by Joan Holub
On the trip back across the river, Malorette produced some yummy-looking three-dimensional gingerbread house cookies from her bag.
“Snack?” she asked, holding a cookie out to Goldie. The cookies were one of Mistress Hagscorch’s specialties. They were beautifully decorated with candies and icing, each just big enough to fit in the palm of one hand.
“Snitched goodies always taste better than those given freely, don’t you think?” Odette commented when Goldie was already half finished with her cookie.
“Mmfh?” Goldie mumbled around a mouthful of cookie.
“Don’t look so shocked,” Malorette said, giggling at her expression. “Yeah, I snitched them from the kitchen without permission. C’mon. It’s not like you haven’t done the same thing. Your tale, remember? Eating someone else’s porridge? Same as stealing if you’re being honest with yourself.” Then she added, “No judgment, though.”
As if that was supposed to reassure her? Goldie hurriedly finished off the cookie, anyway, and then tried to forget about it.
Pushed along by the current, it was an easy paddle back to the Academy. Odette was first to leap out of the boat as soon as they docked. “Gotta run. See you,” she told Goldie.
“Yeah,” said Malorette. “After we deliver these measurements to Principal W, we have to study. Grimm History of Barbarians and Dastardlies test tomorrow!”
“Oh, yeah. Me too,” said Goldie.
Malorette winked at Goldie. “Even bad villains can be good students, right?” Both sisters giggled as they dashed off.
Goldie couldn’t help grinning, too. Malorette and Odette weren’t all bad. If she joined E.V.I.L., she’d probably make other friends. All of them villains. But the Grimm brothers had invited good and bad fairy-tale characters into Grimmlandia. They hadn’t seen any reason to exclude the bad ones. Could good not exist without bad around? At least in fairy tales? She supposed that made some kind of sense.
A few minutes later, Goldie pushed back the curtain door to her shared alcove in Ruby Tower. She saw right away that Polly had a visitor. Jill, who was also a nursery rhyme character, attended the Academy with her brother, Jack. She was sitting on the rug next to Polly, and both girls were sipping tea. Tea for two, Goldie thought with a smile.
The girls were chatting and laughing in the close, familiar way Goldie had observed between best friends. She had yet to experience this herself, since she’d never had a best friend. A bolt of jealousy slipped through her, but she pushed it away. She was glad somebody around here had friends!
Seeing Goldie, Jill jumped up. “Hi!” Then to Polly, she added, “Better run.”
“No need to go just because I’m here,” Goldie joked. “I mean, where’s the fire?” She’d added that last part because Jack and Jill actually had a magic fire pail they used for putting out fires around the Academy. But no one laughed.
“Uh, no fire,” said Jill, who either didn’t get Goldie’s joke or just didn’t think it was funny. “I’ve got a lot of stuff to do, that’s all.” She glanced over at Polly, who was drinking probably her bazillionth cup of tea for the day. “See you at dinner.” Then she whisked out through the curtain.
“Want some?” Polly, asked, pointing to a china teapot that sat beside her on the rug. “It’s herbal,” she added. “I never drink caffeine after two in the afternoon. Otherwise I can’t sleep.”
“Sure, I’ll have a cup,” Goldie said, relieved that Polly seemed her usual tea-obsessed self and not mad at her for what had happened at breakfast.
“What were you guys talking about?” she asked Polly.
“Oh, you know, just stuff,” said Polly, shrugging.
Hmph! Not just tea then, Goldie guessed. Suddenly, a new, uncomfortable thought occurred to her. Maybe Polly didn’t trust her. Maybe she considered her a porridge thief and a chair vandalizer, too. Maybe she thought Goldie would fit right in with E.V.I.L. Did she talk about tea so much around her only because it seemed a safe subject? It was a hurtful thought, but it was possible. Distrust among students had grown a lot since Ms. Wicked had become principal.
“Thanks,” Goldie said, taking a seat on the rug as Polly poured and then handed her a cup. “Mmm,” she said, after taking a sip. “Usually peppermint is not my cup of tea,” she joked, “but this is delish. Not too hot and not too cold. It’s just right.”
Polly smiled. “So how was your trip to Maze Island?”
