I've actually written the front part a long time ago but was not sure how to add it in until today. It's slightly off from the sneak preview but this will open a new episode leading to that. Hope you guys out there will enjoy this chapter as well :) For those who have reviewed, thank you for the support! ^^

Disclaimer: I do not own anything HnKnA/C/J except my words and imagination for this AU and the school.


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Chapter 7: The Problem

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"Class, as you would have known by now, this is Miss Alice Liddell."

She stood beside her teacher of her first class as he made the introductions. He doesn't have eyes either… Alice noticed as she cast a nervous glance around at her classmates. But even though they were faceless, they weren't without expression…

Hate.

It was clearly written on everyone's ironically blank faces.

" She's…new here." Her teacher implied as he cleared his throat but the whole class stayed silent. It was eerie.

Too silent in fact.

"I hope you will learn to get along so let's give her a warm welcome, shall we?" he said and clapped his hands lazily. The other students joined in unenthusiastically, some turned their heads away, uninterested, while others leered at her.

Wow… this is as 'welcoming' as a funeral… Alice thought wryly. Seriously, what's with that attitude? So this was the treatment Nightmare had warned me about? The fingers on her bag handle clutched tightly. She definitely wasn't about to back down without a fight.

"Right, now that's settled, turn to page 20 of your Fundamentals of Contracts book." The teacher continued in an vexed tone as he went back to scribbling words on the chalkboard, ignoring Alice who stood dumbfounded and wondering…

"Erm… excuse me but where will I be sitting?"

"Humph… you have eyes don't you? Can't you see for yourself?" He answered smugly as he pointed his chalk to an abandoned row of seats right at the back of the small classroom while his students sniggered at her.

There were three to be precised, Alice realized as she squinted her eyes. The two on the sides looked normal but the center one was obviously abandoned for a reason. The surface was dusty and riddled with vandalism, the varnish was peeling off in an unsightly manner and the metal legs of the table and chair was badly rusted. There was another empty seat right in front but there were so many untouched books filed beneath the desk while heaps of sheets of late homework covered the top that she figured it was best to take it that it had already belonged to someone else. So she set her sights set on the more respectable-looking ones.

"Okay then I'll just take that-"

"The middle one at the back is yours. The ones on the sides are already occupied." He continued writing on the board without looking at her.

"What!" She exclaimed, her bright teal eyes flashed at her teacher in rage and disbelieve. "B-but Sir that's-"

"Is there a problem… Miss Liddell?" The man dared her with a crooked grin, supported by the glares from her own classmates.

"A problem.. Sir?" Strangely calm, her voice drawled in a deep, curling low tone. The need to challenge back rose swiftly and darkly in her.

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No… you're better than that… Alice…

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A voice in her cautioned, her patience reining in her impulsive side and extinguishing the rush of power she had almost welcomed, hating it as helplessness substituted her strength.

"… No Sir…" She answered with pursed lips.

"That's what I thought." He sneered and returned his attention to the blackboard. Fighting her own instincts, Alice's fingers gripped her bag once again as her feet mechanically dragged themselves to her newly assigned and one-of-a-kind desk.

PLONK.

Her hand covered the side of her head in shock. Something had hit her and looking down at her feet, she spotted a ball of scrounged up paper.

What the- Alice spun around to find the culprits, only to be hit by another ball of paper on the forehead just as a group of faceless students on the left exploded with laughter.

"The hell-! Hey!" She called out furiously to the rowdy bunch, barely dodging as another paper projectile shot across her face.

"What is it now!" Annoyed, the teacher demanded, breaking his chalk in two on the board and turning back to her.

"Sir, they were throwing paper balls at me!" Blatantly if I might add! The aquamarine-eyed girl pointed out triumphantly when she managed to catch one of the balls launched at her in one fist in mid-air. Ha! That will teach them! She thought as she watched the perpetrators fumbling to face forward in their seats. Right, diplomacy is the best! He must have seen them, there's no way for him to-

"I did not see such a thing, right class?" The man audaciously denied with an indifferent snort, leaving Alice crossly astonished while the rest of her classmates agreed with murmured approvals and jeers.

"And besides, it is the prefects' duty to uphold order in the class, not you, Miss Liddell. Was there such a disturbance back there, Class Monitor?" He called out idly and a girl stood up from amongst the same group of guilty party, wearing a red hearts-armband on her right sleeve, her shoulder-length brown, wavy tresses tied in a half ponytail.

