Tricked

  I don’t like his tone. “Listen, Rump, maybe—”

  He starts shouting so loudly that I fall back into my chair. “It’s Mr. Stiltskin! Don’t ever call me Rump!” he says wickedly, and I feel a shiver run down my spine. His face is red, and his voice is so deep I can’t believe it’s coming from his small body. “I’ve been patient with you and your ridiculous reasoning about your sister, but this is my school now, and if I say she’s sentenced, she’s sentenced. So watch your tone, or I won’t even let you see her before you leave. Are we clear?”

  I glance at my parents and wait for Father to stand up for me, but he’s just eating another muffin! They merely frown at me as if I said something inappropriate. Thankfully, Jax looks as horrified. The room feels warmer, and I’m suddenly sweating. “I’m sorry, Mr. Stiltskin,” I say softly, and he sits back down.

  “Good girl.” Rumpelstiltskin wipes his brow with a handkerchief. “See how easy it was to listen?”

  “It’s settled then,” Father says, licking chocolate off his fingers. “Anna stays here and learns how to… Wow. What do you put in these muffins, Mr. Stiltskin?”

  Mr. Stiltskin smiles as he walks across his desk and reaches into a drawer. He pulls out a scroll and a pamphlet entitled Magic and Mischief: Why They Shouldn’t Mix. “It’s an old family recipe. I’ll be sure to have Anna bake you some and send them since I did away with visitation day.”

  “May I ask why, sir?” Jax asks as I clench my fists.

  “The former headmistress was lax,” Stiltskin says. “Children got away with mischief, and the school was far too vulnerable—wicked fairies were breaking in and setting fire to buildings, not to mention threatening the lives of students and villagers. Now that I’m here, order will be restored. This is the safest place to be in Enchantasia.”

  “Makes sense,” Father says, and then he signs away Anna without even reading the contract. Mother does the same. “Shall we go?”

  Rumpelstiltskin smiles thinly. “I’ve packed you extra muffins for your journey home. And look for scroll updates from me about Anna’s welfare. Miri!” he barks. “Please send Anna Cobbler in to say a brief good-bye.”

  Anna steps into the room wearing Fairy Tale Reform School’s pale-blue uniform. Gone is the tough-girl attitude I’ve seen lately. Right now, she looks scared. When she sees Mother and Father, she bursts into tears. Mother hugs her.

  “Oh now, child,” Mr. Stiltskin says. “Don’t be sad! You’re going to fit in nicely here. Now say good-bye.”

  “Gilly?” Anna reaches for me uncertainly.

  “I’m here!” I step forward, but Stiltskin blocks my path.

  “We’ll take good care of her.” Rumpelstiltskin nudges my parents, Jax, and me to the door. “Anna? Let’s go now, dear.” He motions for my sister to move through a new doorway that appears in the office.

  “Wait!” I cry, trying to get to her. I push Stiltskin, but he holds me back. Father grabs my hand and tries to pull me out the door to where Jax and Mother are waiting.

  “Gilly, I—” Anna starts to say.

  She’s through the door before she can finish the sentence. My last image of my sister is her teary face as Stiltskin closes the door behind us, a look of satisfaction written on his face.

  CHAPTER 5

  Don’t Be a Heel

  Something isn’t right.

  It’s been three days, and Mother and Father haven’t mentioned Anna once since we left Stiltskin’s office. My Pegasus Posts to Anna keep coming back—apparently he’s halted those too—and I can’t reach anyone at FTRS to find out what’s going on with my sister. I’ve tried repeatedly to talk some sense into my parents, but they keep changing the subject and talking about their silly FTRS gift bags. Mother has been wearing an apron around the boot that says “Mr. Stiltskin has the Recipe for Success at FTRS!” while Father has been showing everyone his school handkerchief with the Fairy Tale Reform School crest printed on it. Han, Hamish, and Trixie ate the chocolate rhubarb muffins before I could stop them. Now everyone is walking around the boot saying things like, “Rumpelstiltskin is going to make Enchantasia great again.”

  For the love of Grimm, how can my family be so easily tricked?

  I feel as mad as a hatter. I need to do something, so I send Jax a Pegasus Post asking him to meet up with me before the ball tonight. Now I’m sitting on a stack of magic carpets for sale at the local Arabian Nights shop. I can see him coming from a distance. He looks every bit the prince in a gold-and-royal-blue double-breasted jacket and gold pantaloons.

