“To turn frog into boy is big vish, not little vish.” He stacked the last coin, then scrambled to his feet. “Now leave me in peace. I get ready for date vith Candy Vitch. She bring picnic of homemade food just like Momma Rumpelstiltskin used to make. Maybe my beard vill explode again!” He did a little hop.
“The date’s today?” Ginger said, somewhat startled.
That was when Hopper made his escape. He soared from her hand and hopped across the attic floor. Quick as a wink, he leaped onto the ladder, then began making his way down the rungs. Ginger darted past her professor and scrambled down the ladder as fast as she could. But by the time her shoes touched the classroom floor, Hopper was already out the door.
“Breadcrumbs! Not again!” She ran outside. A hawk circled above the trees, scanning the ground for food. The swans glided in their pool, waiting patiently for a scrumptious morsel to swim in their direction. “Hopper, where are you?” Ginger called.
She caught something pink out of the corner of her eye. She whipped around.
A beautiful woman was walking up the lane toward the school.
Chapter 19
A Nonpoisoned Picnic
Ginger did not feel embarrassed as her mother walked up the lane. And no one fled in terror. There was no pointed hat. There were no military boots. And not a single green hair to be seen. Ms. Breadhouse wore a lime-sherbet pantsuit with matching heels. Her pink hair was silky and curled at the shoulders. A necklace of fruity loops completed the “normal” outfit.
“Hello, sweetie pie,” she said, a picnic basket swinging from her hand. She’d touched up her roots and pasted her false eyelashes in the right spots. A dab of makeup covered her chin wart. “Why are you dressed like that? Where’s your cupcake hat?”
“Uh, hi, Mom.” Ginger hugged her, then shuffled nervously in place. She didn’t feel like explaining her wardrobe choices. Not while so much was at stake. She looked at the picnic basket. “You didn’t happen to find a frog, did you?”
“It’s been a long time since I collected eyeballs,” Ms. Breadhouse said with an excited cackle. “Would you like to take a stroll this evening and do some frogging?”
“No!” Ginger said. “No frog hunting while you’re here. Promise?”
Ms. Breadhouse sighed, her shoulders sinking. “Anything for you, my little Gingerpoo.” She patted the basket. “I brought a lovely lunch for Rumpelstiltskin. I got all the recipes from a nonpoisonous cookbook, just to make you happy.”
“Huh?” Ginger furrowed her brow.
“Well, I am trying to fit in. So I made cucumber sandwiches with extra mayo.” She reached into the basket, then gave Ginger a sandwich. “Go on, give it a try. You’ll be so proud.”
The sandwich was crustless and cut into a perfect triangle. Ginger peeled back the bread and was happy to discover no frog legs or spider legs. She took a bite.
“Well?” Ms. Breadhouse asked.
“It’s good,” Ginger said, which was a total lie. The sandwich tasted as bland as air.
“I’ve also made a gelatin salad with miniature marshmallows, and iced tea. It will be the most normal picnic ever.” Ms. Breadhouse sighed again. She looked as unhappy as one of her poisoning victims. “And the most boring.”
For as long as she could remember, Ginger had wanted her mother to make this kind of food. But now it just seemed so wrong. “Mom, you can’t serve this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Professor Rumpelstiltskin is expecting you to poison him. He wants your witchy cooking. He wants his beard to explode. That’s the kind of picnic I thought you’d bring.”
“This is very confusing, my dearest. First you don’t want me to poison people, and now you do.” She set the picnic basket on the ground. “Do you want me to be Ms. Breadhouse or the Candy Witch?”
Ginger didn’t want to hurt her mom’s feelings. She was so grateful to her for agreeing to have lunch with Rumpelstiltskin. “I’m sorry, Mom, I know it’s confusing. I’m very confused about a lot of things right now. I only promised Rumpelstiltskin a date with you because he gave me that special recipe, but now everything’s a mess and he doesn’t have another recipe to fix things. And I don’t know who—”
Ginger gasped. Of course! She was standing face-to-face with an expert on recipes. Her mother was way more knowledgeable than Rumpelstiltskin. Surely she’d know how to change Hopper back into a boy.
