The Wishing-Well Spell

  To my auntie Wawie, the most adventurous spirit and traveler

  —G. S.

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1 Park Day!

  Chapter 2 The Wishing Well

  Chapter 3 The Wish List

  Chapter 4 Mom’s Not-So-Little Pony

  Chapter 5 Princess Gabby

  Chapter 6 Wish Disaster!

  Chapter 7 Turn It DOWN

  Chapter 8 Oops!

  Chapter 9 One Last Wish

  Chapter 10 NUTS!

  Posey, The Class Pest Excerpt

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Park Day!

  Today is Friday, and that means it’s park day!

  My best friends and I go to the park every Friday after school. Today we head straight to the basketball court.

  I love the court because it’s the best place to ro-o-oll on my skateboard. Lily loves it because it’s the best place to play basketball. And Jasmine loves it because it’s the best place to draw on the smooth surface with sidewalk chalk. It’s the perfect place for us. Obviously.

  I slalom around Lily. ZOOMIE! ZOOM! ZOOM! She dunks a three-pointer or whatever.

  I whiz past Jasmine. ZOOMIE! ZOOM! ZOOM! She’s drawing a picture of Posey.

  “Hi, Posey!” I shout as I fly by.

  The picture of Posey pops to life—as in, real life.

  “Hi, guys!” he shouts back.

  I’m so distracted that I skate right into Lily.

  WIPEOUT!

  Lily and I bumble-tumble to the ground.

  “Oopsy-daisy!” I cry. Lily and I untangle ourselves and check for scrapes.

  “Are you okay?” everyone asks at the exact same time!

  “JINX!” we shout, and then we crack up. We are definitely best friends.

  “I’m fine,” Lily says, “except my basketball flew way over the fence!”

  I jump to my feet and brush myself off. “Well, I’m okay too,” I say. “I’m sorry I crashed into you.” Then I reach out my hand and help Lily. “Come on. Let’s go find that basketball!”

  We race around the fence to search through the bushes and check behind trees.

  “Found it!” Jasmine cries.

  Lily’s basketball is sitting beside the old town well.

  “Wow!” Posey exclaims. “I haven’t seen one of these in years!”

  “Seen one of what?” Lily asks. “A basketball?”

  “No, that!” He points to the well. “Do you know what that is?”

  “It’s an old water well,” I say, like no big whoop, because that well has been sitting here my whole life and probably two lifetimes before that. It’s made of stones and has a worn-out roof with weeds growing over it. I’m pretty sure the world forgot it existed.

  Posey looks shocked. “It’s not just any old well. It’s a magic wishing well!”

  Jasmine, Lily, and I stare at the old well and shrug. It sure doesn’t look like anything special. But one thing is for sure—when Posey thinks something’s magic, it usually is!

  Obviously.

  The Wishing Well

  Posey whips out a coin, and it gleams in the sun.

  “Watch this!” he says. Then he closes his eyes, kisses the coin, and flings it into the well.

  PLINK! It plops into the water.

  Posey opens his eyes and looks this way and that. Then he runs around the well twice and stops in front of us.

  “That’s really weird!” he says. “I made a wish, but my wish didn’t come true!”

  Jasmine covers her mouth to muffle a laugh. “Silly Posey!” she says. “The wishes don’t actually come true!”

  Lily and I nod in agreement.

  “The best part of a wish is wishing it comes true,” Lily says. Then she picks up a pebble and tosses it into the well.

  Posey crosses his arms and looks upset.

  “You didn’t really expect your wish to come true, did you?” I ask.

  “Of course I did!” he says with a little sass in his voice. “It’s a wishing well! That’s what wishing wells do!”

  I peer down the old well. “Hmm . . . maybe this one’s broken.”

  Posey’s face lights up. “That’s it!” he says, and before any of us can stop him, he starts kicking the outside of the well.

  “POSEY!” I shriek. “You’re going to break something!”

  “No, I’m going to fix something!” says Posey.

