Rita the Frog Princess Fairy
Page 2
“Then figure it out!” said Jack Frost. “In the fairy tale, the Frog Princess bakes the best cake ever. I need to do the same thing!”
Grumbling, the goblins started grabbing the items on the table. One goblin cracked an egg into a bowl, shells and all!
“Not like that!” said another goblin. He grabbed a second egg from the carton, but he squeezed it too hard! The yolk dripped down his arm and onto the floor.
The third goblin dumped a bunch of flour into the bowl without even measuring it. The fourth goblin picked up the bag of sugar—and the bottom fell out. The sugar spilled all over the floor!
“No, no, no. You’re doing it all wrong!” Jack Frost said angrily.
“Do we need more eggs?” asked the first goblin, smashing more eggs into the bowl.
“NO!” Jack Frost yelled. Then he snapped his fingers. “Wait! I forgot the most important thing!”
Then he reached under the table and pulled out a beautiful silver bowl.
Rita gasped. “My magic mixing bowl!”
Jack Frost placed the bowl on the table. “With this bowl, we can bake the best cake ever!”
“We’ve got to stop him!” Kirsty said.
Rachel nodded. “We need a plan.”
Suddenly, Vassilisa ran into the kitchen.
“I finally found the kitchen! Now excuse me, please,” she said, pushing past Jack Frost. “I need to use this table. I have to bake a very important cake.”
She picked up the silver mixing bowl.
Jack Frost grabbed it out of her hands. “Oh, no you don’t! This is my fairy tale now! I am baking this cake! Goblins, remove her!”
The four goblins grabbed Vassilisa by the arms.
“Your hands are sticky!” the Frog Princess complained as the goblins pulled her away from the kitchen.
“Oh, dear!” said Rita. “I must go help her. You girls stay here and get that mixing bowl back, if you can!”
“We will!” Kirsty promised.
Rachel and Kirsty watched Jack Frost from their hiding place.
He rubbed his hands together. “Who needs those lazy goblins? I can make the best cake ever, all by myself!”
Jack Frost picked up a measuring cup and dipped it into the bag of flour. A little cloud puffed out of the bag and hit Jack Frost’s nose.
“Achoo!” Jack Frost sneezed.
Rachel’s eyes lit up. “I think I have a plan!” she said. Then she whispered in Kirsty’s ear.
Kirsty nodded. “That should work.”
The two girls slowly flew out from behind the food cans. Jack Frost was frowning, holding the empty egg carton.
“I need more eggs!” he grumbled, and then he picked up the mixing bowl and walked to the refrigerator.
“Now!” Rachel said.
The girls flew as fast as they could to the bag of flour. They dove inside and each came up with two big handfuls of flour. Then they flew out of the bag.
“You two!” Jack Frost cried, spotting them.
Rachel and Kirsty each took a deep breath. Then they blew on the handfuls of flour as hard as they could.
Whoosh! The flour flew at Jack Frost, hitting him right in the nose!
Jack Frost’s nose twitched. And twitched again. And then …
“ACHOO!”
He let loose with a big sneeze, bigger than before. It sent Rachel and Kirsty tumbling backward across the air. It also caused Jack Frost to drop the silver mixing bowl! The magic bowl clattered onto the floor.
“I’ve got it!”
Rita flew back into the kitchen and touched the mixing bowl on the floor. It shrunk down to fairy size in her hands.
“Noooooo!” Jack Frost wailed. He shook his fist at Rita. “Give that back right now!” He lunged at the fairy.
Rachel and Kirsty felt a little dizzy after being tumbled around by the sneeze. But they righted themselves and flew to help Rita.
Just then, Bertram the Frog Footman hopped into the kitchen, followed by Princess Vassilisa.
“I just wanted to bake a fairy tale cake,” Jack Frost pouted. He stomped his foot and disappeared in a cloud of freezing-cold ice magic.
“Bertram showed up as the goblins were taking the princess away,” Rita explained to the girls. “He helped me get her back.”
Bertram gave a little bow. “I told them I knew frog-jitsu,” he said, winking.
“You were marvelous,” Princess Vassilisa said with a lovely smile.
“Thank you for saving my mixing bowl, girls,” Rita told them. “Now I need to take it back to Fairyland so Princess Vassilisa can return to her fairy tale.”
“And I must return to the king and queen,” said Bertram.
Rachel looked around the messy kitchen. Flour and sugar covered the floor, egg yolks dripped from the table, and Jack Frost’s dirty dishes were stacked high.
