"I-I-I don't-I don't think that's a really good idea..." I stammered, eying the sharp object fearfully as it was dangled close to my neck. "I-I-uh, how about we play a different game?"
"Eh? But why would we do that sister?"
"Yeah! This one is so much more fun!"
Damn them for being cute. Ugh, why do I have find cute things adorable? No-scratch that, why did I have to find Dee and Dum cute? It was because of that that I even ended up tied in a chair anyway, as they wanted to show me their "treasure", and decided to test out their new weapons on me.
"B-Because-It's not nice! You-You can kill someone!"
They both looked at me curiously, smiles on their faces, "Hm? What's wrong with that, sis?"
"We'll make it quick!" Dee promised, his brother holding the knife up and pressing it closer to my neck. I inhaled sharply, terrified at the prospect of death, before squeezing my eyes shut. "Sister?"
"What's wrong? Are you not having fun?" Dum asked. "Isn't this fun?"
Oh, yes. I'm having a blast. I growled, eyes still closed, "Hell no. If you're going to kill me, then go ahead and do it already. You're not planning on letting-" A lump formed in my throat and I turned my head, feeling the blade press against my skin. "You're not planning on letting me live, are you? Then-Then just get it over with! I was okay with you "testing" them out on me so long as you didn't kill me or fatally injure me, but-but..." The things I did so I wouldn't be hated. I felt like a masochist. "I-I don't-I don't want you to kill me..." I didn't want to die.
Such a short life, too. Hm. Why was I so calm right now? My heart was racing like a frantic rabbit hobbling away from a coyote, and yet I can think so calmly now. I was terrified. But I was calm.
Was I accepting death, or...?
Dum retracted the knife so fast it ended up slicing my jaw and cheek, causing me to flinch and let out a small cry of pain. I wasn't expecting that. Dum ended up dropping the knife on the ground as Dee gasped, Dum frantically untying the restraints they had on me. I was so confused. At least, I was until Dee suddenly tackled me in a hug, tears in his eyes.
"Don't cry sis! We didn't mean to make you cry!"
Dum finally managed to get the restraints off and hugged me as well. I frozen, alarmed. I was...crying? I blinked a couple of times, finally taking note of the stinging sensation in my eyes. It was nothing compared to the disturbingly warm liquid trailing down my cheek however. "Yeah! Please stop cryin'. We won't do it again, promise! Ah, brother! Sis is bleeding!"
...I kinda missed Pierce and Boris at this point. On the bright side, at least I wasn't being tackled with kisses.
"What do we do!? Sis is gonna die!"
I looked at them strangely. "Just because I'm bleeding doesn't mean I'm going to die. I've been shot before, remember?"
"Ah! Don't die sis!" They cried, tightening their grips on me.
"You're an outsider, so you're fragile!"
"Yeah! So that means if you get a cut you'll die an' we won't see you again!"
...I'm blaming Alice for this. I sighed and shook my head wrapping my left arm around Dum, while using my sleeve to wipe the blood off of my cheek. I winced when the cloth brushed against the wound, but pressed it against it to absorb a little more of the blood and to try and stop the bleeding. It was just a cut. A long cut that made me bleed, yeah, but still a cut. I've had worse. Once I was done, I removed my arm from Dum and ruffled Dee's hair, causing him to blink at me. He and Dum stared at me in confusion.
I grinned at them with closed eyes, smiling. "Relax! Besides," I quickly pulled a surprised Dum into my lap and gave him a noogie, causing him to cry out in protest and grab at my hands. "Revenge! Haha! You can't beat me now, can you!?"
"Sister, that's not fair!" Dum whined, causing Dee to laugh at his brother.
"Haha! Sister likes me more!" I quickly released Dum at Dee's words and tackled the blue twin, causing him to cry out as I pushed him to the floor and straddled him, moving my fingers around his sides, stomach, chest, and neck to see if he was ticklish. Luckily, he was. Especially around the neck area. "H-Hey! S-Stop that! B-Brother-Brother, help! Hahaha!" I laughed at him and grinned, tickling him mercilessly.
"What was that you said about me liking you more? Hm? Hm? Surrender?"
"Hey, I wanna join!" I lifted my head at Dum's words and was about to tackle him, but was surprised when I was the one tackled instead. Hands ran up and down my sides as the fingers moved, causing me to break out into loud laughter. I struggled, kicking and punching and even trying to elbow him. Unfortunately Dee managed to escape my hold so he joined in with his brother in the efforts to tickle.
This is what happens when you stick a group of childish teens together-you get havoc.
"I-I'm-I'm gonna beat you all-! Bwahahahahaha!" Good god, I felt like I was dying. I haven't laughed this hard since my first conversation with Nightmare. How long ago was that? A few days? Felt longer than that. "Hahah-S-Stop it!" I tried to punch Dee in the face, and Dum grinned as he narrowly avoided a kick to the stomach.
