Isadora Moon Goes to School
Page 3
I pressed my face closer to the fence, and one of the children saw me. He had blond hair and lots of freckles and a big smile.
He said, “Hey, you, what’s your name?”
I didn’t say anything because I suddenly felt very shy.
But the boy didn’t leave. He came over to where I was and gazed up at my house.
“Cool house!” he said.
Then he spotted my wings. “Cool wings!” he said. “Can you really fly with them?”
I nodded and fluttered a few inches off the ground.
“Awesome!” shouted the boy.
The other children were coming over now.
“WOW!” they said. “We’ve always wanted to talk to you!”
“Really?” I said in astonishment.
“Oh yes,” said the boy. “We walk past your house every day on our way to school. We’ve seen you up in that tower window.”
“And we’ve seen a fairy here!” said a little girl with pigtails who was busy munching on a peanut butter sandwich. “A fairy with pink hair! Me and my friends are always trying to peek in to see her.”
“Oh, that’s just my mom,” I said.
“Some of us have seen a vampire.” The boy shuddered. “A really scary vampire with a black cape and pointy teeth. Some kids in our class are too scared to walk past your house, you know.” He puffed out his chest. “Not me!”
I laughed.
“That’s just my dad,” I said. “He’s not scary at all!”
“So there really are fairies and vampires living here?” the children asked. “Really?”
“Yes!” I said. “Really! And there is also a vampire-fairy living here…ME!”
“A vampire-fairy!” said the children. “That’s even better!”
“I wish I was a vampire-fairy,” said a girl with pink plastic clips in her curly hair.
Suddenly, I felt very proud to be me.
“My name is Isadora,” I told the children.
“That’s a nice name,” said the curly-haired girl. “My name is Zoe, and that’s Sashi.” She pointed to the girl with pigtails.
“And I’m Bruno,” said the boy. “So what school do you go to? Is it a special school for vampire-fairies?”
“Well,” I began, “I…”
But just then I heard a sound from the house.
“ISADOOOORA!”
It was Mom calling me inside.
“I have to go,” I said to the children. “But it was really nice to meet you! Maybe we can talk through the fence again one day? I can bring us peanut butter sandwiches!”
“Oh yes!” said all the children. “Please come back! We can have a picnic. And bring your Pink Rabbit again too—he’s so funny!”
“Peanut butter sandwiches are my favorite,” said Sashi.
“Mine too!” I said. “I like them with apple juice.”
“That sounds tasty!” said Bruno.
“ISADOOOORA! What are you doing?” called Mom again.
“I really have to go!” I said.
I said goodbye to the children and ran back to the house with Pink Rabbit bouncing joyfully along behind me.
My run turned into a skip and then a skippity-hop. I couldn’t help it. I suddenly felt so happy.
“There you are,” said Mom when I got inside.
“Oh good.” Dad yawned. It was still too early for him to be awake, so he was wearing his sunglasses.
“We have decided to see if you can go to both schools,” Mom said. “It’s the perfect solution!”
“But…,” I said.
“You can go to fairy school in the morning, come home for a quick nap, and then go to vampire school at night,” she said.
“But…,” I said, “I don’t want to do that.”
Mom looked surprised. “Why not?” she said.
“I’ve thought of a much better solution….I want to go to REGULAR HUMAN SCHOOL!”
Mom and Dad both gasped.
“Oh no no NO!” they exclaimed. “Why on earth would you want to go there? You are magical! You are special! You need to go to a special school. It’s vampire school or fairy school.”
I shook my head. “No,” I said. “I want to go to regular school.”
“But it’s full of humans!” said Dad, astonished. “Humans are so weird. They hardly get any fresh air. They sit around watching boxes all day. They eat beige food, and they use screens to talk to each other….”
“They can’t even fly!” added Mom.
“Well, I just spoke to some of the children, and they were very nice. There was one named Bruno and one named Zoe and one named—”
“You spoke to them!” gasped Dad in horror.
“But…but…they’re not like you,” said Mom. “You are different.”
“I know,” I said. “But they were all different too. Like the stars that Dad looks at through his telescope. And they didn’t mind that I am not a full vampire or a full fairy. In fact, they thought it was interesting.”
“Hmm…,” said Dad. “Humans are very odd.”
“Well, I like them,” I said. “I’m starting to think that it’s you two who are a little strange!”
“Well!” said Mom, tapping the apple tree with her wand so that it started to grow oranges instead.
“Really!” said Dad, pushing his sunglasses up.
“Yes,” I told them. “But you know, I think that’s good. Things would be very boring otherwise.”
Pink Rabbit nodded wisely beside me.
“And so,” I continued firmly, “I have decided that regular school is the perfect place for me!”
“Hmm,” said Mom, picking an orange off the tree.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather go to vampire school?” Dad asked.
“I am sure,” I told him.
“And are you sure you wouldn’t rather go to fairy school?” added Mom.
“Yes!” I said.
“Well then,” said Dad, “maybe regular school is the place for you.”
“Maybe it could be the perfect place for you,” said Mom, holding her arms out to me for a hug.
I smiled, and Pink Rabbit bounced up and down beside me.
“I know it is!” I told them happily. “Human school is the perfect place for a vampire-fairy like me!”
Harriet Muncaster, that’s me! I’m the author and illustrator of Isadora Moon.
Yes, really! I love anything teeny-tiny, anything starry, and everything glittery.
It all started one sunny morning. I came downstairs to find Mom waving her wand around in the kitchen. She had made a flower-patterned tent appear, and it was sitting in the middle of the floor.
Mom smiled at me as I came into the room. “There you are!” she said. “What do you think of this?” She pointed at the tent. “Do you like the pattern? It’s for you. We’re going camping!”
“What?!” said Dad.
“Camping!” Mom repeated. “We’re going camping at the beach. I booked it this morning.”
“I,” said Dad primly, “do not do camping.”
“Oh, don’t be silly!” said Mom. “You’ll love it! There’s nothing better than waking up outdoors with the morning sunshine blasting into your tent…cooking on a campfire…playing in the sand. It’s wonderful to be so close to nature!”
Dad did not look convinced.
I walked around the tent in the middle of the floor, inspecting it and lifting the flap to look inside.
“So what do you think?” Mom asked again.
“I’m not sure about the color,” I admitted. “It’s a bit too pink and flowery….”
“Okay,” said Mom. “How about this?” She waved her wand again, and the tent changed to a black-and-white-striped pattern.
Excerpt copyright © 2016 by Harriet Muncaster. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. Originally published in paperback by Oxford University Press, Oxford, in 2016.
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