Once there were three triplets who wanted to be fairies. Their names were Sophia, Chloe, and Stella. They were all identical, but they liked to wear different clothes and had different personalities. Sophia was funny, Stella was shy, and Chloe was a little rude. They all had dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. They had a friend fairy named Sparkly, but they had to keep her a secret from everyone else.

One day when they were nine, they were playing in their backyard, and they heard a scream. Sophia touched something, but she didn’t know what. It felt like a little person! Sparkly covered herself in fairy dust, so they were able to see her. They were amazed! Chloe thought she was fake for a whole day. Eventually, she agreed that Sparkly was a real fairy. Since that day, Sparkly always stayed with them. They had just turned twelve, but their parents still didn’t know about Sparkly. Sparkly had blue hair and a blue dress, but she wasn’t sparkly. She also liked to eat candy. Her favorite was chocolate.

It was summer, and Sophia, Chloe, and Stella went outside to play in the backyard of their townhouse. They brought Sparkly with them, too. They took a bunch of chocolate pieces to give Sparkly. Sophia had an idea.

“We should try to make ourselves fairies,” she said.

“Yeah!” said Chloe and Stella.

“You guys could be fairies,” said Sparkly, “but you will have to pass a test.”

“How long will it take us?” asked Stella.

“The whole journey will take you guys about two weeks.”

“Okay,” said Chloe, “let’s just tell our parents that we’re going to go camping in the woods for two weeks.” Chloe always had good ideas.

So, they went inside and told their parents that they wanted to go camping for two weeks, far away from home and asked if they could.

“Yes,” said their parents, “but look out for each other.”

Their parents weren’t that strict with them.

“So, where are you guys going to go?” their mom and dad asked.

“We won’t go far. We’re just going to go to Central Park.”

“Okay. Be safe.”

“We might be home earlier!” said Sophia, trying to make them a little calmer.

They packed one big blanket, extra clothes, and some gifts just in case. Sparkly had told them that they might need gifts. The gifts they brought were a very, very big trampoline, floaties, and a tiny, tiny blow up pool.

So, Sparkly, Sophia, Stella, and Chloe went to Central Park. Sparkly took them to a magic tree. On the way, they saw a lot of big rocks and a lot of grass. The magic tree looked like a regular tree, but it had a hole in it.

“We’re going to have to go through that hole,” said Sparkly.

Chloe ran up to the tree and tried to fit in the hole, but she couldn’t fit.

“Ahh, I’m stuck!” yelled Chloe.

Sophia and Stella tried to pull her out, and Chloe went flying! She landed on poor Stella, who cried, “Oh man.”

“You can’t fit in the hole. I’m going to shrink you!” Sparkly laughed a little.

She used her fairy magic, sprinkling invisible shrinking fairy dust on them. She made Chloe, Sophia, and Stella as small as she was, or as big as a marker. They were so tiny! A wind blew, and they went crazy! They landed five inches back. None of them were happy, because they wanted to get back to their normal size. Stella was worried and scared, but Chloe felt brave, and Sophia felt confused. Before the next wind blew, Sparkly grabbed Chloe, Sophia, and Stella and pushed them in the hole. Sparkly went too.

Suddenly, they were falling. It felt like they were going to die! It was pitch black. They were going as fast as the Cyclone on Coney Island, and they felt as dizzy as spinning around one hundred times. Thump! They all landed on their feet, except Sophia, who landed on her butt.

“Ow! I hit my butt!” said Sophia.

“Too bad,” responded Chloe.

“Wow! Look around!” exclaimed Stella.

They did. It was like a beautiful dream. There were green vines hanging down, blue and pink leafy trees, tiny peacocks walking and parrots flying, and the floor was carpeted in blue grass. In the distance, they saw a big river. They heard a waterfall falling and the peacocks playing.

“Wow! Look around!” said a high-pitched voice. It was the parrot, standing on the tippy top of a pink tree.

“It’s repeating everything we say!” yelled Chloe.

“It’s repeating everything we say!” repeated the parrot.

“This is a fairy forest under the grass, where fairies live,” explained Sparkly.

“It’s amazing!”

Chloe turned around and saw an old woman. She had very curly leaf green hair and very light blue eyes. There were wrinkles on her face, she was holding a gray three-legged cane, was wearing a black raggy dress, and was barefoot. Chloe was about to go up to her and ask, “Can you point us to a fairy palace,” but Sparkly reached out and pulled Chloe back.

“No, don’t ask her! She’s the witch!” she whispered. That made Chloe feel a little scared.

The witch hobbled up to them and said, “You guys want to go to the fairy palace, don’t you?”

“Yes!” said Stella.

“Do you have any gifts for me?” the witch asked.

“Yes, we have a pool for you.” Sophia said confidently. Stella and Chloe were relieved, because they really liked the trampoline.

“Perfect,” said the witch. “Hand it over.”

Chloe took the tiny pool out of her pocket and handed it to her. The witch jumped up and down out of excitement. The triplets wanted to start laughing, but they held it in because they didn’t want to get her mad. Sparkly would’ve known the way to the palace, but once you leave the fairy castle and go out of the tree, you forget how to get back. The witch pointed the way. They turned left. Everything still looked like the forest, except suddenly they saw a huge castle. It was sparkly pink.

