CJ's Treasure Chase

by Jessica Brody

  Her father used to have one—a very special one. He talked about it all the time back on the Isle of the Lost. How it was made from solid gold with a single flawless diamond in the center. How the diamond alone was worth more money than CJ could ever imagine.

  Then he would angrily recount the story of how King Beast’s men took it when he was banished to the island, the same way they took away Maleficent’s scepter and Dr. Facilier’s voodoo talisman and the magic from every mirror in Evil Queen’s house.

  That beautiful gold compass had been Captain Hook’s source of strength and confidence. Without it, he was just a shell of the great sea captain he used to be. And King Beast knew that.

  So, of course, compasses were a sore spot among the Hooks. It was nearly impossible to navigate without one, and CJ was wondering how she was going to manage it.

  She creaked open the door to the hallway and poked her head outside, listening for footsteps. Everyone seemed to be at lunch.

  Her stomach growled angrily at the thought of food. CJ rolled her eyes. How was she supposed to be stealth when her body was making sounds like that?

  Apparently, before she could start her epic hunt for buried treasure, she was going to have to search for something to eat.

  So inconvenient.

  Time to explore this princess place.

  I can’t believe Mal and Evie actually LIKE it here.

  CJ soon discovered that sneaking around Auradon Prep was a breeze.

  It was nothing like trying to sneak around the Isle of the Lost, where everyone was suspicious and paranoid. At Auradon Prep, people were trusting.

  People were chumps.

  And CJ knew it was always easier to take advantage of chumps.

  She crept through the halls like a red-coated ghost and no one even took notice. She stole food right out from under their noses and no one even batted an eye. And it wasn’t exactly like she was being super stealth about any of this stuff, either. The people there were just that naive.

  CJ spent the next few days crawling under tables and hiding behind corners, listening in on people’s conversations. But she was quickly becoming bored by the lack of interesting conversation around the place. And she had yet to hear anything that would help her find a stone unturned.

  One afternoon, however, she was convinced she’d caught her first break when she was hiding in the bushes outside one of the dorm room windows and she heard someone say the word tulip.

  Find it among the tulips so bold…

  CJ immediately perked up and she eased herself closer to the window.

  “Oh, tulips would be divine!” said a girl with a British accent. CJ immediately recognized the voice as Ally’s. She’d learned over the past few days that Ally was the daughter of Alice, who had fallen down a rabbit hole and ended up in a place called Wonderland.

  “No. It has to be roses,” someone with a snooty voice said. It was definitely Audrey, the daughter of Princess Aurora.

  CJ snuck right up to the window so she could peer through the sheer curtains. Inside the dorm room sat Ally, Audrey, Freddie, Mal, Evie, Jordan, and Jane, the daughter of Headmistress Fairy Godmother.

  “Every ball should have roses,” Audrey went on, smoothing out her poofy pink dress.

  CJ rolled her eyes and stifled a frustrated sigh. She should have known they were talking about the upcoming Neon Lights Ball. It was all anyone seemed to care about around that place. Sneaking around Auradon Prep, CJ had quickly discovered that princesses were obsessed with two things: parties and what they would wear to parties.

  “I prefer thorns,” Mal said, crossing her arms over her purple leather jacket.

  “Or apples,” Evie suggested optimistically. She was dressed in her signature deep blue with hints of red.

  “An apple is not a flower,” Audrey argued. “The ballroom has to be decorated with flowers. Not fruit.”

  “Says who?” Evie retorted, challenging her.

  Audrey huffed. “Says everyone!”

  “I don’t know,” Jane said meekly. She had wide eyes, auburn hair, and a sickeningly sweet smile. “We could decorate with pumpkins.”

  “No,” Audrey said. “No vegetables.”

  Crawling crabs, she’s bossy, CJ thought.

  “Technically a pumpkin is a gourd, which makes it a fruit,” Evie pointed out.

  “Anyway!” Princess Bossypants went on. “Let’s talk about music.”

