“Yes,” he says. “Who’s Felix?”
Hurrah! “He’s Sleeping Beauty’s brother! You found him really annoying!”
Jonah turns to me. “Oh yeah. I remember him. He was annoying.”
I forcibly swing Jonah’s face back toward the yo-yo. “Don’t look away, Jonah. Your memories are coming back! The yo-yo is reverse hypnotizing you!”
Jonah’s eyes turn an even darker purple. “We were able to breathe underwater?”
“We were!” I shout. “We really were!”
“It’s all coming back to me!” Jonah screams while the yo-yo spins faster and faster and Jonah’s eyes get purpler and purpler. “Abby! Maryrose never said you were in charge when we visit fairy tales!”
Oops.
A big puff of gold smoke blows out of the yo-yo, and Jonah’s eyes go back to normal. Suddenly, the mirror behind us turns purple.
“The mirror,” I say. “It’s glowing. Jonah? Are you done?”
Speechless, he nods. “Yup. I remember everything. And, Abby —”
The mirror is starting to hiss. “Later, Jonah! We have to go.”
I pick Prince up, take my brother’s hand, and together we step inside the portal.
We fall onto the floor in a heap. Prince wriggles out of my grasp and barks.
“We made it,” I say. “Plus, we’re in the basement! Jonah, are you okay?”
Jonah nods, but he looks completely dazed. “My brain feels like it’s going to explode.”
“It’s all the memories,” I say. “Come, we have to get into bed really quietly! And quickly! Mom and Dad’s alarm already went off. That means they’re getting out of bed any minute. Time is back to normal now. Go, go, go!”
“But —”
I pick up Prince and we run — very, very quietly — up the stairs.
Our parents’ door is closed, but we can hear their muffled voices.
“Abby —” Jonah starts.
Later! I mouth, and I jump into my room and gently close my door behind me. At the same time, I hear my parents’ door open.
I dive under my covers.
“Good morning, sweetheart,” my mom says, opening my door and coming inside. “Time to get up.” She gently pulls my covers off. “Abby!” she exclaims, ogling my outfit. “You’re all dressed up!”
Huh? Uh-oh. I’m still wearing my purple satin dress!
Oh! I know! “Of course I am,” I say, hopping out of bed. “It’s your surprise birthday party! Come on in, Jonah! Surprise, Mom!”
Prince bounds in, his bow tie still on. “Ruff!”
Jonah rushes in next, bouquet of roses in hand, suspenders and bow tie still a mess. “Happy birthday, Mom!”
“Oh, wow,” she says. “Look at you guys! And those flowers are beautiful! I’m speechless!” Her eyes tear up. “You kids are the sweetest. But where did you get those outfits?”
Hmm. “Nana sent them for us,” I say. “Don’t you remember?”
She scrunches her eyebrows together. “No.”
I shrug. “You are a year older. Your memories must be getting fuzzy.”
My mom laughs. “Is that for me, too?” she asks, pointing to the wrapped painting on my desk.
“Oh,” I say. “Yeah. But it’s not …” I’m about to say that it’s not good. But maybe that doesn’t matter. Maybe what matters is that I did my best. That it came from the heart. So what if I’m not as good an artist as Penny? I’m good at other stuff. Mr. Beast accepted who he is. Maybe it’s time for me to accept who I am. “Here you go,” I say, handing it to her.
“Oooh,” she says, unwrapping it. “Abby! It’s wonderful. So much color! I absolutely love it,” she says. And when I look at her shining eyes, the funny thing is, I know that she means it. Maybe beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.
“Thanks, Mom,” I say, my own eyes tearing up now.
My mom squeezes my shoulder. “Let’s go show Dad. He’s downstairs making birthday waffles.”
Jonah raises his eyebrows at me. “I need to talk to Abby for a sec.”
“You can talk to her at the table,” my mom says, ushering him out of my room. “C’mon, I don’t want you to be late for school.”
I wait for them to head downstairs before running over to my jewelry box.
“Prince!” I hear my mom say. “Sorry, buddy, but you do not get to sit at the table. Even if it’s a special occasion.”
I giggle. Poor Prince.
I look at my jewelry box. There’s Beauty! She’s standing in front of what used to be the cheese shop. But now instead, it says LIBRARY. Beauty’s holding a pile of books, smiling a huge smile, and looking more beautiful than ever, because she’s truly happy. I’m so proud of her!
And wait a minute — there’s another image next to her. It’s Mr. Beast! With his arm around Freckles. They’re standing in front of the castle where a sign reads THE B&B: BED AND (EXTRA-CHEESY) BREAKFAST.
I am so proud of them.
I’m still not very proud of myself. I know we are all part beauty and part beast, but I want to try to be more beauty than beast.
And maybe there’s a way I can make that happen.
* * *
“Penny, can I talk to you?” I say before art class. “In private?”
Penny follows me over to the side of the hallway. “What’s up?”
I take a very big breath. “You were right,” I say. “Yesterday. It wasn’t an accident. I spilled the water on your painting on purpose. And I want to say I’m sorry.”
She jerks back in shock. “But why would you do that?” she snaps. “I worked hard on it.”
I hang my head. “I know. And it was beautiful. And I was jealous. You are really good at painting.”
“And you’re not,” she says.
“Yeah.” Thanks for rubbing it in.
She leans against a locker. “I can’t believe you admitted it. My mom told me you were probably jealous.”
My cheeks heat up. She discussed me with her mom? I’m so embarrassed. I swallow. Hard. “Your mom was right,” I say. “Can you forgive me? I’ll help in any way I can.”
“I don’t need help with art,” she says. She opens her mouth and then closes it.
“What?” I ask, leaning closer. “Please let me make it up to you.”
