Grace the Glitter Fairy Read online

  A Party Plan

  Decorating Difficulties

  Saving Grace

  An Uninvited Guest

  Goblin Trap!

  All Wrapped Up!

  “Isn’t it a beautiful day?” Kirsty Tate said happily, looking up at the deep blue sky. “I’m so glad you’re staying here for a whole week, Rachel.”

  Kirsty was sitting on the grass in the Tates’ backyard, making a daisy chain with her best friend, Rachel Walker. Pearl, Kirsty’s black-and-white kitten, was snoozing in a patch of sunshine in the middle of the path.

  “You know, Rachel,” Kirsty went on, picking another daisy. “This is the perfect day for—”

  “A party!” Rachel broke in, knowing exactly what Kirsty was going to say.

  Kirsty nodded. A frown came over her face. “Let’s hope Jack Frost’s goblins don’t spoil someone’s special day.”

  “The Party Fairies will do their best to stop them,” Rachel replied, sounding determined. “And so will we.”

  Rachel and Kirsty had a wonderful secret that no one else in the human world knew about. They were best friends with the fairies! The girls had helped many different fairies when Jack Frost caused trouble with his evil spells. Now they were working with the Party Fairies.

  “Isn’t it just like Jack Frost to want to ruin everyone’s fun?” said Kirsty. “He just can’t stop being mischievous.”

  “If he wasn’t always so mean, he could have come to the surprise party for the fairy king and queen’s 1000th anniversary,” Rachel pointed out.

  The girls had been invited to the Fairyland party by the Fairy Godmother, and they had been very excited about it—until they found out that Jack Frost was determined to have a party of his own. His goblins were causing trouble at human parties. The goblins planned to steal the fairies’ magic party bags when the Party Fairies showed up to fix the party problems. Then the goblins were going to take the party bags to Jack Frost, so he could use them at his party.

  “Well, we managed to keep Cherry the Cake Fairy and Melodie the Music Fairy’s party bags safe,” Kirsty said, adding another daisy to her chain. “We’ll just have to keep our eyes open.”

  “And our ears,” added Rachel.

  Suddenly, there was a rustling behind the fence. “OW!” someone muttered. “That hurt.”

  “Who was that?” Rachel gasped. “Do you think it was a goblin?”

  Kirsty grinned and shook her head. “It’s OK,” she said. “It sounds like Mr. Cooper, our next-door neighbor.”

  At that moment, Mr. Cooper popped his head over the fence. He was a tall, thin man with a cheerful smile. “Sorry, Kirsty,” he said, “did I startle you? I pricked my finger on the rosebush.” He held up a small package wrapped in shiny blue paper. “I’m trying to hide these presents around our yard for the treasure hunt this afternoon.”

  “Treasure hunt?” repeated Rachel, looking confused.

  Mr. Cooper nodded. “Yes, it’s my son Jamie’s birthday today,” he replied. “He’s five, and we’re having a party.”

  A party! Rachel and Kirsty glanced at each other in excitement.

  “We have ten kids coming,” Mr. Cooper went on. “And we’ve hired a clown named Mr. Chuckles. Jamie is really excited.” He smiled and shook his head. “It’s going to be a lot of hard work, though.”

  Rachel nudged Kirsty, who knew exactly what her friend was thinking.

  “Maybe Rachel and I could come over and give you and Mrs. Cooper some help?” Kirsty suggested.

  “Yes, we’d love to,” Rachel added eagerly.

  Mr. Cooper’s face lit up. “That’s very nice of you,” he said. “Jamie would love that. The guests are arriving at three o’clock, so could you come at two?”

  “Of course,” Rachel and Kirsty said together.

  Mr. Cooper gave them a grateful smile, and went off to hide some more packages.

  Kirsty turned to Rachel, her eyes wide with excitement. “Do you think a goblin will show up and try to make trouble at Jamie’s party?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” Rachel replied. “But if one does, we’ll be ready for him!”

  “This is going to be fun!” Kirsty grinned as she rang the Coopers’ doorbell. “Jamie is really sweet. It’ll be kind of noisy with him and all his friends running around and having a good time, though.”

