so evil?” Dot grimaced. “Song included.”
“Is my face even?” Sophie said, squinting into the puddle. “I can’t go to class looking like a clown.” Her eyes shifted. “Agatha, darling! About time you came to your senses. Your Uglification class starts in two minutes and you don’t want to make a poor first impression.”
Agatha stared at her.
“Of course,” Sophie said, standing up. “We have to switch clothes first. Come, off they go.”
“You’re not going to class, darling,” Agatha said, turning red. “We’re going to the School Master’s tower right now before we’re stuck here forever!”
“Don’t be a boob,” said Sophie, tugging at Agatha’s dress. “We can’t just break into some tower in broad daylight. And if you’re going home anyway, you should give me your clothes now so I don’t miss any assignments.”
Agatha wrenched away. “Okay, that’s it! Now listen to—”
“You’ll blend right in here,” Sophie smiled, studying Agatha next to her roommates.
Agatha lost her fire. “Because I’m … ugly?”
“Oh, for goodness’ sakes, Aggie, look at this place,” Sophie said. “You like gloom and doom. You like suffering and unhappiness and, um … burnt things. You’ll be happy here.”
“We agree,” said a voice behind Agatha, and she turned in surprise.
“You come live here,” Hester said to her—
“And she drowns in the lake,” Dot scowled at Sophie, still wounded by her jibe at the Welcoming.
“We liked you the moment we saw you,” Anadil cooed, rats licking Agatha’s feet.
“You belong here with us,” Hester said, as she, Anadil, and Dot crowded around Agatha, whose head swung nervously between this villainous threesome. Did they really want to be her friend? Was Sophie right? Could being a villain make her … happy?
Agatha’s stomach churned. She didn’t want to be Evil! Not when Sophie was Good! They had to get out of this place before it tore them apart!
“I’m not leaving you!” she cried to Sophie, breaking away.
“No one’s asking you to leave me, Agatha,” Sophie said tightly. “We’re just asking you to leave your clothes.”
“No!” Agatha shouted. “We’re not switching clothes. We’re not switching rooms. We’re not switching schools!”
Sophie and Hester exchanged furtive glances.
“We’re going home!” Agatha said, voice catching. “We can be friends there—on the same side—no Good, no Evil—we’ll be happy forev—”
Sophie and Hester tackled her. Dot and Anadil pulled the pink dress off Agatha’s body, and the four of them shoved Sophie’s black robes on in its place. Shimmying into her new pink dress, Sophie threw open the door. “Goodbye, Evil! Hello, Love!”
Agatha stumbled to her feet and looked down at a putrid black sack that fit just how she liked.
“And all is right in the world,” Hester sighed. “Really, I don’t know how you were ever friends with that tram—”
“Get back here!” Agatha yelled, pursuing Sophie in pink through the hall’s hordes of black. Shocked by an Ever in their midst, Nevers swarmed around Sophie and started to beat her about the head with books, bags, and shoes—
“No! She’s one of us!”
All the Nevers turned to Hort, in the stairwell, including dumbstruck Sophie. Hort pointed at Agatha in black.
“That’s the Ever!”
The Nevers unleashed a new war cry and mobbed Agatha as Sophie shoved Hort away and escaped down the stairs. Agatha scraped through the gauntlet with a few well-placed kicks and slid down the banister to cut Sophie off. With Sophie in sight, she tracked her through a tight corridor, reached out her hand to grab her by the pink collar, but Sophie turned a corner, ran up snaking steps, and veered off the first floor. Agatha swerved into a dead end, saw Sophie magically jump through a wall, blood-splattered “NO STUDENTS!” and with a flying leap, Agatha jumped through the portal right after her—
And landed on the Evil end of Halfway Bridge.
But this was where the chase ceased, for Sophie was too far to Good to catch. Through the fog, Agatha could see her glowing with joy.
“Agatha, he’s King Arthur’s son,” Sophie gushed. “A real-life prince! But what do I say to him? How do I show him I’m the one?”
Agatha tried to hide her hurt. “You’d leave me here … alone?”
Sophie’s face softened.
“Please don’t worry, Aggie. Everything is perfect now,” she said gently. “We’ll still be best friends. Just in different schools, like we planned. No one can stop us from being friends, can they?”
Agatha gazed at Sophie’s beautiful smile and believed her.
But all of a sudden, her friend’s smile vanished. Because on Sophie’s body, the pink dress magically rotted to black. Just like that Sophie was in her old, sagging villain robes, swan glittering over her heart. She looked up and gasped. Across the Bridge, Agatha’s black robes had shrunk back to pink.
The two girls gaped at each other in shock. Suddenly, shadows swept over Sophie, and Agatha spun. The giant wave swelled high above her, waters curling into a shimmering lasso. Before Agatha could run, it swooped and hurled her across the bay into sunlit mist. Sophie lunged to the Bridge’s gloomy edge and let out a wail of injustice.
The wave slowly rose back over her, but this time its waters didn’t shimmer. With a belligerent roar, it smashed Sophie back into the School for Evil and right back on schedule.
Sophie peeked through her fingers at Professor Manley’s bald, pimpled head and squash-colored skin, trying not to gag. Around her, Nevers sat at charred desks with rusty mirrors, cheerily bashing tadpoles to death in iron bowls. If she didn’t know better, she’d think they were making a Sunday cake.
Why am I still here? she fumed through furious tears.
“Why do we need to be revolting and repugnant?” Manley jowled. “Hester!”
“Because it makes us fearsome,” Hester said, and swigged her tadpole juice, instantly springing a rash of red pox.
“Wrong!”
