by Lou Kuenzler
Also by Lou Kuenzler
Bella Broomstick
Princess Disgrace:
First Term at Tall Towers
Princess Disgrace:
Second Term at Tall Towers
Princess Disgrace:
Third Term at Tall Towers
Princess Disgrace:
Winter Term at Tall Towers
To my spellbinding girls
- LK
Contents
Cover
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Acknowledgements
Also by Lou Kuenzler
Copyright
Chapter One
My foster parents dropped me at Person school for the very first time.
“Have a brilliant day, Bella!” they said as we found my new classroom at Merrymeet Primary.
My cuddly foster-mum, Aunty Rose, flung her arms round me and gave me a huge, squeezy hug. Sometimes she smells of strawberries. This morning it was peaches and cream… I don’t think I’ll ever get used to how delicious Person lotions and potions can smell. I used to live with my mean witchy Aunt Hemlock in the Magic Realm. Her idea of a gorgeous potion was a grow-your-own-wart cream!
“Don’t get up to any mischief, Bella!” My foster-dad, Uncle Martin, held up his hand for a high five and then wiggled his fingers like we always do.
“See you later,” I said, trying to sound brave as my new teacher, Miss Marker, showed me to my seat. The last time I had been in a classroom it was to sit the entrance exam for Creepy Castle School for Witches and Wizards. I nearly exploded the whole dungeon by mistake.
At least there won’t be any magic here at Merrymeet Primary, I thought. But as Miss Marker finished taking the register, she set us a different kind of task.
“I want you to write a story, Indigo Class,” she said, pointing to the title on the board.
What I Did in
My Summer Holidays
Tumbling terrapins! What was I supposed to write about? Could I describe the time Aunt Hemlock took me and her magic chameleon, Wane, to pick fungus in the deep, dark Forest of Doom?
Or the time I was taking a bath in the swamp and accidentally washed my face with a toad?
Perhaps not! Nobody here in the Person World is even supposed to know I am a witch.
After ten minutes, all I had managed to write was my name.
I twiddled my fluffy pink flamingo pen. I was so busy thinking what to say, I didn’t even notice I had started to doodle on the empty page…
“What’s that?” Piers Seymour, the nosy boy who lives next door to me, peered over from his table.
“Nothing!” I said, quickly screwing the paper into a ball. Aunt Hemlock says if any Persons find out I really am a witch, they’ll boil me in a pot. Or worse, she’ll drag me back to the Magic Realm to live with her.
I reached for a fresh sheet of paper. But it was hopeless. I still couldn’t think where to start my story.
“Finished, miss!” Piers Seymour’s arm shot up in the air. “Shall I check through for spelling mistakes and then copy my story out in neat?”
“Good boy,” beamed Miss Marker. She looked so pleased; I wished I could make her smile like that. But, after living next door to Piers for just one week, I knew he wasn’t really a good boy at all. He was the sort of Person who bullied kittens and stamped on ladybirds just for fun.
“I’ve done two whole sides, miss!” Piers boasted, waving his pages in the air. “And Bella hasn’t written a thing.”
“Oh dear.” Miss Marker frowned. But, before she could say anything else, a girl with long pigtails flying out behind her skidded through the classroom door.
“Sorry, miss. The bus was late,” she said, sliding into the spare seat beside me with a friendly smile. I recognized her at once as the same girl I had seen on my way home from town a few days earlier. She had been singing songs with her little sister and I had hoped at once that we could be friends. I didn’t know her name, though, as she had missed the morning register. I would have to wait to find out.
Piers was still smirking at my empty page.
“What are you going to write, Bella Broomstick – or should I say Bella Broomthick?” he hissed under his breath. I know he thought he was being very funny, but it’s not the first time I’ve heard that Bella Broomthick joke. Mean young witches and wizards used to say it all the time when my spells went wrong in the Magic Realm.
“Don’t pay any attention to Piers. I bet your story will be brilliant,” whispered the smiley girl as we all got back to work.
“But what if I can’t think of anything to write?” I asked in a low voice.
“Then make it up! I always do,” she giggled. I could see she had already written three sentences of her own.
I certainly wasn’t going to write about the day I failed the exam to get into Creepy Castle School for Witches and Wizards and made the examiner so cross his head fell off.
That was when Aunt Hemlock had banished me to the Person World. She’d cast a spell on Aunty Rose and Uncle Martin so they would let me live with them (even though they are not my real aunt and uncle – and they have no idea that I am a witch, of course), and—
“Crazy comets!” I gasped out loud. “That’s where I’ll start my story.”
I began to write as fast as I could.
“Just so long as no one ever finds out this pen is really a wand,” I thought, looking up and smiling at the class goldfish that was swimming round in its little glass bowl. My life had changed so much since I’d left the Magic Realm at the end of the summer holidays. All I wanted now was to be a normal, non-magic Person and make some new friends at school.
