The Music Fairies Collection Read online

  The backdrop that hung behind the goblin showed a winter wonderland scene, with snowy mountain peaks and ice skaters on a frozen lake. The girls could hear the rest of the band shouting through the backdrop to their friend. “How did that happen? Are you all right, buddy?” they called.

  The goblin playing the violin was so wrapped up in his music, he didn’t notice their shouts. He just went on playing! He shut his eyes as he picked out the melody.

  “Charles might be back anytime,” Rachel remembered. “Do you think we should close the main curtains, too? That way, the goblin with the violin will be trapped between the curtains and the scenery, and Charles won’t be able to see what’s happening if he walks in.”

  “Good idea,” Victoria said, waving her wand. Red sparkles crackled from its tip, and glittery fairy magic streamed all over the heavy, velvety curtains. Moments later, the curtains had magically swung closed in front of the goblin.

  Kirsty, Rachel, and Victoria went quietly onto the stage, being careful not to disturb the musician. “You’d better stay out of sight,” Kirsty told Victoria.

  “We’ll have a better chance of getting the violin if the goblin doesn’t know you’re with us.”

  “You’re right,” Victoria said, tucking herself into Kirsty’s pocket. “I’ll hide in here.”

  Just as her glittery wings vanished from view, the goblin stopped playing and opened his eyes. Then he blinked and stared around in confusion. Even with the light shining down on him, it was much darker on the stage now that the curtains were closed.

  “Bravo!” Kirsty shouted loudly, trying to drown out the cries of the other goblins behind the backdrop. “Fantastic!”

  Rachel clapped as hard as she could. “That was wonderful,” she agreed, stepping closer to the goblin.

  The goblin bowed, but as he did, he noticed the snowy backdrop behind him and straightened up immediately. Looking puzzled, he shivered. “How did I get outside?” he wondered in confusion. “Are my friends hiding in the snow?”

  “It’s just scenery,” Kirsty replied, thinking quickly. “You’re not really outside. We’re … we’re the stagehands, you see. The scenery panel fell down by mistake. Sorry about that! I’ll hold the violin for you while you go under it, if you want.”

  Rachel was impressed by her friend’s quick wits, and backed her up at once. “Yes, your friends are right on the other side of this picture,” she added.

  The violin-playing goblin looked from Kirsty to Rachel to the backdrop, still frowning. “Hey, you guys! Are you there?” he shouted. “I’ll be there in a minute. Stay where you are.” Then he looked down at his violin and clutched it a little tighter. “I’ll hold on to this, though,” he told the girls snobbily. “It’s a very valuable instrument, this violin of mine.”

  “Hmnph!” sniffed Victoria from her hiding place in Kirsty’s pocket. Kirsty guessed that she didn’t like the way the goblin had said that the violin belonged to him.

  Rachel pretended she was struggling to raise the backdrop. “It’s … very … heavy,” she panted, letting it fall again. “We won’t be able to lift it very high. I’m afraid you’re going to have to crawl on the floor to get under it.”

  The goblin looked appalled. “Crawl?” he echoed. “World-class musicians don’t crawl, thank you very much! Don’t you know who you’re talking to? The future winner of the National Talent Competition, that’s who!” He drew himself up to his full height, and puffed out his chest. “Besides, I can’t crawl through there with my violin,” he went on. “It might get scratched or damaged — and I can’t let that happen.”

  “Well, that’s why I offered to hold it for you,” Kirsty said. “And then, once you’re safely on the other side, I’ll pass it to you. I promise I’ll be careful.”

  The goblin considered this for a moment, but then shook his head. “No,” he said, holding the violin protectively against his chest. “I can’t risk it. I don’t want anyone else touching my precious violin.”

  “His precious violin!” Victoria muttered angrily from Kirsty’s pocket. Kirsty had to pretend to cough so that the goblin wouldn’t hear the fairy.

  The goblin edged slowly toward the backdrop. “I’m going to put my violin down on the floor, crawl under the scenery backward, then pick it up when I’m on the other side,” he decided. Then he glared at the girls. “And you’d better not try any funny business,” he added suspiciously. “I’ll be keeping a close eye on you!”

