“I’m nervous!” Kirsty declared as she and Rachel joined the rest of the cast backstage. “I can’t believe the show is tonight. Two days ago, I wasn’t even in it!”
“No one would guess that,” Rachel said. “You didn’t make a single mistake in the dress rehearsal yesterday!”
It was Christmas Eve, and the cast of Cinderella had gathered backstage before the show.
“Well, this is it, everyone,” Mr. Robinson said. “Yesterday’s rehearsal was fantastic, and I’m sure you’ll be even better tonight with the audience cheering you on!”
Everyone clapped.
“We want the Christmas play to be fun and festive,” Mr. Robinson went on. “So don’t be afraid to improvise in little ways! And now, here’s something to get you all into the Christmas spirit….”
A stagehand stepped forward holding a box full of Christmas crackers! Rachel recognized them right away because her aunt in England sent her one every year. They looked like big, wrapped candies, but if you pulled both ends, they made a snapping noise! There were fun little prizes inside, too. Everyone gathered around to take one.
“It’s too bad my mom and dad couldn’t get tickets to the play,” said Rachel, selecting a silver cracker. Kirsty took a gold one and nodded in agreement.
“Good luck, everyone!” called Mr. Robinson, as they hurried off to their dressing rooms.
As soon as the girls had closed the door to their dressing room, Rachel held out her cracker. “Let’s see what’s inside,” she said with a grin.
Kirsty took the other end and pulled. The cracker snapped open with a bang, and a pretty pearl bracelet fell out.
“Now mine,” Kirsty said, holding out her cracker.
As Rachel tugged the other end, the cracker snapped open with a burst of golden sparkles. Paige zoomed out from inside! “It’s me again, girls!” she announced.
“Jack Frost is determined to ruin the play tonight, so the goblins will be looking for the most powerful magic shoe — Cinderella’s glass slipper!”
“That one makes sure that everyone remembers their lines, right?” asked Kirsty.
Paige nodded. “Think how awful it would be if nobody could remember what to say!” she replied. “We have to make sure that Jack Frost and his goblins don’t get their hands on that glass slipper!”
“Let’s go check on the glass slippers before we change into our costumes,” Rachel suggested.
Paige hid in Rachel’s pocket as the girls ran to the props area. Cinderella’s ball gown was hanging there, and on the floor below it was a shoe box. Kirsty lifted the lid. She, Rachel, and Paige all sighed with relief as they saw both glass slippers nestled inside.
“Can you tell which one is magic?” Paige asked.
Kirsty looked closely at the shoes and noticed that one gleamed with a rainbow-colored shimmer. She pointed to it.
“Yes, that’s the magic one,” Paige confirmed, nodding. “Please keep a close eye on it, girls.”
“The stagehands will put the dress and the shoes in the wings before the show starts,” Rachel explained as they hurried back to the dressing room. “Luckily, Kirsty and I enter from the same side of the stage for our dance.”
“So we’ll wait there and keep an eye on the shoes the whole time,” Kirsty promised.
“I haven’t seen any goblins so far,” Paige said as she helped Kirsty and Rachel into their costumes.
Rachel jumped as a bell sounded overhead. “That means it’s only fifteen minutes to showtime!”
“We’d better get our makeup done,” said Kirsty, looking nervous.
“I’ll meet you in the wings!” Paige smiled at them. “Good luck. I know you’re both going to be great!”
Ten minutes later, Kirsty and Rachel were ready. As they hurried to the wings, they could hear a loud buzz of anticipation coming from the audience on the other side of the curtain.
“There are the glass slippers,” Kirsty said, pointing. They had been placed neatly in the wings. “Hello, girls,” Paige whispered, fluttering over to join them.
“I’ve been guarding the slippers, and I haven’t seen a single goblin!”
“We’re just in time,” Rachel said as the opening music sounded. “The play is about to start.”
She and Kirsty watched as the ugly stepsisters pranced on stage. Their outrageous costumes made the audience roar with laughter! The girls glanced at each other in delight. The play was off to a great start.
