‘Rubby!’ Thing yelped in delight, immediately whacking the locker door open on to Jackson’s fingers. (Ouch.)
PHREEEEEEEEPPPPPPP!!!!
I shot straight up, and found myself looking at a huge bloke in short shorts and a tight Dolphin Leisure Centre T-shirt, with a whistle around his neck.
‘Oi, little girl! Female Changing Rooms over there! OK?’ he bellowed, chucking a thumb behind him.
‘OK!’ I mumbled.
With that, the lifeguard gave a grunt and was gone, on his way to save lives or blow his whistle at someone else doing something they shouldn’t.
‘Phew …’ I sighed in relief, turning to face Jackson. ‘Thank goodness he didn’t see—’
I froze, as soon as I saw Jackson’s face.
I could tell a complete disaster had happened.
Or worse.
‘Thing panicked when it heard the whistle, Ruby!’ he said at high speed. ‘It ran away – that way!’
That way?
That way led out to the foyer, and the front doors!
Heaps of people would be there, milling around or queuing to get in.
A small, skittering, wild-eyed Thing would stand out like a sardine in a box of chocolates!
I held my breath for a second, bracing myself to hear screaming – but there was just a distant hubbub of chit-chat.
Maybe we still had time?
‘Come on,’ I urged Jackson, shoving him, his bashed fingers and his terrible towel disguise towards the door at the far end of the changing room.
FLIP!
We were out in the main corridor, with the foyer just beyond.
‘Wait!’ I told Jackson, pulling him out of sight behind a handy vending machine.
From here we could JUST about scan the foyer, AND hide the fact that we were only dressed in our swimmies.
‘Dada! Want one!’ a tiny girl was demanding, pointing at some sweets or crisps or yummy something in the machine.
‘See anything?’ whispered Jackson.
‘Nope,’ I replied, quite pleased to have the tiny girl and her uninterested Dad as cover, as well as the vending machine.
‘Not now, Shannon,’ the dad said flatly, as he carried on some separate conversation on his mobile.
‘But, Dada, I want it! Pleeeeaaasssse!!’
‘How about those chairs over there?’ hissed Jackson, nodding his head towards a cluster of orange plastic seats, near the pay desks.
‘Shannon, I said no!!’ snapped the dad, phone still clamped to the side of his head.
‘I’ll check …’ I mumbled to Jackson, sliding down on to my bare knees, so I could get a semi-decent, long-distance peek under the seats he’d pointed out.
‘But I want it … it is so cute!’ whined the tiny girl, squashing her hands and her button nose up against the glass.
Wait a minute.
Since when did anyone – even a tiddly little kid – call a chocolate bar or a packet of crisps ‘cute’?
I turned my head a centimetre or two … and came face-to-face (through the sheet of glass) with something that definitely couldn’t be described as a snack.
‘Help!’ Thing mouthed at me.
‘Stop whinging, Shannon! Come on!!’ ordered the dad, grabbing the tiny girl’s hand and dragging her away.
Her other hand stretched longingly behind her, towards the ball of red fur hovering on the rack reserved for Quavers.
With the corridor briefly empty of witnesses, I flicked open the vending-machine flap and mouthed ‘Jump!’ at Thing.
It jumped, and landed in the drawer (along with a packet of Quavers it had accidentally dislodged).
I tugged the Bart Simpson towel out of Jackson’s hands and quickly used it to bundle Thing up.
‘What now?’ asked Jackson, desperate for answers from me, his bossy, know-it-all friend. (Ha!)
‘We get changed and we leave for home, as quick as we can!’ I told him.
It wasn’t a perfect plan.
We’d have to think of a good excuse to give Ali.
And our parents, who we’d have to phone to come and collect us early.
But we could worry about our excuses while we were getting dressed and—
‘Jackson! Ruby! What are you two doing out here?’ said a smiley woman carrying a huge birthday cake in the shape of a swimming pool with ‘Happy Birthday, Ali’ piped on the blue icing.
‘We were … thirsty!’ Jackson told Ali’s mum, pointing at the vending machine.
