Page 24 of Switched

Jocelyn and I groan. “I hate when you use that word,” I grumble. “Like we’re slaves!”

Jack and Jocelyn burst out laughing, and Jax looks like he’s going to explode.

“I’m sorry, but there’s more at stake here than just your sister,” Jax snaps, and I inhale sharply. “I don’t mean to be hurtful, but it’s true. Miri is hunting every mirror in the land to find out what that troll is up to. We have to stay put and let everyone gather the intel. He’s too tricky to out-trick twice.”

“But what if Anna changed her mind and wants to come back but can’t? I can’t just leave her out there till the royal court is ready to make a move.”

“You have to learn to trust other people sometimes,” Jax says, sounding a lot like the governing princesses.

I fold my arms. “I guess this is the first time we don’t agree on something.”

“I guess so,” Jax says evenly.

Quack! We turn around and see Peaches pulling something small and shiny out of Jack’s bag. It’s the gold mirror he had the other day.

“Hey!” he shouts as Peaches swallows it whole. “My mirror!”

Peaches gives a large burp.

“Give it back,” Jack shouts, lunging for the duck.

Maxine jumps up from the table and stands in Jack’s path. She’s twice the size of him. “Leave my duck alone.”

“Your duck ate my mirror!” Jack says, lunging again for Peaches, who tries to bite his fingers. “I need it back! Make her cough it up.”

“She never coughs up items,” Maxine lies, and Peaches hides behind her. “At least not in one piece. If you want me to send you the parts once she’s done with them, I can do that.”

“Eww, no, forget it.” Jack looks like he has some ideas on how he’d get the mirror out of Peaches. “I’m going out to watch the magic carpet races.” He starts to walk away.

“Duck!” I shout, which may be a poor choice of word.

The rest of us crouch as a dozen soup spoons fly across the room to the kitchen. Jack gets hit in the back with a spoon, and Jax actually laughs. I shoot him a nasty look and walk over to Jack to check on him.

“Come on. I’ll help you outside,” I say, leaving my friends at the table.

On the great lawn behind the cafeteria, kids are already getting their aggression out. A group of kids are playing Fight the Knight with a bewitched scarecrow dressed up for a sword fight. (Every time a kid gets close to nailing it with a sword, the scarecrow bobs and weaves.) RLWs are singing to the pumpkin patch to try to make the pumpkins grow like AG did. Blackbeard is setting up a pirate challenge near the lake, where kids can slide off the plank and hold themselves up by their arms over the water. (It works the core muscles or something like that.) And near the fields, I see elves setting up the magic carpet racing track.

Neither Jack nor I seem in the mood to rush over and play, so we find a spot on the grass by the vegetable garden.

“Sorry if I was rough with your friends back there,” Jack says. “I don’t mean to be. I’m just so worried about my mum and Milky Way. I can’t think of anything but finding them. No one cares about getting that troll as much as I do.”

“I do,” I say, and Jack looks at me. “Ever since my sister decided to leave school with Rumpelstiltskin, I can’t stop thinking about how I could have convinced her to stay here.”

He looks at me. “Then you know why I need to get out of this place and find him.” I nod. “We can’t wait for the stuffy royal court to do something!” He looks at his beat-up boots. “Look, I have a confession to make: I got thrown into FTRS on purpose.” I stare at him in surprise. “I thought he was still in control of this place, and my mum might be here. Instead, he’s gone and the only villain in this joint is some stone statue I’ve never seen.”

“Alva,” I explain. “The wicked fairy. She was turned to stone during a battle we had at school. She guards the dungeon, so to speak. I thought I saw her statue move once, but I think I was just seeing things.”

“The dungeon,” Jack repeats. “I guess that’s the best place to keep a villain. Even one encased in stone. I wonder if the Stiltskin Squad has learned how to turn people to stone yet.” He frowns. “I hope they don’t try it with my mum.”

“You know about the Stiltskin Squad too?” I ask.

“Doesn’t everybody?” Jack plucks a daisy and rips off its flowers. “It’s his army. They do whatever he asks of them.”

This is hard to admit, but Jack might be the only other person at this school who can understand what I’m going through. “My sister is a member,” I say quietly.

He runs a hand through his short black hair. “I know.”

I sit straight up. My heart starts to beat faster. “How do you know that?”