CHAPTER 1 Smile Like the Sun
Rainbow Sunshine was NOT having a peaches-and-lollipops kind of morning.
Yes, the sun was sparkling. Yes, the brook was babbling. Yes, the flowers were blooming and full of color, just as they always were in Charmwood.
Today Rainbow Sunshine was joining the Fairy Scouts, where she would earn her magic.
Did that make it a peaches-and-lollipops kind of morning?
Nuh-uh. Not even close.
Ms. Dazzle, the troop leader, started roll call.
“Jewel Rose?”
“Present and alert!” Jewel said, her hand raised as straight as a tree trunk.
“Bloom Feathers?”
“Buzz, buzz!” Bloom replied. “Here and happy as can beeee!”
Ms. Dazzle read out the next name. “Rainbow Sunshine?”
All the fairies froze. Even the grasshoppers stopped chirping outside the window.
“Is Rainbow Sunshine present?” Ms. Dazzle asked, looking around.
From the back corner of the room came a rough, croaking sound. It sounded like a frog gagging on a fly.
Rainbow Sunshine finally stopped clearing her throat. Then she glared a glare that was sharper than a hundred rosebush thorns.
“Call me Rain,” the fairy snarled. “Just Rain.”
The other scouts held their breath. But Ms. Dazzle just nodded and smiled, beaming like the sun.
Rain’s eyes squeezed shut. She could not stand anything bright.
As Ms. Dazzle continued roll call, Rain squinted around the tree house.
Sunshine spewed inside from every window. The walls were covered in colorful posters with Fairy Scout chants.
One of the posters declared, FAIRIES RISE AND SHINE! Another one read, SHARE YOUR SPARKLE!
Ugh. Rain shuddered. Then she spotted the worst poster of all.
The giant, glittery sun on the poster smiled at Rain.
Rain did not like being told to smile. Nor did she like glitter.
She crept toward the poster, careful not to draw any attention to herself.
Then, quick as a flash, she taped up her own poster on the wall.
Rain looked at the stormy painting on her poster and thought, Now THAT is something to smile about.
Ms. Dazzle finished roll call and clapped her hands.
“Who’s ready to learn some magic?” she asked.
The fairies cheered as fountains of petals and glitter erupted in the room.
Rain tried to hide, but there was no escape. She was covered head to toe in sparkles.
As Rain spit flowers out of her mouth, her poster slipped off the wall. It fluttered, floated, and fell at her feet.
Rain groaned.
It was going to be a sickeningly sweet, lollipops-and-rotten-peaches kind of day.
