A moment later, Sunny’s head popped up. He wriggled out of the castle, barking with delight as soon as he spotted Lauren. Bouncer followed him, and together they bounced toward the edge of the half-deflated castle, enjoying this new game.
“Sunny!” Lauren called, holding her arms open.
Rachel and Kirsty saw a shimmer of glittering magic around the spaniel as it shrank to fairy-pet size. Then he jumped off the bouncy castle and bounded magically through the air toward Lauren.
“It’s OK, Bouncer,” laughed Rachel, seeing the puppy stare at Sunny in surprise. “It’s fairy magic!”
“Don’t you try it, though!” Kirsty added with a laugh.
Sunny had run straight into Lauren’s arms and was now licking her nose gently. Laughing, Lauren raised her wand. In three sparkling seconds, Rachel and Kirsty were back to their normal size.
Bouncer blinked. Then he jumped down from the castle and dashed joyfully over to Rachel and Kirsty. Rachel picked up his leash and held it tightly as she bent down to pet him.
“What’s Bouncer looking at?” asked Kirsty, noticing that the little puppy was peering curiously at something behind them.
Rachel turned to see. “Here comes the bouncy castle man!” she whispered. “Lauren — you and Sunny had better hide!”
Lauren nodded. Still holding Sunny, she zoomed down to hide in Rachel’s pocket.
The bouncy castle operator was a young man with a friendly face. He smiled at Kirsty and Rachel. “Hi,” he said. “Did you enjoy the Spring Show?”
“It was great,” Kirsty replied, and Rachel nodded.
The castle operator glanced down at Bouncer, who was sniffing eagerly at the man’s legs.
“What a cute puppy!” he said, bending down to scratch Bouncer’s head. “My daughter, Annie, would love a dog like this.”
“How old is Annie?” asked Rachel.
“She’ll be six next week,” the man replied. “Actually, her mom and I are planning on getting her a puppy for her birthday. Excuse me,” he went on, “I have to get this castle put away.”
Whistling to himself, the man went around the back of the bouncy castle, where all the cables were hidden.
“What are we going to do?” Rachel whispered as Lauren and Sunny popped their heads out of her pocket. “He’s not going to be very happy when he finds a bunch of angry goblins in his castle!”
But Kirsty was shaking her head and laughing. “Look!” She pointed at the front of the castle. “He won’t see them, because they’re coming out on this side. And it’s the goblins who don’t look very happy!”
The goblins were finally emerging from beneath the folds of rubber. They were grumbling and groaning and blaming one another, as usual. Two of them were dragging the silver scooter along. Complaining loudly, they all jumped to the ground and stalked off, pulling the scooter behind them.
“That was all your fault!”
“I told you we were going to crash!”
“And now we’ve lost the magic puppy. Who’s going to tell Jack Frost?”
Kirsty, Rachel, and Lauren couldn’t help laughing.
“Daddy! Daddy, where are you?” came a voice.
Immediately, Lauren ducked out of sight, and the girls turned to see who was coming.
A girl with dark curly hair and big blue eyes was running toward them. “Daddy, where are you?” she called again.
“Around the back of the castle, sweetheart,” the man yelled back.
“That must be Annie,” Kirsty whispered.
Just then, Annie caught sight of Bouncer. Her face broke into a huge smile, and she dashed straight toward him. “What a sweet puppy!” she said, kneeling down to hug him. Bouncer yapped a greeting and licked her cheek, his tail wagging furiously.
“Oh, I wish I had a puppy like you!” Annie said to Bouncer.
“Would you like to hold his leash?” Rachel asked, offering it to her.
Annie’s eyes lit up. “Can I really?” she gasped. “Oh, thank you!”
She took the leash, and the girls watched as Annie led Bouncer on a little walk in front of the castle. Bouncer bounded alongside her, clearly enjoying himself. Then he spied the untied shoelace of one of Annie’s sneakers and pounced on it, grabbing it in his teeth.
Annie laughed and crouched down to tug the lace gently. Kirsty and Rachel smiled as Bouncer held on to it, enjoying the game.
Suddenly, Kirsty nudged Rachel. “Look, Rachel!” she whispered, her voice full of excitement. “There’s a magical sparkle all around Annie and Bouncer!”
Rachel stared at the little girl and the puppy. Kirsty was right! A shimmery haze hung in the air around them.
“Fairy magic!” Rachel whispered back. “Bouncer’s meant to be with Annie. She’s the owner he’s been waiting for!”
At that moment, the man came out from behind the bouncy castle, which was now almost fully deflated. He smiled when he saw Annie and Bouncer playing together.
“That’s really a great puppy, girls,” he said with a smile. “Which one of you is the owner?”
