Charmed

  The consensus in the room is that this RLW patch is very exciting.

  “To help with the project, Madame Cleo will be beaming in,” Azalea adds as Dahlia goes to the magic mirror to dial up the Sea Siren who appears on-screen sporting pink hair and pearls laced into her sea-kelp top.

  “Darlings! How wonderful to see you,” she drawls. “I trust you’re having a lovely meeting?”

  “Yes, Madame Cleo,” the girls say as if on cue. I forget to respond.

  “Splendid!” She claps her hands. “As Princess Rose told you, today we will learn the dance of language.” Madame is swimming back and forth across the screen. “As visitation day approaches, it is imperative that you show your parents how far you’ve come since you entered FTRS.”

  “Mastering a conversation shows your maturity,” adds Princess Rose. “If you can go from talking to a royal to talking to a beggar, then you can appeal to the masses. Being adored has its rewards. People will follow you anywhere if they like what you have to say.”

  “So true!” says Raza with applause, but I’m rubbing my nose. All these roses in here are making it itchy.

  “Let’s start with a simple conversation about the weather,” says Madame Cleo. “Miss Gillian, I’m so pleased to see you joined the Royal Ladies! And I love the new purple hair you’re sporting! Why don’t you and Miss Tessa start us off?”

  Tessa and I face each other. She’s wearing perfume that is competing with the rose scent in this room. My nose doesn’t like it. Tessa extends her hand and I—

  “Achoo!” I sneeze all over her face.

  A dozen girls produce pink handkerchiefs at the same time.

  “Oh my goodness, that will never do,” tsks Madame Cleo. “You’re supposed to cover your mouth when you sneeze and always turn away from your guest.”

  Great, I’ve failed already. “Sorry.”

  “Now, let’s try that again,” Rose encourages.

  Tessa looks less than happy, but she musters a smile as she extends her hand. Darn curtsy. I make it halfway down, wobble, and come up, but I shake her hand.

  “I’ll go first,” Tessa says testily. “Hello, Gillian. How is your afternoon going?”

  Wow. Okay, so that’s how it’s done. “Fine. Thanks. How is yours?”

  “No ‘thanks.’ Use ‘thank you.’ And use proper language, please,” says Madame Cleo.

  “I’m fine, thank you. How are you this afternoon?”

  Tessa smiles. “Splendid, although this weather is dreadful, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah, it’s as drafty in the castle as it is outside.”

  “No, no, no!” Madame Cleo covers her face with her hands. “Don’t knock Fairy Tale Reform School. Why don’t you take over, Azalea, and show how it’s done?”

  Azalea doesn’t botch her curtsy. “We are pleased you could make the journey to our school in this nasty weather. Can I get you a hot beverage after such a long outing?”

  Everyone applauds and Azalea accepts their praise with another curtsy. Then they all curtsy and I get dizzy. I can’t take anymore. I need a break. Now. “May I be excused to get a glass of water?” I ask Rose.

  I slip out of the room while the others watch Raza and another girl tackle “Complimenting One Another’s Shoes.”

  Olivia follows me. “I could use a refreshment,” she says. “We do so much talking.”

  “Yeah,” I say, rushing out the door and taking big, gulping breaths to get rid of the rose scent that is overwhelming me. Water. I need water.

  “The water fountain is down there,” Olivia says, and I follow her down the hall, where elves are mopping the floors with mops that clean on their own. “I just love your purple hair. You have to tell me how you got it. It makes you look so powerful.”

  Powerful? “You think?” I touch my hair and Olivia nods.

  “It would look even better if you wore it up sometimes so you can see the purple. Maybe in a side ponytail?” she suggests, and before I can protest, she pulls my hair to the side, removes one of her glittery bracelets, and uses it to fasten my hair. “Like this. Look!” She pulls me over to one of Miri’s mirrors. “You look beautiful!”

  “Beautiful? Me?” I ask, amazed at what I’m seeing in the mirror. My hair doesn’t look half bad, and the glittery band makes it shine. I look almost royal. Olivia’s pretty decent. I’ve never been given a present before. “Thanks,” I say and then start to cough as I breathe in the rose perfume Olivia is wearing. It reminds me of the RLW room.

