III. What Alice Found There

"Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

What was wrong with the day? It wasn't somehow special now, was it? It wasn't Friday 13th – that much I knew for sure, so why was everything screwed up since the early morning? At first, this Sam-call-me-bossy-owner guy appeared at Emily's, kicking me out of the house before I managed to finish my breakfast. Now, on my way to school, a policeman stopped me for going too fast in the middle of the wild. What was going to happen next... Santa's reindeers attack me?

I stopped the Golf on the edge of the road as I rolled down the window. The policeman must have noticed my desperate sigh because his dark brown eyes softened the moment he looked at my face.

"Good morning, Sheriff," I beeped out quietly, not really looking at him. I felt far too guilty to do so.

"M'rning, m'rning," he murmured back. "You were driving too fast, ma'am, did you realize that?"

Although I opened my mouth to defend myself, no words escaped it. That was why I simply nodded my head, earning a low scoff from him. "You will have to give me your documents, including driving license and technical data sheet."

Handing him all the necessary documents I remained silent, counting how much the fine was going to cost Hayden. To understand, this wasn't the first time I passed the speed limits; it was the first time I was caught doing so though.
"I-I was just hurrying to school, Officer. This is my first day and I… didn't want to be late," I blurted out as sincerely as I could. Of course that it was my technical sense that made me go fast, not the need to be at school in time. "Moreover, the car- "

"Chief Swan, good morning," a voice sounded from behind the policeman, and I simply had to move my eyes onto the intruder. Not only that I hadn't noticed someone else being stopped by the police before, neither had I ever heard such a beautiful voice. The moment it reached my ears actually, I felt like throwing all the CDs with Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's music into the rubbish bin, replacing it with a record of this person's voice (so much to my undying love towards Mendelssohn-Bartholdy). "If I could intervene, it was me who passed the speed limit at first, not her."

"Alice. It's good to see you," the man turned to face her, nodding his head. Wait… her. It was a woman, whose name was Alice. Oh my, how was it I haven't looked at her yet?
My jaw literally fell down when I spotted her. She had straight brown hair, cut at the level of her slightly pointed ears. Her small, heart-shaped face, in general, reminded me of a porcelain doll, being pale enough to challenge any average wall. Her aristocratic nose matched her full, pink lips perfectly. The domain of this whole Alice-woman however, was her big, sincere (yet cunning), golden eyes. She was beautiful. No, that was too common word; she was stunning. Probably a Victoria's Secret model arranged into Forks to remind me of how ugly and fat I was.

"Pardon her, Chief Swan. She only wanted to… get rid of me." And her voice… damn, was it even possible to become addicted to one's voice?

"That sounds like a valuable excuse," the Sheriff spoke up sarcastically. "Is there something you want to say, Miss Callaghan? Perhaps, admit your fault?"
I blinked twice, closing my mouth, in order to get myself back into a less embarrassing state. Afterwards, I shook my head instead of telling no and swallowed hard.
"Very well then," the policeman sighed, frowning down at me. "You can go now, but if I ever spot you driving close to the limits, I will take your license without hesitation. Forks is not Dublin, Miss Callaghan, you will have to get used to it."

"Yes, Sheriff. I will, Sheriff. Thank you very much," my voice came out as a low whisper. I started the engine, yet, didn't let go of the clutch pedal, since I was curious what would happen to the woman who practically saved my ass.

"And you, Alice…" The policeman looked like he wasn't able to decide what to say or do. He had been holding her driving license already and munching it in his hands indecisively. In the end, he looked up, giving the documents back to her. "Bella said you two are going shopping today. That's why I was wondering if… i-if you could… just… well… maybe… come from school with Bella, and lend me your car until then? I swear that at four p.m., it will be ready for you two to go to Seattle or… wherever."

