My phone!” Robin cries. “I want that back!”

“I’m sure you do,” Gluck says and lets out his evil laugh. “But it has incriminating evidence.”

“The selfies,” Robin says, slumping into her seat.

“How many did you take?” I whisper.

“A lot,” she says.

“What’s a selfie?” Alice asks.

“It’s … a picture,” I say. “Of us. Eating the tarts.”

“Oh, no!” she cries.

“That’s not good,” Frankie says, shaking her head.

“I can project them so everyone can see,” Gluck says. He pulls a little silver clicker out of his pocket. The next thing I know, there are huge pictures projected up on the wall behind the queen. Pictures of me, Robin, and Penny munching on the tomato tarts.

“How did he do that?” Robin asks. “I don’t even know how to do that! Is it in the Cloud?”

“He’s a fairy,” I say. “He can do anything he wants.”

Gluck presses on the silver clicker and new pictures pop up. There’s one of me standing in the garden, my mouth stuffed with tomato.

Great. Just great.

“See?” Gluck says. “They’re guilty.”

I jump up. “Okay, you got us. We’ll admit that we ate the tarts. But! We only ate them because Gluck told us to! We would never have eaten the tarts if we’d known they were yours!” I tell the queen.

“She’s lying!” Gluck yells.

“You’re lying!” I yell back.

“Well,” the king begins. “I hereby declare —”

“I’m the declarer!” the queen says. “I hereby declare that I will take the new evidence into consideration before I find you guilty.”

That doesn’t sound good.

“Order in the court,” the Three of Clubs shouts. “One-minute recess!”

Order? What order? This place has order? Could have fooled me.

Frankie, Robin, Penny, Alice, and I remain seated. We could try to make a run for it, but there are still those two guards posted on both sides of our table.

I glance over at Frankie. She’s deep in thought, probably trying to remember what happens next. Or what’s supposed to happen in the book, at least. Even Robin looks worried. Alice is sitting straight in her chair, her hands folded, with a perplexed expression on her face. And Penny — huh. She’s not exactly shaking in her sneakers. In fact, she’s doing what she does when she’s bored in class. Doodling on the desk with her pencil.

Except, I have to say, this is more than a doodle. She’s drawing a really good picture of the Queen and King of Hearts.

The Three of Clubs glares at Penny. “Now the thief is defacing the property of the court!” she yells. “She dares draw the likeness of the king and queen!”

The King of Hearts gasps. “What! Only the royal artist can draw our likeness!”

“Let me see that!” the queen shouts. She scoots off her throne, marches down to our table, and comes around to our side.

Penny smiles at her. “I don’t think I got your pretty hair just right, but I don’t have my good pastels with me.”

The queen looks at the drawing. She narrows her beady eyes and lifts her chin. “I do have pretty hair, don’t I?” the queen says. “And what lovely expression. My child, I’m impressed.”

Penny looks at me and smiles. Then she looks back up at the queen and bats her eyelashes. “Do you think you could spare my head? And my friends’? Robin’s my BFF. Frankie is very smart and helps me with book reports. Abby can be bossy, but that made her a really good lawyer, don’t you think? You never know when YOU might be on trial, Your Majesty. Oh, and Alice didn’t even get to see Wonderland yet.”

The queen stares at Penny. “Why would I ever be on trial?” She laughs for a good two minutes. “You’ve amused me. But I shall think about your request. Court is in recess for one more minute!”

The queen rushes back to her throne. She and the king start whispering to each other. I lean forward, trying to hear. Lots of whispers. The queen stomps her foot. The king stomps his. The queen lifts her chin and smiles meanly.

The Three of Clubs sounds the trumpet. “The queen has come to a decision!”

I glance at Penny and Robin on my left. Alice and Frankie on my right.

“You will now be sentenced,” the queen says.

“As attorney for the defense, I must remind you that we haven’t been found guilty!” I say.

“SILENCE!” the king shouts. “The queen has spoken!”

“Indeed I have,” the queen says. “Off with their heads!”

“What?” I cry. “No! I object! OBJECTION! I did a great job! I did not lose this case!”

