Hey guys! Sorry, I'm uploading so late-heh, at least it's still Sunday, I'm getting better-my computer was dead all day and I was too lazy to plug it in. But here's the new chapter. I feel like they're really dull because in the book at this time nothing was really going on so I tried but... sorry.
Now! To answer reviews.
To Guest 1: First of all, thank you so much for sticking with me even though I hadn't updated in literal MONTHS. Congratulations, you were my first comment so you get the gold trophy-it's digital-and this chapter is extra dedicated to you. If you review again, though, you should give a name, I really like being able to call my reviewers-I have reviewers!-by a name. Thank you SO much for reviewing!
To Zay Zay: You first review-First of all, you are the best person ever for sticking with me and routinely reviewing while I was absent. Next, I know about the food appearing! That would rock so much! And everything else are just solid facts! And I am now realizing I have never given a name to the pseudo Fanfiction name; Dawn. That's my middle name and I think it's pretty good since I feel a little weird giving my first name. I know! The Kung Fu Panda movies are the BEST! And to your second review: Hehehe, yeah, I've reviewed the wrong chapter before. I'm going to be putting a question in the footnote, though, just so you know. And seriously, THANK YOU, for forgiving me.
To ILoveSistersGrimm: Thank you very much, here's the newest chapter! I hope you like it.
To beegirl9: I know, I feel awful for not updating for five months. I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and hope you like this one as well!
Guest 2: Here's the newest update! I hope you like it! If you review again I'd love it if you put a name so I can call you by that. And I'm thirteen.
Alright! That's all the reviews. Refer to the bottom footnote for more information about the next chapter and QoTW-Question of the Week-
Read and Like, hopefully!
...
Previously on Nine Books and a Laptop:
"That's why crazy people are so dangerous. You think they're nice until they're chaining you up in their garage," Sabrina replied. "And I am not being a snot."
...
"Don't throw that in my face again!" Daphne prewarned.
"It's true, though. Okay, well, not in this case, but in others."
"Yes, you are."
Daphne murmured the words as Sabrina read them out.
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are," Daphne insisted. "Anything is better than living at the orphanage, right?"
Daphne had a point.
"I almost won."
"True, but only almost."
Sabrina walked over and examined the photograph the old woman claimed was of the girls' father. The rosy-cheeked baby in the photo seemed to stare back at her.
…
Mr. Canis had cleared the big oak dining room table of enough books for everyone to eat comfortably. He had left an exceptionally thick volume entitled Architecture for Pigs on Daphne's chair so the little girl could reach her dinner. As they waited patiently for Mrs. Grimm, who was still making a thunderous racket in the kitchen, Mr. Canis closed his eyes and sat silently. Soon, his stillness began to unnerve Sabrina. Was he a mute? Was there something wrong with him?
"Some would've said yes." Mr. Canis commented.
In New York City, everyone talked, or rather, everyone yelled at everyone, all the time. They never sat quietly with their eyes closed when people were around. It was rude.
"Sabrina, I love you, but you were so a snot." Daphne told her older sister.
"Yeah, I know."
"I think he's dead," Daphne whispered after staring at him for some time.
Suddenly, Mrs. Grimm came through the door with a big copper pot and placed it on the table. She rushed back into the kitchen and returned with a plate of salad and set it in front of Mr. Canis. As soon as the plate hit the table the old man opened his eyes and began to eat.
"How did you know I like spaghetti? It's my favorite!" Daphne said happily.
Daphne looked sadly at her empty plate as she set it aside.
"I know lots of things about you, liebling. I am your oma," Mrs. Grimm replied.
"Oma?" Sabrina asked. "What's this weird language you keep speaking?"
"Grimm, you're dumb."
"Do you want to die, fairy!?" Sabrina hissed.
"You couldn't kill me." Sabrina was half way to standing, knife in hand, when Red and Daphne pulled her back down.
"It means grandmother in German. That's where our family is from," Mrs. Grimm answered.
"My family is from New York City," Sabrina said stiffly.
Daphne giggled.
