The Rite of Spring
Chapter 3
Odette woke up the next morning staring at the room for a long second before reality set in on her. 'Oh it wasn't a dream.' She groaned as she rolled on to her back.
"Do we have to get up?" Grim muttered as Odette sat up and crawled around him.
"Yes, we have a job to do." Odette answered as she began to make the bed making him get out of the bed.
"Ground's keeping? Sounds like a job for you not me." Grim yawned.
"Fine if you don't help then you'll have to find our own way to help out. Maybe clean the dorm." Odette shrugged as she went into the closet to change.
"What?!" Grim exclaimed as he floated over to the open door.
"You have to earn your keep. The Headmaster isn't letting us stay here for free, living isn't free. We'll need things beside a roof and food, like shampoo." Odette said as she came out wearing a burrow pair of jeans and a plain gray cotton t-shirt.
"Earn your keep?" Grim parroted.
"It's a saying from my world. I'm sure it exist here, it's pretty straight forward." Odette said as she headed to the bathroom.
To her surprise it wasn't in bad shape, like everything else in the house it could use a wipe down but that was about it. 'Well, this will be an easy job to do.' She thought as she searched the drawers for a hair brush and a hair tie. "Jack pot!" She sang as she found both. She turned to the mirror and wiped away some dust then jumped back. 'This is what I look like here?' She thought as peered as her reflection.
Her face looked about the same as usual. 'Was my face always this chubby?' She thought as she puffed out her cheeks. 'I don't remember my hair being this shocking white.' She thought as she touched her soft hair. 'Or my eyes being this bright teal.' She thought as she stared into her eyes. "Well I guess it could be worse. I look pretty cute like this." She muttered as she began to brush her hair and put it up into a high ponytail.
"Hey Grim we should tackle the house room by room. Let's do the bathroom and the living room after work today." She called out as she made her way down to the anteroom. All she heard was a groan from the bedroom.
She was halfway down the stairs when there was a knock on the front door. "Be right there!" She called out. She opened the door to see Crowley.
"Good morning Ms. Thropp." He chirped as he entered the house and handed her a small box. She opened to reveal two ham and cheese croissant sandwiches. "Are you ready for your first assignment?" He asked as she handed Grim one of the sandwiches.
"As soon as I finish this sandwich. Let's get going, I can eat and listen." Odette said as she quickly escorted him out of the dorm, by the time they hit the sidewalk outside the dorm she had finished her sandwich.
"I'll explain all duties on the way to your first assignment." Crowley said as he walked them towards the main street. "So that is everything I'll except of you as you fill this role. Now for your first day I want you to clean the statues of the Great Seven." He said as they stopped in front of the first statue.
"That doesn't seem too bad." Odette remarked as she looked over each statue.
"The cleaning supplies are over in the shed. I'll return at lunch." Crowley explained waving a hand over towards a small wooden shed then disappearing.
"Well at least it's a nice day out." Odette remarked as she brought the bucket of soapy water over to the closest statue. The plaque read 'The Thorn Fairy.' Odette stared up at the beautiful woman before her. 'My, she's very beautiful. I wonder if she was this beautiful in person.' She thought as she began to wash the base the statue sat on.
"You're attitude is starting to get on my nerves. Why are you so happy? We're cleaning instead of learning our craft." Grim complained as he floated up to the top of the statue to wash the horns.
"Well right back at you. Every dark cloud has a silver lining. He could have asked us to sweep the chimneys but point is he could have kicked us out to the street and left us homeless. This isn't so bad." Odette reminded Grim.
They were just finishing with the Thorn Fairy when students began to file pass them towards the school. Grim just glared at them as he heard the whispers and chuckles of the students. "This is embarrassing." He whined as he floated down to Odette.
"Getting mad at them is only going to hurt you, not them. This can't be helped, we made a scene and everyone saw. They'll talk until someone else does something stupid then we'll be forgotten." Odette whispered as she got up from her kneeling position. "Which one next?"
"How the Queen of Hearts?" Grim suggested floating over to a statue of a plump woman.
"The Queen of Hearts?" Odette asked as she read the plaque.
"This is the Queen of Hearts. The Heartslabyul dorm is modeled after her. Don't you know that?' Grim explained crossing his arms.
Odette shook her head. "Crowley said the transportation might have done something to my memories. It's rare but it happens. He thinks it's temporary." Odette explained.
"It's a great statue isn't it?" A voice behind them said making them turn around to see a coopered red headed guy with a heart over his left eye. He was wearing the a proper school uniform with a red vest and a black and red ribbon around his left arm.
"I'm Ace Trappola of Heartslabyul dorm. My dorm loves the Queen of Hearts." Ace explains.
Ace then begins to explain each statue to the girls pointing each out.
'These all look vaguely familiar, but why?' Odette thought following Ace's finger.
Ace then began to laugh first it was a chuckle then deepen and got dark. "Are you complete fools? How do you not know this? Children are taught this the first year of school. You know nothing yet you want to be students here. It's so laughable."
