Heidi Heckelbeck Makes a Wish

by Wanda Coven

  Chap ter 1: A HO-HUM DAY

  Chap ter 2: WEATHER GIRL

  Chap ter 3: AN EVERYDAY WISH

  Chap ter 4: THE BIG DAY

  Chap ter 5: TOLD YOU SO

  Chap ter 6: A NEW RIDE

  Chap ter 7: WITCH TO WITCH

  Chap ter 8: A LOSS FOR WORDS

  Chap ter 9: OOPS-A-DAISY!

  Chap ter 10: WISHY-WASHY

  Chap ter 11: GOING THROUGH HOOPS

  Chap ter 12: NO PROBLEM!

  Chap ter 13: A GOOD HELPER

  Chap ter 14: PEDAL PUSHER

  ‘Heidi Heckelbeck and the Big Mix-Up’ Excerpt

  About the Authors

  “Ho hum.” Heidi sighed as she doodled a daisy on her science folder.

  Heidi was having a ho-hum morning. She had on a ho-hum outfit. All her favorite clothes were in the wash. She had eaten a bowl of ho-hum oatmeal for breakfast. Henry got the last waffle. And now Heidi and her whole class had to sit and wait for their teacher Mrs. Welli. Mrs. Welli had said she would be right back.

  Soon the classroom door squeaked open. Principal Pennypacker followed Mrs. Welli to the front of the room. Hmm, thought Heidi. I wonder what the principal is doing here?

  Mrs. Welli smiled and clasped her hands. “Principal Pennypacker has a special announcement to make,” she said. Then she stepped to one side.

  The principal patted the tufts of hair on either side of his head and said, “Good morning, class.”

  “Good morning, Principal Pennypacker,” the class chorused.

  The principal rubbed his hands together. “I have exciting news,” he said. “Next week the second grade will go on a field trip to the botanical gardens.”

  The children all began to talk at once.

  Mrs. Welli clapped her hands. “One, two, three—eyes on me!” she said. Then she nodded for the principal to continue.

  “You’ll take the school bus to the gardens,” he explained. “Once there you’ll see flowers, you’ll see trees shaped like animals, and you’ll even get to play hide-and-seek in a life-size hedge maze. At the end of the visit you will have a class lunch picnic in the fairy garden, followed by ice-cream bars.”

  “Yay!” cheered the class as they bounced up and down in their seats.

  And just like that, Heidi’s morning had changed from ho-hum to a real humdinger!

  Heidi plopped her hot-lunch tray onto the table. She always got hot lunch when cheese ravioli was on the menu.

  “So, what do you think about the field trip?” she asked her friends.

  “Three words,” said Lucy Lancaster as she untwisted the cap on her water bottle. “FLOWER POWER FUN.”

  Everyone at the table cheered and started to giggle.

  “Do you think there are real fairies in the fairy garden?” asked Natalie.

  “I hope so,” Heidi said. Then she squished a whole cheesy pillow of ravioli into her mouth.

  “What about rides, like a flower-petal merry-go-round?” asked Laurel Lambert. “I love rides.”

  “It’s probably just flowers, plants, and trees,” said Bruce Bickerson.

  “It’s not just flowers, plants, and trees,” said Heidi. “I’ve heard they have butterflies and waterfalls.”

  Lucy peeled an orange. “Well, I’m going to wear my favorite outfit,” she said. “And maybe I will also bring my ladybug house, because you never know when you might find a good-luck ladybug.” She chomped an orange slice.

  “You’d better think again,” Bruce said.

  “How come?” asked Lucy, her cheeks full.

  “I’ve got bad news. It’s supposed to rain that day,” Bruce said.

  Bruce always kept up on the weather. It came in handy when he had to test one of his fancy science experiments.

  Lucy tossed her orange peels onto her tray. “Oh no!” she said. “If it rains, they may cancel the trip.”

  Heidi shook her head. “No way, Lucy!” she said. “It’s not going to rain on OUR field trip!”

  Then, under her breath, Heidi added, Because I’m going to make sure the forecast is for sunny skies!

