Disclaimer, the usual.
The classroom felt rather quiet without Alex there. No one had dared occupy his seat, so it remained empty. There were rumors buzzing around the school as to why he had not returned. Though only Dorothy, Donna, Zeb, Ellie, Aislynn, and Mr. Pryce were the only ones in the class aware of the truth. It was a gym class day, a class the group had twice a week before lunch. Due to her exemption from the class to avoid complicated questions. Dorothy, however found herself distracted as the time ticked closer to gym period. She hadn't really come up with much of a plan as to what to do during the hour that she would be mostly alone. As the clock ticked closer, the class seemed to buzz with anticipation and anxiety.
"We'll rush right back here for lunch." Ellie and Aislynn promised
"you guys don't have to rush back here for me you know." Dorothy said sighing as she idly did the work that was in front of her.
However, before anything else could be said the bell rang and everyone started filing out. Once they were gone Mr. Alistair came in with a cart of what appeared to be new editions of algebra textbooks.
"oh, that's right, you were exempted from gym class this year." He said as he noticed her.
"because I give off a very strong odor of molasses if I work up a sweat, have done since the incident in candy county." Dorothy said removing her glasses placing them in her dress pocket.
"Yes, My nephew told me all about that." Mr. Alistair, "If you need something to do you can help us with these textbooks." He offered.
"I think." Mr. upland said coming into the classroom, "what she really wants to do is put on the slippers, click her heels and go to Oz." he added.
"Well, you're not wrong." Dorothy said sighing as she went into her satchel and pulled out the slippers, "and if it weren't for the fact that I certainly would get in trouble for doing so, I might actually be tempted."
"Well, whether or not you can leave the premises is up to me and your aunt and uncle." Mr. Alistair said,
"and she would prefer it if I stayed here." Dorothy sighed as she put the slippers back into the satchel.
"I don't know what your opinion on it is." Mr. Pryce said turning back to Mr. Alistair, "but I personally wouldn't want to try and explain that to her aunt."
"Neither would I." Mr. Alistair said a little bit nervously.
Dorothy shook her head and sighed, tilting back in her chair a bit, she sighed. She got up and began helping Mr. Alistair and Mr. Pryce shift the textbooks.
"What do you suppose he's up to now?" Mr. Upland asked curiously.
"Alex?" Dorothy asked in response.
"yes." He replied.
"If he's decided to do something other than carpentry and assuming he isn't watching us, then I hope he's getting his watch fixed." Dorothy said, "because there's really no point in carrying a watch with you that doesn't keep time." She added
"well, and forgive me for this." Mr. Alistair said, "you know it's right at least twice a day." He finished with a nervous chuckle.
This resulted in a groan from everyone.
"well either he's watching us, getting his watch fixed, or trying to convince Glinda or Maddie to get him here." Dorothy said looking behind her to make sure Madeline didn't suddenly appear.
"well, I can't really speak for my daughter, but doesn't the Hatter govern herself?" Mr. Upland asked curiously.
"Yes, and quite frankly I'm surprised she hasn't turned up." Dorothy said as she grabbed some more textbooks, "Considering she knows exactly what I'm thinking and doing."
However, her thoughts drifted to Alex and she immediately considered the fact that he might just be preventing Madeline from just dropping in. she wouldn't put it passed either him or the Beast to at least try. But that also rather bothered her as Madeline always seemed to do stuff on a whim. By now Alex, Madeline and Even Ozma were no doubt aware of where she was sitting. However, as she got to her feet, she found she wasn't wearing her shoes anymore and the only thing on her feet were the baby blue socks that went with the green shoes she had been wearing. A light chuckle and a small chorus of giggling told her all she needed to know.
"okay you were right." Came Ozma's voice from behind her, "that immediately got her attention."
Dorothy turned to find Alex, sitting at her desk, the scepter floating next to him, her shoes resting on the desk. Ozma and Madeline were stood behind him.
