Flunked (11 page)

Kayla wipes sweat from her brow. “The hallways weren't working right, and I couldn't find my way to the gym. It's no big deal.” She sounds testy again, so I let it drop.

Harlow adjusts the tiara on her head as she walks our way. “Sorry to interrupt your tea party, ladies, but I'm speaking,” she whispers. “Students, please turn to the person to your left and prepare for an assault.” I look at her blankly. “Jocelyn?” Harlow says, sounding bored.

Jocelyn sighs. “That's fencing speak for a friendly battle, Cobbler.”

“Sweet! I love friendly battles!” Ollie turns to Jax at the same time I do. “Aww, dude. Tell me I turned right instead of left?”

“You turned right instead of left,” we say and he turns the other way.

Jax grins like he's won our duel before he's even lifted a sword.

“Nice try, but you're going down.” I rest my hand on my sword.

“You don't even know how to use that thing,” Jax says.

“And you do?” I joke. He probably does. He's been here longer than me.

“We're going to start with a balestra followed by a lunge and then—” Harlow is cut off by the sound of a crash from above that sends glass raining down on the room. Jax and I put our hands over our heads and duck for cover, and that's when I hear the screeching.

Gargoyles
. My stomach lurches as my classmates begin to scream and run in different directions. A few are pulled into the air by the beasties and I hear the red-alert siren sound just like it did that day in Wolfington's class.

This time it's definitely not a drill.

I immediately start to cough as a thick purple fog fills the room.

We're done for.

I'll never see my siblings again.

I'll never get to say I'm sorry to Anna for stealing that clip on her birthday.

I'll never get to make Mother and Father proud of me.

The last thought startles me. I didn't even know I cared what Father thought of me. I need to find a way to still make that happen. I can't worry about what's going on with Flora or Madame Cleo's prediction. I have to get out of here and get home.

I take a deep breath and cover my nose with my shirt in case the gas is poisonous. Then I feel someone grab my hand and I see Jax through the haze. He shoves me into a corner as Ollie crawls over to us, along with Maxine and some Royal Ladies-in-Waiting who are crying. I can't see Jocelyn anywhere in this fog. All I hear is screeching and screaming.

An
exit. I need to find an exit. And Kayla
. I look around frantically for my roommate and see her stumbling toward us. I reach out and yank her into our little cluster. “Are you okay?”

Kayla covers her face with her hands and starts to mumble strangely. “I didn't do it. I swear! I am nothing. She's right. I'm nothing. I'm sorry. So sorry.” She dissolves into tears and rocks back and forth on the floor. Maxine puts an arm around her, and Jax and I look at each other worriedly. Once this fog fades, the gargoyles will have us.

“Dude, what the heck is happening? Wait, is that…is that a gargoyle?” Ollie manages to get out in between hacking fits. We all dive to the floor when we see wings appear out of the fog above. A gargoyle grabs hold of one of the Ladies-in-Waiting and takes off again. She screams and kicks, but it's no use. She's a goner. “I thought gargoyles were statues,” Ollie says, his eyes widening. “Those nasty beasties are real?”

I hear a loud
slurp
and assume someone has just magically sealed the gym doors like they do in Madame Cleo's detention room. I can hear Pete shouting orders to Olaf, and then in the next moment, the room is quiet. As the fog begins to lift, I can see that the gargoyles have rounded up the princesses and placed them in a corner of the room in some sort of glowing bubble, along with a few unlucky students. The dwarf squad is tied up in its own bubble nearby. A lot of help they were. One of the gargoyles drops Azalea onto the royals' bubble, and I watch as it sucks her in and drops her to the floor.

Okay, if I hang on to my sword, maybe I can fight my way to a gym door and pick a lock. I'm not waiting around any longer. I start to get up and prepare to run.

“What are you doing?” Jax hisses. “Stay down!”

A screech nearby distracts me, and I look up in time to see Jocelyn get picked up. Maxine gives out a little gasp, and her one eyeball starts to bounce up and down like a ball. Jocelyn doesn't go far. I watch as she swings wildly with her sword and nicks one of the gargoyle's legs.

“Yes!” Maxine cheers.

