Disclaimer: Sadly, Alice in Wonderland belongs to Lewis Carroll, Disney, and whoever else owns the rights. Only original characters and ideas belong to me.
AN: Sorry, but I had to include croquet in this story. You can't go to Underland without even one game of croquet happening. But don't worry; this is the White Queen we're talking about, so no animals were harmed in the making of this story. Meanwhile, I hope that everyone enjoys themselves and will review. Thanks!
Chapter 4: Unusual Encounters:
After lunch, the Queen invited people to join her in a game of croquet. I, of course, immediately pictured the Red Queen's version, with the poor hedgehogs being used as balls and flamingos as mallets. Much to my relief, several dozen royal pages appeared with colorful wooden balls and finely crafted wood mallets, instead of the animals I'd envisioned.
"Do you play, Laura?" the Queen asked me as she rose gracefully from her seat.
"Unfortunately, I am unfamiliar with the game, Majesty," I replied, feeling slightly embarrassed.
She nodded. "That is alright, my dear. You may watch for a while, and join us for a second round later, if you are comfortable with the game by then. Alice, will you join me?"
Ali, of course, knew how to play. She was an English aristocrat, and playing croquet was something they'd taught her the minute she could start remembering the rules. I knew she was good at it; she was good at everything a well-bred Englishwoman of good family should know.
However, as her friend, I knew she'd be much more comfortable sitting with me on the sidelines, whispering jokes and giggling over the players of the game. She couldn't do that today, but I had a feeling that as soon as we were alone, she'd be poking fun at some of the courtiers (though they really wouldn't deserve it).
After throwing me an apologetic look, Ali trailed after the floating white figure of the Queen. I knew she was sorry for not teaching me the game days ago, when we'd first arrived in England. It was my first time in England, and I'd been excited to learn all about its culture, people, and history. Ali, who'd grown up there, was used to it, but she'd promised to teach me about croquet, instruct me on how to consume a proper English tea, and show me the grounds around her house.
'Yeah, too bad we never got around to that.'
I sighed wistfully and followed the crowds to the croquet field, where I was promptly seated in a white lawn chair by an obliging page boy in an immaculate white-and-silver uniform.
Watching the game begin, I thought back to how I'd had to improvise in etiquette whenever Ali and I "hung out" with the White Queen, as well as her court. My parents had taught me proper manners ever since I was little, but this was majorly different –there had been several times where I'd been forced to copy Ali's movements when eating (such as choosing the right fork or spoon), and proper mannerisms in general around the Queen.
"My lady?" a page boy addressed me, breaking my thoughts. "The Queen wishes to know if you will join her and the Lady Alice for tea this afternoon."
I tried my best not to sigh and roll my eyes. 'And it would figure that my very first proper tea will be served here in Underland, at the White Queen's table. I really need to ask Ali for etiquette lessons!'
The absolute last thing I needed was to embarrass myself in front of the infamous people and creatures of Underland. I made a mental note to get Ali alone for some quick lessons either tonight or tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile, the poor little page was looking at me in a bit of anxiety, apparently waiting for my reply. I smiled at him and nodded. "Please inform Her Majesty that I would be delighted to join her for tea."
The page bowed and fled for the Queen's side. She bent slightly to hear what he had to say, and when he finished, she straightened to give me a delighted smile. I bowed my head in return and watched her tap her ball through a metal hoop.
"Do you not play croquet?" asked a male voice to my right.
Looking up, I saw it was the Mad Hatter, and immediately grew uncomfortable. Those impossibly neon-green eyes were focused on me, and he had a slight smile on his face.
Okay, to be honest, it wasn't a bad face; he certainly had the best nose I'd ever seen, if only because it was perfectly shaped. He also had a pair of marvelous high cheekbones that any woman would love to have. Not that I'd date him, of course; orange hair, unusual eyes, and the fact that he was insane…well, it kind of made me want to run and take cover in the castle.
Still, just because I was uncomfortable around him was no reason to be rude.
"No, I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the game," I politely answered.
"May I?" he asked, pulling a chair up from nowhere. "There. Now, how is it you know Alice? She is much altered since she was here last, but I haven't yet deduced why. This is different than the case of her loosing her much-ness again."
Since I had no idea what "much-ness" was, I decided to ignore it and try to focus on his question. This required a lot of care, so I hesitated a moment to think of a good answer. I quickly decided it might be best to keep things as truthful as possible, preferably without giving up the fact that Ali wasn't who they thought she was.
"I met her at school, in my country," I truthfully replied. "My land is across the sea from England, and we were both accepted to the same school. We shared the same lodgings, and became quite close. We've been friends for many years now."
