The Dance Fairies Collection Read online

  “And Kirsty’s Uncle John is in charge of the music,” Mrs. Tate told Rachel. “We’re taking some of our own rock ’n’ roll records for him to play.”

  “It sounds like fun,” Kirsty said wistfully.

  “Well, why don’t you two come with us?” Mrs. Tate suggested with a smile. “We didn’t ask you before because there aren’t going to be any other kids there, but you might enjoy it.”

  Kirsty and Rachel looked thrilled.

  “Can we?” Kirsty asked eagerly. “But what about Gran? She was going to come and stay with us.”

  “She won’t have left home yet,” Mrs. Tate said, glancing at the clock. “I’ll give her a call.”

  “Does it matter that we don’t have costumes?” Rachel asked.

  “Not at all,” Mr. Tate assured her.

  “Isn’t this great?” Kirsty whispered to Rachel as they went to grab their coats. “We’re going to the rock ’n’ roll party after all!”

  “Yes, and maybe we’ll find Rebecca’s rock ’n’ roll ribbon there!” Rachel replied excitedly.

  After Mrs. Tate had called Kirsty’s grandma, they all set off for the village hall where the rock ’n’ roll party was being held. As they walked inside and took off their coats, the girls looked around eagerly. Everyone was dressed in rock ’n’ roll outfits, and rock music was playing in the background. There were round tables and chairs set up, with a large space in the middle for dancing. Kirsty also noticed a refreshments table with food and drinks for sale. At the opposite end of the hall was a brightly lit stage.

  “Who’s that?” Rachel asked curiously, pointing to a man on the stage who was busy setting up a microphone. The man had dark hair and bushy sideburns, and he was wearing a sparkly white jumpsuit.

  “Oh, that’s the Elvis impersonator,” Mrs. Tate explained. “He’ll be singing later on.”

  “We’ll pick up some drinks and snacks for everyone and then find a table,” said Mr. Tate. “Would you girls mind taking these records to John? He’s over there by the D.J. station.” Mr. Tate handed the box of old records to Kirsty. He and Mrs. Tate went to join the line at the refreshments table.

  Meanwhile, Rachel and Kirsty made their way across the hall. The record players were connected to some very large speakers next to the stage. Boxes of records had been set out in neat rows, but there was no sign of Kirsty’s uncle.

  “I wonder where Uncle John is,” Kirsty remarked.

  “I’m right here!” A blond man who looked a lot like Mr. Tate popped up from under the table. “I was just fixing a loose wire. How are you, Kirsty?”

  “I’m fine, Uncle John.” Kirsty grinned, handing over the box of records. “This is my friend Rachel.”

  “Ah, the famous Rachel!” Uncle John exclaimed. “I’ve heard a lot about you! Excuse me for a moment, girls,” he said quickly, “I need to get the next record ready to start.”

  Kirsty and Rachel watched as Uncle John put another record on one of the turntables.

  “Ladies and gentlemen!” came an announcement. “May I have your attention, please?”

  There was a burst of applause, and Kirsty and Rachel turned to see the Elvis impersonator on the stage.“I’d like to welcome you all to our rock ’n’ roll party!” Elvis went on. “We have a fantastic night of entertainment lined up. First on stage are Linda and Will Melling, who are going to show us how to dance rock ’n’ roll style.”

  As Linda and Will walked onto the stage in their sparkly early rock ’n’ roll outfits, the girls exchanged a worried glance.

  “I hope their dance goes OK without the magic ribbon,” Kirsty whispered.

  “My fingers are crossed!” Rachel whispered back.

  Uncle John lowered the needle onto the record and the music began. The song had a very fast beat, and Linda and Will started by holding hands and doing lots of twists and turns around the stage.

  “I don’t know anything about rock ’n’ roll dancing, but this looks great to me!” Rachel said to Kirsty.

  But at that very moment, Linda stumbled. She managed to regain her balance quickly and smiled brightly at the audience, but the next second Will tripped and stubbed his toes on the floor.

  “Ow!” he yelped, looking embarrassed.

