Whatever After #4: Dream On (6 page)

W
e’re about to walk over to Tom’s — it turns out he lives just down the street from the royal court. But then a boy appears at the palace gate.

“Tom! Hi!” Bri says, smiling. “Just the person I wanted to see!”

Tom is about her age, fifteen, and very cute. He has wavy light-brown hair and freckles on his nose.

“You’re just the person I wanted to see, too,” he says with a laugh. “Which is why I came to visit.”

“Hi, Tom!” Felix calls out, bounding over to him. “I have a new friend named Jonah! His horseybacks are better than yours!”

“Better than mine? No way!” Tom exclaims, pretending to be shocked. “He’ll have to give me a horseyback lesson.”

Jonah puffs up with pride.

“Tom, meet my friends Abby and Jonah,” Bri says. “They’re commoners, too!”

Tom grins. “Nice to meet you, fellow commoners. We should get matching commoner shirts made.”

Jonah and I laugh. I like Tom. He
is
funny.

“I have great news,” Bri announces, her eyes sparkling. “I found the spindle!”

Tom’s face falls. “Where?”

“In the west tower! Can you believe it?”

“But … what happened? How come you’re not asleep? Wait, I know! Did you have too many cups of tea this morning?”

She laughs. “Of course not. The whole thing is complicated, but basically another girl touched it first and now she’s asleep instead of me.”

“That is
great
news,” Tom exclaims. “So you’re not going to sleep?” he says hopefully.

“No, I am,” Bri says. “Or I will be. We just have to get a fairy to fix the spell.”

His face falls again. “So you still want to sleep for a hundred years?”

“Of course I do,” she says with a wave of her hand. “I’m not giving up that easily! It’s my destiny. If I don’t sleep for a hundred years, I’ll never meet my prince.”

Tom kicks a stone with the toe of his shoe. “Of course, of course, you’ve got to meet your prince. The hero who saves you from the curse. The best prince ever,” he grumbles.

“Exactly,” Bri says, failing to notice that Tom doesn’t sound excited. “That’s why we were on our way to your house. Do you know where Shaznay the fairy lives?”

He hesitates. “Yeah,” he says eventually.

Bri smiles. I’m shocked to realize that it’s the first time I’ve seen her smile since I’ve met her. Why doesn’t she smile more? Is she
that
unhappy? She has a nice smile — I didn’t realize she has a dimple on her left cheek. “Can you show us the way?” she asks.

“I guess I can,” he says, sounding pretty unhappy himself. I get it — if Robin or Frankie
wanted
to sleep for a hundred years my feelings would be hurt, too. Best friends are supposed to want to spend time with you — not never see you again. “It’s far, though,” Tom adds. “We’re going to need horses.”

“Let’s go to the stable,” Bri says. She motions to me, Jonah, and Tom. But then she blocks Felix with her arm. “You’re not coming with us.”

Felix juts out his chin. “Yes I am. If you don’t let me, I’m telling Mom and Dad that you’re trying to find Shaznay.”

She sighs. “Fine. You’re so annoying. Come on.”

The stable is between the south and west towers.

Bri gestures toward the stalls. “Pick whichever you want.”

There are about twenty horses, all neighing, all smelly.

“Um, Bri?” I ask. “Aren’t we all getting on one horse?” That’s what we did when we were in the story of Snow White. We all climbed on one gigantic horse that took us around.

Bri saddles one of the horses. “Why would we do that? No. We’ll each take our own. You know how to ride, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Jonah declares.

“You do not,” I snap. “We don’t.”

“I’m sure it’s not that hard,” Jonah says, jumping on his toes. And I mean toes literally, since he still has no shoes on, only socks with holes in them.

“It’s easy,” Bri says. “You don’t have horses in Smithville? How do you get places?”

“Our parents drive us in cars, which are carriages with no horses. Or if we’re on our own, we take our bikes,” Jonah says.

She leans in eagerly. “What’s a bike?”

“It’s a seat on two wheels. You pedal to make it move.”

“That is
so
cool,” Bri says. “I wish I had a bike. I bet there’ll be bikes when I wake up from my hundred-year sleep.”