It would have been a great excuse, except for the fact that there were no drinks in there.
‘Don’t you worry!’ said Ali’s mum, nodding at the man following laden with bags. ‘Ali’s dad’s got bottles of water in that green carrier. Help yourself – then get inside and don’t miss the fun. See you in the party room after!’
What could we do?
Not much except say thank you very nicely and head off towards the pool, clutching our drinks and our suspiciously lumpy roll of towel …
*
‘Raaaaaaahhhhhh!’
‘Wheeeeeeeeee!’
‘Againagainagainagain!’
During the week, the Dolphin Leisure Centre pool is filled with schoolkids doing lessons and bobbing old ladies.
But at the weekends it’s packed with shrieking children, roaring big-kid dads, dive-bombing teenagers and a zillion inflatables of every shape, size and weirdness.
There are long, chatty queues of people climbing the stairs that lead to the three twirly slides. And every few minutes, there’s cheering as the wave machine starts up in the main pool, and the fast current comes on in the tiled corridor that’s known as Typhoon Tunnel.
I worried that all this dazzle of noise and colour might stress Thing, so I held it close and snuggly.
‘I’ll just sit here at the edge, with the “towel” on my lap,’ I mumbled to Jackson, slipping into code-talk.
‘Good idea. Well, I’ll sit with you-ooo-ahhhhh!!’
Jackson was suddenly scooped up by the elbows and hurtled towards the stairs leading to the Mega-Tube (the scariest of the twirly slides) by a couple of boys from our class.
He glanced a ‘sorry!’ over his shoulder at me as I perched on the bench.
I gave him a shrug back.
It was probably better that Jackson joined in with the partying and acted normal, i.e. like a big baboon.
(If he didn’t, people might get suspicious.)
If Ali or anyone asked me what I was doing, I’d say I had a headache, and I was going to stay here sipping water, till I felt better.
(They’d think that was just me, being super-sensible as usual.)
I settled the lumpy towel on my lap, and felt the scrabble of Thing’s feet on my lap. And with a casual re-jiggle and tug, I got the snipped ‘eye’ holes facing my way.
‘You like, Rubby?’ purred a small voice, as a yellow curly crisp came poking out from under the towel.
‘Don’t! Someone will see!’ I hissed, poking the Quaver back inside. ‘And don’t talk!’
No reply.
Good.
Thing was quiet.
For a few seconds at least.
‘I not like it when you all frowny last night, Rubby!’ the towel suddenly murmured.
Well, I didn’t much like you saying you wanted to ignore me, I thought, but didn’t say.
‘Shhh!’ I muttered, covering my mouth so it might look like I was coughing from a distance. ‘Just keep quiet and I’ll swizzle you around so you can see what’s going on!’
Hurray – that worked.
Thing sat silent and still, swallowing up all the sights and sounds.
People laughing, as their lilos and rubber rings collided.
People whooping, as a klaxon sounded and the wave machine swayed into action.
People cheering, as the Typhoon Tunnel swept them through at top speed.
‘RUUUUUBBBBEEEEEE!!!!!’
And that lung-busting yell came from Jackson (of course).
> There he was, hurtling headfirst down the mighty Mega-Tube.
SPLOOOSH!
Jackson landed in the pool, causing an impressive tidal wave.
Wow … it was quite a steep drop at the end there.
Jackson seemed to be taking a long time to surface.
A very lonnnnnnnnnnggg time, actually.
‘Rubby!’ came an urgent small voice.
Scratchy small feet were padding side to side on my thighs.
‘Shh!’ I urged it, as I kept my eyes on the spot where Jackson would hopefully ping up any second.
‘But where Boy?!’ Thing purred worriedly. ‘He be drowned-ing?’
‘No – I’m sure he’s fine,’ I said, though I was starting to fret a little too.
In fact, I was fretting quite a LOT.
Fretting so much that I didn’t at first notice the tell-tale tremble going on under the towel.
I did jump though, the minute I felt tickly prickles on my tummy.
