(I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT, turns out I was closer to the EOG's than I had my Social Studies one and my classes are trying to put in enough reviews they can, THAT is why this is late, luckily it's been a weekend so on with the story)

Annabella's POV

Annabella was outside the school waiting for Alice to escort her home, she couldn't really recall the school day, and that was her intention, she was trying to forget that entire day, the little she could remember. All classes tried to keep the students focused on their work and any time someone did get the chance to talk, it was always to Annabella to figure out what had happened. Trying to keep a war from starting, she simply didn't say anything, ignoring anyone and everyone who talked to her. She had been practically silent the entire day and here she was now silently waiting for her mother. She didn't have to wait long though.

The walk home was silent, Alice would usually ask how her day was and usually Anna was more than happy to bring out the details but today was not usual. Alice probably already knew students were probably asking for answers her daughter could not provide so kept quiet.

Finally they reached the palace, Alice went towards the throne room to help Mirawana and Annabella went to her room.

Anna's room was exceptionally large, but nothing compared to Lily's, but the main difference from her's from Lily's or most other rooms was it's colors. The walls could be different patterns, different colors or shades, depending on what Anna wanted, they were used for most of her magic practice in changing their appearances. The ceiling had a small chandelier glittering silver lights with the night sky as the ceiling with stars twinkling with the chandelier lights.

When reaching her room, Anna locked the door, and double checked to make sure the the windows were locked. She then went to her bed, put her locket on the front banister and grabbed the smallest pillow on it, looked up at her night sky ceiling right before putting her face into the pillow, and screamed.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the scream was muffled enough into the pillow to not alarm anyone outside, but not so much for Annabella not to hear it. Then she put the pillow down and started pacing across the floor, saying, "I can do this, I can do this", trying to calm herself down. She just needed to do it, she needed to hear her own voice, to feel the faint vibration of her vocal cords, after her day of silence she needed this.

After calming down, Anna finally allowed the stress and frustration of the day to give into her as she collapse on her bed.

It was dark, no it was black, pitch black, she couldn't see anything. Then the rest of her senses came to her, the feeling of cold, hard, stone against the palms of her hands, the awful smell of must and dust, wherever she was, it probably hasn't been entered in quite a long time. Then a sound, the spine tingling sound of a laugh. The laugh wasn't very deep, maybe slightly deeper than her fathers, but the laugh wasn't from humor, it was from the sheer delight in watching the confused little girl, though she couldn't see anything, she knew, she just knew, that they were looking at her, she could feel their eyes bearing onto her. And Annabella knew they knew of her awareness to their presence.

"anna... Annabel... Annabella", the constant slight shaking of her shoulders and the blurry repeat of her name is what awoke the sleeping red-head.

"Huh, uh, what ?", the 12 year old fluttered her eyes opened as the blurred image of her mother became clearer. "mama".

Alice heaved a sigh of relief, "yes sweetie wake up".

Anna obeyed and sat up and realized she was still in her hatter dress, "what time is it ?".

"Midnight"

"MIDNIGHT" Annabella sighed, "well it looks like I'm not getting back to bed".

Alice smiled and chuckled to the child, "here", the blonde reached her hands towards the nightstand where a, steamy white mug stood and handed it to Annabella, "hot chocolate".

Anna took the drink shyly, even when she was much younger, she was in general, a daddy's little girl, but still was close to her mother, but as she got older, it seemed that while her relationship with her father grew, her relationship with her mother became shriller. They haven't had a nice talk like this in years.

"Thank You"

"Annabella, when you didn't come down to dinner, I thought perhaps you had a bad-day at school and didn't want to be bothered, so I didn't worry, but tonight I couldn't sleep, so I made myself a drink and decided to check on you, it a good thing I did because Annabella, I found you tossing and turning, drenched in sweat, did you have a bad dream ?"

Anna was shocked, did she really look like that while she was asleep, "maybe".

