Goldilocks Breaks In Read online

  “Too true,” said Rapunzel, grinning.

  “But what can we do about it?” Polly asked plaintively.

  “If only Principal R were here. He’d soon set things straight,” Goldie said. She was about to stuff his hat, which might even be his magic charm, back inside her pocket, when she remembered what she’d read in the All About Magic Charms booklet in the Grimm brothers’ room. That a bond with a magic charm could never be broken. That if you were ever separated from your charm, it could return you to a place of safety. Why hadn’t Principal R tried to return himself to his hat charm before now, though?

  Was it possible the magic charm itself had to be in a place of safety for you to return to it? she wondered. Goldie stopped in her tracks. The bear’s cottage was definitely not a place of safety. But the Great Hall was.

  “Wait,” she said to the others, her excitement rising again. She wasn’t sure if what she was about to do would succeed, but she had to try.

  Holding the hat high in one hand, she spoke to it. “Principal Rumpelstiltskin needs you. Can you please return him here, to this place of safety?” Then she let go of the hat. When it immediately dropped to the floor, her heart plunged with it.

  They all stood there, staring from the hat to her and back again. And then, suddenly, the hat stirred. It gave a flutter. Then did a spin. Finally, it lifted again under its own power and began to whirl around in circles like a little black tornado. It spun so fast Goldie and the others felt dizzy just watching it. Then something appeared whirling underneath it. A figure maybe three feet tall at most.

  “Principal R!” Goldie and her friends shouted out as he and his hat slowed and finally stopped spinning. The principal was so dizzy, he tumbled to the stone floor.

  “Dagnabbit!” he shouted as he picked himself up, dusted off his hat, and stuck it on top of his head again. He looked around. “Where is she? When I get my hands on Ms. Wicked, I’ll, I’ll …”

  “All hail the great and goodly principal of Grimm Academy!” the School Board chorused from the end of the Great Hall, visors clanking. The colored feathers at the top of their helmets snapped to attention, standing up straighter than ever.

  “Never mind all that!” Principal R growled at them. “Time’s a-wastin’. Where’s Ms. Wicked?”

  The helmet-heads’ visors clinked and clanked, but none of them seemed to have a clue.

  “I’d say they were tongue-tied, if they had tongues to tie,” Foulsmell quipped and Goldie smiled at his jest.

  “She was just here,” Rapunzel told the principal. “But she took off when we arrived with your hat, which Goldie found in the three bears’ cottage.”

  “Ms. Wicked falsely accused her of planting your hat there to incriminate her,” Polly added indignantly.

  A storm cloud passed over Principal Rumpelstiltskin’s face. Was he about to have another of his famed tantrums? Goldie wondered, taking a careful step back. “I bet she went up to her … er … your office,” she said. “She took it over after you disappeared.”

  “She did WHAT?” shouted the principal. The knuckles on his clenched fists went white with fury. He twisted his head to glare at the School Board. “You hollow-headed tin cans!” he yelled. “She principal-napped me! And then she pushed you into appointing her in my place after she and E.V.I.L. changed my fairy tale to make me look incompetent, I bet! I got a load of their so-called ‘improvements’ in my fairy tale. Baby Bear made me read him to sleep with it each night while I was locked in that cottage on Heart Island. What a bunch of baloney.”

  The School Board’s visors clinked and clanked in dismay and their feathers drooped in shame. Before they could speak up, however, Principal R swept them with a final look of disgust and then stormed from the Hall.

  “Come along!” he called over his shoulder to Goldie and her friends. “We’re going to set things straight!”

  “Have a happily-ever-after evening!” the School Board chorused pathetically as Principal R, Goldie, Foulsmell, Rapunzel, and Polly left the Hall together and raced up the grand staircase to the fourth floor.

  “Principal R! You’re back!” Ms. Jabberwocky called out happily when he burst through the outer office door and headed for his old office. “You don’t know how tulgey glad I am to see you!”

