Tabby, Tabby, Burning Bright Read online

  “I’m going over to Daisy’s,” Cassie said.

  “Oh, you are, are you?”

  “Daisy’s mother’s coming to pick me up.”

  Her mom looked annoyed. “Cassie, when I told you no, what part of that meant ‘Go behind my back and ask someone else instead’?”

  “But it was her mother’s idea!” Cassie cried.

  Cassie’s mom sighed. She still looked annoyed. “Fine. But next time, you ask first.”

  You would’ve just said no, Cassie thought.

  A howl came from upstairs.

  “Oh, no,” Cassie’s mom groaned. “Your brother’s awake.”

  “I’ll get him for you!” Cassie volunteered.

  “Don’t you dare! He’s too little and fragile!”

  Cassie thought. “Okay, then, can I play with him for you?”

  “Okay. I’ll be up when I finish sorting these out.”

  Cassie skipped up the stairs. She opened her brother’s bedroom door and found him wriggling in his crib, trying desperately to roll over.

  “Hi, baby,” she said. “I saw some little fairy babies today. They were super cute.”

  Her brother responded with a sqwack.

  “They put their toes in their mouths, like this.” Cassie tried to demonstrate, but her legs were too long. “Well, anyway, they did,” she said. “Do you want to see them?”

  “Gah!” her brother said.

  Cassie reached into her pocket and pulled out the special glasses. She carefully unfolded them and balanced them on Andrew’s face. They slid off to the side, so she stood on tiptoes to reach past him, picked them up, and held them back on his face while he wriggled.

  “See?” she said. “You’re the first person I’ve shared this with. I think Bianca knows, though.”

  “Guh ga ga!” he protested.

  “Cassie!” her mother cried from the doorway, horrified. “You don’t put your glasses on his face! That’s not good for his vision! Take those off!”

  Cassie whipped the glasses off and pulled her arm back through the crib bars. “I was just showing him —”

  “I don’t care what you were showing him, don’t do it again.” Her mom looked peeved. “Honestly, is it too much to ask you to behave? Please leave while I feed the baby.”

  Cassie’s feelings were hurt. She wandered out of the room while her mom picked up Andrew and settled down on the rocking chair.

  “I just wanted to show Andrew the fairies,” she whispered to herself as she headed to her bedroom. But she didn’t try to explain it to Mom. Mom was so busy now and always short on sleep. It made her get mad easily.

  Well, it was okay. Cassie cheered up as she skipped down the stairs. Daisy would be here soon, and she’d show Daisy the fairies.

  She could hardly wait.

  Chapter Five

  “She didn’t even notice that I was wearing my glasses,” Cassie said.

  They were up in the privacy of Daisy’s bedroom. Well, sort of privacy. Daisy shared it with her two sisters, but Aneeka was doing junior high school homework downstairs, and Shelby was watching muppets on TV.

  Daisy giggled. “Your mom gets really mad. Well, at least your brother is cute.”

  “He’s really cute. But I wish Mom would let me play with him,” Cassie said.

  “Shelby used to be cute, but now she’s three and gets into my things,” Daisy said, aggrieved.

  “Maybe I should be glad we don’t have to share a bedroom,” Cassie said, picking at the carpet. “Even if we had to move.”

  “Yeah. But I wish you still lived here,” Daisy said.

  “I know! You should move there!” Cassie cried. “Then you could have three bedrooms, and you’d get your own room!”

  “Hey, yeah!” Daisy cried. Then her brow furrowed. “But they’d probably give it to Aneeka. They give her everything.”

  Out of habit, Cassie and Daisy made a face and stuck out their tongues at each other when she said Aneeka. Aneeka was annoying.

  “You could ask,” Cassie said.

  “Yeah.” Daisy bobbed her head. “So, what do your glasses do? What were you trying to show him?”

  “Well . . .” Cassie drew in her breath. She hadn’t told that part yet. She’d just said something. “It’s . . . fairies!”

  “Whoa.” Daisy’s eyes went huge. “You mean, like, with butterfly wings and everything?”

