Читать книгу Darcy Dolphin is a Little Bit Magic! - Sam Watkins - Страница 8

TUNASDAY

Lots happened today! My pen pal, Coral Crab, is here. She’s asleep now, in my bed. I’m sleeping with Remy, my pet remora, in his cave – such fun! Coral isn’t quite what I expected – but I’ll start at the beginning . . .

The Rockpool pupils arrived at the end of school. Just before the bell a sea urchin from the year below bounced into the classroom squeaking, ‘They’re here! They’re here!’

‘Wait quietly, everyone!’ said Miss Carp, but no one did. We all rushed outside. The pen pals were in the playground, jostling about nervously.

Ozzie waved a tentacle.

‘Melvin!’ he called.

A mud-brown fish with googly eyes swam out of the crowd towards him. I saw a brightly coloured fish dart across to Myrtle.

‘Gloria! Wow, your colours are so pretty,’ Myrtle said. Everyone started rushing about, finding their pen pals. But I couldn’t see Coral, and the crowd of pen pals was getting smaller. Maybe she hadn’t come after all?

‘Darcy . . .’

I turned to see Miss Carp holding a large suitcase. Next to her was a small, red-brown crab with a scowl on her face as if she’d just trodden in sea-slug slime.

‘This is Coral, Darcy,’ Miss Carp said.

‘Phee-weeeee!’ I went to give her a hug, but she clicked her pincers at me. I stopped, looking nervously at the pincers.

‘She was hiding under a rock,’ Miss Carp whispered. ‘Be patient, Darcy. I think she’s shy.’ She handed me the suitcase. ‘Can you carry this for her? It’s rather heavy.’

I took the suitcase, feeling sorry for the little crab. ‘Come on, Coral. Let’s go home.’

We set off, Coral scuttling sideways along the seabed. I soon stopped feeling sorry for her. She moaned and groaned the whole way!

‘It’s miiiiles to your house . . . my claws ache . . . are we nearly there yet?’

Then she didn’t want to take Remy for his evening swim because she felt ‘too weak’. I was kind of relieved when she went to bed.

Dad winked at me. I pulled a face.

‘Don’t be crabby, Darcy,’ he said, smirking.

Mum gave him a Look. ‘Coral’s probably tired from her journey, sweetiefins. You wait – she’ll be a different crab in the morning.’

I really hope so – unless ‘different’ means ‘zombie’! I read some more Attack of the Zombie Crabs this evening, and there’s this one bit where the hero, Steve, thinks his best friend Zoe might have turned into a zombie crab because she moans and groans so much. This reminded me of Coral moaning on the way home and now I can’t help wondering . . .

Word of the Day: CRABBY

I looked up ‘crabby’ in the dictionary. I thought it just meant ‘like a crab’ but it actually means ‘bad-tempered’.