Superhero Squad

by Alesha Dixon

  Alfred suddenly appeared in the doorway of the kitchen wearing flippers, goggles and a snorkel.

  “Oh good, darling, you’re ready,” Aunt Lucinda proclaimed loudly as Alfred hopped excitedly up and down in his flippers. “Let’s get in the car, shall we?”

  We followed them out to the drive where Nanny Beam’s pink sports car was waiting, packed full of luggage. Aunt Lucinda slid into the driver’s seat and pressed a button to let the roof down for Alfred.

  “You’re taking Nanny Beam’s car?” I said in amazement.

  “Yes, apparently she’s working on a newer model anyway. Now that she’s got the flying side of things down, she wants to improve it. And this invisibility function is faulty. Still, better than nothing.” Aunt Lucinda turned the keys in the ignition and wiggled her fingers at Nanny Beam who was waving madly from the field. “As always, Beams, it’s been a blast. Until next time!”

  She pressed her foot down on the accelerator and zoomed off down the drive, Alfred’s head bobbing into the distance.

  “Is it worrying that I think I may just miss your bonkers sister and her cantankerous ostrich a tiny bit?” Dad laughed, waving goodbye to them.

  “Oh, she’ll be back to cause trouble soon enough,” Mum said with a sigh. “But I suppose things are a little more interesting when she’s around.”

  “Where’s Alexis?” Clara asked, shielding her eyes from the sun to look up at the roof. “I want to show him and Aurora my new book on geology.”

  “He’s in the underground lair beneath the cottage, experimenting with all those computers. Nanny Beam has been teaching him some new tricks. I haven’t been able to drag him away,” Mum told her, rolling her eyes.

  “Did Nanny Beam lend you your new geology book?” I asked Clara.

  “Oh no,” Dad said, puffing his chest out like a proud peacock and placing a hand on Clara’s shoulder. “Clara wrote it.”

  “It’s more like a pamphlet,” Clara said hurriedly, shuffling her feet. “And it still needs some editing. Would you like to see it?”

  “Are you kidding?” I laughed. “YES!”

  “Come on, Clara,” Dad said. “Let’s go get it. We can grab Alexis on the way and force him into the sunlight.”

  They disappeared inside and while we waited, Mum and I strolled to the edge of the cliff of Nanny Beam’s house to watch the sun slowly set across the sea.

  “Mum, can I ask you a question?”

  She nodded.

  “Are you scared?” I asked quietly. “The Light of the World is the source of our powers.”

  She hesitated. “A little. Everyone gets scared sometimes. We’ve got a long road ahead, Aurora. But we’ll get there.”

  I didn’t say anything and she watched me carefully.

  “Everything will be OK, Aurora, you know that, don’t you? How could it not be? Just look around you.”

  I moved my gaze from the sunshine across to Nanny Beam teaching Suzie, Fred and JJ to high kick while Kimmy barked in encouragement, up to Kizzy and Georgie laughing their heads off at something Cherry had said, and then to Dad and Alexis who emerged from the cottage with Clara. She was holding a thick wad of paper in her hands, chatting excitedly.

  “You have a point,” I agreed with a grin.

  “It has been quite the summer,” Mum said gently. “Are you sad that it’s over?”

  I closed my eyes and took a moment to think about my answer, enjoying the warmth of the last rays of sunshine on my face.

  “No, not really.” I smiled, leaning against her happily. “It’s about time for the next adventure.”

  Acknowledgements

  It has been such a blessing to be able to create children’s books, I have loved every single minute of this process and that is down to some pretty awesome people! Thank you to the fabulous team at Scholastic who are so passionate about Lightning Girl, they have worked so hard to make every aspect of this book nothing short of perfection. Thank you for making me feel so welcome and thank you for the very cool Lightning Girl trainers, ha ha! Lauren Fortune, Aimee Stewart, Rachel Phillipps, Róisín O’Shea, Rachel Partridge, Andrew Biscomb, Eishar Brar: here’s to another amazing ride with Aurora Beam and the gang, I’m so excited, love you guys.

  Katy Birchall, the superstar! I am in awe of your talent and organisational skills. Thank you once again for breathing life and energy into Lightning Girl, I literally couldn’t do it without you!