"There was nothing of that sort, Sir." A quiet and high voice spoke, her cool eyeless features filled with disdain as she spared a glance at the Foreigner. "I have no idea what she's talking about." Alice could sense the haughtiness in the girl's body language as she sat herself down gracefully on her chair, her presence oddly reminiscing as her accusatory tone unexpectedly wrung her heart with painful guilt that seem to come from nowhere.

"There, are you satisfied? Now sit down Miss Liddell, you're disrupting my class." The teacher ordered and Alice reluctantly complied. Her mouth had been frowning so much her face was starting to ache. She briefly wiped away the layer of dust and cobwebs that had settled on her desk with tissue before even daring to sit down. It was a messy site; the surface was so dirtied with colored markers, paint, correctional fluid and what-nots that it was hard to distinguish what the original color was. She place her bag by the side, the teacher's monotonous voice droning on and on in her ears till-

PLONK.

Not again… The corner of her eye brow twitched agitatedly, telling herself to ignore and pray that her pesky problem will just go away before she sends them to hell herself.

"Bulls-eye dude!"

"Do it again!"

"This time aim at her face!"

Idiots… I can hear you laughing and whispering from here you cowards! She clenched her teeth and opened her book while wishing she could rip those irritating noises from their throats out.

PLONK. Another landed on top of her head. Alice took a deep breath and glowered at the group. Apparently the person responsible for throwing the balls of paper was sitting right in front of the Class Monitor, who clearly was not giving a damn. Instead she returned with a smirk that only aggravated Alice into wanting to pull her own hair out at such biasness.

PLONK.

PLONK.

PLONK.

PLON- "Cut. It. OUT!" Alice hissed and finally unable to withstand, she took one of the balls of paper that now littered her table and threw it back, smacking it right in his face and surprising him so much that he stumbled backwards and fell out of his chair, causing his accomplices to burst out laughing, all except the Class Monitor, who looked quite in a bit of shock herself before shooting Alice a scornful glare.

The laughing stopped when the teacher slammed his book on his table.

"Miss Liddell this is your second warning. You've caused quite a commotion during the Summoning Initiation Ceremony yesterday too. Now stop trying to attract attention to yourself."

Wait, I'd never… how could he-! Alice grimaced, finding the right words to defend herself, "No, I wasn't trying to-"

"Miss Liddell that is quite enough from you!" He reprimanded while pointing the textbook at her. "I don't need to hear any excuse from someone who can't even summon their own weapon! Turn to page 42 and read the whole section till the bell rings!"

Ugh… this is the worst… There goes my first day in school… Alice bitterly thought as she opened her book to the page and began with the title of the chapter.

"3 Stages of the Contract. Stage One is the initial development-"

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"I think that will be enough."

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A calm and baritone voice echoed and instantly, the memory images of Alice in the classroom froze and faded away into a space swirling with purple and green clouds, as if the incident had never happened. With a snap of his fingers, Nightmare Gottschalk brought his guests back to reality.

The silver-eyed man regarded the two role-holder who sat across his desk, leaning back into his chair and crossing his slender legs, "So what do you think, gentlemen?"

"I think you need to stop doing that." The Clockmaker grumbled as he opened his deep, azure orbs, flinching a little from the bright light that filtered through the window of the Principal's office. He rested his head back against his chair and roughly ran his fingers up and through his silky locks of blue, "I've got tons of work and you've called me over just to make me drowsy."

"Argh… my head hurts from waking up. Can't I just sleep in?" The other man who was sitting beside him complained, letting out a long yawn before taking his spectacles down to massage the bridge of his nose.

"Don't blame me!" The incubus retorted defensively, "It's the only way to monitor her progress."

"If you want to intrude on a girl's privacy, I'd appreciate you leave me out of it." Julius groused, his timbre voice gruff with weariness and annoyance. His frown distorted his face even more when his red-haired friend on the side hooked an arm around his neck playfully.

"Come'on Julius!" The contrastingly jovial-looking Role-holder cajole while tugging Julius closer, "You've gotta let the man in you loose a bit once in a while and enjoy what's left of your youth more!"

"Don't group me with you. It's already bad that you're as old as I am but you can't act your age."

"Hey, are you always this grumpy when you wake up, ole boy?"

"And are you always this irritatingly noisy?" The ravenette muttered in derision and pushed the arm off while the man guffawed.

