We stared at her in astonishment.
“Excuse me?” Melody often sounds grumpy, but this time she sounded as if she thought Miss Scritch was mad. “What on earth’s that?”
I heard Fairy Mary McBee chuckle. She was sorting papers in a corner of the workroom, but she looked up to say, “Do show them, Miss Scritch.”
Miss Scritch sniffed. “I was about to do exactly that, Fairy Mary.” The tin tray was still on the table, and she pushed it across until it was right in front of Melody. “Please be kind enough to pass this tray to Jackson.”
“What?” Melody raised her eyebrows, and gave the tin tray a casual shove.
It didn’t move.
Melody frowned, and pushed at it again. It still didn’t move. “It’s stuck to the table,” she said. “You’ve put some kind of spell on it!”
Miss Scritch shook her head. “The tray is not stuck. Perhaps Jackson would like to help you lift it.”
Jackson took one end of the tray, and Melody the other. Between them they managed to lift it a couple of centimetres before it crashed back down.
“It weighs a tonne,” Jackson said, and she rubbed her arms. “That thing’s dangerous!”
“Only in the wrong hands,” Miss Scritch told her. “And it is not a question of weight. It’s merely a question of solidity. Now, shall we see if any of you can achieve such a satisfactory result?”
Olivia put up her hand. “Please, Miss Scritch, what shall we use to practise on?”
Miss Scritch fished in her pocket and produced a handful of buttons. “These will do to begin with.” She raised a warning finger. “One thing to remember! Never use this spell on a living creature. It won’t work.”
Emma giggled. “That’s a shame. I’d love to Solidify my little brother. He’s a pain!”
Miss Scritch was not amused. She gave Emma a frosty look, and dropped the buttons on the table.
Chapter Five
We each chose a button (mine was red) but before Miss Scritch could give us any instructions there was a flurry in the doorway, and the workroom was filled with a swirl of tiny pink stars.
“I’m so sorry I’m late!” said a breathless voice. “I do hope you haven’t started without me!”
“H’m. Fairy Fifibelle Lee.” Miss Scritch sounded as chilly as a snowstorm in January. “Were we expecting you?”
“Surely you didn’t think I would miss seeing these utterly darling children?” Fairy Fifibelle drifted into the room, her long white hair and gauzy scarves floating gently around her. “So what are we doing today, my little dears?”
“We’re on the point of learning the Solidifying Spell,” Miss Scritch snapped. “How to Solidify an object. Not one of your favourites, I suspect.”
Fairy Fifibelle gave a silvery laugh. “Dear Miss Scritch! How could you say such a thing?” She tweaked a curly pink feather from one of her hundreds of scarves and laid it on the table. She closed her eyes, and waved her hands. There was a flurry of bright pink stars as Fairy Fifibelle pointed to Emma. “Blow it away, dear heart.”
Emma took a deep breath and blew. The feather stayed exactly where it was. Emma blew again and again … and then Olivia joined in and Sophie too. Even with all three of them blowing as hard as they could the feather didn’t move.
Jackson leant forward and picked it up.
“Wow!” she said. “It’s really heavy!” She passed it to Melody. Melody gasped and passed it to Ava, who gave a little squeak and dropped it. We all heard the thud as it fell. I bent down to pick it up … and I could only just heave it back onto the table.
“JEEPERS!” said Lily, and that just about summed it up for all of us.
Fairy Mary McBee had put her papers down and come over to watch. “A very fine example of solidifying,” she said. “I’m sure you agree, Miss Scritch!”
Miss Scritch gave an unwilling grunt of approval.
“But when would we use a spell like that?” Melody asked. “It doesn’t seem much use to me.”
“Oh, my darling!” Fairy Fifibelle’s wings fluttered as she swooped towards Melody. “Suppose someone is on the point of taking a bite from a poisoned apple? We solidify the apple, and it drops to the ground. Lo and behold! The danger is over.”
“Not if the apple drops on their foot,” Melody said. “They’d be in hospital for weeks.”
