“We shouldn’t?” she asks.
“No,” he says. “I’m not in love with you. And I don’t think you’re in love with me. I think you felt sorry for me. Am I wrong?”
She hesitates.
Mike takes both her hands in his. “Agreeing to marry me was very kind of you. And I will always be grateful. But we don’t have much in common. I like cards. You like books. I like cheese. Cheese makes you sick and dizzy. I want to live in the middle of nowhere. You want to live in Town. We’re not a good match.”
“But sometimes opposites attract,” I squeak.
“Not always,” Jonah says.
Beauty exhales. “So we’re not getting married.” She looks completely … relieved.
I’ll admit it. I feel completely relieved, too. “But wait. Mike, if you break off the engagement, you’re going to turn back into a beast!” I tell him.
He nods. “I assumed so.”
“But this time, it will be forever. You won’t be able to switch back. There won’t be a way out.”
He nods again. “Abby, I spent years comparing myself to normal people. Years. And what I didn’t realize until now was that it’s not so bad being a beast. I always stayed warm. I had a great sense of smell. I could cook more because I ate more. You want to know the truth? I miss my fangs.”
“But —”
“No buts. It’s what I want. And I want to help you.”
My cheeks burn. “But you can’t break your engagement because of me. I don’t deserve it.”
“It’s not just because of you. I really do miss being a beast. But, Abby, you do deserve it. You were willing to stay a beast for me! You have a heart of gold.”
My eyes fill with tears. “Not always. Sometimes I can be pretty beastly. I’ve done some terrible things.”
“People make mistakes,” Mike says. “But a few mistakes don’t make a person a monster. No one can be nice all the time.”
“Beauty is!” I say.
“But maybe I shouldn’t be,” Beauty says. She takes off her veil. “I almost got married just to be nice. That doesn’t seem very smart. You should get married because it makes you happy.”
Mike nods. “I figured out what makes me happy — being a beast! You need to figure out what makes you happy, too, Beauty.”
“Books make me happy,” she says wistfully.
Oh! “Maybe you should become a librarian or a bookseller!” I exclaim. “You’re really good at recommending books.”
“You are welcome to take all the books in the basement,” Mike says.
Beauty’s eyes shine, but then she shakes her head.
“I can’t be a librarian,” she says. “I have to help the orphans. And the soup kitchen. And Grumpy Great-Grandma. And I have to take care of my dad’s cottage.”
“You’ve taken care of the cottage for years,” I say. “Let your sisters have a turn. Maybe it’s time to take care of yourself.”
“Maybe,” Beauty echoes. She looks around, from me to Jonah to Prince to Mike. “I guess my first step is taking off the engagement ring,” she says. “Ready?”
“Are you sure?” I ask Mike.
“Absolutely,” he booms.
Beauty wiggles the ring off her finger.
My skin starts to sizzle. It feels as if I’m sitting under a heat lamp at a restaurant. After a few seconds, my face stops sizzling. I touch my cheek. It’s smooth.
I look at Mike.
Fur is growing on his face and arms, and he’s getting taller and taller. Mr. Beast is turning back into his beastly self. He stretches his arms above his head and he grins, showing off his fangs.
“That feels much better,” he says happily. “I’m me! Mike is such a boring name anyway. Good-bye, Mike. Hellooo, Mr. Beast!”
It worked. We’re back to normal.
Suddenly, the front door smashes open.
“What is going on in here?” demands Jax the fairy with a nasty smile.
I jump. “We switched back. You said if they broke their engagement, we would switch back.”
“Hmm,” says Jax. He runs his fingers through his purple hair. “Yes, I did say that, didn’t I? But that was before you people didn’t invite me to the party! You invited everyone but me! That wasn’t very nice! Don’t you know that fairies get mad when they’re not invited to parties? Now you will all be punished. Everyone here will become beasts.”
“What?” I say, panicked. “No! You can’t do that!”
He takes out his yo-yo and starts swirling it over his head. “Yes, I can! One beast, two beasts, now a few; You should be a beast, and you and you and you!”
