Fairy School Drop-out

by Meredith Badger

  ‘What about that thing? It sounds sick,’ said Jess, pointing at the wand.

  Elly looked at the wand, too. She wasn’t sure if she wanted it fixed. Having a broken wand would help her get expelled from Mossy Blossom. The wand coughed again and began shivering. Then before Elly could stop her, Jess had it in her hand.

  ‘The poor thing,’ she said sympathetically.

  ‘It’s not very well.’

  Elly rolled her eyes. ‘It’s just pretending to get your attention,’ she said.

  But Jess opened up the wand’s handle and began examining its insides. The wand whimpered and Elly started feeling guilty. Maybe it wasn’t pretending after all.

  ‘Is it OK?’ she said, peering over Jess’s shoulder.

  Jess frowned. ‘It’s weird. The central supporting strut looks like it’s been eaten away by some kind of acid. It’s about to snap in two!’

  Elly looked at Kara. She was fairly sure she knew what had caused the problem. She reached out for the wand.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘I’ll take it to a wandmechanic.’

  But Jess had a determined gleam in her eye. ‘Hang on – I think I can fix it,’ she said, scrabbling around in a drawer. She pulled out a blue pen and a couple of rubber bands.

  ‘It’ll probably be a quick fix,’ she added. ‘But better than nothing.’

  ‘Really, don’t bother,’ said Elly, but she could see that there was no point trying to stop Jess.

  She removed the damaged strut, which instantly snapped in two. Then she wiggled the pen into place. A few moments later she handed the wand back to Elly. Her eyes were bright.

  ‘I’m really not sure about this,’ Jess said, ‘but let’s see if it works.’

  Elly pressed the purple button, held the wand up in the air and waited.

  And waited.

  The longer she waited, the more relieved she felt. Jess hadn’t managed to fix the wand after all.

  ‘What’s supposed to happen?’ asked Jess, looking around.

  ‘It’s supposed to make a trail of stars when I wave it,’ said Elly, trying not to look too happy that it hadn’t worked.

  ‘But you haven’t waved it yet, have you?’ Jess pointed out. ‘You’re holding it still.’

  ‘Oh yeah,’ said Elly, feeling silly. It was embarrassing when a human knew more about wands than a fairy did. Elly swished the wand through the air and as she did, a trail of silver stars blossomed out behind, hanging in the air for a moment before dissolving into even smaller bursts of stars.

  Elly had thought she didn’t want the wand to work. She’d decided that having a faulty wand would be the easiest way to get thrown out of Mossy Blossom. But she couldn’t help being very excited when she saw the startrail streaming out behind her wand. It was the first time one of her spells had actually worked properly. It felt good. Really good.

  ‘You’re the best!’ she said, and hugged Jess. ‘I knew you could fix it.’

  ‘Let go, you’re strangling me!’ said Jess, but she looked pleased. ‘I’m glad it’s working, but don’t forget, it might not be for long. You should get it repaired properly.’

  There was another whimpering noise and both girls stared at the wand. Was there something else the matter with it? Then Elly realised it wasn’t the wand, it was Kara. She looked hungry and tired. Elly knew she’d better get her home soon – before her dad got worried. She scooped Kara up and turned to Jess.

  ‘If there’s ever anything you want to wish for, just ask me,’ Elly said. It was a big promise to make, but she really meant it.

  Jess smiled. ‘Thanks,’ she said, ‘but from what I can see, the human way of solving problems is more reliable than the fairy way.’

  Chapter Nine

  That night Elly started worrying about what she’d said to Jess. She was pretty sure that the Fairy Code would strongly disapprove of promising humans any wish they wanted. Humans had a bad habit of saying things like, ‘I wish you would grant all my wishes, forever.’

  At first Elly comforted herself by think-ing, How much could a small human girl like Jess possibly wish for, anyway? But it didn’t take her long to realise that the answer might be A LOT.

  She might wish for a golden palace or a magic carpet. She might wish for something small, but complicated and fiddly, like a talking goldfish. But the biggest problem was that whatever the wish – big or small – Elly wouldn’t know how to grant it. And besides, unlicensed fairies weren’t even allowed to grant wishes.