  I jump up and grab his hand. “We have to break into Fairy Tale Reform School and steal Anna and our friends,” I blurt out. “If we leave now, we can steal a few Pegasi and be flying over the Rootrum Mountains before bedtime.” I pull on his arm. “Come on!”

  “Whoa.” Jax digs in his heels. “Let’s think this through, thief. Stiltskin has the school under a protection charm. We can’t break in, and even if we could, he’ll know we’re there and capture us before we even make it to the dorms—or send out people to hunt us down. This plan will end badly.”

  “It won’t,” I insist, but I know in my heart he’s right. I plop down on the magic carpets again. Jax sits next to me, and the top rug begins to lift off the ground.

  I try to remember how to will the carpet back to the ground like we learned in Magic Carpet Racing Club. “Hey! Rug! You’ve got a prince on here, and you’re going to make him late to his own ball!” The carpet doesn’t listen.

  “I don’t think you’re supposed to talk to it like that.” Jax pets the rug like it’s a dog. “Thanks for the ride, but we both have plans, so do you think you could descend?”

  The carpet begins to lower ever so slightly, then shoots back up.

  “Great. This rug belongs at Fairy Tale Reform School like the rest of us,” I grumble. “Hope you like muffins!” I shout at the carpet.

  The store owner must hear me because he runs out of the shop. “Don’t worry, you’re tethered. Blue will set you down when he’s good and ready.” I look down and see the rug is tied to a wheel on the ground far below.

  “Great. Now I’ve made you late.” I sigh. I thumb the rug’s Oriental pattern of royal blues, greens, and gold.

  “I’m sure no one will even know I’m missing,” Jax says. “Besides, it’s more important I stick with you and keep you from doing something foolish. You can’t break back into FTRS.”

  “Yes I can,” I say stubbornly.

  “Can’t,” Jax insists.

  “What am I going to do? Leave everyone we care about to turn rotten under Stiltskin’s rule?” The rug bucks at the mention of Stiltskin. I give it a pat. Good boy.

  “No, but we need an actual plan before we go charging to the rescue,” Jax says. “I told you something was up at FTRS. Why didn’t you write back when I wrote about Stiltskin being seen there?”

  “I have a life outside of FTRS, you know,” I say defensively. So why are you so bored? a little voice asks.

  A teakettle whistle blows, and I know it’s the end of the workday. A few blocks away, Father is probably closing up the shop. Below, the shopkeeper begins taking in the magic carpets stacked near us. The Pegasus valet stand is putting the animals in the stables. The only area that is still hopping is the seaport. Hundreds of fireflies are lighting the way up the ramp of the largest sailing ship I’ve ever seen. It makes Blackbeard’s look miniature. I can hear the music from here, and I picture royals and guests dancing in lavish outfits. Jax is watching the party too, and suddenly I feel the need to come clean to my friend.

  “The truth is, I didn’t write you because I was trying to fit in at home,” I say quietly. “But nothing was how I remembered it. Anna was already hanging with Hansel and Gretel. The rest of my family was busy with their own interests.” I look at the ship. “I thought I could go back to my old life, but…” I trail off.


  “You couldn’t go back to the way things were before,” Jax replies as if he’s reading my thoughts. “And when you’re being honest with yourself, you’re not sure you’d even want to. Pretending nothing’s different just makes you feel—”

  “Trapped,” we say at the same time and look at each other.

  Is Jax bored with Royal Academy and life at Royal Manor?

  Could he miss Fairy Tale Reform School too?

  The carpet rises higher until the rope stops us.

  “It doesn’t matter what we think,” I realize. “We can’t go back to FTRS either. You heard Stiltskin. Flora obviously thought we were trouble. She said we had something called a hero complex.”

  “You can’t believe a trickster like him,” Jax reminds me. “We all know he stole that school from Flora. He’ll say anything to make you feel bad about yourself. We helped save that school and everyone in it.”

  “But look who’s running it now,” I say with a sigh. “And we’ve got no way to stop him from out here.”

