With a sigh, Delphie went over to the wooden barre that ran around the edge of the room and began to do some slow stretching exercises. She was just finishing when the door opened.
Delphie looked round, expecting to see Madame Za-Za again, but in her place stood Sukie Taylor. Delphie’s heart sank. She was in Delphie’s ballet class and was very, very good at ballet, but she didn’t seem to like Delphie at all.
Sukie looked surprised to see her. “Oh. Hi. I left something.” She picked up a pink cardigan from the back of a chair and switched off the music. “What are you doing here?”
Delphie shrugged. “Just practising.”
“For the auditions?” Sukie’s eyes narrowed. “Well, you won’t have a chance. You’ve only been coming to classes for three weeks and Madame Za-Za has pretty much said that I’m going to be the Bluebird. Everyone knows I’m the best dancer in the class.”
Delphie swallowed. Just ignore her, she told herself. She didn’t want to get into an argument.
“You never know,” Sukie went on. “Maybe if you try hard enough you’ll get to be a rabbit or something.”
Delphie watched as Sukie smirked and flounced out, then Delphie pulled a face. Sukie might think she didn’t have a chance but no one would know until the actual auditions. I might be the Bluebird, Delphie thought hopefully. She crossed her fingers. Oh, she so hoped she would be. But first she just needed to get the dance right…
“Mum, come and see this bit!” Delphie called after supper. She was sitting on the sofa, her feet curled under her, watching the ballet of Cinderella. She had been given the DVD for her birthday. It was her favourite scene where the fairy godmother changed the pumpkin and mice into a coach and horses and then transformed Cinderella from a servant girl in rags into a beautiful princess.
Mrs Durand came through to the lounge and sat down beside Delphie on the sofa. “Maybe one day you’ll be able to dance like that,” she said, stroking Delphie’s long brown hair. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
Delphie snuggled up to her mum. “Oh yes,” she breathed. There was nothing she wanted more in the world.
At bedtime, Delphie kissed her mum and dad goodnight and went upstairs. As she got into her nightdress, she looked hopefully at her red ballet shoes sitting on her desk. Please sparkle tonight, she willed them. Please!
But they looked as still as ever, just as they had every other night that week. Every evening she had lain in bed, willing the shoes to glow, hoping to hear music in the air, just like she had the first time they had taken her to Enchantia.
It would be just so amazing to go back, Delphie thought as she got into bed, after brushing her teeth and hair. I’d love to see Sugar the Sugar Plum Fairy again, and all the other people I met, like the Nutcracker and the waltzing flowers and the dancing snowflakes. She shivered as the image of a rat’s face with red eyes, long whiskers and sharp teeth popped into her brain. The one person she wouldn’t want to see again was the evil King Rat! He hated dancing and was always trying to stop it. Delphie had been to his castle and met him and his mouse guards and it had been very scary!
To try and stop thinking about it, Delphie focused on the audition the next day. She began to go through the steps of the dance in her mind, practising them over and over again, and before she knew it she was drifting off to sleep…
Delphie’s eyes blinked open. She felt sure that something had woken her. Sitting up, she glanced at her bedside clock. It was just past midnight.
Suddenly she heard a faint noise. Music! As she listened it grew louder. Delphie looked at her desk. Her red ballet shoes were glittering and shining like rubies. Throwing back her duvet, she jumped out of bed and ran over to them. Did this mean another adventure was about to begin?
Delphie picked them up, her fingers trembling in excitement. The first time she had gone to Enchantia the shoes had whisked her off to a theatre. Delphie tied the ribbons of the shoes in anticipation.
As she tied the bows, her feet started to tingle. She stood up and the feeling whooshed all the way from her toes up to her head. A second later, she was swirling around in a myriad of colours – pink, purple, blue, red, yellow, orange, green…
And then she landed with a bump to find herself sitting on a red seat, in the same darkened theatre that she had arrived at before, only this time the air was very cold. She shivered and rubbed the bare skin on her arms. The stage was shut away behind red velvet curtains. Music started playing and the red curtains began to open.
Delphie jumped up eagerly and then caught her breath. It was all so different. The first time she had been here there had been light and colour, the scenery had shown mountains, fields and a village, as well as King Rat’s castle and there had been lots of characters on the stage even though they had all been asleep. But now the background scenery was just painted white and the stage was empty. The floor was covered in a thick blanket of snow. There were bare trees on the stage, their branches covered in icicles.
Delphie walked hesitantly down towards the stage. “Sugar?” Her voice echoed through the empty auditorium. She didn’t like this. There was a feeling in the air as if something was horribly wrong.
“Sugar!” she called uneasily. “Where are you?”
Just at that moment, a flash of blue zipped across the stage. Delphie’s brown eyes widened as she saw a beautiful turquoise bird about the size of a robin. It landed on one of the icy branches and sang loudly, its tiny wings fluttering, its head cocked on one side.
“Hello,” Delphie said, going up the steps at the side of the stage and looking at the little bird. “Do you know what’s going on?”
“Yes!” the bird twittered.
Delphie was only a little bit surprised to find that it could talk. She was in Enchantia after all!
“My name’s Skye,” the bluebird said. “Are you Delphie?” Delphie nodded and the bird carried on. “I’ve been waiting for you. Sugar thought the ballet shoes might bring you here again. We’re in terrible trouble, Delphie.”
“Trouble? Why?” Delphie asked in alarm.
“King Rat has cast a spell over Enchantia to make it winter all the time,” Skye told her. “He has a model of Enchantia sealed inside a glass globe. Whenever he shakes the globe, snow swirls around and then it falls in real life too.
When it’s as snowy and icy-cold as this no one can dance properly.”
Delphie