by R L Medina
“I’m sorry. My dad is doing all he can to make sure they don’t lose the shifter’s trail. They will find him, Rose.”
I gave a bitter laugh. “Yeah, and then what, Javi? Papi is still dead. I’m still stuck in monster hunting school. Then what? I get to be a GRIMM like you?”
He winced.
Guilt prickled me as my words landed. I didn’t mean to cut him so deeply, but the words were said and there was no taking them back now.
Javi’s eyes drilled into mine. “One year. Just give it a try for one year. After that, if you still want to leave, I promise I’ll help you. I’ll help you disappear.”
My eyebrows shot up. Was he really making this promise to me?
“But you know if you leave, there’s no coming back, Rose.”
I glanced away. No going back. I knew that and I’d thought I’d made peace with it, but now I wasn’t so sure. Where would I go, and what would I do?
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I turned to face him. “Okay. Deal. One year.”
Though secretly, I would still look for my chance to run. I couldn’t stomach the thought of a whole year under their control.
His shoulders relaxed and a relieved smile spread on his face.
We passed through the gatehouse, using my outdated ID card once again. Javi talked excitedly the whole time. The nausea in my stomach continued to build. A first day at any school was nerve wracking, but what would it be like here?
The first stop was to the creepy dragon eye house. Javi glanced at his phone and cursed. “I wanted to show you around the dorm, but I have to get to class. Here’s your class schedule, and I’ll ask Shiloh to show you around.” He talked so fast, I couldn’t keep up with him.
Thrusting a tablet at me, he checked himself in the mirror one last time and motioned for me to leave.
I gaped at him. “Are you serious? You’re ditching me on my first day? I don’t even know how to use this thing.” I waved the tablet at him.
He grabbed it from me and hit something. A blue screen flashed. “Look, it’s not that hard. The main menu. Map. Class schedule. Easy. I texted Shiloh. She’s already waiting for you inside. I gotta go. I’ll see you after class.”
I opened the door and stepped out, glancing back at him. “So much for having my back.”
“Rose. I promise, I’m not going to abandon you. Text me or call if you need anything. But, I gotta go now. Shut the door.”
Slamming it shut, I let my anger roll through me. I watched him drive away, going toward the classroom building, which I hadn’t toured but was expected to navigate on my own the first day. I blew out a breath and stared down at the tablet.
Easy, he said. I squinted at the tabs. Easy my ass.
A message popped up on my screen:
Hi, Rose! It’s Shiloh. Javi said you needed a guide? I’m in the lobby of Dragon House. We can meet there.
I stifled a groan and touched the screen to type out a reply: Ok… thanks.
Holding the tablet under my arm, I made my way up to the back entrance of the building. I blinked at the card reader pad near the doorframe.
Right. I needed my ID.
I dug into my pocket to retrieve it, only to find it wasn’t there. Then it hit me, I’d left it in the car and Javi in his rush, had driven off with it.
Great. Just freaking great.
First day and it already sucked.
Sighing, I pushed away the irritation and tried knocking on the door. No one answered. I glanced around, flushing, as I envisioned a security camera on me. Were they watching me knock like an idiot?
I cursed and pulled out the tablet again. The message from Shiloh was gone and out of the zillion toggling icons, I had no idea which was the right one to get back to it.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to wonder for long before another message popped up.
Hey, Rose. Did you find House Dragon?
Heat spread up my neck as I replied: Yeah. I’m here, but Javi took my ID with him, so I can’t get in. I’m at the back door.
How embarrassing.
No problem. I’ll meet you there! was her reply.
I waited at the door, trying to figure out the tablet. A green icon with a bulleted paper sheet caught my eye. My classes?
It was still loading when the door opened, making me jump. I turned to find Shiloh dressed in the same uniform I wore minus the jacket. She smiled warmly and let me in.
“I’m sorry about your ID card. We can get a replacement so you don’t have to worry about getting inside the buildings today.”