  Now my wacky imaginary friend is floating around the well, inspecting every stone. Then he flies into the woods with his eyes fixed on the ground. After a moment he picks up a small stone.

  “Aha,” Posey says with a grin. “This mystery is solved!”

  He takes the stone and fits it back into the side of the well like a puzzle piece. Then everything around us begins to shudder and shake. I’m pretty sure the well is going to erupt. Lily, Jasmine, and I grab hold of one another. And then—KER-FLOOSH!

  A gushing rainbow fountain blasts out of the well!

  “POSEY, WHAT’S GOING ON?” I yell over the roar of magic.

  He stands triumphantly and cheers, “I FIXED THE WISHING WELL!”

  The Wish List

  We stare inside the rainbow. It’s a rainbow of wishes! And we can actually see the wishes! Or at least, we can see the shapes of the wishes. I spy a pony, a tiara, tons of kittens and puppy dogs, several dolls, a trampoline, skateboards, swings, swimming pools . . . and much, much more.

  “Wow!” Posey exclaims. “I’ve never seen so many ungranted wishes in my imaginary life!”

  I tap my goofball of a friend on the shoulder and ask, “Um, what do you mean, ungranted wishes?”

  “These are all the wishes people made that never came true because the well was broken,” Posey says. “But it’s not broken anymore! See?” Posey pulls an enormous butterscotch lollipop from behind his back and licks it. “I got my wish!”

  And that’s when I hear someone scream my name.

  “DAAAAAIIIISSSSYYYYY!”

  I whirl around, and OH. MY. GOSH. Lily is still Lily, but she is standing next to a grown-up. And it isn’t just any grown-up. Because though she’s taller and has some gray in her hair, I could never forget those kind eyes and face. There’s no doubt—this grown-up is one of my best friends. “JASMINE? What happened?” I ask. “What did you wish for?”

  Jasmine looks down at herself. “I’m not sure!” she cries. “I haven’t wished for anything in a really long time.”

  Then Lily claps her hand over her mouth. “Jasmine, don’t you remember? We made wishes at the well when we were little, and you wished you were a grown-up!”

  Then Jasmine’s eyes bug out, and I know that she remembers, all right.

  “Cool wish! Do you want to see yourself?” Posey asks. He pulls a mirror from out of nowhere and hands it to Jasmine.

  Uh-oh, this is not going to be good, I think. Then I cover my ears and wait for it.

  “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! I’m OLD!” Jasmine yells at the top of her lungs. “I look like my mom!” Then she turns and glares at Posey. “Please! Help me unwish it!”

  Posey licks his lollipop like it’s no big whoop.

  Lily points at Posey and shakes her finger. “Posey, you have to fix this! RIGHT NOW!”

  “But I did fix it!” he says, pointing to the wishing well. “And, by the way, you’re welcome!”

  Posey takes a little bow, but poor Jasmine drops to her knees and clasps her hands together.

  “Please!” she begs. “I’m not a grown-up, Posey. I’m supposed to be a kid!”

  But Posey’s not paying attention to any of us. He has his mind on the well, which is now making a funny noise, like a printer.

  ZA-ZINK! ZA-ZINK! ZA! ZINK! ZI
NK! ZINK!

  A stream of paper spits out of the side of the wishing well. It looks like a super-long grocery store receipt, and it shows no sign of stopping. Posey collects the paper as it comes out.

  “What is that?” I ask.

  Again, no answer. Posey is concentrating on the spewing paper. Finally it stops, and he rips the end of the paper from the well.

  “This is the wish list!” he tells us. “It shows every wish made at this well and the name of the person who wished it.”

  We watch Posey scroll down the long list.

  “Ta-da!” he says triumphantly. “Here’s Jasmine’s wish to be a grown-up!” He bows his head toward Jasmine, who is still on her knees. “Congratulations! Your wish came true!”

  And now I, Daisy Dreamer, have had enough. I march right over to Posey and speak to him in my best I-mean-business voice. “Posey, Jasmine doesn’t want to be a grown-up anymore. Obviously! So please hurry up and use your magic or whatever to help her become a normal kid again.”

