Sam Watkins - Darcy Dolphin is a Little Bit Magic!

‘ Attack of the Zombie Crabs ,’ I read, ‘by James Halibut.’

‘A marvellous author,’ said Miss Angler, smiling wickedly. ‘I have all his books.’

Hmm. I wasn’t sure if it was exactly what I needed – but I took it because it said ‘A FIN-TINGLING READ’ on the back.

I read the first chapter in bed and am now too scared to come out from under my bedcovers. Can crabs really come back to life as zombies? I really hope Coral doesn’t do that sort of thing.

Word of the day:FIN-TINGLING

This means scary and exciting. I have to say that Attack of the Zombie Crabs is loads more scary than it is exciting.

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’.

WHALESDAY

Mum was wrong. Coral was exactlythe 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 perseveredso 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 . . .