Indigo stepped out of the Good tunnel, into the Clearing where lunch was to take place. A nymph handed her a little wicker basket filled with her lunch. Indigo examined the Clearing, noting how the Nevers sat with Nevers and Evers sat with Evers. Huntley was nowhere to be seen, and Indigo didn't exactly have any other friends. While she stood there, contemplating whether she should sit alone or not, there was a tap on her shoulder. Indigo turned to find herself face-to-face with Huntley.
"Oh, hi!" she said, overly thankful to see someone familiar.
"Indie, have you heard about the Reader?" Huntley asked.
"No." Indigo tilted her head slightly. "Should I have?"
"Huntley!" Both Indigo and Huntley turned to see a group of Everboys waving at Huntley. "Over here!" one of the Everboys called.
"Oh," Hunter said, looking torn. "Um, I'll tell you later, okay Indie? Great." Hunter ran off to the Everboys without waiting for Indigo to answer.
Indigo huffed, exasperated and sat down at an empty picnic table. As she was unpacking her lunch (a banana-egg-peanut butter-chocolate chip sandwich with a fruit salad, a box of miniature eclairs, and a bottle of packaged strawberry smoothie), Stella, Bernadette, and Hadleigh walked up to her.
"Hey," Stella said coolly. "Mind if we sit here too?"
Indigo, feeling slightly intimidated by their presence, only nodded silently.
"Thanks," Stella said, sitting down in one smooth, graceful motion. Bernadette and Hadleigh did the same.
"So…" Bernadette began, unnecessarily stretching out her "so." "What did you all get on the exam?"
"Oh, I failed," Hadleigh said, then she giggled, as if it was a funny matter. "I don't even know what I did wrong, but I don't care. That exam was stupid anyway."
Indigo quietly speared a cherry tomato, unsure if she was part of the conversation (she herself had gotten an almost perfect score on the exam).
"Do you think they'll rank us on those exams?" Stella asked. "Professor Dovey did say there were no right or wrong answers."
"According to my sources, the teachers are posting our ranks tomorrow morning based on our exam scores," Bernadette said with a shrug. "Apparently, they are ranking us, but the ranks aren't official. It's just to show how Good or Evil we are."
"Have you heard about the Reader?" Hadleigh asked, eyes gleaming. "I heard he totally flunked his exam."
"All Readers flunk on the first day," Stella said with an uninterested tone.
"Okay, but I hear his score was a fifty percent Evil and fifty percent Good." Hadleigh giggled again. "Isn't that funny?"
Stella and Bernadette gaped at her.
"Fifty-fifty?" Stella gasped.
"No way." Bernadette crossed her arms. "I don't believe it."
"Trust me," Hadleigh said smugly. "When the ranks are posted and the Reader is ranked last, you'll know I'm right."
At this point, Indigo was unintentionally eavesdropping. Was that what Huntley wanted to tell me?
"Why does it even matter?" Bernadette said sourly. "The Reader's a Never. I wouldn't bat an eye if something awful happened to a Never." Then Bernadette pushed her sandwich away. "Does anyone want my sandwich?" she asked. "I'm not hungry."
"You skipped breakfast too," Stella said suspiciously. "You have to be hungry."
"Well, I'm getting too fat," Bernadette said matter-of-factly.
Indigo stared down at Bernadette's slim waist and rolled her eyes.
Surviving Fairy Tales took place in the Blue Forest, with Yuba the Gnome as the teacher. Both Nevers and Evers were gathered as Yuba led them through magnificent twisted trunks and sparkling emerald leaves. Woodland creatures scurried underfoot and birds sang from the trees. Flowers of all sorts danced in the wind among ferns and bushes.
The school had created the Blue Forest (which was just a safer simulation of the real treacherous Woods) in order to teach students to learn to survive the forests. Beyond the North Gates of the Blue Forest was dense, thick woods full of poisonous spiders and man-eating tulips. Inside was blacker than night, with thorns camouflaged and vines at-the-ready.
Yuba the Gnome led his group of Evers and Nevers through the Blue Forest and past the North Gates until they were in a bright, sun-bathed clearing. Yuba sat on a stump and motioned his students to gather around.
"There are five major rules that Nevers and Evers have to follow," Yuba said. He waved his staff and letters magically came together to form a list:
The Evil attack. The Good defend.
The Evil punish. The Good forgive.
The Evil hurt. The Good help.
The Evil take. The Good give.
The Evil hate. The Good love.
"This is all rather ominous, if you ask me," Huntley told Indigo quietly. They were both in the same Surviving Fairy Tales class, along with Stella, Scarlet, Vesper, and Harvey.
