Before the Bell

by Kiki Thorpe

  The author would like to thank Lindsey Brooks, Leah Weissinger, Darcie Birch, and Ms. Hertzberg’s first graders for their thoughtful answers to her questions.

  Copyright © 2015 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, and in Canada by Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Ltd., Toronto, in conjunction with Disney Enterprises, Inc. Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Thorpe, Kiki.

  Before the bell / written by Kiki Thorpe; illustrated by Jana Christy.

  pages cm. — (Disney The Never girls; 9)

  “A Stepping Stone book.”

  Summary: “It’s the first day of school, and Gabby can’t wait to tell the fairies all about it. She even met a new friend who loves fairies as much as she does! But what will the Never Girls do when a fairy goes missing in Gabby’s new classroom?”—Provided by publisher.

  ISBN 978-0-7364-3304-4 (paperback) — ISBN 978-0-7364-8167-0 (lib. bdg.) —

  ISBN 978-0-7364-3305-1 (ebook)

  [1. Fairies—Fiction. 2. Magic—Fiction. 3. First day of school—Fiction. 4. Schools— Fiction. 5. Friendship—Fiction.] I. Christy, Jana, illustrator. II. Disney Enterprises

  (1996–). III. Title.

  PZ7.T3974Bef 2015

  [Fic]—dc23

  2014044460

  eBook ISBN 9780736433051

  randomhousekids.com/disney

  This book has been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient™ Leveling System.

  v4.1

  a

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Never Land

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  For my sister, Elyse

  —K.T.

  For Will and Sadie xoxo

  —J.C.

  Far away from the world we know, on the distant seas of dreams, lies an island called Never Land. It is a place full of magic, where mermaids sing, fairies play, and children never grow up. Adventures happen every day, and anything is possible.

  There are two ways to reach Never Land. One is to find the island yourself. The other is for it to find you. Finding Never Land on your own takes a lot of luck and a pinch of fairy dust. Even then, you will only find the island if it wants to be found.

  Every once in a while, Never Land drifts close to our world…so close a fairy’s laugh slips through. And every once in an even longer while, Never Land opens its doors to a special few. Believing in magic and fairies from the bottom of your heart can make the extraordinary happen. If you suddenly hear tiny bells or feel a sea breeze where there is no sea, pay careful attention. Never Land may be close by. You could find yourself there in the blink of an eye.

  “Okay, class. Get out your pencils. It’s time to take a test,” said Gabby Vasquez.

  On the ground near her feet, four fairies sitting on snail shells picked up their hummingbird quills. “This is so exciting!” said the garden fairy Lily. “I’ve never taken a test before.”

  The light-talent fairy Iridessa looked worried. “Nobody said there’d be a test. I didn’t study!” she whispered.

  “Shh,” said Gabby. “If you want to talk, you have to raise your hand, remember? Okay, the first question is, how many years old am I?”

  Beck, an animal-talent fairy, scratched her head. “Do you mean in Clumsy years or mouse years?”

  “Clumsy—I mean, people years,” Gabby said.

  The water fairy Silvermist tentatively raised a hand. “One hundred?” she guessed.

  Gabby giggled. “No! I’m only six!”

  Silvermist shrugged. “Well, I was close.” One year and one hundred years weren’t very different to fairies, who never grew older.

  “Next question,” Gabby said. “This time write down your answer. What’s my favorite color?”

  As the fairies bent over their toadstool desks to write, Gabby heard someone say, “That’s an easy one. Pink!”

  She looked up and saw a sparrow man standing on a branch above her head. Gabby knew most of the sparrow men in Pixie Hollow, but she’d never seen this one before. He wore an oak-leaf vest with many patches. His hair stuck out every which way from beneath his stocking cap. And his shoes were so full of holes that Gabby could see his toes peeping out.

  “Spinner’s back!” Beck cried, jumping to her feet.

