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''The Diamond Girls'' is a children's novel by Jacqueline Wilson. The main protagonist and narrator is Dixie Diamond, the (current) youngest in a family of four sisters, all from different fathers. Their mother, (Sue), who is now expecting another child, which she believes to be a boy, decides to move them from their home in a flat on a council estate to a larger council house. However, when Dixie moves towards changing her new 'brother's' nappy, she realises he's a girl, and that her mother has been pretending out of her longing for a boy. Dixie tries to comprehend the actions of her family whilst hiding the secret of their new neighbour, Mary, who is abused by her apparently depressed mother. Dixie's sisters are Martine, Jude, and Rochelle. ==Plot== The Diamond Girls is centred around the lives of four sisters named Martine, Jude, Rochelle and Dixie. Their mother, Sue, who is pregnant with her fifth child, reveals they are moving house to an area called the Planet Estate. All her children are unhappy about this, especially as their current three-bedroom flat in the North Block in Bletchworth Estate has been their best flat so far. She is an avid believer in astrology, tarot cards, the stars and destiny, and thus believes she is having a boy, and she is obsessed with the idea to the extent that she ignores her children's wishes, and she is especially angry with Martine, who is furious at her mother for making them move house, and refuses to come with them. Martine stays around at her boyfriend Tony's nearly all the time, until Sue's patience disappears and she goes round to Tony's flat, and bangs on the door, and starts an argument with Tony's mother, Martine joining in. Martine refuses to help pack or get ready to move, and stays with Tony even on Friday night, before they move on Saturday. Sue is determined Martine will come with them, regardless of her children's scepticism, and on the morning of the move, whilst Sue, Jude, Rochelle and Dixie are preparing to load the removal van Sue's old boyfriend (and Dixie's father) Terry has hired for them, somebody knocks on the door. Sue rushes to the door, convinced it is Martine, but it is a man with goofy teeth and a bad haircut, wearing glasses, called Bruce, who is the man with the removal van. He wants to help, but cannot do much on the account that he has a bad back. Sue manages to persuade him into taking the duvet filled with Martine's clothes into the van. Martine sees, and runs out of Tony's flat, shouting at him, thinking Sue is chucking out her clothes. Sue manages to persuade Martine into coming, saying she needs her to help her look after the baby, even though Martine was initially determined to stay with Tony, who she claims is her true love. Martine says goodbye to Tony, and Sue and her other daughters and Bruce (as well as some boys Jude has persuaded to help) finish packing up the van. Tony kisses Martine, and one of the boys Jude persuaded to help pack the van tries to kiss ''Jude'', but Jude punches him in the stomach. They leave, and although Sue is happy to leave, she is crying with emotion. Dixie asks her if she is alright and Sue says she is, claiming this is the start of their brand new life. She remains optimistic, but the excitement wears off her eventually, and the girls long before, as they begin to tire of the long journey ahead. A little way into the journey, they stop at a service station to eat lunch. Even Martine gives in and has something, and the other girls, Bruce and Sue get something. It looks like Sue expects Bruce to pay for their lunch as well as help them move their things, but Bruce evades this prospect by running to a table after paying for his food. The bill comes to £36.99 for Sue's and the girls' food. Sue pays, irritated by the cost. It becomes apparent that she has little money left in her purse after paying, even though she has to pay Bruce for moving their things. After they sit down, Sue tries to talk to Bruce, although he is quiet and unresponsive. The other girls have little interest in him at all, seeing him as the removal man and nothing more. Dixie, however takes a liking to Bruce, seeing him as her uncle. She strikes up a conversation with him, although she becomes upset when Bruce reveals that Terry, her father and his friend through work, has a wife, Stella and three daughters, after Dixie asks her to talk about her father, unintentionally upsetting her. Dixie goes to the toilet, thinking about her father, until Sue, not knowing where she is, shouts for her. Dixie comes out, miserable, her mother more interested in going to their new house, although she does ask Dixie where she has been. Bruce is apologetic to Dixie, and is more friendly to her. The journey progresses, Sue and Dixie discussing their new house and the baby. They move through grim motorways for a long time, and they then branch off into a bleak town, full of ugly square buildings, torn down posters and scribbled over walls. Sue is disgusted by the appearance of the town, believing they are only passing through, although