There was lots of history missing, such as Ali and me taking numerous spring and summer vacations together. There was also my meeting her parents whenever they (rarely) came to visit her. After graduating, we both moved to the same quiet apartment complex, literally down the hall from each other, and spent our free time hanging out and having fun together.
"Interesting," he muttered.
'No, not really,' I thought to myself. That was when I noticed that the Hatter staring at the top of my head, and realized that he hadn't been talking about me and 'Alice' at all.
"What's interesting?" I asked aloud, curious in spite of myself.
"Your head," the Hatter replied, eyes focused on my forehead. "I'm trying to imagine what sort of hat would suit it, but nothing seems right for a lovely head such as yours."
I blushed. No one had ever called my head 'lovely' before. On the other hand, he'd just said he couldn't put the right kind of hat to it, so either he was playing with me, or he seriously meant it.
"It is a puzzle, you see, and I must admit, a rather intriguing one," the Hatter continued, both hands reaching to touch my head. To my surprise, there were orange stains splattered across his fingers. That was strange.
'Wait, is that because of the mercury poisoning from handling the hat materials?' I remembered that from a bit of trivia Ali had told me once, years ago. 'The poor man; poisoned by the trade he obviously loves so much.'
Those strange fingers trailed from my forehead back towards my hair, where he proceeded to gently comb through the loose-hanging strands. There was a deep, thoughtful look on the Hatter's face, and I was very curious to hear what it was he was thinking about.
"You must tell me your color," he declared, pulling his hands back with a jerk.
I looked at him blankly. "My color?" I repeated. "What do you mean?"
"Your color, my dearest Laura," he said, waving a hand in the air. "What color do you like best of the entire rainbow?"
Oh, that was easy. "I love the entire rainbow," I replied. "It's very pretty, don't you think?"
My answer must have pleased him, because his face lit up like a bizarre Christmas tree. "Wonderful! I shall begin work at once. By morning, you will have an array of hats the likes of which you've never seen anywhere!"
With that, he was gone, leaving me stunned in my chair. I heard footsteps approaching, and turned to see the White Queen and Ali coming up beside me.
"Goodness, what was that about?" my friend asked, watching the Hatter flee the garden. "Don't tell me you scared him off, Laura."
I chuckled. "No, he just wants to get started making hats. Right before he ran off, he promised me a whole stack of them by morning. I guess I should go after him and tell him not to trouble himself with so much work."
"Oh, don't do that, dear," the Queen said, smiling at me. "I haven't seen him this excited to make a hat since the day he discovered taffeta, and that was long ago. Let him have his fun while I teach you croquet."
Standing on the sidelines, Alice Elizabeth Cunningham watched her best friend learn croquet from the White Queen of Underland. Jeez, how twisted did that sound?
When they'd first arrived in Underland, Ali had thought she'd officially lost it. After all, she'd heard about that book and her several-times-great-grandmother her entire life –waking up in that fictional world had to mean that all those family history lessons had finally driven her off the deep end.
But no, it was real. When she'd woken up, the White Queen herself had treated her aches and pains, welcomed her "back" to Underland, and thanked her for accepting the invitation. At first, Ali could only nod, say it was no trouble, and wing it as she tried to gather what the heck was going on.
It didn't take long for her to deduce that every person here thought that she was Alice Kingsley, the woman who had told her tale to Lewis Carroll and then vanished to China. And apparently Mr. Carroll had altered a lot of stuff, or just left it out all together. Why he'd done that, she didn't know.
'I mean, who leaves out an epic battle, like fighting and slaying the Jabberwocky?' Ali wondered, mentally shaking her head. Probably because proper Victorian women didn't fight monsters with sharp pointy objects?
And of course, the resemblance she had to Alice Kingsley was beyond creepy. The murals in the White Queen's palace spoke volumes: the same hair, eyes, and even similar facial structure was enough to make even Ali stop and blink. It wasn't a mirror likeness, but since many people figured that "Alice" would have grown and altered over time, a difference to her face wasn't unexpected. But still, no wonder everyone thought she was Alice!
And then there was Laura, the sweetie. Laura was Ali's rock, though Ali never really admitted it. Shy, quiet, but good and steady, Laura Mason was everything Ali had wanted in a sister and friend. With parents who were distantly affectionate, and rarely ever home, Ali had always searched for someone to be permanent and affectionate. After meeting her friend in college, and in the years beyond, she had found exactly that: a friend with an "old soul," and who she could grow close to.
