Goldilocks Breaks In Read online

  Red’s cunning wicker basket could fetch things that fit inside it, but a hairpin had no storage space. And it seemed unlikely it could turn her invisible like Snow’s tiara, either. She’d pressed on it plenty of times and nothing special had happened. It had proven itself to be a handy tool for picking locks. But just about any hairpin would work for that.

  She squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on the pin. She’d left it on her desk, and now she tried to make it come to her by magic. After a few minutes of nothing happening, she gave up. If the hairpin really was her special charm, she’d just have to wait for it to reveal what actual magic it could do.

  * * *

  After sixth period ended the next day, Goldie rounded a corner on the second floor and immediately spotted a group of students speaking to the gooseknob on the wall next to Ms. Queenharts’s Comportment classroom. They’d discovered today’s whereabouts of the library door.

  Her breath caught. Was this a sign? A sign that she should search the library again? Would she find what she hadn’t been able to last Monday — some clue that would lead her to Principal Rumpelstiltskin?

  Wow, had that just been a few days ago? Seemed like ages had passed since she’d first spotted those growly bear guards, and Ms. Wicked had held her guard parade in the Great Hall. As she joined the line, Goldie realized she hadn’t seen those bears since then. But maybe they were patrolling in the Gray Castle side of the Academy where she had no classes.

  Afraid that the knob might recognize her from Monday night and cause a stink, Goldie kept her head down as she stood with the group. A nursery rhyme character named Jack Horner was in the middle of answering the goose head’s riddle. Her timing was perfect. Once he had answered correctly, she was able to sneak through the door bunched in with the gaggle of taller students, totally undetected by that beaky knob. Score!

  Flap! Flap! As she entered the library, a snow-white goose zoomed by overhead, zigzagging around the chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling. Then two more swooped in from the left and another from the right. Net bags dangled from the bright orange beak of each goose. One bag held books. The others held objects: red rubber balls the size of large tomatoes, a huge jar of brightly colored gumballs, and cloth dolls with button eyes and yarn for hair.

  The geese paid no attention to her or to any of the other students in the library as she made a beeline for Section G. Only this time, she wasn’t heading for the shelves of Grimm fairy tales. She was heading for the Grimm brothers’ room. Though Goldie had never been inside it herself, everyone in Grimmlandia knew it was the most magical place in the library. And since she hadn’t been able to find Principal R’s tale on the main library shelves last Monday, she wondered if maybe Ms. Goose had stuck it in the Grimm brothers’ room for added security.

  When she finally arrived outside the room she sought, its door was standing open a few inches. She paused to study its locking mechanism. To a lock-picking girl like her, such things were a matter of professional interest! As she examined the door’s lock more closely, she saw it had three keyholes. “You sure are well fortified,” she exclaimed softly.

  She was stalling, of course. Because actually stepping inside this room was going to be a rather daunting test for her. Rumor had it that there was a protective force field around this room, which somehow repelled evil. No Society members — not even Ms. Wicked — could pass over this threshold and enter. So if this most magical room allowed Goldie inside, it would have to mean she wasn’t truly evil herself!

  She pushed the door wide and peered into the room. It was lined with bookshelves and stuffed with items and furnishings that had no doubt once belonged to the Grimm brothers. Dozens of portraits hung on one wall, including seven in carved golden frames that were grouped together in the center. She recognized the portraits of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm among them.

  For a moment, she braced herself. “Here goes nothing,” she whispered. Then, in a burst of energy, she sprang over the threshold and zipped to the center of the room. She stood there, her shoulders hunched, her whole body tight.

  Nothing happened. The room hadn’t rejected her!

  “Hooray! I’m not evil!” Goldie cried. Then she did a little twirly happy dance right where she stood. She was about to go look more closely at the portraits when a glass paperweight in the shape of a goldfish suddenly lifted off an ornate desk across the room and came flying at her.