  The sparrow man fluttered down, and the fairies surrounded him, welcoming him with smiles and hugs. Spinner returned their happy greetings, but his eyes kept traveling back to Gabby. “I hope you don’t mind my saying so,” he said at last, “but you’re the biggest fairy I’ve ever seen.”

  “What? Oh!” Gabby laughed. He’d noticed her dress-up fairy wings! “I’m not a fairy. I’m a girl.”

  “She’s an honorary fairy,” said Iridessa.

  Spinner looked impressed. “Well, I’ll be jammed and jellied. You’re the first honorary fairy I’ve met. What’s your name?”

  When Gabby told him, he chuckled. “I’m a bit ‘gabby’ myself. You and I will get along just fine.”

  “How did you know my favorite color was pink?” Gabby asked.

  He shrugged and pointed to her pink tutu, pink T-shirt, and pink shoes. “Lucky guess.”

  “You’ve been gone a long time,” Iridessa said to Spinner.

  The sparrow man nodded. “A dozen moons at least. And I have as many stories to tell.”

  “Spinner is a story-talent fairy,” Silvermist explained to Gabby. “He travels all over collecting tales. Then he brings them back to Pixie Hollow.”

  A story talent! Gabby had never met a story talent before. She squatted down to get a better look. “What kind of tales?” she asked him.

  Spinner’s eyes lit up. “Would you like to hear one?”

  “Yes! Tell us a story!” the fairies all exclaimed. They sat down to listen. Gabby sat, too, wrapping her arms around her knees.

  “It started one afternoon when I was in the forest eating Never Berries,” Spinner began. “Now, as anyone who’s ever had a Never Berry knows, there’s nothing more delicious. Why, I’d say they taste just like a summer sunrise.…”

  As he spoke, a strange thing happened. Gabby’s mouth filled with a fresh, juicy taste, a flavor as sweet as strawberries and as bright as lemons. It was as if she were inside Spinner’s story, eating berries right along with him.

  “Before long I noticed a bird gobbling up the berries, too,” Spinner went on. “He had an ivory beak and silver feathers. I knew he wasn’t from Never Land.”

  Gabby could see the bird as clearly as if it were sitting next to her. Its white beak was stained with pink berry juice. Its feathers gleamed in the sunlight.

  “I said to the bird, ‘These berries are the finest food you’ll ever taste.’ But the bird puffed himself up and said, ‘I’ve had better. Where I’m from, there’s a cake as sweet and light as a dream. It’s made from stardust and baked in moonlight.’ Well, I knew I had to try that cake. So when the bird left, I hitched a ride.…”

  Spinner kept talking, but Gabby no longer heard the words. She was suddenly in the story, riding on the silver bird’s back. The bird’s wings beat against the air as they rose up and up, flying through the day and into the night.
<
br />   When they came out over the tops of the clouds, Gabby saw people there—tall men and women with moon-pale faces. They wore puffy white hats and stirred silver bowls filled with batter. A cloud kitchen! In one corner stood a white stone oven, arched like a half-moon. When it opened, Gabby caught a glimpse of cool blue light inside.

  Nearby was a finished cake on an elegant silver stand. Its frosting looked as light and fluffy as the clouds. When the bird landed next to it, Gabby slid from its back. The cake towered above her. She was tiny!

  The bird snatched a bit of cake in its beak and gobbled it down. Gabby was reaching for a crumb when the cloud bakers noticed them. They rushed forward, waving their arms to drive the bird away. As they ran, the cloud rumbled with thunder. Lightning flashed beneath their feet. The bird flapped into the air, squawking. Gabby just managed to grab hold of its tail feather as it flew away.

  But she couldn’t hold on. The feather slipped from her grip and Gabby plummeted.…

  Her wings! Gabby remembered to flutter them just in time. A moment later, she landed safely on the ground.

  “And that’s how I got back here,” Spinner finished.

  Gabby blinked. She was in Pixie Hollow, sitting on the ground with her arms wrapped around her knees. Right where she’d been the whole time.

