The Magic Charm (5 page)

Antonia ran most of the way home, arriving back at exactly five thirty. Mum was in the kitchen dishing up their tea.

“Hello, darling. Did you have a good time?”

“Fantastic,” said Antonia, sliding into a seat at the table.

“Why’s your hair wet?” asked Jessica. “Have you been swimming?”

Mum spun round from the cooker and looked at Antonia properly.

“Antonia, what have you been doing? You didn’t go into the water without an adult, did you?”

“No,” said Antonia, crossing her fingers under the table and hoping that Spirit counted as an adult.

“So how come your hair is wet?” asked Mum anxiously.

Antonia uncrossed her fingers and scrunched them into two fat balls.

“We had a water fight.”

“What, you and Sophie?” said Jessica. “You two get all the fun.”

“Not Sophie, someone else,” said Antonia.

“Cai, the new boy?” said her mother, putting a steaming plate of lasagne down in front of her. “Well, I hope you’re not going to get so involved with Cai and Sea Watch that you forget about Sophie. She’s been a good friend to you, Antonia.”

A good friend! That was a joke. Sophie hadn’t wanted to work with her at school today and she’d let her take the blame for something she didn’t do. If it hadn’t been for Cai and her dolphin friends the day would have been horrible. At the thought of Sophie’s unkindness Antonia’s stomach flipped. What if she was still in a bad mood tomorrow and went off with Becky again? Antonia stared at the plate of lasagne. Suddenly she’d lost her appetite.

B
y midweek Antonia had never felt so miserable at school in her whole life. Lauren was still away and Becky stuck to Sophie like Velcro. Becky met them on their way to school, linking arms with Sophie so that Antonia was forced to trail behind alone. Thank goodness for Cai and Sea Watch to look forward to after school.

Frustratingly though, she still hadn’t managed
to talk to Claudia. On Tuesday, when she went to Sea Watch there were so many volunteers there, all from Sandy Bay Primary, she hardly even saw her.

“You two know what you’re doing,” Claudia told Antonia and Cai when they arrived. “Please can you see to Splash first?”

The seal barked a welcome, greedily nudging Antonia’s hand for fish. It was great fun playing with him. Antonia and Cai took him for a walk in the garden and he wriggled after them like a fat puppy. Afterwards they cleaned out his pen, fetched him fresh water, then took it in turns to feed him. Splash barked excitedly, trying to stick his whiskery face into the fish bucket.

Once again it was time to go home for tea all too soon. As Antonia left Sea Watch she tried not to feel disappointed that Claudia was still busy. She
had so many questions to ask, Antonia was scared she’d forget them if she didn’t speak to her soon.

“You never play with me any more,” Jessica complained as Antonia came into the kitchen just in time for tea.

Antonia knew how it felt to be left out, so after she’d eaten she let Jessica drag her off to her bedroom to play with dolls.

“My doll’s house people want to learn to swim,” said Jess.

Antonia made them a swimming pool in an old ice-cream tub, and swimming floats by cutting pieces from her bath sponge. Jessica was so thrilled she kept the game going for ages. By bedtime Antonia was exhausted. She piled her clothes in a heap and crawled into bed.

“I hope I don’t get a call tonight,” she thought, sleepily closing her fingers over her dolphin charm.
But she knew no matter how tired she was if Spirit called then she would go to him.

On Wednesday, the last lesson before lunch was PE. Antonia changed quickly, tucking her silver dolphin charm inside her T-shirt so that Miss Brown wouldn’t see it. There was no way Antonia was taking her necklace off. Apart from when Sophie tried it on at the beach, the necklace hadn’t left Antonia’s neck since she’d discovered she was a Silver Dolphin.

“Everyone ready?” said Miss Brown. “Good; walk down to the hall in pairs, please.”

Antonia slunk to the back of the line. She was getting used to being the odd one out and wasn’t going to ask Sophie to be her partner and give Becky the satisfaction of saying, “Sorry, Antonia, but Sophie’s going with me.”

The PE lesson was on jumping.
I wish I was doing this with Bubbles
, thought Antonia. She was far more graceful in the sea than on land and it was more fun leaping above the waves with her dolphin friend than charging around in the school hall.

“Antonia,” Miss Brown’s voice broke her concentration and Antonia landed awkwardly.

“I thought I asked you to remove all jewellery.”

