The Fairy Rebel by Lynne Reid Banks

and unfolded, and so did all the other petals, until Bindi was surrounded by masses of pale pink silk. Then Jan found a green edge and picked it up and shook all the silk out, and there was the most beautiful pink and green dress—absolutely perfect for the part of the queen.
    And the moment Bindi tried it on, and felt the soft, scented silk against her skin, and saw how grown-up and proud she looked in the mirror, the oddest thing happened. All her shyness left her. She felt like a queen. She suddenly couldn’t wait to stand up on that stage at school and show them all just how much of a queen she could be.
    And she did. She remembered all her lines. And she moved and acted and spoke just like a queen. All the teachers and parents and other children clapped wildly, and Jan and Charlie felt so proud, all they could do was hug each other.
    After that, Bindi stopped being shy and began to love acting. The pink dress went into the dressing-up cupboard and Bindi wore it for dressing up for a whole year. Then it fell into holes.
    By now Bindi had begun to look forward to the special rose-present she always got on her birthday. On the eve of her eighth birthday, she and Jan and Charlie tried to guess what sort of wonderful present Tiki would send her this year.
    Of course, Jan had told her about Tiki, and Wijic, and the magic beginning to Bindi’s life. It was their family secret. Even as a very little girl, Bindi knew that she mustn’t boast about it or tell anyone at all, though she often longed to. But she always managed to keep quiet, because Jan had told her that if she talked about them, the fairies might get into trouble.
    The only thing they didn’t tell her about was the wasps. They didn’t want to frighten her. The odd thing was, it didn’t help—she was terrified of wasps anyway.
    On the morning of her eighth birthday, the firstthing Bindi did was to run down into the garden and hunt about among all the pink roses for the special one that would be her present. She couldn’t find it. She touched and smelled every single rose, but they were all quite ordinary. She came back into the house very sadly.
    “Mummy, there’s no rose-present this year,” she said.
    “I’ll bet there is. Tiki’s hidden it, or else you’re not looking properly.”
    “Well, you come and look,” said Bindi.
    So Jan went down into the garden with her and they both had a good look, but they couldn’t find any magic rose. Charlie looked too.
    “Oh well,” said Charlie, “it couldn’t go on forever. Maybe they think you’re getting too grown-up for magic.”
    “But I’m not! I’m not!” cried Bindi, and ran back into the house.
    “I hope this doesn’t spoil her birthday,” said Jan.
    “I hope she’s not getting a bit spoilt altogether,” said Charlie. “She must learn to cope with an occasional disappointment.” But he was rather disappointed himself, and so was Jan. At the same time, they were a little bit relieved. They didn’t really want Bindi to be a fairy child. They wanted her to be quite normal and ordinary.
    So they did everything they could to make it a nice birthday for her, in a normal and ordinary way. And Bindi enjoyed herself, although she was rather more quiet than usual. In the evening, after her party, whenit was nearly bedtime, she went off by herself into the garden.
    “She’s gone to have a last look,” said Jan.
    “Hm,” said Charlie. He was watching Bindi out of the window. “Yes. She’s going from one rosebush to another. Poor little love, it
is
rather sad for her.… Hey, wait a minute! She’s stopped.”
    Jan came hobbling over to look.
    “But that’s not a rosebush,” she said. “That’s that old holly bush that never grows any berries. She won’t find a rose on that.”
    “But she has,” said Charlie in a strange voice.
    Bindi had had her back turned to the house, and she was bending down. Now she straightened, and turned. In her hand was a rose. But it wasn’t like any of