  “Of course,” Rachel said politely, although her mind was whirling. How were they going to get the violin?

  Then, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a cardboard box full of instruments at the side of the stage. Someone had written WETHERBURY COLLEGE ORCHESTRA on the side of the box, and there, on the top, was a violin. Rachel’s eyes grew wide with surprise the moment she saw it. What a stroke of luck! It gave her an idea that just might work….

  “Victoria,” she whispered, moving closer to Kirsty so that she could get the little fairy’s attention, “could you use your magic to turn out the lights when the goblin puts down his violin? We might be able to arrange a swap in the dark.”

  Victoria peeked over the edge of Kirsty’s pocket. Her eyes brightened when she followed Rachel’s gesture and saw the second violin. “No problem,” Victoria whispered back, giving a thumbs-up sign. “Good thinking, Rachel!”

  Kirsty grabbed ahold of the scenery backdrop and looked at the goblin. “Ready when you are,” she said to him. Rachel, meanwhile, slipped over to the box of instruments and hid the ordinary violin behind her back.

  The goblin put the magic violin on the floor and got down on his hands and knees. Rachel took a step closer to him, and he scowled. “You stay there,” he ordered her. “I don’t trust either of you!”

  Rachel stopped obediently, and the goblin began to crawl backward under the backdrop. As soon as his head was through, Victoria quickly waved her wand — and the lights went out!

  The stage plunged into darkness. “What’s happening?” the goblin yelled furiously, but Rachel had no time to answer. Her heart pounding, she reached down to where the goblin had left the magic violin and grabbed it, skillfully exchanging it for the ordinary one. Quickly, she stepped away again — just as she heard the goblin reaching around on the floor. “Here it is!” she heard him say, his voice muffled.

  There was a faint clattering as he dragged the ordinary violin under the backdrop. “Ha!” the girls and Victoria heard him shout triumphantly. “You might have tried to trick me, turning off the lights like that, but I’ve still got my violin!”

  “Oh, no he doesn’t,” Rachel whispered, stumbling through the darkness back to Kirsty and Victoria. “It’s right here!” Victoria flicked on the lights again with a wave of her wand, and Kirsty, who’d been holding up the scenery panel, let it drop as she saw that the goblin had vanished on the other side. Victoria clapped her hands in delight at the sight of her magic violin in Rachel’s hand. “Wonderful!” she cheered, fluttering over joyfully. “That worked perfectly, girls!”

  The sound of a goblin’s voice came through the backdrop loud and clear as he spoke to his friends. “There were some girls over there who were trying to trick me into giving them the magic violin. But don’t worry!” he said. “I didn’t fall for their silly tricks — I’ve still got it right here.”

  Then came the sound of violin-playing — a completely tuneless, scraping noise that made Victoria cover her ears. The music from the ordinary violin wasn’t awful — it was still close enough to Victoria’s magic violin to prevent that — but it didn’t sound anything like the gorgeous, moving music the goblin had played earlier.

  “That’s not right,” the girls heard him say, sounding confused. There was a long pause, and then the truth dawned on him. “Hey! I have been tricked. Those girls stole my violin!”

  “Let’s get it back!” came a furious shout from another goblin. “Quick!”

  The girls gasped as they saw goblin arms and legs appear under
the backdrop. The goblin band was trying to scramble underneath the scenery!

  Kirsty and Rachel both tugged at the velvet curtains at the front of the stage, trying to escape. But the material was thick and hung in gathered folds, and neither of them could find the opening.

  “Victoria, help!” Kirsty cried, full of panic. “We’re going to be trapped!”

  Victoria tossed a handful of fairy dust over the girls, and they immediately shrank down to fairy size. So did the magic violin, which was still in Rachel’s grasp. “Follow me,” Victoria called out, quickly beating her wings so she flew straight up in the air.

  Kirsty and Rachel copied her, zooming upward just as the goblins crawled under the backdrop, tumbling to the center of the stage.

