Carlos held his breath as Evie scurried to the edge of the roof and grabbed on to the top of the hazelberry tree. With one hand supporting her weight on the trunk of the tree, she leaned forward, and with the other hand, reached toward the nearest hanging bunch of hazelberry. But she couldn’t seem to reach, so she took another step toward the edge of the roof.
And that’s when one of her ankles twisted at a strange angle and Evie started to fall forward.
Evie screamed.
Jane screamed.
Even Carlos screamed.
Evie caught the tree trunk with her free hand, stopping herself from tumbling over the edge of the building. She was now positioned at a terrifying angle, her feet standing unsteadily on the roof, her body completely horizontal, suspended over the ground, and her hands clutching the trunk of the tree. If her grip were to give out or her feet were to slip, she would most certainly fall.
Gulping, Carlos glanced at the ground below. It was so far. He squeezed Jane’s hand back.
“Don’t worry!” Evie called out again. “I still got this!”
But now Carlos wasn’t so sure if that was true. “Just come back inside!” he called back to her.
But Evie didn’t seem to want to listen. Carlos watched her shuffle her feet closer to the edge of the roof and lean even farther forward toward the tree. Then she stretched one hand out and reached for the hazelberry.
“What is she doing?” Jane whispered anxiously to Carlos.
“I think she’s still going for the fruit!”
“Oh, gosh, no!” Jane exclaimed.
“Evie!” Carlos called out. “Just leave it! It’s not worth it!”
But Evie was ignoring her team captain again. And in that moment, Carlos realized it wasn’t because he was a bad leader. Evie was just a very bad follower. The girl operated entirely on her own.
Carlos watched, paralyzed, from the window as Evie’s grasp finally hooked around the hazelberry and she gave it a yank. The fruit came free, but the jerking motion seemed to throw Evie off-balance. She swayed a bit and Jane sucked in her breath.
But Evie was quickly able to right herself. She slowly brought her hand to her pocket and placed the hazelberry inside.
“How on earth is she going to get back now?” Jane asked Carlos, but Carlos just shook his head. He had no idea. He just hoped Evie knew the answer to that question.
And, apparently, she did. She placed both hands back on the bark of the tree, and with a grunt and a heave, pushed hard against the tree trunk.
In the next instant, time stood still. Carlos fought the urge to close his eyes. For a moment, Evie seemed to be suspended in midair, as though she were flying high above the ground.
“I can’t look!” Jane said, turning to bury her head in Carlos’s shoulder. Carlos gently rubbed her back, trying to soothe her fears. But he could do nothing to calm his own fears. If Evie fell, he’d never forgive himself.
Carlos heard a crash, and he blinked and focused back on the roof. Evie had managed to push herself all the way back until she was sitting on the slanted roof.
She tried to stand up, but her ankle must have been hurting from the strange twist. She quickly lost her balance and sat back down.
She’s not going to make it back here, Carlos thought with dread. She’s going to be stuck out on that roof. They’d have to tell Fairy Godmother. Fairy Godmother would have to send a helicopter or something to help pull her inside.
Pull her inside.
The words bounced around in Carlos’s brain before finally settling down somewhere they made sense.
“That’s it!” he shouted, startling Jane. “Evie, stay right there!”
He backed away from her and ran over to his bed. He pulled all the blankets and sheets off and began to tie the ends of them together.
“What are you doing?” Jane asked.
“I’m making sure my best friend doesn’t fall off that roof,” Carlos said.
Jane’s gaze fell to the makeshift rope Carlos was constructing and her eyes lit up with recognition. “Oh! Of course! I’ll help.” She ran to Jay’s bed and stripped his sheets, tying the ends together, creating her own rope. Then she found the end of Carlos’s rope and joined the two together with a tight knot.
Carlos dragged the giant rope toward the window and flung it outside. The end landed close enough for Evie to reach. “Grab hold!” Carlos commanded, and thankfully, this time Evie obeyed.
She clutched the end of the rope and Carlos and Jane heaved and heaved, looking like sailors pulling an anchor from the water. Finally, Evie made it to the window and collapsed back inside the dorm room.
