by Lou Kuenzler
Luckily, Miss Marker clapped her hands. “Settle down,” she said as everyone hurried to their seats.
“As you will notice,” Miss Marker continued, “all the tables in this classroom are named after different planets.”
“Ours is Mercury. I’m so glad you’re on the same table as me,” said Esme, giving me such a friendly smile, I was sure she had no idea the naughty bunny was all my fault.
“Me too!” I whispered. I was so thrilled to be on silver-painted Mercury with Esme and the twins that I didn’t even mind that Piers and Knox were right beside us. They were on bright red Mars with Malinda and Fay, the two spiteful-looking girls who kept whispering about everyone else in the class.
I saw them pointing at me and Esme, before they turned away and started to giggle.
Miss Marker clapped her hands and we all fell quiet again. “I wonder if anyone knows who first gave the planets their names?” she asked.
Zoe put her hand up. “Was it the Romans, miss? I think they named the planets after their gods.”
“That’s right. A gold star for Mercury table,” smiled Miss Marker, putting a shiny sticker on our chart.
Piers and the Mars gang groaned.
“Mercury was the Roman messenger god,” said Zac excitedly. “He had winged sandals so that he could fly through the air.”
Wobbling wizards. That sounds even harder than riding a broomstick, I thought.
“Well done, Zac,” said Miss Marker, putting another sticker on our chart. “And Mars was the god of war.”
“Cool!” Piers glared at us from the red table. “We’ll fight you all … especially you, Esme Lee!” he hissed under his breath. But as soon as Miss Marker turned round, he smiled sweetly, as if he wanted a hundred gold stars for being nice to teachers. “Are the Romans going to be our special topic this term, miss?” he asked.
“That’s right!” Miss Marker smiled.
“She has no idea what Piers is really like,” whispered Esme. “If she did, she’d be furious. She is strict but very fair.”
Miss Marker clicked her computer and a picture of funny-looking Persons dressed up in sheets and sandals appeared on the whiteboard. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the way things like that can happen without using magic.
“For homework, I want you to split into pairs and find out one particularly interesting fact about the Romans,” she said.
“Cool!” Zoe smiled at her twin brother. “We’ve got some great history books at home.”
“Can I be your partner, Bella?” asked Esme. “You can come for tea at the windmill if you like.”
Tea? With a real Person friend? On my very first day of school? Suddenly I forgot about Piers Seymour and his horrible threats. “Yes please!” I grinned.
But Esme leant close. “Good,” she whispered very quietly. “Then you can tell me how you did that magic spell!”
“Magic spell…?” I froze with my mouth wide open like the class goldfish. “Wh… What magic spell?” I gulped.
Esme’s blue eyes twinkled as she looked straight at me.
“The rabbit in the hat spell, of course!” she said. “I know it was you, Bella. You’re a witch aren’t you? A real one – not just pretend.”
I stared back at her and swallowed hard.
“Yes!” I whispered. My secret was out.
Chapter Five
Esme was jumping up and down in the lunch queue.
“You’re a witch! A real, live witch!”
“Shhh,” I hissed, looking over my shoulder. She was so excited I thought she might tell the whole dinner hall. “No one must ever find out.”
“OK. But it’s just so brilliant! Can you really do spells and ride a broomstick and make potions?” she asked.
“I’m not very good at magic yet. But I am getting better since I’ve had my new pink wand,” I whispered, pointing to my fluffy flamingo pen, which was tucked behind my ear as usual.
“You made Nibbles and he’s adorable,” said Esme as we reached the food counter. “I think you’re amazing!” She didn’t even seem to mind that I had got her into so much trouble with Piers. “By the way, don’t have the Brussels sprouts,” she warned me. But it was too late. The dinner lady had already emptied a heaped spoonful of soggy green vegetables on to my plate. They looked even worse than the frog fritters Aunt Hemlock used to serve.
“Mind you finish everything up,” said the dinner lady as Esme quickly chose a big helping of pizza and chips. “That’s the rule at Merrymeet. Nice clean plates!”
