Keep Calm and Sparkle On!

by Sarah Aronson

  Isabelle was torn. And a little guilty. Even though she was here for Samantha, she could see that Nora still needed a friend.

  More than ever, she hated Rule Three C.

  She held out her hand. (She couldn’t help it.) “My name’s Isabelle. Pleased to meet you.”

  “And I’m Nora.” Nora asked Isabelle what she liked to do for fun. When Isabelle said “hiking in the woods and making cookies,” it seemed that Nora was about to tell her all about cleaning up the world and ending hunger and all the things that Isabelle knew were really important to her. But then the bell rang and the dancing broke up, and two girls and a boy started walking toward Isabelle and Nora. The trio wore matching scarves and gloves. They looked like they couldn’t stop dancing.

  First they took a big step with the left foot. Then they did the same thing with the right foot. Finally they all stopped, clapped their hands, and did a little twirl.

  “They always walk like that,” Nora said, getting up to leave. But she wasn’t fast enough.

  “Hi, Nora,” Samantha said. “Who’s your friend?” Isabelle didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. This was almost exactly what Samantha had asked the last time they all stood here, except, of course, only Isabelle remembered that. When Nora introduced Isabelle, Samantha introduced her friends, Janet and Mason.

  “Are you interested in the play, too?” Samantha asked. “Because we can teach you all the moves. But first, we’re starved. Want to go to Dairy Twirl for an ice cream sandwich made with chocolate babka?”

  It was hard to imagine anything better than an ice cream sandwich made with chocolate babka. Isabelle turned to Nora. “Do you want to go, too?” She crossed her fingers. Maybe Nora would say yes.

  “I have other things to do,” Nora said, holding up an empty bag that Isabelle knew would soon be filled with garbage she picked up around the schoolyard. Saving the earth was the most important thing to Nora. “But you can go ahead, if you want to.”

  Isabelle wanted to clean up the world with Nora, but today, she really didn’t have a choice.

  “Then I guess I’ll see you later,” Isabelle said. “Good luck with your lines.”

  Ten to one, Samantha’s wish had to do with the play.

  Ten to one, Samantha and Nora wanted the same thing.

  The first thing Samantha, Mason, and Janet did was teach Isabelle “the walk.”

  “The basic moves are like this,” Samantha said. She told Isabelle to watch carefully. “First step forward and to the left. Then forward and to the right. Then kick with your left and shuffle with your right.”

  It took Isabelle about three tries to get it right. But once she did, she had to admit it was fun to link arms and strut down the street this way. It was also fun adding new moves, like a small jump and a shimmy. (Although Mason refused to do that part.)

  As they walked, Samantha told Isabelle more about the play. “After auditions, they hold practices. Then right before the new year, we perform on the big stage at school. And everyone comes and we have a party and flowers, and sometimes they put our pictures in the newspaper.”

  Isabelle asked, “What if you don’t want to be in the play?”

  Samantha didn’t completely understand not wanting to be on the stage in front of tons of people, but Janet did.

  “I always make star-shaped cookies with sparkles and chocolate glaze to sell at intermission.” Janet smiled at Samantha. “They’re Samantha’s favorite. Plus, we give the proceeds to charity. So everyone thinks it’s great.”

  It sounded like fairy godmothers had helped this play before. And that Nora and Janet could be good friends.

  “Maybe I’ll make something,” Isabelle said. Then she started to describe her favorite treats, but Samantha wanted to practice a dance. And a few important lines.

  “Samantha should totally get the part of the good witch.” Janet then explained that every kid got a part, but Samantha didn’t think that was true anymore.

  “My dads say that this year they’re only taking triple threats,” Samantha explained. (In other words, people who were good at dancing, singing, and acting.) “The principal hired this big-time famous writer named Dee to write the play and the songs and even direct. We might even be on TV. Dee’s fans are already asking about tickets! So she and the principal are going to be super choosy this year. And we’re going to practice a ton more. They don’t want anyone to wreck it.”

