Cinderella Stays Late Read online

  Oops! Her friends! They were waiting for her in the garden! There wasn’t time to hang everything up now, so Cinda laid the clothing back inside the trunk and shut it. Then she ran out of the room. Realizing she’d forgotten the mapestry, she skidded to a halt and ran back to get it.

  She was in such a hurry that she dropped it on the way out again, and the mapestry unrolled. As she started to roll it back up, she noticed something new. A cross-stitched X sewn in golden thread had appeared on the map in the center of Neverwood Forest! An X-marks-the-spot for treasure, maybe?

  Whoa! Wait until the others see this! Quickly, Cinda rolled the mapestry up again, shoved it in a bag and dashed down the twisty stairs with it.

  She felt incredibly light on her feet. So happy! It must be the glass slippers. Without them, she probably wouldn’t feel so … unloserish.

  Then Cinda remembered — she wasn’t wearing the slippers! She’d put on her sneakers since she’d be tromping through the garden grass. Maybe it was just this pretty day that was making her feel happy. Or the fact that she had interesting classes, had been chosen by magical charmed slippers, and had made new friends.

  Not to mention the fact that she had a secret crush. One that she hadn’t even admitted to her friends yet: Prince Awesome, of course!

  Ever since the ball on Friday, he’d been paying even more attention to her. Did that mean he liked her? Cinda wasn’t sure, and she had other, bigger things to deal with at the moment.

  Like foiling an E.V.I.L. Society! And figuring out what kind of threat it posed to Grimm Academy. And deciding if that eyeball she thought she’d seen in the Grimm brothers’ wing of the library had something to do with all of this.

  Seeing Red, Snow, and Rapunzel in the small garden gazebo up ahead, Cinda waved, eager to discuss these matters with her new friends.

  “Be right there,” she called.

  As she zipped down the stone steps into the Bouquet Garden, Cinda heard the School Board helmet-heads make an announcement that rang through the school:

  “Attention, all Grimm Academy students! We hope your first week of this term has been a good one. Please have a happily ever afternoon!”

  Yes, Cinda thought with a smile. I definitely will!

  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!

  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

  Copyright © 2014 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, January 2014

  Cover art by Frank Montagna

  Cover design by Yaffa Jaskoll

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-63384-0

  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.