“Well … do you think you could help me with geography? I’m having a hard time understanding the map. And you seem good at it.”
“Of course,” I say. “Any time!”
Penny sighs. “Sometimes I’m kind of jealous of you, too, Abby. School comes so easily to you. It’s harder for me.”
Did she say she was jealous of me? Of me?
I blink at her in surprise.
“I — well, I guess we’re all good at different things,” I say. “But I am sorry about your painting.”
“It’s okay. Just remind me not to put water next to you in art class,” she says, her eyes twinkling.
I blush but I also laugh. I spot Robin watching us from inside the classroom. I wave.
Robin gives us a hopeful smile.
We smile back.
“Should we go inside?” Penny asks.
“Let’s go,” I say, and take a step toward class.
“Abby!” Jonah says, appearing at my side. We go to the same school, but I almost never see him between classes since his grade is in another part of the building. He grabs on to my arm. “I’ve been trying to talk to you all morning.”
“What’s going on? What’s wrong? Did you lose your memories again?” I ask in a hushed tone.
“No,” he says. He wiggles his eyebrows. “The opposite.”
“What does that mean?” I ask.
“I know what Wallenta is,” he says.
“You do? What?”
“It’s the kingdom that Maryrose and Jax grew up in.”
“It is?” I ask. “They grew up in the same kingdom?”
“Yes,” he says. “They’re cousins! When Jax said he wasn’t going to apologize abou
t what happened to his cousin in Wallenta, he wasn’t talking about Mr. Beast. He was talking about Maryrose!”
Wow. Finally, we know something about Maryrose! We know where she grew up. And that she has a mean, jealous cousin!
The second bell rings.
Wait a sec. “But, Jonah, how did you find that out?” I ask.
“Because it wasn’t just my memories that came back,” he says, walking away from me and smiling mischievously. “I got some of Maryrose’s, too.”
“What?” I ask incredulously.
He taps his head. “Maryrose’s memories! In here!”
And with those words, he disappears down the hall, leaving me staring after him in amazement.
Don’t miss Abby and Jonah’s next adventure, where they fall into the tale of The Frog Prince!
Look for:
Whatever After #8: ONCE UPON A FROG
Once upon a time there was an author who was very grateful for:
Aimee Friedman, Laura Dail, Tamar Rydzinski, Deb Shapiro, Becky Amsel, Abby McAden, David Levithan, Ellie Berger, Lori Benton, Tracy van Straaten, Jennifer Ung, Bess Braswell, Whitney Steller, Robin Baily Hoffman, Sue Flynn, Emily Cullings, Elizabeth Krych, Joy Simpkins, Elizabeth Parisi, Lizette Serrano, Emily Heddleson, Emily Jenkins, Cassie Homer, Elissa Ambrose, Aviva Mlynowski, Larry Mlynowski, Louisa Weiss, Robert Ambrose, the Dalven-Swidlers, the Finkelstein-Mitchells, the Steins, the Greens, the Adamses, the Wolfes, the Mittlemans, the Bilermans, Courtney Sheinmel, Anne Heltzel, Lauren Myracle, Emily Bender, Targia Alphonse, Rose Brock, Jess Braun, Lauren Kisilevsky, Bonnie Altro, Robin Afrasiabi, Jess Rothenberg, Stephen Barbara, Jennifer E. Smith, Robin Wasserman, Elizabeth Eulberg, Maureen Johnson, Adele Griffin, Milan Popelka, Leslie Margolis, Maryrose Wood, Tara Altebrando, Sara Zarr, Ally Carter, Jennifer Barnes, Alan Gratz, Avery Carmichael, Maggie Marr, Jeremy Cammy, and Farrin Jacobs.
Extra love and extra thanks to Chloe, Anabelle, and Todd.
Whatever After readers: You are all beauty queens.
Sarah Mlynowski is the author of the Magic in Manhattan series, Gimme a Call, and a bunch of other books for tweens, teens, and grown-ups. Originally from Montreal, Sarah now lives in the kingdom of Manhattan with her very own prince charming and their fairy tale–loving daughters. Visit Sarah online at www.sarahm.com and find her on Instagram and Twitter @sarahmlynowski.
#1: Fairest of All
#2: If the Shoe Fits
#3: Sink or Swim
#4: Dream On
#5: Bad Hair Day
#6: Cold as Ice
#7: Beauty Queen
#8: Once Upon a Frog
Copyright © 2015 by Sarah Mlynowski
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mlynowski, Sarah, author.
Beauty queen / Sarah Mlynowski. — First edition.
pages cm. — (Whatever after ; 7)
Summary: Abby’s first problem is that Jonah has lost all his memories of the magic mirror and their adventures, so when they get sucked through into Beauty and the Beast, he is unaware of the danger, and picks one of the Beast’s roses—her second problem is locating Beauty and performing a match-making miracle in order to recover her brother, and still make it back to the real world before their parents miss them.
ISBN 978-0-545-74654-0 (jacketed hardcover) 1. Beauty and the beast (Tale)—Juvenile fiction. 2. Fairy tales—Adaptations—Juvenile fiction. 3. Magic mirrors—Juvenile fiction. 4. Brothers and sisters—Juvenile fiction. 5. Amnesia—Juvenile fiction. [1. Characters in literature—Fiction. 2. Fairy tales—Fiction. 3. Magic—Fiction. 4. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 5. Amnesia—Fiction.] I. Title. II. Series: Mlynowski, Sarah. Whatever after ; 7.
PZ7.M7135Be 2015
813.6—dc23
[Fic]
2014049329
First edition, May 2015
Author photo by Heather Waraksa
Cover design by Elizabeth B. Parisi
Cover illustration © 2015 by Helen Huang
e-ISBN 978-0-545-74655-7
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
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