The Key Wish: The Wish Series, Book 3

By Wendy Tackett

Jasons sisters get all the attentionand cause him all sorts of trouble. His older sister, Tayleigh, once made a wish that got her suspended from the dance team, and then Jason had to move to a new middle school. His twin, Polly, also made a wish which almost ruined the family vacation when she started hearing and seeing Thomas Jeffersons ghost everywhere. Jason cant wait to get away for a bit, and lucky for him, he gets to go on a band trip to the happiest place on earth!

Along with his big brother, Bryant, and his best friend, Scooter, Jason is headed to a special theme park in Florida. Away from his family, Jason will be free of drama and the strange magic that surrounds his sisters. But then he makes a mistake of his own: he wishes for the truly magical experience. Miraculously, he is given the Key to the Kingdom, and he befriends a young woman whose family helped develop the theme park.

Jason soon begins to realize that things are coming much too easily, and the wish comes back to haunt him. In a family filled with fulfilled fantasies, did he really think he would be any different? Jason remembers what his big sister said after her wish: Be careful what you wish for. He and his friends must now figure out how to solve a mystery and make it safely home no worse for wear!

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: May 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781475988604

Wendy Tackett

Wendy Tackett is an avid reader who likes to encourage children to read and dream. This is the third book in her Wish Series, following The Snow Wish and The Jefferson Wish. Tackett lives in Michigan with her husband, Paul, and their cats. Follow the Wish Series at www.facebook.com/thesnowwish

Book preview

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Prologue

1 Mark Time, March!

2 The Accident

3 Tinker Bell’s Wish

4 Key to the Kingdom

5 Ones All the Way

6 Tomorrow and Reflections

7 It All Started With…

8 Unlocking the Castle

9 The Imagination Age

Epilogue

About the Author

To Brendan, Jeremiah, and Matthew

Carpe diem!

Preface

This book is entirely a work of fiction. Characters portrayed in this book are not meant to represent real actions by real people. While Walt Disney World is a real place, many of the behind the scenes descriptions are fictional. Disney Enterprises, Inc., or any of its subsidiaries, does not, in any way, endorse this book.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to my husband, Paul Tackett, for encouraging me to finish writing the Wish Series. Thank you to my family and friends who kept cheering and several who helped in the review process, including Steffy Conde, Elizabeth Cordero, Karen Markel, Megan Platte, Beth Prince, Bailey Stevens, and my parents.

I especially appreciate all my young friends who were excited about the first two books and kept asking me when the final book would be available—it helped keep me motivated. Special thanks to Mariah and Kira—I loved your letters and questions. I hope this book lives up to the high expectations of the very enthusiastic students I visited at schools, including MLK Academy in Benton Harbor; St. Mary School in Westphalia; Minges Brook Elementary, Pennfield Middle School, and Westlake Elementary in Battle Creek; Moorsbridge Elementary in Portage; and Pewamo-Westphalia Elementary School in Pewamo. Finally, God bless Bryn, a five-year-old who is a strong fighter with many people cheering for her!

Prologue

Tayleigh bought a new outfit. Polly got a better grade than I did. Yuck. I’m sick of all the attention my sisters get. Tayleigh this. Polly that. They’re okay as far as sisters go, but they really do make a mess of things. Tayleigh made a snow wish a few years ago and ended up getting suspended from her dance team. Because of her wish, I ended up changing middle schools… never mind that it actually turned out pretty well. I don’t think Tayleigh even thought about anyone else. Polly made a wish at a fountain last spring and started hearing Thomas Jefferson’s voice everywhere. Because of her wish, she got lost in Colonial Williamsburg and ruined most of one of the days of our vacation. I bet Polly thinks her craziness just made things more interesting. My sisters are a bit high maintenance.

Our family does make wishes quite often, but I don’t really care about them. Right now, all I care about is that I’m going to Walt Disney World! The middle school band worked hard all summer to raise enough money to go to a competition there. Scooter, my best friend, is going too, of course. My big brother, Bryant, is one of the chaperones. It’s just going to be us guys. No wishes. No sisters. No craziness. It’s going to be great!

1

Mark Time, March!

Always start with your left foot! yelled Mr. Shets. The left foot should go down on the first beat. I know we don’t normally start marching until high school, but you need to be ready to march in the parade at the Magic Kingdom. Let’s do it again. Let’s play a B-flat scale in quarter notes, and take a step every time you play a note.

Hey, Jason, he looks a little ticked off, whispered Scooter, who was standing next to me holding his trombone. What does he expect? It’s only our first day doing this.

Perfection, I said sarcastically.

I’m stressed, too. We should have been marching last week, but it poured every day. Now we’re stuck with figuring this all out in a few days, said Mariah from the row in front of us as she turned her head slightly backward. Percussion marched just in front of us, and Mariah was a good snare drummer.

Mark time, march! shouted Mr. Shets. That means we have to get ready to march. I was glad everyone was in school and couldn’t see us making fools of ourselves out there. I hadn’t fallen yet, but a few people had. Many of us tripped repeatedly over our own feet. Who knew that marching would be so hard? I mean, people walk and talk every day. It’s crazy how when you add playing an instrument into the mix, you get chaos. I had to think about which foot should be moving while also playing the right notes to the right beat. Yikes.

We practiced for another half hour, marching around the parking lot of the school and just playing scales. In Disney World, there is a parade for the winning middle school bands. We may not even have to march, but we want to be ready just in case we’re one of the top three finishers. I wasn’t going to worry about it. We probably wouldn’t even be in the top three. There would be fifty middle school bands at this event. Like we really have a chance, I thought. I don’t even care about that. I’m just going to have fun!