  Heidi gently lifted her Book of Spells from her keepsake box, which she kept under her bed. She smiled at her book as if it were an old friend.

  “We have some work to do,” she said as she opened the book to the Contents page. Heidi found several weather spells, but they all called for ingredients that were hard to find, like fake eyelashes and purple lightbulbs. Then she found a spell called Everyday Wishes. She read it over.

  Do you ever need your room picked up in a hurry? Or perhaps you need a birthday gift and have no time to shop? If you’re the kind of witch who needs an ordinary, everyday wish to come true—then this is the spell for you!

  Ingredients:

  1 straw hat

  1 honest wish

  2 tablespoons of powdered sugar

  1 drop of flower dew

  3 lemon gumdrops

  Shake the ingredients together in the straw hat. Hold your Witches of Westwick medallion in one hand and place the other over the hat. Chant the following spell:

  State your honest wish.

  Remember to be careful what you wish for.

  “This is perfect!” Heidi said out loud. “Now I can wish away the rain.”

  She jumped off her bed and began to hunt for the ingredients. First, she yanked her straw beach hat from the top shelf in her closet. Then she tiptoed downstairs to the pantry. She plucked three lemon gumdrops from the roof of last year’s gingerbread house. She also measured the powdered sugar and placed it in a snack bag.

  Now for the flower dew, Heidi said to herself. She snuck outside and picked a daisy from Mom’s garden. The daisy didn’t have any dew on it in the afternoon, but that was not going to stop Heidi.

  I will just sprinkle water on this daisy and make my own flower dew, she thought. Then she stuck the daisy in a vase with water and took all the ingredients to her room.

  She rubbed her hands together excitedly.

  “Look out, storm clouds!” she said. “Because here comes Heidi. And I’m bringing the sunshine with me!”

  Heidi hopped out of bed early on the day of the field trip. She pulled back the curtain and peeked outside. It was still too dark to tell what kind of day it would be. She dropped the curtain. No big deal, she said to herself, because today will be sunny no matter what!

  Heidi turned over her straw hat and set it on her desk. She emptied the powdered sugar into the hat, followed by the three lemon gumdrops. She dipped her daisy in water and let a single drop fall into the mix. Then she shook the hat gently. Holding her medallion in one hand, she placed her other hand over the mix.

  She chanted the spell and made her wish.

  “I wish for sunny skies ALL day,” Heidi whispered, so as not to wake anyone up. Then she looked out the window. It had gotten light while she had been working her magic.

  “Not a cloud in the sky,” Heidi said triumphantly. Then she put on her flower-power T-shirt, blue jean skirt, and striped tights. She also slid her favorite butterfly notebook into her backpack.

  “Don’t forget your raincoats!” called her mother as Heidi and Henry left for school.

  Henry grabbed his raincoat off the hook in the mudroom, but Heidi sailed right past hers.

  “Don’t you know it’s supposed to RAIN?” Henry said.

  “That’s not what I heard!” said Heidi.

  “You are going to be SORRY and SOAKED!” warned Henry.

  “Will not!” Heidi shot back.

  The bus dropped Heidi’s class off at a grand stone entry gate. A guide greeted them and led them into the botanical gardens.

  “Look!” cried Laurel, point
ing. “They DO have rides.”

  Everyone looked where Laurel had pointed. There were rides shaped like vegetables and fruits: spinning garlic bulbs, flying strawberries, twirling artichokes, and a giant mushroom with lots of swings hanging from the mushroom cap.

  “Rides at the end!” the guide said as she led the children deeper into the park.

  They strolled by streams, lakes, and waterfalls. They zigzagged over a Japanese bridge and into a tea garden. Then they walked through a topiary garden. “Topiary” meant that the trees and plants were trimmed into special shapes. Some trees were spiral shaped, and other trees looked like tutus stacked one on top of the other. Heidi liked the animal-shaped trees the best. She also really liked the unicorn and the stegosaurus.

  “Incredible,” whispered Heidi.

  “Magical,” Lucy whispered back.

