Emma the Easter Fairy (9780545549288)

  Contents

  The Sweet Treat Disaster

  A Melted Mess!

  Emma’s Story

  Goblins in the Market

  The Jellybean Trail

  Help From the Sky

  Rotten Egg Hunt

  A Magical Feeling

  Daffodil Disguises

  A Stinky Problem

  Egg-citement!

  Rainbow Magic

  The Easter Bunny Incident

  A Trap

  Soooo Cute!

  Dancing Chickens

  A Pet Shop Surprise

  Happy Easter!

  “We’re finally here!” Rachel Walker cried as her dad pulled the car to a stop in the driveway.

  Rachel’s best friend, Kirsty Tate, ran across the lawn to greet her.

  “We’ve got so many fun things planned,” Kirsty said as Rachel got out of the car. “We’re going to dye eggs for the big Easter egg hunt, and go to Strawberry Farm, and—”

  “First we have to unpack,” Mrs. Walker said with a smile. “Rachel, why don’t you and Kirsty grab the cooler?”

  Rachel and Kirsty each took a handle of the blue cooler and carried it toward Kirsty’s house.

  “I’m so glad your Aunt Sally lives near Wetherbury,” Kirsty said.

  “Me, too,” agreed Rachel. “We’ll have Easter dinner with Aunt Sally, but first we get to spend two whole days with you!” The two girls had met on vacation at Rainspell Island. They were always excited to have a chance to visit each other.

  They carried the cooler up the steps to Kirsty’s front door.

  “This is heavy!” Kirsty remarked. “What’s in it?”

  Rachel grinned. “It’s a special surprise.”

  When they entered the kitchen, Rachel’s parents were talking with Mr. and Mrs. Tate.

  “Good to see you, Rachel,” said Kirsty’s mom. “What are you carrying in that big cooler?”

  “Can I tell them, Mom?” Rachel asked.

  Mrs. Walker nodded, smiling.

  “Mom and I made special Easter chocolates,” Rachel said. “There are bunnies, flowers, chicks, and even chocolate eggs. We wrapped them in sparkly paper, too! They look so pretty.”

  Rachel opened the lid to show them. “Oh, no!” She gasped.

  “What’s wrong?” Kirsty asked. Inside the cooler, the chocolates had melted into one big, gooey mess! The sparkly wrappers had slipped off and fallen into the sticky chocolate.

  “They’re all ruined!” Rachel cried.

  Mrs. Walker looked over Rachel’s shoulder and frowned. “That’s odd,” she said. She felt the inside of the lid. “We filled that cooler with plenty of ice packs. It still feels chilly inside. The chocolates shouldn’t have melted.”

  Rachel tried not to look too sad, but she couldn’t help it. “But they did. Now there’s no chocolate for Easter.”

  “Don’t forget about the Easter Bunny,” Mrs. Tate reminded her. “I’m sure he’ll bring you lots of chocolate in your Easter basket.”

  “He always does,” Kirsty said, trying to cheer up her friend.

  “I’d better clean this up,” said Rachel’s mom. “Why don’t you girls go outside for a while? It’s a beautiful day.”

  The girls headed outside and sat on Kirsty’s front porch. Pretty pink and yellow tulips bloomed in the flowerbed there.

  “It’s strange that the candy melted, even though the cooler was chilly,” Kirsty remarked.

  Rachel nodded. “I was thinking the same thing,” she said. She lowered her voice. “Do you think Jack Frost is behind it somehow?”

  The girls had a special secret. They were friends with the fairies! Because of that, they knew Jack Frost and his goblins were always causing trouble in Fairyland. Sometimes they played their tricks in the human world, too.

  “Maybe,” Kirsty replied. “But it’s hard to believe there could be goblins around on a nice sunny day like today.”

  “A beautiful day won’t keep the goblins away!” a musical voice cried just then.

  One of the pink tulips began to wiggle. The petals opened up, and a tiny fairy flew out! The air shimmered around her as she flew toward the girls.

  “You must be Rachel and Kirsty,” said the fairy, twirling in the air. “I’m Emma the Easter Fairy!”

