The umpire pointed at the smallest goblin.
“No grunting allowed at Goblindon,” he said sternly. “You’re disqualified!”
“That’s not fair!” the smallest goblin yelled, storming off the court as the audience laughed.
His doubles partner also looked annoyed. “I’m on my own now,” he complained. “Two against one isn’t fair.”
“Very true,” the umpire agreed. He glanced at the other doubles pair. “OK, one of you has to be disqualified, too, to even things up.”
“Not me,” declared one of the goblins, who had a very large green nose. “I’m a much better player than he is.” He pointed at his partner.
“That’s a lie!” his partner said, putting his hands on his hips. “You’re not half as good as I am — your big nose keeps getting in the way of your shots.”
“Ooh, you take that back!” the first goblin shouted angrily. He ran up to the second goblin, who turned and took off across the court. The first goblin chased after him, trying to bonk him on the head with his racket.
“This is the strangest tennis tournament I’ve ever seen!” Rachel laughed as she, Kirsty, and Alice watched in amazement.
“Stop!” shouted the umpire. He pointed at the first goblin. “You’re disqualified for using your racket to hit a goblin. Rackets are for tennis balls!” he snapped. “Leave the court!”
“No!” the goblin said, pouting.
“You can’t make me!”
The umpire jumped down from the chair, leaving the magic racket on the seat. Rachel, Kirsty, and Alice glanced hopefully at one another.
“This might be our chance to grab the racket if the umpire has to chase the other goblin off the court,” Kirsty whispered.
“Off! Off! Off!” chanted the goblin crowd.
Muttering, the goblin player gave up and stomped away. To the girls’ disappointment, the umpire climbed into his chair, picked up the racket, and sat down again.
“It’s time for the Goblindon Final,” the umpire announced, and the crowd broke into applause. “The champion will be the first goblin to win three games.”
“We’re not going to be able to grab the racket as long as the umpire’s holding it,” Rachel whispered.
“We’ll have to wait until the tournament’s over.” Kirsty sighed.
“Yes, maybe we’ll get a chance when they’re celebrating at the end,” Alice suggested.
The girls and Alice watched as the Goblindon Final began. Both goblins obviously wanted to win, and they raced around the court, straining and stretching to return each shot. The ball flew back and forth so fast it was a blur.
“This is going to be a very close match,” Alice said anxiously. “I just hope it doesn’t last too long!”
The third game began with a spectacular serve from one of the goblins. The other player struggled to make the return. The serving goblin then stumbled a little as he hit his shot. Grinning, the second goblin leaped forward and hit the ball. He aimed to send it to the far end of the court, out of the other player’s reach, but he mistimed his shot. The ball flew into the net, instead.
Immediately, he let out a shriek of rage. “I didn’t mean to do that!” he yelled and threw his racket to the ground. “Someone moved the net!”
“You’re disqualified for improper use of your racket,” the umpire declared. “A racket should only be used for hitting things.”
“I did hit something,” the goblin shouted, dancing up and down in anger. “I hit the ground!”
“That doesn’t count.” The umpire stared at him. “Off!”
As the goblin clomped off the court, his opponent raised his arm in victory. “I won!” he shouted. “I get to be the keeper of the magic racket!”
The umpire looked down at Alice’s racket and frowned.
“Look, the umpire doesn’t want to give the racket away,” Rachel whispered to Alice and Kirsty.
“Actually, you haven’t won,” the umpire said. “You didn’t play a full match, so there is no winner!”
The goblin stared at him in disbelief.
“I can’t play a full match because you disqualified everyone else!” he pointed out furiously.
The umpire shrugged. “Well, in that case, I will have to remain the keeper of the magic racket myself,” he said smugly.
As Rachel watched the goblins arguing, an idea suddenly popped into her head. She turned to Kirsty and Alice. “Whatever I say, disagree with me!” she whispered. Then she rushed over to the umpire’s chair.