“Thanks. I guess I’ll have to.” I shrugged.
She nodded. “This way and then, if we have time, I’ll show around the dorm.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
I followed her deeper into the building, my eyes growing wide as I looked around. The room was filled with maroon and brown furniture all placed at odd random spaces in front of a giant fireplace.
“This is the back room.” She waved her hand at the sofas and recliners. “We don’t really use it much, but sometimes students like to come down and play music by the fire or sit and read.” She shrugged.
“Cool,” I answered when I realized she wasn’t going to say more on the subject.
The walls were covered with gold framed portraits of wouldn’t you know it—dragons. The whole ambience reminded me of old money. Like a private gentleman’s club they had way back in the day. I almost expected to smell cigars and to come face to face with the Dos Equis guy.
“We can take the stairs or the elevator.” She nodded toward the staircase. “Our dorm is on the third floor.”
“Elevator sounds good to me.”
She smiled and pushed the button. Her blue eyes shone from behind her glasses; they were gold framed today and made her look much older than I assumed she was. That combined with her white shirt and dark slacks made her look more like a librarian than a monster hunter. I flushed as I realized I was still staring at her. Staring and judging her. Though she didn’t say anything, I was sure she’d measured me up just the same. Thick makeup. Nose ring. Gelled hair. Leather jacket and my new giant rose and thorn medallion. I couldn’t be the only one at the school with a gothic-punk inspired fashion sense, but since I hadn’t seen anyone else with similar taste, maybe I was.
When the elevator dinged, I was happy to get off that awkward ride.
10
I paused and waited for her lead. Shiloh led me down a hall where voices drifted from behind closed doors. My head whipped back and forth as we passed through. The smell of fresh coffee wafted from one of the rooms, making me sigh.
“Did they tell you that you’re staying with me? We’re going to be roommates.” Her soft voice interrupted my thoughts.
I turned to her. “No. They didn’t tell me that. Just that I would be staying on campus and my tía is coming later with my things to help me unpack.”
She smiled. “You’re going to love it here. I was so surprised they let you transfer this late.”
My nose crinkled. Late? It was only October. Not that late. When did their school year start? Not wanting to give anything of my past away, I just smiled and nodded. Let her think I was happy to be there.
Shiloh led me past the closed doors and to the end of the hallway. “This is our floor monitor, Molly. We’re lucky to have her. She’s one of the nice ones.”
I covered a yawn and waited outside the closed door as she knocked. Paper rustled on the other side and someone cursed.
My eyebrow arched.
Shiloh pretended not to hear it. “You’ll like her.”
“Come in. Door’s open.”
Shiloh went in first. It was a little office with a huge desk and giant chair, and in the chair sat a dark-skinned girl wearing a similar uniform, but a strange blue symbol printed on the shoulder of her shirt. Her curly hair was piled high and spilling out of her messy bun, at odds with her otherwise neat and clean appearance.
“Molly, this is Rose. Javi’s cousin. She’s my new roommate.�
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Molly’s sharp eyes narrowed on me. “Yes, I heard about you.”
I cleared my throat. “Hopefully good things.”
Her eyebrow arched. “Is there something else I should know?”
“Uh… no?”
She frowned. Clearly, unimpressed.
Shiloh stepped in to save me. “We need a new ID card for her.”
Molly’s frown deepened. “Lost it? On your first day?”
I sighed. I was gonna kill Javi later.
“I left it in the car and my cousin drove off with it.”
She grunted and I wasn’t sure what that meant. Rising to her feet, she straightened her white shirt and eyed me with interest. Barely taller than me, she was still intimidating. I could feel the weight of her stare and instinctively pulled myself up to full height.
“I’ll give you a replacement. But don’t lose this one.”
Shiloh smiled encouragingly at me. “Molly is an upper-class student. This is her last year at GRIMM.”
