A/N

I know you guys deserve a super long explanation of our hiatus and a super long chapter for sticking with us and still reading. But, I will give my explanation at the end and let you read now. Mel and I are *attempting* a 12 days of Christmas update fest. We'll see how we get with that. I churned all this out today and Mel hasn't read it. I haven't even read it completely through. But we had to get this in before we could move on to bigger and better things. Merry Christmas and enjoy!

Oh, and we don't own the Sisters Grimm.

~M.K~

Sabrina's alarm went off at 6 am exactly. She groaned and rolled over to glare at the blaring clock. Reluctantly, she sat up and got out of bed. It was her first day of school.

She wondered how many "first days" at a new school she had been to (she had lost count over the years). But this year would be different. This year, she wasn't some foster kid that everyone could tease. She wasn't going to a school with Everafters who wanted to kill her. Nope. This year, she would be starting seventh grade at the nearby Manhattan middle school. Her parents would drop her and her sister off in the morning and then she and her sister would walk home together in the afternoon. It would be a completely mediocre day at school. They wouldn't get into any shenanigans, but they would make a few friends and keep up in class and such.

Hearing her sister get up, she hurried to get first dibs on the bathroom that connected their rooms. She brushed her teeth to get rid of her morning breath and washed her face. After hanging the rag back up, she scrutinized her face. She had avoided getting zits so far, so she decided to forgo make up today. Even something as simple as mascara was risky if it smeared during class and made her look like a raccoon.

Daphne rapped on the door impatiently. "Are you done yet?"

"Yeah, yeah," Sabrina reached over to twist the doorknob. As soon as the lock clicked, Daphne pushed open the door.

"I only have an hour and I need to figure out how to make my hair stay in a crazy updo without any using any glue and milk," she finished in one breath.

Sabrina turned to look at her sister. "Why? We're in New York now. People here expect us to act normal."

"But I want to stand out."

"We're the new kids at a small school—I'm sure people will notice us." And she walked out of the bathroom and into her room. She still needed to pick out the perfect outfit. Whoever had said "first impressions didn't matter" lied as far as she was concerned. Twenty minutes later, she decided she had better eat something before school and left her room. She was wearing dark boot-cut jeans, white converse high-tops, and a long-sleeved, fitted, dark pink shirt with a white camisole underneath. She had kept her long, wavy hair down with a just bobby pin on the side.

Daphne was already at the table when Sabrina got downstairs.

"Good morning, sweetie," Veronica said, stepping out of the kitchen to kiss Sabrina on the cheek. "Sit down and have some pancakes—these have pansy petals in them, but these are regular." She gestured to the appropriate sides of the platter.

"Thanks, Mom," Sabrina said, giving her a smile.

"Your father's going to take you girls to school on his way to work," Veronica called from the kitchen where she was cleaning up from making breakfast.

Sabrina and Daphne nodded—both of them had pancakes in their mouth.

"Then Basil and I are going off to run some errands later, so we may not be home when you get back from school. Any requests for dinner tonight? We'll be going to the grocery store, too, so I can pick up ingredients if we don't have any."

"Ooh! Can we have spaghetti?" Daphne cried, swallowing her pancakes. "Alright, I'm done." She pushed back her chair and took her plate into the kitchen.

"Go brush your teeth and get your shoes on," Veronica told her.

"Okay," Daphne said, heading for the stairs. "Hurry up, Sabrina, we don't want to be late!" She called back to her sister.

"I'm coming," Sabrina responded, getting up and clearing her place. Then she followed her sister up the stairs to their bathroom.

It was seven thirty when they stood in by the door with their shoes and their backpacks on, waiting for their father to find his car keys.

"Got them!" They heard Henry shout from the living room. "Basil must have been playing with them," he said, grabbing his briefcase and following the girls out the door. There was a main garage for the apartment complex where everyone had their cars.

They got to school ten minutes before school started. It was the Anderson school in upper west side Manhattan. And it was for elementary and middle school, so Sabrina and Daphne went to the principal's office together to get their schedules. Sabrina walked Daphne to her class, even though Daphne told her she would be fine. Then Sabrina found her homeroom. She took a deep breath outside the door. What's the worst that could happen? She thought to herself. An image of Ms. Smirt dragging her—with wild, milk-glue-pickle hair—and Daphne—with a beehive full of school supplies—into school and hitting on the principal filled her head. She grinned, wryly. Nothing could be that bad.

~M.K~

By the end of the day, Sabrina's head was fried. Classes hadn't been bad, per se. But after an the intro to jazz in her music class, an overenthusiastic Spanish teacher, a super-strict Social Studies teacher, as well as a reiteration of the "we don't take laziness, no excuses, we're a gifted school, blah, blah, and get your parents to sign these" speech in every class, she was ready to leave. This is what school is supposed to be like, she reminded herself.

Nothing entertaining had happened—not even in gym class when they played dodge ball. The other girls in her class were either too preppy or too nerdy. There wasn't a tough-but-sweet girl like Bella that she could befriend. Of course, Bella had turned out to be in league with a murderer so maybe that was a good thing. And all the boys were dumb. For once, she found herself missing the cleverness of Puck's pranks and insults. The boys in her classes made stupid jokes that made no sense, but then laughed at them anyways. They tossed petty insults back and forth trying to make themselves seem cooler than the other boys.

Nothing had gone as she had planned, but everything that happened was as expected. She was in middle school—seventh grade—the essence of pre-teen hell. As someone who had seen things way beyond her years, it seemed superficial. She only hoped her sister's day had gone better.

