Lucy Castor Finds Her Sparkle Read online

  For Annabelle and Tris, who got to share the magic with me!

  LUCY CASTOR DID NOT LIKE change. It made her queasy and uncomfortable, and she tried to avoid it at all costs. Luckily, she had lived her whole life in the little western Massachusetts town of Hawthorne, in the same clapboard house on the same street with the same set of parents, so change was not something Lucy had to deal with very often. And when it did come along, she could usually cope with it, like the time her mother decided to make chicken on Monday instead of spaghetti, or insisted Lucy wear a skirt and not her usual sweatpants when they went out for dinner. Or the time her parents replaced their old green sofa (the one Lucy felt certain could fly if she knew the right magic words) without asking her first. These things were mildly upsetting (well, the sofa was heartbreaking) but Lucy generally recovered quite quickly, and life would go on in its familiar, comfortable groove.

  At least until the weekend before she entered fourth grade, when a series of monumental events shook Lucy’s world, and everything began to change.

  IT WAS DELICIOUS TO BE home, Lucy thought, standing in the middle of her bedroom. The Castors had been gone all summer, visiting Lucy’s grandmother in Vermont, and although this had been absolutely wonderful, there was nothing more exciting than being back in your own house. Especially when you were about to see your best friend, Ella, for the first time in eight weeks.

  Wanting to wear her purple shirt with BEST FRIENDS ARE MAGIC written across the front, Lucy skipped over to her closet. She knew it would be in there, because she hadn’t taken it to Vermont. The shirt had been a gift from Ella, two years ago on Lucy’s seventh birthday. It was definitely on the small side now, but it made Ella smile when Lucy wore it. And something magical always seemed to happen whenever she put it on.

  Tugging at the handle of her old pine closet, Lucy could feel the wood had swollen in the humidity. With an extra-hard pull she yanked the door open and gave a gasp of shocked surprise. For an instant Lucy froze, staring inside before quickly slamming the cupboard shut.

  Heart pounding, she raced across the hall to her parents’ bedroom, where she found her father putting on socks amid a jumble of unpacked suitcases, and her mother still lying in bed. Both these things were highly unusual, because the family had been home for a whole day already, and Mrs. Castor usually unpacked straightaway, plus she always got up early on weekends. But Lucy didn’t have time to worry about such matters now. There were far more important things to deal with.

  “There’s a gnome in my closet,” she panted, grabbing her father’s hand. “With a long white beard and a red jacket. And he didn’t look too happy to see me. He was frowning.”

  “Probably hanging up your things,” Mrs. Castor murmured from the bed.

  “No, he wasn’t. He was just standing there with his arms folded. Come on, Dad, please hurry,” Lucy said, tugging him back to her room. With a grand flourish she opened the closet door, but there was nothing in there except clothes. Lucy pushed aside the hangers, peering to the back of the cupboard.

  “I can’t believe it. He’s gone. I should have asked him what he was doing. But I was too scared.” Lucy gave a shiver.

  “I wish I’d seen him,” Mr. Castor remarked.

  Lucy pointed to her fluffy red sweater hanging at the front of the cupboard. “That was the exact cherry color of his jacket, and he wore these strange gold shoes with toes that curled up at the ends.” She closed her eyes, picturing the shoes in her head. “They were more like slippers than shoes, very narrow and sparkly.”

  “Sounds like a well dressed gnome.”

  “He was,” Lucy said, and then with rising excitement added, “Hey, Dad, look at this.” Crouching down Lucy leaned inside the cupboard and touched the floor. She held up her fingers, which had tiny gold sparkles stuck to them. “From his shoes,” she whispered, breathing hard.

  This was different from the glitter she had used to decorate last year’s Christmas presents; the homemade Popsicle stick picture frames she had hidden at the back of her cupboard. That glitter wasn’t nearly as sparkly. Lucy was sure of it. She was quite certain. These sparkles were more shimmery, more golden, and she swept some into her hands as evidence.

