Claudia the Accessories Fairy Read online

  I’m the king of designer fashion,

  Looking stylish is my passion.

  Ice Blue’s the name of my fashion line,

  The designs are fabulous and they’re all mine!

  Some people think my clothes are odd,

  But I will get the fashion world’s nod.

  Fashion Fairy magic will make my dream come true —

  Soon everyone will wear Ice Blue!

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map

  Poem

  A Hole Lot of Trouble

  Magic Sparkles

  The Search Begins

  Follow That Goblin!

  True Blue, Through and Through!

  Finishing Touches

  Teaser

  Also Available

  Copyright

  “Here we are,” Mr. Walker said, parking the car at Tippington Fountains Shopping Center. He glanced over to where his daughter, Rachel, and her best friend, Kirsty Tate, were sitting in the backseat. “I know you girls were here yesterday, but I need to pick up a shirt. I’ll be as quick as I can.”

  “Don’t worry, Dad,” Rachel said, exchanging a secret smile with Kirsty as they got out of the car. “We don’t mind at all. Take as long as you need!”

  It was the second day of school vacation, and Kirsty was staying with Rachel’s family. Whenever the two friends got together, magical things always seemed to happen — and they certainly had yesterday! Rachel’s mom had taken the girls to the new mall to be part of the opening-day celebration. There were lots of free activities and a whole parade with colorful floats. It had been really fun and exciting . . . especially when the girls found themselves whisked off to Fairyland and thrown into an exciting, brand-new fairy adventure. Hooray!

  “I hope we meet another fairy today,” Kirsty whispered eagerly to Rachel, as they made their way through the parking lot to the elevators.

  “Oh, me too,” Rachel replied. “Yesterday was amazing. But you know what Queen Titania always says: We can’t go looking for magic. We have to wait for it to come to us.” She grinned. “I just hope it finds us again soon!”

  The three of them went up in the elevator. “First floor,” a voice from the speaker announced after a few moments. “Welcome to Tippington Fountains Shopping Center!”

  The doors opened to reveal the shopping mall before them.

  The store doors sparkled with shiny chrome handles, glass elevators rose smoothly between floors, and a large central fountain sprayed in the middle of a wide blue pool, with smaller fountains bubbling all around it. Rachel smiled as she and Kirsty gazed at the fountain display.

  That was the spot where they’d seen Phoebe the Fashion Fairy yesterday — and where their new fairy adventure had begun.

  Of course, they’d met Phoebe before — they’d had a very exciting adventure with her when they’d helped all the Party Fairies on a secret mission. But Kirsty and Rachel hadn’t realized that Phoebe had a whole team of Fashion Fairies who assisted her throughout the fairy kingdom and in the human world.

  Yesterday, Phoebe had invited the girls to Fairyland to see the special fairy fashion show they were putting on. And that was when everything had gone wrong. . . .

  Kirsty shuddered as she remembered how Jack Frost and his goblins had appeared at the show uninvited. They then proceeded to mess up the whole thing! Jack Frost had strutted in wearing an outfit from his own clothing label, Ice Blue, and he used a bolt of icy magic to steal seven magical objects that belonged to the Fashion Fairies. Kirsty and Rachel immediately returned to the human world and helped Miranda the Beauty Fairy rescue her magic lipstick, a very special lipstick that made sure everyone had a beautiful, natural smile. But there were still six magical objects left to find.

  “What do you think of this hat, girls?” Mr. Walker asked, pulling Kirsty from her thoughts. She and Rachel turned to see that he’d stopped at Winter Woolies and was holding up a black ski hat.

  “It looks like what I need to keep my head warm now that the weather’s colder.”

  “I like it,” Rachel said. “Why don’t you try it on?”

  Mr. Walker pulled the hat onto his head. To their surprise, his head went right through the top of it.

  “Oh!” he cried, startled. “This wasn’t made very well.” He took the hat off to reveal a giant hole in the wool knitting. “How strange,” he said. “I didn’t notice that before.”

  The lady working in the booth looked surprised, too. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “There must have been a loose thread in that one. Please try another.”

  But when Mr. Walker tried a second hat on — a navy blue one, this time — the same thing happened again. And he wasn’t the only person who was having trouble. A nearby woman had just bought a thick red scarf. But when she wrapped it around her neck, the wool unravelled and left long strands dangling at each end!

  “I don’t understand,” the lady in the booth said. She turned pink and looked flustered. “I’m so sorry. There must be a bad batch. Let me find you another scarf.”

  Rachel and Kirsty exchanged a look. Could this have something to do with the Fashion Fairies’ missing magical objects?

  Then Kirsty glanced down at her watch and gasped. “Look, Rachel,” she whispered, pointing. “The hands on my watch are moving backward. Something very weird is going on!”

  The girls stared at Kirsty’s watch as the second hand ticked the wrong way around the face. That was weird. “It definitely feels like there’s magic in the air,” Rachel whispered. “Magic that isn’t working very well. We need to investigate!”

  Rachel went over to her dad, who was trying on a third hat. “Dad, can Kirsty and I go off on our own for a little while?” she asked.

