Trixie the Halloween Fairy Read online

  Contents

  The Chocolate Bar Chase

  Buttons Barks

  Costume Chaos

  Three Treats

  Goblins on the Go

  Lost and Found

  The Candy Corn Caper

  All Dressed Up

  All Trick, No Treat

  A Candy Clue

  Playground Ghosts

  Moonlight’s Magic

  The Caramel Apple Crisis

  Ho-Hum Halloween

  Haunted House Party

  Jack’s Lantern

  A Hidden Kitten

  A Festive Frost

  “I can’t wait to show you the fairy wings,” Rachel Walker said to her best friend, Kirsty Tate, as they climbed the stairs to Rachel’s room.

  “I’m excited to see them,” Kirsty replied. “It will be so much fun to trick-or-treat together!”

  Kirsty was visiting Rachel while her parents were away at a wedding, and it just happened to be Halloween weekend! They were both going to dress up as fairies. The two girls exchanged smiles as Rachel lifted the lid of a storage box. Inside were two sets of glittery fairy wings: one in a pale pink and the other in a light purple.

  “Oh, Rachel! They look almost real,” Kirsty said, giving her friend a knowing look. After all, the girls knew just how real fairies’ wings looked. They were friends with the fairies!

  Rachel and Kirsty met during vacation with their families on beautiful Rainspell Island. There, they helped the Rainbow Fairies get back to Fairyland after they had been banished by the wicked Jack Frost. Since then, the girls had helped lots of fairies. Now the king and queen of Fairyland looked to them whenever Jack Frost was up to his old tricks.

  “I’m going to try mine on,” Kirsty said, carefully lifting up a sparkly set of wings.

  Just then, they heard a loud bark. Buttons, Rachel’s adorable sheepdog, raced into the room. He knocked into Kirsty and tore through the storage bin on his way to the window.

  “Buttons!” Rachel yelled as the costumes flew up in the air. Buttons kept barking at something outside. Then he turned to Rachel and whimpered. “What is it, boy?” Rachel asked with concern.

  “Oh! There’s a kitten in the tree!” Kirsty said, pointing out the window. The kitten was black from its nose to its tail.

  “That’s strange,” Rachel said. “Buttons usually loves cats.”

  Now the big sheepdog pawed at the window.

  “Do you think the kitten’s stuck?” Kirsty asked. “Maybe it needs our help.” But at that moment, the little black cat leaped onto a nearby branch. It strutted past the window and seemed to look right at Buttons and the girls, then scurried down another tree.

  Buttons let out a yelp, dashed from the room, and ran down the stairs.

  “Weird,” Rachel said with a laugh.

  Kirsty nodded before letting out a groan. “Oh no! Look at our costumes!”

  Rachel bent down and lifted up her wings. The thin fabric had a big tear in it. Kirsty’s wings looked the same. “It must have happened when Buttons raced through here. His nails are so sharp!”

  “But that’s not all that’s wrong,” Kirsty said, glancing around. “The glitter seems to have fallen off the fabric. The wings aren’t shimmery anymore. And it looks like one of our wands is missing.”

  “I don’t see my fun fairy tights, either,” Rachel confessed, looking around the room and under her bed. She sat up and sighed.

  “I think there may be something mysterious going on here,” Kirsty said.

  “Mysterious, or magical?” Rachel whispered.

  Kirsty’s eyes sparkled. She hoped her friend was right! “Either way, I guess we’ll have to start over with our fairy costumes.”

  “Let’s go to the costume and craft shop to pick up some supplies,” Rachel suggested. “We only have two days left until Halloween!”

  Rachel and Kirsty made a list of what they needed at the costume shop and grabbed their bags. Then Rachel told her mom where they were going.

  As they walked down the street, the girls wondered what had happened to the other parts of their costumes. “It doesn’t make sense,” Kirsty said. “I remember seeing two wands in the box.”

  Rachel shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know, either,” she said. “But I’m sure we’ll find everything we need at Costumes, Cauldrons, and Crafts. It’s the best Halloween store. I know the owner, Mrs. Burns. She has all kinds of fairy stuff.”

