'The tub is clogged again,' Granny Relda said. 'I suppose we could try another round on the teeth while it drains.'
Sabrina eyed the bathroom sink where four worn-down and abused toothbrushes had met their doom. Several tubes of toothpaste littered the floor. Each had been thoroughly emptied of all its cavity-fighting protection.
'Will someone please tell me what is going on in here?' Sabrina demanded.
Puck turned and smirked at the girl. A devilish gleam sparkled in his eyes and he temporarily ceased his indignant protests.
'Guess what, piggy! I'm going to school with you today!' he shouted as he kicked the door closed in her face. 'I'm going to be your bodyguard!'
'Yes, you absolutely do need a bodyguard.' Granny Relda argued with Sabrina as she tried to pat Daphne's hair down with her hand. The little girl had molded her still glue-soaked locks into a pointy Mohawk that stood about a foot and a half above her head. Finding little success, Granny gave up and turned her attention to serving each girl glow-in-the-dark waffles for breakfast. 'We've got two monsters running around in the hallways.'
'But why him?' Sabrina cried. Her own hair had become super curly after her multiple shampoos, producing an almost perfect globe shape, like a big yellow tennis ball. 'Why don't you come?' she said to her grandmother. 'You could use a fairy godmother wand to change yourself into a kid.'
'I'd look like a kid, but I'd still be an old lady,' said Granny. 'This way if something happens, then at least there's someone around who can fight.'
'Actually,' Daphne said, shoveling half a glowing waffle into her mouth, 'I think it's a great idea. He's our age and none of the kids will know who he is.'
Sabrina shot her sister a betrayed look, but the little girl didn't see it. She was obviously still angry and refusing to make eye contact with her.
'Oh, no! They won't notice him at all until he turns into a monkey and throws his own poop down the hallway,' Sabrina said. 'And it's not like the kids aren't going to notice the fifteen layers of crud he has under his pits. He smells like Coney Island after a clam-eating contest.'
'Excuse me?' Puck inquired. The boy had slipped into the room without anyone seeing him. Sabrina turned to give him her usual nasty look, but when she saw how he had transformed, she dropped her fork. Puck was clean, shiny, and blond. He'd been scrubbed from head to toe. His leaf-infested, raggedy hair was neat and combed and his teeth sparkled like diamonds. Even his ever-present ratty green hoodie and jeans had been retired and replaced with black cargo pants, a striped baby blue rugby shirt, and brand-new sneakers.
'Puck! You're… you're…' Sabrina stammered.
'You're a hottie!' Daphne shouted.
Sabrina hated herself, but she had to agree. Puck, the shape-shifter, the royal pain-in-the-rear, had transformed into a cute boy. Sabrina couldn't help but stare, even when he caught her.
'Yes, it's true,' he said as he took a seat. 'Please, don't hate me because I'm beautiful.'
Granny placed a plate of waffles in front of him and he shoved them into his mouth with his bare hands. Whatever spell he had cast on Sabrina quickly faded as she watched him pour some maple syrup down his throat and take a bite out of a stick of butter.
'Puck,' Granny Relda groaned as she wiped syrup off the boy's face. 'Use a fork. You don't want to have to take another bath, do you?'
'So you ran the garden hose over him. What about the insanity on the inside?' Sabrina asked, still doing her best not to look at him. Puck grinned at her and his big green eyes made her want to cry. She couldn't like Puck! He was disgusting! He wasn't even a real boy!
'Don't worry, old lady,' he said with a grin. 'I'll behave. Besides, who's going to notice me with these two and their hair?' Suddenly, his head morphed into a donkey's head. He brayed and laughed and spit all over Sabrina.
'Puck, sweetie, no shape-shifting at the table,' Granny Relda lectured.
'Just getting it out of my system,' the boy said, transforming
back to normal. Sabrina wanted to die. Even when he was being disgusting, he was cute.
Puck looked over at Sabrina, who was wiping his spittle off her face. 'Hey ugly, is that your face or did your neck throw up?'
Sabrina was horrified. Did he think she was ugly? Why would he say such a horrible thing in front of everyone? And then it dawned on her-this beautiful boy sitting across from her was still Puck the Trickster. He was the boy who had dumped her in a tub of goo and put a tarantula in her bed. Puck was still Puck, even after a makeover.