“This is where the fairy queen and king live,” explained Sparkly.

The triplets went inside. They couldn’t even see the walls because there were so many pictures of the past kings and queens! Pictures covered every inch. Kings were on the left side, and queens were on the right. They saw a label, throne room. In the back of the room, there were three thrones. They were all gold. The king and queen were sitting on their thrones, but one was empty. The king and queen didn’t look happy. They didn’t look sad. They just looked normal. They both had brown hair and were tall. Well, tall for a fairy, which meant tiny for a person. They were both the size of three markers. The king and queen saw Sparkly, and their smiles almost covered their eyes.

“My daughter is finally home!” the king cried.

Sophia, Chloe, and Stella were like, whaaaat. Sparkly could see the shock on their faces.

“Yup, it’s true. I’m the princess!” she said. “Dad, these are my three friends who have been taking care of me. Can you make them fairies?”

“Anything you want. But they have to take the test before they become fairies.”

“Yay!” said Sophia. “Wait… a test?”

The test was only one question.

“The big question is,” the king said, “what do you have to do to be a fairy?”

The triplets were confused because they didn’t understand the question. They thought the questions would be fact-based, like, “Where does fairy dust come from?”

“You have thirty minutes to answer the question,” said the king.

Sparkly started playing with her mom and dad while they had to search for their answers.

Stella asked, “Maybe we could all search together?”

“There’s no way I’m searching with you guys!” Chloe yelled.

“I’ll search with you, Stella,” said Sophia.

So, the search began! Sophia, Chloe, and Stella all left the palace. Sophia and Stella decided they were going to ask some people what they did to become fairies. They went to see what fairies did. They ran around until they came to a field. On the grassy field, they saw a lot of fairies playing. They noticed that whenever one got hurt, they all helped each other.

In the meantime, Chloe was just looking around nature. She first looked in the pink and blue leaves. She cut some of the pink leaves, so she could give them to the king. They were so pretty, and she thought that they would appreciate her giving them something. She also looked in the waterfall, but she just got wet. And then, the king rang a bell that meant 30 minutes was up.

The three girls all arrived at the castle at the same time. Chloe ran through the front door holding the leaves. Sparkly had spent the time knitting with her mom and playing a huge game of Candyland, or, Sparklyland, with her dad. Sophia and Stella saw that Chloe had brought the really pretty leaves and were a little worried that they didn’t have anything new to give the king. They all stood in front of the king, and Chloe put the leaves down in front of the thrones.

“I brought these leaves to show what it means to be a fairy.”

Sparkly stepped off her throne and walked over to look at them. Suddenly, she slipped on one of the pink leaves! She went flying! Sophia and Stella instantly ran and helped Sparkly up.

“Are you okay?” they asked.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Thank you for helping me.”

“We’ll always help you!”

“She’ll be fine,” said Chloe rudely.

Ignoring Chloe, the king turned Sparkly and asked, “What are their names? The two that helped you.”

“Their names are Stella and Sophia.”

“Stella and Sophia can become fairies!” declared the king.

“What!” yelled Chloe. “But I brought leaves!”

“You brought leaves from the trees,” the queen piped up. “Stella and Sophia went and watched the fairies and learned what they did. They showed that they could help other fairies.”

The king took bright pink fairy dust to pour on Sophia and Stella. “They get magic dust, and I don’t?” yelled Chloe.

The king just poured it all over Sophia and Stella.

Suddenly, there was a cloud of glittery fairy dust. When the cloud cleared, Sophia and Stella were flying high with big smiles on their faces. They had beautiful wings! Stella had neon purple wings, and Sophia had dark red wings. They were dancing in the air they were so happy. Chloe just stared into space. Sophia and Stella looked at Chloe, then at each other.

Stella took a deep breath and looked at the king and queen. “Chloe is a little rude sometimes, but at heart she is really nice. She’s a good sister.”

“So please make her a fairy!” added Sophia.

“Okay,” said the king. “I believe that you will teach her to help people, so I will make her a fairy too.”

He poured the fairy dust again, and there was another cloud of glitter. Chloe popped up in the air next to Stella and had turquoise wings.

“Thank you so much!” said Chloe. “I promise I’ll try to be nice. I want to be a good fairy!”

The girls all hugged each other for ten seconds. They flew around the room and did somersaults in the air. After five minutes, they went back to the ground.

“I miss our parents,” said Stella.

“I miss not being the size of a pencil,” said Sophia.

“Do you want to go home?” asked Chloe.

“Yes!” exclaimed Sparkly. They all giggled.

Then, the triplets thanked the king.

“Now that you are fairies, you can come back whenever. Now that you know what it means to be a fairy, I know you will help people who don’t know. I hope I see you soon. Bye to my favorite daughter. Have fun outside the tree.”

They grabbed Sparkly and flew out of the castle, out of the forest, out of the tree, and all the way home. When they finally landed at their front door, they grew to normal size, and their wings became invisible. They felt exhausted, so they went to their room. Sparkly sat on the dresser and watched over them. Now, she would always watch over them. They soon fell asleep, with fairy dust in their eyes.