  “Wow,” said a voice behind her. Gabby turned and saw her older sister, Mia, and Mia’s best friends, Kate McCrady and Lainey Winters. She had been so wrapped up in Spinner’s story, she hadn’t heard them approach.

  “I’ve never heard a story like that,” said Mia.

  “It was like I was right there in it,” Lainey said. “I even had real wings.”

  Gabby nodded. That was exactly how she’d felt.

  “That’s the storyteller’s magic,” Spinner said with a wink.

  “But you know you can’t believe a word of it,” Beck said, laughing. “Tall tales are Spinner’s specialty.”

  “You mean it’s not true? It didn’t really happen?” To think there was no such kitchen, no such bird, made Gabby’s heart sink.

  Spinner smiled gently. “Did it feel true to you?”

  “Yes,” Gabby admitted.

  “Then that’s what matters,” Spinner said. “Now tell me your story. What’s all this?” He motioned toward the toadstool desks and hummingbird quills.

  “Gabby has been teaching us about school,” Silvermist told him.

  “The first day of school is tomorrow,” Gabby said. “I was explaining how it works.”

  “As if you know,” her older sister teased her. “You’ve only been to kindergarten.”

  “I do so know!” Gabby said. “Tomorrow I’ll be in first grade. I know lots and lots about school. I know there’s lunchtime and recess and story time—”

  “Story time?” Spinner perked up.

  “—and we learn about numbers and how to spell,” Gabby went on. “And we get homework!”

  The older girls laughed. “You think homework sounds fun?” said Kate.

  Gabby nodded, hugging herself with excitement. For years she’d watched her older sister heading off to school every day, then doing homework at the kitchen table and talking about her friends and all the important things she’d learned. Now it was finally going to be Gabby’s turn. She couldn’t wait to start first grade!

  “But what’s all this about story time?” Spinner asked.

  “That’s when the class reads a book together,” Lainey explained. “Usually the teacher reads, but sometimes the kids read, too.”

  “Is that so? Hmm.” Spinner looked thoughtful.

  “Speaking of school, we were just coming to get you,” Mia said to her sister. “It’s time to go home. We have to get ready for tomorrow.”

  Gabby was always sorry to leave Pixie Hollow—the flowers, the Home Tree with its fascinating windows and rooms, and all her fairy friends. But she knew she’d be back. Gabby, Mia, and their friends had discovered a passage between the two worlds. They could visit anytime they liked, just by walking through Gabby’s closet.

  The girls said good-bye to the fairies, with promises to return as soon as they could. But when Gabby turned to say good-bye to Spinner, he had already disappeared.

  “Oh well. Maybe I’ll see him next time and he can tell me another story,” Gabby said. Then she skipped off toward the fig tree, with the hole that led home.

  “Remember, don’t turn the knob on the water fountain in the lunchroom too hard. It will squirt you in the face,” Mia told Gabby. “And stay away from the left field at recess. That’s where the big kids play kickball.”

  Gabby sighed. “And meet you right here on the front steps at the end of the day. I know, Mia.” They’d already been over this on the walk to school.

  Mia knelt and tied Gabby’s shoe. Then she untwisted the strap of Gabby’s backpack. Gabby had left her fairy wings at home that day—they hadn’t fit under the backpack. She’d thought she would miss them. But the bag filled the space on her back nicely, and it felt important in its own way.

  “If you need anything, I’ll be upstairs in Room 5B,” Mia said. “Are you sure you don’t want me to walk you to your classroom?”

  “Yesssss,” Gabby said impatiently. What is Mia so worried about? she wondered. First grade is going to be great!

  Other kids were arriving. Gabby spotted a few she knew from kindergarten. “Look, there’s Lizzie!”

  Mia turned to where she was pointing. “Lizzie?” she said, wrinkling her nose. “You’re not going to play with her again, are you?”

  “Why not?” Gabby asked.

  “Don’t you remember last year in the park? She pushed you off the swing and you got a bloody nose,” Mia reminded her.