“You did do a great job, Abby,” Robin tells me. “I wouldn’t take it personally.”

“However —” the queen continues. “Everyone wait, I’m about to sneeze!”

The queen sneezes. Her cardboard body flutters. “As I was saying. The young artist will be spared. I am impressed with her talent, and would like her to come be my heir. But the other four girls ARE GUILTY AS CHARGED!”

Huh? What? “NO!” I shout.

“I’m not guilty!” Alice cries. “I just got here! I wasn’t even in their pictures!”

“SILENCE!” the king bellows.

Penny looks shocked. “Be your heir?” she gasps. “You want me to stay here with you?”

The queen nods. “Yes. The king and I have no heir, and we have been looking to groom someone to take over the kingdom. You are a good fit.”

“Excuse me? M’lady?” asks the Three of Clubs. “Wouldn’t you be better off choosing a card? Someone who shares your DNA perhaps?” She stands up straight. “Perhaps a club?”

“I can choose whoever I want to choose,” the queen snarls. “And I want the girl with the pretty hair to be my heir!”

“What about an actual hare?” the king says. “They make great heirs, too.”

“Swallow,” Robin says.

“Huh?” I say, turning to her.

“Swallow,” she says slowly. “What if the Cheshire Cat meant something else? The way words have different meanings. Like heir and hare. Or feet and feet.”

Frankie’s eyes widen. She gasps and points to one of the birds. “Swallow!”

Are they losing it? They’re not going to try and eat one of the birds, are they?

“Isn’t a swallow a type of bird?” Robin asks Frankie.

“Yes!” Frankie exclaims. “It is! The blue-and-white bird! It’s called a swallow! That’s what I was trying to remember. It’s been driving me crazy!”

It’s called a swallow? There’s a type of bird called a swallow?

A swallow taken will bring you back.

I draw in a deep breath. “Are you saying that the ‘swallow taken’ isn’t something to eat? Or drink?” I ask. “That instead it’s a, a —”

“Kind of bird!” Robin, Frankie, and I say at the same time.

Oh my goodness.

I glance over at where the Cheshire Cat is sitting. He looks at me, grins, and gives me a thumbs-up. Make that a paws-up. Then he disappears.

Yup.

It’s the bird. The bird is going to take us home.

“Hey!” I call out. “Come here, swallow!”

The bird dives toward us. Before anyone knows what’s happening, I climb on his back. Since I’m still tiny, I fit on easily. “Come on, guys!” I call to my friends. “Let’s go!”

Robin and Frankie immediately jump on behind me.

“Penny, let’s go!” I say.

Penny hesitates. “But … but … No.”

“No?” I repeat. “What are you talking about? Penny, we have to leave. Now. Get on the swallow.”

Penny narrows her eyes. “I am so sick of you telling me what to do! You are NOT the boss of me!”

Is she kidding me right now? “Excuse me? I’m trying to save you!”

“I don’t need your help,” she says. “I can save myself. And maybe I don’t want to leave.”

Huh? “But you hate Wonderland. Remember? It makes no sense.”

“The queen likes me! She wants to be with me!” She looks sadly at the ground. “That’s more than I can say about anyone in Smithville.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask.

“My parents are never there,” she says. “Sheila only takes care of me because it’s her job. I bet she hasn’t even noticed I’m gone. And you guys … well, you guys have each other! Robin is supposed to be my best friend, but we all know she’s really your best friend. She barely even talked to me today. If I stay here, no one will even miss me. And the queen kind of looks like my grandma.”

“Your grandma looked like a card?” Robin asks.

“Of course not,” Penny says. “But they have the same heart-shaped face and dark gray bun.”

Aw. Poor Penny.

“You will make an excellent princess,” the queen tells Penny, pursing her lips. “Come along, dear. Let me show you Wonderland. Would you like a tart? I don’t just have tomato. I have asparagus, too!”

“Penny, no,” Robin rushes to say. “I’m sorry if I didn’t talk to you enough today, but you are one of my best friends. And I want you to come home.”

“We need you to come home,” Frankie says.

“Nobody needs me for anything,” Penny says sadly.

