Stardust surprise

STARDUST SURPRISE

Chapter One

Three First Year fairies, one purple, one sky-blue and one yellow-ochre, were sitting together in the great library at Silverlake Fairy School. They were pouring over a large green and silver leather-bound book. Sunshine streamed in through the high-arched window behind them lighting up the pages perfectly. They were doing their task-work, special after school study, that their teacher, Mistress Pipit, had set them. Today she had asked them to find out as much as they could about stardust, in particular, its most important use.

Lila, the purple fairy, was sitting in the middle of the three and keeping her voice low.

“Stardust is collected at the time of the full moon,” she read out.

“That’s when the moon-wind blows its hardest,” whispered Bella, the sky-blue fairy.

“That’s what the book says next,” said Lila, looking up from the page, surprised.

“Bella, you must have remembered that from last year,” said Meggie, the third fairy, brushing her yellow-ochre hair from her eyes. “You’ve a better memory than you thought.”

Of the three Charm One Class fairies, Bella was the only one doing her First Year at Silverlake Fairy School for the second time. She had failed nearly all her exams the previous year.

“One of the nice things about being a First Year twice is when something suddenly pops into your head from last time round,” Bella said. “But the nicest thing of all is having you two as my best friends.”

“And as your best friends we want you to write down every useful fact we find out about stardust,” said Lila, smiling. “Then the information will be at your fingertips ready to be remembered.” She quickly made a note about the moon-wind on her own scroll.