Chapter One
“Frickle, freckle, glitter and dust, abracadabra and all that stuff,” I chanted. “Cinnamon stars and chocolate bunnies immediately appeared in the air, floating over our heads. The other kids in my class cheered and started grabbing for treats. For once, I’d gotten a spell right. More sure of myself than ever, I snapped my fingers to add more bunnies and stars to the stash, but instead kerplop! All the candy crashed down on my desk. At the exact same moment, Ms. Cackle returned to class.
She clapped her hands, eyeing me with that wicked stare of her. And where is the omelet you were supposed to make, Esme?
Oh yeah. All of my friends were already eating theirs. Okay, I hadn’t started on that yet but aren’t you supposed to have dessert first? Apparently not by the look on Ms. Cackle’s face. She tapped her wand on my desk and the candy disappeared into a sweet sugar cloud.
“Get to work,” she said, “You need an A on this spell to get your grade up.”
My teacher turned her back on us to erase the spells on the whiteboard. Ducky, dopey, honey and spills, stand up tall and break some eggs. I waved my wand and stamped the floor with my foot. Before my eyes, a duck popped into the air and flew on top of my desk. Oh no, not again.
My friend Maddie cringed.
“Quack, quack,” went the duck, and the rest of the class burst out into peals of laughter.
“Esme McWiggle!” Ms. Cackle tapped her wand on the whiteboard. “How dare you. I said, make an omelet.”
My cheeks burned. Hopefully, no one could see me blush under the brim of my black pointed hat. The duck quacked and sputtered, so I picked him up. I didn’t know what she wanted me to do: make the duck disappear or make an omelet. I couldn’t remember how to do either.
“The omelet, Esme, do the spell right now.”
I petted the duck, looked away from my teacher’s wrinkly old face and said, “Dopey, hopey, bunnies and spills, lets stand up and break some eggs.” I waved my wand and tapped my desk with it. Nothing happened, except my duck quacked and all the kids exploded into giggles once more.
Ms. Cackle clapped her hands. “Enough class, enough. I want a sample of barking juice potion from each of you by the end of the day.”
Maddie reached over and pet the duck. “Es, it was almost right this time. Repeat after me: Dopey spills and honeybees, break some eggs and stand by me.”
“Dopey honeybees break some eggs,” I said. “No, that wasn’t right. Dopey spills on broken eggs, stand by me and honeybees.”
Maddie frowned. “That’s okay,” she finally said, “Let’s ask Ms. Cackle if we can go outside and put the duck in the pond, then I’ll show you how to make the best barking juice potion ever!”
It was hopeless. I’ll never get this stuff right. The worst part will be the look on my mom’s face after Ms. Cackle fills her in on my latest goof-up. Mom never got a spell wrong in her whole life and her potions are perfect, every time.
“Girls,” Ms. Cackle said, “Get to work”
“Can I take the duck back to the pond?” I asked. Any excuse would do to get out of class, even for a few minutes. But oh no. Ms. Cackle waved her wand and the duck disappeared in a poof.
“Get to work,” she said, and put on her glasses to correct our chemistry tests. I probably failed that too. Do you understand the molecular connections that can make a cat sing?
I pulled out my fizzles and sprinkles bottles from inside my desk, and put them next to the pickle juice. “Where is my marshmallow steam?”
Maddie pointed to the floor. “It must have dropped when you picked up the duck. Do you need extra raspberry seeds or juniper berries?”
“Juniper berries? Don’t we use Needles of Thor?”
“No,” Maddie whispered, handing over the required ingredients, “That’s for making cars fly. Come on. Follow what I do, and we’ll get it done together.