Princess Mirror-Belle and the Party Hoppers Read online

  For Molly

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Party Hoppers

  Chapter Two

  Wobblesday

  Chapter Three

  Love-Potion Crisps

  Princess Mirror-Belle and the Magic Shoes

  Chapter One: The Magic Shoes

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Chapter One

  Party Hoppers

  “Happy birthday, Anthony,” said Ellen, holding out a present. Her six-year-old cousin snatched it and ripped off the paper.

  “It’s a book! I hate books – they’re boring,” he said, throwing it on the floor. “Why couldn’t you get me a computer game?”

  Anthony was a pain, and the most painful thing about him was that he was exactly two years younger than Ellen’s friend Livvy. Their parties were on the same day, and Mum always insisted that Ellen went to Anthony’s one. It just wasn’t fair – especially this year, when Livvy’s eighth birthday party was in the swimming pool, with inflatables to bounce about on and pizzas in the café afterwards.

  “Let’s play a few games before tea,” said Anthony’s mother, Auntie Pam, brightly. Ellen’s heart sank even lower. The games were always the same – Stick the Tail on the Donkey, Pass the Parcel and Musical Chairs, and Anthony always won at least two of them – his mother saw to that.

  Auntie Pam stuck up a big picture of a donkey without a tail and gave each child a paper tail with their name written on it.

  “How about you going first, as you’re the oldest, Ellen?” she suggested. She tied a scarf round Ellen’s eyes and guided her towards the donkey picture. Ellen pinned the tail on to it blindly and everyone laughed. Auntie Pam removed the scarf and Ellen saw that the tail was sticking on to one of the donkey’s ears.

  All the other guests had goes, till the donkey had tails growing out of its legs, mane and nose. Then it was Anthony’s turn. “Don’t tie it too tight!” he ordered his mother. When he was standing in front of the donkey picture Ellen noticed him tilting his head back and she guessed that he was peeping out from below the scarf. Sure enough, he stuck the tail on to exactly the right spot.

  “Brilliant, birthday boy!” said Auntie Pam, and presented him with the prize, which was an enormous box of chocolates. “Now let’s play Dead Lions,” she said. This was a game where you all had to lie on the floor and try not to move. If you moved you were Out – unless you were Anthony, in which case you squealed, “I didn’t move, I didn’t move, I didn’t!” until your mother gave you another chance.

  Auntie Pam produced a box of face paints and suggested that for a change the children might like to be different jungle animals – not just lions. She got Ellen to help her paint zebra and tiger stripes on to the younger children’s faces, in front of the big mirror in the hall.

  The made-up children raced back into the sitting room and Ellen was left to paint her own face. She felt in rather a poisonous mood so she decided to be a snake. She picked up the green stick and was about to start painting her face when she saw the mirror lips move and heard a familiar voice.

  “Are you sure you’ve been invited?” asked Mirror-Belle.

  Ellen felt ridiculously glad to see her. It was true that Mirror-Belle usually spelled trouble, but she was much more fun than Anthony and his friends.

  “Of course I’ve been invited. It’s my cousin’s party,” Ellen replied, glancing around to check that no one else could see Mirror-Belle climbing out of the mirror.

  Mirror-Belle looked around too. “Oh dear,” she said. “I seem to be in the wrong place. I’m supposed to be at the wood nymphs’ party. That was why I was painting my face green.” Like Ellen, she had a box of face paints in one hand and a green stick in the other.

  “I see you’re planning to go green too,” she said. “Is your cousin a wood elf or something?”

  “No, he’s a monster,” said Ellen, and she told Mirror-Belle about Anthony and about how she really wanted to go to Livvy’s swimming party.

  “And so you shall!” said Mirror-Belle, sounding like the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella. “Off you go! I’ll stay here and pretend to be you.”

  Ellen felt torn. “But Mirror-Belle . . . I don’t know . . . could you really do that?”