I notice that Tom frowns when she says this.

“Could be,” I say. “But what are we going to do right now?”

“You’re going to get on Petals,” Bri says. “That’s Petals, not Pedals. Although maybe we should change it to make life more exciting around here.”

I don’t know. In my opinion, life is pretty exciting around here as it is.

Bri places a stool on the ground next to a horse. She motions for me to step up on the stool and helps me up onto Petals/Pedals’s saddled back. “If Felix can do it, so can you.”

Felix is already on a horse, wooden spoon in hand.

“There’s a good boy,” Bri purrs to Petals/Pedals.

My breath catches in my throat as I try to steady myself.

DO NOT BE AFRAID! ALSO, DO NOT FALL OFF!

Petals/Pedals doesn’t look so scary. He’s kind of cute. His mane is chocolate-brown and silky-looking. I just wish he were closer to the ground.

I carefully — oh so carefully — reach out to pet him. Awwww. He’s soft!

“Hello, sweetie,” I say. “You’re not so scary, are you?”

“NEIGH!” he roars.

I close my eyes and scream.

“You’ll be fine,” Bri assures me. “I’m right beside you.”

I slowly unclench my eyes. Everyone else is already on horses, staring at me. “Ready,” I say, pasting on a grin. I am holding on to the reins so tight my knuckles have turned white.

“Off we go!” Tom calls back. He leads the way.

We trot through the opening of the gate and onto a dirt road. We pass other, smaller houses as we ride. Most of them have rose gardens, too, but none are as colorful or as plentiful as the gardens at court.

The clouds are gray but at least it doesn’t rain.

A bee buzzes by my head. I’m not sure which animal I’m more afraid of — the bee or the horse. One is huge, one is tiny. Both are scary.

Thirty minutes later, Tom motions for us to pull up outside a group of massive trees. “We’re here,” he says, jumping off his horse.

Thank goodness. I look around. I don’t see a house.

Jonah squints. “Is it an invisible house?”

“I bet they’ll have invisible houses in the future,” Bri says wistfully.

“Look up.” Tom gestures toward the foliage.

Nestled above us in the tree branches is a house. A tree house.

“Oh, wow,” Jonah says.

I have to agree. It is the coolest looking tree house I’ve ever seen.

The walls, floors, and roof of the tree house are made of glass.

Yes. Glass!

We can see right inside the house. I make out two purple chairs, a metal table, and even what looks like a yellow beanbag chair.

“I want to live there!” Jonah says dreamily.

Bri jumps off her horse. “How do we get up?”

Tom points to a rope ladder that’s dangling from the door. “We climb.”

“Awesome!” squeals Jonah.

“Jonah! Horseyback!” Felix calls.

Jonah crouches. “Okay. Get on.”

Is my brother crazy? I think he is. “Jonah, you cannot horseyback someone up a rope ladder! That’s just not safe.”

He waves my worry away. “You heard the kid. I’m really good at horseybacking. And it’s not that hard. I climb things all the time.”

He does go rock climbing with Mom on the weekends. But he doesn’t rock climb while a three-year-old boy holds on to his neck and hits him with a wooden spoon.

“Not happening,” I say. “I’m the older sister and I’m the boss.”

“You are not.”

“Am so!”

“Horseyback! Horseyback!” chants Felix.

“I’ll stay with Felix,” Tom offers.

“You sure?” I peer up at the rope ladder. It shudders in the breeze. “Because I really don’t mind skipping this one.”

“GIRLS ARE GROSS,” yells Felix.

Never mind, then. I guess Tom stays and I climb.

“Follow me!” Jonah calls, and hurls himself toward the swaying rope ladder. Before I can even say, “Be careful,” he’s at the top, standing on a ledge.

A teeny, tiny ledge.

I wish he had on a helmet. I wish
I
had on a helmet.

I wish I had on a parachute.

Bri climbs up the rope and onto the ledge next, and then it’s my turn.

I
t takes me about five times as long as the others, but eventually I climb to the teeny, tiny top. When all three of us are steady, Bri rings the doorbell.