As best friends, they didn't hesitate to have coffee every other afternoon together, or to go out clubbing, or go to the theater every once in a while, keeping their friendship alive and growing for nearly a decade. When Ali's parents had invited the two girls to use the family's estate in England for the summer, free of charge, Ali had immediately agreed, knowing that Laura would gladly give her right arm for the chance to visit England.
'But I never thought something like this would happen,' she thought, trying to keep a frown from forming on her face. It would figure that some of her family's history would come back to bite her in the butt.
Ali had always hated having the family history crammed down her throat. Her father might be astoundingly proud of it, but not her. Maybe it was the fact that, ever since Alice Kingsley's time, at least one baby girl had to be given the name 'Alice.' Ali had cousins, aunts, and several other distant family members who were all called Alice, and family gatherings always drove her crazy. It didn't help that the others felt honored by their given names -Ali didn't feel the same way about it.
'Maybe if I'd known this place actually existed, I'd have felt differently.' She'd never know for sure.
Spotting Laura take aim with her croquet mallet, Ali had to chuckle. Even though they were stuck in Underland for who-knows-how-long, it would be fun, at the least. Laura seemed to be fitting in very well, for all her lack of etiquette, but the people, flora, and animals liked her as much as they liked Ali, though it kind of hurt that they liked Ali because they thought she was The Alice.
'No worries,' Ali thought to herself as Laura hit a ball through a hoop. 'They'll come around.'
In the meantime, she had to keep an eye on that Hatter. She didn't like the way he was eyeing her friend, nor how he'd touched Laura's hair. Ali recognized an intimate touch like that, and knew the Hatter had to be up to something. What that was, she didn't know, but she was determined to find out.
In his workroom in the castle of Marmoreal, the Hatter attacked the stacks of materials set there for his use. He'd always had this workroom, and it was always stocked with the finest of things, for not only did he make hats for the White Queen, he did it to express himself and make his work come to life. Sometimes, he made pieces as gifts, or simply because someone asked for a hat crafted by him.
Today, however, he would dedicate his craft to a particular head, the one belonging to the pretty friend of Alice.
And what a puzzle she was! Whenever he was employed to make someone a hat, he always tried to imagine what hat would be appropriate for that person's head. But Laura, now, her head made his creative mind like one of the White Queen's favored stationary –a little bit of a design forming at the top, then going to complete white whenever he tried to think further. Honestly, he didn't know whether to be glad of the challenge, or flustered.
Well, at least he knew she liked an array of colors, so he wasn't limited to a single one, or a mere handful. Being able to work with anything he liked certainly helped his creativity, and it was beginning to show in the ridiculous amount of materials he was measuring, cutting, and pinning together. With any luck, he would have ten hats done by morning!
'But would they suit her?' the Hatter wondered, pausing in his work.
Of course they would! Surely at least one would be deemed worthy of resting on such a magnificent specimen of a head!
Giggling, the Hatter dove back into his work, determined to finish a few by tea time.
Afternoon tea at the White Queen's castle was not what I'd expected. I had thought that we'd all be gathered together like at lunch, courtiers and all, but it turned out to be more exclusive than that. There was me and Ali, of course, but also the White Rabbit, Mallymkun the Dormouse, and last but not least, the March Hare and the Hatter. The Tweedle brothers had vanished into the kitchens for their tea.
This afternoon, the Queen sat at the head of the table, but with Ali and me seated on her right, together for a change. The Rabbit apparently had some news to relay to the Queen, so he sat to her left. The Hare was across from me, and next to him was the Dormouse.
Much to my discomfort, the Hatter had decided to take a chair to my right. I did my best not to flinch away from him, instead focusing on the conversations going on around me and on Ali's mannerisms. She hadn't been able to give me etiquette lessons after my croquet lesson, so I was pretty much 'winging it' when it came to consuming tea properly.
"You know, I'm thinking the Hare has some kind of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder," Ali murmured to me as we watched him shift and organize the glasses and cups around his plate. "Well, that and some kind of a nervous twitch, mixed with a good dose of insanity."
I had to agree with her, but right now, the only person I was worried about was the Hatter. He'd arrived at tea with a stack of hat boxes, which he'd dumped in a corner before coming to sit at the table. Well, at least he was distracted by the March Hare and Mallymkun, so that gave me a chance to hear what the White Rabbit was talking about.
I was listening very closely to the Rabbit, who was describing what the flowers had told him just this afternoon, when a hand gently tapped my right shoulder. Still semi-distracted by the Rabbit's chatter, I turned my head. My eyes immediately locked with the Hatter's wacked out green gaze, and I felt my stomach clench at the broad grin he had on his face.
