Authors: Annie Dalton

Winging It (11 page)

BOOK: Winging It

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My face burned. There are SO not any secrets in Heaven!

Then Uriel - it was definitely Uriel - said something so beautiful, I just know I’ll remember it for ever.

“However,” he said more gently, “a trouble-shooting angel, far from Heaven, must sometimes improvise. And your heart, as humans say, was very much in the right place.”

Chapter Eleven

T
he morning of the end-of-term party, Lola and I went on a major shopping spree.

“So what was he like?” Lola said, holding up a sugary pink baby-doll dress patterned with little love hearts.

“Yuck!” I said with a shudder “Nightmare.”

“He was yuck?”

“The dress, dummy! The Opposition guy was in a totally different category of nightmare. Did you still have horror films in your time?”

Lola shuddered. “My brothers loved those things. Me, I couldn’t see the point. All those gruesome special FX.”

”
That’s
the category,” I said. “The really disturbing thing was, he looked exactly like this boy I fancied at school.”

Lola giggled. “A really
bad
boy, I bet.”

We went back to hunting along the rails.

“Angel girl, do you even know what you’re looking for?” Lola sighed.

I showed her a scarlet leather cat-suit. “What do you think?”

“Miaow!” Lola said with a grin. “Maybe you should go for something more discreet!”

And she picked out a Clark Kent-type suit. We went into fits of giggles.

“Ooh, yes! All I need is those sexy black-rimmed spectacles,” I told her.

“OK,” said Lola. “We’ve got exactly one hour to get this perfect look together. Then we’ve got to do some serious cooking for the party.”

I’d just remembered something. “Lollie, did you and Reuben like, transmit good vibes to me or something, when I was in with the big guys?”

Lola suddenly looked vague. “Maybe. I don’t remember.”

“Sure you don’t.” I gave her a hug. “Thanks. I got them.”

Exactly one hour later I had the perfect troubleshooting outfit - cropped top, combats and some cool boots. To me that look says committed, it says now, it says ready for action. I mean, I’m an angel, so I should look totally divine, right?

We held our class party down on the beach. Everything was so lovely, I kept thinking it couldn’t possibly get any lovelier - but then each time the party would morph effortlessly into a whole new phase.

At one point I found myself standing beside Flora. “Sorry about losing you guys that award,” I mumbled.

I thought she’d be furious, but she just gave a cool little shrug. “There’s always next term.”

People can SO surprise you. Take Amber for instance. It turns out she doesn’t play the harp at all. Would you believe, bongo drums?!

Incidentally, Reuben aced his Earth Skills paper. Trust me, until you’ve seen a happy angel-angel, you do
not
know what happiness is!

That was the night Lola and I decided to teach Reuben terrestrial-type DJing. In no time he’d developed his own style, mixing earthly and heavenly sounds and rhythms like you would NOT believe.

“Ya-ay! DJ Sweetpea is in the house!” yelled Lola.

It was a warm night but all at once my bare arms were covered with goosebumps. Someone was calling me and I didn’t have a choice. I had to go.

Without a word to anyone, I slipped down to the seashore, and there was Michael, waiting. He didn’t speak, just picked up a beautiful shell from the water’s edge and, with the gravest, sweetest smile, put it into my hand.

I held it for a moment, just to feel its smooth curved shape. Impulsively I put it to my ear. And then it happened, just like Lola said.

“Helix,” whispered the waves.

“It’s my name,” I breathed. “My true angel name.”

About the Author

Annie Dalton has been shortlisted for the Carnegie medal and won the Nottingham Children’s Book Award and the Portsmouth Children’s Book Award.The twelve Angel Academy books (previously known as Agent Angel), became an international best selling series. Annie lives overlooking a Norfolk meadow with a ruined castle, in a row of cottages that were rescued from bulldozers and lovingly rebuilt by a band of hippies.

www.anniedaltonwriter.co.uk

Also by Annie Dalton

Urban Fantasy Books

Night Maze

The Alpha Box

Naming the Dark

The Rules of Magic

Angel Academy Series

Winging it

Losing the Plot

Flying High

Calling the Shots