  Emma wore a pastel yellow dress with a pretty pink sash around the waist. She had polka-dotted rain boots on her feet, and her bouncy curls were held back with a flowery headband.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Rachel said.

  “Hi, Emma,” said Kirsty. “Happy Easter!”

  “I’m afraid there might not be a happy Easter this year,” Emma said, perching on Kirsty’s shoulder and looking glum. “The Easter Bunny is missing!”

  “Missing!” Rachel exclaimed. “Did Jack Frost kidnap him?”

  “I’ll bet he did,” Kirsty said. “Jack Frost has done things like that before. Remember the time he stole Santa’s sleigh?”

  “That’s exactly what I thought,” Emma said. “But he’s getting even trickier! Let me show you.”

  Emma waved her wand, and in a burst of sparkles, two Easter eggs appeared in midair. Rachel and Kirsty each took one. Each eggshell was painted with pretty flowers.

  “Look through the pointy end,” Emma told them.

  Each of the eggs had a small window on one end. Both girls looked through the windows.

  “It’s Fairyland!” Rachel exclaimed.

  “That’s right,” Emma said. “And that’s my cottage.”

  Thanks to Emma’s fairy magic, they could see inside Emma’s red-and-white toadstool cottage. Emma was happily painting Easter eggs with a paintbrush. A white chicken perched on the chair behind her, watching.

  “It’s my job to add the extra sparkle to Easter,” Emma explained.

  “Every year, my pet chicken, Fluffy, lays three magical eggs. On the first egg, I paint a picture of a chocolate bunny. That egg helps to make Easter candy extra yummy.”

  “Mmm,” said Kirsty, licking her lips. “I love Easter candy.”

  “On the second egg, I paint a picture of a colorful Easter egg,” Emma told them. “That egg helps make all of the dyed Easter eggs bright and beautiful.”

  “So that’s why Easter eggs always look so pretty!” Rachel said.

  Emma nodded, looking proud. “On the third egg, I paint an Easter basket,” the fairy went on. “That’s the most important egg of all! It gives the Easter Bunny the extra magical push he needs to deliver millions of Easter baskets in just one night.”

  The girls held their eggs to their eyes again and watched the story unfold. They saw Emma put the finishing touches on her final painted egg. Then she smiled, gave Fluffy a pat on the head, and flew off.

  “I wanted to tell the Easter Bunny that I had finished the eggs,” Emma said. “But when I got to his cottage, he wasn’t there! I looked all over Fairyland, but I couldn’t find him.”

  In the pictures, the girls saw Emma flying around Fairyland. Finally she went to the castle to find Queen Titania and King Oberon.

  “I told them that the Easter Bunny was missing,” Emma explained. “Right away, they suspected Jack Frost. Last year, he tried to use a spell to turn all of the Easter eggs rotten. The Easter Bunny stopped him, and Jack Frost has been angry ever since.”

  “That proves it!” Kirsty said, looking defiant. “Jack Frost must have kidnapped the Easter Bunny!”

  “Watch and see,” Emma said.

  In the pictures, Emma followed the king and queen as they rushed to Jack Frost’s Ice Castle. Jack Frost sat on his icy throne, grinning.

  “He told us he had no idea where the Easter Bunny was,” Emma said. “He invited the ki
ng and queen to search the castle. But the Easter Bunny was nowhere to be found.”

  “So was Jack Frost telling the truth?” Rachel asked.

  “It looked that way,” Emma said. “But then I suddenly remembered the three magic eggs in my cottage. I had a bad feeling about them, so I flew back home as quickly as I could.”

  The picture inside the eggs changed again. Emma flew toward her little toadstool cottage. The girls could see Jack Frost’s goblins heading toward her house, too! Emma waved her wand, and silver glitter floated through the air.

  The magic glitter trickled inside the cottage and surrounded the three magic eggs. The eggs disappeared just as the goblins burst through the door. They were safe!

  “I sent the eggs here to Wetherbury,” Emma said. “I don’t know where they ended up, but they should be safe from the goblins.”

  “But not for long,” Rachel pointed out. “We need to find them first.”