Fairy Fifibelle gave Melody a sharp look, but she didn’t tell her off. Instead she turned to the rest of us. “Shall we begin? And do remember, my precious ones, to point at the buttons with your little finger. The one with the star.”
Oh! I’m sorry. I completely forgot to tell you about the stars on our little fingers! When we first came to the Academy, Fairy Mary McBee sprinkled fairy stars all over us, and we were each left with a tiny star on the little finger of our left hand. I love mine. When I’m in bed, and the room is very dark, I can see it glimmering … and it reminds me that I’m training to be a Stargirl, and that makes me really happy.
Chapter Six
It turned out that Starry Spells are tricky. There are several degrees of solidifying. You can oversolidify, and if you do that (Sophie did) your button is SO heavy it falls right through the table, leaving a button-shaped hole behind it. Miss Scritch sighed and closed up the hole with a tap of the wand she always keeps tucked up her sleeve. If you undersolidify (like me) you make the button just a little bit heavier. Gradually, we learnt that it wasn’t so much the way we pointed our little fingers as the way we thought about it. You had to stare at the button very, very hard, and think the heaviest thoughts you could … lead, elephants, cathedrals, towering castles… And then the stars came floating down and the spell worked.
After we’d all managed the buttons, Fairy Fifibelle insisted that we tried feathers, even though Miss Scritch said it wasn’t necessary. Actually, it was much more fun. Feathers are so light and floaty we could blow them up into the air before sending them thunking down.
We practised happily until Lily missed her feather as it drifted past her nose and sent one of the old telescopes crashing to the floor instead. Miss Scritch tut-tutted loudly as she got out her wand and poor Lily went as red as a beetroot.
“I’m truly sorry,” Lily said. “Will the telescope be OK?”
“I’m sure it will, Lily dear,” Fairy Mary said. “We’ve had far worse. Why, even our own Miss Scritch and Fairy Fifibelle Lee have had their share of accidents.”
We positively gawped at Miss Scritch. It was SO difficult to think of her ever making a mistake! Somehow, it was much easier to imagine Fairy Fifibelle getting muddled.
Miss Scritch snorted. “The past is gone and best forgotten,” she said. “Now, may I suggest a little revision? Do you all remember the Floating Spell? Because you’ll find that extremely useful if you need to reverse Solidifying. Please watch!”
We watched with our mouths open as Miss Scritch sent our buttons whizzing round and round the room. A moment later, she sent them diving to the ground and told us to pick them up. We couldn’t – they were too heavy. Miss Scritch looked extremely pleased with herself. With a wave of her hand, she whisked the buttons back into the air, made them loop the loop and then dropped them neatly into a pile on the tin tray. Fairy Fifibelle began to clap, and we joined in.
“Now you try,” Miss Scritch ordered.
Chapter Seven
We did try, but it was really difficult. I began by trying to solidify my button. It crashed to the floor just as I’d meant it to, but when I tried to float it back it zoomed straight up to the ceiling and wouldn’t come down. Sophie and Ava’s button whizzed out of the window and we never saw it again. Lily, Olivia and Emma tried working together, and their buttons drifted round and round their heads, but wouldn’t settle back on the table.
Melody and Jackson got theirs right first time, and kept showing off; Melody even sent her button up in a shower of stars to flick mine off the ceiling. “There you are,” she said.
“How did you do that?” I asked. “That’s AMAZI
NG!”
Melody gave me a sideways look. “Maybe I’m just good at magic.”
I wasn’t sure how to answer her, but Fairy Fifibelle swooped down to smother Melody in one of her hugs. “Darling girl! You’re a star among Stargirls!”
Jackson was watching. “I don’t want a hug, but I’d just like to say that I can do that too,” she said. “It’s easy.” And she made her button knock mine off the table.
“Excellent!” Fairy Fifibelle beamed at her. “Another star of stars!” Tossing back her scarves, she pointed her finger at the button on the floor. At once it leapt back to the table, spun round and turned into a plate of chocolate biscuits. Jackson didn’t say anything, but for once she gave Fairy Fifibelle a look that was almost admiring.