  Freddie, who had previously seemed uninterested in the conversation, suddenly sat up straighter. “Oh! Actually, I’ve been thinking about the music. I thought maybe I could sing. I’ve been learning to play guitar and—”

  “That’s okay,” Audrey said, cutting her off. “Lonnie is going to handle the music. She’s a DJ. We just have to pick our theme song.”

  “Fine. Whatever,” Freddie mumbled, and slumped in her chair. CJ immediately felt angry. How dare Audrey shoot down her friend like that! The girl needed to be taught a serious lesson.

  So later, after everyone in the building had gone to sleep, CJ snuck into the art studio, grabbed a tube of super-stick glue, and crept into the kitchens. She quickly found what she was looking for in one of the freezers and headed for the student lockers outside. Because everyone there was so trusting, the lockers didn’t even have locks on them, which made CJ’s job much easier.

  They should call them unlockers, CJ thought with a smirk as she hid her little “gift” inside Audrey’s locker and then spread a thick layer of glue around the edge of the door.

  She eased the door shut and gave it a firm push.

  Satisfied with her work, she wiped her hands on her red pirate coat and set off for Freddie’s dorm room.

  Needless to say, CJ slept well that night.

  It’s been a long time since I pulled a good prank.

  I’d forgotten how wicked awesome it feels.

  CJ refused to use an alarm clock. Even when they didn’t tick, clocks weren’t her thing. But the next morning, she had no trouble getting up. She awoke with the sun and found a good hiding spot in a tall tree near the locker banks where she could watch the morning drama unfold.

  It wasn’t long before students began filing out of the banquet hall and grabbing books from their lockers. CJ smiled as she watched Audrey strut to her locker and attempt to open the door.

  Obviously, it didn’t open.

  Audrey tugged harder, even letting out a dainty grunt, but the glue held strong. CJ covered her mouth to keep herself from laughing aloud and giving away her position.

  Then King Ben noticed Audrey’s struggling and went to help. He tried to pull the locker door open, but he couldn’t get it to budge, either. Jay, Jafar’s son, who CJ knew from the Isle of the Lost, joined the effort.

  As the three of them pulled, the glue finally gave way and the locker door flew open. That was when the dead fish CJ had planted on the top shelf flew out, smacking Audrey right in the head.

  Audrey screamed and started jumping up and down, shrieking, “Get it off! Eeew! Get it off!” It seemed to be caught in her hair.

  CJ giggled softly. This was going even better than she’d expected.

  As the commotion continued and Ben tried to calm Audrey down, CJ quietly climbed out of her tree and strolled away.

  Okay, that was fun, she thought. Time to get back to work, though.

  As much fun as the fish prank had been, CJ was worried. Despite her best efforts, she knew she was running out of options. She’d searched everywhere—every garden and classroom. She’d turned over every stone she could find, but she uncovered nothing that even remotely related to treasure.

  After almost a week of exploring and eavesdropping, she was starting to realize how her father had felt when he was relentlessly trying to track down Peter Pan in Never Land. He had nearly lost his entire crew because of that fixation. Her father had always been obsessive. As CJ paced the length of Freddie’s dorm room early one morning, working herself into a frenzy, she wondered if maybe she had inherited the obse
ssive gene.

  “What are you doing?” Freddie asked from her bed, sounding annoyed. She pulled her pillow over her head to block out the sounds of CJ’s restless footsteps.

  “I’m thinking.”

  “You’re plotting,” Freddie said accusingly.

  “Same thing.”

  Freddie sat up with a sigh. “Will you just tell me what you’re up to already?”

  Without looking up, CJ waved her friend’s question away with her hand. “Go back to sleep.”

  CJ continued to pace the length of the dorm room. “The library,” she mumbled to herself. “I could go back to the library. But I already searched it twice and there was nothing there. Blast! Why does it have to be so difficult?”

  She almost sounded like a crazy person.

  Actually, she did sound like a crazy person.

  “If you tell me what you’re up to,” Freddie said, pushing off the covers and stretching her arms above her head, “maybe I can help.”

  CJ stopped pacing and looked at her friend, whose dark pigtailed hair was a mess from her sleeping on it. Maybe she was right. Maybe CJ could ask Freddie for help. After all, Freddie went to class every day with the Auradon kids and their teachers. She had access to people who knew things. She could ask questions.

