Gracie Rose | tracy beaker returns {on hiatus}

10

Curry night. Most of the time, it's my favourite night. But not this time.

We'd gone out to the shopping centre during the day to have a big shopping spree. It sounded perfect: the girls shopping for clothes, the boys shopping for games, a Subway at lunchtime so that we weren't too full for curry, it was the perfect plan for the day. However, things never go perfect when the dumping ground crew are around. We all should've known something was bound to go wrong, and by wrong, I mean being kicked out of the shopping centre, and being called names by skanky teenagers.

EARLIER THAT DAY

"Come on everyone! Onto the minibus!" Mike said with excitement. We were all really looking forward to a day out before having curry night. We were heading to the shopping centre to have some fun, because it felt like ages since we'd been out. I got onto the minibus and sat in my normal seat, next to Tracy. She was in a great mood, and so was everyone else, which was great.

"Are you excited?" Tracy asked with a giggle.

"Of course," I said. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Tracy smiled. "We're going to have a great day. I want to take you somewhere while we're there, is that alright?"

"Yes of course!" I replied. Tracy squeezed my hand with excitement.

Once everyone was strapped in, we were off. It was about a 20 minute drive to the shopping centre, but we knew how to entertain ourselves. The music was blasting and we were all having a dance party in our seats, passing sweets around to give us a sugar rush. Sapphire chose the CD to play, and it was all dance and pop music, which is what most of us liked.

"Mike switch that off!" Liam shouted.

"Yeah, this is rubbish!" Frank continued.

"Guys, you're not always going to like what music we put on, but you just have to deal with it." Gina said.

They both started moaning, so we all just carried on enjoying ourselves.

"So where do you want to take me?" I asked Tracy.

"I'm not telling you, it's a surprise!" Tracy replied with a smile. I couldn't wait.

When we arrived at the shopping centre, we went to grab a Subway for lunch. Because I'm boring, I got plain ham and cheese, but of course I got it toasted. We sat in a couple of groups so that we weren't taking up the whole floor area. I sat with Tracy, Carmen, Tee, Liam and Frank, and we had some great conversations.

"I'm just going to go and ask Mike something, I'll be back in a sec," Tracy said. She got up and left us to eat, but she just seemed to leave at the complete wrong time. A group of teenage boys walked past us and burst out laughing.

"What's this? A school trip?" they sniggered.

"Shut up," Liam said back.

"It's Saturday. What is this?" they asked us.

"Well if you must know, we live in a children's care home, and we're having a day out. What's your problem?" Carmen blurted out.

They ran away when they saw Tracy coming back.

"Did they say anything to you?" Tracy asked. We all shook our heads. Although we were lying, it would cause less trouble if we didn't say anything.

After lunch, we split up into groups. Each group were going to a different part of the shopping centre, and then we planned to meet in the middle when everyone was finished shopping. I followed Tracy and the girls to do my shopping, especially seeing as Tracy told me she was taking me somewhere.