WITH UNEXPECTED lessons on shadow economies, beach front politics and the properties of gases out of the way Miss Dubbers rallied her charges at the thought of protectionism.
'The wardens are here for our safety,' she said as the girls wandered away from the busy beach front and closer to the blue surf that rumbled up the sloping sands for miles in either direction, that is north and south. 'Any accidents such as drowning or jellyfish attacks they immediately deal with in a polite and professional manner. For free.'
'Will there be a demonstration of these things?' Soo Toglak asked, the fierce Mangoria girl looking around for potential stingers in the surf.
'We could throw Petal Mara into the water and lay odds on which of the two accidents she would most likely suffer from,' Pinky Ponsonby said.
'Drown!'
'Jellyfish!'
'Complete and utter safety,' Petal Mara herself felt obliged to suggest before giving Pinky a mournful look. 'I thought we were dorm mates,' she accused. The girl with pink hair from Dorm Sensation went pink briefly.
'Why does the water keep going back and forth like that?' Vetta Mindal decided to say, standing very close to the water and staring out to sea. The great wall of water rose up in a gigantic sparkling dome of restless blue and she marvelled at this phenomenon.
'I think it's kind of bouncing,' Anthera said, standing next to her own dorm mate in a more supportive way than the Sensation girls appeared to do. Dorm rivalries took many forms. 'You know, like in a bath tub after a good slosh.'
'What started the slosh to make so much water bounce back and forth like that?'
'My dear,' Miss Dubbers intervened, feeling a little sorry for the girl from Poldorama who only knew small contained lakes and canals where she came from. 'Foam Fullness does it I believe,' and she indicated the moon in the sky, currently a pale half sphere mottled with ghostly surface markings.
'I'm going to fly there one day,' Bubbles said fiercely.
'And not return?' someone coughed. The redhead flared up for a moment, thereby hinting at a possible origin for the name of her dormitory. Then she smiled, for there was something in the idea of one way trips which pleased her mightily.
'Do you see that boat?' Anthera said to Vetta, pointing out beyond the approaching waves.
'Where?'
'There, just to the right of that island.'
'What island?'
'She means the yacht moored near Pleasant Isle,' Bubbles said brusquely. 'The big white thing next to the fluffy green thing.'
'Oh,' Vetta said. 'Thank you.' She did not want to say she thought the Meditia girl was pointing elsewhere. The latter confirmed she was.
'No I don't mean the Water Sprite,' she said.
'The Water Sprite?'
'That's the name of the yacht. It's out of Port Angel if that pennant on the bow is any indication. Difficult to see with the wind whipping it back and forth like that.'
'What pennant?' Bubbles said.
'Anyway, Vetta, that boat out there, you see it? The dark speck bobbing up and down in deep sea rollers.'
'I can see a speck,' Vetta eventually admitted, marvelling at the incredible sight of her dorm mate with the glasses.
'Well, it's sinking. I can see the crew trying to bale it out. Whoops, there goes the distress hooter.'
'Yay, a rescue,' the twins declared, clapping their hands and splashing a way into the surf as if they intended to participate.
'Well, I hope not,' Miss Dubbers said with a nervous laugh. Then she got a grip. 'Remember girls, what is it we must do when sailors are in distress off shore?'
'Watch,' Pirouette said at a safe distance from sea water.
'And let highly trained professionals deal with it,' Victoria Sponge added.
'Precisely. Well done that girl, whoever it was who spoke then. Anyone know?'
There were head shakings and from somewhere, no one quite knew where, a long sad sigh. Victoria Sponge was such an unassuming character it seemed as if she were invisible.
