“I hope you’re right,” Scarlett said. “At least this time wasn’t a total disaster — whoa!”
She had tripped over one of the pots waiting to be fixed, and fell down sideways onto one end of Aidan’s workbench. The other end tilted upwards sharply. Everything on the workbench flew up in the air — and Queen Clarion’s golden bracelet fell into the fire!
“Oh, no!” Aidan cried. “The queen’s bracelet — it’s melting!”
“I’ve got it!” Bess tried to grab the bracelet, but the flames were too hot.
“Don’t get burned!” Scarlett pushed past Bess with the tongs. She made a grab at the bracelet with them, but she had never used tongs before. As soon as the bracelet was lifted, it slipped down into the ashes. Soot billowed out, blackening their faces.
“Let me,” Aidan said. He took the tongs and quickly fished the bracelet out. It was still in one piece, but some of the fine scrollwork had blurred when the gold had started to melt.
“Oh, no!” Bess cried, coughing. “Scarlett, are you all right? What about you, Aidan?”
“I’m okay,” Aidan said.
Scarlett rose from the floor and brushed herself off. “I didn’t mean to make such a mess, Aidan.”
“That’s okay,” he said. “I’ll have to redo the engraving, but that’s just a chance to try something new.”
“Looks like I’ll have to try something new too,” Scarlett said. Her sooty face was downcast.
Scarlett must be able to create some kind of art, Bess thought. But can we figure out what it is before she burns Pixie Hollow down?
7
FIRST THING NEXT morning, Bess started visiting other art-talent fairies to see who might try teaching Scarlett that day.
All the fairies agreed that Scarlett should still explore her creative ability. However, nobody would volunteer to work with her next.
“Glass breaks very easily,” Jax said in the glass-blowing studio. “If she trips into our shelves, she could ruin weeks of our work!”
“I’ve been working on this seaside mural for more than a month,” Leo said. He was painting the choppy waves Scarlett had suggested. “If she made a mistake, it might take me another month to fix it.”
“Oh, no,” Jolie said, throwing her hands in front of her papier-mache stars. “Scarlett can’t come in here. No, no, no.”
Bess sighed in discouragement. She couldn’t blame the others for wanting to protect their work. Already she knew she would have to start her baby-skunk portrait over from scratch.
If only there were some safe place for Scarlett to experiment.
Then Bess’ face lit up in a smile. She’d had an idea!
What if Scarlett had a studio of her very own? Then she could explore any kind of art she wanted, for as long as she wanted, and nobody else’s work would be at risk.
The more Bess thought about the plan, the more she liked it.
Of course, first she would need a lot of help.
“Everybody — push!”
Bess pushed as hard as she could, along with a half dozen other fairies. Slowly, the pumpkin shell lifted from the ground. They had it!
“This way!” Tinker Bell cried. “Follow me!”
Laughing, Bess and the others began flying the pumpkin shell across the meadow. Above them, Terence showered down a bit of pixie dust to lighten the load.
Bess glanced downward. Fluttering beneath them were several cooking-talent fairies, each carrying a pot of scooped-out pumpkin. Tonight everyone would share pumpkin muffins!
They had selected the perfect place for Scarlett’s new studio — a shady glen not far from Bess’ tangerine crate. The fairies settled the pumpkin shell beneath an elm tree.
“Perfect,” Tink said as she picked up her saw. “What this studio needs now is a door and some windows.”
As Tinker Bell cut a door and windows into the pumpkin shell, other fairies worked on projects to help. The weaving-talent fairies wove a soft hammock for Scarlett to rest in. Fira enchanted a lantern that would burn throughout the night, as brightly or as softly as Scarlett wished. All the art-talent fairies brought different supplies, so Scarlett could try each kind of art in turn.
When they were almost done, Lily said, “One more charm, and we’ll have the perfect studio. Ready?”
Everybody nodded. Lily flew over the pumpkin shell, scattering pixie dust — but where it landed, it turned into glitter and made the pumpkin shell hard.
“There!” she said. “Now the pumpkin shell will always stay fresh. Scarlett can use this studio forever.”
Bess said, “I can’t wait to show her. Come on, let’s find Scarlett!”
Everyone raced through Pixie Hollow, calling Scarlett’s name. Bess and Lily found her in Lily’s garden.
“I was trying flower arranging,” Scarlett said. The flowers she had picked didn’t match, however. The colors of the petals clashed as terribly as the clothes she wore. “Looks like that’s not my talent either.”
“Oh — my begonias—” Lily put one hand to her mouth. Then she said, “They’ll grow back.”
Scarlett looked even sadder.
Quickly, Bess said, “Wait until you see what we’ve made for you!”
They took her hands and flew with her to the pumpkin-shell studio. “Isn’t it wonderful?” Bess cried as she led Scarlett inside. “Look, you can try paints. Varnishes. Engraving. Anything you want!”
“I can try all by myself,” Scarlett said sadly. “Nobody wants to work with me anymore.”
Bess and Lily looked at each other, embarrassed. They hadn’t realized Scarlett would know why they had built her a studio.
Scarlett quickly added, “But it was so kind of you. Of all of you. And it’s the most beautiful studio ever!”
As Bess and Lily left, Bess tried to tell herself that Scarlett would be all right now. Surely she would find her specialty now.
But Bess couldn’t shake the feeling that Scarlett was even sadder than before.
8
THE NEXT MORNING, Bess stood outside her tangerine-crate studio, waiting hopefully. “Is it ready?” she asked.
“One more wash should do it,” Rani answered.
With a wave of Rani’s hand, a fountain sprang up inside the studio. Water splashed everywhere! The mist made little rainbows in each window.
Then Rani waved her hand again, and all the water was gone. “Finished!” Rani called. “Now your studio is as good as new.”
Bess walked inside, took a deep breath, and smiled. No skunk-stink remained. Her studio smelled fresh and sweet. And it had never been so clean!
I’ll mess it up soon enough, Bess thought happily. She was thinking of the brushes and paints she would leave lying around when she got back to work on her pictures.
“You’ve done a wonderful job, Rani,” she said. “It feels good to have everything back to normal.”
“I was happy to help,” Rani said.
“I’ll be going now. I bet you can’t wait to start a new painting after taking two whole days off!”
It was tempting to dive back into her work, but there was something else Bess wanted to do. “Actually, I’m going to check on Scarlett first.”
Bess waved goodbye to Rani and flew across the glen to Scarlett’s pumpkin-shell studio. The orange shell glittered in the midday sun.
“Hello?” Bess called. “Scarlett, are you there?”
“Here I am.” Scarlett opened the door of her studio.
“I wanted to see how you were this morning,” Bess said. “What have you tried out in your new studio so far?”
“Nothing,” Scarlett said.
“Nothing? But — you can try anything here! We brought tons of supplies and books.”