“It’s OK,” said Rachel. “We’ll wait for you here.”
“Aren’t you scared?” asked Cheryl in a low voice.
“Not when we’re together,” said Kirsty, linking arms with her best friend.
“I think you’re both very brave,” said Cheryl, blowing them a kiss.
She disappeared in a flash of golden sparkles, and Jack Frost glowered at Rachel and Kirsty.
“If she doesn’t come back, I’m going to lock you both in my deepest dungeon,” he said.
Rachel glanced at the tall windows and shivered. It was dark outside, but the moon’s rays were shining on the swirling snowflakes. Then she saw something coming toward the window, flying quickly through the snow.
“Kirsty, look!” she exclaimed.
The object got closer and closer, curving down through the sky.
“It’s going to crash through the window!” Kirsty cried.
Jack Frost dove behind his throne and the girls covered their faces, expecting to hear shattering glass. But all they heard was the tinkling of countless bells! They opened their eyes. Jack Frost was cowering behind his throne, but Kirsty and Rachel clapped their hands happily.
Standing in the middle of the Throne Room, draped in red velvet and tiny silver bells, was Santa’s sleigh! Nine reindeer were stomping their hooves on the stones and shaking the snow off their furry coats.
“Hello, Jack Frost!” said one of the reindeer in a gruff, dignified voice.
Jack Frost stepped out from behind his throne, adjusting his robes and clearing his throat.
“What do you want?” he demanded rudely.
“Santa sent us,” said the reindeer. “He wants to thank you for returning the magic Christmas gift to its rightful place. He would like to invite you to help him deliver the presents this year.”
Jack Frost paused for a minute, his hand resting on his icy chin. Then he let out a little whoop of excitement and danced around his throne, grinning.
“I’ve never seen him look so happy!” said Rachel with a giggle.
“Santa sends his greetings to you, too, Kirsty and Rachel,” said the reindeer. “He knows what a great help you have been to the fairies.”
Before they could reply, Rachel and Kirsty heard a whooshing sound above them. Golden fairy dust began to rain down from the ceiling. The girls gasped in delight. Everywhere the fairy dust touched was transformed before their eyes!
Silver and gold decorations hung from the ceiling, candles flickered in the windows, and sprigs of holly were pinned to the walls. Best of all, the sad-looking Christmas tree became tall and bushy, draped with tinsel and sparkling with ornaments. The big star glistened at the top.
Cheryl the Christmas Tree Fairy was hovering in the middle of it all, smiling with her wand held high.
“Merry Christmas, everyone!” she exclaimed.
The Throne Room doors burst open and a crowd of goblins scampered in, wearing party hats and waving festive Christmas decorations. Each goblin seemed to be singing a different carol, and every one of them was out of tune.
Cheryl waved her wand, and a long table appeared at the far end of the Throne Room. It was covered with platters of turkey and bowls of stuffing and gravy, as well as Christmas cookies and other yummy desserts.
“Party time!” the goblins squealed in delight.
They dove in enthusiastically, pulling Christmas snappers, telling jokes, and gobbling down the delicious treats. Meanwhile, Jack Frost had leaped into the sleigh.
“Santa’s house, here I come!” he whooped.
The reindeer shook their antlers and the sleigh rose into the air, turning toward the window. Then there was a bright flash, and in the blink of an eye, the reindeer and the sleigh were on the other side of the window, galloping away into the night.
Cheryl fluttered down to the girls.
“You did it!” cried Kirsty happily.
“We did it,” Cheryl corrected her. “Without your help, I never could have gotten all of my magical objects back in time.”
“The goblins are warm and happy, and Jack Frost is having his best Christmas ever,” said Rachel. “It’s perfect!”
“Almost perfect,” Cheryl said with a wink. “I still have to get you both home before midnight strikes!”
She threw her arms around them and hugged them tightly.
“You saved Christmas,” she said. “I can’t thank you enough. But I can make sure that you have a wonderful, merry Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas!” said Kirsty and Rachel, hugging her back.
A fountain of golden fairy dust burst from Cheryl’s wand and showered down on the girls. They were dazzled by the sparkles, and when their vision cleared, they were back in their cozy room in Christmas Cabin. The presents Rachel hadn’t finished wrapping earlier were now beautifully wrapped and labeled.
“Cheryl must have done that,” said Kirsty as they changed into their pajamas.
