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

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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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!

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.

WHALESDAY

‘Can I help you today, Mum?’ I pleaded at breakfast. ‘I really need Help Points.’

Mum started twitching again.

‘I know, why don’t you see if Ozzie’s mum needs any help?’ Dad said quickly.

I decided to call for Myrtle first, and then we swam round to Ozzie’s shipwreck, The Lucky Gull. Ozzie’s mum had gone out.

‘She’s helping gran with her shopping,’ Ozzie said.

DING! I had a tidal brainwave.

‘WE can help old ladyfish with their shopping! We’ll wait outside the supermarket and carry their bags home for them!’

Myrtle and Ozzie wanted to wait for Ozzie’s mum. I reminded them that I was Shoal Leader and they had to do what I said.

We swam to Fishco, the biggest supermarket in town. As we got there I saw Reggie Ray hovering around by the doors, with two more Sea Trouts.

‘What are the Guppies doing here?’ I said crossly.

Ozzie gulped. ‘I have a bad feeling about this –’

At that moment a little old ladyfish came swimming through the doors, carrying two full shopping bags.

‘Minnows – GO!’ I shouted, diving towards the ladyfish. But Reggie was quicker.

‘Can I help you with those bags, madam?’ said Reggie.

The ladyfish blinked in surprise.

‘I’ll help you!’ I said loudly, darting round Reggie and grabbing one of the bags.

‘Hey!’ Reggie tried to grab it off me. Suddenly the other Guppies dived in, all of them trying to grab the bag. Then . . .

‘OW!’

The old ladyfish whacked me on the head with the other bag!

‘I’ll have that back, thank you!’ She scurried away, muttering some not very ladyfishlike things under her breath. The Guppies swam off too, sniggering.

‘Darcy! Are you okay?’ Ozzie and Myrtle dashed over. Ozzie had turned a shocking pink (he changes colour when he gets stressed).

I groaned. ‘My head hurts! Is there a giant lump?’

Myrtle said she couldn’t see one. Then Ozzie said that old ladyfish were too dangerous and we should go back to his shipwreck and wait for his mum.

‘Well, all right,’ I said. ‘But it’s . . . wait – look over there!’

An old turtle was waiting to cross a road.

‘Darcy, is this a good idea?’ Ozzie said.

‘Yes! Come on!’

I zoomed over to the turtle, keeping an eye out for lurking Guppies.

‘We’ll help you, sir!’ I took the turtle’s flipper. He looked a bit startled, but I had to be quick in case Reggie Ray showed up. Streams of fast-moving fish were whizzing along the road in both directions.

‘After this one . . . GO!’

I yanked the turtle out into the road.

HOOOOONK! A whale shark swerved to avoid us. Then SCREEEEECH! A school of mackerel coming the other way screeched to a halt. Behind me I could hear Ozzie and Myrtle saying ‘Sorry, really sorry . . .’

When we got to the other side of the road the turtle collapsed in a quivering heap.

‘There you go,’ I said, cheerily. ‘Safely across the road!’

The turtle looked up at me. ‘But I didn’t WANT to cross the road,’ he quavered. ‘I was just having a rest!’

Aaaargh. No Help Points there, then. ☹

This helping thing is harder than I thought!

Thought of the Day: Just because a turtle is waiting by a road doesn’t mean he wants to cross it.

TURTLESDAY

We needed a plan to get a load of Help Points, so I decided to call a Helpers Meeting. We had to go to Myrtle’s because she was babysitting her twin brothers, Tyler and Trent. From the moment I arrived they wouldn’t leave me alone.

‘Daaarrrrcy, why don’t you have a shell?’

‘Daaarrrrcy, do dolphins lay eggs?’

‘Daaarrrrcy, why have you got a hole on your back?’

In the end Myrtle put them in front of the TV so we could start our meeting. Octopirates was on. The main character is Captain Tentacles, whose catchphrase is ‘Yo ho hum!’ Small fry think it’s hilarious.

As the twins went quiet, I grabbed some paper and a pen and wrote, ‘Helpers Meeting’.

‘Now, is everyone here?’ I said. ‘Where is Ozzie Octopus?’

‘He said he was going to be a bit late,’ said Myrtle.

‘Hmmm.’ I wrote, ‘Ozzie Octopus – LATE’.

‘Why are you writing that down?’ asked Myrtle.

‘You have to write everything down in meetings,’ I said.

‘Now, what are our ideas for getting loads of Help Points?’

I looked at Myrtle. There was a long pause.

‘We could tidy our bedrooms?’ she said finally.

‘Good idea,’ I said. ‘But we need something where we can get squillions of Help Points. We didn’t get any yesterday! We need to THINK BIG.’

I wrote down: ‘THINK BIG’.

It was really hard to think big with the TV yo-ho-humming away. Then there was a sudden burst of music as Octopirates ended and the twins hurled themselves on me.

‘YO HO HUM!!! Be our pirate ship, Daaaarcy!’

Myrtle groaned. ‘We’ll never get anything done now! The only person who can keep the twins quiet is Captain Tentacles –’

The doorbell rang.

‘I’ll get it,’ I said, shaking Tyler and Trent off and swimming to the door.

It was Ozzie. He looked a bit pink. ‘Where’ve you been?’ I asked.

‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I had to go to yoga with Mum – she says it’s good for my tentacles . . .’

Tentacles . . . Sploosh – BRAINWAVE!

‘Wait here,’ I told Ozzie. I went back into the living room where the twins were now swordfish-fighting on the sofa.

‘Have you got a pirate costume?’ I asked Myrtle.

‘The twins have,’ she said. ‘They’re obsessed with pirates.’ She pointed at a pirate hat and eye-patch lying on the floor. I took them out to Ozzie.

‘Here, put these on.’

He looked at them suspiciously. ‘Why?’

‘Please – I can’t explain now . . .’

Ozzie rolled his eyes, but he put the hat on and pulled the patch over his eye. I pulled him into the living room.

‘Tyler, Trent – there’s someone here to see you!’

The twins stopped fighting and peered over.

I nudged Ozzie. ‘Say “Yo ho hum”,’ I whispered.

‘Yo ho hum,’ he mumbled. The twins shrieked in glee.

‘Captain Tentacles!’

After that the twins were as good as goldfish. We sort of forgot about the Helpers Meeting though, and ended up playing ‘Make Captain Tentacles Walk the Plank’. So we still don’t have any ideas for getting Help Points! I think Ozzie is a bit cross with me about the walking the plank thing, too.☹

Thought of the Day: Some days are Thinking Big days and some are Walking the Plank days.

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