Since the door is all glass, we know someone’s there. We see a woman sitting at her kitchen table sipping a cup of tea. I guess it’s the fairy Shaznay. She’s about my mom’s age, maybe a little younger, and she’s wearing a strapless white dress. She has light-brown skin and her brown hair is pulled back in a tight French braid.

She glances up and sees us looking at her.

A clear disadvantage to having a glass house is that you can’t pretend you’re not home.

Luckily, Shaznay seems happy to see us and hurries over to open the door. “Princess Brianna,” she says warmly. “I haven’t seen you since you were a baby. Come in, come in. Would you like some tea?”

People in the Kingdom of Rose really really like tea.

I step onto the glass floor and instantly wish I was back on the rope ladder. It feels like I’m stepping on ice that could break at any moment.
Do not look down
, I tell myself.
Do. Not. Look. Down.

“No thank you,” Bri says. “These are my commoner friends Abby and Jonah,” she adds. I resist the urge to roll my eyes. “We’re here to ask for your help. Remember the spell you did back when I was a baby? To make me not die?”

“Of course I do,” Shaznay says, sitting back down.

“It got messed up,” I say. Then I grip the side of the kitchen table in case the floor cracks.

Which doesn’t make sense if you think about it. If the floor cracks, the table is going down, too.

“But you’re alive,” the fairy says to Bri. “So something worked.”

Bri nods. “I am alive, but I need you to put me back to sleep. Can you make me another spell? We need two spells, actually.”

“Three,” I correct.

“Three spells?” Shaznay huffs. “Is there an occasion I’m being invited to? I don’t grant
wifticals
for no reason.”

“
Wifticals
?” I repeat. Did I hear her right? I’m pretty sure that is not a word.

“It’s a shorter way of saying magical wish gifts,” Shaznay explains.

Jonah scrunches his eyebrows. “Shouldn’t that be
ma-wish-fts
?”

“
Wifticals
sounds better,” Shaznay insists.

I can’t help but agree.

“It was my fifteenth birthday a few weeks ago,” Bri says.

Shaznay shakes her head. “You already had a
wiftical
party, Princess Brianna. You can’t have another one. It’s one
wiftical
party per person. That’s the law of the land. So unless someone else is having a birthday, I’m afraid I can’t help you.”

I need to do something. “It’s Jonah’s birthday, too!” I blurt.

Jonah looks surprised. “It is?”

I elbow him in the side. “It is!” Or it will be in July. Unfortunately, it’s not July in Smithville
or
Rose right now.

He nods. “It is! I’m turning —”

I expect him to say eight.

“— ten.”

I roll my eyes. He’s ten? I’m ten! Jonah is
seven
. Shaznay is never going to believe that he’s turning ten! No one would believe that we’re the same age! Right? RIGHT?!

“Happy birthday,” Shaznay says with a smile. “Ten is a wonderful age.”

Seriously? She believes him? Do we look like twins? No, we do not.

Wait. Shaznay doesn’t know that I’m ten. Maybe she thinks I’m older. Like eleven. Or maybe twelve. Yes, that must be it.

“Are you having a party?” Shaznay asks.

“Yes,” I say quickly. “He is. Today. Can you come?”

“I would be happy to. What time should I be there?”

“Um …” I look at Bri.

She shrugs, her eyes wide. “Six?”

That should give us a few hours to prepare. “We’ll see you then,” I say.

“Great,” Shaznay says. “Which other fairies are you inviting?”

“Um, you’re our favorite, so we’re inviting only you,” Bri says.

Shaznay smiles again. “That’s very sweet, but if you want three
wifticals
you’ll have to invite more than just me. I only grant one
wiftical
per birthday person.”

“Can’t you make an exception?” I ask.

She shakes her head sadly. “If I made an exception for you, I’d have to make an exception for everyone, now wouldn’t I?”

“I thought she was the nice one,” Jonah whispers.

“I guess we’ll just have to invite more fairies to the party,” I say.

Shaznay’s eyes light up. “Fantastic! I haven’t seen the other fairies in a while. No one’s had a
wiftical
party since what happened at Princess Brianna’s.” She leans in closer to us and lowers her voice. “Are you going to invite Carlotta this time?”

