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shoves past me and mutters under his breath but loud enough for me to hear. ‘It’s just for spastics and losers in here.’
    Daisy grips my hand again, tighter this time. I can feel her nails dig in my palm.
    I put an arm round her and glance back at Felix. He’s staring at the table, spinning the salt cellar round and round with his good hand.
    We reach the counter, about to order, but Mrs Zagni has an ice-cream ready for Daisy. Two scoops of mint choc chip, dripping with chocolate sauce and a chocolate flake.
    ‘This one’s on the house, Daisy Varcoe,’ she smiles. ‘That’s a big thing you did back there. You’re what the world needs right now.’
    Daisy beams and takes the ice-cream.
    ‘Come on, Daisy.’ I take her wand and party bag. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
    ‘I just want to say hello,’ she says.
    I wait for her by the café door and smile. Daisy wants the whole world to be her friend. She stops in front of Felix’s table, puffs out her chest and grins.
    But something happens. Something’s said that I can’t hear. Daisy’s face falls. Tinkerbell’s little light has been snuffed out. She drops her ice-cream. The cone shatters and splatters mint choc chip across the hard tiled floor. Daisy runs right past me, through the open café door, her cheeks burning crimson and streaked with tears.

C HAPTER 9
    I  find Daisy by the harbour. She’s sitting between a pile of lobster pots, sobbing and puffing, catching her breath.
    ‘What is it, Daisy? What happened?’
    She pulls her wings off and throws them in the dirt. She tries to snap her wand, but the plastic just bends and she throws that in the mud and oil too.
    ‘Did you hear what he said?’ Her eyes are big and full of tears.
    I kneel down and put my arms around her. ‘What, Daisy?’
    She shakes her head and buries her head in my chest.
    I lift her chin up. ‘Come on, Daisy, you can tell me.’
    ‘He said . . .’ A sob catches in her throat and she gulps it back. ‘He said . . . he didn’t put out an advert for a fat fairy godmother.’
    ‘You’re kidding!’ I say.
    Daisy shakes her head. ‘That’s what he said.’
    I try to hide my smile. ‘Forget it, Daisy. He was rude, that’s all.’
    She looks at me with her big round eyes. ‘I’m not fat, am I?’
    ‘Course not,’ I say, and I smile this time. ‘You’re just right the way you are. And it was a brave thing you did back there.’
    She looks at me but she’s not convinced. Her face is tear-stained and smudged in dirt. Her whole body shudders with big sobs as she breathes.
    I lift her to her feet. ‘Come on. Let’s see if we can find that white dolphin.’
    Her face lights up a little and she smiles. ‘Really?’
    I nod. I can’t take her to the secret cove. The cliffs are too steep to climb and we won’t get back home in time for Aunt Bev.
    ‘Let’s go down to the beach,’ I say. ‘Maybe we’ll see it there.’
    I take Daisy’s hand and we walk along the beach to the rock pools on the far side. I look out into the sea, but there’s no sign of any dolphins in the bay.
    ‘Let’s go to the Blue Pool,’ I say. ‘Let’s see what we can find.’
    The tide is still low enough for us to pick our way along the slabs of rock and patches of pale sand towards the headland. The rock pools here are deep and hidden. Some are two metre narrow crevices holding mini underwater worlds. But there is one rock pool bigger than the rest. It’s a mini universe.
    The Blue Pool is a tidal pool, flanked on three sides by massive slabs of slate. Some fifty years ago, a concrete ledge was built across to keep the water in. It’s now a huge deep rock pool, big enough to swim in. The walls inside are lined with anemones and kelp, and sometimes fish become trapped between the tides.
    At high tide, the sea reaches just over the ledge and then the Blue Pool looks like one of the posh swimming pools I’ve seen in magazines, that go on and on and look like they’re part of the sea. It