It isn’t a good idea to upset our deputy head teacher. She’s always very fair, but she can be fierce. “Yes, Miss Scritch,” I said as meekly as I could. “Would it be OK if I tried to help Fairy Fifibelle?”
Fairy Fifibelle turned round and gave me the most enormous hug. “SUCH a darling girl!” she said. “DO help me! I sent you your Tingle and then I put the wand down for just a teensy-weensy second, and poof! It was gone!”
Pete looked up from the floor, where he was polishing his aeroplane with his sleeve. “Why is that fairy lady floating? And why has she got a stick in her hair?”
“A stick?” Fairy Fifibelle Lee put her hand to her head and gave a little shriek. “WONDERFUL boy! It’s the wand! Oh, now we can send for all the other darling girls—” She stopped. Miss Scritch was giving her a hard stare. “I mean … here’s your wand, Miss Scritch, safely back. And thank you so much for letting me send Sophie her Tingle. Are you quite sure you wouldn’t like me to call the others?”
“Quite sure.” Miss Scritch all but snatched the wand. “I’d feel safer letting little Pete call them!” She gave Fairy Fifibelle one last sour look, and tapped the table sharply seven times. “Lily, Madison, Melody, Ava, Olivia, Jackson, Emma – time for Stargirl Academy!”
At once my elbow began to tingle again, though not as sharply as it had before.
Pete gave a loud squeal. “My elbow hurts,” he said. “It hurts a lot!”
Fairy Fifibelle and Miss Scritch stared at him as if he had turned into a rabbit.
“It seems to me that my wand is NOT working the way it ought to.” Miss Scritch sounded grim. “Let us hope the other Stargirls get here safely. Now, I’m going to see if Fairy Mary needs anything. She’ll join us when it’s time for The Spin, of course, but she needs to rest as much as possible.”
Miss Scritch had hardly walked out of the workroom when there was the sound of cheerful voices outside, and a moment later Madison and Ava came swinging through the other door. They were followed by Olivia and Lily, and a flustered-looking Emma with very wet hair.
“I’ve just come back from my gran’s,” Emma explained. “We’d only just got inside the house, and it was pouring with rain and I didn’t have time to get dry … am I dripping over everyone?”
Fairy Fifibelle Lee stretched out her hand. “Blow, wind, blow!” she said, and at once a warm breeze wafted through the workroom, twirled twice round Emma, and left her with lovely shiny, dry hair.
Pete jumped to his feet. “Do that to me!” he said, and Fairy Fifibelle waved her hand again. The breeze circled round Pete, and he laughed and held his aeroplane over his head. “See Pete flying to the park!” he said. “Rrrrrrrrmmmm, rrrrrrrrrrrrmm.”
“Who’s this?” Ava asked. “Is it your little brother, Sophie?” I nodded.
But Pete had stopped smiling. “I can’t go to the park anymore,” he said sadly. “They shut the gates with a big chain.”
“That’s terrible,” Madison said. “What a shame!”
Lily knelt down beside him. “So where do you play?”
Pete shrugged, and looked at me. “There’s nowhere else,” I said. “Not unless we go on a bus to the big park.”
“And that takes ages and ages and AGES.” Pete heaved a massive sigh. “I ask Mum to take me but she says it’s too far and Dad’s too busy.”
“So why has the park been shut?” Emma wanted to know.
It was my turn to shrug. “I don’t know. It was something about there being so much litter, and nobody really looking after it.”
Olivia coughed. She’s very quiet and shy, but when she does say something she’s usually thought about it. “Do you think,” she said in her soft little voice, “that maybe we could use our magic spells to get it open again? One of us will be offered the chance to help someone today. What about promising we’ll try to help the children get their park back?”
Pete looked at Olivia with big round eyes. “Get the park back?”
“That’s right.” Olivia looked at the rest of us. “What do you think?”
“I reckon it’s a wonderful idea,” Madison said. “Let’s vote. Who’s for saving the park?”
We all raised our hands, and Pete absolutely exploded.
“YES! We can go to the park! Let’s go NOW!” And he grabbed my hand and tried to tow me out of the workroom … just as Melody and Jackson came strolling in.