  “Of course,” replied Mirror-Belle. “I’m an expert at pretending. In fact, I’ve got several gold medals for it.”

  Ellen could well believe that; she often wondered how many of Mirror-Belle’s stories about herself were true. All the same, she was still worried about leaving her at Anthony’s party.

  “But you’d have to behave like me, not like you,” she said. “You’d have to be shy and sensible, and you’d have to promise not to—” but she never finished the sentence because she heard Auntie Pam calling her.

  “Coming!” said Mirror-Belle, and strode into the sitting room. There was no choice left. Ellen crept to the front door and let herself out.

  The swimming pool wasn’t far from Anthony’s house. Ellen ran all the way. Livvy and the other guests had only just arrived, and Livvy’s mother was giving them all 20p pieces for the lockers.

  “Ellen!” shouted Livvy. “That’s brilliant – I thought you had to go to your cousin’s party. Where are your swimming things?”

  “Oh dear. I left them at home,” said Ellen. She felt foolish, particularly as she was still clutching the box of face paints.

  “Shall I phone your mother and ask her to bring them round?” offered Livvy’s mother.

  “Er . . . no, she’s gone out,” said Ellen.

  “Well, never mind – I expect you can borrow a costume and towel from Lost Property,” and Livvy’s mother went off to organise this.

  “Is that my present? I love face paints!” said Livvy.

  “Er, yes,” said Ellen, thrusting the box into her hands. “I’m sorry I didn’t have time to wrap them up.” She’d never told Livvy about Mirror-Belle and this didn’t seem a good time to start.

  The Lost Property costume was a bit loose but Ellen didn’t mind. It was wonderful to be in the water with Livvy and the others. They had the pool all to themselves. There was a huge inflatable sea monster, and a pirate ship and a desert island. Livvy made up a really good game called Sharks, where you had to swim from the desert island to the ship without being caught by a shark. If you got caught you were taken to the sea monster and had to wait on its back to be rescued. Ellen was a fast swimmer and managed to rescue several fishes from the sharks. That was fun, but the best thing about the game was that Anthony wasn’t there to cheat and squeal and clamour for a prize. (There weren’t any prizes, which was another good thing.)

  Ellen was in the middle of a particularly daring rescue when Livvy, who was one of the sharks, grabbed her by the shoulder strap of her costume. Ellen tried to swim away and the strap snapped.

  The swimming-pool attendant beckoned to Ellen. “Pop into the changing area and they’ll find you a safety pin,” she said.

  As Ellen fixed the strap in front of the mirror in the changing area she remembered Mirror-Belle and wondered how she was getting on at Anthony’s party.

  She didn’t have to wonder for very long.

  “Be careful with that pin,” said Mirror-Belle. “You don’t want to prick your finger and end up asleep for a hundred years.”

  At that moment Ellen felt she would like nothing better. How could Mirror-Belle do this to her?

  “Mirror-Belle, stay there! Don’t come out of the mirror! You’re not supposed to be here! Go back to Anthony’s party!”

  “No thank you very much.” Mirror-Belle jumped down beside Ellen. She too held a safety pin and wore a baggy swi
mming costume with a broken shoulder strap. “I couldn’t stand another game of Musical Thrones,” she said.

  “Don’t you mean Musical Chairs?” asked Ellen.

  “Yes, I think that is what they called it,” said Mirror-Belle. “Musical Thrones is much better. You leap from throne to throne, and the thrones play tunes when you land on them.”

  “I hope you didn’t leap about on the chairs?” said Ellen.

  “I did try, but it was a bit hard because Tantrummy’s mother kept taking them away.”

  “Anthony, not Tantrummy,” Ellen corrected her, though Tantrummy did seem a better name for him. “Anyway, of course his mum took the chairs away – that’s the whole point of Musical Chairs: you take a chair away every time the music stops.”

