Misfits

by Jen Calonita

  I glance out the one small window in the room and see smoke and flames. Nothing to be alarmed about. Just an illusion, I’m sure. This is just a test! I remind myself.

  “Maybe we should sing while we wait,” suggests a girl who is sweating profusely. For fake flames, it is rather hot in here.

  “I’d like my sack off,” Raina says. “Can someone help me?”

  “Let me try to help.” I wiggle closer, then stop. Am I allowed to help Raina get out of her sack? Or is that against the princess rules? I look around for a mirror but see none. Does that mean Olivina can’t see us? “Um…” My brow is beading with sweat.

  “What is it? Can you reach me?” Raina asks.

  “Yes, but…am I allowed to take your sack off?” I whisper.

  “Of course you can!” Raina sounds somewhat annoyed. “I’d think Olivina would want us to look our best when the princes arrive, and I certainly can’t do that with a sack on my head, now can I? Actually, let’s all try to remove our sacks.”

  That makes sense. I inch closer and use my teeth to give her sack a tug. It pulls right off. The few girls with sacks off do the same for the girls around them. When someone reaches Sasha, I realize she’s actually gagged as well. What is that about?

  “There, that’s better!” says Matilda, whose hair has started to wilt in the heat.

  “I didn’t realize magic could conjure up temperature as well as illusions,” says another girl warily.

  I hear a crackling sound and look up as a beam from the ceiling catches fire and plummets to the floor, narrowly missing Sasha’s feet. A few girls scream.

  “Fairy be, that’s some illusion,” Raina says nervously.

  There’s more crackling and… Boom! Boom! Boom! Three more beams hit the floor in quick succession, one cracking the floorboards. The entire room starts to rumble and shake, and black smoke pours through the window. Girls start to whimper.

  “It’s just a test, it’s just a test, it’s just a test,” I hear a girl repeat over and over, and I do the same in my head. It’s just a test! But it feels so real! But it’s just a test!

  Then I hear a low roar.

  “That sounds like a dragon,” a girl squeaks.

  “No way!” says Matilda, shaking her head so vehemently her tiara flies off.

  “It’s definitely a dragon!” says the girl next to her. “It sounds like the one that was in Professor Snow’s class.”

  “It’s just an illusion,” I say, but my words are drowned out by an earsplitting ka-boom! Pieces of the ceiling rain down on our heads as the roof is ripped away. Girls scream and huddle together, unable to do much more than press themselves against the wall with nowhere else to go. Raina and I stay close, but Sasha is clear across the room. I lock eyes with her. “It’s going to be okay!” I shout as much to myself as to Sasha. “The princes are coming.” The words sound hollow coming out of my mouth.

  Screech!

  A scaly arm works its way into the opening in the roof. The long talons that loom above us do not look friendly, but it’s just an illusion. All smoke and mirrors.

  Screech! The dragon looks down at the tower full of princesses. Maybe he can’t see us, I think. Then he spews a heavy stream of fire that licks the edges of the walls and sends girls rolling out of the line of fire. A table in the center of the room is engulfed in flames, blasting the room with blistering heat.

  I lock eyes with Sasha and know, somehow, she’s thinking the same thing I am: This doesn’t feel like an illusion. This feels real.

  “I don’t think this is a test!” wails Matilda as the dragon begins ripping away more of the ceiling. “That dragon is going to eat us!”

  “Where are the princes?” Raina cries. “Why isn’t anyone coming to save us?”

  My heart is beating out of my chest. Sasha scooches herself across the room so she’s next to Raina and me. Tears are streaming down girls’ cheeks. Some are crying quietly as the dragon caws and screeches above our heads.

  “Those flames are real! This room is going to be destroyed in minutes. We can’t wait any longer for boys to save us!” yells another princess. Some of the girls mutter in agreement.

  “But that’s what we’re supposed to do,” the girl next to her cries.

  “We can’t just sit here!” snaps the first girl. “We’re like one hundredth to the throne. If the princes get here, they’ll save the others first, and we’ll be done for. We have to save ourselves.”