  Scrambling to her feet, Lucy darted over to her bedside table. She carefully brushed the sparkles into the open drawer, grabbed her special notebook, and sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m going to draw a picture of him, Dad. To show Ella when she comes over.” Just the thought of Ella coming over made Lucy start to bounce with happiness. She was aching to see her best friend again. “Joined at the hip,” that’s what Lucy’s dad always said, while Lucy’s mom liked to call them “two peas in a pod.” They had met on the first day of kindergarten and been inseparable ever since.

  “She’s going to be so mad she missed seeing him,” Lucy said, looking up at her dad, eyes shining. “But she’s going to be so excited when I tell her.”

  Lucy and Ella spent all their free time searching for signs of magic together. They had uncovered tiny (possibly fairy) footprints in the woods near Lucy’s house, a bluish speckled stone that had to be a fossilized dragon’s egg, and an old key in the garden, which the girls knew unlocked a secret door. They just hadn’t managed to find the door yet.

  “That’s what we’re going to do today,” Lucy said, drawing a pair of curly-toed shoes on the page. “Go on a gnome hunt. We were going to make magic potions, but this is far more important. We’ll search the attic and the basement and then camp out in my cupboard. He’s bound to come back.”

  “I hope so,” Mr. Castor said. “But maybe gnomes are scared of humans, Lucy? You could have frightened him away.”

  “He’ll be back,” Lucy said with confidence, sketching in the gnome’s red jacket.

  After eating a bowl of cold cereal Lucy went outside to wait for Ella, taking her notebook and mini binoculars with her. The mini binoculars were perfect for searching out signs of magic as well as spying on the robin’s nest in Mrs. Minor’s tree next door.

  Lucy wanted to locate the magic wands that she and Ella had hidden beneath the rhododendron bush at the end of the yard. Putting her hand under the bush, she felt around and pulled out two sticks decorated with glitter and bits of moss. Each one had a purple ribbon tied around the handle end. Lucy waved her stick (the one with the most glitter) in the air and whispered, “Sparkalicious,” which was the magic word she and Ella had invented.

  Closing her eyes, Lucy sat very still, the grass soft and warm beneath her. She was sure she could feel magic close by. Probably seeing the gnome this morning had something to do with it, Lucy decided. A bee buzzed softly, and the air smelled faintly of lavender. Lucy breathed deeply and gave a contented smile. This was a perfect “petunia moment.”

  It had been Lucy’s dad who first came up with the idea of petunia moments. Mr. Castor’s father, Lucy’s grandfather, had been a stickler for time, checking his watch regularly and tapping the glass face when he wanted to hurry everyone up. Lucy’s dad said he was so busy worrying about time that he never had any left over to “smell the petunias,” which meant noticing all the small, wonderful things that happened in a day, the sort of things you would hurry right by if you weren’t paying attention.

  A petunia moment could happen anytime, when you suddenly realized that the moment was about as perfect as it could get. Being handed a scoop of your favorite ice cream, for example, or when Lucy was snuggled on the sofa between her parents, listening to her dad read The Hobbit. But the petunia moments that Lucy loved the best were the enchanted ones like this, when you knew, with every cell in your body, that magic was definitely nearby. In fact Lucy had a strong suspicion that she herself might actually have magical powers. She was
waving her wand in circles when the back door banged open and Ella called out, “Hiya!”

  With a loud squeal Lucy scrambled to her feet. “Ella, you’re not going to believe this, but I saw a gnome this morning! A real one,” Lucy yelled, spinning around. “Ella?” she said again, staring at the girl with the swishy blond ponytail, the short jean shorts, and a cropped white T-shirt with the words SPARKLE GIRL spelled out in pink glitter.

  It was definitely Ella, because her face looked the same, and she had on her little gold hoop earrings. But this was not the Ella Lucy knew. That Ella wore crumpled Tshirts and baggy gym shorts, just like Lucy had on now. She wore her hair loose and unbrushed, and she never tilted her head to one side or gave a cute little wave or said “hiya,” like this Ella was doing. And never, in a million years, would she have worn a cropped white T-shirt with SPARKLE GIRL printed across the front.

  The sparkle girls were part of a hip-hop dance troupe that took lessons at the Sunshine Studio in town. Some of the kids in their class were in it, and last year at recess Molly, Summer, and May used to practice routines, dancing about in their sparkle shirts with their ponytails swishing, while Lucy and Ella mixed up magic potions on the grass, laughing at how the sparkle girls didn’t like to get dirty.

