I've decided to push out a few chapters while I have time over the Winter Hols. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Diwali, New Year, or whatever it is you would celebrate. Or maybe you don't celebrate, then just happy Winter and I wish you the best in 2023. I will not be publishing anything after early January for a while I imagine, so I hope you guys like this. Again, Happy Winter Hols!

Chapter Three

The next morning I woke up to find that I was leaning against the borders of the bed, a tub of melted ice cream in my lap and a spoon sticking out of the mess. Remembering last night was fuzzy, and so I took my sweet time to get up and stretch, placing the ice cream on the ground and slowly making my way out of the room.

Walking into the hallway, my feet went to the bathroom on auto pilot. The body knew the layout, it was just that the brain did not. While my befuddled mind struggled to piece together where I was going, a small person ran into me at full speed and I let out an unladylike "Oomph!"

"Sorry Sabrina!" the little voice I recognized to be Daphne—this Daphne, not my original one - quickly yelped and continued on past me and tumbled own the stairs. I mumbled something akin to "Sure," and just went into the bathroom.

The shower and bath were combined, which I was definitely not against. It was that much easier to hide from people in a bathtub than a clear glass shower stall, plus I could take a bath any time I wanted. It was great. Quickly washing my face and brushing my teeth, I hurriedly untangled my hair with my fingers and attempted to braid it on my way downstairs. I imagined it would look like something a child made, but that was fine with me.

"Morning," I mumbled to the room and let my eyes search for the one thing I wanted most in that moment, a coffee maker.

"Good morning, liebling," Granny said to me distractedly as she was drinking her own… whatever it was that she had. I saw a flash of yellow and some red sizzling, and refused to ask.

When I found what I was looking for, I was incredibly happy to see it did not look broken in any way and I quickly headed over to experiment. The shelves were all glass-covered, so I quickly found the one with the cups and took a pretty blue one for myself. After adding three double shots of espresso, I topped it off with a bunch of sugar and filled the rest of the cup with milk, stirring it and taking a big swig of my concoction. "This is what I call iced coffee," I jumped up to sit on the counter top and relax with my cup of energy.

"Liebling, you are going to get diabetes if you drink that," Granny gave me an appraising look.

"It's either this or you tolerate me with an incredible attitude until about two, so it's your choice," I slurped my drink and sighed, leaning back against the wall with a grin.

"Remember, since it's your first day at school today you will be coming in late, at about twelve o'clock, but you wanted to do your shopping before so you should hurry, it's almost ten already," Granny informed me as she looked through some books, her cup already forgotten on the dining table. When she found what she was looking for, the woman placed the book in her seemingly endless purse and hurried over to me. Pecking me on the cheek, she patted my head all in one swift motion, "I will be taking Daphne with me to go out, wake up Puck and you two behave yourselves with Mr. Canis,"

"Yes, Granny," I quickly jumped off the table, my coffee already done and the mug in the sink. I hurried upstairs as to have enough time to shop and quickly ran to Puck's room.

"Puck, let's go! Wake up you-"

"Whadahell you want, Grimm?!" a tired voice screeched from his bed and I ran over. What I saw when I got closer was a boy completely cocooned in four blankets, including my own that I had taken there the previous night.

"I need clothes, and you need clothes, and Canis needs a walk, or a drive apparently, since he's driving us, but I dunno how he's driving us since he has no car," I shrugged and shook the boy, "Wa-a-ke u-up Pu-u-u-ck!"

"Let me go sleep, you go shopping by yourself you're not a baby," he retorted and just cuddled in more.

"Fine, but I'm buying you clothes that you will wear," I threatened, hands on hips and glaring at him.

"Sure, Grimm, sure,"

"Wonder how you'll look in a cheetah-print jacket…" I mused aloud, looking at him mischievously.

The boy instantly shot up, panic in his eyes, "You wouldn't!"

"You don't know me," I shrugged. That was true, the boy had only known me for the last, like, 12 hours at most. Also, most of that we were both asleep or fighting over a spoon.

"Fine," he grumbled and carefully got out of his little blanket nest to follow me out of the room.

"Go brush your teeth," I made a face at the boy, "Your breath smells like a chimp,"

"Aw, you really think so?" Puck fluttered his lashes at me and I guffawed.

"Yes, I do. Now go clean yourself up before I do it for you,"

"Yes, Mom,"

"Hey, I am not as bad as Titania," I defended.

"Keep telling yourself that, Grimm,"

I then proceeded to call him a word which I cannot say, for it would be censured by my little sister. Despite her being a miscreant, the girl is a stickler for rules, which is sometimes annoying, like it is in this case.