she does not see Bruce's grim expression. The girls, horrified, pay attention, looking around, especially Dixie, who is frightened. Sue remains oblivious, talking to Bruce and even to the baby. Bruce pulls up at a grim house, which is revealed to be theirs, on Mercury Street, number 30. The house is frightening and rundown, and is even more worse than their previous home on the Bletchworth Estate. Sue, horrified, panics, claiming their real house is different, that the girl who discussed moving houses with her down at the council showed her lovely photos of their real house, with a prettily painted house and flowers in the garden. Martine, disgusted by her mother's ignorance and stupidity, alerts her to the fact that the girl down at the council obviously showed her pictures of the house years ago, when it was brand new. She has a go at Sue, although Jude tells her to shut up. Sue, refusing to admit her huge mistake, goes through the house, which is equally filthy and unkempt. She phones the Housing Department, and desperately pleads her case to them, but they ignore her. Sue, giving in and angry, cries on the floor. Bruce, anxious to get back to his house, tries to get her and the girls to help, but they refuse, all except Dixie. As Sue pulls herself together and they start to clean up, Dixie goes over the wall at the back of the garden and into the garden of one of the rich, prettily painted houses, and makes friends with a little girl called Mary. On Dixie's return, she helps Sue clean in the bathroom and explains what she has been doing, until they hear shouting. Dixie and Sue run outside, to see Jude and Rochelle with some boys, arguing. Rochelle is angry because of Jude's intervention to protect her, and Jude is angry because the boys are hitting on her sister and because of Rochelle's stupidity. After things get risky, one fat boy insults Rochelle and Jude, and Jude punches him, though she is overpowered by another of the boys, who slam her up against the van. A boy who is particularly good looking, with an earring, dark curly hair and a black scarf, like a pirate, who Rochelle flirted with, insults her. Jude says something rude back, and spits in the face of the boy who attacked her. As he looks about to punch her, Bruce intervenes and the boys, although initially fighting back, run off. Jude and Rochelle continue to argue, until Rochelle says something that makes Jude lose her temper, and she pushes Rochelle over, who is wearing her best red suede high heels. Rochelle sees the good looking boy is still watching her. Embarrassed and angry, Rochelle stands up and scratches Jude. They begin to fight. Martine attempts to intervene, and trues to stop, but Jude accidentally punched her in the shoulder, and Martine is even going as far as whacking the girls round the heads with her shoe when they take no notice, but this proves completely ineffective. Sue staggers up to them with a bucket of water. She pours it over them, and although it stops the fight, they are all still furious, even Dixie. They do not notice Sue is silent. She has dropped the bucket and is bent over, clutching her stomach and whimpering in pain. It is obvious she has broken her waters. Bruce, white with shock and horror, quickly tells them to help him get Sue in the van, as he is prepared to drive her to the hospital. Only Dixie is willing at first to help, but the other girls give in and co-operate. Within minutes, Sue is in one of the beds in the van, and she persuades Martine to come with her to help her. Martine gets in, and they drive off. It turns out, to make things worse, that nothing electrical will work. Dixie, Jude and Rochelle try to get some of the things organised, but they give up. Jude goes out for fish and chips, and also comes back with Coke and some matches. They eat, and Dixie reveals that she knows somewhere they can get candles – from her friend Mary. Jude and Rochelle at first think she is messing around, but Jude comes round to Mary's house with her. They ring the doorbell, and a beautiful woman, with long shoulder-length curly blonde hair and cornflower blue eyes, answers the door. She at first is wary, thinking they are begging, but after they explain that Dixie is friends with Mary, she goes in to get the candles. Jude becomes impatient and she begins to walk off, Dixie following her, but then Mary's mother comes back out with the candles. They take them and thank her, and Mary's mother smiles. She goes back in, and Dixie hears her calling for Mary, and then the sound of a slap, and somebody crying. Dixie cannot help worrying about Mary and the slap. She decides to put it to one side, thinking there is nothing she can do. Later in the evening, Martine and Bruce come back. They explain that she has not had the baby yet, but that Sue is not in strong labour yet, although she appeared to be in the van. The girls are worried sick, but decide it is best to wait. Bruce fixes the electrics when Dixie tells him what is wrong with them. He is willing to get off, although he is eventually swayed when Dixie begins to cry, and he promises to come back the next