Dragon Dreams (4 page)

No points for me. Not only did I fall asleep and NOT feel the rocks under my mattresses—I didn’t even wake up when I fell off.

Chapter 5

At
last it’s time for an event I might have a chance of doing okay in: the Academy’s Royal Dog Show.

Princess Jordan prances past with her fluffy poodle… which looks just like a furry puffball to me, but the judges give her a seven.

Princess Moriah poses with her dainty whippet, and Princess Laura sweeps by with her glossy afghan. The judges look im-pressed and give them each a score of eight.

Then Princess Alex glides past with her sleek greyhound. The crowd oohs and ahhs. She gets a perfect ten!

It’s almost my turn. Which of my dogs should I enter? I bend down to pet my pug
Harold and my Chihuahua Lola. Harold smiles at me with his googly eyes. I look at the other dogs and I look at Harold. Um… maybe not. I’ll take Lola. She’s really tiny. She’s got a smooth coat and short fur. She’s perfect! Whew.

Except I forget one important thing… Lola thinks big dogs—which is
every
dog compared to a Chihuahua—are furry monsters. We walk into the ring, and Lola becomes a Mexican jumping bean!

No points for me again. Plus it takes Princess Laura and me—
and
two judges—to catch Lola.

My team is in trouble, and it’s all my fault. There’s only one test left. The judges announce the True Princess Contest. It’s the most important and the hardest! Each
of us will be called forward to choose a card with a challenging princess problem on it. Then we have to figure out a way to solve the problem. The princes from our brother academy are going to help out.

I bite my lip. I’m so nervous, I don’t think I’ll be able to pick a card. “I can do this,” I say to no one in particular, but I don’t sound all that convincing.

Princess Jordan just picked her card. At her feet, Prince Collin kneels with the glass slipper. I look at the dainty shoe. Boy, would I rather wear high-tops! The slipper sparkles in the light. The sun glints off it, right into Princess Jordan’s eyes. She’s going to
step
on the glass slipper. We all gasp.

I whip my favorite rock star sunglasses out of my pocket and pass them to her.
Whew! That was close. As she slips her foot into the shoe, Princess Jordan smiles at me.

Rapunzel picks “trapped in a tower.” We hold our breath. She’s afraid of heights!
Plus, with her new short hair, she’s stuck! I try to climb the tower to help her, but the walls are too smooth. Just when I get a little ways up, I start to slip back down. Princess Sarah gives me a push, but I still can’t get high enough. Time is running out.

I see Princess Moriah starting her turn. The judge hands her a frog. Moriah squeezes her eyes shut.

Smooch.

Nothing happens…

She closes her eyes again.

SMOOCH.

The frog stays green and Moriah starts to turn red.

Things get even worse. Rapunzel’s still trapped, Moriah’s not having any luck with the frog, and Princess Alex just fell for the oldest trick in the spell
book: She pricked her finger on a spinning wheel! I run around looking for a prince to wake her with a kiss, but suddenly they’re all busy doing something else.
Boys!

Chapter 6