"It's funny, the last time I orchestrated something like this, I got in trouble." Alex said chuckling.
"I assume Glinda is most likely unware that you're here?" Dorothy asked turning to Ozma and starting for her desk.
"No, she's fully aware, she just doesn't approve." Ozma said smiling, "I told I was going with Alex and the hatter whether she wanted it or not."
Madeline, with a smug grin on her face immediately pulled out her wand and flicked it. The rest of the text books had exchanged themselves between the shelves and the cart.
"Now that was unnecessary." Dorothy, Alex and Mr. Alistair said in unison.
"but prevents any distractions." Madeline said plopping herself at a desk and leaning back in the chair.
"So, which of you cast the spell that brought my shoes over here?" Dorothy asked as she reached for them, only to have Alex grab them and hold them out of reach.
Ozma giggled and raised her hand, Mr. Pryce and Mr. Upland taking this time to sidle out of the room, leaving Mr. Alistair to deal with the possible problems.
"I wanted to try my hand at it" she said giggling, "Alex said it might be fun to try teasing."
"Really you two?" Dorothy asked looking between them, "This hardly seems fair, you're both taller than I am."
"oh, come on kitten, it's just in good fun you know that." Alex said continuing to hold her shoes out of reach
"Says the guy who probably had the idea in the first place." Mr. Alistair chimed in, "Don't think I don't remember what happened the last time." He said in a reprimanding tone.
"hitting you that last time wasn't intentional uncle, I swear." Alex replied.
"Maddie, can you get me a chair?" Dorothy asked giving up in the struggle, she knew she'd have her shoes back before lunch was over though, and she really didn't want to hurt herself.
Madeline smiled and flicked her wand again before vanishing, Dorothy shook her head and sat down in the chair that appeared behind her.
"I take it this was a planned double team?" Dorothy asked crossing her legs.
"you think?" Alex asked setting the shoes on the desk.
"well considering Maddie has only been helpful for the most part, I assume she's just playing a tag along." Dorothy said looking behind her to find Madeline standing there, "is that right Maddie?" she asked curiously.
"Dot, I may be an open book but I'm not that open, someone had to get them here." Maddie said, "but otherwise yes, I had nothing to do with their plan to tease you for once."
"fair." Dorothy replied with a shrug
"Anyways, did you get those in emerald city?" Mr. Alistair asked curiously.
"From our closet." Alex said
"Before I was exempted from the class, I realized I couldn't do it wearing flats, we have a dress code for gym." Dorothy said.
"Be glad you have Mr. Clarke and not the gym teachers we had." Mr. Alistair said,
"Oh, yes we've the pictures in the trophy case, Mr. And Mrs. Julienne, right?" Alex asked curiously.
"Yes, they were so strict with the classes that even if you were in breach of dress code, you'd be doing it anyway." Mr. Alistair said, "Your mother, Aunt, and my sister often did gym class barefoot as a result, until your mother became exempted from gym class as well."
"Wait, my mother was exempted from gym class?" Dorothy asked, sounding rather astonished,
"And my mother was a bit of a rebel?" Alex asked sounding just as astonished.
"Only with the gym teachers." Mr. Alistair replied before turning his attentions back to Dorothy, "and yes, as was your father." He added.
"What for?" Ozma chimed in.
"Well, Dorothy's father had fractured one of his kneecaps when we were younger, it healed but it left him unable to run for any period of time, he could walk and even dance, and only suffer affects at the end of the day, but he couldn't run, and I'll tell you it was one of the most bizarre things to watch." Mr. Alistair said
"And my mother?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"Same basic principle, except it was her ankle, like your father it didn't cause any problems unless she tried running for any period of time." Mr. Alistair replied getting up, "Come on, I'll show you some of the archived photographs"
Dorothy, Alex, And Ozma shared glance for a moment. All three shrugged, getting to their feet. Ozma, however seemed to also be enjoying their little game of keep away and decided to keep it up as long as enough of them still found it funny. At this point Dorothy couldn't help but giggle at this point, and stuck her tongue out playfully. Soon however they found themselves in the library.
