“That’s a great idea!” Willow exclaimed.
“We’ll have to get back to the sculpture table fast, though,” Kirsty pointed out. “The goblins are already ahead of us!”
“How are we going to pass them without being seen?” asked Rachel.
“We could slip out from underneath the tables,” Willow suggested, “fly really fast along the outside, and then, once we’ve passed the goblins, dive under the tables again. We’ll just have to be careful that nobody sees us.”
Rachel and Kirsty nodded and followed Willow out from under the tablecloth. The little fairy shot off so fast she was almost a blur. Rachel and Kirsty zoomed after her, dodging legs as they wove their way in and out of the people standing around the tables.
Finally, Willow swooped underneath the sculpture table, followed closely by the girls. The big tub of clay Rachel had noticed earlier was still there. Kirsty could hear the goblins approaching.
“We made it.” Kirsty gasped. “Here come the goblins!”
“Argue with me, Kirsty,” Rachel said in a low voice. “I want to go first!” she added loudly.
“No, me first! Me first!” Kirsty protested, pretending to glare at Rachel.
The goblins heard them and looked over at the girls curiously.
“It’s very important to be first,” Willow said. “Maybe it should be me.”
“It was my idea. I’ll go first,” Rachel argued.
“No! Me first!” one of the goblins snapped, marching over and elbowing Rachel aside.
“No, me!” the goblin with the flag yelled rudely, following his friend. Then he stared at the clay, looking confused. “What are you doing?”
“Putting our hands in the clay to make impressions of them,” Kirsty explained.
“Let’s give it a try!” the first goblin said to his friend.
But the second goblin shook his head firmly. “I can’t,” he muttered, clutching the piece of flag tightly. “I have to hold this.”
Kirsty and Rachel were dismayed, but then Willow joined in.
“Why don’t you do your feet?” she suggested. “That way, you won’t have to let go of anything.”
The goblin’s face brightened. “Oh yes!” he agreed.
Both goblins climbed eagerly onto the edge of the tub.
“On the count of three,” Kirsty called. “One, two, THREE!”
The goblins jumped into the clay and landed with a splash, sinking down into it. Immediately, Willow waved her wand and fairy dust swirled around the tub.
“Hey!” the first goblin shouted, trying to pull one of his feet out of the clay. “I can’t move!”
“The clay is set hard!” roared the second goblin furiously, swaying from side to side as he tried to escape. “You tricked us!”
Laughing, Rachel and Kirsty flew over and pulled the piece of flag easily from his hands.
Both goblins yelled and grumbled, but they couldn’t do anything to stop the girls. Willow used her magic to shrink the flag fabric, and Rachel put it in her pocket with the other pieces.
“We have all three pieces of my Wednesday flag back at last!” Willow declared, her eyes shining with happiness. Their plan had worked perfectly!
“Let us go!” the goblins yelled angrily as Willow and the girls flew away.
“My spell will wear off in a few minutes,” Willow told Rachel and Kirsty. “But that will give me just enough time to put my flag back together and take it home to Fairyland.”
Once they were safely out of sight of the goblins, they stopped. Rachel took all the pieces of the flag out of her pocket, and she and Kirsty laid them carefully on the floor. Then Willow waved her wand. With a flash of magic sparkles in all the colors of the rainbow, the flag was whole again.
“You can’t even tell that it was ever cut up!” Rachel said, staring at the beautiful flag.
Willow nodded happily. Then she grinned. “I’ll have to make you human again while we’re out of sight under here, girls,” she said. “Be careful not to hit your heads.”
With another wave of her wand, Willow turned Rachel and Kirsty back to their normal size. The girls crouched on their knees, trying not to bump into the table.
“Thank you, girls,” Willow said. “I have to go to Fairyland now and recharge my wand, but I’ll be back very soon!” With that, she vanished in a swirl of fairy dust.
Cautiously, Rachel and Kirsty crawled out from under the table, hoping no one would notice them.
“Girls!” Mrs. Walker exclaimed.
Rachel and Kirsty looked up to see Rachel’s mom standing staring down at them in amazement.
“What are you doing under my table?”
Rachel and Kirsty grinned at each other. They hadn’t realized they were underneath Rachel’s mom’s table!
“We were just helping clean up,” Rachel said quickly, picking up some scissors she had noticed lying on the floor.
“We’ve been making bracelets,” added Kirsty, standing up and showing hers to Rachel’s mom.
