Читать книгу: «Darcy Dolphin and the Best Birthday Ever!»

First published in paperback in Great Britain 2018

by Egmont UK Limited

The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN

Text copyright © 2018 Sam Watkins

Illustrations copyright © 2018 Vicky Barker

The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted

First e-book edition 2018

ISBN 978 1 4052 8424 0

Ebook ISBN 978 1 7803 1758 8

www.egmont.co.uk

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

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CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Week 1

Lend a Fin!

Week 2

The Happy Abyss Retired Sharks’ Home

Week 3

The Best Party Ever!

it’s me again, humans. I’m having a whale of a time, because it’s the SUMMER HOLIDAYS! This year it’s doubly exciting because I am also going to Sea Trouts. My best friends, Ozzie Octopus and Myrtle Turtle, have been going for a while and they persuaded me to join.

Sea Trouts is an evening club for kids that’s on every Monkfishday night. We do loads of fintastic stuff like playing games and singing songs, and last week we even did scientific experiments! The experiments were mega-cool so I tried one out at home. Unfortunately it sort of exploded all over the kitchen.

Mum totally flippered out and Aunt Ditzy had to come round to calm her down. Aunt Ditzy brought a book to help Mum called Inspiring Thoughts for Stressed Sea Life. The first Inspiring Thought is: ‘Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.’

I didn’t think that was very inspiring, but I’ve decided that I’m going to write a Thought of the Day every day in my new diary. My first one is:

Thought of the Day: ALWAYS MAKE A SPLASH!

WEEK 1:

Lend a Fin!

MONKFISHDAY

Sea Trouts tonight, yippeeeee! Ozzie and Myrtle came to pick me up. We were all wearing our uniforms – neck scarves held on by wooden rings called woggles. When we got to the Trout Hut there were already loads of Sea Trouts there, screeching and chasing each other around.

‘SEA TROUTS – FREEZE!’

Everyone froze as our leader, Brown Trout, swam out. Her main talent is Scowling Disapprovingly.

‘TO YOUR SHOALS!’

Everyone shot into their Shoals. There are four Shoals – Blennies, Anchovies, Guppies and Minnows. Ozzie, Myrtle and I are the Minnows.

‘Before we begin, it’s time to change Shoal Leaders,’ Brown Trout said. ‘The new leaders are as follows . . .’

She held up a list.

‘Blennies – Chris Codling. Anchovies – Lyla Longfin. Guppies – Reggie Ray. And Minnows . . . Darcy Dolphin.’

‘Yippee!’ I squeaked, quite loudly I think because Brown Trout gave me one of her Disapproving Scowls. I shut my mouth, but inside my head my brain was doing a happy dance. Myrtle had been Shoal Leader for aaaages. Well, two weeks anyway. Now I was the boss and could tell the others what to do for a change! I would be quite a strict boss, I decided, like Brown Trout. I twisted my face up and pulled my eyebrows together like she does when she’s being particularly disapproving.

‘What are you doing with your face, Darcy?’ Ozzie whispered.

I stopped. ‘Nothing.’

Myrtle giggled. ‘You looked like you ate a rotten sea slug!’

‘I am Shoal Leader now . . .’ I began. But Brown Trout was beckoning.

‘Shoal Leaders, over here!’ As I swam over, I bumped into Reggie Ray, the new Guppies leader.

‘Oops, sorry!’ I said.

Reggie glared. ‘Watch it, big nose!’

Big nose?! I was so surprised I couldn’t think of ANYTHING to say! I tried to think of something. Something really clever . . . barnacle brain? Squid lips?

‘FLAT FACE!’ I exclaimed, then realised that Brown Trout was staring at me.

‘Pardon, Darcy?’

‘She asked you what the Sea Trout motto is,’ whispered Lyla Longfin.

‘I mean, um, Lend a Fin,’ I mumbled.

‘Yes,’ Brown Trout said. ‘And that means being helpful to others. Now, this month is Lend a Fin month, which means you are all going to be extra-helpful. At the end of the month there is a prize for the most helpful Shoal.’ She held up a gleaming, golden ring. ‘The Golden Woggle.’

Everyone gasped. I stared. The Golden Woggle was beautiful. I saw Reggie Ray looking greedily at it.

Brown Trout was handing out cards. ‘After you’ve helped someone, give them your card and ask them to tick off one Help Point. They can tick off more if they think you’ve been extra-helpful.’

I took our Help Points card back to Ozzie and Myrtle. They started talking excitedly about what sort of things we could do. I just couldn’t stop looking over at the Golden Woggle.

We had to win it. We WOULD win it!

Thought of the Day: There can be only ONE winner of the Golden Woggle.

TUNASDAY

I got up at 5 am and started being helpful immediately.

First I did some hoovering. But I accidentally hoovered up my little brother Diddy’s favourite soft toy, Sharkie. Diddy’s screams brought Mum and Dad hurtling in from the bedroom – they thought I was murdering Diddy! Dad had to shake the vacfish until Sharkie fell out. He’d lost an eye, some teeth and most of his stuffing, but apart from that he was okay.

Mum collapsed on the sofa. ‘Please, Darcy, no more hoovering!’

‘But I need Help Points!’ I showed Mum the Help Points card. Mum groaned and clutched her head. I thought maybe she was coming down with something.

‘You look ill,’ I said, patting her fin. ‘You should go back to bed. I’ll do all the housework today.’

‘I’m fine, sweetiefins. It’s just – a little early.’ She yawned. ‘I need a cup of sea . . .’

I leapt up. ‘I’ll make it!’

‘Darcy, wait . . .’

‘It’s no trouble . . .’

I whizzed into the kitchen, Remy on my tail. What did I need? Seabags, milk, sugar. The seabags were right at the back of a cupboard and I had to chuck loads of things out to get to them. I dropped the milk when I got it out of the fridge, but that was okay, Mum would just have to have black sea. I opened every single cupboard and pulled everything out but couldn’t find the sugar anywhere. Then I opened the top cupboard.

No sugar. But there WAS a big stack of Jiggling Jellies!

My mouth started watering. Jiggling Jellies are my favourite sweets. They were very untidily stacked, though.

I decided to tidy the cupboard up.

I’m not sure how, but I somehow managed to tidy every single Jiggling Jelly in the cupboard into my mouth.

‘DARCY! WHAT IS GOING ON?’

Mum was at the door, looking horrified. The kitchen looked like an underwater volcano had erupted in it. In the middle of the mess, guzzling the food I’d thrown out in my search for the sugar, was Remy. He wagged his tail at Mum, and burped loudly.

I quickly slurped in the Jiggling Jelly that was hanging out of my mouth.

‘It’s okay Mum, I’ll tidy up,’ I said. ‘And then I’ll make breakfast . . .’

Mum went a very funny colour and started twitching. She said that the most helpful thing I could do would be to not help any more, and that if I managed that she would give me a Help Point.

‘But Mum . . .’

‘NO BUTS!’

Thought of the Day: Never argue with a parent who is a funny colour and/or twitching.