Tricked Page 15

  Check back soon on the hunt for Rumpelstiltskin!

  CHAPTER 21

  Heartbreak and Happiness

  There is a light knock on my dorm room door, and someone tries to open it. A difficult task since I barricaded it shut.

  “Go away,” I mumble, pulling my covers over my head. Wilson squeaks in protest. He’s been lying next to me on my pillow since I collapsed here a few hours ago. After Anna left Enchantasia with Rumpelstiltskin.

  “Gilly?” Maxine’s voice is softer than usual. I don’t answer. “My key doesn’t seem to be working. Open up. We just want to talk to you.”

  “There’s nothing left to say,” I yell. “Anna chose Stiltskin over me. End of story.”

  There is whispering, then someone fiddles with the lock. I hear a click and the door opens. Fiddlesticks. I should have known thieves would know how to get through my barricade.

  “That’s not the end of the story.” Ollie walks in with the others. “It’s just the beginning of a new one. Look at all we did today—Flora’s back in charge, and Kayla’s got her family again. You should be proud of yourself. We beat Stiltskin at his own game.”

  “But I lost Anna,” I say, getting choked up. I hide my face in the pillow.

  “Quack!” Peaches rips my blanket off me and drags it away before I can stop her. Why, that little ugly duckling! I sit up and see Jocelyn, Maxine, Jax, and Ollie standing over my bed. Even Jocelyn looks somewhat concerned, which makes me start to cry.

  Jax sits down and puts his arm around me. “There’s nothing you could have done, thief. She made a choice.”

  “It was the wrong one,” I say, sobbing. “I know I had to let her figure things out on her own, but what am I going to tell Mother and Father?”

  “You know better than anyone, Cobbler, that everyone has to think for themselves,” Jocelyn says. “The little fool will realize her mistake eventually and come crying back to your hovel of a boot.”

  I wipe my eyes and look up, pushing the purple strands of hair out of my eyes. That might be the nicest thing Jocelyn has ever said to me. “You think so?” The others nod.

  “And if she gets into trouble, we’ll go after her,” Jax says. “You’re stuck with us.”

  Peaches quacks. “And you too, Peaches,” Maxine coos. “The other fairy pets will definitely treat you better after this quest, which means you can go back to sleeping in the classroom.” Peaches quacks wildly. “Of course, you can stay here with Gilly and me, if that’s what you want.” Wilson stands up and squeaks. “You can stay too, Wilson.”

  “Great, our dorm room is becoming a zoo,” I grumble.

  The door to my room flies open again. “Sorry to interrupt.” Hayley is out of breath. “I was packing to leave, but Miri beamed in and told me Flora needs to see us right away.”

  Anna has come back. I rush out of the room with the others behind me. We’re back at the scene of the crime in minutes. We burst through the office door, and I’m momentarily confused as to where I am. Stiltskin’s decor is gone, and Flora’s is back as if she never left.

  Anna is not there.

  Instead, I find my other teachers huddled around Flora’s desk examining some books and scrolls Stiltskin left behind. Even more surprising, Princess Ella and Rapunzel are with them.

  Harlow looks up and scowls. “Well, don’t just hover. If you’re here to help, get over here and help us figure out what Rumpelstiltskin was doing at Fairy Tale Reform School.”

  Flora comes forward. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to speak to them first, Harlow.”

  She looks pretty good for someone who was just encased in stone. Her black-and-white hair is perfectly styled in a classic bun. Her understated, monotone, tailored dress doesn’t show a single wrinkle, and one of her favorite brooches is pinned to her collared dress shirt.

  “Wolfington filled me in on your quest,” she says. “I know I asked you all to stay out of this, but I owe you debt of gratitude. If you hadn’t interfered, we may never have gotten rid of that trickster.” She looks at me. “I don’t want you to worry either. The royal court is already readying troops to go after the students that went with him. We’ll have your sister back in no time.”

  I smile sadly. “She went willingly, like I’m sure many of them did,” I say, and Flora looks surprised. “I guess they’re looking for something FTRS can’t give them.”

  “You’re working with the royals on this mission?” Jocelyn asks with obvious disdain. Jax gives her a look. “Former villains and princesses working together is not natural.”

  Flora smiles. “No, it’s not, but it is progress. If we all want to be better versions of ourselves, we have to learn to trust one another. I know my stepdaughter is an asset in helping us figure out why Stiltskin was after those golden eggs and what he plans on doing with them.”

  “I still don’t like it,” Jocelyn says.

  “Let me show you something.” Flora leads us down the hall to a circular atrium that keeps appearing and disappearing as we walk up to it. The trick is nothing new, but the statue standing in the middle of the space is.

  “What is she doing up here?” I ask.

  Alva’s statue now sits in the middle of an atrium students use to make their way to class. The evil fairy’s stone sneer is creepy, and students walking by pass quickly.

