"The cat dragged me out, actually," I corrected her. "He gave me a tour earlier."

"I won't even pretend to understand what you just said." Jessaline's poisonous green eyes darted to the girls around me. "I didn't see any of you in Building One."

"That's because we're all in Building Two." I shook my head. "You'd better sharpen those skills of deduction if you want to do well on this exam, Snapp-dragon."

Jessaline's retort was interrupted by a pretty girl with smooth dark skin, who introduced herself as Isobel James. "Do any of you feel prepared for this?" Isobel asked. "I mean, what kind of test is it? The one that fairy godmothers take every year to make sure they're still on their game?"

Gwendolyn, who had obviously done her research, spoke up. "No, that's the Bar exam. It's way harder."

"What do you mean, make sure fairy godmothers are still on their game?" I asked. "Do some of them start slacking off?"

Isobel nodded. "I heard people talking in the cafeteria. Apparently someone got fired for failing because she neglected her studies," she said in a low voice. "And another one got kicked out because she acquired a shopping addiction."

"I heard one got fired for committing one of the biggest no-nos in C.A.F.E. history," Sasha chimed in. She dropped her voice, making all of us lean in, including Jessaline. "The prince she was trying to land for her princess? She fell in love with him herself."

Everyone gasped. I was dying to ask more questions, but a woman entered the lobby right then. I recognized her from the brochure as one of the seven Council members. The room went quiet at once.

"Good afternoon and welcome to C.A.F.E.," she said. "I am Madam Flora Fairweather, the Godmother of Education. It's a pleasure to see such bright young women who may one day take up the mantle of running our esteemed organization." She folded her hands behind her back. "I understand that some of you may feel anxious about this exam, but I encourage you to remain calm. It is merely an assessment designed to help us give you the most fulfilling experience possible. Whether you gravitate toward making love matches or dueling witches, our brief exam will help decide where you fit in best."

"I like the sound of dueling," Emily whispered to me.

"That makes one of us," I whispered back.

"This is the last week of August," the fairy godmother was saying. "From now until December, I fully expect all fourteen of you to have developed the skills you will need to succeed at C.A.F.E. At that time, if you decide to pursue a career with us, you will take the certifying exam to become a full-fledged godmother. And now, if you'll follow me."

She led us through the hallway of offices and paused in front of a classroom door, pulling out a clipboard. "Each of you will be paired with a mentor for this exam. These senior fairy godmothers will help determine your specialties. When I call your name, please enter the room."

Gwendolyn and Emily were called first, then Jessaline and three girls I didn't know.

"Noelle Simpkins," Madam Fairweather read. "You're with Madam Henrietta Clark."

I walked into a long room divided by curtains, sectioning off small areas that each contained two chairs and a desk. There was a woman sitting in each little makeshift room, some with an intern already facing them.

I looked around until I saw a woman with soft, curly gray hair sitting alone in the corner. A small plaque attached to the curtain announced that she was Madam Clark, and when I walked over, she smiled.

"I'd know you anywhere, Noelle. You're the spitting image of your mother, except with your dad's dark hair."

"You've met my parents?" I asked, taking a seat across from her.

"My daughter wanted Elizabeth Simpkins shoes for her wedding," she said, chuckling. "We came during a very busy sale last June, so I don't blame you for not remembering me. Now, let's get down to business, shall we?" She placed a sheet of clean paper and a pencil in front of me. "During the first part of this exam, I will give you multiple sets of three words each. You will pick the word you like best and write it down."

"The word I like best?" I repeated.

"The word you like best," she affirmed. "You don't have to explain why. Just write down the one that you feel most compatible with. Ready?"

How was this going to determine whether I attended balls or hunted witches? "Okay. Sure. Yes," I said, trying to remember how to breathe.

Madam Clark nodded. "Resplendent, ameliorate, and altercation."

I chewed on the eraser, thinking.

"Don't think too hard. Rely on your instinct," the fairy godmother instructed.

A tourist had once used the word "resplendent" to describe Dad's pumpkin patch, so I wrote that down.

"Convalesce, pulchritudinous, and dissension."

I had always liked big words. Geoff and I used to beef up our vocabulary at school to confuse our classmates on the playground. "Pulchritudinous" it was.

