"Who else is in our group?" Y/n asked Sophie, breaking the tension. Sophie didn't answer. In fact, she acted as if Y/n and Agatha weren't there.
The last class of the day, Surviving Fairy Tales, was the only one that mixed students from Good and Evil. Both schools reported to the Blue Forest gates, where fairies sorted them into Forest Groups, eight Evers and eight Nevers in each. As other children found their leaders (an ogre for Group 2, a centaur for Group 8, a lily nymph for 12) Agatha, Y/n, and Sophie were the first to
arrive under the flag stamped with a giant red 3.
"Can we just go home?" Agatha begged.
"Why don't you go home before you fail or end up a mole rat?" Sophie fumed. "You're in my school."
"Sophie..." Y/n started. "It's not our fault."
"If you're so convinced that this is your school, why won't it let us switch?" Agatha asked, starting to get irritated.
Sophie spun. "Because you... Because we–"
"Need to go home," Agatha glared.
Sophie smiled her kindest smile. "Sooner or later, they'll see what's right."
"I'm not so sure about that," a voice spoke behind them.
They turned to Tedros, who was walking toward them but stopped next to Y/n.
"Hey, do you want to walk with me?" Tedros asked Y/n.
"I think it's best that I walk with Agatha and Sophie. You're welcome to walk with us if you'd like," Y/n replied. Sophie's mouth was open as she looked between the two.
"You two know each other?" Sophie gaped.
"Unfortunately, Y/n and your prince have become quite close," Agatha muttered. "Even though he killed an innocent child."
"He's making up for it, Agatha," Y/n explained. "I'm showing him that there's more to life than being a prince."
"You think I'm your prince?" Tedros said, confused. "We've never met."
Sophie blushed at the prince whose attention she had just gained.
"Well... it's just you're Good's best prince and I believe that I would be Good's best princess if there hadn't been a mixup," Sophie said, as she subtly glared at Y/n and Agatha. "I'm Sophie and I like your bruise."
"Thanks. Your dear friend Y/n was the one who gave it to me," Tedros said, smirking at Y/n who rolled her eyes at him.
"You deserved it," she reminded him.
"Yeah yeah, I know. We've gone over this."
"You seem to be pretty close," Sophie said as a slight panic set in on her face.
"I wouldn't say close. This one just likes to follow me around like a lost dog," Y/n said, pointing at Tedros.
"Not my fault you're interesting," Tedros replied.
"You've got to be kidding me," said a girl's voice behind them.
They turned to see Beatrix, under the bloody "3," along with Dot, Hort, Ravan, Millicent, and the rest of their Forest Group. The sight of Sophie being with a group of Evers must've disgusted the entire group judging by the looks they were getting.
"Mmmm," said a voice below.
They looked down to find a four-foot gnome with wrinkly brown skin, a belted green coat, and a pointy orange hat frowning from a hole in the ground.
"Bad group," he murmured.
Grumbling loudly, Yuba the Gnome crawled out of his burrow, pulled the gate open with his stubby white staff, and led his students into the Blue Forest.
As the group walked through the gate, they marveled at the blue wonderland around them. Every tree, every flower, every blade of grass sparkled a different hue. The sunlight peeked through the canopy above and showed light into the glistening woods. No animals seemed skittish or bothered by the crisscrossing student tours as they went on with their normal activities.
As his students followed, Yuba rattled off the history of the Blue Forest in his clipped, hoary voice. Once upon a time, there were no joint classes for School for Good and School for Evil students. Instead, children had graduated straight from their school's training into the Endless Woods. That was until the students were being murdered in the woods before even engaging in battle.
"We had forsaken the obvious," said Yuba. "You cannot survive your fairy tale if you cannot survive the Woods."
So the school created the Blue Forest as a training ground.
The students soon went past the North Gates and the darkness began to consume them. It was a forest of eternal night, with every inch of green blackened by shadow. As their eyes adjusted to the sooty darkness, the students could see a puny dirt path lilting through trees. What was left of the forest floor had been buried beneath mangled thorns, stabbing twigs, and cobwebs. But none of this scared the students as much as the sounds that came from the darkness beyond the path. Moans and growls echoed from the forest ahead.
Then the children began to see what was making the sounds. Pairs of eyes watched them through the darkness.
"This way," Yuba called.
The students scampered from the gates and followed the gnome into a blue clearing without looking back.
Surviving Fairy Tales was just like any other class, Yuba explained from a turquoise tree stump, with students ranked from 1 to 16 for each challenge. Only now there was something more at stake: twice a year, each of the fifteen groups would send its best Ever and best Never to compete in the school's Trial by Tale. Yuba didn't say any more about this mysterious competition, except that the winners received five extra first-place ranks.
"Now there are five rules that separate Good from Evil," the gnome said and wrote them in the air with his smoking staff.
The Evil attack. The Good defend.
The Evil punish. The Good forgive.
The Evil hurt. The Good help.
The Evil take. The Good give.
The Evil hate. The Good love.
