Jax's POV

Breaking Out

I am swinging from a chandelier, trying to break out of school . Only, I'm not trying to break out of school to get out of school but to make it seem like I wanted to, so I would be sentenced longer.

If I ever told anyone, they would probably say: "Who in their right mind would want to stay in a reform school?"

I wouldn't blame them. I'd probably have the same thoughts as them if they told me that. The real reason I want to stay is because I'm on a mission. A very important mission. A mission assigned by the King, who also happens to be my dad. No one else knows that though. Not the Royal Court, not the FTRS Teachers, not even my own sister.

I was born when she was locked away in a very tall tower by an evil villain who is still believed to be on the loose. No one is aware of her whereabouts.

My parents never told Rapunzel—yes, my sister is Rapunzel—about my existence.

Okay, back to the mission. My mission is to find the mole—the person who is leaking information to villains—and make sure they are caught. Since I'm undercover, I have to act like someone who needs reforming. And I am going to achieve that by "breaking out".

Suddenly, the chandelier rocks. I look down and find Kayla with her belt in her hand. She must have whacked it.

"Aaah! Kayla, cut it out!" I shout, as the chandelier continues to sway, causing me to almost lose my balance.

"Jax! What are you doing up there?" Kayla whispers heatedly.

"I'm cleaning the crystal for Flora," I say, rolling my eyes. She knows full well what I'm actually doing, just not my motive. She doesn't know that I am undercover. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm making a break for it."

Kayla applauds. "Yay! This time I know you can do it."

I shade my eyes from the light coming from the direction of the stained glass windows.

"Busting out? Why?" says a girl who is standing next to Kayla. She has frizzy brown hair, and a face full of freckles. "I thought you said this place was cool."

I laugh louder than I intended to, and look the girl straight in the eyes. She looks straight back at mine, looking a little shook. I know I can't tell her the real reason I want to break out, but that doesn't mean I have to lie. "FTRS was fun for a while, but strange things have started happening and I don't want to be here when something bad goes down."

Brunette looks scared and confused.

Kayla turns pale. "He's exaggerating," Kayla tells her, but the girl doesn't look convinced.

Drip.

I look down. My bottle of grease has started leaking.

Kayla and Brunette back away, not taking their eyes off of the grease.

"Grease," I explain. "It lubes the window." I swing on the chandelier, and as it gets close to the window, I use a fork to try to pry it open.

It doesn't open.

"A few more tries and I'll have it." I say.

"Then what are you going to do, genius?" counters Brunette. "You're two stories up."

"I've jumped from higher spots before." I brag.

This is true, as Kayla goes on to explain to her more in-depth.

"It's true," Kayla tells her. "Jax once jumped from the gym to the dining hall turret. That was three stories up. We call him the Escape Artist. One time he even managed to break into Azalea and Dahlia's rooms and borrowed their keys to the indoor pool so the whole dorm could take a midnight swim."

Brunette looks impressed. "Impressive," she tells me. "And I thought I was good at tricking obnoxious royals."

Obnoxious? Well, excuuuuuuuuse me. Azalea and Dahlia might qualify as obnoxious, even though technically they aren't royals. Other than that, I can't think of any other royals who would qualify as "obnoxious." And I am out of question.

"She stole a dragon's tooth clip from one this morning," Kayla fills me in.

"Nice," I say. "Your first pull?"

"No, I've been doing it for a while," she says.

"Me too," I lie, and fill her in on my fake backstory. "My father is a farmer. You can only go so far trading vegetables. I needed to kick things up a notch."

"Why do you want to break out so bad?" she asks.

"I've got places to see, and Enchanstia isn't one of them." Which isn't true. I'm stuck in this reform school until I find that mole. I swing the chandelier so hard the crystals clang together. The window latch pops open, and I leap from it to the tiny window ledge. Brunette is in awe. I look at them with a smirk. "Are you sure you don't want to join me?"

"There's no time for us," Kayla says. "Get out of here," Her eyes widen. "Wait. You deactivated the alarm on the window, right?"

I didn't. But that's all part of the plan. So I play dumb, "There isn't one." I insist. "If there was, I wouldn't be able to do this." I lift the window and an alarm immediately sounds:

EEEEEE! EEEE! EEEE! Unauthorized exit! Unauthorized exit!

Kayla and Brunette cover their ears to mask the high-pitched shrieking sound. Within seconds, Flora is out of her office and running towards us.

A large, muscular man jumps up and holds me by my shirt. It's the Wolf. "Mr. Jax," he says in a low growl. "We really must stop meeting like this."

That's never going to happen. Unless you tell me who the mole is.

"Anything you want to say for yourself? Like what you were doing up there?" he growls.

"I needed fresh air," I say, trying to sound as nervous as possible.

"Ah, same as the last two times." Wolfington says in his buttery voice. I look down. Kayla has bailed, but Brunnette is still there, staring at us like she's just witnessed a miracle. Well, it isn't everyday you see a wolf man jump two stories high.

"You know what a third offense means, don't you? Solitary confinement for a month." I may be doing this on purpose, but I still don't want solitary confinement. My roommate, Ollie will be so disappointed.

"Please!" I beg. Or pretend to. "Just give me one more chance. I won't try this again..."

"Where were you going?" Flora asks. I don't reply. I can't. "Then you leave me no choice."

"Wait!" Brunette cuts in. We all look at her. "It's my fault. On the way in earlier, I dropped my journal. I write in it every day and planned on sending letters to my sister. I was so upset I lost it that Jax offered to try to get on the grounds to go look for it for me."

Wow. I only met this girl and she's already sticking up for me? Nice.

"Is that so? Can you confirm this, Mr. Jax?" Wolfington looks amused. I don't think he believes her.

"Every word of it. I was trying to be the gentleman Madame Cleo is always telling us to be." I say, puffing out my chest.

The Wolf nods. "Quite noble of you." He looks at Flora. "I guess we should give them both another shot, since this is Miss Gillian's first hour here and Mr. Jax was only trying to—what did you call it?—be a gentleman."

So that's what her name is.

Flora looks like she's going to explode. "A small shot. After this, they are both held accountable for their actions. Understood?"

Gillian and I look at each other. I speak for the two of us.

"We understand completely."