I waved at her and crossed the bridge and then jogged into the woodland lane that led to Dother Hall. Or “Dither Hall” as Mr. Barraclough calls it. I am surprised that the vandal who changed Skipley, Home of the West Riding Otter to Skipley, Home of the West Riding Botty hadn’t had a go at our sign.

Despite the Charlie thing, I have a song in my heart and my song is “Woo-hoo-hoo-hooo. I’ve got corkers and I got a letter from a Dream Boy. Wooo-hooo-hooo, the jiggler is back in town!!!”

First thing we changed into our dance gear and went straight into the dance studio and Blaise Fox was there. She has had her hair cut into a crew cut and dyed white blond. She was dressed in silver leggings and enormous shorts.

I said to the others, “Oh no, she’s got her drum.”

She shouted, “Here you are again, you little minxes. And here I am, the minx mistress. And yes, you will notice I have my drum!!!!”

Monty came rushing in, well, as quickly as he could in his leotard. He was carrying a megaphone. Blaise said, “Now, girls, I know it’s the second day back and we need to ease our way into things gently so we are going to do an improvised free-form version of Jaws.”

We looked at each other. Jaws. The film about a killer shark that is mostly underwater? And …

Monty put some seaweedy-looking stuff on his head.

Blaise shouted, “Right, girls. It’s a calm day and you are the sea. Feel the sea. Find your inner sea. BE the sea!”

Monty was encouraging us by scampering around in his leotard. With his seaweed head.

Jo said, “Is he a sea anemone? Or a jellyfish?”

Actually, in his pink leotard he looks more like a jellybaby.

Monty was doing a bit of light leaping. And singing, “Wish, swish, wish, swish.”

Flossie started swishing backward and forward, throwing her arms above her head. She said, “That’s my foam.”

Oh, well, in for a penny, in for a pound, the rest of us started doing a sort of giant hokey cokey. Pulsing in and pulsing out.

It was quite soothing. I could have done it all day. Backward and forward. Swishy swish swish. Other girls were rushing backward and forward, flapping their arms around. I didn’t know that waves could do skipping, but what do I know, I was doing the hokey cokey.

Then Blaise started beating her drum.

Softly at first. Bang-bangity-bang-bang.

She pointed at Milly and her mates and said, “Now then, this group here, you be little children playing around in the lovely waves. Splashy splashy. Laughy laughy laughy. In amongst the swishy swishy.”

This was all very pleasant and soothing for first thing in the morning.

The drumbeat started getting louder and faster.

Blaise shouted, “Tallulah, you be the shark.”

What? How do you be a shark?

Blaise shouted through her megaphone, “Flossie, Vaisey, you are the boat, and Jo, you are the madman in charge. The drunken insane captain.”