Amadeus In Wonderland

Chapter 1

"This time, you won't get out of it, Amadeus Led Nor. You're destined to do this. You ought to give in now…"

The picture faded, and Amadeus snapped awake. It was getting pretty standard for him. Go to sleep, dream about some weird creature telling him bits and pieces about what he was going to do "when the time came", or whatever.

He groaned, rolled out of bed, and began his journey. The journey to high school, that is. Acre Rills High School was always the last place that Amadeus wanted to be. The whole education system was based upon none other than school spirit. Although the Acre Rill Owls had never won a single game in the history of their 86 year old principal, Ms. Ailec, they had great character, strength, and courage. Amadeus wondered why they never defeated another team if they had such great characteristics.

School was just another challenge for Amadeus to have position itself in his way. It didn't really help that he had dyslexia, or that his only friend, George, had died in a car crash. Still, Amadeus lived to tell the tale of high school at the end of each day.

Growling hello to his little sister, Dawn, he gradually stumbled down the staircase gracelessly. There was a note on the refrigerator in Patricia Led Nor's handwriting. Amadeus skimmed it, and wasn't surprised at its content.

Amadeus and Dawn:

Left for London

Be Back tonite

Love mom

Amadeus still didn't know how his mother left for London and 3:30 in the morning, went to about 3 meetings, still have time to go for lunch, go to about 4 more meetings, have tea with an ambassador, have a leisurely dinner, and yet, still

be home before sunrise the next morning. I guess that's a secret only known among American diplomats, though.

"On to school, Dawn. Come on, I'm starting the car!" Amadeus yelled upstairs. He heard some shuffling and then the familiar *click*, as music was turned off. Dawn was just a freshman. So much less experienced than Amadeus, a senior. Would his sister ever stop obsessing over that stupid concept of rabbits being warriors? It was ridiculous. Rabbits live in hutches, eat carrots and poop. If Amadeus saw a rabbit warrior, he would believe his sister.

"Come on, Dawn! We're gonna be really late!" Amadeus was nervous that the school would lock their doors before they got there.

"Sorry, Am, I'm texting Sammy!" Oh, freshmen.

Sighing, Amadeus got out of his Chevy pickup truck and was about to reach for the doorknob to the house. Then he heard something. It sounded like giggles, and it came from the garden in the backyard. Amadeus knew this situation all too well. Being an avid reader as a child, he acquired Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland. Alice hears a noise, she follows it, gets curious and falls into a hole.

But Amadeus had a lot of time to kill, considering his sister would be done in about fifteen minutes or so.

The underbrush near the flawless flower garden was thorny and problematic to get through. Amadeus could just hear Mr. Incalada, his English teacher, yelling beside him "Go take a chance, Led Nor! Who cares if this is just like the kids book! Go for it, adolescent child!" Mr. Incalada would be pleased to know that he would be going for it. Curiosity had already taken the best of him. Even though he had been through this garden many times before, the giggling was getting louder, and he had never heard that there before.

Soon, he found the clearing into the backyard. As quickly as his interest had escalated, it dissipated just as quickly. It was only the family Corgi, Jack Black, chewing on a rather large branch. "Jack-Jack. Come here boy! Come here. You want to play fetch? Come over here, boy!" But Jack Black wasn't persuaded by his master's pleadings. Instead, he looked up, gave Amadeus huge puppy eyes, and trotted towards the back door with his stick.

Amadeus was quite befuddled. Where had the giggling come from? In fact, he wanted to know what was making the noise of laughter. It wasn't even two seconds after having this thought that something glistening caught his eye. It glinted in the sun at first, and then brought out a blinding shine, causing Amadeus to shield his eyes. Drawing closer to the object, he could see that it had a particular shape. It looked like some kind of animal… maybe a… rabbit?