“Darden Hall is a small, old theater,” Kirsty said. “It’s right over there.”
Juliet followed Kirsty’s gaze and immediately flew toward the tall, brick building. The girls ran behind her, right up the front steps. The carved wooden door creaked as Kirsty pulled it open. At once, the three friends could hear the two goblins’ voices — arguing! They were standing at the front of the theater on a small stage. Juliet and the girls snuck inside and peeked out from behind the last row of red cushioned seats.
“Why did you mix up the message on the card?” asked the goblin with big feet.
“Jack Frost told us to mix up all messages, especially Valentines,” the other goblin grumbled.
“Well, we can’t read it, so we don’t know if it’s real. We can’t take it to Jack Frost like this!” The first goblin pouted. “It doesn’t even have a sparkly red ribbon.”
Juliet, Rachel, and Kirsty looked at one another with wide eyes. The goblins didn’t know that they had the real magical card!
Rachel leaned in to her friends and spoke as quietly as she could. “I think we would have spotted the ribbon if it had fallen off on the way here.”
“So the ribbon is probably somewhere in the theater,” Kirsty mused. The girls peered over the chairs and peeked down the aisle, searching for the ribbon.
Juliet flitted into the air for a fairy’s-eye view, being careful to stay out of sight of the goblins. With an excited twirl, she swooped down behind a row of seats. When the fairy reappeared, the red ribbon trailed behind her in the air.
Kirsty had to remind herself not to cheer out loud when Juliet dropped the ribbon safely in her lap. “Now we have the ribbon,” she whispered, “but we still don’t have the card.”
“We have a card, though,” Rachel declared. “Pass me the ribbon.” Kirsty placed the red ribbon in her friend’s hand. “Now hold out the card you made for your parents.”
Kirsty clenched the flowery card tightly. Even though they’d made a mad dash from the Art Center, she had managed to keep it crisp and clean.
“Oh, I don’t know . . .” Juliet began, watching Kirsty’s face carefully. It was clear how much Kirsty liked her card!
“It’s okay,” Kirsty said. “I trust Rachel.” She handed the card over, and watched as her friend tied the red ribbon around it.
“Now, here’s the plan,” Rachel announced, her eyes sparkling. She explained how they would trick the goblins. “Kirsty, just follow my lead. And, Juliet, don’t let them know you’re here!”
The two friends snuck back to the entrance of the theater, unseen. Then they stood up and acted as if they had just walked in. Juliet hid on Rachel’s shoulder again.
“We’re so lucky that we found the magic card,” Rachel said loudly, trying to get the goblins’ attention. “Now we can just hide in this theater until we know the goblins are gone.”
Kirsty could hardly breathe. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as the goblins onstage listened to what Rachel had said. “Yes,” she added. “Juliet will be so happy to have her card back.”
“Oh, no you don’t!” shouted the goblin holding the wand.
“That card is ours!” the other goblin yelled. “Quick! Do a spell!” He nudged his goblin friend.
The first goblin pointed his wand at Kirsty’s pretty card and chanted, “Whatever leaves Fairyland and ends up lost, should always belong to Jack Frost.”
“That’s a horrible spell,” the other goblin scoffed. “It’s too short! It won’t work.”
But suddenly, the card floated out of Rachel’s hand and zipped through the air toward the goblins.
“It’s working!” they declared, jumping up and down and looking goofy.
Juliet giggled as she kept her wand pointed at the card. It was Juliet’s magic that was carrying the card to the goblins, not their silly spell. But the goblins thought they had snatched the magical card from the girls!
“No!” Rachel yelled. “I found it first!” She raced toward the stage, pretending to be very upset.
“It’s ours,” the big-footed goblin said, holding the card tightly. “We get the pretty magic card. You can have this silly little one.” He threw the real magic card at Rachel. Then both goblins yelped with glee as they stumbled off the stage and ran out of the theater. Rachel picked up the card and carried it back down the aisle to Juliet.