She lay on the floor for a long moment, trying to catch her breath and composure. Then she sat up and pulled the hazelberry from her pocket. “I think this item needs to be worth two thousand points.”
And Carlos, Evie, and Jane all burst into laughter.
It’s down to the wire. We really need a miracle.
There were now exactly thirteen minutes left until the annual Auradon Prep Scavenger Hunt ended. Evie and Jane peered over Carlos’s shoulder, looking at the list on his phone.
“It’s a lost cause,” Carlos said with a sigh. “With the wooden puppet, the glass slipper, and the hazelberry, we only have thirty-five points. I know for a fact that Jay’s team has at least fifty-five, probably more. So unless one of us can figure out what a violet-gold pixie fork is and how to get one in the next thirteen minutes, we’re going to lose.”
He shut off the screen of his phone and returned it to his pocket. Then he turned to his team. “I’m sorry to let you all down,” he said, lowering his head. “But I don’t think there’s a stone with our names on it this year.”
Evie rushed forward to comfort Carlos. “Hey, it’s okay. We did our best. That’s all that matters.”
Carlos dug the toe of his shoe into the carpet. He knew Evie was right. It didn’t matter if they won or lost; what mattered was that they had worked hard and stuck together as a team. But still, Carlos really wanted to win this.
“I wonder what a violet-gold pixie fork is anyway,” Carlos muttered. “I can’t find it anywhere online. Fairy Godmother probably put it on the list as a distraction. It probably doesn’t even exist.”
“It exists.” Jane’s voice was soft and tentative, and Carlos and Evie both swung their gazes toward their friend who, up until that moment, had been suspiciously quiet.
“What?” Carlos asked.
Jane looked at her feet. “Fairies use them at weddings. They’re a very special utensil used for very special occasions.”
“How do you know that?” Evie asked, stepping toward Jane.
Jane still refused to look either of them in the eye. “Because Carina Potts has a jarful of them in her supply closet. I had to inventory the whole thing last summer. I counted them one by one.” She let out a sad chuckle. “Which was hard because they’re very tiny.”
Carlos was shocked. “You mean you knew where to find one all of this time and you didn’t say anything?”
Jane’s eyes filled with tears. “Only because I knew it was a lost cause. Carina Potts doesn’t like me. Plus, she’s probably too busy and important to take my calls anyway.”
“Jane,” Evie began tenderly. “That can’t be true. I can’t imagine anyone not liking you.”
“Well, she doesn’t,” Jane said somewhat bitterly. “I worked so hard for her and she never even paid me a single compliment. She never even said thank you!”
All that time, Carlos had remained silent. Jane must have thought he was mad at her for keeping the secret, because she said, “I’m sorry, Carlos. I’m really sorry.”
But Carlos wasn’t mad. At least not at Jane. He was, however, furious at Carina Potts. How dare she make Jane feel that way! Jane was the sweetest, most hardworking person Carlos knew. And if Carina Potts was too blind to see that, then Carlos would make her see that.
“Where is her office?” Carlos said. His voice was calm. Controlle
d. Despite the frustration that was boiling up inside him.
“Carlos,” Jane protested, “it’s not worth it. We don’t have much time left now. There’s no way you’re going to be able to—”
“Where is it?” Carlos insisted.
Jane surrendered with a sigh. “It’s downtown. But it’s not worth even—”
Carlos didn’t allow Jane to finish. He was already out the door. He was already running down the hallway. He could hear Jane calling out behind him, telling him to stop. But he wouldn’t stop. Jane was his friend. His teammate. Carlos was her captain. And Fairy Godmother was right. A leader protects his team.
I’m feeling riled up, but I’m gonna play it cool. I’m gonna be composed. I’m gonna tell Carina Potts exactly what’s on my mind. But I’m not going to lose my temper.
When Carlos arrived at the Potts Parties office in downtown Auradon, he had already worked out what he was going to say. He refused to handle things the way his mother handled things. He refused to shout and rant and throw his arms in the air. He would be calm, but firm.