The gargoyle drops Jocelyn like a hot potato. She falls to the ground and bumps her head as the fog evaporates. We stare at her as she lies there motionless.

That's when I notice that Flora and Harlow are the only teachers not inside a bubble. Just as I'm about to yell “villain,” I notice they're both as still as statues, like they're in some sort of trance. I need to make a break for it. On the count of one, two…

“Why isn't Harlow helping her sister?” one of the Ladies-in-Waiting wails.

“I don't know and I don't care,” Jax says. “All I know is it's time we—”

Before Jax can finish his sentence, I see wings descend from the sky and our group scatters as Jax is picked up. Like Jocelyn, he grabs for his sword, but his falls out of his holster along with his trusty pocketwatch.

“Jax!” I yell and Kayla whimpers.

She's practically catatonic. “What did I do?” she says to herself over and over as Maxine rubs her back worriedly.

Jax struggles to break free, but he can't. All I can do is watch as he's sucked into the same bubble as the princesses. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Harlow walking toward the immobilized princesses and Jax as if in a trance.

Now's my chance to move. I'm sure I can make it to the door before Harlow turns around, but Jax… How can I leave him behind when he's helped me so many times? I look over at the bubble, and the two of us make eye contact. I can almost hear his thoughts.
You
owe
me
.

Grr…I know. But what can I do?

Then I see Harlow raise her sword. The Ladies-in-Waiting around me gasp.

“We've got to help Jax,” Ollie says hurriedly, and I watch him feel around in his pockets for some of his magic tricks. “Maybe if I could drop a smoke bomb…”

“This room is smoky enough,” I say as Maxine and Kayla start to cry. A Royal Lady-in-Waiting hands them her handkerchief to share. “Give me a minute to think.”

“Harlow! Stop!” Flora warns, her voice sharp.

For some strange reason, Flora can't move. Are she and Harlow under some sort of spell? If Harlow hears her, she doesn't listen.

“No,” I hear Harlow say, and she throws her sword through the air. Maxine screams as the sword hits the bubble and bounces off it. The gargoyles jump up and down excitedly as Harlow picks up a few of the discarded swords on the ground and aims another one at the bubble. This time the sword pierces the top and I hear everyone inside scream. I can see Jax urging the princesses to squeeze as far back in the bubble as they can go. She aims again. This time, a sword pierces the bubble and hits Princess Snow in the arm. She crumbles to the ground, and some of the girls around me burst into tears.

“She's going after Snow,” Maxine says. “She has to be. She's going to keep aiming 'til she gets Snow—and anyone in the way.”

Harlow throws another sword and it pierces the bottom of the bubble, hitting a student in the shoe. He hops up and down in pain. The gargoyles screech happily. Jax gives me a desperate look.

“I need to distract the gargoyles,” I say. “Anyone have a clue how to deal with the nasties?”

Kayla is shaking so violently I fear she's going to be ill. Then she pulls a bag out of her pocket with something purple inside. “Give them radishes. They'll put the gargoyles right to sleep.”

I don't ask how she knows that. There's no time.

Ollie grabs the bag and begins passing out radishes. Maxine starts to toss them. I'm amazed as a gargoyle picks one up and pops it in his mouth. In a moment, he's sleeping like a baby. Soon the other students around me are doing the same, and gargoyles start dropping like flies. But that does nothing to stop Harlow.

“I must do what the huntsman should have done years ago,” Harlow says in a monotone voice. “Send a dagger straight through her heart.” Harlow makes a jerky movement in Snow's direction.

“Harlow, please! Fight this!” Flora begs as Harlow uses magic to pick up a handful of swords and aim them all at the bubble at the same time. I watch as Jax jumps in front of Snow.
Idiot
.

“What am I going to do?” I ask the others.

Ollie presses his lips together. “Maybe if you hit Harlow, you'll break the spell.” I look at him like he's nuts. “Hey, it's worth a shot.”

Harlow starts to chant the way Jocelyn did in detention, and I realize I'm out of time. Harlow releases the arrows and they fly through the air. With no other options, I take off at a run with my sword in my hand, praying the thing doesn't slice me as I go.