"Watch your language, wouldn't want to set a bad example for the kids, now would you?" Puck teased and I narrowed my eyes at him. After a second of hesitation, I kicked up my foot, caught the fuzzy white slipper, and chucked it at his head with all my eleven-year-old girl might. It was safe to say that Puck ducked into the room with obnoxious laughter and the shoe just hit itself on the door frame, missing his nose by a millisecond.

By the time Puck got out of the bathroom Canis and I were already dressed and ready to go out into the chilly Autumn weather. Puck, however was wearing ratty sweatpants and his trademark green hoodie.

"Puck."

"Yes?"

"Do you see what I'm wearing?" I gestured to my rain boots and coat as puck pulled on his dirty runners and stood there, watching me.

"Yes, way too much for September."

"It's going to rain," Canis warned in a growling tone.

"I'll be fine," he waved us away with a laugh, "I'm not three, let's go,"

It turned out that Canis had his own car, he just never used it. It was a Cadillac Eldorado, apparently, not that I had any idea what that meant. All I knew was that it was cool and would be an amazing car to go stargazing in, thanks to the removable roof of the cabriolet.

Puck was even more impressed than I, letting out a whistle as he brushed the side with his hand, "Nice,"

"I got it when it was brand new, and it is still in pristine condition." Canis was clearly proud of the vehicle, and it showed. There was not a single scratch anywhere outside or inside the car, and the mileage showed only twenty thousand miles. For a thirty-something year old car that was pretty damn cool, even I knew that.

When Puck and I were buckled in, Canis started the car, and it was great. It was pretty quiet, but compared to what I assumed Granny's car to be, this was a miracle.

Puck confirmed that by voicing my thoughts, "Why don't we use this car instead of the Old Lady's deathtrap? Don't take me wrong, I love that it could kill my hearing at any moment, but this is so much better. I can hear myself talk instead of Granny and Marshmallow screaming about dolphins and pudding,"

"It's sentimental, probably," I shrugged, and when Canis did not deny my claim I knew it was right. "So where are we going, exactly?"

"There's a couple of stores that I went to when I was getting clothes for you and your sister. We're going there."

When we finally got there, I realized that it was entirely not Canis' fault for getting me those horrid pieces. Everything there looked like it was out of a cheesy '70s magazine and I left the store as soon as I got in. The one next to it, however, had some hope, so I dragged my companions over and got to work. Within five minutes I already found a ton of clothes I would definitely wear, Including some cute baggy jeans and way too many hoodies.

The only problem was that Puck and I liked the same tops, so I told him that he could have them all, when my plan was to simply steal them all from him, one by one. I was a little genius, and I am still very proud of that.

I ended up with a few different pairs of jeans, three pairs of sweatpants, a hoodie with the One Direction logo emblazoned on the front, and a bunch of fitted tees. Puck had his arms full of about fifteen different hoodies, however, and two pairs of sweatpants.

When Canis insisted that we both get fancy clothes too, I gave everything I was holding to Puck and started on it. The boy had no interest in clothes either way, and I could have my fun. I looked through about three rows of kids' suits when I found Puck the least fancy one I could, which was a dark green shade, and a plain white button-up shirt.

For myself, I quickly spotted a pale pink dress made of what looked like silk, so I snatched it and we quickly got out of the place.

There was only half an hour before school was starting, so we zoomed home for me to change, which I did in mine and Daphne's room in about a minute. Being eleven and not wearing a bra again was fantastic.

My baggy jeans and I made my way downstairs I quickly donned the same boots and coat I had on this morning, and Puck changed his green hoodie for an identical one, which was a bit of an improvement, since the old one was ripped up and stank of rotten eggs and eleven-year-old boy sweat, and the three of us made our way back into the car.

The ride to school was silent. Puck decided it was a good time for a power nap, and Canis was simply not a talkative person. What I did was relax, and I laid my head on the seat belt to stare out the window. It was not an exciting view, but with nothing else to do, I was bored.

When the school was in sight I sat up straight and shook Puck awake, "We're here!"

"Ugh," the boy mumbled, swatting at me like one would at a bug.

I was not about to be deterred so easily, "C'mon, Bug Boy, gettup!"

"Grimm, lemme sleep,"

"We're at school, let's go," I unbuckled his seat belt and dragged him out of the car by his arm, "Thanks Mr. Canis, bye!"

The older man simply raised a brow at me and drove off as Puck yawned right next to my ear. "For the record, I hate you,"

"Same, bro,"

"Did you just call me bro?" Puck's feathers were clearly ruffled and I snickered at him.

