Daisy and the Trouble With Unicorns
Page 5
When Gabby came to call for me this morning she had a smile as wide as a banana. She’d found so many food colourings in her mum’s kitchen drawer she’d had to carry them round in her school bag. (Without her mum knowing, of course.)
“Where’s your mum?” she whispered as we went upstairs to my bedroom.
“Sunbathing,” I said.
“Already?!” said Gabby. “It’s only half past nine!”
“She loves sunbathing,” I told her.
“She won’t come up and see us, will she?” said Gabby.
“Not if the sun’s shining,” I told her.
As soon as we got into my bedroom Gabby tipped her food colourings on to my bed. When I saw how many she had brought I nearly fainted! She had Sky Blue, Navy Blue, Royal Blue. There was Bright Pink, Deep Pink, Rose Pink. She had Lemon Yellow, Golden Yellow, Satsuma Orange, Sunset Orange, Melba Peach. There was Tulip Red, Cherry Red, Super Red. There was Violet. There was Mint Green. There was Turquoise. There was even Black!
“How many colours were you able to get?” Gabby asked.
“Holly Berry Red and Holly Leaf Green,” I said. Which was good actually, because Gabby hadn’t brought either of those.
The trouble with having so many colours to choose from is it was impossible to choose.
So I chose them all.
“ALL OF THEM?!” gasped Gabby.
“Yes,” I said. “Colour my hair like a rainbow! I bet unicorns absolutely love rainbows!”
Gabby agreed one hundred per cent. Well, ninety-nine.
“Maybe not black,” she said. “I’m not sure rainbows have black in them.”
“In that case, put all the other colours on my hair first,” I said, “and then we can decide whether to add the black as well afterwards.”
“Are you sure your mum won’t come up and see us?” Gabby asked.
“There isn’t a cloud in the sky,” I said, looking out of my bedroom window to make sure my mum was still lying on her back. “Start colouring!”
The trouble with colouring hair like a rainbow is it takes a bit of practice at first. Especially if you’ve never coloured someone’s hair with food colouring before. Doubly especially if you haven’t brought anything to actually put the colours on with either.
The trouble with pouring the colours on is sometimes too much comes out of the bottle all at once. Which means the colouring doesn’t just go on your hair, it runs down your hair and on to the shoulders of your T-shirt too.
So Gabby tried dabbing the colour on with her fingers instead.
The trouble with dabbing colour on with your fingers is it didn’t just put colour on to my hair, it put colour on to Gabby’s fingers too.
So Gabby tried wrapping her fingers in loo roll first, to see if that made it easier.
The trouble with colouring hair with fingers wrapped up in loo roll is the colours soak through the loo roll and colour your fingers even more.
“I hope the colours come out,” said Gabby, sucking her fingers.
“You’ve got the colours on your lips now,” I said.
“Oops!” she said, wiping her lips with the back of her hand.
“Now you’ve got the colours on the back of your hand!” I laughed.
Thank goodness I found a paint brush in my craft drawer!
Once I’d found a paint brush small enough for Gabby to use, we were in business! All Gabby had to do was dip the brush in the colouring bottles and paint the rainbow stripes on my hair!
“Here I go!” said Gabby, doing her first dip and then painting the first stripe.
“Try not to move,” she said, “I don’t want the rainbow to be wobbly.”
“How’s it looking?” I asked, after she’d done some of the reds, blues and yellows.
“REALLY GOOD!” said Gabby.
“How’s it looking now?” I said after she’d done some of the oranges, pinks and greens.
“I think some of the stripes need to dry a bit,” said Gabby, “but I’m sure when they do, they’ll look even better than a rainbow!”
“If you were a unicorn and you saw my hair, would you be jealous?” I asked.
“DEFINITELY,” said Gabby.
“Do you think Hughnicorn looks jealous?” I smiled.
“Deffo!” said Gabby.
“Do you think Prunicorn looks jealous?”
“Double deffo!!” laughed Gabby.
“I can’t wait to see what I look like.” I grinned.
“I can’t wait to show you!” smiled Gabby.
I don’t know how many colourings we had for our rainbow stripes but it took absolutely ages to paint them all on.
“TA DAH!” said Gabby, finally leading me into the bathroom, standing me in front of the bathroom mirror and then telling me to open my eyes.
“Which colour is which?” I asked, opening my eyes but expecting to see a bit more of a rainbow than I was seeing.
“I can’t exactly remember. I think this browny-reddish stripe is the Cherry Red.” She pointed. “This browny-yellowish stripe is the Golden Yellow, this browny-greenish stripe is Mint Green, and this browny-pinkish stripe is definitely Deep Pink.”
“I thought you weren’t going to use black?” I said, pointing to the darkest stripe of all.
“That’s the Royal Blue,” said Gabby.
“It’s a bit more browny than I was hoping,” I said, starting to wonder whether Gabby was as good at doing rainbows as she said.
“Don’t forget your hair is quite brown in the first place,” said Gabby, “and don’t forget the colours haven’t dried properly yet. When you get out into the sunshine I’m sure the stripes will look just like a rainbow.”