“We need you,” I insist, meaning it. “You helped! That portrait you drew was amazing! You and I both agree that rules are good. We have that in common, right? And without you, we don’t have our P!”

“Huh?”

“Our P!” I say. “In our FRAP necklace! Who’s going to be our P?”

She cracks a smile. “Really?”

“Really! Now get on the swallow,” I order. “Pretty please with a mushroom on top?”

She smiles again. And then finally, Penny climbs on behind us.

“No!” the queen hollers. “Come back with my heir!”

“I can’t be your heir,” Penny says. “I’m sorry.”

Cliff stands up. “I’ll be your heir!” he calls out.

The queen eyes him up and down. “You?”

“A son!” the king cries. “I have always wanted a son.”

“I thought you wanted to get out of Wonderland?” I ask Cliff.

“I don’t mind staying,” he tells me. “It’s kind of groovy. As long as you’re going back to help her.”

“To help who?” I ask him. “What do you mean?”

“Do you have a talent?” the queen asks Cliff.

“I can dance,” he says, swinging his hips. “Do you know how to disco?”

“Okay, swallow,” I say to the bird. “We’re ready.”

“What about Alice?” Robin asks.

Oh, no. What about Alice? Should we bring her back with us? No. We can’t take her to modern-day Smithville. She needs to return to her sister and Dinah.

I look over at Alice, who’s sitting at the table with her chin in her hands.

“I know. We should pinch her,” Robin says. “That will wake her up!”

“Good idea,” Penny says.

Robin jumps off the swallow and pinches Alice’s arm hard, leaving a red mark.

“Ouch!” Alice cries. “What did you do that for?”

“I was trying to wake you,” Robin says. “But I guess it is a myth.”

“Told you,” I say.

“She’ll be fine,” Frankie says. “Don’t worry. She’ll wake up soon anyway.”

“But what if she doesn’t?” I ask, biting my lip. “What if she’s stuck here forever?”

“I agree with Frankie,” Penny says. “She’s going to wake up when she’s ready.”

“But …” My voice trails off.

Frankie puts her hand on my shoulder. “I know you’ve done this before. And you’re the expert. But you can trust us on this. Okay?”

I nod. “Okay.”

“Come on, Robin!” Penny calls.

“One sec,” Robin says. She leans over to grab her cell phone off the evidence desk and then jumps back on the swallow. “Got it! I can’t leave this behind!”

And with that, the swallow takes off.

“Good-bye, Alice!” we shout, waving, as we rise into the air.

“Good-bye!” she calls out. “It was nice to meet you, BFFs!”

Aw.

“Should we go after them, m’lady?” the Three of Clubs asks the queen.

“Give them a fifty-two-second head start and then chase them down,” the queen says.

Yikes. “Go, go, go!” I say to the swallow. “Can you take us to the hallway with all the doors and up through the rabbit hole?” I ask.

The swallow nods and soars away.

We zoom out of the castle and over to the metal blue door. The swallow stops short, and I jump off his back to open the door.

“Let’s go!” I cry, getting back on the bird in front of Penny.

“Hang on!” the swallow says.

The bird flies through the doorway and then down through the hallway of doors.

“STOP THAT SWALLOW!” I hear the Three of Clubs shout from outside.

Oh, no! The cards! Our fifty-two-second lead must be up.

The door behind us bursts open and the entire deck of cards is chasing down the hallway after us. Well, minus the Queen and King of Hearts.

Ahhh!

“Faster, Mr. Swallow!” I cry.

The swallow looks up to the bottom of the rabbit hole. “Hold on, girls. There’s lots of furniture flying around up there. And going up through the ground might hurt.”

“He’s not going to push his way through, is he?” Penny asks, cringing.

But the swallow isn’t moving at all. He’s just flying low at the bottom of the rabbit hole.

“Something is on my leg!” the swallow cries.

“What?” I say. I look down. Ahh!

It’s Gluck!

He’s lassoed the swallow’s foot with a rope! He’s holding it tightly.

“Try to fly!” Frankie cries.

“I can’t,” the swallow says. “His grip is too strong!”