Kirsty and Alice glanced at each other in excitement and confusion. Rachel obviously had a plan, but what could it be?
“I think this goblin is right!” Rachel said loudly. “He’s the only one left in the tournament, so he should be the keeper of the magic racket!”
The winning goblin looked a little surprised, but then he grinned. “She’s right!” he agreed. “I won fair and square. Hand over the racket!”
Kirsty smiled to herself. She guessed that Rachel was trying to distract the goblins by getting them to argue with one another.
“Don’t let the goblins see you, Alice!” she whispered, hurrying over to the umpire.
“Well, I don’t agree!” Kirsty said loudly, winking at Rachel. “It’s very unfair that the other finalist was disqualified. I mean, he only threw his racket on the ground. He was ahead in the match. He’s the real winner of Goblindon!”
“That’s right!” the other finalist cried, darting back onto the court. “I’m a much better player. The racket should be mine!”
“No, it’s mine!” the first goblin yelled.
“Actually, I thought it was unfair that the grunting goblin was disqualified, too,” Rachel remarked. “Everyone grunts a little when they’re playing sports.”
“That’s true,” the grunting goblin shouted as he rushed up to the umpire. “I’m a magnificent player! That magic racket belongs to me!”
By now, all the goblins in the seats were rushing onto the court, yelling and complaining. Rachel and Kirsty grinned at each other.
“I was disqualified just because I had an orange headband!” grumbled one goblin.
“Yes, and you deserved it!” said another, frowning.
“Silence!” roared the umpire. “I’m in charge. What I say goes!”
“Your decisions are awful!” the “winning” goblin yelled. “You’re nothing but a wishy-washy, selfish fool!”
The umpire looked furious. He jumped down from his chair, leaving the racket behind. He rushed over to the food cart at the side of the court. Then he grabbed a bowl of strawberries and cream and dumped it over the other goblin’s head.
“Help!” the goblin shrieked as cream ran down his face. The umpire roared with laughter.
“Alice, Rachel’s plan is working!” Kirsty whispered as the goblins continued to argue with one another. “Nobody’s watching the magic racket. Can you grab it now?”
Alice nodded and soared up toward the umpire’s chair. None of the goblins noticed the tiny fairy as she fluttered down and touched the magic racket.
Rachel and Kirsty watched as the racket immediately shrank to its Fairyland size, turning a deeper shade of pink as it did. Alice lifted up the racket and did a perfect backhand swing, smiling down at the girls in delight.
Kirsty grinned back. But then one of the goblins gave an angry shout.
“Look, a pesky fairy has the magic racket!” he yelled. “And I bet those awful girls helped her get it, too!” He pointed at Rachel and Kirsty.
The girls froze. Now what?
All of the goblins spun around and glared at Rachel and Kirsty.
Feeling very nervous, the girls backed away as the goblins stepped toward them.
“Oh, help!” Rachel murmured anxiously as she came to a stop. She had come up against the fence at one end of the court, next to the ball machine. “Kirsty, I think we might be trapped!”
Kirsty gulped as she stared at the crowd of angry goblins heading toward them. Franticall
y, she glanced across the court, hoping for an idea. Her gaze fell on the food cart.
“Alice!” Kirsty called to the tiny fairy who was hovering above the umpire’s chair, looking worried. “Can you roll the cart over to us?”
Puzzled, Alice nodded and waved her wand. Immediately, the cart sped over to Rachel and Kirsty.
At once, Kirsty began grabbing bowls of strawberries and cream from the cart and pouring them into the ball machine. Rachel saw what her friend was doing and rushed to help. Meanwhile, the goblins were getting closer every second.
“Here goes!” Kirsty cried when all the bowls were empty. She turned on the machine.
A second later, a gooey, pink mess of strawberries and cream came shooting out of the machine. The goblins yelped with surprise as they were splashed from head to toe with the pink glop.