“I’ve never tried sprouts. But I’m sure they can’t be that bad,” I said, following Esme to a table. That was before I took my first bite…
By the time we finally left the dinner hall, my tummy was gurgling and burbling like a bubbling cauldron. Brussels sprouts definitely didn’t agree with me.
“Ew!” squealed Malinda as my belly rumbled louder than a grumbling troll.
“That’s disgusting!” called out Fay.
Esme led me away to a quiet corner of the playground. I took my mind off my tummy by telling her everything I could think of about being a witch.
We hadn’t been talking for long when a crowd gathered.
“Please make another rabbit appear, Esme. Nibbles was so cute,” begged a girl called Lexie.
“At least tell us how you did the trick,” said her friend Keeley.
I froze as Esme looked towards me. For a moment I was sure she was going to give me away. But she bowed with a wave of her gold top hat. “The Great and Mysterious Esmerelda never reveals her secrets,” she said.
“Bravo!” laughed the twins.
Esme was so brilliant at playing her character; she really did seem like a mysterious magician. For a moment, I almost forgot it was actually me who had put the magic rabbit in the hat. Nobody else seemed to suspect a thing. Even Knox was laughing and jumping up and down with excitement. Only Piers didn’t join in.
Everyone carried on begging Esme to do the trick again as the bell rang and we headed back to the classroom.
“Settle down, Indigo Class. It is time for our afternoon lessons,” said Miss Marker firmly. “Take your hat off please, Esme. You can put it back on at going-home time.”
As Esme slid the top hat out of sight underneath our table, Miss Marker turned to the whiteboard. This time it was covered with sums.
“I hope you’ve all been practising your times tables in the holidays,” she said. “Have a go at these multiplication questions.”
The class groaned. But I was pleased – I recognized this type of sum. Back in the Magic Realm, we always used ingredients for spells and potions to help us work out the answers:
I shuddered as I remembered the horrible wallchart with pictures of pickled brains that used to hang on the wall of the Toadstool Spell Group. It was supposed to help us with our six times table. (The seven times table was skeleton fingers. And eight was rats’ tails.) But what should I count with today, I wondered, trying to think of something much nicer. After the magic I did this morning, rabbits came hopping into my mind straight away, of course.
I glanced at the first question.
“Easy,” I mumbled, waving my fluffy pen, ready to write the answer. “Take one rabbit and times by ten… You will have ten rabbits then!”
I glanced at the next question.
“Goodness!” I giggled to myself. “This sum has lots of bunnies now… Nine times ten is … ninety. Wow!”
I was about to write down the answer when I heard Esme let out a tiny gasp.
“Look, Bella!” she whispered. “Down there!”
I peeped under the table. The gold hat was wobbling from side to side.
A pair of long fluffy ears appeared, and then a pink twitching nose, and a small smoky-grey rabbit popped his head up.
“That’s not Nibbles,” I gulped.
“No,” agreed Esme under her breath. “And nor is that.”
A chocolate brown one had appeared now too … then a speckled one …
and a shy black one with a quivering nose.
“Where are they coming from?” I gawped.
“This really is multiplication,” Esme giggled.
Multiplication – of course! Suddenly I knew what had happened. These were the magic rabbits I had imagined just now as I muttered my sum and waved my pen … except it wasn’t just a pen, of course. It was also a magic wand.
“Five!” whispered Esme excitedly. “Look!” She pointed to a floppy-eared golden rabbit jostling inside the hat too.
“Six,” I groaned as a snowy-white one squeezed in.
“Is something the matter, girls?” asked Miss Marker, looking up from her desk.
I shook my head, hoping Esme wasn’t going to say anything either. The children in Indigo Class might believe one rabbit was a simple magician’s trick, but not a whole hatful. How were we going to explain that?
Chapter Six
Esme and I peeped under the table again. The magic hat was still wobbling as the six little bunnies looked over the top.
“Seven!” squealed Esme as a pair of long ginger ears appeared too. “Sorry, miss. I was just counting out loud,” she said quickly.
I shot her a grateful smile. My hands were shaking. I had no idea what to do. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the little speckled bunny and the smoky-grey one tumble out of the hat. The chocolate-brown one followed.