“Will they sparkle too?” I asked. “I’d REALLY like them to sparkle.”
“You bet they will, I’m going to make sure of it!” she said, grabbing me by the hand and tugging me back into the bedroom. “Wait till you see my special sparkly ingredient!” she said, sitting me back on my bed and then unzipping the front pocket of her school bag. “If this doesn’t make your rainbow colours sparkle, nothing will!”
The trouble with glitter glue is it doesn’t just have glitter in it, it has glue in it too. So when Gabby started painting glitter glue stripes on to my hair, things got a little bit sticky.
“I think that’s enough sparkle,” said Gabby, when the paint brush started sticking to my ear. “Let’s go and show your mum!”
CHAPTER 15
“SURPRISE!” we shouted, stepping out into the garden to show Mum my new rainbow hair!
The trouble with waking up my mum when she’s sunbathing is I think she got cross before she even had the time to get surprised.
She was definitely more cross than surprised. Definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely.
“OH MY GOOD GIDDY AUNT, WHAT ON EARTH HAVE YOU DONE TO YOUR HAIR, DAISY?” she gasped.
“Coloured it!” I said.
“And sparkled it!” said Gabby.
“Like a rainbow!” I said, just in case she hadn’t worked that bit out.
I can’t tell you what my mum said after that. Your ears would fall off I did. And your eyeballs would fall out. And your eyebrows would fall off.
She definitely wasn’t very happy with my new rainbow hair though. AT ALL.
I can tell you she rang Gabby’s mum straight away and asked her to take Gabby home. Then she made me get straight in the bath and wash my hair about a hundred times. In the middle of the actual day!
“What were you thinking!” she said, tipping another whole bottle of shampoo on my head and then rubbing my hair really hard. “Thank goodness you don’t have to go to school for the next five weeks!”
“I wanted to colour my hair like a unicorn, that’s all,” I said.
“Children do not colour their own hair!” said my mum. “Especially like a unicorn!”
“You colour your own hair!” I said.
“Not like a unicorn I don’t!” she said.
“Gabby’s Nana Pru
does!” I said. “Gabby’s Nana Pru colours her hair ACTUAL BLUE! SHE looks like a unicorn. She said so herself!”
My mum still stayed cross though.
“I told you before, Daisy, Gabby’s Nana Pru is a lady of a certain age! That’s what ladies of a certain age do!” she said.
“Well, I’m a girl of a certain age and I am certain I want my hair to be rainbow coloured!”
But Mum still wouldn’t listen.
She rubbed my hair and she scrubbed my hair and she pulled glue from my hair and then she started all over again!
And then … can you believe it …
SHE CONFISCATED MY UNICORN!
So Hughnicorn is living in my loft at the moment, really high up out of reach.
Prunicorn is living really high up in Gabby’s loft at the moment too.
They didn’t use helium balloons to float themselves up there either.
I don’t think I’ll be seeing Hughnicorn for a while now.
SIGH.
I don’t think Gabby will be seeing Prunicorn for a while either.
I really, really, really wish Gabby and Hughnicorn and Prunicorn were here with me now.
TRIPLE SIGH.
They’d absolutely LOVE our new rainbow-coloured bath!
Daisy’s Trouble Index
The trouble with …
Unicorns 1
Being a guest of honour 6
Presents 10
Sky Pirate All Action Stunt Kites 13
Rolls of wrapping paper 15
Blunt scissors 15
Sticky tape 16
Really exciting birthday presents 31
Kites 41
Stargazer telescopes 41
3D jigsaws 42
Growing bonsai trees 43
Juggling 44
Science kits 46
Straightening our hair 47
Bath bombs 48
Getting on Gabby’s new bike 56
Being asked if you’ve eaten all the birthday tea 61
Special presents 79
Your eyeballs having a heart attack 82
Birthday balloons 94
Finally reaching the balloon 102
BALLOONICORNHONEY-MOONICORNS 115
Stairs 121
Experiments 126
BALLOONICORN experiments 128
Rose bushes 142
Someone saying “a unicorn each” 153
Being given a guest of honour present 154
Slices of rainbow birthday cake 157
New bikes 177
Dying your hair unicorn colours 214
Unicorn colours 215
Sucked toffee 217
Colouring pens 218
Having so many colours to choose from 226
Colouring hair like a rainbow 228
Pouring the colours on 229
Dabbing colour on with your fingers 229
Colouring hair with fingers wrapped up in loo roll 230
Glitter glue 238
Waking my mum up when she’s sunbathing 241
THE BEGINNING
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First published 2021
Character concept copyright © Kes Gray, 2021
Text copyright © Kes Gray, 2021
Illustration concept copyright © Nick Sharratt, 2021
Interior illustrations copyright © Garry Parsons, 2021
Cover illustrations copyright © Garry Parsons, 2021
Unicorn illustration on pages 255-258 © shutterstock
The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted
ISBN: 978-1-787-62087-2
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