  Victoria waved her wand at the curtains, and they swung open just wide enough for the three fairy friends to fly through. Kirsty looked over her shoulder to see the curtains close themselves again. Then, lumps appeared in the material as the goblins tried to fight their way through to the front of the stage.

  “This is all YOUR fault!” one yelled. “Why did you let those girls get the violin?”

  “They tricked me — how was I supposed to know?” came the angry reply.

  “Jack Frost will be furious when he hears about this!” a third goblin wailed. “Now we’ll have to go back and break the news to him.”

  The curtains went still and there was some angry muttering, but Kirsty and Rachel couldn’t make out the words. Then came the sound of the goblins stomping away, still bickering with one another.

  The girls and Victoria held their breath for a few minutes, but the auditorium was silent.

  “I think they’re gone,” Victoria said in relief. She led the girls to perch on one of the auditorium seats. Her eyes shone with happiness as Rachel handed over the magic violin. Blue sparkles flashed all around it, and Victoria smiled. “Thank you so much,” she said gratefully. “Now that I have my violin again, music will sound even better throughout Fairyland and in your world.” She rested the violin under her chin and played a few notes, and Kirsty and Rachel smiled in delight at the beautiful melody.

  “I’d better turn you back to your normal size now,” Victoria said, and waved her wand over them both. The air was filled with glittering fairy magic. Kirsty and Rachel found themselves getting bigger and bigger, until they towered over Victoria as girls again.

  “I guess we’d better keep an eye out for Charles,” Kirsty said. “It’s almost time for us to go home.”

  “Let me just tidy up first,” Victoria said, pointing her wand at the stage and mumbling some magic words. The curtains swung open to reveal the backdrop lifting back up to the roof of the stage, and the ordinary violin flying back to the instrument box. “There,” she said. “Thanks again. And please watch for the magic saxophone. It’s the only instrument Jack Frost has now, so he’ll be guarding it closely.”

  “We’ll be on the lookout,” Rachel promised. “Bye, Victoria. That was fun!”

  “Bye, girls,” the fairy said. “Now I’ll take my violin back to Fairyland where it belongs!” With a flurry of violin music, she disappeared.

  Just then, the auditorium doors opened and Charles came in. “What happened to the band?” he asked, seeing the empty stage.

  Kirsty and Rachel exchanged glances. “They had to go,” Rachel replied truthfully.

  “I was actually just talking to your dad on the phone,” Charles said. “He’s coming to pick you up.”

  “Thanks, Charles,” Kirsty said. “I really enjoyed listening to the music.”

  The two friends went out to the parking lot to meet Mr. Tate. “I can’t believe the National Talent Competition is tomorrow,” Rachel said as they walked. “We have to find the magic saxophone as soon as possible.”

  Kirsty nodded. “We have to stop Jack Frost from winning the competition,” she added. “I think we’re in for another fairy busy day, Rachel!”

  The Competition Begins

  Green Factory

  Ice Rap

  I’m a Celebrity!

  Shiny Saxophone

  First Place Goes to …

  “We’d better hurry, Kirsty,” Rachel Walker said to her best friend, Kirsty Tate, as they jumped out of the car. “The talent competition is going to start soon!”

  The girls waved at Mrs. Tate, who had just dropped them off. Then they hurried into the New Harmony Mall.

  “Good afternoon, everyone,” said a voice over the loudspeaker system as the girls went inside. “The auditions for the National Talent Competition are about to start, so please make your way to the north end of the mall.”

  Rachel and Kirsty glanced at each other as they wove their way through the crowd.

  “There are lots of people here,” Kirsty said anxiously. “I hope we find Sadie’s magic saxophone before Frosty and his Gobolicious Band take the stage!”

  The girls had been asked by their friends, the Music Fairies, to help them find their seven magic musical instruments, which had been stolen from Fairyland’s Royal School of Music by Jack Frost and his goblins. The instruments were very important — they made music joyful and harmonious for everyone in both the human and fairy worlds. Since the instruments had gone missing, music everywhere had been ruined!

