Fighting Fit (15 page)

Authors: Annie Dalton

That night I slept all night without moving. I didn’t even wrinkle the sheets.

I was woken by sunlight glinting in my eyelashes. When I opened my eyes, Lola was sitting by my bed, rosy-faced from her early morning run.

I threw my arms around her. “I missed you so much!”

My soul-mate quickly extricated herself. “Me too, sweetie. But I am also a leetle” bit sweaty as you can probably tell! You might want to leave the hug till later.”

“Lollie, trust me, after Ancient Rome, angelic sweat smells like roses!” I giggled.

On the last night of my PODS detox, Michael dropped by to see how I was getting on. By this time I was ready to talk about some things that still bothered me; the curse for instance.

“That curse said if the triplets came back together, Rome would fall,” I said earnestly. “Well, we got them back together, Michael, and I literally felt Rome’s foundations shaking. I don’t know how it seems to you guys, but I got the definite impression that Nero was, um,
toast.”

“And you’re worried you might have done some harm.”

I chewed at my lip. “Well, yes,” I admitted.

Michael smiled. “Melanie, you helped to turn an evil curse into a blessing. Have you any idea what a rare and wonderful event that is?”

“A blessing?” I said dubiously. “Are you sure?”

“One hundred percent sure!” Michael flipped open his laptop and set it up where I could see the screen. “Take a look at these.,” he said with a smile.

He started to scroll through a huge picture gallery of human faces. To me it seemed like they came from every race, era, and civilisation. Male, female, black, white, golden and brown, the faces flowed on and on. Now and then Michael would single one out, like: “Of course if Marie hadn’t shown such exceptional courage, radium would never have been invented.” Or: “Rosa’s absolute refusal to be a second-class citizen, helped to give birth to the American civil rights movement.”

I was baffled. “I don’t get it. What have all these people got in common?”

“I hoped you’d ask me that,” he beamed.

Michael tapped a key and made the portrait gallery disappear.

Now only two faces gazed out at me. I felt the slow dawning of recognition. They were older in these pictures, but the strength and beauty of Aurelia and Lucilla’s faces shone through, totally unaltered.

“All those humans were descended from just
two
sisters?” I said in amazement.

“Every last one,” he said firmly.

“And they all did these incredible things?” I breathed.

“They were all incredible people,” Michael corrected. “Which isn’t quite the same thing. The kind of humans who change the atmosphere of the planet for the better, just by being themselves.” He gave me a mischievous smile. “In fact if you were to trace your human family tree all the way back to Roman times, you might get a surprise, Melanie!”

“Yeah, right,” I grinned. “Which Ancient Roman triplet am I descended from?”

“Aurelia, obviously,” said Michael in the same light-hearted voice. “There’s a very strong connection between the two of you, which I think you noticed.”

This idea was way too fanciful for me. I was just happy to know that Aurelia and her sister had survived to live happy productive lives.

Next morning, Lola came to take me home. “I thought we’d drop into Guru on the way back,” she said. “My treat.”

I felt a flicker of panic. “I don’t know if I’m ready to see people yet, Lollie.”

“I’m sorry, Boo,” said my soul-mate in a firm voice. “But you won’t be fully recovered until you’ve had Guru’s infallible chocolate brownie cure.”

“Lollie, that is SO low!” I giggled. “You know I can’t resist!”

It felt v. strange walking through the lively streets of the Ambrosia quarter, after the blissful peace of the sanctuary. When we eventually reached Guru, I saw a familiar figure slouched at an outdoor table.

Brice whipped off his shades and gave me a cool stare. “Hi, Melanie, how was Ancient Rome?”

“Could you excuse us a minute,” I said politely. I dragged Lola into a huddle. “I really appreciate you inviting me out,” I hissed, “but I’m not playing cosmic gooseberry to you and lover boy. I’ll wander back to school, OK? And you guys have a brownie for me.”

“Sit,” said Lola sounding as if she was talking to a disobedient puppy dog.

“Yeah, Melanie, sit,” Brice ordered, adding, “You might have to wait a while. The new waitress is still learning the ropes.”

It was unexpectedly nice sitting in the sun in my old student hangout. I even found myself telling Brice some stuff, stuff that to my surprise, he seemed to understand.

“What I don’t get is what made them change,” I said. “Like, we hear about major cosmic events shaking up Planet Earth’s climate, thundering great meteorites, ice ages and whatever. But they never tell you what it takes to shake up human hearts. I mean, how did humans get from the Field of Sorrows to, well - human rights and Greenpeace and Save the Children and whatever.”

“Evolution?” Brice suggested wickedly.

I put my hands over my ears. “Stop right now! That word drives me nuts. No, it had to be a miracle. It’s the only possible explanation.”

Brice gave me a funny little grin and began whistling. After a while I recognised the tune. It was
Sisters are Doing it for Themselves.

I stared at him in bewilderment. What was it Reuben told Titus? That Star might be dead, but she’d still helped to save the world.

“Are you serious?” I breathed. “Those sisters did that? They changed the hearts of the whole world?”

“Those sisters and their children and their children’s children,” said Brice carelessly. “You could call it a miracle. Or you could just call it evolution. Our order’s taking a long time,” he called out to Mo as he zipped past with a tray of smoothies.

“Yes, I’m afraid our new girl is still finding her feet,” Mo explained apologetically. There was a loud crash from inside the cafe and he hastily excused himself.

“Uh-oh, Cutie Pie alert,” said Lola under her breath.

And suddenly Orlando was standing beside me. “I heard you’d been ill,” he said awkwardly. “Are you OK now?”

“She loved those flowers you sent her!” Brice flashed him a fiendish grin.

“Shut
up
!” I hissed.

Orlando sensibly ignored him. “You and Reuben really did great work.”

Lola gave him one of her looks. “What did you expect? Boo’s the best,” she said.

The new waitress appeared at last, reversing out through the door with a loaded tray.

“Wait!” called Mo. “You forgot the forks!”

Poor girl, she’s really struggling, I thought.

Then I saw her face and the entire cafe went shimmery. It’s not surprising that I was shocked. The last time I’d seen her she’d had a knife through her heart, though obviously it would have been really tasteless to mention it. Plus, in her new heavenly surroundings, Star’s life as a gladiatrix seemed oddly irrelevant, like old clothes she’d totally outgrown.

She looked incredibly stylish actually, with her cool haircut, and her black and white waitress outfit. The only reminder of her old life was the charm around her neck: a silver charm in the shape of a star.

“I’ll see you when you get off work then,” Orlando told her softly.

Star glanced at him from under her lashes. “Maybe,” she said in a considering kind of voice, “if I’m not busy.”

my surprise, it hardly hurt at all; though I couldn’t explain this, even to myself. I still thought Orlando was the most beautiful boy in the universe, but after our Roman mission, I seemed to see him in a slightly less adoring light. Plus I liked Star. I liked her a lot. I wanted to get to know her better.

Wow, I’ve really changed, I thought.

Ahem
said my inner angel.
You mean you’ve evolved
!

Omigosh! I thought. It’s true!

Like, all this time, I’d been waiting for somebody (OK, Orlando!) to make me complete. But I didn’t need Orlando, or any boy, to complete me. I had my fabulous mates, my totally luminous angel career, and best of all - I had ME!

Mel Beeby, feisty girl warrior, time-travelling stylist and celestial hip hop chick, was finally ready to move on!

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