At the end of band practice, Scooter asked the trombones if we’d be willing to stay for part of lunch to practice some more. He was our section leader, and he was taking his job very seriously. It’s rare that a seventh grader is section leader, but there weren’t any eighth graders in our section. I want the ‘bones to at least get it right, he pleaded with us.

Fifteen minutes. That’s it. I still need time to eat my lunch, Naomi said. Lydia nodded. They agreed about everything.

Let’s move it, then, I encouraged. I’ve got Scooter’s back. He’s always got mine. That’s what best friends do.

We stayed in the parking lot while the rest of the band went inside. Mr. Shets just smiled at us as he walked in. I thought he’d stay out and bark orders at us, but maybe he was just proud we were doing it on our own.

Scooter wanted us to march while playing scales again, but Lydia interceded. I think we all have the basics down. Can we try playing part of the song we’ll march to at Disney?

I was thinking the same thing. I want to try it with the song. It’ll make it all seem more real.

So we did. We played the John Philip Sousa march called Stars and Stripes Forever. It’s a famous song. It was a bit easier to march to actual music instead of just scales. It was going to be hard to remember not to start running when we play eighth notes!

Good extra practice, Scooter acknowledged. Thanks for staying.

I smiled. You know me. I always want to be the best, so let’s make sure the trombones are the best. It’ll only help the entire band. Oh, and food would help. Let’s go get some!

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Can’t we please go to Florida too? whined Polly. It’s not fair that Jason gets to have all the fun!

Jason has worked hard for this trip. Not only has he been dedicated to band, he also spent much of his summer working on the group fundraisers, Mom reminded her. Tell me honestly, would you have weeded those yards all summer long in the hot sun?

She’d have one awesome suntan if she’d done that! quipped Tayleigh.

I know he worked hard, but I’ve been dedicated to orchestra, too. We only got to go to Six Flags for a day, Polly continued to whine, but then she changed her tone. I just want to go to support him. We should be there to cheer on the band.

I slapped my knee and laughed out loud. That was a good one, Polly. Support me. Right. You’re just jealous that I get to go to Disney World before you do.

I wish we could have taken off work to go watch the performance and spend a few days at Disney as a family. It’s just not a good time for me at work, Dad said. I’m glad that Leigh and TJ will be able to cheer for you, even if we won’t be there.

That’s it! I could just stay with Uncle TJ and Aunt Leigh, Polly said. I won’t even be a bother to them.

Number one, you’re not missing school. Number two, where are you getting the money for the plane ticket? Mom said. Leigh and TJ were able to work this stop around one of TJ’s business trips to Florida. Number three, the answer is still no. I was cracking up in my head. Mom was getting upset with Polly’s whininess. Score one for me.

But I have most of the same classes as Jason, and our teachers are giving the band students packets of homework to do on the bus ride. I could do that, too.

Polly, Dad said in that tone of voice when you know you’ve crossed the line. End. Of. Discussion.

Yes, Dad, said Polly, sighing as her shoulders slumped over and she slowly walked to her room.

Well, I’m glad we got that cleared up, I said, a bit too snarky.

Jason, go practice! ordered Mom. Maybe I crossed the line.

I ran up the stairs two by two on the way to my room. One whole week without any family telling me what to do. No parents to tell me when to go to bed or clean my room or eat my broccoli or practice. No twin shadowing me every minute of every day. No big sister acting like she’s the boss of me. I’m not going to lie, I was really excited that it would be just me and Scooter hanging out all the way across the country. I checked it out. I would be 1,201 miles away from Battle Creek, Michigan. I had never been away from my entire family for a week.

Oh wait, duh, I thought. I had totally forgotten that Bryant would be there too. It was going to be wonderful to spend some time with him. He’d been at the University of Michigan for the past two years, and I only got to see him a few times a year. He did take me to the first Michigan football game of the season about a month ago, and I had a blast screaming Go Blue! all afternoon. Good thing U of M won, so losing my voice was worth it. I hope he’s the chaperone assigned to my group, I thought. My friends whose parents are chaperoning don’t want to be in their parents’ group, but I like hanging out with Bryant.

I guess I’d better practice. I was third chair, which meant I played second part. Scooter and Naomi played first part, and I played second with Lydia. In the high school band, there were six or seven trombones for each part, but there were only two of us, so we need to make sure we’re good.

I barely got my trombone out of its case when Mom knocked on my door. You were supposed to bring home the final itinerary for the trip today. Do you have it?

Right. I totally forgot. It’s in my music folder. I put it there because I’d see it when I practiced tonight. See, I had a plan.

Why don’t you get it and come back downstairs so we can go over it together with your father? Mom suggested. I nodded and grabbed my whole music folder.

Here it is, I said as I laid out the two-page itinerary. Mr. Shets was extremely detailed in the plan, even giving the address of the resort and listing each restaurant we’d be eating at while staying at Disney World on a sheet attached to the overview itinerary.

Saturday

Leave the school at 7:00 a.m. That means the charter buses are loaded with instruments and students are on board ready to leave at 7:00 a.m. We’ll arrive in Atlanta, GA, around 9:00 p.m. to spend the night.

Sunday

Leave Atlanta at 8:00 a.m. We plan to arrive at the All Star Music Resort at Walt Disney World at 4:00 p.m. We leave for an orientation dinner at 5:30 p.m., giving you just enough time to unpack. We will watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the beach at the Polynesian Resort.

Monday

Breakfast at 7:30 a.m. at the resort. Board the bus at 9:00 a.m. to head to a local