“Okay.” Goldie was hesitant to talk about that since Malorette and Odette’s room was right next door. They might overhear. “How were your classes today?” she asked instead, determined to talk about something other than tea for once.
“Okay,” said Polly. She topped off the tea in her cup, then after a moment’s hesitation, she added, “A rumor about Principal R was going around during my sixth-period Calligraphy and Illuminated Manuscripts class.”
Goldie raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“That he’s being kept in the Pink Castle dungeon.”
“What?” Goldie asked skeptically. “If he really is down there, it seems like someone would have discovered him by now. And who would lock him up?” she asked, curious to hear Polly’s response.
“There are lots of ideas about that,” her roomie said. Then she ticked off a list of people and groups the students in her class thought could have a reason for locking up Principal R. The list included the School Board, angry townspeople, E.V.I.L., malicious fairies, and even Grandmother Enchantress, Grimmlandia’s most ancient and revered magical resident!
“Interesting. And creepy. Just imagine if he really is imprisoned down there. He’d be right under our noses. Or more like about six floors or so under our feet.” Goldie shivered. As far-fetched as the idea that Principal R could be imprisoned beneath Pink Castle sounded to her, Malorette and Odette had seemed pretty sure he wouldn’t be returning to GA. If she went down there and freed him, she’d be an instant hero. Well, to everyone but E.V.I.L.
Polly shivered, too. “I don’t want to imagine it. Let’s hit the books. History test tomorrow.”
Goldie nodded, but she shot Polly a glance as both girls sat down at their desks. She wanted to ask her what she knew about E.V.I.L. and its members, but she wasn’t sure how to bring up the topic. Did she know Malorette and Odette were members of the E.V.I.L. Society? If so, did she think the two sisters’ friendliness with her signaled that she was a member, too? It was true they’d invited her to join the Society, but she hadn’t said yes!
At eight o’clock that night, after most students had finished dinner and retired to their rooms, Goldie secretly slipped from Ruby Tower and down the stairs to the basement. It wouldn’t hurt to check out the rumor about the principal being in the dungeon. Only she’d decided to do it before curfew this time. Less risky that way. There was no rule she knew of — either in the Handbook or from the lips of Ms. Wicked — that forbade students from going down to the very bottom of the castle. Of course, picking the locks on any locked doors she happened to encounter was another matter, but that couldn’t be helped.
Animal guards were stationed at each landing she came to, but she told them she was looking for the Grimmstone Library in order to meet friends and study for a test. This satisfied them all and they let her pass by with warnings to be back in her dorm before ten.
Goldie had no valid reason for going down to the basement, however, since the library never appeared there, as far as she knew. So when she reached the first-floor landing, she said to the kangaroo guard stationed there, “The big bear guard is looking for you.”
“Really?” The kangaroo guard hopped up and down anxiously. “Where is he?”
“Way up on the sixth floor,” fibbed Goldie, pointing a finger upward.
Boing! Without another word, the kangaroo leaped past her to bound upstairs. Goldie thanked her lucky stars the guard was gullible enough to fall for her trick. “Though come to think of it,” she mumbled to herself, “how bright could a blossom-turned-guard be?”
As soon as
the kangaroo disappeared from sight, she ran down the last flight of stairs to the basement landing. There she came upon a narrow black door with big iron hinges. Naturally, it was locked. So she slipped the pearl-flower hairpin from her golden curls and stuck it in the lock. As she fumbled around, feeling for the just right place to poke, she heard footsteps coming downstairs behind her.
She darted glances over her shoulder, starting to panic in earnest. Click! Finally! The lock gave way.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she shoved open the door. After stepping quickly through, she softly closed the door behind her. The air was chilly and dank as she hurried through a long, sloping tunnel paved with cobblestones. Fortunately, antique brass lamps stuck out from the tunnel walls every few feet, lighting her way as she ventured deep beneath the castle. At last, at the end of the tunnel, she came upon a heavy iron door with a barred window in it. Aha! A prison cell!
Was Principal R inside? Her heart thumped with excitement. She felt sure she was this close to setting him free and becoming the school hero!
She was startled to hear muffled voices coming from beyond the door. It sounded like more than one person was locked up in the cell. Standing on tiptoe, she peeked through the barred window.
