Rising Star

by Summer Waters

  “That’s nice for you,” said Antonia pleasantly.

  “What?” asked Lauren suspiciously, but Antonia wasn’t listening. She had more important things to think about.

  Mr Cordier had said that Antonia and Cai could use the resources room to store things that people brought in to sell.

  “Just don’t sell any of the school’s resources by mistake,” he joked.

  After school Antonia and Cai walked to Sea Watch. They were planning to spend their time clearing out Cai’s bedroom to see if he had anything for the Bring and Buy sale.

  “You can help me do my room tomorrow,” said Antonia.

  But as they turned into Claudia’s drive Antonia knew the clear-out would have to wait. Spirit was about to call. Seconds later her silver dolphin charm began to vibrate. She and Cai sprinted down the garden and through the gate to the beach. They dumped their bags by the Sea Watch boat and pulled off their shoes and socks.

  Spirit, I hear your call.

  With her charm thrumming against her neck Antonia waded into the sea.

  “Brrr,” shivered Cai, splashing alongside her. “It feels colder today.”

  Taking a deep breath, Antonia plunged headfirst into the water. To begin with the water felt freezing, but as her legs melded together, allowing her to swim like a dolphin, she stopped noticing. Keeping pace with each other, Antonia and Cai swam, guided to Spirit by his whistling.

  The call was coming from Gull Bay. Antonia and Cai swam side by side as they raced to find him, and a short while later Antonia spotted five silver heads bobbing up and down together.

  “Over there,” she whistled, altering her direction. “Spirit and his family, and who’s that?”

  “I don’t know,” clicked Cai. “It’s a common dolphin…so someone from their pod maybe?”

  The new dolphin was the same size as Dream and had silver-grey skin, friendly eyes and a small nick on his dorsal fin.

  “Silver Dolphins,” clicked Spirit as they approached. “Thank you for answering my call.”

  “How can we help?” asked Antonia, rubbing his nose in greeting.

  Spirit rubbed Cai and Antonia’s noses, and Bubbles, Dream, Star and the other dolphin all smacked their fins on the water by way of hello.

  “This is Phantom,” said Spirit. “He’s Bubbles and Dream’s friend. They were messing around on the ocean bed when Phantom grazed his nose on some glass. It’s not that bad and it doesn’t need healing, but the glass is half buried in the sand and needs removing before it causes another injury.”

  Antonia was glad that Phantom wasn’t hurt, but a little disappointed that she wasn’t needed to use her healing magic. She was about to dive down to the seabed when Dream clicked, “We’re not allowed to help in case we get injured, but Dad said we can play when you’ve finished.”

  “Bubbly!” clicked Antonia. “This shouldn’t take long.”

  She dived down, hair streaming behind her as she made for the seabed. The water was murkier than she’d expected, and reaching the bottom Antonia swam slowly, concentrating on finding the glass. A short distance away Cai swam with his arms outstretched, tracing his fingers along the sand. Several times Antonia saw something glinting and thought she’d found the glass, but each time it turned out to be a pebble or sparkly grain of sand. She found a small broken toy helicopter and put it in the pocket of her school trousers to dispose of in a bin. Then, widening her search area, Antonia swam towards a small cluster of rocks encrusted with barnacles and green seaweed and began searching there.

  “Ouch!” cried Cai suddenly.

  Antonia swung round. “Are you all right?”

  “No, but I think I’ve found the glass.” Cai sucked the palm of his right hand while he carefully dug around in the sand with his left.

  “Here, let me.” Antonia came to help and Cai gratefully let her take over.

  “That was stupid,” he muttered. “It really stings.”

  “I’m not surprised. Look at this.” Antonia unearthed two razor-sharp halves of a broken bottle. “Why are people so careless?”

  “Hmm,” murmured Cai.

  “Cai? Are you all right?”

  Antonia had been looking around for a suitable piece of seaweed to wrap the broken glass in, when something about Cai’s tone made her stop.

  “I’m bleeding a bit, that’s all.”

  “Let me see.” Antonia wedged the glass on the cluster of rocks and went to look at Cai’s hand.

