The Music Fairies Collection Read online

  Cover

  Map

  Poem

  The Music Fairies #1: Poppy the Piano Fairy

  The Music Fairies #2: Ellie the Guitar Fairy

  The Music Fairies #3: Fiona the Flute Fairy

  The Music Fairies #4: Danni the Drum Fairy

  The Music Fairies #5: Maya the Harp Fairy

  The Music Fairies #6: Victoria the Violin Fairy

  The Music Fairies #7: Sadie the Saxophone Fairy

  Also Available

  Copyright

  A Musical Message

  Music School Mayhem

  Out of Tune

  Goblin Surprise!

  Piano Plan

  Get That Goblin!

  “Ooh, I love to dance!” Rachel Walker sang along to the radio, pretending her hairbrush was a microphone. “When I hear the music, my toes start tapping and my fingers start snapping!”

  Kirsty Tate, Rachel’s best friend, grinned and grabbed her own hairbrush.

  “I can’t stop dancing!” She joined in on the chorus.

  The girls tried to do a complicated dance routine as they sang, but Kirsty went left and Rachel went right and they ended up bumping into each other! Laughing, they collapsed onto Kirsty’s bedroom carpet.

  “It’s really hard to sing and dance at the same time,” said Rachel as the song ended.

  “I know,” Kirsty agreed. “I don’t think we’d be very good in a band, Rachel!”

  “That was The Sparkle Girls with their new single, ‘Can’t Stop Dancing,’ ” the radio DJ announced as Kirsty and Rachel sat up. “And if anyone out there thinks they could make it big as a pop star, too, why not come out and audition for the National Talent Competition next weekend?”

  Rachel and Kirsty glanced at each other.

  “That sounds cool!” Rachel said.

  “One lucky singer or band will win a recording contract with MegaBig Records,” the DJ went on. “So remember — come out to the New Harmony Mall next weekend, and maybe one day I’ll be playing your songs on my show!”

  “The New Harmony Mall is only a few miles from Wetherbury,” Kirsty said dreamily. “I’m sure Mom or Dad would take us to watch the competition if we asked them.”

  “That would be great,” Rachel replied eagerly. “We’re pretty lucky that the contest takes place before I go home.” Rachel was staying with Kirsty during school break, and her parents would be coming to pick her up at the end of the following weekend.

  “And now here’s Leanne Roberts with her new song, ‘Magical Moments,’ ” said the DJ.

  “Oh, I love this one,” Rachel said, turning the radio up a little.

  “Me, too,” Kirsty agreed. She smiled as Rachel began dancing around the room. “Maybe we should enter the Talent Competition ourselves!”

  Rachel laughed. “I’m a horrible singer!” she said, making a face. “But I bet we’d have a lot of fun singing along with our friends in Fairyland, wouldn’t we?”

  Kirsty nodded. She and Rachel shared a very special and magical secret. They were good friends with the fairies! They had visited Fairyland many times. But the girls had never told anyone about their fairy adventures, not even their parents.

  “Life is special, life is fun,” Kirsty sang along to the radio as Rachel twirled around their beds. “Look for the magic in everyone!”

  Then, unexpectedly, the music changed. Kirsty and Rachel stared at each other in surprise as the bouncy tune of “Magical Moments” suddenly became a much sweeter and softer melody.

  “Kirsty and Rachel!” a tiny, silvery voice sang from the radio. “Can you hear me, girls?”

  Rachel and Kirsty could hardly believe their ears.

  “There’s a fairy speaking to us through the radio!” Kirsty gasped.

  “Yes, we can hear you!” Rachel declared, breathless with excitement.

  “Girls, I’m so glad you were listening to music. That made it possible for me to contact you immediately!” the fairy said, sounding very relieved. “My name is Poppy the Piano Fairy, and I’m one of the seven Music Fairies.”

  “Hello, Poppy!” said Rachel.

  “Is everything OK in Fairyland?” asked Kirsty.