  Posey stands there, scratching his head. “Oh dear. Now, that’s going to be a problem because I don’t know how to undo a wish.”

  I slap my hand against my forehead. “Oh no, Posey! This is bad! This is really bad!”

  Then, right in the middle of losing it, I think of something worse than really bad . . . and I feel a wave of panic rush over my body.

  “Posey, how many wishes on that list did you make come true?” I ask.

  Posey glances at the list and then back at me. He drops his lollipop in the dirt when he realizes what he’s really done by fixing the well.

  “All the wishes in the well!” he says, his eyes growing wider. He gulps. “And that’s a lot of wishes. This well has been broken for a long, long time.”

  I grab the list from his hand and look over the names. Then I find it—my mom’s name! And of course she made the wish when she was a little girl.

  “UH-OH!” I shout, flinging the wish list back at Posey. “We have to go to my house! And I mean, like, NOW!”

  Mom’s Not-So-Little Pony

  My friends and I bolt to my house, which suddenly feels a bazillion miles away. Posey flies. I whiz on my skateboard. Lily runs like the wind, and grown-up Jasmine scooters awkwardly. Her scooter is way too small for her now.

  “I thought being a grown-up would make things easier,” Jasmine complains. “But this isn’t easy at all!”

  I push harder to make my skateboard go faster. When we finally get home, Jasmine and Posey go in the front door and sneak straight up to my room. Lily and I race in through the back door.

  “MOM!” I shout as soon as we’re inside. “Is everything okay?”

  My mom is stirring spaghetti sauce in the kitchen. She looks as normal as normal can be, except for that she has one eyebrow raised. “I’m fine, thank you,” she says. “Are you okay, Daisy?”

  Now it’s my turn to act as normal as normal can be. “I’m fine, thank you too!” I say. And that’s when we hear a loud noise upstairs.

  WOMP! WOMP!

  We all look at the ceiling.

  “That’s odd,” Mom says. “I thought your father was at the grocery store.”

  I give Lily a look and say, “That’s just Jasmine. She had to get something in my room.”

  Then I creep toward the hallway as more loud noises come from upstairs.

  WUMP! WUMP! WUMP!

  This time the walls actually shake. I laugh nervously. “I guess it’s a big something! Better go help her!”

  Lily and I race out of the kitchen and bound up the stairs. When I fling open my bedroom door, it’s just as I feared. There is a pony standing on what used to be my bed.

  “Daisy, when did you get a pony?” asks grown-up Jasmine.

  I sweep up my pigtails to cover my eyes, and then I let my hair drop back down. Nope, it didn’t work. That pony is still there!

  “I didn’t!” I whisper-yell. “It’s my mom’s wish. When she was little, she wanted a pony. So she made a wish in the well. Now it’s come true . . . and her wish is in my room!”

  “This is so cool!” Lily says.

  I glare at her. “How is this cool?” I point around my room, which is a complete disaster. My desk chair is smashed. My clothes are chewed, slobbered on, and scattered all over the floor. Even right now that pony is chewing on Cuddles, my stuffed moray eel. I throw my hands in the air.

  “My room is not a barn!” I cry. “What are we gonna do now?”

  Then I have an idea and smile at Jasmine.

  “What are you looking at me for?” she asks.

  “Because you are a grown-up!” I say. “And grown-ups usually know what to do!”

  Jasmine smiles, and for one second she likes being a grown-up. She taps the side of her face with her finger to see if she has any grown-up ideas. Then bing! She’s got one!

  “We have to move the pony somewhere safe until we can reverse the wishing-well spell,” she says.

  I clap my hands because that’s actually a very good idea. “Let’s hide the pony at school!” I suggest.

  Everyone stares at me like I’m a cuckoohead. Even the pony stops chewing.

  “Guys, it’s the weekend!” I explain. “School is over. Nobody will be around to see!”

  Jasmine looks down at me like an adult when a kid gets a harebrained idea. “And how do you plan to get the pony out of your house and all the way to school?”