  “Fiddlesticks, you need water,” Olivia says. “Here! This way!” A gurgling water fountain is just beyond the elves’ cleaning cart. “You take a sip first.”

  I hurry over and begin gulping sips in a very unladylike fashion.

  Olivia starts to laugh. “Gilly, stop! You are acting like an ogre! Look how sloppy you’re being. Just like Maxine!” I stop drinking and look up in surprise. “Oops! Sorry. I forgot you’re friends with ogres, and your roommate is a fairy who almost destroyed FTRS.” Olivia looks almost embarrassed for me. “Some of the girls thought you weren’t RLW material because you were friends with them. Not me, of course, but people do talk about the company you keep.”

  My face burns. The RLWs are talking about me? My stomach feels swishy and my cheeks burn. I’m used to people saying good things about me lately. I don’t like the idea of them making fun of me. The words bubble out of my mouth like a volcano. “We’re not friends,” I blurt out. “Kayla was assigned as my roommate, and Maxine just hangs on everything I say and I can’t shake her off.” Olivia laughs.

  “I would never be friends with an ogre like her.” Olivia laughs harder, and I feel some satisfaction in changing her mind. “I mean, have you seen the way she drools over every…” Olivia suddenly stops laughing. I notice the mops stop mopping. The elves pull their cleaning cart to a new hallway. Olivia starts to move away. I feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up and I turn around.

  Maxine and Jocelyn are standing a few feet away from us, and it’s obvious they heard everything I just said. Jocelyn looks positively furious, but Maxine is the one I care about. My heart is thumping loudly as watch the left side of her face droop. Maxine’s right eye rolls wildly, and her left eye wells up with tears.

  “You’re so selfish, Cobbler! Maxine is your friend!” Jocelyn hisses. I’m too mortified to say anything. “I should have known you’d become an RLW behind our backs. You look like one with that ridiculous hairstyle, and you sound like one too.”

  “Maxine,” I start to say.

  “How could you?” Maxine asks, and starts to cry so loudly the window nearest me shakes. Then my former friend charges down the hall before I can stop her.

  Happily Ever After Scrolls

  Brought to you by FairyWeb—magically appearing on scrolls throughout Enchantasia for the past ten years!

  Get Ready for Fairy Tale Reform School Visitation Day!

  by CoCo Collette

  Spurred by parent outcry, Fairy Tale Reform School has moved up its semiannual parent visitation to today. “I am pleased Headmistress Flora and the staff will finally let us inside this mysterious castle to check on our children,” says Millicent Gertrude, mother of Ronald Gertrude, who has reportedly been begging for his early dismissal since Alva’s manifesto showed up on school grounds.

  Sources tell HEAS that FTRS parents are worried the magical scroll will spur students to join Alva’s growing ranks. As HEAS reported earlier this week, Alva has joined forces with ogre tribes that were close to signing a peace treaty with the royal court. Rapunzel is said to be meeting with the ogres to try to sway their decision.

  More of Alva’s bewitched scrolls have also appeared around the village, beckoning people to join her army. “Enchantasia will be mine,” the scrolls declare. While the princesses say we have nothing to fear, the scrolls have made an already anxious Enchantasia increasingly worried about Alva taking over the kingdom.

  Princess Rose is the only royal to make a statement. “In these try
ing times, it is more important than ever to celebrate wonderful events like FTRS’s visitation day!”

  According to spokesmirror Miri, parents are invited to attend a tea presented by the esteemed Royal Ladies-in-Waiting Club (run by Princess Rose), dine with their children in the cafeteria, and observe them in classes and activities such as synchronized snake-dancing and the after-school Magic Carpet Racing Club, as well as listen to a lecture from the school’s newest professor, Blackbeard the Pirate. He’ll be presenting “Why Being a Bit of a Scoundrel Can Prove Useful—Playing to Your Child’s Strengths.”