  “Uh huh!” Cassie said, grinning.

  “Let me see let me see!” Daisy cried, bouncing up and down.

  Cassie pulled the glasses out of her pocket and handed them to Daisy.

  Daisy yanked them open and shoved them on her face. She scanned the room breathlessly. Behind the glasses, her eyes looked ginormous, like Cassie’s did whenever she could see herself in a mirror. After a moment, she drooped.

  “I can’t see anything at all,” Daisy moaned. “Everything’s blurry.”

  “Let me see,” Cassie said. She pulled her glasses off her nose and fumbled for the ones Daisy was holding. Daisy put them in her hand. Cassie felt across them until she found the temples, and put the glasses on her nose.

  There was at least one fairy in the room. It looked like an old man with a long white beard and moth wings. He was sipping from a yellow flower while he bobbed across the room, his wings flapping very slowly.

  Cassie pulled the glasses off. “Look right there,” she said, pointing to where he had been. “There’s a little old man fairy.”

  Daisy put the glasses on and looked in that direction. She squinted and leaned forward.

  Cassie waited, holding her breath.

  “I still can’t see anything!” Daisy wailed, ripping the glasses off her face. “And I mean, I can’t see anything!”

  “I’m sorry,” Cassie said, disappointed. “I didn’t think about that. You don’t need glasses.”

  “Now I wish I did,” Daisy said gloomily.

  “Sorry,” Cassie said, chewing on her lower lip.

  “I know,” Daisy said, getting up. She went over to her closet and rummaged through it.

  On the top shelf, probably so Shelby couldn’t reach them, were a box of crayons and a pad of paper. Daisy got them down.

  “Here,” she said, handing them to Cassie. “Can you draw the fairies, so that I can see what you see?”

  “Oh!” Cassie said. “Good idea!”

  She got out a yellow crayon, and looked around the room. Up in the closet, over the rack crammed full of hangers, a tiny family was sitting and munching. It looked sort of like a picnic.

  She put the yellow crayon back and got out a dark green one.

  “Okay, the ones right there have wings like this,” she said, drawing big ovals with green stripes, like watermelons. “Their skin is green, too, and most of them have purple hair. One of them, I think the father, has hair that’s bright pink . . .”

  Daisy listened with rapt attention, watching as the colors took shape.

  Chapter Six

  By the time Monday rolled around, Cassie was dreading going back to school. She didn’t want to give the glasses back to Bianca.

  “I’m sick,” she told her mother. “Cough, cough.”

  “Cassie, saying the word ‘cough’ does not mean you’re sick,” her mother said impatiently. “What, is there a math test?”

  “No, I like math,” Cassie protested. “I always get As.”

  “I used to try to skip out of math tests,” her father said, looking up from his cereal.

  “You are going to school,” Cassie’s mother said. “No ifs, ands, or —”

  A shrill cry came from upstairs.

  “Again?” Cassie’s mother cried. “I just changed him!”

  “I’ll do it,” Cassie’s dad said, pushing back his chair.

  Cassie downed her orange juice, thinking.

  “I have a sore throat,” she said, pleased with her brainwave.

  “No, you don’t,” her mother informed her.

  “But it hurts!” Cassie wailed. “I can’t ev
en swallow another bite of food!”

  “Then we’ll take you to the doctor to get shots after school.”

  “Never mind,” Cassie said, eating her toast quickly.

  Cassie’s father came back into the kitchen.

  “That boy,” he said, plopping down into his seat, “apparently eats a lot of food.”

  “You should’ve seen the diaper I had to change yesterday,” her mother said.

  “I think I just saw something pretty similar,” her father said. He held his nose and waved his hand.

  Cassie’s mom glanced at the kitchen clock. “School bus will be here in five minutes! Have you got everything?”

  Cassie felt her pocket for her fairy glasses. They were there, all ready for her to return them.

  “Yeah,” she said gloomily.

  “Then finish up now, and get moving to that bus stop,” her mother said. “Hurry! Scoot!”