  “Oh, girls, we’re in terrible trouble!” the fairy went on anxiously. “We need your help right away. Jack Frost and his goblins are invading Fairyland’s Royal School of Music!”

  Rachel and Kirsty were horrified. Jack Frost was a very mischievous fairy. He and his goblins were always causing trouble in Fairyland, and the girls often helped their fairy friends outsmart them and prevent them from making mischief.

  “What’s Jack Frost up to now?” Rachel wanted to know.

  “Well, the school’s a very special place because it’s where all the fairies come to learn music,” Poppy explained. “And it’s where we Music Fairies keep our magical musical instruments. They’re important because they make music fun and harmonious in Fairyland and in the human world. We think Jack Frost wants to steal the magic instruments, and we need help to stop him from getting his icy fingers on them! Can you come to Fairyland immediately?”

  “Of course we can,” Rachel declared.

  “We’ll be there in a flash!” Kirsty added.

  “Thank you so much,” Poppy replied gratefully. “Please hurry!”

  Instantly, the fairy’s voice faded away. Rachel and Kirsty quickly opened the gold lockets the Weather Fairies had given them after one of their adventures together. Each girl carefully took a pinch of the glittering fairy dust from inside the locket and then sprinkled it over herself.

  A whirl of sparkling rainbow colors surrounded the girls, and they suddenly felt themselves tumbling through the air. With each turn they shrank smaller and smaller until they were fairy-size. They even had wings!

  “I just hope we’re in time to stop Jack Frost!” Kirsty cried.

  A few moments later, the bright rainbow colors swirled away, and the girls found themselves outside a tall white house next to the Fairyland palace. There was a gold sign on the gate with ROYAL SCHOOL OF MUSIC written on it in pink letters.

  The wooden doors of the school were wide open. As Rachel and Kirsty hurried over, a fairy rushed out to meet them. She looked very stylish in her black pants and pink shirt, with a hat perched on top of her red corkscrew curls.

  “Girls, you’re here!” the fairy exclaimed, looking very relieved. “I’m Poppy the Piano Fairy.”

  “Where are Jack Frost and his goblins now?” Kirsty asked as Poppy ushered them inside the school.

  “They’re on their way to the practice room,” Poppy explained quickly. “That’s where we keep the magic musical instruments. We have to hurry!” She zoomed up the winding spiral staircase. “Follow me!”

  Rachel and Kirsty whizzed after Poppy. At the top of the stairs, the fairy stopped, hovering in the open doorway of a large room. As the girls caught up with Poppy, they gasped at the chaotic scene before them.

  The practice room was a complete mess. Cupboard doors stood open, chairs and music stands had been overturned, and there were various musical instruments and pages of sheet music scattered all over the floor. In the middle of the mayhem were seven goblins. One of them held an ice wand.

  They were standing around a tangled heap of musical instruments, gazing eagerly at them with wide, greedy eyes. Unlike the others, these instruments glowed with a faint, magical sparkle. Kirsty and Rachel could see a beautiful grand piano in the middle of the jumble.

  “Those are our magic instruments!” Poppy whispered in dismay.

  As Poppy, Rachel, and Kirsty raced into the room, the goblin with the wand waved it over the instruments. A shower of ice crystals burst out. Immediately, all the instruments shrank down until they
were tiny. The goblins laughed and cheered.

  “STOP!” Poppy cried, heading toward them with Kirsty and Rachel close behind.

  “No way!” the goblins jeered. They each grabbed one of the tiny instruments and dashed over to a window on the other side of the room.

  “Ha ha ha!” laughed a familiar, icy voice. “The magical musical instruments are mine!”

  A cold shiver ran down the girls’ spines as they saw that Jack Frost was waiting for the goblins by the open window.

  Jack Frost saw the girls and scowled.

  “You’re too late, you pesky humans!” he shouted. “You won’t stop me this time!”

  He pointed his wand out the window and shot a freezing blast of icy crystals in a downward stream. Within seconds, the crystals had formed an ice slide. The goblins whooped with glee and jumped onto the slide, still clutching the tiny instruments. Then they zipped down the slide. Poppy and the girls could only watch.