"Yeah, bro,"

"Shut up," he punched me in the arm and I pretended to collapse under the power, an arm slung dramatically over my eyes.

"Oh no, the pain!" when that attracted a young woman's attention, I quickly straightened up under her scrutiny and grabbed Puck's elbow, "C'mon, let's go to school."

The principal's office was a small and ruddy place, smelling slightly of soap, and Puck gagged as soon as we went in. "What the hell, Grimm, you didn't say this place was a laundromat!"

"Shut up, don't be rude," I hissed at him, then turned to the admin. "Hello, we're Sabrina Grimm and Puck Goodfellow. We're supposed to meet my Granny and sister here, do you know if they're here yet?"

The woman gave me a light smile, not even looking at Puck. "Yeah, hon. They're in Mr. Hamelin's office. It's right down the hall here," she pointed behind herself and to our right.

"Thank you," I smiled at her and quickly dragged Puck over with me, knocking on the door with the correct label. When a man replied, Puck pushed the door open and we walked in to see Granny and Daphne sitting in two chairs across from the man I assumed to be the principal of the school, Mr. Hamelin.

"Hello there, you must be Sabrina and Robert," the smiley man stood up and walked around his desk to greet us, "Now I'm afraid there are no more chairs, but please feel free to use the bench here," he gestured at the little stool-like thing by Daphne and grasped Puck's hand for a quick shake, then my own.

"Robin," Puck corrected the man with a glare, and we both shot each other looks to confirm that neither of us would be sitting on that contraption the man called a bench. Instead, we stood behind Daphne and Granny and waited for him to sit down.

Ignoring Puck's last comment, the balding man sat down and gave Granny and Daphne a dazzling smile, "Now that the pair has arrived, you can choose your classes,"

I remembered no such thing happening in the books, ever, but more choice was never a bad thing.

"The only mandatory classes are Math, Science, English and History. Daphne will be in Ms. White's class, so she just has the same schedule as the rest of her peers, but you two," he finally addressed us directly, "Can choose a few of yours."

"Try to stick together," Granny told us as she got up, and Daphne followed suit. Mr. Hamelin did as well and gestured for us to take the now empty chairs.

"I'll be back in a flash," he promised and handed us two sheets of paper with a bunch of courses we could choose from. When the door locked behind him, we looked at one another and reached for the pens on his desk, leaning over the papers.

"Hey, there's a theatre class!" Puck scratched his pen on the paper and I could hear it pleading to get away from him.

"Ew," I made a face.

"What do you mean, ew? Theatre is easy," the boy gave me an unimpressed look as I circled something on my own paper. "Seriously? You're taking Anthropology?"

"Well, it's better than theatre," I gagged, and the next few minutes were spent in silence. I didn't know whether to be confused by his refusal to fight or be glad, and I chose the latter.

When Hamelin made it back, Puck and I had already finished with the courses and were now playing chopsticks. We continuously tried to hit each other as hard as we could without hurting ourselves, and it was actually quite funny.

"I see you two are done?" the previously friendly man seemed tenser now that Granny and Daphne were not there, but I did not care much for the pettiness of the man.

"Yessir," I sat up straight and handed to man my paper. He blinked at my readiness despite being so invested in a game and took the paper from me without another word. Looking over both our choices he quickly typed something up on his computer and not a minute later two sheets of paper came out of the printer behind him. He took the two and handed them to us with a dismissive look.

"Here are your schedules, good luck on your first day," with that ousting, Puck and I left the room without another word. Stopping outside the door to examine my schedule, I looked over the chart to see what I was meant to have at the moment. Checking the time, I saw it was currently quarter to one, which meant I had Math with a Ms. Hills in room 109

"What do you have now?" I turned to Puck, who was a couple of steps away from me and looking at his schedule with distaste.

"Math," he frowned up at me, "Wanna skip?"

"Puck, no," I shook my head at him and looked up at the room numbers around us to check. The principal's office was 174, so I assumed 109 was on the other side of the school and sighed.

"Well, why not?" he demanded, "Hate math, it's evil or something,"

"I have the same class, I think," I told him, "Ms. Hills? Plus, didn't you say that you were evil just on the drive here?" he did say that right before he lay down for the nap.

"Yeah," he conceded, "But math is extra evil, you know? It just sucks all the joy out of my life."

"Way to be dramatic, Fairy Boy," I snickered, "Let's go find our class. Maybe we'll get lucky and there's no homework,"

"Doubt it," the boy mumbled under his breath, then reluctantly trailed after me as I walked down the hall.