What? One hundred years waiting for a high school outsider? It all seemed really quite hard to believe. I looked into Eli's green eyes one pupil was larger than the other, this was a sign of psychotic principles. I looked around this world, everything seemed in order. Dancing children and many healthy trees and plants. If anything it was better than the real world.
"Why do you people need me?" I asked with wonder.
"You are to take the Underland throne ,Clare. You will lead armies and decide laws. We just passed one yesterday that everyday at noon everyone must dance and gather in the center of the fields to greet each other. It is such a joy for most but I find it a little unnecessary. Who needs such a silly tradition," Eli continued.
"Why me? I'm but a distant child of Alice. Wouldn't my grandmother or father have taken over?" I ask Eli feverishly. I didn't think I was good enough to take on such a responsibility. I was just a nerd, I knew much but could I put it all in action?
"You were the first relative to fall down the whole! Darcy failed miserably. We set up a picnic basket in the open on a day where she and Peter where out on a date but she completely ignored it. What a dim-wit. We knew you would marvel in the beauty of our magical flowers. So bright and gorgeous. Much like yourself ,Madame," Eli told me with a sly grin.
I blush and quickly look down to my flats. "Thanks," I mutter. I hear him chuckle softly.
"Not to mention you gorgeous eyes! No one in Underland has a comparable shade of yours," he tells me as he steps closer.
I grow a little more nervous. "Really?" I ask softly. No one in my entire life had called me pretty, or gorgeous, except my family or Alli a few times. I felt bolder around this Eli boy.
"But of course. Now let us go greet your awaited kingdom," and with that he grabs my hand and leads me through the tall flowers and odd shaped bushes. We come across an odd tea time table. It had around five smaller tables to make it up, with many mismatched chairs and dishes. A cat sits on one edge of the table, with a man at the other. Two rabbits, one clean and well bathed with the other dirty and crusted, sat next to each other on the left side of the table and a dodo bird was across from them. All except the cat wore waistcoats.
"My fellow Underland residents! Clare Edwards has arrived! She has fallen down to the hole and found us in our high time! Let her bring us to an even higher one!" Eli announced in a regal tone. A few women and men walked out from behind the tall flowers. They smiled at me…all except one. She was short with a very thin stature and dawned a black tutu with a dark purple coat. Her shirt underneath was a hot pink and she had tall green leggings with black shoes. Odd. This girl walked forward and stared at me.
"But she's so ugly!" exclaimed the girl. "I do not want her as the face of my home."
"Julia!" Eli scolded. "Why are you so rude? She's much prettier than you."
Julia scoffed, "In my nightmares maybe. What is little Eli developing a crush on the chosen one? Hmm?" she babbled on with her high pitched screech of a voice.
"Maybe I am! If anything she's better than your lying, horrible self!"
"What are you saying? I thought you loved me but two months ago?"
"Ha! Biggest mistake of my time!" and with that, Eli grabbed my hand. He quickly walked to the large tea table and sat me next to the tall, lanky man at the end of the table. Eli sat right next to me and the lanky man in the biggest hat smiled in my direction.
"Alice? It's been one hundred years, my boy! Terribly late, son," The man tells me.
"Oh I'm not Alice. I'm Clare Edwards, her great-granddaughter. I'm apparently here for my kingdom?" I tell him and then turn to Eli who is nodding to the man.
"Oh! Sorry bout the drama with K.C. that Jenna girl is such an evil little devil isn't she? Don't worry the council and I saw another sweet little boy in your future," he says. I cough on my tea.
"Pardon? You know my past and my future?" I say as I clear my throat.
"Well of course ,Clare! We all know about you. Even your new little friend Eli. My goodness! I've forgotten to introduce myself now haven't I! I am Tarrant but everyone calls me the Hatter. So you may follow their trend," Hatter tells me.
"Well who's in my future? Which little boy?" I ask quickly. I mean, what girl wouldn't want to know?
"Oh you've met him recently," Hatter says as he ours himself some tea with a smirk.
"Oh have I? Is it Connor or Wesley? Please say no!" Connor and Wesley were good friends but I honestly did not find them attractive.
"Oh heavens no little one," Hatter responds, "Much more of a recent greeting."
"Oh, okay," I sigh. It was probably some other science geek I just met. Darn.