'This is ridiculous,' she said. 'You're sending him because of all this Scarlet Hand message business, when we all know he's the one who did it.'
'You think I made all those handprints on the house?' Puck asked.
'Who else?' she cried. 'You're the so-called Trickster King. You were pretty mad when Granny sent you to get the Widow. You decided to get your revenge by scaring us. Why not add a little terror to your bag of pranks?'
'I think the glue and buttermilk is seeping out of your hair and into your itty-bitty brain,' the boy snapped.
'I believe him,' Daphne declared. 'He always admits when he does stuff. He's proud of it.'
Sabrina turned to her and fumed. Once again, her own sister had taken Puck's side against her.
'Well, I'm pretty proud of my right hook,' Sabrina shouted, returning her attention to Puck. 'Why don't you come over here and I'll show it to you.'
'Lieblings!' Granny shouted. The children spun around to face the old woman. Her face was flushed and her little button nose was flaring. 'Enough with the shouting!'
'He started it!' Sabrina shouted.
'She started it!' shouted Puck.
'Puck is going to school with you,' Granny Relda said firmly. 'End of discussion.'
Everyone sat silently for a moment, staring down at their breakfasts.
'By the way, marshmallow,' Puck said to Daphne, breaking the silence. 'How many warts did you find this morning?'
The little girl rolled up her sleeves and showed the boy her arms. 'Not one!'
Puck sighed. 'That's a shame.'
'Why?'
'Well, if you were going to have little ones they would have already shown up. You could put some cream on them and they'd go away in a day or two. But the really big ones take a couple days to show. Those are the kind that end up on the tip of your nose or growing out of your neck. You have to have surgery to get rid of those.'
Daphne shrieked and jumped from her seat. In no time she was running up the steps to the bathroom again.
'You better scrub harder this time!' Puck shouted to the little girl.
'How is Captain Maturity going to keep an eye on both of us at the same time?' Sabrina asked. 'Daphne and I aren't in the same grade.'
'Puck is there to watch you, Sabrina. Daphne will be safe with Snow White,' Granny replied. 'Snow's a good friend and has volunteered to keep her eye on your sister.'
'Don't worry, old lady,' Puck crowed. 'I'll keep this one out of trouble.'
Granny Relda, Canis, and Puck headed off to meet with Principal Hamelin about enrolling 'his majesty' into the sixth grade. As Puck was an Everafter, Granny decided an Everafter should take care of his enrollment and bypassed Mr. Sheepshank entirely. Sabrina was fairly sure the boy was a moron, so she wondered what Granny had planned if the principal decided Puck should be in kindergarten.
Sabrina had assured her grandmother that she could walk to homeroom alone, but regretted the decision when someone grabbed her from behind and dragged her into the girls' rest-room. When she spun around, ready to sock her attacker, she found Bella with a brush and some hair spray in hand.
'You need some serious help,' the blond girl said, ushering her over to the mirror, turning her around, and going to work on her hair with the brush. 'How did you get your hair this way?'
'It's a long story,' Sabrina said sheepishly.
Bella tugged and pulled with her brush, coated Sabrina's head with hair spray, and then tied the unruly mane up with a pink rubber band. To Sabrina's surprise, Bella had done something in seconds that Sabrina had been trying to do for herself for two days. She had made Sabrina look normal.
'It'll hold until lunch,' Bella said, handing Sabrina her brush and can of hair spray. 'After that, well, we may have to call in a professional.'
Sabrina was so happy she could have cried. 'Thank you.'
'Don't thank me,' Bella said. 'You have the seat in front of mine in science class and with that head of hair there was no way I was going to be able to see the film strip.'
Sabrina laughed. It felt good when Bella joined her. Just then, the bell rang.
'We better get to class,' the blond girl said. 'Old battle-ax will be mad if we're late.'
'Didn't you hear?' Sabrina said. 'Our teacher was killed last night.'
'I think the fumes from the hair spray are affecting your brain. I saw her walking down the hall just a couple of minutes ago.'
'Her? Our teacher was a him,' Sabrina said.
But Bella had already rushed out of the restroom.
Sabrina walked down the hallway and prepared herself for the sadness and confusion the other students would be feeling when they discovered
