Magic on New Year’s Eve

Jonas is covered in tomato sauce from top to toe, and it’s not just him and his clothes – the whole kitchen has been decorated with splodges of red. Tina wipes the tomato sauce off her glasses and glares angrily at Jonas. “What on earth were you doing?” she yells at her younger brother. Jonas, clearly shocked at the tomato sauce disaster, tries to blame his best friend Paul instead, grumbling “Paul, I told you to take the pan off the heat!” Cross and upset about the chaos in the kitchen, the three children argue about who is going to clean it all up, all of them feeling worried about the way the whole evening seems to be going wrong.

Over Christmas, Tina, Jonas and Paul’s parents have surprised them with festive meals and lots of presents. They want to say thank you by making them a special New Year’s Eve dinner. But now they are surrounded by chaos and dinner still isn’t made – it isn’t looking good.

Tina simply doesn’t know what to do, so she goes off to her room. She’s sitting miserably on her bed when she catches a glimpse of one of her Christmas presents, a wishing candle from her best friend Lilly. If you light the candle and say your wish out loud three times, then it will come true. Could it work? Tina decides to try it out right away. She lights the candle and announces her wish: “I wish we could magic up a really fantastic New Year’s Eve dinner for our parents.” Three times. Then silence. Has it worked?

Tina goes into the kitchen and sees the astonished faces of her younger brother and his friend, who are both staring open-mouthed out of the window at three superheroes approaching the house. “I can’t believe it, it actually worked!” Tina yells happily.

The boys’ jaws are still agape as the three superheroes enter the kitchen, while Tina is fascinated by Miss TeleZia’s beautiful hair. Breaking the silence, U-Mind turns to the children and says, “Hi there, we heard you wanted to magic up a New Year’s Eve dinner for your parents.” Tina, Jonas and Paul nod, still unable to speak, but they don’t need to because U-Mind reads their thoughts in an instant and knows exactly what the three of them want to do for the New Year’s Eve party.

There isn’t much time left before their parents are back from their walk in the snow – so it’s all hands on deck. V-Speed shoots off at the speed of light to the nearest supermarket to buy everything that U-Mind has written on his list, and Miss TeleZia has teleported herself to Venice where she is looking for the perfect decorative touches. While those two superheroes collect up what is needed, U-Mind and the children whip the kitchen into shape. The children gradually stop feeling so shy and start talking about why they were planning a Bella Italia party in the first place. “Last year we had a brilliant holiday in Venice, we all had a fantastic time and the food was absolutely amazing,” explains Jonas.

Together with the superheroes, Tina, Jonas and Paul get everything ready for the party: Tina decorates the table with MissTelezia, Jonas bakes fresh bread with V-Speed and Paul makes spaghetti alle verdure with U-Mind, then Miss TeleZia and Tina quickly magic up a platter of Vitello tonnato as a starter. Everything is now in place for an Italian-themed New Year’s Eve party – the superheroes have saved the day. “It’s time for us to go,” says U-Mind, and his superhero friends agree, saying “kids, you’ve done brilliantly, now you can manage the rest on your own.”

Hardly able to contain their excitement, Tina, Jonas and Paul welcome the adults after their walk. Both sets of parents are amazed. “Wow,” says Tina and Jonas’ mum, “how did you manage all this?” The three children wink at one another and Paul says, “There were a few superpowers involved.”

They all love the food and the children are even allowed to stay up until midnight. At 12 midnight on the dot, they all raise a glass of bubbly – champagne for the adults and a cranberry-orange-spritz for the children – to celebrate a successful evening and wish each other a Happy New Year!