  “Right.” Antonia forced herself to breathe slowly as she examined the wound, a deep gash crossing Cai’s palm from the base of his little finger to the base of his thumb.

  “It’s not OK, is it?” asked Cai.

  “No,” said Antonia, unable to lie to her friend. “It’s bleeding quite badly. It’s going to need stitches.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Although they were still underwater, blood was flowing from the cut and running down Cai’s arm.

  “Hold your hand up,” said Antonia, remembering some of the first-aid training she’d been given in her surfing class. “It’ll slow down the bleeding.”

  Cai raised his hand above his head and the blood continued to trickle down his arm. Antonia tried not to panic. Cai needed to get to hospital fast, but they were so far out to sea that it would take ages to get there.

  “Silver Dolphins, what’s up?” Spirit appeared as if from nowhere. “I sense trouble.”

  “Cai’s cut himself. He needs stitches,” said Antonia. “The glass is over there. Don’t touch it. I’ll come back for it later.”

  “Star, Bubbles, Dream, come quickly,” whistled Spirit. “They can get you seaweed to make a bandage,” he added.

  “My arm’s aching. Can I put it down?” asked Cai.

  He lowered his hand and Antonia reached out for it. The sight of the blood made her stomach queasy. It was bad enough seeing the sea life hurt, but to see Cai injured was very frightening. The blood was pumping out quite fast. What if the seaweed wasn’t enough to stem the flow? Antonia wished she had a mobile phone so she could call for an ambulance. But an ambulance was no good to Cai out here.

  I’m useless she thought.

  No, you’re not.

  Spirit’s voice calmly sounded in her head.

  Think of all the times you have helped us.

  Memories of previous rescues flitted through Antonia’s mind. Dream had been badly injured once, when she’d been hit by a speedboat, and another time Star had cut her nose on a bottle. Antonia was remembering how she’d helped them when a commotion in the water broke her train of thought. Bubbles, Dream, Star and Phantom swam round her and Cai with anxious eyes.

  “What’s happened?” they clicked.

  “Cai’s cut himself. We need seaweed for a bandage,” Spirit clicked back.

  Immediately the dolphins took off, searching the seaweed-draped rocks for a suitable bandage. Antonia hardly noticed them go. She held on to Cai’s bleeding hand, firmly but gently pressing the cut together with her fingers as she tried to stem the bleeding. Suddenly Antonia experienced a warm feeling that spread down her arm. Startled she gripped Cai’s hand more firmly, making him squeak.

  “Sorry!”

  The warmth was developing into a tingling sensation coursing through Antonia’s fingers. Her head whirled. What was happening? Surely she couldn’t heal people too, could she? As doubt consumed her the tingling began to fade. No! Antonia pushed the doubts away and concentrated on the magic. She could do this. She could heal Cai.

  Heal.

  The word ran through her head as she willed Cai’s hand to heal. Antonia imagined his brown skin knitting together, forcing the bleeding to stop. She could feel Cai trembling as she pushed her fingers more firmly down on the wound. Her own fingers were warm and tingling as the magic flowed through them.

  Cai stared at her, his eyes round with awe, until suddenly he pulled his hand away.

  “It’s better,” he gasped. “It was stinging like mad, but it doesn’t hurt now.”<
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  “Here, let me see.” Antonia pulled his hand back and stared at the palm with a mixture of incredulity and pride. The wound had healed completely, with only a faint line in Cai’s skin to show for it.

  “That was amazing! I never knew you could do that!” Cai couldn’t stop staring at Antonia.

  “Me neither,” she whispered.

  Spirit swam over and bowed his head respectfully.

  “Silver Dolphin, your special magic grows stronger still. I didn’t know someone as young as you could be powerful enough to heal another Silver Dolphin. You have shown me something I thought impossible. I’m so proud of you.”

  “Thank you,” stammered Antonia.

  This new power was a shock to her too. She thought she’d reached the peak of her magical abilities. It was incredible to learn she could do more. But how much more was she capable of? Could she heal anyone in the sea who needed her help, or only another Silver Dolphin?

  Only a Silver Dolphin, I’m afraid.