"Well, now that you guys have met, we should start teaching her of Underland," Eli broke in.
"Ok of course ,my girl. We should. Well Clare you should know that Underland used to be taken over by the evil red queen. This is not to say she will not return from the outer skirts of Underland to regain control. This is where you come in. If you stay you will take over the castle and become the Blue Queen. You will rule the entire kingdom and choose a king. He can be from the outside or one of our citizens," I heard Eli as he began to tense up when the Hatter said that. " You will create and army and the White Queen would be your mentor. You may have noticed our lovely Underland residents?" Hatter now turns to ask me.
"Yes. I have seen a few," I respond thinking of the rude Julia.
"Well a few of them have tried to overthrow the capital to take over Underland. Julia in particular. She failed though. However, no one can be trusted now. I mean, even I might be able to overthrow the capital!" Hatter laughs heavily. "But I wouldn't do that, partially because I'm already in the Eternal Council. I have no use changing our lovely empire."
"Who else is in the council?" I intently ask.
"Well Chess, McTwisp, March Hare, and Dodo," Hatter told me.
I gave him a puzzled expression, the only one I thought I was sure of was Dodo being the dodo bird.
"Oh let me clarify. The smiling cat, the white rabbit, the brown rabbit, and the dodo bird," he said as he pointed to the members.
Chess, the cat, disappeared leaving only a smile which disappeared soon after. Then, he reappeared on my lap.
"Clare, that K.C. boy was such an evil brat. I'll tell you a piece of his future! He gets the little devil Jenna pregnant, carrying his child," Chess says with a mischievous smile. Then he again disappears to reappear in the chair across from me. McTwisp hopped up to me and sits next to Eli.
"Be glad you where that purity ring, darling," McTwisp, the white rabbit, tells me, "Not to say that you won't do something before marriage with a certain boy from-"
Hatter pokes him in the stomach. "We do not release information of Clare's future. Especially of the future king!"
But now I needed to know who this future king was. Was it someone from Degrassi? Maybe someone from Underland? Hmm. I could ask McTwisp.
"Let's make our way to the castle ,Clare," Hatter says as he stands from the large chair he sat in. It wasn't till I stood up that I noticed my dress was very loose. Probably from the Drink Me juice. I looked down and you could almost see my bra. It was awful, but Eli was staring. Which was just flat out embarrassing. Hatter looked at me and gasped.
"We cannot have the queen see you like this!" he says. "Come with me and I will make you a different dress, child"
"Um…okay," I say before Hatter tugs me behind the flowers to a little hut. We walked in to reveal a tall, circular table in the middle. Every color of fabric imaginable was on rolls that were pushed against a wall. I noticed he had a large jar of thimbles and thread. He helped me get up do I could stand on the circular table. He took my measurement and began snipping and snapping the thread and fabric. I looked down to see white lace and blue silk fabric. It looked like a twisted ball gown that was from a different world.
It ran tight until it hit my waist where it puffed our into gathered layers that had a lot of navy fabric underneath the light blue ones. The white lace hung loosely off of my shoulders. The dress went to about my knees and overall was very beautiful.
"Wow," I said, marveling at the elaborate stitches. "This is so beautiful, Hatter."
"I'm glad you like it," he says with a huge grin. "You should know that I do design your wedding dress. I thought the results were quite good. It was very glittery."
"Who do I marry, Hatter?" I just had to know.
"I will give you a hint. He's from Underland," Hatter tells me with a soft smile.
Wow. My future husband was down here somewhere. I wondered if I'd meet him today. Maybe he was handsome. I did hope for that dearly, no one wants their children at risk of being ugly.
"He's very nice, I know him dearly," Hatter continued. I believe he noticed that I wasn't responding.
"I bet," I said with a little laugh.
"Well we better get going to find the queen," Hatter grabs my hand and leads me back to the tea table. Eli was sitting with his head in his hands. Julia was smirking over him. She looked so evil with the blue light of the day on her black hair.
"What's wrong, Eli?" I ask him.
"Julia says that you are going to die after you marry someone from above," he says with tears.
I was going to die. Had Hatter lied or Julia?
Thank you all for reading my stories. I'd really appreciate it if you could checkout my other stories at . xoxo Madame Livi