Maddie the Fun and Games Fairy Read online

  The fairies are planning a magical ball,

  With guests of honor and fun for all.

  They’re expecting a night full of laughter and cheer,

  But they’ll get a shock when my goblins appear!

  Adventures and treats will be things of the past,

  And I’ll beat those troublesome fairies at last.

  My iciest magic will blast through the room

  And the world will be plunged into grimness and gloom!

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map

  Poem

  Temper Tantrums

  A Miniature Surprise

  Goblin Games

  A Daring Plan

  Bag Swap

  Bickering, Boats, and Bubbles

  Teaser

  Also Available

  Copyright

  "I’ve never seen such beautiful toys!” gasped Rachel Walker, gazing around with wide eyes.

  “I can imagine the princes and princesses playing with them when they lived here long ago,” agreed her best friend, Kirsty Tate.

  The girls were standing in the royal playroom at the top of one of the Golden Palace’s towers, where they were staying for a Royal Sleepover Camp. The other kids were already kneeling down beside the toys, choosing what they wanted to play with. There was a model steam engine that ran along a track around the room, a large jar full of swirly glass marbles, and boxes filled with puzzles and wooden spinning tops. Pretty china dolls sat on low shelves beside plump teddy bears, and balls of every size and color rolled around their feet.

  "Oh, Rachel, look!” cried Kirsty.

  On a low table in one corner of the room stood an exact miniature copy of the Golden Palace. It had the same gleaming white stone walls and golden turrets. Tiny flags fluttered from the top of each tower.

  Rachel and Kirsty carefully opened the front wall to look inside. The rooms were exactly the same as those in the real palace, with thick carpets and plush furniture. There were dolls dressed in royal robes, plus maids and butlers, too.

  “This must be the princess,” said Rachel, picking up a tiny girl doll with flowing golden hair and a sparkling tiara.

  “She reminds me of Lizzie the Sweet Treats Fairy,” whispered Kirsty.

  The girls smiled at each other, thinking about their wonderful secret. They were good friends with the fairies, and often had magical adventures in Fairyland! Since they had arrived at the Golden Palace, they had been helping the Princess Fairies find their tiaras, which Jack Frost and his goblins had stolen.

  Suddenly, there was a shout from one of the other kids. When Rachel and Kirsty turned around, they saw Katie and Maya each holding on to one arm of a china doll.

  “This one’s mine!” Katie shouted.

  “Let go!” Maya shouted back. “I was playing with her first!”

  Nearby, Arthur and Victoria were squabbling over a game of marbles.

  An argument had broken out between the kids playing with a puzzle, and one boy was almost in tears because the older kids wouldn’t let him play with the train.

  Kirsty and Rachel exchanged a worried glance.

  “It’s all because Princess Maddie lost her magical tiara,” Kirsty whispered.

  The Princess Fairies needed their tiaras to make sure that everyone in the human and fairy worlds had a happy and magical time. Maddie was the Fun and Games Fairy. Without her tiara, no one could share well or even be a good teammate when they played games.

  Jack Frost had taken the tiaras into the human world, but Queen Titania had cast a spell so that they would end up in the Golden Palace, where Kirsty and Rachel could help find them. So far, they had tracked down five of the tiaras.

  “We need to find Maddie’s tiara quickly,” said Kirsty, looking around the playroom at the grumpy, arguing kids.

  “All we can do is keep our eyes open for clues,” said Rachel. “We have to wait for the magic to find us! Come on, let’s try one of these old-fashioned games.”

  Kirsty picked up a strangely shaped wooden toy. It looked like a cup with a ball attached to it by a string. The girls soon realized that they had to try to catch the ball in the cup.

  “Let’s take turns,” said Rachel. “I’ll go first.”

  Suddenly, Kirsty felt her forehead crease into a frown.

  “Why should you go first?” she asked. “I chose the game.”

  Rachel didn’t reply, but she frowned as well. She swung the ball and tried to catch it in the cup, but missed completely.

  “That was your fault,” she snapped. “You distracted me!”

  “I should have gone first,” said Kirsty with a pout. “It’s not fair!”

  Suddenly, Rachel dropped the toy and the girls stared at each other, horrified.

  “We never argue!” said Kirsty, her voice trembling a little. “What’s wrong?”

  “It must be because of the missing tiara,” said Rachel. “Even we can’t play well together!”

  “I’m sorry,” said Kirsty. “I didn’t mean to argue with you.”

  “I didn’t, either,” said Rachel. “I’m sorry, too.”

  Just then, Kirsty noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

  “Rachel, look — there’s a light inside the little palace!” she exclaimed. “What could it be?”

  The girls knelt down beside the model of the palace. Sure enough, a twinkling light was moving around inside. They put their eyes up to the tiny windows, trying to follow the light.

  “It’s in the library!” murmured Rachel in a low voice. “No, wait, it’s moving up the stairs.”

  “I can see it!” whispered Kirsty. “It’s going through the portrait gallery . . . and up the stairs again!”

  Rachel peeked into the model through a different window.

