Hello! Happy Friday! Another chapter ready to go!

Hope everybody is having a good summer, or if you're starting school again, good luck!

Enjoy!

Chapter 4:

The rest of the day had been nothing but cleaning and fixing. After sweeping and repairing the Queen of Hearts statue on Main Street, Crowley assigned Claire and Grim to weed the courtyard, clean the gutters, and wipe down the hall floors. It seemed that every task they completed, three more took its place.

"So tiredddd," Grim groaned as he sprawled out on the empty cafeteria table.

"Tell me about it," Claire sighed as she massaged the ache in her shoulder. Her hair was a mess; her hands and arms had cuts and bruises and bug bites, and her grease-stained jumpsuit was already drenched in sweat.

Lunch had thankfully been uneventful. She had explicitly sat in a corner and kept her head down, steering away from the throngs of students. There were plenty of stares, no doubt rumors from yesterday and this morning had already made their rounds, but no one had come to start any trouble. Enjoying the small relief, she quickly left as soon as she finished the last bite of her sack lunch.

"We spent all day cleaning, and now we have to wash 100 windows too…" Grim grumbled.

"Don't complain," Claire snapped, "you started this mess."

"It's also that Ace guy's fault!"

"And he is going to do the same punishment as well," she said as she looked around at the empty cafeteria.

To accommodate the many students, the area had at least fifty long wooden benches with diamond-patterned floors and brick walls. The area was luminated by the candelabrums lined along the walls, and several chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The largest chandelier hung from the center and hold least a hundred candles. She leaned back and stared at the beautiful ceiling, ready to be over and done for today.

"That Ace guy is taking his sweet time," Grim spoke up, "He's making us wait too long!"

Claire looked over at the large clock on the wall. The last class ended at four, but the hands on the clock read 4:10. "Give him a couple of minutes," she reasoned. "Class may have ended late for him."

The clock's hands slowly moved to 4:15, then 4:20, and then…

"This is ridiculous," Grim exploded at 4:24pm. "He is way too late! – Wait!" His blue eyes widened in a sudden realization. "He probably skipped out on us!"

"You're probably right," Claire said, getting up and pulling out her map. She frowned with irritation at the situation before them. "Let's go find him. The classrooms should be this way."

"I'm not going to let him get away with this!" Grim declared as he ran ahead. "Let's go, my henchman! We got an Ace to catch!"

"I am not your henchman!"

…

"Where are you, Ace?!" Grim demanded, entering the first door. "You better not be hiding here!" His dramatic entrance was greeted with nothing but silence. Claire peeked inside the classroom and saw that it was empty. The tier levels of desks and the professor's desk in the front were devoid of any human life.

"There's no one here," she said.

"Incorrect, milady. I'm here."

"Who said that?" Claire looked around again at the empty classroom. The voice sounded like it was coming from the wall or rather more specifically…

"The portrait is talking!" Grim yelped, pointing with his paw at the oil painting of a short plump man with a long nose and a black top hat and monocle.

"How rude!" he huffed, "It's not uncommon for portraits to talk in this school – that lady on the wall and that gentleman over there and everyone else can speak. I mean, we all have mouths, so why wouldn't we?"

Claire didn't understand the logic behind that, but then again, any logic from her world seemed to go out the window in this one.

"You must be the racoon that caused a ruckus at the entrance ceremony," he continued, observing Grim with a critical eye.

"How do you know?" Grim asked, surprised.

"Word travels quickly with portraits. We have ears as well. And you must be the non-magical human." The portrait eyed Claire critically.

"Yes, sir. My name is Claire. And you are?" she asked with a short bow.

The painting blinked in surprise at her polite tone but immediately continued with his brusque manner.

"The name is Sir Pomfrey the Third. You may call me Sir Pomfrey, of course." He cleared his throat and thrust out his chest as of great importance. "Now, you two seemed to be looking for someone. Is there any way I can be of assistance?"

"We're looking for a guy called Ace," Grim explained, "He has a heart on his face and a red firecracker head."

"Last name is Trappola," Claire added.

"Heart? Firecracker? Oh!" Sir Pomfrey's eyes widened in recognition. "I know him. He is one of the new first years, correct?"

"Yes sir, that's him," Claire said, nodding eagerly, "Do you know where he went?"

"Why, he went back to the dorms not too long ago."

"I knew it!" Grim said. His pitchfork tail flickered in anger. "That sneaky devil tried to skip out! Which way did he go?"

"The dorms are behind the East Building. It is the one with the dorm mirrors. Head back to Main Street and it should be on your right. You can't miss it."

"East Building," Claire repeated, recalling the name on the map Crowley gave her. "Okay, I think I know how to get there."

"Come on, my henchman!" Grim said, urgently, already at the door. "We need to catch him before he escapes."

"Thank you, Sir Promfrey!" Claire called out before running after Grim.

"My, my!" the portrait said in delightful surprise. "You are most certainly welcome."

…

Ace sighed as he trudged back to his dorm. Today was not his lucky day. After that morning fiasco, he had to deal eight hours of orientation and a bucket load of homework. He was ready to crash back at his dorm and take a nap.

"There is no way, I'm going to spend my afternoon cleaning 100 windows," he mumbled.

"HEY! YOU!"

Ace flinched at the sound of the familiar voice and turned to see that annoying raccoon racing towards him. "Shoot! They found me!"

"Hold it right there!" Grim snarled, running on all fours, "I won't let you be the one to escape!"

"Ha! You won't be able to catch me!" Ace sprinted down the hall. He glanced back, and to his disbelief, both that gray poodle and that non-magic janitor were gaining on him.