  But CJ hated asking for favors. She hated asking for help, period. Her father had taught her that sidekicks were a waste of time. They only got in the way and ruined everything you tried to accomplish. Her father had almost been eaten by a crocodile because of his sidekick’s ineptness. And he’d been terrified of crocodiles ever since. It was a fear that ran in the family.

  But CJ was at the end of her rope. It was becoming clearer every day that she couldn’t do this by herself.

  “Well,” CJ said, her mouth stretching open in a big yawn, “I guess if you really wanted to help—you know, if it meant that much to you—maybe you could ask around to see if anyone knows where a tulip so bold or a special stone unturned can be found.”

  Freddie crossed her arms over her chest. “Why?”

  CJ shrugged and adjusted her golden-brown ponytail in the mirror. “No reason. Just curious. I’ve become somewhat of a botany scholar.”

  “No, you haven’t,” Freddie said.

  CJ huffed. “Just ask, okay?” she snapped.

  Anyone else might have taken offense at CJ’s tone, but not Freddie. She just smirked. “No.”

  CJ felt her temper flare. She reminded herself to stay calm, play it cool. “Freddsie,” she pleaded in a syrupy tone, plastering on a fake smile. “C’mon. Help a matey out, would ya? Just ask someone. It’ll take two secs.”

  Freddie stood up and started getting dressed for class. “I don’t need to ask anyone. I already know where the tulip so bold and the special stone unturned are.”

  CJ’s arms fell limp at her sides. “You do?”

  Freddie slipped her feet into her boots and adjusted the tiny purple top hat on her head. “Yup. We learned about them in Auradon Geography class the other day.” She started walking toward the door. “Well, I’m off to—”

  But CJ dashed in front of her, blocking her exit. “Wait. Freddie, old chum. Let’s talk.”

  Freddie smirked again. “Yes. Let’s.” Then the smile fell from her face. “Tell me what you’re plotting and I’ll tell you what I know.”

  CJ stomped her boot on the floor. “Why won’t you just tell me?”

  “Why won’t you?” Freddie shot back.

  CJ could feel her face getting warm. It did that, turning bright red, when she got mad. And she was mad. What kind of friend was Freddie, withholding valuable information from her? That was just cruel, and not in the fun way.

  “I…” CJ struggled to speak. “I’m…” But she couldn’t get the words out. Sure, Freddie was her best friend, but this was her biggest secret ever. She couldn’t just come out and tell someone.

  “Well,” Freddie practically sang, “I’m off to music class. I’m working on a new song, and I want to scarf down some of those delicious cream puffs for breakfast first.” She flashed CJ a sickeningly cheesy smile and waved. “Lates!”

  “Ugh! You’re so evil!” exclaimed CJ.

  “Thank you!” Freddie called as she closed the door.

  CJ grunted. What had gotten into her friend? She was acting like an AK—short for “Auradon Kid”—and it had barely been a week! Music class? Cream puffs? That girl really needed to sort out her priorities.

  As she listened to her friend’s vanishing footfalls on the other side of the door, CJ knew she needed to come up with a new plan. If Freddie wouldn’t tell her what the stone unturned was, she’d have to seek out the answer another way.

  And she knew instantly that it would involve one of her favorite pastimes—breaking and entering.

  Blarg! Freddie’s such a swab!

  Whatever. I don’t need her.

  I can do this on my own.

  That night, after everyone had gone to sleep, CJ slipped outside.

  She tied the end of a rope she’d stolen from the gym into a loop and tossed it toward the roof of the castle. It took three tries, but she was finally able to hook it around something. She gave it a quick tug, making sure it was secure, and then began to climb up the side of the building. Climbing ropes was one of CJ’s strengths—it was an important skill for a pirate to have—but whatever the rope was attached to on the roof must have not been very sturdy, because just as she reached the third floor, she felt it give way.

