“We’ve already had that almost happen,” Jax jokes. “Let’s not do it again.”
“Fine,” Ollie says dejectedly. “I really wanted a pet.” His eyes light up. “Snack break!” He waves his wand at the ground and conjures up an apple pie as big as the magic carpet I was just on. Poof! He also creates a supersize ice cream sundae and a plate of cookies as big as Maxine. He waves the wand again and a picnic basket, blanket, and plates appear on the grass beside it. “Let’s eat!”
“We could use some ambiance,” says Kayla who quickly transforms a dead rosebush into a beautiful plant with eye-popping roses in shades of fuchsia, electric blue, and lime green. Kayla flutters over to the blanket to help Ollie dish out dessert. He’s using his wand as a cake knife and slicing pieces as big as my arm.
“Don’t forget the music,” says Maxine. She waves her wand in the air, and a flock of birds appears on a tree above us. They begin to chirp and hum in harmony. “Yes! It worked!” Maxine trudges over to the blanket happily, her ogre feet leaving deep footprints in the grass.
“Flora must have lost her mind to let a bunch of reform-school kids use wands for an hour,” Jax says, flashing me a smile so blinding that I wish I had shades.
Poof! I use my wand to conjure up a pair. Sweet! I wish we could use wands every day instead of just in How a Wand Works 101. Madame Camille, our uptight fairy teacher, never lets us sign them out for homework, and every time someone screws up by zapping off their pinkie or growing their nose to three times its size, she says, “This is why Enchantasia doesn’t allow wands ’til you’re twenty-one!”
If I’d had a wand when I lived in the village, I wouldn’t have had to steal food to help feed my brothers and sisters in our overcrowded boot. I could have just conjured up the finest treats Gnome-olia Bakery had to offer with a flick of my wrist. Then I wouldn’t have been sentenced to Fairy Tale Reform School. From the outside, this place looks like your average school. But inside we have hallways that move every time you use them, a talking magic mirror who tattles on you if you step out of line, a class taught by a mer-teacher inside a giant fish tank, and professors who all are former villains. How do you like them poison apples?
FTRS is nothing like that snooze-fest shoemaker trade school I used to attend and will have to go back to when I prove I have transformed my villainous ways into upstanding ones. Some days—when villains aren’t trying to kill me—I’m bummed about being sprung from this joint. Especially when I think about leaving this crew.
“Look, I get Flora disappearing to help Professor Wolfington suppress his wolf side again, but where has she been since he came back?” Jax continues. “We never see her around school, and now she’s letting us take wands out for a spin? Something’s up.”
“I’m with Jax,” Maxine says, apple oozing down her chin as she chews. “My mini magical scroll has been showing me weird messages like ‘She’ll reappear when you’re all distracted’ instead of articles from Happily Ever After Scrolls.”
Ollie gives me a look. Maxine swears her mini magical scroll is sending her messages, but mini magical scrolls only report the daily Enchantasia news. She seems to think her scroll is magical. Okay, more magical.
“Yesterday it said, ‘Prepare. She is coming soon.’” Maxine cuts another slice of pie for herself that is as big as her head. “Who is coming? Flora? I quickly hid my scroll since I was supposed to be doing homework.”
“I think Flora is just trying to give us some freedom,” I say. “If they don’t give us freedom every now and then, how are they going to see whether we’re reforming?”
“Yeah, Maxine. Can’t you just be happy we have an afternoon off from Villain to Hero: How to Make the Switch?” Kayla asks.
Maxine frowns. “I actually kind of miss Dragon Slaying 101, but sometimes learning about a dragon’s weak spots is enough to make me want to breathe fire.”
I sit up. “That gives me an idea.” I begin to aim my wand but Jax stops me.
“I’m serious, guys,” Jax says quietly. “Alva’s on the loose, someone is spilling royal secrets, and Flora keeps disappearing. Don’t you want to know what’s going on?”
Jax is an undercover royal at a reform school. Of course he wants to sort things out and go back to being all royally. (He is secretly Rapunzel’s brother, not that she knows that. She thinks he’s off at boarding school, and Jax’s dad had the royal court’s memories bewitched so no one recognizes him.) And yes, I want to go home to my family, but in the past two months I’ve saved royals, kept our school from burning down, and had T-shirts made with my name on them. I need a short recess to relax.