Flunked (Fairy Tale Reform School, #1)
Jen Calonita
For Tyler and Dylan, who have been waiting for me to write something they could read “forever!”
Would you send a villain to do a hero’s job?
Happily Ever After Scrolls
Brought to you by FairyWeb—magically appearing on scrolls throughout Enchantasia for the past ten years!
Fairy Tale Reform School Celebrates Its Fifth Anniversary!
by Beatrice Beez
Poison apples, the sleeping curse, becoming a wolf’s supper—five years ago, the citizens of Enchantasia quaked in fear at such evildoing. Well, no more! Thanks to one formerly despised villain, wickedness and criminal behavior are being wiped off the map.
“In the days following Cinderella’s wedding, no one would even sell me a loaf of bread,” says Flora, the princess’s stepmother. Yes, that Flora. The one and only stepmonster who used Cinderella as unpaid help and tried to trick the prince into marrying one of her other daughters.
After Cinderella’s misfortune became public, Flora was mortified. “I did some wicked things after Cinderella’s—pardon me, Princess Ella’s—father died,” says Flora. “I was a terrible example for my two daughters. If we wanted to show our faces in Enchantasia again, I knew we had to change—especially me. From that revelation, FTRS was born.”
Fairy Tale Reform School is the education program for the wicked and criminally mischievous that Flora created. It has won praise from Princess Ella herself for its success in turning villains into productive members of society. “Flora’s transformation is astonishing,” Princess Ella told Happily Ever After Scrolls exclusively. “I look forward to seeing their good works continue.”
The school’s roster of former students turned teachers is huge! There’s the Wolf (the esteemed Professor Xavier Wolfington teaches history), the Sea Witch (Madame Cleo is FTRS’s etiquette expert) and the Evil Queen (Professor Harlow teaches psychology and runs group therapy sessions).
“Thanks to our teachings, crime in Enchantasia has dropped to an all-time low,” Flora says proudly. Since it opened, FTRS has welcomed more than five hundred gnomes, trolls, dwarfs, elves, mer-folk, and other fairy-tale students into its dormitories for grades six through twelve at its campus on the outskirts of Enchantasia near the Hollow Woods.
To celebrate FTRS’s fifth anniversary, profiles of FTRS’s teachers will be magically popping up on Happily Ever After Scrolls in the coming weeks. Check your scrolls often for more coverage!
CHAPTER 1
Picky
Sometimes spying on low-level royals can be so boring.
They’re easy to spot the minute they leave their precious royal world behind. With their pricy clothes, made-up faces, and clouds of perfume wafting behind them, girls like that stick out like sore thumbs when they get dropped off in town in their flashy carriages.
So far this afternoon, I’ve tailed this bunch from the Gnome-olia Bakery (where they made fun of the gnome serving them their rhubarb cupcakes) to the One Enchanted Evening dress shop (where they scoffed at having dresses spun out of cotton even though there is a silk shortage). Neither shop was a good place for me to steal some loot from them.
But at Combing the Sea, which is overflowing with the most exotic trinkets money can buy, a person could easily be distracted by glittery things…and accidentally “lose” something. There are racks upon racks of fancy hats and veils, and tables piled high with velvet and silk purses and scarves—everything a princess-in-training might need if she doesn’t have a fairy godmother to whip it up for her.
But the jewelry and tiaras are what these royals are desperate to get their hands on.
And they haven’t even noticed me following them at all. Ha!
On the other hand, Neil, the shop owner, has. Trolls are good at sniffing out trouble, and he knows my reputation.
“Need help with something, Gilly?” he asks, eyeing me warily as he polishes the jewelry counter for the fourth time.
“Just looking.” I make eye contact so he knows I’m not scared of him. What can he do? So far, I’m just a twelve-year-old potential customer. I can’t get kicked out for browsing, can I?
To blend in, I grab a ruby tiara and plop it on my head. I giggle when I see myself in the mirror. Me, the shoemaker’s oldest daughter, the tomboy with the frizzy brown hair and freckles, in a tiara! One of the royals turns around and frowns. Uh-oh. One look at my overalls and she’ll know I can’t even afford to buy hair ribbons in this place. I’ve learned that when I’m stealing goods, it’s best if my mark barely notices I’m here. I put the mark at ease so she isn’t suspicious, then disappear like fairy dust so she can’t even remember the color of my hair. Later, when she’s filling out a Dwarf Police Squad report, she won’t recall anything out of the ordinary about her day.
I smile, which catches the blond off guard. “Where did you find that amazing boa?” I pretend to look through silk throws on the table in front of me. “I’ve been looking for one just like it. Not that it would look that good on me. It looks gorgeous on you.”
Gag.
“Doesn’t it?” Blondie grins and turns back to the full-length mirror. “It was the last one though, and I’m definitely taking it. Sorry.” She smiles thinly. Blondie doesn’t look sorry. I won’t be either when her hair clip is mine.