Clara the Chocolate Fairy

  I have a plan to make a mess

  And cause the fairies much distress.

  I’m going to take their charms away

  And make my dreams come true today!

  I’ll build a castle made of sweets,

  And ruin the fairies’ silly treats.

  I just don’t care how much they whine,

  Their cakes and candies will be mine!

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map

  Poem

  Chocolate Crisis

  Storeroom Surprise

  At the Candy Castle

  Tile Trouble

  A Sticky Situation!

  Chocolate Is Magical!

  Teaser

  Copyright

  “I’m so looking forward to this!” Rachel Walker told her best friend, Kirsty Tate, her voice brimming with excitement. The two girls were walking up one of the hills that overlooked Wetherbury. “I’ve never been to a candy factory before. I can’t wait to see inside Candy Land.”

  “Me, neither,” Kirsty agreed happily. “Wasn’t it nice of Aunt Helen to arrange a tour of the factory for my birthday?” Kirsty’s aunt worked in Candy Land’s cookie department.

  “Yes, and your birthday isn’t until tomorrow, so it’s almost like having an extra treat!” Rachel pointed out as they climbed higher up the hill. Ahead, they could see the factory and the big pink-and-white Candy Land sign over the wrought-iron gates. “Do you think we might get to try some treats while we’re on the tour?” Rachel asked eagerly.

  Kirsty grinned. “I hope so!” she replied. “I’m really looking forward to seeing the chocolate being made. My favorite kind is the Sticky Toffee Galore — it’s a yummy toffee covered with chocolate!” Then Kirsty’s smile faded. “Remember, though,” she went on, “some of the treats might not taste very good, since Jack Frost and his goblins have the Sugar and Spice Fairies’ magic charms.”

  Rachel nodded solemnly. Yesterday, right after she’d arrived to spend spring break with Kirsty, their old friend Honey the Candy Fairy had appeared to whisk the girls off to Fairyland. There they had met Honey’s helpers — the seven Sugar and Spice Fairies! They looked after all the delicious, mouth-watering treats in Fairyland and the human world.

  Rachel and Kirsty were very upset when they found out that Jack Frost and his goblins had stolen the Sugar and Spice Fairies’ magic charms. But they couldn’t believe it when they found out why Jack Frost needed the charms — he’d ordered his goblins to build him a castle made entirely of candy and treats!

  To make things worse, King Oberon and Queen Titania had explained to the girls that Treat Day was coming up very soon. On Treat Day, the king and queen gave each fairy in Fairyland a basket full of yummy treats to thank them for their hard work all year. But this year there wouldn’t be any treat baskets at all if the magic charms weren’t returned to the Sugar and Spice Fairies. Jack Frost had given the seven charms to his goblins to protect in the human world. Rachel and Kirsty had promised to help their fairy friends find them. Then treats everywhere would taste delicious again, and Treat Day wouldn’t be ruined for all the fairies.

  “It’s not just my birthday tomorrow,” Kirsty said. “It’s Treat Day in Fairyland, too! We have to find the missing magic charms before then, Rachel.”

  Rachel nodded. “Three down, four to go!” she said with a smile. “We’re going to find them all, Kirsty — I just know it!”

  “I wonder if we’ll see one of our fairy friends at Candy Land today?” Kirsty remarked. “Maybe Jack Frost and his goblins will be there, too.”

  “We’ll be ready for them!” Rachel replied. “Look, isn’t that Aunt Helen waiting for us under the Candy Land sign?”

  Aunt Helen waved as Rachel and Kirsty hurried toward the factory gates.

  “You’re right on time, girls,” she said with a smile. “Come with me! I’ll take you to the reception area where the rest of the tour group is waiting. Are you looking forward to seeing the factory?”

  “Oh, YES!” Kirsty and Rachel cried together. Aunt Helen laughed. She led the girls through the gates to a door with RECEPTION printed on it. Inside the office were several people waiting for the tour, including an older couple and some families with young kids.

  The first thing Kirsty noticed in the reception area was the wonderful, sweet, sugary smell! She breathed in deeply, and then smiled when she saw Rachel doing exactly the same thing.