Jane and Evie arrived a few moments after him, breathless from trying to keep up. “Carlos, please don’t do this,” Jane said. “It’s not worth even trying to talk to her.”
“She owes you a favor,” Carlos said simply. Then he marched right into the building, right past the receptionist at the front desk who tried to stop him, and right into Carina Potts’s office.
Carina was a thin, stern-looking woman with white-blond hair and icy blue eyes. She didn’t smile when Carlos barged in. She just peered at him over the top of her red-rimmed glasses and said in a sharp voice, “Yes? Can I help you?”
Carlos stood up taller and pushed his shoulders back. He’d never felt more like a leader than he did at this moment. “I’m friends with Jane. Your intern from last summer.”
Carina opened her mouth to speak, but Carlos cut her off with a raise of his hand and said, “I’ll be the one speaking, thank you.”
Carina fell silent, looking slightly baffled.
“Regardless of what you think of Jane, she worked hard for you. You will most likely never hire an intern as dedicated, organized, and efficient as Jane. I don’t know why you never paid her a single compliment. Maybe you just fail to recognize talent when you see it, but I don’t. I recognize it. Jane is one of the most talented people I’ve ever met. And if you can’t see that, then it’s your loss. Not hers.”
Carina stared blankly at Carlos, as though he were speaking a foreign language. Carlos glanced behind him, looking for Jane, but he didn’t see her anywhere. He wondered if she had lost her nerve and stayed out in the lobby.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Carina responded flatly a moment later.
Carlos’s mouth fell open. He reminded himself to stay collected. Stay cool. “I’m talking about your intern from last summer. I can’t believe you don’t even remember—”
“Of course, I remember Jane,” Carina said, shaking her head. “What I mean is, I don’t know what you’re talking about when you accuse me of not recognizing talent. Jane was hands-down the best intern I’ve ever had.” Then Carina’s voice softened and she removed her glasses. “I’m sorry about the compliment thing. Sometimes I get so busy, I forget to tell people what an excellent job they’re doing. It’s something I’m working on. If you see Jane, would you please tell her how much I appreciate her? And if she’s ever interested in interning for me again, I would hire her in a heartbeat.”
Carlos was so shocked by Carina’s unexpected response that he just stood there, speechless, staring at her for a long time.
Then a tiny faraway voice said, “I would love to intern for you again.”
Carlos and Carina both startled, and Carlos turned around to see Jane walking through the door. She must have been hiding just outside, listening.
Carina smiled, revealing perfect white teeth. “Jane! It’s so good to see you again. I’ve missed you. My supply closet has fallen into complete disarray since you left.”
Jane cracked a small smile. “I’d be happy to come organize it for you anytime.”
Carlos glanced at the clock on his phone. Three minutes until the hunt was over.
“Um, Jane,” he said, gesturing to the time.
Jane nodded, clearing her throat. When she spoke again, she sounded confident and self-assured. Nothing like the girl she’d been only a few minutes before. “Carina,” she said, “would it be possible to ask you for a small favor?”
Carina’s blue eyes sparkled and Carlos’s hopes soared up to the roof. “Anything for you, Jane.”
Phew! We made it back in the nick of time. Just as the buzzer rang!
The entire student body of Auradon Prep was assembled in the banquet hall. Everyone was chattering animatedly about the hunt. About the points they’d scored, which item had been the hardest to acquire, and which had been the easiest.
Carlos and his team had just managed to snap the photograph of the violet-gold pixie fork in Carina’s supply closet before racing back to the school.
They collapsed into chairs at one of the dining tables and Carlos let out a sigh of relief. They’d made it. They’d ended the hunt with a whopping sixty points, which Carlos thought was quite a feat, given that for the majority of the day they’d only had ten.
“All right, everyone!” Fairy Godmother announced, holding her hands in the air to gather the students’ attention. “Settle down. Settle down. I trust you all had an action-packed scavenger hunt today. Let’s tally up the points and see who has won. If you would kindly send your photos to the school server now.”
