To warm up, Raine asked the trainees to run around a bunch of cones (to test their endurance). Then Kaminari led them in a ballet class (to teach them grace). These were the same tasks they’d done in Level One, but this time, they ran while carrying stacks of old editions of the Official Rule Book for Fairy Godmothers. They practiced ballet on ice.

In other words, it was a lot harder.

When they were done, they were not allowed to rest. Instead, Zahara told them to stand close together. She wanted them to do something new. She called it a human knot.

“With your right hand, find someone’s hand and hold tight,” Zahara instructed them.

Then they all had to do the same thing with their left hands. And then they had to untangle themselves. It wasn’t easy. Someone smelled funny (probably Isabelle—since she hadn’t had time to shower). And Minerva kept stepping on Isabelle’s foot.

When they were done, Zahara asked them what they had learned.

Angelica raised her hand first. “To work together.”

“And to listen,” Fawn added. “Because we know that’s always the first step toward happily ever after.”

Zahara yawned, like those were the most boring answers ever.

“What about you, Isabelle?” she asked. “What did you learn?”

Isabelle remembered all the things she’d learned from Nora. “I learned that there is always a way out, even when it looks hopeless. And that you just have to keep trying and maybe also give up a little bit so that you can get where you want to go.”

For a moment, no one said anything. (It wasn’t every day that Isabelle answered a question correctly.)

“I guess I understand mistakes better than the rest of you!” Isabelle said with a shrug.

When Zahara had stopped laughing, she gave Isabelle a piece of dark chocolate with a cherry inside. (It was delicious.) Then she pointed to the window so everyone could see it was getting dark. As Zahara explained, this meant things were about to get “interesting.”

The Worsts chuckled. Isabelle yawned. She was really tired.

“What do you mean, interesting?” she asked.

Zahara asked them to turn to Section Six of the rule book on the advantages of granting wishes in the dark.

“In the history of fairy godmothers and their princesses, a lot of great magic is made when no one can see what you’re doing,” she said with a crooked smile.

When they were done reading the entire chapter, Luciana flicked her wand and six large crates appeared—one for each trainee.

“That’s why your first big assignment will be tonight,” Luciana explained.

Isabelle raised her hand. “Are we going to get some sparkles?”

“One sparkle,” Kaminari said. “We want to see what you can do in the garden.”

This was a big letdown, until Raine reminded them that gardens, like the woods and other natural habitats, were fruitful (pun intended) settings for wish fulfillment. Raine also explained that many fairy godmothers are gardeners because, in a pinch, flowers, fruits, and vegetables could be used in a variety of wishes and charms.

Kaminari gave each trainee a handful of mismatched seeds and a small velvet bag.

Inside the bag was a strange-looking sparkle. To be honest, it was actually really ugly compared to regular sparkles. It was gray and not very sparkly, like a misshapen piece of salt.

“This sparkle isn’t just any sparkle,” Luciana told the trainees. “It’s a raw sparkle. You should be honored!” According to Clotilda, raw sparkles were as powerful as the refined sparkles fairy godmothers usually worked with, but they were unprocessed. (Later, Minerva would tell Isabelle this wasn’t exactly true. She thought raw sparkles were sparkles that had been discarded. Grade Two. Maybe even recalled. In other words, they weren’t as good. But Isabelle had no idea who was right.)

But for now, the trainees all smiled. Kaminari assigned them each a crate full of tools. Then she told them that in the morning, the Bests and Zahara would return to see what each trainee had done.

“But what are we supposed to do?” Isabelle said. The official gardens were at least two miles away. And those crates looked heavy. She looked at her handful of seeds. She couldn’t tell if they were fruits or flowers or weeds.

Angelica rolled her eyes. “I think the whole point is to figure it out ourselves.”

Luciana agreed. “Angelica is right.” She gave Angelica a hunk of chocolate laced with caramel. Then all the Bests walked out the door and the trainees got to work.

First things first. Isabelle picked up the box of tools, and as she suspected, it was both heavy and clunky. She thought about using her sparkle to transport herself and everything else to the garden, but that seemed lazy. Besides, no one else was doing that. They all looked busy. Like they knew just what to do.

So she put the seeds and the sparkle in her backpack, picked up the crate, and started walking to the garden.

No sooner had Isabelle left than it began to rain. It wasn’t just a light drizzle, either—this was the kind of rain that often happens when a witch or mean sister wants to make things tough on a princess. In other words, it was a cold, hard rain. With wind and an occasional bolt of lightning. As Isabelle walked through some trees and down a dirt path and up a few small hills to the Official Fairy Godmother Garden, she became more and more miserable. A few times, she slipped and fell. She skinned both her knees. She dropped a few seeds. To be honest, she was a little bit scared. Her crate began to fall apart. She couldn’t see where she was going. Her glasses were useless!

Even worse, by the time Isabelle got there, all the other trainees were already there, and they didn’t look tired or wet or scared. In fact, Fawn and Angelica seemed to be finishing up, and they were working under what looked like a giant yellow-and-white umbrella that glowed and protected them like their very own sun. The Worsts looked almost done, too (although their umbrella was plain). Isabelle met Minerva at a scarecrow in an old-fashioned red ball gown—her design. “How did everyone get here so fast?”

“The three of us decided to work together,” Minerva said a little sheepishly. “So I used my sparkle for travel—and this gal.” She patted the scarecrow on the shoulder. “Irene is using hers for planting. And MaryEllen made the umbrella.” She gave Isabelle’s shoulder a quick squeeze. “Don’t be mad. It was the only way. We’re too old for all this walking.”

Isabelle wasn’t mad, but she did feel left out. Working together had been a good idea. It was obviously what Angelica and Fawn were doing, too. Without her. On purpose.

Minerva said, “You know, if you run into trouble, break your sparkle in half. They’re so brittle, you can crack them with your teeth. You want to try it?”

Isabelle shook her head no. “Not now. No thanks.” She didn’t want help. She didn’t want apologies. Instead, she sat down and waited until all of them were gone. Then she looked up at the sky. For a moment, through the clouds, she could see one bright, twinkling star.

For that moment, it felt like she wasn’t alone. It felt like someone was watching. Maybe even her mother.

Very quickly, Isabelle dug a hole and threw the few seeds she could find into it. And then, because she didn’t know what else to do, she threw the sparkle in, too. Then she lay on the ground and watched that star twinkle until accidentally, she fell asleep.