Ben raised an eyebrow.
“Winning the Senior Quest! We have to move. The first teams are already at Cinderella’s castle! Let’s go!”
As Mal and Ben zoomed out of the room, Fairy Godmother turned to the king and queen. “Senior Quest? What’s that?”
But Belle and Beast only smiled mysteriously. There were some traditions that were best kept secret.
ome on,” said Evie, tiptoeing along the castle walls. She and Doug had crossed the moat by bringing down the drawbridge. Now all they had to do was get inside.
Evie picked the lock and swung the door open.
“You do that so well,” said Doug, a little nervously.
“You can take a girl out of the Isle, but you can’t take the Isle out of the girl,” said Evie with a smile. She was never embarrassed about where she came from.
They went inside. The castle was empty, since Cinderella and Prince Charming had agreed to let the kids use their castle for the scavenger hunt and were away visiting Prince Charming’s father—the King—and the Grand Duke. The servants had been given the day off in preparation as well. Even though Evie and Doug were sneaking in, it was mostly to avoid the other senior teams. Cinderella just asked that everyone take their shoes off at the entry.
Doug led the way up the grand stairs, the two of them padding lightly in their socks, and quickly found Cinderella’s closet. Evie stopped to admire the light-blue gown that Cinderella had worn to that famous ball, where she captured the heart of her prince. She touched its silk folds reverently. “Did I tell you?” she asked Doug. “I had an idea to expand my business. I’m going to design everyone’s caps and gowns for graduation.”
“That’s perfect! Everyone is going to want an Evie’s 4 Hearts original,” Doug said, kneeling down to look at rows and rows of boxes of glass slippers.
“I hope so!” said Evie, admiring Cinderella’s many tiaras.
“You can’t graduate without one!” said Doug with a smile. He held up one of the shoe boxes. “Where do you think she keeps the shards of the original shoe?”
Evie tried to think. If she were Cinderella, where would she keep her mementos? They searched everywhere, going up to the attic filled with her old brooms and the basement where the castle cooks kept the cauldrons. But there was no sign of the broken shards of the original glass slipper.
“Maybe we should move on to the next item on the list?” asked Doug.
“Hold on!” Evie said excitedly, as she realized the twist. “Cinderella doesn’t have the shards of the slipper. She’s not sentimental. After all, she sent the remaining one to the museum. Prince Charming was the one who picked it up when she left it at the ball. I bet it’s in his closet!”
They ran to Prince Charming’s closet.…But another quest team had already beat them there.
Ben was looking through the shelves while Mal was pulling out the cape rack. “Oh, hey!” said Mal. “You guys are here too!”
“Slipper shards?” asked Doug.
“Nothing yet,” said Ben.
Mal turned to Evie. “Guess what? The Royal Council approved my visit to the Isle! We’re all going back to recruit more kids to come to Auradon!”
Evie squealed, and the two of them hugged.
“You know, when the new kids come over, we should do something fun, truly celebrate them. Maybe not just the marching band, but an entire parade. A really big welcome!” said Evie.
“That’s a great idea,” said Doug.
“I like it,” said Ben. “Certainly for their first day of school. But we’re going to bring the new kids over during the summer, so that they have time to get used to Auradon.” He turned over a treasure chest full of medals. “No shards here.”
Mal and Evie looked through the prince’s collection of crowns. “But where will they stay? The first-year dorms are being remodeled this summer,” said Mal.
“We’ll find a place!” said Evie cheerfully. She picked up one of the golden crowns and checked underneath it. “Except we can’t seem to find any shards of glass.”
Mal peeked beneath an ermine coat, where she discovered a safe. “Look!”
The safe was already open, and there was a note on the floor in Jay’s handwriting. “‘Left you some shards, but the crown is ours!’” Mal read. “He got here first, that thief!”
She reached into the safe and found the velvet bag where Prince Charming kept the shards of his true love’s glass slipper. Mal picked up a shard and carefully put it in a plastic pouch. Evie did the same. Then the two teams went their separate ways. Now they just needed to steal a banana from Tarzan’s pal Terk’s refrigerator.…
t was close to midnight. Carlos and Jane sat at the edge of the tourney field near the goalpost, a plastic trophy between them. He checked the list he and Jane had put together for the quest, and wondered how much longer it would take for the teams to arrive. He was starting to get a little hungry.
“Don’t worry, they’ll be here soon. It’s not an impossible quest,” said Jane with a reassuring smile.
They had spent months talking to all the respective parties, negotiating use of locations, and making sure everyone was in on the joke, while keeping things secret from the school administration. Jane had sent long letters to every prince and princess in the kingdom, begging them for access to their treasures, reminding them of their own glory years at Auradon Prep, while Carlos had been the one to keep track of the number of teams playing and make sure that there were enough objects for everyone to collect.
He looked down at the list again:
Collect a shard from Cinderella’s glass slipper.
Pluck a flower from Aurora’s rose garden.
Cut off a lock of Rapunzel’s hair.
Steal a banana from Terk.
Bring back one of Rajah’s collars. (Jasmine’s tiger had quite a collection.)
Pick an apple from Snow White’s orchard.
Take a slice of birthday cake from Mad Hatter’s tea party.
Grab a thingamabob from Ariel’s collection.
Bake a beignet using Princess Tiana’s recipe.
Kiss a prince.
Hum “Be Our Guest” when you get to the finish line.
“I think I hear something. They’re here!” said Jane excitedly. She stood up and craned her neck.
Mal and Ben burst out of Ben’s carriage. Mal was holding up a fork while Ben was balancing a plate of beignets in one hand and carrying his backpack in the other. The two of them were humming loudly to the tune of “Be Our Guest.”
At the same time, Evie and Doug raced to the goalpost from the other side. Evie was holding up a rose while Doug held a satchel of scavenger-hunt objects. They were humming just as loudly, with Evie occasionally bursting into giggles.
It looked like first place would come down to these two teams, but at the last minute, Jay and Lonnie burst from the hedges. Lonnie was carrying a basket with all the items on the list, apples and bananas piled high on top.
All the teams reached the goal line at the same moment, and Mal noticed Evie and Lonnie bolting toward Ben, which reminded her that she too needed to fulfill the second-to-last item in front of the judges: Kiss a prince. All three girls hurriedly leaned in to kiss Ben on the cheek almost at the same time. Almost, that is, because Mal kissed him first. “We win!” said Mal, cheering. “Yay, us!”