  Glancing down, Lucy noticed that her legs were streaked with earth, and her BEST FRIENDS T-shirt had a hole under the arm and a faded chocolate stain on the front. She picked bits of grass out of her long brown hair, which she knew was a tangled mess. Normally, none of these things would have bothered Lucy one bit, but standing next to this new glittery Ella made her suddenly self-conscious and shy. Ella’s face looked all dewy and fresh, and Lucy couldn’t help feeling like a sweaty little mouse with her huge brown eyes and slightly crooked front teeth. Neither of the girls spoke right away, and Lucy rubbed at her shirt with a finger.

  “Gosh, I can’t believe you can still fit into that,” Ella finally said, giving her ponytail a shake. The girls had always been pretty much the same height, but Ella seemed to have grown at least two inches since they last saw each other. Or maybe it was just her high, bouncy ponytail making her appear taller. She glanced at Lucy’s magic wand and then looked away, as if she didn’t know what it was. An ache lodged in Lucy’s chest, and she dropped her wand on the grass. “So how was your summer?” Ella asked with a bright, sparkly smile.

  “Good.” Lucy nodded, thinking of all the things she had been storing up to tell Ella and how silly they now sounded in her head. Finding a new bird’s nest for her collection, trying to come up with a flying spell at her grandmother’s house, but most important of all, discovering the gnome in her closet. “When did you become a sparkle girl?” Lucy blurted out, unable to stop herself.

  “May wanted me to join the dance troupe. I didn’t have much else going on this summer, so”—Ella gave a shrug—“I went along to watch one day, and it’s actually really fun.” With another swish of her ponytail Ella gave a quick demonstration, performing some fancy hip-hop moves. “You should join too, Lucy. Honestly, I think you’d love it. I never thought I would, but I do.”

  “I’m not very good at dancing,” Lucy said, wondering if Ella was teasing her and this was all a big joke. “I’d hate everyone looking at me.”

  “There’s a show coming up at the end of September,” Ella continued, hip-hopping around the yard. “You have to come and watch us. You just have to.”

  Clearly Ella was not joking, and Lucy swallowed the lump in her throat. She felt as if she had missed an important summer assignment—how to prepare for fourth grade. Obviously, the list included: 1. Become a sparkle girl. 2. Start wearing your hair in a high, bouncy ponytail. 3. Branch out and make lots of new friends who have nothing in common with your old best friend. And number 4, the most upsetting of all—give up caring about magic. Ella hadn’t asked one single question about Lucy’s gnome since she’d mentioned him, and Lucy could feel her lip trembling.

  “Are you all right, Lucy?” Ella asked in concern.

  “Just a bit shaken up, that’s all,” Lucy said, wishing the conversation didn’t sound so forced. But she had to tell Ella. It was too important not to, and lowering her voice, Lucy whispered, “I saw a gnome in my closet this morning. At least I think it was a gnome. It could have been an elf or a dwarf.” There was a rather long silence, and Lucy added, “I thought we could try and find him.” She didn’t mention the picture she had drawn.

  Ella looked embarrassed. “Come on, Lucy. You don’t believe all that stuff anymore.”

  The ache in Lucy’s chest grew sharper. She fiddled with her watch strap and dug her nails into her skin, trying to stop herself from crying. “I found a spectacular nest at my gran’s house,” she said. “If you want to see it.”

  “Cool.” Ella glanced around as if waiting for someone else to show up. She started another little series of dance steps, not seeming very interested in Lucy’s bird’s nest either. “I’m practicing with May and Summer after lunch. You can come too if you want,” Ella added. “I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.”

  Lucy’s throat grew tight. She had thought Ella was spending the whole day with her, and for a moment she couldn’t speak, worried her voice might start to wobble. She wanted so badly to talk with Ella, the old Ella, the one who would have raced upstairs to Lucy’s room, wanting to see the sparkles she had found. It felt as if aliens had taken away her best friend and left a strange Ella look-alike in her place.

  “Are you all right?” Ella asked, staring at Lucy in concern.

