The Fairy-Tale Matchmaker (13 page)

“So you punched a reporter because he wanted an interview?” said Skippy.

“I punched him because he made some rude remarks about the Clauses. Santa and his missus are like parents to me. They are to all the elves who work at the North Pole.”

“Hi, everyone!” Daisy said as she walked into the room. “Did I miss anything?”

“Good, we're all here!” said Olot. “Let's set up so we can get started.”

Cory was disappointed. She'd wanted to tell her friends about her meeting with Jack Horner, but it would have to wait until after rehearsal. While she gave her drums a tentative tattoo to limber up her fingers, she watched Perky, who was setting out an arrangement of bells on a table he had brought with him. From where she stood, she could see sleigh bells, cowbells, and a set of silver bells including one as small as an acorn to one that was bigger than her head.

“Ready?” said Olot. “We're going to start with ‘This Old Nest of Mine.' Are you familiar with that one, Perky?”

When the elf nodded, Olot started the song with a strum of his lute.

As they played, Cory paid as much attention to Perky's playing as she did her own. She could tell from their sideways glances that the others were doing the same. The elf was good, she had to admit, and his playing did seem to make a good song even better. Cory was surprised by how deep his voice was when he joined in the part where they all sang. Even Cheeble smiled when he heard it.

When the song was over, Skippy sent the elf a thumbs-up while Cheeble gave him a nod of approval. The next two songs were even better, and by the end of the evening it was obvious that Zephyr had a new member.

Cory hurried to cover her drums so she could talk to Olot before the rest left. “Something happened today that I think everyone should know about,” she told the ogre.

Olot raised an eyebrow even as he gestured for the others to come join them. Cory continued when everyone was there. “Jack Horner asked me to meet with him. He likes what he's heard about Zephyr and wants us to play at the Shady Nook.”

“Really!” said Skippy. “I like that place. Their food is
fantastic and you won't find a better dance floor anywhere.”

“You've been able to get in?” said Cheeble. “They've never let me near the door.”

“This is great news!” said Chancy. “Imagine, Zephyr playing at the Shady Nook!”

“An old friend of Jack's told him about us,” Cory said. “He never did tell me his friend's name.”

“I bet it was Johnny Blue,” said Daisy. “He really liked our music at Sprats'.”

Cory turned to the ogre. “I told Jack that he should talk to you, Olot.”

“Good,” said Olot. “I'll check our calendar.”

“How is your empathy class going?” Cory asked Daisy as they left the cave together a few minutes later.

“Oh, I quit that. Peterby told me a class like that is a waste of my time. He said I should take something with real meaning, like animal rights or tree hugging.”

“I hate to ask, but who is Peterby?”

“My new boyfriend. I met him after we played at Sprats'. He's so cute! And very smart. He promotes animal rights. His current mission is to free all captive unicorns.”

“I didn't know there were any captive unicorns.”

“See how good he is! By the way, I wanted to tell you that I think it's really nice of Johnny Blue to tell
people nice things about Zephyr. But I think he likes more than just the music. I've seen the way he looks at you.”

“What? Me? I don't think so,” said Cory. “He just feels sorry for me because of Walker.”

“I don't know …,” Daisy said with a mischievous smile.

“Well, I do. He's no more interested in me than I am in him,” Cory told her. “Race you to the edge of town!”

“You're on!” said Daisy.

In an instant the two fairies were tiny dots of light tearing over the hillside. It wasn't until she'd let Daisy win and had waved good-bye that Cory thought about what her friend had said. Her and Blue? Not likely! The idea was enough to make her feel queasy. She settled on a leaf until the feeling passed. Apparently, some ideas were just too crazy to think about!

When Cory and Noodles strolled into the kitchen the next morning, Flicket was perched on the table, nibbling a walnut. Cory's uncle had a newspaper open on the table and seemed engrossed in one of the articles. “What are you reading?” Cory asked him.

Her uncle looked up from the paper. “It's about Santa Claus again. It seems the reporters just won't leave him alone. He and Mrs. Claus were on vacation at a hotel. The reporters found out and stormed the hotel looking for him. See—here's a picture of the elves trying to fend off the reporters.”

“So the Clauses take the elves on vacation with them,” said Cory. “I'm not surprised. Perky did say that the Clauses treat the elves like family. Oh, I forgot to tell
you: the elf who punched the reporter in the nose is living in town. He joined Zephyr last night. He plays the bells and has a very nice baritone.”

“That's wonderful!” said Micah. “Joining your band should help him feel like he belongs here.”

“What's that picture?” Cory asked, shifting in her seat. The picture showed the couple getting into the famous sleigh.

“That's the Clauses leaving the hotel earlier than planned. That's too bad. I'd be mad if I had to cut my vacation short because someone was pestering me. That's not a very flattering picture of either Santa or Mrs. Claus. They both look tired and worn. I guess that wasn't a very restful vacation.” Micah set the paper aside and turned to Cory. “So, what are you doing today?”

“I'm going to put an ad in the paper for odd jobs.”

“You don't have any set up already? You really should keep track of them in a notebook or something.”

“Good idea. I have an old loose-leaf notebook that I can use. And no, I don't have any jobs lined up, but I hope to soon!”

Cory's uncle left for work while she was eating her breakfast of mashed berries on whole-grain toast. When she was finished, she retrieved her notebook from the
bedroom and got to work listing all the jobs she'd done and where she'd performed each one. After that, she wrote her ad and sent it to the paper.

“While I'm at it …,” she said, and took another leaf from the pile to write a quick message to Marjorie Muffet.

Cory was going over the entries in her notebook when she heard a
ping!
Thinking it was Marjorie, she hurried to the basket. The message was from Gladys, however. She wanted Cory to babysit that day. A moment later, there was another
ping!
and the message Cory had been expecting appeared.

