Fairy School Drop-out (5 page)

At first the Space-Case waited patiently beside Elly, but then it started nudging her arm to get her attention. It bumped her so hard that the remaining stardust billowed into the air and floated away. Elly slammed down the wand.

‘Just go AWAY!' she yelled angrily, and the Space-Case rose quickly into the air. Elly realised what she'd said.

‘No! Stop! Stop!' she cried, waving her arms in the air. But it was too late. The Space-Case had already flown straight out the open window.

Elly rushed over to see where it went, imagining all kinds of terrible things. The Space-Case might fly all the way to Siberia. Or it might run out of power while over an ocean. Or it might get sucked into a black hole.

But then something much, much worse happened. Something so dreadful that Elly stared with her mouth open, unable to speak. The Space-Case sailed over the fence and straight into the open window of the new neighbours' house.

Chapter Six

E
lly wasn't crazy about her sister in the way that everyone else seemed to be. She didn't go gooey over Kara's little hands and she wasn't impressed by her strange, toothless smiles. Plus, she was tired of all her hankies being full of baby-drool. Elly's life had been much better before Kara arrived.

So you might think that Elly would've been quite happy when Kara disappeared over the fence. But she wasn't. In fact, she was very upset. And it wasn't just because she knew she was going to be in big trouble when her parents found out what had happened. Something very strange had happened to Elly the moment Kara was out of sight: she started to miss her sister. Even though Kara could be annoying, she was also kind of fun. And besides, Kara was the only person Elly knew who was always happy to see her, no matter what. Elly couldn't imagine what it'd be like to come home and not hear Kara coo delightedly. So Elly didn't think twice about what to do.

Without even checking to see if the coast was clear, Elly grabbed her wand and flew over the neighbours' fence. She balanced for a moment on the ledge of the window she'd seen the Space-Case vanish into, and peered cautiously through the curtains. The Space-Case was wedged on top of a wardrobe in the far corner of the room.

No humans seemed to be around, so Elly dropped onto the floor. She'd never been inside a human house before, although she'd seen pictures of them in her Human Studies classes. She recognised this as a bedroom, but it was very different to the fairy version. For a start, the bed was at ground level rather than hanging from the ceiling. Then when Elly sat on the chair, she was surprised that it didn't automatically adjust to her shape and height. Even more surprising was the floor rug that stayed put rather than constantly trying to sneak below her feet.

Something sparkly caught her eye. Stuck to the back of the door were hundreds of stickers of all different sizes and shapes. There were pandas and flowers, birds and rainbows. There was a row of butterflies, each slightly smaller than the one in front. Elly couldn't stop staring. She'd heard about stickers before but had never actually seen one. Everything in a fairy house is so shiny that stickers would simply refuse to stay stuck.

Just then Elly heard Kara make a sound and she suddenly remembered why she was there. Quickly, she flew up to the Space-Case and looked inside. To her relief Kara was fast asleep and snoring. Now all she had to do was remove the case and fly back home before anyone found them here.

Elly gave the Space-Case a tug but it was wedged in tight! The tug woke Kara up, and when she saw her sister she started banging excitedly on the side of the case. The Space-Case moved a little bit. Elly bit her lip. She'd have to be careful. If the case became unwedged when she wasn't ready, it might crash to the ground. Elly looked around for something to help with the un-wedging and felt a sharp jabbing pain in her side. Her wand.

If I was a better fairy I could use this to fix
everything,
she thought, pulling the wand out of her belt. She was about to throw the wand on the ground when she had a thought. Maybe she
could
use the wand after all, but just not in the same way another fairy might use it. Carefully, she stuck the star part of the wand beneath the Space-Case and wiggled it gently, until slowly but surely the case started to come free.

It was hard work and Elly's arm soon began aching. Inside the case Kara giggled and smiled as if this was all part of a game. With a loud creak, the Space-Case finally came loose. It teetered for a moment on the edge of the wardrobe, then it slipped through Elly's hands and hurtled towards the floor.

‘Fly to the bed!' she shouted in her most commanding voice. Her heart was pounding. The Space-Case screeched to a halt only centimetres from the ground, then much to Elly's relief started to rise again. Moments later it came to rest gently on the bed. Elly flew down beside it and unclipped the top. Out popped Kara.

‘I'm
sooo
glad to see you!' said Elly, lifting her out and hugging her.

‘Thanks!' said a voice. Elly looked at Kara in surprise. When did she learn to speak? Then the voice added, ‘I'm happy to see you, too ... except I don't know who you are.'

Elly spun around. Standing in the doorway was the human girl she'd glimpsed through the window the other day. Her arms were crossed and she had closed the door behind her. Elly gulped.

This is going to be very tricky to explain
, she thought.

Chapter Seven

T
here is a chapter in the Fairy Code about what to do if a human catches you in their house. This is what it says:

This is such an important rule that it takes up an entire page all of its own.

On the next page it goes on to say:

These rules are so important that they appear everywhere in fairy schools. They are written on all the blackboards and they are printed on every school bag. Fairies are made to recite them every morning at assembly. Even Elly knew them off by heart. So when she saw the human girl standing in the doorway she was horrified to realise that she'd already managed to break most of the rules.

Elly's mind started ticking over the various ways she could deal with this situation. The first thing she thought of was grabbing Kara and flying out the window, and pretending none of this actually happened. But there were some problems with this plan. The human girl would probably watch where Elly went and then she'd tell everyone she lived next to a fairy. Elly's next idea was to make up a lie about what she was doing in her neighbours' house. But what lie could she possibly concoct that explained her wings, her sister's wings and the Space-Case? Elly would need a week to think of a way to explain all that.

So this left Elly with only one option: tell the truth.

She didn't really like this option, especially as she vaguely remembered hearing that once you reveal your true identity to a human you had to be their servant forever. But Elly had run out of ideas. Maybe not all humans knew about the ‘servant forever' bit.

Elly looked at the girl and smiled nervously. ‘I guess you want me to tell you what I'm doing here,' she said.

The girl didn't smile back. ‘That would be nice,' she replied.

Elly took a deep breath. The quicker she got this over with the better.

‘I'm a fairy,' she said, in a rush. Then she waited for the girl to start squealing and jumping around with excitement. But the girl stayed exactly where she was. Elly was puzzled. Perhaps she hadn't heard her.

‘I'm a fairy,' repeated Elly loudly, waving her wand in the air, ‘and my sister here is a fairy too. She accidentally flew over here in a suitcase and I flew in after her.' Elly looked at the girl. Surely she'd heard that.

The girl looked at her thoughtfully.

‘Are you going to fly back through my window when you leave?' she said eventually.

‘Probably,' said Elly cautiously. It seemed like a weird question. Maybe the girl was waiting for all of her little human friends to come over so they could squeeze her to death together.

The girl went over to the window and opened it as wide as she could. Then she faced Elly. ‘OK then,' she said, pointing at the window. ‘Let's see you do it.'

Elly couldn't believe it. She had been warned over and over that if a human caught you they'd never stop pestering you for wishes. But it seemed like this girl just wanted Elly to leave. It just didn't make sense.

Then something dawned on Elly. ‘You don't believe I'm a fairy, do you?' she said to the girl.

The girl shrugged. ‘I'll believe you when you fly out the window.'

Fine
, thought Elly.
If that's what I have
to do
.

She stood on the edge of the bed and leapt into the air, arms outstretched.
This should set
things straight pretty quickly.
Elly rose up into the air ... ... and promptly fell to the floor. Elly remembered the zucchini biscuits she'd eaten. If you fly too soon after eating, you sometimes get a cramp.