Crudele Part Three

I invite you to a world where there is no such thing as time
And every creature lends themselves to change your state of mind

It had taken far longer to dissect the frog than she hoped. The sheer lack of not knowing what to do made for slow going, and now, as Alice desperately hacked into the carcass, she wished she had started earlier. Already, she had ruined half of the necessary organs for the assignment; it would be a miracle if she were to ace it. Frustrated and exhausted, she paused and leaned back, setting the scalpel down to rest for a moment.

She listened to the sounds of the room, keen ears straining for an ounce of silence. All she heard was the chatter of students who had already accomplished their assignments and, beyond the door, the raspy call of a teacher screeching at a student. "This is more torture than teaching." Alice muttered under her breath, "When will I ever need to do this in the future?"

"You plan on having a future?" a voice scoffed from behind, "Good luck with that."

Oh, that wretched voice! Egotism laced onto every word like a poison, with Alice drowning in its fumes. Not a day had gone by, yet she was tired of his voice.

"Gary, what more do you want?" she sighed out, a throb forming at the base of her temple

"Nothing." He droned out, sliding into the vacant stool beside her, "Can't two friends talk to each other?"

"When in the short time span that I have known you have I ever agreed to any kind of acquaintance with you?"

This was becoming ever more difficult for Alice. The teachers were in a world of their own, the students differing from ego maniacs, plain idiots and the smart alecks. Now, she was apparently associated with the student in school that everyone disliked. At least, that was what she assumed.

"Wonderland, you're in for one hell of a ride if you think that you can go through this school without a friend. It's survival of the craziest."

She furrowed her eyebrows at him, an exasperated sigh escaping her lips. This boy was starting to aggravate her.

"Aren't the crazy always alone though?" she questioned him

"We are a different form of crazy around here, we don't classify as psychos yet; we are on the verge though." He replied, shrugging the topic off

"Then I'll be the crazy loner in school." She snapped

"Heh, that's funny Wonderland." He huffed, a devious smirk playing on his features

She stared at him for a moment, expecting him to leave. He sat perfectly still though, gazing at her with boredom stricken in his eyes.

"You're insane Gary." She stated out of nowhere, figuring he would leave later

"Likewise," he shrugged, "I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but it always worked for me."

She stared at him shocked; had she heard him correctly? If her ears were not playing tricks on her, Alice was certain that Gary had admitted to already having sex. Was he not her age? Though she was overly shocked, a part of her had expected nothing less. Boys would always be boys; why would he be any different.

"So you've had sex?" she slowly spoke, as to try and find some decent words and the proper phrasing for such a question

He replayed that infamous smirk, crossing his arms. "That's for me to know and for you to never find out."

"Okay then." She nodded, quickly coming to a self agreement that she would never want to find out

"Well, I have a lot of work to finish…" she wandered off her sentence, glancing at Gary. She hoped that he caught what she meant, and that he would take his leave, and soon.

He gave a simple hum, acknowledging her. Yet, he sat there, and continued to do so with no intention of leaving the seat.

Alice slumped in her seat; the fact that Gary wasn't going to leave her alone was slowly starting to settle. The once slow throb in her temple agonizingly grew, to a point where Alice contemplated whether slamming her head on the desk would hurt more. Was it sanely possible that only one day in this wretched school could kill her?

"Look, I don't mean to be rude," in truth, she had meant to be, "But I really don't want to, and can't talk to you right now."

"Still touchy eh?"

"Just leave." She simply put, shooing him away with her hand

He stared at her hand, blinking at it as though it were a fly. He didn't seem annoyed; then again, he didn't seem to display any type of real emotion. Alice became helpless; she figured since she had already disfigured the frog into a failing grade, she might as well give up on it now.

"Look, I already failed this damn thing, so can you just leave me alone?" she asked politely

"I didn't even get to ask you what I wanted to ask you." He replied quickly

"I asked you what you wanted when you came over; you said nothing. Now, you're changing your mind. What in the world do you really want?"

His face shifted, eyes drawing into a blank state. A frown grew on his lips, his eyebrows furrowing. Nonchalantly, he reached up, bumping her forehead with his fist.

"You have a sour attitude." He simply put

Running a hand through her hair, Alice laughed bitterly, the sound of bells in it; high and mysterious. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"Nothing." He shrugged off, "Just pointing it out."

"Sure, along with changing the subject."

"I'm not changing anything." Came his reply, along with him spinning in his seat. A grin appeared on his features, showing a childish side of him. He looked up at Alice wearing a faint smile, yet not enough to engulf the shadows within his eyes. Her face softened; words unable to correctly form into a sentence.