He had his back turned to me, so there I didn't know what his face expression was like. I figured out though, that he had been blushing; since Sheriff Swan simply seemed like the type of person who would blush. I got the view of Alice, who, on the other hand, chuckled. The difference between her chuckling and the rest of the world's chuckling was, that it sounded like wedding bells… or, no. Not wedding bells. Alice's laughter sounded like drops of water falling all the way down from Salto Angel falls, ultimately shattering against a rock surface. That was what I imagined when Alice chuckled.

"Of course you can have it, Charlie," the woman sang, while she started making quick ballet steps towards my car. "Hello there. Would you mind giving me a lift to school?"

It took me a few moments to figure out that she had been talking to me, because I had STILL been standing there. "Me? Umm… yeah, hop in."

"Great!" Before I managed to notice, she was sitting next to me, on the front passenger's seat. With a wide smile on her face, she waved at the policeman, wishing him a good day. Switching on a winker, I checked my right side correctly. When I assured myself Sheriff Swan saw me (my neck hurt from my overly dogged twisting it to the right) I pulled Golf back onto the road. Since he stopped me, by the way, I drove like a lamb.

"So…" I pronounced carefully, doing my best to keep my eyes on the road, instead of looking at her. "I don't know whether to start with introducing myself, thanking you for saving my driving license, or asking you why on earth you did it." The woman laughed softly, bringing back the picture of waterfalls.

No, no, no. No freakin' waterfalls, I had to be strong!

"Let's start with introductions," she sang kindly. "My name is Alice Cullen. And you are Gwyneth Callaghan, right? The newbie from Ireland."

I narrowed my eyes, pretty surprised about her knowledge. "Should I ask where you have that from?"

"Gossip is a contagious disease of each and every small town," Alice shrugged her shoulders innocently.

"There's always a way not to get involved in it,," murmuring rather stubbornly, I slowed the car down, turning left and rolling it on the school parking driveway. Alice, nevertheless, happily ignored my negativity (honestly, I wasn't even sure if she heard me and if she did, it certainly didn't look like that).

"Oh my, I have never been to Ireland! You have to tell me everything about it! I want to know of its nature, customs, culture, food – shortly everything. It has to be so beautiful!"

"Indeed it is," I sighed softly over the memory of Dublin.

"Fine, count on you for the lunch! Don't hesitate to go straight to our table," Alice opened the door, for that, I had to step on the brake, in order to stop the car properly.
Shit. She managed to avoid the topic I wanted to discuss just like that… Would you believe it?!

"B-but… wait, Alice, why – " I tried to stop her. God knows I did. But all of my efforts apparently failed.

"See you at lunch, Gwyn, enjoy the lessons!" I hadn't even manage to blink once, and she had already been out of my sight. I concluded there was no hope for me to get all the well-deserved information I needed. People owed me explanations – plenty of them, actually – which forced me to make a decision: I was going to start being more adamant about getting what I wanted.

Frowning, I parked my Golf next to a huge, orange Chevy, since there was no other place on the parking than that one. I decided to thank the heavens for that the Golf I owned wasn't the cheapest car in here, as well as it wasn't the most expensive one.

Peripherally, I spotted the Jeep similar to the one from the road in the middle of a forest. And right then – after what felt like eternity – things started making sense to me. The driver of the Jeep must have been somehow related to the driver of the Mercedes (Alice). "Somehow related" obviously meant they had to live with each other, near to each other, or next to each other, for as much as they were using the same road as I was (and I was sure there was only one asphalt road leading out of the woods).

Naturally, amount of new questions started to claw onto the surface of my mind. Suddenly, I found myself in the position of Alice, who had just fallen through a damned rabbit hole, landed on a hard ground, and started dealing with a philosophical reflection on how to stand up without bumping her head in the ceiling. Fortunately, I didn't feel like crying so far. Shouting angrily – yes, yelling in doldrums – why not, screaming desperately – maybe. But not crying.

Screw it, I wasn't any goddamned Alice and this wasn't a stupid Wonderland!