“Miaow!” Cuddle wiggled her whiskers.
The branches above them rustled, and hundreds of pink, yellow and blue petals showered down. They caught in Cosmo’s mane and Olivia’s fairy wings, and stuck on to Grace’s pointy ears.
Cuddle flicked one off her nose with her pink tongue.
Cosmo’s eyes were wide. “Did Cuddle make this happen?” he asked.
Grace nodded. “She’s a magical kitten. If a little kitten like Cuddle can make magic, I’m sure a unicorn can too! She wants to help you, Cosmo – and so do we. Please go to the magic lesson!”
“All right,” he agreed. “But only if you and Olivia come too.”
Grace threw her arms round Cosmo’s long neck. “Of course we will!”
Olivia glanced towards the school door, where the other students had followed Miss Rosamund. “And we’d better hurry,” she added, “or we’ll be late for the lesson.”
Cosmo knelt down on the lawn, folding his legs beneath him.
“All aboard the Cosmo Express!”
Grace gently held on to Cosmo’s mane and pulled herself up on his back. She’d ridden lots of ponies before, but never a unicorn!
Olivia sat behind, her arms around Grace’s waist. Cuddle sprang into Grace’s lap.
Cosmo stood up and galloped towards the school building.
He skipped from hoof to hoof, his tail swishing along to the rhythm of his steps.
“Woo-hoo!” Grace cheered. “This is an amazing galloping dance, Cosmo!”
As they approached the school door, he ducked his head beneath the door frame and trotted down the corridor, his hooves clip-clopping.
The girls gasped as each floor tile lit up red, yellow or blue as Cosmo stepped over it. “It’s magic!” Grace cried.
Cosmo gave a gentle neigh. “Of course it is. We’re in a magic school, remember?”
They arrived outside a classroom and the girls slid from Cosmo’s back. Then they followed him inside.
Grace sank on to a plump cushion beside the other elves, gnomes and fairies who were arranged in a circle round Miss Rosamund. Olivia sat beside her on a purple velvet cushion. On the shelves around the classroom were little cauldrons, glass jars stuffed full of odd-looking ingredients and piles of glitter dust.
“I’ve never been in a classroom like this before,” Grace whispered to Olivia.
“Hello, Cosmo,” Miss Rosamund said. “I see you’ve brought two new pupils.”
Cosmo knelt down beside the girls. Cuddle leapt from his back, landing at Miss Rosamund’s feet.
“And who have we here?” she asked.
“That’s Cuddle,” Olivia explained. “I’m Olivia, and this is Grace.”
“Welcome to you all,” Miss Rosamund said. “I usually ring my bell to show that the lesson has started, but maybe Cuddle could ring hers today.”
The little kitten shook her head, making her bell jingle. The magical creatures giggled, and Cuddle hopped on to Olivia’s knee. Cosmo stood beside Grace.
Miss Rosamund waved her silver wand, and to the girls’ amazement, wooden bookcases appeared beneath the shelves. Even though they were crammed with books, they hovered above the floor.
Olivia’s eyes darted over their spines. “Flying for Beginners, 101 Tricks to Play on Humans, Magic Made Easy,” she read in a whisper. “They’re all about magic!”
Miss Rosamund walked over to a large desk at one end of the classroom. On it was a pen pot filled with strange-looking sticks. Miss Rosamund stood behind the desk and, holding her wand like a pencil, wrote pink letters in the air: “MY MAGICAL GIFT”.
“Wow,” Grace murmured. “It’s like a magical whiteboard.”
“Now, class,” Miss Rosamund said. “Everyone has their own special kind of magic, and today you’re going to find yours.”
“But how will we know when we’ve found it?” a pixie asked, scratching his head.
Miss Rosamund smiled. “You’ll know,” she said. “Your tummy will tingle, and you’ll feel so happy, you could float up into the clouds. I found my special magic when I was trying to cast a spell to make lemonade. Instead, I magicked a special teacher’s cloak.” She stroked the pink silk of her cloak, smiling. “That’s how I knew I was meant to set up a school for magic!”
She waved her wand once more and the sticks floated out of the pen pot.
They were a rainbow of colours, each with a different shape at the top.
“Magic wands!” Olivia said, swinging her legs.
Miss Rosamund raised her wand. “Magic wands, hear my call, find your owner, one and all!”
With a whoosh, the wands whizzed over everyone’s heads, like a fireworks display.
Cuddle leapt on to Olivia’s shoulder, and as a red wand with a heart at its tip zoomed past, she sprang up and caught it between her teeth.
She jumped to the ground to give it to Cosmo.
“Look, everyone else is getting their own wand too,” Grace said.
A gnome cheered as he caught a green wand with a flower at the top, while a wand with a diamond shape landed in a giggling pixie’s hand.
Olivia opened her bag and took out her plastic wand. “You never know,” she said to Grace, “we might need one too.”
Miss Rosamund clapped her hands and the class turned to look at her.
“Here comes the fun part,” she said, her eyes twinkling. “First, I want you to split up into groups. Then each group must work together to practise your very own magic spells. Off you go!”
The creatures jumped off their cushions and rushed to join up.
The gnomes immediately stood together, and so did the pixies. The elves gathered by one of the bookcases.
Cosmo’s cheeks reddened and he lowered his gaze to the floor.
“Oh no,” Grace whispered. “The other pupils aren’t mixing up at all.”
“And Cosmo’s the only unicorn,” Olivia said. “He’s going to be left out!”