"Do you want to talk about it"

"Well I...", but as Anna was about to tell her about the nightmare, her mind went blank, she tried but for some reason, she couldn't remember the dream, not a single bit of it.

"I, I can't remember".

"Well here", Alice handed her daughter a white and green ribbon nightgown, as Anna sat up, went to her bathroom to get changed, then came back to her mother on the bed.

"That can happen sometimes with dreams, but what I am wondering is how long exactly you've been asleep"

"Since I got back from school"

"Bad day ?"

Anna sighed, "yeah", and before she knew it, Annabella started spouting out everything, "everyone was questioning me about the queen's orders and for the first time since I could remember..."

"The wonderful wondrous Annabella Hightopp didn't have the answer" Alice finished.

Anna looked to her mother's eyes filled with care as Alice went on, "You felt helpless, didn't you, like everything was put on you and depended on you, but you felt vulnerable to do it, it was something you couldn't stop or change or do even though everyone expected you to".

Suddenly Annabella became confused, "how did you know that" ?

Alice smiled, "because that's just how I felt before...", Alice looked to her daughter with her eyes filled in curiousness then her's became large as if just realizing something, "well it isn't important, I'll just be going now".

"Wait, before what ?"

"It was nothing"

"Before WHAT"

"ANNABELLA, PLEASE".

"Why can't you tell me, I AM your daughter, don't you TRUST ME"

Alice's anger stopped as she looked at Annabella who had the very embodiment of sadness, anger and betrayal on her face. She walked to her daughter, sat down on her bed and looked her in the eye. "Anna I do trust you".

"Then why do you keep everything from me".

"Anna, anything I don't tell you, is nothing worth the trouble telling , it's time for you to keep take your mind out of the past, and into the future".

The red-head sighed to her mother, "I guess your right, maybe I've just been focused on the wrong thing, thank you, goodnight".

"Good-night sweetheart".

Annabella went back down onto her bed and closed her eyes, but after the sound of a shut door and Alice's footsteps faded, Anna opened her emerald eyes with her fox grin on her face looked at the closed door.

Anna chuckled and whispered, "if you actually think I'm going to give up that easily, you don't know me that well do you ?". She then sipped the last of her hot chocolate, closed her eyes and allowed sleep to overcome her peacefully.

The sun started streaming down on the 12-year old's face as she fluttered her eyes open, taking the golden pocket watch that hung on her banister next to her silver necklace, looked at it and...

"I'M LATE, I'M LATE, I'M LATE", Annabella threw opened her wardrobe doors and grabbed the nearest dress she saw, threw it on, stuffed the nearest shoes on and dashed out the door. That is until she crashed into Nanny.

"ANNABELLA, goodness sake child, what's WRONG with you"?

"NANNY I'M SO SORRY BUT I'M LATE FOR..."

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, very funny Annabella, you do quite know how to put someone in a good mood in the morning"

But then the woman saw that she wasn't laughing but had the look of confusion on her face and stopped, "you mean, you didn't know ?"

"Know what, I just woke up"

"Well that would explain your choice in attire this morning"

Anna looked down to see herself with a purple hatter dress with orange shoes and her night dress sticking out all directions with green stockings with it, and put a hand in her hair, only for it to catch tangles and knots, no wonder Nanny thought it was part of a joke.

"Oh", she replied shyly

Nanny finished the last of her giggles to continue. "My dear, the queen sent another message last night, that until further notice, all school time is cancelled".

(WOW this is late but DON'T WORRY, next chapter WILL INDEED BE UP EITHER THIS MONDAY OR TUESDAY AT LATEST so keep your eye out ALSO, if you have any ideas for Anna's room or any dress designs for ANY of the characters, even just a certain color you want them to be wearing FEEL FREE TO OPEN UP YOU WILL BE GIVEN CREDIT and BTW ANY MORE SONG IDEAS, I'M USING ONE IN THE NEXT CHAPTER)