Once Upon a Frog (Whatever After #8) by Sarah Mlynowski

Author:Sarah Mlynowski [Mlynowski, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2015-12-22T08:00:00+00:00

The opening leads to a wooden walkway, which is about a football field away from the palace front door.

The walkway passes through the palace garden. On the left and right are trees and tropical-looking red and orange flowers.

The castle itself is made of wood, too, stained dark.

So much wood.

There’s another guard blocking the front door. But this one is awake. He’s scrawny, sitting on a chair and reading a newspaper.

“Let’s go in,” Jonah says.

“We can’t just stroll through the front door,” I say, pulling my brother over to the side where there are a cluster of trees. Two big, bright, striped birds with long beaks swoop over our heads and disappear around the side of the castle.

“I’ll hop around the grounds and see if there’s another way to get in,” Frederic says, leaping through the grass.

He doesn’t have to worry about being caught. No one would try and arrest him. You can’t put a frog in prison. Lucky duck. Um … lucky frog.

We wait for him to come back. And wait some more. “Where is he?” I wonder out loud.

“What if someone stepped on him?” Jonah asks.

“Frederic is way too fast for that,” I assure him. “Besides, no one’s around.”

“Except them,” Jonah says, pointing to a family of monkeys hanging from one of the trees. “Monkeys are really smart, you know. And loyal. Maybe we can take one home as a pet?”

Prince barks. It sounds a little like no way.

Jonah takes a step toward them.

“Do not touch them, Jonah!”

He makes a sad face.

There’s another moment of quiet and then —

“There he is!” Jonah whisper-shouts in my ear. “Frederic is coming back!”

Frederic leaps over to the tree we’re hiding behind.

“What did you find out?” I ask him.

“There’s a swimming pool in the back!” he exclaims, smiling. “With a slide and noodles!”

Jonah sighs. “I wish we could go swimming.”

I frown at my brother. We’re still damp from our little dip in the stream. “Seriously?” I ask. Jonah shrugs and smiles at me.

“There’s also a door in the back,” Frederic goes on. “But there’s a guard there, too. He’s sitting by the pool, having a tall frosty drink, and he’s definitely awake.” Frederic sighs.

“Maybe we can climb up the wall right into the princess’s bedroom,” Jonah suggests, gazing up at the tall castle.

“But we can’t possibly know which one is her bedroom,” I remind him. The castle is huge. Judging from the many windows, it looks like there are about twenty rooms on each floor and there are five floors.

“I bet it’s that one on the side,” Jonah says matter-of-factly, pointing up.

“How do you know?”

“Because there’s a sign in that window that says Princess Coco. See?”

What?

He’s right! Silver letters spelling out P-R-I-N-C-E-S-S C-O-C-O hang across the window.

“But her name is Cassandra,” I say. “Not Coco.”

“Cassandra is her real name. Coco is her nickname,” Frederic says.

“Her nickname shouldn’t be Princess Coco. It should be Princess Cruel.”

“Let’s climb up!” Jonah says, beckoning for us to follow him.

I look up at the five-story castle. “Jonah, it seems really high,” I say.

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