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.”
“Wow. See that was basically everything I need to know about the origins then, right? You think they’ll let me skip out of that class?”
She tapped her lip and furrowed her brow. “Actually, that’s a good question. If you take all the tests and final exam of the classes and pass, I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to skip the course. You should ask your mentor.”
I paused. “My mentor?”
Nodding, she threw her empty cup in a trash can as we passed. “Yes. Every student gets paired with one to help them through their courses and training. They didn’t tell you who yours was?”
“Nope.”
She frowned. “Hmm. That’s weird. They should have done that at your orientation.”
“Nobody told me anything about orientation.”
Her eyes widened. “What? But everyone must go through orientation. I’ll check with my mentor and see what he says. Maybe you should see the headmaster?”
I shrugged. “Okay.”
She fell silent, curiosity shining in her eyes as she stared at me. Wondering who I was? It was obvious the circumstances of me getting into Grimm academy were strange and with my bracelet mind control, I was limited in my explanations.
Shiloh motioned me to follow. “I haven’t had a roommate since sophomore year. My best friend transferred to GRIMM Academy Paris. It’ll be nice to share a room again.”
I turned to her. “Paris? They have schools in Paris too?”
“Oh, yes. They have GRIMM schools all over the world.”
“Huh. You miss your friend?” I gave her a sympathetic smile.
She shrugged. “We still talk as much as we can, but it’s different. It was nice having my own space for a while, but I miss having a roommate. Makes school more enjoyable when you have someone to hang out with.” She winced as if she’d said something she wished she hadn’t.
I smiled at her. “Yeah. Definitely.”
She returned my smile, a slight reddening on her cheeks.
“This is our room.” She fumbled with a key and turned the knob.
I stepped in and glanced around. The room wasn’t as lavish as the one at Javi’s mansion. It was smaller and cozier. Definitely more comfortable. A wide circular window with a bench seat stood at the far end of the room, sunlight pouring in from it. Books were piled on one end of the seat and the base of the seat had built-in shelves stacked with more books. I smiled. Turned out Javi’s girlfriend was a book snob as he so elegantly put it.
“This is nice.” I nodded.
Her grin widened. “Oh good. I’m glad you like it. And we can change things around too. Feel free to put up whatever you want.” She motioned to the walls.
I stared at the blank one above an empty bed and desk and turned to look at her side. On her wall hung beautiful Native American artwork and dreamcatchers. My eyebrow arched. Interesting. I didn’t see her as the whimsical earthy type.
“I’m part Quechan. On my mother’s side. Way, way down the line, but… well, I just love everything about their culture.” She shrugged.
“Cool. I like the art. Did you do it yourself?”
She blushed. “Yeah. It helps relax me. That and archery.”
I gaped at her, surprised at the turn her words had taken. It was hard to envision this gentle girl as a cold-blooded sharpshooter.
“Here’s the closet.” She walked over to my side, past my bed and desk and opened the wooden door to reveal a walk-in closet.
“Nice.” I nodded and glanced over at her side. “But where’s your closet?”
“Oh. Well, I have that wardrobe, but the closet is… supposed to be for both of us. But I can move my stuff out if you need all the space.”
Wow. Was she serious? Too nice. The kind of girl that gave up things to make someone else happy. I felt a surge of protection over her. Girls like
