Alice Hooper was always a bit of a bookworm. When she was a kid, Alice in Wonderland was her favourite book. There was just something appealing about a girl with her name being transported to a magical land, where she didn't have to be trapped within the confines of her society. She never really fit in anywhere. She was way too obsessed with Harry Potter, and her pink stripy jumpers probably didn't do her any favours. Not at her school. She usually just minded her own business, and kept her nose in a book, and her bespectacled brown eyes on the pages in front of her.
Usually.
Right now, she was sitting in the principal's office, and it wasn't because she'd just got into the literary journal for her poetry.
The principal's office was an ugly off-white. Its grey carpet didn't do it any favours, and neither did the awful fake flowers scattered around the room, nor the pathetic excuses for art on the walls. Molly was due here any moment. Alice's heart sped up at the thought, and bile began to rise in her stomach. She was not looking forward to this evening. That was when she heard her mother's exasperated sigh when approaching the receptionist. It was time.
"Principal Hoppus," Molly smiled earnestly, and took a seat beside her daughter. She didn't even get out of her white lab coat. That was a code red. Alice was in a lot of trouble. "Alice," Molly's voice had a bit of a dark intonation to it. Alice gulped. "I got here as soon as I could; you sounded very urgent on the phone."
"Well, Molly, it's not a good thing," Principal Hoppus eyed Alice with a look she hated. A look of disappointment. "Alice, care to explain?"
"I punched somebody in the stomach," the words sounded odd to Alice's ears. She never thought she would hear herself utter something like that. It was always her mother's way to solve things with words, rather than violence, and that's how she'd always done it up until today.
"Why did you do it?" Alice's mouth went dry, and her air started to constrict. She tried to think back to earlier that day. It was all blurry. Literally. The person had taken her glasses away, and had hid them in the library on the top of a shelf she couldn't reach.
"Somebody hid my glasses," Molly's expression softened, but she had to hold her ground.
"Will this affect her record, Mr. Hoppus?" Molly asked, directing her eyes to the beefy man in front of her.
"It won't, if you discipline her yourself, Ms. Hooper. She is one of our brightest students, and she actually cares about learning. Of course, I trust you can sort something out." Molly smiled at him, and Alice felt her heart begin to beat just that little bit faster, even though she didn't think that was possible. Her mother's punishments would be worse than anything the school could dish out. All sorts of possibilities began to circulate in Alice's head. The worst one invaded her mind with full force. What if she had to work in the…?
"The morgue. Alice, you can help me out around the morgue." Alice's stomach sank, and her head grew heavy. She hated that place. It was just so, well, dead – puns always intended. Her mother knew that. "For a month over the holidays." That's it. Alice's life was officially over. How could she be expected to work in that place for an entire month? Principal Hoppus looked satisfied with that verdict. "Starting tomorrow, of course." Now, her mother was just being spiteful. It wasn't like her. Maybe she'd had a particularly bad day at work. Whatever it was, Alice sure hoped it passed soon.
Tomorrow was going to be a nightmare.