The Naughtiest Unicorn on the Beach

For Elliot – LB

For Joshua – RLO

For Samantha – David O’Connell

Cover and interior illustrations by David O’Connell

Special thanks to Liz Bankes and Rebecca Lewis-Oakes

Text first published in Great Britain in 2020

by Egmont UK Limited

2 Minster Court, London EC3R 7BB

Text copyright © 2020 Egmont UK Ltd

Illustrations copyright © 2020 David O’Connell

ISBN 978 1 4052 9718 9

eBook ISBN 978 1 4052 9719 6

www.egmont.co.uk

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

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Contents

Chapter One: Summer at Unicorn School

Chapter Two: Who Sees the Sea?

Chapter Three: Horseshoe Bay

Chapter Four: Splashing, Swimming and Scary Inflatables

Chapter Five: Beach Tidy Time

Chapter Six: Pirate Thief . . .

Chapter Seven: On the Treasure Trail!

Chapter Eight: Unexpected Treasure

Chapter Nine: Lost at Sea?

Chapter Ten: Happy Families

Mira Desai stared out of the classroom window. The sun was beating down from the bright blue sky, and in the distance she could hear splashes and shouting. One of the other Unicorn School classes must be having their lesson in the swimming pool! Mira wished her class – Class Red – could be outside. It was VERY hot, and quite hard to concentrate on the lesson. And they were doing a test.

A tiny bit of breeze blew through the window and Mira smiled to herself. Even doing something a bit boring at Unicorn School was basically better than doing anything else in the real world. Because at Unicorn School everyone had a UBFF (Unicorn Best Friend Forever), and you got to hang out with them all day!

When they had been matched with their unicorns on their first day at Unicorn School (which felt like ages ago now), Mira hadn’t been expecting a unicorn like Dave. Everyone else’s unicorns had trotted out all glittery, elegant and magical, while Dave had to be dragged out on his bum. That’s when Mira started to realise he was a bit different . . .

Dave was more definitely grumpy than glittery. He never did what he was told and he liked to spend most of his time either eating or having a nap. He was also the Unicorn School record holder for eating the most cakes in a minute (fifteen) and doing the most farts in an hour (1,074). But Dave was Mira’s UBFF – and she loved him just the way he was. Going on adventures with him was Mira’s favourite thing in the world, and she always brought a bag of doughnuts to help persuade him to do things.

Currently Dave was lying on his back next to the open window with his legs stretched out, snoring and farting weakly. And Mira was finding it hard to concentrate, because as soon as the morning lessons were over, the whole school was going on a very special trip – to the beach! Mira couldn’t wait to paddle in the sea, build sandcastles and have loads of ice cream.

But even more exciting than that: they were going to Horseshoe Bay, which was famous for being the place where all the unicorn pirates used to hang out. They’d recently spent a whole lesson reading about all the different pirate legends and writing their own pirate stories. Mira had written about a pirate called Captain Mira Glitterbeard and her trusty First Mate Dave. In the story, Captain Glitterbeard found a giant box of buried treasure and made her annoying sister walk the plank five times.

Mira was secretly hoping that they might find some real buried treasure at Horseshoe Bay . . . and she knew Dave would love the beach (especially the ice cream).

But first of all, Mira had a test to finish. She looked down at her paper.

Question 10. Which animal is known as the ‘Unicorn of the Sea’?

‘Dave,’ whispered Mira. ‘Do you know the answer?’

Dave’s ear twitched and he gave a little grunt.

‘Dave!’ Mira hissed again, but he didn’t respond.

‘Complete the seaside quiz in silence, please,’ said their teacher, Miss Glitterhorn, from the front of the classroom. She was sitting back on her chair and fanning herself with a unicorn science textbook.

Mira stared down at the question and thought hard. Was it a sea horse? Or maybe a swordfish? Next to her, her best friend Darcy put her hand up.

‘Yes, Darcy?’ said the teacher.

‘Can we open another window?’ said Darcy.

‘All the windows are open, Darcy,’ said Miss Glitterhorn.

‘Can we open the roof?’ said Darcy.

Miss Glitterhorn ignored Darcy. Mira put her hand up.

‘Mira – what is it?’ said Miss Glitterhorn.

‘Is it time to go to the beach yet?’ said Mira hopefully.

‘No, not quite yet,’ said Miss Glitterhorn with a sigh.

‘It’s so hot I can’t even THINK,’ said Darcy. ‘I can’t possibly work.’ She put her head on her desk and signalled for her unicorn, Star, to fan her.

‘I’m really thirsty,’ croaked Seb.

‘You have a bottle of water on your desk, Seb,’ said Miss Glitterhorn.

‘Yes, but I’m thirsty for ice lollies,’ said Seb.

‘I’m sweating so much I can’t hold my pen!’ said Mira’s other best friend Raheem, panicking as he tried to write and his pen slipped from his hand.

‘Just whisper the answers to me and I’ll write them down for both of us,’ said Darcy, leaning over.

‘Thanks Darcy,’ whispered Raheem gratefully. ‘Number 10 is Narwhal.’

‘Ooh, I forgot about them!’ whispered Mira, writing it down. ‘Narwhals are so cool!’

‘Their horns poke through their SKULLS,’ shouted Flo, turning round from the desk in front.

There was silence, and they all looked at Flo.

‘In Unicorn World, narwhals have these cool sparkly horns,’ said Seb. ‘Firework has a narwhal poster in his stable.’ Seb’s unicorn Firework whinnied happily.

‘Cool!’ said Mira.

