Free Undercover by Meredith Badger Page B

‘Cherrydale is a really strict school, mum,’ she said. ‘And I haven’t had much luck at strict schools, remember.’

This was true. It wasn’t that Elly meant to get into trouble. It just seemed to happen.
    â€˜Imagine,’ said Elly, ‘if I get thrown out of Cherrydale while you’re away. What will happen to me then?’
    Mrs and Mr Knottleweed-Eversprightly looked at each other.
    â€˜Wellll ...’ said Elly’s mum.
    Elly knew that when her mum said ‘Wellll ...’ like that, it meant she was starting to come around to Elly’s way of thinking.
    â€˜Well, that’s true,’ her mum continued. ‘But I’ve never even met Jess’s parents. We can’t leave you with total strangers.’
    Elly smiled. The hard part of the convincing was done. ‘Let’s go over and meet them then!’ she said. ‘You’ll like the Chesters, I know you will.’
    Half an hour later the Knottleweed-Eversprightlys were sitting in their neighbours’ lounge room, drinking tea and eating shortbread that tasted just a tiny bit of mud. Mrs Chester was a potter and Mr Chester was a gardener, so dirt just seemed to get into everything. Elly could tell that her parents were a bit nervous about being in a human house. Elly understood. She had felt that way too when she’d first visited Jess.
    Human houses are so different from fairy ones, and it is easy to make stupid blunders. For instance, human doors don’t allow you to walk straight through them the way fairy ones do. Mr Knottleweed-Eversprightly almost banged into a closed door before he remembered to open it manually. It was also weird that human furniture stayed in the same place. Fairy furniture has a tendency to wander around. Elly liked human furniture much more. She was sick of tripping over unexpected things hiding in the dark. To make it worse, fairy furniture always acts like it’s your fault. On the whole, Elly felt much happier being in the Chesters’ house than she did in her own.
    The only thing Elly was really worried about during the visit was Kara. Elly had already caught her making the teapot rise up and start to tip. Elly stopped it just in time. She didn’t want anything to happen that might put the Chesters off the idea of her staying with them.
    But if the Chesters noticed any strange goings-on, they didn’t say anything.
    â€˜Of course Elly can stay with us!’ said Mrs Chester. ‘We’d love to have her.’
    â€˜We’ll set up the spare bed in Jess’s room,’ said Mr Chester.
    Jess and Elly looked at each other in delight. Elly’s parents looked relieved. In fact, the only person who didn’t look happy about it was Jess’s little brother Micky. ‘Great,’ he muttered. ‘Now I’m going to have two big sisters bossing me around.’
    After this had been arranged, things happened very fast. The Knottleweed-Eversprightlys hurried home to finish packing and by early afternoon they were ready to leave. Elly and the Chester family stood on the footpath to wave them goodbye.
    â€˜It looks very squishy in there,’ said Mrs Chester sympathetically, looking at the Knottleweed-Eversprightlys’ station wagon.
    From the outside it looked as if the car was almost completely full. Only Elly knew that inside the car was much more roomy. There was a bath. And a sauna. There was even a very small movie theatre.

    â€˜Bye!’ called Elly, as the car drove off. She felt a bit sad. It was exciting to be staying with Jess but she’d miss her family too. Her own bag was packed and laying by her feet. Once the car had disappeared, Jess picked up Elly’s bag.
    â€˜Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s go and unpack. I’ve cleared some space for your stuff in my cupboard.’
    Elly immediately started feeling better. Elly’s mum had told her to pack carefully. Now that she was working