Summer Love | TLOS

Ch. 18

14/12/15

After school I went and talked to Bree. I was sure she was going to know what to know, she was one of my good friends anyways. Turns out there was a rumour about me! It was that I was super rude and broke every boy's heart that I had ever talked to. When I asked Bree if she knew who started it, she told me that she saw Micah tell someone that. What am I going to do now?

"Arthur," Alex whispered, "I scanned through the book after we left the palace, and one of the items we need in The Wishing Spell is Red Riding Hood's bow. We're not going to get another chance to do this!"

"What? Why would anyone need a bow?" Arthur replied. He was still very confused about this whole 'spell' thing. He didn't understand.

"I don't know," Alex snapped. "That's just what it says, so we should probably go ask her for it."

Red Riding Hood was about to get on her dog. She patted the dog on the head and Clawdius licked her hand.

Alex said, "Miss Red? I'm Alex and this is Arthur. This might sound really weird, but we need your bow. It's really important, but I can't tell you why."

"You can't tell me? Why? And how do you know who I am...are you from The Hoodian Republic?" Red rambled on, her eyes growing wider with worry.

"No, nothing like that," Arthur said. "But we're kind of in a hurry, and we really need one of your bows, so if you could just hand it over..." he made a snatch at it, but Red flinched away.

Red sniffed angrily.

"Get away," she said. "This bow is very special to me. It's the only thing that's keeping me going! I wore it the day I found my Granny getting eaten by a wolf! It's a family heirloom from my great-great-granny. Do you really expect me to give this away?"

She rolled her eyes, but the spark in her eye made it clear that she was thinking about it. Alex and Arthur shared a glance.

"I'll make you a deal," Red said. "I'll give you my bow if you promise you'll never tell anyone you saw me."

"Okay, deal," Alex cheered, her bubbly spirit rising. One question still rocked her mind, and her heart tugged at her sleeve. She had to ask. "What's going on in your kingdom?" she asked softly. She knew that it hurt.

"The people in my kingdom have gone wild! They all invaded my castle, then tried to lock me in a closet! When I escaped I ran as far away as possible." Red said and held up the flyer with her gold prize.

"Many believed that I was in the wrong, but my family and friends and other citizens took my side. They're waiting for me at The Hoodian Republic, but I cannot show my face there any longer. I was humiliated, and I'm never going back," she said bitterly.

"Jack and Goldilocks took my castle, and their stupid kid climbs the beanstalk every morning. If I ever step foot in The Beanstalk District, my head will be chopped and placed beside the bears." she shivered.

Red grabbed at one of the bows in her hair. She shook out her curly blonde hair and thrust the bow into Alex's hand. "Remember," she smirked. "You never saw me." she hopped onto her dog and rode off.

"Wow, she's really stuck," Arthur said, and then turned back to Alex. "Okay, what's the other Wishing Spell items?"

Alex flipped open the journal and sighed contently. They were one step closer to getting back home. "We don't need to look at all the items right now. All we know is that we have one of eight items of The Wishing Spell. Red Riding Hood's was, 'the bow that kept the fright in tight, while running from the army that bites.' The next one is 'the feather that broke the duckling's heart, only to show the wild goose's art.' Another is, 'Just right is what this bowl was called that made three bears anger full.' That one is really weird it doesn't even rhyme. Hmmm, just right, just right. Where have I heard that before?"

"Wait, a bowl that's just right? That upset three bears? Goldilocks and the three bears! The bowl of porridge that was just right!" Arthur said.

"Wow," Alex said. "You're good at this. The bowl is probably in that Beanstalk District that Red was talking about. We better get walking."

They walked far awhile towards the beanstalk that they could see in the distance. They went into the District and saw a giant castle with the beanstalk coming out of the roof.

"Woah, that's ginormous." Arthur said in awe.

Alex and Arthur went inside the castle. Inside there was two thrones and Goldilocks and Jack were sitting on then.

"Who are you?" Goldilocks ask.

Alex replied," I'm Alex and this is Arthur."

"Can we borrow your bowl with the porridge that was just right?" Arthur asked quickly.

"Of course not!" Goldilocks answered.

"It was worth a shot,"Arthur said.

"Please Goldilocks," Alex pleaded. "We need it to get home!"

Goldilocks turned to Jack and said, "Should we let them borrow it?"

Jack shook his head and said," I don't really trust them."

Jack turned to Alex and Arthur and told them, "I'm sorry but you cannot borrow the bowl."

Surprisingly, Alex ran down a hall as fast as she could and looked for a sign on the outside of each door looking for one that said something like Collections. Arthur followed close behind her. At the very end of the hall on the door it said 'Memory Room'. Alex threw open the door and saw a golden egg, and a golden harp. As they walked through the room Arthur saw the three bowls.

"There!" Arthur said triumphantly.

Alex asked, "Which bowl you think it is?"

"Wasn't all the things that were just right baby bear's?" Arthur replied.

"Yes!" Alex said. "The smallest bowl is probably baby bear's."

They ran to a window and jumped out of it. It was a low window and they were just on the first floor. Guards burst into the Memory Room a few seconds after Arthur had jumped out and shut the window.

"Wow that was close." Arthur said.

Alex replied," Yeah. Good thing we didn't get caught."

Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed this chapter of Summer Love! -Grant with help from Amanda and Flora.