“You’re lucky,” Jonah says. “We have to clean our rooms every night before bed. And then we have to wake up early to go to school.”

“What’s school?” Hansel asks. “Is that where you go to buy food?”

“Uh, no,” Jonah says. “We buy all our food at the supermarket. You know, huge store, tons of food. Costco is the best. They give out samples. Like little dogs-in-a-blanket.”

“Pigs-in-a-blanket,” I say. “Not dogs.”

“They’re little hot dogs! They should be called dogs-in-a-blanket!”

I roll my eyes. “I know you think so, but they’re not.”

“Can you answer my brother’s question? What’s school?” Gretel asks.

“It’s where we go to learn,” I say. “Math. Reading. Geography.”

“We have to go for seven hours a day,” Jonah says with a small groan. “All the kids go. You don’t go to school?”

“No,” Gretel and Hansel say simultaneously.

“We do chores all day,” Hansel says. “And get in trouble from our stepmother when our dad is out.”

“We got in trouble last night because we didn’t finish all our vegetables,” Jonah says. “And then we weren’t allowed to have dessert! They make us eat our veggies every night!” He makes a face and sticks out his tongue. “Even ketchup can’t make spinach taste better. Or peas.”

“Nothing can,” I say. I actually like some vegetables, but I hate peas. So squishy.

Gretel’s mouth is open. She’s staring from me to Jonah and back to me. “Wait. You get vegetables every night?”

“Of course,” Jonah says. “Don’t you?”

They shake their heads.

“Lucky,” Hansel says.

“Lucky?” Jonah asks. “Are you kidding?”

I think about everything we’ve said. Everything we have. Everything they don’t. My cheeks heat up. She isn’t kidding. Her family is really poor. According to the original story, Hansel and Gretel were lucky to eat a small piece of bread a day. We must sound like spoiled brats. I poke my brother in the shoulder.

“I’m not kidding,” Gretel says. “We never get vegetables.”

“But we saw a bunch of veggie plants,” Jonah says. “Who do they belong to?”

“No one knows,” Gretel says. “But the fence is high and it’s protected by a horrible bird.”

It must be really hard to live in a town called Vegetopia with lots of vegetable fields when you can’t have any vegetables.

“We are lucky,” I say.

Gretel nods. “We’re not. We’re lost.”

“You’ll get home soon,” I tell her. “You really will.” I really hope so anyway. Where is that bird? How are we going to find the cake house?

Jonah pauses next to a tree. “Maybe I should climb it and see if I can spot the cake house?”

I give him a look. He wasn’t supposed to mention the cake house! We made them think we were helping them find their way home!

“What cake house?” Gretel asks. “You know someone who bakes cakes?”

“Uh, no,” I say. “We just heard there was a house made out of cake in these woods.”