"It's not fair that you get to skip out!" Grim yelled. "I want to skip out too!"

"YOU!" Claire snarled at Ace, "Get back here this instance!"

"No way!" Ace yelled, "I've been in class all day! I don't have the energy!"

"You certainly have enough to run away from us!" Claire yelled, "I don't care if you're tired! You are NOT making me wash all the windows!"

Despite her declaration, Claire could feel her lungs and legs burning as she continued through the hallway. If she couldn't catch Ace before he hid behind the doors of his dorm, then it was all over. As they turned the corner, another student from the opposite direction was walking towards them.

"Out of my way!" Ace yelled, not slowing down.

"W-what?!" The guy stood flabbergasted at the strange chasing scene before him.

"Hey!" Claire yelled as loud as she could and pointed to Ace, "Catch him! He's running away from detention!"

"C-catch him?!" the student sputtered. "H-how? Should I bind his legs with rope, or should I freeze them? Ummm…" He stood there, panicking, unable to decide.

"We don't care! Just hit him hard!" Grim yelled, in full sprint. "Use any method! Hurry!"

"Hit him? Any method?" The student immediately refocused and pulled out his red gem pen, "If anything is fine, okay then! Come out, something heavy!" There was a loud popping sound, and a large metal cauldron appeared out of thin air and crashed down onto Ace, squashing him to the ground.

"Yes! Got him!" Grim skidded to a halt and cheered gleefully. "Look at him! Flat as a pancake."

One hand leaning against the wall, Claire wheezed and gasped as she struggled to speak. "Give… minute… Finally… Got you…"

"A cauldron?" The helpful student looked bewildered and stared at his pen. "I didn't think I would get that… Did I overdo it?"

"Ow, ow, ow," Ace groaned as he sat up and rubbed his head in pain. A shadow loomed over him, and when he looked up, he saw the scowling and breathless non-magic janitor.

"Don't you dare try to run again," she warned, wiping the sweat off her forehead.

"Geez, why are you so stingy," he complained, "You should be able to wash 100 windows in a flash."

"In a flash? Are you nuts?!" Claire exploded, by the indifference this guy was displaying, "This is your punishment as well! Take responsibility!"

"Wash 100 windows?" the cauldron guy repeated, perplexed at the situation before him. "Exactly what did you all do?"

Claire gave Ace a withering 'why-don't-you-tell-him-how-you-screwed-up?' glare.

"This furball here attacked me," Ace sulked, pointing at Grim, "and we may have charred the Queen of Heart's statue just a little tinnnnny bit."

"You burned one of the Great Seven statues?!" the student sputtered in horrified shock. "Not to mention the Heartslaybul founder's statue?! That's something that people would get mad about! If our dorm head heard about this…" He sighed and shook his head in disbelief. "You got into one of the most prestigious school, and this is what you do on the first day?"

"Shut up," Ace groaned, irritated with the increasing number of lectures he was getting. "And anyways, who the hell are you?"

"I'm Deuce. Deuce Spade. First year," he said as if he was formally introducing himself for a job interview. Unlike his counterpart, Deuce was immaculately dressed – a pair of dress shoes; a buttoned-up blazer; a tightened tie. His dark navy-blue hair combed and parted neatly to the left side of his head. Similar to Ace's red heart-shaped tattoo, he had a black spade over his right teal eye.

Judging by their matching red waistcoat and similar choice in face paint, Claire surmised that the two were probably from the same dorm.

"Would it hurt to remember your classmates' names at least," Deuce said before pausing and realizing a conundrum, "Umm… who are you by the way?"

"Look at that. You don't my name either," Ace pointed out the hypocrisy and rolled his eyes to the ceiling.

"T-that doesn't matter," Deuce stammered. "Besides, if you were ordered by the headmaster to clean the windows, then do it."

"Fine, fine," Ace said in a resigned voice and got to his feet. "Let's just get this over with."

"Hallelujah," Claire said and threw her hands up in the air. That was a good thirty minutes of wasted time. "Come on, let's… wait… why is Grim quiet?" She turned around and saw that they were short one member.

"Where's that racoon?!" Ace said, looking around wide-eyed.

"See you later, fools!" Grim cried out. The trio turned to the open window and saw him taunting from the window sill. "I leave the cleaning all to you! Bye bye!"

"GRIM! Get back here!" Claire roared, but he had already scampered off. "That's it, no canned tuna for you!"

"That little furball! He made me take his place!" Ace spat angrily. He pulled out his magic pen and headed to the open window when he suddenly paused for a second and turned to Deuce. "Listen, um… Juice!"

"My name is Deuce," he sputtered, face red now. "D-E-U-C-E. Deuce!"

"Whatever!" Ace said, "This is partly your fault as well! You need to help me catch that raccoon."

"Why me?" Deuce said, still miffed from being called 'Juice'.

"This deadweight can't use magic." Ace pointed at Claire. "so, she won't be helpful! Let's go, or we'll never catch him!"

"HEY! I am not a deadweight!" Claire exploded.

However, Ace and Deuce had already jumped out of the window to pursue Grim. She groaned and followed after them.

Author's Notes

You know if the guys haven't been complaining and trying to skip out, they actually might've had finished it by now. And now we're back to chasing once more… damnit, Grim…

Out of curiosity, who are your favorite Twisted Wonderland character? Also, who's excited for Chapter 6 – The Guard of the Underworld? We finally get to know more about Idia and Ortho. I feel like out of all the dorm heads that had been introduced, they are perhaps the most mysterious ones. And after that cliffhanger in Chapter 5, I'm dying (no pun intended!) to know what happens next.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter!

-JD