First Frost by Liz DeJesus

need anything, I’ll be in the gift shop.” Bianca then ran away as fast as she could before anyone could ask her any more questions.
    She hid behind the counter and groaned.
    “You okay?” Ming asked. She was perched on the stool, reading a magazine.
    “This is a disaster. It feels so wrong to lie,” Bianca whispered to Ming, who was happy to be behind the counter of the gift shop. Ming had wasted no time exploring every inch of the museum, especially now that Rose wasn’t around to tell her not to touch anything.
    “Well, what are you going to do? Tell the truth?” Ming closed the magazine and tucked it between the cash register and the wall.
    “Yeah…like that’s gonna happen any time this century. I may as well take myself to the psych ward.”
    “Do you want me to read the kids a story? How hard can it be?”
    “Ming, have you ever had my mother tell you a story?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Trust me. They won’t want anyone but her.”
    “Why?” Ming asked, confused.
    “I don’t even know how to describe how she does it. All I know is that she has a way of bringing stories to life. Almost as if she were playing a movie inside your head. She takes these fairy tales and adds more to them somehow. You can smell the river, see every leaf twitching in the wind, see the characters, and for a moment, it’s almost as though you can feel what they are feeling.”
    “Wow.”
    “Yeah, it’s hard to describe what it’s like to be on the receiving end of that.”
    “I bet.”
    Bianca grabbed the phone book. It had a thin layer of dust over it. “Ew,” she muttered as she picked up a rag and wiped the dust off.
    “Whatcha lookin’ for?” Ming asked.
    “A repairman, I need to have the front window of my house fixed,” Bianca replied as she flipped through the pages of the phonebook. Eventually, she came across an ad that looked somewhat professional. She grabbed the phone on the wall and dialed the number.
    “Moore Repairs. If it’s broken, we can fix it. This is Bill. How can I help you?”
    “Yes…hi…I need to have the front window in my house repaired,” Bianca said.
    He asked several questions, and after a few minutes of talking back and forth, they settled on a day and the price to have her window fixed.
    “Cool. Thank you so much,” Bianca said politely.
    “No problem. We’ll send someone over tomorrow morning,” Bill replied.
    Bianca thanked him once more and then hung up.
    “How are you going to pay for the window?”
    “I know where Mom keeps her credit card. I’m authorized to use it, only if it’s an emergency. I think this counts as an emergency.”
    A woman approached the counter and purchased a few items from the gift shop. Ming smiled, hopped off the stool, and scanned her items. Bianca was going to be sure to tell Rose about Ming helping her out in the museum. Maybe she would break her rule and let her work here.
    “What did the witch want again? I forgot,” Ming asked when she was finished taking care of the customer.
    “A spell book.”
    “Why?”
    “It belonged to Queen Mirabel,” Bianca explained.
    “The one from Snow White…right?”
    “Yep.”
    “Okay. Do you know where it is?”
    “Nope.”
    “Then we have nothing else to bargain with,” Ming said.
    “Well, there are other things in the museum that belonged to the queen, but she specifically asked for the spell book,” Bianca explained.
    “Is there an attic or a basement in this place?” Ming asked.
    “Yeah, an attic and a basement.”
    “Do you think it’s hidden somewhere in the museum?”
    “I wouldn’t be surprised if it were in here somewhere. Doesn’t hurt to look around and see if we find something,” Bianca said.
    Ming’s chocolate brown eyes widened as a thought occurred to her. “Ooh, maybe there are clues to follow, like in The DaVinci Code.”
    “Except without Tom Hanks’ weird hair.”
    “Yeah…no bad hair allowed.” They both nodded in agreement.
    “Okay, do we