Twisted Wonderland Book 3: The Merchant from the Depths

Chapter 3: Results Stacked

Sometime later, in the Interior Hallway, Briar and her friends, including Ace and Deuce arrive to see the ranking scores for the final exams, and the results. Grim, Ace, and Deuce are looking to find their names on the top fifty. And it's not just them, so many students have already arrived, ramming and bumping into each other as they try to look for their names, more specifically in the top fifty.

"Okay, where am I in the top fifty?" Grim asks, frantically looking.

Then Ace says, "With an average score over 90, we've gotta be in there, right?"

"Maybe," Sereia says.

Grim soon begins to search for his name, "First ten places...nope. Twenty...nope. Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty...nope. Wait a minute-" And soon realizes in shock, "I ain't in here at all!"

"N-neither am I..." Deuce says, shocked.

Soon, Ace notices something about the ranking score, "Hooold up. There's a list of the total scores each top achiever got across all subjects. The top thirty scored perfect marks—" And says in shock, "500 points!"

"PERFECT MARKS?!" Deuce and Grim exclaim in shock.

"Can thirty students really ace every test?" Sereia asks.

"Of course not. That would be impossible," Briar answers.

Then she thinks, "Something's definitely fishy here, right?"

Jasper says, "Well, I can see one of us has made it to the top fifty?"

"Oh yea? I doubt it's you," Grim says in remark.

Tanzanite speaks up, "Actually, he means me."

Ace, Grim, and Deuce exclaim in shock, "YOU?!"

Ace looks at the list and says, "He's... he's right! Tanzanite got perfect marks too!"

"It makes sense. My brother Tanzanite is the studious one, he even helped me study," Jasper says.

Then Deuce calmly says, "He has a point, Tanzanite does get higher grades than the rest of us. Briar is good at studying as well."

"True, but I didn't make it to the top fifty either though," Briar says.

"No, but from the looks of the results, you're very close," Deuce says.

But Grim says in a panic, "B-but if I don't make it into the top fifty, that counts as a breach of contract!"

"Wait, 'contract'?" Ace asks, confused.

"What contract?" Briar adds, confused

Seeing the pale look on Grim's face, Ace soon realizes, " Oh no. Grim, did you...?"

Deuce soon gets the impression and worriedly says, "Judging by the look on your face, Ace, don't tell me you also-"

Suddenly, the sound of magic is cast, and with a, "Bwooop!" sea anemones sprout on Ace, Deuce, and Grim's heads. The group gasps in shock.

"What the?!" The twins exclaim in shock.

Grim screams, "MYAH! What in the world?! A sea anemone just sprouted outta my head!"

Deuce panics, "G-Grim, you made a contract too?! You big cheater!"

Ace angrily says, "Yeah, whatever, Deuce. You're just as guilty, keepin' your friends close and your anemones closer over there!"

"I'll just give it a quick tug, and..." Grim says and grabs hold of the anemone.

He tries to pull, but, "OW! It's not comin' out!"

"What's in the world going on here?" Tanzanite asks, shocked.

"I don't know. How come sea anemones are sprouting from their heads?!" Sereia asks, shocked.

"I don't know either, but it's very weird," Jasper says.

Briar then says as she thinks, "Hold on, they mention something about contracts. I wonder..."

Then asks the three, "Guys, what exactly is going on? You said about making contracts and not getting to the top fifty. What did you guys do?"

The three flinches to see Briar looking at them with a displeased look.

Before they can answer, Jack walks in and says, "I came to see what all the commotion was. Why am I not surprised it's you guys? What're you doing?"

"Oh, hi Jack," Briar says.

"Hello," Sereia says.

Deuce then asks Jack, "Jack, did you make a contract too?" but notices the top of his head, "Wait... You don't have an anemone!"

"So much for looking like a bad boy. You're more of a square than Loosey-Deucey over here!" Ace says, just as surprised

However, Jack questions, "Okay, what? I'm completely lost here. What are you talking about, and what are those things growing outta your heads?"

"Look, it's uhhh..." Grim says.

But before he can continue, he feels the anemone tugging his head, "MROW?! What now?"

The anemone pulls harder as Grim screams, "This dang anemone's yanking my head!"

Soon, the anemone does the same to Ace and Deuce.

Ace screams, "Owww, geez! It's gonna rip my noggin off!"

"So when he wrote 'absolute obedience,' this is what he meant..." Deuce says, feeling in pain.

All three scream, "AaaAAAaaaAGH!" as the anemones are dragging them away.

"What now? The way they were walking, it was like the anemones were pulling them in that direction. Is a picture that stupid still worth a thousand words...?" Jack questions.

"Where are they going?" Sereia asks.

"I don't know, but we'd better follow them," Briar says.

"Good idea. Then we'll find out what's going on," Tanzanite says.

Then Briar turns to Jack, "Come on Jack, you can come with us."

"Huh? Where do I come in here? This is none of my business," Jack questions.

"Why not?" Sereia asks.

You're not scared are you?" Jasper questions.

This does not please Jack, "Who're you calling a coward?"

"Calm down Jack, I'm sure it's not that. Maybe you're still sore from your Spelldrive injuries?" Briar questions.

Jack responds, "Tch. You're starting to fit in around here a little TOO well. Fine. I'll keep you company for a little while, at least. Let's get this straight, though—this is purely out of curiosity. I wanna see what caused this. I couldn't care less about those guys. Just so we're clear on that."

"Whatever you say. Now let's go before we lose them," Briar says.

And so, the group of friends, accompanied by Jack, follow Ace, Deuce, and Grim to figure out where they're being dragged to by the anemones on their heads. And maybe, they'll figure out what's going on.