The Naughtiest Unicorn at Christmas

For Seb – LB

For my parents – RLO

For Emma – David O’Connell

Cover and interior illustrations by David O’Connell

Special thanks to Liz Bankes and Rebecca Lewis-Oakes

Text first published in Great Britain in 2019

by Egmont UK Limited

The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN

Text copyright © 2019 Egmont UK Ltd

Illustrations copyright © 2019 David O’Connell

First e-book edition 2019

ISBN 978 1 4052 9594 9

Ebook ISBN 978 1 4052 9705 9

www.egmont.co.uk

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Contents

Cover

Dedication and Copyright

Title Page

Chapter One: Snow Much Fun!

Chapter Two: A Winter Wonderland

Chapter Three: The Realm of the Theatre . . .

Chapter Four: The Rehearsals Begin

Chapter Five: The Christmas Quest

Chapter Six: A Snowy Surprise

Chapter Seven: Party Preparations

Chapter Eight: Showtime!

Chapter Nine: Wishes, Gifts and Festive Fun!

CHRISTMAS COOKIES

CHRISTMAS JOKES

Back series promotional page

‘Look, there’s some snow!’ cried Mira excitedly as she leapt out of the car in the leisure-centre car park.

Her sister Rani stepped out of the car and peered over, wrinkling her nose. ‘That,’ she said, ‘is slush.’

Mira bent closer to the small pile of snow, which was a bit slushy. And grey. ‘There’s definitely some specks of white,’ she said. She had been so excited when she looked out of the window the night before and saw snowflakes falling. Mira’s mum and dad said it wouldn’t settle, but Mira was sure that she could find some to play with. It was the week before Christmas, and she had spent days planning fun things to do, ALL of which involved snow.

‘You couldn’t even get a snowball out of that,’ said Rani, as Mira reached towards the slushy puddle.

‘Time to go!’ said their mum quickly. ‘You don’t want to be late for Unicorn School.’

And Mum was right – Mira absolutely did not want to be late for Unicorn School! Unicorn School was the best thing ever. You were paired up with your UBFF (Unicorn Best Friend Forever) and you went on quests and magical adventures. And even the ordinary lessons were a million per cent better than the ones at normal school because the unicorns were there!

Mira, Rani and Mum walked over to the corner of the car park, where the magic portal to Unicorn School lay hidden behind some bushes. There was a queue of children waiting for their turn to go through. Everyone was wearing brightly-coloured festive jumpers.

Christmas was Mira’s favourite time of year. She loved seeing her breath in the chilly air, the way trees sparkled with frost and being cosy inside with a mug of hot chocolate. (She had a feeling that her greedy unicorn, Dave, would enjoy the hot chocolate, too.)

Mira quickly looked through her school bag to make sure that she had everything. There were LOTS of pairs of thick woolly socks (added by her mum), treats for Dave, her pencil case, and something very important: The Legend of the Snow Unicorn.

Every year at Christmas time, Class Red performed a play of The Legend of the Snow Unicorn, and before they went home at the end of the last visit their teacher, Miss Glitterhorn, had given them each a script to learn. Mira knew the whole thing off by heart and she was secretly hoping that she and Dave would get the lead roles of Snow Unicorn and Snow Child!

It was nearly time to go through the portal and Rani said Mum had to go where the other parents were all standing huddled together, so Mum gave them each a hug and a kiss and told them for about the eightieth time to wrap up warm.

‘Will there be snow at Unicorn School?’ Mira asked her sister.

‘Only if you do the snow dance,’ said Rani.

‘What’s the snow dance?’ said Mira.

Rani sighed. ‘It’s quite difficult. Only Class Yellow can do it. You probably won’t manage it.’

Mira narrowed her eyes. She didn’t always believe the things her sister told her, but she also didn’t want to take any chances. Especially when it came to unicorn stuff. Rani had been at school for longer than Mira and had LOTS of medals, as she always liked to remind Mira.

‘Just tell me how to do the snow dance,’ she said.

‘Fine!’ said Rani. ‘You have to squat like a frog and then stomp around, waving your hands in the air and grunting.’

Mira shuffled into position.

‘Make sure you close your eyes and really get into it,’ said Rani.

Mira started doing the snow dance. It was a bit slippy and slidey on the slushy floor, but the dance wasn’t hard at all – she didn’t know what Rani was on about.

‘Mira . . .?’

Mira opened her eyes. Her friend Darcy was there, looking concerned. Lots of the other children were backing away.

‘I’m doing the snow dance,’ said Mira.

‘Oh. I thought you really needed the loo.’ Darcy moved her wheelchair next to Mira in the magic portal queue and they did their usual high-five greeting. Darcy was wearing a coat with rainbow stripes and a matching hat.

‘Is Raheem here yet?’ said Mira. She wondered if the snow dance was more powerful if more people did it.

Darcy pointed over to the bike racks, where Raheem was doing a strange sort of hop. ‘He’s been doing that for a while. And before that he was reading a story about teddy bears out loud.’ She paused. ‘Everyone’s being weird today.’

There was a small girl clinging to Raheem’s leg. She must be his little sister, Mira thought. Raheem’s dad was there, trying to untangle them as the girl cried loudly.

‘He’s only going away for a little bit, Tia!’ said Raheem’s dad.

The girl wailed even more. ‘I want to go with you!’ she sobbed.

Raheem looked at his dad.

‘You can’t, Tia sweetheart,’ said Raheem’s dad.

The little girl clung to Raheem’s leg even tighter and sobbed even louder.

Darcy held out a biscuit and whistled. ‘Tia! Come on!’ She waved the biscuit and clicked her fingers.

Tia stopped crying for a second and gave Darcy a strange look, before bursting into loud sobs again.

Darcy shrugged. ‘It works with my dog,’ she said.

They watched as Raheem continued to struggle. Then Mira had an idea.

‘Look!’ she shouted. ‘One of the unicorns has come through the magic portal and into the car park!’

Everyone in the car park turned to look where Mira was pointing, including Raheem’s little sister. Mira and Darcy grabbed Raheem and dragged him towards the magic portal, pushing past the queue of children.

‘Love you, Tia! Love you, Dad!’ Raheem called back, but his dad was looking around worriedly for the escaped unicorn.

They reached the clump of bushes.

Raheem didn’t have the chance to be nervous going through the magic portal. Mira and Darcy were still holding on to his arms, and they pulled him through the entrance.

Mira would never get used to the magic portal – the way it sucked you through, and then zoomed you along the rainbow like you were on a rollercoaster but a million times faster and not wearing safety belts. Mira gripped her friends’ hands and the exciting feeling grew in her chest until she thought she might burst. Rainbow colours and sparkly stars flew past them – and Mira was sure that this time, she could see flurries of snowflakes . . .

They all arrived with a thud on the landing haystack. Mira peered around and blinked.

‘THE SNOW DANCE WORKED!’ she yelled.

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