The old woman smiled a sad smile. "Your mama sent me letters from time to time. I know a great deal about you both. In fact, when I stopped getting them I knew that …" She sighed.
"That they'd abandoned us?" Sabrina snapped. Suddenly, Sabrina felt as if she might burst into tears. She ducked her head, fighting their escape down her cheeks.
Sabrina winced uncomfortably. And then hurriedly read on.
"Child, your mother and father didn't abandon you," Mrs. Grimm cried.
"Mrs. Grimm, I—" Daphne began.
"Liebling, I'm not Mrs. Grimm. I'm your grandmother," the old woman said. "You can call me Grandma or Oma, but never Mrs. Grimm, please."
"Can we call you Granny? I always wanted a granny," said Daphne. Sabrina kicked her sharply under the table and the little girl winced.
"And that, children, is how Granny Relda's title was born."
"Of course, I'll be your Granny Relda," the old woman said with a smile, as she took the top off the pot.
Sabrina stared inside. She had never seen spaghetti like this. The noodles were black and the sauce was a bright orange color. It smelled both sweet and spicy at the same time, and the meatballs, which were emerald green, were surely not made from any kind of meat Sabrina had ever had.
"Bleh. I love you, Granny, but despise your cooking."
Relda chuckled.
"It's a special recipe," Mrs. Grimm said, as she dished some out for Daphne. "The sauce has a little curry in it and the noodles are made with squid ink."
Daphne licked her lips, as if remembering the taste.
Sabrina was disgusted. There was no way she was going to eat the old woman's weird food. This sicko had lied about being someone's dead grandmother. Who knew what she had yanked from under the kitchen sink and added to the recipe: arsenic, rat poison, clog remover?
"I would never!"
"Unless you were angry-cooking. Remember that time you almost killed Hank because he got into four fights and got two Fs?"
"Jacob!"
No, Sabrina wasn't going to eat a noodle. Of course, Daphne dug in with gusto and had already swallowed a third of her plate before Sabrina could warn her.
"I would gladly die for food." Daphne announced.
"Daph, we know."
"So, Mr. Canis says your suitcases felt almost empty. Don't you have any clothes?" Mrs. Grimm asked.
"The police kept them," Daphne said, shoveling a huge forkful of noodles into her mouth. "They said they were evidence."
"Kept them? That's crazy! What will they do with them?" She looked at each of them and finally at Mr. Canis, who shrugged.
"Well, we'll have to go into town and pick you out new wardrobes. We can't have you running around naked all the time, can we? I mean, people will think we're nudists."
Puck let out a guffaw and doubled over laughing, Jake and Daphne joined him. Sabrina snorted, everyone else just smiled or chortled quietly.
Daphne laughed to the point of snorting, but when she saw Sabrina's disapproving face she stopped and stuck her tongue out at her sister.
"I was thinking that we—" Mrs. Grimm started, but Sabrina interrupted.
"Who are you? And don't say you're our grandmother because our grandmother is dead!"
"Honestly, Henry, I should never have gone along with it. They should've known Relda." Veronica said disapprovingly.
"I'm sorry, I made a mistaken decision."
"But then we never would've met Red!" Daphne protested.
"And things probably would've ended up like the alternate future."
"Well… not all the stuff was bad."
Sabrina blushed, "Yes it was, shut up."
Mrs. Grimm shifted in her seat. Mr. Canis, obviously seeing the question as his cue to retire, got up, took his empty plate, and exited the room.
"But I am your grandmother, liebling," the old woman replied.
"I said our grandmother is dead. Our father told us she died before we were born."
"Girls, I assure you that I am who I say I am."
"Well, then why did he tell us you died if you didn't?"
"Because your father is stupid." Jake volunteered.
"I'm not sure it is time to discuss your father's decisions. We are all just getting settled in and we can talk about it later," Mrs. Grimm said. Her eyes dropped to her lap.
"Well if you really were our grandmother, I would think you'd be happy to discuss it," Sabrina snapped.
"Now is not the time," Mrs. Grimm said softly.