"Donna's mother was our class photographer at the time, captured a lot of photos, you two have actually seen a few of them." Mr. Alistair said leading them into one of the rooms at the back of the library
It was about the size of the classroom, there were bookshelves lining the walls each one full of old yearbooks and old file boxes. Ozma looked around in wonder at this archive.
"you know, I heard my aunt once mention a school paper, whatever happened to that?" Dorothy asked curiously as Mr. Alistair pulled out a relatively clean box.
"That seems well taken care of." Ozma observed.
"well put your majesty, but not quite." Mr. Alistair sighed, "it's just taken out incredibly often, sometimes I just come here to look back at the old days, there are two other cases." He added as he set it down at a nearby table."
"aunt fenny got carried away, didn't she?" Alex asked curiously.
"Nope, she did her job." Mr. Alistair said with a bit of a chuckle, "but yes just a tad, most classes were lucky to fill up one."
"That sounds…" Alex said opening the box and pulling out a stack of pictures, "Expensive." He finally said.
"Not if you're the only class with a photographer, if memory serves our class was the last to even be remotely interested in class photography." Mr. Alistair said.
Ozma picked up a picture from the stack Alex had pulled out.
"Hmm." Alex said setting a picture down.
"What?" Dorothy asked picking it up.
It was a picture of her mother, seated on one of the benches outside. She had one of her ankles bound and her other foot was bare. She was trying to get at the younger version of her father who seemed bent on playing the same game Alex and Ozma were right now, but with Alex's mother as the third person. She seemed to be laughing in the photograph, and they all seemed to be having fun which made Dorothy smile.
"Did you think playing keep away was an original idea you guys came up with?" Mr. Alistair asked looking at it over Dorothy's shoulder.
"Well no." Alex said picking up another photograph, "oh, here's one of the ones during gym classes."
Dorothy set the photo she was looking at down and held out her hand. Alex handed it to her, her father was sat on the bleachers. She saw what looked like her aunt at a young age leaned against it, trying to catch her breath.
"oh, I remember that one, we were a class that had gym after lunch." Mr. Alistair said.
"That sounds like a lovely idea." Madeline sarcastically replied.
"our sentiments exactly." Mr. Alistair sighed, "you ever try to run with a full stomach?" he asked curiously.
"Oh, here's one of our moms." Alex said handing the picture to Dorothy.
It was a picture of her mother, and Alex's mother playing badminton, they were together on one side of the next, racquets in hand. Both of them were in the Gym uniform, but still barefooted as they were in every other picture.
"So how did my mother end up breaking her ankle anyways?" Dorothy asked curiously
"Mainly out of foolishness, you know that hill on the far end of the school?" Mr. Alistair asked curiously.
"let me guess, she slid down it once when the grass was damp?" Ozma asked curiously.
"Well it wasn't intentional, some of her papers had gotten away from her, she was in a rush to get them back before anything particularly bad happened, but yes there had been a sun shower maybe half an hour earlier and it was still particularly damp." Mr. Alistair said.
"she slipped, fell, and failing to save herself properly." Madeline said, "she wound up with a broken ankle?" She then asked.
"Basically." Mr. Alistair said shrugging.
"I assume Aunt Fenny has other copies of all these photos somewhere?" Alex asked curiously.
"well, yes and no, yes other copies exist, but they are not with fenny." Mr. Alistair said, "they were split evenly between myself, your mother, and Dorothy's father." He added.
"So…one of the cases." Dorothy said trailing off,
"is either presently at my Favorite cousin's house, or in storage." Alex said sighing.
"one is in the cellar at your house, Alex." Mr. Alistair said, "and the other is stored in mine"
"you all look so cheerful in these photos." Ozma said looking at a few.
"We were, just like all of you, we were good at making the best of things." Mr. Alistair said pulling out another stack, "Oh here's some of the ones from the school dances." He said.