day to take them to see Sue and the baby in the hospital. Early in the morning, Dixie hears Martine being sick in the bathroom, and she is curious to what is going on. Sue comes home the next day in a taxi with the baby, who she says was born at one o'clock that morning. Sue seems about to reveal something to Dixie, but she does not when the other girls rush up, worried about her. Even they are enamored with the baby, even though they thought they would not be. Dixie and Sue have already picked a name, 'Sundance', inspired by the western film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Bruce arrives shortly after, with croissants and orange juice for breakfast, more food for lunch and tea, nappies for the baby and flowers for Sue. Jude goes off, though Martine tries to stop her. They clean up the house, and Dixie sneaks off to see Mary. Mary is evasive and quiet, and Dixie discovers why, horrified, that she sees that Mary's nails are cut right back to the quick. Mary says that her mother did it. Dixie does not know what to do, although she hates the way Mary is treated. She goes back to her house after she is finished playing with Mary. As time goes on, Sue goes back on her word and only lets Dixie help take care of the baby, not letting Martine or the other girls near him, although Sue claims it is because she is still bonding with him. Dixie eventually changes Sundance's nappy, as Sue, still recovering from giving birth, is tired and sore, and lets Martine wash her in the bathroom. Dixie, shocked, discovers when she takes Sundance's nappy off, that he is not a little boy, but unmistakably a little girl. Wondering what to do, Dixie, in disbelief, changes Sundance. Dixie hides the nappy in the drawer of Rochelle's dressing table, desperate for Sue not to find out that she now knows the truth. She bumps into Martine, and tries to tell her about Sundance, but Martine refuses to listen, and goes upstairs to phone Tony. There is a knock at the door, and Dixie goes to answer it. Rochelle flounces in, and tells Dixie that Ryan – the good looking boy that Rochelle flirted with – is now her boyfriend. Dixie disapproves, and she says she is worried that Sue will find out, but Rochelle threatens that if she tells, she'll rip Bluebell's head off her shoulders. Rochelle goes off, and there is another knock at the door, and Dixie lets Jude in, whose nose and her knuckles are bleeding, and she reveals she has been in a fight when she went out, with some boys she came across. Bruce cleans her up, and worried about her, offers to teach her a martial art specially for women – and 'for weedy blokes like ()' – called Wing Chun. Jude accepts, and they begin practising, Bruce teaching Jude the basic positions. Dixie leaves them and goes to see Sue, who is asleep, and tries to pick her up without her noticing, but Sue wakes up. Angry, she tells Dixie to leave her be, and she does, but even so, Dixie confronts her mother with what she knows. Sue refuses to acknowledge it, but Dixie grills her, and seconds later, she admits the truth, but begs Dixie to keep quiet. Dixie agrees. Dixie continues to help Sue, but she is clearly unhappy with her secrecy. Dixie goes to visit Mary again, bringing her Barbie dolls with her to play with, but Mary is not in the garden. Instead, she encounters Mary's father, who is busy gardening with a pair of shears. He brings Dixie inside their immaculate house to eat lunch with Mary, who is in trouble for not eating her crusts. Mary's mother is clearly irritated and suspicious by Dixie coming over, but she pretends to be painstakingly polite. Dixie eats lunch with her, including sandwiches and cake. When she asks for a glass of water, thinking that if Mary's mother goes to get it, she can eat Mary's crusts for her, but Mary's father goes instead, Mary's mother staying looming over Mary. Mary's mother insists that she should go, but she wraps up some cake for her. Dixie dares to ask if they hit Mary, but they decline. Mary's dad ushers her out, explaining that from what Mary's mother tells him, Mary can be quite difficult. He reminds her that she has forgotten her Barbie dolls. Dixie dashes back for them, and is horrified to see Mary's mother pinching Mary's nose and ramming the crusts down her throat, so her head jolts back. Mary's mother notices her and makes a cruel, witty comment 'There! Mary's eaten up all her crusts like a good girl.' Dixie runs for Mary's dad, who praises Mary, but Dixie does not know if he's seen what happened. Dixie decides there is no point in telling, and grabs her Barbie dolls. She dumps the cake underneath a bush and runs back to her house. Rochelle goes out to see Ryan, although Jude tries to stop her. Dixie tells Bruce and Jude that she thinks she knows why Rochelle might have gone. Dixie goes out to McDonalds with Bruce and Jude in Bruce's van, convinced that Rochelle and Ryan are going to get into trouble, or more accurately, she is worried that Ryan is going to hurt Rochelle. Ryan turns out to be harmless and good-hearted, but Bruce still demands that they come back to the house, especially after