Going for Gold (2 page)

With no inner angel for support, you’re forced to find out what you’re really made of. Now you’re all alone in a dangerous Universe, can you face your own ugly demons and survive? Have you got the guts to dig deep and go for gold? Are you truly an angel? Or was that just a beautiful dream?

Like I said, I didn’t know any of this, I just knew I felt completely rubbish.

Scrunching myself up into a ball of pure misery, I fell into one of those black sleeps that is so much more tiring than being awake. Even in my sleep I felt totally alone - final proof that the most dangerous part of my training was about to begin.

Chapter Two

J
ust three hours later I was like a completely new angel girl!

I woke up to find celestial sun beams dancing on my eyelashes, feeling happy, rested and ready for anything.

Cosmic upgrades will do that; drop you down into the depths one minute, send you soaring high as a kite the next. You’d think I’d make the connection, but no; I just yawned and stretched, mildly surprised that I could still hear the same spellbinding sounds I’d heard inside my dreams.

It sounds like diamonds, I thought drowsily, if diamonds could sing. I giggled at myself. “Singing diamonds, that’ll be it, Mel!”

Very gradually it dawned on me that these crystal clear sounds were real. They appeared to be conning from right outside my window. I padded across the room and pulled up the blind.

Three little birds gazed back bright-eyed from my windowsill. Next second their tiny chests puffed out, their beaks opened wide, and the Mystery of the Singing Diamonds was solved!

I heard excited knocking at my door and ran to let Lola in.

“Lollie, the weirdest thing—!”

We ducked as a flock of tiny humming birds swooped in through my open window, wings whirring at the speed of light.

“Lala-lalala!” my friend sang out teasingly. “Melanie’s had her upgrade!”

“My birthday was weeks ago,” I objected. “I was using my new powers the whole time I was away.”

“Ah, that was just a tiny taster, carita. Upgrades are a major deal.”

I felt a flicker of alarm. “Major in what way?”

“Like it takes months to get back to normal. Meanwhile, you’re walking around with a seriously spangly aura - that’s what attracted your little bird dudes!”

As we were talking my little bird dudes were happily redecorating my room with tasteful greenish-white splatters.

Lola got a good look at me for the first time. “Boo, please tell me you didn’t sleep in those crusty clothes?” She pointed me sternly towards my bathroom. “Soap, hot water!” she commanded. “Then I’m taking you out to breakfast!”

My soulmate and I are so in tune, no one ever believes we grew up in totally different time periods, not to mention on completely different continents! Lola was born in a vibey third world country, one hundred years in my future, and I lived in London’s gritty inner city one hundred years in Lola’s past.

The spooky thing is I always knew I was going to meet her.

I didn’t know that we’d meet up at angel school, or that one day we’d be watching each other’s backs in the never-ending war between the Light and Dark agencies, but I knew she was out there, and I TOTALLY knew we were going to get together. Meanwhile, in a drastically different cosmic post code, Lola was feeling exactly the same about me!

Twenty minutes later my soulmate and I were hurrying through the buzzy streets of Ambrosia (the boho studenty area of the Heavenly City) on our way to Guru. Mo’s cafe is really pretty much our second home.

Mo himself was placing fresh flowers on our usual table as we rocked up. “Good timing!” he beamed. “Can I interest you girls in the breakfast special?”

We didn’t have time, so Mo went smoothly to plan B. He was back in minutes with two blueberry shakes (ideal for cosmic stress, if you believe Mo) and a huge plate of freshly-made peach and passion fruit muffins.

I waited till Mo left to serve some customers.

“Lollie, I feel really dumb asking this, but why don’t I remember birds serenading you after your upgrade?”

“Maybe because it wasn’t birds with me, it was butterflies.” Lola saw my face and giggled. “They didn’t serenade me, silly! They were just, like, magnetically attracted to me. Once a crowd of tiny blue butterflies literally followed me into class.”

I shook my head. “I can’t have been here. I definitely would have remembered that.”

“No, you were,” she said calmly. “I think it’s one of those things that probably slips under your radar, until it happens to you.”

Lola’s explanation made me feel a teensy bit paranoid. What else might I be missing, simply because it wasn’t on my radar yet?

“Unless you’re a bird or a butterfly - or a preschooler!” Lola added, starting on another muffin. “They notice everything]”

“Obi does for sure!”

Obi is a preschooler at the angel nursery where I help out. It’s wrong to have favourites, but if I did, Obi would be a serious contender!

“Talking of sweet angel boys,” Lola smirked, “Reuben said to tell you ‘Hi!’”

“Why can’t he say ‘hi’ himself?” I felt like I hadn’t seen my boy buddy for aeons.

“He signed up for a field trip while you were away to - where was it again? Atlantis, I think it was.”

“Is that even real?”

Some angel boys at the next table were watching us. They seemed amazed that Lola and I could consume huge quantities of muffins, and chat like we were speed dating, all at the same time!

What can I say? We’re girls. We had no choice! We had urgent catching up to do. While I’d been away, Lola had been rehearsing for a concert she had coming up. My friend literally has an angelic singing voice - one thing we don’t share, I’m sorry to say. Obviously Lola wanted to hear all about my emotional reunion with my mum and my little sister on Earth.

“Oh, how did things work out with Sky?” Lola remembered suddenly. “You sounded so worried last time you called.”

I thought I was going to fall apart right there in Guru.

Lola quickly put her hand over mine. “Is it too soon to talk about it?”

“A bit,” I gulped, fighting tears.