  Linda tried to cover up the mistake by twirling across the stage in front of him. Unfortunately, she clumsily stepped on Will’s other foot as she did!

  “Ouch!” Will gasped.

  “Oh no!” Kirsty groaned as Will and Linda tried to keep dancing, blushing furiously. “This is all because Rebecca’s ribbon is missing!”

  Rachel nodded. The girls watched anxiously, hoping nothing else would happen, but it soon became clear that Linda and Will had both forgotten their steps. Linda went left when she should have gone right, Will went right when he should have gone left, and they ended up slamming into each other. Then, Linda jumped into Will’s arms and he tried to lift her above his head, but they fell in a tangled heap on the stage.

  The audience looked shocked and the Elvis impersonator rushed out of the wings to help the dazed dancers to their feet. After the three whispered back and forth, Elvis grabbed the microphone again.

  “Linda and Will are going to take a quick break,” he announced, sounding kind of nervous. “They’ll be back for another performance later.”

  Looking embarrassed, Linda and Will fled from the stage as everyone applauded politely. Kirsty and Rachel felt very sorry for them.

  “I don’t understand it!” Uncle John said in confusion, as he put another record on. “Linda and Will are usually amazing! Maybe one of them is feeling sick or something. I’ll just go backstage and make sure they’re OK.” He slipped out from behind the turntables. “Will you girls keep an eye on things for me?” he asked. “I’ll be back before this song is over.”

  The girls nodded and Uncle John rushed away.

  “Poor Linda and Will,” Kirsty said. “This is all because of mean Jack Frost and his goblins!”

  “Hello!” called a tiny, silvery voice just then.

  Rachel grabbed Kirsty’s arm. “Did you hear that?”

  Kirsty nodded. “But where’s it coming from?” she asked, glancing around.

  “I’m down here!” the voice called.

  Rachel and Kirsty looked down at the record players. There, sitting on the edge of the record that was spinning around on the turntable, was a tiny, sparkling fairy.

  “Oh!” Kirsty exclaimed. “It’s Rebecca the Rock ’n’ Roll Fairy!”

  “Hi, girls!” called Rebecca, a smile spreading across her pretty face. She wore a purple scoop-necked shirt, a black skirt embroidered with big pink spots, and a matching pink scarf around her neck. Her long brown hair was tied up in a ponytail, just like Mrs. Tate’s.

  “Hi, Rebecca!” Rachel and Kirsty whispered as the little fairy fluttered daintily off the spinning record.

  “What are you doing here?” added Kirsty eagerly. “Is your ribbon close by?”

  Rebecca nodded. “I think so,” she said in a low voice. “I can feel it, but it can’t be too close. Otherwise, poor Linda and Will wouldn’t have danced so badly.”

  Rachel and Kirsty nodded. They knew that when a magic ribbon was very close by, everyone danced beautifully.

  “Girls, we have to find the ribbon before Linda and Will go back on-stage,” Rebecca said in a determined voice. “Then their rock ’n’ roll dancing will be perfect! Will you help me look for the goblin? He must be around here somewhere.”

  “Of course we will,” Kirsty replied. But just then she saw Uncle John heading back toward them. “Rebecca, here comes my uncle! You’d better hide.”

  Rebecca immediately flew to hide on Rachel’s shoulder behind her hair.

  “Looks like Will and Linda are fine now,” Uncle John said cheerfully. “I just watched them practicing backstage, and they were wonderful! I think they must have had stage fright before.”

  “That’s very strange!” Rebecca whispered to Rachel. “My ribbon’s still missin
g, but Will and Linda are dancing well again. That can only mean one thing …”

  “… the ribbon’s backstage!” Rachel finished in a low voice.

  “Then let’s go backstage right away, and find the goblin!” Kirsty whispered, excited.

  There was a door at the side of the stage and the girls headed toward it, leaving Uncle John to put on another record.

  They were worried that someone might notice them. Luckily, people were too busy chatting and buying refreshments. There were a lot of couples already on the dance floor, including Mr. and Mrs. Tate. But just like Will and Linda, they all kept bumping into each other, stepping on toes, and forgetting their steps.