  “Yikes!” She ducked, fearing the room had decided to attack her after all. But the paperweight merely circled around her and sailed off to land atop the head of a statue at the back of the room.

  “Phew! That was close.” As she straightened again, other objects began to move around her under their own power. A deck of cards shuffled itself in midair and then the cards started to flip themselves over one at a time onto a small antique side table, in what looked like a game of solitaire. Weird.

  She whipped around when the crank on a jack-in-the-box in a corner of the room began to turn, playing “Pop Goes the Weasel.” At the end of the tune, a bouncy clown with a wide red smile sprang up from the box, spreading its arms wide. Then it popped back down inside the box, and the crank began to turn again.

  “Well, you are a fantastical room for sure,” Goldie murmured as she gazed around it. “What secrets do you hold that could need such strong protection anyway? Clues to our real principal’s whereabouts perhaps?” These were questions worth asking because you never knew — the room might’ve answered. After all, a talking room would have fit right in at Grimm Academy! Unfortunately, this room didn’t answer back.

  Going over to the bookshelves, she started looking for the Rumpelstiltskin tale. But though she searched high and low, pulling each book out in turn, she didn’t find it. She did find something else of interest, though. A thin booklet titled All About Magic Charms.

  Taking it over to the ornate desk, she sat in the large tufted leather chair before it and crisscrossed her legs in the comfy seat. Doing her best to ignore the objects whizzing by overhead and the toy train that had begun to chug along a track that ran around the room, she began to read.

  Most of the stuff in the booklet she already knew. Such as that magic charms came only to those of good heart. And that if you were lucky enough to get a charm, its magic powers would reveal themselves gradually. Also, that a magic charm would work only for the person it belonged to. On the last page, she came across a fact she hadn’t known:

  Once you find your magic charm — or it finds you — your bond with it can never be broken. In times of trouble, whether you and your charm are together or apart, it can always send you to a place of safety.

  “Hear that?” she exclaimed aloud, reaching up to pat her pearl-flower hairpin. “If you are my magic charm, it means you have the power to rescue me if I’m ever in trouble. Which would make you one grimmazing hairpin.”

  Glancing at the wall over the desk, she caught sight of the Grimm coat of arms that hung there. It looked like a big shield with various gold emblems on it. She shuddered and pushed back in her chair, remembering rumors that students had occasionally seen an eyeball or a nose poking out of the shield. Luckily, nothing of that sort happened now.

  Having finished the booklet, she went over and slid it back onto the shelf where she’d found it. After one last disappointed scan of the room, she turned to leave. She had taken only a single step out of the door and into the main library when a crystal marble came rolling straight toward her across the library floor. It bumped into the toe of her slipper and stopped. She bent to pick it up.

  “A message marble!” she exclaimed aloud. Such marbles contained information from their senders that was of immediate importance. This one had the sender’s initials — P.W. — carved on it. Who? Wait! It must be from (acting) Principal Wicked! Her heart started beating faster. She had a feeling she was about to be given orders that could make or break her chances of getting accepted into the E.V.I.L. Society.

  Goldie gazed down at the clear marble lyin
g in her palm and waited for its message to appear. Within seconds, the marble changed form, expanding into a ball of pale gray mist that filled her hand. A message ran across the orb of mist in a continuous line. Quickly, she read the words before they could disappear forever:

  Dear Society Candidate: Your job, should you decide to accept it, is to open the safe located in the library office and bring me what’s inside. I’ve arranged for Ms. Goose to be away at an Academy staff meeting now, so attempt this assignment immediately! Ask no questions. Simply follow my orders. Afterward, keep this message marble with you at all times.

  When Goldie finished reading, the mist contracted into a solid crystal marble again, and the initials P.W. disappeared from it. She stared at it in dismay, murmuring, “A safe? Ms. Wicked wants me to break into a safe?”