I freeze. Isn’t Carlotta the mother of Lottie? Wasn’t she the one who cast the spell that almost
killed
Bri?

“No way,” Bri says. “She’s evil.”

“We don’t have to invite her. She retired,” I say, feeling relieved. “But we should probably invite her daughter. We don’t want to upset anyone.”

“I don’t know,” Bri counters. “She wasn’t that helpful earlier today.”

“We can’t
not
invite her,” I say. “Remember what happens when you don’t invite everyone?” I mime pricking my finger and then a swoon. “I say we invite all thirteen fairies.”

“At least they have enough plates this time,” Jonah says.

“They have enough plates for the entire kingdom,” I snort. “Hey, Shaznay, I have a question. Do you have to grant us the
wifticals
we ask for?”

She takes a long sip of tea. “We don’t
have
to do anything.”

“So we could get thirteen
wifticals
that we don’t even want?” I ask. That won’t solve any of our problems.

“I’d suggest that Jonah register for a
wigistry
,” Shaznay says.

“A what?” I ask.

“A magical wish registry,” she clarifies.

“What’s a registry?” Jonah asks.

I turn to him to explain. “Remember when Auntie Jen got married and we went on her online registry and bought her an ice-cream maker? She had picked out a bunch of stuff that she wanted. It’s like a wish list.”

“Exactly,” Shaznay says. “Just write out a
wigistry
on a piece of paper and leave it by the food at the party. The fairies will take a look and decide what they want to give you.”

“I wish I’d been able to register,” Bri says wistfully.

“Your parents registered on your behalf,” Shaznay says. “And you got everything on the list. You are definitely the princess who has it all. Well, except what I was going to give you before I had to change mine.”

“What were you going to give me?” Bri asks.

Shaznay smiles sadly. “Happiness.”

Bri blinks. And then blinks again.

I can’t help but feel bad for Bri. She has everything any girl would want — brains, courage, beauty, even the ability to play the piano — but she’s miserable. Maybe she’ll be happy in the future?

“Let’s go,” I say finally. “We’ve got a party to prepare for.”

Bri, Jonah, and I wave good-bye to Shaznay and then we climb back down the rope ladder, this time all together.

I poke my brother with my foot. “You’re turning ten, Jonah? Really?”

“Why not?” Jonah says, shimmying down. “I could be ten. Look what I can do!” He holds on to the rope with one hand and swings.

“Stop it, Jonah! Can you at least try to act like you’re ten?” I’m holding on for dear life.

Bri reaches the ground first. “I don’t know how we’re going to throw a party. My parents won’t allow it.”

“Why not?” Jonah asks. “It’s my tenth birthday!”

“Is not,” I mutter.

“You’re the one who said it was!” Jonah retorts.

“Maybe we can get your parents to leave
court
,” I say. I emphasize the word
court
because … well, because I love it.
We’re going to court! Take me to court! I’m going to be late for court!
If only I had a long black robe and a gavel. Then I’d really get to call all the shots. The rope ladder sways and I snap back to reality. Now is not the time for judge fantasies.

“How do we do that?” Jonah asks, stepping on the ground.

I’m the only one still on the rope. Two more steps … almost there … why does this fairy tale involve so much climbing anyway? I’d expect that if we were in
Rapunzel
, but
Sleeping Beauty
? Shouldn’t we be doing more resting and napping?

Anyway.

“We can send them to another yard sale,” I suggest, as I reach the bottom of the ladder and finally feel the ground beneath my feet. And by feet I mean my very, very dirty socks. My heart rate returns to normal.

“What if there isn’t another yard sale today?” Bri asks.

“We can make one up,” Jonah says.

“Jonah, when did you get so sneaky?” I wonder. “You want to send Bri’s parents on a wild-goose chase?”

My brother smirks. “Exactly.”

Bri nods. “It would have to be somewhere far away. So they’re not back too quickly.”

“We better get a move on,” Tom calls out. “It’s going to start raining soon.” He and Felix are already back on their horses waiting for us. Felix is actually sitting on his sideways, which can’t be safe.

A drop of water lands on my head. Again.

Too bad Sleeping Beauty doesn’t know Mary Poppins. I could use an umbrella.