The Third Reader - The School for Good and Evil

5) It's Obviously Love

Agatha charged through ever halls, recalling everything that had happened in the last hour.

Her and Sophie had crashed into the School Master's tower and begged to go home. Miraculously, he agreed...if they could work out his riddle:

'What's the one thing evil can never have and good could never do without?'

Agatha groaned in frustration, shoving open the door into her room and freezing in her tracks as she saw Evelynn on the floor.

Evelynn glanced up sullenly, spotting Agatha and rapidly wiping a tear from her face with the back of her hand, which was clutching a picture of her brother and Mum.

Agatha didn't notice Evelynn's red eyes, however, and proceeded to storm out of the room again.

Evelynn watched Agatha leave with a sigh, then tossed the picture to the ground, curling up in her rose scented feather duvet and drifting into a restless sleep.

She dreamt of a bird, which had feathers the colour of lilacs in spring. The bird shape-shifted into Sophie slouching over, not showing her face. She looked up slowly, as warts began to sprout on her skin, and her teeth crumbled from her gums-

Evelynn woke up gasping, with sweat trickling down her forehead and white knuckles from gripping her pillow so tightly.

The feather duvet was on the floor.

"Nightmare?" Agatha was glaring at her from across the room, sat on her bed with crossed arms. She'd already gotten dressed, ready for the day.

"I know you're annoyed at me but I didn't actually do anything," Evelynn snapped, aggressively throwing her duvet back onto her bed and turning her back to her roommate.

There was a long silence. When Evelynn turned around again, Agatha had gone.

Evelynn felt like yelling in frustration, her only chance at getting home was slipping away from her with every word that came from her mouth.

She composed herself and got ready to leave for classes, having got up too late to attend breakfast.

She ignored Agatha in the lessons they shared, trying to focus her attention on whatever teacher they had.

When lunch came around Evelynn navigated through buzzing Ever girls, who all appeared to be terribly excited about a topic unbeknownst to her.

"What's everyone freaking out about?" she asked one of the girls with dark, shiny hair.

"Haven't you heard? There's a Snow Ball! Everyone is waiting for a prince to ask them.
If no one asks you, you'll fail. "

"What if the boys don't get a date?"

"I don't know...they get looked down on?"

"Do they not fail?"

The girl shook her head, curls bouncing, then turned back to her friends.

Evelynn scoffed in disbelief, then continued to slip through the gaps in the crowd until she reached an empty spot near a tree.

Alone.

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Meanwhile, Sophie and Agatha weren't far...

"We need to find out the riddle," Agatha began. "And we need help."

"From who?" Sophie questioned, desperately.

"Lynn, of course!" Agatha acknowledged Sophie's expression and remembered. "Oh."