“Don’t look so worried!” The little goldfish pressed his lips up against the glass. “You’ll be fine!” he mouthed, talking to me in Goldfish Gulp (which is a language I understand quite well).
“Thank you!” I mouthed, answering in perfect Goldfish Gulp too.
Chapter Two
“You were talking to the fish!”
Piers Seymour followed me across the playground at break.
“No I wasn’t!” I fibbed.
Piers clicked his fingers. “Over here, Knox.” A boy as big as a troll blocked my path.
“I don’t speak fish…” I said as Knox and Piers hemmed me in between them. That’s not true, actually. Animal languages are the only thing I have ever been any good at. Goldfish Gulp is quite easy, and I even speak a bit of Shark.
But I knew better than to tell Piers and his giant henchman friend that I can talk to cats and rats and bats as well.
That sort of thing just isn’t normal in the Person World.
“Are you all right there?” The smiley girl from my table came skipping towards us. She was wearing the same green Merrymeet Primary School sweatshirt as everybody else … but she had also put on a sparkly gold top hat. She looked by far the most exciting Person in the whole playground. “I’m Esme, by the way,” she said, swerving past Piers and ducking under Knox’s arm so that they had to step out of my way.
“
And I’m Bella.” I smiled gratefully as she grabbed my hand and we dashed towards the climbing frame together.
“Actually, my real name is Esmerelda. But nobody ever calls me that,” she grinned, hanging upside down from the bars. “It is after a girl in a funny old fairy tale called The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.”
“And my real name is Belladonna!” I confessed. “After a deadly poisonous plant.”
“Oh dear. I thought mine was bad!” Esme snorted, making such a funny sound that I had to laugh too. “Well that’s it!” she smiled. “Now you’ve told me your secret we’ll have to be friends.”
“Blazing bats! I’d love that,” I grinned, thinking of all the brilliant things I could do with a real Person friend.
“My mum owns Merrymeet Bookshop – or at least she used to,” Esme explained. “She loves old stories so much she gave us all fairy-tale names. My baby brother is Jack. But he’s so tiny we just call him ‘Bean’ like Jack and the Beanstalk. And my little sister is—”
“Gretel – like Hansel and Gretel.” I smiled. “I met her once at the windmill where you live.”
“Of course. You gave our little grey kitten a new home,” she said.
I was about to tell her how well Rascal had settled in when Esme swung down from the bars and clapped her hands with excitement.
“Do you want to see some magic?” she asked.
“Magic?” I nearly fell off the climbing frame. “Are you a witch like m—” I stopped myself just in time as she lifted up the top hat and pulled a toy wand out from underneath it.
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,” she called in a deep, mysterious voice as the class gathered round. “Watch carefully… I will make a rabbit appear from this hat!”
I should have guessed… Esme wasn’t going to do real magic like mine. It was just a trick. I had seen Persons on telly-vision doing the same sort of thing.
“Abracadabra!” Esme tapped the top hat with her plastic wand. “Ta-da!” she cheered. But the hat was empty.
No rabbit at all.
Esme’s face fell. “I’ve been practising that trick all summer,” she sighed.
“What a loser!” sneered Piers.
My fingers twitched. If only I could wave my fluffy pink pen-wand and make a rabbit magically appear inside Esme’s sparkly hat… That would keep Piers quiet. But I didn’t dare risk it. I am not supposed to do any magic at all in the Person World.
“Look! There’s something poking out of Esme’s pocket,” laughed Piers.
“Oh dear! You weren’t meant to see that!” said Esme, spinning round.
But it was too late. Piers had already snatched the little toy bunny she was trying to hide.
“It’s not even a real rabbit!” he laughed, holding it up by its long yellow ears.
My wand twitched furiously.
“Just give Esme back her toy,” said a dark-haired girl called Zoe who sat at our table in class.
“I want to see the trick,” agreed Zoe’s twin brother, Zac.
“Fine!” Piers glanced around. The teachers were huddled together drinking coffee by the staffroom door. None of them were looking our way. “Go and get it then!” he laughed, kicking the little toy across the playground.
“Don’t! That’s Bunnykins. He belongs to my baby brother,” cried Esme.
“Oh. Ickle Bunnykins!” Piers taunted her.
I dashed forward and picked up the little fluffy rabbit. He had mud all down one yellow ear.
“Poor thing!” chorused a group of girls.
“What’s all the fuss about?” sneered Piers. “The stupid toy is probably from a jumble sale, just like everything Esme’s family owns. They couldn’t even afford to pay their rent. That’s why my dad threw them out of their flat. Now they live in a mouldy old windmill.” He snatched her gold top hat and put it on his head.
“Look at me! My name’s Esme Lee,” he mimicked. “And I’m the worst magician in the world…”
That did it! My wand twitched again.
I had to do something to stop Piers bullying my new friend. What harm could a teeny-tiny bit of magic do?