"Sir?" came the school librarian as she poked her head in.
"Yes Ms. Short?" Mr. Alistair replied looking up at her
"Your youngest Niece is here, should I send her back here?" she asked curiously.
"is she alone, or with her class?" Alex asked curiously.
"Alone, it's her lunch period." Ms. Short said smiling.
"Send her in, does she usually come here for lunch?" Mr. Alistair asked curiously.
"Yes sir, I thought you knew?" She asked in response, gesturing behind her. "she says she prefers it here over being alone."
"She doesn't eat with her classmates either?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"No, I don't." Annabella said as she came in, "And with the…Alex?" She asked looking at him.
Before Alex could say anything, he found himself embraced tightly by his sister. He chuckled and brought her over to a chair to sit in.
"I take the rumors haven't been doing me any favors?" he asked curiously,
"Nope." Dorothy said sighing, "there's no real consensus on what rumor is going to stick as there are several, but it seems everyone in school knows you aren't here."
"and I keep getting pestered about it." Annabella said starting on the sandwich that had been packed for her, "I've been doing my best to ignore it."
"Just tell them…" Alex thought about this for a moment, "Uncle, actually are there any rumors floating around pertaining to the fact that our father's eyesight is failing?" he asked curiously.
"none that I'm savvy to." He said trailing off.
"Well, think about it, our business is a father and son business." Alex said, "And his eyesight is indeed going, sure Glinda gave us a buffer but that doesn't solve the immediate problem, so someone has to help take care of the business." He said.
"Oh." Everyone responded in unison.
"Good, you get it." Alex said with a chuckle, "I already plan to drop in from time to time in order to help out at the shop, just stretch the truth a little." He said
"that You're being homeschooled, so you can pay better attention to the family trade and take care of father." Annabella said starting to get the idea.
"Exactly!" Alex said excitedly,
"But it's still technically lying." Ozma said.
"not quite." Madeline chimed in, "the professor, whenever he turns up is technically providing homeschooling."
"Oh, fair point." Ozma nodded, "oh I get it now." She added as she picked up one of the photos Mr. Alistair had recently taken out.
"The only thing it doesn't explain." Dorothy said walking over to him, "Is the greyish-white streak going through your hair, but I suppose we could put it down to trying something new." She added, giving him a quick kiss.
"Anyways, not to change the subject." Annabella said quickly finishing her sandwich, "But I have a few questions." She added.
"fire away." Alex said picking up another photograph.
"Well, one, which I'm sure is already established, does Glinda know that Ozma is here?" Annabella asked curiously.
"Yes." Ozma replied with a giggle, "and I don't think she really approved." She added.
"not that this comes as a shock." Madeline added.
"Okay, next question." Annabella said turning her attention to Dorothy, "why aren't you wearing shoes?" she asked curiously.
"Ozma and Alex planned to double team me, apparently the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree." Dorothy said going back to the pile and picking up the first photo she looked at, bringing it over to Annabella.
"in fairness dear." Came Glinda's voice from behind her, "You used to do it to Ellie and ace all the time so you can't exactly judge them for this."
"Fair." Dorothy said turning to look at her.
"Besides, I always had the impression that your mother rather enjoyed that little game." Mr. Alistair said shrugging, "she rather enjoyed going barefoot, and did so any chance she had." He said picking up another photograph and bringing it to her.
This picture was of her mother, Father, Mr. and Mrs. Teak, Mr. Alistair, a young officer grey, and her uncle. They were sat a picnic table, eating lunch Dorothy assumed. And she noticed that her mother had her feet up on the bench, they were bare, her shoes some distance off to the side.
"Just like her daughter sometimes likes to do." Glinda said teasingly as she looked over Dorothy's shoulder.
"Mr. Alistair?" Ms. Short said sticking her head in.
"Yes, Ms. Short?" He asked in response.
"Phone call for you." She said.