  “Girls, I have to rush back to the cookie department,” Aunt Helen told them. “One of the guides, Matt, will show you around, and I’ll meet you in the cafeteria later for lunch.”

  “Thanks, Aunt Helen,” Kirsty replied.

  A few minutes after Aunt Helen left, a tall man wearing a white apron and hat bounded into the office.

  “Welcome to Candy Land!” he announced, beaming at everyone. “I’m Matt, your tour guide today. I’m going to explain how our fabulous, mouth-watering treats are made, and you’ll get to try some of them, too.”

  The girls exchanged delighted glances. Yum!

  “This way to the tasting room!” Matt announced, opening a door on the other side of the office. Everyone filed into a bright room that had walls painted with pink-and-white stripes. On a table in the middle of the room were sparkly pink-and-white gift boxes filled with delicious-looking chocolates.

  “Look, Sticky Toffee Galore!” Rachel murmured, pointing out one of the boxes to Kirsty.

  “Please help yourselves,” Matt told them. “Then we’ll go into the factory, and you can see exactly how your favorite chocolates are made.”

  Everyone gathered around the table. Kirsty selected a Sticky Toffee Galore and eagerly popped it into her mouth. But the bitterness of the chocolate made her gasp in disgust. It tasted terrible!

  Rachel had chosen Golden Crunch, a star-shaped chocolate filled with honeycomb. But, like Kirsty, she was also in for a shock when she tasted it.

  “This is awful!” Rachel muttered to Kirsty, trying to swallow the bitter chocolate as fast as possible. “It’s the worst chocolate I’ve ever had!”

  Kirsty glanced around the tasting room. The other tour members were looking unimpressed with the chocolates, too. The older couple was making faces at the taste, and one of the little kids burst into tears.

  “Gross chocolate, Mommy!” she wailed.

  Matt looked flustered. “Oh, I don’t know what’s wrong today!” he said apologetically. “The chocolate tasting is usually a highlight of the tour. Let’s move on.”

  “This is all because Jack Frost and his goblins have the Sugar and Spice Fairies’ charms!” Rachel whispered.

  Kirsty nodded in agreement as Matt ushered them out of the tasting room.

  “So, here we are in the Candy Land factory,” Matt announced. Everyone looked around with interest. The sugary smell was even stronger now, and Rachel and Kirsty could see lots of shiny silver machines making different treats and chocolates. They were operated by workers in spotless white aprons and hats like Matt’s.

  “This is where the chocolates are packaged,” Matt went on. He led the group over to a conveyor belt full of chocolates wrapped in brightly colored foil. A young woman was carefully packing them into gift boxes. “Meet Suzy,” Matt said with a grin. “She’s the fastest packer in the factory!”

  “Hello, everyone.” Suzy smiled as she popped the last chocolate into the gift box she was holding, closed it, and set it aside. She immediately began filling an empty box, without letting a single chocolate on the conveyor belt get past her!

  “See what I mean?” Matt said, and everyone laughed.

>   “The foil wrappers look pretty, but the chocolates will taste horrible, thanks to Jack Frost!” Kirsty murmured to Rachel.

  Rachel was about to reply when one of the wrappers moving toward them on the conveyor belt caught her eye.

  The wrapper was surrounded by a faint golden glow. As Rachel looked more closely, her heart skipped a beat.

  “Kirsty, that’s not a chocolate wrapper!” she whispered, pointing at the conveyor belt excitedly. “It’s Clara the Chocolate Fairy!”

  Surprised, Kirsty peered at the conveyor belt and saw the tiny fairy, wearing a pretty purple dress and cropped silver leggings. Clara was waving frantically at them.

  “Clara’s getting closer to where Suzy’s packing the gift boxes!” Kirsty said with a worried frown. “If she flies away now, Suzy will see her —”

  “And if she stays on the conveyor belt, Clara will end up in a box of chocolates!” Rachel added. “Oh, Kirsty, we have to help her.”

  “I’ll try to distract Suzy,” Kirsty decided. The rest of the group was gathered around, watching Suzy pack the chocolates. Kirsty hurried to join them.