As it got closer to the time for the glass slippers to make an appearance, the girls began to feel nervous.
“They go out after the pumpkin coach and the ball gown,” Rachel whispered to Kirsty.
Back on stage, the ugly stepsisters had left for the palace, and Cinderella was all alone. “I wish I could go to the ball!” She sighed.
At just that moment, the Fairy Godmother glided onto the stage. She wore a sparkling silver dress and a wig of golden curls with a silver tiara on top. “I am your Fairy Godmother, and you will go to the ball!” she declared, raising her wand. “You will wear beautiful glass slippers to dance the night away,” she added, turning to the wings. “Bring me the glass slippers!” Rachel and Kirsty looked at each other, confused. “I thought the pumpkin coach was first,” Kirsty murmured to Rachel.
Cinderella also looked bewildered. “Not the shoes!” she whispered. “The pumpkin!” The Fairy Godmother scowled. “Fine,” she said sulkily. “Bring me a pumpkin!” Cinderella did. The girls watched as one of the crew members set off a smoke machine so the pumpkin could be removed from the stage. While the stage was covered in smoke, the ponies trotted on pulling the beautiful pumpkin coach. There was a huge burst of applause from the audience.
“Now for the glass slippers!” cried the Fairy Godmother, before the audience had even finished clapping.
Rachel and Kirsty could see that Cinderella was getting annoyed.
“No, the ball gown!” they heard her whisper.
“This is weird,” Rachel said. “Alison never gets her lines wrong.”
“Well, the goblins don’t have the magic slipper,” Paige said, pointing at the glass shoes waiting in the wings. “So that isn’t why Alison’s forgetting her lines!”
“Her voice sounds a little funny,” Kirsty added. “Maybe she’s getting a cold.”
“And now for your ball gown, Cinderella!” shouted the Fairy Godmother. There was another puff of smoke and a stagehand helped Cinderella put on the dress. A gasp of delight rose from the audience as the smoke cleared and they saw the sparkling ball gown for the first time.
“And now for the glass slippers!” the Fairy Godmother said loudly, walking closer to the wings where Kirsty and Rachel stood.
Kirsty peered at the Fairy Godmother. Something strange seemed to be hanging from her chin. When Kirsty looked more closely, she saw that it was an icicle!
“Rachel!” Kirsty whispered. “That’s not the Fairy Godmother—it’s Jack Frost!”
“It can’t be!” Rachel exclaimed.
“It is!” Paige gasped, staring at Jack Frost. “But how did he make himself as tall as Alison, who’s supposed to be playing the Fairy Godmother?”
Paige and the girls knew that there was a special rule in Fairyland. It kept anyone from using magic to make themselves taller than the highest tower of the Fairyland palace. But the girls didn’t have time to think about that now. Jack Frost was waving the Fairy Godmother’s wand, eyes gleaming as he looked at the glass slippers in the wings. When the stagehand set off the smoke machine, Jack Frost reached eagerly for the slippers. As the Fairy Godmother, he was supposed to hand them to Cinderella, but Rachel and Kirsty knew that he would just run off with them.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Kirsty murmured, snatching the glass slippers out of Jack Frost’s reach.
“Give me those IMMEDIATELY!” Jack Frost roared.
The audience began to chuckle, thinking that it was all part of the show. As smoke filled the stage, Jack Frost leaned over and tried to grab the slip
pers from Kirsty. She quickly handed them to Rachel, who backed away from Jack Frost’s icy fingers. “What do we do now?” asked Rachel, clutching the slippers. The smoke cleared again and the audience laughed loudly as Jack Frost jumped up and down with rage on the stage. “GIVE ME THOSE GLASS SLIPPERS!” he howled.
“We have to get the slippers to Cinderella somehow, or we’ll ruin the show!” Kirsty said urgently. “But how can we make sure Cinderella gets them, and not Jack Frost?”
“Like this,” Paige whispered. As the stagehand turned on the smoke machine again, Paige waved her wand. A stream of sparkles lifted the glass slippers from Rachel’s grasp and carried them across the stage, past Jack Frost and into the arms of a very surprised Cinderella.
