Broken Promises Page 4

  She glared at Hannah. How typical that Hannah should save a bird when she’d failed to. Why couldn’t Spirit’s call have been for litter-picking?

  Cai swam over.

  “What’s going on? Why aren’t you speaking in dolphin?” he clicked.

  Hannah and Antonia both stared at Cai in surprise.

  “Sorry,” clicked Antonia, turning to Spirit to apologise.

  There was sadness in Spirit’s dark eyes. Antonia caught her breath. Spirit’s look made her feel uncomfortable. Then the sea began to churn and Antonia spun round. Three dolphins were swimming their way. The sadness vanished.

  “Bubbly,” she squeaked, as Star, Dream and Bubbles raced closer.

  Chapter Eight

  “Silver Dolphins,” squeaked Bubbles. He greeted Antonia first. Enthusiastically she greeted him back, pleased that she was still his favourite.

  “Can we play, Dad?” begged Bubbles and Dream when they’d said hello to everyone.

  Star clicked a laugh.

  “I thought you wanted to come here to help the Silver Dolphins,” she said.

  “They don’t need help any more,” said Bubbles.

  Spirit laughed too.

  “Yes, you can play,” he generously clicked. “Your mother and I have things to sort out. We’ll see you later.”

  “Bubbly! Thanks, Dad.” Bubbles smacked the water with his tail, soaking everyone. “Let’s play Sprat. I’ll be ‘it’. You get a three-wave head start.”

  Everyone scattered as Bubbles counted three waves. Antonia dived down to look for somewhere to hide. The green-blue water was crystal clear, but there were several rocks dotted around the seabed. She swam behind a short fat one, lying flat so her stomach was almost touching the sand. It was a good hiding place and Antonia was annoyed when Hannah suddenly appeared behind her, startling a school of tiny fish. Hannah grinned at Antonia in a conspiratorial way as she lay down beside her. Inwardly Antonia sighed. Why couldn’t she go somewhere else? But at least Hannah was good at hiding. She didn’t wriggle or keep peeking out to see if Bubbles was coming. She didn’t get the giggles either, something that often happened to Antonia when she was hiding with Cai. Hannah lay so still she could have been part of the seabed. Trust her to be good at everything. Antonia’s resentment continued to build. Well, she wasn’t going to let her win Sprat. The moment Antonia felt vibrations in the water she broke cover and swam away.

  “Sprat! I see you,” whistled Bubbles, chasing after her.

  Hannah broke cover and followed Antonia as she swam towards another rock. Determined not to get beaten, Antonia pulled ahead. Movement on the beach caught her eye. What was that? Sprat forgotten, Antonia changed course and headed for the shore where a kittiwake was staggering around. Drawing closer, Antonia saw it was tangled in a length of twine. Suddenly, Hannah changed direction. She’d spotted the kittiwake too. Antonia swam faster. She’d seen the bird first and was determined to get to it before Hannah. She was conscious that Hannah was catching her up. Frantically splashing ashore she ran up the beach. Startled, the bird opened its bright yellow beak.

  “Kitti-waaak,” it shrilled, flapping its wings in alarm. The bird tottered and almost fell over as the twine became more tangled round its body and legs.

  What was she thinking? By running so fast Antonia was scaring the bird and making things worse. She stopped dead as the panicking bird tied itself in more knots. Hannah ran past her and, lunging at the kittiwake, caught it as it managed to flap a few centimetres off the ground.

  “Kitti-waak!” squawked the terrified bird, struggling fiercely. A spot of blood appeared on its white breast.

  “Shhh,” crooned Hannah.

  She held the bird at arm’s length until eventually it stopped struggling. Gently, Hannah’s fingers worked at untangling the twine. It took ages. Her fingers tugged at the knots until the last piece fell away.

  “I’ll put this in the bin later,” she murmured, putting the twine in the pocket of her shorts. Carefully she examined the bird. Spots of blood stained its white feathers where it had injured itself panicking.

  “We can’t let it go,” said Hannah decisively. “We’ll have to take it back to Sea Watch for treatment.”

  Antonia shook her head.

  “Here, let me.” She reached out for the bird.

  Hannah flinched and held on to it. “I said give it here,” said Antonia coldly.