“Thank you so much, Rachel,” Juliet said. “Your plan worked perfectly. I can take my card back to Fairyland! Now families everywhere can enjoy Valentine’s Day together. With a twirl of my wand, the message will no longer be mixed up.” With that, she waved her wand and shrunk the card back to Fairyland size. The message on the front now read HAPPY VALENTINE’S!
Kirsty couldn’t help smiling at their new fairy friend. She was thrilled that they had helped Juliet get her card back, but she felt a little disappointed that the goblins had taken her card. She’d just have to make another one!
“We just have two more presents to go!” Rachel said with a grin. “Don’t worry, Juliet. We’ll find them. No matter what.”
Kirsty gave Juliet a big wave as the fairy disappeared in a beautiful burst of sparkly red hearts. Then Kirsty heard the honk of her family’s car. She and Rachel ran outside to see Mr. Tate pulling up nearby, in front of the Art Center.
Kirsty smiled at her dad as she went to unlock her bike. She was happy to see him, and even happier that she and Rachel had helped Juliet track down one of her missing Valentine’s Day presents!
Morning Muffins
First Stop: Florist
Egg Sure Harden Nose?
A Glum Fairy
A Muddy Mess
As soon as Kirsty woke up the next morning, she went to her desk. It was Valentine’s Day! “I have to make a new Valentine,” she murmured, opening a drawer and searching for a clean sheet of construction paper. Kirsty grumbled when she found only a plain white piece. She glanced over at her best friend, Rachel Walker, who was still asleep on the trundle bed.
Kirsty couldn’t help thinking about the fancy card she had made the day before. She and Rachel had tricked the goblins into thinking that her card was Juliet the Valentine Fairy’s magic card. It had been a good plan, but Kirsty still wished she could have given her card to her parents. She had worked hard on it!
Luckily, she remembered most of the poem she had composed for her card. She wrote it on a new sheet of paper and drew some hearts on the page. It was simple, but it would have to do.
“Hey,” Rachel said, sitting up and stretching her arms over her head. “Happy Valentine’s Day!”
“Same to you,” Kirsty said, smiling. Rachel always woke up cheerful. It was one of Kirsty’s favorite things about her best friend.
“We have a lot to do today,” Rachel announced, getting up and sifting through her bag. “We should get going.”
“First we need to have breakfast. My mom always does something fun for Valentine’s Day. It’s kind of silly, but sweet,” Kirsty admitted.
Rachel shrugged. “Just as long as it doesn’t take too long.”
Kirsty frowned at her friend’s hasty tone. Then she remembered Juliet’s warning. Since Jack Frost and his goblins had stolen Juliet’s magical Valentine treats, families, sweethearts, and friends everywhere weren’t getting along. Even Rachel and Kirsty were affected, since they were best friends! They would have to make an extra effort to work together. Luckily, they’d been able to do that when they found the magic Valentine card the day before, and now family love had been fixed.
“Maybe we should try to find the box of candy hearts next,” Kirsty offered. If they found the magic candy, then friendship would be safe from Jack Frost’s evil spell — and Kirsty and Rachel’s friendship would be back to normal!
“That sounds good.” Rachel pulled on a red-and-white striped sweater. “I just have to brush
my teeth and call my parents to wish them a happy Valentine’s Day. I’ll meet you downstairs?”
Kirsty nodded and headed for the kitchen. The smell of cinnamon was already wafting up the stairs.
When Rachel walked in the kitchen a few minutes later, the room grew quiet. Mr. and Mrs. Tate both gave tight smiles. Rachel thought Kirsty looked relieved to see her.
“My mom made us heart-shaped muffins. Let’s eat them on the way,” Kirsty suggested quickly, gulping down her orange juice.
Rachel noticed that Kirsty’s hands fumbled as she hurried to wrap the muffins in a napkin. “Thanks, Mom. We’ll see you later,” Kirsty called over her shoulder as she rushed out of the room.