Sabrina leaped up from her seat, sending her fork clanging to the floor. "Fine! I'm tired and want to go to bed."
"Such a little brat." Sabrina muttered.
Mrs. Grimm frowned. "Of course, liebling. Your room is upstairs. I will show you—"
"WE'LL FIND IT OURSELVES!"
Sabrina walked around the table, grabbed Daphne's hand, and dragged her from her chair.
"But I'm not done eating!" said Daphne.
"You're never done eating. Let's go!" Sabrina commanded.
"Never a truer word has been spoken." Sabrina teased.
"Oh shuddup!"
She marched through the house and up the stairs with her sister in tow. At the top of the stairs they found a long hallway with five closed doors, two on each side and one at the end of the hallway. Sabrina yanked on the closest one, but it was locked tight. She turned and tried the door behind her. It opened to a bedroom decorated with dozens of wooden tribal masks, wild-eyed and smiling hideously. Two ancient swords were mounted on the wall alongside the masks, and there were pictures of Mrs. Grimm and her husband, Basil, everywhere. Like the ones downstairs, each photo was of a different part of the world. In one picture, Basil was standing at the top of an ancient stone temple; in another, the couple were guiding a gondola through what Sabrina guessed were Venetian canals. She closed the door, realizing that this had to be the old woman's room. She tried the next door.
Inside, Mr. Canis sat cross-legged on the floor, his hands resting on his knees.
"Ah, my good friend. Meditation." Red commented.
Several candles lit the nearly empty room, illuminating its sparse furnishings and a small woven mat on the floor. There were no pictures or decorations at all. Mr. Canis opened his eyes and turned to look at the girls, his eyebrows arched.
Sabrina slammed the door without apologizing. "What a nutcase," she muttered.
"Ouch." Puck hooted.
"I AM WARNING YOU, FAIRY!"
The next door opened to a queen-sized, four-poster bed with their suitcases resting on top. Sabrina pulled Daphne inside and slammed the door.
"That woman is hiding something!" she said.
"You think everyone's hiding something."
"And you would hug the devil if he gave you cookies."
"I mean… maybe." Daphne laughed.
"Well, I like her!" said Daphne. She sat down on the bed and let out a Harrumph!
Sabrina looked around the room. It was painted in soft yellow and had a slanted ceiling and a fireplace. A red ten-speed bicycle sat in the corner, an old baseball mitt rested on a desk, and several model airplanes hung from the ceiling.
"My airplanes!" Jake exclaimed.
"I made those!" Henry protested.
"No you didn't! I did!"
"Boys! You both made some!" Relda interrupted.
A nightstand sat next to the bed with an alarm clock perched on top. And on every wall were dozens of old photographs. A particularly large one showed two young boys staring out over the Hudson River.
"The only picture of Uncle Jake. Though we didn't know who he was." Daphne piped up.
"We thought you were just a friend of Dad's." Sabrina explained.
Sabrina went to the window and looked out at the porch roof below. She could probably jump off it and then to the ground, but Daphne might hurt herself.
"That sounds painful just thinking about it." Red interrupted.
"Oh come on! You've never jumped off a roof?" Sabrina's earnest tone was disturbing to her family.
"Let's give her a chance," Daphne begged.
"A chance to what? Kill us in our sleep? Feed us to that monster dog of hers? No way!" Sabrina said. "While you were shoveling in those meatballs did you ever think that they might be made from the last couple of kids she claimed she was related to?"
"That would rock, old lady. You should make food like that!" Puck hooted.
"Shut up, fairy." Sabrina said.
Daphne rolled her eyes. "You're gross!"
Suddenly Sabrina heard a faint whistling sound, almost like a flute, coming from outside the window.
Puck grinned toothily. Sabrina gave him a death look.
She peered into the dark forest behind the house. At first she thought she had seen something or someone sitting in a tree…
Puck blanched, "You did see me!?"
"Yes, so?"
"Nothing. I hate you."
"I hate you as well." Sabrina said cheerfully and casual.
...but when she rubbed her eyes for a clearer look there was nothing there. Still, the music continued.