  Reluctantly Hannah passed the bird to Antonia. She took it, making gentle crooning noises in her throat. The bird fixed her with a steely eye. Gradually it relaxed. Antonia laid three fingers on the wound and imagined it healing.

  Mend.

  In her mind Antonia saw the wound closing up. A warm feeling crept down her arm and into her fingers. When they began to tingle Antonia pressed more firmly on the wound.

  Heal.

  The tingling sensation faded, leaving a warm glow that spread into her hands. She held her fingers against the kittiwake for a while longer, then pulled them away. The cut had gone. Only a few spots of dried blood remained. Antonia walked over to the rocks and put the bird down.

  “Kitti-waak,” it peeped gratefully as it flew away.

  “Wow!” whispered Hannah. “You can heal. I’d heard that very special Silver Dolphins could. That is so amazing.”

  Antonia rounded on Hannah, her greengrey eyes blazing.

  “That was your fault,” she said angrily. “You frightened the bird, charging up the beach like that, and it injured itself.”

  “I thought it was an emergency,” said Hannah. “You were racing too.”

  “No, I wasn’t.”

  “You were.”

  Antonia was so worked up she felt dizzy in the head. “I could have managed on my own,” she yelled. “I never asked for your help. Or did you think I was going to mess up again? Is that why you came after me?”

  Hannah gasped. “Of course not! I was only trying to help. That’s what Silver Dolphins do. We work together to care for the sea life, don’t we?”

  “What’s going on?” Cai ran up the beach. “Why are you shouting at each other?”

  “She started it,” said Antonia. Impatiently she pushed her long blonde hair back over her shoulders.

  Hannah said nothing, but her piercing grey eyes were full of concern. Antonia stared at the sand. She didn’t want Hannah’s sympathy.

  “I’ve had enough of this,” she muttered. “I’m going home.”

  She strode down the beach and into the sea.

  “Antonia,” called Cai. “Antonia, wait.”

  Pretending not to hear Antonia waded into the water and swam away. Bubbles and Dream were hovering further out to sea and came after her.

  “Silver Dolphin,” Bubbles clicked. “Why are you angry?”

  “I’m not angry with you,” said Antonia, her voice catching. She swallowed. “I have to go. I promised Mum I’d be back for tea.”

  Dream nuzzled her hair with her nose. “We’ll swim with you,” she offered.

  “Thanks, but I’ll be fine,” said Antonia. “You might as well stay and finish your game.”

  Playfully Bubbles smacked the water with a flipper. “It’ll be no fun without you,” he clicked. “Please stay.”

  “I can’t,” Antonia turned away, unable to bear Bubbles’s look of disappointment. “I’m sorry, Bubbles. I have to go home and play with my cousins. I’ll play with you next time.”

  Deep down, Antonia knew she’d acted unreasonably. Why had she felt the need to prove herself to Hannah? Being a Silver Dolphin wasn’t a competition. As she swam for home she heard Cai shouting her name. A mixture of emotions buzzed round her head. One was stronger than the rest. She was letting everyone down. She’d even ignored Claudia’s advice to take a holiday from Sea Watch and from the Silver Dolphins. Antonia was ashamed of herself. Unable to face Cai, she swam faster.

  Chapter Nine

  That evening, Antonia half expected Cai to call to ask if she was all right. Each time the telephone rang s
he jumped a mile, then was disappointed when the call was for someone else. She thought about phoning Cai, only she didn’t know what to say to him. The following day, Mum offered to take the girls out, to visit a tropical garden. Abi, Ella and Jessica were pleased. Not only did the gardens have a huge adventure playground, but there were lots of workshops going on, including one on making jewellery from nature. Antonia wasn’t so thrilled about the trip, but remembering her promise to be a good host, she pretended to be excited.

  Abi enjoyed the visit to the tropical gardens tremendously but she kept talking about Sophie.

  “Sophie would love this,” she said, as she sat at an outside table making a bracelet from sunflower seeds. “I’m going to make her a bracelet to match mine.”

