Darcy Dolphin is a Little Bit Magic!. Sam Watkins

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’.

      WHALESDAY

      Mum was wrong. Coral was exactly the same as yesterday. Plus she clicked her pincers in her sleep, which kept waking me up.

      Coral grumbled all the way to school. When we finally got into class, Miss Carp gave us ten minutes to talk to our pen pals and find out some things they liked to do. I looked around to see how everyone else was getting on. Ozzie was showing Melvin a trick with his tentacles, and Gloria was giving Myrtle fashion tips.

      Coral sat next to me with her pincers crossed, looking grumpy. Maybe we could play a game, I thought. What games might a crab like?

      ‘Do you like Snap?’ I asked.

      She shrugged. ‘Not really.’

      ‘How about I Spy?’

      She shook her head.

      ‘Okay – what do you like to play?’

      She flashed me a cheeky look.

      ‘Clam Up.’

      Finally – something Coral liked! ‘Ooh, what’s that?’ I said.

      ‘Both players shut their mouths for as long as they can. First person to talk loses.’

      ‘Sounds fun!’ I said, checking the clock. ‘Ready, steady, GO!’

      I shut my mouth. This was too easy! After a while I started feeling fidgety. My brain squirmed. My lips twitched. Words bubbled up in my mouth. I looked at the clock.

      ‘One minute?!’ I squeaked. ‘I think the clock’s stopped!’

      Coral clicked her pincers in delight. ‘I win.’

      ‘That didn’t count,’ I said.

      Coral just shrugged.

      I felt more words bubble up in my mouth. Luckily before they could pop out Miss Carp clapped her fins.

      ‘Lovely to see you all getting on so well,’ she called and started handing out dictionaries.

      ‘Persevere, Darcy,’ she whispered to me as she swam past, putting a dictionary on my desk. I didn’t know what that meant so I decided to look it up.

      Then I remembered that Miss Carp always says I have a Positive Mental Attitude.

      I am the Positively Mental Darcy Dolphin!

      I WILL MAKE CORAL LIKE ME. EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY!

      Word of the Day: PERSEVERE

      The dictionary says that this means trying hard to do something even if you find it really difficult. Like being nice to someone who may or may not be a zombie crab.

      TURTLESDAY

      I persevered so hard at being nice to Coral yesterday evening that I nearly exploded. Then I read two chapters of Zombie Crabs before bed. And you know what – Steve was right about Zoe – she IS a zombie crab! Steve is now trying to make his house zombie-proof, as he’s scared Zoe will eat his brains! Apparently that is what zombies do. I peeked out of the toy cave at Coral and she looked fast asleep, but I put Remy on guard at the cave door, just in case.

      In the middle of the night I was woken up by a fin-tingling noise.

       Click-click, moooooan, click-click, moooooan . . .

      It was Coral, clicking and moaning in her sleep again! Remy shot to my side and latched on, whimpering.

      Maybe remoras don’t make such great guard-fish.

      I got up early and told Mum about Coral’s moaning and clicking.

      ‘She was probably having a nightmare, dear,’ Mum said, trying to spoon prawnflakes into Diddy’s mouth.

      I gulped. Should I tell Mum my fears? I decided I had to.

      ‘Mum . . . I think Coral might be a zombie crab,’ I said. ‘She’s been acting really –’

      ‘DIDDY! Don’t throw your food!’ Mum exclaimed suddenly as prawnflakes went flying. ‘Sorry, Darcy darling, what was that about Coral?’