“So you see, class”, said Freya, as she glided around the room, “When you are a house fairy to a human, there are so many things you can do to help them.
You can write notes to them, you can blow away their bad dream breezes, you can…”

Freya stopped mid sentence and landed at the front of the classroom, looking at Maggie, who had her hand straight up in the air.

“Maggie, yes, do you have a question?”

“I do, Freya”, said Maggie, as she glanced around the room, wondering if she should really ask what she was wondering. “I… Is there… What’s
the…”, she stammered.

Freya smiled. “It’s okay Maggie, you can ask anything!”

Maggie’s fairy friend Jake looked at her from his desk and shrugged as if to say ‘you might as well say it’.

“Well”, said Maggie. “I’m wondering… Do humans really exist?”

The whole classroom fell silent for a moment, before the fairies all burst out laughing.

Freya looked confused. “Well, yes of course they do, Maggie. Why do you ask?”

Before she even realised it was happening, all of Maggie’s thoughts came spilling out of her mouth. “Well, I’ve never seen one! I’ve only ever heard about
them, but if I haven’t seen them, how can I be sure they really exist? I know fairies come back to the Valley sometimes talking about their humans,
but maybe they’re actually all just pretending, or playing a trick on us! I don’t know, I just think it’s weird to think that there are all these giant
things walking around out there somewhere with no wings or anything… I think it just seems a little far-fetched and I…”

Maggie was interrupted by the school bell ringing. Freya spoke over the sound of the fairies chuckling as they gathered their belongings.

“Okay everyone, this is interesting. Let’s talk more about this tomorrow! Your homework is to think about why Maggie should believe in humans…”
she said, before adding “if you think she should, that is” with a smile.

“I really didn’t expect you to ask that”, said Jake to Maggie as they left the class. “If there are no humans, why are we spending every day learning all
about them?!”

Maggie didn’t look like she was convinced by this argument. “Well, have you ever seen one?”, she asked.

Jake said he hadn’t, as Maggie started to fly away. “Something to think about…” she said, as Jake scratched his chin and wondered…. Could she be right?

The next day, the Maggie and her classmates sat at their desks waiting for class to start. “I think you’re right Maggie – they’re not real”, announced
one fairy. “Of course they’re real”, exclaimed another. “I think they’re just balloons all stuck together under a big coat”, said a third, and everyone
laughed.

 

Freya glided into the class at that point.

“Hello class! I hope you’ve all been thinking about what Maggie brought up yesterday.” The fairies nodded. “And I have a special guest to help us talk
about it”, she said, beckoning to the door of the classroom.

Maggie saw the sparkles first as they drifted through the door, followed by someone they all immediately recognised.

“Queen Kate!” they all gasped.

It was indeed Kate, Queen of the fairies. “Hello everyone”, she beamed. “It’s so nice to see you all.”

Maggie noticed that the whole room seemed much brighter and somehow more magical with Queen Kate in the room.

“I’ve heard there are some very curious fairies in this class”, said Queen Kate, as she caught Maggie’s eye.

Maggie immediately felt like she had done something wrong and felt her cheeks burn bright red.

“Don’t worry, my dear Maggie”, said Queen Kate. “Asking questions about what we learn is very important. Having a sense of wonder and curiosity about the
world like you do is a marvellous thing. In fact, you remind me of myself when I was a young fairy.”

Maggie couldn’t believe her ears.

“I am proud of you, Maggie”, continued Queen Kate. “I can assure you and everyone in the class that humans do indeed exist, but you will find that out
for yourselves soon enough. The bond between a fairy and their human is something that I cannot quite put into words, but it will all make sense when
you are in your human home”. Then she added, “And speaking of which, I have the perfect human home in mind for you, Maggie.”

That last line echoed in Maggie’s mind several months later, as she flew to the human home she had been assigned. She felt the magical glow of her fairy
door drawing her to the right address, found her magical key, signed the Lease like she had been taught, and moved in. She went straight to sleep and
wondered about what the future might hold.

The next night, when she opened her door again, she found a note saying “Hi. Are you real? From Sam” Maggie picked up a pencil nearby and wrote “Yes! Are
you? From Maggie”

Maggie then realised that she didn’t have to wait for the answer: she flew into the air and looked down at her sleeping human. Immediately she felt the
amazing, magical bond Queen Kate had been talking about.

Maggie thought to herself that she would still ask questions about the world, some of which Sam might be able to answer, some she could find out about
when she visited Fairy Valley – and some she could figure out all by herself.

Maggie looked down at Sam again smiled. Her new life had begun and she felt like the happiest fairy in the world.