  The children learned about plants and flowers. They roamed through the Flitter Flutter butterfly meadow. When they got to the hedge maze, Heidi heard a rumble in the distance. She looked at the sky. Dark gray clouds had rolled in. That’s strange, she thought. Is my wish running out?

  “Come on, Heidi!” said Lucy. “Let’s get lost in the maze!”

  The whole class disappeared into the hedges. Squeals and giggles filled the paths as they raced around, but Heidi puttered along slowly. A gust of wind swirled through her hair as a raindrop plinked on her nose. This is SO strange, she said to herself. Then it thundered again—only this time a lot closer.

  The guide blew a sharp whistle.

  “Everyone out of the maze!” she called.

  Then all at once it began to pour.

  Lightning flashed across the clouds. Then KABOOM! Thunder exploded all around them. The children shrieked and scrambled out of the maze. Poor Lucy slipped and fell in the mud. Bruce leaned over to help her up, and his glasses fell on the ground. Before he could pick them up, Melanie Maplethorpe ran by screaming and stepped on Bruce’s glasses. The glasses snapped in half

  Heidi stuffed her butterfly notebook under her shirt and hurried back the way she had come. The guide rounded everyone up. They huddled at the entrance to the maze. Soon golf carts lined up and carried them back to the bus in the parking garage.

  “I am totally SOAKED!” complained Melanie.

  Lucy rolled her eyes. “We ALL are!” she said.

  “But I have on NICE clothes!” Melanie wailed.

  “Not anymore,” said Bruce, who was pretty mad about his broken glasses.

  It poured all the way back to school. The class didn’t get to have a picnic in the fairy garden or have ice cream. And worst of all, they didn’t get to go on the rides. Heidi hung her head. This is all MY fault, she thought. My sunshine spell BACKFIRED. But how? Heidi couldn’t understand what had gone wrong. She sighed. Let’s face it, she said to herself glumly. I’m the WORST witch EVER.

  She didn’t talk to anyone for the rest of the afternoon.

  Heidi walked home from the bus stop in the rain. She dropped her backpack on the mudroom floor. Then she slapped her soaked butterfly notebook onto the counter. Henry, who was sitting at the kitchen table, jumped out of his seat and stared at his sopping-wet sister.

  “What happened to YOU?” Henry asked.

  Heidi growled and opened the cupboard to get a snack. Henry noticed the notebook on the counter.

  “Why is your notebook all soggy and crumpled?” he questioned.

  Heidi shut the cupboard and glared at her brother. “It got rained on, OKAY?” she said.

  Henry shook his head knowingly. “I told you it was going to rain.”

  Heidi groaned dramatically. “Why don’t you just be QUIET!” she yelled. She stormed out of the kitchen and then ran to her bedroom. Then Heidi thunked into her desk chair.

  “Merg!” Heidi was angry. She grabbed a fistful of wet hair and squeezed all the excess water out of it. A drop of water plinked into her straw hat—the hat with the potion in it. Heidi sighed.

  “Sometimes I wish I wasn’t a witch!” she said.

  Then she got up, shuffled to the bathroom, and turned on the shower to wash away this horrible day.

  Mr. Doodlebee, the art teacher, handed out Styrofoam balls on a stick. He also handed out tissue paper, blocks of floral foam, and mini clay flowerpots.

  “Today we’re going to make topiary trees—just like the ones you saw on the field trip,” he said. “Let’s begin by placing your floral foam in the bottom of your flowerpot.”

  Heidi squished the foam into the bottom of her pot.

  “Then you carefully plant your Styrofoam ball tree into the floral foam.”

  Everybody pushed the sticks into the foam.

  “Now crumple pieces of tissue paper and pin them onto the Styrofoam ball,” he explained as he showed them how to do it. “You can make green leaves or any color you like.”

  Heidi crumpled a pile of green and lavender tissue paper. Then she decorated her topiary tree. She still felt awful about the field trip.

  “Hey, Lucy, did you get the mud out of your clothes?” Heidi asked.

  Lucy shook her head. “My mom tried everything.”