“I guess Kirsty and I need to get this cleaned up,” Rachel said, and then she yawned. It had been a long day.
Rita smiled. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ve got this.”
Rita waved her wand, and fairy magic glittered in the air. In an instant, the messy kitchen was sparkling clean!
“Amazing!” said Kirsty.
“And now we really must go,” said Rita. “Thank you again, Rachel and Kirsty!” She waved her wand, returning Rachel and Kirsty to human size.
Rita twirled her wand again and she, Bertram, and Vassilisa began to shimmer. In seconds, they had disappeared in a whirl of fairy dust, leaving Rachel and Kirsty alone in the kitchen.
Rachel yawned again. “I’m so glad we helped save The Frog Princess fairy tale. But I am so tired!”
“Well, I’m hungry,” said Kirsty. “All I can think about now is cake!”
Laughing, the girls headed back up to their room.
“You know what the next best thing to cake is?” Kirsty asked the next morning at breakfast.
“What?” asked Rachel.
Kirsty grinned. “Pancakes!” she said, happily taking another bite of one of the fluffy pancakes on her plate.
Rachel laughed. “I think you’re right!”
The guests at the Fairy Tale Festival ate breakfast at the long banquet table in the castle’s dining room. Just about everyone was wondering what the fairy tale event of the day would be.
Then a festival organizer walked into the dining room. He was dressed as the Big Bad Wolf. Two cooks followed behind him.
“Good morning, everyone,” he said. “I hope you are enjoying your Peter Pancakes.”
“We are!” the guests all cheered.
“I’m here to announce a special event for this afternoon,” he said. “This morning we came into the kitchen to see that our cooks had made some beautiful mini cupcakes. So this afternoon we’ll have a fairy tale tea party!”
Everyone clapped and cheered. Rachel noticed that the cooks looked confused and were whispering to each other. They walked past the girls.
“I didn’t make those cupcakes,” said one.
“Neither did I,” said the other.
“Then who did?” asked the first one.
The second cook shrugged. “Maybe some magical fairies came into the kitchen last night and made them? I wouldn’t be surprised. It seems that a lot of strange things have happened since this fairy tale festival began.”
Rachel and Kirsty looked at each other and smiled. They both knew who had made those cupcakes. “Rita!”
That afternoon, the girls headed back to the garden for the fairy tale tea party. Scattered among the rose bushes were small round tables topped with lace tablecloths. On each table was a teapot, four teacups, and four plates. And on each plate were two of the prettiest miniature cupcakes the girls had ever seen!
Rachel and Kirsty took a seat at one of the tables. Rachel picked up one of the cupcakes. It had pale-green frosting with tiny green frog sprinkles on the top! The second cupcake on her plate had white frosting and glittering silver star-shaped sprinkles.
“I think they’re all d
ifferent,” Kirsty said. “Look, this one is pink with tiny pink heart sprinkles, and this one is purple with a yellow sugar flower in the center.”
“They’re all so pretty!” Rachel said. “Only a fairy could have made these.”
Then Sarah the Storyteller walked into the garden, holding her frog puppet.
“Good afternoon, everyone,” she said. “I’m sorry for what happened yesterday. I’d like to make it up to you today by finishing the story of The Frog Princess. There aren’t any goblins in it at all. In fact, I don’t know where on earth I got that idea!”
“But we do,” Rachel whispered to Kirsty.
“And now that Rita has her magic mixing bowl back, The Frog Princess fairy tale is back to normal,” Kirsty said.
“Let’s make sure,” Rachel said, as she took a book from her pocket. The words on the cover sparkled: The Fairies’ Book of Fairy Tales. The fairies had given it to them in Fairyland.
Kirsty leaned in as Rachel flipped through the pages. The first three tales told the stories of Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella. They had helped rescue all of those fairy tales from Jack Frost.
Rachel turned the page to the fourth story in the book.
“The Frog Princess,” she read out loud. “It’s here!”
Kirsty flipped through the rest of the book, and saw only blank pages.
“Three more fairy tales to go,” she said. “Which Fairy Tale Fairy do you think we’ll help next?”
“I don’t know,” said Rachel. “But I’m excited to find out!”
Rachel and Kirsty found Julia’s, Eleanor’s, Faith’s, and Rita’s missing magic objects. Now it’s time for them to help
Join their next adventure in this special sneak peek …
“When I get back home, I’m going to try to make some of this fairy tale food,” Kirsty Tate said. “These Peter Pancakes are delicious!”
