Lily's Shimmering Spell Read online

  Contents

  The Promise

  The Book of Spells

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  TEAM STARLIGHT

  TEAM TWINSTAR

  Dear Stargirl,

  Welcome to Stargirl Academy!

  My name is Fairy Mary McBee, and I’m delighted you’re here. All my Stargirls are very special, and I can tell that you are wonderful too.

  We’ll be learning how to use magic safely and efficiently to help anyone who is in trouble, but before we go any further I have a request. The Academy MUST be kept secret. This is VERY important…

  So may I ask you to join our other Stargirls in making The Promise? Read it – say it out loud if you wish – then sign your name on the bottom line.

  Thank you so much … and well done!

  Fairy Mary

  The Promise

  I will never speak of Stargirl Academy to others outside these cloudy walls, whatever they ask and whatever they offer. This I solemnly promise, for now, always and for ever.

  The Book of

  Spells

  by

  Fairy Mary McBee

  Head Teacher at

  The Fairy Mary McBee

  Academy for Stargirls

  A complete list of Spells can be obtained from the Academy. Only the fully qualified need apply. Other applications will be refused.

  Shimmering Spells

  Shimmering Spells are the simplest of all spells, and can be easily attempted by those with no experience in magic. The guidance of a professional Fairy Godmother is all that is required…

  Shimmering Spells include such spells as:

  Floating objects in the air

  Curing bee stings

  Assisting cats from high branches

  Hi! I’m Lily. Lily Henrietta Hawkins, and I’m ever so pleased to meet you. What do you look like? I have long, straight brown hair (boring) and not quite blue, not quite grey eyes. (Also boring.)

  I don’t know if any of you live with a great-aunt, but if you do, I feel really, REALLY sorry for you – at least, I do if she’s like my great-aunt Acidity.

  I was left on my great-aunt’s doorstep when I was four. I don’t remember who left me there; it wasn’t my mum or my dad, because they’d vanished by then. They went to study a rare kind of butterfly somewhere in Africa, and they never came back. I suppose whoever was looking after me decided they didn’t want to look after me for ever and ever, so they took me to Number 13A Dumbswell Street instead. I wish they’d asked me about it, though. Even when I was four, I knew about orphanages, and I’d have MUCH preferred to go to an orphanage. I’m sure they aren’t nearly as bad as you read in those old books, and at least I’d have met other children.

  But then again, if I’d gone to an orphanage, Fairy Mary McBee might not have found me… and I wouldn’t have a story to tell you.

  Love from

  Lily Henrietta Hawkins

  Chapter One

  I sort of knew I’d put too much tea in the cup as soon as I’d poured it out, but it isn’t very far from the kitchen to the living room and I told myself I could manage. I very nearly did. I got as far as my great-aunt’s armchair – but then – OUCH! A tingle in my elbow. It was really sharp. And OOPS! – there was tea everywhere.

  Great-aunt Acidity went green with fury. Her knitting needles flew in the air and Sweetypie yelped. It was awful. My stomach went cold and I felt sick. I was in SUCH trouble.

  “Stupid child! Just look at the mess you’ve made!” Great-aunt Acidity grabbed my wrist. Her skinny old fingers look dried-up and thin, but it really, really hurt. “That’s your free time gone for weeks and weeks and weeks, and don’t you—”

  And then she stopped.

  She was staring at something outside the window, so I looked to see what she was staring at … and I couldn’t help gasping. An enormous white cloud was floating by, just above the rooftops. It was definitely a cloud – but it looked exactly like a misty castle! A castle with hundreds of twisty turrets…

  I rubbed my eyes. What made it even more odd was not the cloud being so low, but the fact that it was moving steadily along the high street, even though there wasn’t any wind. Not even the tiniest of breezes.

  My great-aunt let go of me and blinked. She pulled her glasses off her nose, polished them on the edge of my skirt, and we both looked again … but the cloud was gone.

  “Humph!” Great-aunt Acidity swung round. “What are you gawping at? Stupid girl! Can’t even carry a cup of tea!”

