Moonlight Mischief Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  In the Star World

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Collect Them All

  Extract

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Copyright

  The hills and valleys were coated with stardust and the trees in the forest glittered and shone. A silver wolf stood beside a peaceful forest pool with a large owl perched on her back. They were watching a picture on the surface of the water. The image was dark around the edges but in the centre they could see a girl with blond hair snuggled up in bed, holding a fox cub in her arms. The fox opened his indigo eyes and began licking the girl’s nose. She woke up and giggled.

  “Maia and Bracken,” said the owl softly.

  “They love each other very much indeed,” said the wolf. A wistful look crossed her face. “I wish Maia’s granny could have seen them together. She would have been so happy to know that her granddaughter had become a Star Friend – just like she did when she was younger.”

  “I hope Maia, Bracken and their friends do as much good as her granny and you did, Silver,” said the owl.

  The wolf nodded. “I am sure they will. Since the girls became Star Friends, they have done an excellent job of keeping Westcombe village safe.”

  Every so often, animals from the magical Star World would travel down to the human world to find a girl or boy to be their Star Friend. They taught them how to connect with the magical current that ran between the two worlds. When a child became a Star Friend, they and their animal bonded for life, using magic to do good – helping people around them to be happy and stopping anyone using dark magic.

  “Do you see the black cloud at the edge of the image?” said the owl. “It looks like dark magic is coming to Westcombe again.”

  “Maia and her friends will be ready for it,” declared the wolf as they watched Maia throw back her duvet and jump out of bed with Bracken bounding happily round her legs.

  The owl hooted. “I hope so. Let us watch and see.”

  Maia giggled. “Try again, Bracken! Try harder!”

  She was sitting on the floor with a magical silvery bubble surrounding her like a dome. Bracken leaped at it but he simply bounced off it, landing on Maia’s bedroom rug. He jumped back up and scrabbled at the sides with his paws. The dome wobbled slightly but didn’t break.

  Giving up, he sank back down on his haunches. “You’re getting really good at making magic shields, Maia,” he said, panting. “I can’t get through at all.”

  Maia grinned and disconnected from the magic current – it was like flicking a switch off in her mind. The tingling buzz of magic slowly faded from her blood and the bubble vanished. Bracken bounded forwards and sprang on to her lap. She wrapped her arms round him, burying her face in his soft russet-red fur. She loved him so much. She’d only been a Star Friend for six months but already she could hardly remember life before Bracken and magic.

  “It’s really fun being able to make shields,” she said. “And it might be useful if we have to fight another Shade.”

  Shades were evil spirits conjured by people using dark magic. They brought misery and chaos. Star Friends, like Maia, had to use magic to stop them and send them back to the Shadows where they belonged.

  “Why don’t you use your seeing magic to find out if there is anything we should be investigating at the moment?” said Bracken.

  “OK.” Maia jumped to her feet and picked up a small mirror from her desk. Cupping it in her hands, she sat back down and gazed into the shining surface, opening herself to the current again. It tingled and sparked through her, like faint pins and needles in every cell of her body. Star Friends all had different magical abilities and Maia was able to use the magic to look into the past and future, to see things that were happening elsewhere and to get warnings from the magic if danger was coming. “Show me if there’s anything we should be worried about,” she whispered.

  Her reflection faded in the glass and a new image appeared. It showed the main road that led into the village of Westcombe – the village where Maia and her friends lived. The image dissolved and was replaced by a different picture – a cluster of cottages, one covered in ivy that looked vaguely familiar. It quickly changed again, this time showing the back of a woman with short brown hair who was examining her reflection in a mirror with lights round it. There was something odd about the reflection – something that didn’t seem quite right – but before Maia could work out what it was the image changed once more and she caught a glimpse of a small black shape – a phone or maybe a TV remote? Maia blinked in surprise. Why was the magic showing her a TV remote? But, before she could look more closely, the surface of the mirror cleared and all she saw was her own reflection again.

  Maia told Bracken what she had seen. “I don’t know what the pictures mean. I didn’t see anything really scary like a Shade or someone doing dark magic. Just a road, a woman, something that looked like a remote control and some cottages.”

  Bracken scratched his nose with a front paw. “The magic will have shown you those things for a reason. I wonder why.”

  Unease prickled through Maia. “I’d better tell the others so we can keep an eye out in case anything strange starts to happen.”

  Her best friends, Lottie, Sita and Ionie, were all Star Friends, too. They each had their own Star Animal – Ionie’s was a wildcat called Sorrel, Lottie’s was a red squirrel called Juniper and Sita’s was a gentle fallow deer called Willow.

  “Are we meeting up after school today?” Bracken asked.

  “Yes. Ionie’s asked us all round to her house for tea but we’ll come to the clearing first,” said Maia.

  The clearing was in the woods near Ionie’s house. The girls often went there because it was a beautiful place of very powerful magic. Hardly anyone else ever visited the clearing, which meant it was a safe place where they could practise magic with their animals. The Star Animals tried not to be seen by other humans – the Star World had to be kept secret from anyone who wasn’t a Star Friend.

