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Grace Chasity had waited all her life to be kidnapped. Not in a weird way, she can’t have thoughts like that until she’s eighteen and safely married, like a Good girl. Every four years, two kids from Hatchetfield are taken by… something, stolen from their beds in the dead of night.
There were several theories. The Muck-Witch theory, the Wooly-Foot theory, the Axe-man theory, really a lot of urban legends. Each of them debunked.
Then the young children of Hatchetfield began noticing something. The kids on the missing posters would always show up in their storybooks that would arrive from a mysterious label called SGE four years after their disappearance.
Jane Perkins disappeared in the nineties and showed up four years later as Rose Red, alongside her sister, Emma, who disappeared four years previously.
Linda Murray disappeared in 1994, and appeared in the books as the Evil Queen.
Teddy Spankoffski was taken with Linda, and showed up four years later as The Beast.
These copies, with the missing people as the characters, all came to Professor Hidgens’ bookstore under the mysterious SGE label, which keen eyed people parsed out as an acronym for The School for Good and Evil.
Thus, the mysterious kidnapper had a name. The School Master.
She had been doing her very best to be Good, always honouring God and doing good deeds, like spreading the good word to everyone, always going to Church and keeping a bathing suit on even when showering, no one was seeing her body until she was safely married.
Grace got up from bed, and began to brush her hair and get dressed. This was the year she will be taken to the school for Good, she just knew it in her bones.
“Good morning, pumpkin.” Grace’s father, Mark, smiled at the kitchen table. “Are you ready for tonight?”
“I will be! I’m just getting ready to do some last minute Good deeds.” Grace grinned, sitting at the table.
“I’ll be boarding your windows up for tonight.”
“Dad…”
“Grace…”
Grace met her dad’s eyes challengingly, desperate to go.
“If they don’t take me, they’ll take Mary, and I know she’s less Good than I am.” she began to protest.
“She does charity work every day, dear.”
“I do charity work once a week! I go to church every day, though!”
“Grace…” Mark began hesitantly. “I just want to keep you safe.”
“...I get that.” She sighed.
“I’ll see you this afternoon.” Mark hugged his daughter. “What snacks are you gonna take to Lex?”
“Healthy bran cookies.” Grace grinned, grabbing her tupperware full of handmade cookies. “Bye, dad!”
Grace waved goodbye as she put the tupperware of cookies inside the daisy covered basket of her pink Schwinn bike and she rode away, riding through Oakley Park, which was so beautiful and magical at this time of morning, to make her way to Lex Foster’s condo.
Grace’s best friend lived next to the graveyard, and considered Grace’s pure, holier-than-thou appearance, you’d think she’d have a new best friend who lived somewhere nicer. But every day, Grace biked to the condo by the graveyard, with a smile on her face, as that was the point of a Good Deed.
~*~
“Dad… what are you doing?” Lex Foster said as her father began packing a large trunk for her.
“A little bit of help would be nice, Alexandra.” Frank Pricely said, shooting her a look through his glasses. “Do you think they’ll provide their own ingredients?”
“Who?” Lex turned around, bewildered.
“The school for Evil, try to keep up.”
“Wow… real mature.” Lex sighed, scratching their cat behind the ears as she sat on her bed.
“Alexandra, this is an amazing opportunity for you. At least pretend to be excited.” Frank huffed.
“Everyone already thinks we’re witches.” Lex scowled.
There was a knock at the door.
“Hi there, Lex!” Grace said, far too cheerily for eight forty five on a Saturday.
“Go away.” Lex groaned, and the cat climbed out of the catflap, and started hissing at Grace.
“... I made cookies.” Grace offered hopefully.
“They better not be the all-bran shit you try to give me.” Lex finally opened the door, the cat hissing at the tupperware of cookies in Grace’s arms. “...Dammit, Chasity. I really thought you’d have actually got decent cookies.”
“How the heck does the cat know?” Grace spluttered.
“She senses ulterior motives.” Lex said plainly, kissing the cat’s wrinkled head. “You’re not gonna sneakily baptise me today.”
“That was one time!” Grace protested.
“In or out, girls.” Frank shouted from inside the house. “Make your choice.”
“...Where are you dragging me to?” Lex turned back to Grace.
“Oakley Park.” Grace grinned. “We’re having a picnic.”
“...I’m still trying to figure out why you’re friends with me.” Lex sighed.
“You’re funny and sweet.”
“My dad says I’m a grumpy bitch, so someone’s lying.” Lex rolled her eyes.
“Language.”
“Seriously?”
They walked throughout Oakley Park, seeing all of the parents and adults in Hatchetfield busily preparing to keep their children safe from the mysterious School Master.
“How can the whole town believe in Fairytales?” Lex asked.
“Because they’re real.”
“...Grace. You can’t really say you believe it.”
“It’s real. Trust me.” Grace insisted. “And we’ll both get picked.”
“It’s not real. Two kids every year run off into the Witchwood to scare their parents and then they get eaten by timberwolves or something and the legend continues.”
“That’s the stupidest explanation I’ve ever heard.” Grace said defensively.
“More stupid than being kidnapped to learn evil spells and how to be princesses?”
Lex and Grace walked arm in arm, the Witch and the Princess, the most unlikely of friends. The town looked and stared at them, one in baby blue, and the other in black. The School Master’s perfect pair.
Lex silently hoped that by tomorrow, all the attention on her and Grace would be gone, while Grace was taking her last looks on the people that called her a prude, and a jesus freak, just for wanting to get into the school for Good.
Lex and Grace spent the whole day wandering about, Grace buzzing with excitement at finally getting out of here and escaping to somewhere where her Goodness would be noticed, while Lex prickled with discomfort at all the attention.
They sat down by the lakeside for the evening.
“... You may have started out as just a Good Deed, Lex… but I think we’ve actually become friends.” Grace said, defending herself after Lex had accused her of using her as just a good deed.
Lex looked away, her face flushing slightly.
“What’s wrong?” Grace asked.
“I’ve… never really had friends.” Lex said, flicking her lighter on and off.
Grace smiled and took Lex’s hands. “Now we’ll be friends at our new schools.”
“Since when was I elected mistress of all evil?”
“No one’s calling you evil, Lex. You’re… different.” Grace tried to phrase it politely.
“Different how?”
“For starters, you wear mostly black.”
“It doesn’t get dirty. And besides, my Toyzone work uniform is red.”
“You dressed up as a bride for Halloween.”
“Marriage is scary.”
“Marriage is the end goal.”
“...Agree to disagree.” Lex huffed. “Fine, I guess I’m different, so what?”
“In fairytales, ‘different’ often ends up Evil.” Grace took her friend’s hand.
“You saying I’m gonna end up as the grand Witch?”
“I’m saying… both of us can decide how our story turns out.” Grace said. “I’m not ordinary enough to stay here.”
“That’s why we’re friends… you make me feel ordinary, which is enough.” Lex smiled.
They rested their heads on each other’s shoulders, and silently made a wish. That whatever happened, that tomorrow, they’d be in the company of the other.