Invisible Girl
Gabriella Midwinter used to have a home. She wasn’t invisible back then…For fans of Cathy Cassidy and Jacqueline Wilson, a stunning new novel from the author of SHINE, GLITTER, SEA OF STARS and A MILLION ANGELS.“What’s strange is that the day it actually happened, everything seemed so normal.”Caught between arguing parents and moving house, twelve-year-old Gabriella somehow slips through the cracks. Now she’s more alone than ever before. The city streets are no place for young girls but they’re all she’s got.Unless she can find her brother Beckett.Unless she can find her home.
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For Dawne, Susie, Susannah, Rachel, Helen,
Emma, Becky and Clea…
May we dance in this glorious fire of tea-drinking, wine-sipping, heart-sharing friendship until our old bones return to dust and all that laughter and all those tears are heard as Love, echoing through the glittering hallways of eternity. X
For Mathilda, Freddie and Ella…
For your truly wonderful dads, Mike and Pete, you touch my heart with your enthusiasm and generosity – thank you both so much. x
Contents
Chapter 3 - When that happened
An Excerpt from A Sea of Stars
An Excerpt from A Million Angels
About the Publisher
Foreword by Andy McCullough – Head of Policy for the charity Railway Children
You may be surprised to know 100,000 children in the UK run away from home or care every year. Many are thrown out, no longer wanted in the family. The majority of children say family problems and issues are the main reason for them running.
Often when you end up running away you feel you have got rid of your problems; however, you usually substitute them for other problems. Being out on the streets is lonely, cold and really dangerous. We know that there are always people who will exploit young people and use them for profit and power.
I have worked in the field of social care for over twenty-seven years, but some of my training was as a child myself, spending a lot of time on the streets, having run away. I met a lot of good people whilst out there, people who had grown up in care, been kicked out by their family or had become detached, but always, like a dark shadow, there were people who wanted to use you to make sure they were better off.
Gabriella’s story is an important one to hear. Who knows, it may make you think a little differently when you pass a child on the streets…
Railway Children is a registered charity, no.1058991
Visit www.railwaychildren.org.uk
Most days drift by like clouds. Others burn deep into your life and make a blister, like a bright white moon in a black night sky.
And you’re left wondering, forever.
Then, I might as well have been invisible for all Dad and Amy cared. They’d been busy making massive decisions about my life without even thinking about me, or bothering about how I might feel. They’d obviously been plotting and planning for weeks, whispering under the covers at night, painting the walls of our flat with lies.
The day had been creeping towards me like a tiger in the dark with its amber eyes glinting, for ages. The shouting had been getting worse. Dad had started spending more and more money we didn’t have. He’d broken his promise and started using credit cards again, to keep Amy happy. But it didn’t work. Amy just got madder and madder, her screeching making her face flush pink and her lips turn white with rage.
What’s strange is that the day it actually happened everything seemed so normal. Dad ignored me, his eyes glued to Daybreak on the telly and Amy hogged the bathroom for so long I thought I was going to wet myself. In the end I couldn’t wait any longer, so I picked up my bag and raced off to school with a piece of toast and jam between my teeth without even saying goodbye.
If I’d known I was never going to sleep in my bed again or sit on our sofa or lie in our bath under the bubbles, I might’ve snuggled down in the warm a bit longer, soaked up that feeling of home. I might have given Dad a kiss, begged him to change his mind; at least I could’ve asked him why. I’d definitely have grabbed more toast.
Toast would’ve been good because I had no idea how hungry I’d get, or how cold.
The most annoying thing though, apart from what Dad did, is that he didn’t put my little photo of Beckett with the letter. I hadn’t seen or heard from Beckett or Mum for seven years, nothing at all since the day they left. So not having the photo made everything so much harder.
Things were fine when it was just Dad and me. We never really talked about anything important, but we were OK. I missed Beckett loads and wished he could’ve stayed with us, but I was relieved Mum had gone. I hadn’t felt scared in the morning for ages. I hadn’t had to hide under my covers at night, smothering my sobs by biting on Blue Bunny’s ear. And although Dad never bought flowers, like my best friend Grace’s mum does every Friday, our flat was still nice; it was our cosy home.
But that was before Amy came along and ruined everything. I could tell she didn’t want me around from the start. The way she kept glaring at me and sighing; the way she got into a huff if Dad so much as even looked at me. She kept clinging to him like tangled ivy up a wall, batting her spidery eyelashes, whispering in his ear. If I were a piece of old furniture, Amy could have taken me along to the tip with all the other old stuff that belonged to Mum. It would’ve made it much easier for her to chuck me out of her life, to pretend I’d never existed.