Rachel saw her chance. “The puppy’s not mine or Kirsty’s,” she explained. “It’s from the animal shelter booth. Its brothers and sisters have all been adopted today, and it’s the only one left.”
“Oh, really?” The man frowned. “I didn’t see the animal shelter booth.”
Annie had been listening to their conversation, her eyes wide. Now she tugged at her dad’s sleeve. “Daddy!” she cried. “This poor little puppy doesn’t have a home!”
Rachel and Kirsty held their breath as they waited for Annie’s dad to reply. He looked at the eager face of his little girl and then down into Bouncer’s brown eyes.
“Well . . .” he began, “I’ll finish up here, and then we’ll go over to the animal shelter booth. But don’t get your hopes up too much, Annie. Someone else may want to adopt that dog.”
“Oh, thank you, Daddy!” Annie gasped joyfully, throwing her arms around him. Rachel and Kirsty beamed at each other. Even Bouncer seemed to know that something exciting was going on, because he gave two happy barks.
The man disappeared behind the castle to finish his work, and Annie and Bouncer went with him.
“Good job, girls!” Lauren said, flying out of Rachel’s pocket. Sunny followed her, bounding through the air to perch on Kirsty’s shoulder. “Annie is the puppy’s perfect owner!”
“Everything’s worked out wonderfully,” Rachel said, and Kirsty nodded.
“I don’t know how I can ever thank you,” Lauren went on gratefully. “Without you, I wouldn’t have gotten Sunny back.”
“Woof!” Sunny agreed, rubbing his tiny black nose against Kirsty’s cheek.
“But we have to go home to Fairyland now,” Lauren said, raising her wand. “Everyone will be anxious to find out if I’ve gotten my magic pet back. Say good-bye, Sunny.”
Sunny gave a little yap, wagging his tail so hard it tickled Kirsty’s ear. Then he ran over to Lauren, who waved her wand. A shower of sparkling fairy dust fell around them.
“Oh!” Lauren called, “I almost forgot! Say good-bye to Barney for me!”
Confused, Rachel and Kirsty looked at each other.
“Who’s Barney?” asked Rachel. But Lauren and Sunny had vanished in a haze of glittering magic.
A moment later, Annie, Bouncer, and Annie’s dad walked up.
“Daddy, we’ll have to give my new puppy a name,” Annie was saying. “Can I call him Barney?”
Her dad smiled. “We need to talk to the people at the animal shelter before we make any plans,” he said. “But if it’s OK for us to adopt him, then we’ll call him Barney.”
Rachel and Kirsty grinned at each other as they followed Annie and her father toward the animal shelter booth.
“
So that’s why Lauren told us to say good-bye to Barney!” Kirsty whispered. “Mr. Gregory’s going to be really happy that Barney’s found a home at last.”
The two girls beamed as they watched Annie’s father chatting to Mr. Gregory. The vet was nodding and smiling, while Annie and Barney were chasing each other across the grass.
“Everyone in Fairyland is going to be happy that Sunny’s safely home again, too!” Rachel added.
Kirsty nodded. “I love happy endings!” she said, sighing.
Lauren the Puppy Fairy has her pet back. Now can Rachel and Kirsty help
Harriet
the Hamster Fairy?
Take a look at this special sneak peek!
“Here we go,” Kirsty Tate said to her best friend, Rachel Walker, turning the key in the back door of her neighbors’ house. “Nibbles! Time for breakfast!” she called as the door swung open. “Just wait until you see him,” she said to Rachel with a grin. “He’s adorable. I love hamster-sitting!”
Kirsty’s neighbor, Jamie Cooper, had asked Kirsty to feed Nibbles, his little orange-and-white hamster. He and his parents were away. She had said yes immediately!
“We just need to give him food and water,” Kirsty told Rachel. “And if we’re lucky, he might eat sunflower seeds out of our hands!”
“How sweet!” Rachel said. “Where’s his cage?”
“Over here,” Kirsty replied, heading into the living room.
An excited feeling bubbled up inside Rachel as she followed her friend. They were going to see another pet after all. Over the last few days, she and Kirsty had had some very exciting pet adventures!
Kirsty led Rachel across the living room to the table where Nibbles’s cage stood. But when the girls arrived, they saw that something was wrong. The cage door was wide open!
“Oh, no!” Kirsty cried. “Don’t tell me that Nibbles managed to escape on the very first day I’m looking after him!” She carefully put her hand into the cage and searched through the wood shavings and newspaper shreds for the little hamster, but it was too late. The cage was empty.
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e-ISBN 978-0-545-29543-7
Copyright © 2006 by Rainbow Magic Limited.
Illustrations copyright © 2006 by Georgie Ripper.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012, by arrangement with Rainbow Magic Limited.
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First Scholastic printing, March 2008
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