Fairy in Waiting Read online

  Also by Sophie Kinsella

  Finding Audrey

  THE SHOPAHOLIC SERIES

  Shopaholic to the Stars

  Confessions of a Shopaholic

  Shopaholic Takes Manhattan

  Shopaholic Ties the Knot

  Shopaholic & Sister

  Shopaholic & Baby

  Mini Shopaholic

  OTHER NOVELS

  Surprise Me

  My Not So Perfect Life

  I’ve Got Your Number

  Can You Keep a Secret?

  The Undomestic Goddess

  Remember Me?

  Twenties Girl

  Wedding Night

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2018 by Sophie Kinsella

  Cover art copyright © 2018 by Marta Kissi

  Interior illustrations copyright © 2018 by Marta Kissi

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. Originally published in the UK by Puffin Books in 2018.

  Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Visit us on the Web! rhcbooks.com

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  Hardcover ISBN 9781524769918

  Ebook ISBN 9781524769925

  Random House Children’s Books

  supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v5.4

  a

  For Phoebe and Saskia

  Cover

  Also by Sophie Kinsella

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Meet Fairy Mom and Me

  Fairy Spell #1: MONKERIDOO!

  Fairy Spell #2: STOPERIDOO!

  Fairy Spell #3: SPRINKLERIDOO!

  Fairy Spell #4: FLYERIDOO!

  Family Activity Guide

  About the Author

  Hi. My name is Ella Brook and I live in a town called Cherrywood with my mom, my dad and my baby brother, Ollie. I have blue eyes and dark brown hair. My best friends at school are Tom and Lenka. My worst enemy is Zoe. She lives next door and she’s my Not-Best Friend. She is the meanest girl ever. She looks mean even when she smiles.

  Everything in my life seems normal, but my family has a special secret that I’m not allowed to tell anyone, even my friends. My mom looks like any other mom…but she’s not a regular mom. Because she can turn into a fairy.

  All she has to do is stamp her feet three times, clap her hands, wiggle her behind and say, “Marshmallow,”…and POOF! She’s Fairy Mom. Then if she says, “Toffee apple,” she’s just Mom again.

  My Aunty Jo and Granny are fairies too. They can all fly and turn invisible and do real magic. And Mom and Aunty Jo also have a really cool wand called a Computawand V5. It has magic powers and a computer screen and an Extra-Fast Magic button. And it has Fairy Apps and Fairy Mail and Fairy Games.

  The problem is that Mom…well…she is not that good at doing magic spells, even though she works really hard at her magic lessons on FairyTube with Fairy Fenella. But one day she’s going to get everything right. And one day, when I’m grown up, I’ll be a fairy like she is. I’ll have sparkly wings and my own Computawand.

  Until then, Mom says I just have to wait. So that’s what I am. A Fairy in Waiting.

  One day I was watching Fairy Mom learning magic from Fenella, her Fairy Tutor on FairyTube. She was learning a weather spell called Raineridoo. I was watching from under a regular umbrella while my mom practiced with one that floated in the air. I really wanted a magic umbrella too, but at least I got to watch.

  “You can use lots of different spells to stop the rain,” Fenella said on the computer screen. “Try ‘Normeridoo’ with the code four-five-two. It’s a very useful spell.”

  My mom pressed 4-5-2 on her Computawand and said, “Normeridoo!” and the rain stopped instantly.

  After my mom had finished the lesson and turned back into a regular mom, I sighed.

  “What’s wrong, Ella?” she asked.

  “I’m tired of being a Fairy in Waiting,” I said. “I want to be a real fairy and do real magic and save the day.”

  Mom laughed. “Every little fairy girl feels that way,” she said. “I promise you’ll get your chance when you’re older. Now, what can we do to cheer you up?”

  “Go roller-skating with Lenka and Tom?” I said. “They’re meeting at the park.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Mom said. “I forgot that we’re going to lunch with Dad’s boss, Mr. Lee. But that will be fun too!”

  I didn’t believe her. Then Dad came in.

  “Time to get ready for the lunch,” he said. “Mr. Lee is very important, so we must make a good impression.”

  Now I knew the lunch wouldn’t be fun.

  I put on my best dress, and my mom did my hair. She was trying to do French braids, but Ollie kept pulling her arm and she kept dropping pieces of hair.

  “Be good, Ollie!” I said, but I don’t think Ollie knows what “good” means.

  “Right,” Dad said, walking in. He was wearing his fanciest suit and a blue polka-dot tie. “Are we all ready? Let’s get in the car.”

  Mom reached for a ribbon, then dropped a piece of my hair again. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “I think I need some help.” She stamped her feet three times, clapped her hands, wiggled her behind and said, “Marshmallow,”…and POOF! She was a fairy.

  When my mom turns into a fairy, she still looks like herself but even more beautiful. The sunlight was gleaming on her wings, and her dress was all sparkly and her silver crown shimmered.

  She waved her Computawand, pressed a code—bleep-bleep-bloop—and said, “Braidseridoo!”

  A moment later, my hair was in the neatest, most beautiful braids I’d ever seen, tied with red ribbons in bows.