  “Not only that,” Kirsty added, “but we have to find the Easter Bunny, too!”

  “Emma, is that why our Easter chocolates melted?” Rachel asked. “Because the magic eggs are missing?”

  Emma nodded, and her curls bounced against her shoulders. “Yes. And that’s not all. The Easter candy won’t taste nice. The Easter eggs will go bad. And worst of all, the Easter Bunny won’t be able to visit girls and boys on Easter!”

  “That sounds terrible!” Kirsty said.

  “It would be, but there’s still hope,” Emma said with a smile. “Especially now that I have you two girls to help me.”

  Rachel jumped up. “You said the eggs are somewhere here in Wetherbury. We should start looking right away!”

  “Wetherbury is a big place,” Kirsty reminded her. “It will be hard to find three small eggs.”

  Rachel was thoughtful. “Maybe we should start looking in places where you’d normally find eggs.”

  “Like the market!” Kirsty chimed in.

  Just then, the girls heard footsteps coming toward the front door.

  “Emma, hide!” Rachel said in a loud whisper.

  Poof! Emma vanished, leaving a trail of fairy dust shimmering in the air behind her.

  And just in time! A second later, Mrs. Tate and Mrs. Walker stepped onto the porch.

  “How are you girls doing?” Mrs. Tate asked.

  “Fine, Mom,” Kirsty said. “We were thinking of taking a walk. Do you need anything from the market?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do,” her mom replied. “I bought some eggs to dye tonight. But they seem to have gone bad already. It’s very strange! Mr. Hopper always sells nice, fresh eggs.”

  “Maybe they were a bad batch,” Mrs. Walker suggested.

  Rachel and Kirsty looked at each other. They knew that Emma’s missing magic was the real reason the eggs went bad.

  “We’ll get some more,” Kirsty offered.

  Mrs. Tate gave Kirsty money for the eggs, and the girls headed to the village center on foot.

  “Wetherbury is very nice,” Emma said, suddenly fluttering in the air next to them. “All the pretty flowers remind me of Fairyland.”

  “Thank you,” Kirsty said. “Fairyland is beautiful, too.”

  “But there still isn’t any sign of the Easter Bunny there,” Emma said. “I hope we can find him soon!”

  As they turned the corner, they walked past the pet shop. The sign on the door read CLOSED FOR THE HOLIDAY.

  Emma suddenly shivered.

  “Emma, are you cold?” Rachel asked, concerned.

  “No, this is a different kind of shiver,” Emma replied. “Fairies can sense when magic is near. It makes us feel tickly all over.” She looked around. “I don’t see any other fairies here, do you?”

  Rachel and Kirsty looked everywhere, but they couldn’t see any other fairies. “No,” Rachel said. “And that reminds me—you should hide, before someone sees you!”

  “Oh!” Emma said, fluttering around. She settled inside the pocket of Rachel’s pink dress.

  “Is this all right?”

  “Just keep your head down,” Kirsty whispered. Only she and Rachel knew about the fairies and their magic, and they had promised to keep them a secret. A few minutes later, they finally arrived at Mr. Hopper’s Market. They opened the door, and a blast of cool air hit them.

  “Now I’m shivering because I’m cold!” Emma called up from her hiding place.

  Right next to the front door was an Easter display. A big stuffed Easter Bunny sat on a mound of fake grass. He held a basket of colorful plastic eggs. A sign on the display read GET YOUR EASTER GEAR HERE!

  A long line of people waited at the cash register. They were all holding bags of candy, and they didn’t look very happy. Behind the counter, Mr. Hopper looked awfully worried.

  Two boys in baseball caps were arguing over by the candy aisle.

  “I want the green jellybeans!” one boy yelled.

  “No, I want the green jellybeans!” shouted the other.

  Kirsty spotted her friend Andy waiting in line.

  “Andy, why is it so crowded in here?” she asked him.

  “Something’s wrong with Mr. Hopper’s candy,” Andy replied. “All the chocolate is melted, even though it’s freezing in here. And most of it just doesn’t taste right.” He held out an open bag of jellybeans. “These taste terrible! You should try one.”