  Antonia wished she’d suggested that Sophie had gone to the gardens in her place. Then she could have spent the day at Sea Watch and put things right with Cai. Remembering how she’d swum home, ignoring his shouts, made her feel hot with shame. Antonia wanted to prove that she was a good Silver Dolphin. So far she’d only managed to prove the opposite! The day dragged on. Antonia longed for it to end. Tomorrow, Saturday, was the day of the Sea Watch litter-picking event. Now that was exciting! Claudia had said that over a million seabirds in the world died every year as a result of injuries caused by litter. It was a shocking thought. Hopefully lots of people would come to the litter-pick and the sea life would be safer as a result.

  The litter-picking event was to be followed by a huge barbecue on the beach. Claudia had special permission from Jack to hold one as a thank you to the volunteers. Antonia knew Abi wouldn’t be keen on the litter-pick but thought she’d help out so she could go to the barbecue afterwards. She was wrong.

  “Eeeyuk, I’m not spending a day picking up rubbish,” squealed Abi when Antonia mentioned it. She shuddered, almost pricking herself with the needle as she continued stringing sunflower seeds together.

  “Please,” Antonia begged. “You don’t have to touch anything. Everyone who helps is given a free pair of gloves.”

  “Free gloves!” exclaimed Abi. “And that’s supposed to make me say yes?”

  “There’s a barbecue afterwards.”

  “I can go to a barbecue any time.”

  Frustrated, Antonia speared a sunflower seed and accidentally sent it spinning across the table. Ages ago, she’d promised Claudia she’d help at the Sea Watch litter-picking event. More recently she’d promised Mum she’d look after Abi. How could she possibly keep both promises? The summer holidays were rapidly turning into a nightmare.

  Luckily Mum came to her rescue.

  “Abi doesn’t have to do the litter-pick if she doesn’t want to,” she said. “I’m sure she won’t mind if you go, seeing as you’ve had this arranged for a while.”

  Antonia could have hugged her mother.

  “Thanks,” she said gratefully.

  “What about me?” asked Abi. “What will I do?”

  “You can invite Sophie round,” said Mrs Lee. “We’ll phone her when we get home.”

  Saturday morning, the day of the litter-pick, Antonia woke early. Jumping out of bed she ran to her window and opened the blind. The weather was perfect—golden sunshine in a clear blue sky with a sprinkling of fleecy white clouds. The litter-pick was due to start at eleven, but by half past ten so many people had gathered on the beach to help that Claudia ran out of the litter-picking packs. Sally, an adult volunteer, offered to go back to Sea Watch to make up some more and Cai and Antonia went with her to help. Although it was nice having Cai to herself for a change, Antonia felt slightly awkward in his company. Cai hadn’t mentioned the shouting incident on the beach, but occasionally she caught a look in his eye, and knew he was thinking about it. Knowing she couldn’t ignore the issue forever Antonia steeled herself to talk.

  “Where’s Hannah today?” she asked, her hands trembling slightly as she parcelled up gloves, juice and biscuits with a black sack and a green one.

  “She’s not coming,” said Cai. “Her mum felt guilty about abandoning her all week so she’s taking her out for the day.”

  “Oh!”

  Antonia was relieved and disappointed at the same time.

  They had almost finished. Sally gathered up some rubbish and took it outside. Antonia was about to speak, but Cai beat her to it.

  “Hannah’s really nice. She’d love to be friends with you. You should give her another chance.”

  Antonia’s greengrey eyes widened.

  “You’ve been talking about me!” she exclaimed.

  “Nice things,” said Cai.

  “Thanks a bunch.” Antonia began to put the litter-picking packs into a cardboard box. Nice things or not, she didn’t want Hannah having cosy chats about her with her best friend.

  “You’re so—” Cai didn’t get to finish.

  Sally came back in jangling her car keys. “Right, let’s get this lot back to the beach before our volunteers get bored of waiting and find something else to do.”

  I’m so what? Antonia wondered as she helped to load Sally’s car.

  The litter-pick was great fun and a massive success. Claudia had to arrange for a lorry to collect the bags of rubbish as there were too many to dispose of by herself. A local news reporter and photographer also came along to cover the event for the Sandy Bay Times. Antonia and Cai had their photo taken holding up some of the rubbish they’d collected.

  “Look miserable,” instructed the photographer. “Make it look like you’re not happy about finding all this junk on the beach.”

  No problem there, thought Antonia. Being miserable came easily these days.

  In the late afternoon, as the volunteers rested, Claudia and Jack lit the barbecue. Antonia sat on the beach digging up the white-gold sand with her bare toes.