  Claudia!

  Antonia was delighted to hear her friend’s voice in her head.

  Silver Dolphins are protectors of the sea, so your magic can protect them when they are answering the call.

  Is that how I healed Cai?

  Yes, but like Spirit said, it is very rare for someone so young to learn this skill. Yours is a very special talent. Well done, my rising star.

  Thank you.

  Antonia’s face flamed with embarrassment.

  “What?” asked Cai. “Why are you blushing?”

  “It’s nothing,” said Antonia.

  A mixture of emotions and a large amount of relief made Antonia convulse with laughter as Bubbles and the other dolphins approached. “Look, Cai. Look how much seaweed everyone’s collected. There’s enough there to bandage a whale.”

  Cai’s recovery was complete. He and Antonia hoped they would still be allowed to play with Bubbles, Dream and Phantom, but sensible Star wouldn’t hear of it.

  “You’ve had a shock,” she said firmly. “You must both go home and rest. You can play next time.”

  “Aw, Mum!” protested Bubbles, but Star fixed him with a steely eye and would not change her mind.

  “You can swim the Silver Dolphins back to where they came from,” said Spirit. “But no messing around, Bubbles.”

  “Me, mess around!” clicked Bubbles indignantly.

  “Yes, you!” Spirit laughed indulgently. Then, suddenly becoming serious, he rubbed noses with Antonia and Cai.

  “Goodbye, Silver Dolphins, and thank you.”

  Antonia fetched the broken glass from the rocks and carried it home, ignoring Cai’s protests to let him help. It was lovely swimming with the dolphins, but strange to see Bubbles behaving himself. Secretly Antonia was grateful. She was exhausted after using such strong magic. As they neared Claudia’s beach the dolphins swam away to sea. Antonia and Cai watched them go, their silver bodies arching effortlessly in the sparkling water.

  “That was eventful,” said Cai. “Thanks for fixing me up. It would have been a real pain trying to organise our Bring and Buy sale with a messed-up hand.”

  To Antonia’s surprise Claudia was waiting for them by the Sea Watch boat and insisted that both she and Cai rested after their adventure with the broken bottle.

  “But we wanted to clear out my bedroom,” said Cai.

  Claudia refused to budge.

  “This is bigger than you realise,” she said simply. “Not just Cai getting injured, but Antonia’s new power. She needs time to recover, or she might spoil her magic.”

  There was no arguing with that. Neither Antonia nor Cai would do anything to jeopardise the Silver Dolphins. Claudia drove Antonia home and after tea she had a shower, then went straight to bed. She meant to read for a bit, but didn’t even manage a page. Antonia was so tired she fell asleep with the book cradled in her hands.

  Chapter Twelve

  The week passed quickly. At first people were slow to offer things for the Bring and Buy sale, and Antonia and Cai worried they might not have enough. But by Friday they had so many things they started to worry they might not sell it all.

  “And there’s still another week before the sale,” said Antonia, eyeing the mountain of jumble crammed into the resources room.

  “Do you think we’ll make enough money to buy a fence?” asked Cai.

  “I don’t know. Lots of people have said they’ll bake cakes for us. That’ll help.”

  Permanent fences were expensive. Antonia and Cai had looked them up on the internet and worked out that it would cost a huge amount of money to fence the road to the new apartments.

  “It’s a good start.” Antonia tried to sound cheerful as they headed outside for the last few minutes of the lunch break. “We’ll hold the sponsored surf if we don’t make enough money this time.”

  Before they made it outside they were met by a noisy stream of wet children coming along the corridor accompanied by a harassed-looking dinner lady.

  “Single file. No pushing,” she bellowed.

  “Is it raining?” asked Antonia in surprise.

  “Duh! What does it look like, stupid?” said Lauren nastily, elbowing past.

  Lauren was in a foul mood for the rest of the afternoon. “The rain’d better clear for my party,” she moaned. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Toni? I bet you’re hoping it’s too wet to use the bouncy slide!”

  Antonia had forgotten that it was Lauren’s party today and was shocked that Lauren thought she’d be mean enough to wish her bad luck.

