Giselle the Christmas Ballet Fairy

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map

  Poem

  The Magic Bottle

  Best Friends Forever

  Dancing Dream

  A Fairy and a Frosty Problem

  Goblins in the Snow

  Bottle Battle

  The Ballet Bag

  A Salad Thief

  A Principal Problem

  A Trip to Fairyland

  Forget-me-not Glade

  A Squabble and a Dance

  The Silver Ballet Shoes

  Backstage at the Ballet

  Goblins and Guards

  Frostyev Onstage

  An Unexpected Interview

  Everyone’s Perfect Christmas

  Teaser

  Copyright

  This ballet fairy know-it-all

  Is in for a surprise.

  When she sees Frostyev on stage,

  She won’t believe her eyes.

  I’m the greatest! I’m the best!

  But just to be quite certain,

  I’ll make all Christmas ballets fail

  Before the final curtain!

  Find the hidden letters in the stars throughout

  this book. Unscramble all 9 letters to spell a

  special ballet word!

  Best Friends Forever

  A Dancing Dream

  A Fairy and a Frosty Problem

  Goblins in the Snow

  Bottle Battle

  “It’s Christmas Eve,” said Rachel Walker, gazing out of her bedroom window at the snowy sky. “Santa Claus and his elves are packing the sleigh full of toys, the reindeer are getting ready for their journey … ”

  “… And we are going to have the most amazing day ever,” finished her best friend, Kirsty Tate.

  Rachel turned and smiled at her. The one thing that made Christmas truly perfect was being able to share it with each other. This year was especially exciting because the girls had received a wonderful early Christmas present. Months ago, they had entered a competition called Best Friends Forever. They had had to draw a picture of each other and write one hundred words about what made their best friend special. They had forgotten all about the competition until a typed white envelope arrived, addressed to them both:

  Rachel and Kirsty had gotten up early so that they would have plenty of time to pack their bags and decide what to wear. They were taking their ballet outfits, just in case they got the chance to dance. When they had finished breakfast, Mr. Walker drove them to the dancing school.

  The Castle Springs Ballet School was very famous, and the building was extremely old and elegant. Kirsty and Rachel gazed up at its grand entrance in awe.

  “Have a great day,” said Mr. Walker. “I’ll drop your mom off later, in plenty of time for the ballet.”

  The girls ran up the stone steps hand-in-hand. The door was open, and a huge hallway with black-and-white tiles stretched out in front of them. An enormous chandelier hung from the high ceiling, twinkling brightly, and a wide staircase curved up to the next floor.

  “Oh my goodness,” said Kirsty. “I’ve got butterflies in my stomach.”

  “Me, too, a little bit,” said Rachel with a nervous smile. “It’s even more magnificent than I imagined.”

  Just then, a tall, willowy lady hurried toward them. She held out her arms and gave the girls a warm hug. Her silver hair was tied back in a loose ponytail, and her blue eyes sparkled.

  “You must be Rachel and Kirsty,” she said. “We’ve been looking forward to your visit very much. Congratulations on winning the prize. Friendship means a great deal to us here at Castle Springs. I am the director of the school, and my name is Sophia.”

  “We’re really excited,” said Kirsty.

  “And a bit nervous!” added Rachel.

  “Perhaps our prima ballerina can help calm your nerves,” said Sophia, waving her arm toward the stairs.

  A graceful, beautiful young woman was coming down the stairs, wearing a leotard and warm-up shorts. Her dark-brown hair was swept back under a headband, and she smiled when she saw the girls.

  “Hello, my name is Penny,” she said.

  Rachel and Kirsty felt very excited. They knew that the prima ballerina was the best and most important dancer in the company.

  “It’s great to meet you,” said Kirsty. “We can’t wait to see you dance.”

  “Well, I’m looking forward to seeing you both dance,” said Penny. “I’ve arranged for you to attend the corps de ballet rehearsal class.”

  The girls were thrilled. The corps de ballet was the group of backing dancers in the ballet company. Lots of famous ballerinas had started their dancing careers in the corps de ballet!

  A short time later, Rachel and Kirsty were standing in a practice room with the members of the corps de ballet, who were chatting quietly. Penny was sitting on a wooden chair at the side of the room. The ballet teacher clapped her hands together and everyone fell silent.

  “Good morning, everyone,” she said, “and a special welcome to our guests, Rachel and Kirsty. I would like to start with a little introduction to the—”

  She broke off to cough into her handkerchief.

  “I’m sorry,” she said with a croak in her voice. “As I was saying, I would like to give the girls a little introduction to the corps de ballet. Most great ballerinas started out in the corps. The dancers here are intelligent, hard-working, patient, and disciplined. They share a group focus and they know how to work as a team.”

  She broke off to cough again, and Penny stood up.

  “The corps is the heart of the company,” she said. “If just one person forgets which arm to lift or which leg to stand on, it will spoil the whole scene. Together, these dancers can make or break a performance.”

  The ballet teacher smiled at her.