  Had Ms. Wicked somehow found out about her lock-picking skills? Why else would she ask her to do this, since everyone knew safes were usually locked? Maybe that kangaroo guard had guessed about the lock? Anyway, this was definitely also a test of her ability and willingness to carry out orders. And the last part of the message — about keeping the marble with her — made her think Ms. Wicked must be planning to use it to communicate with her whenever she felt the need.

  More than a little wary, Goldie slipped the marble into her pocket and got moving. She’d never been in the librarian’s office before, but she knew where it was. Back near the main library entrance, across from that tall checkout desk she’d hidden behind on Monday night.

  After quickly making her way there, she waited outside the door marked OFFICE until no one was nearby and no geese were flying overhead. Then she slipped inside the unlocked room, shut the door, and took three steps inside. Crunch, crunch, crunch. She looked down in surprise to see that the entire office floor was covered with crisp, clean, sweet-smelling hay! Probably it was there for the comfort of the geese that worked in the library.

  She scanned the room and started rummaging around, looking for a safe. Brightly painted red, yellow, and blue file cabinets stood against the wall to her left. Beyond them stretched a long countertop that was piled with stacks of old books. From the supplies nearby — needles and thread, tape and glue — she guessed these books were awaiting repairs.

  The cupboards above the counter were decorated with nursery rhyme scenes. Among them were the three little kittens wearing mittens, and the cow jumping over the moon. She opened the cupboards to see if the safe was inside one of them but found only alphabet blocks with more nursery rhyme scenes and letters on them.

  If she had to use one word to describe the room, she’d call it cozy. It felt like a nest. It made her wonder if Ms. Goose had the power to shape-shift into a real goose when she wanted to. The thought made her smile.

  Just then, a movement to her right caught her eye. Was it Ms. Goose coming back? Her breath caught in her throat as she whipped around. How was she going to explain being in here?

  Phew! “A mobile, that’s all,” she murmured. One with a bunch of carved white porcelain geese dangling and spinning around in the air. Nothing to get alarmed about after all.

  “Quit being so jumpy,” she scolded herself. But she couldn’t help it. Was she really going to steal something and deliver it into the no-good rotten hands of E.V.I.L.? She wished she had more time to think. But Ms. Wicked had purposely rushed her, giving her no time to consider the right or wrong of carrying out her demand. Obviously, she just expected members of the Society to obey her orders, no questions asked.

  Since she saw nothing that looked like a safe anywhere, Goldie went over to sit on a mound of hay in the center of the room to better study her surroundings. Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

  She had expected the mound to be somewhat soft, but found it so hard and round that she immediately slid off. Huh? Turning, she brushed away some hay from the mound and soon uncovered a large gray object. It was about the size of a big beach ball. Only, it was shaped more like a gigantic goose egg! She poked it. It was metal, not egg-shell. She poked it again. Creak! Oh, no! She’d accidentally dislodged it from its perch! It rolled crazily across the floor stopping only when it bumped into Ms. Goose’s desk. Thunk!

  Goldie ran over to the metal egg-thing. Planting both her hands against it, she started pushing, rolling it back toward the mound. Halfway there, she stopped. Because she’d noticed something. There was a little door on the side of the metal egg! With a keyhole! Could this egg-thing be the safe she sought?

  Kneeling beside it, she slid her trusty pearl-flower hairpin into its lock. After gently fiddling around a bit, she felt it give. Snap! She stared eagerly as the door sprang open. To her surprise, inside that egg was another egg with another door. Also locked. She poked at it with her hairpin. Eventually, that lock sprang open, too, to reveal yet another egg with another locked door.

  She did this six times before she finally opened the last door in the last egg, way in the middle of the biggest egg. The space inside the last, smallest egg safe was only just big enough for her to fit her hand inside. And when she did, her fingers connected with a large ring with some keys dangling from it. Why keep keys in a safe? she wondered as she drew out the ring.

  “No matter. I did it! I accomplished the mission Ms. Wicked gave me, so that should make her happy,” she said to herself. She slammed the egg doors shut one by one, then rolled the egg back atop its mound. Slipping the keys into her pocket alongside the message marble, she started out of Ms. Goose’s office. But as her hand touched the doorknob, a question stopped her.

