Whatever After #4: Dream On Page 8

  Gasps echo around the room. “That’s months away. You lied to us!”

  “Are you even turning ten?” another fairy asks. “You’re small for ten.”

  DOUBLE HAH!

  Jonah sheepishly shakes his head.

  “We do not appreciate being lied to,” says the blue-haired fairy.

  “We do not appreciate being used for our magic,” says the teeny, tiny fairy.

  “Liars don’t get wifticals,” says Shaznay.

  “Noooo!” whimpers Jonah.

  “But we need them,” I cry.

  “Tough,” says the fairy on stilts. “And be warned — as Princess Brianna knows, spurned fairies often return to seek revenge.”

  “Please don’t say that,” I beg. “I don’t like revenge!”

  But it’s too late. All of the fairies wave their wands, and with a puff of sparkle they disappear.

  Bri is still gripping the top of the chair. “What are we supposed to do now?” she cries.

  “I don’t know,” I say.

  The sound of thunder crashes through the sky.

  “I really wanted that Superpuppy,” Jonah snivels.

  I glance at the clock. It’s already nine at night here, which means it’s nine in the morning back home. Nine! How did that happen? It’s so late! My parents might stroll into my room at any minute and discover we’re not there. And then Robin’s parents will show up and we still won’t be there. My head starts to pound.

  We hear a thump from upstairs.

  “What is that?” Jonah asks.

  I perk up. “Maybe Robin’s awake?”

  Bri sighs. “No. It’s just Felix.”

  “Isn’t it past his bedtime?” Jonah asks.

  We hear a laugh from the attic. It’s a woman’s laugh. And it’s not Robin’s.

  We all hurry up the stairs.

  In the attic, the rain pummels against the skylight. Lottie and Felix are playing Karate Crocs on the floor.

  “You’re still here?” I ask Lottie. “I thought you left with the others.”

  “No. I was exploring. Felix was showing me how to do a horseyback ride. It’s quite fun.” She looks down at Jonah’s feet. “How come you’re not wearing your new socks?”

  “We didn’t get the wifticals,” I admit. “It’s not really Jonah’s birthday. He’s only seven. We’re sorry.”

  She frowns. “You lied to me?”

  We nod, ashamed.

  Suddenly, the door opens and an old woman steps into the attic. Who is it? She’s wrinkled and stooped over, and she’s wearing a powder-blue top and matching pants. It kind of looks like a sweat suit. “Here you are,” she cackles.

  “Mom!” Lottie screams.

  Mom? The thirteenth fairy is here? The one who cursed Bri so she would die?

  She’s HERE?

  “Mine!” Carlotta says, and grabs the wand from Lottie’s hand.

  Lottie pales. “Mom, what are you doing here? I told you I’d take care of this!”

  “It seems that Princess Brianna had another party and didn’t invite me!” Carlotta says snidely. “How rude!”

  “Mom, she invited me instead,” Lottie says, biting her thumbnail. “And it wasn’t a party for her this time. She didn’t even create the guest list.”

  Bri takes a step back and glares at Carlotta. “We thought you retired.” She pulls Felix behind her to protect him.

  I do the same to Jonah. Carlotta may be in a sweat suit, but she’s still terrifying.

  “I did retire,” Carlotta says, rubbing the wand against her open palm. “But even retired people come out for special occasions. And this time Bri is going to pay.”

  “I’m not afraid of you,” Bri says, but her voice trembles.

  I would be afraid of Carlotta if I was Bri. Carlotta put a death spell on Bri when she was just a baby! Is she going to try that one again? But then I realize something.

  “You can’t put the same spell on someone twice,” I say. “It’s double jeopardy!” That’s a lawyerly term that means that you can’t be tried for the same crime twice. I have no idea if it’s true for spells. But it should be.

  “Come on, Mom,” Lottie says. “Haven’t we done enough?”

  Carlotta narrows her eyes and glares at her daughter. “While you play games with the prince, I’m here to give the princess what she deserves. And stop biting your nails. It’s a filthy habit!”

  Lottie drops her hands by her side and bows her head. She looks like she’s used to hearing stuff like this.

  Bri squares her shoulders. “Go ahead. Put me to sleep. I don’t mind.”