  The girls walked toward the center of town. The sun was out, and the air was cool and crisp. “It feels like it’s almost Halloween,” Kirsty said, pulling a scarf from her pocket. “And, look! That looks just like a haunted house!”

  Rachel knew exactly which house her friend meant. It was a three-story Victorian mansion with a big porch and lots of windows. The house sat at the end of a long driveway that was lined with crooked trees. “Don’t worry,” Rachel assured Kirsty. “It’s just an old house that nobody has lived in for years. There are stories that it’s haunted, but they aren’t true.”

  Just then, Rachel looked at the third-floor window and thought she saw someone there. “Kirsty!” she exclaimed, but the figure disappeared before she could say more. “Oh, never mind.” Rachel tried to pretend that she’d made a mistake, but she didn’t think she had imagined it.

  When they came to the town square, the girls noticed lots of other people heading for the costume shop. “It’s always busy this time of year,” Rachel explained, pulling the door open.

  But she gasped when she looked around the crowded store. Parents and kids were everywhere, and they all looked upset. There was a long line behind a sign that read RETURNS.

  Two grumpy mothers in the line were peering into their bags. “My son’s astronaut costume has bunny ears instead of an oxygen helmet,” one complained, shaking her head.

  “I bought a ballerina outfit, but it has fireman boots instead of ballet shoes,” the other responded.

  “All of those people bought costumes that are mixed up?” Kirsty whispered in disbelief.

  “I guess so,” Rachel responded. “There’s Mrs. Burns,” she said, pointing to a woman carrying a straw basket, but the storeowner didn’t notice the girls. She was too busy rushing around, clicking her tongue with concern as she looked at the jumbled shelves.

  As the friends walked toward the back of the store, all the customers were grumbling. No one could find anything. The girls passed a group of boys who were digging through a bin of hats and wigs, trying things on and throwing them into the air with loud grunts.

  No wonder the store is such a mess, Kirsty thought.

  Just then, Rachel stopped. “This is where the fairy stuff always is,” she said, pointing to a nearby shelf, “but it’s not here now.”

  “And what is here is all mixed up,” Kirsty noted as she looked at a parrot mask with a long, gray trunk instead of a beak.

  Next, she picked up a pretty, purple, cone-shaped princess hat. But instead of having ribbons flowing from the pointy top, there were rubber snakes with wagging red tongues.

  “Yuck,” Rachel declared.

  “You can say that again,” a twinkling voice sang out.

  With that, a burst of star-shaped sparkles filled the air, and a tiny fairy flew out from behind the princess hat. The fairy wore a short and swingy orange dress with a silky black sash, and black-and-orange striped tights. A star pendant hung around her neck, and she had a mischievous grin.

  “You must be Rachel and Kirsty,” the fairy said. “I’m Trixie, the one and only Halloween Fairy. I need your help!”

  Rachel and Kirsty gasped in surprise. They couldn’t take their eyes off the tiny fairy’s glittery wings, which were especially sparkly in the dim store.
r />   “It’s nice to meet you,” Rachel and Kirsty said at once. They loved meeting new fairies!

  “And it’s a pleasure meeting you, too. You’re quite famous in Fairyland,” Trixie said.

  The girls smiled at each other. “Trixie, what’s wrong?” Kirsty asked, her smile fading. “Why do you need our help?”

  “Oh!” Trixie sighed. Her clever smirk quickly fell into a frown. “Halloween is in terrible trouble.”

  “What happened?” Rachel questioned.

  Trixie sighed. “It all started yesterday,” the fairy began. “I had just finished making my magic Halloween candy. Every year, I make three kinds of candy: chocolate bars, candy corn, and caramel apples.” The fairy paused and licked her lips. “Oh, where was I?” she asked herself. “Ah, yes. I sprinkle one piece of candy from each batch with my special star-shaped fairy dust. These three enchanted pieces of candy hold the Halloween magic! Without them, Halloween wouldn’t be the same.”

