The School Years Complete Collection. Soman Chainani

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СКАЧАТЬ roach paced the mildewed burlap of the Malice Common Room floor, eyeing the clock as it ticked towards midnight. At last she heard the door open and Sophie entered in a seductive black sheath dress, accented with long black gloves, beehived hair, a necklace of delicate pearls, and black-tinted spectacles. Agatha nearly burst her carapace.

      “First, I told you to be on time. Second, I said don’t dress up—”

      “Look at these glasses. Aren’t they chic? Saves your eyes from the sun. You know, these Evergirls sneak me all sorts of things like this now, pearls, jewels, makeup to add to my ensembles. At first I thought they were Good Deeds, and then I realized, no, they just like seeing their things on someone more glamorous and charismatic. Only it’s all so cheap. Gives me a rash.”

      Agatha’s antennae curled. “Just—just lock the door!”

      Sophie bolted the latch. She heard a crash and spun to see Agatha red-faced, pale body wrapped in a burlap curtain.

      “Um—must have mistimed it—” Agatha spluttered—

      Sophie looked her up and down. “I prefer you as a roach.”

      “There has to be a way to get new clothes when you turn back,” Agatha grouched, wrapping herself tighter. Then she saw Sophie fondling Tedros’ note. “Now listen, don’t do anything stupid when you meet him tonight. Just get the kiss and—”

      “My prince came for me,” Sophie mooned, sniffing the parchment. “And now he’s mine forever. All thanks to you, Agatha.” She gazed up lovingly and saw her friend’s expression.

      “What?”

      “You said ‘forever.’”

      “I meant tonight. He’s mine tonight.”

      They were both silent.

      “We’ll be heroes when we get back to Gavaldon, Sophie,” Agatha said softly. “You’ll have fame and riches and any boy you want. You’ll read about Tedros in storybooks for the rest of your life. You’ll have the memories that he was once yours.”

      Sophie nodded with a pained smile.

      “And I’ll have my graveyard and cat,” Agatha mumbled.

      “You’ll find love someday, Agatha.”

      Agatha shook her head. “You heard what the School Master said, Sophie. A villain like me can’t ever find love.”

      “He also said we couldn’t be friends.”

      Agatha met Sophie’s lucid, beautiful eyes.

      Then she saw the clock and jolted to her feet. “Take off your clothes!”

      “Take off my what?”

      “Hurry! We’ll miss him!”

      “Excuse me but I’m sewn into this dre—”

      “NOW!”

      A few minutes later, Agatha sat next to Sophie’s clothes, head in hands.

      “You have to do it with conviction!”

      “I’m naked behind an ugly couch. I can’t do anything with conviction, let alone make my finger glow and turn into a rodent. Can’t we pick a more appealing animal?”

      “You’re five minutes from losing your kiss! Just picture yourself in its body!”

      “How about a lovebird instead? It’s more me.”

      Agatha grabbed Sophie’s spectacles, bashed them with her clump, and threw them over the couch.

      “Want me to do the same to the pearls?”

      THUMP.

      “Did that work?” Sophie’s voice said.

      “I don’t see you—” Agatha said, whipping around. “For all we know you turned yourself into a newt!”

      “I’m right here.”

      Agatha turned and lost her breath. “But—but—you’re—”

      “More me,” Sophie breathed, a ravishing plush pink fox with sparkly fur, bewitching green eyes, succulent red lips, and a bouncy magenta tail. She clasped the pearl necklace around her neck and admired herself in a shard of broken glass. “Will he kiss me, darling?”

      Agatha stared, mesmerized.

      Sophie watched her in the mirror. “You’re making me nervous.”

      “The wolves won’t bother you,” Agatha babbled as she unlocked the door. “They think foxes carry disease, plus they’re color-blind. Just keep your chest to the ground so they don’t see the swan—”

      “Agatha.”

      “What? You’ll miss hi—”

      “Will you come with me?”

      Agatha turned.

      Gently, Sophie curled her tail around her friend’s hand. “We’re a team,” she said.

      Agatha had to remind herself she didn’t have time to cry.

      Sophie the Fox pattered quietly through the Blue Forest, past willow trees shimmering with sleeping fairies and wolf guards who shrank from her as if she were a snake. She skirted sapphire ferns and twisty oaks of the Turquoise Thicket before slinking to the top of the bridge overlooking a moonlit brook.

      “I don’t see him,” Sophie whispered to the roach snuggled into her neck’s pink fur.

      “His note said he’d be here!”

      “Suppose Hester and Anadil played a trick—”

      “Who are you talking to?”

      Two blue eyes glowed in darkness across the bridge.

      Sophie froze.

      “Say something!” Agatha hissed in her ear.

      Sophie couldn’t.

      “I talk to myself when I’m nervous,” Agatha whispered.

      “I talk to myself when I’m nervous,” Sophie said quickly.

      A navy blue fox stepped out of the shadows, swan twinkling on its puffed chest.

      “I thought only princesses get nervous. Not the best villain in school.”

      Sophie gaped at the fox. It had Tedros’ tight muscles and half-cocked grin.

      “Only the best Good can disguise as Evil,” Agatha intervened. “Especially when it has love to fight for.”

      “Only the СКАЧАТЬ