“I order you to stop!” yelled the umpire goblin. But his words were cut short as a large blob of strawberries and cream flew straight into his mouth. “Ugh!”
The umpire looked furious, but then he suddenly beamed with delight. “Yum!” he said happily. “That tastes delicious!” He began slurping the strawberries and cream from his hands and arms.
Rachel and Kirsty both grinned as the other goblins also began to realize that the pink mixture tasted good.
Eagerly, they scooped the strawberries and cream off themselves and crammed it into their mouths.
Soon the machine was empty, but the goblins were full.
“Oh, I’m really stuffed now,” groaned the grunting goblin. “My tummy aches!”
“Mine, too,” the other goblins mumbled, holding their stomachs.
“It’s time that you all went home,” said Alice, smiling kindly at them. “You’ll feel better soon.”
The goblins nodded and staggered off, clutching their round tummies.
“Nice work, girls!” Alice said with a laugh, twirling happily in the air. “I thought we were in real trouble, until Kirsty had the brilliant idea of putting the strawberries and cream in the ball machine!”
“But it made a big mess!” Kirsty laughed, looking down at the squashed strawberries at their feet.
“I’ll fix that,” said Alice. She sent a swirl of fairy magic flying across the court, cleaning up the mess in an instant. “My magic put everything back in place inside the tennis club, too,” Alice said, her eyes twinkling. “When the members come back, they’ll never guess that there was a Goblindon tournament here!”
“Thanks, Alice,” Rachel said.
“Now I need to hurry back to Fairyland and tell everyone the good news.” Clutching her racket, Alice waved to Rachel and Kirsty. “Thank you for your help, girls. But don’t forget, the Fairyland Olympics start soon, and one of the magic objects is still missing.”
“We’ll do our best to find it,” Kirsty promised. Alice blew them a kiss and vanished in a burst of pink sparkles.
“That was a close call,” Kirsty remarked, smiling at Rachel. “We really were outnumbered by goblins today, but we got Alice’s racket back in the end.”
“And we only have Gemma the Gymnastics Fairy’s magic hoop left to find now,” Rachel added. “Kirsty, we have to find it before the Fairyland Olympics start!”
“Definitely,” Kirsty agreed, linking arms with her friend and grinning. “But maybe we’d better go home for lunch now. All those strawberries made me awfully hungry!”
Someone in School
Training Time
Gymnastic Fantastic
Overcoming Obstacles
Frost in Fairyland
Beginnings and Endings
“Almost there,” Rachel Walker said as she and her best friend, Kirsty Tate, walked along a sunny street. “Aunt Joan lives around the corner, near my school.”
“That’s good,” Kirsty said, glancing down at the basket they were carrying. “These chocolate Easter eggs might melt if we had to go any farther!”
Kirsty was staying with Rachel’s family for spring vacation, and the two girls were delivering Easter presents to Rachel’s cousins.
“I can’t believe it’s Friday already,” Rachel said. “The Fairyland Olympics start today!”
Kirsty nodded. “And we still haven’t found Gemma the Gymnastics Fairy’s magic hoop,” she said. “If we don’t get it back from the goblins soon, then all the gymnastics events at the Olympics will be ruined. It would be horrible!”
The girls were having a very exciting week, helping the Sports Fairies find their missing magic objects. The magic objects ensured that sports were fun and safe for everyone in the human world, as well as in Fairyland. But the magic objects worked only when they were with their rightful owners, the Sports Fairies.
Jack Frost knew the magic objects were so powerful that they made anyone who was holding them — and even someone who was simply close to them — very talented at that particular sport. He had sent his goblins to steal the sports objects so that they could use them to cheat in the Olympic Games. Jack Frost wanted his goblins to be the winning team. He knew that the winners would receive a golden cup full of luck as the grand prize — and he really wanted it for himself.
The goblins had taken the magic objects into the human world to use while they practiced their sports. Because the magic objects weren’t where they were supposed to be, sports in Fairyland and the human world had been going horribly! There had been all kinds of confusion and clumsiness.
