Okay, believe it or not, I actually have most of this written already, I just need to type it up. It's not finished yet though.

Don't own any of this, other than Elsie, if I did I (a) wouldn't be writing here and (b) I would be able to afford a decent and reliable computer.

And yes, the chapter titles are all from songs (don't own them either).

***

1.

"She lives in a fairy-tale

Somewhere too far for us to find.

Forgotten the taste and smell

Of a world that she's left behind"

Brick by Boring Brick ~ Paramore

Elsabeth Hightopp, found on the doorstep by a one Helen Kingsleigh when she was six months old, was the mad, eccentric and missing daughter of the Mad Hatter and Alice Kingsleigh. Her grandmother had decided to take her in, not knowing that she was her granddaughter, because she hadn't the heart to leave the poor child in an orphanage.

It was reported to the police of course, and the note that had been pinned to Elsabeth's blanket stating her name as Elsabeth Hightopp was still being held by the police (records and all that).

Mrs. Kingsleigh had loved Elsie (everyone considered Elsabeth to be a mouthful) dearly, and pretended that she was her granddaughter (even though she really was). For you see, Alice had been missing so long that she was assumed dead, and her mother would have been shocked if she found out that she had married a decidedly mad hatter by the name of Tarrant Hightopp.

Elsie had the exact same eyes as Alice, so her mother was slightly suspicious, but she wasn't sure it was a good idea to her hopes up. Besides, apart from her eyes, Elsie looked nothing like Alice. She had wild and unruly hair that was vividly red in colour, and she was quite the palest creature Helen had ever laid her eyes upon. And she was always wearing hats. She loved hats and enjoyed making them herself. Each Christmas, all of the Kingsleigh family and close family friends would receive a hat made specially by Elsie, and they always fitted and suited their owners perfectly.

It was twelve years later that Helen Kingsleigh and Elsabeth Hightopp were travelling towards the Manchester household to visit the new baby, Alice (named after her supposedly-late aunt).

Elsie had never like her well-to-do aunt. All she ever went on about was how Mrs. Kingsleigh should have left Elsie at an orphanage and how Elsie was more trouble than she was worth. And she always called Elsie either Elsabeth or Miss Hightopp, normally the latter of the two.

"Why must we go and visit aunt Margaret and uncle Lowell?" asked Elsie as they rode in the stage coach, "She hates me, and George and Michael always make me look even more of a trouble maker to their parents."

"I know dear, but they are family. We have no choice in the matter, and besides, you are always saying how much you love babies and small children - other than George and Michael of course. I'm sure you'll like baby Alice very much."

"That's if aunt Margaret lets me anywhere near her. She doesn't trust me since I dropped that teapot. It was an accident, and I did try my best to fix it, and-"

"Elsie."

"I'm fine," she said as she blushed bright red and looked down at her feet, hiding her face behind her green hat ashamedly.

"That's alright dear, it was an accident after all, and you were only quite small. Why Margaret gave you a tea pot full of scalding tea to carry when you were only seven is beyond me. And she did chastise you so!"

At that moment, the carriage stopped outside the old country farm house and the door was opened by their stony-faced driver. Elsie was not going to enjoy a week in enemy territory, but for Gran's sake (she always called Mrs. Kingsley Gran), she would try to keep on her aunt's good side and steer clear of the boys, especially Lowell who could get extremely drunk in the evenings.

"Hello mother!" said a joyous voice, "Oh, I didn't realise you would be coming as well Miss Hightopp." Elsie could hear all the joy drain from the woman's voice as she turned to her.

"Hello my dear," said Gran.

"Hello," Elsie kept her face hidden as she said this.

Margaret guided them into the kitchen where the tea was brewing. Elsie loved tea, especially strong tea. She had been told many times that she drank more tea in a day than most people do in a week! However, while in the Manchester home, she was always given the weakest, milkiest cup of tea. And she would very rarely get a scone with it at eleven o'clock like she did at home.

She spent the day in silence, heading back to her room after dinner to finish a hat she was making, probably for herself. It was a purple bowler hat with black polka-dots and a red ribbon on it. The lining was green and black stripes. Elsie loved this hat.

After a while, she decided to get up for more tea. Before walking into the kitchen, Elsie heard something she wasn't meant to hear.

"Why do you treat her so harshly, Margaret?" it was Gran.

"Because she doesn't belong! Have you seen her hair?! It's so, so… unnatural! And her eyes! They change colour according to her moods! And she's always got her head in the clouds. She's lost her marbles!"

"Margaret, you must know, at your age, that it is mean to judge a person on looks. And what ever happened to your father's philosophy 'all the best people are mad'?"

"It's more than that, you seem to see her as a replacement for Alice! Alice is gone, and she's probably never coming back! She disappeared in China, remember?"

"It is true that I miss Alice dearly-she is my daughter, what kind of woman would I be if I didn't miss my own daughter? And at first Elsie was a sort of replacement, but as she got older I realised that she was very similar to my Alice, but she was more like another daughter, not a replacement."

"But she's such a pest! Don't all those ridiculous hats annoy you at all?"

"Elsabeth is not a pest!" Gran was very firm, and Elsie could tell she was angry by the way her mouth had formed a thin line. "And as for the hats, they are extremely self-sufficient. She gives them to Jenny every other week to be sold at the market and uses the money to pay for new materials and something nice for herself. Although it is a very rare occasion indeed when that money does not end up going on someone else."

"I just… I don't like her. That's all. She reminds me so much of Alice that I can't bear it."

"That is not a good reason for you to make her life such a misery while she is here. A lot of the time when I go to check on her before going to bed while we are here I find that she has cried herself to sleep."

"Why are you suddenly making such an issue of this anyway?"

"I'm dieing, Margaret. The doctors say it is cancer. They've given me a month. That was two weeks ago. I have no one else to leave Elsie with. Just promise me you'll treat her well when I'm gone."

Elsie just ran. She didn't care if they had heard her or not, she just ran for her room. Why hadn't Gran told her about this? Elsie knew that Gran just didn't want her to get all worried, but still, it would mean her having to move in with them, and probably no more hat making.

It was that night that she started her first black hat for a funeral.