  “Of course,” Mr. Walker said, just as the hat ripped apart at the seam. “I’m not having much luck with hats today, that’s for sure,” he grumbled, taking it off again. He glanced up at a large clock on the wall of the shopping center. “Let’s meet back here in an hour.”

  The girls agreed and waved good-bye, keeping an eye out for other strange events as they walked away.

  “We could start looking for things to use in our outfits for the design competition while we’re here,” Kirsty suggested.

  “Good idea,” Rachel said. “Then we can work on them this afternoon, so we’ll be ready for tomorrow.”

  At the grand opening of the mall the day before, Jessica Jarvis, a famous model, had announced a special competition. Kids could design and make their own outfits! They needed to show the clothes they’d created to the judges tomorrow afternoon. Then the winning designers would get to wear the outfits in a charity fashion show at the end of the week.

  “I think I’ll make something rainbow-colored and sparkly,” Rachel said thoughtfully. “It’ll remind me of our very first magical adventure with the Rainbow Fairies — and all the wonderful fairy friends we’ve made since then.”

  “That sounds great,” Kirsty said. “I might make a dress out of flowy scarves sewn together. Something bright and patterned would be nice.”

  “Let’s look in here,” Rachel suggested, pointing to a nearby shop named Finishing Touch.

  The friends walked toward the shop just as two teenage girls came out. One had a pretty new bag on her shoulder and the other was fastening a new necklace around her neck. But just then, the strap on the first girl’s bag broke, sending it tumbling to the ground. And seconds later, the other girl’s necklace snapped. Shiny purple beads cascaded down and scattered everywhere!

  “Oh, no!” th
e girls both cried. “How did that happen?”

  Kirsty and Rachel ran to help pick up the fallen beads, but it was no use. The necklace was beyond repair.

  “Come on, let’s get a refund,” one of the teenagers said as they went back into the shop. “Brand-new accessories shouldn’t just fall apart like that!”

  Rachel and Kirsty followed them inside, and Kirsty headed for a rack of scarves. To her disappointment, the only scarves in stock seemed to be blue. There was nothing at all like the bright patterns she’d hoped to find.

  Rachel was also finding the store to be a letdown. The jewelry seemed to have lost its sparkle, and some pieces had missing stones or broken clasps. None of it was right for the outfit she had in mind for the competition.

  “This is really weird,” she heard the shop assistant saying in confusion. “All our accessories looked beautiful when I put them out this morning. But somehow they’ve become dull or broken since then.”

  Rachel headed toward a display of necklaces. Surely there would be some sparkly jewelry there, right? She sped up as she spotted something glinting from between the beads. Then, as she reached for the necklaces, she almost jumped out of her skin. The sparkly jewel she thought she’d seen wasn’t a jewel at all. In fact, it had just flown right off the necklace and into the air!

  Rachel gasped in delight as she realized what she was seeing. A fairy!

  “Hello!” said the fairy, smiling at Rachel. She was wearing a sparkly purple skirt, a pink top, and a blue cardigan. Elegant bangles and a headband with a big flower topped off the outfit. Rachel recognized her as Claudia the Accessories Fairy, one of the seven Fashion Fairies she and Kirsty had met the day before.

  “Hello,” Rachel replied, smiling back. She glanced around to find Kirsty, who was still looking through the rack of blue scarves.

  “Kirsty!” she whispered. “Over here!”

  Kirsty’s eyes lit up when she saw Claudia hovering in midair, a bright spark of light in the gloomy shop. She hurried over immediately.

  “Hi,” she whispered. “Claudia, right? Nice to see you again!”

  “Nice to see you, too,” Claudia said, her wings glittering as they fluttered.

  “I really need your help, girls. Since Jack Frost took my necklace, its magic has switched to reverse. Instead of making sure that fashion accessories look perfectly pretty, the magic is working the other way. Now accessories look horrible! Even worse, they keep breaking and falling apart!”

  “So that’s why all those hats were torn,” Rachel figured out. “And why the teenagers’ bag and necklace broke earlier, too.”

  “And that must be why my watch seems to be telling time backward,” Kirsty realized. “What a mess! We’ll definitely help you look for your necklace, Claudia.”

  “Thank you.” The little fairy beamed and flew up to balance on a rack of necklaces. “Well, I’ve looked all over this store and it isn’t here. And unfortunately, until it’s back with me where it belongs, everyone’s accessories will break or just look awful. We have to keep looking!”

  Just then, the three of them heard a loud voice coming from outside the shop.

  “Come to the Ice Blue booth for the last word in fashion!” the voice boasted.

  Kirsty, Rachel, and Claudia stiffened at the words. Ice Blue? That was the label Jack Frost had given to his clothing line. It couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?

  They rushed out of the store to see what was going on.

  There was Jack Frost himself, shouting into a megaphone and dressed from head to toe in a silvery-blue outfit. His jacket had spikes on the shoulders and elbows, and there was a frosty pattern on his pants. He was standing in front of a booth decorated with blue banners and piled high with lots of different blue accessories.