It had been a while since she had genuinely smiled. As the day suspended into the afternoon under mists of papers and unknown intentions, she had slowly began to lose hope that she would ever smile again.

.:=:.

Eventually, school had ended for the day. Alice clung to herself, a breeze wailing through the air. She was surprised to find that everything that has happened today slowly being blown away like autumn leaves.

"Hello!" a voice chirped, frightening Alice out of her thoughts

She blinked a few times, unable to register the presence of another human beside her. At first, she stared straight forward, expecting to see a student. Yet, all she met was thin air that apparently seemed to be speaking. Maybe the rumors were true – maybe this school does make you go crazy.

"Down here miss." The voice announced

Alice gazed downwards, a blank stare plastered on her face. A young girl stood there, a bright smile graced on her expression, eyes beaming with happiness.

"My name is Melody. You must be the new student."

"Yes, I am." Alice nodded, "My name is Alice, nice to meet you."

Slowly, her confusion and anxiety had melted away. At least she knew that this school had some form of sanity imprisoned here.

"Hey, go to hell assholes!" Melody suddenly snapped, her attention now focused on the group of jocks that were standing by

On second thought, maybe this school doesn't have sanity; Alice grieved at the single thought. Before Alice could speak another word to Melody, she had sprinted off into the distance. She stood there dazed, wondering where she could have gone. Making no attempt to find an answer however, Alice simply shrugged her shoulders and continued walking.

From her knowledge, there were 61 students enrolled in this school, including her. Considering she had met Gary, Pete, Jimmy, Beatrice and now, Melody; it left her with 55 students to get to know. She had a feeling that it wasn't going to be neither easy nor nice.

As she continued her pace towards the girls' dorm, she had noticed a large student beating at his chest wildly like a savage gorilla. He halted his actions, looking as though the whole routine was completely normal. Suddenly, he snapped his head towards his left, to which Alice followed his gaze to see another student.

"You!" he roared, pointing a finger towards him, "Russell will beat you to ground!"

She slowed her pace, watching as the other student screamed and sprinted in the other direction, the so called Russell following behind.

Her despise for this school was slowly forging into confusion. Confusion as to how this place was ever recognized as a school.

.:=:.

Gary smiled; his eyes glittered like frost, a devious grin curling onto his lips. Out of boredom, he fiddled with a pencil, occasionally flicking it at Petey's head. He hadn't bothered to reach over to retrieve the pencil, yet took comfort in grabbing a new one from the desk beside him. The young boy seemed to ignore him at first, but after a few hits, his irritation had lost control.

"Gary, go bother someone else right now!"

"Ah, come on Pete!" he yelled, slinging his arm over his shoulder, "I'm having fun right now."

"Why don't you go find your girlfriend and bother her?" he questioned, throwing a glare his way

Gary became immensely dumbstruck, mind drawing a blank. When did he suddenly gain the title of boyfriend? For the life of him, he could not conjure up the image of any girl in this school who would even be suitable to be close to.

"Who are you talking about?" he finally asked

"You know who, that new girl that was in Biology today." Pete reminded him, shrugging his arm off

"Ah, Wonderland." He purred out, eyes flickering with playfulness. He laughed, and it was a careless sound, "She's not my girlfriend fem' boy." He leaned back onto the couch, suddenly gaining a lure to what was written on the pencil

"Then why were you so touchy with her in class?"

"I was just doing what girls like." He informed the boy, flicking a pencil at his head once again, "Girls love attention and affection. Any form of it will make them feel special."

"You never did that with any other girl."

"Well, Wonderland is new. She knows nothing and is completely naïve. She will be easier to manipulate." He explained, reaching behind him for another projectile weapon

Gary caught a shocked expression cross Pete's face, laughing quietly to himself. He was always the one to care too much for others.

"What are you planning on doing Gary?"

"Don't worry fem' boy, nothing bad will happen to her," he mocked, rolling his eyes in the process, "At least, I think so."

"Don't tell me," Pete started, his head dropping in misery as he slowly sighed, "You plan on using her for your whole 'Taking Over the School' thing?"

Gary bolstered a laugh, slapping Pete harshly on his back as though a sign of newly found appreciation.

"You're finally learning Petey." He exclaimed with a hollow smile

"I don't think you should do that to her, Gary." Pete hesitantly said

"And now you just demoted yourself back to a moron."

.:=:.

Sometimes the curiosity can kill the soul but leave the pain
And every ounce of innocence is left inside her brain