  “Well, all that furniture-shifting seemed a lot of hard work for Tantrummy’s mother,” said Mirror-Belle. “She obviously needed some servants to help her. I can’t think why she got so angry when I telephoned that removal firm.”

  Ellen gasped. “They didn’t come, did they?”

  “No – Tantrummy’s mother cancelled them and made us play Keep the Parcel instead.”

  “Pass the Parcel, you mean.”

  “I can’t remember exactly what they called it,” said Mirror-Belle, “but it took me absolutely ages to unwrap the parcel – it was a terrible waste of so much wrapping paper – and in the end there was only a tiny bag of sweets in the middle.”

  “But you’re not supposed to unwrap the whole thing – you’re just supposed to take off one wrapper and then pass it on.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Ellen,” said Mirror-Belle. “Didn’t you know it’s very rude to give away something which has been given to you?”

  “I don’t suppose Anthony was very pleased when you unwrapped the whole thing yourself.”

  “No, he started up a game of his own called Scream the House Down,” said Mirror-Belle.

  Ellen almost laughed, but then she remembered that she was the one who would be accused of all the things Mirror-Belle had done.

  “I hope Auntie Pam didn’t kick you out,” she said.

  “No – she summoned her magician,” said Mirror-Belle.

  “Oh, was there a conjuror? Was he good?”

  “Unfortunately not. He just did a lot of tricks – not real magic at all. In the end I had to lend him a hand.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “He offered to make one of us disappear,” said Mirror-Belle. “He had a big long box and he asked Anthony to climb into it. Then he spun the box round a few times and opened a flap. We all looked into the box and it did look as though Anthony had disappeared. But then I lifted a different flap and there he was!”

  “That was a bit mean to spoil the trick,” said Ellen.

  “Wait – I haven’t finished,” said Mirror-Belle. “I spotted that there was a mirror inside the empty part of the box – it made that space look bigger, which was why it looked as though Anthony had disappeared.”

  “I’m not sure if I understand,” said Ellen.

  “Never mind – I’m sure you’ll understand the next bit,” Mirror-Belle told her. “I climbed into the part of the box with the mirror in it and told the magician to close the lid, and then . . .”

  “You disappeared through the mirror!” finished Ellen.

  “Precisely. The magician must be delighted. At last it looks as if he’s done some real magic!”

  “I shouldn’t think he’s delighted at all! He’s probably horrified,” said Ellen, feeling horrified herself. “They must all be looking for me! I’ll have to go back there – or else you will.” Oh dear, which would be worse? To send Mirror-Belle back to Anthony’s or to leave her in the swimming pool?

  Just then Ellen heard voices. Livvy and the others were coming to get changed. Ellen ran and opened her locker, scooped out her clothes and dived into a changing cubicle. As she closed the door she heard Livvy greet Mirror-Belle:

  “What took you so long, Ellen? It’s time for the pizzas now. I’m going to have ham and pineapple.”

  “I’ll have dragon and tomato,” said Mirror-Belle, and Livvy laughed.

  Ellen changed quickly, and rubbed her hair as dry as she could. When she reckoned that all the others were in the cubicles she made her getaway. As she left the changing area she heard Livvy asking, “What’s happened to your clothes, Ellen?” and Mirror-Belle replying, “I must have left them in the palace.”

  Instead of ringing Anthony’s bell, Ellen crept round to the back door. It was unlocked and she tiptoed inside. She could hear voices calling her name upstairs; they must be searching the bedrooms. She peeped round the door of the sitting room. To her amazement the room was empty. On the floor was the long box which Mirror-Belle must have been talking about. Ellen lifted the lid and squeezed in. It was dark and cramped inside.

  Almost immediately she heard the doorbell, followed by footsteps and voices in the hall.

  “What do you mean, ‘Just disappeared’?” This was her mother’s voice.

  “It’s magic!” This was one of the children. “He’s a really good conjuror. I want him to come to my party.”

  Then the conjuror: “It was nothing to do with me! I didn’t even ask the wretched child to get into the box!”