"you guys can sort through these if you'd like, see if you can find any of me." He said walking out.
This task did not take any of them very long, they found one of him, seemingly having walked into a door or something like that. He was lying on the ground, the door standing open next to him
"I think our uncle just used to be a very unlucky person." Alex said chuckling at it.
"Actually, not to draw away from this but Glinda, why are you here?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"mainly to make sure that these three keep out of trouble." Glinda said, "but also to make sure their game doesn't go too far."
"why am I not surprised you're in on it?" Dorothy asked rather sarcastically, "and its 4 by the way, you have to count the Beast." Dorothy corrected her.
"Oh, right." Glinda said glancing at Alex, "Which of you came up with the idea in the first place?" she asked curiously.
"We both did." Alex said, "thought it might be fun, and you know where it went from there."
"just far enough" Glinda said smiling.
"too far I assume would be me slipping and falling?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"Oh, we wouldn't let it get that far I assure you." Ozma said setting the shoes down on the table
"well, this looks familiar, taking after your mother now?" Came the voice of Dorothy's aunt as she came in carrying Dorothy's flats.
"We were just talking about that Emily." Mr. Alistair said coming in behind her,
"I noticed you had left these at home." Em said holding up the pair of flats, "I thought you might like them as you don't really need the regular shoes, but seeing this makes me feel like it might be better to just leave you as is." She added teasingly as she winked at her.
"oh, auntie Em, don't tell me you're in on this now?" Dorothy asked becoming rather annoyed.
"Only a little, Glinda only suggested I bring the flats, since you seem most comfortable in them apart from the slippers." Em said looking at a picture Alex had set down and snickered at it, "oh I remember this one." She said handing the flats to her niece.
Dorothy however, simply set them on the table.
"If you let me stay like this auntie Em, I would probably get in trouble." Dorothy said glancing at the photo again.
"Not quite." Mr. Alistair said as he looked at the picture his nephew had found he immediately blanched and tried to get it away from him, "Shoes and other footwear are only recommended, not required, a loophole your mother absolutely loved." He said
Em at this point took the picture from Alex and held it out of Mr. Alistair's reach.
"Case in point you still aren't original, Alex." Madeline said with a giggle,
"would you like to tell them how this picture came to be, or shall I?" Em asked curiously
Mr. Alistair sighed.
"I guess I will for once." He said, "we were heading into the school after lunch one afternoon, for some reason I found that I couldn't get the door open." He said
"it had jammed." Em added.
"Both of your father's tried." Mr. Alistair said, "Then your mothers, and your aunts." He added.
"Fenny was worried about her camera so she didn't try." Em interrupted.
"I tried again, determined to give it my all." He said with a nervous chuckle.
"may we hazard a guess?" Alex asked curiously, one of his eyes now turned yellow.
"if you would like." Mr. Alistair said pinching the bridge of his nose, knowing full well what was coming
"Someone on the other side of the door chose the moment you tried pulling, to push on the door." The mixed voice of Alex and the beast, "you took it to the face, and fell backwards in the same way you always do." They said.
Mr. Alistair said nothing, he simply went very red in the face. Dorothy couldn't help but giggle, Ozma and Glinda couldn't contain themselves either. Madeline was biting her bottom lip to contain herself. For a few moments Alex had his eyes closed, when he opened them again, they were blue.
"Alex, you're as bad as your mother when it comes to embarrassing your family members." Em said with a chuckle before sliding the picture back into the box, "And Alexander, we really should get the duplicates sorted at some point."
"I know Emily, but you know where the third box is." Mr. Alistair said sighing.
"yes, I do." Em replied, "And none of us have any right to go in there, well, almost none of us." She added turning to her niece.
"it's just at the old house isn't it?" Alex asked curiously.
"In her father's study." Em said sighing, "they left everything to her, care of the Johnsons." She added.
"Thinking on it, Eliza has only ever mentioned finding an old doll of Dorothy's" Annabella said, "I suppose they only really do the cleaning."
