CHAPTER ONE: THE STORY OF TRACY BEAKER

My name is Tracy Beaker. I am ten years and two months old.

I have short frizzy hair that always tangles up and freckles and I'm really strong and VERY LOUD and I'm not afraid of anything and I never, ever cry.

I live in the minging Dumping Ground. I hate it here. I hate stupid Justine Littlewood always going on and on about her precious Dad and her stupid mickey mouse clock. Justine, it was a flipping knock off it didn't even have real Mickey mouse on it and even if it was rI bet your dad bought it from Disneyland with his new family on some posh holiday without you so there. Ha ha. That's for Justine if she ever tries to look at my writing. I hate Elaine the Pain, she's my social worker and she always wants me to do sodding things all the sodding time. It's not fair. All I want to do is sit and write and she makes me go and talk to one of the saddos like Louise or get some gruel from Duke. I've never seen him out of the kitchen I think he lives there. And then she gets mad at me when I get stroppy because I have to talk to them! And it's not my fault I've got anger issues and behavioural problems.

So then I get sent to the quiet room for being too rowdy. As if I even care. The only problem is that the quiet room upsets my hayfever. At least I can write in here which is what I wanted to do in the first place. I am going to be a famous writer one day, not like lezza Cam who wants to foster me, because she is a writer too. But her books are for lesbians and nobody reads them. No. I'm waiting for my mum to come back from Hollywood and arrive at the Dumping Ground in her fancy pink limozine and we'll drive away. And then maybe she'll star in the movie version of my book. My mum is a famous actress. This is probably why I'm such a dramatic person.

When I get out of the Quiet Room there's a new boy sitting next to Peter. He looks sort of like Peter. All scrawny and blonde. Except he was wearing actual rags. I know nobody here knows nothing about trends and fashion, not like me, I never go out of style, but seriously he looked all old fashioned and tragic.

'Who is this?' I ask

'Tracy, this is a new child and he's from France!' Elaine the Pain said, with a stupid big fake grin.

'Ow' do you do? My name's Gavroche,' he sang, and help out his dirty little hand to me.

'Tracy Beaker.' I said, 'if your from France why do you have a cockney accent?'

Gav took his hat off and held it in his hands and sort of looked down at the floor like a pathetic loser, 'me mum and dad ran an inn and there's lots of English people in france and I got their accent too.'

'Oh. Ok.'

'Tracy,' said Elaine the Pain, 'Cam has come to see you. She's in the office. Let's go and see her.'

I pulled a stupid face with my tongue and told Gav 'l8r losa'. Then I went to the office to see Cam.

CHAPTER TWO: FOLLOW ME

When I got into the office lezza Cam was sat there leafing through my file and all my personal details.

'Oi! Cam! What are you doing that's my private stuff, bog off!' I shouted at her and grabbed my file.

'Tracy!' Elaine the Pain shouted at me, 'stop it!'

Cam looked up at me with her silly black eyebrows on her stupid face and said, 'Tracy, I was only trying to find out more about you.'

'Well ruddy ask me then instead of going through my big file. That's all private stuff about how I have anger issues and behavioural problems.'

My allergies started to flair up again but I didn't cry, I never ever cry.

'Tracy, I know you have behavioural problems and anger issues. You tell me every time I visit the Dumping Ground. But I've been giving it a lot of thought. And Tracy, I know that you are only looking to have a foster home.'

'No I'm not. I don't care about bogging foster homes. I want my mum to take me to hollywood.'

'I understand, but until then you want to get away from the Dumping Ground and have a proper home don't you?' she asked me.

I said, 'yeah obviously I don't want to be here with these idiots.'

'But Tracy, I've been thinking. I'd love you to be a part of my family,' Cam said, 'I want to adopt you.'

I thought adoption is what happens to babies when they are still in the belly and not when they are already ten years old in the care system. I didn't even know how you could abort a big strong girl. I wasn't going to let lezza Cam do that to me, 'no way! I'm not going to be killed by you! I don't want you to abort me and I never want to see your face here ever again!'

I stropped out. Cam and Elaine started running after me but I'm the fastest person there ever was. Then I was running through the hallway and bumped into Gav who was just standing in my way, 'bog off Gav.'

'Where are you going?' he asked.

'None of your business,' I said.

'It could be,' he said and gave a stupid smile.

'What are you talking about you french tosser?'

'Think your poor, think your free, follow me, follow me,' he said and he crept open the cupboard door under the stairs. I couldn't see anything different about it but I could hear the sound of Cam and Elaine the Pain catching up to us. I squeezed in and then shut the door.

'In french the word paine means bread,' said Gav. Then suddenly...we were gone.