A Boy in the Fairy World

Chapter One
“Solid work tonight, little fairy,” Oona said to herself. “You may not be important just yet, but you’re getting there.” She put her wand in its case, turned off her glowworm lamp, and snuggled down into her nest, ready to snooze.

WOOOOOOP, WOOOOOOP, WOOOOOOP! CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG!

The sound was deafening, but covering her ears only made it louder because the alarm was inside Oona’s head. It was her extra fairy perception, or EFP for short, signaling a Level 13 emergency.

“Oof, not now,” said Oona.

Oona Bramblegoop, otherwise known as the Underwear Fairy, had just returned from a full night of supplying magically protective underwear to clumsy children. Now all she wanted to do was pull a blanket of cloud fluff over her head and dream about glitterberry cakes. Her EFP, however, had other ideas.

WOOOOOOP, WOOOOOOP—

“Okay, okay! Crudmuffin!” Oona muttered at her own brain. She sat up and focused on the alarm. Immediately, the noise stopped and the source of the emergency appearedbehind her eyelids.

It was her very first human customer, a boy named Marco. He needed replacement underwear full of AUTO WEDGIE magic to keep him safe. Marco was so clumsy that without magic wedgies to snap him to attention, he would get banged up faster than dress shoes at recess. Oona understood. She often felt like a troll in a china shop herself.

There was just one problem. The sun was about to peek over the horizon, and it was forbidden for fairies to leave Blackberry Bog in the daytime.

The proper fairy thing to do would be to wait until nightfall, but Oona had never been very good at doing the proper fairy thing. Besides, if she waited until tonight, Marco would probably look like he’d been inside a giant pinball machine. If there was one thing Oona couldn’t stand, it was the thought of her humans getting hurt.

Nope, she decided, she needed to go RIGHT NOW. If she hurried, she could get down there and restock his underwear drawer before he woke up.

Oona grabbed her wand and skimmed back down the staircase that wrapped around her tree, her wings helping so she stayed just above the steps.

FUN FAIRY FACT: Even though fairies can fly, they spend most of their time a few inches above the ground. The higher they go, the more tired their wings get. And since wings are also where magic is stored, most fairies like to keep their wings fully charged.

At the bottom, she almost crashed into her little cousin Horace. Fortunately, he also wore magical underwear from Oona, so a wedgie scooted him backward and out of her way.

“Good morning, Oona! It’s a great day to be a fairy, isn’t it? Want to talk about slug stuff? Help me plan the slug spelling bee? The slug swim meet? Make slug snacks together?”

Horace had recently earned his first official job as Slug Fairy. Slug slime was the main ingredient in the coating that kept all of Blackberry Bog invisible to the humanworld. Since slugs were at their slimiest right after breakfast, Horace liked to get an early start on slime collection. He already had a slug on each shoulder and one on top of his head.

“Can’t today, Cousin. Next time.” Oona began flying toward the human world entrance.

“Where are you going? Isn’t it almost bedtime for you?” Horace called after her.

“Emergency,” Oona said over her shoulder.

“Emergency? What kind of emergency?”

The next thing she knew, Horace was rightnext to her, half running, half flying with his newly sprouted stubby wings.

“A bathroom emergency? You should probably head back to your nest. That’s where the closest bath—­”

“No, Horace! Not that kind of emergency.” Ugh. Oona did not have time for this. But she knew Horace well enough to know that ignoring him wouldn’t help. She stopped and explained the situation in as few words as she could.

“But . . .” Horace looked like she had told him that ice cream was extinct. “You can’t go down there now. It’s almost daytime! If the fairy council found out, you’d be suspended from magic for sure! And if a human saw you—­”

“No one is going to see me. And as for the fairy council . . . well, areyou going to tell the fairy council, Horace?” Oona raised her eyebrow and put her hands on her hips.

“Me?” Now Horace looked like Oona had saidOkay, ice cream’s not really extinct, but the only flavor is mint chocolate booger. “You know I would never!”

“Then they won’t find out,” Oona said simply. She started off again.

“I’m going with you,” he said.

“No, you’ll slow me down.”
“I can help!”
“No.”
“Fine. I won’t go with you. I’ll just go next to you at the exact same time.”

Crudmuffin. There was no getting around the fact that stubbornness ran in their family.“Okay, you can come, but no more questions,” she said. “Now, we’ve just got to make one quick stop.”

Horace and his slugs followed as Oona darted into a willow grove and paused at the biggest, droopiest willow. They were in front of Lucy’s house.

Lucy was not only Oona’s best friend—she also happened to be the one and only Tooth Fairy. Oona pressed her finger to her lips. Horace nodded.

“Is Lucy coming with us, too?” Horace whispered.

“No, I just need to get her fairy dust. In case there’s trouble.”

“Wow. You think she’s going to let you have her locket?”

“She doesn’t have to let me. She’s asleep.”

“Wait. You’re going to steal something from your best friend?” Horace wasn’t whispering anymore.

“Shhhhhh! Horace, what did I say about questions?”

Horace stopped, cleared his throat, and said again, this time with a period, “You’re going to steal something from your best friend.”