Antonia’s hand flew to the dolphin charm that had worked itself out of her T-shirt. Blushing, she tucked it back inside.

“That’s not what I meant. Take it off, please.”

“But I can’t…”

“I beg to differ,” said Miss Brown coldly. “Remove that necklace right now.”

“No, I mean, I have to…” Panic froze Antonia’s brain and she was unable to string her words
together properly. She couldn’t take the necklace off. She’d promised Spirit she would always answer his call. How would she hear that call if she wasn’t wearing her necklace?

“Now, Antonia, or I will confiscate it for the rest of the day.”

The class fell silent. Antonia could feel all eyes on her as Miss Brown held out her hand for the necklace. She knew she didn’t have any option but to give it to her teacher. Miss Brown always carried out her threats and Antonia couldn’t risk losing the necklace for a whole day. Hot tears scalded her eyes and she swallowed, forcing them back. There was no way she was going to cry in front of the class. Very reluctantly she removed the necklace and handed it to Miss Brown.

“Please, be careful with it,” she squeaked as Miss Brown tucked it in her pocket. “It’s valuable.”

“If it’s that valuable then don’t bring it to school,” said Miss Brown. “Carry on, 5B, the show’s over.”

Becky giggled then hurriedly covered it with a cough as Miss Brown glared at her.

“Valuable?” Becky whispered unkindly. “Tacky rubbish. That’s what you said, didn’t you, Soph?”

Sophie went scarlet and mumbled something.

Antonia felt like slapping Becky, but forced her hands to remain by her side. Let Becky and Sophie think what they liked. That was the least of her problems. What if Spirit called for her right now? True, it would be difficult finding a way to sneak out of school, but it wasn’t impossible. Antonia remembered Bubbles telling her about the dolphin tangled in the fishing net that had died before the old Silver Dolphin had reached her. How could she live with herself if the same thing happened to her? And what if that dolphin was Bubbles?

Stop it
. It wasn’t helpful to think like that. PE only lasted for half an hour. It was unlikely that Spirit would call her in this short time so she must concentrate on getting through the lesson then ask for her necklace back.

Cai came towards her, jumping like a kangaroo.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get it back as soon as PE’s over,” he said. Then, smiling encouragingly, he hopped away. Antonia began to feel a little better.

At lunchtime Antonia looked for Cai, but she couldn’t find him anywhere.

“Where’s Cai?” she called to Toby, who was kicking a ball around with his friends.

“Dunno,” Toby panted.

The ball whizzed past Antonia’s feet and Toby nearly tripped her up racing for it.

“Out of the way,” he yelled.

Antonia moved quickly. She didn’t want to annoy Toby. He’d been really nice about letting her partner up with him and Cai, and she needed some friends right now. She wandered around on her own until the bell went for the end of lunch. Then Cai appeared, running across the playground to join 5B as they filed inside.

“Where’ve you been?” Antonia asked.

“Nowhere special,” said Cai vaguely.

Antonia was about to thank Cai for being nice in PE when she noticed Becky watching her. Becky whispered something to Sophie and the two girls sniggered. Then Becky puckered her lips and blew imaginary kisses in the air. “Ah, sweet,” she said in a silly voice.

Quickly Antonia said, “Can I walk with you to Sea Watch this afternoon, Cai?”

“Sorry, I meant to say before, it’s not on.
Claudia asked me to tell everyone that she’s got to go to a meeting,” said Cai. “So I’m going to Toby’s after school.”

Antonia felt utterly fed up. When would she ever get the answers to her questions?

T
he metal oil drum bobbed in the water as harmlessly as a log. “Don’t touch it,” Antonia warned Spirit. “Let me check it isn’t leaking first.”

She swam round it, carefully checking for holes, and dived under the water to examine it below.

“It’s fine,” she said, pushing her long hair out of her eyes as she surfaced. “Luckily there’s no damage.” “Is it poisonous?” asked Spirit.

“It might be,” said Antonia. She looked back at the drum. “We did chemicals at school. That square with the big black cross inside means the drum contains something harmful. It might be slightly dangerous or much worse. It could be poison. Whatever it is, we can’t leave it here. Let’s get it ashore and then I can ask my dad or someone from Sea Watch to arrange for it to be taken away.”

Antonia trod water, her legs moving together like a tail, while she thought about where best to land the drum.