  “Stupid girl!” yelled Polly from her cage in the corner. “Stupid girl!”

  I stood on one foot and began to stammer. When I’m scared I can’t talk properly. “I’m sorry, Great-aunt … I really am … I’m sorry … I really, really, REALLY didn’t mean to—”

  “Shut up!” Great-aunt Acidity banged her stick on the floor. “Fetch a mop right now this minute! And make more tea. With extra sugar. I’ve had a shock, and I’m a poor old lady who ought to be looked after. Not that YOU care. Little worm. Slug. Creepy crawly tiddly widdly Lily…”

  I scuttled off to the kitchen. As I was filling the kettle, my elbow did that tingling thing again, and I stopped to rub it. It was like having a pin stuck into me, or maybe a tiny electric shock. I wondered what it could be. Did it mean something?

  Chapter Two

  I managed to get the second cup of tea to Great-aunt Acidity without dropping it. I didn’t expect her to say thank you, and she didn’t. Instead she sipped it as if it was poison.

  “It’s too hot.”

  I didn’t say anything. If it hadn’t been too hot, it would have been too cold. I never ever got it right.

  “Go and get me a biscuit,” my great-aunt ordered. “I want a chocolate one. And so does Sweetypie. And don’t nibble the edges!”

  I tried not to look guilty. I’d had a peek in the tin after breakfast because I was still hungry (the bones left over from Great-aunt’s kipper didn’t fill me up one little bit). There’d been two biscuits left – and I’d eaten them both.

  “I’m ever so sorry,” I said as bravely as I could, “but there aren’t any.”

  “You’ve eaten them all, you greedy little worm!” Great-aunt Acidity raised her stick. “Run to the shop! Get more biscuits! NOW!”

  “But…” I jumped out of reach. “I haven’t any money…”

  “Stupid girl!” Polly danced up and down her perch. “Stupid girl!”

  Great-aunt scowled, and fished in her old leather bag for some money. “Here! I want the BEST chocolate biscuits, mind. And you’d better be back before this tea gets cold, or there’ll be trouble. Take Sweetypie with you. He’d like a walkies… Wouldn’t you, my precious ickle pickle fluffykins?”

  “Trouble trouble trouble! Stupid girl, stupid girl!”

  I made a face at Polly and went to fetch Sweetypie’s lead. He growled, and snapped at my fingers as I clipped it onto his collar. He always does that, and I sighed.

  “Sighing? What have YOU got to sigh about, Lily Hawkins?” Great-aunt snapped. “I took you in when nobody else would have you. I fed you, clothed and educated you! What more could you ask for?”

  I didn’t say anything. What was the point? All I wanted was for her to smile at me sometimes. Or give me a hug. Or even call me her ickle pickle fl
uffykins.

  I hauled Sweetypie out through the battered old front door and across the road to Mrs Shah’s shop. I bought the chocolate biscuits, and when Mrs Shah asked me how I was, I said, “Fine, thank you,” the same as I always did.

  “And how’s Miss Acidity?” she said. “We never see her outside the house. She’s lucky to have a pretty young girl like you to look after her.”

  “Erm …” I said. “She doesn’t get out much. Not at all, really.”

  Mrs Shah gave me a lovely smile, and tucked a toffee into my pocket. “There. And give your auntie my best wishes.”

  She was so kind I got a lump in my throat, and only just managed to thank her. “Come on, Sweetypie,” I said gruffly, and we went outside…

  …and the road was filled with fog. Thick fog. Very thick fog.

  I couldn’t even see our house. I took a deep breath and dived into the thick swirls of white. A moment later, I saw steps in front of me, and I stared at them.

  What was happening? Where had they come from? I’d only just that minute stepped off the pavement…

  “WOOF!” Sweetypie gave a sharp bark and dashed away as if he had seen his dinner. I was so surprised I let go of his lead, and he bounded up the steps and into the nothingness of the mist.