  There was something else that was troubling Elly. Trying to be the worst student at Mossy Blossom Academy was going to be much harder now that Jess had fixed her wand. Elly might actually have to work at making a mistake.

  Elly’s big chance to mess up came during the Synchronised Flying class the next day. Elly was terrible at synchronised flying and ever since being dyed purple, Miss Flufferbuff, the instructor, had watched Elly very warily. Elly had trouble remembering what all the different moves were and she always ended up crashing into someone. More than once during a complicated flying routine, her wings had become tangled with another fairy’s and most of the class had ended up in a tangled mess on the ground.

  But all that seemed to have changed, and that day Elly didn’t crash into anyone. She did the wing-flutter-dip perfectly. She performed two upside-down tumble spins without feeling dizzy. And Miss Flufferbuff even praised her floating torpedo dive, saying it was one of the best she’d seen in ages.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ Elly whispered to Saphie. ‘I can’t seem to make a mistake.’

  Saphie couldn’t help laughing.

  ‘You were bad at being good,’ she said, ‘but now you’re bad at being bad!’

  At the end of the class, Miss Flufferbuff flew over and put a (still slightly purple) hand on Elly’s shoulder.

  ‘Madame Silverwings told me you were on trial this week, Elly,’ she said, smiling. ‘I can see you’re making a big effort to improve.’

  There was nothing Elly could do but smile back weakly and nod.

  After school Elly changed into her jeans and tucked her wings below her favourite stripy T-shirt. She looked like an ordinary human kid.

  Then she climbed over the fence and walked up to Jess’s window. She could see Jess inside, sitting at her desk and frowning. Elly knocked on the window and Jess helped her in.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ asked Elly.

  Jess didn’t look happy at all. ‘I’ve got a project due,’ she said gloomily. ‘My teacher has given me until 5:30 today to finish it.’

  Elly nodded sympathetically. She knew all about not getting work done in time. ‘Have you got much more to do?’ she asked.

  Jess sighed despairingly. ‘I haven’t even started! And Mr Crankle said it’s got to be really outstanding or he won’t accept it at all.’

  Elly already knew how smart Jess was. ‘I bet you could easily do something really excellent,’ she said.

  But Jess shook her head. ‘I’m not so sure,’ she said. ‘The project is about volcanoes and all the books at school are out. Plus, our computer is broken so I can’t even use the internet.’ She slumped in her chair. ‘I’m going to fail for sure.’

  Elly didn’t know what the internet was, but she knew the feeling Jess was describing all too well. It was funny, though. When she found herself in the situation Jess was now in, Elly never knew how to fix it. But right now, she knew exactly what Jess should do.

  ‘Why don’t you actually make a volcano?’ she suggested. ‘You won’t need books for that. And your teacher wanted something that stood out, didn’t he?’

  Jess was doubtful. ‘He said outstanding, not something that stood out. Anyway, I don’t know how to make a volcano. Unless you could make one with magic?’ she added, looking hopefully at Elly.

  ‘Probably not a good idea,’ said Elly quickly. ‘Like you said yesterday – the human way seems more reliable than the fairy way when it comes to problem-solving.’ Elly had done a spelling test on turning mountains into m
olehills once. It hadn’t gone well. She had accidentally turned a molehill into a mountain, complete with enormous, angry moles. She didn’t want anything to do with magic mountains for some time.

  ‘I guess you’re right,’ said Jess sadly.

  Elly could see that Jess was about to give up. ‘There must be some stuff lying around that we could use,’ she urged.

  Jess didn’t look very sure at all but she started thinking. ‘Well,’ she said after a minute, ‘there’s some chicken wire in the shed which we could use as a frame.’

  Elly nodded encouragingly, and Jess thought a bit more. ‘We could cover the frame in clay. My mum does pottery so there’s heaps in the shed.’ Jess started looking excited.

  ‘Hey!’ she said. ‘I could make a little gizmo so it looked like the volcano was erupting! But it’d need lava – something red and sticky.’ Jess jumped up. ‘Let’s check the fridge.’