  “Mom!” I said. “These are so pretty! You’re the best! Look, Dad!”

  But when I looked at Dad, I gasped. Normally he has short brown hair. But now he had long brown braids with pink bows.

  I turned and saw that Mom had long braids too. Even Ollie had long braids. We all had braids.

  “What?” Dad said in horror when he saw his braids in the mirror. “What have you done to me? I look like Ella!”

  “Oops,” Mom said. “I don’t know how that happened. I’m sure I said the right spell.”

  She quickly scrolled through the Spell App on her Computawand, then stopped and said, “Here it is.” She pressed in a code and said, “Haireridoo!”

  Suddenly we all had normal hair again.

  But Dad was still frowning. “This lunch is important,” he said. “I don’t want anything to go wrong. So I have a special rule for today: no magic.”

  “No magic?” Mom said.

  “That’s right,” Dad said. He sounded very firm. “No magic.”

  * * *

  * * *

  —

  On the way to Mr. Lee’s house, Mom didn’t do any magic. Even when the GPS system wasn’t working and we got lost, Mom didn’t do a spell. She just asked a nice lady on the street for directions instead.

/>   When we got to Mr. Lee’s house, we saw that it was very big, with a huge garden and woods in the backyard. Mrs. Lee showed me, Mom and Ollie the garden while Dad and Mr. Lee were talking.

  In the backyard there was a wooden perch for a bird, but it was empty.

  “Do you have a pet bird?” I asked, and Mrs. Lee started blinking. She had tears in her eyes.

  “Oh no!” Mom said “Are you all right, Mrs. Lee? What’s happened?”

  “I have a parrot called Ben,” said Mrs. Lee. “I love him very much. But he’s flown away! He’s never done that before. I think he was getting bored.” She looked even sadder. “Anyway, why don’t you two stay out here and enjoy the fresh air while I finish cooking lunch. It’s almost ready.”

  Mrs. Lee took a tissue from her pocket and blew her nose and went into the kitchen to finish cooking lunch.

  When Mrs. Lee walked inside, I could smell something yummy cooking. But I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. Mrs. Lee was a very kind lady, and if I had a parrot as a pet, I wouldn’t want it to fly away.

  “Do you want to play, Ella?” Mom asked.

  “No,” I said. “I want to find Mrs. Lee’s parrot for her.”

  “I agree,” Mom said. “Let’s go look.”

  We searched all the flower beds and trees. But we couldn’t see a parrot anywhere. Then we looked at the wood at the edge of the garden.

  “Maybe Ben flew into the woods,” I said. “We’ll never find him.”

  “It’s no use,” Mom said. “We’ll have to use magic.”

  “But Dad said we can’t,” I reminded her.

  “Right.” Mom thought for a moment. “I think he meant ‘No magic unless there’s a lost parrot.’ I’ll be super careful. No one will know.”

  “Mom, can I do the magic?” I begged. “Please?”

  Mom smiled but shook her head no. “You know you’re a Fairy in Waiting, Ella. But you can still help me. Make sure no one can see us.”

  I checked carefully, but we were alone. Then Mom stamped her feet three times, clapped her hands, wiggled her behind and said, “Marshmallow,”…and POOF! She was a fairy.

  She pressed her Computawand—bleep-bleep-bloop—and said, “Beneridoo! Finderidoo! Flyeridoo!” Then she grabbed my hand.

  The next minute we were flying through the air. It felt really cold and whooshy. The ground seemed very far away, so I held on to Mom tightly. We flew into the woods and landed under a tree. Then we heard a sound. Squawk!

  “The parrot is in the tree!” I said. “We found Ben! What do we do now?”

  “We can’t startle him,” Mom said, “or he may fly away. I’ll fly up very slowly and try to catch him.”

  I watched her rise up into the air very quietly, but then I heard that sound again: squawk!

  “Ben saw me,” Mom called down, “and he’s flown to another branch. He’s a very sneaky parrot. Ella, your time to help has come. Are you ready?”

  “Yes!” I said. “What do I do?”

  “I think you should climb the tree. Between us, we can catch him.”

  I looked up at the tree. It was very tall, with big branches.

  “Don’t worry, Ella,” Mom said, her eyes twinkling. “I’ll give you some magic help. You’ll need super-strong legs.”

  “Okay!” I said, feeling excited. Maybe I couldn’t do magic spells yet—but I could still catch Ben and save the day.

  Mom pressed a code on her Computawand—bleep-bleep-bloop. “Climberidoo!” she shouted.

  I looked at my legs to see if they were getting stronger yet. They were changing. But they were also getting very brown and hairy. My arms were brown and hairy too.

  I turned to Mom for help, but then I screamed. She had turned into a monkey—which meant I was one too! Ollie stared up at us with his big blue eyes.

  “Mom!” I said in a monkey voice. “You’ve turned us both into monkeys!”

  “Oops,” Mom said—and she had a monkey voice too. “I don’t know how that happened.” She put down the Computawand, jumped up on a branch and swung by her tail. “Hey, look what I can do.”

  “I want to try!” I said. “Monkeridoo!” I jumped up too, and we both swung by our tails. I hurried to the top of the tallest tree, but I still couldn’t see Ben the parrot. Then I leaped to another tree and swung by my tail again. Being a monkey was fun.