  Cassie hurried and scooted, and got to the bus stop just in time. She wasn’t the last one, either. A boy came running up and puffing just as the bus was about to drive off. Happily, the bus driver was nice and opened the door to let him on.

  Cassie snuck the fairy eyeglasses out of her pocket and switched them with hers. Usually bus rides were boring, since she didn’t know any of the kids, but she was interested to see what she could see today.

  There was a fairy sitting in the bus driver’s hair, trying to braid the curly strands. Cassie giggled. She knew by now that if she took off the glasses, his hair would be the same, but with the glasses on, there were tiny braids all over it.

  A fairy with feathery pink hair and an orange snapdragon hat was sitting on the seat right in front of her. Cassie waved.

  The fairy woman ignored her and hopped up to flutter away.

  None of the fairies ever seem to notice me, Cassie thought, disappointed. Except for the blue one.

  Thinking about the blue one she’d seen on that first day made Cassie’s skin prickle. It had been so spooky. Had he wanted something from her? If so, what had it been?

  She sort of wanted to meet up with Bianca so that she could ask her what was going on. Surely Bianca would know why wearing the glasses could make her see fairies.

  But she didn’t want to give up the glasses. Even though she knew they weren’t hers.

  After all, if she really cared, shouldn’t have Bianca have called and asked about them?

  It isn’t fair, Cassie thought. I bet I care about them more than she does, and I still have to give them back.

  She watched fairies all the way to school, miserable, trying to soak up everything before she lost her last chance.

  Chapter Seven

  Her last hope was that Bianca wouldn’t be in school. Maybe she would be sick. But Bianca was there.

  Well, no point in delaying it, Cassie thought, pulling off the glasses unhappily. She dug her own out of her jeans pocket and put them on. Then she marched over to Bianca.

  Bianca was sitting on the swingset, scratching her arm. Other kids were running around, laughing and shouting on the playground while they waited for the bell to ring.

  “Hi,” Cassie said firmly. “I have something that belongs to you. I came to return it.”

  She held out the fairy glasses, her arm shaking a little.

  Bianca stared at her suspiciously. “I don’t wear glasses. Is this some kind of joke?”

  “No, I . . . of course not . . .” Cassie fumbled. Was Bianca still going to pretend these weren’t hers?

  “They’re special glasses,” she said at last. “You know . . .”

  “No, I don’t know,” Bianca said flatly. “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re the only one at the party who could have left them there, and they let you see fairies, and if you you want me to keep them, I’ll be happy to keep them, okay?” Cassie burst out.

  Bianca’s mouth opened. “They do what?”

  She doesn’t know, Cassie realized. She really doesn’t know. That means these aren’t hers. But then . . . whose are they?

  “When . . . when I put them on,” Cassie stumbled, “they let me see fairies. Actual fairies. You know, little people with butterfly wings. I found them in the bathroom after you left it at Jasmine’s birthday party. I assumed they were yours.”

  Bianca stared at her. “Either this is some mean joke, or you really believe it.”

  “Look, I’ll prove it to you!” Cassie said. She grabbed the fairy glasses and swapped them for hers. “I can describe them!”

  “That’s only proof if I believe you,” Bianca said, scratching behind her ear.

  Cassie looked around the playground. “There are a whole bunch flying over the monkey bars. I think they’re playing some kind of sport. They have a ball.”

  “That’s nice,” Bianca said. She plainly didn’t believe it.

  “There’s one right there, flying past. It’s red with pink wings.”

  “Uh huh,” Bianca said, rolling her eyes.

  “And there’s one over there . . .” Cassie’s voice trailed off as Bianca glanced to the left. Behind Bianca’s right ear, she saw a little boy with a mischievous face, poking her whenever she stopped scratching.

  “There’s a fairy right there!” Cassie squeaked, pointing at the spot as Bianca started to scratch it again. “It’s green, and has yellow hair!”

  “Oh, I see where this is going!” Bianca shouted. “It’s another way to tease me about my skin condition!”

  “No, it’s not! There are really fairies! There’s — hey, one just landed on your shoulder!”