  Carlotta cackles. “I know you don’t mind. That’s what you want! So that’s not what I’m going to do. You, dear Princess, will stay awake. The rest of you, however” — she waves her wand in the air — “will sleep.”

  “For how long?” I ask. I have a feeling she doesn’t mean a catnap.

  “One hundred years,” Carlotta spits out. Lightning flashes across the sky.

  My heart drops to my toes. “No! We can’t sleep for a hundred years. We have to go home!”

  “You can’t put everyone to sleep,” Bri squeaks. “I’ll be the only one here.”

  “Exactly,” Carlotta says with a sly smile. “Everyone you love will wake up in the future. Your parents. Your brother. Your precious Tom. Everyone except you. By the time they wake up, you’ll be dead.”

  Jonah grips my hand. “But we’ll never see our parents again,” he says.

  Carlotta’s eyes flash. “Tough luck for you.” She waves the wand once, twice, three times in the air. Black sparkles rain down on us all. I hold my breath and brace myself for the sleep to hit.

  No, Mom!” Lottie yells. We hear a loud thunk.

  The black sparkles disappear into thin air.

  My body sags with relief. I’m awake! We’re all awake! Well, not all of us. Carlotta is crumpled on the floor.

  Jonah leans toward her. “Is she breathing?”

  Lottie’s eyes are wide. “She’s asleep. I turned the wand on her.” She says the words slowly, as if she doesn’t believe them herself.

  “She’s asleep for a hundred years?” I ask.

  Lottie nods. “Or until I figure out how to wake her up.”

  Bri is still holding on tight to Felix. “Why did you save us?” she asks Lottie.

  Lottie looks down at her mother and then back at us. “My mom was always so hard on me, you see. I wanted to be a teacher,” she explains, “but my mom said I couldn’t. She said I had to take over the family business.” She lifts her thumbnail to her mouth to take a nibble but then shakes her head. She reaches over to the sewing contraption and gives the wheel a spin instead.

  “I appreciate that you invited me even though I was so mean this morning, and even though my mom tried to … well, you know. Kill you.” She grimaces and gives the wheel another spin. “I want to be the type of fairy that gives horseyback rides and plays Karate Crocs. Not the type of fairy who makes people die. To be honest, when I met you this morning I was planning on putting the whole palace to sleep the second you pricked your finger. I thought that would be the nice thing to do. So Bri would be with her family. I wasn’t going to tell my mom, but I was going to do it. This wand may have done bad things in the past, but I’m not my mother. I’m not evil.”

  Aha! That’s how everyone ended up asleep in the original story! Lottie felt bad for Bri!

  Lottie reaches over and ruffles Felix’s hair. “As a peace offering, I’ll grant each of you a wiftical.”

  Yesssssss! “All five of us?” I ask eagerly.

  Lottie eyes Robin. “Well, no, not the sleeping one. The four of you. Just tell me what you want.”

  That’s an easy one. “I want Robin to wake up!”

  Lottie nods. “Jonah? What do you want?”

  He makes a chopping motion. “A crocodile that knows karate!”

  I roll my eyes. “Jonah, come on.”

  He drops his hands by his sides. “I know, I know, nowh
ere to put it. I’ll take a puppy.” His eyes light up. “Superpuppy!”

  I tug the sleeve of his pajama shirt. “You have to wish for a magical portal to take us home.”

  “But …” His voice trails off. “I really want a puppy. It doesn’t even have to be Superpuppy. It can just be a regular puppy.”

  “No puppies! Get us home!”

  He stubs his exposed toe on the floor. “I want a way for us to get home, please.” He looks up at the ceiling. “Can it be the skylight? That would be so cool.”

  That would not be so cool. It’s pouring rain. But I already feel bad about the puppy, so I keep my mouth shut.

  Lottie turns to Felix. “What do you want, sweetie?”

  Felix smiles. “I want a puppy!”

  Jonah glares at him.

  “And what about you?” Lottie asks Bri. “I guess you want to sleep for a hundred years?”

  Bri looks at Felix and then at me. “I …” She pauses. “No.”

  “No?” we all repeat.

  “No,” she says again. “I want to stay right here.”

  “Since when?” I ask.