"I've brought several hats that I've crafted for you," he said, looking like an excited child. "Would you care to try them on after tea?"
I stared at him. How on earth had he managed to make a stack of hats in just one afternoon? Did he possess Superman speed skills, or had he really been that excited to make me headwear?
To be honest, I was tempted to refuse, but when I thought about it, I was actually a bit excited to try them on. I'd never been a 'hat person,' and the idea of a new experience sounded fun. Besides, they were just hats, right?
"Alright," I said, smiling a little at him. "Have you someplace in mind where we can meet?"
Ali was not happy with my decision, but what could she do? The Hatter was apparently a great favorite of the White Queen, and when the Queen learned that the hats stacked in the corner were for me, she declared it a wonderful thing and offered me the use of her own private dressing rooms.
"It is where I try on my new clothing and hats," she said, nodding graciously to the Hatter, who bowed back. "I'm sure you will find it comfortable."
The room was the size of my parents' modest house back in the States, and had a wall of mirrors on one side, clearly meant for when the Queen tried on her new clothes. Opposite the entry doors stood a lovely white wood vanity with a large oval mirror, which had several hat stands nearby. I took a seat there and waited for the Hatter to arrive with his stack of hats.
I had no idea what to expect, but the pieces that he'd made were incredible. Most of the hats were meant to be worn off-kilter and pinned to the head, and they came in such a variety I couldn't imagine how he'd managed to make them in one afternoon.
For twenty minutes I sat there, trying on hats and looking at my reflection. Ali stood nearby to offer her opinion, but even she had to admit that the Hatter did pretty darn good work. A few were rejected quickly because the colors didn't suit my head, but in the end, I had six pieces of designer headwear.
Right now, a black hat was perched on my head, tilting slightly to the right. It was a black velvet top hat with purple taffeta wrapped around it, the ends dangling off at the back of my head. A purple flower made of silk was attached on the right side, to rest just above my right ear. It was adorable, but fashionable, and I made sure to tell the Hatter that.
"A pity about the others," he said, looking at the orange, bright green, and yellow hats I'd turned down. "But that simply means I now know what to work with in the future."
"That's very kind of you, but you don't have to trouble yourself," I assured him quickly. Six hats were more than enough to last my visit in Underland.
"Oh, it's no trouble," he cheerfully said, stacking up the rejected hats. "A hatter makes hats, and as I am a hatter, it is what I do."
"But it really isn't necessary," Alice chimed in.
I nodded. "And now Alice and I have to get ready for dinner this evening. It's supposed to be a magnificent meal, and we need lots of time to prepare."
"That's true," Ali declared as the Hatter gathered the rejected hats. "Though you'll look lovely no matter what you wear, Laura."
"Indeed she shall," the Hatter replied, balancing the hat boxes in his left arm. "My lady?" He extended his right hand towards me.
Thinking he wanted to shake hands, I offered my own. I did not expect him to gently take my hand and raise it to his lips, where he promptly pressed a swift and gentle kiss to my fingertips.
"I will see you at dinner," he said before turning to leave.
Once the door had closed behind him, I looked over at Ali. "Is it just me, or did his voice change?" I asked worriedly. "When he left, I mean."
Ali, meanwhile, was staring at the door. "It's not just you," she muttered. "Jeez, he's gotta have it bad for you, Laura. I don't know what you did, but I think the Mad Hatter has a crush on you."
My heart dropped to my stomach, which then dropped to the floor. "That's crazy," I said, trying to sound firm. "I mean, I don't even know the guy, and he doesn't know me."
Ali shrugged. "I'm just telling you what I see, darling. If you want to nip this in the bud, you'd better make sure of his feelings, and head them off by telling him it's not a good idea. And remember, once this whole celebration is over, you and I are going home."
She was right. Once this whole wacky adventure of ours was over, we'd be heading home, just like the original Alice had. Meanwhile, I'd have to talk to the Hatter, alone, and straighten this whole thing out. If he did have a crush on me, I'd have to let him down gently (he was Mad, after all), and remind him that I'd be leaving soon. And that would be the end of it.
"Come on, we have to get ready for dinner," Ali said. "And if I were you, I wouldn't wear anymore of his hats. It might encourage him."
I sighed and took off the one resting on my head. "There. Now, let's go get dressed. I have no idea what to wear, and I have a feeling that you're going to have to help me pick something out."
AN: Aw, the poor Hatter! I don't think he's going to take rejection very well, but then, you never know what will happen in Underland! Thanks for reading, and please review!