Angels

by Meredith Badger

  ‘I didn’t need to peek,’ replied Chloe cheekily. ‘I already know our raft is way better than yours!’

  Lucy put up a hand. ‘Stop it, you lot!’ she said. ‘Don’t forget we’re on the same team, OK? We’ll meet at Chloe’s place this afternoon at four o’clock.’

  The day dragged for Sophie. It was hard concentrating on school work when there was the trial race to think about. And it was awful sitting next to someone who wouldn’t talk to you!

  But finally, four o’clock arrived and the Angels met at Chloe’s place. Somehow Chloe had found time to change out of her uniform into a funky new outfit!

  Both rafts were waiting beside the pool, carefully covered with blankets to protect them from peeking eyes.

  ‘OK!’ instructed Lucy. ‘On the count of three, let’s pull both of the covers off!’

  Annabelle stood near her raft, and Sophie stood next to hers. Then Lucy, Lola, Chloe and Bonnie counted, ‘one … two … three!’

  On the count of three, Sophie and Annabelle pulled off the blankets.

  ‘Cool!’ said everyone.

  Sophie stared at Annabelle’s raft. It looked good. Really good. The top of the raft had been painted with a big golden sun. Stapled to the back were some brightly coloured ribbons, fluttering in the breeze. Sophie’s raft looked a bit dull next to it!

  ‘Wow!’ said Lola. ‘Your raft looks really great, guys.’

  ‘It looks good,’ agreed Bonnie. ‘But how fast is it? Let’s get racing!’

  They lowered the rafts into the pool. When they were ready, Bonnie gave Sophie a little push. ‘You first,’ she said. ‘You’re the captain of this raft.’

  Sophie gingerly sat down. The raft sank a little. She held her breath. Uh-oh! Was it going to sink? Luckily, the raft rose up again!

  Then Bonnie and Lola climbed on too.

  Chloe handed out paddles. ‘These are from our canoe,’ she explained, as she got onto Annabelle’s raft. Sophie noticed with a smile that the paddles matched Chloe’s outfit! Then Chloe’s mum came out to start them off.

  ‘Ready … set … GO!’ she said, waving a red tea towel.

  They were off! Both rafts sped down the pool with the girls paddling furiously.

  ‘We’re winning!’ panted Lola, looking around. ‘But only just!’

  And seconds later, Annabelle’s raft zoomed past and took the lead!

  ‘Faster! Faster!’ yelled Bonnie. Sophie paddled as hard as she could. She paddled until every muscle in her arms and back burned. And judging from the puffing noises Lola and Bonnie were making, they were trying just as hard.

  And then Bonnie yelped in surprise. ‘Look!’ she said, pointing.

  Annabelle’s raft was almost at the other side of the pool. But it was much lower in the water than it had been. And it was getting even lower by the second!

  Ker-splash!

  Annabelle, Chloe and Lucy toppled into the water as their raft sank beneath them.

  ‘Quick!’ said Sophie, steering their raft towards the girls in the pool. ‘Grab on!’ She knew it was hard swimming in clothes. And the water was pretty cold too!

  ‘Are you OK?’ asked Sophie as Chloe, Annabelle and Lucy scrambled out of the pool.

  ‘That was soooo fun!’ said Lucy, trying to catch her breath.

  ‘And we almost beat you, too!’ added Chloe, grinning.

  Sophie looked at her cousin, expecting her to be really sad that her raft sank. But Annabelle smiled and poked her tongue out at Sophie.

  Sophie burst out laughing. Then she poked her tongue out at Annabelle.

  Lucy blinked. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘I’m over fighting,’ said Annabelle. ‘What do you reckon, Soph?’

  Sophie nodded her head. ‘Totally over it!’ she agreed.

  ‘Then what’s with sticking out your tongues?’ said Lola, confused. Annabelle and Sophie grinned at each other.

  ‘It’s a cousin thing,’ explained Sophie. ‘Your raft was really fast, Belle,’ she added. ‘And it looked awesome. Maybe you could help us make this one better?’

  Annabelle nodded. ‘I’d love to,’ she said.

  ‘Phew!’ sighed Lucy in relief. ‘Finally we’re starting to behave like a team again!’

  When the bell rang for lunch the next day, Sophie and Bonnie went straight to the art room. The Angels had been given permission by Mrs Clarke to work on their raft. They had hidden it in the storeroom cupboard, where no prying Devils’ eyes could see it!