"Whoa! Careful sis!"
"You might end up hurtin' yourself!"
"Shu-Shut up-OW!" I cried out in pain as my foot banged against the edge of one of the tables in their room. However, I quickly froze when I caught sight of the sharp weapons dangling off of their ceiling. "GYAH!" I quickly managed to worm out of the twins' grips and away from the dangling objects above me. It looks cool from a distance, just not above my face. "That can not be safe!"
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"Th-That! Won't it fall off?" They followed their gazes to where I was pointing and blinked.
"No," Dum answered. "We have it on there 'cause it makes it look awesome. Right, brother?"
"Right! Don't you agree sister? Isn't our collection cool?"
"Well, kinda, but..." My eyes caught sight of something and I turned my head, crying out, "That poor lizard!" It was beheaded. On a stick. Without its body. Very much like how Joffrey killed his victims in Game of Thrones. Instead of a spike, however, its head was on a stick.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. That's Phil!"
"We decided to play with him one day, but got too carried away..."
They then asked in unison, smiling, "Isn't it cool!?" Slowly, I turned my head to stare at them. To stare at their completely adorable faces. Which murdered people. And animals. But somehow, somehow, managed to retain a sense of child-like innocence.
"V-Very..." I jumped when Dee poked my side with a mischievous grin and gave him a look, causing him to shrug and laugh. "Shush you!"
Dum wrapped his arms around my neck from behind me, causing me to tense. This felt completely different compared to Pierce's hugs. "We wanna play with sister some more!"
Dee shot forward at his brother's words and wrapped his arms around my waist, his head resting on my lap. "Yeah! What should we play?"
I then remembered the main reason why I even came here and said, "Uh, actually, I'm looking for Alice..."
"Big sister?" Dee questioned, lifting his head and looked up at me. I tried not to shift awkwardly in their holds, but it was growing increasingly more uncomfortable with Dum's breath brushing down the back of my neck and Dee's head up against my stomach. "Why are you lookin' for Big sister?"
"B-Because Gray said she was looking for me the other day..." C-Can you guys let go now? I held my breath when I felt Dum's brush against my ear. "Can I go now?"
"Eh, why!?" Dum complained. "Stay an' play with us!"
"Yeah!" Dee agreed, tightening his grip. "You're our sister!"
"I'll play with you guys later. I need to talk to Alice."
"An' then you'll come back?" I hesitated. In all honesty, I was think of finding Pierce and hanging out with him. Because, in all honesty, he was pretty much my only real friend in this strange place that was even remotely close to my age. Nightmare was my friend, yes, but he was an adult friends. You have your adults friends, then you have your friends that you hang out with on a daily basis because they're the same age as you and you get along pretty well.
At least, I think Pierce and I get along well... And he's not the same age, he's two years older, but, not much a difference there, right? I'm fifteen, Pierce is seventeen, Boris is eighteen, and the twins are fourteen... I-I think that's a pretty good age difference between all of us. I mean, if you think about it, Boris would be a Senior and I think Pierce would be either a Sophomore or a Junior... The Twins would still be in Middle School, and I'm already a Freshman.
Yeah. I smiled at the thought, ignoring the urge to laugh at the idea of them having to do homework. Pierce would probably be the kid who was constantly picked on for his shy nature despite being on of the upperclassmen, and Boris, being a senior and a cat, would often be the main bully. I'd be that one person to walk up to Pierce and be all, "Stop being so anti-social"! and he'd complain about no one wanting to sit with him, so then I'd go and force him to sit with me and my friends-few they may be. Dee and Dum would be the Middle Schoolers who sit close to me on the bus, constantly making fun of me, and I'd be there making sarcastic remarks towards them before tickling them and trying to get them behave.
I actually had to do that with an elementary kid once because he kept slapping me in the face and ripping my earbuds out of my ears. He fell out of the seat he was laughing so hard. It was funny, and he learned his lesson, so I was happy.
Pierce would probably be sitting next to me and taking the blunt of the blows from the twins and Boris, while I yell at them to leave him alone and then-knowing Pierce-he'd tackle me and cry, saying how I was "nice" for saving him. I still don't really get why he considered me a nice person, but I wasn't going to question him.
I snapped out my thoughts and reeled my head back, alarmed when a pair of deep blue eyes found themselves right up in my face. Unfortunately I couldn't go too far because Dum was right behind me.
"Sis, you alright? You were spacing out!"
"Yeah! We-We didn't hurt you too badly, did we?"
"No! Sister's dying!"
"Quick brother! Get a doctor-!"
I quickly cut in, pushing them both off of me, "I'm fine! I-I gotta go find Alice! Later!"
"Sister-!"
"Wait!" I quickly walked out of the room before running down the mansion's halls, completely uncomfortable. I crossed my arms and rubbed the goosebumps that were forming. Where was Alice? Where would she be-Wait, if she's married to Blood...