The audience clapped and laughed, clearly having a wonderful time. But Jack Frost just glared at Kirsty and Rachel as Cinderella put on the slippers and climbed into the pumpkin coach.
“Have a good time at the ball!” he snapped coldly to Cinderella. “But be home by midnight—or else!” Then he stomped off into the wings on the other side of the stage.
“Well, the magic glass slipper is safe so far,” Rachel said anxiously, as the ponies pulled the coach offstage. “But I bet Jack Frost will be waiting for another chance to steal it!” She shivered just thinking about it.
“It’s almost time for our dance,” Kirsty whispered.
Onstage, Cinderella had arrived at the ball, and was dancing her first romantic waltz with the prince.
“Paige, can you look out for Jack Frost and the goblins while we’re performing?” asked Rachel.
Paige nodded. “If I’m up high, I’ll be able to see everything,” she whispered, zooming toward the ceiling to hide among the spotlights.
Karen and Lucy hurried over to join Rachel and Kirsty in the wings. As the waltz music finished, the prince led Cinderella to a golden chair. She sat down, arranging her skirt so that her glass slippers were on display. “We’re on,”
Rachel whispered as the music for their dance began. “Good luck, everybody.”
Rachel skipped lightly out of the wings, leading the girls to the center of the stage. Kirsty took her place between Rachel and Karen. She was determined to get the steps right, but she couldn’t help wondering what Jack Frost and his goblins were up to!
Concentrate, she told herself.
The music began. And before she knew it, Kirsty had performed the whole dance without making a single mistake!
BONG! BONG! BONG!
Right on cue, the clock began to chime midnight. Kirsty and Rachel watched as Cinderella jumped from her chair. She ran up the stairs at the back of the stage, leaving the magic glass slipper on the third step. It glittered like a diamond under the bright white spotlights.
A small child dressed in a furry gray mouse costume darted over and grabbed the slipper, just as the prince stepped forward to pick it up.
“Who’s that? There isn’t supposed to be a mouse!” Rachel whispered to Kirsty backstage.
“I bet it’s a goblin!” Kirsty gasped. Sure enough, when the girls looked closely, they could see a green face behind the mouse mask!
Meanwhile, the prince was trying to wrestle the slipper from the mouse’s grasp. “Hey, I’m supposed to take that!” he muttered as the audience howled with laughter.
After a minute or two, the prince managed to grab the slipper away. He held it up. “I promise I will find the owner of this glass slipper—and marry her!” he declared, as the mouse stormed furiously offstage.
The audience applauded, the curtain came down, and everyone hurried into the wings. The stagehands quickly began to change the scenery, ready for the final scene.
“Thank goodness the prince didn’t let that goblin get away with the glass slipper!” Paige whispered, landing on Kirsty’s shoulder as the curtain rose again.
The girls watched from the wings as the prince and his servants arrived at Cinderella’s house with the glass slipper. The first ugly stepsister tried the shoe on, but it didn’t fit. Prince Charming shook his head and moved on to the other sister.
“Why does the second ugly stepsister look so much meaner than usual?” Rachel asked. Then she clapped a hand over her mouth. “It’s Jack Frost!” she exclaimed.
“We have to stop the prince from giving him the magic slipper!” Kirsty said anxiously.
But it was too late. The prince was down on one knee, trying to fit the slipper onto the ugly stepsister’s foot. Rachel and Kirsty could see that the foot was big, green, and knobbly. It was a goblin’s foot!
“So that’s how Jack Frost is making himself so tall,” Rachel whispered. “He’s standing on a goblin’s shoulders!”
The audience thought that the big green foot was a great joke. They roared with laughter, though the prince looked a little confused as he tried the slipper on the goblin’s foot. “This slipper doesn’t fit,” he announced, shaking his head.
“It does fit!” Jack Frost snapped. “Give it to me. I’ll show you!” He grabbed the slipper from the prince and tried to hurry offstage.