"Generally speaking, yes." Mr. Alistair replied looking down at his niece.
"but the house technically isn't my responsibility unless I decide to go back there." Dorothy said firmly.
"Dorothy, I don't think they'll try to force you back to your childhood home." Alex said walking back over to her,
"I don't think any of us are willing to try that." Madeline chimed in
"I think I would actually like to see it at some point." Ozma said raising her hand, "I tried looking in on Eliza once, it surprisingly wasn't possible."
"Oh…" Glinda trailed off, "I'm afraid that's my fault, back when the jester was still the big issue, Dorothy asked me to put protections on the place, I guess I forgot to lift them." She added with a nervous giggle.
"Well, nobody is perfect." Ozma said with a giggle
"Anyways, Annabella your lunch period will be over in a few minutes." Mr. Alistair said looking at the clock, "would you like me to walk you back to the classroom?" he asked.
"Actually, Uncle I think it would be more helpful to everyone if I did it, if only to quell some of the rumors pertaining to myself, they do seem to distress her." Alex said looking over at his sister
"Some of the people have come up with some pretty nasty ones." Mr. Alistair said.
"Given my old reputation, that doesn't come as a surprise." He said walking over to Annabella and offering her his hand,
Annabella smiled and took it, the siblings walked out of the room, leaving everyone in silence for a few minutes.
"He's got a point." Dorothy sighed, "he wasn't always like this."
"Honestly, when I first met him, I assumed he was the typical fighter." Ozma said, "All brute force but no real strategy, but he's smarter than he lets on."
"Oh right, you didn't trust him at first." Glinda giggled.
"the only thing that made me start trusting him completely, was when we got to you Glinda, I was genuinely so sheltered as Mombi's slave that I had only ever heard of Dorothy." Ozma said with a nod.
"Well, I can't say I blame you for not trusting me." Alex said as he returned, this time with the scepter in hand, "I swear this thing is more trouble than its worth, I found it floating in the hall." He said.
"that doesn't surprise me, but it's not like people haven't seen it before." Mr. Alistair said.
"we should probably get back to the classroom, it'll be time for my lunch period soon, and Ellie and Ace swore they would rush back as soon as they could." Dorothy said sighing, "and I'm not sure if Ellie has her wand with her so I have no idea if she can or will try magic to accomplish that goal."
"she barely gets the height right when she does, I don't think she would risk it at this point." Glinda said giggling at her sister's expense.
"But Dorothy does have a point." Alex said walking over to the table, handing the scepter to Dorothy and picking up both pairs of shoes as he did so.
"Glinda, I don't usually ask for favors but would mind popping over to the farmhouse and helping henry with the triplets for a bit, I'll help Alexander clean up." Em asked curiously.
"Oh, and could you possibly tell my father that I'll be at the shop around one?" Alex asked curiously, "Dorothy's guess wasn't completely wrong I am getting that watch fixed"
Glinda nodded and quickly vanished. Without a word Dorothy, Madeline, Ozma and Alex left the room and as they were walking out of the library, Madeline decided to bring something up.
"So, Dot." Madeline said, "I know you're in two minds about it, but you`ve been thinking about it since it was mentioned, the dress code."
"What about it?" Dorothy asked curiously,
"Well, your mother apparently loved taking advantage of one specific loophole." Madeline said looking down at her feet, "Are you going to follow in her footsteps?" she asked causing everyone to groan.
Getting over the pun, Dorothy thought about this for a moment. a few thoughts popped into her head, it wasn't exactly proper, but it didn't really harm anyone either. She didn't mind it, in fact outside of the flats and the slippers it was really only other way she was comfortable going about things, she had told this to Glinda once, she had seemed unsurprised. But again, it still wasn't proper. However, as they got back to the classroom, she came to a decision
Okay yes, this was a long one. I didn't even think it was that long when I drafted it out. So, if you've made this far, Hi.