Nightmare looked at his co-workers and sighed exasperatedly, "I don't have any other choice but the two of you so will you consider my proposal at least? I know Alice's situation is different from other Foreigners, seeing that she is able to pull off an advance Contract level from the start even without the necessary reciprocated needs between Masters and Shields." He reached out for his cup of earl grey tea that was resting on his table, stirring the silver teaspoon about and taking a soothing whiff at the sweet and light aroma.

"But I will not stand for such unfairness in my school. Thus I need someone more experienced to guide her. "

"I've told you it's impossible for me." The mortician stated as-a-matter-of-fact whilst folding his arms. "I already have my hands full with my role. Why would you even consider me is beyond my comprehension."

"That's because Alice is well er… hated… in Wonderland High, while your jurisdiction oversees the neutral districts in the school and yes, even though it is rather superficial, a form of peace is required as agreed by the signed treaty so for heaven's sake stop grumbling to yourself in your thoughts." The eye-patched man carefully explained, pausing only to take a small sip of his tea before he continued, his one-eyed perceptive gaze fell upon the Clockmaster with a knowing grin, "I believe you can give Alice a fair chance to grow. Not to mention, it seems like Alice cares for you… and so might you her."

"Nonsense." Dark and turbulent cobalt orbs flashed and narrowed at his higher-up instantly. "It's already enough that I have to see to her injuries. I'm done here."

They watched as the mortician adjusted his clockwork tie, stood and left. His white doctors' coat trailed behind as he strode to the door and closed it with a loud and angry slam.

"Sheesh, he's stubborn!" The remaining visitor raised an eyebrow at Nightmare, leaning his weight to one side of the armrest, "But that grouch caring for someone else? That's a tough story for anyone here to believe ya know."

"It appears so." The teacup returned to its place on the table, his uncanny smile still remained on the incubus's lips, "It's not much to judge by yet, but I believe their relationship does have a unique mutual quality."

"With the Foreigner huh? Tch… Not sure if that's lucky or not." The other man shook his head as he cupped his stubbled chin thoughtfully.

"What about you, Gowland?" Nightmare addressed the man who was dressed in a quirky yellow suit that was decorated with blue diamond shapes, the tail of his cropped hair tied neatly in a short braid. "I've only got you to take up the offer now. Anyway, it's high time for you to start working rather than being cooped up in that room of yours fiddling with your projects."

"Hey, I'm successful that way." The bespectacled Role-holder puffed his chest out and gave a toothy grin as he pointed out. "The students and the folks love it there!"

"A-actually most would rather avoid that room-"

"Isn't that why I'm part of the Big Three? You should give a man his creative space; it'll do wonders for the world I tell ya!" Gowland exclaimed nonchalantly, ignoring Nightmare's prudent objection who could only give up with a sigh.

"Ah...but teaching youngsters like those after what they did to me-"

Nightmare closed his ears as he repeated the well-known litany, "Which is all the Hatter's fault-"

"WHICH IS ALL THAT BLOODY HATTER'S FAULT!" Gowland roared suddenly, almost as if all hell had broken lose in the room. His kind and laughing eyes were replaced with an evil and maniacal gleam as he wrung his fingers around an invisible neck while Nightmare rolled his eye.

"I'll have that smirking ass**** die by my own hands and have the whole school laughing at his death just like how he did to me! That damn bastard, I'll make him pay!"

"Yes yes, I know…"

"First I'll shoot his legs and arm off! Then maybe I'll pull his guts out and slice that pretty little head off his puny neck and stick it in a pole in the school yard-"

"If you want do it please do it outside of the school!" The principal hastily intercepted before he regained his composure, coughing a little blood into his lilac-colored handkerchief while a cooled-down Gowland stared with awkward pity and repulsion. "Ahem…Come to think of it, did you find anything unusual in Alice's memory just now?" Nightmare asked, elegantly wiping the red stain from his pale, thin lips.

"A-ah…yeah, I did." That got the older man back on track. Gowland scratched the back of his head as he assessed solemnly, "Her aura is unstable. And that voice that she heard seems… I don't know… off, as if it was not part of her own psyche."

Nightmare nodded slowly in agreement, "Julius had thought so too before he left. There's a breech and a sudden influx in her powers that had seemed to well up, almost as if coming to her aid. Alice might unconsciously acknowledge that voice is hers but…"

"It's not?" Gowland's eyes widen in suspicion.