  Why had Ms. Wicked needed her to fetch this key ring? Surely, she could have gotten into this safe herself if she really wanted to. As acting principal, she must have access to all kinds of keys — including skeleton ones, obviously — that opened things around the school.

  Was there a protection spell on Ms. Goose’s office like the one on the Grimm brothers’ room that kept evil people like Ms. Wicked out? Hmm. The Grimm brothers’ room. Suddenly, Goldie remembered the unusual lock with three keyholes on the Grimm brothers’ room door. Taking the ring of keys from her pocket, she took time to actually count its keys. There were three. The same number of keyholes on that door.

  Carefully, she studied the notches at the ends of each key. She had an excellent memory for the shapes of keys and locks. And there was no doubt in her mind that these three keys would fit each of the three keyholes in the lock on the Grimm brothers’ room door!

  She pursed her lips. What if sticking these keys in those keyholes could somehow break the protective spell on the Grimm brothers’ room and allow evil to cross its threshold? Keeping evil from entering that room must be important, or the room wouldn’t need protection and Ms. Goose wouldn’t have locked away these keys.

  She stared at them, shaking her head. No way could she give these keys to E.V.I.L. That would be a truly evil act that might be disastrous for the entire realm of Grimmlandia, for all she knew.

  Retracing her steps, she stooped beside the egg safe. One by one, she reopened its doors. After replacing the ring of keys inside the smallest egg, she relocked the doors again. Then she slipped out of the office unnoticed and made her way out of the library.

  “Great, just great. So now what are you going to tell Ms. Wicked in Scrying class tomorrow?” she muttered to herself as she made her way to the Great Hall for dinner. She practiced a possible fib she might use: “Ms., I mean, Principal Wicked?” she said in a higher-than-normal voice. “Turns out there were too many students around to get into Ms. Goose’s office yesterday and I was scared I’d get caught.”

  No. That might make Ms. Wicked think she was too chicken to be a member of E.V.I.L. So maybe she should say instead: “Principal Wicked, I’m so sorry, but when I unlocked Ms. Goose’s egg safe, it was totally empty.”

  She nodded to herself as she turned a corner. “Yeah, that’s better. Then at least she won’t be able to blame me for not even trying to complete her little job.”

  Hearing her mutterings, a badger on patrol in the
hallway shot her a suspicious look. Sending him a nervous smile, she stopped talking to herself and hurried the rest of the way to the Great Hall.

  When Goldie awoke the next morning, Foulsmell was on her mind and in her nose. No, not the prince. A real actual foul smell was in the air and had wafted to her nose, confusing her brain for a few seconds. Something was burning.

  “Think Principal Rumpelstiltskin is back?” she asked, brightening at the thought that he might be over in his office doing alchemy. When there was no answer, she sat up and looked across at Polly’s bed. It was empty. She must’ve gotten up early and left for breakfast in the Hall already. Quickly, Goldie scampered down her bed ladder and got dressed.

  On her way into the Great Hall, she happened to pass the actual Prince Foulsmell. She was pretty sure he saw her, but he pretended not to. Which made her feel kind of rotten. As rotten as the faint burning smell lingering around the kitchen today. Mistress Hagscorch must’ve scorched something, she decided even before she spotted the handwritten sign in the breakfast line. It read:

  Please pardon the smell due to accidental guard-tail scorching this morning.

  Could happen again. Guards (especially badgers) beware and keep out!

  Goldie couldn’t help grinning over that. From the sign’s wording she gathered the guards had been in the kitchen and Mistress Hagscorch was fed up with the intrusion. Once Goldie was through the line, she stopped herself from joining her newest friends. Ms. Wicked had warned her to stay away from her stepdaughter, Snow, and Snow’s companions. However, she hadn’t said anything about other “good” fairy-tale characters. Did she expect her to hang out only with evil ones?