Bad Princesses #1: Perfect Villains by Jennifer Torres

Author:Jennifer Torres [Torres, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2023-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

Back in the forest clearing, a fire ant scout, still dizzy after being dropped from a wand onto her hill, prepares to venture out again in search of food.

Nearby, Princesa Leonor sits with her watercolors behind a wooden easel. Profesora Colibrí has finally wandered off after a tiresome speech about berry safety, and Leonor can get back to her art. She glances at the blackberry bush she has been painting. She dips her brush into the green paint and adds some yellow, attempting to match the color of its leaves. As she studies, she can’t help but notice the plump red berry hanging there, just waiting to be plucked.

Leonor’s stomach gurgles. She should have snuck an extra pastelito or éclair into her pocket after breakfast. She looks past the canvas and toward the dark winding path that leads to the palace—the path those two strange princesas, Dalia and Dominga, just ran down. She overheard them say something about pastries. For people who seemed to be hatching a secret plot, they were awfully loud.

Leonor had hoped they would bring her back a pastelito to thank her for saving them from Profesora Colibrí with that silly story about poison berries. And even if they didn’t, perhaps they’d at least liven up this class that turned terribly tedious ever since Inés assigned them all jobs. Leonor loved to paint. She did not love to be ordered around.

But Dalia and Dominga have not come back. They seem to have forgotten about her. And the pastries.

Leonor returns to her painting. With three swift swishes, she finishes the blackberry leaves, with their pointy tips and jagged edges. She swirls her brush in a glass of water to rinse it, then mixes red with blue for a color exactly like blackberry juice. Sweet blackberry juice. Her stomach growls again, this time more insistently.

Leonor peeks at the berry again. So red. So sweet. She sets the watercolors down on the tray beside her and pushes closer to the bramble. She reaches for the berry.

She almost has it when a fan snaps shut with a loud click.

Leonor freezes. She drops her arm. She turns her head, already knowing who’s behind her.

“The red berry is not a ripe berry,” Profesora Colibrí trills, her shining black eyes blinking fast. “Have you forgotten already, Princesa? We went over this only moments ago.”

“No, Profesora.”

“Remember,” Profesora Colibrí says, “unless you want a bitter berry …”

“… wait and pick a better berry,” Leonor recites.

Profesora Colibrí nods. “Bueno. Continue with your work.” She waves her fan open again and flutters it as she strolls toward the pond.

Leonor picks up her watercolors and her brush. She breathes in deeply and tries to focus on the painting. Inés warned her that it had to be perfect. She even made Leonor erase the two eerie towers of the B.A.D. she had sketched into the background. Leonor had thought they made the painting more exciting. Inés insisted they absolutely did not belong.

“Exactly what do you think you’re doing?”

Leonor shudders. It is almost as if she has begun to hear Inés’s voice in her head.

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