“That was nice of her!”
“Hasn’t it been a wonderful Christmas adventure?” said Rachel, leaning over to close the curtains. “And I’m so excited about Christmas day — Oh! Kirsty, look!”
Kirsty dashed over to the window as Rachel flung it open. Santa’s sleigh was silhouetted against the full moon!
The girls breathed in the crisp night air as they gazed up, their heads pressed close together. They could see the outline of a huge pile of presents in the back of the sleigh. A big man with a bushy beard and a red and white hat held the reins, and beside him they could see a thin, spiky figure.
As the sleigh disappeared into the distance, they heard a voice ringing in the night air.
“Ho, ho, ho!”
“That’s Jack Frost!” said Rachel in delight.
The best friends looked at each other and smiled.
“Come on, let’s go to bed and wait for Santa to visit us,” said Kirsty. “I think everyone will have a very merry Christmas after all!”
Don’t miss any of Rachel and Kirsty’s other fairy adventures. Check out this magical sneak peek of
Florence
the Friendship Fairy!
Rachel Walker pulled a large scrapbook from underneath Kirsty Tate’s bed, and the two best friends opened it between them. It was their memory book, full of souvenirs from all the exciting times they’d shared together.
“That vacation on Rainspell Island was really special,” Rachel said, pointing at the ferry tickets and map that had been stuck into the book.
“I know,” Kirsty replied, smiling. “It was the first time we met each other — and the first time we met the fairies, too!” She lowered her voice. “I wonder if we’ll have a fairy adventure this week.”
“I hope so,” Rachel said, feeling her heart thump excitedly at the thought. She and her parents were spending her school vacation with Kirsty’s family, and she had been wondering the same thing herself. Somehow, extra-special things always seemed to happen when she and Kirsty got together!
The girls kept looking through their book. There was the museum pamphlet from the day they’d met Storm the Lightning Fairy; tickets to Strawberry Farms, where they’d helped Georgia the Guinea Pig Fairy; plus all sorts of photos, postcards, maps, petals, and leaves. . . .
Kirsty frowned when she spotted an empty space on one page. “Did a picture fall out?” she wondered.
“It must have,” Rachel said. “You can see that something was stuck there before. I think it was a picture of the fairy models we painted the day we met Willow the Wednesday Fairy. I wonder where it went.”
As the girls turned more pages, they realized that photo wasn’t the only thing missing. A map of the constellations that Kirsty’s gran had given them the night they’d helped Stephanie the Starfish Fairy had vanished, and so had the all-access pass they’d had for the Fairylan
d Games. Each time they turned a page, they discovered something even worse.
“Oh, no! This photo of us at Camp Stargaze is torn,” Rachel said in dismay.
“This page has scribbles all over it,” Kirsty cried. “How did that happen?”
“And where did this picture come from?” Rachel asked, pointing at a colorful image of a pretty little fairy. She had shoulder-length blond hair that was pinned back with a pink star-shaped clip. She wore a sparkly lilac top and a ruffled blue skirt with a colorful belt, and pink sparkly ankle boots. “I’ve never even seen her before!” She bit her lip. “Something weird is going on, Kirsty. You don’t think —”
Before Rachel could finish her sentence, the picture of the fairy began to sparkle and glitter with all the colors of the rainbow. The girls watched, wide-eyed, as the fairy fluttered her wings, stretched, and then flew right off the page in a whirl of twinkling dust!
“Oh!” Kirsty gasped. “Hello! What’s your name? How did you get into our memory book?”
The fairy smiled, shook out her wings, and flew a loop-the-loop. “I’m Florence the Friendship Fairy,” she said in a sweet voice, her bright eyes darting around the room. “You’re Kirsty and Rachel, aren’t you? I’ve heard so much about you! I know you’ve been good friends to the fairies many, many times before.”
“It’s so nice to meet you,” Rachel said. “But, Florence, do you know what happened to our memory book? Things are missing from the pages, and some things have even been ruined.”
Florence fluttered over and landed on the bed. “I’m afraid that’s the reason I came here,” she said sadly. “Special memory books, scrapbooks, and photo albums everywhere have been ruined and stolen — so I need your help!”
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e-ISBN 978-0-545-54939-4
Copyright © 2010 by Rainbow Magic Limited.
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First Scholastic printing, September 2012
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Cheryl the Christmas Tree Fairy Page 4