  ‘It’s just us,’ said Bonnie. ‘Lola and Lucy are busy. And Annabelle and Chloe have some big project to work on,’ said Bonnie, twirling a paintbrush around like a baton. ‘They wouldn’t tell me what it was.’

  ‘We’re going to have to work extra hard then,’ said Sophie. ‘We’ve only got one more day until the race!’

  Sophie and Bonnie pulled the raft out of the storeroom. Then they hurried around the art room, collecting the other materials they needed.

  Sophie noticed something lying on the floor under one of the tables. It was a blue notebook. Sophie went over to take a closer look. There was big writing all over the book.

  Luke’s book. Keep out!

  It was the notebook Sophie had seen Luke doodling in the other day. She looked at it longingly. She really, really wanted to see what raft design the Devils had come up with.

  Bonnie came over. Her eyes twinkled when she saw the name on the front.

  ‘Hey!’ she said. ‘Let’s do some funny drawings in it.’ She reached out to pick up the notebook, but Sophie stopped her.

  ‘I think Luke’s raft design is in there,’ Sophie said. ‘We should probably just leave it alone.’

  Bonnie pulled a face.‘Bor-ing!’ she said. ‘I think we should take a little peek.’

  ‘But wouldn’t that be cheating?’ said Sophie, looking around nervously.

  Bonnie shrugged. ‘Not really. We’ve already made most of our raft. We just want to look!’

  Sophie didn’t know what to do. It felt wrong to look at Luke’s secret design. But on the other hand, Sophie really wanted to win the raft challenge. She was finally starting to feel like she was fitting in. She didn’t want to let the team down now.

  Bonnie tapped her foot. ‘Come on, Soph. You know how much we all want to win this challenge.’

  Sophie nodded. ‘I really want to win, too!’ she said. She wondered whether it would matter if she looked or not. Sophie leant over and picked up the book.

  But just as she was about to look, the door swung open and in walked Luke. Bonnie quickly jumped in front of their raft to hide it. But Sophie froze, the notebook still in her hand.

  ‘Hey, Sophie. Hey, Boomer. Is that my book?’ he said, walking over. ‘I’ve been looking for it everywhere.’

  ‘I just found it,’ said Sophie, trying to look innocent. How come Luke always caught her at the wrong time? ‘I was going to give it back to you.’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Luke. Then he looked at her, his eyes narrowed. ‘You looked in it, didn’t you?’

  ‘No,’ Sophie replied quickly.

  ‘Of course she didn’t!’ said Bonnie, winking at Sophie. ‘We’re not cheaters like you guys.’

  Luke looked like he didn’t believe them. He carefully examined the notebook.

  ‘Hey, you’re telling the truth!’ he said, sounding surprised.

  ‘How can you tell?’ asked Sophie.

  Luke showed her the edge of his notebook. Across the pages was a very fine white thread.

  ‘I always stick some cotton across here,’ Luke explained. ‘If the thread is ever broken or missing, I know someone’s been snooping.’

  ‘Wow, that’s a great idea,’ said Sophie, impressed. Luke might be annoying sometimes but he was pretty smart, too.

  ‘Thanks,’ said Luke.

  It’s like there are two Lukes, decided Sophie. The nice one and the loudmouth one. Right now he was Nice Luke.

  ‘Go,’ said Bonnie, pushing Luke out the door. ‘We’ve got work to do.�
��

  Luke grinned and turned back into Loudmouth Luke. ‘It’s a pity you didn’t look in my notebook,’ he said. ‘If you saw what an awesome raft we’re building, you wouldn’t even bother turning up at the race tomorrow!’

  ‘Yeah, whatever!’ said Bonnie, closing the door behind him. Then she laughed. ‘That was close!’ she said. ‘But what a pity we didn’t get to see his designs.’

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Sophie. But secretly she was glad Luke had come in when he did. She didn’t want anyone to think she’d copied the Devils’ design. Especially not Luke!

  Sophie had been to the local pool before. But on the day of the race it felt like a completely different place. When her dad dropped her off, lots of kids from school were already there. Not just kids from Sophie’s grade either. Just about the whole school had come to watch!

  Brightly coloured balloons were tied to the seats, and streamers hung from the walls. Sophie wrapped her arms around her stomach, trying to calm the butterflies inside her.

  ‘Hiya, Soph!’ someone called.

