CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

SCHOOL DAZE

The rest of the weekend is the same. On Sunday she sleeps restlessly, and when she wakes up, the fairy mark is still there. On Monday morning she once again bolts upright, sweating and shaking. Adelina Jefferson-Cho looks up at her, alarmed. Filomena exhales, telling her pup it’s okay, and lies back down for a few moments, reflecting on her most recent nightmare.

She dreamed she was back at school, wearing her beanie—the same one she’d been wearing when she asked her parents about her biological parents. When the bell for the first period rang, signaling that it was time for everyone to be in class, she was still at her locker, surrounded by the Fettucine Alfredos. They were teasing and taunting her as usual, saying mean things and pushing her to the point of frustrated and tearful rage.

One of them ripped the beanie from her head, revealing Carabosse’s mark. They all gasped, looking at her with revulsion, telling her they always knew she was a total loser. They said they were going to tell everyone, and one of Posy’s minions snapped several quick photos for proof. Filomena screamed in response, begging them not to. She didn’t even want to believe it herself, let alone have the entire school know.

But the mark was already glowing, and once Posy’s minion Petunia had added a filter to it, it was even brighter, blazing in the image like some sort of blasphemous disfigurement. The photo was shared everywhere, going viral before the end of the day. Her secret was out.

Everyone knew.

Word had gotten back to her parents. In her dream, they’d taken her first to a priest and then to a doctor to be evaluated.

Luckily, she woke up to find it had been just a nightmare. But the mark on her forehead is definitely still there. She grimaces as she stares at it, wondering whether, if she wishes hard enough, it will disappear. She just wants her normal, boring life back in sunny, sleepy North Pasadena.

She runs through her usual morning routine, taking a shower, brushing her teeth. She feeds her beta fish, Serafina Jefferson-Cho, squatting down to wave hello to her. Then she gets dressed in her usual school uniform: white shirt, green plaid skirt, oversized hoodie. Today she puts her combat boots on. Just in case she winds up at war with someone. The black beanie goes on last. And she adjusts it while looking in the mirror, ensuring it covers every part of the fairy mark. She considers cutting herself some bangs, but the kind of hair she has would never allow them to be easy to manage.

“Come on, Filomena,” her dad yells up the stairs. “We gotta get going or you’ll be late for school.”

“Be right there!” she yells back, grabbing her jacket and backpack and heading downstairs.

They leave the house together after she kisses her mother goodbye, and as they walk down the driveway to his car, her father looks at her curiously.

“Still wearing that beanie, huh?” he asks. “I mean, I like it, but are you allowed to wear hats in school?”

She gulps. They both know the answer to that is no. “I’ll take it off if I have to,” she says.

He shrugs in response, and they hop into the car. When he pulls up to the school and drops her off at the curb where he always does, she gives him a goodbye peck on the cheek, and he reminds her that he loves her.

“I love you, too,” she says before she gets out of the car, adding, “Get your word count in today,” before she closes the door and waves him off.

She takes a long breath, squares her shoulders, and stares ahead at the school, praying that no one will rip this beanie off her head like in her nightmare.

But to her surprise, when she walks inside and approaches her locker, the Garganelli Gang is nowhere to be found. She wrinkles her face, wondering if they’ve chosen to torment someone else today. Odd, she thinks as she dials her locker combination and opens it up.

Once she has the books and notebooks she needs for her first few classes, she closes her locker and sees the Ravioli Rodeo round the corner into the hallway. Oh great. Here they come, she thinks, swallowing hard in preparation for the verbal, and possibly physical, assault. If her dream wasn’t a dream, are they going to kill her for what happened last time—when she led them on a chase and wound up in a magic tree, out of their reach? Or was that part of the dream, too? It’s hard to tell anymore.

As they approach, Posy and her minions stare at her, only it’s a new kind of stare. One she hasn’t seen from them before. They eye her cautiously, keeping their distance. They’re quiet as they pass by her and wiggle their way down the hall like the noodles they are.

She watches them in confusion, wondering why they’re not bullying her as usual. Then she realizes it’s because today they can hurt her without a word.

Her best friend, Maggie Martin, is alongside them. And as Maggie’s eyes meet Filomena’s, she whispers something to Posy and breaks away from the group. The rest of the noodles wait and watch.

Maggie grimaces awkwardly, a not-quite smile on her lips as she keeps about six feet of distance between herself and Filomena. “Hey…”

“Hey,” says Filomena. She hadn’t realized how much she missed Maggie until she saw her. Maggie is a big fan of the Never After books, too. There’s so much Filomena wants to tell her! But she can’t, not with Posy and her trolls watching them. “So, uh, you’re one of the Alfredos now?”

Maggie shrugs. “They’re not as bad as I thought they were. Actually, they’ve been really nice to me.”

“Oh,” says Filomena, because that’s all she can say.

“I mean, everyone has to grow up, right? We can’t just spend all our days reading books and writing fan fiction and wearing Stalker hats,” says Maggie in a somewhat exhausted tone, as if Filomena is a child and Maggie is not just three months older.

Ouch.

“Why not?”

“I mean, everyone has to grow up sometime, Filomena. We’re in middle school now.”

“Right,” says Filomena, since this is obvious.

“Okay, then,” says Maggie.

“That’s it?”

“What do you want me to say? They told me some pretty crazy things about what happened on Friday. They said you cursed them or something. Everyone’s a little scared of you now. But that’s good, right? At least they won’t bother you anymore.”

“I didn’t curse them. I didn’t do anything!” says Filomena. All she did was stop time! That wasn’t a curse, was it? she wondered, thinking of what Zera had told her—that she carried the mark of Carabosse—and then how Jack had reacted to the news, how repulsed he was all of a sudden.

It’s so confusing.

“Bye, Filomena.” But before walking away, Maggie takes one last look. “Oh, and I’m sorry about the thirteenth book. I heard it didn’t come out. You must be pretty bummed.”

“Come on, Mags,” says Posy, pulling on Maggie’s sleeve. “Let’s go watch the boys play basketball.”

With that, Maggie offers an apologetic look and walks away, back to the Penne Posse. The group looks at Filomena suspiciously, like they know something is up, and Filomena gets another knot in her stomach, only this time she wonders if she’s going to be sick.

They start walking down the hall again, Maggie in tow. Filomena stands there, alone, watching her now ex-best-friend walk away with her sworn enemies. She tries not to cry, at least not until they’re out of sight, promising herself she’ll make it to the bathroom before she’s too late for class.

“Stay away from us, witch,” Posy tosses over her shoulder, and Filomena tugs the beanie farther down over her forehead as she watches them disappear.