“Get back in that hat right now, please!” I clicked my teeth and squeaked at them under my breath in their own Rabbit language. If I didn’t put a stop to this soon, there’d be bunnies hopping all over the classroom.
I glanced at the first sum I had written: 1 x 10 = 10. There were seven bunnies in the hat already. I had a horrible feeling there would be three more before this spell was done.
Sure enough, a pair of very fluffy-looking ears appeared. “Tumbling toadstools!” I yelped. “That makes eight!”
“I beg your pardon, Bella?” said Miss Marker.
“Er…” I stammered as Zac glanced under the table too. As soon as he spotted the rabbits, he nudged Zoe and their dark eyes grew as big as cauldron lids.
“Er…” I stammered again, fiddling with my pink flamingo pen. If only I could wave it in the air and disappear the rabbits before the whole class noticed.
“Are you all right, Bella? You look a little anxious…” Miss Marker stood up and walked towards me.
“Er…” My mind was whirring like a windmill. The rabbits had hopped back inside the hat. But I knew they wouldn’t stay there long. They were far too fidgety.
Esme suddenly leant forward and felt my brow. “I don’t think Bella feels very well, miss. She looks like she’s going to be sick!” she said.
“Eww!” squealed Malinda and Fay.
“I think she ought to get to the toilet!” said Esme. “She ate an awful lot of sprouts at lunchtime…”
“That’s it! The sprouts,” I said, understanding Esme’s brilliant plan. If I could leave the classroom, perhaps there was a way I could take the rabbits with me. “I really don’t feel well,” I said, making a horrible gulping noise like a lizard swallowing a fly.
“Use my hat! Just in case you don’t make it…” said Esme, leaping to her feet.
“Eww!” screamed just about everybody in the whole class. Even Miss Marker took a step backwards.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take her,” said Esme, putting her arm around me with a totally straight face. She should be on telly-vision she can act so well.
The twins were looking worried too, although they must have guessed this was all just a way to hide the rabbits.
I’m not nearly so good at acting, but I tried my best to look sick as I hunched over the hat.
“Keep down and don’t let your ears show!” I whispered, clicking my teeth at the tiny rabbits in their own language. Then Esme and I ran out of the door as fast as we could.
“Steady. Where are you two off to?” said our head teacher as we nearly bumped into him coming round the corner.
“Er…” I gulped.
“Breath of fresh air. Bella doesn’t feel well,” said Esme, flinging open the doors to the playground.
I counted the rabbits again as we ran outside. Still only eight. Perhaps the spell had stopped after all.
“If they squeeze under the gate, they can follow Nibbles to the village green,” said Esme.
“Good idea!” I agreed as the bunnies tumbled out of the hat and hopped away. I wished we could keep them somehow. But, just like Nibbles, they seemed happier in the wild.
“Look,” cried Esme. “They’ve got magic stars too.”
She was right. Even though the bunnies were all different, each one had a star shape right in the middle of its tail.
“Let’s call that one Smoky,” said Esme as the grey rabbit disappeared along the lane. The shy black rabbit darted after him. The star on her tail was bright white.
“That one should be Midnight,” said Esme.
“Goodbye, Chocolate!” I joined in as the dark-brown rabbit scurried off. “And Ginger. And Snowy… And Speckles too.”
“And Fluffy!” we both cried as the soft, long-haired rabbit hopped away.
“And goodbye, Bunnykins the Second,” Esme laughed as the little yellow rabbit with the very long ears followed after them all. “He’s my favourite,” she said. “He looks just like my baby brother’s stuffed toy.”
“See if you can find Nibbles. He must be somewhere nearby,” I called, clicking my teeth and talking to the rabbits in their own language.
“It’s so cool you can do that!” said Esme. She clicked her teeth too. Unfortunately, she said something VERY rude. The rabbits turned and glared at her.
“Whoops! I’d better leave the talking to you.” Esme blushed. She bent down to pick up the hat. “Look! There’s another one,” she cried as a little black-and-white bunny yawned and popped his head over the top. “Another two!” She laughed as a similar one with brown-and-white patches followed.