"I can't be sure. If not then there should be another viable source but I could not detect it, even in Dreamland." The dream demon contemplated as he placed his elbow on the desk and linked his fingers. A grin then curved his mouth as he secretively read the intentions of his staff, his hand inching a yellow file labeled 'Confidential' towards the man, "Have I… gotten your interest at least?"

The sound of Gowland's chortle soon followed, his large hand rubbing the coarseness of his stubble out of habit as he grinned back with a click of his tongue, "You're a sly one, Nightmare."

"Always have been, Gowland."

"Must have been hard on Gray. Where is that boy anyway?" Upon realizing, the pigtailed man turned about in his seat, looking around the room for his fellow Role-holder.

"He's on… an errand." Nightmare quietly spoke with a furtive smile, his fingers smoothing themselves along the handle of his porcelain teacup.

"I don't like the feeling of this." Gowland muttered, more to himself, as he took the file off the table, looking ever so serious. "Teaching isn't for me… but I'll consider."

"Please do."Nightmare smiled pleasantly, "And while you're at it, maybe you can work out a training schedule according to her statistics which is provided in that document folder."

Gowland nudged the bridge of his specs up his nose with one hand while the other casually opened the file. Furrows began to appear as he scanned the report, "What? ! But the girl's like Pandora's box! What if she's really the one from the prophec-"

"I'm sure you'll work something out!" The Dream Master merely waved the comment off with a wide smile. "You are, after all, the one who founded Wonderland High's Amusement Town and the one who built this school building. Planning and design should be a piece of cake." Nightmare deliberately flattered, his all-seeing one eye bore straight into Gowland's blue-green ones.

"Ha, couldn't have said it better myself." The yellow-clad man plainly stated, quirking up a confident smirk. He got up, the sound of his shoes muffled as he tread along the carpeted floor while his horse-buckled belts tingled. Swinging the door open, he turned around and pointed the paper folder at Nightmare, "Ya owe me big this time!"

"Put it on Gray's tab if you will." The incubus replied cheekily. "Oh, by the way, how's Boris? Skipping classes as usual?"

Gowland rummaged his fingers through his short hair as he let out a frustrated sigh, "Yeah, that kid's still being a pain in the ass. Why do you ask?"

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"3 Stages of the Contract… Stage One is the initial development of bonds… where the Masters are able to telepathically link with their Shields if need be… while the shields are able to detect danger, both mental and physical, that threatens the contractors… "

"Oi, wake up. What in Underland are you mumbling about?"

Strange… There seem to be someone whispering in her ears. She nuzzled her head further into the crook of her arm. Oh well…whatever… what was the definition written on the book again?

"Stage Two… is the secondary development of bonds where-"

"Hey, wake up Alice. It's Alice isn't it? Jeeze, if you're gonna keep sleeping like this- ah never mind, might as well. Don't say I didn't warn you!"

"Huh? Urgh…" Alice groaned as she opened her eyes, her lashes fluttered heavily with sleep as she lifted her head off the nest of her folded arms. I slept? Oh crud… I didn't get a chance to find my book and ribbon in the end, and Julius specially repaired it for me too... The gears in her mind slowly registering her situation as she rubbed her eyes sleepily. "What a nightmare. Glad that's over… have recess already ended-?" Alice murmured, looking around the empty class room blurry-eyed but right in front of her table, her eyes met a rather muscular-looking wall…

No, not wall… a back? Is that somebody's back? She asked herself as she blinked… and blinked again, thinking that she might still be dreaming.

But there was no doubt about it, the slender but toned body was covered in a slick sheen of perspiration, trained and hard muscles rippled with every action, revealing even more skin as the owner took off the uniform.

S-skin?

It took a while but her eyes grew larger as realization of what she was staring at dawned on her.

It was a bare back, one that clearly belonged to a boy.

And then she screamed.

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Wasn't sure how to end it so I know it's kinda abrupt ^^; I just complete a Gowland oneshot in another fic called "My Valentine Wonderland" so I was suddenly hyped up to write more about him though I hope he's not too OOC since I've never played his route before XD. So DO REVIEW to let me know how this was for you or if there is any improvement I can make. Plus it also encourages me to keep writing for this fic! ^^

It's probably no secret if you can guess who that boy is or what's in Gowland's room or whether or not the voice belonged to Alice X'D You're welcome to try lol!

So thanks so much for reading and till next time! XD