“Not steal. Borrow. I’ll have it back before she knows it’s gone.”

“Why not just ask her?”

Oona, pink with frustration, pulled Horace away from Lucy’s nest. The truth was, she didn’t want to ask because Lucy would probably say no. But Oona couldn’t admit that.

“Because . . .” She smiled as she thought of a reason that showed how really good and generous she was being. “If she doesn’t know, she can’t get in trouble.”

Horace pulled his eyebrows together, thinking hard about that one.

“Now, are you in or are you out?” Oona asked.

Horace looked like he had just decided to eat the booger ice cream. He bit his lip. “In.”

“Great. You’re on lookout duty. Stay here.” Oona flitted inside.

Oona crept past Lucy. Sure enough, she was sleeping after her night of collecting teeth. Oona loved her friend, but Lucy would never understand what it felt like to be unsure if you mattered. Lucy already had more tooth customers than a leprechaun had tricks. It was hard to figure out who loved her more: the children of the world or the rest of the fairies. She was the most popular fairy of them all!

But Oona was a brand-­new fairy with a brand-­new job, and finding customers had turned out to be harder than she thought. The biggest hitch was that most children were just used to going to the Band-­Aid drawer a lot, and if they didn’t know they could use some help, then Oona’s EFP didn’t light up.

Oona was afraid the rest of the fairies wondered whether Oona’s job was even necessary. In fact, deep down, Oona wasn’t sure herself. But all she could do was take care of the children she did have on her rounds really, really well.

Yep. This was the only way. She scooped up the locket that lay on Lucy’s nightstand and put it on.

Then she padded back outside and waved for Horace to follow her. Soon they were at the top of the magical twisty slide that connected Blackberry Bog with the human world.

Oona turned to Horace. His forehead was wrinkled with worry. Was this going to be too scary for him? She was his big cousin after all. She was supposed to protect him.

“Last chance to change your mind,” she said to him gently. “After this, there’s no going back. Are you ready?”

“Ready to break the number one fairy rule and go into a strange land filled with giant creatures after sort of stealing the prized possession of the most important fairy ever?”

“Pretty much, yes.”

Horace squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. Then he opened his eyes. “Ready,” he said. “Besides, what could go wrong?”


Chapter Two

Horace had neverbeen outside Blackberry Bog before, so it was hard to get him to hurry. He kept stopping to exclaim about the hardness of the sidewalks, the tallness of the buildings, and the stinkiness of the trash cans (worse than troll breath!). Oona hadn’t been coming to the human world for very long, but already all these things seemed normal to her.

So Horace kept saying, “Wow!” while the slugs did somersaults on his shoulders, and Oona would say, “Yes, wow.” Then she’d grab his hand and give him a good tug.

When they got to Marco’s yard, the birds were just starting their songs. Oona lifted her wand to buy them a little more time:

“We hope no feathers will be ruffled.
These sweet, sweet songs must now be muffled.
Not forever, just a tweak,
Give each bird a quiet beak.”

She flicked her wand, and every bird in the yard suddenly found themselves with a spiral rainbow lollipop in their mouth. Oona’s magic always came out a little sideways like that. But at least they were quiet. And loving their lollipops.

“Now, no flying, birdies! You need to sit still when you have a lollipop. Safety first!” Horace whispered helpfully. The birds nodded and stayed perched on their branches.

Oona and Horace landed on Marco’s windowsill and peered into the hushed room. He was still in bed, his blanket pulled up over his head. Perfect.

“Okay, Horace, your post is this windowsill. Keep an eye on the bed. Any movement, alert me. Understand?”

“Aye, aye, Captain!” Horace said, saluting. “I’ll keep aneye, eye on him. Get it?”

“I get it.” Oona sighed. She slipped into the room and down to the dresser.

As soon as she opened the bottom drawer, she saw the problem. The magic underwear had more holes than a mini golf course! She held them up for Horace to see, but he was too busy. One of the birds had gotten her lollipop stuck to her wing, and Horace was trying to unstick it.

Oona shook her head. Horace was a loyal fairy, but a lousy lookout. He just couldn’t resist helping little creatures.

Oona turned back to her work. She raised her wand.

“Singers need songs and dancers need dance.
We all need undies up under our pants.
Before the clock’s alarm bell tolls,
Replace this pair so full of holes!”

Instantly, new undies appeared on the end of Oona’s wand, hanging from one point of the star.

FUN FAIRY FACT: Fairy wands come in five models: Classic Sparkle Star, Moondoggle, Horseshoe and Heart, Lightning Up, and Basic Bagel. Classic Sparkle Star is the most popular, but recently Basic Bagel has been selling like hotcakes, or more accurately, like bagels.

She plucked them off and placed them neatly in the drawer. But as she picked up the old undies again to get rid of them, she noticed something about the holes. They were just a little too perfect, almost as if they had been snipped with a pair of scissors. Why would anyone do that?

Oona started to get a twisty feeling in her tummy.“Oh no, Horace,” she said. “Something’snot right. I think this might be a—­”

Suddenly, a cage made of Popsicle sticks and dental floss fell from a hook in the ceiling, right on top of Oona.

“Trap.”