‘I said, work in SILENCE!’ said Miss Glitterhorn.

There was silence in the classroom again until two seconds later, when Dave let out a loud trumpeting fart and woke himself up.

‘Okay, we’ll finish there,’ called Miss Glitterhorn from the front of the classroom, pouring herself a drink of water from the jug next to her. ‘Check through all your answers.’

Mira looked back over her test paper. She hadn’t been able to answer all the questions, but on the ones she didn’t know she’d drawn some nice pictures of starfish and dolphins, so maybe she’d get some extra marks for that.

‘Right, Class Red,’ said their teacher. ‘Can I have a volunteer to collect all the quizzes and bring them up to the front?’

Flo peered at Miss Glitterhorn through her steamed-up glasses and shook her head. ‘It’s so hot. I won’t make it that far.’

‘I’m sorry, Miss Glitterhorn,’ said Darcy, ‘but I don’t think any of us has the energy for that.’

Freya made her answer sheet into a paper aeroplane and threw it on to Miss Glitterhorn’s desk, which the teacher said was ‘very resourceful but not acceptable’.

‘I see,’ said Miss Glitterhorn, raising her eyebrows. ‘Then I’m guessing you won’t have the energy to come and get these ice lollies?’ She held up a box of unicorn rainbow lollies. ‘What a shame. I’ll just have to eat them myse–’

Miss Glitterhorn was drowned out by the sound of Class Red and their unicorns stampeding to the front of the classroom, loud cheering, and Darcy shouting, ‘I WANT THE RED ONE!’

It was time to go to the beach!

Soon Class Red were on their unicorns and trotting through the Fearsome Forest. Mira and Dave were at the back as usual, because Dave had little legs and because he kept stopping to eat things. At least it was nice and cool under the shade of the trees.

Mira checked through her beach bag to make sure she had all the essentials – sun cream, swimming kit, doughnuts for Dave.

They rounded the corner that took them out of the forest and the Glitter River came into view. Mira gasped. The sun made the river twinkle with different colours, and it stretched far away into the distance. Bobbing about on the water was a boat, with a rainbow flag and a wooden unicorn at the front.

Mira felt an excited tingling in her tummy. She would be sailing on a ship, just like Captain Glitterbeard in her story! All the boat needed was a skull and crossbones on the flag and a plank and it would be the perfect pirate ship. She wondered if the teachers would let her have a go at steering.

Most of the other children and unicorns had already climbed aboard and were wearing bright orange life-jackets. Mira heard the babble of excited chatter as she and Dave got closer to the riverbank.

‘Hurry up!’ called an impatient voice. It was Mira’s sister, Rani. Miss Glitterhorn had asked for special volunteers from Class Yellow to help out on the beach trip and Rani had offered. Since then she’d been excitedly telling Mira that Mira had to do everything she said, ‘or else’.

Mira and Dave caught up with Rani and her unicorn, Angelica.

‘Why are you so SLOW?’ said Rani. Angelica snorted impatiently.

‘It’s not Dave’s fault he has little legs!’ said Mira as she hopped off her unicorn’s back.

Rani looked at Dave, who turned around and ran the other way down the riverbank to eat some sparkleberries. Mira got a doughnut out of her beach bag and waved it in the air to get Dave to come back. Rani shook her head and sighed.

‘Maybe we could sit together on the boat?’ Mira said. It didn’t look like there were many spaces left.

‘No thanks,’ said Rani. ‘I’ve already got a seat.’

She waved at her friend Lois, the other Class Yellow helper, and ran off with Angelica trotting behind her. Lois gave Mira a friendly wave. Lois’s unicorn, Popcorn, was turquoise with a pink, glittery mane. Mira thought they were both very cool. She gave a friendly wave back and Dave gave a friendly fart.

Dave trotted back to Mira and scoffed the doughnut. Then they joined Flo and her unicorn Sparkles, who were still putting on their life-jackets.

‘Can we sit with you?’ said Mira.

‘Oh, I think Seb has saved me a seat,’ said Flo.

‘Excuse me,’ said a voice.

Mira and Flo turned to see a big basket standing behind them.

‘What do you want, Basket?’ said Flo, looking startled.

Their classmate Jake poked his head round from the back of the basket. ‘Can you all get out of my way please because I’m carrying something really important?’

‘What is it?’ said Flo, but Jake and his giant basket carried on walking. Mira and Flo jumped out of the way.

Mira and Dave collected their life-jackets from Miss Hind, their PE teacher, who was also helping out on the trip. By the time Mira had wrestled Dave into his life-jacket and they finally got on to the boat, the only seat left was next to . . .

‘Jake,’ said Miss Glitterhorn. ‘Move your basket so Mira and Dave can get in.’

‘I thought maybe I could steer the boat instead?’ said Mira.

Miss Glitterhorn laughed. ‘Very funny, Mira!’ she said. ‘Now sit down next to Jake and we can set sail.’

Jake rolled his eyes. His unicorn, Pegasus, snorted.

Mira sighed. Well, at least they were near the front so they would get a great view.

Jake moved his basket about two centimetres, so Dave had to sit on the floor. Unfortunately he sat on Pegasus’s tail, making Pegasus scream.

Miss Glitterhorn spoke into a microphone, and her voice echoed from a speaker at the front of the boat. ‘I know we’re all excited,’ she boomed, ‘but let’s keep the noise down, please! There will be Havoc Points for anyone who misbehaves.’

Jake glared at Mira. ‘Make sure your unicorn doesn’t get us in trouble,’ he said.