  Heidi sighed heavily. “I’m so sorry,” she said.

  Lucy tilted her head to one side. “It’s not YOUR fault, Heidi.”

  Heidi bit her lip. “Oh, yes, it is,” she muttered under her breath. “It’s entirely my fault.”

  Then she turned to Bruce. “Will you be able to fix your glasses?” she asked.

  Bruce squinted at Heidi. “Probably not,” he said.

  “Ugh,” Heidi moaned. “That’s too bad.”

  Then Melanie stood and cleared her throat, as if asking the whole class to look her way. “Well, I have GOOD news!” she said loudly.

  “What is it?” asked Melanie’s one and only best friend, Stanley Stonewrecker.

  Melanie waited for everyone to pay attention. “Yesterday, I, Melanie Maplethorpe, got a brand-new BIKE.”

  “I’ll bet it’s pink,” said Lucy. Everything Melanie got was pink.

  “Of course it’s pink!” Melanie smiled proudly. “And it’s a beach cruiser with a straw basket and a shiny silver bell on the handlebar.”

  “Wow,” said Eve Etsy, who was busy pinning a clump of yellow tissue onto her foam ball. “Was it your birthday?”

  Melanie shook her head. “Nope.”

  “Then why did you get it?” asked Bruce.

  “No reason,” said Melanie as she sat back and admired her pink topiary. “Just because.”

  Heidi felt her face get hot. “How can you brag at a time like this?” she said angrily.

  Melanie scowled. “What’s wrong with YOU?” she said.

  Heidi didn’t usually have the courage to stand up to Melanie, but today she was too upset to care.

  “Well, for your information, there are people in this room who lost IMPORTANT things in the rainstorm yesterday. And I doubt they want to hear about your new bike.”

  Melanie sniffed. “Well, for YOUR information, I was just trying to cheer them up,” she said.

  Then Mr. Doodlebee stepped in. “That’s enough, girls!” he said firmly.

  Heidi and Melanie looked down at their work.

  Heidi had to hold back her tears. I feel so crummy right now, she thought.

  Heidi knocked on Aunt Trudy’s door after school. She always talked to her aunt about witch problems—that’s because Aunt Trudy was a witch too, and so was Heidi’s mother. But her mother never talked about witch stuff. She liked to be as normal as possible.

  “Come in!” sang Aunt Trudy. Heidi walked into the living room and plunked onto the couch. A teakettle whistled in the kitchen.

  “Are you hungry?” asked her aunt.

  “Always,” said Heidi.

  Aunt Trudy went into the kitchen to get tea and snacks. Her two cats, Agnes and Hilda, jumped on the couch beside Heidi and began to cuddle with her. Heidi heard the kettle stop whistling. China clinked as her aunt placed cups and plates on a tray.

  Aunt T
rudy returned and set the tray on the coffee table. Then she sat in a stuffed chair beside Heidi. Heidi helped herself to a slice of lemon cake with lemon icing.

  “So,” said her aunt as she sipped tea from a pink and green checkerboard cup, “what’s on your mind?”

  Heidi put the plate with lemon cake in her lap. “Basically, I’m a bad witch,” she said, and took a bite of cake.

  “Oh my,” Aunt Trudy frowned. “Tell me what happened this time.”

  Heidi stared at her cake. “I cast a spell for an Everyday Wish and it backfired.”

  Aunt Trudy nodded. “And what did you wish for?” she questioned.

  “I wished for sunny skies on our field trip,” Heidi explained. “And it POURED.”

  “Oh dear,” said Aunt Trudy.

  “It gets worse,” Heidi went on. “Lucy fell in the mud and ruined her best outfit, and Melanie stepped on Bruce’s glasses”—she shook her head sadly—“and it was all my fault.”

  Aunt Trudy leaned back in her chair. “You may not want to hear this,” she began, “but this is exactly why your mother doesn’t like you to use your witching skills at school.”

  Heidi sighed. “I know. It ALWAYS gets me in trouble.”

  Aunt Trudy nodded and sipped her tea. “But maybe you will feel better if you do something nice for your friends.”