If Ginger ever found him again.
“Mom, I need your help.”
“Of course, my little lovey-dovey. What can I do?”
“Remember how I told you I was going to make a wish cake and feed it to my friend Hopper?” Ms. Breadhouse nodded. “Well, I turned him into a frog. A real frog.”
“You turned the boy you like into a frog? That’s nice, sweetie. I’m very proud of you.”
“You don’t understand.” Ginger scooted her glasses up her nose and stared into her mother’s swamp-green eyes. “I’m a total failure. Hopper doesn’t really want to be a frog forever after. He was just saying that because he was embarrassed. I was trying to help him, and trying to help myself at the same time. But all I did was mess everything up.”
The Candy Witch pointed a perfectly polished nail at her daughter. “You listen here, Ginger Breadhouse. As much as it pains me to say this, you were put on this earth to create delicious, nonpoisonous treats. You were meant to decorate the world with icing swirls and chocolate sprinkles. That is your true destiny. And changing your clothing, or quitting your show, won’t change who you are inside. Sharing your baking with others is what you do. It’s your passion. You must always be true to yourself.”
Changing your clothing won’t change who you are inside.
Ginger looked at her mother’s pantsuit. “Are you talking about me, or about you?”
“I guess I’m talking about both of us.”
“Mom, you hate being Ms. Breadhouse, don’t you?”
“I love being your mother, but I’m also the Candy Witch. Both of those roles are my destiny.”
At that moment, Ginger saw her mother not as a character from a fairytale, and not as a parent, but as a person like herself. A person with talent and passion.
“Mom, I’m not a little kid anymore. And I’m at a school where everyone knows my story. I want you to go back to being yourself. I want you to be happy.”
“Really?” She gasped. “But what about your friends? Don’t you worry what they might think about you?”
“I’m tired of worrying about what people think of me. My true friends accept me for who I am and where I come from.” It felt so good to say those words, to have those feelings. Ginger laughed. Ms. Breadhouse cackled as if a giant weight had been lifted. Then they hugged.
“I’ll change back into myself if you promise to do the same,” she said, pointing to Ginger’s bland clothing.
“It’s a deal,” Ginger said. “But right now I need to change Hopper back into himself. Do you have a recipe that can reverse wishes?”
“Let me think about this.” Ms. Breadhouse narrowed her eyes. “This boy is the son of the Frog Prince, correct?”
“Yes.”
She smiled. “Smoochy-poochy, there’s only one way to turn a frog into a prince. And it doesn’t require a recipe of any sort.”
The answer hit Ginger so hard it almost toppled her over. “A kiss from a princess!” she cried. “That’s the answer!” Now that she knew what to do, there was just one other tiny problem. “But how do I find him?”
“If he’s turned into a real frog, then I’m guessing he’d go where most of the other frogs go—to the Ever After High swamp. When I was a student here, that’s where I did all my best frogging.”
“Thanks,” Ginger said. She hugged her mom again.
Ms. Breadhouse picked up the picnic basket. “I’d better hurry home and pack a new lunch. If Rumpelstiltskin wants a date with the Candy Witch, he’s going to want authentic Candy Witch treats.” She smiled. “This will be so much fun!”
“Bye,” Ginger called as her mother hurried back down the lane.
Ginger was so happy to have a solution she twirled in place. A princess kiss would reverse the spell. It was Hopper’s only chance, but at least he had a chance.
And fortunately for Hopper, princesses were as abundant at Ever After High as chips in a razzle-dazzle chip cookie.
Chapter 20
The Princess Ploy
It took Ginger exactly five seconds to spot a princess. Apple White was sitting on a garden bench, a parasol protecting her fairest-in-the-land skin from the sun. Unfortunately, Briar Beauty sat next to her. Briar was the very last princess Ginger would have chosen to kiss the boy she liked. If the situation hadn’t been dire, Ginger might have scouted around for someone else, but the morning was slipping by and Hopper could have hopped all the way to Wonderland by now!
Thankfully, Briar was fast asleep. Maybe she wouldn’t wake up.