"Fencing, stargazing, and administering."

Well, that was an easy one. "Stargazing," I wrote, remembering all the starry nights of my childhood spent collecting slugs for Dad's special fertilizer.

This went on for some time until I had written twenty words, after which Madam Clark took the paper away and began folding it until it was so small, she could hide it in the palm of her hand. From a dress pocket, she pulled out a slender magic wand with a white-gold star on top. As I watched, fascinated, she fed the tiny piece of paper into a small hole in the star.

"All right, then," she said, without explaining what she had just done. She produced a set of beautifully drawn paper dolls from a desk drawer. "Now, I'd like you to pair these dolls off."

"Pair them off?" I repeated. I knew I was starting to sound like a parrot, but this had to be the strangest test I had ever taken.

Madam Clark didn't seem bothered in the least. "Yes. Make them into three couples, just based on their appearances."

I gazed down at the paper smiles. There were three women: a red-haired shepherdess, a simpering blonde in a ball gown, and a lady with a crown. There were three men: one dressed like a farmer, one carrying an artist's palette, and a scholar in collegiate robes.

With Madam Clark looking on, I took a few moments before pairing the shepherdess with the farmer, the party girl with the artist, and the queen with the scholar.

"Interesting. Why did you pair the artist with the partygoer?"

"She seems vain," I said. "I think she'd be happy with an artist because he might want to paint her."

"And the others?"

"I put the queen with the scholar because they're both educated," I said. "And the shepherdess and the farmer are together because their lifestyles would mesh well, I think."

Madam Clark didn't acknowledge my choices as either right or wrong. "Interesting," she said again, tapping her magic wand on each couple. Then she put the dolls away and gave me a handful of brightly-colored ribbons ranging in hue from peach to forest green. "Arrange these however you see fit. Line them up in a row."

Again, I couldn't quite see how this odd task would help me succeed as a fairy godmother, but I obeyed. I did what Mom always did with her shoes back home: grouped together the shades that were in the same color family. Salmon with tangerine, teal with aquamarine, and periwinkle with cornflower.

When I was finished, the fairy godmother perused my work, nodding. "Last test," she said, taking a slender cardboard box out from under her chair and handing it to me. Inside was a plain wooden wand about the width and length of my pencil.

"A fairy godmother's magic wand is an extension of her arm and her power," Madam Clark explained. She handed me a stub of a white wax candle. "Before we begin, let's start with something easy. Light this candle using only your hands."

Simple enough. I wrapped my fingers around the candle and focused my concentration on the wick, the way all children in Finale had been taught at a young age. The candle burst into flame within seconds.

"Excellent. Now try doing that with the wand," Madam Clark said, blowing the flame out. "No hands."

I let go of the candle and pulled the wand out of the box, pointing it at the wick. I concentrated with all my might, but failed to accomplish the task. It was much harder without direct contact to the candle.

"That's all right," the fairy godmother said. "Everyone struggles the first time they try a wand. Think of it this way. Your task is a loose, slippery thread, difficult to control. But when you put the thread through a needle, you can better direct your efforts. The wand is your needle. Channel your concentration through it. Imagine that you are holding the candle itself."

Taking a deep breath, I pictured my fingers around the candle instead of the wand. After a few tense minutes of frowning and focusing as hard as I could, I finally managed to create a wisp of smoke. Not exactly a flame, but Madam Clark was excited anyway.

"Well done! Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

It had been hard, but I shook my head. For the rest of the exam, Madam Clark set a series of tasks for me to perform using the wand. I managed to complete some of them - like boiling water and tying a ribbon - but still struggled to direct my concentration through the wooden stick in my hand.

Finally, she tapped the wooden wand with her own and put everything away. "You're all set, Noelle," she said. "I will send your trainer to you before dinnertime." That was it. Nothing about how well I had done or what my specialty might be.

"Thank you," I said uncertainly, and walked into the hallway, where I found Gwendolyn and Emily waiting for me.

"How'd it go?" Emily asked. "Did she make you arrange pictures of weapons, like me? Gauntlets and daggers and stuff?"

"Uh, no!" I said, cracking up. "I guess we know what your specialty is going to be. Mine made me arrange dolls and ribbons."