"How dare you!" Grim growled then attacks Ace.
Ace easily blocked Grim's magic with his wind magic.
"Wind magic?" Odette gasped. 'I guess all kind of magic exists here.'
Grim attacked Ace again who blew the flames away again right at the Queen of Hearts statue causing it to catch fire.
"Ugh guys?" Odette said interrupting their fight and points to the statue.
"I got this!" Ace snapped as he blows out the flame but it was too late the statue was signed.
"What's going on?!" Crowley shouted showing up.
"They were fighting." Odette informed Crowley. "And they burnt one of the statues."
"One of the sevens! What have you done you children." Crowley shouted as he summoned a whip and hit Grim and Ace.
'Is that allow her in this world?' Odette wondered as she raised an eyebrow at the interaction.
"As punishment you all will wash all the windows in the cafeteria today." Crowley informed them.
They all groan.
'There goes getting anything else done.' Odette thought with a sigh.
"Ah man!" Grim whined.
"I can't believe this." Ace groaned.
"You shouldn't have been fighting." Odette snapped at them as she began to scrub the statue.
"Mr. Trappola get to class now, the rest of you get back back to cleaning." Crowley growled then stormed off.
It took them the rest of the day to finish the statues but they were spotless after they were done, even the Queen of Hearts statue looked almost back to normal.
It was after school when they were done and then had to do the windows. "Let's eat while we wait for Ace." Odette suggested as she sat at a table with a covered plate of food saved for them by the nice kitchen staff.
Grim grumbled under his breath but sat down too. "Yeah I'm starving."
They ate then wait another 30 minutes for Ace who still hadn't shown more.
"He ditched us!" Grim shouted and took off.
"Oh no not again." Odette sighed as she took off after him.
Grim heads straight for the hall of mirrors where he did find Ace chatting with a dark blue haired student who had a spade over his left eye.
"Get him!" Grim shouted pointing at Ace.
"What did you do?" The student asked.
"Nothing!" Ace said starting to run away.
"He's skipping out on his punishment!" Odette shouted.
"Punishment for what?" The student asked hot on Ace's heels.
"I may have burned the statue of the Queen of Hearts." Ace said.
"What! I summon you! Cauldron!" The student shouted hitting Ace with a cauldron.
"Thanks for the help, who are you?" Odette asked as she pulled Ace off the floor.
"I'm Deuce Spade. I'm a student of the Heartsbyul house and classmate of this idiot." Deuce said. "I can't believe he burnt the statue and then ditched his punishment."
"I'm Odette Thropp nice to meet you." Odette introduced. "Yeah, I can't believe it neither. Come on Ace."
"Hey where did your pet Grim go?" Ace asked looking around.
"Oh no he's ditched us now." Odette groaned.
"Well maybe he went back to get start." Deuce said with a weak smile.
"I doubt it." Odette replied.
The group head back to the cafeteria where Grim surprisingly is but up in the chandelier. "I'm not cleaning anything else!" Grim shouted.
"You helped burn the statue, you help clean!" Odettee shouted up to him.
"How are we going to get him down from there?" Ace asked scratching his head.
"One of us near to go up there and get him." Deuce said.
"Yeah that's probably the best bet." Ace said yanking his arm away from Odette.
"You should go up since you got them into this mess." Deuce said using his gemstone pen to make Ace float in the air.
"Whoa! Hey out me down!" Ace exclaimed.
"Oh wow!" Odette gasped. 'So many different powers.' She thought.
"I'll put you down once you get the cat." Deuce said throwing Ace up towards Grim.
Grim and Ace scream as they collide, damaging the chandelier causing it come crashing down.
"What have you done!?" Crowley shouts appearing in the room making everyone jump.
"Why does he keep doing that?" Maggie whispered.
"You've damaged school property. Expansive school property." Crowley exclaimed looking over the broken chandelier.
"Can't we just repair it and put it back up?" Odette suggested.
"No, the mage stone has been damaged it'll have to be replaced and those can be up to a million marks." Crowley explained.
"A millon marks!" Everyone exclaimed in unison.
"This means I will have to fire you and expel these two." Crowley said turning to face the group.
"Is there anything we can do to not be expelled?" Deuce asked looking ashamed.
"If you could find a mage stone then I won't expel you." Crowley sighed.
"Where do we get one of these?" Ace asked.
"I suppose you could go to the dwarf's mine, that's where we use to get them." Crowley explained.
"Can we go with them to find this stone?" Odette asked.
"Yes, you have until morning to get a new mage stone." Crowley said setting a deadline then stormed out of the cafeteria.
"Okay so how do we get to the mines?" Odette asked turning towards Deuce and Ace.
"We'll have to use the dark mirror." Deuce explained as they made their way back to the hall of mirrors.
Thanks for coming back. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. I'm trying to balance between the game story line and what I plan on doing. So please stay soon for another POV chapter.