To her great disappointment, Principal R was not inside. Instead, she saw a regular bedroom. And two girls she knew — Rapunzel and Red Riding Hood — were sitting and chatting on top of a bed covered in a black duvet. Bummer and a half! Her hopes of heroism were instantly dashed.
There were several cats in the room as well. Rapunzel was petting a black one. Two more black cats were curled up together at the end of the bed, while a fluffy gray cat paced on a black-and-white-checkered rug nearby. And there was an all-white cat sitting on top of a black-painted desk, licking its paws.
Goldie loved animals, but her aunt had never allowed her to have a pet. “They’re dirty, messy creatures,” she’d always said. Which wasn’t true or fair, but her aunt had very definite opinions about things. And arguing with her had never done Goldie any good and had only seemed to make her aunt more certain she was right.
Goldie was so entranced by the cats that she failed to notice someone had followed her down the tunnel. And she didn’t hear the soft footsteps coming up behind her. But when she felt a tap on her shoulder, she let out a shriek. “Eek!” She wheeled around.
“Shh. It’s just me,” said Polly. “I saw you leave Ruby Tower and followed you to find out what you were up to.” She craned her head toward the barred window. “Did you find him? Is Principal R in there?”
Before Goldie could reply, the door was thrust open.
“Goldie?” Rapunzel’s dark eyes went wide in surprise.
“Polly?” said Red. She and Rapunzel looked from one girl to the other. “What are you two doing here?” they chorused.
“I — that is — we,” Goldie stuttered, gesturing toward Polly, “were looking for Principal R.”
“Well, this is my room and he’s not in here,” Rapunzel said emphatically. “And you’re not the first to come down to this dungeon looking for him. We’ve heard the rumors, too, but they’re false.”
Soon, all four girls were comfortably seated on Rapunzel’s black-and-white-checkered rug, leaning against tasseled black-and-white pillows of various shapes and sizes. A white cat leaped down from Rapunzel’s desk and ran over to Goldie, her tail waving high in the air.
“Moon likes you,” Rapunzel informed Goldie.
Well, that makes one for-sure friend, thought Goldie as she petted the cat. Moon stretched out on her legs and began to purr.
“So if Principal R isn’t down here, where do we think he is?” Polly asked, looking around at Goldie, Red, and Rapunzel.
“No clue,” Rapunzel answered, stroking her fluffy gray cat under its chin. “Wherever he is, I hope he’s okay. I mean, he was really nice to me. I was kind of afraid of heights plus I needed somewhere big to keep all my cats, so he gave me permission to choose a room down here in the dungeon. But now I’m starting to worry that Ms. Wicked will remember I’m where I am and make me move to one of the towers.”
“For your own safety,” Red said, imitating Ms. Wicked’s imperious voice.
All four girls laughed. It was easy to see why Red had starred in a school play. She had Ms. Wicked’s voice and manner down perfectly!
Goldie glanced around, taking in more of Rapunzel’s dungeon room. It was really adorable — in a goth kind of way. Black lacy curtains hung from a second barred window above the bed. “So you really live here?” she asked finally.
Rapunzel nodded, as her fluffy gray cat pushed its big head under her hand.
“Yeah, she did it up cute, right? She even made that awesome mural herself,” said Red. She waved toward a stone wall painted with a nighttime forest scene. In various shades of black, silver, white, and other dusky colors, bats and owls flitted through a moonlit sky while heavy-limbed trees swayed below them.
“Grimmazing!” Goldie pronounced in admiring tones.
Suddenly Rapunzel cocked her head, like she was trying to figure something out. “You know what’s weird, though? I just remembered I locked the tunnel door when Red and I came down here after dinner. So how did you guys get in just now?”
Polly shrugged. “We didn’t come together. I followed Goldie. And when I got to the door, it wasn’t locked.”
Everyone looked at Goldie.
“Um,” she said. “The lock was broken.”
“Really?” Rapunzel said in alarm. She hopped off the bed. “Let’s go check it. I don’t want guards or Ms. Wicked’s spies creeping down here.”
