Bloom's Ball by Emily Bliss

Author:Emily Bliss
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781681193359
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2017-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

“We tried to stop them,” the second explained.

“But they wouldn’t listen,” said the third.

The first worm looked at Cressida and said, “My name is Wilhelmina. And this is Wallaby.” She nodded toward the second worm. “And here’s Worthington.” She pointed her tail toward the third worm.

“I’m Cressida Jenkins,” Cressida said.

“How did all these quail get here?” Bloom asked, frowning as a bird jumped from balloon to balloon, loudly popping each one.

“We were burrowing through the dirt, as usual,” Worthington explained. “We’d found a great spot by those rosebushes. Then, all of a sudden, we heard thunder and saw purple lightning. The next thing we knew, there were quail everywhere.”

“We asked them to go somewhere else,” Wilhelmina said.

“We asked nicely at first. And then we were pretty rude,” Wallaby added. “But instead of leaving, they um, well—” His voice trailed off.

“What Wallaby is too polite to say,” Worthington explained, “is that they tried to eat us! It turns out the only food quail like more than cake, ice cream, and fruit is earthworm. We’ve been hiding in that bed of tulips ever since. The only reason they haven’t already eaten us is, well, they aren’t very smart.”

Bloom sighed heavily. “Oh, I knew I shouldn’t have trusted Ernest with that invitation.”

“What invitation?” Cressida asked.

“I’ll tell you later,” said Bloom. “Right now we need to get the quail out of here before they start eating the rest of the Enchanted Garden. It’s bad enough to lose everything I cooked and made and grew for my party. But it would be much worse to lose all the other fruits and vegetables. Then what would my sisters and I eat? Plus, we certainly don’t want the quail to eat the earthworms!”

Bloom walked to the center of the flock of quail. She cleared her throat to get their attention, but they continued gnawing on candles, pecking at the cake, and wrapping themselves in party streamers. Two quail, perched on the side of an ice cream bucket, jumped in and covered their feathers in the cold, green dessert, squealing, “Meep! Meep! Meep!” Three other quail found a cluster of balloons behind a rosebush and popped them with their beaks. Then they played tug-of-war with the deflated balloons. Bloom stomped her hoof, but the quail still didn’t look up. Finally, she whistled so loudly Cressida covered her ears.

“Attention all quail!” Bloom called out. “It’s time for you to leave the Enchanted Garden! Please fly over that wall immediately!” Bloom pointed with her horn to the far wall of the flower garden. Finally, the birds stopped pecking and playing. They stared at Bloom and blinked their green eyes. Several cocked their heads and tweeted, “Meep?” And then, to Cressida’s dismay, they shrugged and carried on eating the party food and playing with the decorations.

Bloom looked at Cressida and frowned. “Can you think of any other way to get them out of here?”

Cressida scratched her head. And then, she had an idea. It was a strange idea. But she was pretty sure it would work.

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