“Not again!” I say as I feel my body stretch and the fur sprout on my face and hands.
I watch in horror as the same fur sprouts across Jonah’s and Beauty’s faces.
I hear anguished screams from the Great Hall. Them too?
The fairy swirls his yo-yo around his fingers and cackles. “Now this is a party!”
Stop it, Jax!” Mr. Beast yells.
But Jax just laughs.
All the guests pour out of the Great Hall.
There are beasts in top hats. Beasts in long dresses. Beasts in short dresses. Beasts in earrings. Beasts in all different shades of fur. Even Prince looks different. He’s a little bigger and his fangs are extra-long. They look like walrus tusks.
People are yelling all around us.
“What is happening?”
“Where are two of my fingers?”
“I’m so hairy!”
“I’m so hungry!”
“My feet hurt!”
We are a castle full of angry beasts.
Jax is standing in the middle of the foyer, laughing.
I turn to Jonah. Beast Jonah. Fur is exploding out of his shirt and pants. His suspenders have burst. And look at how tall he is!
“Abby!” Jonah cries. “Help! I’m a beast! I’m so itchy!”
What do I do?
“Jax!” I yell. “You have to turn us BACK!”
“What, Abby?” Mrs. Butler asks me. “You want us to ATTACK?”
I shake my hairy head. “That’s not what I said!” Hmm. We are a roomful of angry beasts. And Jax is just one purple-haired fairy.
Maybe I do want us to attack. But I want us to attack super carefully so he doesn’t use his yo-yo on us.
I wave to get the attention of Jonah-beast, Mr. Beast, the Butler-beasts, and Beauty-beast, who somehow manages to still look gorgeous, even in beast form. Then I point to Jax and make a circling motion with my finger, and mouth, Circle him!
They do. We do.
Jax is laughing too hard to even notice. Until he’s surrounded.
“Give us the yo-yo,” I say calmly.
“Or what?” he asks.
“Or you will get eaten by wild beasts,” Mr. Beast says. “And we are extremely hungry animals.”
“GRRRRRRR,” all the beasts in the room say.
Before any of us can attack, Prince-beast pounces on Jax, grabs the yo-yo with his walrus fangs, and scurries back to me.
“Good job, Prince!” I say, scratching behind his beastly ears. “You’ve certainly earned your seat at the dinner table! Now what do I do to reverse the spell?”
“What does she do?” Mr. Beast snarls at Jax. “Tell her what to do or you are about to be a delicious snack.”
Jax pouts. “Just swing it back and forth and make up a rhyme. You guys are no fun.”
I swing the yo-yo again and again and say, “Hello, party people … go back to normal …”
“That doesn’t rhyme,” Jonah-beast tells me, grabbing the yo-yo with his furry hand. “Let me try. It’s feeling kind of warm, turn back into normal form!” he cries, and swirls the yo-yo like a lasso.
My skin starts to sizzle again. I touch my cheek. Once again, it’s smooth.
“It worked!” I say. I look around. Everyone is back to normal. They’re all touching their smooth cheeks.
Everyone except Mr. Beast.
“It
didn’t work on you, Mr. B,” Jonah says.
“That’s okay,” Mr. Beast replies. “I didn’t expect it to. Please don’t feel sorry. I accept who I am. And, Jonah — good rhyming.”
“Maybe now that you’re a reader, you’ll become a poet, too,” Beauty says.
Jonah puffs his chest with pride.
There’s a loud knock on the door.
“Come in!” we all yell.
“Hello?” says a voice. A girl steps inside, closing her umbrella. She looks familiar. Spiky blond hair, freckles … Oh! It’s Freckles.
“Sorry I’m late,” she says sheepishly. “I had to close up the shop and —”
Freckles looks up and stops talking. Her eyes meet Mr. Beast’s. They stare at each other. And stare.
“Hello,” she says slowly.
“Hello,” he says.
They can’t take their eyes off each other.
Freckles approaches me and pokes my shoulder. “Hi, Abby. Who’s your handsome friend?”
Does she mean Mr. Beast? She does! What’s that other expression that Nana loves? Oh! “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!” Meaning beauty is different for different people.