  “Maia! Breakfast!” her mum called from the kitchen.

  “Coming, Mum! I’ll just get dressed! I’d better go,” she told Bracken, pulling on her school clothes. She gave him a quick hug. “I’ll see you later.”

  “I’ll miss you,” Bracken said, licking her cheek. “Meet me as soon as you can.”

  “I will.” Maia kissed his fluffy head and went downstairs.

  Maia’s two-year-old brother, Alfie, was in the kitchen in his high chair and her fifteen-year-old sister, Clio, was sitting at the table, eating a piece of toast and flicking through a magazine. Her dad was trying to feed Alfie porridge. “Watch out!” he warned as Alfie grabbed the spoon and waved it around, sending globs of porridge flying through the air. Maia ducked just in time.

  “No, Alfie, you mustn’t do that,” said Mr Greene. Alfie chuckled and hit him on the head with his plastic spoon.

  Maia bit back a grin. She knew she shouldn’t giggle when Alfie was being naughty but sometimes it was very hard not to.

  “So what’s happening at school today?” her dad asked as Maia poured herself some cereal.

  “Not much, just spelling and times-tables tests.”

  “Lucky you,” said Clio, looking up enviously. “I’ve got double maths, physics and French. I wish I was still in Year Six.”

  “Miss Harris also said Lottie, Ionie, Sita and I could help with some gardening at
lunchtime,” said Maia. “The flower bed by the Reception classroom is full of weeds and we’re going to clear it so Reception can plant some summer flowers there.”

  “Then remember to put sunscreen on before you go to school, and take a hat,” said her dad. “It’s supposed to be very warm today.”

  Maia glanced out of the window at the blue sky. The last week had been very sunny. It was great now the weather was getting warmer and the nights lighter – it made it much easier for her and the others to meet up after school.

  “I can’t wait for the Easter holidays,” said Maia.

  “What are you two going to do with all that free time?” her dad said.

  “Revise, see friends and sleep!” Clio yawned.

  Maia listed her plans. “Sleepovers, swimming, maybe go to the cinema, play on the beach, paddle in the sea, get ice creams from the Copper Kettle…”

  She smiled to herself as she added in her head, And do lots of magic, too, of course!

  “I do like gardening,” said Sita happily. “This bed is going to look so much better with flowers in it.” It was lunchtime and she, Maia, Ionie and Lottie were kneeling on mats by the flower bed in a quiet spot outside the Reception children’s classroom, pulling up weeds and turning the soil over.

  “It’s so hot,” said Lottie, pushing back her dark curls and fanning her face.

  “It’s the hottest day of the year so far,” Ionie informed them. “In fact, this is the hottest March on record.” She sat back on her heels. “It’s been hotter here than in Spain this month. The average temperature in Westcombe has been—Ow!” She broke off as a thorn in the soil caught her wrist above the top of her gloves and scratched her skin. “That hurt!” she said, shaking her wrist and looking at the droplets of blood blooming in a line on her skin.

  “Here,” said Sita quickly. Reaching over, she took Ionie’s wrist in her hands and shut her eyes. She breathed in and out slowly. The blood on Ionie’s pale skin vanished and the scratch healed to a pink line that gradually faded away completely. Sita opened her eyes. “Better?”

  “Much,” said Ionie. “Thank you.”

  “Your magic is awesome,” Lottie told Sita.

  Like Maia, the other girls could use the magic current to do different things. As well as healing, Sita had the ability to command people to do as she said, although she didn’t like that power and only used it when she really had to. Lottie could run fast and be very agile. Ionie could shadow-travel and disguise things, and she was also a Spirit Speaker, which meant she could send Shades back to the Shadows where they belonged.

  “I can’t wait to meet up with the animals and do some magic together later,” said Lottie. “I’m so glad I’ve got an afternoon with no activities for once.”

  Lottie did lots of things after school and at the weekend – gymnastics, piano, flute, tennis, maths and French – which made it difficult for her to meet up with the others.

  “How come you’ve got tonight off?” Maia asked her.

  “Mum is letting me stop my extra maths lessons now I’ve passed the entrance exam for the High School,” Lottie said.

  “It’s going to be strange being at different schools in September,” said Sita. “We’ll be at King John Academy and you’ll be at the High School.”

  “You will all stay friends with me, won’t you?” Lottie asked anxiously.

  “Of course not,” Maia teased. “We can’t possibly be friends with you if you’re at a different school.”

  But Lottie didn’t smile as Maia had expected. She bit her lip and looked down at her hands.

  “I didn’t mean it,” Maia said quickly. She hadn’t for one second thought Lottie might take her seriously. “Of course we’ll stay friends.”

  “So, if you’re not doing maths now, does that mean you’ll have every Monday night free?” Ionie said, not seeming to notice that Lottie was looking upset.

  Lottie shrugged. “No such luck. It’s just this week. I’m starting Spanish lessons next week.”

  “But you already speak German, what with your dad being German, and you’re learning French,” said Ionie.

