Mother Knows Best (Villains 5)

“Oh gods! Look at the way Rapunzel is looking at him! Why do princesses always fall in love with the first boy they see?” asked Martha.

“Because that’s the way fairy tales are written,” said Lucinda, sighing.

“Ha! No! She hit him with the pan again! Good girl!” Ruby said, laughing. “She’s shoving him in the closet!”

“Sisters, listen! Pay attention, both of you! We want Flynn Rider in the tower! We want them to be friends. We need him to help Rapunzel find her true family again.”

“But why?”

“We don’t want Gothel to wake her sisters, now, do we?”

“Of course we don’t!” Ruby and Martha said.

“Hades! She’s on her way back with a sleeping potion! Look!” said Lucinda, pointing at Gothel in one of the mirrors.

“Is it one of ours, Lucinda? One of our sleeping potions?”

“It doesn’t matter! Flynn is in that closet, and we need Rapunzel to get rid of Gothel and talk Flynn into taking her to see the lights!”

“Yes! If she doesn’t kill him with that frying pan first.” The sisters laughed.

“And what about Gothel? What about the sleeping potion? She’s going to try to put that girl back to sleep!”

“The girl will have to get rid of her before she tries to use it!”

“Oh! Look! Look! Rapunzel has the crown! She’s trying it on! She’s trying it on!”

“Let’s just tell her now she’s the Princess!” squealed Ruby.

“We can’t talk to her through the mirror, idiot! She doesn’t have magic! And even if we could, I wouldn’t want to spoil all the fun of seeing Gothel squirm!” said Lucinda. “I want her to think she’s won. I want to fill her heart with hope and then see it destroyed!”

“She’s there! Gothel’s there! Look!” said Ruby, pointing to one of their mirrors, where Gothel was calling up to the tower window.

“Rapunzel, let down your hair.”

“One moment, Mother!” called the Princess after stashing the crown in a vase.

“I have a big surprise for you!” called Gothel

“I have one, too!” said Rapunzel.

“Why has Gothel been using that strange singsong voice? It’s ridiculous!” said Ruby.

The odd sisters were transfixed by the images in the mirror as they listened to Gothel’s and Rapunzel’s voices dancing around each other. Each was too consumed with her own plans to listen to the other.

“My surprise is bigger!” yelled Gothel as Rapunzel pulled her into the tower with her long hair. The odd sisters could see Gothel going in through the window; she was acting very animated, almost like a stage actor, or a large puppet. “I brought back parsnips! I’m going to make hazelnut soup for dinner, your favorite. Surprise!”

The odd sisters laughed. “Soup! That’s the surprise?” screeched Martha.

“Hazelnut sleeping-potion soup! Surprise!” yelled Ruby, making Martha laugh.

“Well, Mother, there is something I want to tell you,” said Rapunzel.

The odd sisters screamed. “No! No! No! Don’t tell her!” The girl couldn’t hear them, of course, but there was power in their voices, magic, and they were trying to use it to manipulate Rapunzel. “Shhh! Gothel is talking.”

“You know I hate leaving you, especially after a fight when I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong,” said Gothel. The sisters laughed. She had no idea how to act like a mother. She’d never taken care of the child when Rapunzel was little.

“Whatever happened to Mrs. Tiddlebottom?” asked Ruby. And suddenly Mrs. Tiddlebottom appeared in one of the mirrors. She was baking a magnificent cake, bigger and more beautiful than the one she had made for Rapunzel’s eighth birthday.