Flunked (Fairy Tale Reform School, #1)(6)

FOR HAL AND EVA, PARENTS OF GILLIAN COBBLER:

Your daughter Gillian COBBLER has been taken into custody for the third time for PETTY THEFT. By order of the Enchantasia Dwarf Police Squad, this REPEATED OFFENSE requires that she be taken to Fairy Tale Reform School immediately.

Please follow the dwarf squad to FTRS to register her for admission. Bring any personal items she will need for an extended stay.

Headmistress Flora, FTRS

MESSAGE APPROVED BY: Princess Ella



I feel Olaf click the cool metal around my wrists in front of me, and my heart drops.

“Here’s the school brochure too.” Pete gives one to Mother, who immediately opens it and starts reading. I can see the school’s gold crest on the front of the pamphlet.

“Don’t take Gilly!” Han cries, gripping the bottom of my overalls. Hamish throws himself on me along with Trixie. Felix looks sad.

Tears stream down Anna’s face. “This has to be a mistake! Tell them it was an accident,” Anna begs me. “You didn’t mean to take the comb, right?” Her eyes are so wide and innocent that I only feel worse. But seeing Pete’s smug face makes something inside me snap.

“Maybe I did mean to take that comb,” I say defiantly, and Father glares at me. “I had no choice! The shoe shop is doing terribly. We don’t have enough money to eat!”

“Gilly!” Mother wrings her hands. “We do not talk about family matters in public.”

“We’re fine,” Father tells Pete and Olaf. “The shoe business isn’t what it used to be, but it’s fine.” Father is furious with me, I can tell.

“You should pack her a bag,” Pete tells my mom. “Don’t forget her toothbrush. This one is going to be there a while.”

Father could care less if I go. My only hope is Mother. “You know me,” I plead. “Don’t let them take me away. I messed up, but I’m no villain.”

Mother’s face crumbles. “Not yet, but you could become one if you don’t start changing your ways.” My jaw drops, and her cheeks burn. “You say you’re trying to help us, but you’re so focused on the royals and what they have. That hatred worries me.” She looks down at her apron. “And besides, the brochure says the school has wonderful classes. They’ll be much more interesting than the ones you’re in at trade school,” she says brightly. “Maybe now you’ll really learn something and won’t feel the need to skip out.”

Pete snorts. “She’ll regret the day she skips a class at FTRS. I’ll tell you that.” Pete gruffly pushes me toward the door, sidestepping the coatrack.

“I’m sorry, guys,” I say to my sniveling siblings. I won’t look at my parents. I try to sound upbeat. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”

Pete snorts. “Doubt that.” He grabs the back of my shirt and I elbow him in the ribs. “Ow!”

“Gilly!” Father scolds.

“Like I said, you won’t be leaving FTRS for a while,” Pete seethes. “Which is great news for me, bad for you. You, my little thief, are off to Fairy Tale Reform School.”





CHAPTER 3


    Time to Face the Music


“Let me go, Olaf!” I bark as the big guy swings me through the giant oak doors at Fairy Tale Reform School and drops me on the marble floor with a loud thud.

Ouch!

That’s the second time he’s dropped me today. The first time was when he put me in the carriage to take me to FTRS. If this is how they treat minor criminals, I can’t imagine what they’d do if they came across Alva, the fairy who cursed Princess Rose to all those years of slumber.

“Get these handcuffs off me,” I yell as Pete stands there calmly, chewing on a piece of taffy. He looks like he’s enjoying my tantrum. “I know my rights! I’m only twelve. You’re not supposed to handcuff me!”

“Normally we’re not supposed to cuff a kid, but you can’t be trusted,” Pete grumbles. “Last time I let you go, a ruby ring mysteriously disappeared from a visiting queen’s fat finger not five minutes later!”

“I have no clue what you’re talking about.” That pick freaked me out, but it bought us enough food to last a month. No regrets there.

“The handcuffs stay until the boss lady gets here,” Pete says.

Headmistress Flora. I’ve seen Ella’s former stepmother in the village. That woman never cracks a smile. I might as well enjoy whatever “freedom” I have left. “Can you give me a hand up at least?” I ask Pete. He nods to Olaf, who lifts me by my armpits. I shrug out of his grasp and take a look around the giant hall.

So this is what Fairy Tale Reform School looks like. Having heard the rumors all these years, I was expecting to see kids handcuffed to walls and torture chambers. The woman who runs this place supposedly made her own daughters cut off part of their feet to fit into Ella’s precious glass slipper, so I wouldn’t put anything past her. But if she’s hiding a torture chamber in this building, it’s not in the swanky foyer.

I can’t let my guard down, but I have to say…

This place looks cushy! The outside is. It took the carriage at least ten minutes to get from the gates to the castle, which is surrounded by a moat. Olaf said the moat is filled with hungry crocs to keep kids from escaping, but I think he was trying to scare me.