  “Did something happen to the candy?” Kirsty asked, biting her fingernail.

  “It’s missing!” Trixie cried. Kirsty and Rachel listened closely. Trixie told them that each piece of candy had an important job: The chocolate bar helped make sure everyone had a costume and looked good. The magic candy corn’s job was to make sure there was plenty of candy and that it tasted extra sweet. Finally, the caramel apple helped boost the Halloween spirit — it let everyone enjoy the magic of the holiday.

  “I wrap each magic piece of candy in an orange glitter wrapper,” Trixie added with a twinkle in her eye. “The king and queen give them away as prizes at our Halloween Ball.”

  “Wow. I didn’t even know you celebrated Halloween in Fairyland,” Kirsty said.

  “Oh yes,” Trixie replied. “We love Halloween. It’s one of the few days that people in the human world believe in the magic that lives in Fairyland all year long.” Then Trixie scowled a little. “Except Jack Frost. He doesn’t want humans to have all of the fun. This year, he came up with a nasty plan.”

  Trixie explained that she was watering her pumpkin patch when she heard a big racket.

  “Oh no,” Kirsty said, biting her lip.

  “You guessed it,” said Trixie, putting her hands on her hips. The fairy’s eyes were serious as she told them about Jack Frost’s goblins, who had snuck into her toadstool cottage to steal the magic candies. “They were almost to the edge of the Fairyland Forest when I spotted them: seven green goblins with chocolate smeared on their hands and faces. Just as I lifted my wand to stop them, Jack Frost appeared. The icy lightning bolts from his wand crashed into my star sparkles, and the goblins disappeared in a cloudy haze. My magic candy was gone, too!”

  “Oh no! We have to get it back!” Rachel cried. She couldn’t imagine Halloween without costumes, candy, and lots of fun.

  “Thank you!” Trixie said with a grateful smile. “But there’s just one more thing.” The fairy’s deep brown eyes grew wide. “We can’t let the candy fall into the wrong hands. If someone who doesn’t believe in Halloween eats a piece, that part of Halloween will be ruined.”

  Rachel and Kirsty gulped.

  Just then, one of the noisy boys who had been rummaging through the hat bins stamped his feet. “It’s not here!” he whined. “I’m looking somewhere else.” The others followed, all wearing a hat or piece of shiny jewelry.

  “Did you see that?” Kirsty asked.

  “It’s awful,” Trixie said, shaking her head. “Those boys don’t have any real Halloween spirit.”

  “And they didn’t have any shoes!” Rachel blurted out. “But they did have big, green feet.”

  “Exactly,” Kirsty agreed. “Trixie, I think we’ve found the goblins!”

  Kirsty, Rachel, and Trixie rushed after the goblins.

  “They went in there!” Rachel said, pointing at a heavy door with a sign that read STORAGE ROOM.

  “Then we have to go in there, too,” Trixie announced. She pointed her wand, and the door opened with a burst of star sparkles.

  “Trixie!” Kirsty gasped. “You have to be more careful. Someone might see you!”

  Trixie quickly flew into Kirsty’s pocket until they were safe inside the storage room, which was almost as big as the store itself. There was row after row of shelves, each piled high with boxes — but no sign of goblins.

  “Mrs. Burns always has a basket of candy on the counter,” Rachel whispered. “Maybe she keeps her candy in here.”

  “And maybe the glitter chocolate bar is with it!” Trixie declared.

  The girls had to tiptoe around open costume boxes that littered the floor. “This room is as messy as the store,” Kirsty commented.

  “It’s because the glitter chocolate bar is missing,” Trixie explained. “Everything that has do with costumes is all mixed up.”

  “That’s what happened to our wings!” Rachel said.

  “And the other wand,” Kirsty added.

  Realizing it was safe, Trixie zoomed out of Kirsty’s pocket. “Let’s go find those goblins and my candy!” she declared.

  The girls raced after the fairy, dodging piles of costumes and crafts as they went.

