Undercover by Meredith Badger Page A

lawn, flapping its wings madly. The Hover-Lamp, which had been sitting on Jess’s shoulder while she worked, made a growling noise when it saw the teapot, and started to swoop towards it. Luckily Jess grabbed it before it could do any more damage.
    The Fairy Club girls stared in disbelief at the table. They walked around it, touching things.
    Caitlin had a funny little half-smile on her face. ‘How did you do that?’ she asked Elly and Jess. ‘It looks exactly like it did before.’ She raised one eyebrow.
    Elly smiled modestly. ‘Oh, it was nothing,’ she said, looking at Caitlin’s small feet.
    Jess did a quick freckle-count. Caitlin had nine perfect little freckles.

Chapter twelve

    Y ou don’t need to hear about the rest of the party — except, perhaps, to hear that it was a great success. But you might like to know that a number of unexpected and extraordinary things occurred in the short time that was left. The first extraordinary thing was that Caitlin and Jess managed to get the teapot to glide in a straight line for ten metres, before crashing into the fence.
    The next extraordinary thing was that after Clarabelle saw the teapot flying, she actually smiled. Then she, Caitlin and Jess spent the rest of the party deep in conversation about pistons and cogs. The final extraordinary thing was that when Elly and Jess left the party, they both had pink Fairy Club badges pinned to their outfits. And they both looked very happy about it, which was perhaps the most extraordinary — and unexpected — thing of all.
    Elly and Jess had the badges pinned to their jumpers on Monday morning as they got ready for school. Elly caught Jess staring at it proudly.
    â€˜I never thought I’d see you so happy to be a member of the Fairy Club,’ teased Elly.
    Jess looked embarrassed. ‘It’s more of an invention club, really,’ she said, as they climbed on their bikes. ‘What Caitlin doesn’t know about cogs isn’t worth knowing.’
    But when they arrived at school there were a number of shocks waiting for them. The first happened when they walked into their classroom, where instead of seeing Ms Buttercup’s smiling face, they saw Mrs Snidely’s scowling one.

    â€˜Where’s Ms Buttercup?’ asked Elly in surprise.
    â€˜She’s been called away on an urgent matter,’ said Mrs Snidely. ‘Something to do with one of her goddaughters, apparently. I will be teaching you for the next few weeks.’
    Then a moment later an announcement came over the loudspeaker. It was Mrs Hayman, the headmistress. ‘Elly Knottleweed-Eversprightly, please come to my office.’
    Elly looked at Jess in alarm. She recognised a certain tone in Mrs Hayman’s voice. It was the Tone of Trouble. But what could it possibly be about? For once she hadn’t caused any trouble at a school and, with the help of Ms Buttercup, had actually done very well.
    Elly went straight to the headmistress’s office. Mrs Hayman had a very strange look on her face. It was like she’d just been given the biggest chocolate cake in the world. ‘Take a seat, Elly,’ said Mrs Hayman, smiling. ‘You have a visitor. And such a delightful one!
    What a lucky girl you are.’
    Elly looked at the headmistress suspiciously. What was going on?
    â€˜Hello, Elinora,’ said a familiar voice.
    Elly spun around. Standing behind her was Grandmother Knottleweed-Eversprightly. She was wearing a shimmering silver and mauve coat, and a very disapproving expression. Elly recognised the coat straight away. It was a Charming-Coat, which made humans think that the wearer was the most delightful person they’d ever met, no matter how rude the wearer was actually being. It also wiped humans’ memories after the conversation. Grandmother Knottleweed-Eversprightly wore hers whenever she met a human because she tended to be very, very rude — and she