  “Oh no!” Poppy gasped. “Jack Frost and his goblins are escaping with our magic musical instruments!”

  “We can still stop them!” Rachel shouted, sounding determined.

  The three friends dashed across the room toward the window, dodging overturned chairs and music stands. But as Jack Frost jumped onto the slide himself, he pointed his ice wand straight at them.

  “Quick!” Poppy cried out. “Hide!” She grabbed the girls’ hands and pulled them behind a nearby drum set.

  Kirsty’s heart was pounding as she peeked around a drum, expecting to see one of Jack Frost’s ice bolts flying toward them.

  But to her surprise, she saw a cloud of white paper spill from Jack Frost’s wand. It whirled around the room like confetti.

  “How strange. It’s just paper!” she shouted to Poppy and Rachel. “Hurry, Jack Frost is getting away!”

  They all rushed out from behind the drum set. But there was so much paper, it was like flying through a snowy blizzard. Poppy and the girls could hardly see where they were going! As they struggled over to the window, they could just see Jack Frost sliding off into the distance. And as he zoomed away in a storm of snowflakes, they could hear him chanting a spell:

  “Goblins stand out because they’re green,

  But I don’t want them to be seen.

  I cast this spell so they’ll blend in,

  Then girls and fairies will not win!”

  “What does that mean?” Kirsty asked, frowning. Meanwhile, Rachel began to climb onto the ice slide, but Poppy grabbed her arm.

  “It’s not safe, Rachel,” the fairy said urgently. “Look, the ice is melting.”

  Rachel could see that Poppy was right.

  “Then what are we going to do?” she asked anxiously. “We can’t let Jack Frost and his goblins get away with the instruments!”

  “I need to tell the other Music Fairies right away,” Poppy sighed. “Maybe we can come up with a plan… .”

  Kirsty stared through the snowflakes spinning around outside the window. She could see the melting ice slide stretching far into the distance. At the end of the slide was something that looked very familiar. Kirsty frowned in concentration. Then she suddenly realized that the ice slide led to the bandstand in Wetherbury Park, not far from her house!

  She was about to tell the others when Rachel let out a huge gasp. She’d picked up a handful of Jack Frost’s paper confetti and was studying it more closely.

  “This isn’t confetti!” she exclaimed. “The sheets of paper are tiny posters!”

  Kirsty and Poppy both picked up pieces of confetti. Each poster had a picture of Jack Frost, with some writing underneath. Rachel read the words aloud.

  “ ‘Jack Frost invites you to see Frosty and his Gobolicious Band — appearing in the human world as stars of the National Talent Competition!’ ”

  “We heard about that on the radio, Rachel!” Kirsty cried. “Jack Frost and his goblins are entering the competition? If he wins, Jack Frost will be a star!”

  “Oh, he’d like that, wouldn’t he?” Rachel commented with a grin. “Jack Frost would love to have all the power and glory of being a pop star!”

  Poppy was looking very worried. “And unfortunately, with the help of our magic musical instruments, Frosty and his Gobolicious Band are going to perform fantastically!” she said sadly. “With fairy magic on his side, there’s no way Jack Frost could lose. We have to get our instruments back before the competition begins!”

  Rachel and Kirsty looked worried.

  “If Jack Frost wins, there will be a lot of publicity,” Kirsty pointed out. “It won’t take long for people to realize he’s not human, and then everyone will find out that fairies really do exist!”

  “Yes, Fairyland will be discovered, and, with the magic musical instruments stuck in the human world, music will be ruined for everyone, forever!” Poppy replied, her wings drooping sadly. Suddenly, six other fairies rushed in through the open door.

  “We came as soon as we got your message, Poppy!” one of them cried. “What happened?”

  “Jack Frost escaped with our magic instruments,” Poppy explained miserably, “even though Rachel, Kirsty, and I did our best to stop him. He plans to enter the National Talent Competition in the human world!”

  The other fairies gasped in horror.

