The Magic Book series, book 1 (2 page)

Having hung up
their coats and stowed their book bags in their allotted drawers,
they wove their way through the chairs and tables to the carpet on
which they all sat for the register. Well, the morning passed
quickly enough and lunchtime soon came round.

That was when
Sophie realised that she didn’t have her beloved toy puppy with
her. An overwhelming sense of panic washed over her like a wave,
and she fought back tears while she desperately felt in all her
pockets for her puppy, but she wasn’t there! She’d had her for as
long as she could remember and couldn’t bear the possibility of not
having the comfort of her ever again. Sophie fretfully addressed
her sister.

“Felicity, I
can’t find my puppy!”

“I’ll help you
look. I am ‘Felicity Finder’ you know!” she replied with gusto.
Felicity seemed to have an uncanny knack of finding anything lost.
She was frequently asked by her mother to track down her lost house
keys, which she invariably did within minutes, much to everyone’s
astonishment.

“Miss, can we
have a look in our classroom for Sophie’s puppy, please?” Felicity
asked the dinner lady.

“Well, go on
then, but don’t make a mess and if you find her, put her straight
into your book bag so you don’t lose her again.”

“OK, we will,
thank you,” replied a grateful Sophie.

After hunting
seemingly everywhere to no avail, they at last conceded defeat and
slumped down on the carpet.

“It’s no use -
I’ll never ever see her again, Felicity,” sobbed Sophie.

“Oh Sophie,
don’t cry, she must be here somewhere!” Felicity had an idea and
got up and walked over to her school drawer. “You can have my Pink
and Purple Pup to hug until we find yours. Oh, hang on a minute,
she’s got pushed right to the back,” Felicity said as she stretched
her arm in as far as she could to reach her toy. Her fingers
brushed the soft material as with one last effort she’d made to
grab it, but as she did so it slipped further away and her pup fell
out down the back of the drawer. “Bother! Now I’ve lost my pup
too,” she complained loudly.

Sophie, who had
regained some composure by now, walked over to her. “Perhaps she’s
fallen down into the drawer below,” she suggested, pulling open the
one underneath. But in doing so, she was just in time to see Pink
and Purple Pup falling further down behind that drawer. This kept
happening with each drawer they pulled out until all the drawers
had been removed. Then, there she was at last!

“Sophie! You'll
never guess what? Here’s your pup too!” shrieked Felicity.

“Oh thank you
Felicity, thank you, thank you!” Sophie exclaimed jumping up and
down wildly whilst hugging and kissing her pup, too delighted at
being reunited with her to wonder how on earth she’d got there.

“Oops, so much
for not making a mess though,” Felicity reflected, surveying the
drawers now strewn haphazardly on the floor around them.

“We’d better
get this lot put back before a teacher sees it,” warned Sophie. As
they picked up the first drawer to restore it to its rightful
place, Sophie noticed a book at the back of the unit and reached in
for it. “Look Felicity, I didn’t notice this when we got the pups
out, did you?”

“No, I’m sure
it was empty. It must have fallen from one of the drawers while I
was looking for my pup. Whose is it do you think?” Felicity
wondered.

“I don’t know,”
puzzled Sophie. “It’s been here a while by the look of it. It’s
covered with dust!” She gently wiped it as she spoke. The grime
came away on her hand, revealing a plain mid-brown leather cover.
It didn’t look very interesting. She flicked through it only to
find that all the pages inside were blank.

“Oh, I thought
it might be a book of spells or something,” Felicity remarked,
subdued after the initial excitement of their discovery. She took
it from Sophie to see for herself. “It’s very well made for just a
notebook,” she observed. Whilst absentmindedly uncurling one of the
pages near the front of the book some writing was revealed. She
read it aloud to Sophie, her interest piqued once more.

“Whosoever
finds this book,

Needs to take a
closer look.

My pages may
seem plain to you,

But in fact
that’s simply far from true.”

“Is that it?”
questioned Sophie, disappointed.

“There’s
definitely nothing on any of the other pages that I can see…”
puzzled Felicity.

Having lost
interest, Sophie’s attention was drawn back to the task in hand. “I
think we had better get this lot tidied up before breaktime’s
over,” she warned.

The two of them
set about putting the classroom straight, and soon it was returned
to its usual tidy state. The girls then sat at a table whilst they
tried to work out which drawer to put the book into. They flicked
through its pages again and re-read the poem.

“I don’t get
it,” huffed Felicity, “but at least we have your puppy back – and
mine!”

“Yes!” Sophie
exclaimed, beaming again and giving her puppy one last hug before
putting her lovingly into her book bag.

“It’s as if
Pink and Purple Pup led us to my puppy isn’t it?” chuckled
Sophie.

“Yes, maybe
they’re magical! I believe in magic and fairies and everything
don’t you?” asked Felicity.

“Definitely,”
replied Sophie enthusiastically. “Now where shall we leave this
book?”

“I think we
should put it on Mrs Vincent’s chair,” answered Felicity.

“No, I think it
should go on top of the drawers,” countered Sophie, taking the book
from Felicity a little too firmly and something fell out of it onto
the floor.

“Look, Sophie,
a pen!” exclaimed Felicity as she swooped down to pick it up
eagerly. “Oh it’s beautiful,” she breathed as she turned it,
admiring the gilt barrel decorated with elaborate swirls etched on
its surface.

“It must have
fallen from the book. Look, there is a little space for it here in
its spine,” Sophie pointed out.

Felicity took a
scrap of paper and tried to write with it, but the pen didn’t work.
“I wonder if it writes in this book – it might be like one of those
special pens we had in our activity packs mum and dad bought for
our holiday journey, do you remember?” asked Felicity.

“Oh yes! They
only worked in those special colouring books that came with them.
I’ll try, shall I?” offered Sophie.

“Okay, might as
well. It’s not like it’s a story book we’re writing in, is it?”
justified Felicity.

Sophie placed
the open book down on the table, smoothing out a page on which she
wrote her name. “You’re right, it does work in this book!” she
gasped in excitement.

“Why did you
write your name? We might get into trouble for this, and they’ll
know it was you if you’ve signed it!” shrieked Felicity, suddenly
having second thoughts.

Sophie panicked
and turned the pen over to use what she hoped was a rubber on the
other end and started to scrub vigorously at her name. As she did
so, it erased her name, but other writing started to appear in its
place.

“Look!”
exclaimed Sophie. “Now it’s like those books Aunty Gillian gives
us, you know, the ones that you rub with a coin to reveal a
picture.”

“Wow, what is
it?” asked Felicity.

“Oh, it’s just
another silly poem,” sighed Sophie. Then she read it out.

“Well done,
you’ve found my secret verse

And broken the
wicked fairy's curse.

You are now
amongst the chosen ones

Who will see
what this book now becomes.”

“It still looks
just as before, and it certainly hasn’t ‘become’ anything,” sulked
Felicity.

“I’ll try to
rub some other pages,” suggested Sophie. “Nothing,” she mumbled a
couple of seconds later, disappointed.

“We really must
get back now. They’ll be wondering where we are,” urged Felicity.
“Although I do need the loo. Wait for me will you Sophie? I may as
well use the ones here.”

While Sophie
waited for her sister she picked up the beautiful pen. It felt
heavy for its size and cool to touch. She traced a finger over its
surface, feeling the ridges of the patterns that adorned it. She
absentmindedly sketched a picture of a fairy on one of the pages in
the book.

The sudden
noise from the flushing of a toilet jolted her back to her senses.
Guiltily she slammed the book shut, poked the pen away in its
special holder in the spine and hastily shoved it under Mrs
Vincent’s chair.