  “I want to see this box!” Mum’s voice sounded really near now and Ellen realised that everyone had come into the sitting room.

  “She’s not there. We’ve looked hundreds of times,” said Auntie Pam.

  The next second the lid was opened and light streamed in.

  “Ellen!” said Mum. Ellen climbed out and hugged her. Everyone clustered round.

  “Fancy keeping her stuck in there all that time!” Mum accused the conjuror. “And why is her hair all damp?”

  “I can’t understand it!” he said. “This has never happened before.”

  Ellen felt sorry for him. She decided to tell the truth. “It’s not his fault,” she said. “It was Mirror-Belle.”

  “Who’s Mirror-Belle?” asked one of the children.

  “It’s Ellen’s imaginary friend,” explained Mum.

  “What an imagination she’s got!” said Auntie Pam. “She was making up all sorts of extraordinary stories earlier on.” But Mum didn’t hear this, because Anthony had started to clamour, “Why didn’t I disappear? I want to be invisible! It’s not fair – I want another go!”

  When Ellen and Mum got home, Luke was on the phone.

  “It’s all right, here she is,” Ellen heard him say. “No, her clothes look fine – a bit crumpled maybe, that’s all. Yes, I’m sure. Goodbye, then.”

  “Who was that?” asked Mum.

  “This weird woman,” said Luke. “Mrs Duck or someone.”

  “Was it Livvy Drake’s mother?”

  “Yes, Drake, that was it. She wanted to know if Ellen was all right.”

  “Why shouldn’t she be all right?” asked Mum.

  “Don’t ask me. I couldn’t understand what the woman was on about. Something about Ellen’s clothes getting stolen from the swimming pool.”

  “But Ellen wasn’t at the swimming pool.”

  “That’s what I told her, but she kept on about it. She said Ellen’s locker was empty and there must have been a thief. She said they had to get some different clothes from Lost Property.”

  “She’s obviously mixing Ellen up with some other child,” said Mum.

  “And then she said Ellen just disappeared when the rest of them were eating pizzas,” went on Luke. “She was worried she might have been kidnapped.”

  “How strange,” said Mum. She gave Ellen another hug. “I think you’ve had quite enough adventures for one day without being kidnapped, don’t you?” she asked.

  “Yes,” said Ellen. “I certainly do.”

  Chapter Two

  Wobblesday

  Ellen hadn’t seen Mirror-Belle for a few weeks. At the beginning of the summer holidays her family had moved house. The new house was in a different town, and Ellen had the
feeling that Mirror-Belle had lost track of her. If so, she wasn’t exactly sorry. Their adventures always seemed to end up with Ellen getting into trouble and Mirror-Belle escaping. Still, just sometimes Ellen found herself looking in the mirror and half-hoping that her reflection would do something surprising. She would have liked someone to play with. There weren’t any children in either of the houses next door. A girl of about her own age lived further down the street, but Ellen was too shy to say hello. She hoped she would make some friends when she started at her new school, but she felt quite nervous about that too.

  When a fair came to the common near their new house, Mum said Ellen’s big brother Luke could take her as long as he stayed with her. This sounded like fun, but the trouble was that Ellen and Luke wanted to do different things. Luke liked the kind of rides where you went flying and plunging about, preferably upside down and back to front. Ellen liked being scared too, but not in an upside-down sort of way. She wanted to go on the ghost train, but Luke said that was just for kids.

  “I’ll see you back here in an hour, OK?” said Luke. They were in the Wobbly Mirror Hall.

  Ellen pretended to forget that Luke was supposed to stay with her.

  “All right,” she said. She wasn’t looking at Luke but at herself in one of the wobbly mirrors. Her mouth was gaping like a cave in her droopy chin, above a long wiggly body and little waddly legs. “Look at me!” she said, laughing and pointing, but Luke had already gone. Instead, it was the peculiar reflection who replied.