“Good!” said Cory. “Then I have one more message to write.”

Cory was cleaning up the breakfast dishes when his response arrived in the basket.

Cory smiled, feeling as if she'd already accomplished something before her day had really begun.

The boy who met Cory at the door of the shoe house stared at her with such distrust in his eyes that she wondered what he thought she'd done wrong. “I'm Cory Feathering,” she said, giving him as warm a smile as she could. “Your mother contacted me,” she added when he didn't respond. “To babysit?”

“Patrick knows what you're talking about,” a girl said, coming up behind the boy. “He just doesn't think we need you here. None of us do. We're old enough to take care of ourselves for one afternoon.”

When Cory stepped into the house and shut the door, the boy glared at her before going down the hall.

“Why are you home?” Cory asked the girl. “Isn't this a school day?”

“It was, but they closed our school early. A water nymph came into her powers all of a sudden and flooded the cafeteria. They took her to Junior Fey School right away, but they had to close our school while they cleaned up the water. Did you know that your shoes don't match your outfit?”

Cory nodded. “My pet woodchuck chewed up all my other shoes yesterday. This is all I have till I can go shopping.”

The girl's eyes lit up. “I love to shop! Where are you going to go? My favorite stores are at East Side Market. I went there last week with some of my older sisters and they bought me a whole bunch of clothes. They have jobs and share a house, but they come home and take us out to buy us stuff every couple of months. They know that Mom doesn't have much money, so they help out however they can. My name is Heather. Want to see
what they bought me? Jamie Linn got me the coolest dress! Mom thinks it's too short, but Jamie Linn says—”

“This is the babysitter?” said a slightly older girl who had just walked into the room. “I thought Mom had gotten some old woman to watch us.”

A girl with long brown hair that reached almost to her knees started tugging on Cory's sleeve. “I want to do the lemonade stand today. It's a nice day out and Mom said we could do it the next nice day.”

“She meant on a weekend when she was home,” said Heather. “We can't do it without an adult here, Mary Alice.”

“How many of you are home now?” asked Cory.

“Eight,” said the older girl. “James is reading a book, Steven is cleaning his fish tank, and Rory, Joey, and Patrick are probably playing with their miniature fairy warriors. My name is Sarah Beth and that's Mary Alice.” She pointed at the younger girl with long brown hair.

“Our big brother Erik is an artist. He made little clay figures for the boys. They like to reenact the big battles of the fairy wars,” Heather added. “Joey has the trolls, Rory has the fairy warriors, and Patrick has everybody else.”

“I want to do the lemonade stand!” Mary Alice said again.

“I suppose I could help you with the stand if you have everything you need,” said Cory. “Do you make it with real lemons?”

“We do,” Sarah Beth told her even as Mary Alice latched on to Cory's arm and began to drag her to the kitchen. “Aunt Sally grows lots of things. We help her out on the weekends and holidays and she gives us fresh fruit and vegetables. She has a big greenhouse and grows lemons all year.”

“We have a stand and everything,” said Mary Alice. “I'll ask the boys to set it up.”

“But it's Monday,” said Cory. “I don't know how many customers you're going to get.”

“Oh, we'll have plenty,” said Sarah Beth. “Wander Lake is the most popular fishing spot around, and it's just a block away. People fish in the lake every day and they come past our house to get there from town.”

While Sarah Beth, Mary Alice, and Heather made the lemonade, Steven and Rory set the stand up by the street. Cory helped the girls carry the lemonade outside and sat with them while they waited for customers. It wasn't long before they had their first sales to an old man and his son who were arguing over who should ride their donkey. A water-lily fairy hauling her cart stopped for a cup as well. A few minutes later, two round-faced men dressed in identical striped shirts laid
their fishing poles on the ground to purchase their cups of lemonade.

Mary Alice had just poured the lemonade for the men when dark clouds appeared overhead and the first fat raindrops fell, splashing on the children's upturned faces.

“That's odd,” said one man. “It didn't look like rain a moment ago.”

“Maybe we should—” Cory began, but then the rain truly started to fall, pouring from the sky so that they were all drenched in seconds. “Run!” Cory told the children. “I'll bring the lemonade!”

As the children dashed into the house, Cory picked up the pitcher and the bowl of lemons and ran after them. Her hair and clothes were streaming when she finally set everything on the kitchen table.

“Wow!” said Mary Alice, peering out the window at the water pouring from the sky. “That's a lot of rain! And it looks like it's just here at our house. The house across the street still looks dry.”

“Look at that!” said Sarah Beth as the clouds disappeared as suddenly as they had arrived. The bright sunlight made the raindrops glisten and sparkle like tiny prisms.

“That's so pretty!” cried Mary Alice. “I'm going back outside.”

The girls left the house, skirting the newly formed
puddles. Before they had gone far, however, Heather began to shriek, Mary Alice froze in place, and Sarah Beth started flapping her hands and making odd sounds.

“What is it?” Cory said, running out the door. “What's wrong?”

The three girls were staring at the ground; Cory could see why when she looked down. Every inch of the yard was covered with squirming earthworms writhing over each other, through the grass, over the stone walkway, and the bare patches of mud.

“It's the Tooth Fairy Guild,” Cory said through clenched teeth. “They're never going to give up. Well, neither am I!”

“What did you say?” asked Heather.

“Never mind,” said Cory. “Stay where you are. I have an idea.” She turned to go back inside and found the boys standing behind her, peering out at their sisters. “Boys, I need you to find every empty jar, can, or sturdy box and bring them to me.”

“Why?” asked Joey.

“I have a brilliant idea, that's why. Now hurry before the worms are gone.”