  “This party will be a disaster if I don’t find my ribbon soon!” Rebecca sighed as Kirsty opened the door.

  Rebecca, Rachel, and Kirsty found Will and Linda practicing their routine in a room behind the stage. The two dancers seemed like a different couple from the clumsy, awkward duo who had performed earlier. Now their kicks and twirls were completely in time and they didn’t make a single mistake.

  “Uncle John was right!” Kirsty said admiringly, as Will flipped Linda high into the air and caught her again. “They’re amazing!”

  “My ribbon is in here somewhere!” Rebecca said eagerly. “I can sense it!”

  Rachel glanced around and suddenly noticed that one of the cabinet doors behind them stood slightly open. As she stared at it, she saw a knobby green foot poke through the opening, just for a second. Then it quickly disappeared again.

  “Kirsty! Rebecca!” Rachel whispered excitedly. “There’s a goblin inside that cabinet!”

  “Are you sure?” Rebecca asked.

  Rachel nodded. “I saw his foot poking out,” she explained.

  “We can’t do anything about the goblin while Will and Linda are here,” Kirsty said. “We’ll have to wait until they’re done practicing.”

  The girls watched as Will and Linda worked on their finale. Will threw Linda up into the air again, where she turned a double-somersault and landed in Will’s arms. They smiled, and next Will helped Linda drop into a split.

  “That’s much better!” Will exclaimed. “I don’t know what went wrong before.”

  “Yes, it was so embarrassing!” Linda groaned.

  “Let’s get something to drink before we go back onstage,” Will suggested. They hurried off, giving the girls a friendly wave as they left.

  Immediately, Rebecca flew out from behind Rachel’s hair. The three friends dashed over to the cabinet.

  “Be careful, Kirsty!” Rachel warned as her friend reached for the door handle. “Remember that Jack Frost has given the goblins freezing powers!”

  Carefully, Kirsty pulled the door open and the girls looked inside. The cabinet was full of music stands, old props from plays, and two goblins squished one behind the other. The goblin in the front was holding a sparkly purple ribbon in his hand.

  When they saw the girls, the goblins both let out loud grunts of annoyance.

  “Go away!” yelled the one with the ribbon, trying to pull the door closed again. “You can’t see us! We’re hiding!”

  The other one scowled, grabbed the head from a horse costume, and pulled it over his own head. “Now you really can’t see me!” he said in a muffled voice. “Go away!”

  But Kirsty shook her head firmly.

  “I’m not going anywhere until I get my magic ribbon back!” Rebecca said, hovering in the doorway.

  The first goblin looked nervous. “Don’t come near me!” he shrieked. “I don’t want to be frozen!”

  Rachel, Kirsty, and Rebecca glanced at each other in confusion.

  “You fool!” the second goblin said, pulling the horse’s head off and poking his friend in the ribs. “We’re the ones who have the power to freeze people — as long as we have a magic ribbon!”

  “Oh yes!” said the first goblin. “I forgot.” Then his face darkened as he looked at his friend. “Don’t you poke me, or I’ll poke you harder!”

  Rachel was staring at the second goblin. “That’s the goblin who stole Bethany’s ballet ribbon!” she whispered to Kirsty.

  “I think he recognized us, too!” Kirsty whispered back as the second goblin glared at them.

  “Never mind me!” he yelled as the first goblin gave him a sharp poke in the ribs. “You should be freezing the pesky fairy and her human friends.”

  “Ooh, yes!” said the first goblin eagerly.

  “I’ll turn you into fairies, girls,” Rebecca called, quickly lifting her wand as the first goblin jumped out of the cabinet at them. “Go on, freeze them all!” The second goblin snickered, tumbling out after his friend.

  A shower of magic dust from Rebecca’s wand swirled around Rachel and Kirsty and transformed them into fairies in the twinkling of an eye. The girls fluttered their glittery wings and flew up into the air, out of the goblin’s reach.

  “Oh, I hate when they do that!” the first goblin said angrily. He started jumping up into the air, swatting at Rachel, Kirsty, and Rebecca. “Freeze!” he shouted again and again, but he missed every time.