“And so is this Fairyland Fruit Salad,” agreed her friend, Rachel Walker.
The two girls were in the big dining room at Tiptop Castle. The tables were filled with boys and girls who had come for the Fairy Tale Festival. Each day, the festival organizers had fun activities planned for them.
Just being in the castle was like living inside a fairy tale. The meals were served on pretty silver plates, and all the food had a fairy tale theme. The Peter Pancakes were shaped like fairy wings. The Fairyland Fruit Salad came in a crystal goblet with a tall stem.
Kirsty sighed. “I wish this festival never had to end,” she said, taking another bite of pancake.
A hush came over the room as Amy, one of the organizers, stood up. She was dressed as a princess in a pink dress with a pointy pink hat on top of her blond curls.
“Good morning, fairy tale fans!” she began. “We have a very exciting event planned tonight. It’s the Creature Costume Party!”
The kids all began to whisper excitedly.
“There are many marvelous creatures in fairy tales,” Amy said. “Unicorns, dragons, talking bears—the possibilities are endless. We have set up the ballroom with all the supplies you will need to make your costumes for tonight. So have fun, and use your imaginations. There will be prizes for the best costumes!”
Kirsty turned to Rachel. “It’s fun that we get to make our own costumes!”
Rachel nodded. “I know. What do you think we should be?”
“I don’t know.” Kirsty frowned. “A unicorn would be fun.”
“I bet a lot of people are going to be unicorns,” said Rachel, looking thoughtful. “To win a prize, we should be something really different. Like a … a griffin!”
“What’s a griffin?” asked Kirsty.
“It’s a half-lion, half-eagle,” Rachel said.
“A griffin sounds interesting,” Kirsty agreed. “Or maybe we could be some kind of sea serpent!”
“We should look at the fairy tale books in the reading room,” Rachel suggested. “I’m sure we’ll find some good ideas there.”
“That sounds like a great plan,” Kirsty said.
Then Rachel looked around the dining room. She lowered her voice so only Kirsty could hear her. “Besides making our costumes for the party tonight, we also need to keep an eye out for the Fairy Tale Fairies.”
“And for mean Jack Frost,” Kirsty added.
Kirsty and Rachel were friends with the fairies in Fairyland. On their first day at Tiptop Castle, Hannah the Happily Ever After Fairy had come to see them. She took them to Fairy Tale Lane in Fairyland.
There they learned that Jack Frost was causing trouble again. He had stolen the magic object belonging to each of the Fairy Tale Fairies! Jack Frost wanted the fairy tales to be all about him.
Now the fairy tale characters were missing from their stories. Kirsty and Rachel had helped the Fairy Tale Fairies find four magic objects so far. But they still had three more objects to find—and three fairy tales to save.
“So far, every character we’ve met has been somewhere in the castle,” Rachel said.
“Or on the grounds,” Kirsty added. “The Frog Princess was hopping across the lawn.”
“And Jack Frost was nearby every time!” Rachel said.
The girls finished breakfast and left the dining room. They walked through the grand entrance hall. A glittering chandelier shimmered over their heads. In front of them, two suits of armor stood guard in front of a wide staircase.
Rachel was about to open the door to the reading room when Kirsty nudged her.
“Rachel, look!”
A tall man came down the staircase. He wore a fancy blue velvet suit and a shirt with a ruffled collar. But his hands and face were covered in brown fur! He had pointy ears, a black nose, and tusks, too.
“That must be one of the fairy tale organizers,” Rachel guessed. “He’s dressed like Beast from Beauty and the Beast.”
Then they heard the sound of tinkling bells. The doorknob Rachel had just been holding shimmered with fairy magic. When the magic settled, a tiny fairy was perched there.
“That is the Beast!” she cried.
“Quick! In here!” Kirsty whispered.
The fairy followed the girls as they ducked into the reading room. The Fairy Tale Festival was full of amazing sights. But Kirsty and Rachel would have a hard time explaining to everyone that they knew a real fairy!
Text copyright © 2016 by Rainbow Magic Limited
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. RAINBOW MAGIC is a trademark of Rainbow Magic Limited. Reg. U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and other countries. HIT and the HIT logo are trademarks of HIT Entertainment Limited.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
First edition, January 2016
Cover design by Angela Jun
e-ISBN 978-0-545-86404-6
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