Freckles thinks Mr. Beast is handsome just the way he is.
“It’s Mr. Beast,” I say.
She blushes. “He’s the man Mrs. Butler shops for? The one who’s marrying Beauty?”
“That’s him,” I say. “But the engagement is off.”
Her eyes light up. “Really?”
I nod. Then I pepper Freckles with questions. “Do you like to play cards?” I ask her.
“Yes,” she says.
“Would you rather live in the countryside or in Town?”
“Countryside. Town is loud.”
“And finally: Are you allergic to cheese?” I ask her.
“Of course not,” she says. “I run a cheese shop!”
“Oh! Right! Mr. Beast!” I call out. “There’s someone I want you to meet!”
He swaggers over. “Hello,” he says with a bow. He offers her his arm.
Freckles giggles, takes it, and the two of them walk off, chattering.
“What was that?” Jonah asks.
Beauty chuckles. “I think it was love at first sight.”
* * *
Mr. and Mrs. Butler carry Jax out the door.
“Put me down!” he hollers.
“No, I will not bring you to Town,” Mr. Butler says.
“We’re not chauffeurs!” Mrs. Butler adds.
With that, they drop Jax on the doormat and turn back into the castle.
“I need my yo-yo!” Jax yells. “It’s very powerful! And it’s raining outside! And I don’t have an umbrella! It’s not fair! Everyone else has it so easy and my life is so hard!”
“You made your life hard,” I tell him through the open door. “You shouldn’t have turned Mike into Mr. Beast. You shouldn’t have turned me into a beast. You shouldn’t have turned all the guests into beasts! You need to apologize.”
“No way am I apologizing! I don’t apologize for anything!” Jax hollers. “You can tell my cousin I’m not sorry for what happened in Wallenta!”
Huh? What is he talking about? “What happened in Wallenta?” I ask. “What is Wallenta? Who’s your cousin?”
Ignoring me, Jax gets up and stomps his way through puddles and into the forest, while muttering to himself.
When I’m about to close the door, I spot an older man approaching the castle. His hair is gray and his eyes look weary and tired.
“Excuse me,” he says. “It’s raining and I’m lost. Can I come in?”
Hmm. I’m not supposed to let strangers into a house. But what if he’s a wedding guest?
My internal debate is interrupted by Beauty. She yells “Dad!” and runs into his arms.
Dad?
“Honey!” Beauty’s father says, looking shocked and delighted.
“I thought you were on a work trip,” Beauty says.
“I was,” Beauty’s dad says, patting her hair. “I was on my way home. But I got lost. And it started to rain. This castle was the only place around for miles. What are you doing here?”
This all sounds familiar … oh!
“Jonah, look!” I cry, pointing to Beauty’s father. “It’s the beginning of the original story! Beauty’s dad — the merchant — is lost and looking for a place to stay!”
“Does the whole story start over again, then?” Jonah asks me. “Is that how this works?
“No,” I say sadly. I can’t believe Jonah still doesn’t have his fairy tale memories back. We’ve been here over a day. “Now … well, we go home.”
“Good-bye, everyone!” Jonah calls out to the guests. “It was nice to meet you! But my parents are going to wake up soon and we have to get back to Smithville through the magic mirror upstairs!”
The guests look a bit confused. Understandably.
“I’ll come see you guys off,” Beauty says, looping her arms through ours.
Mr. and Mrs. Butler take Beauty’s dad to get something to eat.
We find Mr. Beast in the kitchen with Freckles. They’re making mac and cheese.
Cute.
“We have to go,” I tell them. “But it was really nice to meet both of you!”
“How will you get home?” Mr. Beast asks.
“The magic mirror upstairs should do the trick,” I say.
“We’ll walk you up, then,” Freckles says.
“I’ll meet you there in a moment,” Mr. Beast says. “There’s something I have to do.”
Beauty, Freckles, Jonah, and I climb the stairs and walk into the sitting room.
“I’ll miss you,” I say to Beauty. “Please take care of yourself. Not just everyone else.”
She nods. “I’ll try.”