The girls passed Tippington School, and Kirsty suddenly stopped. “That’s strange,” she said, staring across the playground. “I just saw some kids inside the school, dressed in green.”
“School’s closed for vacation,” Rachel told her. “And our uniforms are blue and gray, not green.”
The same thought came to both girls at the same time, and they let out a gasp. “Goblins!” cried Rachel.
“If they are goblins, they might have Gemma’s magic hoop with them,” Kirsty said excitedly.
They gazed at the school, but there was no sign of anyone in there now. “Let’s quickly drop off these Easter eggs, then look around a little more,” Rachel suggested.
She and Kirsty rushed to Rachel’s aunt’s house. They knocked on the door, but there was no answer. They set the basket down on the porch, out of the sun.
They hurried back to the school, but the main doors were locked. “Let’s try around the back,” Rachel said, leading the way. Then she and Kirsty froze as they heard the sound of someone whistling.
They peeked around the wall to see a man with his back to them, painting some bookcases. “It’s our janitor,” Rachel whispered. “Look, he left the door open. Let’s sneak in.”
Hearts pounding, the girls tiptoed in through the open door.
“It’s very quiet,” Kirsty commented. “Maybe I imagined it.”
“Well, let’s check out the gym while we’re here,” Rachel said. “Follow me.”
Rachel led Kirsty down a long hallway until they reached a door. “This is where the gym equipment is stored,” she said. “We can go through here into the gym itself.”
She opened the door and a volleyball rolled out. Frowning, Rachel picked it up and went inside. “What a mess!” she said with surprise. “It’s not usually like this.”
Kirsty followed. A pile of gym mats had been knocked over, there were balls scattered everywhere, and some goal posts lay on the floor. Her heart thumped with excitement. People inside the school, a mess in the gym closet … something strange was definitely going on!
The girls approached the other door, opened it a crack, and peeked out. Kirsty held back a gasp. She couldn’t believe her eyes. The gymnasium was a blur of green. There were goblins everywhere!
The two girls stared in silence. There were goblins swinging from the horizontal bar and from rings that dangled from the ceiling. Other goblins were leaping over the vault, dancing along the balance beam, and tumbling across the floor mats.
“Wow,” Kirsty said, unable to drag her eyes away. “They’re fantastic! The magic hoop must
be close by for all of the goblins to be performing so well!”
Rachel nodded. Then a flash of blue caught her eye, and she nudged Kirsty. “Look!” she whispered, pointing.
Kirsty turned, and saw a goblin easily twirling a bright blue hoop around one arm. The hoop shimmered with blue sparkles. “That definitely looks like fairy magic,” she breathed with excitement.
The goblin sent the hoop rolling across one of the gym mats, while he performed a series of perfect handsprings alongside it. Then he landed on his feet, grabbed the hoop, and bowed deeply to an imaginary audience.
“That must be Gemma’s hoop,” Rachel whispered. “The last magic sports object!”
“There’s something else sparkling in here, too,” Kirsty said, suddenly noticing a tiny flash of light in a dark corner.
Rachel turned to see Gemma the Gymnastics Fairy come spiraling up out of a pile of hoops, in a burst of yellow sparkles.
Gemma wore a pale blue leotard and yellow leggings. Her hair was twisted up in a bun, and her wings were tipped with gold.
“Hello, Gemma!” Kirsty said in delight. “Perfect timing — we think we’ve spotted your hoop.”
Gemma beamed. “Hooray!” she said. “I just came from Fairyland, where all the athletes are busy with their last-minute practice sessions. The opening ceremony for the Olympics will be starting soon. We just have to get my hoop back in time!”
“Yes, the goblins are practicing too,” Kirsty remarked.
But Rachel was lost in thought. Gemma’s and Kirsty’s words had given her an idea. “That’s it!” she cried. “We could help the goblins practice!”
The Sports Fairies Collection Page 9