  Goldie wondered why the dragon-lady assistant was still working in the office, since she’d heard the Hickory Dickory Dock clock bong eight times on the way up the stairs. But then she noticed what Ms. Jabberwocky was doing. Creating signs that listed even harsher school rules that Ms. Wicked must’ve made up while the rest of them stood before the School Board. One sign read: VISITS TO THE ISLANDS ARE STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

  Obviously happy to see her, too, the principal smiled at Ms. Jabberwocky before putting a finger to his lips. Catching on right away, Ms. Jabberwocky clamped her toothy jaws shut. With a swish of her dragon tail, she knocked the stack of rule signs she’d made into the trash bin. Then she waved a sharp-clawed hand toward the door beyond her desk. “She’s in there,” she whispered.

  They all watched as Principal R approached his old office. His neck and face turned a deep red when he saw the new brass plate on the door. “Principal Wicked, my foot!” he hissed. Unable to restrain his temper any longer, he burst through the door. Goldie and the others were right behind him. And so was Ms. Jabberwocky. “The jig is up!” he boomed out.

  Ms. Wicked was sitting on the gold throne behind Principal R’s desk, refreshing her lipgloss, as everyone entered. At the sight of the principal, she paled in alarm. A flicker of fear passed over her face, but she quickly regained her composure. Sneering at him, she rose from his throne. “So you escaped, did you?” she said, walking around the desk. Carelessly, she glided over to drop her lipgloss in her handbag, which sat on the antique table where she’d once interviewed Goldie. “I wonder how you managed that?”

  “His hat brought him back,” Goldie stated flatly. “Thanks for letting me know that it was his magic charm, by the way.”

  Ms. Wicked gazed at her through narrowed eyes. “Smart girl. Too smart for your own good. I was afraid you might figure that out. I didn’t mean to let it slip that —”

  Foulsmell’s dark eyes flashed. “Which only means you’re not as clever as you think you are.”

  Ms. Wicked looped the handles of her handbag over one arm. Then she reached up to pat her hair, moving to stare into one of the many mirrors she’d hung on the wall. “You’re wrong,” she said. “I’m cleverer than all of the good students at this Academy put together. Don’t believe me? Watch this!”

  Before anyone could react to stop her, she leaped into the mirror and disappeared, handbag, high heels, and all.

  “Dadgummit and blast her pointy shoes!” Principal R yelled, hopping up and down like a cricket. Then he threw himself onto the floor and began to flail his arms and legs in the air.

  Goldie and the others watched in amazement, and some amusement as well. Ms. Wicked was deviously good at hiding her true feelings behind that frozen smile of hers, but you always knew how Principal R felt about things because he let it all hang out. It was good to have him back.

  “Bandersnatch! Come along, grimmble students,” Ms. Jabberwocky said, shepherding them out of the room. She was grinning wider than Goldie had ever seen her grin, obviously as delighted as they were to have their true principal back.

  Out in the fourth-floor hallway again, Polly asked the others, “Think Ms. Wicked is gone forever?”

  “Doubtful,” said Rapunzel as they stood around to talk for a moment. “But we can always hope.”

  Goldie nodded. “It would be nice to think we’ve seen the last of her, but —”

  “— seems unlikely,” Foulsmell finished. “Not with the rest of E.V.I.L. still in operation.”

  “I wish we could get organized somehow to better fight them,” said Polly.

  Rapunzel nodded.

  “Hey! You know what? Maybe we can,” said Goldie. She twisted one of her curly golden locks around a
finger. “I told Ms. Wicked and the bears a whopper of a lie when they trapped me in the cottage. I told them I’d heard a rumor about a group plotting against E.V.I.L. And that it was called Against E.V.I.L. or Anti-E.V.I.L. She didn’t buy it. But no matter. Now I’m thinking … why not get organized and start a group like that for real?”

  There was a pause as her suggestion sank into everyone’s brains.

  Then Rapunzel announced, “I like it! I mean, for a long time, E.V.I.L.’s existence was a secret. But now everyone knows about them. Those of us who’ve been trying to investigate on our own could use more support from one another. And protection! One formal group with formal meetings might be just what we all need.”

  “I’m in,” said Foulsmell. “And I know some of my other friends will want to join.”