“Leaping leprechauns! I knew there’d be more!” I groaned.
The two new rabbits blinked sleepily as if they had been having a lovely nap when a spell whisked them away.
“Cosy and Dozy!” Esme smiled, lifting the sleepy rabbits out of the hat. “That makes ten altogether,” she said as they hopped off.
“Eleven if you count Nibbles!” I reminded her.
Esme turned the hat upside down and shook it. No more rabbits came tumbling out.
“That’s all of them now,” I said, with a sigh of relief. At least I never finished writing my second sum. “Eleven magic rabbits is quite enough!”
Chapter Seven
As soon as school was over, Esme and I ran outside.
“Hello, Bella!” A smile spread across Aunty Rose’s round apple cheeks. “How was your very first day at school?”
“Wonderful!” I said, giving her a big hug. “But will it be all right if I go home with Esme to work on our Roman homework together?”
“Of course!” said Aunty Rose. “I’ll ask Uncle Martin to pick you up from the windmill at seven.”
“Thank you! I’ll tell you all about being in Indigo Class later,” I called as Esme grabbed my hand and we dashed away to catch the bus.
“Are you sure you don’t mind that I’m a top-secret witch?” I whispered to her as we rattled along the country lanes.
“Mind? I think it’s MAGICAL!” said Esme, bouncing up and down on the seat. “We’re going to have so much fun together. Especially if…”
I glanced over and saw that she was blushing.
“Especially if we can be best friends,” she said.
“Best friends?” I couldn’t believe it! “Jumping jellyfish! I’d love that!” I said. I thought Esme might want to throw me in gaol or boil me in a pot when she found out I was a witch. Instead, we were best friends already.
The only real friend I’d had back in the Magic Realm was Gawpaw the troll. Gawpaw’s idea of fun wasn’t always quite the same as mine…
But as E
sme chattered excitedly about tea and cake and doing our homework together, I knew that I had met the best Person friend I could ever wish for.
“There’s just one thing,” she said, suddenly looking worried. “Don’t expect the windmill to be smart. It’s old and draughty and…”
“Beautiful!” I smiled as the tall white building came into view. I had seen the windmill before of course, when I’d flown here secretly on a dark night to try and find Rascal’s mother. But now the sun was shining and I could see the white sails rattling in the breeze and the bright-blue window sills looking out over an apple orchard and a grassy meadow. “It’s lovely!” I said.
“I knew you’d like it! Piers says it’s a dump, but he’s wrong!” cried Esme, jumping down from the bus as it stopped.
“Mum, this is Bella,” she called to a woman with wild red hair who seemed to be scribbling notes in a little book as she waved to us from the side of the lane. “We are best friends and we’re going to do our homework together.
Can she stay for tea?”
“Of course!” Mrs Lee peered over her lopsided spectacles and smiled at me kindly.
“Welcome to our windmill, Bella. It’s not much, but it’s home.”
“We had to come here when Piers’s dad threw us out of our flat in the village,” explained Esme as we made our way across the meadow. “He closed down Mum’s bookshop too, just because we were one day late with the rent.”
“He wanted to turn the whole building into fancy new offices for his company, Seymour Cement. They make concrete,” sighed Mrs Lee.
“That’s terrible,” I said.
But Esme shook her head. “He was trying to bully us, but it didn’t work. This old windmill used to belong to my great-grandfather and we love it here.”
“I know what you mean,” I smiled. It was supposed to be a punishment when Aunt Hemlock sent me to live in the Person World. But it was the best thing that had ever happened to me.
“Now Mum’s not running the bookshop, she has enough time to try to write her own stories. That’s why she’s in a dream half the time!” Esme giggled as Mrs Lee stopped in the middle of the meadow to scribble in her notebook. “She’s always trying to think up new ideas. But we don’t mind. Me and Gretel can pick blackberries and play outside in the meadow. And Jack the Bean can nap in the sun.” She pointed to a pram parked in the shade of an apple tree where her baby brother was sleeping. Little Gretel was skipping in and out of a row of bright-orange pumpkins.