“I would never be friends with an ogre like her.” Olivia laughs harder, and I feel some satisfaction in changing her mind. “I mean, have you seen the way she drools over every…” Olivia suddenly stops laughing. I notice the mops stop mopping. The elves pull their cleaning cart to a new hallway. Olivia starts to move away. I feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up and I turn around.
Maxine and Jocelyn are standing a few feet away from us, and it’s obvious they heard everything I just said. Jocelyn looks positively furious, but Maxine is the one I care about. My heart is thumping loudly as watch the left side of her face droop. Maxine’s right eye rolls wildly, and her left eye wells up with tears.
“You’re so selfish, Cobbler! Maxine is your friend!” Jocelyn hisses. I’m too mortified to say anything. “I should have known you’d become an RLW behind our backs. You look like one with that ridiculous hairstyle, and you sound like one too.”
“Maxine,” I start to say.
“How could you?” Maxine asks, and starts to cry so loudly the window nearest me shakes. Then my former friend charges down the hall before I can stop her.
Happily Ever After Scrolls
Brought to you by FairyWeb—magically appearing on scrolls throughout Enchantasia for the past ten years!
Get Ready for Fairy Tale Reform School Visitation Day!
by CoCo Collette
Spurred by parent outcry, Fairy Tale Reform School has moved up its semiannual parent visitation to today. “I am pleased Headmistress Flora and the staff will finally let us inside this mysterious castle to check on our children,” says Millicent Gertrude, mother of Ronald Gertrude, who has reportedly been begging for his early dismissal since Alva’s manifesto showed up on school grounds.
Sources tell HEAS that FTRS parents are worried the magical scroll will spur students to join Alva’s growing ranks. As HEAS reported earlier this week, Alva has joined forces with ogre tribes that were close to signing a peace treaty with the royal court. Rapunzel is said to be meeting with the ogres to try to sway their decision.
More of Alva’s bewitched scrolls have also appeared around the village, beckoning people to join her army. “Enchantasia will be mine,” the scrolls declare. While the princesses say we have nothing to fear, the scrolls have made an already anxious Enchantasia increasingly worried about Alva taking over the kingdom.
Princess Rose is the only royal to make a statement. “In these trying times, it is more important than ever to celebrate wonderful events like FTRS’s visitation day!”
According to spokesmirror Miri, parents are invited to attend a tea presented by the esteemed Royal Ladies-in-Waiting Club (run by Princess Rose), dine with their children in the cafeteria, and observe them in classes and activities such as synchronized snake-dancing and the after-school Magic Carpet Racing Club, as well as listen to a lecture from the school’s newest professor, Blackbeard the Pirate. He’ll be presenting “Why Being a Bit of a Scoundrel Can Prove Useful—Playing to Your Child’s Strengths.”
After last semester’s disastrous Royal Day and Anniversary Ball, it’s easy to see why there would be concern about security, but Miri the Magic Mirror cryptically says the school is under the strongest magical protection there is for visitation day. “No one is getting in this castle unless they’re invited,” she tells us. We at HEAS are not convinced, but one thing is certain: covering anything going on at Fairy Tale Reform School is an adventure!
Check your scrolls often throughout the day for updates on visitation day and the search for Alva!
CHAPTER 11
Royally Yours
“We need more pink, girls!” Tessa declares, frantically shoving baby’s breath and carnations into a hot-pink pitcher atop a pink tablecloth covered with pink plates and teacups. We’re in the observatory where the Royal Ladies-in-Waiting Club is hosting the visitation day tea this morning.
Or as I like to call it the Pink Threw Up in the Observatory Party.
“Are you sure?” Raza frowns at the pink balloons netted at the ceiling to drop down on visitors. Her eyes wander over to the pink banner that says Royal Ladies-in-Waiting—We Are Honored to Serve Royalty! and the pink roses that are practically suffocating the room. “Do you think we might have overdone it with our signature color?”
“Definitely not.” I try to keep a straight face as I pretend to straighten the tablecloth—again—at Tessa’s urging. (“I think I see a crease!”) “You can never have enough pink, but ditch the carnations,” I say. “You guys should know this from the RLW gardening patch you earned. Princess Rose is allergic to everything but roses.”
I hear the bells chime and then the mirror in the room glows—of course—pink. “Attention, students!” Miri says. “Our visitors are entering the gates to FTRS. After they have gone through security with the Dwarf Police Squad, they will make their way to the grand foyer. Please meet your parties there and take them to your first assigned class or to the Royal Ladies-in-Waiting welcome tea if you’ve received an invitation.”