  Elly was impressed by how bravely Jess walked through the kitchen and over to the fridge. Elly followed a few steps behind, waiting for the fridge to start firing food at them and wishing she’d brought her crashhelmet. But the fridge door remained closed, and even when Jess opened it up the contents of the Chester’s fridge stayed put.

  ‘Doesn’t your fridge self-clean?’ Elly asked.

  Jess laughed. ‘I wish. We have to clean it ourselves,’ she said.

  ‘You’re so lucky,’ sighed Elly.

  Nothing in the fridge was quite right for lava. The raspberry jam was too thick and the tomato sauce smelled funny. There was some strawberry topping that might’ve been perfect, but there was only a small amount of it left.

  Then Elly had a brainwave.

  ‘Start building the frame,’ she said, climbing out the window. ‘I’ll be back in a minute with some perfect lava.’

  Back in her own house, she went straight to the bathroom. The bath was in an opera mood.

  ‘Come to take a baaaaaath?’ it trilled hopefully.

  ‘Not right now,’ said Elly apologetically, filling up a container with red bubble-bath from the dispenser.

  ‘What are you doing with thaaaaaaaat?’carolled the bath.

  ‘I’m turning it into lava,’ explained Elly.

  ‘Sounds verrrrrrrrry messy!’ sang the bath excitedly.

  ‘I’ll take a bath if I get so much as a speck on me,’ promised Elly.

  Jess had already made the frame by the time Elly returned, so together they started covering it with clay. Elly had never used clay before. She loved how squishy it was and before long there was almost as much clay on Elly as there was on the volcano. At least the bath will be happy to see me, she thought.

  She soon got even messier. She painted the volcano green while Jess made a motor for the lava using the red bubble-bath, rubber-bands and some cogs. When Jess had finished, she put her contraption inside the volcano.

  ‘Here goes!’ said Jess.

  The volcano gurgled and grumbled and all of a sudden the bubble-bath came spilling over the top.

  ‘It’s good ...’ said Elly slowly.

  ‘But it’s not quite right, is it?’ agreed Jess. ‘It needs smoke. What can we add that will do that?’

  For a moment Elly was stumped. What could they possibly use that wouldn’t involve setting the volcano on fire?

  Then she had an idea. She felt around in her pocket and sure enough, her hankie was in there, still sodden from mopping up Kara’s drool. Elly squeezed the hankie over the top of the volcano and a single, glistening drop of baby drool dropped into it. Instantly a big puff of smoke billowed up.

  Jess hugged her excitedly. ‘You are a genius!’ she said.

  Elly went bright red. She’d never been called a genius before.

  And then she noticed the time. 5:15.

  ‘Jess, how far away is your school?’ she asked urgently.

  ‘Twenty minutes on my bike,’ replied Jess. ‘Why?’

  Elly pointed at the clock.

  ‘Oh no!’ wailed Jess in dismay. ‘We’ll never make it. All that hard work for nothing.’

  But Elly wasn’t ready to give up just yet, not when they’d come so close. She thought quickly about their options. They could catch the bus, but who knew when that might arrive? They could ask Jess’s mum for a ride, but even by car they probably wouldn’t make it. No, there was only one sure-fire way to make it to Jess’s school by the 5:30 deadline, and it was pretty risky. If Elly got caught, she’d be in as much trouble as it was possible for a fairy to be in. Was it worth the risk?

  Elly looked at Jess and then back at the volcano. It only took her a moment to decide.

  ‘Wait here,’ she said to Jess, scrambling out the window again. ‘And don’t worry. It’s going to be OK.’

  Chapter Ten

  As she hurried along, Elly found herself thinking some very strange thoughts. She had often heard other fairies talking about the feeling that comes with granting a human wish. ‘It makes you glad to be a fairy,’ they’d said.

  Elly always wrinkled her nose when she heard that. How could being a slave make you feel good? Yet here she was, rushing around crazily and possibly getting herself into all kinds of trouble just for some human who she hardly knew.

  But, she reminded herself, I haven’t even used any magic to help Jess. So I’m not really being a fairy. Then a really weird thought popped into her head. Maybe it feels good helping Jess just because she’s my friend? Elly almost laughed when she thought that. She’d never dreamt that one day she might have a human for a friend.