"As long as you obey the rules for your side, you have the best possible chance of surviving your fairy tale," Yuba said to the group gathered. "These rules should come with ease, of course. You have been chosen for your schools precisely because you show them at the highest level!"
"But first you must learn to recognize Good and Evil," said Yuba. "In the Woods, appearances are often deceiving. Snow White nearly perished because she thought an old woman kind. Red Riding Hood found herself in a wolf's stomach because she couldn't tell the difference between family and fiend. Even Beauty struggled to distinguish between the hideous beast and a noble prince. All unnecessary suffering. For no matter how much Good and Evil are disguised, they
can always be told apart. You must look closely. And you must remember the rules."
For the class challenge, Yuba announced, each student had to distinguish between a disguised Ever and Never by observing their behavior. Whoever correctly identified the Good student and the Evil student in the fastest time would receive first rank.
"You better make sure you get this right," Y/n teased Tedros. "Don't want to confuse Good and Evil again do you?"
"You listen here..." Tedros growled while smiling.
"Alright! Who's up?" Yuba asked.
Hort volunteered to go first. As soon as he tied the ragged blindfold over his eyes, Yuba stabbed his staff at Millicent and Ravan, who magically shriveled in their pink and black clothes until they slithered out of them as identical cobras.
Hort whipped off the blindfold.
"Well?" Yuba said.
"Look the bloody same to me," Hort said.
"Test them!" Yuba scolded. "Use the rules!"
"I don't even remember the rules," Hort said.
"Next," the gnome grouched.
For Dot's turn, he changed Beatrix and Hort into unicorns. But then one unicorn started copying the other and vice versa until they both pranced about like mimicking mimes. Dot scratched her head.
"Rule one! The Evil attack! The Good defend!" barked Yuba. "Which one started it, Dot?"
"Oh! Can we start again?"
"Not just bad," Yuba grumped. "Worst!"
He squinted at his scroll of names. "Who would like to be disguised for Tedros?"
All the Ever girls raised their hands.
"You haven't gone yet," Yuba said, pointing to Sophie. "You either," he said to Y/n.
"My grandmother could get this one right," mumbled Tedros, tightening his blindfold.
Y/n walked up to the front of the class and stood next to Sophie, who was glaring at her.
"I thought you knew that I wanted him. Why are you getting close with him?" Sophie mumbled.
"I remember Agatha telling me, yes, but I can't stop him from being friends with me, Sophie," Y/n responded.
"If you're so close with him, convince him that I'm the right one for him."
"I can't just do that. He needs to do that on his own."
"If you were my friend, you would do it."
"Ready, Tedros! Go!" Yuba jabbed his staff, and both girls exploded from their clothes into slimy, stinky hobgoblins.
Tedros took off the blindfold and jumped back, hand to nose. Sophie clasped her green claws and batted her wormy lashes at him. Y/n, on the other hand, just stood there and acted naturally.
"It seems too obvious," Tedros said, eyeing the flirting hobgoblin.
Sophie stopped batting her lashes, confused.
"Y/n would never try to make herself look friendlier than she really is," Tedros said confidently.
Tedros reached out and touched Y/n's wet, warty cheek. "This one's Y/n. This one's the princess."
Y/n looked over at Sophie, guilt spread across her face. For a moment, everything went silent.
Sophie tackled Y/n. "YOU RUIN EVERYTHING!"
"It's not my fault that he picked me!" Y/n yelled.
"It's your fault that he's close to you!" Sophie shrieked.
"He did that on his own!"
"Leave Y/n alone!" Tedros said as he grabbed Sophie and pulled her away from Y/n.
"Tedros, please! Just give me a chance to prove that I'm your princess!" Sophie yelled as Tedros threw her to the ground.
But all Tedros heard was a torrent of goblin growls, so he stomped on Sophie's foot and ran towards Y/n's goblin, arms outstretched to help her stand up.
"I can't believe you were ever friends with her," Tedros mumbled as Y/n stood up next to him.
Suddenly, Sophie shoved Y/n into a rose bush, causing thorns to stab into Y/n skin.
"I'll never go home with you!" screamed Sophie.
"Oooh! Ooh! Marry me, Tedros!" hissed Y/n.
"At least I will get married!"
The blood started to drip and Y/n groaned. The more she tried to stand up from the bush, the more the thorns stabbed into her.
"Hey, hey don't move. It's alright," Tedros assured as he walked closer to her. He held out his hands and grabbed Y/n's hands and gently lifted her out of the bush.
The girls' green hides shrank, their scales softened to skin, and their bodies melted into their human clothes. Slowly Sophie and Y/n turned back into their human forms. Sophie was standing there without a scratch and Y/n was covered in thorns and cuts that were still bleeding.
"Well well, it seems our prince is smarter than most Evers here," Yuba spoke as he stared at the two girls. "Take her to the nurse, Tedros."
"Come on, Y/n," Tedros said, moving her toward the forest exit. Y/n hissed as he touched her arm. "Sorry."
As they walked ahead, Y/n glared at Sophie, who was glaring right back at her. The two friends no longer as close as they used to be in Gavaldon.