  “I asked Professor Harlow to move her where everyone could see her,” Flora says, touching the cold stone arm of her enemy. “Alva is the perfect reminder of what can happen when you put your own needs first. I almost let my fear destroy me and this school.” She looks at us. “Taking up Rumpelstiltskin’s offer to protect us was a gateway to evil. I knew better than to trust the likes of him, but I did it anyway because I was desperate and selfish—two things your Sinister to Sweet textbook tells us are never good to indulge in.” We all nod.

  “Headmistress Flora?” says a goblin girl with a box of belongings in her arms. Her parents are with her. “I just wanted to say good-bye and thanks for letting me go home.” She eyes the Alva statue warily. “I, uh, hope I don’t ever have to come back.”

  Flora laughs. “Good girl.” She pulls a glowing blue card from her pocket and hands it to the girl’s parents. “But if you ever need us, my door is always open.” Flora looks at us. “I guess we need to sign pardons for the lot of you again too. Hayley already signed hers.”

  “You’re leaving us?” Maxine asks.

  “My heart belongs with the sea and my family. I need to go back,” Hayley says and looks at Flora. “But the headmistress said I could visit. I’ll see you all again.” We all take turns hugging the mer-girl who helped save our skins and watch as she walks away.

  “We’re accepting visitors now?” Ollie asks.

  “Yes,” Flora says. “Visitation day is back, and so are the Pegasus Posts. Everything is as it was before. So if you will pop back to my office, I can get your paperwork so you can be discharged by nightfall.”

  I glance at Jax, Ollie, and Maxine. Jocelyn is unfazed—she isn’t going anywhere—but I have a feeling the others are thinking the same thing I am: We don’t want to go home to our old lives. We like our new ones.

  “Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that,” I say. Wolfington walks out to listen to our conversation. “I think I speak for all of us—you know, except Hayley—when I say we don’t want to be pardoned.”

  Ollie raises his fist in the air. “Aye!” Jax and Maxine nod.

  Flora looks baffled. “I don’t understand. You’ve all transformed beautifully.”

  “In some ways, maybe, but we still have a lot of growing up to do,” I say, and I see Wolfington’s face break into a wolfish grin. “Most of us are only twelve. We have a lot of years to still screw things up and be bad again.”

  “Why would you want to stay here in the meantime?” Flora asks incredulously. “This is a reform school.”

/>   “Because we’re still reforming,” I say. “Before I came here, I thought the only thing I could be was a shoemaker, but everything you taught me has made me see that I don’t have to be one just because my parents are. I can be whatever I want to be—even if I don’t know what that is yet,” I add hastily. “But what I do know is that all of us are more than just heroes. More than thieves or villains. We’re a lot of things.”

  “The classes here can help us figure out what we want to do next,” Jax adds.

  Flora looks uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, but that is not how Fairy Tale Reform School was meant to work.”

  “Why not?” Ollie asks. “You run it. Why can’t the school be whatever you say it is?”

  “You told the students who were charged under Stiltskin that they could stay if they wanted,” Maxine reminds her. “Why can’t we?”

  “Instead of kicking us to the curb when we start acting good, why can’t you have a program for students like us who are still trying to figure things out?” Maxine asks.

  Flora and Wolfington exchange glances.

  Wolfington smiles at me. “It sounds like our mutual friend was a good influence on everyone in the Hollow Woods.”

  “She was. Now we don’t want to just learn to be good,” I explain. “We want to learn what we’re good at.”

  “This might not be such a bad idea,” Wolfington says. “We’re all capable of taking on additional classes to teach. I know Harlow would love to be done with macting. She’d be game for some of these, and so would I. Continuing to grow and change is good for all of us.”

  “Perhaps you’re right.” Flora looks at us. “Okay, you may stay.”

  Our shouting and cheering echoes in the atrium.

  Maxine tackles me.

  “I’m so glad we’re all staying together,” she says, giving me a fierce hug.

  “Me too,” I say happily. For some reason, I find myself staring over her shoulder at the statue of Alva behind us. I know it’s silly, but I have an uneasy feeling that I’m being watched. Alva’s a statue, and yet…I stiffen.

  “What?” Maxine asks, feeling me pull away.

  I blink rapidly and stare at Alva again. Her sneer seems reserved just for me.

  “I…no…I’ve got to be wrong,” I say shakily. “I’m sure my mind is just playing tricks on me. It’s been a long day.”

  “What?” Maxine presses again.

  I feel cold all of a sudden too. My voice is barely more than a whisper. “I could swear I just saw Alva’s fingers move.”

  “What?” Maxine says in a high-pitched voice. Her eyeball begins spinning wildly as we both step slowly toward the statue. We continue to stare at it, but nothing happens. We both laugh nervously.

  “For the love of Grimm, we are losing it!” Maxine says and claps me on the back. I practically fall forward from the force and hit Kayla as she flutters down the hall at warp speed.

  “Headmistress Flora! We need to talk to you!” Kayla’s got other fairies with her, and I realize one must be her mother. They all have the same face and tiny pointy ears.

  “No flying in the halls!” Miri scolds, appearing in an atrium mirror.

  “No demerits for her today, Miri,” Flora says. “The child has just been reunited with her family! Kayla, won’t you introduce us before you continue shouting?”