  “It’s in the playroom!” she said. “It’s so bright that I can hardly look at it!”

  The light stopped beside a tiny model rocking horse. Then it faded slightly, and the girls saw Maddie the Fun and Games Fairy sitting on the rocking horse and waving at them!

  “Hello, girls!” she said in her cheery voice. “I’ve come to help you look for my tiara — oh!”

  She cried out as the rocking horse gave a sudden lurch. She tumbled off and landed on the floor with a bump.

  “Ouch!” she said, picking herself up and smoothing out her shorts and vest. “That’s what happens without my magical tiara — playtime stops being fun.”

  “We know,” whispered Rachel. “Playing with all these toys is supposed to be a treat, but everyone is just arguing.”

  Just then the playroom door opened and two palace directors, Louis and Caroline, walked in, smiling. But the smiles left their faces as they looked around the room.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Louis. “Why is everyone arguing?”

  The other kids let go of the toys and looked embarrassed. Nobody replied.

  “I hope that you’ll play better during today’s activity,” said Caroline. “It’s a Golden Palace field day, and the events will be games that princes and princesses used to play many years ago!”

  The children gave oohs and ahhs of excitement, but Rachel and Kirsty exchanged a worried look.

  "Without Maddie’s tiara, a day of playing games could be a disaster,” said Kirsty under her breath.

  The other kids put away the toys they had played with and left the nursery. Rachel and Kirsty lingered behind until they were alone in the room. Then they quickly opened the front of the little palace and Maddie flew into th
e hood of Kirsty’s sweater. Just in time! Caroline poked her head around the door.

  “Come on, girls,” she said with a smile. “The others are already getting changed!”

  A short while later, everyone was outside in the palace gardens in their sportswear. Maddie was still hiding in Kirsty’s hood. They all gathered around Louis and Caroline, who were standing beside a large gold sports bag with fancy piping around the edges.

  “OK, everyone,” said Louis. “Please divide into two teams.”

  The kids formed two groups, laughing excitedly and looking forward to the games. Louis told them that the teams would be called the Unicorns and the Lions.

  “Now we’ll pick a captain for each team,” said Caroline. “I choose Arthur to be captain of the Lion team.”

  “And Kirsty will be captain of the Unicorn team,” Louis added.

  Caroline handed out beautiful satin overshirts for the teams to wear. “These are like the tunics that knights used to wear over their armor,” she said. The Unicorns had royal blue and the Lions had red.

  Louis picked up his gold sports bag. “I have a wonderful picnic in here for later on,” he said. “So let’s get started!”

  The directors led the way toward the croquet lawn on the far side of the palace gardens.

  “Our first event is a croquet match,” Caroline said. “The princes and princesses who stayed here would have played this game all the time.”

  Rachel and Kirsty saw that the grass was dotted with croquet hoops. There were three boys in the middle of the croquet lawn, wearing green warm-up suits and green baseball caps pulled down over their faces.

  “Who are you?” asked Arthur. “You can’t play here.”

  The biggest boy clutched his sports bag to his chest as if it were precious. It looked very much like Louis’s gold bag.

  “We’re not going anywhere," he said in a gruff voice.

  The other kids looked very frustrated.

  “Go away,” said Katie.

  “You’re not welcome here,” said Victoria.

  “I’m surprised at all of you,” said Caroline. “Part of playing together is not letting anyone feel left out.”

  The kids looked kind of ashamed, but they didn’t apologize. Rachel and Kirsty guessed that the missing tiara was turning them into bad sports.

  “Are you visiting the Golden Palace for the day?” Caroline asked the boys.

  The boys glanced at one another. One of them nodded.

  “Then we’d like to invite you to join our field day as a third team,” said Caroline.

  The boys didn’t look very excited, but Caroline handed out the croquet mallets and balls. Louis blew his whistle, and the game began!

  They hadn’t been playing for very long when Arthur gave an angry yell.

  “Cheater!” he shouted.

  “Oh, no,” said Rachel.

  “It’s starting,” said Maddie. “The game’s going all wrong.”

  The new boys were hitting the hoops with their mallets and kicking the ball with their big feet.

  “Stop it!” Victoria shouted.

  “Why are those boys being so terrible?” asked Rachel with a frown. “It’s almost as if —"

  She paused as one of the boys laughed and tossed his baseball hat into the air. For a moment, they saw his face. It was green!

  "Goblins!” Kirsty exclaimed in alarm.

  The goblins were scampering around the croquet lawn with glee, the other kids were shouting and complaining, and Louis and Caroline were trying to calm everyone down. It was chaos!

  “We won!” the biggest goblin chanted as he danced around in a circle. “We won!”

  He put down his sports bag and did cartwheels all around the big lawn.

  “Nobody has won,” said Caroline in an exasperated voice. “We should move on to the next event.”

  The biggest goblin stopped doing cartwheels and staggered dizzily toward his gold sports bag.

  “Not fair!” he grumbled.

