1st 5 Pages May Workshop - Veile Rev 2

ame: Adam Veile

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy

Title: Lucy the Fifth-grade Fairy Monster

Pitch:

Fifth-grader Lucy Samsa thinks fairies are for storybooks—until she wakes up one morning with wings on her back. Confused by her new appendages and afraid her classmates will laugh and her parents will put her in the zoo, she hides her wings under a bulky sweater.

She thinks the wings are a curse until two Tinker Bell-sized fairies appear at her window. They teach her to fly and invite her to the fairy castle. Thinking she’s found a place to fit in, she follows her new friends but finds the fairy castle is barely taller than her, and when they teach her to cast a sparkle spell, she ends up blowing up a rose bush. To the tiny, frou-frou fairies, Lucy is a big, clumsy monster, and they banish her.

Dejected, Lucy then figures out why she’s the only big fairy—a fairy hunter lurking in the woods has spent decades chasing big trophies. He’s snatching kids, trying to find which is the big fairy, and now he’s on Lucy’s trail. Armed with only her sparkle spell and two tiny friends, Lucy has to risk giving up her secret and face the fairy hunter to save her friends.

First Five Pages:

Lucy Samsa didn’t have wings when she went to bed. Now, as she stared at her reflection in the mirror at the back of her bedroom closet, two small wings flicked back and forth on her back. Fear, confusion, and excitement spun a tangled web of disjointed thoughts in her brain. The more she tried to make sense of it, the more disoriented she became.

It seemed like a trick, like some kind of photo filter on the mirror. She touched the glass with the tips of her fingers, leaving sweaty prints that slowly evaporated. She told herself that mirrors don’t have photo filters. But, then again, fifth-graders don’t have wings.

Lucy reached back and felt the wings, hoping they weren't real, that they were some sort of costume. They felt like wax paper, and she realized she could feel the pressure from her fingertips just the same as if she were touching any other part of her body. They were a part of her.

As her heart raced, the wings spread, extending just inches beyond her shoulders. They weren’t bird wings or even angel wings. They were a translucent cream color, pulsing with streaks of gold and blue. They buzzed faster and faster until she could barely see them. Wind swirled her hair and rocked her hanging clothes.

It's a dream, she thought, and the wings calmed down. She'd felt terrible the night before, and she tossed and turned for hours. She looked at the sweaty, crumpled cocoon of blankets on the bed. It’s all a dream.

"LUCY, BREAKFAST!" her mom hollered from downstairs. If it was a dream, it was very realistic.

She scanned her room, looking for signs that something was off, that her desk was on the ceiling, or her lamp was talking, or some other indication it was a dream. When she saw nothing strange, her eyes locked on the posters that hung above her desk, gritty images of superheroes striking fierce poses, and she grinned. If this was a dream, she was almost certainly a superhero. Even if this wasn’t a dream, she might be a superhero. What else were wings for?

Lucy returned to the mirror and tried to flap the wings. The muscles in her face twitched as she concentrated, but the wings jerked awkwardly, like her dad trying to dance. They weren't even in sync with each other. The left one flicked forward, while the right one looked like it was vibrating. These small, uncoordinated wings did not look like they belonged to a superhero.

She climbed onto her bed and bounced gently enough to keep the bed springs from squeaking and alerting her parents. She knew those small bounces were not going to get her airborne. She bent her knees as she jumped, gaining height until she thought she might hit her head on the ceiling fan. She bounced twice and dove through the air. She knew it was a terrible idea the moment her feet left the bed.

Her wings folded like a broken umbrella. She belly flopped off the bed and crashed to the floor, burning her forearms as she slid across the carpet. “This is not a dream,” she moaned, and she wasn’t a superhero. Her wings twitched on her back. She imagined how she looked, like a dying bug on the floor.

“It sounds like there’s an elephant up there!” shouted her mother.

I fly about as well as an elephant, she thought.

“Come on, Lu, breakfast! We’re going to be late for school!”

School. She couldn’t go to school like this. She was a monster. Kids were picked on for being too fat, for being too skinny, for getting a haircut that wasn’t like everyone else’s. They got picked on, and they were normal human beings. Not like her. Not like whatever she was. Her stomach twisted in a knot.

What was she?

She heard heavy footsteps on the stairs. Her mom was coming. She could not see the wings. Normally, when her mom saw a bug, she’d scream and grab a shoe. If it were too big, like the size of a quarter, she’d run in terror. Lucy was a million times bigger than a quarter. Her mom might die of fright from just looking at her. The last thing she’d see was that her only child had turned into some kind of mutant.

In a panic, Lucy tried to pull the wings off, which sent a bolt of pain through her shoulders. She tried to peel off her black tank top, but there was no way to get it over her wings. If she ever wanted the shirt off, she’d have to use scissors.

Then, came a knock on the door.

“Don’t come in!” Lucy shouted to her mother. She knew right away it was the wrong thing to say. Of course her mother would be coming in now.

Lucy pushed on the left wing, and it easily folded across her back to her right hip like origami. When she let go it sprang back up. She grabbed a baggy purple sweater off the closet shelf and tried to jam it on. The knob to her bedroom door turned, but Lucy was stuck with a sweater over her head.

“Wait!” Lucy slammed her closet door shut, just as her mother opened her bedroom door.

“Lucy?” The floor creaked as her mother crossed the room.

Lucy yanked on the sweater, trying to force her wings down. The closet door swung open as Lucy was pulling the bottom of the sweater to her waist.

Lucy smiled sweetly at her mother, and her mother stared back with a curious look on her face.

“Surprise!” said Lucy. “I decided to wear one of the sweaters grandma gave me.” She had hoped to go her whole life without wearing one of those horrible sweaters.

“You don’t think it’s a little warm for September?” She was studying Lucy a little too closely, and Lucy’s toes squirmed in her socks.

“The Farmer’s Almanac said it’d be chilly today.” She had no idea if that was true, but there was no way her mom would argue with The Farmer’s Almanac.

Her mom nodded. “Your grandma would be very happy. Now, let’s get moving before we’re late for school.”

A wave of panic raced through Lucy. “My stomach hurts,” she blurted out. “I think I’m sick.” She realized that she hadn’t said it right, that she should have moaned and held her belly.

“Some breakfast will fix you up,” answered her mom. “We’re leaving in twenty minutes.”