“Eddie, you’re such a love!” Madame Cleo giggles, her tail swishing back and forth as her hair changes from blue to purple to hot pink. “I knew if I visited your ship enough times for a cup of tea, you’d see the error of your pirating ways. And he did,” she tells us, taking a starfish from the water to hold her hair in a side ponytail. “His men have seen a total change in him, which is why he makes such an excellent choice to teach students about feelings.”
“I didn’t think piracy and expressing feelings actually went together,” Jax says, and we all look at him in alarm. Is he really questioning the most fearsome pirate Enchantasia—and the world—has ever seen? “No offense,” he adds.
Blackbeard stares at my friend before he lets out a loud laugh followed by a burp.
Madame Cleo tsks. “We still have to work on his manners,” she mumbles.
Blackbeard claps his meaty hand around Jax’s back. “I like this lad! Ye’re all right, matey! Are they all this brazen?” Blackbeard asks Flora and Wolfington. “We should get along swimmingly in me classroom. I’m going to run a tight ship.”
“It’s not your classroom,” Jocelyn snaps. “It’s my sister’s.”
“Was your sister’s,” I correct her. “When you plot with a villain to destroy our royal court and try to burn down the school you work for, I assume you lose your right to teach reform school.” I look at Jax. “Am I crazy or correct?”
“Correct!” Ollie seconds.
“Miss Gillian, this is neither the time nor the place for this type of behavior!” Headmistress Flora stares at me for a moment. “And since when do you have a purple streak of hair?”
“Gillian Cobbler?” Blackbeard interrupts her. “Yer bravery be legend in these parts. Such courage for a wee lass! Ye must be part pirate!”
“Gilly?” Ollie cries, insulted. “But we all helped save—”
“Maybe I am part pirate!” I wonder aloud, a bit pleased that a pirate as famous as Blackbeard has heard of me. Wow. I’m famous! “I’ve never been very good at following the rules.” Wolfington coughs. “But I’ve never done anything evil—unlike Harlow.”
“That’s the Evil Queen you’re talking about,” Jocelyn says. “Show some respect.”
“Don’t you mean the former Evil Queen?” Jax asks innocently. “I thought Professor Harlow transformed so she could teach here. Oh, that’s right!” He claps his hand against his uniform pants. “She was secretly working for the enemy.”
Flora tries to intervene. “Children, this is not a conversation we need to bore Mr. Teach with.”
“How do we know you aren’t still working with her now?” Kayla asks, also ganging up on Jocelyn (which I’m enjoying since it’s usually the other way around). “I don’t understand why she’s still allowed to go here,” Kayla says to the headmistress. “She helped her sister capture us!”
Jocelyn’s face is purple. “Flora knows my innocence just like she knows Harlow’s.” Jocelyn appeals to Blackbeard. “Alva tricked her! Harlow is just misunderstood.”
I snort. “‘Misunderstood’ is code for ‘prone to be bad.’”
Blackbeard slaps Wolfington on the back. “What a group of scallywags. This be a fun gig! I can tell.”
Jocelyn turns her palm upward as a small swirl of purple smoke begins to spiral around her fingers. “Take that back or you’ll regret it!”
“Bring it on,” I say, courting disaster. “Show our professors why you should be locked up in a dungeon like your sister.”
“Illegal use of magic!” I hear Miri’s voice and wonder where a mirror is. Oh! I see it on that large oak tree over there, disguised as a squirrel burrow. Smart.
Jocelyn ignores Miri’s warning and aims a purple fireball at me. I don’t move. If she hits me, it will hurt, but at least Jocelyn will finally be seen as the villain-in-training I know she is.
“Gilly, duck!” Kayla cries in panic, but I won’t do it.
Instead, Maxine dives on top of me, knocking me to the ground. We watch as the fireball hits a pirate on the gangplank who’s unloading one of Blackbeard’s trunks. The pirate yelps, dropping the trunk in the water.
“Me treasures!” Blackbeard yells.
“I’ll get them, darling,” says Madame Cleo, giving us a look. “Even if I did just apply a seaweed conditioning treatment to my hair.” She dives below the water.
“Look what you’ve done,” Jocelyn says. “You’re always thinking of you, you, you! Like you’re some hero! You just got lucky.”
Madame Cleo pops out of the water with the trunk and hands it off to a pirate who wades into the water. “I think I caught it before anything got wet.” She glares at us, her pink hair turning fiery blue. “You children should be ashamed. Failing to listen to your teacher, illegal use of magic, fighting on school grounds. Detention for everyone!”
Blackbeard’s laughter is loud and deep. “Not necessary, Madame. This group has spunk. I like it!” He grabs Jocelyn and me by the backs of our uniforms, which I hope rip because I despise these blue jumpers. “Ye two need to get this aggression out. Me thinks a duel will do nicely.”
“A duel?” Jocelyn and I say as another cannon blast echoes around us.