  “Ella is our stepsister! She wouldn’t just leave us here,” the first girl says and now I know why I recognize them. Azalea and Dahlia, Princess Ella’s formerly wicked stepsisters, go here. (I hear it’s on a technicality because Ella married into royalty, so her family isn’t royal. I guess Ella has major pull with Olivina.)

  “If she even knows we’re here,” the other sister says. “Remind me again why we didn’t go to Fairy Tale Reform School with Mother? At least we’d be surrounded by villains there! There are no surprises.”

  Roar! The dragon drops onto a beam above us that sends the chandelier crashing down feet from the wicked stepsisters. Everyone screams. I wince, bracing for impact, then realize nothing’s happened. I look up again. The opening isn’t big enough for the dragon to get its head through. It flails around, trying unsuccessfully to widen the hole in the ceiling, then it lets out a frustrated roar and takes off.

  “We have to get untied!” Azalea shouts, and I don’t disagree. She looks at me. “You must know what to do. We heard you saved everyone in Professor Snow’s room. How do we get out of here?”

  The dragon’s screech muffles my weak reply: “I can’t.” If I do, Olivina will expel me. “I…” I hesitate, unsure of how to explain myself.

  The dragon screeches again, sending another round of fire that torches the wall next to us. The wall gives way, and I watch in horror as Matilda falls out of the tower, her screams echoing through the chamber.

  “Matilda!” the other girls cry as the dragon flies off after her.

  Raina and I look at each other. My heart is beating double time. Leaping dragons! I can’t talk my way out of this with Olivina if I’m not alive to do it. Azalea is right. We can’t just sit here. It’s time for action.

  “If one of us can get loose, we can untie the others.” I think of the wildfire last fall when I had to help shepherd animal families to safety. “We just have to work together and fast. Girls, first get those wrists loose. Help each other! We can do this! Sasha?”

  She starts mumbling frantically.

  “We will get your gag off! Hang on!”

  Girls go back to back, shimmying together and grabbing pieces of fallen glass or broken shards of wood to try to saw at their restraints. One by one, girls begin to break free. My restraints come loose, and I finally remove Sasha’s gag and wrist binds.

  “Thanks,” she says, giving my hand a gentle squeeze.

  “You’re welcome,” I say with a hesitant smile.

  We hear a roar in the distance.

  “We’ll talk later, okay?” Sasha says, turning to Raina to loosen her restraints. I nod and join her.

  Raina is just sitting there. “What did we do wrong?” she asks me, her face covered in ash. “The princes are supposed to come! Where are they?”

  “I don’t know,” I admit. “But sometimes you can’t wait for a prince to save the day. You have to save yourself, just like Red Riding Hood!” Girls stop sniffling and look at me. “We can get out of this tower on our own. We have no other choice.”

  “Okay.” Raina sounds resolute. Calmer even. She breaks through her rope, then turns to the girl next to her.

  Roar!

  “The dragon,” Azalea shouts, and girls begin to whimper. “It’s coming back.”

  “We have to get out of here,” Dahlia adds. “Now!”

  I run to the window and look down. Whoa. We are so hig
h up that I can’t even see the ground. How are we going to get down there? It’s not like anyone has hair as long as Rapunzel’s… Wait. I look at the loose restraints on the ground. “Everyone hand me their ropes!”

  “Good thinking,” Sasha says, running to me with hers. I quickly tie as many ropes together as I can, hearing the roars grow closer and closer. My hands are sweating from the heat and fear, and the rope pieces keep slipping as I try to tie them together.

  “That rope is looking awfully short,” Dahlia says with a frown. I look at what I’ve managed to cobble together so far, and my stomach swoops unpleasantly as I realize she’s right.

  “We just need more material…” I start to say, looking around for inspiration. I wipe my hands on my skirt and… Wait, that’s it! I grab the side buttons and yank them apart, ripping my skirt off. The girls gasp.

  “Your dress has pants under it!” Azalea says in awe.

  “Purple polka-dot pants!” Dahlia adds. “How? Why? Who?”