Molly scanned a blank card at a table behind her desk and sighed. “Yeah, if I pass my final training and test.” She shook her head, bun tumbling back and forth as she did.
“I’m so ready. So done with these stupid local missions they keep putting me on. It’s been nothing but shifters lately.”
I gaped at her. “Missions? But aren’t you a student… like us?”
She gave me an odd look. “No. I’m an upper-class student. Is this your first GRIMM school?”
There was more than one? My face flamed. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say and at that point it was hopeless. She’d see right through me.
“You a senior?”
I nodded. That much was still true, wasn’t it?
“Oh. Wow. They let you transfer so late. This is… going to be a lot for you. Your old school was an ordinaire school?”
I nodded again. At least I knew one thing. Ordinaire was their term for mundane humans.
Shiloh’s eyes widened. “I had no idea!”
Heat rushed through me at their stares. What if they started asking questions? I glanced at my bracelet. Would it even let me tell them anything?
“Okay. Okay. That’s all right. You’ll get it.” Molly tapped her lip. “So after you’re done with basic training, which is basically like high school with a ton of extras, you’ll take the final exam and if you pass that, you’ll be an upper-class student and continue training while going out on small missions.”
“It’s like college… for GRIMMs,” Shiloh added.
Dread unfurled inside me. So, what, that was four more years of monster hunting school? I couldn’t respond. I wanted to march to my tío’s office and rage at him, but what good would that do?
It didn’t matter. I was going to find a way to escape.
“Are you okay?” Shiloh’s gentle voice snapped me to attention.
Steeling myself, I nodded. “Fine. I’m fine. Thanks for the card.” I turned to Molly.
She stared at me as she handed me the blank card. “Sure. If you need anything just text me. I have class later, but I’m free at lunch.”
I thanked her again and walked out of the office with all the dignity I could muster. Shiloh followed me. We fell quiet in the hall.
“This is probably a lot for you. Coming from a different school. But I’ll show you everything you need to know. And Molly will look out for you too. She’s super nice and her girlfriend too. Kressa. She’s one of the weapons training assistants. Amazing archer.”
“They’re going to teach us archery here?”
Shiloh smiled. “They teach us every weapon, but you get to choose your own specialty.”
Nausea rolled inside me. Specialty? Like which weapon you preferred to kill monsters with? I fought the urge to shudder. I didn’t want to chase creatures like Manny for the rest of my life.
Misjudging my silence for worry, Shiloh waved her hand as if waving off her words. “But that’s not until the end of the year. Or when you turn eighteen. You’re seventeen now?”
I nodded. There, an easy question I could answer.
“Me too.” She flashed me a smile.
I was beginning to see why my cousin was crushing on her. She was genuine. Someone you could actually be friends with. But I couldn’t afford to do that now and with my tío’s cursed bracelet, I could never be honest with her or anyone there about who I really was.
“Let me show you our house and then we can grab a coffee before your first class? What class do you have first?”
I pulled out the tablet and shook my head. “I don’t know. This thing isn’t working.”
She peered over at the loading screen. “Here. Let me turn it off and back on. Sometimes these things are a little wonky.”
Or the user was me—tech illiterate. I was cursed when it came to technology.
“Thanks.” I handed it to her and watched her work her magic.
“This one is for your classes.” She pointed to a floating blue icon with a black graduate cap in the middle.
My nose crinkled. “I would never have found that.”
She laughed. “I know. This system is weird. We’ve been asking the school board to update the design forever, but they always turn us down.”
I tapped on the icon and watched as a list of class numbers appeared:
Class 100: The Origin of the O.G. was the first one written down.
My eyes scrolled down the list, head spinning. Half of the classes, I didn’t even know what they were.
“Oh my gosh! You have a huge course load. Freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior classes all together? That’s insane.”
I glanced at her. “How can you tell?”
Her finger hovered near one class. “That’s a freshman class. All the level 100s are freshman. But they’re super easy. You’ll get through those in no time. And if you ask them, I’m sure they will put you on the online courses so you can go at an accelerated pace.” She beamed as if this was the best news ever.