"Where is that coming from?" she said.
And like an answer to her question, a little light flickered outside the window. Sabrina thought it was a lightning bug.
"Honestly, Puck, that was extremely rude." Relda scolded the boy's snickers.
It flew up to the window as if it was trying to get a better view of her. It was joined by another light and the two danced around each other, zipping excitedly back and forth in the air.
"Amazing," she said.
Daphne rushed to the window. "They're so pretty," she whispered as dozens more lights joined the original two. Within seconds there were almost a hundred little lights blinking and flashing outside.
"You sent pixies to their window?" Jake said incredulously.
"Yeah."
"Honestly." Jake rolled his eyes.
Without thinking, Sabrina reached up and unlocked the window. She just wanted to get a closer look, maybe grab a couple to keep in a jar in the room…
"K-keep my pixies in a jar!?" Puck said hysterically.
"It was your own fault for sending them at us."
...but as she undid the window's latch, the bedroom door blew open with a crash. Startled, the sisters spun around and found Mr. Canis looming in the doorway.
"Girls, you'll leave that window closed if you know what's good for you!" he growled.
"But did we know what was good for us?" Sabrina asked rhetorically.
"No." Veronica and Henry said in unison.
Sabrina grinned.
Mr. Canis stomped across the room, pushed the girls aside, and locked the window. The little lights outside flew around, bounced off the glass several times, and buzzed as if in protest.
"They were so angry when they told me about you intervening. I'd been working to trick these dummies into letting me into the house." Puck groused.
A moment later they were gone, and the whistling sound faded away. Mr. Canis turned and stood over Sabrina.
"You are never to let anyone or anything inside this house," he said in a voice as low and scratchy as an angry dog's.
"We really never listened, did we?" Daphne snorted. Sabrina chortled as well.
"It was just some lightning bugs," said Sabrina. Her face was hot and red with shock. Who was this man to think he could tell her what to do?
"Just some lightning bugs." Canis scoffed.
"No one comes into this house. Do you understand what I have just asked of you?" Mr. Canis said.
"We did not."
The girls nodded.
"Very well. Good night." He stalked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Sabrina stood dumbfounded, trying to comprehend what had just happened.
"What was that all about?" Daphne whispered, but Sabrina said nothing. She didn't want her sister to hear the fear in her voice. Since her parents had run off, Sabrina had had to be the tough one. Her little sister needed to know there was someone strong by her side, even if it meant Sabrina had to pretend sometimes.
Sabrina sped up, skimming over the page.
There was a knock on the door and Mrs. Grimm entered the room. "It's been a long day, hasn't it?"
"Mr. Canis yelled at us," Daphne cried.
"I heard," the old woman said as she sat down on the bed. "Please don't be too upset by Mr. Canis. He can be a little grouchy from time to time but he has your best interests at heart. Believe me, lieblings, we are both very happy to have you here, but there are a few rules you have to follow …" she said, pausing as she looked into Sabrina's face, "… and I know that what I tell you might not make a lot of sense but the rules are in place for a reason.
"For a lot of reasons. Not that we ever listened… but still."
"First, never let anyone or anything into this house without asking Mr. Canis or me if it is OK," she said. Her tone was stern and serious and no longer that of the sweet, loving old lady with the funky spaghetti.
Mrs. Grimm took the girls' hands in her own. "Second, there is a room down the hall that is locked. It's locked for a reason and I ask that you stay away from it for the time being. You might hear some unusual noises coming from inside, but just ignore them. Do you understand?" she asked.
"Wow, you were supposed to understand a lot of stuff."
The girls nodded.
"As for the rest of the house, feel free to explore. You'll notice there are plenty of books to keep you occupied."
"Really? Books? I didn't notice," Sabrina said sarcastically.
"The sass, honestly, Grimm."
"I will stab you."
"Sure ya will."
"Don't tempt me, fairy boy."
"If worse comes to worst we can always dig out that old TV," Mrs. Grimm continued, as if Sabrina hadn't spoken. She got up from the bed and crossed to the door. She turned to smile at them one last time. "Who wants pancakes in the morning?"