  “So, without further ado, let’s start our warm-up,” she said. “First position, please. And, demi-plié.”

  Rachel and Kirsty followed the instructions as well as they could.

  There were a few steps and positions that they didn’t know, but they were surprised by how many they recognized. The hardest part was keeping up—the professional dancers were very fast.

  “I feel as if my dancing is getting better just from watching them,” Rachel whispered to her best friend.

  “Me, too,” Kirsty replied. “Every single one of them is amazing!”

  One of the dancers overheard and smiled at them.

  “Just wait until you see Penny dance,” she said. “It’s like magic.”

  The girls smiled at each other. After all, they knew more about magic than most people! They had made friends with many fairies, and they loved sharing the secret of their exciting adventures.

  After the warm-up, the class really began. Rachel and Kirsty tried to keep up, but the speed and variety of the moves was incredible. They couldn’t manage all the jumps, and they hadn’t expected the amount of acting the corps had to do. But it was very exciting to feel that, for a short while, they were swans, dancing under a magical spell.

  At last, the ballet teacher called a break.

  “Take five minutes and have some water,” she said in a rasping voice.

  Rachel and Kirsty were very glad to have a chance to rest. They went back to the changing room to grab their water bottles, chatting about all the things they had been doing.

  “You must have to be able to learn really fast to be in the corps,” said Kirsty. “There’s so much to remember!”

  “I’ll be watching all the dancers at the performance tonight, just as much as the main ballerina,” said Rachel, pushing open the changing room door.

  “Do you hear violins?” asked Kirsty s
uddenly.

  Rachel listened and heard the faint sound of music.

  “Do you think the class has started again already?” she asked.

  Kirsty shook her head. “It sounds almost as if it’s coming from your bag,” she said.

  “That’s not possible,” said Rachel, unzipping her bag to get her water. “Oh!”

  As soon as her bag was open, the girls heard a loud burst of vibrant string music, and then an exquisite fairy came pirouetting out toward them. Another fairy adventure was about to begin!

  For a moment, Rachel and Kirsty just stared at the little fairy with their mouths open. Even for a fairy, she was so sparkly and beautiful that she almost took their breath away. She was wearing a glimmering pink leotard with a tutu, and her satin ballet shoes were pink, too. Her chestnut-brown hair gleamed, and her eyes were as bright as stars.

  “Hello, Rachel and Kirsty,” said the fairy. “I’m Giselle the Christmas Ballet Fairy.”

  “Hello, Giselle,” said Kirsty. “It’s wonderful to meet you—especially here!”

  Giselle looked around and laughed.

  “Yes,” she said, “this is the kind of place I belong, whether in the human world or in Fairyland.”

  “You look like a prima ballerina,” said Rachel.

  “I look after prima ballerinas,” Giselle said with a smile. “I take care of all dancers who perform in Christmas ballets. It is the most special time of the year for ballet, because a good performance can take everyone who sees it on a magical journey.”

  “You must be very busy today, on Christmas Eve,” said Kirsty.

  “I should be watching over all the Christmas ballets and keeping the dancers safe and healthy,” said Giselle.

  “But Jack Frost has made up his mind to cause trouble for me this Christmas, and he’s started by stealing my magic water bottle.”

  “Why does he want to cause trouble for you?” Rachel asked.

  Giselle did an arabesque in midair.

  “Ballet positions help me to think,” she said, smiling. “I think Jack Frost is angry because I tried to give him some advice. He was dancing as Frostyev in his Goblinovski Festival Ballet, and there were a few simple ways that he could have improved his style. I was trying to help, but he took it very badly. He said I was rude and interfering, and that he was going to get back at me.”

  “So he took your magic bottle,” said Kirsty. “What does it do?”

  “It makes sure that all ballerinas feel healthy before a performance,” said Giselle. “Without it, winter coughs and colds could attack the dancers and ruin the Christmas ballets. I have no idea where Jack Frost has hidden it. Even Queen Titania’s Seeing Pool hasn’t been able to tell us anything. So she suggested that I come to ask for your help.”

  “Of course we’ll help you,” said Rachel.

  At that moment they heard the ballet teacher calling everyone back in her croaky voice. The class was about to continue.

  “You finish your class,” said Giselle. “I’ll hide while you dance, and then maybe we could search for the magic bottle after?”

  She slipped under Kirsty’s ponytail and the girls ran to join the class. Most of the dancers were standing on one side of the room. Four ballerinas were in the center, their arms crossed in front of one another, holding each others’ hands.

  “Ah, Rachel and Kirsty,” said the ballet teacher. “We’re going to rehearse a famous scene called danse des petits cygnes, which means the dance of the little swans.”

  The music began, and four ballerinas began to dance sideways in a line, their legs and heads moving in unison.

  “They will do sixteen pas de chat,” the ballet teacher explained to the girls. “They must move at exactly the same time. The dance is meant to look like baby swans huddling together for protection.”

  “They make it look so easy,” said Kirsty.

