“Antonia Lee, I said Year Six could lead out,” said Mr Cordier. “It’s home time.”
Antonia’s face flamed red as the rest of the school giggled.
“She wasn’t listening because she’s thinking about Stage Struck!” hissed Lauren nastily.
“She’s not such a big fan as you are!” Becky whispered loyally.
“I know,” Lauren’s voice became louder as they moved out of the hall and filed along the corridor back to class. “I’ve got all the old series on DVD. I’ve got posters round my room and the fact-file diary. And soon I’m going to have autographs of the whole cast. Mum bought me an autograph book to collect them in. What do you think of that, Toni?”
“That’s nice,” said Antonia.
Lauren eyed her suspiciously. “I suppose you’ll get an autograph book now!”
Antonia ignored her and concentrated on getting her things ready to go home. When the school bell rang she stood smartly at her desk with her bag packed and her fleece on.
“Antonia, Alicia, Sophie, Charlie, Cai and Toby can all go,” said Mrs Howard.
“Hmmph!” grumbled Lauren as Antonia walked past her. “I bet I get their autographs before you do.”
“What was all that about?” asked Cai, as they set out to Sea Watch together.
Antonia shrugged. “Lauren seems to think I’m dying to meet the cast of Stage Struck.”
Cai laughed. “Like you’ve got time for that!”
When they arrived at Sea Watch, Claudia was pleased to see them.
“Someone’s just brought in a razorbill with oil on his feathers. I’m about to start cleaning him up, so if you could feed the herring gulls and clean out their cage and see to Tilly that would be very helpful.”
Antonia’s heart skipped a beat.
“Has there been another oil spill?” she asked.
“No, this bird’s just been unlucky enough to find a patch of oily sea. Boats often leak small amounts of oil.”
Sighing softly, Claudia went to fetch an apron and some thick gloves.
Antonia and Cai took a quick look at the razorbill before starting their jobs. “He looks very fed up,” commented Antonia.
“I’m not surprised,” said Cai. “Look at the state of him.”
Razorbills in the wild were proud-looking birds, black with snowy-white chests and a distinctive white line on their beaks. This bird’s feathers were clogged with oil and his white parts were a grimy grey.
“Steady,” soothed Antonia, as the bird let out a frightened growl.
The bird stared at her and after a bit gradually relaxed.
“It’s amazing how you do that,” said Cai.
Before Antonia could think of a modest reply, Claudia returned with a solution to cleanse the bird’s stomach of poisonous oil and a special washing-up liquid for his feathers.
“Let’s get started,” she said, putting the solutions next to the sink.
Antonia and Cai put on gloves and aprons and went outside.
“Who shall we do first?” asked Cai.
“The gulls,” answered Antonia, wanting to save her favourite animal until last. Tilly the seal had been at Sea Watch for many months now, much longer than expected, but after several setbacks she was finally fit enough to return to the sea. Antonia was pleased that Tilly was going home, but she was really going to miss her.
There were four gulls in the outside aviary; two with broken wings, one with a broken leg and the other with injuries to her chest. Like most of the herring gulls around Sandy Bay, they were an inquisitive bunch who stared unnervingly at Antonia and Cai while they worked.
“They’re so greedy,” said Cai. “They’re only watching us to see if we’ve got something to eat.”
“I know,” said Antonia. “The other day that big one nearly pecked off my finger thinking my cleaning cloth was food.”
When the aviary was clean they left the birds squabbling over a bucket of fish and went to feed Tilly, who was in the deepwater pool.
The friendly seal swam over, sticking her whiskery nose out of the water and honking a hello.
“Hello, Tilly,” said Antonia, careful not to touch her.
The animals at Sea Watch weren’t pets and for their own safety it wasn’t good for them to become too familiar with people.
Tilly swam around the pool grunting noisily as Cai and Antonia brushed and hosed down the walkway. Next they fed Tilly, throwing fish into the water to make her swim for her dinner.
“That was fun,” said Antonia, as they returned to the Sea Watch building.
Inside, Claudia was rubbing the razorbill dry with an old towel.
“It’s very quiet today. Where is everyone?” Antonia asked, suddenly missing her friends from the secondary school.
“They’re not coming. Emily texted to say everyone’s gone to wait for the cast of some TV show to arrive,” said Claudia.
“Huh!” snorted Cai. “I thought they had more sense than that.”
Claudia smiled. “It’s OK. Everyone works so hard for Sea Watch. It’s not fair to expect volunteers to come every day. Emily said they’d be here tomorrow. Are you all right, Antonia? You seem troubled.”
Antonia and Claudia were very good at knowing what each other was thinking. A bad feeling had suddenly come over Antonia, but she wasn’t sure why. Shaking the feeling away, she said brightly, “I’m fine. I can stay a bit later tonight, so what shall I do next?”
Antonia was starving when she got home. It was meatballs in tomato sauce for tea. She tucked in hungrily, spearing a meatball with her fork and popping it in her mouth as the phone rang.
“It’s Sophie,” said her mum, passing the telephone over.
Swallowing quickly, Antonia took it.
“Hi, Sophie, what’s up?” she asked.
Sophie was breathless with excitement. “The film crew are shooting their first scene in Sandy Bay early tomorrow morning. Mum says I can go and watch for a bit before school. Do you want to come with me?” she asked.
It sounded fun, but Antonia had already promised to meet up with Cai.
“Sorry, Sophie, but we’ve some last-minute things to do before the launch of the Litter Fishing scheme. Remember I told you about it – giving free rubbish sacks to fishermen? Sea Watch is co-ordinating it for Sandy Bay.”
“Never mind,” said Sophie cheerfully. “I’m taking my sketch book so I probably won’t be great company anyway. See you at school.”
“Have fun,” said Antonia, putting the phone down.
The following morning as Antonia put her lunchbox into her school bag, a familiar and exciting sensation came over her. The dolphins were going to call! Thank goodness she was walking to school alone. Antonia hurriedly pulled on her shoes and fleece, and said goodbye to Mum and little sister, Jessica.
“Bye,”