Fledge Star

by Titania Woods

  ‘So was I!’ bellowed Madge. She flew up grinning from ear to ear. ‘Well done, both of you! And Twink, as far as I’m concerned, that was your try-out – and you passed it with flying colours. I want you back on the team!’

  A warm glow spread through Twink. ‘Oh, thank you!’ she cried. Then she remembered what she had overheard Mia say the night before, and her stomach tightened. ‘But – but is everyone sure they really want me back?’ she blurted out.

  ‘Of course,’ said Madge, looking puzzled. ‘What are you talking about?’

  Twink squirmed, wishing she hadn’t said anything. ‘It’s just – well, I heard what you said to Pip last night,’ she admitted to Mia. ‘That you didn’t know why Madge had ever let me on the team –’ She stopped at the expression on Mia’s face.

  ‘Oh, Twink, we weren’t talking about you!’ cried Mia. ‘Is that what you thought?’

  ‘Who were you talking about, then?’ Madge folded her arms across her chest.

  Mia flushed under the Games Fairy’s steady gaze. ‘Well – we were talking about Mariella,’ she admitted. She turned to the red-cheeked fairy.

  ‘You’re a good player, Mariella, but no one thought you had much team spirit, especially since the Sparklelight match – you seemed to care more about winning for yourself than playing with a team. But you’ve proved us wrong this match, you really have! That was a glimmery double move that you and Twink did at the end.’

  Mariella nodded, looking a bit ill.

  Twink struggled to take it all in. ‘But – but no one spoke to me after the Sparklelight game! I thought –’

  Mia shook her head in confusion. ‘Mariella said that you were too embarrassed to face us, and we should just leave you alone until you got over it. We were watching you at the Sparklelight party, and you seemed so upset that we decided she was probably right.’

  Twink stared at Mariella. The pointy-faced fairy gazed at the ground, not meeting her eyes.

  She made it all up! thought Twink dazedly. All the snide things that she claimed the team had said – none of them had been true! The team had never hated her at all.

  Mia looked from Mariella to Twink and back again. ‘Twink . . . was she right?’

  Twink swallowed. ‘Um . . . sort of.’

  ‘Well, you’re playing like the old Twink again – that’s the main thing!’ Madge clapped Twink warmly on the shoulder. ‘Now let’s join Forestglow at the party. We deserve some fun after all the hard work we’ve put in!’

  Twink glanced at Mariella. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’ll just . . . help Mariella put the Flea away.’

  ‘Don’t be too long. You two are the stars of the party!’ Madge gave her a friendly wink and flew off towards Glitterwings. The team flitted along behind her, still chattering and laughing.

  When everyone was gone, Twink looked at Mariella. The mushroom grandstand had almost emptied by now, and the Fledge field felt silent and expectant.

  Flushing furiously, the other fairy avoided her gaze and swooped towards the ground. Still holding the Flea, Mariella grabbed up his cage from the sidelines, fumbling with the door.

  Twink landed beside her, her heart beating hard. ‘None of it was true, was it?’ she said. ‘All that stuff that you told me the team said, and that conversation I overheard between you and Lola . . .’

  Mariella looked close to tears. Real tears this time, Twink realised, not the fake ones she had produced yesterday.

  ‘So what if it wasn’t?’ she burst out.

  ‘You’d better tell me the truth, Mariella,’ said Twink in a low voice. ‘Or I’ll tell Madge and the others exactly what you said to me.’

  Mariella paled. ‘All right, it – it wasn’t true,’ she mumbled, looking away. ‘I was just desperate to play more, that’s all.’

  Twink stared at her. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘What do you think!’ burst out Mariella. Shoving the Flea into his cage, she slammed his door shut and stood up. ‘You’re a better player than I am, that’s what! I’d never get much of a chance with you around.’

  It was the last thing in the world Twink had expected her to say. She slowly opened and closed her wings, at a complete loss for words.

  Mariella swallowed, and continued. ‘I thought Madge would throw you off the team if you messed up the Sparklelight match. That’s why I tried to make you nervous about the set pieces, so you’d stay up all night studying and be too tired to play well.’

  Twink’s thoughts spun. ‘You – you made me nervous on purpose?’

  Mariella nodded, nudging the Flea’s cage with her pixie boot. ‘But Madge gave you a second chance, so I tried to get you to leave by telling you everyone was talking about you . . . only it didn’t seem to work. Then when Madge took you off the team, I knew you’d just get Sooze or someone to help you practise, and then you’d be back again, taking all the moves away from me as usual! So I decided it was the perfect chance to gain your trust and make you leave for good.’

  Twink stared at her, unable to speak. Mariella’s cheeks burned bright red as she continued. ‘So – so I offered to help you practise myself. And then I told Lola I was playing a joke on you, and that she had to pretend I was keeping a secret from you. She wasn’t very pleased when she found out it wasn’t a joke!’