Daphne had been the hit of her grade last year and Sabrina figured the little girl would fit right in again this year. But, when Daphne found Sabrina by the main doors after school, she ran and hugged her big sister around the middle.

"Daphne!" Sabrina exclaimed, surprised at her sister's behavior. Daphne was in elementary school, thing couldn't have been that bad. "What's wrong?"

"All the kids thought I was weird. We had to talk about our favorite fairytale, but I had to pretend they were all made up. Then, one kid said he liked how the woodcutter chopped up Mr. Canis to save Red, but that wasn't how the story went. Mr. Canis wasn't killed and the woodcutter was just a big ol' fraud and Red is fine. So I told him, and then he got mad and told me to stop trying to act smart because I wasn't. And then Mrs. Kelly-Finkle said I was interrupting and lying and I got in trouble. She said that "now's not the time for me to use my imagination". Everyone at the school is so boring!" Daphne sounded like she was about to cry and the truth of her words hit Sabrina like a brick. This school was boring. Sabrina knew that if Daphne started crying, she would too. She couldn't help it. She missed that awfully small town with all the strange Everafters. She missed her Grandmother and her doll's house on top of the hill. She missed that arrogant fairy who pestered her constantly. She missed her uncle and his cheesy jokes. She even missed Mr. Canis, Red, and Pinocchio. She had to do something to make her sister feel better and get their minds off of school.

"Hey, Central Park is just a couple blocks from here," Sabrina nudged Daphne off of her. "Want to head over to Faerie for a snack in Mama's bar?"

Daphne's eyes widened. "I forgot about Faerie! We're not so separated from Everafters after all! Let's go!" She grabbed Sabrina's hand and ran down the front steps of the school.

"Hold on," Sabrina said, "I don't want to trip." She readjusted her hand to fit more comfortably around Daphne's, but consented to walking quickly in the direction of the park.

~M.K~

When they got to Hans Christian Andersen's statue, they paused.

"It's weird being here without everyone else," Daphne said quietly.

"Yeah," Sabrina nodded. "You go first."

Daphne made a fist and hit the statue with a loud clank. "Knock, knock!" She cried. And she disappeared. Sabrina followed suit.

They both oriented themselves after being magically delivered into a very loud, Everafter bar.

"Hey girls!" Mama called from where she was serving drinks. "I didn't expect to see y'all back so soon!"

"We just stopped by for a snack," Sabrina said, as she and Daphne took seats at the bar.

"Here, I got a plate of fresh cookies made by the prince himself. And I can getcha a glass of milk to go with them. Just hold on a sec'".

"Prince?" Daphne scrunched up her nose. "Isn't Mustardseed king now, since Puck left?"

"He's only acting as king until Puck gets back. Technically, his title is still prince," Mama replied when she returned with the milk.

"Mustardseed made cookies?" Sabrina laughed.

"Hey, I worked really hard on those," a voice said from behind. Both girls whipped around in their seats to find the source. And there was Mustardseed, still in the doorway, with Queen Titania and Veronica Grimm behind him.

"Oh son, there was a reason I gave the cookies to Mama," Titania sniffed. Mustardseed just rolled his eyes.

"Mustardseed! Good to see you!" Daphne cried, jumping up to give the boy a hug.

"Mom?!" Sabrina cried at the same time. "What are you doing here?"

"I just came to offer Titania my help and to see how things have been going while I've been gone," Veronica answered. "She's allowing me to relocate some of Ferryport Landing's Everafters here. I really want to help everyone who wants to leave the town get settled in a new area, but Everafter-friendly communities are difficult to find. It's not even the magic, it's the fact that they don't have social security cards or passports or credit or. . .other boring adult stuff," she finished when she looked at her daughter who were staring at her dumbfounded.

"But Titania did tell me what happened last Christmas. You girls did a great job with the speech," Veronica said, wrapping both girls in a hug. Sabrina blushed—she was still embarrassed about having stood in front of all of Faerie to give her mother's speech. Her mom's speech made her realize what it meant to be a Grimm, and that wasn't something she was about to forget, no matter what the kids and teachers at school said.

~M.K~

Okay, so here's the story. We were super busy and we've hardly gotten a chance to talk except for over Thanksgiving break when we were in Florida together. So I've been on a whirlwind in college with papers and maybe transferring and robotics and job applications and waterpolo tournaments and then-before I knew it-exams. Mel's been overwhelmed with high school and cross country and choir and babysitting and helping her mom with her eight younger siblings and entertaining the German foreign exchange student that her family is hosting and writing her own story that she wants to publish. Oh, and she does Tae-kwon-do. Which was another problem, because she went and got herself a concussion in November while teaching a Tae-Kwon-Do class. So then she couldn't go to school and wasn't supposed to write and then we really got behind. But, so far, we're still on time for our Christmas Day update so we win as far as I'm concerned.

I'm terribly sorry for not being more on top of things, though. And I promise a wonderful Christmas season full of updates and then *hopefully* more regular updates during this next semester.

I hope you all had a wonderful day today, even if you don't celebrate Christmas. And, while stores are taking down their Christmas merchandise and families are taking down their decorations and radio stations have stopped playing carols, we are just beginning our Christmas season. There are twelve days of it, you know. That's not just a song-it's a real thing. And we will be celebrating with updates! :D

Krystynn

P.S. And please review! It makes me happy and then I get to respond and converse with fellow Sisters Grimm fans and I love to talk to y'all! ^^

P.P.S. FYI the Anderson School is a real school in NYC. I got all the info about it from their website, however, I de-glammed the website's portrayal of the school.