  Bianca winced and started scratching her right shoulder. Then she stopped, slowly.

  “Wait,” she said. “Where on my shoulder?”

  “Right there,” Cassie said. “Where you were scratching.”

  “But you mentioned it before I started itching. How could you know about that?”

  “Because a fairy landed on you,” Cassie said.

  They stared at each other for a long moment.

  “Right,” Bianca said. “I thought of a way you prove it.”

  Cassie’s heart hammered. Does she believe me now?

  Bianca hopped off the swing and stared walking. “Tell me which way to go,” she said. “To run into the fairies.”

  Cassie stared at her in confusion. “But you won’t feel them. They just go through people. Nobody ever notices it.”

  “I think I do,” Bianca said. “Just tell me which way to go.”

  “To the right,” Cassie said. “There are three there.”

  Bianca swerved to the right. One of the fairies zoomed right through her. She tensed up and made a face.

  “There’s one right over your head,” Cassie added.

  Bianca jumped up. She just missed the pale blue fairy.

  “I didn’t feel anything that time.”

  “You missed her. She was . . . oh, I have a better idea.” Cassie walked over to stand beside her. “Put your hand out.”

  “Okay,” Bianca said.

  Cassie took Bianca’s arm and started to guide her to the jungle gym. There was a big cluster of fairies right at the top, fluttering their wings wildly and waving their arms. One of those times when grown-ups got together to argue about something. Maybe it was politics or something.

  “There’s one right here,” Cassie said, moving her hand through a little boy fairy who was sitting at the bottom of the jungle gym, playing with a tiny stick with holes with it. It looked like a recorder, but she couldn’t hear anything. He didn’t seem to notice or budge. “If you want to test with just one, he’s sitting still. Or . . .”

  “Or?” Bianca asked.

  “Or there are a whole bunch on top of the jungle gym,” Cassie said. “That might be one way to find out if a lot make a difference.”

  Bianca hesitated. She ran her hand through the spot where the little boy was sitting, then winced and snatched her hand back. She looked up at the spot where all the grown-up fairies were arguing. “I still can’t see anythi
ng,” she said.

  “I’d loan you my glasses, but I don’t think that would help, if you don’t normally wear them,” Cassie said.

  Bianca nodded. She took a deep breath.

  “Okay, I’ll do it,” she said.

  Cassie held her breath as Bianca climbed up the jungle gym. The huge cluster of tiny adults kept waving their arms and buzzing their wings wildly. Bianca reached the top, and pulled herself up into the huge crowd.

  She screamed and flung herself back. Her hands lost balance on the jungle gym, and she toppled backwards. She landed on the ground hard, hitting her head.

  Cassie screamed and ran over to her.

  Bianca lay still.

  Chapter Eight

  “It’s just a concussion,” the school nurse said. “Bianca will be fine. Don’t worry.”

  “But it was my fault,” Cassie sobbed. “It was my idea for Bianca to climb on the jungle gym.”

  “You couldn’t have known that she would fall off,” the nurse said comfortingly.

  Cassie rubbed her eyes. But she should have known. She had known that going up there would make Bianca extremely itchy. Or at least she’d guessed it. How could she have thought that was safe?

  Cassie’s heart even seemed to blame her. BAD idea, BAD idea, BAD idea, she felt like it was pounding.

  “Ughhhh,” Bianca moaned, opening her eyes blearily. “Headache . . .”

  “You’ll be all right,” the nurse said. “We’ve called your mother to pick you up. She said she’ll take you to the doctor to get checked out.”

  “Nnnnn,” Bianca said, trying to sit up. The nurse made her lie back down. “Nnooo. I want to stay here.”

  “I’m sorry, Bianca,” Cassie choked. “I didn’t mean for you to get hurt.”

  Bianca’s eyes focused and flicked over at her.

  “’Sokay,” she said. “Now I know what caused it. Nobody could figure that out, and it’s been so annoy . . .”

  “Hold still,” the nurse said, pushing her down as she tried to sit up again. “I think you have a mild concussion. You need to get checked out.”

  Bianca scowled at her.