Welcome to Dodo Academy for the Gifted!
Elliot's Taking the First Step!
"Here's yer drink!" Ace dropped three big beer glasses of Darjeeling tea on the bar. Some bits of the red liquid fled to three rich prats' faces. Next, the brunette impolitely threw three plates of cakes worthlessly before them.
Blood Dupre couldn't take this service.
"What kind of bleeding service is this, idiots!?"
The three shuddered when Gray appeared beside them, cracking his knuckles.
"This is...what we call..."
"Dodo Cafe, Tavern-Style." Ace and Gray announced, posing.
Vivaldi was bouncing exactly like how Ace was excited, on her chair.
"This place is fucking—I mean—freaking awesome!" she clapped.
"Are you stupid!?" Blood smacked his sister across her head. "This is humiliation towards the art of tea-time and—my freaking GOD, these are beer glasses, not for tea, definitely not for effing tea! And you served DARJEELING with BEER GLASSES, somebody KILL ME!"
"With pleasure!" Boris was holding a steak knife, and a young man flicked his head.
"Boris, that's dangerous, stupid and impolite. And, that's my steak knife—and, you should hurry up and serve me my steak." Robin Airay, Boris' older brother, deadpanned.
Boris grumbled and just dropped the hotplate onto the bar before stomping away angrily.
"Haha, calm down, Blood. This is actually very exciting," Elliot commented, awkwardly taking his cake with bare hand. "Don't you think this is unique? They're making the whole cafe thing absurd by turning it into a tavern. Plus, this is a good experience." He grinned and bite off his cake. "I've nev 'ew af bun wike wish..." (I've never have fun like this)
"Am I really this pretty!?" Mrs. Villiers chirped, glaring at her sketched-portrait in disbelief, blushing.
"M-Mum...!" Pierce puffed his cheeks, "Alice only draws what she sees...of—of course you are!"
"Next model." Alice deadpanned boredly, and Pierce hurriedly courted his mother away, because dark aura appeared from the girl.
"Hmm, she gave us $10 as a tip. Not bad." Julius said, crossing his legs while counting the income.
Us.
US.
Alice wanted to whack the canvas onto that bloody tally navy-headed boy. She's the one who drew everything, and he got the credit!? He held the tips, he took the payment...!
"Alice, Alice~" Mrs. Emily Gottschalk came, skipping her way and bent down to Alice. "Can you draw yourself and Nightmare having your first kiss~?"
"Mum!" Nightmare shrieked, fuming in embarrassment. He was behind his mother, trying to pull her away.
"I can't, I'm not going to draw myself." Alice shook her head. "But, I can draw Nightmare kissing with Julius!"
"Alice, honey, you're not a fujoshi, right?" Mrs. Gottschalk twitched.
The two didn't notice how Julius and Nightmare gagged.
Back to the Tavern-styled cafe, the kids were listening to Mr. Liddell while the man was drinking egg nog (and it wasn't even the right season!).
"I'm pretty surprised you boys treated and considered her as a girl." Mr. Liddell said, then sipped his drink again.
"Yeah, me too." Elliot nodded. "I mean, considering your...circumstances, and your age, I thought...well..."
"Yaawnn..." Gray stretched his arms. "Well, uhh...Alice is very neutral. She doesn't act too girlishly or tomboyish. But, she's sometimes a crybaby, so...we can't help but think she's a girl." He explained.
"Yeah, she also likes Nyan-Cat and rainbows, like a girl!" Boris grinned.
"So, to us—oh, no, no! Maybe for me, Alice is my Princess!" Ace laughed, bouncing on his feet, "I feel an obligation to protect her, hahaha!"
"Uhm, actually I thought we've agreed that she's like our little sister..." Julius came, commenting a bit nervously.
"Yeah, since when do you take up on a new level?" Nightmare twitched.
Mr. Liddell just chuckled. "I'm just relieved my girl is in good hands..." he snickered, then glared at Nightmare. "But if you do something weird to her...make sure you've atone for your sins, because you're going to die if that happens."
Nightmare swallowed nervously.
Blood rolled his eyes. "This school is weird. So many boys and just one girl...I still can't believe she's been considered as a girl. But then again...she looks like a girl and act properly. No, a bit weird."
Gray scoffed. "Well, if it's this girl," he pointed at Vivaldi, who paused her eating, "...was the one in our school, no one would consider her as a girl."
Blood hid his mouth from laughing, while Vivaldi was trembling in wrath.
"...Are you saying I'm not like a girl...?"
"Well," Gray hummed sleepily. "You dressed like a boy, you speak like a sailor and you do martial arts. You have short hair, and you snarl all the time. Alice might not act 'girlish', but compared to you, she's a girl to us, and you're a boy."
Vivaldi grimaced and slammed her beer glass onto the bar. "Shut yer trap, ya fu—freakin' stupid prat! Ya wanna fight!?"
Gray nodded off. "See...? She's...Zzz..."
"I'm gonna kill you..."
The boys laughed as Vivaldi furiously shook Gray's sleeping body in wrath. Mr. Liddell just smiled and drank his beer in peace, and turned when he saw Mr. Pendragon, Ace's father, sat beside him.
"Ace," the brunette man called. His sone quickly dashed to him. "...this Culture Festival is wonderful. And the cakes, they're amazing. I'm sure your Mum will be so proud of you."
"Really!? Hehehe! I think I'm gonna fly~!" Ace grinned if it was possible to grin wider.
"Hmm, is she...?" Mr. Liddell carefully started.
Mr. Pendragon nodded with a calm smile. "My wife passed away..."
"Yeah, with the silliest way possible," Ace scoffed angrily. "She died choking on Gummy Bears, can anyone believe that!?"
