Earthling Ambassador (Space Brigade 1)

"I won't be borrowing them. I'll be confiscating them! Hand them over, now!"

Shimlara snapped, "Not if you ask like that! May I remind you that we're the kidnappers and you're the hostage, and by the way, that mini spaceship was a present from my mom and dad!"

"Who are no doubt being captured by my guards right now!" said the princess.

There was silence for a moment and everybody looked at Nicola expectantly.

Sometimes, when Nicola's dad was trying to cook dinner and everything was burning and he kept running out of ingredients, he said that he felt like his head was going to explode. For the first time, Nicola understood exactly what he meant.

"Ummmm," she began. "Ahhh."

She really had no idea what to do or say next. It was all getting to be too much.What she really wanted to say was, "Can I have a break from being the boss now?"

Luckily, everybody began to speak at once.

"Well, I'll run over to the trailer and get some spare flip-flops for the princess," said Sean.

"I'll come with you and collect swimsuits and towels for everybody," said Katie.

"I'll get boogie boards," said Tyler. "The surf looks great!"

"I'll come and help you," said Shimlara. "I've never seen a trailer, or a boogie board. Can you fly them?"

"Well, I'm just going to sit here and thaw and itch." Greta plonked herself down on the sand in a puddle of water.

The princess sat down on Greta's raincoat and rubbed her feet. "I'm going to enjoy planning individual torture treatments for each of you."

"Take your time," said Nicola.

For the first time in ages, she looked at her countdown watch.

Hooray! This is it! Your last day before the DREADED DEADLINE!

Now is the time for any last minute finishing touches!

Finishing touches! She was trying to save the world, not prepare for a dinner party!

"You've got no idea how hard this is," she hissed at her watch.

"Talking to yourself, are you?" sneered the princess. "That's the first sign of insanity."

Nicola sighed. Making friends with this girl was going to be about as easy as making friends with Mrs. Zucchini.

CHAPTER 33

Twenty minutes later, everyone was standing on the hard, cool sand at the edge of the surf.

Luckily there were plenty of spare old bathing suits in the Berry family trailer, and Greta had packed her Honeyville Primary swim-team uniform in her schoolbag. Shimlara and the princess were wearing suits belonging to Nicola's mom because they were both about her height. Katie had helped Shimlara wrap a plastic bag around her cast, using an elastic band to hold it in place.

Nicola kept sneaking looks up at the princess. It was funny, Nicola's mom's simple, one-piece bathing suit made the princess look like such a normal girl. Well, nearly a normal girl--except that she was extraordinarily tall and she still insisted on wearing her tiara, even though they had all told her it would surely fall off in the surf.

The princess had white, freckly skin, and Nicola said that she had to wear sunscreen or she'd get badly sunburned and that would hurt even more than the hot sand.

"So you only have one sun on this planet, and the one you have burns your skin?" the princess said with disbelief, while Nicola briskly rubbed sunscreen onto her back.

Now the princess shaded her eyes as she looked out at the ocean. "Why does the water move up and down like that?"

"It's the wind," explained Tyler. "They're called waves."