  A huge thank you to the very talented James Lancett. You have brilliantly captured the essence of my characters and brought my vision to life! Steve Simpson, thank you for the cover artwork, it packs a punch and brings such vitality to Lightning Girl.

  A special thank you to Lauren-with-the-great-ideas-Gardner! I could not be more thrilled with everything and you have played a huge part in all of this.

  Thank you to all the readers! For your love, your reviews and your kind words. It makes me so happy to receive letters from parents telling me how much their children enjoyed the first book and whether it’s inspired them to read for the first time or they can identify with a character, this makes it all worthwhile. It keeps me highly motivated and determined to continue to create stories and characters that inspire children all around the world. I want them to know their worth, make good choices and go for their dreams. Children need to be inspired and if Lightning Girl can play a part in that, then that makes me so happy.

  To all my friends and family, thank you for your encouragement and support and for sharing my excitement for this project.

  Happy reading :)

  Have you read

  Aurora Beam’s first adventure?

  1

  No one ever warned me that when you get angry, bright sparks might explode from your fingertips.

  But that’s exactly what happened. One minute I was watching some school bullies round on my little sister in the playground, and the next minute my hands went all hot and tingly and suddenly these beams of light came flying out from my palms, like a lightning storm.

  I think I scared myself more than anyone else. No one actually saw where the sparks came from, just a flash of blinding light behind them, and then when they turned around, there I was staring wide-eyed at my hands and madly wiggling my fingers.

  One of the girls snorted as she watched me bring my hand right up to my face, so it was almost touching the end of my nose, and examine my little finger closely.

  “Isn’t that your older sister, Clara?” she sneered. “What on earth is she doing?”

  “She’s as odd as you are!” sniggered another one, as they all looked me up and down. I gulped.

  Getting them to pick on me instead of Clara wasn’t technically my original plan. I figured I would just tell them to leave her alone, rather than distract them by becoming a human firework. Still, they weren’t interested in Clara any more and it seemed that they weren’t all that curious about a random and inexplicable burst of light in the middle of the playground either.

  So that was something.

  Photo by John Wright

  Alesha Dixon first found fame as part of Brit-nominated and Mobo Award-winning group Mis-teeq, which achieved 2 platinum albums and 7 top ten hits, before going on to become a platinum selling solo artist in her own right. Alesha’s appearance on Strictly Come Dancing in 2007 led to her winning the series and becoming a judge for three seasons.

  Since then she has presented and hosted many TV shows including CBBC dance show Alesha’s Street Dance Stars, Children In Need, Sport Relief, Your Face Sounds Familiar and ITV’s Dance, Dance, Dance. She is a hugely popular judge on Britain’s Got Talent.

  “ My inspiration to create a superhero called Lightning Girl began with wanting my young daughter to feel empowered. It’s been a dream to create a strong role model that any child can look up to - I want my readers to see themselves in Aurora, who is dealing with trouble at home and trouble at school alongside her new powers.

  I also have a love of precious stones and their healing propertie
s; I have always been fascinated with their spectacular colours and the positive energy that they bring. As human beings we are always searching for something greater within ourselves and a deeper meaning to life and it’s my belief that we all have a light within us that can affect change and bring good to the world… We just have to harness it! :)

  Enter Aurora Beam! ”

  Photo by Ian Arnold

  Katy Birchall is the author of the side-splittingly funny The It Girl: Superstar Geek, The It Girl: Team Awkward, The It Girl: Don’t Tell the Bridesmaid and Secrets of a Teenage Heiress.

  Katy won the 24/7 Theatre Festival Award for Most Promising New Comedy Writer with her very serious play about a ninja monkey at a dinner party.

  Her pet Labradors are the loves of her life, she is mildly obsessed with Jane Austen and one day she hopes to wake up as an elf in The Lord of the Rings.

  Scholastic Children’s Books

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  First published in the UK by Scholastic Ltd, 2018

  This electronic edition published by Scholastic Ltd, 2018

  Text copyright © Alesha Dixon, 2018

  Cover artwork by Steve Simpson © Scholastic, 2018

  Cover artwork and inside illustrationsby James Lancett represented by

  the Bright Agency © Scholastic, 2018

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  author of this work has been asserted by her.

  eISBN 978 1407 18967 3

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, incidents and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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