  After last semester’s disastrous Royal Day and Anniversary Ball, it’s easy to see why there would be concern about security, but Miri the Magic Mirror cryptically says the school is under the strongest magical protection there is for visitation day. “No one is getting in this castle unless they’re invited,” she tells us. We at HEAS are not convinced, but one thing is certain: covering anything going on at Fairy Tale Reform School is an adventure!

  Check your scrolls often throughout the day for updates on visitation day and the search for Alva!

  CHAPTER 11

  Royally Yours

  “We need more pink, girls!” Tessa declares, frantically shoving baby’s breath and carnations into a hot-pink pitcher atop a pink tablecloth covered with pink plates and teacups. We’re in the observatory where the Royal Ladies-in-Waiting Club is hosting the visitation day tea this morning.

  Or as I like to call it the Pink Threw Up in the Observatory Party.

  “Are you sure?” Raza frowns at the pink balloons netted at the ceiling to drop down on visitors. Her eyes wander over to the pink banner that says Royal Ladies-in-Waiting—We Are Honored to Serve Royalty! and the pink roses that are practically suffocating the room. “Do you think we might have overdone it with our signature color?”

  “Definitely not.” I try to keep a straight face as I pretend to straighten the tablecloth—again—at Tessa’s urging. (“I think I see a crease!”) “You can never have enough pink, but ditch the carnations,” I say. “You guys should know this from the RLW gardening patch you earned. Princess Rose is allergic to everything but roses.”

  I hear the bells chime and then the mirror in the room glows—of course—pink. “Attention, students!” Miri says. “Our visitors are entering the gates to FTRS. After they have gone through security with the Dwarf Police Squad, they will make their way to the grand foyer. Please meet your parties there and take them to your first assigned class or to the Royal Ladies-in-Waiting welcome tea if you’ve received an invitation.”

  The girls around me clap politely and curtsy to one other. All the curtsying this week has given me a lot of lower body strength. Who knew curtsies were a workout?

  “And now a message from Headmistress Flora,” Miri announces.

  “Students, we hope you have a wonderful, productive day with your visitors. You have all made such progress, and I’m thrilled your parents will get to see that firsthand. Have fun, be on your best behavior, and remember,” Flora adds, her voice stern, “if you see something out of the ordinary, say something to one of your professors immediately.”

  “We’re all in this together,” we repeat as we have been saying and writing on banners around school. Alva’s manifestos have been popping up all over Enchantasia, calling more citizens to join her army. No one seems to know how to contact the fiendish fairy to join, and yet somehow her ranks are growing. Jax has been sick over news that the ogre tribes wouldn’t listen to Rapunzel and signed on to work with Alva instead.

  I only know this from a terse Kayla. I’ve been so busy with the RLWs that I’ve barely seen my friends in days, which might be better. Maxine bursts into tears every time she sees me. But what can I do? I tried bringing up Maxine’s name twice to Tessa and Raza, and they changed the topic to napkin-folding ideas.

  “Psst.” I look to see where the noise is coming from, but the RLWs are all arranging flowers. I go back to smoothing my tablecloth. “Psst.” I hear again.

  “Did you say something?” I ask Veronica, a sprite creating a goblet tower in the shape of a glass slipper.

  “No,” she says, sniffing. “I’m too busy working, like you should be.”

  Whatever. I go back to tablecloth smoothing, even though there is nothing left to smooth, but I keep hearing “psst” so I stop and try to see where the noise is coming from.

  “Up here!” someone whispers. I look up and see Jax sitting on the ledge of a stained glass window near the rafters. He gives a little wave. He must have climbed into the room from outside. This boy loves to climb things.

  “No boys allowed,” I hiss, hoping no one notices me talking to the ceiling.

  “This is the only way I could talk to you,” he whispers back, his legs dangling close to Raza’s head. “You’re with these royal wannabes twenty-four seven.”

  “We are not royal wannabes,” I huff. “A RLW’s purpose is to help the princesses function to the best of their abilities, set an example for the villagers around us, and find inspiration from the royal court’s royalness to harness our own power!” I gasp. “Holy gingerbread. Did I really just say that?” I sit down in a pink velvet chair near the window and breathe in and out. Jax jumps down from the ledge, and several of the girls scream.

  “Boy! With the RLWs!” Tessa points at him like he’s a villain. “No boys allowed!”

