Undercover (5 page)

‘Just throw the ball to me, Weirdo,' called Clarabelle. ‘It'll save me the effort of taking it off you.'

Elly looked around. There were no other blue team players close by, and the goal hoop suddenly looked very far away. What were the chances of her reaching it from here? She'd never shot a goal before and Clarabelle was right behind her. Maybe she should just let her have the ball. After all, she would probably just snatch it in a moment anyway.

Elly made up her mind. ‘Hey Clarabelle,' she said suddenly. ‘Catch!'

But instead of throwing the ball to Clarabelle, Elly aimed for the hoop. She sprung up as high off the ground as she could and kept her arm steady as the ball left her hands. The ball started veering off to the left, well away from the goal.

Clarabelle watched.

‘There's no way that one's going in,' she sniggered.

But in midair the ball suddenly screeched to a stop. Instead of going to the left it began curving to the right. Then, while the whole class watched in astonishment, the basketball plopped down through the middle of the goal hoop.

‘NO WAY!' said Clarabelle, in disbelief.

The blue team players jumped up and down in excitement. Everyone, that is, except Jess and Elly. They looked at each other.

‘Are you using magic?' Jess whispered to Elly, suspiciously.

Elly shook her head. ‘I'm not, I swear,' she said.

‘Well, how can you explain what just happened?' asked Jess.

But Elly couldn't explain it. Something strange was going on, but she wasn't quite sure what.

For the rest of the game Elly tried to avoid the ball. But somehow it always ended up in her hands. And when she tried to throw it to someone else — even someone on the other team — it always ended up going through the hoop. Finally she tried throwing the ball while facing the wrong way. Standing on one foot. With her eyes closed.

She had a feeling she knew what was going on. If she got this goal she knew she would be right. There was a moment of silence and then the cheers of the blue team told her that she had got the ball through the hoop.

Finally, Mrs Hayman blew her whistle. ‘Game over,' she said. ‘Congratulations, blue team! Good work, Elly. You've definitely earned a place on the school basketball team. You are very talented.'

‘Oh, not really,' said Elly modestly. She could see that Clarabelle was looking at her suspiciously. ‘I was just lucky.'

Jess looked at her friend admiringly as they headed towards the change rooms.

‘You're a natural at basketball,' she said.

Elly looked around. ‘I don't think I am a natural,' she said quietly, ‘but I do think that I'm not the only fairy at South Street School.'

Chapter Six

A
t lunchtime, Elly and Jess talked about what had happened. They had to talk softly because Caitlin, Clarabelle and the rest of the Fairy Club girls were sitting nearby.

‘That wasn't a normal ball,' said Elly. ‘There was definitely a fairy gadget involved somehow.'

Jess was wide-eyed. ‘So you think someone else in our class is an undercover fairy?'

Elly nodded. ‘I'm sure of it,' she said. ‘And we're going to find out who it is.'

Jess was excited. ‘We'll be like detectives!' she said. ‘Let's look for clues.'

Elly shook her head. She was hungry. ‘Let's have lunch first. You should never look for clues on an empty stomach.'

She opened her backpack and pulled out a large, glittery blue box.

‘What's that?' asked Jess curiously. It looked a bit like a lunch box with a big dial on top.

‘It's a Wunch-Box,' explained Elly. ‘Wunch stands for Whatever U Need Culinary Holder,' she said, and showed Jess how the box worked.

On the dial are numerous lunchtime options — from salad roll to pizza slices. All you have to do is turn the dial to what you want for lunch and when you open the box there it is, waiting for you.

‘You put the ingredient powder in here,' said Elly, opening up a flap on the side. ‘And you have to charge it up once a week.'

‘That's a cool invention,' said Jess. She liked her mum's pottery but she couldn't help wishing that she were an inventor, like Elly's mum.

‘It's good if it's working properly,' said Elly. She'd had trouble with her Wunch-Box before and today it was looking particularly dented and scratched.

Elly felt like tomato soup. But when she tried turning the dial she found it wouldn't budge from cupcakes.

‘That's not so bad,' said Jess, looking at the options on the dial. ‘It could've been stuck on olive and anchovy pikelets.'