"I can't guarantee your safety in the Woods if you don't follow the rules on your side," Yuba said. "And as all of you should know, you need all the knowledge of survival you can get for the upcoming Trial by Tale."
Yuba started off by dividing students into groups of six, with an equal mix of Nevers and Evers in each group.
"Scarlet, Vesper, Stella, Indigo, Huntley, and…Harvey, you're a group," Yuba said.
"No!" Scarlet shrieked when Yuba paired her with Harvey. "Not the Reader!"
Yuba fixed Scarlet with a stern glare and finished partnering up everyone else. "Now, I'm assigning you all a big project that is to be done with everyone in your group. Excluding someone out will result in failure, and that also means you won't be allowed to attend the Trial by Tale.
"The project is a big contribution to your ranks, so make sure you try. As you can see, I have paired Evers up with Nevers, and I want you all to work effectively together. Again, failure to do so will result in failure as a punishment.
"For the project, I want you and your group to reenact a fairy tale—any fairy tale—that meets all my requirements: everyone must have a part to play, Evers can only play heroes or heroines and Nevers can only play villains, and students must work together, but you are only allowed to work together during lunch or my class. Students are restricted from sneaking into the other school to work on this project. That way, you cannot use this project as an excuse to get into the other school." Yuba looked around at the mortified faces. "Do I make myself clear?" Silence. "Great! You may start."
Scarlet took one look at her horrible group and stepped forward. "If we are going to work together, we might as well have a leader. I think I should be Leader."
Huntley stepped forward too. "I object," he said loudly.
Scarlet glared daggers at him. "No objections," she said, her voice an octave louder than Huntley's.
"I object too," Stella said, louder yet.
"I also object," Indigo said, her voice quieter.
Scarlet glanced at Vesper. "I swear, if you object too, I'm going to send Astrophel after you."
Vesper yawned. "This project is the worst," he complained instead. "Every other teacher tells us to stay away from those things"—("those things" were the Evers)—"so why is Yuba telling us to work with them?"
Scarlet looked back at Huntley, Stella, and Indigo, satisfied. "See?" she said smugly. "Vesper didn't object."
"Only after you threatened him," Huntley pointed out.
"It doesn't matter. I have one person on my side."
"Two against three," Stella said.
"What about him?" Indigo nodded at Harvey. "What do you say?" she asked Harvey.
Scarlet and Stella both glared at Indigo.
Harvey turned to Scarlet and Vesper. "I'm with you," he announced boldly.
"Now what?" Huntley asked indignantly. "We're equal!"
"We don't need a leader," Indigo said. "We just need to decide on a fairy tale."
"The Little Mermaid," Scarlet said automatically. "My absolute favorite."
"We are so not doing the Little Mermaid," Stella countered. "I want to do Cinderella."
"No, because we need at least four girls and two boys," Indigo said. "That wouldn't work."
"Beauty and the Beast," Stella said. "I'm related to her," she added proudly.
Scarlet suddenly gasped. "Ooh…I know. The Juniper Tree!"
"No!" Stella, Indigo, and Huntley exclaimed at once.
"We are not beheading anyone!" Indigo added.
"Or eating anyone!" Stella said.
"How about Jack and the Beanstalk?" Huntley suggested. "Then he turned to Scarlet. "You can be the cow," he told her, unable to hide his smirk.
Scarlet let out a short scream of rage and slapped Huntley. The sound of skin against skin echoed through the clearing, catching Yuba's attention.
"What's going on here?" Yuba demanded.
"He called me a cow!" Scarlet said.
"She slapped me!" Huntley said.
Yuba turned to Huntley. "You called her a cow?"
"No! I kindly told her she should play the cow," Huntley said, cheeks flushed.
"I wouldn't say it was kind," Vesper said.
"But Scarlet slapped him!" Indigo said, coming to her friend's aid.
"We are Nevers," Scarlet spat. "We attack. You defend."
Yuba nodded, impressed that Scarlet memorized the rules. "That's true," he said. "I won't punish Scarlet for doing what Nevers do. And I won't punish you either," Yuba added to Huntley when he opened his mouth to protest. "Now please, no more disputes or I'm sending students to the Doom Room." Then Yuba walked off to assist a different group.
Scarlet waited until Yuba was distanced from them before she stormed up to Huntley, poking his chest with her finger. "Don't you EVER call me a cow again," she threatened dangerously.
Huntley didn't dare back down, but he didn't dare say anything either. He just stuck his ground and glared back into Scarlet's green eyes, reminding himself that the Evil attack, the Good defend. Evers never strike first.
Evil attack.
Good defend.