  “Could you tell us what all the different flavors are, Suzy?” Kirsty asked.

  “Yes, of course,” Suzy replied. She turned away from the conveyor belt to glance at Kirsty. “We have raspberry ripple, strawberry and vanilla cream, caramel, peanut —”

  Clara fluttered up from the conveyor belt while Suzy wasn’t looking, her long blonde hair streaming behind her. She slipped inside Rachel’s bag.

  “Thank you, girls,” Clara gushed when Kirsty rejoined them. “I thought I was going to be packed

  inside a gift box! I’m here because Jack Frost and his goblins are somewhere in Candy Land — and they have my cocoa bean charm!”

  “Come on, you two,” Matt called to Rachel and Kirsty as the rest of the tour group moved on. “We’re going to look at a giant vat of liquid chocolate!”

  “We’ll try our best to get your charm back, Clara,” Kirsty promised. “Chocolate really tastes horrible without it!”

  Matt and the rest of the group were already gathered around the huge vat of swirling milk chocolate. Clara ducked out of sight as Kirsty and Rachel went to join them.

  “When the chocolate is liquid like this, it can be poured into different-shaped molds to set,” Matt was explaining. “And then —”

  Before Matt could finish, the chocolate suddenly began to flow over the sides of the vat! It splashed all over the floor, just missing Matt’s shoes.

  “Oh, no!” Matt exclaimed, waving for the tour group to move back. “I don’t know why everything’s going wrong today!” He jumped aside as more chocolate spilled onto the floor.

  “Could someone help fix this, please?” Matt called across the room to some other employees. Then he turned back to the tour group. “Let’s go, and I’ll show you our chocolate molds.”

  Matt escorted the group across the factory to look at the molds. There were lots of different shapes — hearts, stars, diamonds, and eggs — but Rachel and Kirsty could see that the molds were all cracked and bent out of shape.

  “I’m so sorry, everyone,” Matt muttered, looking very embarrassed.

  “Poor Matt,” Clara whispered to the girls as the guide quickly led them away again. “This isn’t his fault — it’s all because Jack Frost has my cocoa bean charm!”

  Kirsty glanced around curiously as Matt took them to another corner of the factory. There, she saw a huge silver machine squirting chocolate on rows and rows of sticky toffee bars.

  “The machine is making Sticky Toffee Galores!” Kirsty exclaimed, thrilled.

  “That’s right,” Matt said. “And everything seems to be running smoothly here, thank goodness!”

  Next to the machine, Rachel noticed a factory worker. He was wearing the same white apron and hat as the others, and he was eating a Sticky Toffee Galore very enthusiastically.

  “It looks like this batch of chocolates tastes okay,” Rachel said quietly to Kirsty. “Not like the one you had!”

  Matt was frowning at the worker. “You know you shouldn’t be eating on the factory floor!” he scolded. “It’s against the rules.”

  “I’m a new taste tester,” the worker mumbled through a mouthful of chocolate and toffee, turning away.

  As Matt began telling the group about the machine, Rachel watched the worker hurry over to a cart piled with chocolate. He rushed off with the trolley, but he was going much too fast. Suddenly, he tripped on the hem of his long apron and went head over heels! Rachel gasped as she saw a pair of big green feet sticking out from beneath the apron.

  “That worker’s a goblin!” Rachel whispered excitedly to Kirsty and Clara.

  “Then we have no time to waste!” declared Clara. “He must have my cocoa bean charm. Quickly, girls! Let me turn you into fairies before we lose him.”

  Their hearts pounding, Kirsty and Rachel slipped out of sight behind the big silver machine. A cloud of dazzling sparkles from Clara’s wand shrank the girls down to fairy-size! Fluttering their wings, the three friends zoomed up into the air.

  “There he goes!” Kirsty said, pointing at the goblin racing across the factory with the cart.

  “Stay up high so that no one spots us, girls,” Clara warned them.

  Rachel, Kirsty, and Clara darted across the factory, keeping the goblin in sight. They saw him hurry down a hallway, pushing the cart ahead of him, and stop by a large metal door marked STOREROOM.

