...Oh God almighty, how can this be? That little girl was so familiar...Don't hurt her, please don't hurt her! Don't take her...for the love of God she's only a child!...
...The pain in Dorothy's chest caused her to arise and she felt as if she had been stabbed through the heart. It was nights like these that made her miss home, her Kansas home. She thought about what the week apart from her new friends would be like.
'It's only a little while.' Dorothy thought. 'I'll see them soon enough.'
When the sun rose, Dorothy packed her things together, bathed and got herself ready. When all the girls were dressed, Dorothy, Sarah, Alisha, Alyssa, Amber, Alexandria, Kristen, Ariel, Toni, and Hope continued their Monopoly game.
Alexandria took her place at the real estate and Alyssa at the bank. The girls once again built memories through laughing and eating and smiling...smiles...how she needed this...
One of the bedroom doors burst open. There Autumn stood, hair disheveled and with sleepy eyes.
"You woke me up with your foolish games! Please quiet down so I may rest!" She slammed the door behind her.
The girls looked at each other and began rolling with laughter.
"Did you see her hair?" said Alexandria. "She looked like a wicked witch had ruffed her up!"
They continued to laugh. Dorothy seized laughing, and suddenly felt guilty. She looked at the door of Autumn's bedroom.
"Girls," she said. "Let us be good roommates, and not gossip about Autumn."
The girls looked at her with their mouths open.
"Dorothy," said Ariel. "I know that you are from the parallel and all, but there are a few things about Oz that you just don't understand. The McQue family is just plain evil!"
"How do you mean?" asked Dorothy.
"Well, for starters," said Sarah. "They demolished half of the Great Gillikin Forest up north for one of their power plants. They own the Ozian Power Company."
"Also," said Alyssa. "They forced hundreds of people to leave their homes in the Quadling Kells to fish out rubies from the bottom of the marshes to run their power plants on."
"Then," said Alisha. "They paved over the remaining homes with the yellow brick road so that they had a direct path from the Emerald City to their power plant."
"They petitioned to have another power plant built in the Thousand Year Grasslands out west, but the Wicked Witch of the West wouldn't allow it." said Toni.
"They even went as far as to petition the construction of the yellow brick road over the Kvon Altar! That's one of the most sacred places of worship in all of Oz!" said Kristen. "It's way down south, but people travel far and wide to drink of the water there. It is said that it can heal any illness. It's a place of miracles. Dorothy, the McQue family tried to destroy a place of miracles. What kind of a terrible family would do such a thing if they had even the slightest bit of kindness burrowed in their hearts? They are the purest of pure evil that there is. Don't forget it."
"I hate to say it Dorothy," said Hope. "But Kristen's right! I was forced to live on the streets for nine years in the East. I struggled to breathe as I studied my ass off to get in this school! I lived in the ruins of the Rose Kingdom with anybody that happened to be there. Even those people showed me more respect than Autumn McQue has."
She put her head down, and when she lifted it again, tears were falling down her cheeks.
"I lived in those marshes when those evacuations started so they could have their rubies and their power plant and their cold money. My parents didn't have much Dorothy, but we lived peacefully in our little Quadling home. My parents were activists against the McQue family's evil deeds. They died battling against the machines the McQue family created to demolish our homes! I was rescued from the rubble of my house at the age of four! They made me homeless at four years old! I was in a hospital for a year recovering and then I was shamelessly shoved back into the world alone. If you think for a single moment, that I have any mercy toward that girl, then you're crazy. If I didn't REALLY want to be here,"
Hope looked around the room with a snare that practically bled them to death.
"Autumn would be dead."
Hope ran out of the room kicking the Monopoly game as she left. And so ended their game.
"Poor Hope." said Alisha.
"I'll go talk to her." Dorothy said, rising from her place on the floor.
When she got in the room, Hope was on her bed, trying desperately to stop her tears.
"I don't cry very easily Dorothy." she said. "I just have a terrible feeling about that girl. I can't help it. I have a sixth sense you know, I can sense these things. That girl has an evil core waiting to burst. You'll see."
"Well, until her head starts spinning, I'm going to try to keep peace. Come now, we're going to have to live with her for a long time weather we like it or not. Let's make the best of it."
Hope sighed.
"I'll do my best."
"Now dry those tears, and we'll go help the others clean up."
...Tears came from another pair of eyes.
'I didn't do it, they did. Why am I always the one who is punished?'
Tori