  But Jack Frost had his own plans for the magic instruments. Along with his goblins, he had formed a pop group called Frosty and his Gobolicious Band. He intended to use the instruments’ magical powers to win first place in the National Talent Competition. Rachel and Kirsty had managed to return six of the instruments to Fairyland, but they were still looking for Sadie’s saxophone. Time was running out!

  “I’m so worried that Jack Frost and the goblins are going to win the competition,” Rachel confided to Kirsty as they hurried toward the stage at one end of the mall. “If Frosty and his Gobolicious Band win the recording contract with MegaBig Records, it won’t be long before everyone finds out about the existence of Fairyland!”

  “I know,” Kirsty agreed. “And even though Jack Frost only has one of the magic instruments left, its magic is so powerful that he could still win the competition!” At that moment, a man wearing a snazzy suit came onstage to loud applause.

  “Good afternoon, and welcome to the first round of the National Talent Competition,” he announced.

  “We have some fantastic acts for you to enjoy. Our judges will select the best four, and those acts will go on to this afternoon’s LIVE, televised show!”

  There were whoops of excitement from the audience.

  “The first band to perform is Green Factory,” the emcee went on. “While they get ready, let me introduce you to our distinguished judges ….”

  “Green Factory!” Kirsty whispered to Rachel with excitement. “That sounds like the perfect name for a goblin band!”

  “Maybe Jack Frost changed the name from Frosty and his Gobolicious Band so we wouldn’t recognize it,” Rachel suggested. “Let’s get a closer look at Green Factory, Kirsty!”

  The girls tried to edge their way closer to the stage, but there were so many people that they didn’t get very far. They had to stand on tiptoe to look over the heads of the crowd in front of them. Then they could only catch glimpses of Green Factory at the side of the stage, tuning up their instruments.

  “They’re all very short, Rachel,” Kirsty pointed out. “And they’re dressed in green!”

  Rachel nodded. The band members were wearing emerald-green pants, T-shirts, and baseball caps.

  “Remember how Jack Frost cast a spell to make his goblins the size of boys and take the green out of their skin?” Rachel whispered. “The Green Factory musicians look exactly the right size to be goblins!”

  “I spotted something else, too!” Kirsty gasped. She pointed to where the stage lights were shining on a bright gold musical instrument. “Rachel, they have a saxophone!”

  “So Green Factory could be Jack Frost’s band!” Rachel exclaimed.

  “Let’s go backstage,” Kirsty suggest
ed. “We may be able to find Sadie’s saxophone before Green Factory performs!”

  The girls rushed backstage. There were lots of people milling around, so no one noticed Rachel and Kirsty slip into the wings.

  “Now what?” Rachel whispered.

  Kirsty was staring closely at the members of Green Factory. “Rachel, they aren’t goblins!” she exclaimed. “The person with the saxophone is Courtney Lewis — she’s my friend from school!”

  “Oh!” Rachel looked disappointed. “I really thought we’d found Sadie’s saxophone!”

  Just then, Courtney glanced over. She looked upset, but smiled when she spotted Kirsty.

  “Hey,” Courtney called. “What are you doing here, Kirsty?”

  “We came to wish you good luck,” Kirsty replied, thinking fast. “This is my friend Rachel.”

  “Hello.” Courtney smiled at Rachel. “Meet the rest of Green Factory — Katie, Jess, Molly, and Emma.”

  The girls grinned at Rachel and Kirsty.

  “Are you nervous about performing today, Courtney?” Kirsty asked. “You looked a little upset.”

  “Well, I’ve been practicing really hard, but my saxophone sounds awful!” Courtney sighed. “I don’t know what’s wrong with it.”

  Rachel and Kirsty shared a secret glance. They knew exactly why Courtney’s saxophone didn’t sound right.

  It was because Jack Frost still had the last magic musical instrument — the saxophone!

  “We’re cutting my sax solo from our performance,” Courtney went on. “I’m the lead singer, so I’ll still get to perform, but we won’t have a chance of winning if I play my saxophone. The audience would definitely try to plug their ears!”