  Louis picked up his gold bag. “I think we should do a hoop-and-stick race around the lake now,” he said. “It should be lots of fun, so there better not be any more arguing!”

  As Louis and Caroline led the way to the lake, they explained that a long time ago, kids used to play with hoops and sticks all the time.

  “You have to keep the hoop rolling along the ground by using the stick,” said Caroline. “The path goes all the way around the lake. The first team to get all its players around the lake is the winner.”

  There weren’t enough hoops and sticks for all the kids, so Rachel and Kirsty offered to sit the event out. Louis and Caroline agreed, and Rachel winked at Kirsty.

  “This might give us a chance to find Maddie’s tiara,” she whispered.

  “I hope so!” Kirsty replied.

  Louis put his bag down and showed the kids how to keep the hoop moving along by tapping it gently with the stick. Because they weren’t taking a turn, the girls stepped aside.

  As they looked around, they noticed that two of the goblins seemed to be having an argument. The biggest goblin was standing almost nose-to-nose with a short freckled goblin, frowning and bickering. The freckled goblin pointed to the bag in the arms of the biggest goblin. Then he jabbed his long green finger toward the bag that Louis had just put down.

  “The goblins seem really worried about the bags,” said Kirsty thoughtfully. “I wonder if they mixed up their bag with Louis’s bag. They look almost exactly the same.”

  “But why would they be so angry about that?” Rachel wondered aloud. “Unless there was something inside that they didn’t want Louis to see . . .”

  “Like my tiara!” exclaimed Maddie.

  The girls stared at each other in alarm.

  Of course! The goblins must have hidden the tiara in their sports bag, and the biggest goblin accidentally picked up Louis’s bag instead!

  Just then, Louis blew his whistle and the race began. One of the goblins was running along eagerly among the kids, spinning his hoop along with his stick. But the biggest goblin and the freckled goblin started to sneak toward Louis’s bag.

  “Quick!” exclaimed Rachel urgently. “We have to reach that bag before the goblins do!”

  “And before Louis and Caroline unzip the bag and find the tiara inside,” Kirsty added. “They’d probably take it to the palace’s lost and found, or the police, and we’d never be able to get it back.”

  “What are we going to do?” asked Maddie, her big eyes brimming with tears of concern.

  The girls cast anxious glances at the goblins, who were getting closer and closer to the bag.

  “I have an idea,” said Kirsty. “Let’s ask Caroline if we can set up for the picnic, so she’ll give us the bag. We can get the tiara back and then tell her that the bags got switched.”

  As the hoop race wound around the lake, Rachel and Kirsty hurried up to the palace director.

  “Caroline, could we help set up the picnic?” Rachel asked.

  “Of course,” said Caroline, her eyes fixed on the race. “Just as soon as our field day is over.”

  The girls looked at each other in panic. By then it would be too late!

  The two goblins were now standing next to Louis’s bag. The biggest goblin stretched out his hand, ready to swap the bags.

  “I can’t watch,” said Rachel, closing her eyes.

  But at that moment, Caroline looked around and noticed the goblins.

  “Hold it!” she said. “You’re not allowed to start the picnic until the field day events are over. Be patient, boys!”

  Rachel, Kirsty, and Maddie let out long sighs of relief. That was close!

  "We have to think of a way to reach that bag without the goblins or Caroline stopping us,” said Kirsty.


  “I have a plan,” said Rachel eagerly. “Caroline is busy watching the race. Maddie, could you turn us into fairies? We could distract the goblins while you fly to the bag and take the tiara.”

  “That’s a great plan!” said Maddie.

  They darted behind a bush and Maddie waved her wand. There was a puff of glittering fairy dust, and the girls felt themselves shrinking to fairy-size. Delicate wings appeared on their backs, and they fluttered them in delight.

  “I’ll distract the third goblin,” said Kirsty.

  She zoomed after the goblin who was participating in the hoop race. He was rolling his hoop near the edge of the lake, so Kirsty flew close to the water, weaving her way through the reeds and the trailing branches of the weeping willows that lined the lake. Luckily, the other kids were not close by, so it was easy to keep out of sight.

  As the goblin’s hoop rolled close to the reeds, Kirsty darted out and flicked it away, making sure that the goblin saw her. He yelled with rage.

  “You pesky fairy! Leave my hoop alone!”

  Kirsty tapped the hoop again, sending it rolling toward the maze where the girls had had their adventure with Princess Hope the Happiness Fairy. Kirsty flew next to the hoop, keeping it rolling swiftly along.

  “You come back here now!” demanded the goblin, chasing after her.

  "That’s right, follow me as fast as you can,” said Kirsty under her breath. “It’s all up to Rachel and Maddie now!”

  Rachel had been thinking hard about how to distract the other two goblins.

  “When Kirsty and I were in the royal playroom, we were playing with a cup-and-ball game,” she told Maddie. “Maybe if you could use your magic to make something like that, it would take the goblins’ minds off the bags.”

  She described the game to Maddie, who nodded and waved her wand. At once, two sets of the cup-and-ball game appeared on the grass between the goblins and the bag.