  “We’d need a bigger crew to pull off something like that,” Jax agrees. “Ollie’s at sea, and Kayla, Jocelyn, and Maxine are in FTRS. We can’t do this alone.” We stare in silence at the busy seaport. I can hear laughter, but the party feels so far away. Even the fireworks seem to have lost their luster. Anna is stuck in a Flora-less FTRS with Rumpelstiltskin, and I can’t help her.

  “Blue!” the shopkeeper calls up to us. “Come on down! It’s time to go in.”

  If the rug understands, it’s not listening.

  “Come on, Blue!” the shopkeeper tries again. “My wife wants to watch the ball from the docks. I need to get home!”

  I lean forward to ask the shopkeeper what we can do to help and feel something fall out of my apron pocket. I catch it just before it falls over the edge of the rug.

  “What’s that?” Jax asks as I hold it up to the dimming light.

  “Jocelyn slipped it to me at school.” I put it in my apron for safekeeping. Now that I can look at it, I realize it’s a glass slipper heel. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with it. It’s not like a heel is going to be able to help us get into Fairy Tale Reform School.”

  Jax smirks. “Maybe we’re supposed to throw it at Stiltskin’s head.”

  We both laugh so hard that we practically fall off the carpet. Blue rolls up his edges to keep us from plunging several stories.

  Jax puts his head in his hands. “Crumb cake, this is bad. We have no way to help our friends or your sister, and now we’re stuck hovering above Enchantasia on a carpet that won’t land.”

  “Maybe the heel will help us,” I joke. I put my lips up to the heel and start to giggle madly. “Heel, think you can help us come up with a way to get back into FTRS without getting thrown out again? And while you’re at it, can you find Ollie and have him help us? Thanks.”

  Suddenly, I feel the carpet start to rumble, then sway back and forth. We both stop laughing and hold on as the carpet tugs hard on the rope beneath us.

  “Blue, don’t even think about it!” the shopkeeper warns.

  Blue gives another hard tug, then breaks free and takes off like a firework toward the seaport. It’s all Jax and I can do to hold on to the carpet’s edges for dear life. I close my eyes as Blue dives left, then right, shooting through the nearly empty streets. When I open them, Blue is flying over rooftops and stables before we glide straight toward Dwarf Police Squad headquarters where I see Pete’s horse tied up out front.

  “Blue! What are you doing?” I ask the rug as it flies directly at the headquarters’ front door.

  “We’re going to crash!” Jax shouts.

  We close our eyes and prepare for impact, but it doesn’t come. When I open my eyes again, I see Pete running outside. He looks up at the rug, and Blue dives for him. The three of us scream as the carpet grazes Pete’s head and knocks off what appears to be a toupee. Fiddlesticks. We’re in trouble now.

  Instead of flying off, Blue circles Pete over and over, refusing to let him bend down and grab his toupee. Pete’s horse gets so worked up that it breaks free of its reins and gallops down the street.

  “Gilly Cobbler!” Pete holds up a fist as Blue flies away. “I’ll get you for this! Stealing magic carpets! Taunting an officer! You too, Jax Porter! Royal or no royal! That’s one demerit! One more and you’re sentenced to Fairy Tale Reform School again!”

  Jax and I look at each other in awe.

  I think Blue is trying to help us get thrown back in!

  Jax pets the rug. “Nice job, Blue! What’s next?” The carpet rocks right, then left, narrowly missing laundry that is hanging across the alleyway we’ve turned down.

  “I think Blue is headed for the ball!” Jax says. “Ready to crash a party?”

  Oh boy. Jax will get in so much trouble for this. I can see the Happily Ever After Scrolls headline already. “Jax, you should jump off or land on a rooftop and get away. Your father and sister will turn you into a gingerbread man!”

  Jax’s hair whips around his face. “No way! We’re in this together. The only way to help everyone is from the inside, and the only way in is to flunk out.”

  I grin. We’re a team. A team that is about to cause mischief at a royal gathering where that fancy schmancy Jax was with the other day is probably partying.

  This is goblin-tastic.

  “Okay, if we’re going to do this, we need some supplies,” I say. “Blue, let’s make a stop at Red’s.” The rug makes a sharp right turn, and a peddler dives out of the way, throwing an armful of maps into the air. A map hits me in the face as we whiz by. I pull it off my nose and look at it. The Mystery of the Goose and the Golden Egg. I stuff the map in my pocket. Stealing is another FTRS offense. I can’t wait to tell Pete!

