Never After (School for Good and Evil x Reader)

Chapter 13

I was surprised to see Agatha cross the Clearing to the Never's lunch line, where she came to Hester and I.

"Where's Sophie?"

"Won't come out of the room. Missed all our classes," I said as a wolf dumped mystery meat into my pail.

"Apparently sharing a coffin with Hort robs you of your will to live," Hester said, holding out her own pail.

After a quick lunch, Agatha and I trekked up to Room 66. Inside, Sophie was curled under her scorched, tattered covers.

"I saw it!" Sophie hissed. "I saw him pick you! Here I'm worried about Beatrix, when you're the double-crossing, backstabbing fink!"

"Look, I don't know why Tedros keeps choosing me," Agatha said, squeezing rain from her hair.

Sophie's eyes drilled into her.

"I want him to choose you, you fool!" Agatha yelled. "I want us to go home!"

Sophie searched her face for a long moment. With a sigh, she turned to the window. "You don't know what it was like. I still smell him everywhere. He's in my nose, Agatha. They've given him his own room until the stench goes away. But who's to say where skunk ends and Hort begins?"

Shuddering, Sophie turned back. "I did everything you said, Aggie. I focused on all the things I love about Tedros—his skin, his eyes, his cheekbones—"

"Sophie, that's his looks! Tedros won't feel a connection if you just like him because he's handsome. How is that different from every other girl?"

Sophie frowned. "I didn't want to think about his crown or his fortune. That's shallow."

"Think about who he is! His personality! His values! What he's like deep down!"

"Excuse me, I know how to make a boy love me," Sophie huffed, shooing her out. "Just stop ruining things and let me do things my way."

***

Apparently Sophie's way was to humiliate herself as much as possible.

During lunch the next day, she sidled up to Tedros in the Evers' line, only to have his boys crowd her, chomping blue mint leaves. Then she tried to get the prince alone in Surviving Fairy Tales, but Beatrix stuck to him like glue, taking every opportunity to remind him he picked her coffin.

"Tedros, can I talk to you?" Sophie blurted finally.

"Why would he talk to you?" Beatrix said.

"Because we're friends, you buzzing gnat!"

"Friends!" Tedros flared. "I've seen how you treat your friends. Use them. Betray them. Call them fat. Call them liars. Appreciate the offer. I'll pass."

"Attacking. Betraying. Lying. Sounds like one of our Nevers is using her rules!" Yuba beamed.

Sophie was so despondent she even ate a piece of Dot's chocolate.

"We'll find you a love spell somehow," said Dot.

"Thanks, Dot," Sophie sobbed, mouth full. "This is amazing."

"Rat droppings. Makes the best fudge."

Sophie gagged.

"Who'd you call fat, by the way?" Dot asked.

Things got worse. For a weeklong challenge in Henchmen Training and Animal Communication, students of both schools had to tote assigned creature sidekicks everywhere they went. At first, both schools exploded into chaos, with trolls tossing Nevers out windows, stampeding satyrs stealing lunch baskets, baby dragons setting desks on fire, and animals christening the Good halls with mountains of dung.