  Polly nodded. “Me too. But before we ask around, which name should we tell everyone? We might sound more organized if the group already has one.” The four of them had begun to take a few steps toward the grand staircase, but now they paused, wanting to decide the matter before talking to the others who were waiting for them in the upstairs dorms.

  “We could pick from the ones Goldie came up with,” said Rapunzel. “Like Against E.V.I.L.?”

  “Hmm,” said Goldie. “But now that I think about it, maybe our group name should stand for something instead of against?”

  “I know!” Polly exclaimed. “How about G.O.O.D.? Get it? As in the opposite of E.V.I.L.?”

  Foulsmell nodded. “E.V.I.L. stands for Exceptional Villains in Literature. So what would each letter in G.O.O.D. stand for?”

  “G for Good. And then something something something?” Polly said uncertainly.

  “But not all of us who wanted to find Principal R and don’t like what Ms. Wicked and E.V.I.L. are doing are necessarily ‘good’ characters in the rhymes and tales,” Rapunzel reminded her. “Take Wolfgang, for instance.”

  Or, to be totally truthful, me, mused Goldie. She thought for a few seconds, then looked at Polly. “Having the G stand for Good was a G-for-Great-idea, but maybe that’s too much of a good thing,” she said carefully. “Maybe we could keep the acronym G.O.O.D., but the G in it could stand for Grimm.”

  Foulsmell piped up, saying, “Yeah! What if, taken together, the letters in G.O.O.D. stand for Grimm Organization of Defense?”

  Polly clapped her hands together, not looking at all like she’d suffered a put-down or been hurt that Goldie and the others hadn’t loved her idea. “Tea-rrific!” she proclaimed. Everyone laughed at her pun.

  And Goldie smiled, too, thinking that she’d surprised even herself by not blurting out something hurtful to trample on Polly’s idea, which was the kind of thing she might have unwittingly done in the past. If only the library gooseknob could have heard her! Because maybe she’d learned something in the past few days about thinking before you speak. She’d managed to express her disagreement, yet leave Polly smiling and their friendship intact.

  “I like it!” she said. “It’ll define our group’s aim — to defend Grimmlandia from all kinds of threats, whether from E.V.I.L. or the Nothingterror or whatever!”

  Rapunzel nodded. “And membership won’t be limited to so-called good literary figures. All who pledge to defend Grimmlandia and the Academy — including villainous characters with at least halfway-good hearts — can become members of G.O.O.D.”

  “Sounds G.O.O.D.,” Foulsmell said with a grin. As they neared the staircase he split off from the girls to head in the direction of Gray Castle to talk to his guy friends.

  “Bye,” the girls chorused.

  “C’mon, let’s go tell the rest of our friends,” Rapunzel said to Goldie and Polly.

  Our friends! she’d said. Meaning friends of hers, Polly’s, and Goldie’s. She’d said it so casually, but her words made Goldie’s heart sing. Because it was true. She’d actually made some friends here at GA. Friends who accepted and valued her for who she was regardless of her fairy-tale role.

  As Rapunzel and Polly started upstairs, Goldie held back a moment. “I’ll catch up,” she told them.

  Then she called to Foulsmell who was heading back down the hall to the staircase that led up to the Gray Castle dorms. “Wait!” she said, jogging after him. “I never did properly apologize for the whole puppy thing with Malorette and Odette,” she told him once she reached his side.

  He looked away, shrugging a little uncomfortably. “That’s okay, I —”

  “No, it’s not okay,” she interrupted, leaning around to catch his eye again. “I’m really, really sorry. I hated how they acted and should have said something right then. I just thought my bubble protection practice coach should know that,” she said. “Without your help and the wand you brought, I might have wound up bear breakfast today.”

  Foulsmell shrugged again, but now he looked pleased. “Sure, no problem.”

  She smiled at him. “So I’ll return the wand tomorrow in class. But are we buds from now on? Good ones?”

  He blushed bright red, looking really flattered. “Definitely.” Just then, a couple of his friends, Prince Awesome and Prince Prince, appeared at the end of the hall, calling his name.

  “Just a sec!” Foulsmell called back. Turning to go, he bid her farewell. “Later, then.” He headed off, but then stopped after a few steps and called back to her, “Hey, I hope Mistress Hagscorch is making her Hurraying Hero Sandwiches for lunch tomorrow. Because you’ve earned one!” With that, he turned and loped off toward his friends.