  “You’ll have a great time,” she said generously. “Aren’t you having a disco as well?”

  “Don’t think you’re going to get an invite out of me by suddenly being nice,” said Lauren sourly.

  There was no point explaining to Lauren that she didn’t want an invite to her party. Sighing softly, Antonia carried on with her work. Just before home time Mrs Howard suggested that it might be a good idea to organise the things brought in for the Bring and Buy sale and start pricing them.

  “The caretaker has kindly agreed to unlock the school tomorrow if anyone would like to come and help,” she said.

  Antonia never thought she’d willingly volunteer to come back to school on a Saturday, but hers and Cai’s were the first hands up. She was grateful for all the help Mrs Howard was giving them, but this was a Sea Watch project and she didn’t want her teacher taking over.

  “Bang goes our surfing lesson tomorrow,” said Cai, as they walked to Sea Watch together. The rain had cleared and the pavements sparkled in the afternoon sun.

  “It’s for a good cause though,” said Antonia, stopping to take off her sweatshirt.

  At Sea Watch Claudia had exciting news. “Mr Wilson phoned to say his company will allow a permanent fence and he’s personally promised to come to your Bring and Buy sale next week.”

  “Fantastic,” said Cai. “At least we’ll have one customer.”

  “And the other good news is that the deepwater pool is finished. I’ve just been waiting for all my volunteers to come home from school before I start filling it with water.”

  “Hooray!” cheered Antonia. “Tilly’s going to love it.”

  “Tilly won’t be using it for a few days. Once the pool is filled we have to let the water settle and check that the filtration’s working properly.”

  “Are we filling it with sea water?” asked Cai.

  “Fresh water from the outside tap,” said Claudia. “Seals and sea birds can manage with fresh water while they’re being rehabilitated.”

  While they were waiting for the rest of the Sea Watch volunteers to arrive, Antonia and Cai fixed the hose to the outside tap and unravelled it.

  “It only just reaches.” Cai lowered the end of the hose into the pool and straightened out the kinks.

  “It’s going to take ages to fill,” commented Antonia.

  “Not half as long as if we’d had to carry buckets of water from the sea,” said Cai.

  The outsid
e door in the Sea Watch building opened and a chattering group of volunteers headed across the garden to the new pool. Emily, Eleanor, Karen, Oliver and Eddie crowded round and peered through the meshing.

  Claudia joined them a few minutes later and everyone fell silent.

  “Emily, would you like the honour of turning on the tap?” Claudia asked.

  “Me?” Emily went pink with pleasure.

  Antonia hid a smile as Emily stumbled forward. Emily was a keen volunteer and often took on the less pleasant jobs that no one else wanted to do. Her parents had given Sea Watch a large donation that paid for the building of the deepwater pool. Antonia was pleased that Claudia had picked her for such a special role.

  “On the count of three,” said Claudia, her sea-green eyes sparkling merrily.

  “One, two, THREE,” the Sea Watch volunteers shouted.

  Emily switched on the tap. Nothing happened. The hose began to hiss, then suddenly it writhed like a snake flipping upwards as the water spurted out.

  “Ew!” squealed the volunteers, leaping back to avoid a soaking.

  “Sorry,” choked Emily, tears of laughter running down her face. “Why am I so accident prone?”

  Cai grabbed the end of the hose and guided it back into the pool.

  “Hooray!” everyone cheered.

  Antonia grinned happily. Soon Tilly would have somewhere safe to swim while she grew strong enough to be released back into the wild. She glanced over at the seal, who was snuffling around in her pen. Her thoughts turned to the inquisitive pufflings hopping beside the new fence. They were safe too, while the builders were still working on the new apartments. But they wouldn’t be safe when they left. They had to raise the money to buy a permanent fence. Scrunching her hands into her pockets, Antonia vowed that whatever it took she and Cai would raise that money.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Monday morning Lauren brought to school a pile of photos taken at her party. She handed them round the table, throwing spiteful glances at Antonia.

  “It looks like you had a great time,” said Antonia lightly.

  “We did. Shame you missed it,” said Lauren nastily.