  “I’ve just got a lot to do before school. You know, buy folders and pencils and stuff.” Lucy could feel the tips of her ears starting to throb and grow warm the way they always did whenever she was upset, and she gave her hair a shake to cover them.

  “I got all my things last week,” Ella said. There was a rather long silence between the girls, and Lucy could feel herself getting a headache.

  The morning dragged on as Lucy listened to Ella talking about May’s swimming pool and how she had been invited to a big Labor Day party there and how Summer had taught her to do backflips off the deep end. Lucy hated to admit it, but she actually felt relieved when Ella finally left. And then she felt sad about being relieved, and even sadder that they hadn’t gone up to her room and examined her newest nest together, the one she had found in the woods near her grandmother’s house, the one with a crackly piece of snakeskin woven in among the twigs. Her grandmother had told Lucy that some kinds of birds put snakeskin in their nests to scare away flying squirrels, and Lucy had been so excited by this fact she couldn’t wait to share it with Ella. But clearly the new “sparkle” Ella wasn’t interested in Lucy’s nest collection anymore. And she certainly wasn’t interested in casting spells or making potions or wanting to search for gnomes.

  In fact Lucy wasn’t sure if she had anything left in common with her old best friend at all.

  AFTER ELLA HAD GONE, LUCY sat on the grass, staring at their wands. She couldn’t bear to throw them away, but Ella didn’t want hers anymore—that much was clear. It was as if the magic had leaked out, and all Lucy could see now were two old sticks covered in glitter and bits of moss. Like a little kid’s art project.

  Her eyes misted over, and not wanting to think about what had just happened with Ella, Lucy picked up her mini binoculars and aimed them at the maple tree in Mrs. Minor’s yard. It had been home that spring to a family of robins, and Lucy and Ella had spent hours watching the birds fly in and out, feeding their babies. But the robins had left right before Lucy went on vacation, and now she desperately wanted the nest for her collection.

  Wiping her eyes on her T-shirt, she held the binoculars up again and steadied her gaze. There was definitely a flash of something green, shimmery lime green, woven into the nest, although from this distance it was difficult to tell what it was. Robins used all sorts of strange things for building material, tucking the odd scraps in among the twigs and moss and plant fibers. Lucy had some nests in her room laced with animal fur, str
ing, even bits of newspaper, but nothing decorated with lime green glitter.

  She had been planning to take Ella with her to ask Mrs. Minor if she could have the nest. Not that there was much chance she would have said yes, of course, because Mrs. Minor was very possibly a witch. At least that’s what the girls had always thought, although Ella probably didn’t believe in witches anymore either. Still, regardless of whether her next-door neighbor had a cauldron in her kitchen and flew around Hawthorne on a broomstick at night, she was without question, the grumpiest person Lucy had ever come across. And now she’d never know if Mrs. Minor might have given her the nest, because she wasn’t nearly brave enough to go over there by herself and ask.

  Giving a sad sigh Lucy twisted the end of the binoculars slightly, bringing the nest into sharper focus. It really was a beauty, but all she could think about was Ella becoming a sparkle girl! Letting the binoculars dangle from her neck, Lucy leapt to her feet and ran over to the split rail fence that divided the Castors’ yard from Mrs. Minor’s. Under normal circumstances she would never have dared to cross it, but these were not normal circumstances. As far as Lucy was concerned, a tragedy had just occurred.

  “I think I’ve lost my best friend,” she whispered mournfully as the need to do something rash and a little bit dangerous overtook her. She would climb up that tree and grab the nest, which would take her mind off Ella and get her exactly what she wanted.

  Lucy hoped Mrs. Minor wasn’t home. Her car hadn’t been parked out front when Lucy said good-bye to Ella, but that didn’t make the fear of crossing into a sorcerer’s territory any less scary. There might be a hex on the yard, which would keep Lucy captive, so she could never get back out. And Mrs. Minor never went anywhere for very long. Quickly, before she lost her nerve, Lucy jumped over the fence, skirting a pile of cedar boards that hadn’t been there when she left for Vermont, and dashed across to the maple tree. With a nervous glance back toward Mrs. Minor’s house, Lucy started to climb.