Miss Scritch frowned. “These girls have already had hot chocolate,” she said sharply. “Too much chocolate is NOT a healthy option!” And the chocolate biscuits turned into currant buns.
Fairy Fifibelle didn’t say a word, but all of a sudden the plate was heaped with the creamiest meringues I’d ever seen. I have to admit, my mouth began to water (I adore meringues!), but then – pouf! – the plate and the meringues disappeared and Fairy Mary McBee was clapping her hands for silence.
“Girls! You’ve done very well! Very well indeed. I’m delighted with your progress. I suggest we take a short break, and then we’ll get back to work.” She gave both Fairy Fifibelle and Miss Scritch a faintly disapproving nod. “Thank you, ladies, but I will provide a suitable snack. Now, my dear students, please tidy everything away, then go and wash your hands.”
Chapter Eight
When we came back from washing our hands, the table was spread with a pretty red-and-white cloth, although you could hardly see it for all the food. There were sandwiches and salads and cakes and all kinds of biscuits – and I was delighted to see a large plate of meringues. There were jugs of orange juice and apple juice, and lemonade and milk as well, and some sparkly red drink that I didn’t recognize but which tasted absolutely delicious – a mix of strawberries and raspberries, but with something else too.
“It’s magic,” Emma said, when she tasted it. “That’s what it is. Magic.”
I think all of us Stargirls must have been hungry, because there wasn’t much left by the time we’d finished. Fairy Fifibelle ate more than everyone else put together, but Miss Scritch just nibbled at a very plain biscuit. Fairy Mary was so busy making sure everyone had enough to eat and drink that I didn’t see her eat anything, but she seemed happy. Her dear old dog, Scrabster, came out from the sitting room and helpfully ate up all the crumbs.
When at last we’d finished, Miss Scritch came to stand behind me. “Madison! You were interested in the way we clear away our dirty dishes. Perhaps you’d like to help me with the spell?”
“OH!” I could feel myself going pink, I was so excited. “Yes, PLEASE!”
Miss Scritch pulled her wand from out of her sleeve and handed it to me. “Point this at the table, and imagine it clean and clear … and imagine all the dirty crockery and glasses piled neatly in the kitchen.”
I took the wand, hardly daring to breathe. I pointed it at the table, and did my very best to think of it the way it usually looked – well worn wood, with lots of ink stains and scratches. Then I imagined the dirty plates in a pile, and the glasses stacked up, and I sent them up into the air. Up and up they went, and behind me Miss Scritch said, “Careful. That’s good, but don’t rush…”
And then I stopped. I didn’t know what the Academy kitchen looked like, so I couldn’t imagine it – and there was the most TERRIBLE crash as the plates and glasses hit the wall. Every single cup and plate and glass smashed into smithereens, followed by the rattle and jingle of the cutlery.
“Oh,” I said, and I could feel a huge lump in my throat. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know where to send them…” I took off my glasses and rubbed at my eyes. “I’m really really, REALLY sorry!”
“As it happens, Madison, you did remarkably well.” It was Fairy Mary, and she didn’t sound angry at all. “We’ll just do a little Reversing. We should have remembered that you’ve never seen the Academy kitchens. In fact, why don’t YOU Reverse what happened? Then Miss Scritch can take over. Just shut your eyes, dear, and remember what everything looked like when it floated up from the table.”
I shut my eyes and did my best.
Lily squealed, “Oh! OH! You’ve done it, Madison! All the bits have joined together and everything’s hovering in mid-air! Oh, well done!” And I SO nearly opened my eyes, but I didn’t, even though I could hear Miss Scritch muttering beside me. Then there was a faint rattling noise …
… and when I did open my eyes, the table was bare. There wasn’t a sign of our feast, only Scrabster hunting around for a few last crumbs.
“Phew,” I said, as I handed back the wand. “Wow. Thank you very much, Miss Scritch.”
Miss Scritch looked down her long nose at me, but I could tell she was just a little bit pleased. “Let us hope we have all learned from the experience,” was all she said. “Fairy Mary, don’t you think we should be getting ready for the Spin?”
Chapter Nine
There was a thrilled silence .. and I suddenly realized what was missing from the wall. Of course! It was the golden clock!