Mr. Liddell twitched. Died choking on Gummy Bears. What a death.
Suddenly a hand gripped Mr. Liddell's shoulder. It was Mrs. Liddell, she looked horrified. Behind her was their youngest daughter, looking down sullenly.
"Lewis, we gotta take her. I've called your Mum we're going." Carroll said with a frown. She was shivering.
"What? What's happening?" Lewis asked, jumping off his seat and took Alice's shoulders.
The Rainbow-Puking Unicorn Class stopped whatever they're doing. Elliot glanced, and Blood just stayed still, but he was all ears. Vivaldi just stared at the family with a worried scowl.
Alice was whimpering while her Dad was checking her out, and her Mum went to start the car.
"Wh-What's...wh-what's happening?" Pierce stuttered worriedly. "Oh no...no, no! They're...n-not taking Alice a-away, right!? O-Or...is...is her D-Dad...doing something ev-evil!?"
SMACK
"Don't start a conspiracy, idiot!" Boris whined. "You almost got me!"
Alice suddenly came to the bar with her usual 'whatever' expression. "So, my people."
Her friends twitched in anger.
"'Tis sad, but I must leave this Feast at once! May happiness always be with you." She bowed elegantly, and then pumped a fist to the air. "For victory!"
"Wait, Alice." Elliot went down from his chair and caught her wrist. She flinched and pulled back, but he noticed something and pretended to not see anything. "Can I meet you tonight at your Grandma's?"
Alice was startled, but then she nodded and dashed away while waving.
"Bye all! And Ace, leave me three pieces of Rainbow Cakes! Tell Boris to take 'em to Grandma!"
"Yes, princess!" Ace grinned.
"Don't get used to it!" Boris pouted.
Elliot hummed and returned to his seat.
"What?" Blood asked.
"I don't know...but..." Elliot scowled, and turned to the RPU members. "Do you guys know anything about why Alice moved to Dodo Academy?"
"Yes, we know." Julius coldly said.
"She failed her IQ test." The RPU class chorused together.
...
...
"That's so not fair!" Vivaldi growled. "I've failed it like, ten times! Dad should've sent me here long ago!"
"Stop dreaming, you're staying at RPS." Blood rolled his eyes.
Julius leaned his back on the bar near Elliot's seat.
"And yes, that's just an alibi." He muttered.
"Do you mind telling me the truth?" Elliot asked.
Julius sighed and closed his eyes. "We don't even know the truth."
Elliot frowned and stared at his beer glass. There were so little things that he—and he wouldn't doubt that the other boys—knew about the girl, Alice Liddell. Except that she liked Rainbows, Nyan-Cat, she's bad at singing and acting...
She failed her IQ test. But that's not enough reason to send a kid to a 'special' school. Ace was a recovering autistic, Boris was an exhibitionist, and Pierce attended the school because of his paranoid issues—Julius was antisocial but currently recovering. Gray was a bit psychothic (expressionless, unreadable traits) and had a sleeping issue, Nightmare fit right in because he was disabled and color-blind with germ-o-phobe issue.
How did Alice fit?
She might have a bit antics, but it was normal for her age. She was smart, but reckless. She was just ten.
Dodo Academy was 'specialized' for students with issues such as; mental issues, health issues or physical issues.
Where did Alice fit? Elliot furrowed his eyebrows.
That purple bump on her wrist...and where Mr. and Mrs. Liddell were taking her just then. Were those things related to the reason?
~.X.~
"No, no, no! I'm taking them to her myself!" Ace pranced away from Boris while holding up a bag of Rainbow cakes.
"But she said to give them through me!" Boris protested and chased the brunette.
"I thought you looked lazy when she did!" Ace sneered.
"Come on! It's already late, I'll give those to her and you go home!"
"Wait, look!" Ace paused as they were some ways from Grandma Anne's house. There was Elliot's Porsche, and Alice just came out from the house. Elliot was sitting on the porch.
"Elli—"
"Shh!" Boris clamped Ace's mouth and dragged him to the nearest bush around Grandma Anne's house. Yeah, those prats were eaves-dropping.
"So, what do you want?" they heard Alice asked bluntly.
Elliot chuckled, and they heard the woods rattled, he was standing up. Boris got overly curious, so he decided to peek through the bushes.
His eyes widened when he saw Elliot was holding her hands, smiling softly.
"I want you to...be my Dance Partner this Wednesday, at my school's Hallowe'en Party."
"Wha—" Boris pushed his hands harder onto Ace's mouth, while he was gaping himself.
]The brunette and the purple-head grimaced and shook their heads.
Say no, Alice! No! No! No!
"Wow." Alice blurted out, eyes widened. "But I heard...they were inviting—"
"Yes, they did." Elliot nodded with a wide smile.
"Aww!" Alice bounced twice and nodded vigorously. "I'd love to! Can I? Are you for real? Aww Elliot you're da best! Can I hug you?" without waiting his answer, she ran and hugged the blond tightly.
Elliot chuckled happily, blushing as he enjoyed the hug.
"Okay, I'll wait for you next Wed?"
"Yep!"
Elliot kissed the girl on her forehead and winked. "Bye, then, Hime-sama..." he walked down the porch and entered his car, while Alice was still frozen from the weird contact.
Ace was fuming, twitching and red. Boris scowled in disbelief.
Alice hummed and touched her forehead. "Hmm, this is bad." She said to herself and turned to enter the house, but then paused.
"Oh yeah, I should just wait Boris for the cake...wait, what if he forgets?" she sighed and shrugged, before entering the house.
The cake was smashed and stomped on the ground, left by two boys stomping home angrily.
Da-Dah! I know, totally far shorter than before...but oh well! The drama and the filling chapter~! Whatever. Happy new year?
