’s all the baby’s fault,’ I said, as Jude and I went out the front door. ‘If Mum hadn’t got pregnant she wouldn’t have wanted the extra room and we wouldn’t have moved. I hope little Sundance is extra sweet or I shall seriously dislike him.’
    â€˜Sundance! I hope Mum’s joking,’ said Jude. ‘No, it’s not
his
fault. He didn’t ask to be born, did he? I don’t know why Mum wants to keep on having all these boyfriends and babies. I just don’t get her.’
    â€˜Yeah, I know. But Mum says she’s finished with blokes now,’ I said, skipping along beside Jude.
    â€˜As if!’ said Jude.
    â€˜Well, if you get your Rottweiler – you know, to chase away Rochelle’s white cats – then he’ll maybe chase all the boyfriends away too.’
    â€˜That was just a game, Dix.’ Jude turned round and looked at me. ‘So this Mary, is she a game too?’
    â€˜No, she’s real, I
said
. Look, see over the wall? That’s her house. Doesn’t it look clean and tidy? Mary’s so clean and tidy too.’
    I checked the grey cuffs on my cardie, the stain on my T-shirt, the hems of my jeans, black and fraying where they trailed on the ground. ‘Jude, are we dirty?’
    â€˜What? Well, you’re a bit grubby, certainly.
I’m
clean. Cleanish. And Rochelle’s never out the blooming bathroom. Ditto Martine.’ Jude climbed onto the wall. She stood right up on it, legs braced. ‘So that’s your Mary’s house then? Wow!’
    â€˜The one opposite, with the black wooden fence. Jude, be
careful
.’
    She’d started to tightrope-walk along the top of the wall, showing off.
    â€˜Whoops, whoops, I’m falling to my death,’ Jude said, waving her arms around, winding me up.
    â€˜Stop it!’
    What if something really happened to Jude? I imagined her pitching off the wall and breaking her neck. All my family was disappearing. I only had Rochelle left, and I didn’t even like her …
    â€˜Dixie?’ Jude held out her hand. ‘Come on, don’t look so worried. I’m only messing about, you know I am.’
    â€˜What about Mum?’ I said.
    â€˜Mum will be
fine
,’ said Jude, though she didn’t sound sure. ‘Come on, don’t let’s think about Mum just now. She’ll be back safe and sound with the baby soon, you wait and see. Tomorrow. So let’s get ourselves sorted out now, right? We’ll go and see if your pal Mary’s mum will give us some candles.’
    Jude helped me over the wall into the alleyway. I stopped her as we got to Mary’s back gate.
    â€˜Maybe we ought to go to the front?’ I said. ‘We can’t just barge right into their back garden, can we?’
    â€˜Why not?’ said Jude. She stood at the gate, looking across the neat green lawn. There were no toys scattered, no balls or bikes, no one sitting on the beautiful canopied garden swing.
    â€˜If we just wander in then Mary’s mum might think we’re burglars,’ I said.
    â€˜OK, OK, we’ll go round to the front and knock, if it makes you happy,’ said Jude.
    I don’t think she was too keen on marching over that weirdly perfect lawn either.
    We went down the alleyway to the end, turned left, and then went back down Mary’s street. It was as if we’d walked into a different world altogether. The houses were
all
tidy and clean and freshly painted,