Rachel gave a confused wave and followed her friend.
As soon as Rachel walked into the garage, Kirsty closed the door behind her. Kirsty’s shoulders slumped as she let out a sigh. “My parents were fighting,” she said. “It was something silly about my mom not liking where my dad put the compost bin. But they both seemed really upset.” Kirsty looked into her friend’s eyes. “Do you think it’s because of Jack Frost?”
“Probably,” Rachel assured her. “We still have to find the candy hearts and the red rose — friendship love and sweetheart love are both still in trouble.”
It was funny — Kirsty didn’t think of her parents as sweethearts, but she knew they were. “Then we have to look for the rose first. I don’t like it when my parents argue,” Kirsty confessed. “Especially on Valentine’s Day.”
Rachel paused. She had been hoping to look for the candy hearts first. She really wanted to make sure that friendship love was safe! But instead of fighting, she forced herself to smile. “Okay. Where should we start?”
Kirsty led the way as the girls pedaled their bikes to the town square. They kept their eyes out for their new fairy friend. They hadn’t seen Juliet since she’d taken the magic card back to Fairyland the day before!
Once they arrived in town, Rachel and Kirsty locked up their bikes and sat on a bench to eat their muffins. “How are we going to track down a single red rose?” Rachel asked between bites. “Lots of people send flowers on Valentine’s Day.”
“My dad always uses that florist,” Kirsty said. She pointed to a small shop down the street.
It had an arched doorway covered in vines. The hand-painted sign in the window read FULL BLOOM FLOWERS.
Just then, the florist’s van pulled up in front of the brick building. “Let’s hope Juliet’s flower wasn’t already delivered to someone,” said Rachel, brushing crumbs from her winter coat.
“There’s only one way to find out,” Kirsty declared. She stood up and headed toward the shop with Rachel close behind. Just as they reached the steps, a young man with short hair and wire-rimmed glasses brushed past them. He yanked on the door and stepped inside. The door started to swing shut right in front of the girls.
“Oh!” the man yelped, catching the door just in time. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to let it close. My mind is somewhere else.”
“It’s okay,” Rachel said. As she looked up at the man’s slender face, she could see that his eyes were sad.
Rachel nudged Kirsty to make sure her friend noticed, too.
Inside the shop, a woman with short brown hair closed the sliding door to a display case filled with colorful flowers. “May I help you?” she asked. She held a pair of stem cutters in one hand. Her nametag read LILLIE.
“Yes,” the young man said stepping forward. “I need a red rose.”
Kirsty and Rachel listened closely. They needed a red rose, too!
Lillie bit her lip. “I’m sorry,” she said, “but we don’t have any red roses left. We haven’t had them in stock all week. Luckily, we haven’t received very many orders — but that’s awfully strange at this time of year!”
The man shook his head in disbelief. “It’s Valentine’s Day! You have to help me,” he said, clutching his hands together. “I tried to send red roses to my sweetheart, but black ones were delivered instead. The note on the card was mixed up, too. It wasn’t what I wrote at all. Now she thinks I don’t want to be her sweetheart anymore.” The man’s hands shook.
Rachel and Kirsty looked at each other with concern. This sounded like the work of goblins! The girls knew that they were mixing up messages with Jack Frost’s wand.
Lillie took a deep breath. “Let me see when we’ll get more roses in,” she said, turning to her computer. The keyboard clicked as her fingers tapped away. Then she looked up from the computer screen. “I’m very sorry, sir,” she apologized. “I’ve been trying to order more roses from the local greenhouse all week, but the e-mails came back all scrambled. And no one is answering the phone.” Lillie sighed. “Maybe you want some bright, cheery tulips instead?”
“No, that won’t do. I need a red rose,” the man said sadly. His shoulders drooped as he turned and walked out the door.