I try to kick at Gluck, but I can’t reach him.

“You’re going to be trapped here forever,” the evil fairy says to me. “Mwahaha! You’ll never be able to save Maryrose!”

Oh. OH.

Gluck is trying to trap me here because of Maryrose! He doesn’t want me to help her!

“Are you the evil fairy who cursed her?” I ask.

“I helped!” he cries. “And I’m helping now!”

He’s holding on to the rope with a steel grip. The poor swallow is trying to fly up but can’t.

“Let go!” I yell down at Gluck.

“Never!”

Robin takes out her cell phone.

Is it really the time for a selfie?

The next thing I know, Robin throws the phone at Gluck’s head.

“Ouch!” he cries, letting go of the swallow and cradling his nose with both hands.

“Good-bye, phone!” Robin cries, watching it fall to the ground in Wonderland.

“I’m free!” the swallow says, flapping his wings.

“THANK YOU, ROBIN!” I cry as the bird soars up.

We all hold tight to his feathers.

We pass the flying loaf of bread and the jar of mayonnaise. The ketchup floats toward us.

“Eat the ketchup!” the swallow calls out.

“Really?” Penny shouts back.

“Yes!” the swallow shouts. “It will bring you back to normal size!”

Wait until Jonah hears about this. I grab the bottle of ketchup and squirt some in my mouth. Suddenly, my hands are getting bigger! My legs are getting longer. I’m growing back to my original size! I hand the bottle to Penny and she squirts some in her mouth. Frankie and Robin do the same.

“Don’t forget me!” the swallow cries, and Robin squirts some ketchup in his mouth, too.

Soon, Penny, Frankie, and Robin are growing alongside me. Before I know it —

We’re all regular size again! And the swallow is extra-big, so we all fit comfortably. Hurrah!

A bookshelf goes swirling past us on our way up. And a bed. There’s the kitchen. There’s that polka-dot umbrella again. And a rocking chair. Good-bye, weird Wonderland. I will miss you.

A shelf floats overhead.

“Ooh, an egg salad sandwich,” Robin says, reaching for one and popping it in her mouth.

“Watch out!” I say, but it’s too late.

When Robin took the egg sandwich, the shelf tilted and now a container of what looks like baby powder is sprinkling over our heads. The powder lands mostly on Robin, a little on Frankie, and a tiny bit sprinkles on Penny. It just barely misses me.

It smells like … like … I can’t place it. Oh! It smells like watermelon. Ha.

“What was that?” I ask.

No one answers.

“Guys?” I turn back and see that Frankie, Robin, and Penny’s eyes are closed.

Are they sleeping?

I think they are!

The baby powder put them to sleep!

The swallow continues to fly up and up and up, and even though my friends are asleep, it’s like they’re seat-belted in.

Finally, the swallow bursts up through the ground. We’re out of the rabbit hole and back on the golf course!

“Do you know where Penny lives?” I ask the swallow. “Just over the fence and through those trees.”

The swallow flies over the fence and into Penny’s backyard. Luckily, I don’t see Sheila the nanny anywhere.

“You can put us on the patio,” I say. “That’s where we were playing cards before.”

“Will do,” the swallow says. He gently lowers his back and turns slightly so that each girl lands right on a chair.

“Thank you, swallow,” I say. “You saved us!”

“My pleasure,” the swallow says, and then flies away. I watch him soar through the trees toward the golf course.

I’m home! Wahoo! Well, I’m in Smithville, anyway. I look through the sliding glass doors to the family room of Penny’s house and can see the clock on the wall.

It’s not six o’clock! It’s only one! Hardly any time has passed at all.

WHEW.

Frankie, Robin, and Penny each let out a snore and turn over onto their sides.

I let out a huge sigh of relief. We’re in Smithville. Everything is back to normal.

Except for the fact that there’s an evil fairy out there who maybe wants to trap me.

I wonder what happened to Gluck after we left. Did he turn to dust? Become a puddle of fairy goo? Is he stuck in Wonderland? Or is he somewhere out here in the real world?

I shiver.

Because if he can disguise himself, I won’t recognize him in the future.

Or know when I might see him again.