  “What do we do now?” Rachel asked as they flew above the goblins’ heads. “We still have to get the ribbon back.”

  “It’s going to be hard with two goblins,” Rebecca said anxiously.

  Kirsty frowned at the two goblins below. The first one was still leaping up and down and shouting, “Freeze!” He didn’t seem to realize the fairies were well out of his reach.

  “Maybe we could get the first goblin to freeze the second one?” she suggested. “We just have to make sure they’re touching each other when the first goblin says ‘Freeze!’”

  “That’s a great idea!” Rebecca said with a big grin. “Let’s trick them into it. On the count of three — one, two, three!”

  Grabbing hands, Rachel, Kirsty, and Rebecca immediately flew down and hovered near the second goblin. With a cry of triumph, the first goblin rushed toward them. The girls waited until the last possible moment, and then zoomed up and out of reach.

  “Freeze!” shouted the first goblin, just as he crashed into his friend.

  Instantly, the second goblin was frozen solid! The first goblin landed on the ground. His frozen friend fell over and landed in his lap. The first goblin looked so shocked, the girls and Rebecca couldn’t help laughing.

  “Oh no!” The first goblin groaned. He pushed his frozen friend off his lap so that he could stand up. Then he stood the second goblin up, too, and examined him carefully. He poked and prodded him. He even tried breathing warm air onto him, but it was no use. The second goblin remained completely frozen, with an expression of surprise on his face.

  “So now we only have one goblin to deal with!” said Rebecca. “How will we make him give my ribbon back?”

  Before the girls could answer, they heard the sound of music coming from the stage behind them. The Elvis impersonator had started singing. The slow, beautiful melody filled the room.

  “Oh!” Kirsty said suddenly, “I know this! It’s a famous Elvis Presley song called Love Me Tender. My dad plays it all the time.”

  “I think the goblin likes it, too!” Rachel whispered.

  The first goblin had stopped trying to thaw out his friend. Instead, he was swaying to the music, his head cocked to one side. There was a look of wonder on his face. “I’ve never heard such beautiful music!” he said with awe, waving the magic ribbon and beginning to dance.

  “He can’t help but dance to rock ’n’ roll music while he’s holding my ribbon.” Rebecca laughed as the goblin danced his way closer to the entrance to the stage. “We’d better follow him, girls!”

  “What about the frozen goblin?” asked Rachel. “We can’t leave him here. Somebody might see him!”

  Rebecca waved her wand. The frozen goblin rose into the air and gently floated into the prop cabinet. Then the door closed behind him. The other goblin was now standing in the wings, still swaying dreamily and watching the Elvis impersonator.
r />   “Love me tender,” the goblin croaked loudly, trying to sing along.

  “He’s a terrible singer!” Rachel whispered.

  “We need to stop him before someone hears!” Kirsty added urgently.

  “Just be careful, because he can still freeze us,” Rebecca warned as they zoomed toward the goblin. “But I think the music has made him forget all about his freezing powers.”

  The girls and Rebecca hovered around the goblin’s head, but he didn’t even notice them until Rebecca tapped him on the shoulder with her wand.

  “It’s better if you just listen,” said Rachel. “Elvis will stop singing if he thinks everyone wants to sing instead of listening to him.”

  The goblin quieted down immediately. “I don’t want him to stop!” He sighed happily.

  “Do you like singing?” asked Kirsty.

  The goblin nodded. “But goblins aren’t any good at singing,” he said in a sad voice. “I think it’s because we don’t have magic singing sticks like the man on the stage.”

  “Magic singing sticks?” Kirsty questioned.

  “Yes, all the best singers have them!” the goblin said impatiently. “I’ve seen them on TV in the human world.”

  “He means a microphone,” Rachel whispered. As she said that, an idea popped into her head. Quickly, she pulled Rebecca and Kirsty aside.

  “It’s clear that the goblin really wants to sing like Elvis,” she pointed out. “Rebecca, do you think you could use your magic to make a microphone that makes anyone who sings into it sound like Elvis? I’m sure the goblin would trade the magic ribbon for that!”