Dixie gets into a fight with Rochelle, and Rochelle and Ryan anger Jude. When they arrive back, Bruce is determined to get the furniture moved into the house properly and sorted out, saying that the girls 'need to be taken in hand'. Sue takes offence at it, even though Bruce meant no harm and only wanted to help. She shouts at him, but Dixie manages to calm her down. Sue quietens and nurses Sundance. Martine, Jude and Rochelle are staggered that Sue listened, as she is usually incapable of shutting up at all when she is on a rant. Martine refuses to help, claiming she has a stomach-ache, and Dixie agrees with this, saying that she heard her being sick in the night. She means to help, but Martine tells her to shut up. They begin to move the furniture with Bruce's help, but whilst they are shifting Rochelle's dressing table into one of the bedrooms, the drawer with the nappy in it shoots out, and the nappy goes flying. It lands on Bruce. Trying to shake it out of his hair, he dodges sideways, only to yell out in pain. It turns out he has done his back in. He commandeers Sue's mattress, whilst she is forced to therefore relocate herself temporarily upstairs, until Bruce recovers. Sue takes place in Rochelle's bed upstairs, to Rochelle's dismay, Martine, Jude and Rochelle being forced to help her move her stuff. Dixie's sisters are irritated when Sue once again picks Dixie to help her look after Sundance. They ask her why, which turns into an argument, ending in Sue shouting at them to clear off. The next morning, Dixie wakes up at dawn. She goes to help Sue, but she does not want her. She goes to Bruce and gives Sue her tea after she kindly makes Bruce a cup, but stops when she hears Martine being sick. Sue, angry, goes to speak to Martine. An argument breaks out. Dixie goes back down to Bruce, and says that she thinks Martine is going to have a baby. Bruce, horrified, says how she is mucking up her life. Martine hears him and begins insulting him. Sue attempts to put Martine in her place, saying how she is going to be the one looking after her and her baby, even though it is hard enough managing her own children. The tables are turned, completely, however, when Martine says Sue can't even look after herself, let alone the rest of them. She reminds her all the boyfriends who have left her, including the one-night stand who fathered Sundance, and whose name she probably didn't even know, and that she doesn't believe the story she spun about him being an artist. She even goes as far as calling her a slag. Afterwards, Martine packs up her stuff and leaves to go back to Bletchworth and live with Tony. Sue refuses to speak or listen to any of her children, although she is deeply grateful when Bruce sticks up for her, saying that she is not a slag at all, and that she is a great mother to her children, no matter what Martine says. Sue attempts to contact Tony's mother, but she only finds out that Martine is with her, before Ms Wingate cuts off the phone. After Dixie invites Mary over to their house, she gives her Bluebell, feeling sorry for her. Later, worrying that Mary's mother will have binned her like she did Mary's teddy bear, she goes into Mary's garden to see Mary standing at her bedroom window in her nightgown. It is clear she is in trouble. She is relieved to see she is holding Bluebell. Mary tries to say something, but Dixie cannot hear her. Dixie watches as Mary opens the window, and with horror remembers the words she said to Mary when she gave her Bluebell, just before she went home All you have to do is jump into the air and Bluebell will flap her wings and you'll both fly into my arms. Terrified, Dixie runs forward to catch Mary before she falls. She later wakes up in hospital, to find her sisters, Sue, Bruce and even her father gathered around her, Martine holding Sundance. It is revealed that she has been in a coma and that she has broken both her legs. Martine says she came back to them because Dixie was hurt, but also because she has left Tony after him and his mother insulted her and her family. Dixie is worried for Mary, but it is revealed that she is staying with her aunt and uncle after Mary's mother, who has post-natal depression, which caused her cruel behaviour to Mary, is now in the psychiatric ward in hospital. Sue then reveals that Sundance is a girl, not a boy, and Dixie says that she knew along. Sue says that she wanted to stay in her own little world, despite all the drama in their household, Rochelle getting a boyfriend, Jude fighting, Martine getting pregnant ( where Martine reveals that she is going to keep her baby)and that it took Dixie getting nearly dying to shock her back into her senses, and adds 'About blooming time and all!'. Martine says then, that maybe her baby will be a boy – Sue's first grandson. Sue says that they'll love it whether it's a boy or it's a girl, but hopes that it will be a girl. Then they'll all be Diamond girls together. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Diamond Girls」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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