Chapter 2 Maddie was surprisingly calm on opening night She had rehearsed so many times she felt like nothing could go wrong As the school auditorium filled up she couldn’t help peeking out at the crowd There was her dad sitting in the front row with two bouquets of flowers one for her and one for Carol who was busy putting the finishing touches on the cast’s makeup Maddie felt bad for her dad having to sit all by himself It would’ve been so satisfying to see Holden beside him forced to watch a fairy tale without interrupting and pointing out the flaws Tasha was freaking out OMG I can’t remember my lines Maddie what am I going to do Just relax Maddie told her We’ve rehearsed a million times When you show up at my door you say you’re an old peddler woman selling apples What Tasha said I don’t remember that scene at all How can you not remember that Maddie laughed It’s the most famous scene in the story Oh no Tasha whimpered I’m totally blanking Before Maddie could calm Tasha down Carol came jogging up to her There you are Maddie she said I wanted to check this color for your acne in act two She held a makeup tray up to Maddie’s face My what Maddie said Snow White doesn’t have acne Tasha gasped Now you’re forgetting the play This is a disaster Tasha ran back to the dressing room in a panic Carol shook her head I’m sure it’ll all come back to you when the curtain rises she said Everyone knows Snow White makes herself ugly to get the Wicked Queen off
her back Carol stuck a few fake zits on Maddie’s face What Maddie wondered Did she hear that right Not bad if I say so myself Carol said admiring her work You’re ready to go She picked off the zits and hurried on to the next cast member She didn’t realize but she left one pimple on Maddie’s nose Maddie was in a daze She had mentioned during rehearsals that Snow White should’ve made her skin break out Was it possible that No only Holden could break the stories Right Or could it be that she’d done it herself this time Hi-ya shouted Joey Katarka who was playing one of the seven dwarfs Maddie wheeled around and saw the dwarfs attacking each other with kicks punches and yelps What are you doing she asked We’re preparing for the karate fights Joey replied In Snow White Maddie said She may have mentioned acne but she never said anything about the dwarfs doing martial arts That sounded like something Holden would come up with She wondered if he knew something about this Five minutes to curtain everyone Mrs Greenberg shouted Maddie ran to check her copy of the script nearly getting karate chopped by Ashley Lizander on the way When she picked it up she could see from the title alone that the story had gone through some pretty major changes Snow White and the Seven Butt Kicking Dwarfs Ugh Holden This had to be his doing and well maybe a little bit hers too As she flipped through the script she saw page after page of dialogue she didn’t recognize scenes that had never been part of the play before Snow White getting acne the huntsman confessing to the King It was a totally different story It was just like what happened with Cinderella Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin All of a sudden the fairy tale was broken There was no more happily ever after Worst of all Maddie didn’t know any of the lines anymore and the curtain was about to go up How long has the script been like this she asked around her
Only about a hundred and fifty years Carol replied as she pasted a beard onto a dwarf’s chin nearby Carol Can I borrow your phone Maddie begged But honey the play’s about to start I need to call Holden Holden Carol seemed confused He he called me earlier Have you talked to him lately Not in a week Maddie explained And he and I have something urgent to discuss It can’t wait another second Snow White Castle gimme a break Holden thought With his dad at work he decided to take a look at the town’s tourist trap the big castle up on the hill It irked him to no end that he flew 4,000 miles away from his stepsister only to find himself surrounded by fairy tale nonsense in a totally new place Well as long as he was here he figured he might as well check it out if only so he could make Maddie jealous Maybe he’d take a few selfies with his tablet That would drive her nuts Most of the signs Holden saw were in German but it didn’t matter He was pretty sure they all just said a bunch of silly fairy tale junk Stuff like This lame tree gave the Brothers Grimm the idea for the stinky poison apple And This statue of Snow White was put here because no one else wanted it And Go back to your hotel This place is a waste of time Sure a place like this might’ve impressed the Brothers Grimm in 5,000 BC or whenever they wrote their awful stories Holden thought but he and Maddie had actually been to the fairy tales and this place was a tool shed compared to Cinderella’s McMansion or the Beast’s sweet pad On his way in he passed by a gift shop and bought himself a sweatshirt with the name of the castle in German Schneewittchen-Schloss He loved thinking of how screamingly jealous Maddie would get when she saw him wearing it He’d tell his friends it was German for Skateboarding is not a crime so they’d think it was cool too With his purchase in hand Holden decided to skip the tour everyone else seemed to
be going on He just wanted to explore this place on his own starting with the snack bar He was in the mood for some good German chocolate He picked up a map on the way in and tried to guess what the German word for snack was Toilette Nope that wasn’t it although he’d make note of that for later Ausfahrt Probably not but he’d have to find out what that meant because it sounded hilarious Der Spiegel Well that started with an s so it seemed like a good bet for snacks He decided to head for der Spiegel and hope he smelled some primo strudel baking When he reached the top of a winding stone staircase he found a sign pointing the way to der Spiegel Finally He was a little bummed out because he didn’t smell anything delicious baking but he decided to keep heading in that direction anyway The sign led him to a large room filled with old furniture That was it It wasn’t an animatronic stage show or a 4-D immersive experience Der Spiegel if anything must’ve been German for boring room Holden groaned Why would they have signs pointing to this place All it had were some ugly chairs some creepy candles and a mirror that was roped off for no good reason At least he had his trusty tablet along so he could check the e-book and see what the deal was To his surprise the tablet was already on its screen was glowing and the e-book for Snow White was already open This was not a good sign Sure enough the title page looked totally different than it used to Snow White and the Seven Butt-Kicking Dwarfs Holden read He couldn’t help chuckling at the new title Awesome As he flipped through all the new illustrations showed just how much the story had changed First Snow White was smearing oatmeal on her face for some weird reason Then she was giving the dwarfs what looked like a karate class Then the huntsman was in the dungeon with some strange-looking ladies As Holden skimmed through the pages in shock he heard a voice call out from behind him Hey the voice shouted Holden jolted He had thought he was alone in the room Who said that He