Seeing no good way around it, Goldie followed the other girls back down the hall toward the lock, dragging her feet. How was she going to explain this? She’d lied, for one thing. And she’d picked a lock — a big no-no — for another.
As they got closer and closer to the door, Goldie held back even more. When the others found out the lock wasn’t actually broken, maybe she could suggest the janitor must have repaired it right away. Only she knew how unlikely that would seem. She and Polly had just come through the door not long ago and there hadn’t been enough time for the janitor to happen by, notice the lock was broken, and then fix it, too.
Besides, she didn’t really want to get tangled up in yet another lie. When Rapunzel reached out to examine the lock, Goldie finally blurted out the truth. “Oh, all right. I picked it. I admit it.”
“Picked what?” asked Red.
“The lock. It’s not broken. I used this.” Goldie slid the pearl-flower pin from her hair and handed it to Rapunzel to pass around.
“Whoa, how grimmtastic is that? Wish I had the skill to pick locks,” Rapunzel exclaimed. She studied the pin in admiration then passed it to Red.
“You’re not mad?” asked Goldie. “You guys don’t think I’m a villain? Because I think you can be a good character in a fairy tale without actually being goody-goody.”
“Huh?” asked Polly. The girls stared at her, obviously confused.
“Oh, never mind,” said Goldie, deciding to leave well enough alone.
“It’s pretty,” Polly said when it was her turn to look at the pin. “A gift from your aunt?”
“Uh, not quite,” Goldie told her, thinking there was no way her aunt would ever give her something so pretty and … ornamental. “I discovered it on the top shelf of my trunker a couple of weeks ago. I guess it must have been there all along and I just missed seeing it. Probably left there by the last student assigned to my trunker.”
“Maybe,” said Polly, handing the pin back to Goldie, who slid it into her hair. But she had sounded doubtful. From the corner of her eye, Goldie noticed her exchange a look with Red and Rapunzel. What was that all about? she wondered.
Just then, they heard a sound. Boing! Boing!
“Uh-oh! The kangaroo guard,” hissed Goldie. “Quick! Relock the door.”
Red was closest, so she did. Just in time! Right away, the doorknob rattled. The four gir
ls backed away, then took off running, not stopping till they were in Rapunzel’s room again. Red and Rapunzel flopped onto the bed, gasping after their quick escape. Goldie and Polly flopped onto the rug.
“To get rid of that kangaroo before I went down to the basement, I told him another guard was looking for him,” said Goldie, still panting. “Bet he was hopping mad when he found out otherwise.”
For some reason, this made everyone giddy and they all started laughing. When they finally calmed down, Goldie told the others what she’d learned about the guards having sprung from tongue twister plants.
Rapunzel and Red sat up on the bed and nodded. “Yeah! We figured out the same thing,” said Red.
“My tongue twister was ‘Zany Zachary zigzagged alone through the zoo’s zebra zone with his xylophone,’ ” said Rapunzel.
Everyone giggled, reciting their tongue twisters, too. “Mine was ‘Five fuzzy bears followed four furry foxes in the forest,’ ” said Goldie. Moon had fallen asleep on top of her. Trying not to disturb the cat, she lay as still as she could with her legs stretched out before her.
“The bear and the fox guards, right?” Polly said from beside her. “Only aren’t there just three bear guards?”
Goldie explained about the two unmagicked bear blossoms that sat on her desk.
“Oh, yeah, I’ve seen them. Cute!” said Polly.
Despite Malorette and Odette’s assertion that the “so-called good” characters looked down on the villainous ones, Goldie thought Rapunzel and Red — and Polly, too, of course — were really very nice.
After a brief hesitation, she set Moon aside so she could sit up straight. Then she began to spill more of the things she’d learned that day. “Ms. Wicked is having the statue of Principal R in the Maze Island gazebo replaced with one of herself,” she shared.
“What?” exclaimed Red.
Goldie nodded. “It’s true. Malorette and Odette went there to measure the height from the base to the gazebo’s ceiling to see how tall the new statue could be. And when I protested that Ms. Wicked was only the acting principal and asked what about Principal R, they just smiled. Then Malorette said, ‘Oh, he probably won’t be back.’ Odette said it was just their hunch, but I think they know more than they let on.”