  When they saw blasts of icy sparks in the next aisle, they slowed down and peeked around the corner.

  “Jack Frost gave them a wand,” Trixie said. “You have to be careful. It can mix up anything!”

  A goblin with extra pointy ears held the wand. He aimed it at a tall goblin dressed as a policeman. “I want to be the policeman!” he yelled, but the goblin in the policeman costume just shook his head. Just then, icy bolts shot from the goblin’s wand, and the policeman’s blue uniform shirt changed to a sparkly yellow halter top.

  “Change it back!” yelped the tall goblin, blowing on his police whistle.

  “Uh-unh.” The pointy-eared goblin refused, then aimed the wand again and turned a ferocious dragon costume bright pink with purple flowers.

  “That explains the mismatched costumes,” Kirsty whispered.

  The other goblins were pushing down boxes and ripping through them.

  “They must think one of the magic candies is here,” Trixie guessed.

  At that moment, Kirsty thought she saw a flash of something orange and glittery. “They found a piece of candy!” Kirsty yelled, not able to control her excitement. “It must be the chocolate bar. Let’s get it!”

  As soon as the goblins heard Kirsty, they stopped what they were doing and raced toward the back door.

  Hot on the goblins’ trail, the girls ran through the door and into the alley with Trixie flying overhead. As they chased the goblins around the corner, they searched for another glimpse of the glitter wrapper. The seven goblins were running in a mob, dropping wigs and hats wherever they went.

  “Oh no! They’re headed for the town square,” Rachel said as the goblins made their way across Main Street and onto the grassy area in the center of the village. Trixie and the girls looked around frantically. They couldn’t let anyone else spot the goblins! The three friends were gaining on the goblin gang, but they still had no idea which one had the magic candy.

  All at once, a black cat sprung out of a tree and pounced down in the middle of the goblins’ path.

  “Yikes!” screeched the first goblin, as he tripped and fell. When he tried to get up, another goblin toppled over him, then another, until they were all in a giant heap.

  “It’s the little black cat!” Rachel said, watching the kitten climb from the bottom of the goblin pile. It seemed to look at the girls and Trixie before bounding across the village green and out of sight.

  “And here’s our orange glitter,” said Kirsty. She sounded disappointed as she picked up something from the ground. “It isn’t a magic candy wrapper at all.” The orange glitter was on a tiger mask that a goblin had taken from the storage room. “Now we have to start all over.”

  “Don’t worry, Trixie, we’ll find the magic candies,” Rachel said, but when she looked around, she didn’t see Trixie anywhere.

  Where
had their fairy friend gone?

  The girls quickly walked away from the goblins, who were still in a jumble, and started searching for Trixie. At once, the fairy zipped down from high in the sky.

  “Did you find something?” Rachel asked hopefully.

  “Not really,” Trixie responded. “I was looking for Moonlight.”

  “Moonlight?” Kirsty questioned, shielding her eyes as she glanced up at the sunny sky.

  “The little black kitten,” Trixie replied with a small smile. “He must have gotten mixed up in the spells that sent the magic candy into the human world.”

  “Is he your kitten?” Rachel asked.

  “Not really. He’s been hanging around my cottage in Fairyland ever since I started making my Halloween candy,” the fairy explained. “He’s kind of shy, very spunky, and he seems to have a sweet tooth.”

  “We saw him this morning, too,” Kirsty said. “At Rachel’s house.”

  “I hope he doesn’t get hurt here. I’m sure the king and queen would want me to get him back to Fairyland, but we have to find the magic candy first,” Trixie said.

  Kirsty and Rachel knew they only had two days until Halloween, and they still needed to find all three pieces of magical candy!

  The three friends headed back to the costume shop. Along the way, they picked up the costumes that the goblins had dropped in their mad dash from the storage room.

  “If the orange glitter were really just a tiger mask, the magic chocolate bar could still be at Costumes, Caldrons, and Crafts,” Kirsty said.

  “Or somewhere else,” Rachel admitted.