Carlos flipped through the photos on his phone, quickly selecting the ones that documented their points—the wooden puppet, the glass slipper, the hazelberry, and the violet-gold pixie fork—and clicking the button to upload them to the Auradon Prep server. As the photos zoomed off, Carlos smiled. He was happy with the way the day had turned out. He felt accomplished. Carlos had no idea if sixty points was enough to win, but he was proud of those sixty points anyway.
“Okay!” Fairy Godmother said about five minutes later, after the photos from all the teams had been uploaded. She glanced at the screen of her tablet. “It looks like we had a close hunt this year, but I have the top three teams here, ready to be announced.” Fairy Godmother cleared her throat dramatically and peered at her tablet. “In third place…is Jordan, Ben, and Chad, with sixty-five points!”
Carlos’s heart immediately sunk.
Sixty-five points.
They hadn’t even made it into the top three. Carlos’s team only had sixty points. Jane and Evie immediately tried to make him feel better. “I’m sorry, Carlos,” Jane said, rubbing his shoulder. “It just wasn’t our year.”
“Yeah,” Evie added, putting her arm around Carlos and giving him a squeeze. “There’s always next year.”
Carlos laughed at their efforts. “You guys. I’m fine. Seriously. I had fun today.”
And it was the truth. He did have fun. And he was fine. Sure, he would have liked to win. He would have liked to make it into the top three. But in the end, it didn’t matter. He’d found the leader in himself and that was enough.
Jordan, Ben, and Chad hurried to the front of the banquet hall to accept their award—a blue-and-gold ribbon commemorating their achievement. As the crowd cheered and Jordan bowed and basked in the attention, Carlos pulled out his phone again and flipped through the photos from the day, remembering all of the moments his team had shared.
There were the five photos of them unsuccessfully attempting to capture their pose in the window of Belle’s Boutique. Three of Carlos dragging Evie into the window while Evie typed into her phone, and two of Jane mid-sneeze. He chuckled at the memory. Even thought he was bummed they never got one of all three of them together in the window, at least he could laugh at how silly the pictures were.
Then there was the photo of Carlos and Henry, the boy they’d found crying in the train station and helped reunite
with his mother. In that picture, Henry was grinning up at the camera in his Carlos-style pants and adorable oversized RAD REP T-shirt. He really did look like he’d just met a celebrity.
“And in second place,” Fairy Godmother announced, causing Carlos to look up, “is Jay, Mal, and Lonnie, with seventy points!”
Seventy points!
They’d only lost to Jay’s team by ten points! Carlos felt a squeeze in his chest as he glanced from Jay and his team to the photo of Henry on his phone. That Auradon Express ticket was worth twenty points, which meant if they hadn’t stopped to help Henry find his mother, they would have ended the game with eighty points and they might have won.
“And in first place, with seventy-five points…” Fairy Godmother said theatrically.
Carlos sighed. They definitely would have won. They would have had eighty points. The first place team got seventy-five! He continued to stare down at the picture. At the huge grin on Henry’s face. He supposed it was all worth it. Carlos may not have been a hero in the annual Auradon Prep Scavenger Hunt, but he was a hero in the eyes of this boy. Henry looked so happy to be standing next to Carlos.
“Carlos, Jane, and Evie!” a voice said, and suddenly, the room erupted in applause. For a moment, Carlos didn’t know what was happening. Why had that voice said their names? Why was everyone turning to him and clapping? Why was Jane jumping up and down?
“We won!” Jane exclaimed. “We did it!”
Carlos shook his head. There must have been some kind of mistake. They hadn’t won. They hadn’t collected seventy-five points; they’d only collected sixty. Had there been a miscalculation? Had Fairy Godmother accidentally counted those items Carlos had collected using the dog collar? But that seemed impossible. He’d deleted those photos from his phone. There was no evidence of them.
“Carlos?” Jane said. Carlos blinked and tried to focus on her face. But it was too hard with all the yelling and clapping.
“I have to tell her,” he said dazedly, pushing his way to the front of the room, “There’s been a mistake. I have to tell her.”