  Kayla lands on the ground and looks at us sheepishly. “Sorry. This is my mother, Angelina, and my sisters, Emma Rose and Brooke Lynn.” Two girls, a few years older than Kayla, stand on either side of their mother. All three curtsy. One girl has yellow hair like Kayla’s, and the other’s is red like her mother’s. All four of them have the same amber-colored eyes.

  Kayla’s mother takes Flora’s hands. “Thank you for taking such good care of my daughter in my absence.”

  Jocelyn coughs. “She lived with me and my sister, but whatever.”

  “I want to hear everything there is to know about my daughter and the work she is doing here, but unfortunately, now is not the time,” the fairy says and looks at us. “The kingdom of Enchantasia is in great danger.”

  “So it’s true?” Jax asks. “Those beans Stiltskin had were the real deal?”

  “I’m afraid so,” Kayla’s mom says. “The leviathans are coming.”

  “The leviathans?” I ask.

  Kayla’s mother looks at me. “The giants from the clouds. Rumpelstiltskin has already planted the first seeds. There’s no stopping their invasion now.”

  I hear Wolfington, Flora, and Jocelyn audibly inhale, and even I’m concerned.

  Ollie’s eyes bulge out of his head. “Jack and the Beanstalk giants?” He shudders. “I thought those beans were done away with.”

  “Jack has been a bad boy,” Kayla’s mom says. “I have seen him harvesting more in my dreams. We must prepare.”

  “Well, that boy is getting a sentence right away!” Flora prickles.

  “Are you certain about this?” Wolfington asks Kayla’s mother.

  Angelina nods. “The first plants have been spotted in the countryside and on Fairy Tale Reform School grounds.”

  “Great! Another villain to deal with.” Jocelyn groans. “And this lot is way bigger—literally—than any we’ve dealt with before.”

  “We can stop them,” I say.

  “It won’t be easy—not with Rumpelstiltskin helping them,” Jax says.

  My friends and I look at one another. Another battle is brewing—one with the trickster who has my sister on his side and another with a race of giants the likes of which we’ve never seen in Enchantasia.

  We won’t stop ’til we get rid of them both.

  Ollie grins mischievously. “So where do we start?”

  We all smile, then sit down in the corridor and get right to work figuring out a plan. I look at my friends and smile. I’m home.

  This is my life at Fairy Tale Reform School. Exciting, busy, and adventurous.

  Exactly the way I want it to be.

  Acknowledgments

  Kate Prosswimmer—who took the Fairy Tale Reform School baton and ran with it. You have helped me flesh out this world in ways I never dreamed possible. Thank you for all your guidance—and your excellent story arc spreadsheets! To everyone at Sourcebooks, including Steve Geck, Margaret Coffee, Beth Oleniczak, Elizabeth Boyer, and the crackerjack team of Kathryn Lynch and Alex Yeadon, thank you for always making me feel like Fairy Tale Reform School is the only series you’re working on (and I know it’s so not!). You have helped this series soar. To Mike Heath, for creating such amazing covers that readers can’t stop asking me about.

  Dan Mandel, who has given the students at Fairy Tale Reform School—and the whole kingdom of Enchantasia—a bright future I can’t wait to share with readers.

  Elizabeth Eulberg, the best sounding board ever. Kieran Scott, my cheerleader, Courtney Sheinmel for her generosity, and Jennifer E. Smith and Alecia Whitaker for their sound advice and friendship.

  To the one and only Gilly Miller (and her mom, Marcy) for lending me her name. For Hayley Lennon, who was too young to remember being named in my first book—I hope you like your new animal-loving, mermaid self! For Lisa and AnnMarie Gagliano for having never missed a local book signing in twelve years! To my mom and dad, thank you for being perfectly okay with me not loving sports and instead encouraging my love of writing, reading (and dancing).

  Always and forever, thank you to Awesome Aubrey Poole, who took a chance on Gilly and her band of merry semi-villainous kids. I will forever be grateful.

  For Mike, for always making me feel like a princess, and to my prince charmings Tyler and Dylan who weigh in on all villains and beasties. I’m lucky to have such great champions and critics right in my own home! And to Captain Jack Sparrow, an excellent office mate and lap warmer.

  And to the readers who have had so many incredible suggesti
ons about which fairy tale characters they’d like to see drop into FTRS next, thank you for sharing your love of this world with your teachers and friends. Enjoy your time at Fairy Tale Reform School, but don’t get in trouble for staying up too late reading!

  About the Author

  Jen Calonita is the author of the Secrets of My Hollywood Life series and other books like Sleepaway Girls and I’m with the Band, but Fairy Tale Reform School is her first middle-grade series. She rules Long Island, New York, with her husband, Mike; princes Tyler and Dylan; and their Chihuahua, Captain Jack Sparrow, but the only castle she’d ever want to live in is Cinderella’s at Walt Disney World. She’d love for you to visit her at jencalonitaonline.com and keep the fairy-tale fun going at happilyeverafterscrolls.net.

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