Chapter 11: Window Scrubbing

Throughout the day, Briar along with Sereia, Grim, and their new friend Trinket, have been cleaning up the areas at the school. They clean the trash, clean some of the equipment in the classroom, dusting, washing, cleaning, and all kinds of chores for them to do. They even have to clean the Queen of Hearts statue after the little incident of earlier. They've been clean for an entire day, but they are able to have lunch breaks. Of course, Briar notices many of the boys giving her word looks, mainly because other than Sereia and Trinket, Briar is basically the only human girl in a school full of boys.

After the day of cleaning, Briar, Grim, Sereia, and Trinket walk into the cafeteria, feeling exhausted, but their work is not done yet.

Grim groans, "I'm already exhausted from a full day of cleanin'. I can't believe we still gotta wash a hundred windows!"

Sereia sternly turns to Grim, "Well maybe you should have thought of it before getting into a fight with another student."

"Calm down guys. I know the punishment seems bad, but it's best to try and learn from this experience," Briar calmly says.

Then turns to Grim, "Especially you Grim. You need to learn to control yourself."

"Yeah. I know," Grim says annoyed.

He places his paws on his hips and says, "What's buggin' me is, Ace ain't even here yet! To make us wait, after what he did… Grrr!"

"You're right. Where is Ace?" Sereia wonders, looking around the empty cafeteria.

"I don't know, but it will be best for us to start cleaning half of the windows and leave them for Ace when he gets here," Briar says.

"All this cleaning is boring, can't we do something else?" Grim asks, annoyed.

Briar calmly says, "Come on guys, we can try to make this fun."

Trinket nods her head as she talks in ringing sounds.

Grim scratches the back of his head, "How come she sounds like a bell?"

"That's probably the way she talks," Briar says.

"It's too bad we can't understand what she's saying," Sereia says.

"I'm sure we'll think of something on how we can talk to her. She seems good at figuring out a way to communicate with us," Briar says.

Trinket speaks in ringing, and picks up a cloth close by.

"You wanna help clean the windows?" Briar asks.

Trinket nods her head with a ring.

"Alright, but be careful. I have a feeling your wings aren't waterproof," Briar replies.

Trinket nods her head.

"Well then, it's best we get to work. The sooner we clean the windows, the sooner we'll be done for the day," Briar says.

"Okay," Sereia says.

Grim groans, "Fine."

Soon, the group grabs sponges, and Trinket grabs some cloth and they begin to clean up the windows.

5 Minutes Later:

Briar and the others have cleaned up at least eight of the windows, but Ace isn't here.

10 Minutes Later:

Briar and the others end up cleaning up 12 more windows, but Ace still hasn't shown up.

30 Minutes Later:

The group has been able to clean up fifty windows, and so far, Ace is still not here.

Getting annoyed, Grim angrily says, "And now he's super late!"

"Where is he? He should be here by now," Briar says.

"I wonder where he is too… Where could he have gone?" Sereia wonders.

"Maybe class has let out late?" Briar suggests.

Trinket replies with a ring and shrugs her shoulders.

Then Grim suggests, "I bet he up and bailed on us!"

"He wouldn't do that," Sereia says, a little shocked.

Then turns to Briar, "Would he?"

"He might," Briar answers.

Then says, "We should go tell the principal."

But Grim angrily says, "Ain't no way am I doin' his punishment for him!"

"Calm down Grim, I know you're upset. I'm not happy with this either, but we should go tell Headmage Crowley about this," Briar says.

"Forget this. C'mon, girls. I don't care if we gotta drag him kickin' and screamin', he's washin' those windows!" Grim angrily says.

With that, grim runs out of the cafeteria. Briar and the girls hurry after him.

"Grim, hold on!" Briar calls out.

"Wait for us!" Sereia calls out.

Trinket rings, probably calling out to Grim.

Briar and the others continue to chase after Grim as he is on the hunt for Ace. Grim soon searches around the halls.

Briar hurries over and says, "Grim, calm down."

"You don't even know where to find him," Sereia says.

"I don't care! I'm not going to let him get out of his punishment! I'm gonna find him if it's the last thing I do," Grim angrily says.

Grim continues to run down the hall and ends up opening the door to the first classroom he can find.

He angrily cries out, "Hey! Ace! Get over here! Try to hide from me, will ya!"

The girls walk into the classroom to see no one is here.

"Uh Grim, no one seems to be here," Briar says.

Grim says, a little confused, "Uh… maybe there's really no one here?"

Suddenly, a voice says, "Oh, I wouldn't say that.

The group turns to see a picture of a man with a gray beard and hair, wearing glasses. He is wearing a white collar shirt, a red cloth tie, a black coat and a black top hat. The picture is hanging on the wall close to the door.

And the picture says, "I'm here."

Grim screams in fright, "Bwaaah! That painting just talked!"

"Yes, and…?" Is a talking painting really such an oddity at this school? The lady in the portrait on that wall talks too. As does the gentleman in the portrait on this one. As long as a painting has a mouth, why wouldn't it be able to talk? Is that really so strange?" The painting questions.

"Well, I guess it's not strange here I suppose. However, where I came from, painting really can't talk, even if they have a mouth," Briar says.

"Well, your 'usual' and my 'usual' clearly differ. Shall we agree to disagree on the matter?" The painting says.

"Sounds fair," Briar replies, shrugging her shoulders.

Sereia asks, "Are you sure you're not those ghosts from yesterday?"

"Unlike those restless spirits, always wandering hither and thither, I've been contentedly hanging on this wall for over fifty years," The painting says.

Then the painting says, "Now, you seem to be searching for someone."

"Um yes sir. We're looking for a student named Ace," Briar says.

"Yeah. He's got messy orange hair," Grim says.

"And has a red heart on his face," Sereia adds.

"Ah, I know this one. A new student, I believe? Today was his first day at school. I think he went back to his dorm a while ago," The painting answers.

This makes Grim mad, "Myaah! So it's true! He's tryin' to ditch us! Do you know which way he went?"

"The door to the dorms is in the eastern building," The painting answers.

"Let's chase after him, girls!" Grim angrily says, and runs out of the classroom to find Ace.

Briar turns to the painting and says, "Thank you for the help, and sorry if we bother you."

"Not at all my dear. Do hope to see you around," The painting says.

"Okay," Briar says.

With that, the girls run out of the classroom.

Grim continues to run down the halls and out to find the eastern building where Ace could have gone off to, with the girls on his tail. Knowing Grim, they worry about the kind of trouble he might cause, and that will lead to more trouble for them. They can only hope they find Ace and try to reason with him before Grim goes crazy on him.