Immediately, the prince blocked his way. “Give that back!” he demanded.
“No way!” Jack Frost sneered. The audience chuckled as Kirsty, Rachel, and Paige watched in dismay from the wings.
“Footmen!” the prince called desperately. “Help me!
“The prince is calling for his servants,” Paige whispered, waving her wand so that Kirsty and Rachel were suddenly wearing red uniforms with gold buttons. “That’s your cue, girls!” she finished.
Rachel and Kirsty ran onto the stage.
“We’re here, Your Highness!” Kirsty announced.
The girls and the prince surrounded Jack Frost. He had nowhere to go, so Jack Frost threw the glass slipper sulkily at the prince, who caught it. Grinning at each other, Rachel and Kirsty stepped to the side of the stage as Cinderella arrived to try on the slipper.
“It fits!” the prince announced to loud cheers from the audience. “Will you marry me, Cinderella?”
“I will,” Cinderella replied, “and we’ll live happily ever after!”
The prince and Cinderella began to walk off into the wings as the audience applauded. But Kirsty noticed that Jack Frost was following them!
Thinking quickly, she stepped forward. “That ugly stepsister won’t leave Cinderella alone!” she called to the audience. “Let’s all warn Cinderella, okay?”
“Look out behind you, Cinderella!”shouted a little girl in the front row.
Cinderella stopped and looked around. Jack Frost put his hands in his pockets and whistled a tune, trying to look innocent.
Cinderella and the prince walked on, but Jack Frost crept behind them again.
“Look out behind you, Cinderella!” Kirsty and Rachel shouted, and this time, the audience joined in.
Cinderella turned and Jack Frost folded his arms, pretending to study the painted scenery.
Then, just as Cinderella and her prince were about to leave the stage, Rachel saw Jack Frost pull his wand out of his pocket. “Oh, no!” she whispered. “Jack Frost is going to cast a spell!”
Kirsty desperately looked around for inspiration. How could they stop Jack Frost?
Suddenly, she noticed that Jack Frost and the goblin were standing on a trapdoor in the stage. She quickly turned to the wings, looking for Paige. She could see a faint sparkle in the air wherethe little fairy was hovering. Trying to quietly get her attention, Kirsty pointed at Jack Frost and then down at the trapdoor. She hoped Paige would understand!
Jack Frost raised his wand, but just as he started to say a spell, the trapdoor opened. Both the goblin and Jack Frost fell through the hole! The audience clapped enthusiastically, thinking it was all part of the play.
“Merry Christmas, everyone!” called the prince and Cinderella together as the whole cast gathered onstage to bow. The applause and cheers were deafening as the audience gave the Christmas play a standing ovation.
Rachel and Kirsty smiled happily at each oth
er. Even though Jack Frost and his goblins had done their best to ruin it, the play had been a huge success.
Once the curtain came down, the audience began to leave. Meanwhile, the cast rushed backstage to change.
“Wasn’t that fun?” Rachel cried. “We didn’t let Jack Frost ruin our play. In fact, it was fantastic!”
“The audience loved it,” Kirsty agreed.
“You were wonderful!” Paige told the girls, fluttering overhead. “You stopped Jack Frost from stealing the magic glass slipper, and now children all over the world can enjoy their Christmas plays!”
As the girls entered their dressing room, all the lights around the dressing table mirror began to flash. A vivid rainbow appeared, stretching from one side of the room to the other. As Kirsty and Rachel watched with wide eyes, the king and queen of the fairies stepped off the end of the rainbow.
“Girls, we’ve come to thank you for what you have done.” Queen Titania smiled. “You saved Christmas!”
“And we sent Jack Frost back to Fairyland,” King Oberon added. “He won’t be causing any more trouble this Christmas.”
“What happened to the real Fairy Godmother and ugly stepsister?” Kirsty asked anxiously. “Jack Frost froze them so he could take their places,” the queen replied. “But don’t worry, we thawed them out!”
“They won’t remember anything,” the king chimed in. “Except that the play was a huge success.”
Paige the Christmas Play Fairy Page 3
