“Daddy said he’d buy me a new horse if I made Leader,” chirped a girl behind them, round as a balloon, snacking on a bundle of chocolate daisies. “Killed my last one by accident.”

“Sat on it?” scoffed the albino.

“Fed it too much fudge,” said the round girl.

Suddenly all three girls stopped in their tracks and craned their heads to Sophie. They broke into toothy smiles and dropped into their seats in unison, hands folded over their bags.

“Sorry we’re late,” said tattooed Hester.

“Castor made us clean up after a dragon in Henchmen,” said albino Anadil.

“Dragons poo a lot,” said paunchy Dot, mouth full.

Sophie nearly leapt off the desk to hug her old roommates. “Oh praise heavens! My real friends,” she beamed, so relieved to see the three smiley witches against the sea of snarls. “At least someone’s happy to see me!”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Hester mumbled. She started opening her book bag—then noticed the furious faces around her.

“Oh here we go,” she moaned. “For the last time, you’re all in the School for Evil now and that means you’re fighting for Evil. Look at me: Aric stabbed a blade in my stomach during the Trial and now I obey his every word. You want to stay alive? You want the sun to stop melting? Then do what the teachers say and help Sophie kill Agatha and Tedros.”

“I thought Agatha was your friend,” Ravan sniped.

“Excuse me? These are my friends,” Hester said, pointing to Anadil and Dot with a glowing red fingertip. “The coven everyone fears and yet wants to be in. The clique that doesn’t give a damn what you think. The sinful, sinistral, all-around-original Three Witches of Room 66.”

“Dot’s even fat again,” Anadil quipped.

Dot frowned.

“Sure, Agatha was likable in a handicapped-dog kind of way,” Hester went on, “but I learned my lesson when I almost died at Aric’s hands defending her. All I ever wanted was for Evil to have a normal school again, where we learn Evil things and learn to be better villains than my incompetent mother was. And now because of Sophie, we don’t just have one Evil school, we have two.”

“Plus for the first time, villains can have a Never After!” Dot reveled. “You know what that means, don’t you?” She gave Ravan a wink. “Evil Valentine’s Day!”

Ravan gagged.

“And if we don’t want love, that’s fine too,” said Anadil, with a repulsed look. “Once Sophie’s storybook closes, Evil will prove it can win, with villains no longer cursed to die.”

“Here’s to free Evil!” hollered Hester.

“Here’s to free will!” hooted Dot.

“Here’s to Queen Sophie!” Anadil proclaimed, banging fists loudly on her desk, as Hester and Dot chanted and three black rats squeaked: “Here’s to Queen Sophie! Here’s to Queen Sophie!”

No one else joined them.

“Did the ‘Bring Good Back’ cheer already, didn’t they?” Dot sighed.

Sophie smiled at her three witch champions. At least she knew who wasn’t the spy.