“How awful!” Rachel said, turning to Kirsty.
Kirsty nodded. “It’s also weird,” she said. “Why wouldn’t the greenhouse fill orders for red roses on Valentine’s Day? I think we need to visit Greenhouse Gardens on the other side of town.” She walked quickly toward the door.
Rachel stood in the same place, her brow furrowed. She was still thinking about the man and his sweetheart.
“Come on!” Kirsty called from the doorway, with one hand on her hip. At once, Rachel rushed to catch up with her friend.
Outside the florist, the girls hopped on their bikes. Kirsty zoomed out in front, leading the way. “There are really pretty gardens on the far side of Wetherbury,” Kirsty yelled over the wind. “If anyone still has red roses, it’s them.”
Rachel nodded, working hard to pedal as fast as Kirsty. They left the town square and headed down a narrow road with tall trees lining both sides. Rachel thought it was beautiful, but the ride was taking a long time. She wondered if they should have stayed in town and looked for the magic box of candy hearts, instead. Then, all at once, something up ahead caught her eye. “Look at that sign!” she called to Kirsty. “What does it mean?”
Both girls slowed their bikes and examined the sign. “EGG SURE HARDEN NOSE,” Kirsty murmured. “That’s weird. I feel like I’ve seen this sign before, but with different words.” The sign was made of wood, and the letters were bright green. In each corner was a simple painting of a red rose.
EGG SURE HARDEN NOSE. As she read it, Rachel couldn’t help but touch her nose to make sure it wasn’t hard!
“It doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “They’re real words, but it seems like they’re all scrambled.”
“That’s it!” Kirsty cried. “I knew I had seen this sign before. It’s supposed to read GREENHOUSE GARDENS. The goblins must have been here! They used their wand to mix up the letters in the sign.” Kirsty jumped on her bike. “We have to hurry — I bet the goblins are already at the gardens!”
Rachel let out a long breath as she watched Kirsty pedal away. Why was her friend being so bossy? After all, Rachel wanted to help Juliet, too.
Kirsty didn’t look back as she tore down the road toward the gardens. In the back of her mind, she wondered if her parents were still fighting. If she could just find that rose, she would feel a lot better!
She turned down a gravel lane and saw the first in a long line of buildings with glass roofs. “The greenhouses,” she whispered. When she noticed two gardeners by a fountain, she squeezed her brakes.
Kirsty glanced back and saw Rachel far down the lane. She propped her bike against a large tree trunk. “I’ll just ask some questions,” she said to herself, striding along the cobblestone path. The workers, who were both wearing overalls and thick gloves, seemed surprised to see her.
“Excuse me,” she began. “Do you have any red rosebushes that are still blooming?”
The two gardeners looked at each other. �
�Why, we still have whole greenhouses full,” one said. He had deep green eyes and leaned on a rake. “We hardly got any orders for red roses this year.”
Kirsty couldn’t believe her ears! Lillie’s e-mails from the florist must have been all jumbled by the time they reached the gardeners, thanks to those tricky goblins.
“But a group of kids just bought all the cut roses,” the other gardener, who had her hair tied back in a handkerchief, explained. “It must be for some kind of school project.”
“Yeah, I saw them leaving the main building. It looked like they all had green thumbs!” the first gardener chimed in. They both laughed.
Kirsty’s eyes grew wide at the mention of green thumbs. “Thank you so much,” she said quickly before racing back to her bike. Rachel was waiting for her there.
“The gardeners said that some kids with green thumbs bought all the cut roses!” Kirsty exclaimed, swinging her leg over the bike seat and placing her foot on the pedal. “It must be the goblins — let’s go!”
“Kirsty,” Rachel said calmly, “look who’s here.” She smiled and pointed to her shoulder. There sat Juliet! The little fairy’s head was lowered and her ankles were crossed. Her wand dangled loosely in her hand.
Juliet the Valentine Fairy (9780545310628) Page 2