"Mine made me draw a map of Finale," Gwendolyn chimed in. "It was pretty easy until she made me do it with a wand."

Since we all had a few hours to kill before dinnertime, Emily headed back to the residence hall for a nap and Gwendolyn went off to check out the gift shop. I decided to stop by the mail room to see if Geoff had sent me anything yet. The stout, cheery godmother in charge handed me two letters, which I took outside to read in the fresh air.

Curling up on a bench beneath a weeping willow, I decided to open Mom's letter first. She had mailed it yesterday, before I had even left for Irisia (typical) to remind me to wear proper walking shoes and not skip breakfast, and had enclosed sketches of some new shoe designs for me to approve.

The other letter was from Geoff, who was having a blast in Citria . . . literally. The knight school students had just toured the mountains, where many dwarves worked with explosives to create openings into the mines. He hadn't seen any dragons yet, but he would let me know as soon as he did. Next to his signature, he had drawn a truly terrible picture of what was supposed to be a dwarf. I was laughing at how much it resembled a pony when someone interrupted me.

"You're Noelle, right?"

I looked up and saw a girl dressed in black leather from head to toe. Her jacket and pants were trimmed with hot pink piping, which matched a few tufts of her very short, spiky jet-black hair. She had a round face, wide eyes, a plum mouth, and warm olive skin. One arched eyebrow was pierced with a silver ring, and her ears were full of the same. I counted about ten before I had to stop myself for fear of being rude.

"Yes, that's me," I said, wondering whether I had seen her among the other trainees, but I couldn't possibly have. I would have remembered someone like her. She was one of the prettiest and coolest-looking people I had ever seen.

She stuck out a small, clean hand. "I'm Maud N. Lee. Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all," I said, watching as she plopped onto the bench across from me. She set a small wooden crate down by her feet, on which was a pair of very fashionable, pointed black boots with spiked heels. Despite the oddness of her ensemble, everything looked as though it had been well-made and fitted her to perfection.

"How's everything going so far?" Maud asked, crossing one leg over the other.

"Great," I said. "I'm a little nervous about meeting my trainer, though."

She burst into silvery peals of laughter. "Why are you nervous?"

"Because I hope she likes me, I guess. We're going to be spending the next four months together, after all."

"Well, you can stop worrying, because I know we're going to get along just fine," Maud said, with a wink and a little bow with twirling hands. "I am the trainer of which you speak."

I stared at her in shock. I didn't know what I had expected my trainer to look like - a cross between Valentine Jenkins and the poufy-haired woman on the C.A.F.E. flier, maybe - but certainly nothing like Maud N. Lee. She was in leather. She had piercings and pink hair. She was cool. And, to top it all off, she looked maybe my age.

"But you look nothing like I expected you to!" I clapped both hands over my mouth. "I am so sorry. That was rude."

She waved away my apology. "Don't worry. I look nothing like anyone expects me to," she said good-naturedly. "But trust me, when you're thirty and still getting mistaken for a teenager, you'll appreciate it." She chuckled. "Grandma Lin's eighty and no one believes she's a day over fifty. She's a witch-fighter, but everyone always jokes that if romance were her specialty, they'd think she was using her clients' beautifying spells on herself."

"Your grandma's a fairy godmother too?"

Maud nodded. "Every woman in my family since my great-great-great-grandmother has been a C.A.F.E. employee. It's a tradition, I guess."

"Are fairy godmothers always women?"

"There are a few fairy godfathers, but it's very much a female-dominated field. The Council and the House are made up entirely of women." She smiled bashfully. "I'm actually hoping to be offered a position in the House at the end of the year. Knock on wood."

"Wow, congratulations! What's your specialty?"

"Romance. And so is yours, incidentally!"

I sighed with relief, knowing that I wouldn't be battling witches after all.

"Madam Clark liked you and thought of pairing us up right away. She was my trainer, you know, so I trust her judgment." Maud handed me the wooden trainee wand I had used earlier. "Practice with this. A lot. As soon as Trainee Week's over, we'll be diving right into work! I hope you're ready!"

"Am I ever!" I said enthusiastically. Looking at her friendly face and at the lightweight magic wand in my hands, I felt surer than ever that I had ended up doing the right thing the day I bugged Geoff to drive me to the library.

Things were definitely looking up.