“Hi,” Ginger whispered as she quietly slid onto the bench.
“Hi, Ginger.” Apple White smiled in her sweet, dimpled way. A pair of butterflies flitted around her head. She smelled like baby powder and apple blossoms. “I barely recognized you in that outfit. Are all your other clothes dirty? Do you need the number for my laundry dwarf?”
“No, I need to talk to you. I need a princess.”
Apple turned and elbowed Briar. “Wake up. Ginger needs to talk to us.”
“Oh, no, you don’t have to wake her.”
“Huh?” With a snort, Briar sat up straight. “Oh, hi, Ginger.” She wiped a bit of drool from the corner of her mouth. “What’s going on?”
Ginger’s gaze darted between Apple and Briar. This was going to be impossible. If they wouldn’t kiss Hopper in the kissing booth, they certainly wouldn’t kiss him now. Would they? “I need your help with something. It’s really important.”
Briar yawned. “Faybelle told us that you poisoned Hopper and turned him into a real frog.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Ginger said. “I—”
“Are you going to poison us?” Apple giggled and twirled her parasol. “I think it’s lovely that you’re following your wicked destiny. I tell Raven all the time that she can give me a poisoned apple, but she never does. It’s so disappointing.”
“I didn’t poison Hopper. I made a wish cake and—” Why waste time defending herself? The girls were staring at her as if they didn’t believe a word she was saying. “Never mind. What matters is that Hopper’s been turned into a real frog, and he’ll stay that way forever after unless we break the spell.”
“We?” Briar asked. “But you’re the one who poisoned him.”
“I didn’t… ugh! Look, do you know the story of the Frog Prince?”
Apple batted her long lashes. “Of course we know that story, silly. We learn every royal story in Princessology class.”
“Then you know that in order to turn Hopper back into a prince, a princess needs to kiss him.”
“Kiss a real frog?” Briar asked. “Ew, ew, and more ew.”
“I have to agree,” Apple said with a pout. “That doesn’t sound very appealing.”
How could Ginger make her request appealing? She couldn’t put frosting on it or dip it in Candy Mountain chocolate sauce. What appealed to princesses?
“Duty,” she said, looking directly at Apple. “It’s your duty to kiss him.”
“Oh my goodness,” Apple said. She clapped her hands. “You’re so right, Ginger. It’s a tough job, but if no one else will step forward, then yes, indeed, it is my duty.”
Briar’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “What in Ever After do you mean it’s your duty?”
“Well, my story is the most well-known and the most popular, so it makes sense that I’m the right one to turn a frog back into a prince.” She smiled, but not in a snobby way. Apple believed everything she’d just said.
Briar chuckled. “Have you flipped your crown? Your story is far from the only princess story around. My kiss would work just as well as your kiss.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Apple said matter-of-factly. “My fairytale is always on the bestseller list, and I hate to say this, Briar, but people often confuse you with that other beauty, the one who meets the beast.”
“That’s so not true!”
Were they actually arguing about who should kiss Hopper? Why couldn’t they have shown this much enthusiasm when Hopper had been standing in the kissing booth? But that scene had happened and it couldn’t be rewritten.
A hawk circled above their heads, its piercing gaze scanning the ground for prey. Ginger darted to her feet. She hated what she was about to say, but the clock was ticking and frog-eating predators were hunting. “Look, you can both kiss him. Let’s just go find him before it’s too late.”
Apple tried to get to her feet first, but Briar was quicker. “I’ll find him!”
“No, I will!” Apple’s little outburst scared the butterflies away. It was unlike Apple to get so snippy. But she took duty very seriously.
And then things took a turn in a direction Ginger would never have imagined. Two more princesses walked up to the bench—Ashlynn Ella and Raven Queen. “What are you arguing about?” Ashlynn asked.
“Hopper’s waiting to be kissed and turned back into a prince,” Apple said. “I’m the best princess for the job.”
“Not in my storybook,” Briar grumbled. “Clearly, I’m the best princess for the job. My kiss will break the spell.”