  “Well, you can’t expect me to work out all the details,” I grumble. Obviously.

  Posey steps up and raises his hand. “Leave the masterminding to me! Now, if you could all crowd around the pony.”

  We squeeze in, stepping over all the broken pieces that used to be my room.

  Posey cheers, “GIBBIDY-GOOBIDY, TAKE-US-TO-SCHOOL-BIDDY!”

  And with a clap of his hands—POOF! We disappear!

  Princess Gabby

  KER-SPLUNK! We land in an ungraceful heap on the ground—pony and all. I look around because I can’t find our school anywhere. And then I realize there’s a fairy-tale castle right where our school is supposed to be!

  “What’s that doing there?” I say, even though I know it must have something to do with the wishing well.

  Jasmine gets to her feet. “Yeah, that’s definitely not our school!”

  Posey whips out the wish list. “Hmm . . . do you know anyone named Sterling Smith?”

  We all nod because Sterling Smith goes to our school.

  “Well, she wished kids would never have to go to school!” Posey says. “So now there’s no school!”

  Not an entirely bad wish, I think. Then I ask, “Wait, whose castle is this?”

  My question is answered by a blast of royal trumpets. We jump at the sound and see a team of knights galloping up to us. In the midst of the knights is a princess on a tall white horse. She looks right at me.

  “Well, well!” she says in a familiar voice. “If it isn’t Miss Daisy Dreamer!”

  I moan, because of course it’s Gabby Gaburp, my best-worst enemy. She’s even dressed like a fairy-tale princess!

  Posey flies over and cups his hands around my ear to whisper, “Gabby wished to be a princess.”

  As if I didn’t know. OBVIOUSLY!

  Princess Gabby clears her throat to get our attention back on her. “Ahem. So, what are you doing here? And why do you have that beautiful pony?”

  Oh wow, I forgot about the pony problem for a minute. Then I realize, Hey, maybe Princess Gabby can help us.

  “Your Royal Highness,” I begin, trying not to make a sour face at calling Gabby such a fancy name. “We have come to bring you a gift! This rare and majestic pony is to honor you for being so, um, great . . . and stuff.”

  Of course Princess Gabby eats this right up. She bats her eyes and says, “Why, thank you, my faithful subject. Your Highness accepts your kind gift with pleasure.”

  Then she and her knights lead the pony away. “Pony problem solved!” I cheer as I bow to my friends like a magician.

&nb
sp; Jasmine wipes her brow. “Good thinking, Daisy!”

  “Phew,” Lily agrees, leaning against a tree. That’s when we notice that the tree Lily’s leaning on . . . begins to pop.

  Poppity! Poppity! POOF! The whole tree turns into chocolate—right before our eyes!

  “How did you do that?” Jasmine exclaims.

  Lily backs away from the tree in surprise. “Oh no! I just remembered my wishing-well wish.”

  “Lilyyy,” I say, dragging her name out because I cannot believe what I think her old wish was. “Did you wish that everything you touched would turn to . . .”

  Lily nods. “Chocolate.”

  Then she takes a big bite of the tree.

  Wish Disaster!

  “Why did you wish that?” Jasmine says. “That’s the silliest wish ever!”

  Lily snaps off a twig from the chocolate tree. “Hmm . . . maybe not as silly as wishing to be a grown-up!”

  Uh-oh! Angry best friend alert! This is not good! I try to lighten the mood. “I think Lily’s wish is sweet! Get it? Sweet! Because she wished for chocolate!”

  Lily sort of snort-laughs.

  Then I stand up as tall as I can. “I think Jasmine’s wish is big. I mean, who hasn’t wanted to be a grown-up before?”

  Jasmine sort of snort-giggles.

  Now that everyone is smiling, I feel better. “They’re both good wishes.”

  Jasmine shakes her head. “Good wish or not, it’s starting to feel more like a curse!”

  It’s true, I think. A harmless wish can go bad just like that. Then I ask Posey for the wish list so I can look it over. It’s scary to think that all these wishes have come true—at the same time.