  “Girls, meet the Music Fairies,” Poppy went on, turning to Rachel and Kirsty. “Ellie the Guitar Fairy, Fiona the Flute Fairy, Danni the Drum Fairy, Maya the Harp Fairy, Victoria the Violin Fairy, and Sadie the Saxophone Fairy.”

  “Thank you for coming,” said Danni. “Will you help us get the instruments back?”

  “Oh, please!” Fiona chimed in. “We can’t imagine life in Fairyland or the human world without music.”

  “Of course we’ll help,” Kirsty said.

  “We couldn’t imagine life without music, either!” Rachel agreed.

  “But where should we start looking?” asked Sadie.

  Suddenly Kirsty remembered what she’d seen at the end of the ice slide. “I know exactly where Jack Frost has gone,” she cried. “I saw that his ice slide led to the bandstand in Wetherbury Park!”

  “Nice work, Kirsty!” Poppy declared. “Ellie, will you tell the king and queen about Jack Frost’s latest mischief ? I’ll go with Rachel and Kirsty — they might need fairy magic to help them.”

  Ellie nodded. “And we’ll clean up the school while you three find Jack Frost and his goblins.” She pointed her wand at an overturned music stand. A shower of sparkles lifted it so it was right-side up again. The other Music Fairies joined in, their magic making the sheet music, chairs, and instruments dance their way back to their proper places.

  Meanwhile, Poppy waved her wand over herself and the girls, and her magic immediately whisked them off to Wetherbury in a mist of rainbow sparkles.

  A moment later, the girls found themselves back to their normal size. They were standing in the park next to the bandstand.

  “Any sign of Jack Frost and his goblins?” Poppy murmured, hovering out of sight behind Kirsty’s hair.

  The girls looked around. Everything seemed pretty normal at first glance. There was a man walking his dog, a couple of mothers with strollers chatting on a nearby bench, and a group of children playing on the swings.

  But then Rachel noticed something weird. A young boy wearing strange clothes was standing near the bandstand. His bright yellow pants were too long, and his shirtsleeves were too short. He also wore a big, floppy, purple hat, which covered his face.

  Rachel nudged Kirsty.

  “Do you think that boy could be a goblin?” she whispered. “He’s got a goblin’s funny fashion sense!”

  “Let’s go and see,” Kirsty replied.

  Poppy and the girls went to get a better look. But as they got closer to the boy, Rachel shook her head.

  “He can’t be a goblin,” she said. “Look at his arms — they’re not green.”

  Poppy frowned. “I know my beautiful piano is nearby, girls,” she said. “I can feel its mus
ic calling to me. But where is it?”

  “Maybe the goblins already left the park,” Kirsty suggested. “We could look along High Street. There are plenty of places to hide there.”

  Poppy nodded and flew into Kirsty’s pocket, out of sight. The girls hurried toward the park gates. As they did, they passed the mothers sitting on the bench. One of them was singing a lullaby to her baby, who was crying.

  “Hush, little baby, go to sleep,” she warbled in a voice that was horribly off-key.

  Kirsty and Rachel exchanged worried looks as the baby began to cry even louder.

  Then, just outside the park gates, they saw a street performer playing the harmonica. But the tune sounded terrible. The man couldn’t hit any of the right notes! The result was a horrible screeching, earsplitting noise.

  “That’s awful!” Rachel whispered to Kirsty, making a face as they passed by.

  “I’ve seen that man playing here before, and he’s usually really good,” Kirsty replied. “This is all because the magic musical instruments are missing. Music everywhere is being ruined!”

  “You’re right!” Poppy exclaimed. “No one can sing or play instruments well anymore. We have to find Jack Frost and his goblins and return the instruments to Fairyland!”

  High Street was near the park, and Rachel and Kirsty began going into stores and cafés, looking for goblins. As they searched, they heard how music was being ruined everywhere.

  “Listen to that background music,” Kirsty whispered to Rachel as they looked around the local bookstore. “It’s terrible!”

  Rachel nodded. “It sounds like someone screaming, not singing!” she replied.