The Fairy Who Felt Sad

Fairy Joey felt sad. 

He was so sad his wings drooped behind his legs as he stood in a corridor in Fairy School. He wasn’t sad all the time, but on this particular day, and
for a while before that too, he wasn’t feeling very happy at all.


Joey had wondered about his reasons for feeling sad, and although he couldn’t say for sure, there were definitely a few things on his mind; for one, he
had started Fairy School a few months beforehand and although he was trying his very best, he wasn’t comfortable there just yet. Everything still felt
new to him and sometimes it was like there were so many bits of information flying around his head, he felt a bit dizzy.

As well as that, he was finding it hard to make friends. Joey was a quiet fairy, and though he wanted to join in on conversations and games at break time,
he felt a little bit nervous about doing that. Plus, so many of the fairies in his class loved all different kinds of sports, and sport just wasn’t
Joey’s thing. He loved making things and dreamt of being a fairy inventor one day, just like Klaus at the Fairy Discovery Centre in Fairy Valley. Klaus
had made lots of amazing discoveries, and Joey wished he could do the same. 

One day after Fairy School, Joey was walking across Mushroom Mound on his way home. The other fairies were flying in the sky but Joey didn’t feel like
flying that day. As he strolled with his hands in his pockets and his wings drooping behind him, Joey let his mind wander a little as he stepped on
a fallen buttercup petal. As soon as his wings touched the petal, it started speeding along the grass – with Joey still standing on it!

Joey jumped off the petal and it stopped moving immediately. ‘Wh-what just happened??’ he thought to himself.

Suddenly, he heard a voice from across Mushroom Mound. “Whoa!” said the voice, and Joey saw it was coming from a fairy he thought he recognised from Fairy
School. The fairy ran over. “That was so cool! I just saw you zooming along the grass on that yellow petal! How did you do it?!”

Joey suddenly felt nervous. “I-I don’t really know…”

“Maybe the petal has some kind of special powers??” said the fairy. “Do you mind if I try?”

“N-no, go ahead”, said Joey.

The fairy jumped onto the buttercup petal expecting to start zooming around immediately… and nothing happened. “Oh”, said he said. “That’s odd.
I’m Sam, by the way – I think we have Note-Writing Class together. You’re Joey, right?”

“That’s me”, said Joey.

“Cool”, said Sam. “So, Joey, this petal is really confusing me! I love stuff like this, finding things out, you know? I’m sure we can get to the bottom
of it! How about you hop on again?”

Joey jumped on, and just like before, nothing happened. Joey felt sad again, and his wings started to droop. The instant they touched the petal, it took
off across the grass again!

“Awesome!!” said Sam, running after Joey, who hopped off.

When they caught up with each other, both fairies said “It’s the wings!” at the same time. “When the wings touch the petal…” said Sam. “…something
magical happens, and zooooooom!” added Joey.

“You have to be careful”, said another voice. “Safety first!”

Joey and Sam turned around to see a fairy holding two blades of grass.

“I hope you don’t mind”, she smiled. “But I just thought it’s probably best to make sure that you’re safe while you’re zooming around!”

The fairy fixed the blades of grass to the buttercup petal so they would cross-cross the shoulders of any fairy who was standing on it.

“That should do it! I’m Ella, by the way. I hope you don’t think I’m butting in, I just really like figuring out how to do things!”

Sam smiled. “Hi Ella, I’m Sam! Thank you so much.” “Hi, I’m Joey,” said Joey, waving a little awkward wave.

“I recognise you both from school, I think you are in the year below me,” smiled Ella. “You guys really discovered something cool, you know!”

Joey smiled and said “I think we all did!”

The three fairies spent the next little while making more zooming petals, which they decided should be called Butterboards. They even made some helmets
out of acorn shells!

When they were taking a break from all the fun, Ella had a question to ask. “How come your wings were so droopy when you discovered this, Joey? Were you
feeling sad?”

“I suppose so”, said Joey. “I know, I know, it’s weird…”

“It’s definitely not weird”, said Ella. “It’s normal, and just part of life. Plus, if you weren’t feeling sad, this would never have happened!”

“I feel sad sometimes too”, said Sam. “I have a Feelings Journal that I write in, which really helps me.”

“I feel sad as well from time to time”, said Ella. “I find that when I talk to someone I really trust about how I’m feeling, and especially when they are
someone who can make me laugh and lift my heart a little bit, I feel better straight away.”

Joey smiled. He didn’t know at the time that he, Sam and Ella would go on to become lifelong friends, who could lift each other’s spirits whenever they
were feeling down. Very soon he started to feel much more comfortable in Fairy School, now that he had found fairies with similar interests to his.

Joey tells us he still feels sad sometimes but he knows now that it is totally normal, and along with that, he quickly started to notice all the other
feelings that life brings, like happy, excited and proud – especially when he and his best friends were awarded a special Discovery Award from Klaus
at the Fairy Discovery Centre for their amazing invention: the Butterboard!

The End

What do you think a fairy travelling on a Butterboard might look like? Maybe you could draw a picture of one of the fairies from the story or even your fairy using one? If you’d like, you can send your drawing to [email protected] – it could feature in next week’s email! 

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