“I need coffee,” I muttered.
She gave me a sympathetic smile. “Of course. Let’s get you that coffee.”
We made our way back down the hall, our footsteps echoing loudly. House Dragon was like a college sorority house for the insanely wealthy or five-star bed-and-breakfast for celebrities.
My mind boggled as Shiloh listed out all the house features. A gourmet kitchen and small dining room on all six floors. Each floor from the second story up housed all the students, beginning with us seniors. A two-story game and entertainment room, various bathrooms complete with full showers, two exercise rooms, five different lounge rooms, and a giant movie theater right in the house. Not to mention the outside luxury pool and jacuzzi.
The sheer expenses the school must incur were mind boggling. How were these people so filthy rich? Where did all the money come from? Though I’d always been well off myself, I’d seen enough crime documentaries to suspect something shady.
“Let’s take the elevator.” She led me to a wide lobby.
I glanced around at the décor. Once again, I felt like I was in some old English house owned by some stodgy lord or duke who had an affinity for dragons. They were everywhere. Hidden in the furniture and architecture and in plain sight as beautifully carved statues.
A soft bell announced the arrival of the elevator. I followed her in and made space as another student boarded with us. The girl eyed me with interest, her eyes snagging on my nose ring, leather jacket, and boots.
I met her stare dead on. Was she going to say something? I bit my tongue to keep a snarky comment from escaping. There was no need to make enemies my first day. It was better to go unnoticed so that I could make my plan of getting away. I glanced down at my choice of fashion.
Maybe it was too late for that. I never blended in well at my old school and with the stuffy uniforms here, I stuck out even more.
Before I could tell the girl, it was rude to stare, the elevator stopped, and she got off without a glance back.
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Shiloh led me to one of the main lounges on the second floor where a coffee bar stood. My eyebrows shot up. A coffee bar? I was in heaven. I poured myself a cup and stirred in some sugar.
“Better?” Shiloh asked.
I nodded emphatically. “This coffee is so good!”
She smiled. “My favorite is the butterscotch caramel latte.”
“Mmm, sounds good. And how is this all free?” I lifted my giant cup up.
“Part of the perks of being in House Dragon! Ooh and on the first weekend of every month, we get complimentary donuts and pastries from one of the little shops in LA.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Free donuts too? Wow, it really does pay to be a GRIMM.”
“Well, Deidra’s Donuts gives us pastries for our loyalty and a discount on tuition for her daughter. Her daughter, Avery, is in this house too.”
Discount tuition paid with pastries? The idea was funny to me, but at least it showed an attempt to make things more equal for the less privileged students.
We sipped our coffee as she took me past a game room where students hung out between classes. I peeked inside and almost fell over. It wasn’t just video games, though there was plenty of that set up too it looked like, but I spied a pool table, ping pong, and several foosball tables.
“We can go through here and check out our dorm, if you like?”
I turned to her. “Okay.”
She led me inside and past all the expensive gaming stuff. We took the stairs and exited on the third floor.
“So what is Origin of the O.G. anyway? And what’s with the weird class numbers. Are there really that many classes?”
“The O.G. stands for Organization of GRIMMs. GRIMM stands for Guardians of Realms and Investigators of Magic and Mysteries. I’m not sure how many classes there are. It seems like they’re constantly adding more.”
“So, does that have anything to do with the Grimm fairy tales? Like the brothers Grimm?”
She nodded. “Yes. They were among the founders of the organization. Their work got discovered by the ordinaire and well, you can imagine how they took it.”
“Freaked out?”
“Yeah. So, the O.G. basically rewrote history and stopped the war by sending most of the extraordinaire to other realms, but it wasn’t a perfect solution. People still remembered the magical beings, so they wrote a book. The fairy tales. Some of them were true, but no one really remembers the truth of them.”