  “Maybe they’ll scare the goblins away!” Rachel said with a laugh.

  The front door opened. A small boy with the same cheerful smile as Mr. Cooper stood in the hallway.

  “Hi, Kirsty,” Jamie called eagerly. “Are you and your friend here to help with my party?”

  “Yes, we are,” Kirsty replied, smiling and handing Jamie a small present. “Happy birthday.”

  Jamie tore off the wrapping paper and smiled when he saw the bright red car inside. “Thank you! Come on in,” he said, taking Kirsty’s hand. “Me and Mommy are putting up decorations in the family room.”

  Rachel and Kirsty followed him down the hallway. Mrs. Cooper was standing on a chair, pinning a HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner to the wall.

  “Hello, Kirsty!” She smiled. “And Rachel, right? It’s so nice of you to help out. Thank you.”

  “Mom!” Jamie was dancing around the family room, waving his new car. “Look what Kirsty and Rachel gave me! And can we put up the streamers now? Can we?”

  “There’s still an hour to go and he’s already bursting with excitement,” Mrs. Cooper said, laughing. “Do you think you girls could put up the streamers and balloons, while I go and help Jamie’s dad finish up the food?” She pointed to a folded, glittery paper tablecloth, and some bowls and plates that were on the table. “And if you have time, could you set the table, too?”

  “Absolutely,” Rachel replied.

  Mrs. Cooper thanked the girls and hurried to the kitchen.

  Jamie grabbed the box of decorations from the sofa. “Daddy bought some new extra-long streamers,” Jamie said proudly. “They’re gold and silver—look!”

  He began unrolling one of the streamers. But before he got very far, a piece no more than two feet long dropped off and floated to the ground.

  “Oh!” Jamie gasped.

  “I’m sure the rest of the roll is fine,” Rachel said quickly. “Keep going, Jamie.”

  But as Jamie unrolled the streamer, more short pieces of brightly-colored paper fell off. Rachel opened the other packets, but those streamers were ruined, too.

  “It looks like someone cut the streamers into lots of pieces and then rolled them back up again,” Kirsty whispered to Rachel.

  Rachel nodded. “Do you think it could be goblin mischief?” she asked with a frown on her face.

  Jamie looked as if he were close to tears. “They’re too short!” he wailed.

  “Don’t worry, Jamie,” Kirsty said, giving him a hug. “I know just the thing to fix this. I’ll be right back.”

  Kirsty ran home and found a big roll of sparkly, blue tape that was left over from Christmas. Then she went back to the Coopers’ house and showed it to Jamie. “Look,” she said, beginning to stick the pieces of one of the streamers together. “Now you’ll have striped gold, silver, and blue streamers.”

  Jamie’s face lit up. “They look even better now!” he declared happily.

  The three of them quickly stuck the rest of the streamers together, and then Rachel and Kirsty began to pin them up around the room. They had just finished when the doorbell rang.

  “That should be Mr. Chuckles,” Mrs. Cooper called from the kitchen. “Could you let him in, please, Kirsty?”

  “I think Jamie beat me to it!” Kirsty laughed as Jamie raced past her into the hall.

  Rachel and Kirsty followed him, and found the clown standing on the doorstep
, smiling down at Jamie. He wore a bright blue, baggy suit and a blue hat.

  “You must be the birthday boy,” he said.

  “Where’s your big red nose and your big clown shoes, Mr. Chuckles?” Jamie wanted to know. Rachel and Kirsty smiled.

  “Ah, well, I’m not quite ready yet,” Mr. Chuckles explained. “It’s difficult to drive my van in big clown shoes.”

  Looking as if he might explode with excitement, Jamie ran to tell his mom about the clown.

  Meanwhile, Mr. Chuckles turned to Rachel and Kirsty. “Is it OK if I set up my stuff in the family room?” he asked.

  Kirsty nodded. “Yes, we’re almost finished decorating,” she replied.”We just have to put up the balloons.”