  “Sweetypie! NO!” I shouted, but he took no notice. I had to run after him. What else could I do? I jumped up the steps and there was a door and it was wide open – and I was just in time to see Sweetypie vanish inside.

  “COME BACK!” I yelled, but of course he didn’t. So I followed him.

  Chapter Three

  I froze in the doorway. In front of me was the strangest room I’d ever seen. It was full of shelves heaped with papers and odd-looking jars and bottles, and masses of spiky-leaved plants hung from the ceiling. Under the shelves were cupboards and the doors were literally bulging, the way your cheeks bulge when you’re eating gobstoppers. There were labels on the doors saying things like Wands for the inexperienced, and Sleeping Potions, and Useful Disguises. Several battered old telescopes were hanging on the wall, and next to them was a huge golden clock – at least, I thought it must be a clock, even though it only had one hand and there were no hours marked on it.

  I was so busy staring that I didn’t see the two women in the room until one of them sniffed, and I jumped.

  The sniffy woman was very tall and so thin she could have hidden behind a lamp post, but the other one was small and round and old and comfortable. She smiled at me, and I almost cried because she did it EXACTLY the way I always wanted Great-aunt Acidity to smile – as if she really, REALLY cared about me and thought I was one of the nicest people ever.

  “Welcome to the Cloudy Towers Academy for Fairy Godmothers, Lily,” she said. “I’m Fairy Mary McBee and this is Miss Scritch.” There was a cough from the tall, thin woman – the sort of cough that means, “You’ve got something REALLY wrong.”

  Fairy Mary looked puzzled for a moment and then her face cleared. “Oh! Silly me! This USED to be the Cloudy Towers Academy for Fairy Godmothers. But we’re coming up to date. It’s now the Fairy Mary McBee Academy for… What did we decide on, Miss Scritch?”

  “Stargirls,” said Miss Scritch, with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

  Fairy Mary nodded. “Of course. Stargirls. How could I have forgotten? So, welcome to you, Lily! And I’m so sorry about your little dog, but he was being very naughty.”

  “What?” I said.

  It sounded rude, but I didn’t know what Fairy Mary was talking about until she pointed upwards – and there was Sweetypie, floating just below the ceiling and paddling his paws in a useless sort of way. He was looking very sorry for himself.

  “JEEPERS CREEPERS!” I said, and that didn’t sound very polite either, so I curtsied. Maybe it was a silly thing to do, but I’d never met anyone like Fairy Mary before. I didn’t look at the other woman. She reminded me too much of my great-aunt. “Please… PLEASE can you tell me… What am I doing here?”

  Fairy Mary laughed. “You don’t need to curtsy to me or to Miss Scritch. You’re here to learn how to be a Fairy Godmother—”

  Miss Scritch coughed again.

  “I mean, a Stargirl.” Fairy Mary beamed at me. “That’s why I sent you a Tingle!”

  “OH!” I rubbed my elbow thoughtfully. I’d heard of Fairy Godmothers, of course, but what did Fairy Mary mean by a Stargirl? I wondered if I ought to be scared, but there was something about her that made me feel the opposite. I felt safer than I did at home. Even Miss Scritch wasn’t exactly scary. More … unbending. And just as I found the right word for her, she gave me a little nod as if she knew what I was thinking.

  “Sensible child,” she said. “You think we’re mad. I’m not, but Fairy Mary is. She’s decided Fairy Godmothers are out of date, so she’s come up with the idea of training children to help people instead, and she’s going to call them Stargirls.” Miss Scritch looked sour. “If she can remember the name, that is.” She peered at me. “Do you WANT to be a Stargirl?”

  “Erm… ” I didn’t know what to say. “I don’t know. What would I have to do?” I looked up at Sweetypie. “Would I learn how to do things like that? That would be AMAZING!”

  “You’d learn how to sort things out for people. To make their lives better. Happier.” Miss Scritch didn’t sound as if she thought this was an especially good idea, but before I could ask anything else Fairy Mary interrupted.