Uh-oh …
Was that what a felt like?
CRACKLE
SPIT
FIZZZZZZZ!!
I lifted the edge of the towel, and saw a sparkle of light – then flipped it back down again quicketty-quick, before any colours came cartwheeling out.
‘Thing! Stop!!’ I urged it, though I knew it was too late.
Whatever magic spell Thing had cast, it had already happened.
And any second now, I’d probably figure out what trouble we were in …
Floop!
The towel collapsed, into an empty pile in my lap.
ARRGHH!
Where – in the whole of the noisy, splashy, crowded Dolphin Leisure Centre – had Thing disappeared to …?!
‘Whoo-hooo!! Did you see that dive I took at the end, Ruby?’ asked Jackson, breathless and pulling himself out of the water.
It was great that he was …
It was also great that he seemed to have forgotten the bad feeling between us.
He wasn’t going to feel so great in a second, though, not once I’d told him what had just happened …
‘Jackson – Thing’s vanished!’ I said, as I helped haul him up on to the pool-side.
‘Huh?’ he gasped, flopping down beside me like a fish in swim shorts.
‘It thought you were drowned-ing – I mean drowning. I think it tried to do some magic that would save you!’ I muttered, scanning the packed pool at the same time.
‘But how?’ Jackson asked uselessly.
‘I don’t know, do I? One minute it was under Bart Simpson, the next it wasn’t. I had to hide the towel behind the bench, so no one saw the sparkles leaking out …’
Help – the pool was WAY too crowded with people and blow-up balls and lolloping lilos to BEGIN to spot Thing.
And for all we knew, it could be on the roof of the building, or halfway down the Mega-Tube, or back in the vending machine.
How on earth were we supposed to find our freaky friend?!?
‘Er …’ I heard Jackson mumble.
He was pointing at a plastic ball that was twirling on the surface of the water.
It was coming straight for his knees.
Through the see-through coloured panels, you could JUST make out a little, bug-eyed creature running madly inside …
THING!
Me and Jackson turned to each other, then slid into the pool like a pair of synchronised swimmers.
‘Ruby, some kid is going to come looking for this!’ said Jackson, as we both slapped our wet hands on the ball.
‘I know – so let’s push it towards the Typhoon Tunnel,’ I suggested. ‘We’ll be more hidden away there!’
Like the wave machine out in the main pool, the current in the tunnel was currently switched off. No one much would use the semi-circle of tunnel till the klaxon sounded and the water went wibbly and wild again.
Together we splashed and swam, while Thing scampered like a hyper-active hamster in an oversized exercise ball.
And finally we were there, in the white-tiled safety of the tunnel.
Gasp!
(Oops, I’d forgotten to breathe.)
Standing chest-high in the water, I gulped air and left Jackson to find out what had gone wrong, oh-so-wrong.
‘Hey, what just happened?’ he asked Thing, his mouth a millimetre from the plastic.
Tilting his head, Jackson pressed his ear up against the ball to hear the reply.
Inside, I could see Thing’s tiny mouth frantically babbling an explanation.
‘It tried to magic up a rubber ring to rescue me!’ Jackson translated. ‘But instead it ended up stuck inside this!’
‘Well, we’ll have to get it out of there,’ I said, reaching over and unpopping the stopper at the side. ‘We can hide this in your bag while we’re eating cake with Ali, and then we’ll cut Thing out once we get home.’
Psssssssssssfffffffffhhhhh!
‘But it’s like we’re stealing some kid’s toy!’ said Jackson, staring at the gently deflating ball.
‘Yeah, but we can hardly hand it back with Thing inside, can we?’ I pointed out.
‘I guess. OK, I’ll tell it what’s happening,’ said Jackson, and went to put his mouth back against the rapidly wrinkling plastic.
No words came out, though.
Not when he caught sight of the terrified expression on Thing’s face.
What was it staring at?
We both followed Thing’s panicked gaze, and saw …
Dun-dun-DUN!!
… an escaped lilo come gently bobbling and swaying into the tunnel.