  This didn’t sound fair. Or fun. It made Isabelle worry that Samantha wasn’t always nice. And that Nora was never going to get a part. Even though she now knew Nora had a great voice, she was also pretty sure Nora was not a triple threat. The truth was, Nora would need a little magic to be as good as Samantha.

  But Isabelle couldn’t think about Nora now. She had to focus on Samantha. And granting her wish. (Not Nora’s.)

  “So let me get this straight,” Isabelle said. “The play’s about a good witch? And she makes a lot of magic?”

  Samantha nodded. “The play begins when one by one, a bunch of kids—none of them connected—stumble on a well in the middle of a beautiful wood. It turns out to be a magic wishing well that belongs to a horrible witch.”

  Regular people were so funny. Wells were never magic. They never granted wishes, good or bad. But Isabelle couldn’t say this.

  She asked, “And the bad witch makes them all miserable?”

  “Not exactly,” Samantha said, whipping out the script. “The bad witch makes the bad kids unhappy. Then the good witch steps in. She turns those kids around. And in the end, the wishes and the kids turn out great. Good conquers evil! Everyone lives happily ever after!”

  Janet said, “Samantha’s song is the highlight of the show.”

  Samantha crossed her fingers. “If I get it.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Janet said. “You have to get it!”

  Samantha sang a few sappy lines about the power of wishes and good deeds. (It was the same one Isabelle had heard Nora singing.) “She also does a dance with the bad witch and the bad witch’s assistant. And at the end, everyone thanks her for being so good.”

  Mason said, “I’m trying out to be the assistant.” He explained that this was mostly because there was no risk of this character having to kiss anyone.

  Isabelle was going to ask more, but in front of her was the biggest, brightest, most beautiful place she had ever seen.

  It looked like a castle, except the towers were ice cream cones. The steps and the counters were decorated to look just like silver candy wrappers. The windows and door looked like they were made of chocolate and rainbow-striped mints.

  Inside was even better. There were over two hundred flavors of ice cream. And you could mix up the flavors with any kind of candy or you could dip your ice cream in chocolate that turned into a shell.

  Samantha walked up to the counter and (without asking) ordered, “Four babka sandwiches with quadruple chocolate ice cream dipped in dark chocolate, please.” She handed the first one to Isabelle. “Quadruple chocolate might sound simple, but you will never eat anything better than this.”

  Samantha was not wrong. It was the best ice cream ever—both sweet and a little salty. Like happily ever after or a wish come true.

  When they were stuffed to the brim, Janet and Mason picked up their bags to walk home.

  This was Isabelle’s chance.

  “I have something really important to tell you,” she told Samantha. But then she burped (very loudly). And Samantha burst into laughter.

  This was not the way Isabelle had wanted this to go.

  Even worse, Mason came back inside. “My mom’s here. You guys want a ride?”

  “I never turn down a ride,” Samantha said, wiping all the chocolate off her lips. “What about you?”

  Obviously, Isabelle didn’t need or want a ride. “I’ll walk,” she said. “But can I come over tomorrow?” She burped again. “To learn the dance? Just in case? And to tell you something important?”

  “Sure, why not,” Sam
antha said, writing down her address and handing Isabelle some papers. “Here is the script. I already know the whole thing by heart.”

  When Isabelle arrived at the castle, she went directly to the girlgoyles and made a plan.

  Isabelle would make Samantha happily ever after—it couldn’t be that hard. And while she was doing that, she would also bring Samantha and Nora together. Because of the play, that had to be possible. It wouldn’t help Nora get the part she wanted, but better than that, Nora would have a friend. And once Samantha and Nora were friends, they could all go to Nora’s house, and while they were singing all the best songs from the play, Isabelle could sneak into Nora’s room and get back her sparkles. Once they’d been returned, Isabelle was sure that everything would return to normal. No more sparkle shenanigans! And then Grandmomma could come back for Level Three and Isabelle would be a hero. (Or at least, not in trouble.)

  It wasn’t easy peasy, lemon squeezy, but it was a plan. Hopefully it was doable.