  Suddenly we heard Mrs. Lee calling for us. I gasped.

  “Mom, it’s lunchtime!” I said. “Quick, change us back to people!”

  “Where did my Computawand go?” Mom asked. “And where’s Ollie?”

  Then we saw him. He was crawling off through the woods, holding the Computawand.

  “Oh no!” Mom cried. “Chase him!”

  We chased Ollie on our monkey paws, and Mom had almost reached him when Mrs. Lee appeared through the trees. Mom dived behind a bush and pulled me with her. I was breathing very fast. I didn’t want Mrs. Lee to see us and freak out because there were monkeys in her backyard.

  “Hello, young man,” Mrs. Lee said to Ollie. “What are you doing out here all alone? Did you wander off?”

  She looked around for Mom and me, but we kept very still behind the bush.

  “Weezi-weezi-weezi!” Ollie said, pointing toward the bush, but Mrs. Lee couldn’t understand him. I was very glad Ollie couldn’t talk.

  “That’s a very stylish phone,” Mrs. Lee said, and she took the Computawand from him. Luckily, it had turned itself off, so now it looked like a normal phone.

  “This must belong to your mom. Let’s go and have some lunch.” And she carried Ollie away, toward the lunch table in the garden.

  Mom and I looked at each other. This was awful! What could we do? We were monkeys, and Mrs. Lee had the Computawand.

  “We need to get the Computawand back,” Mom said. “Otherwise we’ll be monkeys forever. Follow me, Ella. And when we see the others, pretend to be a real monkey. Do monkey things. Go bananas.”

  “Go bananas?” I said. “Act wild on purpose?”

  “Yes,” Mom said, and her monkey eyes twinkled. “Just this once you can get into as much trouble as you want.”

  We snuck through the garden and up to the lunch table. Mrs. Lee was the first to see us, and she gasped.

  Mom leaped onto the table. “Ooh-ooh-ooh-ah-ah!” she cried, and threw a bread roll at Mr. Lee. Then she put her monkey fingers up Dad’s nose, and he sprang from the table. Mr. and Mrs. Lee screamed.

  I jumped on the table and screeched. I ran up and down. Then I played with Mrs. Lee’s hair and stuck out my tongue at her. Mr. Lee jumped up and tried to catch me.

  “Help!” Mrs. Lee cried. “Did they come from the zoo?”

  “Maybe the circus!” Mr. Lee yelled back.

  I started throwing salad around. Then I saw Dad. He was looking straight at me. He looked at the Computawand on the table, and then at Mom.

  He knew it was us.

  “Ooh-ooh-ooh-ah-ah,” I said to him. I pointed to the Computawand with my monkey paw. What I meant was Give us the Computawand quick, Dad!

  Dad understood. He picked up the Computawand and waved it at Mom as if he was trying to shoo her away.

  “Go away, monkey,” he said. “Go away.”

  Mom grabbed the Computawand and ran away.

  Mrs. Lee gasped. “That monkey stole your phone!”

  “Don’t worry,” Dad said. “I’ll chase it.”

  Mom and I ran off into the woods, and Dad ran after us. He looked very mad.

  “I thought I said no magic,” Dad said. “That’s what we agreed. All I wanted was to have a nice, simple lunch. And now look—you’re monkeys.”

  “I’m sorry,” Mom said. “We were trying to find Mrs. Lee’s lost parrot. I’ll change us back. No problemo.”

  She waved her Computawand, pressed a code—bleep-bleep-bloop—and said, “Unmonkeridoo!”

  I cou
ld feel the spell working. My hairy legs were changing and I was getting taller. A lot taller. And bigger.

  “What did you do?” Dad shouted.

  I looked down and gasped. I wasn’t a monkey anymore. I had tusks! And great big feet! I was an elephant! And so was Mom!

  I picked an apple off a tree with my trunk and gave it to Dad. Being an elephant was fun too.

  But then I started to worry that Mom couldn’t change me back into a girl. How could I be an elephant forever? I wouldn’t be able to go to school. I would sit on my chair and it would break. I decided I really, really didn’t want to be an elephant.

  “Mom!” I said in a trumpety elephant voice. “Do another spell!”

  “Oops,” Mom said, and her voice was trumpety too. “Sorry about that. Let me try again.” She tried to use her trunk to press in another code, but the Computawand fell to the ground. “This is tricky,” she said. “How do elephants press buttons?”

  “They don’t do magic,” Dad said with a sigh. He picked up the Computawand and held it out in front of Mom. This time, she managed to press the code—bleep-bleep-bloop.

  “Unelephanteridoo!” she trumpeted.

  The magic was working again. I was getting shorter and shorter. I wasn’t an elephant anymore…but I wasn’t a girl either.

  I was a penguin. And so was Mom.

  “Penguins?” Dad said, staring at me and Mom. “Penguins? This is ridiculous!”

  “I don’t know how that happened,” Mom said in a penguin bark.

  I tried to walk to Mom, but I could only waddle. I really didn’t want to be a penguin. I would have to go and live in the snow and only eat fish.