  Rachel and Kirsty looked at each other. Eating gross jellybeans didn’t sound like fun, but they had to see for themselves.

  Kirsty carefully picked out a white jellybean from the bag. Rachel picked a blue one. Kirsty popped the jellybean into her mouth.

  Then she stuck out her tongue. “This tastes like onions!” she cried. Rachel made a face. “Mine tastes like blue cheese. Yuck!”

  “Mom wants me to get my money back,” Andy said.

  Kirsty sighed. “Poor Mr. Hopper!”

  Rachel tapped her on the shoulder. “Kirsty, we should go get those eggs for your mom.” She lowered her voice so only Kirsty could hear. “Maybe we’ll find a magic egg there, too.”

  They waved good-bye to Andy and walked over to the dairy section, where it was quieter. Emma popped her head out of Kirsty’s pocket.

  “We have to find the magic egg that makes Easter candy delicious — and fast!” she said anxiously.

  “Let’s start looking through these egg cartons,” Rachel suggested.

  But before they could, some loud shouts came from the candy aisle. The two fighting boys were now wrestling over the bag of green jellybeans. They rolled right by the girls.

  “Give it to me!” one boy cried.

  “Never!” replied the other.

  The girls jumped back to get out of their way. Then Rachel noticed something. Both boys wore baseball caps and jeans. But they didn’t have any shoes on their feet … their green feet.

  “Kirsty, those aren’t boys at all!” she whispered. “They’re goblins!”

  The girls hurried to the cereal aisle, where the goblins couldn’t see them.

  “I should have known!” Kirsty said. “Only goblins would fight over green jellybeans.”

  “They’re here for the same reason we are,” Emma piped up. “To find the missing magic eggs!”

  “Then we have to find them first,” Rachel said.

  Kirsty nodded. “And we have to get those goblins out of here before someone sees them.”

  The girls heard more shouting from the dairy aisle. They peeked around a shelf and saw three more goblins in disguise, opening up all of the egg cartons! Eggs spilled and cracked on the floor as the goblins carelessly pawed through them.

  “Oh, no! What if one of the magic eggs is in there?” Kirsty asked.

  Rachel looked thoughtful. She had an idea! “We know that goblins like green jellybeans. Emma, can you use your magic to make some?”

  Emma flew out of Rachel’s pocket. “Of course! I’m the Easter Fairy. Jellybeans are my specialty!”

  “Perfect,” Rachel said. “If you make a long trail of green
jellybeans from the goblins to the front door, the goblins will follow them outside.”

  “That’s a great idea!” Kirsty agreed. “Just make sure no one sees you, Emma.”

  Luckily, the customers in the store were too upset about their melted chocolate to notice the goblins. Careful to stay out of sight, Emma flew into the dairy aisle and waved her wand. Green sparkles shot from it. When the sparkles hit the floor, they turned into green jellybeans!

  Emma made a trail of green jellybeans all the way down the aisle. It didn’t take long for the goblins to notice.

  “Look — green jellybeans!” one of them cried out.

  The two wrestling goblins stopped fighting immediately. The other goblins dropped their egg cartons. All five of them started to race after the jellybeans.

  “It’s working!” Kirsty cheered quietly.

  Emma made a magical trail of jellybeans that led all the way to the front door. The goblins followed the trail, scooping up the jellybeans as they appeared. They shoved and pushed each other to get to them.

  Rachel and Kirsty watched the goblins from a distance. Once the goblins were outside, the girls would be able to safely look for the missing magic eggs.

  But the goblins stopped before they went through the front door of the market.

  “What’s happening?” Rachel wondered.

  One of the goblins had spotted Mr. Hopper’s Easter display. “I think I see something,” he said, squinting.

  The goblin stuck his hand inside the basket of plastic eggs. Then he pulled out an egg that was glimmering with fairy magic. The egg was white, with a picture of a chocolate bunny painted on it.

  “I’ve found one of the missing eggs!” the goblin howled. “Wait until Jack Frost sees this!”

  With that, the goblins cheered and raced through the door.