Snowflake Freezes Up Page 12

  “Yes, yes!” said Mary Mary. Then she added shyly, “I might not be the easiest roommate, though. You’ll be surprised to hear this, but sometimes, I can be a bit contrary.”

  The fact that Mary Mary thought no one had noticed this about her made Snowflake want to smile. So she did, saying, “I guess neither of us is perfect. Which is perfect! Let’s do it!”

  They started to head off, but stopped when a small voice behind them let out a groan. The girls whirled around. Jack was back!

  “Erg. I can’t stand it,” he said, levitating in midair. “All this goodness. Bleah! Get me outta here!”

  “If you don’t like it, why’d you come back to the Academy?” Snowflake asked him.

  Jack Frost looked at her in surprise. “For my reward, of course!”

  Principal R burst out of his office. “What makes you think you deserve a reward?” he demanded, having overheard. “You tricked me! I didn’t need your help to spin gold at all!”

  “Oh, that. I … uh … I …” stuttered Jack.

  It was the first time Snowflake had ever seen him at a loss for words. Feeling a bit sorry for him, she spoke out on his behalf. “Jack did try to help when things went wrong at the ice castle. But he got sharded and couldn’t.”

  “Exactly!” said the sprite. “That’s what I meant to say.”

  “Oh, all right. Fine,” Principal R told Jack reluctantly. “You can have a small reward. What is it you want?”

  “Really?” Perking up, Jack Frost zoomed down to hover in front of the principal’s nose. “I want to be a puppet master, pulling the strings of some evil puppets. I want to rule!”

  The principal tapped a finger on his long chin. “Hmm. Evil puppets. I can make your wish happen if you promise you will confine your troublemaking to the place I send you. And you must only do small evils and never hurt anyone good.”

  “Squee!” Jack twirled around in delight.

  “It means going back in the snow globe,” the principal informed him.

  Jack stopped twirling and his shoulders sank. “Not squee.”

  “Only briefly,” the principal assured him. “Just to launch you to your new home. I’ll even send a recommendation letter saying that you were too evil for us, so we kicked you out of the Academy. That should convince someone to be your evil puppet. Deal?”

  Jack Frost did a happy triple air flip. “Deal!”

  Thump! Something sailed over the great wall that surrounded the realm of Grimmlandia and dropped to the ground in the Dark Nothingterror.

  Three Dastardlies gathered around and stared at it. “Hey, lookie. It’s a square stone,” said one of them.

  Actually, it was a round ball of glass. A beach ball–size snow globe to be exact. But Dastardlies were not all that bright. A moment later, Jack Frost burst out of the crack in the globe and looked up, up, up.

  These Dastardlies were giants. No problem! He could fly. He zoomed high to look the creatures in their eyes. Each only had one of them, right in the middle of its forehead.

  “Whatter yoo?” one of them asked. “Some kind of bug?” The other two guffawed and tried to swat Jack.

  “Stop! I have a letter from the principal of Grimm Academy testifying that I am extremely evil,” he announced. He whipped it out to show them.

  “Huh?” they said. “Can’t read. What’s testerfrying mean?”

  “Perfect,” Jack Frost muttered gleefully to himself, tucking the small, rolled-up letter away. He hadn’t known what to expect from the Nothingterror when the principal had revealed where he was going. Still, this place agreed with him so far. These Dastardlies might be big and strong, but a smart guy like him could trick the pants off them!

  “The letter is to tell you that from now on, you are my bosses,” he explained patiently. “Which means, I’ll tell you what to do so you don’t have to ever think again. You just do as I say.” He gave them a big, wide smile as if this were great news for them.

  Actually, it didn’t really make sense. But as Jack had hoped, the Dastardlies got so excited about the idea of being bosses that they didn’t seem to notice that the rest of what he’d said was not in their favor.

  “Dohkay,” grunted the biggest of them. The other two nodded.

  Jack Frost smiled. Ah, he was looking forward to life in the Nothingterror with his evil puppets. It was going to be frostastic!

  A few days later, Snowflake ran up the Academy’s twisty stairs, holding her snowflake-sunburst wand in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other. She screeched to a halt where the stairs dead-ended at two doors on Pink Castle’s sixth-floor landing. One door was emerald green, and the other was pearly white. Without pausing, she shot through the emerald one and dashed across the outdoor stone walkway that ran between the girls’ three dorm towers. She heard splashing in the multitiered fountain down below in the courtyard between the fifth-floor dorms.

  “Hi, Mermily!” she called out, without bothering to look over the stone railing. Because who else would be splashing around in the fountain but Cinderella’s mermaid roomie? Sometimes she even slept there overnight.

  Sure enough, Mermily’s bubbly voice drifted up to her a couple of seconds later. “Hi, back, Snowflake!”

  Up ahead, the pointy top of Snowflake’s dorm, Emerald Tower, gleamed like a jewel in the sunlight. When she reached its door, she burst inside. Then she zoomed past its central common area and over to the alcove she now shared with Mary Mary. Whipping the curtain door aside, she practically danced into their room.

  “I aced the History test!” she announced, hopping around in excitement.

  Mary Mary looked up from her desk. There was an unusual expression on her face — a slight twist to her mouth. If you’d never met her before, you might have mistaken it for a grimace, but Snowflake was getting to know her better. And for Mary Mary, this was a look of happiness. Happiness on Snowflake’s behalf.