  “Wow — he’s a fast worker,” Kirsty commented. “That booth wasn’t even there when we came into the store a few minutes ago.”

  “He must have used magic to help set it up,” Claudia whispered from where she was hiding in Rachel’s pocket. “So maybe he has my magic necklace — let’s go and see!”

  The girls left the store with Claudia peeking out of Rachel’s pocket. There was already a crowd around Jack Frost’s booth, rummaging through the hats, scarves, key rings, bags, purses, and jewelry on sale there. All of the products had the same logo — a bright blue silhouette of Jack Frost, showing off his big pointy nose and spiky beard.

  “No need to push, there’s plenty for everyone!” called one of the booth assistants. Kirsty nudged Rachel as she noticed that the assistants had green skin and long noses. They were goblins! All of them wore matching T-shirts with the same Ice Blue logo. They kept very busy, dealing with lots of customers at once.

  Being careful not to be noticed by Jack Frost or the goblins, the girls squeezed through the crowd and pretended they were customers, too. They searched through the boxes of necklaces hoping to spot a magical shimmer, which would mean they had found Claudia’s necklace.

  “You have very nice blue jeans,” one of the goblins said, casting a sly look at Rachel from under his Ice Blue baseball cap. “Ice Blue is the place to come if you’re looking for the very best blue accessories, you know.”

  “It’s too bad about your nasty red skirt and shirt, though, miss,” a second goblin said rudely to Kirsty. “We don’t have anything to go with red. Yuck!”

  Kirsty was annoyed by the goblin’s insult, but she knew she shouldn’t draw attention to herself by arguing. Biting her tongue, she turned away and looked at a different part of the booth.

  “Girls, let’s go,” Claudia whispered from Rachel’s pocket. “I don’t think the necklace is here, after all.”

  Rachel and Kirsty struggled to get out of the crowd, which was now even bigger than before. Once they were a safe distance away, Rachel asked, “Why don’t you think the necklace was in the Ice Blue booth, Claudia? Jack Frost and his goblins were definitely working there.”

  “I know, but didn’t you hear what the goblin said?” Claudia asked. “They didn’t have anything to match Kirsty’s top. My necklace should make sure that there are always matching accessories nearby, even if the rest of its magic isn’t working properly.” She gave a little sigh of frustration. “That means the necklace must be somewhere else. . . . But where?”

  As the girls discussed where to look next, Rachel noticed a new goblin arrive at the booth. He was carrying boxes of Ice Blue merchandise.

  “Coming through, coming through,” he shouted, shoving past the customers. “More amazing accessories coming through!”

  One of the goblins in the booth looked relieved to see the newcomer. “About time,” he snapped. “What took you so long? We already sold out of baseball hats. Here, take this empty box away with you.”

  “I wonder where they’re getting all those accessories from,” Rachel said to the others. “They must be using magic to make them so quickly. What do you think, Claudia?”

  Claudia brightened. “You’re right,” she said. “They’re using magic from my necklace, I bet!”

  “Let’s follow the goblin and see where he goes,” Kirsty suggested. “If we can find out where the Ice Blue accessories are coming from, we might find your necklace, too.”

  “Good thinking,” Claudia agreed. “But we can’t let the goblins see us or they’ll get suspicious. I’ll turn you both into fairies. Then it will be easier for us all to stay out of sight. Let’s find a quiet spot, so I can work some magic.”

  The girls didn’t need to be told twice. They both loved being fairies — nothing beat fluttering your wings and taking off into the air!

  Kirsty and Rachel quickly huddled behind a large Ice Blue display. Claudia waved her wand and sent a stream of purple sparkles into the air. The magic sparkles swirled around the girls and, in the blink of an eye, they felt themselves shrinking smalle
r and smaller, until they were the same size as Claudia. They were fairies again! The girls joyfully fluttered their shimmering wings and soared into the air, chasing the goblin with the empty cardboard box.

  The goblin exited the mall and turned into a deserted alley. The three friends quietly followed him through the back door of a building. They hid in a high, dark corner as he pressed a button on the wall to call the elevator. Then they slipped into the elevator behind him, being careful not to be seen.

  The goblin pressed a button marked “B,” and the elevator plunged downward. “Basement,” a robotic voice announced once the elevator had stopped moving. The doors jerked apart, and the goblin walked out.

  Kirsty, Rachel, and Claudia flew after him and found themselves in a large workshop full of goblins busily working at noisy machines. The fairies flitted up to a corner filled with cobwebs. There, they perched on a ceiling beam to get a better view of the room.

  “Wow — they set up a whole factory to make the Ice Blue accessories,” Kirsty said under her breath. She stared at the rows of goblins using sewing machines, plastic molds, scissors, and glue guns. Elsewhere, there were giant rolls of blue fabric and boxes of finished products stacked in tall towers.

  “Jack Frost must have used his ice magic to make all this equipment,” Claudia said, looking dazed. “He really is serious about his fashion company, isn’t he? He obviously wants everyone to look just like him.”

  Rachel let out a little cry of excitement as she noticed something. “Look!” she whispered. “The goblin in charge — he’s wearing your magic necklace, Claudia!”