  Blue comes in for a soft landing next to a pile of open boxes on Red’s Ready for Anything rooftop. Anna and her friends must not have set everything off before they were caught, and her loss is our gain. Jax and I jump off the rug and grab smoke bombs, skunk-scented confetti blasters, noisemakers, and fart guns (which have been known to ward off angry trolls; they hate the smell). Then we hop back on the carpet and take off again, headed straight toward the ship.

  It’s actually quite pretty, I realize, as we barrel toward the royal vessel. The ship has massive blue-and-pink sails and is detailed with gold adornments and carvings. Tapestries with the royal court crest hang from the rafters, along with pink and gold streamers. Jax and I duck when we see the Dwarf Police Squad patrolling the docks, but the dwarfs don’t think to look up, and we fly right past them.

  “Come in as close as you can, Blue,” Jax says. “And don’t stop flying!”

  The carpet rolls up the top right corner and seems to high-five Jax as it listens to his command. We circle high overhead as the band Gnome-More plays on the deck.

  “There’s Rapunzel,” says Jax, pointing out the princess, who is swaying to the music alongside Princess Snow and some goblin princesses. “Sorry, Sis.” Jax drops a smoke bomb onto the deck, and it explodes in dark-gray smoke.

  I’m next with a skunk-scented confetti bomb that rains down on the deck, making people cough and head for cover. Yes!

  Next, Blue flies to the other end of the ship, and I see Princess Ella partying with a group of fairies on her shoulders. She looks lovely in her signature blue gown, and I feel almost bad about what we’re going to do. I shoot the fart blaster into the air, and the sound makes everyone jump. That’s when Jax drops another smoke bomb.

  Blue takes off toward the crow’s nest to survey the damage below. The beautiful party is going haywire. But haywire is not enough.

  “Ready to do your worst?” I prepare a few more skunk confetti bombs.

  “Definitely.” Jax sets off a firework. “Blue, let’s make mayhem!”

  The party deck is crowded as Blue does a vertical drop, then pulls up ju
st in time to swipe the tops of people’s heads. We knock over fountains and swipe food off tables. People dive to the ground as Blue darts at goblins running in every direction. Rapunzel looks up just in time to see Jax pull a crown off a visiting prince’s head and toss it overboard. I grab the cake off someone’s plate as we whisk by, then look around for my next target. I smile when I see the rude fancy-schmancy from the other day.

  “Blue, that way!” I say, pointing at the girl nearby. She catches sight of me seconds before I reach out and smush cake in her face. Gingerbread, that feels good!

  “Gilly! Jax! No!” Rapunzel cries as Jax sends a cake hurling into the crowd, along with more fart gun blasts and skunk-confetti bombs. Next, we fly by the crow’s nest again and set off fireworks.

  People are running in all directions now. The Gnome-More musicians abandon their instruments and jump overboard. The Dwarf Police Squad has finally spotted us, but they can’t catch us at this height, which is good because I can’t decide: Have we been bad enough yet to be sentenced?

  “We need a big finish,” I say as Blue flies around the ship again. “Something that really shows we belong in reform school.”

  Jax drops a soufflé in the lap of the King of Captiva. “Like what?”

  Suddenly, I see the boat begin to sway. Rapunzel and Snow grab for the deck rails as the ship rocks like it is in the middle of a major storm. Blue flies out of the way of a rafter that sways dangerously close to us. We pull up just in time to see a pirate ship barrel toward the royal vessel at warp speed. Uh-oh.

  “Abandon ship!” I cry in a panic to the guests still on board.

  Rapunzel grabs Snow’s and Ella’s hands, and the three jump into the waters below. The remaining guests do the same as the pirate ship crunches into the vessel, breaking three rafters and sending the remaining flags into the sea. When the dust and the smoke clear, a short, dark-skinned boy wearing a bandanna and an eye patch jumps to the bow of his ship and looks around. When he sees us, he waves.

  “Flapjacks, you guys are really here!” Ollie shouts. He’s got dirt on his chin, his white shirt and vest are in tatters, and his pirate pants are torn up. He’s definitely seen some action since we last saw him. “I got your distress call!” he says, and Jax and I look at each other in bewilderment.