  She hugs Felix even though he squirms away. “I knew for sure the moment Carlotta tried to take away my friends and family. I didn’t realize what I had until it was almost gone.” She shakes her head. “From now on, I’m going to appreciate what I have right in front of me. I’m going to look around and smell the roses.”

  I search for a rose to hand to her, but the attic seems to be the only spot in the kingdom that’s rose-free. I cheer instead. “That’s great, Bri! I’m so proud of you.”

  “Thanks,” she says shyly. “Also, I realize now that I don’t want to marry a prince I don’t even know. I want to marry Tom.”

  “You do?” a voice says. We turn around. It’s Tom. He has a huge smile on his face.

  “I do,” she replies. She takes his hand. “Tom, will you marry me?”

  “I will,” he says.

  “I’m so happy for you guys,” I cheer.

  She leans over and kisses Tom on the cheek. He blushes.

  Hurray!

  “Is there anything else you want to wish for, then?” Lottie asks Bri.

  “You should wish for a bike!” Jonah says.

  “Or a cell phone,” I add quickly. “I’ll take it if you don’t want it.”

  Bri cocks her head to the side. “I would like a bike. But ever since I made those candles today, I’ve realized that I can make all kinds of stuff myself. Like bikes.” She spins the wheel of the sewing contraption. “I’ve been studying this wheel, and I think I know how to make one myself.”

  I laugh. “You’re going to invent the bicycle?”

  She nods. “Yes! Exactly! Why wait a hundred years? I can invent whatever I want right now! I’m going to be an inventor!”

  “You’re going to be an amazing inventor,” Tom says, putting his arm around her shoulders.

  “So you really don’t want me to wish for anything?” Lottie asks.

  Bri shakes her head. “I already have everything I want right here.”

  “What about happiness?” Lottie asks.

  Bri smiles and I can see her dimple. “I can make my own.”

  Jonah steps up. “Then can I please, please, pretty please with ketchup on top, use your wish to get a puppy?”

  “No!” I yell. “Jonah, I would love to have a puppy, too, but we can’t bring a puppy home with us!”

  “Can I have a crocodile that does karate, then?” Felix asks. “Please?”

  Lottie looks at Bri.

  She shrugs. “Make it a teacup crocodile that does karate.”

  Jonah scrunches up his face. He looks like he might cry.

  “Okay, then, here we go …” Lottie twirls her wand around and around and around. “I grant Felix one puppy and one mini-crocodile that does karate. The skylight above us shall be a magical portal that goes to Smithville. And I undo the one-hundred-years sleeping curse on Robin. One. Two. Three!”

  An adorable brown puppy appears and starts barking. He has floppy ears and a little black nose.

  “Awwww! So cute,” Jonah mumbles.

  A teeny tiny green crocodile the size of my hand pops up next to Felix’s foot. Its little hand goes up in what I guess is a chopping motion.

  It might be small but it’s still creepy.

  The skylight above us starts to swirl. Yes! We have a portal!

  We better not get soaked. Or hit by lightning.

  “Yay! My puppy!” sings Felix. “I’m calling him Horseyback! Give me a ride, Horseyback!” Felix tries to sit on the puppy but the puppy whimpers and hides behind Jonah’s leg.

  And Robin …

  Robin snores.

  “Robin,” I say, running over to her and taking her hands. “Robin, get up! We have to go!”

  She doesn’t open her eyes. “Why is she still sleeping?” I ask. “What happened?” The skylight is swirling faster. It looks like a whirlpool.

  Lottie zaps Robin again with her wand but nothing happens. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I don’t know why my spell didn’t work. Abby, maybe you were right before when you talked about double jeopardy. A wand can’t cast the same spell twice. Maybe a wand can’t undo its own spell, either.”

  “Can you fix it?” I look up at the skylight, which is now a deep purple. “We have to go. It’s really late.”

  “There’s nothing I can do,” Lottie says helplessly. “You’ll have to go without her. The window will work for the next minute and then it will be gone forever.”

  It’s already almost ten o’clock! We have to go. We have no choice. If Lottie can’t make another portal, this is our only option. Plus, the other fairies might come back for revenge! We can’t leave Robin. We’ll have to take her with us.