Ashlynn pointed to herself. “Uh, hello? I’m a princess, too. My kiss is just as good as your kisses.”
Ginger tried to get a few words in, but the princesses started arguing even louder. The noise drew stares from passing students. Raven cleared her throat, then raised her hands, which made everyone a little nervous because Raven was capable of conjuring magic. “Settle down, ladies.” Though she didn’t follow in her Evil Queen mother’s footsteps, she could command attention when she wanted. The arguing ceased. “I’m no expert on kissing, but we have a friend who needs our help. It seems to me that we should be working together to save Hopper.”
The princesses nodded in agreement.
“Thank you,” Ginger said. “Now let’s get to the swamp!”
Apple frowned. “Oh dear, no one said anything about a swamp.”
Chapter 21
The Ever After Swamp
Before they set out for the swamp, there was a heated discussion among the princesses about the perils of traveling to such a dank, soggy place. They spritzed themselves with bug repellent and stuffed their pockets with antislime wipes. Since most of the princesses had sophisticated taste in shoes, they borrowed galoshes from the Hero Training classroom. And when Apple mentioned that she’d heard frogs can give you warts, they grabbed some wart remover from the nurse’s office. Remembering all her frog-catching lessons, Ginger grabbed a couple of butterfly nets.
“Wait for me,” Blondie cried. “I’m a princess, too.”
“Well, actually…” Raven looked as if she was going to argue this point, but Apple poked her in the side. “Uh, right. Sure.”
“One of my sources leaked your quest,” Blondie explained. “Well, actually, I was eavesdropping. But that’s why I’m the best reporter on campus. I want to capture all the action for my show.” She pulled out her MirrorPad and pressed record. Then she held it in front of her face. “Hello, fellow fairytales. Blondie Lockes here, recording from the gardens of Ever After High. The question I put to you is this: Is a princess’s kiss powerful enough to turn a frog back into a prince, or is that another fable fed to us by our storybooks?”
“It’s not a fable,” Apple said. She smiled at the camera. “There is no kiss more powerful than a princess’s kiss.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Raven said. “True love’s kiss is the most powerful. We just learned that in Princessology.”
“This is very interesting, but we need to start walking,” Ginger said with a sense of urgency. She balanced the but
terfly nets on her shoulder. “Everybody follow me.”
It wasn’t difficult to find the swamp. Headmaster Grimm insisted that the groundskeepers post signs all over campus so that no one would get lost. One sign led to the Village of Book End, another to the Enchanted Forest, another to Mirror Beach. “Here we are,” Ginger said as they stood in front of a small green sign.
“Sounds like home,” Raven said drily.
Ginger led the way down the dirt path. The going was slow, thanks to roots and loose rocks. The forest grew thick in these parts, with ivy and brambles filling the spaces between trees. Moss hung from branches in long strips like Rapunzel’s hair.
“Hopper!” Ginger called. “The last time I saw him he was still wearing his crown, so he should be easy to spot. Hopper!”
“Everybody be careful,” Ashlynn advised. “There are lots of critters that crawl along the forest floor, and we wouldn’t want to step on any of them.”
“Yes, watch your step,” Ginger said, trying not to imagine what a squished Hopper would look like. She was grateful that Ashlynn had decided to join them. The princess had a special relationship with nature. In fact, she could talk to many creatures.
Hoot!
“What was that?” Blondie asked a bit nervously.
“An owl,” Ashlynn said. “He’s complaining that we woke him from his nap.”
“I’d like to take a nap,” Briar said with a yawn. She sank onto a boulder.
“Now is not the time for beauty sleep,” Apple said, pulling Briar to her feet.
“Hopper!” Ginger called again. “Hopper, don’t worry. We’re coming to help you!”
As they walked deeper into the forest, the air grew humid and the path became soggy. Their galoshes slurped through the mud. Water dripped from moss. Red toadstools with white polka dots appeared in clusters. The fattest toadstool had a little chimney sticking out the top and smoke coming out. “Maybe whoever lives there can help us?” Raven suggested. She bent over and, using one fingernail, tapped on the door. “Hello? Anyone home?”
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