  Jess was waiting anxiously when Elly returned with the SpaceCase. Jess guessed straight away what she was planning. ‘Are we going to ride to school on that?’ she asked.

  ‘You’re going to ride on it,’ said Elly. ‘We’ll put the volcano inside it and I’ll fly in front.’

  Jess hesitated. ‘But you can’t really fly, can you?’ she said. ‘I mean, I believe you’re a fairy, I just wasn’t sure about the flying bit.’

  Elly gave her wings a bit of a twitch. They felt fine today – no sign of a cramp. Without saying a word she rose up into the air, flew around the room and landed back in front of Jess.

  ‘Cool!’ laughed Jess, and gave one of Elly’s wings a sharp tug.

  ‘OW!’ said Elly. ‘What did you do that for?’

  ‘I wanted to see if they were real,’ grinned Jess, ‘or just some other weird gadget of yours.’

  The next task was to pack the volcano carefully inside the SpaceCase. Then they carried it out to the backyard, ready for flight.

  Jess was excited. ‘I hope someone from school sees me flying!’ she said.

  Elly shook her head. ‘No-one’s allowed to see us. You’re not supposed to even know I’m a fairy.’ Elly put on her cloud coat. ‘This will disguise me and the Space-Case will hide the volcano. But I don’t have anything to cover you. We’ll have to just hope no-one looks up.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Jess, climbing onto the SpaceCase. ‘Everyone will be hurrying home from work. I bet they don’t notice anything.’

  ‘I hope so,’ said Elly. ‘I really do.’

  Flying is one of those things that sounds much easier than it really is. Most humans at some stage or another think they can do it. Generally they are wrong. It’s just as well, too, because most of them would hate it. Flying is very tiring, particularly when it’s windy. Ever wondered why birds go to bed so early? It’s because they’re exhausted from flying around all day.

  But Jess was excited anyway. Besides, flying wouldn’t be tiring for her because all she had to do was hold on tight to the SpaceCase. Or at least that was what she thought.

  She didn’t realise how slippery the Space-Case was. Taking-off was particularly tricky and Jess almost slid right off the back as they launched into the air. Luckily, she managed to grab onto one of the handles at the last minute and scramble back on.

  ‘See if you can keep up!’ called Elly, zooming on ahead.

  After a couple of minutes Jess looked like she had started
to get the hang of flying. She had flown in a plane before, but this was much more fun. The Space-Case zipped along, dodging trees and power-lines and catching gusts of wind that pushed it along even more quickly. It swooped down to where a cat was snoozing on a roof, whooshing by so fast that the cat’s fur parted down its back.

  ‘Hi, cat!’ called Jess. The cat watched them zoom off with a very astonished expression.

  Way down below, they could see people scurrying around. As Jess had predicted, everyone was too busy going home to pay any attention to what was going on above.

  ‘Fly closer to the street,’ she whispered to the Space-Case, and the case promptly descended until Jess was almost close enough to tap people on their heads with her toes. She grinned cheekily.

  The Space-Case seemed to be enjoying itself too, getting dangerously close to someone’s head then dashing around a corner if they started turning around. Jess was enjoying herself so much that she almost didn’t notice that they were heading straight for a small boy holding a big red balloon.

  ‘Careful!’ called Jess in alarm, and the Space-Case tried to dodge but it was too late.

  Jess’s foot snagged on the string and as they darted away, she tugged the balloon right out of the boy’s hand.

  ‘Hey!’ he said indignantly. ‘That girl stole my balloon.’

  His mother looked around. ‘What girl?’ she said.

  ‘That girl in the sky,’ said the boy, pointing.

  But of course by then Jess and the Space-Case were out of sight. Jess managed to hurriedly untangle the balloon, and then she and the Space-Case dashed off to catch up with Elly.

  At 5:25, Elly and Jess landed in the playground of South Street School. They quickly unpacked the volcano, and the Space-Case rapidly blended into a nearby bush. Then Jess led the way to her classroom. Through the window they saw Jess’s teacher, Mr Crankle. They had arrived just in time – he was packing up.

  Jess picked up the volcano. ‘Wait here,’ she whispered, hurrying in, ‘and wish me luck!’