  Annabelle and Chloe bounded up wearing bright pink T-shirts. On the front was the word Angels, and on the back was a drawing of a girl with wings.

  ‘Hey!’ said Sophie, in surprise. ‘That’s the drawing I did!’

  ‘There’s one for each of us,’ said Annabelle, handing her one. ‘Chloe and I made them yesterday. We scanned your picture into the computer and printed it onto transfer material. Then we ironed them onto T-shirts.’

  ‘It’s so cool!’ says Sophie, putting it on straight away – right over the top of the T-shirt she was already wearing!

  ‘That’s not all, either,’ said Chloe, reaching into her bag. She pulled out a small bag containing six little pink and purple flowers made of metal. Each had a small loop in the top.

  ‘They’re for our charm bracelets,’ said Annabelle, a little shyly. ‘I couldn’t find a charm of a raft! Do you like them?’

  Sophie hugged her cousin. ‘I love them!’ she said.

  Just then Bonnie, Lucy and Lola appeared. They were wearing their Angels T-shirts too.

  ‘Let’s look at the rafts!’ said Bonnie. ‘They’re all lined up at the end of the pool.’

  The Angels huddled together to inspect the rafts.

  ‘There’s ours,’ said Annabelle, pointing. ‘Mum picked it up from school this morning.’

  On one side of it was a black and white stripy raft. ‘That’s the Zebras’ raft,’ said Lola. It was a very cool design but it didn’t look very strong at all. One of the ropes was already coming untied.

  ‘That one’s going to sink soooo fast!’ Sophie whispered to Lucy.

  Lucy nodded. ‘I know,’ she whispered back. ‘Dani is great at other stuff. But she’s not the world’s best raft-builder!’

  On the other side of the Angels’ raft was the Thunderbolts’ raft, which had all of their team members’ names written on it. Next was the Dogaroos’ raft, which had a big flag stuck on it, with a funny dog character that looked sort of like a kangaroo. Then there was the Super Stars’ raft, which was made of styrofoam and thin pieces of wood.

  ‘Ours looks the best, doesn’t it?’ whispered Chloe, proudly. Sophie had to agree. Their raft looked fantastic!

  Annabelle and Lucy had woven ribbons from their old raft over and under the bottles. Chloe had added blobs of purple glitter glue, which were twinkling in the sunshine. And Bonnie and Lucy had painted all the paddles yellow.

  Sophie started to feel excited. Not only did their raft look the best, it also looked the fastest! None of the other rafts she’d seen so far looked like they would beat the Angels’ design.

  Then she saw the next raft and she stopped, frozen to the ground. It was the most amazing raft she’d ever seen. It was made out of sturdy ten-litre water bottles. Painted on the top was a large shark with gleaming teeth. On the bottom were two silver fins.

  Sophie could tell that this raft would float beautifully. And it would go extremely fast, too! ‘Whose raft is that?’ asked Sophie, her heart sinking.

  ‘The Devils’, unfortunately,’ Bonnie said, wrinkling her nose.

  ‘Jealous much?’ said a voice behind them. It was Luke, followed by Joey, Sam and Bruno. They were wearing red T-shirts and they had painted their faces red and black, so that they looked really mean.

  ‘Bet you wished you’d looked at my notebook now, hey Sophie?’ chuckled Luke.

  ‘Your raft is good,’ said Sophie, crossing her arms. ‘But it’s not that good. Ours is a zillion times better.’

  ‘Well, we’ll soon get to test that, won’t we?’ said Luke.

  ‘See you at the finishing line!’ called Chloe. ‘We’ll be waiting there for you!’

  ‘Hey!’ said Lola. ‘Mrs Clarke is waving. It must be time for the race to start!’

  As the Angels hurried over, Bonnie sneaked up beside Sophie. ‘You know,’ she said, ‘I’m really glad we didn’t look at Luke’s notebook. It’ll make beating those Devils soooo much better!’

  The crowd cheered as the teams all stood beside their rafts. Sophie’s heart was pounding. She couldn’t believe the race was finally about to start!

  ‘Teams, drop your rafts!’ commanded Mrs Clarke. With a huge splash all the rafts landed in the pool.

  Lola nudged Sophie. ‘Uh-oh … look over there,’ she said, pointing towards the Zebras’ raft. The ropes holding the raft together had come completely untied. All the bits were floating away and Dani was desperately trying to reach them!