  Jax straightens his dress shirt and gives her a perfect bow, bending all the way to his waist. “My ladies, my most sincere apologies for the interruption. You’re all doing splendid work transforming this simple space into a tea worthy for a king, and I do not want to take away from that. I only ask that you allow me a moment to speak with this young lady here, who is my dear friend, and then I will depart.”

  Whoa. Jax sounds just like a prince charming!

  Tessa’s jaw drops. Olivia holds a handkerchief to her mouth and begins to giggle uncontrollably. “Um, okay, yeah,” Tessa stammers. “I mean yes, sir! Take a moment.”

  “And may I suggest you hang the royal crest higher than the Enchantasia flag?” Jax adds. “In Royal Manor, the court’s flag always flies above the kingdom’s.”

  “I can’t believe we forgot that.” Tessa nudges Raza, who rushes over to fix the banners hanging on one wall. “Thank you.” Tessa curtsies. Olivia curtsies. The rest of the girls curtsy. I do the same and fall into Jax, who catches me.

  “It’s all in the balance,” Jax explains. “As you bend from the knees, pretend you’re about to sit back in a chair.”

  “Forget the curtsy,” I say through gritted teeth.

  “You clean up nicely, thief.” Jax touches my pink sash and the pink ribbon wrapped around my uniform waist. I self-consciously touch my head. My hair is pulled into another side ponytail courtesy of Olivia who has given me a pink flower for my hair. “You could definitely pass for a royal.”

  My cheeks burn. “I could never be a royal.” I fiddle with the rose pin I got at my ceremony. “I’m just playing a part to get information.” Olivia walks by with a box of dishes and I frown. “Olivia, those are the bread plates, not the tea biscuit ones. You need the plates with the small gold rim for scones.” Her goblin ears flutter before she rushes back out of the room to the RLW storage closet to get the right plates.

  Jax clears his throat. “Yes, I can see you’re doing a great job pretending.”

  I pull him behind a giant standing floral arrangement. “Princess Rose is always talking about power being in the hands of the people, not the royal court. It’s sort of empowering, you know? Why should the princesses get to decide what happens in the village? They don’t live there. We know better what rules need to be made for ourselves.”

  Jax raises his right eyebrow. “How much pink fruit punch have you had at these meetings? Like Wolfington always says, kingdoms need a leader to guide them and that’s what the princesses in the royal court do. They’ve faced evil and know how to fight it. Alva won’t give the people power. All she cares abou
t is her vendetta.”

  “If the royal court cared about us, they’d protect FTRS, but they’re not,” I point out. “At least Alva is offering people protection!” I clap a hand over my mouth and sit down again. “Maybe I have drunk too much pink fruit punch.”

  “It’s the rose scent in here.” Jax wrinkles his nose. “It’s overpowering. Let’s get you outside for some fresh air.”

  I shake my head. “Princess Rose will be here any moment. I can’t leave.”

  Jax sighs. “We need your help. The mole has gotten to the ogres. What’s Alva going to find out next? If someone keeps feeding her information, she’s going to learn FTRS is protected by Rumpel and then she’ll try to squash that deal too. We’re running out of time.”

  “That’s why I’m here,” I say. “To find out who the mole is. They’re always talking about the manifesto in this club. Someone has to know the mole.” I glance at Olivia. “Olivia! Rose wants pink swan napkins, not knots!”

  Jax doesn’t look convinced. “Is that why you didn’t tell us what you were up to?” I’m quiet. “I miss my partner in crime.” I blush. “Doing dirty work is not the same without your help, thief. Why’d you keep this club a secret?”

  “I…I don’t know why I didn’t tell you,” I say, and Jax stares me down. “Fine! I didn’t tell you because I thought I could find the mole on my own, okay?” He makes a face. “But now that I’m here, it’s not as awful as I thought it would be.” I feel my face grow hot. I can’t believe I just sort of said I like the RLWs. I have drunk too much pink punch!

  Jax is quiet. “This doesn’t sound like the thief I know. Neither does the conversation Jocelyn says she and Maxine overheard between you and Olivia.”