  The clown opened the back of his van and began to unload his props, while the girls went back into the family room. But they groaned when they saw that the streamers had all fallen down! Now they were in piles on the floor.

  “This has to be the work of one of Jack Frost’s goblins!” Rachel said, scowling and grabbing a streamer. “He must be here somewhere.”

  “Quick, let’s get these back up—or Jamie will be upset,” Kirsty said, picking up the tape.

  The girls worked fast. They got the streamers back in place before Jamie came bouncing into the room.

  “We re going to blow up the balloons now, Jamie,” said Kirsty, opening one of the packets. “Which color should we start with?”

  “Gold!” Jamie answered immediately.

  Kirsty began to blow air into the long gold balloon. But even though she huffed and puffed and got red in the face, the balloon wouldn’t inflate. It stayed as flat as a pancake!

  “There’s a hole in it,” Rachel said, looking closely at the balloon.

  The girls glanced at each other. They were both thinking exactly the same thing.

  “The goblin again!” Kirsty whispered. Quickly, she and Rachel checked the other balloons. There were holes in all of them! Jamie’s bottom lip was trembling. “Are there any balloons we can blow up? Are they all ruined?” he asked in a small voice.

  At that moment, Mr. Chuckles came into the room carrying a big wooden box. “Did I hear you need balloons?” he asked. “I’ve got extra.” He put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a handful of different-colored balloons. “I use them to make my balloon animals.”

  Kirsty and Rachel were very relieved to see Jamie smiling again. Quickly, they blew up the balloons and hung them around the French doors—beautiful, tall doors with windows from top to bottom—at the far end of the room.

  Suddenly, the doorbell rang. Jamie peeked out of the front window. “It’s Matthew, my best friend!” he shouted excitedly. “And Katie and Andy and Ben. It’s time for my party to start!” He dashed out to meet his guests.

  “Look at the time! I need to go to the bathroom and put my clown makeup on,” said Mr. Chuckles. He grabbed a small case and left the room.

  POP! POP! POP!

  Kirsty and Rachel jumped and turned around. The balloons they had just put up were bursting, one by one!

  “I’m getting sick of that goblin,” Rachel said.

  “So am I,” Kirsty agreed. “We need to find him and put a stop to his tricks!”

  The doorbell was ringing again as more guests arrived. The girls could hear them chatting excitedly in the hall. There wasn’t much time to find and stop the goblin.

  Then they heard Mr. Cooper’s voice. “Follow me to the backyard, kids,” he was saying. “We’re going to have a treasure hunt!”

  There was a loud cheer as the kids hurried after him. Rachel and Kirsty looked at each other with relief.

  “Let’s search the room,” Kirsty suggested. “We might be able to catch the goblin while everyone’s in the backyard.”

  But just as they began their search, Rachel gasped in surprise and clutched Kirsty’s arm.

  “What is it?” Kirsty whispered.

  “Look!” Rachel said, pointing toward the French doors. “Outside in the garden.”

  Kirsty stared through the glass and saw something sparkly and pink flying swiftly through the air. It was zooming straight through the backyard, toward the French doors of the family room.

  “Oh!” Kirsty cried. “It’s Grace the Glitter Fairy!”

  “Yes,” said Rachel anxiously. “And the kids are going out to the backyard. They’ll all see her unless we do something—and fast!”

  “We have to go outside and warn her,” Kirsty said.

  “But what about the goblin?” Rachel asked.

  “This is more important,” Kirsty replied, opening the French doors. She and Rachel rushed outside, waving their arms all around to get Grace’s attention.

  Grace saw the girls right away and waved her sparkling wand at them. She had long, straight, glossy blond hair, and she wore a glittering pink dress, which shimmered in the sunshine. The hem of the dress was red and cut into a zigzag pattern.

  “Hello, girls,” she called. “It’s good to see you—”

  “Grace, you have to hide!” Kirsty burst out, without even saying hello. “The party guests are about to go out to the backyard any second!”

  Before Grace could say anything, they heard the back door open.

  “So that’s what you have to do, kids,” Mr. Cooper was saying. “Ready, set, go!”

