AND NOW, the games begin.

Poppy jumped out of bed and sprinkled the sugar she had stolen from the kitchen around her room.

Fairies liked sugar, right?

Poppy also placed flowers by the windowsill, and spritzed her mother's flowery perfume all over the room.

Finally, Poppy sank underneath her covers, happy that the trap had been set, and the tooth fairy would be arriving any minute.

It wasn't long before Poppy began to feel the temptation of sleep. It seemed like such a good idea to just close her eyes for a second... but she couldn't give in! Poppy had a tooth fairy to talk to, and this might be her only shot at it.

The room darkened as the street lights outside went off, and Poppy shivered.

She had never been a fan of the dark.

The thing that made it worth it, though, was the light tinkling of bells that floated through the room. There was only one way to describe the melodic sound: magic.

Poppy, with renewed energy, burst out from underneath the covers, hoping to take the tiny fairy by surprise.

It worked.

The little ball of light let out the tiniest of shrieks before dropping a tiny object. Poppy smiled, knowing that object was at least one of her gold coins.

"I'm so sorry," Poppy said, reaching underneath her pillow for the tooth. "Will you still take this?"

The small ball of light bobbed up and down, and a tendril of gold reached out, grabbed the tooth, and suddenly the light was gone.

After Poppy's eyes adjusted to the darkness, she reached blindly into the room. It may have been greedy, but Poppy always thought the gold coins were the coolest thing in the world. They always smelled like cinnamon, and they always glittered in the light.

Plus they were worth money. That was awesome too.

Poppy slipped out of bed, worried that the fairy had grabbed what she had dropped.  

The rough carpet scraped Poppy's hand as she ran it across the ground, too afraid to turn on the light switch, in case Mom was watching. There was no way Mom could know about Poppy trying to catch the tooth fairy.

Surely she would be in big trouble.

Poppy pushed her tongue into the hole the lost tooth had vacated, and searched harder. There was all sorts of fragments of sharp things in the carpet, and Poppy made a mental note to vacuum later.

Finally, Poppy's fingers ran over something rounder than the bristles of the carpet, somewhere between the closet door and the window.

Poppy palmed the object, and was disappointed to find out in was, in fact, not a coin, but something smaller and more oval shaped.

With the object gripped tightly in her palm, Poppy retreated to her bed and set the thing on her bedside table. She would certainly investigate the strange present in the morning.

Her plan complete, Poppy crawled underneath her covers and drifted off to sleep, a ghost of a smile marking her face.

WHEN POPPY woke up, it was the best day ever.

The school week was finally over, and she wasn't awake because her alarm had gone off. Poppy was awake because she had willingly opened her eyes!

Poppy had almost forgotten what that felt like.

She jumped out of bed and ran out of her room, completely forgetting about the small item sitting on her night stand.

"Mom!" Poppy yelled, a big smile covering her face. "Mom, it's the weekend!"

Somewhere in the house, Mom let out a loud laugh. Poppy's smile widened, and she skipped down the stairs before heading into the kitchen.

Mom had her fiery hair up in a messy bun with tendrils dancing across her flushed face. Poppy took a deep breath, taking in the scent of bacon and eggs.

"Sweetie," Mom said, turning to face Poppy and putting on her serious face. "I'm thinking about taking full custody over you, but I want to make sure you understand and agree to that."

Poppy scrunched her nose up and tilted her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

Mom sighed and leaned against the oven bar, looking Poppy in the eye. "It means you wouldn't have any more sleepovers at Dad's house. You would still be able to see him whenever you wanted, but it would need to be somewhere public and with me. I'm worried about you, sweetie."

"I love Daddy," Poppy said. "I know he gets drunk sometimes, but why would he want to stay away from me so much?"

"No, no, sweetheart. Daddy has been making some bad decisions lately, and I want you to be safe."

"Well, I guess it's okay, as long as Dad and I can still go to our Sunday dinner," Poppy stated, jumping onto a bar stool, and watched as Mom's face slowly spread into a smile.

"So," Mom started after a little while. "What did the tooth fairy leave for you last night?"

Poppy's eyes widened and she bolted out of the kitchen and up the stairs without a word of explanation to Mom. This was too important.

She had forgotten about the thing  on her night stand, and not knowing exactly what tooth fairy had left was suddenly the number one priority. 

When Poppy arrived in her room, her eyes immediately went to the bedside table, where a tiny green seed was sitting.

It was a tiny, squishy, green seed that Poppy was rather disappointed to see. She had genuinely hoped that it was a tiny coin.

Maybe the tooth fairy had made a mistake, and she had left the seed there on accident. Maybe she would be back tonight with the coins she normally left!

For now, though, Poppy would accept the seed and show it to Mom, as proof the tooth fairy came last night.

For some reason, Mom doubted the existence of the tooth fairy!

Poppy raced back down the stairs, out of breath, and showed the seed to Mom.

"This is what the tooth fairy brought me," Poppy said. "I think she's coming back tonight, because this isn't the usual thing she gives me. Seeds aren't exactly normal."

Mom took the seed and looked closely at it. "Maybe it was a present for such a wonderful tooth! I'm sure the tooth fairy doesn't make mistakes."

"Maybe," Poppy said, settling in to eat.

"Don't be sad, sweetie, we can plant it later. The tooth fairy probably gave you a magic seed!

Poppy smiled up at Mom and hungrily dug into breakfast.

Word Count: 1090

Total Word Count: 6112

Thank you for reading! I'm pretty sure you know what that seed will grow!

If you have any feedback, hit me with it!

CJ