Rachel and Kirsty looked over at The Mean Green Basketball Team. The players were practicing their handling skills at the other end of the court. The team members wore caps to hide their faces and were passing the ball quickly and confidently to one another.

“They’re definitely goblins, Kirsty,” Rachel whispered, catching a glimpse of a pointy green nose under one of the caps.

“I know,” Kirsty agreed quietly. “And look at that goblin spinning the basketball on his finger over there.”

Rachel stared at the goblin and gasped. A faint shimmer of purple sparkles surrounded the ball spinning on his finger! “It’s Brittany’s magic basketball!” Rachel exclaimed in a low voice.

“Yes! Now all we have to do is get it back,” Kirsty pointed out.

“Let’s get started,” called the referee, blowing her whistle. “We’ll scrimmage for just fifteen minutes today.” She flipped a coin in the air and turned to the biggest goblin, who was the captain.

“Heads!” called the captain.

The referee examined the coin. “Heads it is,” she announced. “The Mean Green Basketball Team will start the game.”

The goblins quickly dashed into their positions. The referee blew her whistle. Immediately, the goblin in the center passed the magic basketball to the goblin on his right. Kirsty and another player moved to guard him, but the second goblin threw the ball high over their heads and straight to one of his teammates. In an instant, the ball swished cleanly through the hoop.

“Two-zero,” called the referee as the goblins whooped with glee and gave each other high fives.

Dismayed, Kirsty glanced down the court at Rachel. The goblins were ahead, and no one on their team had even touched the ball yet!

Abby inbounded the ball, but one of the goblins dashed in front of Kirsty and stole it away. Once again, the goblins were in control. After a series of amazing passes, the goblin center sidestepped Kirsty and tossed the ball through the hoop again.

“Four-zero!” the referee shouted.

Rachel watched helplessly as the goblins dribbled the ball swiftly and smoothly and scored lots of baskets. The goblins were too quick for the players on Abby’s team. Rachel realized that this meant the human players weren’t benefiting from the magic of Brittany’s basketball. The girls didn’t have the ball long enough for the magic to rub off, because the sneaky goblins were always stealing it away! Rachel looked across the court at Kirsty and shook her head sadly. At this rate, Rachel realized, they were never going to get Brittany’s magic basketball back!

Then one of the goblins tried to lob the ball high up into the air toward one of his teammates, but Abby jumped up and actually managed to intercept it.

“Abby!” Rachel shouted eagerly, waving her arms. “Over here!”