Cinderella Smith (10 page)

I did a big, huge sigh and turned around. “What are you doing here?”

“We just won our basketball game and we're celebrating. How about you?”

“We just finished our dance recital and we're celebrating too,” I said.

“Great,” said Charlie. “So, what are you?”

“She's the Pumpkin Blossom Fairy.” Erin handed me a scoop of chocolate mint. “She was great.”

My cheeks warmed up a little.

Tess twirled up to us holding my wand and an ice-cream cone.

“Hey, watch that wand,” said Charlie. “Don't turn me into a frog!”

“Frog, frog, frog!” yelled Tess, pointing at him with the wand.

“Help!” yelled Charlie.

Rosemary T. and Rosemary W. were walking by. “You're so loud,” they said.

Erin and I gave them mean stink eyes.

“You better watch out,” said Charlie. “Tess is turning people into frogs.”

Tess whirled to them and raised her wand. “Fro . . . ,” she started to say, but the Rosemarys backed away.

“That's enough, Tess.” My dad scooped her up. “Ready to hit the road?”

“Sure.” Erin and I followed my dad out. I turned around to say good-bye to Charlie, but he was off getting ice cream.

When we got home after dropping Erin off, one of my ballet slippers was missing, but my mom didn't even raise her eyebrow. She and my dad and my grandmas got a great big laugh out of it on account of it being a slipper. You know, a
slipper
, like that other Cinderella. I did not think it was funny, though.

“This is very, extremely serious,” I said. “I do not want to tell Miss Akiyama about another lost shoe. She might not let me take dance class anymore, and Erin's about to start.”

Just then there was a crazy
knock-bounce-knock
at the front door.

“What in the world is that?” asked my Grandmother Smith.

“It must be Charlie,” I said.

I opened the door, but there was no one there. “That's weird.”

“Woilà!” said Tess, pointing with the fairy wand.

And there, sitting on the doormat, was my ballet slipper.

About the Author

In between tripping over abandoned shoes, chasing after escaped pets, and searching for lost belongings, Stephanie Barden wrote this, her first book. She teaches classes at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, where she lives with her husband, Tom; son, Joe; and eighty-pound lapdog, Otis. You can visit her online at www.stephaniebarden.com.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

Illustrations by Diane Goode

Diane Goode was born in Brooklyn, New York, and has a BA in fine arts from Queens College. Her distinguished list of picture books begins with the Caldecott Honor winner
WHEN I WAS YOUNG IN THE MOUNTAINS
by Cynthia Rylant. She lives and works in Watchung, New Jersey, with her husband, David, and their two dogs, Jack and Daisy. You can visit her online at www.dianegoode.com.

Copyright

Cinderella Smith

Text copyright © 2011 by Stephanie Barden

Illustrations copyright © 2011 by Diane Goode

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Barden, Stephanie.

Cinderella Smith / by Stephanie Barden ; illustrated by Diane Goode. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

Summary: Cast off by her old friends, Cinderella agrees to help a new student deal with the stepsisters she will soon have, and meantime, a former friend tries to prevent Cinderella from dancing the lead in their tap recital.

ISBN 978-0-06-196423-7 (trade bdg.)

[1. Friendship—Fiction. 2. Jealousy—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction. 4. Family life—Washington (State)—Fiction. 5. Stepsisters—Fiction. 6. Tap dancing—Fiction. 7. Seattle (Wash.)—Fiction.] I. Goode, Diane, ill. II. Title.

PZ7.B250053Cin 2011

[Fic]—dc22

2010015980
CIP
AC

EPub Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780062076984

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First Edition

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