  “I wish I’d brought my swimming costume,” she sighed. “I’d love to go swimming now.”

  “Hannah and I are surfing tomorrow afternoon,” said Cai. “We might swim after that. Do you want to come with us?”

  Antonia was stabbed with a feeling of jealousy. What other things had Cai and Hannah arranged without telling her?

  “I didn’t ask you before because of Abi,” Cai quickly added.

  Antonia forced a smile. It wasn’t Cai’s fault that Abi didn’t enjoy the kind of things she and Cai enjoyed. And it wasn’t fair to expect Cai to stay at home doing nothing when she wasn’t around.

  “Thanks. I might come. It depends on what Abi wants to do.”

  In her heart, Antonia knew that Abi wouldn’t want to spend Sunday swimming and surfing, but she thought her cousin might agree to go to the beach with them to sunbathe. Abi, however, had made plans of her own. The moment Antonia got in from the barbecue, Abi waylaid her.

  “We’re going to the cinema tomorrow with Sophie. It’s all arranged. Aunty Helen said she’d run us into town and Sophie’s mum is bringing us back home.”

  “The cinema!” exclaimed Antonia. “But it’s far too nice to go to the cinema. It’s going to be hot again tomorrow.”

  Abi pouted. “Don’t come then. We’ll go on our own.”

  Antonia was tempted to say she wouldn’t go, but Abi was her guest and she’d promised to look after her. Her cousins were staying for a week. Silently, Antonia counted up the days in her head. It was over halfway through their visit. The three days left seemed a lifetime to go, but it wasn’t really. Antonia felt guilty about wanting Abi to go home, but she couldn’t help herself. After all, it was Abi that had changed, not her! Suddenly, Antonia was very glad the litter-picking event had happened. With the amount of rubbish collected there had to be less work for the Silver Dolphins to do. With luck Spirit wouldn’t need her until after Abi had gone. That night Antonia went to bed feeling slightly more relaxed.

  Chapter Ten

  The Sandy Bay cinema was ancient with only one screen and no air-conditioning. It was hot and stuffy and, although the film was funny, Antonia wasn’t in the mood for being indoors. At least Abi was enjoying herse
lf. She sat in between Sophie and Antonia holding the huge bucket of popcorn the girls had bought between them. She laughed so much during the film she reminded Antonia of the old Abi. Furtively Antonia checked her watch. Surely the film was nearly over? Sophie’s mum had said to ring them when they got out and she would come and pick them up. Antonia wished they’d asked to walk home. She couldn’t bear being cooped up and wanted to be out in the fresh air and sunshine.

  A funny feeling swept over her. At first Antonia thought she felt odd because it was so stuffy in the cinema. The feeling persisted. Suddenly, Antonia sat bolt upright in her chair. Of course! Spirit was about to call. Her hand flew to her silver dolphin charm. Its soft body quivered against her fingers. Antonia groaned. Why now? How could she answer Spirit’s call when she was at the cinema with Abi and Sophie?

  Claudia’s words came back to her in a rush. She had said that Antonia could take a holiday from the Silver Dolphins. Reluctantly, Antonia let go of her dolphin charm. She wanted to answer the call, but she also wanted to keep her promise to Mum. Antonia decided that this time she had to let Cai and Hannah deal with it on their own.

  A few minutes later, the dolphin charm began to vibrate and an ear-splitting whistle sounded in the cinema. Antonia jumped, guiltily looking around, even though she knew no one else could hear it. The whistling was followed by whispers inside her head. First Cai’s voice and then Hannah’s, answering Spirit’s call. Antonia longed to join them. But Cai and Hannah were perfectly able to manage on their own. They’d proved that already. Protectively she cupped her hand round the silver dolphin charm. After a long while the whistling ended, but the dolphin charm continued to judder. Antonia felt uneasy. Her sixth sense was telling her that this call was urgent. Should she answer it after all? Whatever she did, it would be wrong. Answering the call meant breaking her promise to Mum. Not answering it meant breaking her promise to Spirit.

  The lady next to Antonia began to shuffle. Around the cinema came the noise of seats flipping up and people talking. The lights went on. Antonia wanted to cheer with relief. The film had finished. Abi crushed the empty carton of popcorn with her hands.