Undercover by Meredith Badger

ruined food. ‘Have you got any other cool things in there?’ asked Jess hopefully.
    â€˜I’ve got this!’ said Ms Buttercup, pulling out a large white hanky. Then, to Jess and Elly’s surprise she spat on it and started wiping vigorously at Elly’s cheeks.
    Elly didn’t like it very much. It was the sort of thing her aunties did when they visited. ‘What magic does that do?’ she asked doubtfully.
    â€˜Oh, it’s not magic,’ replied Ms Buttercup. ‘You just had some fairy bread stuck to your face. It’s incredible what you can do with a wet hanky!’
    Elly checked the time on her Worry-Watch. If they were away for much longer the party would be over. ‘Ms Buttercup, have you got anything that will help fix this mess we’re in?’ she asked.
    She couldn’t see how a torch or some lipgloss was going to remake a whole lot of party food. She just hoped that somewhere in that enormous bag there were several large plates of fairy bread.
    Ms Buttercup pulled something out from deep in her bag and handed it to Elly.
    Jess stared at it in surprise. ‘Sticky tape?’ she asked. ‘Are you suggesting we use sticky tape to fix all that food?’
    But Elly knew what it was. And that was when she knew that Ms Buttercup really was her human godmother. ‘It’s invisible mending tape,’ she explained to Jess excitedly. ‘It’s the coolest stuff.’
    She picked up one of the baked-bean-flavoured brownies and broke it in half. ‘Watch this,’ she said. She tore off a piece of tape and placed it carefully on one half of the brownie. Immediately the other half zoomed across the ground to meet it, until the two halves were joined back together again.
    Jess picked up the brownie. ‘Amazing,’ she said, peeling off the tape. ‘You’d never know it had been broken.’
    â€˜It’s very useful,’ said Ms Buttercup. ‘I find it handy for locating missing socks.’ Then she produced something else from the cavernous bag. It looked like an ordinary perfume bottle, but Jess had a feeling it would be something else. ‘This will come in handy,’ said Ms Buttercup. ‘It’s a Food-Fixer. If you spray any food that’s been flattened, the Food-Fixer will pump it full of air again.’

    Elly took the bottle and the tape and put them in her backpack. ‘Thanks, Ms Buttercup,’ she said gratefully. It was still going to be difficult to fix up all that food, but it would be much easier with these gadgets.
    â€˜That’s quite all right, Elly,’ said Ms Buttercup. ‘That’s what I’m here for, after all.’ Then she looked at Elly’s face closely, and before Elly knew what was happening Ms Buttercup had pulled out her hanky again. ‘I can still see a couple of dirty spots, Elly,’ she said, leaning close. ‘Let me clean you up before you go —’
    But Elly grabbed Jess’s arm and together they ran off hastily down the street. ‘Thanks again, Ms Buttercup!’ called Elly over her shoulder.
    Back at the party, the guests seemed to have forgotten all about the food anyway. They were still trying to get the teapot to fly.
    â€˜Let’s fix up the food while they’re not watching,’ whispered Elly. ‘And before Caitlin’s mum comes out and sees what a mess we’ve made.’
    So the two girls quickly set to work repairing the food. Jess used the invisible mending tape while Elly pumped up the flattened food. Jess found it fascinating. Adding tape to the tiniest cake crumb caused hundreds of other cake crumbs to come flying from wherever they had scattered. One large crumb was even whisked away from the beak of a very surprised bird.
    It wasn’t long before the food table was looking almost exactly as it had before. It was in the nick of time, too, for just as they finished, the teapot came hopping across the