“Oh, they’re lovely!” Mrs. Walker exclaimed, examining it. Then she glanced at her watch. “You know, there’s still an hour before the fair closes. Why don’t you go try something else?”
“OK,” said Rachel. “Come on, Kirsty!” “What should we try next?” Kirsty asked as they wandered around the room.
“I’ve always wanted to try using a potter’s wheel,” Rachel said. “Or what about the embroidery table?”
“Both sound fun to me,” Kirsty replied. “I just hope Willow was able to recharge her wand by now!”
“Psst!” came an urgent whisper.
Rachel and Kirsty stopped and looked around. Then, seeing a faint glow of fairy magic around one of the tablecloths, they bent down and lifted the corner. There was Willow, hovering under the embroidery table.
“Hello, girls!” She beamed. “Look!”
She waved her wand a couple of times. Kirsty and Rachel saw a stream of magical sparkles flow underneath the tables, swirling and zooming from one to the other. “I recharged my wand with Fun Day magic. Wednesday will be a lot more fun from now on!” Willow promised.
Kirsty and Rachel glanced at each other in delight.
“Everyone in Fairyland was thrilled,” Willow went on. “The king and queen and Francis told me to thank you for all your help! Now, I have to get going, but” — she winked at the girls — “you might like to try model-painting before you go home. Good-bye!” And with another swirl of fairy dust, Willow was gone.
“Model-painting?” Rachel said, glancing around the hall. “Where’s that?”
“Over by the origami table,” said Kirsty, pointing.
The girls hurried to the table, where people were sitting painting models of birds and animals.
“Hello, girls,” the woman running the table said, smiling. “Would you like to join us? Here are some paints for you. I’ll go and see what models we have left.”
Rachel and Kirsty found two empty seats. But the woman came back a few minutes later, looking puzzled.
“I don’t even remember packing these,” she said. “But I seem to have a lot, and I thought you might like them.”
She put two beautiful fairy models down on the table. Rachel and Kirsty could hardly believe their eyes.
“It must have been Willow’s magic!” Rachel whispered, and Kirsty nodded.
“Here’s some wire to make wings,” the woman went on.
People standing around the table were also starting to notice the pretty models.
“Mom, can I try?” asked one little girl.
“Me, too!” another one said eagerly.
Soon, the table was full of people painting the delicate fairy models and fixing wire wings to their backs.
Everyone chattered happily as more and more people crowded around to join in.
“We’re not the only people at the fair who are having fun,” Rachel said to Kirsty, as they finished painting their models in different shades of green to look like Willow. �
��Look at all these smiling faces!”
Kirsty grinned. “Yes, Willow’s Fun Day magic is working perfectly again,” she agreed. “Let’s hope we can make tomorrow just as fun by finding another flag!”
Megan, Tara, and Willow all have their magical flags back. Can Rachel and Kirsty bring the sparkle back to Thursday by helping
“A tropical reef, a sunken ship, sea otters, seahorses, giant Japanese spider crabs, reef sharks … wow!” Rachel Walker looked up from the colorful brochure she was holding and grinned at her friend, Kirsty Tate. “We’re going to have a fabulous time here!”
The two girls had come to the Morristown Aquarium for the day with Rachel’s parents. Kirsty was spending the week of school vacation with Rachel, and they had been having a very exciting time. A very magical time, too!
“We’ll meet you back here at four o’clock,” Mrs. Walker said, as they all strolled into the entrance lobby. “Have fun!”
“We will,” Rachel said cheerfully, but then she gazed at some of the other people nearby. “Although it doesn’t look as if anyone else is having much fun,” she whispered to Kirsty.
Kirsty looked around. Rachel was right. There were plenty of visitors at the aquarium, but they didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves.
“I don’t even like fish,” they heard one boy mutter. “Why did we have to come here?”
Rachel and Kirsty gave each other a knowing look as Rachel’s parents wandered off to look at the first exhibit. They knew exactly why the mood at the aquarium was so glum. It was because the Thursday Fun Day Flag was missing!
Kirsty turned to Rachel. “We’ve just got to find that Thursday flag before the goblins do,” she whispered. “We really need to cheer everybody up in here.”
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e-ISBN 978-0-545-30880-9
Copyright © 2006 by Rainbow Magic Limited.
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, August 2008
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Willow the Wednesday Fairy : A Rainbow Magic Book (9780545308809) Page 2