The Unusual Suspects

"This is ridiculous," she said. "You're sending him because of all this Scarlet Hand message business, when we all know he's the one who did it."

"You think I made all those handprints on the house?" Puck asked.

"Who else?" she cried. "You're the so-called Trickster King. You were pretty mad when Gra

"I think the glue and buttermilk is seeping out of your hair and into your itty-bitty brain," the boy snapped.

"I believe him," Daphne declared. "He always admits when he does stuff. He's proud of it."

Sabrina turned to her and fumed. Once again, her own sister had taken Puck's side against her.

"Well, I'm pretty proud of my right hook," Sabrina shouted, returning her attention to Puck. "Why don't you come over here and I'll show it to you."

"Lieblings!" Gra

"He started it!" Sabrina shouted.

"She started it!" shouted Puck.

"Puck is going to school with you," Gra

Everyone sat silently for a moment, staring down at their breakfasts.

"By the way, marshmallow," Puck said to Daphne, breaking the silence. "How many warts did you find this morning?"

The little girl rolled up her sleeves and showed the boy her arms. "Not one!"

Puck sighed. "That's a shame."

"Why?"

"Well, if you were going to have little ones they would have already shown up. You could put some cream on them and they'd go away in a day or two. But the really big ones take a couple days to show. Those are the kind that end up on the tip of your nose or growing out of your neck. You have to have surgery to get rid of those."

Daphne shrieked and jumped from her seat. In no time she was ru

"You better scrub harder this time!" Puck shouted to the little girl.

"How is Captain Maturity going to keep an eye on both of us at the same time?" Sabrina asked. "Daphne and I aren't in the same grade."

"Puck is there to watch you, Sabrina. Daphne will be safe with Snow White," Gra

"Don't worry, old lady," Puck crowed. "I'll keep this one out of trouble."

Gra

Sabrina had assured her grandmother that she could walk to homeroom alone, but regretted the decision when someone grabbed her from behind and dragged her into the girls' rest-room. When she spun around, ready to sock her attacker, she found Bella with a brush and some hair spray in hand.

"You need some serious help," the blond girl said, ushering her over to the mirror, turning her around, and going to work on her hair with the brush. "How did you get your hair this way?"

"It's a long story," Sabrina said sheepishly.

Bella tugged and pulled with her brush, coated Sabrina's head with hair spray, and then tied the unruly mane up with a pink rubber band. To Sabrina's surprise, Bella had done something in seconds that Sabrina had been trying to do for herself for two days. She had made Sabrina look normal.

"It'll hold until lunch," Bella said, handing Sabrina her brush and can of hair spray. "After that, well, we may have to call in a professional."

Sabrina was so happy she could have cried. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me," Bella said. "You have the seat in front of mine in science class and with that head of hair there was no way I was going to be able to see the film strip."

Sabrina laughed. It felt good when Bella joined her. Just then, the bell rang.

"We better get to class," the blond girl said. "Old battle-ax will be mad if we're late."

"Didn't you hear?" Sabrina said. "Our teacher was killed last night."

"I think the fumes from the hair spray are affecting your brain. I saw her walking down the hall just a couple of minutes ago."

"Her? Our teacher was a him," Sabrina said.

But Bella had already rushed out of the restroom.

Sabrina walked down the hallway and prepared herself for the sadness and confusion the other students would be feeling when they discovered Mr. Grumpner was dead. She assumed there would be a ceremony to honor their murdered teacher. The school had probably brought in some grief counselors to console them and answer questions. Everyone would make a giant condolence card and sign it for Mr. Grumpner's wife and family. But when she stepped into the classroom, there were no tears ru

In fact, the kids acted as if nothing had happened at all. Like the day before, they were sleepy and bored. Sabrina was shocked. Sure, Mr. Grumpner had been a bitter pill to swallow but he was still a human being and he had died a horrible death. Didn't anyone care?

Bewildered, Sabrina went to her seat, sat down, and sca

Has the world gone insane? Sabrina wondered to herself. A man died in this classroom less than twenty-four hours ago and they’re acting like it's just another day!

A roly-poly woman lumbered into the room and set a handful of books down on Grumpner's desk. She had flaming red hair, done up in a bouffant, and a makeup job that looked as if it had been applied with a paintball gun. Something about her seemed oddly familiar.

"Good morning, class," she said. "Yesterday we were talking about transitive verbs. Let's pass your homework forward and see how you did at identifying them."

Sabrina was dumbfounded. Homework?

"Grumpner didn't assign any homework," Sabrina said to the sleepy girl next to her.

"Who's Grumpner?" the girl asked, taking out her assignment and handing it up the aisle.

The teacher glanced around the room, absorbing the faces of her students. When she spotted Sabrina, her smile suddenly dissolved and was replaced with a bitter scowl. It was then that Sabrina recognized her. Sabrina had seen her when she and Daphne had snuck into the Ferryport Landing Ball-the Queen of Hearts.

"Grimm," she snapped. "A word, please."

Sabrina reluctantly got up from her desk and joined the woman at the front of the room. She had never actually met the queen, but after reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Sabrina was familiar with her notorious disciplinary tactics. More than a few citizens of Wonderland had lost their heads when the queen lost her temper. Looking into the woman's face, it seemed to Sabrina that her own head might be next on the chopping block.

"Child, I know what you are up to," the queen said in a low voice.

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"You've come here to spy on me," the woman said. "Well you can tell that old busybody grandmother of yours that she's wasting her time."

"I'm not spying on you," Sabrina said. How dare the woman accuse her of such a thing? The queen didn't even know her.

"I know it drives you Grimms crazy that there are Everafters working around human children."

"I swear I'm not here to spy. I'm eleven. I have to go to school. It's the law," Sabrina snapped. She looked around the room and noticed that even some of the drowsy kids were listening to their conversation. She flushed with anger and embarrassment.