  For her sake, Nora’s sake, and the sake of the fairy godmother world (if she was being dramatic), Isabelle would have to try.

  The next morning, Isabelle got up early. She brushed her hair and put it in a high ponytail. She put on her nicest jeans and sparkly green sneakers.

  In other words, she tried to look like a regular girl. With a little extra pizzazz.

  When she showed up at Samantha’s door, she was relieved to find that Janet and Mason weren’t there.

  “I have something important to tell you before we go to the audition,” Isabelle said right away.

  But Samantha also had something important to show Isabelle. (And if it wasn’t yet clear, Samantha always got her way.)

  “What do you think?” Samantha asked, twirling in a circle.

  “About what?”

  “About my dress! Isn’t it beautiful? Aren’t the wings cool? I know it’s a fairy godmother costume, but it was all I had. Besides, aren’t good witches and fairy godmothers basically the same thing?”

  Her dress was beautiful—almost as sparkly and pink as Clotilda’s last Extravaganza dress—but those wings had to go.

  Fairy godmothers and good witches (whatever they were) were not the same thing. Even worse, fairy godmothers only had wings in books, not in real life. “So, about that important thing I wanted to tell you …”

  Samantha didn’t hear her. Instead, she introduced Isabelle to the fattest, fluffiest cat Isabelle had ever seen, Prince Oberon the Fifth. Samantha told Isabelle to keep a distance. “Unless he moves his tail. That means he wants to be picked up.”

  They stared at his tail for five minutes. But that tail didn’t move, not even a smidge. So they left him alone.

  Instead, Samantha demonstrated her dance moves. And her big song. And part of the song she would sing with the bad witch (which was an even better song, but not a solo).

  She would have kept practicing and singing and dancing and flapping those dumb wings, but Isabelle shouted, “Samantha, please stop! For just for a second. I need to tell you something important. Fairy godmothers don’t have wings. In fact, wings are sort of disrespectful.”

  Samantha laughed. “What are you talking about?”

  “It’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.” Isabelle whipped out her wand and tried to stand as tall as possible. “I am your fairy godmother. I am here to make you happily ever after.”

  Samantha laughed so hard Prince Oberon swished his tail. “You are hilarious,” she said, picking up the cat and scratching his head. “Can we pull this on Mason? He’s always complaining that boys never get wishes.”

  “No, we cannot do that,” Isabelle replied. Instead of explaining the rules (and wasting precious time), she pointed her wand at a fuzzy gray yarn ball in the corner of the room. It was Prince Oberon’s toy mouse. “You need proof?” Isabelle took a deep breath and imagined the yarn running through a field. Or across the kitchen floor.

  For a moment, nothing happened.

  But Isabelle did not give up. She straightened her elbow and thought about determination. Then she envisioned Samantha and Nora on the stage. And to her surprise, it happened. Pop! Pop! Pop! Hiss! The yarn turned into an extremely frightened mouse! Luckily, Samantha was still holding Prince Oberon. By the time he wiggled free, the mouse had run out the open door to the woods outside.

  Samantha did a little victory dance (unlike Nora, who had called for the police). Like Nora, she asked a ton of questions. “How does anyone choose? Can we tell Janet? Can I ask my dads?” Samantha paced in a circle. “This doesn’t have to be about love, does it? This is real life, you know. Not a fairy tale.”

  Isabelle agreed. “No, it definitely doesn’t have to have anything to do with love. All you have to do is make a wish that you know in your heart will make you …”

  “Happily ever after!” Samantha rubbed her hands together. “Oh, this is going to be so perfect.” Then she sat down. “How long do I have to decide?”

  Isabelle counted all the days on her fingers. “By my calculation, you have exactly four weeks. But you can wish now. If you know what you want.” She winked. “Like a perfect audition, perhaps?”

  To Isabelle’s surprise, Samantha didn’t jump all over that. “I don’t know. Maybe I should become a real princess with a real live kingdom and a gigantic castle. Or can I wish to be famous? On TV or on the stage? Can you make me the youngest president ever? Can you help me invent something that will change the entire world? Or can I wish for more wishes?”