Heavenly hip-hop music exploded from my friend’s jacket. She pulled out her phone, beaming when she saw the caller ID. “Do you mind, babe?”

“Course not. Say ‘hi’ to your bad boy from me.”

A LOT of water has flowed under the bridge since I first met Brice, Lola’s cosmic drop-out boyfriend, in wartime London. When the school took him back on probation, I didn’t trust that angel boy an INCH! I’m happy to tell you he has since proved me totally and utterly wrong.

As it happened, we’d both been in my old human neighbourhood working on different, but, as it turned out, totally cosmically-related missions. Brice was going to be there for another few days, tying up loose ends.

To give the lovebirds some privacy, I checked my mobile for text messages. Lola and I seem fated to end up with identical phones! Lollie had acquired this new Omni-Era XL22 while I was away. The Agency lent me the same model for my mission and to my delight, (the Omni-Era XL has zillions of spangly functions!) Sam said I could keep it.

After Lola finished her call, we quickly drained our smoothies and set off back to school.

“I meant to tell you, Amber had her upgrade while you were away.” Lola was half-giggling before she’d even got her story out. “She’s telling everyone she’s only wearing pure white from now on. Says it’ll make it easier to radiate cosmic light throughout the Universe!”

My jaw dropped. “White all over? Even her shoes?”

“She doesn’t believe in shoes these days either!” Lola explained. “They block the light flow, according to Amber. She’s all bare feet and tinkly ankle bracelets now! I’d keep out of her way, actually, she’s looking for angel girls to join a bizarre group she’s starting, called Sisters of Light!”

I couldn’t help laughing. Amber was going to be soo embarrassed when her cosmic after-effects finally wore off!

“Hi, Melanie!” said a clear little voice.

I glanced down to see a small angel boy beaming up at me. It was Obi, the cutest four year old in Heaven. To my surprise, he seemed to be all alone.

“Where’s Miss Dove, sweetie?”

“Well, aksherly,” he said calmly, “she’s at school teaching the other angel kids.” He slid a sticky hand into mine.

“You should be in school too Obi,” I told him. “What are you doing wandering around all by yourself?”

“I wanted to see your sparkles! They woke me up aksherly!” he added with a delighted giggle.

I was astounded. “You heard my aura - in your sleep?”

My sentence ended in a squeak as an unusually large blackbird landed on my shoulder in a rush of feathers. It gave my ear a friendly nibble.

“Cut that out.” I told it, giggling.

The air was suddenly full of whirring wings, as birds of all colours and sizes came swooping down to admire my ‘sparkles’.

The little angel boy’s eyes were shining with awe. “The birds love you Melanie!” he breathed.

Quite without any warning, I felt myself whoosh through to a higher level of existence. In that dazzling instant I understood that EVERYTHING in the Universe loved me! Not just birds and cute little angel boys but germs and stars and blades of grass. Most wonderful of all, I loved them all right back!

I tilted my head back, letting the sunlight fall on my face like kisses. The air smelled of lilacs. Every leaf on every tree glowed like a vivid green jewel.

I felt so - pure and - yes, POWERFUL. Like, I just had to think the right thoughts and wild flowers would come sprouting up through the pavement at my feet!

Lola was watching with a resigned expression. She gave a deep sigh. “Oh man! Your upgrade is kicking in big time!”

Chapter Three

I
truly don’t know where Lola gets her patience. Somehow she successfully coaxed her babbling best friend (me again!) to school next day. We had almost reached our classroom when a teeny gold butterfly flitted past leaving joyful energy trails like shimmery ribbons in the air.

Suddenly I had to be as free as that butterfly, or I was going to DIE.

I backed away from the door. “Sorry, I can’t go in.”

“Of course you can, sweetie,” she said, in the gentle-but-firm voice she’d been using ever since my upgrade kicked in. “Anyway, I don’t think Mr Allbright will be too happy if you bunk off.”

“I don’t care,” I objected. “I mean, why do angels even need to go to school? Don’t laugh, Lollie, I’m serious! Do you have the slightest idea how much cosmic wisdom there is in ONE tiny flower?”

My soulmate sensibly didn’t even bother to reply. “Come on, little Bambi!” she grinned. “You can talk to the tiny flowers after school. Tell you what, we’ll go to the gym later so you can burn off some of this surplus energy.”

I let her march me into school, but I was fuming all through Mr Albright’s lesson. Lola was acting like I was going through some little phase. It didn’t occur to her this might be the new super-cosmic Mel Beeby! My ‘surplus energy’ was my precious birthday gift from the cosmic angels, which they were trusting me to share with the whole Universe.

My brilliant idea hit me so fast I saw stars!

To our classmates’ astonishment, I threw my arms round Lola. “I didn’t mean to be a diva! You were just trying to help! I see that now.”

Lola gently-but-firmly pushed me back into my seat. “Sweetie, Mr Allbright is trying to teach a maths class,” she whispered.

Everyone was hiding their smiles. Luckily I remembered in time that I loved everything and everyone in the Universe, no matter how misguided, so I blew them all happy kisses, including my teacher.

Somehow I managed to contain myself until lunchtime when I finally shared my huge revelation with my soulmate in the cafeteria.

“Lollie, I’ve just realised, I’m supposed to use my new cosmic powers to help planet Earth, and I want you come with me!”

My soulmate took a deep breath before she burst my pretty balloon. “Carita, I’m sorry, going back to Earth is not a good idea for you just now.”

Lola still didn’t know about Sky. She was just making a v. diplomatic reference to my birthday upgrade. In normal (i.e. not bonkers) circumstances, that’s what I’d have heard.