  “I know but apparently –” Lottie mimicked her mum’s voice – “learning a new language is so much easier when you’re younger. I can hardly say I want Mondays off so I can go and do magic.” She sighed. “I wish I didn’t have to do so many activities and I could meet up with you more.”

  “At least we’ve got the Easter holidays coming up,” said Sita. “That’ll give us lots of extra time together.”

  “Lots of time to use magic to do good and help people!” Maia said.

  “And maybe fight Shades,” said Ionie, her green eyes sparkling.

  Sita shuddered. “I don’t know why you sound so excited about that! I’d be happy if I never saw a Shade ever again.”

  There were different types of Shades but they all liked to make people unhappy and miserable – either by talking to them and twisting their thoughts or by making bad things happen. Maia and the others had had to fight quite a few Shades since they had become Star Friends. Bad people had used dark magic to trap Shades in everyday objects like mirrors or toys so that they could get them into other people’s houses.

  “Do you remember those last Shades? The ones in the dreamcatchers that made all the grown-ups they affected become really competitive?” said Maia. She pictured the Shades they had released from the dreamcatchers – tall, thin and shadowy with spiny fingers and glowing red eyes.

  “And there was that one trapped in the garden gnome,” said Sita. “The Wish Shade. Do you remember how he locked me and Lottie in a shed and set fire to it? We could have burned to death! They’re so dangerous!”

  “Shh,” Ionie said quickly as Lucia, one of the Reception children, skipped over to them.

  “Maia!” the little girl squealed, throwing her arms round Maia’s waist. “I’ve been looking for you!” At Westcombe Primary School, the little Reception children were all assigned a buddy from Year Six. Maia was Lucia’s buddy.

  “Hi, Lucia,” said Maia, hugging her back.

  “What are you doing?” asked Lucia as she wriggled free from the hug.

  “Sorting this flower bed out so your class can plant some flowers in it and it’ll look pretty again,” said Maia.

  Lucia beamed. “Nana and Grandpa will be pleased. They said we have to make the school look as nice as possible so Westcombe wins the prize in the village competition. Nana’s coming into assembly to talk to everyone about it this afternoon.”

  “Lucia’s nana is Ana-Lucia Jefferson – one of the school governors,” Maia explained to the others.

  Understanding dawned on their faces. They often saw Ana-Lucia, or Ana as she was usually called, about the school. She worked as a lawyer four days a week but on her day off she came in and listened to reading in the younger classes. She was always very smiley and friendly. She was married to Mike, who had lived in the village all his life and was on the Parent Teacher Association, and involved with lots of village fund-raising events.

  “What’s the competition for?” Ionie said. She liked any sort of competition.

  “It’s for Best Kept Village,” said Sita. “My dad was telling me about it. All the villages around here can enter. Westcombe won it a few years ago.”

  “Nana and Grandpa really want Westcombe to win again this year,” said Lucia. “They’re moving to Portugal after the summer when Nana retires. Grandpa said he would really love to see Westcombe win once more before they go.”

  “Maybe we can help tidy the village up,” said Lottie.

  “That’s what Nana’s going to talk about in assembly,” said Lucia. She threw her arms wide. “She wants everyone to help.”

  The bell rang in the playground.

  “Time to pack up,” said Sita.

  Lucia ran off to line up with her class while Maia and the others put the gardening equipment away in the shed and hurried inside to wash their hands.

  “So, if all of you could help
Westcombe try and win the Best Kept Village competition, it would be absolutely fantastic!” Ana Jefferson said as she finished her talk in assembly.

  Lucia’s nana had dark brown, sleek, chin-length hair with some strands of silvery grey. Her voice had a faint accent – she had lived in Westcombe for many years but had grown up in Portugal.

  “The competition is being judged in a week’s time. We need gardens to be tidy, litter to be picked up, the school to look spick and span. If everyone joins in and works together, I’m sure we can manage it. Can I count on you all to help?”

  Everyone nodded.

  “It’s a great idea,” said Mrs King, the headteacher, standing up. “Why don’t all classes use the time between now and the end of school to have a think about what they can do?”

  Assembly ended and for the rest of the afternoon the two Year Six classes made posters to put up around the village telling people about the competition and asking them to keep everywhere tidy.

  Maia really enjoyed designing her poster although on the next-door table some of the more annoying boys in her class – Dan, Nikhil and Josh – were moaning.

  “This is so boring,” Dan said.

  “Yeah, who wants to make dumb posters for some stupid contest,” agreed Josh, putting his pen down.

  “I’m not tidying up the village,” said Nikhil, abandoning his poster and sticking his arms behind his head.

  “Come on, boys,” said Miss Harris, walking over. “Get on with your posters.”

  They reluctantly picked up their pens again but, as she walked off, Maia heard them muttering together again.

  “Stupid contest.”

  Everyone else, however, seemed keen to finish their posters and make plans to help. The afternoon passed quickly and Maia was almost sad when school finished – but then she remembered that she and the others were going to the clearing to meet up with the animals and do magic!