  “That was an accident,” Gabby said. “We were trying to see if we could make the swing go all the way around the top.”

  “What about the time she broke the handles off all your china tea cups?” Mia asked.

  “That was an accident, too,” Gabby said.

  “How can something that happens four times be an accident?” Mia asked. “I’m just saying that something bad seems to happen whenever you play with Lizzie.”

  “I like Lizzie,” Gabby said. “She’s fun, and she’s good at pretend games. Come on, I want to say hi.”

  Gabby took Mia’s hand and dragged her over to where Lizzie was standing with her mother and her baby brother, Ollie. Gabby noticed that Lizzie had a fairy doll tucked under her arm. “Hi, Lizzie! I like your doll,” she said.

  “This is Glorinda,” Lizzie said, holding her up so Gabby could see better. The doll had silky yellow hair, gold wings, and a fancy pink dress. “My grandma bought her for me. She cost twenty dollars.”

  “Lizzie,” her mother said. “That’s not polite.”

  “But she did. And all Grandma bought for Ollie was a rattle.” Lizzie looked pleased.

  “She’s really pretty,” Gabby said, admiring the doll.

  “You can hold her if you want,” Lizzie offered.

  Glorinda was much bigger than a real fairy, but Gabby thought she was lovely all the same. She liked every kind of fairy, real or not.

  “Come on, Lizzie. Let’s go meet your teacher,” her mother said. “See you soon, Gabby.”

  Gabby handed the doll back. “See you inside,” she said.

  As Lizzie and her mother walked into the school, Gabby turned to her sister. “See? Lizzie is nice. She let me hold her doll.”

  “Well, just be careful,” Mia said. “Oh, look, there’s Kate.” Mia and Kate were in the same class this year. “I’d better go. Don’t forget, meet me right—”

  “—here. I know, Mia.”

  “And, Gabby?” Mia lowered her voice. “Remember, Pixie Hollow is our secret, okay?”

  Gabby nodded. As Mia went off to join the fifth graders, she hurried into her own classroom.

  Her teacher, Ms. Jesser, was standing by the door, greeting the students as they arrived. “Find the desk with your name on it,” Ms. Jesser said. “Then you can
put your school supplies inside. When you’re done your backpacks can be hung on the hooks.”

  All the desks had name tags shaped like fish. Gabby walked around until she found a pink starfish that said GABBY. Her very own desk! It was in the first row, right next to the window. Gabby thought it was the best desk in the room.

  As she reached into her backpack to take out her school supplies, her fingers touched something soft and warm. Gabby gasped and jerked her hand back. There was something alive in there!

  Peering into the bag, she spied a familiar face. “Spinner!” Gabby whispered in surprise. “How did you get in there?”

  “I used this thingamabob to open it. Right here, see?” Spinner pointed to the backpack’s zipper. “Getting in was the easy part. But it only opens from one side. I thought I’d never get out!”

  “That’s not what I meant,” Gabby whispered. “I meant, why aren’t you in Pixie Hollow?”

  “Oh, that.” Spinner waved a hand. “When you left, I tagged along. I’ve never been to school before.”

  The boy at the desk next to Gabby’s gave her a funny look. She realized it seemed as if she were talking to her backpack.

  “I don’t know,” Gabby whispered to Spinner. “I might get in trouble.” That summer, Gabby had brought the art fairy Bess to a wedding, and it had caused a lot of problems. She didn’t want the same thing to happen on her first day of school.

  “I’ll keep out of the way,” the sparrow man promised. “You won’t even notice I’m here.”

  Gabby thought about it. It was too late to take Spinner back through the portal to Pixie Hollow. And besides, it would be fun to have a fairy at school.

  “Okay,” she whispered. “But you have to stay close to me. And don’t let anyone see you.”

  “Don’t worry,” Spinner said. “I’m good at staying hidden.”

  Gabby held up her backpack and let Spinner fly into her desk. She hummed to herself as she put her school supplies in next to him. First grade was off to a good start, after all!