Mackenzie's Candy Land

Portal to Candy Land

"Mackenzie!" Mom pulls my notebook over my head. I'm meant to be working on math problems, but I've been drawing instead. I peek over at Maddie. She covers her page without looking at me. "You're not working!" Mom slams the book back down in front of me. My rainbow drawing looks less happy now. "I'm sorry, Mom! I just got distracted."
Maddie laughs across the table. "Madison! It's not funny!" Mom tells her off. "Yeah, Madison, don't laugh at me!" Maddie frowns at me, and continues with her Math. "Now Mackenzie, start working. You have to do this if you want to dance." Mom says. She leaves the room.

I push my Math book away. "Kenz, what are you doing?" Maddie asks. "You have to do those."
"I don't want to!" I say. "And neither do you. Come on, lets just sneak out the back door and play! One time, Maddie? Please?" Maddie glances down at her book. "If you close it, Mom will think you're done."

Maddie closes the book. "Just this one time, Mackenzie!" She says. We open the door as quietly as we can and run outside. "Should we go on the trampoline?" Maddie suggests.
"No, she might see us jumping! Lets just play down in the grass." I sit down. "Check before you sit, Mads. I don't know where Maliboo does her puppy business."
"Ew!" Maddie looks behind her, and then sits down.

Suddenly, Maddie disappears through the grass! "Maddie!" I scoot over to where she was sitting. There's a rainbow coloured hole there! "Oh my god." What's mom going to say? Forget that. What's Miss Abby going to say?! I tip myself through the hole after Maddie.

I fall for what feels like forever. It's like some freaky rainbow Alice in Wonderland, just without the rabbit hole. Rabbit holes are dirty. This isn't dirty. "Huh," I say to myself. "I'm falling headfirst down a hole with no idea where I'm going to end up, and that's what I think about."
I land hard on my back on some prickly green grass. Well, it feels like grass but it doesn't smell like grass. It smells like mint candy. I look to my left, and Maddie lies on her back on the grass looking stunned. "Maddie!" I crawl across the grass over to her.
I shake her gently, and she sits up. "Where are we, Kenz? What just happened?"

"I have no idea." I stand up and pull her to her feet. She holds my hand tight. "I'll look after you, Mackenzie."
Then she points down a yellow cobbly looking path that I think is made of lemon sherbets. A puppy is racing towards us, and we both kneel down to receive it. It jumps up and puts both it's paws on my knees. It's a really cute puppy, soft brown fur and brown eyes. "Hey, he has a collar." Maddie points to a blue collar around his neck. She swivels it round so we can see the metal disc. "Wolfie," I read out. The puppy wags his tail. "Wolfie. Huh. He doesn't look wolf-like at all." Maddie says, sitting back on her heels. Wolfie barks, jumps up and licks her face. "Ugh!" She says, laughing.

"Where did you come from, puppy?" I ask Wolfie. He barks again and runs a little way down the yellow path, then stands there staring at me and Maddie. "I think he wants us to follow him!" I say to Maddie. She stands up and I stand up. "We can't just follow random dogs in a random land, Kenzie. It could be dangerous." She says. I point at Wolfie. "Does he look dangerous?"

"No," Maddie says. "But that could be the point. Send something cute to fetch us and deliver us to our death or torture or something."
I didn't think of that.
"We won't know unless we go, Mads."
She grips my hand tighter. "Then lets go."

We set off down the yellow path. Maddie stops and she picks up one of the stones. "Mackenzie, put this in your mouth." I slip it into my mouth cautiously. "What is it?" Maddie asks. "It's a sherbet lemon. Not poisonous."
We continue down the path after Wolfie. I think this place is okay, and I hope Maddie's instinct isn't right...