“We’ll take it ashore here at Gull Bay,” she decided. “It’s usually deserted at this time on a Sunday morning whereas Sandy Bay beach sometimes gets early-morning swimmers.”

It was very early, even by Antonia’s standards. She’d been woken by the shrill whistling of her
dolphin charm and the movement of its tiny body vibrating against her neck.

Spirit!

She’d shot out of bed, thrown on her clothes and ran downstairs. In the kitchen she left a note for Mum and Dad telling them she was out helping at Sea Watch. Then sneaking out of the sleeping house she’d raced down the deserted path to Gull Bay. She’d known it was serious when she saw Spirit waiting for her at the cove’s entrance. The dolphins preferred to keep out at sea.

“Where did it come from?” she asked, as she positioned herself next to Spirit along the drum’s long edge.

“Who knows?” said Spirit wearily. “Things often fall off ships, even in good weather.”

Together they pushed the drum towards the beach; Spirit with his nose, Antonia using her
hands. She didn’t like touching the drum much, knowing that its contents were harmful, and vowed to be extra careful getting it ashore, so that it didn’t get punctured.

A gentle, incoming tide helped them push the drum along. Spirit swam as close to the beach as he dared without grounding himself.

“It’s up to you now, Silver Dolphin,” he clicked at last.

He nudged her encouragingly then swam back out to the open water. Responsibility weighed heavily on Antonia. She took a long, deep breath to remind herself that the difficult part was over.

“I can do this,” she whispered in her human voice. “I can.”

The drum bobbed away from her as the water grew shallower. She raced after it, her fingers scrabbling for its metal sides, and guided it towards
the beach. When it was too shallow to swim she rose gracefully from the water and splashed through the frothy waves. It was amazing the way her legs felt joined together one minute then separate the next. Antonia concentrated on rolling the drum ashore. The moment the drum left the water it felt ten times heavier. Antonia could hear liquid sloshing around inside as she rolled it up the beach. It was hard work; the further she went the sand became drier and more powdery, so it dragged brake-like against the barrel. Breathing heavily Antonia pushed the drum all the way to the top of the beach. She stood for a moment to catch her breath, then with a final rush of energy upended the barrel to stop it from rolling away.

“There,” she said, rubbing her hands in the sand to rid them of the metal feel that was setting her teeth on edge. “I did it.”

All that was left was for her to tell an adult to arrange for the drum to be taken away. She was about to head home when she noticed that Spirit was hovering out at sea. Her necklace began to vibrate again. Squinting into the early morning sun Antonia could see he’d been joined by a smaller dolphin.

“Bubbles!” she squealed.

No way was she going home without saying hello to her dolphin friend. Antonia raced to the sea and threw herself into the water.

Bubbles was ecstatic to see her too.

“Flipper Feet, you’re the best,” he whistled, butting her with his nose.

Bubbles wanted to play and Antonia readily agreed to stay. Her parents would know where she was, well, sort of, and it wasn’t as if she was doing anything special today. She dived after Bubbles,
chasing him along the seabed, darting round clumps of seaweed until she tagged him on the tail and it was his turn to chase her. When they grew tired of that game Bubbles showed Antonia the twister again.

“You make it look so easy,” Antonia complained.

“It is easy,” clicked Bubbles. “Watch me again.”

Antonia watched, marvelling at the effortless way Bubbles leapt out of the sea so he was standing on the water on his tail, then twisted round in a full circle. There was lots of laughing and splashing as Antonia practised the move until at last she could turn half a circle before her body collapsed and she crashed back into the water.

“Looking good, Silver Dolphin.” Bubbles rolled in the water to show his approval.

“Good? It was brilliant! I’d like to see you try
walking on land,” teased Antonia.

“But I don’t need to come ashore,” said Bubbles. “We dolphins keep to our own habitat.”

It was true, thought Antonia. And maybe it would be better if some humans stuck to their own habitat too.

“Don’t be sad,” said Bubbles, playfully smacking her legs with his tail. “You’re our friend.”

“Why me though?” asked Antonia.

She had been to Sea Watch every day she was free, but still hadn’t managed to have a private word with Claudia. Every time she’d sought her out the telephone rang or someone interrupted them. There was always so much to do at Sea Watch Antonia wondered how Claudia managed to find the time to sleep.