  Again the wish for more wishes. Regular girls were so unreasonable.

  Isabelle begged Samantha to come up with something smaller (in other words, doable). “Why don’t you want to wish to get the part of the good witch?”

  Samantha told her that would not be necessary.

  “Are you sure?” Isabelle asked.

  “One hundred percent,” Samantha replied. “Officially, I have to act like I might not get the part, but the truth is, no one else has a chance, and not just because I’ve been the star of every play since I was old enough to read. My dads know Dee. They told me the part is mine.”

  Isabelle sat down. This was a big disappointment. And not fair at all. “So there’s nothing I can do right now?”

  “Of course there is,” Samantha said. “Stick around. Cheer me on. Come to the audition. I’ll even take off the wings.” She told Isabelle to put her wand away. “When I know what I want, you’ll be the first to hear about it.”

  So that’s what they did.

  Isabelle went to the audition with Samantha, Mason, and Janet. (Even though Janet wasn’t auditioning, she stuck to Samantha like glue.)

  Samantha was, indeed, a triple threat. Her song was great. Her dancing was perfection. She didn’t mess up a single line.

  Mason was pretty good, too. Dee asked him to do a lot of funny things, like crawl on the ground and swing from a imaginary vine and pretend to have a New York accent. Isabelle didn’t know why this was important, but she could see that Dee thought it was great.

  While Dee tried teaming him up with a girl named Teja—to turn the witch’s assistant into a two-headed assistant—Isabelle looked for Nora. She was sitting in the corner. Her hair was wilder than ever. And she looked terrified.

  Isabelle felt bad. “When are you up?” she asked.

  “Right after Mason and Teja,” Nora said. “I practiced all day. I think I’m ready.”

  “What part do you want?”

  She smiled. “The good witch. But since I’ll never get it, I decided to go for the bad one.” She picked up her fake wand and pointed it at Isabelle. “Do I look scary? I don’t, right?” She put the fake wand down. “I don’t know what I’m even doing here.” She got up and walked to the back of the room to pace.

  Isabelle picked up Nora’s fake wand. It was sort of sad. It looked like a plain black stick.

  Even though she was sure this was totally against the rules, Isabelle had to do something for Nora. She tapped the tip of her wand and secretly remove
d a teeny tiny fleck of sparkle—just enough for one night’s worth of happiness. As Isabelle pressed the sparkle into Nora’s fake wand, she imagined Nora having a great audition. And making up with Samantha. And making the whole world cleaner and better. (It was impossible not to cheer for Nora.)

  When the fake wand glowed and hissed and sputtered, Isabelle practically jumped out of her seat. But right away, it looked normal—and fake—again. So nobody could tell it held a tiny bit of magic.

  When Nora returned, Isabelle gave the fake wand back to her and wished her good luck. For a split second, it looked like maybe Nora remembered something, like she knew who Isabelle was. But then she didn’t. She just looked really, really, really happy.

  “Have a good time,” Isabelle said. “I hope you’re the best bad witch ever.”

  And of course, she was.

  Nora still wasn’t a triple threat, but she sang with gusto! She only stumbled once. When she said, “Evil children deserve what they wish for,” she actually sounded a little bit like Minerva (especially when she was in a bad mood).

  When Nora was done, Dee called everyone onstage. “Thank you, everyone, for auditioning for the play. I was very excited by what I saw tonight.” After quickly going over the bad news—that there weren’t enough parts for everyone—she told them, “All of you were great. It’s going to make casting very difficult. But I’ll get it done. The cast will be posted tonight. First rehearsal is tomorrow. So get some sleep and get ready to work. Once we get started, you need to be ready for anything and everything.”

  Act I

  No surprise, Samantha got the part of the good witch, and Nora got the part of the bad one. Mason was half of the bad witch’s assistant, and Teja, who turned out to be the school’s best soccer player, was the other half. Janet decided to help with props. Samantha introduced Isabelle to Dee. “Is it okay if she watches?” She told her that Isabelle was her “professional audience.”