  “Maybe Maryrose will help you,” Lottie says. “Her powers are much stronger than mine. Not stronger than my mom’s, though.”

  Lottie knows Maryrose? Carlotta knows Maryrose, too? Do all the fairies know each other?

  Jonah points to the skylight. “We have to go!” he cries.

  “How do we get up there?” I wonder. “We usually just walk into the portal, not jump up to it!”

  “What if you bounce on the bed?” Bri asks. “It’s pretty springy.”

  “Good idea,” I say. “We’ll pretend it’s a trampoline!”

  “What’s that?” Bri asks.

  “Something else you should invent,” I say.

  Jonah and I lift Robin so that one of her arms is around my shoulders and the other is around Jonah’s. Her head slumps forward but we keep her up.

  “Wait!” Felix yells. He runs over to us and gives us each kisses on the cheek. Aw. We all say good-bye.

  “Now jump!” I tell Jonah. We hold up Robin and jump. The puppy barks and climbs up on the bed and tries to grab Jonah’s foot. We jump one more time and zoom —

  The skylight sucks us right up.

  We crash out of the mirror and land sideways on the basement floor. Me, Jonah, and a still-sleeping Robin.

  Ouch.

  Rinnnnnng!

  Ack! That’s the doorbell from upstairs. Robin’s mom!

  I look at Robin, sprawled across the floor on her back, still fast asleep. What are we going to do?

  Ruff! Ruff!

  I sit up, turn around, and see a small brown ball of fur.

  Oh my goodness! It’s the puppy! He followed us back to Smithville! We took someone home with us! Is that allowed?

  “I knew he liked me better,” Jonah says, jumping to his feet. “And I’m not naming him Horseyback. No way. What should I call him?”

  The puppy sniffs Robin’s hair. Then he licks her face.

  “He’s kissing her,” Jonah says. “He’s trying to wake her up.”

  Yes, he is kissing her.

  He’s kissing her.

  He’s KISSING her!

  An idea explodes inside my head. Maybe Lottie was wrong — maybe a wand can undo its own spell. Maybe Lottie didn’t say
the RIGHT spell. Her exact words were: I undo the one-hundred-years sleeping curse on Robin. She undid the one-hundred-year part of the sleeping curse. But she didn’t undo the part about a prince waking her up. That means that a prince can now wake her up even if a hundred years haven’t passed.

  “The dog’s name is Prince!” I exclaim.

  Jonah’s eyes widen. He immediately says, “Good boy, Prince. You’re such a good puppy!”

  Prince the dog licks Robin’s face again.

  She shifts and stretches her arms above her head. She opens her eyes.

  “Where am I?” she asks.

  It worked! She’s awake! What do I tell her? Does she remember any of it? “You’re, um … in the basement,” I say.

  “I had the craziest dream,” Robin says, rubbing her eyes. “We were in a tower and I pricked my elbow and then … I don’t know. I think we were in a fairy tale. Rapunzel?” She rubs her elbow. “Ouch. My arm hurts.” She looks around. “How did I get here?”

  “You sleepwalked. There’s no time to explain.” I push myself off the floor. “Follow me!”

  I take her by the hand and run, run, run up the stairs and to the front door.

  Mom, Dad, and Robin’s big sister, Dalia, are all standing in the foyer of our house. Dalia has the same curly strawberry-blonde hair as Robin, but it also has purple streaks in it. She does not look happy.

  “There you are!” Mom says, turning around and sighing with relief. “We were starting to get worried. Didn’t you hear us calling? You were in the basement the whole time?”

  “Yes,” I say, out of breath.

  “All three of you?” Mom asks suspiciously.

  I nod.

  “Why?” Mom asks.

  Think, Abby, think! “We got up really early and we were … um …”

  “Robin, you’re still in your pajamas!” Dalia says, putting her hands on her hips. “You better get changed fast. Mom’s waiting in the car and I’m supposed to be at Tali’s in five minutes. I called you a million times on your cell and you didn’t answer. You have to answer your cell every time I call. Got it?”

  Robin rubs her elbow. “I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t hear it.”

  Because cell phones don’t work in the Kingdom of Rose.

  I think about all that happened in Rose — and about all that I learned. About how important it is to enjoy the present. To not get too caught up in the future.