  Twink felt as if Mariella had punched her. ‘But I – I thought that we had sort of got to be friends . . .’ She trailed off.

  ‘I suppose you’re going to fly off and tell everyone now, aren’t you?’ Mariella demanded. Her eyes looked red and swollen. ‘Then you can get me thrown off the team.’

  ‘No, I wouldn’t do that,’ said Twink quietly. ‘Mariella, you’re a good player, too, you know. And – and don’t you know what an awful trick that was to play? It was terrible, thinking that everyone hated me!’ She clenched her fists, remembering.

  Mariella winced, and nodded. ‘I know. I – I’m sorry. I really am, Twink.’

  And all at once Twink believed her. Mariella, who had been a trial to live with since the first moment Twink had met her, was actually apologising. Twink let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding.

  ‘All right,’ she said softly. ‘I forgive you.’

  The two fairies stared at each other. In the silence of the empty Fledge field, a bumblebee bobbed past, humming to itself. Finally Mariella made a face. ‘Well . . . what happens now?’

  Twink lifted a shoulder. ‘We’ll both stay on the team, I suppose. And maybe we’ll never be friends off the Fledge field, Mariella, but can’t we at least try to get along on it? I think we play together pretty well, when we try!’

  Mariella nodded slowly. ‘Yes, OK. Deal.’

  On impulse, Twink held out her hand. Mariella hesitated, and then shook it firmly. Suddenly she smiled. ‘Come on, let’s go to the party – I’m dying for some fizzy dew!’

  .

  .

  That night in the second-year Common Branch, Bimi and Twink sat on the window seat together, looking out at the star-filled sky. ‘I knew she was up to something!’ said Bimi, shaking her blue head. ‘Well, you’re a lot nicer than I am, Twink. I’m not sure I could have forgiven her for such a mean trick!’

  Twink glanced across the branch at Mariella. She stood flushed and radiant at the centre of a group of admirers, describing the final move of the game once more. And for once, she wasn’t putting on airs or acting stuck-up – she just seemed happy.

  Even so, Twink smiled to herself as she saw Sooze sitting crouched at a mushroom desk with her hands over her ears! Not everyone wanted to hear about Mariella’s triumph, that was clear. But some fairies did . . . and that seemed to be enough.

  ‘I feel sorry for Mariella,’ Twink admitted, playing with the edge of her peony dress. ‘She just wants to be admired, but she always goes about it in the wrong way. She�
�s really not so bad, Bimi. Or at least, I don’t think she is deep down.’

  Bimi gave her a sideways look. ‘Is that why you let her catch the Flea?’

  Twink’s wings clapped together in surprise. ‘How did you –’

  Bimi laughed. ‘I know the way you fly, Twink! You could have got the Flea easily. So why did you do it?’

  Twink sighed and dropped her chin on her hand, gazing out at the large oak leaves rustling in the evening breeze. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘She just . . . seemed to need it more than me.’

  ‘You’re daft,’ said Bimi affectionately, tucking her arm through Twink’s. ‘Nice, but daft!’

  ‘Thanks – I think.’ Twink grinned at her best friend. It had been such a wonderful day! She was back on the team again, she had scored a point in front of the whole school . . . and she and Mariella had even reached a truce of sorts.

  ‘Oh, look how tired that star looks,’ said Bimi suddenly, pointing at the night sky. ‘We can practise making a shooting star!’ She laughed at Twink’s puzzled expression. ‘You weren’t paying attention in that lesson, were you? Too busy with your strategy book!’

  She explained what Mrs Starbright had taught them. Twink sat up straight, excitement tickling her wings. ‘OK! Let’s try it.’

  The two fairies focused hard on the feebly shining star. It’s all right for you to leave if you like, thought Twink, furrowing her forehead in concentration. You can turn to star dust and come back as a new star!

  ‘Ooh!’ she gasped, clutching Bimi’s arm.

  The star had become a jubilant arc of light, tracing its way across the glittering sky. Down . . . down . . . and then gone, with a final, joyful sparkle that seemed to wave goodbye.

  ‘That was so beautiful,’ murmured Bimi.

  Twink nodded wordlessly, and the two friends smiled at each other. Pulling her knees to her chest, Twink leaned against the bark wall and gazed about the Common Branch. Contentment spread through her like warm honey.

  Yes, today had been wonderful . . . but really, the most wonderful thing of all was being a second-year student at Glitterwings Academy – the most glimmery school in the world!

  .

  .

  The End

  .

  Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Berlin, New York and Sydney

  First published in Great Britain in 2008 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  36 Soho Square, London, W1D 3QY

  Text copyright © Lee Weatherly 2008

  Illustrations copyright © Smiljana Coh 2008

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  This electronic edition published in August 2010 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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  ISBN 978 1 4088 1347 8

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