Well, it’s not actually a clock, but I don’t know what else to call it. It looks exactly like a huge gold clock, with strange signs on it as well as numbers, but it only has one hand … and it’s not a hand. It’s a WAND! Fairy Mary McBee’s wand. Fairy Mary spins it round and round, and when it stops it points at one of us. It makes little chills run up and down my spine, I can tell you! And if it points at you, then you get to choose who you want to help, and both teams work with you in the way they think best.
We looked hopefully at Fairy Mary. She nodded, and opened the cupboard marked Sharpened pencils. The golden clock was inside, and she carefully lifted it out. Then she gave the wand a little shake and dozens and dozens of twinkly stars floated up into the air.
“Are you ready, dear Stargirls?” Fairy Mary asked, and her voice was suddenly different.
It was almost as if she was singing, and the whole atmosphere changed. It felt as if even the room was holding its breath as we whispered, “Yes.”
“Spin, spin, spin,” Fairy Mary sang. “Who will choose? Who will it be? Whose destiny will change today? Spin, wand, spin…”
The wand began to spin. Round and round it went, faster and faster until it was nothing more than a blur … and then it began to slow. Slower…
… and slower …
… and then it stopped.
And it was pointing at me.
Jackson gave a loud snort. “That’s SO not fair. It never points at me or Melody!”
“The wand knows what it needs to know,” Miss Scritch said firmly. “Your time will come when the day is right.”
Jackson glowered. “Oh, yeah?”
“I shall ignore that remark, Jackson,” Miss Scritch told her, but there was a steely glint in her eye that made me VERY glad she wasn’t looking at me.
Ava pulled at my arm. “Who are we going to help, Madison? Have you got any ideas?”
“Well…” I said slowly. I was thinking hard. Who could I help?
“Remember to keep it simple,” Miss Scritch warned. “Your skills are still at an early stage.”
I nodded, and I’ll tell you something that will make you think I should NEVER be a Stargirl. I’d actually wondered for a millisecond about asking if I could turn Izzy into a pig. Isn’t that dreadful? As soon as I’d thought about it, I felt terrible – REALLY terrible. But thinking about Izzy made me remember the tears in Di’s eyes when she talked about her poor ill mother, and how lovely her smile had been.
And you might as well know something else. I’d liked the way Di said that I was cute. I know that might sound silly, but it was an awfully long time since Izzy had said anything like that. It would be good to help someone who actually liked me.
I made up my mind.
“Could we help my big sister’s friend?” I asked. “She’s called Di. She has to look after her mother, and it’s very hard for her. She can’t have friends round or anything. She was almost crying on the bus home from school today.”
The very next minute, Fairy Fifibelle was giving me one of her hugs. “Sweet child,” she cooed. “That sounds perfect. How wonderful our dear little Stargirls are,Fairy Mary!”
“They still have a great deal to learn.” Miss Scritch put the golden clock away in the cupboard and shut the door with a bang. “Isn’t that right, Fairy Mary?”
Fairy Mary McBee smiled. “Let’s see how they do today,” she said. “Madison dear, do you know where this friend of your sister lives?”
I shook my head. “I only know she catches the same bus as us. She gets off after we do, but I don’t know how long after.”
“See?” Melody sneered. “Madison doesn’t even know where to start.”
“Dearest Melody, that is not a problem,” Fairy Mary said. “I’ll take you to the Travelling Tower, and I’m sure you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for. Would you follow me, please, my darlings? Oh! Have you all got your necklaces? It’s always best to be prepared.”
Chapter Ten
Did I tell you about our necklaces? I might have mentioned them, but if you don’t mind I’ll tell you again because they’re a really important part of being a Stargirl. The necklaces are very pretty, but by far the best thing about them is that they can make you invisible. Other Stargirls can see you if they screw up their eyes and look REALLY hard, but nobody else can. Not at all! Each pendant has the Academy crest on it (two crossed wands and six stars) and every time we go out on a mission and help someone, one of the stars lights up … and it keeps on shining.
Madison's Starry Spell Page 2