It was green, with a blow-up head on the front that you could hang on to. (Not that anyone was hanging on to it – it had obviously floated away from its owner when they were busy dive-bombing or Mega-tubing or in the loos.)
The cartoony head had cross-eyes and a goofy smile.
It was so cute and dopey-looking that no one in the entire history of the universe could ever think it was frightening in any way.
Unless you were called Thing, of course.
‘Monsterer!’ I saw it mouth inside the ball.
CRACKLE
SPIT
FIZZZZZZZ!!
No!
Not AGAIN!
Flickers of light filled the deflating inflatable ball, as if Thing was wafting a sparkler inside.
HISS! FNIIINNGGG!!
A tiny fountain of light sprang out of the stopper, turning into a cartwheel of spangles that bounced over the lapping water.
But as soon as this mini fireworks show started, it stopped.
Wow.
How incredibly lucky was it that only me and Jackson saw that?
Oh.
AND the six-year-old boy who’d just come doggy-paddling into the tunnel after his lost lilo.
A lost lilo, which had just that second turned into something it really shouldn’t have.
‘Um … is that the Loch Ness Monster, do you think?’ asked Jackson, as the lilo swelled, doubled and trebled in size, and its six-year-old owner went silent and wide-eyed with shock.
‘Yep,’ I nodded, watching as the lilo turned into a hump-backed monster, and wishing my legs hadn’t just turned to noodles.
So, Thing had magicked up a giant, fearsome, living, breathing creature.
Could it get any worse?
Oh, yes.
PAAAAARRRRPPPPP!!!
The klaxon blasted and the current instantly got stronger in Typhoon Tunnel.
‘EEEEEEEE!!’ screamed the boy.
‘NOOOO!!’ yelped me and Jackson.
‘YAY!!’ called a bunch of voices, as people began rushing towards the tunnel.
‘AARGHH!!’ came a weeny screech from inside the deflating ball, as the Loch Ness Lilo reared its rapidly growing head out of the water and …
CRACKLE
SPIT
FIZZZZZZZ!!
For the second time in thirty seconds, magic was in the air.
Once again, sparkles poured out of the tiny op
ening of the stopper like a fountain of light, and went cartwheeling off the sides of the tunnel.
‘Please fix this, Thing!’ I muttered to myself, hoping that Ali didn’t end up with a birthday party he’d never forget. (One where the Loch Ness Lilo oozed around, devouring random Dolphin Leisure Centre customers …)
Then, just as soon as this mini fireworks show started, it stopped.
What hadn’t stopped was the current of water now picking us up and hurtling me, Jackson and Thing towards the other end of the tunnel …
But Thing wasn’t inside the deflating plastic ball any more – it was on top of a deflating Loch Ness Lilo!
‘Don’t worry – I’ve got it!’ I heard Jackson call out as he snatched Thing to safety.
Out in the main pool, I struggled in the waves to get myself the right way round and see what had happened.
Finding my feet at last, I caught a glimpse of a stunned-looking six-year-old being swept out of the tunnel on the crest of a mini-wave, with a limp, deflated green lilo clutched in one white-knuckled fist.
Just wait till his family heard his story!
They were never going to believe it. And I mean, never.
(Thank goodness …)
‘Changing Room, now!’ I said, grabbing a passing stray float to shield Thing with.
‘Yes, boss!’ Jackson answered happily, taking it from me.
Even in the muddle of the panic, I couldn’t help smiling at his words …
It was Saturday afternoon, about half-past four, and it was time for quite a lot of sorries.
Oh, and cake.
‘Sorry it’s a bit squashed,’ said Jackson, unfolding the serviette on the scrubby ground and presenting Thing with a section of Ali’s birthday cake.
(The squished brown icing was a bit of the swimming lessons bench, I was pretty sure.)
Thing gave it a sniff, and pulled a yuck-face.
‘No, thank you,’ it purred, and went back to nervously nibbling on the dead daisy chain, the one I’d hung around the back door of its Scooby-Doo den earlier in the week.
The Legend of the Loch Ness Lilo Page 4