  “Marta sewed them into all my dresses,” I say.

  “I love them!” Azalea shouts.

  “I want a pair!” Dahlia nods. Other girls start to chime in.

  “Guys, we have to focus!” I say. “Right now, I need help ripping the fabric into strips so we can lengthen the rope.” In no time, the skirt is shredded, and we have a decent-length rope.

  Boom! The dragon lands on what’s left of the ceiling, and several girls start to shriek.

  “Let’s get out of here!” I shout as the ceiling hole grows bigger.

  I see part of the floor start to buckle and could swear I see the tip of an ax poking through, but there is no time to wait. Azalea, Dahlia, and I help girl after girl shimmy down the rope. After Azalea goes, there are only three of us left. We’re almost in the clear when the rest of the ceiling gives way. Wood, burning embers, and other debris rain down along with another burst of fire. This dragon is nothing like the one in Snow’s classroom. It’s angry, and it won’t stop till it has us. His roar is so loud that I can’t hear what Raina is yelling. I help Dahlia out the window just as the dragon begins to advance.

  “Devin, come on!” Sasha shouts.

  I grab the rope and start climbing down after her. I can hear shouting below me, and my heart is beating so fast, I feel like it might burst out of my chest. I’m covered in soot, and I could swear one of my boots is on fire, but I keep going lower, lower, lower, till my rope snaps back.

  Holy harpies! The dragon has my rope in its teeth and is pulling me up.

  “Drop!” Sasha shouts as she lets go of the rope and disappears into the smoke.

  “Sasha!” I shout. I look down. I still can’t see the ground, but if I get any higher, I’m going to be dragon brunch.

  I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and do the only thing I can: let go. I fall through the air and brace for impact.

  Boing!

  I bounce off something supersoft and elastic like taffy. Boing! Boing!

  “Grab her!” Sasha shouts. Hands extend toward me through the smoke, and I grab them. I’ve landed on some sort of giant bouncy substance. Sasha and Raina pull me toward them and into a…hug? I squeeze tightly back.

  “I thought we lost you,” Raina sobs. “I’m sorry I was so mad!”

  “I’m sorry too,” I tell her.

  “We’re alive!” someone shouts.

  “So is Matilda!” I hear someone say as all the girls pile on to hug me. “Devin helped save us!”

  I’m in the middle of a sniffling, laughing, huddle of princesses, but before I can speak, the smoke starts to dissolve around us and the crumbling tower fades away.

  Suddenly, we’re looking at the gym again. A group of teachers and a gobsmacked Hazel slowly come into view, along with velvet-cloaked Olivina. My heart drops.

  I somehow feel like I want to run and am going to faint at the same time. Olivina isn’t smiling. In fact, she looks furious.

  “Girls, that was another test,” she starts to say, her voice pulsing with anger as she stares. “And you all just failed it.” She points to Sasha, Raina, and me. “You three come with me.”

  Chapter 17

  Who Are You Calling Common?

  Poof! We land in a familiar room with floor-to-ceiling windows.

  I feel my throat closing. No, no, no. I can’t get another strike!

  “We’re in Olivina’s private quarters!” Raina realizes, looking around. “No one comes up here unless they’re being knighted, or crowned, or…or…are in trouble!” Her eyes widen, and she looks at me. “What did we do wrong?”

  “Nothing,” Sasha says somewhat defiantly, her eyes taking in the mirrors and the paperwork on Olivina’s desk. “That fire was real, and if we hadn’t saved ourselves, we’d all be burned to a crisp right now.”

  Raina relaxes. “You’re right! We had no choice. The princes never showed up. We can’t get in trouble.” She frowns. “I hope.” Raina starts pacing nervously.

  I sit down hard on an ottoman. “That was way too close a call, if you ask me,” I say shakily.

  “It’s almost like she was trying to scare us,” Sasha says, and we all look at each other. “Or to make us break the rules.”

  “Olivina wouldn’t do that, would she?” Raina wonders.