  Clara and the girls watched as the goblin yanked the door open.

  “He’s going inside,” Rachel whispered.

  “We have to follow him,” said Clara urgently.

  The goblin shoved his cart through the open door and then let it close behind him. Rachel, Kirsty, and Clara managed to fly through just before the door banged shut. They perched on the door frame and looked around the storeroom.

  What an extraordinary sight! The storeroom was filled with all kinds of chocolates. There were piles of foil-wrapped chocolates on the floor, and empty boxes tossed into a corner. There were chocolates in different shapes — hearts, stars, and lots of others — and stacks of chocolate bars, too.

  And in the middle of the room, sitting on a heap of Sticky Toffee Galore and giggling with glee, was Jack Frost himself!

  “Give me the magic cocoa bean charm!” Jack Frost demanded, glaring at the goblin with the cart.

  Clara glanced at Rachel and Kirsty in dismay as Jack Frost snatched the charm from the goblin. Jack Frost hung it around his neck and held the charm up, so that it caught the light and sparkled with magic.

  “How are we going to get my charm back now?” Clara whispered, biting her lip anxiously. She looked so worried that Kirsty and Rachel knew they had to do something. Glancing at each other, they swooped down together toward Jack Frost.

  “Fairies!” yelled the goblin, pointing at them. Jack Frost scowled, hiding the cocoa bean charm around his neck with one icy hand.

  “What do you want?” he sneered.

  “You know, you have lots of chocolate here, and it’s greedy to keep it for yourself,” Kirsty began. “You’re causing trouble at Candy Land, too!”

  “Clara needs her magic charm so that things can get back to normal,” added Rachel.

  Jack Frost cackled loudly. “I don’t care about Candy Land, and I don’t care about silly fairies!” he said. “I need tons of chocolate for my Candy Castle!” He waved his wand to conjure a bolt of icy magic. Instantly, Jack Frost, his goblin, and all the chocolate in the storeroom vanished. Clara and the girls were alone in an empty room.

  “They’ve taken all the chocolate to the Candy Castle!” Clara gasped. “Let’s go, girls!”

  This time, it was Clara who waved her wand. Her fairy magic whisked all three of them off to Fairyland! A few moments later, they were fluttering above the chocolate waf
er drawbridge in front of Jack Frost’s Candy Castle. Luckily, they were small enough that the goblins couldn’t spot them from the ground!

  “The castle’s getting bigger!” Rachel exclaimed. “That’s why Jack Frost needs more and more treats.”

  Kirsty frowned. “See those holes in the cookie walls?” she asked. “Some of the colorful gumdrop decorations are missing, too.”

  Clara was looking around the castle gardens. “The chocolate statue of Jack Frost only has one hand, and some of Lisa the Lollipop Fairy’s lollipop flowers are missing!” she announced. “Only the lollipop sticks are left in the ground.”

  Clara, Rachel, and Kirsty flew along the drawbridge to the enormous chocolate door that led into the castle. Jack Frost stood in front of the door, yelling at a group of goblin builders. As Clara and the girls got closer, they could see that a big bite had been taken right out of the middle of the door!

  “You fools!” Jack Frost shouted furiously. “You’re supposed to be building my castle, not eating it!”

  Clara, Rachel, and Kirsty glanced at one another. They couldn’t help smiling. They all knew how greedy the goblins could be!

  “No more snacking on my sweet treats!” Jack Frost ordered, fixing the goblins with a cold stare. “I want my castle finished immediately!”

  As Jack Frost continued to yell, Kirsty noticed a goblin crouching in the shadow of the chocolate door. She could see that he was chewing on the strawberry laces that held up the chocolate wafer drawbridge. Kirsty nudged Rachel and Clara to warn them, and the three of them fluttered safely up into the air. Just then, Jack Frost spotted them and shook his fist.

  “Pesky fairies!” he roared. “You’ll never get the magic cocoa bean charm away from me!” As the drawbridge crashed into the milkshake moat with a loud splash, Jack Frost dashed inside the Candy Castle.