  Suddenly, CJ was falling. She let out a yelp and grappled for something to hold on to, scraping her knees. Fortunately, her fingertips caught a windowsill just before she plummeted to the ground, and she was able to pull herself up onto a ledge.

  That was close, CJ thought.

  Falling was definitely not part of her plan.

  CJ knew that Mal and Evie would sleep with their dorm room door locked. (It was a VK—short for “Villain Kid”—thing. Growing up on the Isle of the Lost, you couldn’t trust anyone, even your own parents.) But their window, she was happy to discover, was wide open.

  With the deftness of a cat, she slunk inside. Mal and Evie were sound asleep. Evie had a sewing machine set up at her desk, where she’d clearly been working on a new dress for the Neon Lights Ball.

  CJ rolled her eyes. Evie was the worst of them all. She had that Evil Queen vainness in her blood. CJ and Evie had never been very close back on the island. CJ couldn’t stand to listen to the girl blab about meeting a prince and marrying a prince and moving into a giant castle with a prince. (Groan.)

  Mal was different, though. She was rotten to the core. At least, she used to be. She was the daughter of the most evil villain on the entire island. But this place had gotten to her, too. And if Auradon Prep could get to the daughter of Maleficent, CJ had very little hope for her friend Freddie.

  CJ crept silently toward Evie’s dresser and started opening drawers. That was another thing about Auradon: Nothing squeaked. Nothing creaked. Nothing had even a spot of dirt on it. It wasn’t like the island, where everything was old and rusty and complained when you disturbed it. The hinges at Auradon shone with newness. The doors and cupboards were polished and quiet. She even caught sight of her reflection in the floors of the bathroom.

  CJ located Evie’s magic mirror in the second drawer. It was small—barely bigger than her palm—and framed in gold. She’d seen Evie carrying it around with her everywhere she went. The girl clung to that thing like the AKs clung to their phones.

  The mirror had never worked on the island, but CJ knew that it worked at Auradon. She’d witnessed Evie using it on multiple occasions, speaking clearly into the reflective glass to request that the mirror show her what she wanted to see. Maybe, just maybe, it would work for CJ.

  She swallowed and racked her brain for the right thing to say. “Uh,” she barely whispered. “Um. Okay. Mirror mirror, in my hand, show me the path to the treasure land.”

  She peered into the glass, waiting with bated breath. Bu
t all she saw was her own annoyed reflection staring back at her. She rolled her eyes again, feeling ridiculous.

  If only Daddy could see me now, talking to a stupid mirror.

  But she needed that gold. She wanted that ship. So she swallowed her pride and tried again, keeping her voice low. “Mirror, mirror, wise and learned, where is the magic stone unturned?”

  “What are you doing?” someone said, and CJ jumped, nearly dropping the mirror. She dove to the ground and scrambled under Evie’s bed. With her heart in her throat, she waited for the voice to come again. But all she heard was a snort.

  A snort?

  Who was snorting?

  CJ cocked an eyebrow and slowly peeked her head out from under the bed. It was dark in the room, but a sliver of moonlight from the open window was cast directly across Mal’s face. Her eyes were closed and her purple hair was fanned out over her pillow. CJ waited, watching.

  Then Mal spoke: “Fab-mazing is not a real word.”

  CJ sighed. It was just Mal talking in her sleep. CJ climbed out from under the bed and glared at the mirror in frustration. It must work only for Evie. Talk about the unfairest of them all.

  She slipped the mirror back into the drawer. Then she peered around the room, searching for something else that might prove useful. She was just about to give up and head back to the open window when she caught sight of something on Mal’s bedside table. A book. At first she thought it was Mal’s spell book—which she realized wouldn’t work for her, either—but as she crept closer and studied the cover, she could see it was something else.

  Mal’s diary!

  She grabbed it and eagerly flipped through the pages, reading about when Mal met Ben, King Beast’s son, and the first time she looked into those big doe eyes. (Ick, please.) Next CJ skimmed the parts about Mal and Evie’s getting settled into their dorm room and their visit to the Museum of Cultural History with Jay and Carlos to try to steal Fairy Godmother’s wand.

  That was when CJ stopped and her heart started to race.