  ‘Sorry, Zebras,’ said Mrs Clarke. ‘Looks like you’re out of the race. Everyone else, climb on board. Captains first.’

  Bonnie gave Sophie a push. ‘That’s you, Captain Soph,’ she said.

  Sophie climbed on with the others close behind.

  ‘Teams ready,’ said Mrs Clarke. ‘Get set … and go!’

  With a roar all the teams pushed off from the side of the pool and started paddling. Sophie put her head down and paddled as hard as she could. She could hear the puffs of the other Angels beside her. Everyone was trying so hard!

  Even over the roar of the crowd, Sophie could hear Mr Paul’s voice. He was on the PA system, giving a commentary.

  ‘The Devils are in the lead at the moment,’ he yelled. ‘But the Super Stars’ raft is right behind. In third place are the Angels, and the Thunderbolts are tied last with the Dogaroos.’

  ‘Paddle faster,’ Sophie yelled. ‘We can’t let the Devils beat us!’

  ‘I can’t,’ groaned Annabelle. ‘My arms are about to drop off!’

  ‘Come on, Belle,’ urged Sophie. ‘We’re not that far behind.’

  ‘Hang on a minute!’ boomed Mr Paul. ‘The Thunderbolts’ raft has capsized! Now it’s just the Devils, the Super Stars and the Angels, with the Dogaroos trailing last!’

  Sudenly there was a ripping noise – the Dogaroos raft had torn completely in half! Sophie heard Stephanie squealing as she slipped into the water.

  ‘The Dogaroos are out of the race as well!’ yelled Mr Paul excitedly.

  Sophie glanced up. The Devils were sneaking further and further ahead. Luke turned around and waved his paddle at them.

  ‘LOSERS!’ he yelled.

  Sophie put her head down and concentrated on rowing. She couldn’t bear to see the Devils’ smug faces as they won the race! Then suddenly she heard a lot of yelling, and a moment later Bonnie started laughing.

  ‘Look!’ Bonnie yelled.

  Sophie looked up and soon she was laughing, too. The Devils’ raft was sinking. Some of the bottles had lost their lids, and were filling up with water.

  ‘Abandon ship!’ yelled Joey, and did a backflip into the water as the Devils’ raft sank to the bottom of the pool.

  Sophie sneaked a look behind them. The Super Stars had slipped back several metres. Sophie could see Nicole at the front, paddling furiously. But the Angels’ raft was so much further ahead. The Angels looked like they were going to win for sure!

  And then, as the Angels’ raft surge
d towards the finish line, Bonnie suddenly jumped up and stood on the edge of the raft, like she was balancing on a surfboard.

  ‘Who are the losers now?’ Bonnie called, waving her hand at the Devils, who were still paddling around in the water.

  Suddenly, the Angels’ raft began to wobble dangerously. Water sloshed across the top.

  ‘Sit down, Bonnie!’ called Sophie. She tried to sound serious. But it was hard. Bonnie looked so funny. ‘You’re going to fall in. And then you’ll tip the raft over!’

  ‘I won’t fall!’ protested Bonnie. ‘Look, I can even dance up here and not fall in.’

  Bonnie started jumping around. And then with a scream she toppled over and landed headfirst in the water. A second later the whole raft tipped over! There was an enormous splash as all the Angels fell into the pool!

  Sophie quickly bobbed to the surface and looked around. The finish line was only a metre away.

  ‘Quick!’ she yelled to the others. ‘Grab the raft and start swimming!’

  Everyone grabbed a corner of the raft and swam as fast as they could towards the finish line. It was hard work, especially as they were already tired. But finally Sophie’s hand hit something hard. The side of the pool.

  They had finished!

  Sophie dragged herself out of the pool and flopped on the ground, exhausted. Soon the others were lying beside her.

  ‘Did we win?’ gasped Lola.

  ‘Of course we won!’ said Bonnie.

  She was the only one who didn’t look at all tired. ‘We were the first to touch the end of the pool, weren’t we?’

  ‘Just a moment,’ said a stern voice. Sophie looked up. It was Mrs Clarke. ‘Unfortunately, you were supposed to be on the raft when you finished,’ she said.

  ‘Uh-oh,’ said Lucy, pulling a face. ‘That sounds bad.’

  ‘It is, I’m afraid,’ agreed Mrs Clarke. ‘You’ve been disqualified. The other teams were disqualified too, of course. So that makes the Super Stars the winners of this challenge!’