Twisted Wonderland: The New Student

Other than the competition this morning, there were no other disturbances throughout the day. Most stared at the strange girl and unruly monster, some even exchanged harsh words, but none could deny how hard the nonmagic worked. She never fussed about how hard it was or how unfair. She simply did her job and did what she was told. The same can't be said for Grim, who had been grumping around close by, refusing to do any of the work.

"I'm already beat from cleaning all day… now we have to wash a hundred windows too…" he complained, sitting on top of a table. It is the end of the day now, the ending of classes will soon commence. Xinyi had finished much of the jobs so she came to the cafeteria to get a head start on the windows.

"We don't exactly have a choice." She started looking at the small creature. "This is our punishment for doing something we weren't supposed to."

He only huffed and looked towards the door. "That Ace guy is sure taking his sweet time. Who does he think he is, making me wait? I'm pissed!" he stated, growling a bit. Xinyi only sighed, staying quiet as she worked.

That is how they stayed for the next few hours, Grim waiting for Ace to arrive and Xinyi nearly finishing half of the windows in the cafeteria. By then Grim's patients had run out.

"Grrrr! I don't care what happened! This is too late!" he growled out, causing the girl to get frightened, dropping her cleaning utensil. "Wait, he wouldn't just skip out, Right?" he asked looking at the girl.

Picking up her stuff, Xinyi thought for a moment. "It is possible," she said, then became worried. "Maybe we should go look for him.'' She began to clean up a bit.

"I'm not gonna let him get away with putting all the punishment on us!" Grim instantly began running towards the doors.

"Grim! Wait!" The girl called out frantically, dropping everything to try and stop the raccoon.

"Let's go, henchman! We're gonna catch Ace and make him do all the window washing!" he laughed as they raced down the halls. It wasn't long before the small gremlin burst into the many classrooms. "HEY! Where's Ace!? We're not gonna let you hide away!" he yelled only to be met with silence. "...ah! There's nobody here!?"

Xinyi was just walking through the door a bit out of breath when a voice called out. "No. I'm here," it said, startling the monster.

He screamed, spinning around, trying to find the intruder. "The picture talked!?" he yelled, causing the girl to look at the painting.

It was of a man, dressed in formal black and white attire other than a red vest under his coat. He had a top hat and bird, as well as a mustache. His hair was a light creamy brown that spikes and curls. He also had a pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose. When he talked only the mouth and eyes moved, nothing else. "What now? It's not uncommon for paintings to talk at this school," it said looking at the two. "The Wall Lady over there, the Wall Gentleman over here, everyone can speak. Portraits can speak because they have a mouth. That's normal, you know?"

Xinyi looked at them, not sure how to answer. In her world painting doesn't normally speak, but she wasn't in her world. Could they be friends with the ghosts that were in the Ramshackle dorm?

The Portrait watched the girl, as she tried to understand, before continuing "That aside, who are you looking for?" he said, breaking her train of thought.

"A guy named Ace. He's got a heart mark on his face and hair that sticks up." Grim explained looking at the talking object.

"Ah yes, I know him. He's one of the freshmen that started today. He went back to his dorm not too long ago…"

Grim was more than furious. "Whaaat? So he did try to get away! Which way did he go?"

The Portrait thought for a moment before responding. "The entrance is behind the East Building."

The small monster grins devilishly before butling out the door calling to his supervisor as he goes. "Hey! We're going after him!" she had hardly said anything before he was off across the hall. She quickly said thank you to the wall painting before chasing after the beast again.

Normality is a paved road: It's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow

Vincent van Gogh