  Sasha walks over to where I’m seated and sits down next to me. “I’m sorry I blamed you for everything happening. I know you were just trying to protect us,” she whispers. “But something weird is going on here, and until we figure out what that is, we have to play by the rules. Just act like you’re sorry and scared, and say you’ll do your best to be the perfect princess.” She looks at Raina, who’s still pacing. “Just act like Raina.”

  I nod worriedly. Something is going on here, but what?

  Raina stops pacing to look at the wall where a dozen different scenes from inside the castle are on display. “Hey, what are all these mirrors showing? Is that our dorm sitting room?” A group of girls are sitting down for midmorning tea. Raina taps the mirror, and the volume in the frame increases.

  “I give Devin a month,” we hear Clarissa say. “Look what happened in Snow’s class and at the first ball. A princess like that isn’t meant to rule. Thankfully, we won’t have to put up with her much longer.” They all giggle.

  “How rude! I really hope my brother doesn’t pick that girl as his princess,” Raina mumbles.

  “Who cares what Miss Prissy thinks? Look at this!” I turn around and see Sasha is standing at Olivina’s desk.

  “I don’t think we should be snooping around,” I say nervously. Olivina could walk in at any moment.

  The desk is covered in scrolls, various invitations, and a fruit basket with a note from Beauty and Prince Sebastian. Sasha holds up a piece of parchment, and her brow wrinkles. “This looks like a map, but I don’t recognize the place it’s showing.” She holds it up for us and points to a large red circle. “Look at this. Someone wrote: ‘T spotted again. This time on the western half of the woods. Not alone.’”

  “Tara!” I gasp.

  “Who is Tara?” Sasha asks sharply.

  “Hey, I know a Tara.” Raina walks over to look at the map. “Sasha, you met her too. It was at Rose’s lake house two summers ago.”

  “Oh yeah!” Sasha says. “Wasn’t she a first cousin of Harriett Abernathe? Or maybe it was a third?”

  “I thought she said she was going to Royal Academy like us, but a year ahead.” Raina frowns. “I haven’t seen her here though.”

  “Where is she then?” Sasha demands.

  The doors to Olivina’s study begin to open, and we race back to the ottoman and sit down. Olivina strolls in and stops in front of us.

  She uses her wand to pull forward a fuchsia-colored chair and sits down in it. “Now,” she says calmly, folding her hands on her lap and lacing her fingers together. “Who wants to tell me what
happened today?”

  Everyone starts talking at once. Olivina holds up her hand, and we go silent.

  “Girls, girls! It’s not polite to talk over one another. You know that.” Olivina’s smile does not match her tone. “But I believe you were about to apologize for interfering with today’s lesson plan. While I’m sure it wasn’t your intention, consequences must still be faced. Students are already buzzing about what happened in your gym class.”

  “We thought we were going to die!” Raina bursts out sobbing. “My whole life flashed in front of my eyes, and all I could think was I’ve never had a coronation! I’ll never wear a crown! Never greeted an adoring crowd of admirers! So when someone suggested we save ourselves, I did it because I was so scared!”

  “I could feel those flames from the dragon,” Sasha butts in. “We would have been princess s’mores if we had waited for the boys to come rescue us. We did the only thing we could think of.”

  Olivina dismisses my roommates with a wave of her hand. “You were never in any danger. The princes were going to make it there eventually. You all had your trials to face.” Olivina sighs. “I don’t understand what is going on with this new class at RA! So many rebels trying to twist the rules and do things a silly new way.” She looks at me in particular. “Why mess with a system that works? I had everything under control as I always do.”

  “But…” I start to say.

  She points her finger at us. “I’m giving you challenges that will prepare you for any obstacle! But as I explain over and over, there are rules and protocol that must be followed. No rescue mission is ever easy. No villain is ever predictable. If they were, then we wouldn’t have to prepare ourselves, would we?” We shake our heads. “And if you can’t handle a simple test here at Royal Academy, then what chance do you have in the real world?”

  I want to point out that escaping the tower without the princes’ help means we can handle stuff, but I know that’s just going to get us in trouble.

  “None?” Sasha asks hesitantly.