  “Wow! Congratulations,” Mary Mary told her, leaping to her feet. And there was real warmth in her voice.

  “I couldn’t have done it without you and everyone else,” said Snowflake. Her new GA friends had all helped her study. Their help, plus the Handbook’s tips about test-taking anxiety, had done the trick.

  At this, Mary Mary broke out in an actual smile! To Snowflake’s surprise and pleasure, the girl went over to their window and leaned out. “Guess who aced her History test?” she yelled.

  Snowflake popped her head out of the window alongside her roomie’s in time to see a volley of marshmallows go flying. Mary Mary had been calling to some girls who were outside atop the long narrow courtyard that ran the length of the flat rooftop above the auditorium. With Cinderella’s assistance, Rapunzel was doing a test run on a small-scale model of a catapult she and Snowflake had designed in Sieges class. Which explained the flying marshmallows. Beyond them, Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and several others were playing putt-putt golf.

  Gleefully, Snowflake waved her test paper at the girls. (Naturally, they were too far away to see the big fat A at the top of it, but still.) “Thank you, guys, sooo much for helping me study!”

  At this, all the girls cheered. “Woot! Woot!” “Grimmawesome!” “Knew you could do it!” “Way to go, Snowflake!”

  Cinderella cupped her hands around her mouth. “Hey!” she called up. “If we had some snow outside on the lawn we could go sledding to celebrate!” Then she added, “Hint, hint.”

  “Your wish is my command!” Snowflake called back. Though the glass-slippered girl was no longer sharded and grumpy, she had decided she still preferred to be called by her full name instead of the nickname Cinda.

  However, no way did Snowflake want to be called Snow Queen! She was glad the secret of her identity was out, though. In a sense, learning who she was and the reason she had the power to freeze stuff had sort of unfrozen her. Yes, she was the Snow Queen, but there was a warm feeling inside her nowadays. She might be an evil character in her tale, but in real life, her character was much more complex. And, luc
kily, the Academy students seemed to understand and accept that. There was no need to keep apart from others. She loved having lots of friends!

  Now she waved her wand toward the lawn below Pink Castle and chanted:

  “Bring snow fun

  For everyone!”

  Instantly, big fat flakes of snow began to come down, falling only on the Pink Castle lawn.

  “Yay! Meet you guys outside!” Red Riding Hood called up. She and the others below scattered to go to their rooms for jackets, scarves, and mittens before racing outdoors. When other students noticed the snow, word was sure to spread and lots of students would join in the sledding. The more, the merrier!

  Turning from the window, she saw that Mary Mary was already at her armoire getting her cloak. Feeling happy, Snowflake let her gaze sweep their room. She loved everything about it, from their raised canopy beds, with swooping swags of pretty see-through fabric draped across the tops, to their desks and chairs, which sat beneath those high-built beds.

  As she grabbed her own cloak and her wand, she wondered how Jack Frost was getting on. Word had it that Principal R had sent him to the Dark Nothingterror. Since the sprite delighted in evil, that was probably the perfect place for him. And Grimmlandia was undoubtedly a little safer without him.

  Just then, Snowflake’s bunny hopped into the room and did one of his crazy corkscrews before zipping under her desk to snuggle in the bed she’d made for him there. She and Mary Mary giggled. Kai’s chew toys were scattered around her desk and throughout the whole of Emerald Tower, because he was basically allowed to roam as he pleased. All the girls in the dorm adored him and shared in his care. And Mary Mary often took him to her garden to play these days, though certain bushes remained off-limits.

  “Let’s go! Let’s go!” Mary Mary urged.

  Snowflake slipped on her cloak, then she and Mary Mary made for the door. Suddenly, both girls stopped in their tracks. Because a little piece of paper had just floated into Snowflake’s hands from out of nowhere. She read the words on it aloud: “Ice Architect.” She looked at her roommate in confusion.

  Mary Mary gasped, her eyes lighting up. “It’s your tower task!”

  Hearing that, Snowflake whooped with joy.

  “C’mon! Let’s tell everyone,” she said to Mary Mary, and they raced out of the dorm. As her roommate dashed ahead, Snowflake paused on the outdoor stone walkway to gaze out at the river. Ice Island still glistened there, frozen as ever.

  Ideas for all the new things she could build on the island swirled in her head like flakes in Jack Frost’s snow globe. A gigantic ice slide, for example. And a new ice castle. Maybe she would design this one so students could safely skate in through one of its doors and out another. She was Ice Architect now, after all. It was her official tower task! Which seemed proof that her island was destined to become a permanent — as in never-melting — landmark at Grimm Academy.

  She now truly believed that what Rapunzel had said was true. Evil is as evil does. So she was determined to channel her evil powers toward good forevermore. Having accepted that her wand really was her magic charm — a good charm, and that such charms only came to those who were good of heart, she knew she was up to the challenge.

  Hearing a gleeful shout from the first sledders below, Snowflake did a happy little twirl on the walkway, then dashed off to join them. She could hardly wait to turn Ice Island into a year-round winter wonderland fun park where students could skate, build snowmen, sled, and have parties in the new ice castle she would create!

  It was going to be absolutely grimmawesomely, grimmazingly snowtastic!

  Check out the next Grimmtastic Girls adventure!

  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

  Snowflake Freezes Up

  Text copyright © 2016 by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

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  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.

  First printing 2016

  Cover art by Frank Montagna

  Cover design by Yaffa Jaskoll

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-94572-1

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