“Okay,” she says suddenly.

“Okay what?”

She nods. “Okay, I’ll take your brother’s place.”

Huh. “You will? But I didn’t even ask you to!”

“I know. But you were going to, weren’t you?”

“I was! I was going to beg!”

She smiles as we reach Grumpy Great-Grandma’s stoop. “You don’t need to beg. You need help. And I volunteer.”

As pleased as I am that Beauty is so willing to take his place, I’m kind of shocked. Why is she so willing? She doesn’t even know Jonah. She doesn’t even know me!

“Let’s go!” Beauty says, putting the bags down by the door.

“You’re not going anywhere before you finish putting away my bananas,” Grumpy Great-Grandma orders.

I peer inside the bags. All I see are bananas. “You didn’t buy anything else?” I ask.

Beauty lowers her voice. “Bananas are all she eats. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Let’s drop these off and then we’ll go save Jordan, ’kay?”

“Er, Jonah,” I say.

She smiles. “Right. Jonah!”

After we drop off the bananas, we return to Pony, who’s still waiting outside Cheese Shop.

“Pony is pretty strong. He can take both of us,” I explain to Beauty. “Will you just hold Prince?”

“You know a prince?” Beauty looks around in wonder.

“Oh. Um. Prince is my dog,” I explain, gesturing to him. He barks. I don’t mention that Mr. Beast is an actual prince in case that messes up the curse.

“Ah. I see.” Beauty bends down, scooping up Prince.

“Do I need to stop at my house to pick up clothes?” Beauty asks as we all get on Pony.

“I don’t think so,” I say. “They have tons of clothes at the palace.”

I don’t want Beauty to stop at her house in case her family talks her out of coming. But that’s selfish of me, isn’t it? If she wants to say good-bye to her family, I shouldn’t get in the way of that.

“But we can stop at your place if you want to,” I add.

She hesitates. “My dad just left on a business trip last week. And my sisters …” Her voice trails off. “My sisters don’t really like me.”

“How come?” I ask.

“I don’t know,” she admits. “No matter what I do, they get annoyed. I try so hard to be nice, but I can tell they don’t really want me at home.”

I remember what the original story said. Beauty’s sisters are infected with the green-eyed monster. They’re jealous of Beauty. Which I kind of understand. Beauty is pretty perfect.

“So maybe staying at Mr. Beast’s castle for a bit isn’t a terrible thing,” Beauty goes on. “How long will I be there, do you think?”

“Well, um …” Cough, cough. Forever? “Not too long,” I say instead.