Chapter Three
Esme grabbed her hat from Piers. She threw her head back, bravely trying to ignore the horrible things he was saying. But I could see tears in the corners of her big blue eyes.
“Have another go at your trick. I bet it will work this time,” I said.
“Do you really think so?” Esme asked.
“Of course.” I nodded encouragingly, sure that with a little secret magic I could help her out.
“Roll up, roll up!” she cried, really getting into character as some of the class gathered around again.
I hovered at the back of the group where nobody could see me.
“I am the great and mysterious conjurer Esmerelda,” said Esme. She was brilliant at acting. “Prepare to be amazed…”
“Ha! It’ll never work,” Piers laughed. But the twins were cheering and Knox’s eyes were as big as saucers.
I whispered under my breath:
Make a rabbit appear in the hat …
Make him small and cute and …
Er …
… very fat!
It wasn’t a brilliant poem. But it’s always important to at least try and rhyme when you’re saying a proper spell.
“Abracadabra!” said Esme, like the conjurers I had seen on telly-vision. (No real witch or wizard would ever say that.)
The moment she tapped the golden hat with her plastic wand, I waved my wand too.
POOF!
There was a puff of purple smoke.
“Wow!” cried all the children, staring at Esme in amazement.
The smallest, cutest, FATTEST rabbit I had ever seen popped his head up over the brim of the hat.
“Spinning spell books! It worked… It really worked!” I gasped, slipping my wand safely behind my ear.
Esme was looking more surprised than anybody. But the whole of Indigo Class were clapping and cheering.
All except for Piers, of course.
“It’s only another silly toy or something!” he said, pushing everybody out of the way and peering into the hat. The greedy little rabbit must have been hungry. Perhaps he thought Piers’s long skinny nose was a carrot because…
Chomp!
He stuck out his sharp front teeth and took a good hard bite.
“YOUCH!” Piers leapt in the air, holding the end of his nose.
Everyone roared with laughter.
“What an incredible trick!” they cried.
“That’s definitely a real rabbit,” said Zac.
“With real teeth,” agreed Zoe.
“I’ll get you for this, Esme Lee!” said Piers furiously. There were real teeth marks on the end of his nose.
Even Malinda and Fay, the two mean-looking girls who shared a table with Piers, were clapping. “It’s such a cute bunny,” they cried.
Only Knox was quiet. The enormous boy bent down, gently lifting the little fat rabbit out of the hat where Piers had dropped it on the ground.
“Are you all right, bunny?” he whispered, scooping the fluffy creature on to his giant palm.
“We should call him Nibbles, after the greedy way he tried to eat Piers’s nose,” I said. Then I leant down close to the rabbit’s long twitching ears. “Welcome to Merrymeet Village, my magical friend,” I whispered.
I don’t know if it was the enormous size of Knox’s hands or the shock of hearing someone talk to him in his own Rabbit language, but Nibbles took one look at us both and leapt off Knox’s palm. He shot away across the playground, burrowed under a gap in the school gate, and hopped away along the lane as fast as his floppy feet would carry him.
“Perhaps he’s a wild rabbit. I bet he’s heading for the village green,” said Zoe. “That would be a lovely place for a bunny to live.”
“Look!” cried Esme as we all peered through the railings. “His tail has got a magic star on it.”
Sure enough, as the lit
tle rabbit disappeared around the corner, I saw a perfect black star shape right in the middle of his fluffy white tail.
Chapter Four
As the bell rang for the end of break, Piers blocked the classroom door.
“I don’t know how you managed that stupid trick, Esme Lee. But you and your fat little rabbit made a fool of me,” he said.
His nose was still bright red from where Nibbles had nipped him. I noticed people were giggling behind the bully’s back… But now the excitement was over, no one was brave enough to laugh out loud.
“Big mistake!” hissed Piers, almost spitting in Esme’s face. “My dad will make sure you and your scruffy little family never find a home in this village ever again!”
“Can he really do that?” I asked, grabbing Esme’s arm as Piers stormed into the classroom.
“Probably! Mr Seymour is the richest, most powerful man in Merrymeet,” she said. “Piers is right. He already threw us out of our flat and closed down Mum’s bookshop.”
“Whispering weasels!” This was a disaster. When I waved my wand, I had only meant to help Esme with her trick. I thought if a real rabbit appeared it would stop Piers teasing her. Instead greedy little Nibbles had bitten him. Now Piers was hopping mad … and he thought it was all Esme’s fault.
“What I don’t understand is how Nibbles got into my hat in the first place,” said Esme, shaking her head. “My trick was only supposed to use Bunnykins.” She pointed to the fluffy toy rabbit still poking out of her back pocket.
“Umm … isn’t the lesson about to start?” I said, trying to change the subject. My heart was pounding like a bunny’s back foot. If Esme found out I had used real magic to interfere with her trick, she’d never want to be my friend. She’d know it was my fault she was in so much trouble with Piers and his powerful family.