Harlow turns to me at the last moment and I see the swords change direction.

“Gilly!” Maxine screams just as I dive to the ground and slide as hard as I can into Harlow, knocking her straight off her feet. I cover my head as swords rain down on me, and then the world goes black.

“Ah, Miss Gillian. Come in, come in!”

For a moment, I'm pretty sure I must be in the wrong place.

The Evil Queen is smiling—
cheerily
—and waving me into her office.

I clutch the note given to me when I was released from the infirmary this morning.

I was sure Jax had left me the note as a joke, but the nurse said it was legit. “He checked on you twice while you were out cold,” said the gnome in the bright blue nurse scrubs whose badge said Natasha, Gnome Nurse Level 1. “Aldo kept watch over you too when your friends weren't here.”

That was creepy.

“I don't see a Kayla on the visitor sheet.” Natasha said when I asked about my roommate. “I only see Jax, Ollie, and Maxine. You didn't wake up for days! That was some nasty bump you got on your head.”

“Maybe Kayla was admitted,” I wondered aloud. She had been acting odd in the gym. Kayla could have been ill.

Natasha shook her head, and her pointy hat nearly fell off. “No Kayla on my list, but you got a lot of get-well flowers.” She grinned and I noticed she only had four teeth. “You're like a celebrity in this school! Saving the royal court like you did.”

I
was
only
trying
to
rescue
Jax.
I wasn't sure how my honesty would go over with Natasha so I kept quiet and looked at my flowers. The bouquets next to my bed were so big they could have been trees. The elaborate topiary shaped like a crown could only have come from the princesses, and the note attached confirmed it.

There was a small bouquet from my family and a few other hand-picked arrangements, one with squished flowers that I assumed Maxine picked with her less-than-dainty troll hands. My head felt too heavy to read all the note cards. Natasha said I was hit with a bunch of the steel swords that rained down from the sky. My arms and legs were nicked up too. “You're lucky one didn't lop your head off!” Natasha said as she changed my bandages one last time. “Professor Harlow lost her pinkie in the mess and had to charm it back on.”

• • •

Professor Harlow beckons me to her desk with her bandaged hand. While I'm in hospital clothes (a tee and baggy pants), my professor is back to wearing one of her form-fitting velvet gowns. Aldo leaves the Evil Queen's shoulder and swoops across the room, startling me when he takes a perch on my arm. I wince as he sinks his claws into one of my bandages.

Professor Harlow chuckles—chuckles! “Aldo, I know you're happy to see Miss Cobbler, but leave her be. She's still recovering. How do you feel, child?”

“Okay.” I feel like I've dropped into a different land with this conversation.

Maybe she's happier in her office than in her classroom. This room is brighter with all the torches and mirrors of every size and shape along one lavender wall. There is an inviting purple velvet armchair near her fireplace, which has a mantel full of self-help books above it, and on the other wall is a vanity table with lots of bottles and beauty products. I notice the gold mirror she keeps in a glass case has been moved to her office, along with Aldo's jeweled cage. The Evil Queen sits behind her desk, peering at me fondly.

So weird.

“I'm sorry I've asked you to come straight from the infirmary,” Harlow says, “but this matter could not wait.” She smiles, her deep purple lips curving up in the corners of her heavily made-up face. “I brought you here this morning so I could personally thank you.”

I almost fall out of my chair, which, I should add, is so low I have to look up at Harlow's desk. I wonder if she has it set that way on purpose. “Come again?”

“Not only did you save the princesses, but you also saved me from once again becoming the Evil Queen.” Harlow gives me a rare smile. “My sister would be an orphan right now if you hadn't stopped me from hurting anyone on Royal Day, and for that, I thank you.”

As with Natasha, now might not be the time to bring up how I was only trying to save Jax. Everyone else was just a happy coincidence. “You're welcome?” I question. I've never heard the professor thank anyone for anything before.

“That's why I brought you here right from recovery. I wanted to be the first to commend you for your selfless act of bravery. We'd be reading a very different type of scroll this week if you had not broken the bewitchment I was under.”