  “That’s their skill,” said the ballet teacher, stifling a cough. “It is a tiring and challenging dance, but these girls have practiced for months, and now they are perfect. Oh!”

  The ballerina at one end of the line had stumbled and fallen! The other ballerinas gathered around to make sure the fallen girl was okay. Rachel and Kirsty gasped. They hoped she hadn’t injured herself!

  The ballet teacher rapped her stick on the floor.

  “Olivia, what’s the matter?” she croaked.

  Olivia blushed bright red.

  “It’s my feet, Madame,” she said. “Suddenly it feels like they’re covered in blisters. It’s too painful to dance.”

  “Go and treat them at once,” said the ballet teacher. “The opening performance is just a few hours away, and we have to be ready.”

  Olivia limped away, and the rehearsal continued with just three ballerinas. But the music had barely begun when the middle dancer clutched her stomach and groaned.

  “Ooh, I have an awful stomachache!” she cried.

  “Go and lie down, Samira,” said the ballet teacher. “Where are the understudies?”

  Two other dancers stepped forward. As the ballet teacher was talking to them, the dancer next to Kirsty suddenly staggered sideways.

  “Are you all right?” asked Kirsty, holding her up.

  “Dizzy,” murmured the dancer. “Need air.”

  Rachel and Kirsty helped the fainting ballerina to the school’s covered patio and lowered her onto a soft chair. Then they flung open the doors to the yard and let the cold, fresh winter air flow in. The snow had stopped falling, and a few shafts of sunlight were breaking through the clouds.

  “It’s a pretty yard,” said Rachel, looking out at the snow-covered hedges. “I bet it’s full of roses in the summer.”

  Suddenly a distant sparkle caught their eye. At the far end of the yard was a pond, and two figures were bending over it, wrapped in fluffy white coats. Under Kirsty’s ponytail, Giselle gave a little squeak of excitement.

  “Goblins!” she whispered. “Those are goblins, girls!”

  The goblins were scooping up water from the pond and splashing each other.

  Rachel looked down at her thin leotard and ballet shoes.

  “We can’t go outside dressed like this,” she said. “But we have to find out what those goblins are doing here.”

  Kirsty glanced at the dizzy ballerina. She was bending forward with her eyes closed. Giselle slipped out of her hiding place and flicked her wand. A shower of silver sparkles landed on the girls, and instantly they found themselves wearing warm, fleecy jackets and wool-lined boots.

  “Thank you!” whispered Kirsty.

  They ran out of the school and along the snowy path that led to the pond. Giselle fluttered between them. Now that they were closer, they could see that the goblins were using drinking bottles to scoop up the water and squirt each other.

  “Oh girls, those goblins have my magic bottle!” Giselle exclaimed.

  Rachel marched up to one of the goblins and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned and leapt into the air in shock.

  “Go away!” the goblins squawked. “Why are you poking your nose in here? Leave us alone!”

  “Just give back the bottle that doesn’t belong to you,” said Rachel, holding out her hand.

  “Oh, you mean this one?” asked the taller goblin in a mocking voice.

  He held up his bottle and threw it to the other goblin, who caught it and waved both bottles over his head.

  “Or did you mean my bottle?” he asked with a snicker. “Come on, humans, keep up!”

  Kirsty suddenly had an idea. She beckoned to Rachel and lowered her voice to a whisper.

  “Giselle, can you use your magic to make more bottles?” she asked. “Maybe we could confuse them.”

  Giselle performed a graceful pas de chat and, with a flick of her wand, a hundred identical bottles appeared on the path in front of them.

  “Want to play?” said Rachel to the goblins.

  She threw a couple of the bottles to the goblins, while Kirsty picked up three of them and started to ju
ggle. The goblins tried to catch the new bottles and dropped them all.

  “Try again!” called Rachel.

  She threw more bottles to the goblins … and more … and more. Then she started juggling, too. Giselle used her magic to line the path with bottles. Soon there were so many bottles on the ground and in the air that they all lost track of which one was the magic bottle!

  “Stop!” the goblins screeched. “Where’s our bottle?”

  “It’s my bottle,” said Giselle, folding her arms and fluttering in front of them.

  “But where is it?” asked Rachel.

  With all the identical bottles on the ground, it was impossible to tell which was the magic one. The goblins rushed around, trying to remember which one it was. Rachel and Kirsty exchanged confused glances. But Giselle rose into the air and gazed down at the scattered bottles. Then a swish of her wand sent fairy dust sprinkling down on all of the bottles, making them glow. Most of the sparkles faded, but a bottle that was lying on its own underneath a holly bush kept glowing.

  “My bottle!” cried Giselle.

  “Get it!” the tallest goblin squealed.

  The goblins and Rachel ran for the bottle, but Kirsty remembered a ballet move that she had seen in class. She sprang through the air in a magnificent jeté. It looked like she was doing a split in the air!

  She landed beside the bottle and picked it up, but the taller goblin was already flinging himself at her. Kirsty threw the bottle as high into the air as she could.

  “Giselle!” she cried.