Elly sighed. Cupcakes were fine if you were in the mood for them. But she felt like tomato soup. Unfortunately, it looked like it was cupcakes or nothing. There was nothing she could do but click the ‘Make Lunch!' button, and wait.

A few moments later, steam began to rise from the Wunch-Box and the smell of baking filled the air. The Fairy Club girls looked up when the cupcake smell wafted over. Caitlin looked at Elly and Jess curiously. Elly waved her hands around, hoping to make the smell go away.

Caitlin smiled and waved back. ‘Your lunch smells great!' she called.

‘Thanks!' Elly called back.

‘You know,' Elly said to Jess, ‘I don't think Caitlin's all that bad.'

Jess shrugged. ‘She's not as bad as most of the Fairy Club girls, I guess.'

‘What exactly
is
Fairy Club?' asked Elly.

‘I guess they just sit around talking about fairies,' Jess said. Then she looked quickly at Elly. ‘Not cool fairies like you, of course. Sucky fairies.'

Elly nodded. She knew all about sucky fairy stuff.

‘Then on the weekend they go to each other's houses and dress up and pretend they're fairies,' continued Jess, rolling her eyes. ‘It's so dumb.'

Jess seemed to know a lot about Fairy Club. ‘Have you ever been?' Elly asked her.

Jess looked embarrassed. ‘Well, no,' she said. ‘But I'm glad. I wouldn't want to go anyway. I'd rather spend my spare time inventing a flying machine.'

Elly opened the lunch box and a row of perfect cupcakes was sitting inside, covered in chocolate icing and coloured sprinkles. She offered one to Jess.

‘Wow!' said Jess, taking one. ‘They look great.'

‘Let me try mine first,' warned Elly, sniffing her cake. ‘Sometimes the Wunch-Box food isn't quite right. Once I had a banana that tasted like salami. It was so disgusting.' Elly took a cautious bite and smiled. This time, at least, the cupcake was perfect.

Jess took a big bite of hers. ‘These are great!' she said. She picked up the Wunch Box and examined it closely. ‘Maybe I could turn my lunch box into one of these. What is the ingredient powder made of?'

‘Kitchen dust,' said Elly.

Jess spat out a mouthful of cake. ‘Dust?' she repeated in disgust. ‘That's so gross!'

‘Not really,' said Elly. ‘Mum worked out that dust is just tiny flakes of stuff from around the house. She fills the Wunch-Box up with dust she's collected from the kitchen and the Wunch-Box just sorts through the pieces.' She took another bite. ‘Plus, it's not human dust. It's fairy dust, which is much cleaner.'

Jess looked at the remains of the cupcake in her hand. It didn't look nearly so delicious anymore. ‘I think I'll just stick with my sandwiches,' she said. She didn't fancy eating dust food no matter whose dust had been used. Dust food was the sort of thing you only gave to people you didn't like.

This gave Jess an idea. She nudged Elly. ‘I dare you to go and offer them to the Fairy Club,' she said, smiling mischievously.

Elly got up. ‘Good idea!' she said. ‘We've got way too many here.' And she walked over to the Fairy Club girls before Jess could stop her.

Jess stopped smiling and started feeling bad. She hoped the dustcakes weren't poisonous. She watched as the Fairy Club girls each chose a cake. She could tell from their faces that Elly hadn't told them what the key ingredient was. She could also see that they thought the cakes were delicious. Especially Caitlin. Once she'd finished her first cake she took another one. Jess saw her say something to Elly. Then she handed her a piece of paper.
What on earth could it be?

Elly rushed back a moment later, looking very excited. ‘Caitlin's invited us to a Fairy Club meeting this weekend!' she said.

Jess shook her head. ‘No way,' she said, firmly. ‘I refuse to go to some stupid fairy party.'

Elly hopped around on one foot. ‘But Jess, I really,
really
want to go. She's even given us an invitation,' she said, holding it out. It was pink and covered in little gold wands and stars. Looking at the invitation made Jess want to go even less. But it was hard to say no when your friend was so excited.

‘We'd have to dress up, you know,' Jess warned Elly.

Elly nodded enthusiastically. ‘I've always wanted to go to a fancy-dress party!' she said.