Mr. Beast bursts into the room. “These are for your mom,” he says to me and Jonah. “For her birthday.” He hands me the biggest, most beautiful bouquet of roses I’ve ever seen.
Aw. “Wow. Thank you,” I say.
“I’ll miss you, Mr. B!” Jonah cries, and throws his arms around him.
“You too, little man. You too.”
“And thanks for the books,” Jonah tells Beauty. “I can’t wait to read the rest.”
“Enjoy,” she says.
The clock in my parents’ bedroom says 6:43. We have two minutes, home time, until their alarm goes off. Ten minutes in fairy tale time. Perfect.
“So how does this work?” Jonah asks me. “We just knock and step through?”
“Yep,” I say. “Follow me.” I take Jonah’s hand and pick up Prince. “Good-bye, everyone!”
“Good-bye!” Beauty, Mr. Beast, and Freckles call out.
I knock once. Twice. Three times.
We wait.
Nothing happens.
Uh-oh. I try again. Once. Twice. Three times.
“How long does it usually take?” Beauty asks.
“Not this long,” I admit.
“Let me try,” Jonah says.
He knocks once. Twice. Three times.
Nothing.
“Abby,” Jonah says. “I don’t think the mirror is the way home.”
The time on my parents’ alarm clock changes to 6:44.
Now we’re in trouble.
This isn’t working,” I finally admit. “The mirror isn’t going to take us home.” I feel like kicking myself. Why didn’t I test the mirror? Why did I just assume it would work? Ahhhh!
“Then what will?” Mr. Beast asks.
“I don’t know!” I feel panicked. “It’s usually something magical. What else is magical? We have to knock on everything magical! Everyone knock on everything!”
We knock on the walls. We knock on the doors. We knock on the closets. We even knock on the teapots just in case. Nothing works.
The clock changes to 6:45.
BEEEEEEE —
A loud BEEEEEEP rings through the room. And continues to ring. And ring.
“What is that?” Mr.
Beast asks, blocking his ears. “It’s horrible!”
“It’s my parents’ alarm clock,” I say. “Which means we are out of time!”
“There has to be another way home,” Jonah says. “What else around here is magical?”
I think hard. “The yo-yo!” I exclaim. “The yo-yo is magical! Where is it?”
“In my pocket!” Jonah says.
“Jonah,” I say. “You were going to bring the yo-yo home? Are you crazy? Do you know how much damage that could have done? You can’t bring things home from fairy tales!”
“But I’m bringing home the books! And the roses! And you said Prince came from a fairy tale!”
“That’s different,” I say. “Kind of.”
Jonah takes the yo-yo out of his pocket and tosses it to Beauty. “You can keep it.”
“Just don’t let Jax get his hands on it,” I tell her. Something niggles at the back of my mind. “Mr. Beast? Jax mentioned something about his cousin and Wallenta. Do you know what he was talking about? You’re not his cousin, are you?”
He wrinkles his furry forehead. “Me? No.”
“He said …” My voice trails off. “He said I should tell his cousin he wasn’t sorry about what happened in Wallenta. Who was he talking about?”
“I don’t know,” Mr. Beast says. “I’ve never heard of Wallenta.”
Weird.
“So what do I do?” Beauty asks.
I reach over and lightly push my fingers against the yo-yo in her hand. It swings lightly.
“If we get stuck here, it could be tragic,” Jonah chants. “Come on, yo-yo, and do your magic!”
I push it again. And a third time. Suddenly, the yo-yo starts to swing faster. Back and forth and back and forth until it is going around and around in a perfect circle. The air around it feels electric.
“Something’s happening,” Beauty says.
“It’s working,” I say. “Ready, Jonah?”
He’s staring intently at the yo-yo. His eyes are turning a light shade of purple.
“Jonah?” I ask.
“Abby,” he says. “What are crownies?”
“Huh?” I ask.
“Have I ever eaten something called a crownie?” He licks his lips.
“Yes!” I shriek. “You have! When we were in the story of Cinderella! We called brownies crownies! Are you remembering crownies?”
Beauty Queen Page 9