  A warm feeling spread through Goldie as she watched him go. Foulsmell thought she was a hero! Though it was really the magic charm hat that had brought the principal back, she valued Foulsmell’s opinion and hugged his approval close. Unlike some of the other princes at GA, she decided, he was not too grand, not too ordinary, but in fact … just right. At least in her opinion.

  She pushed back her golden locks and her hand brushed her hairpin charm. It had played an important role in her escape from Ms. Wicked and the bears, too, of course. What other magic can it do? she wondered. Time would tell.

  For now, she was eager, with Rapunzel and Polly’s help, to tell the girls waiting for them all that had happened today. About how Ms. Wicked was gone — at least for a while — and how Principal R was back … for G.O.O.D. She smiled at her own pun. While thinking about plans for their new society, she skipped the rest of the way down the hall. Then she raced upstairs to join all her new, amazing, forever, grimmtastic friends!

  A Grimmtastic girl named Cinderella is starting her first week at Grimm Academy on the wrong foot. Cinda’s totally evil stepsisters are out to make her life miserable. The Steps tease Cinda, give her terrible advice about life at the Academy, and even make her look bad in front of her new friends, Red, Snow, and Rapunzel! But when Cinda overhears the Steps plotting a villainous deed that could ruin Prince Awesome’s ball, Cinda, her new friends, and a pair of magical glass slippers have to stop them — before the last stroke of midnight!

  Red Riding Hood is thrilled to try out for the school play. Acting is her dream, and she’s great at it — too bad she has stage fright! After a grimmiserable audition, Red decides to focus on helping her friends Cinda, Snow, and Rapunzel save Grimm Academy from the E.V.I.L. Society. But when Red gets lost in Neverwood forest and runs into Wolfgang, who might be part of E.V.I.L., she needs her magic basket and a grimmazingly dramatic performance to figure out what’s going on!

  No matter how many lucky charms she wears, Snow White can’t catch a break. She’s especially worried that her stepmom, Ms. Wicked, is a member of the E.V.I.L. Society. Snow and her friends Red, Cinda, and Rapunzel are trying to stop E.V.I.L.’s plans to destroy Grimm Academy, but Snow seems to be jinxing all their efforts. Her luck might change if she can find her own truly magical charm — before it falls into E.V.I.L. hands!

  Rapunzel’s enchanted, fast-growing hair can be a nuisance, especially when an accident gives it magical powers she can’t control! But Rapunzel can’t let her grimmorrible h
air woes distract her — she and her friends Cinda, Red, and Snow are trying to save Grimm Academy from the E.V.I.L. Society. Once Rapunzel tracks down her magic charm, she won’t let a bad hair day get in the way of stopping E.V.I.L.!

  Sleeping Beauty — who just goes by her middle name, Rose — has always been a daredevil. But according to her fairy tale, after her twelfth birthday Rose must avoid all sharp objects. That isn’t easy at Grimm Academy, where enchanted items can also be dangerous. Rose will have to stay wide awake to keep out of trouble — and to join the fight against E.V.I.L.!

  Joan Holub has authored and/or illustrated more than 130 children’s books. She lives in Raleigh, NC, and can be found at www.joanholub.com.

  Suzanne Williams is the author of more than 40 books for children, including the award-winning picture book Library Lil (illustrated by Steven Kellogg). She lives outside Seattle, WA, and is online at www.suzanne-williams.com.

  Together, Joan and Suzanne have written the Goddess Girls, Heroes in Training, and Grimmtastic Girls series. Though they live in different states and hardly ever get to see each other, they spend lots of time together in Grimmlandia.

  Cinderella Stays Late

  Red Riding Hood Gets Lost

  Snow White Lucks Out

  Rapunzel Cuts Loose

  Sleeping Beauty Dreams Big

  Goldilocks Breaks In

  Text copyright © 2015 by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.

  SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  First printing, May 2015

  Cover art by Frank Montagna

  Cover design by Yaffa Jaskoll

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-78678-2

  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.