I lean forward intrigued. Natasha saved some of the old scrolls for me to read when I woke up. She said it would be easier for me to understand what had happened the last few days if I read it myself. “Do you know who cast the spell or sent the gargoyles? Why were so many events sabotaged on Royal Day? Do you think Gottie is behind this? Mr. Harding did go missing and so did his family…”

Harlow's face darkens. “I see no point in playing guessing games, Miss Cobbler,” she snaps. “Rest assured, Headmistress Flora is working with the staff to figure out who is behind these acts and who could have bewitched someone as powerful as me.”

That's another thing I didn't think of. Who could put a spell on the Evil Queen?

Harlow twirls a long, gold amulet that hangs from her neck. “That is why Headmistress Flora is not at our meeting today. She, Cleo, and Wolfington have asked me to speak on their behalf.”

“Speak on their behalf?” I suddenly feel uneasy.

Squawk!
Aldo seconds my confusion.

The Wicked Stepmother is the one who runs this school. She's the one who sent my enrollment notice and escorted me to detention. If I have to deal with someone here, I want it to be her.

“You're not in trouble, Miss Cobbler.” Harlow adjusts her tiara, which has been slightly tilted since I walked in. “On the contrary. I have good news to share. While you have only served two weeks—three if you count the almost week you've been in the infirmary—of your required stay here, your bravery shows you're more reformed than any of us realized. Only someone who is truly thinking of others could have done what you did. Therefore, Flora and I would like to offer you an early release from the program.”

I feel like someone just pulled my chair out from under me. I jump up. “Seriously?”

“You get to go home,” my professor translates. “Immediately.”

This doesn't make any sense. “But Headmistress Flora said—”

“I know what Flora said.” Harlow's voice tightens. “You've flunked out of Fairy Tale Reform School, so to speak, and that's a good thing!” She laughs, but it sounds fake. “I've already sent a scroll to your parents letting them know they can pick you up.”

My heart starts to speed up. I'm going home? Today?

“Unfortunately, your parents are out of town for a few days at a shoemakers' convention, but they said they will come straight home and should be here by Friday afternoon.”

“The day of the FTRS Ball?” I question. Natasha filled me in on the ball's will-they-or-won't-they-let-the-school-have-it gossip.

Professor Harlow's smile widens. “Why, yes. I didn't think you'd care about something as silly as a ball when you could go home to Hamish, Han, Trixie, Felix, and Anna.”

I squirm. I don't like that she knows their names, but I'm desperate to see them. “So you mean they're still having the FTRS Ball even after everything that happened?” I ask. “But what about security? The
Happily
Ever
After
Scroll
this morning said—”

“I know what the scroll said!” Harlow's voice booms, and the torches in her room dim. Aldo rushes into his cage and I watch the look on my professor's face twist into something sinister. But then just as quickly the room brightens and the Evil Queen is smiling her awkward smile. “I just mean, we are well aware of the scroll exaggerations. A ball is happening, and I will be releasing a statement later today telling all of Enchantasia they have nothing to fear in attending. Really, Miss Cobbler. You've done enough to help our school and me.” Harlow offers Aldo a small treat and he nips it out of her hand. “Go home to your family and enjoy your life.”

Madame Cleo's prediction flashes in my mind, but I quickly push it away. Professor Harlow is right. I can't worry about what's happening at FTRS or Jax, Kayla, Ollie, or Maxine. They'll survive. They'd ditch me if they had the chance to leave. My family is more important. Anna hasn't written, which means she's still mad or hungry or desperate. I think of Han crying out in hunger, and I want to race right out of the Evil Queen's office. My loyalty is to them.

I'm a thief, plain and simple, and I belong at home. Not in Fairy Tale Reform School.

“Now if you'd just sign these forms.” Harlow slides a long, wordy scroll across the desk to me along with a black-feathered quill. I try to read the words, but they're too tiny. “Just customary release paperwork, of course, saying you are never again permitted to cross school grounds or converse with students in our care.”

That's a weird clause to have in reform school release papers. I sign them anyway.

“Good girl! Excellent!” Harlow folds her hands in her lap and flashes me a questionable smile. “You'll forget all about this place in no time.”