"And this is what I mean with bribing with food." Jake interjected.
Daphne's face lit up. "I do!"
"Are you warm enough? Do you need anything to sleep in?" The little girl opened one of the suitcases and pulled out two extra large T-shirts that read "Bermuda Is for Lovers."
Puck guffawed with laughter at this.
"No, we have these," she said.
"Very good," Mrs. Grimm said. "Good night, don't let the bedbugs bite."
"She's nice," said Daphne when the old lady was gone.
Sabrina clenched her fists. "It's all an act. That woman is hiding something…
"Very true." Relda said calmly.
... and we aren't sticking around to find out what it is. Get some sleep. We're running away—tonight."
"Imma start calling you Dramatic Grimm."
"Do that… if you want to get stabbed."
"Guys!" Daphne exclaimed exasperatedly.
"He started it!"
"She started it!"
"Sabrina, do you want me to take over?" Henry offered.
"Alright."
…
Sabrina lay in bed staring at the ceiling, listening to her hungry belly grumble, and planning their getaway. With a little luck she and Daphne could hide in a neighbor's garage for a couple of days and then hitchhike back to New York City.
"Hitchhiking, cause that's always safe." Puck mocked.
"I thought we were in more danger with Granny."
After that, she didn't know. In the past they had just gone back to the orphanage, but this time Ms. Smirt might act on her threat to skin them alive.
"Puck, where do you want to bury her body?" Jake asked.
"We could always just feed her to my pixies." Puck offered seriously.
The next place she sent them would be a million times worse. The girls were on their own now.
"We have to go," Sabrina whispered to her sister when she was sure the rest of the house was asleep.
"I heard you two; but I decided to let Relda take care of it." Mr. Canis informed them. "But you were harder to hear than Jake and Henry were."
Daphne sat up and rubbed her eyes but said nothing. Her heartbroken face said it all. Why is she acting like such a baby?...
"You have such a great bedside manner." Surprisingly, it was Red who teased.
Sabrina smiled, "Nice."
...Sabrina wondered. Running away wasn't exactly a new experience for the two of them. The sisters Grimm had pulled off several daring escapes from foster parents in the last year and a half. They had tied bedsheets together and climbed out of the Mercers' window one night, feeding their pit bull, Diablo, meatballs stuffed with cayenne pepper to keep him busy.
Basil shivered, "You ran away?"
"We had to, Baz. The Mercers' were complete crazies."
And after the Johnsons had ordered pizza, the girls had slipped into the backseat of the delivery boy's car and were miles away before he even noticed them. Mrs. Grimm was no different than any of the other lunatics they had run away from. Eventually, Daphne would understand.
"I kept calling you a snot in my head," Daphne commented.
When they were dressed and packed, Sabrina slowly opened the door and looked out into the hallway. It was empty—and as the two girls crept out with their tiny suitcases, she used her skills to the fullest. They tiptoed down the stairs, being careful to step close to the wall to avoid making them creak.
...
Hi Guys! Bottom Footnote now. Didja like the chapter? I really hope you did and it wasn't boring. Alright, so, the next chapter is going to be special! It's going to take a slight turn from my story's canon, a special chapter, requested by Jo and Smiley-two uber loyal reviewers- that is going to be published on Wednesday. Don't worry, the regular chapter is going to be published on Sunday. The reason it's not canon is that Pinocchio and Mustardseed are going to be there and they're not in the actual story. I was going to write them in originally but that would've just been far too many people who I had to keep talking and acting and this current lineup is hard enough. And they're not going to be reacting to the book, y'all will find out why there is a laptop in the title :)!
Now: QotW-Question of the Week: It's actually a two parter. The first part is this: Do you have a middle name? The second part is: Do you have more than one middle name, if you do, how many do you have?
My answer is this: I have two middle names. Dawn and Victoria after my grandmothers. You can call me Dawn if you're referring to me and you don't want to call me Princess Books Rule.
Thank you all for reading my story! I hope you liked this chapter!
Book out.
