Candyfloss Read Free

pull-along case thingies and a kangaroo cuddly toy,’ I said.
    ‘A cuddly toy! How gross!’ said Margot. ‘Imagine, still playing with teddies! What about
dolls
?’
    I blushed, holding my breath. Rhiannon had seen my Barbie dolls when she came to play. I prayed she wouldn’t tell on me.
    ‘Come on, Rhiannon,’ I said, taking her by the arm. ‘I want to tell you this huge secret. Wait till you hear what my mum told me.’
    ‘What?’ said Rhiannon, licking a little dab of icing off her finger.
    ‘Yeah, what secret?’ said Margot. ‘You always have to create, like, a drama, Floss.’
    ‘Well, I guess this
is
pretty dramatic,’ I said, stung. I decided to show her. I took a deep breath. ‘We’re only going to Australia,’ I said.
    They all stared at me. Rhiannon looked particularly impressed. ‘Wow, you’re going on holiday to
Australia
!’
    ‘Well,
I’m
going on holiday to Orlando,’ said Margot. ‘It’s got Disneyland. Australia hasn’t got Disneyland.’
    ‘It’s got the Great Barrier Reef and Bondi Beach and Ayers Rock,’ said Susan, who had crept to the edge of the group. ‘Though actually we should call it by its Aboriginal name, Uluru.’
    ‘Nobody asked
your
opinion, Swotty Potty,’ said Rhiannon. She turned to me. ‘So when are you going on this holiday, Floss? Any chance I can come too?’
    ‘I wish you could,’ I said. I was regretting telling everyone now. It made it seem too real. I had to explain properly. ‘It’s not a holiday. We’re going to stay there for six whole months.’
    ‘
Really?
’
    ‘Yes,’ I said miserably. ‘Only I don’t think I want to. I like it here. I’ll miss my dad so much. And I’ll miss
you
, Rhiannon.’
    ‘I’ll miss you too!’ she said, and she hugged me tight.
    I hugged her back.
    Margot and Judy made silly noises and stupid comments but I didn’t care. Susan hitched her glasses higher up her nose, gave me a wan smile and wandered off. I felt bad that Rhiannon had called her names, but I couldn’t help it. I
liked
Susan. I wanted to be kind to her but I knew if I started speaking to her properly people would start teasing me too.
    I started to think about the Australian school during lesson time. I would be the new girl. What if everyone started picking on me? I was
quite
clever but I didn’t ever come top, so they wouldn’t tease me for being swotty, would they? I had a perfectly ordinary kind of name, Flora Barnes. My initials didn’t spell anything silly or rude. I didn’t mind being called Floss or Flossie for a nickname. Rhiannon once or twice called me Flopsy Bunny but that was when she was making a big fuss of me.
    I’d never ever find a friend in Australia like Rhiannon.
    ‘You will stay my friend when I’m out in Australia, won’t you?’ I begged her at lunch time. ‘And still be best friends when I come back?’
    ‘Yes, of course,’ said Rhiannon.
    She wasn’t really concentrating. She was looking over at Margot and Judy, who were huddled up looking at some stupid pop magazine. They were giggling and kissing their fingers and stroking all their favourite boy bands. Rhiannon giggled too, watching them.
    ‘You won’t make friends with Margot when I’m gone, will you?’ I said anxiously.
    ‘Give it a rest, Floss! Which part of Australia are you going to, anyway?’
    ‘Sydney.’
    ‘Is that near Brisbane? That’s where they make
Neighbours
.’
    We went to the library and found a big book about Australia.
    ‘Wow!’ said Rhiannon, flipping through pictures of bush and beaches and orange rocks and weird white buildings. ‘You are so lucky, Floss, it looks fantastic.’
    It didn’t seem like a
real
place. It was all too bright and highly coloured and bizarre, like a cartoon. I looked down at the parquet pattern on the library floor and tried to imagine myself going down down down for thousands of miles and then bobbing out in Australia.
    I’d never quite got to grips with geography. I knew the people in