  Grace looked alarmed as all the children came rushing out the back door. She fluttered out of sight behind a garden urn filled with flowers—just in time!

  The children were running all around the garden now, screaming with excitement. Two little girls came over to where Kirsty and Rachel were standing, and began to search for presents there.

  “Um, I think Mr. Cooper hid most of the presents toward the back by the fence,” Rachel said quickly. She didn’t want the little girls poking around and finding Grace.

  One of the girls ran off right away, but the other one frowned. “I see something sparkly behind that pot,” she said stubbornly, pointing at the urn. “It might be one of the presents.”

  “Oh, no,” Kirsty said, thinking fast. She bent down and picked Grace up, keeping the fairy out of sight in her hand. Then she put her hand—and Grace—in her pocket. “That’s just an empty candy wrapper.”

  “We’ll put it in the trash can with the garbage,” Rachel added.

  The girl looked disappointed and ran off after her friend. Kirsty and Rachel sighed with relief.

  “Garbage?” Grace said, poking her head out of Kirsty’s pocket. She looked a little flustered and her hair was all messy. “Thanks a lot!”

  “Sorry, Grace,” Kirsty said soothingly. “We didn’t mean it.”

  “There’s a goblin here,” Rachel told Grace, as the little fairy smoothed her hair. “He’s been ruining all the party decorations in the house.”

  “Well, we’ll put a stop to that!” Grace declared, looking outraged. “Where is he?”

  “We don’t know,” Kirsty replied. “We were just about to start looking for him, when we saw you coming.”

  Grace nodded. “Now I can help you find him,” she said, smiling. “Lead the way!”

  As Kirsty led the way through the French doors into the family room, she suddenly grabbed Rachel’s arm. “Look, there!” she whispered. “Behind the curtain.”

  Rachel and Grace peered at the long blue curtains hanging on either side of the French doors, and immediately saw what Kirsty had spotted. There was something behind one of them—and that something was shaped like a goblin!

  They all stared at the goblin-shaped lump behind the curtain. They saw it move once or twice. The goblin was obviously getting a little antsy.

  Kirsty motioned for Rachel and Grace to follow her to the other end of the room. “We need to do something right now,” Kirsty whispered. “Before Jamie and his friends come in from the backyard.”

  “Yes, but what?” Grace asked, biting her lip.

  The three friends racked their brains to think of a plan.

  “We could sneak up on the goblin
and grab him while he’s wrapped in the curtain,” Rachel suggested. “It shouldn’t be too tough. He’s very small.” Rachel knew that Jack Frost’s magic could make the goblins much bigger and scarier when they were in the human world, but this goblin was his normal size. “Then Grace can quickly send him back to Fairyland with magic,” Rachel added.

  Grace nodded enthusiastically, but Kirsty looked worried. “He’ll try to fight his way out,” she said. “What if he ruins the curtain?”

  “Well, it’s made of really thick material,” Rachel pointed out. “I don’t think the goblin will be able to do much damage.”

  “And I can fix it with fairy magic!” Grace added.

  “OK, let’s give it a try,” Kirsty agreed.

  She and Rachel crept cautiously toward the French doors, with Grace fluttering alongside them. They had almost reached the goblin, when the door between the kitchen and the family room suddenly opened. Mrs. Cooper appeared, carrying plates of food.

  Quick as a flash, Grace darted into Kirsty’s pocket, out of sight.

  “Oh, girls,” said Jamie’s mom, “could you give me a hand with these snacks?”

  Rachel and Kirsty were desperate to catch the goblin, but there was nothing they could do while Mrs. Cooper was in the room.

  “Yes, of course,” Kirsty replied politely. The girls hurried to help Mrs. Cooper set down the plates on the dining table.

  “As soon as the kids finish the treasure hunt, we’ll bring them in here,” Mrs. Cooper told the girls. “They can have a snack before they watch Mr. Chuckles. Then, after his show, we’ll have cake.”

  The girls nodded and Mrs. Cooper headed back to the kitchen.