  “Lily will make a wonderful Stargirl,” she said. “And as soon as Ava arrives, we’ll take the two of them next door to meet the others – and then we’ll be ready to begin!”

  “Begin?” I felt a bit anxious. Fairy Mary seemed like a lovely person, and I didn’t want to upset her, but I absolutely couldn’t stay. “I’m really sorry, but I’ve got to go. Great-aunt Acidity sent me out to buy chocolate biscuits and she’ll be FURIOUS if I’m not back before her tea gets cold. And I need to take Sweetypie with me, or she’ll explode. How do I get him down?”

  Chapter Four

  Fairy Mary gave me a reassuring smile. “You don’t need to worry about time, dear. The moment you came through the door, time stopped. Well, it stopped outside Cloudy Towers. Oops! I mean, the Academy. You could stay here for a week and your great-aunt’s tea would still be hot when you got back home. She’ll never notice you’ve been away. Not for a second.”

  “Oh,” I said doubtfully. It didn’t sound very likely, but Fairy Mary didn’t look like the kind of person to tell lies. “Is that… Is that magic, or something?”

  “Of course.” Fairy Mary patted my arm. “And if you don’t mind, we’ll leave your little dog where he is. He tried to bite Scrabster and I really can’t bear to have the poor old thing upset. He’s not been himself lately. We’ve been flying so low we’ve had a couple of bumps, and it does make him howl quite dreadfully.”

  I hadn’t noticed the old dog lying under Fairy Mary’s desk. When he heard his name he came out and licked my fingers. I scratched his head while I thought about what Fairy Mary had said.

  “Flying?” I suddenly remembered the strange cloudy castle floating past the window, the one Great-aunt Acidity had stared at. “FLYING? Are you telling me we’re in that cloud? The one with all the turrets?”

  “Of course we are.” It was Miss Scritch who answered. “That’s why it used to be called Cloudy Towers Academy. Very convenient, in many ways. It means we can travel wherever we want to.” She bent down to peer at me more closely, and the end of her long nose twitched. “Did you actually see the towers?”

  “Yes,” I said. “And my great-aunt did.”

  “Oh dear!” Miss Scritch looked at Fairy Mary. “That’s NOT good. Not good at all. We must try to fly higher as soon as we can.”

  Fairy Mary nodded. “Perhaps I should send Ava another Tingle.” She reached up and picked a leaf from one of the spiky-leaved plants. “This should do it—”

  And at that exact moment, the door burst open with a crash. A pretty girl with straight dark hair cam
e rushing in, tripped on the doormat and only saved herself from falling by clutching at my arm.

  “Oops,” she said. “Sorry! I’m always falling over things… WOW! Where on earth am I?” She stared round, saw Sweetypie floating in the air above her head, and began to laugh. “This is a dream, right? I’m dreaming!”

  Fairy Mary stepped forward. “This isn’t a dream, Ava, dear. And I’m very glad you’re here. I am Fairy Mary McBee and this is my deputy head, Miss Scritch. We’d like to welcome you to the Fairy Mary McBee Academy for—” she paused for the merest fraction of a second— “Stargirls. Shall we go and find the others?”

  Ava caught my eye as Fairy Mary led the way through a tall door behind her desk. “Do you believe any of this?” she whispered.

  “No,” I whispered back. “But I don’t care. It feels like an adventure, and I’ve never had one before.”

  “Me neither,” she said, and we followed Fairy Mary.

  Chapter Five

  The room we went into was really cosy. There was a roaring fire, several large sofas, lots of comfortable-looking armchairs, and the walls were covered with portraits of pink-cheeked old women. Three girls were sitting close together on the very edge of the sofa, and they looked… I couldn’t think of the word at first, and then it came to me. Stunned. That was it. Ava and I probably looked exactly the same. Another girl was wandering round the room and she seemed quite at home. She was wearing lopsided pink spectacles, and I liked the way she grinned cheerfully at us as we came in. I wasn’t quite so sure about the other two girls. They looked cross, and were slumped in armchairs with their feet on a low table. Neither of them bothered to say hello.