Oh dear god...What if-What if they're doing that? Horror crossed my mind as I imagined the two frolicking about in their bedroom. I don't want to witness that! That's worse than seeing something on television! And I've seen Game of Thrones, so I've seen some pretty nasty stuff. I had stopped in the middle of the hallway not even notice, slapping myself upside the forehead as I tried to clear my mind of any scary thoughts. Don't think, don't think, don't think-damn it!
"ALICE!" I resorted to yelling, only to have a really huge hand clamp itself over my mouth. I froze.
"You don't have to scream, lady!" That voice... Horror struck me as my blood ran cold. I-I know he apologized and all, and I forgave him, but...It didn't mean I wasn't still scared. I've seen what he could do. Slowly, I turned my head with wide eyes to gaze up at the ginger-haired form of the March Hare, Elliot. He was frowning down at me as he removed his hand from my mouth. He then blinked before a smile spread across his face, "Alexis! What are you doing here in the Mansion? Have you come to visit?"
"Um, Y-Yeah, k-kinda...Have-Have you seen Alice around?"
"Alice?" His ears perked up. I watched the movement nervously and tensed when he placed his hand on my shoulder. "What do you want with Alice?"
"She-She was looking for me the other day...so-So I-I figured too," I swallowed, looking away from him awkwardly. "You know...visit?" My voice squeaked a little at the end.
"Oh! Okay. Well, she's probably in Blood's room, so I'll show you the way, okay? Stay behind me when I open the door, though. I don't want you to see something bad." He smiled kindly at me and I felt some of my fear alleviate. M-Maybe he was nice? "Hey, what's wrong?" His ears dropped a little as a sad look formed on his face, "You-You aren't still scared of me, right? I-I apologized-"
"No! No-no! I-I'm not, well, a little, but, um-I-I don't-" Damn it. How was I supposed to answer that? I didn't really think about how to talk to him if I bumped into him, so any lies I could think of were out the window. I flinched and ducked my head, "I'm sorry! I-I don't want-I don't want to be scared of you, b-but-"
Elliot looked like he was going to cry, but at the same time looked like he wanted to stop me from crying. I refused to let myself cry, though.
Oddly, despite how much I've been saying that, I've still been crying anyway. This world is going against for sure.
"I'm sorry!" I squeaked, squeezing my eyes shut. I wasn't sure what I was expecting; another gun shot? A glare? He was Mafia and there was no telling what he'd do to me.
"I-I'll make you not scared of me!" Elliot declared suddenly, causing me to look up in confusion only to freeze.
WHAT IS UP WITH ALL THESE TOUCHY-FEELY PEOPLE!?
I will admit that I was more comfortable with his hug than the twins, as theirs felt like they were more aggressive than anything. It also made me more comfortable, because it felt more like a Nightmare hug. It was far from a Pierce hug, however. This was a friendly hug. It wasn't possessive or random.
"I-I can show you this really good cake shop in town sometime if you want! Then-Then you won't be so scared of me, because I'll show you I'm not scary!"
...Does Elliot not like having kids scared of him or something? Wait-cake? Do they have chocolate cake, or even cheesecake?
Okay, normally I don't go for sweets unless it's chocolate, but cheesecake man, cheesecake. Wait, no! Bad girl! You have no money!
"I don't-I don't have money-"
"You're a child, of course you're not going to have any money." I felt stress lines form on my face as my shoulders slumped exasperatedly. How old do people in Wonderland think I am? He violet eyes lip up excitedly, "I'll pay! They have really good carrot cake! Do you like carrot cake?"
"Uh...kinda..." His smile broadened, and I felt like I was digging myself into a grave. "I'm not too big on carrots, though..." I found myself encased in another hug, and I froze when my feet were lifted off the ground before being set down again within moments. I relaxed considerably as Elliot set me down and pulled away, his hands on my shoulders as he knelt down and looked at me excitedly.
"I think we'll get along great! I hate carrots too, but I love carrot dishes! Do you know what I mean!?" I stared at him for a moment before putting a hand to my chin.
"I...think. I hate ranch and tomatoes, but I like food that has them in them..." He...wasn't so bad. I think I can be friends with him.
"Exactly! Here, I'll show you to Blood's room and get Alice! Oh! How about I come get you in the next three time periods and we can go to that cake shop!? Does that sound good!?" Wow, he's enthusiastic... I think he just wants the cake. I grinned at him, unable to hold back the amusement I felt at his enthusiasm.
"Sure. Um, I'll probably be at the Clover Tower...That or lost in the woods somewhere." I laughed and scratched the side of my neck. Elliot then paused, noticing something.
"Hey, what happened to your face?"
"Huh?" My eyes widened in alarm and I leaned back in surprise when he suddenly leaned down, one hand cupping the uninjured side of my face-or should I say head? Because his hands are huge. It was like comparing a rabbit to a dog-I was the rabbit and he was the dog. Ugh. That was as bad as the cat-and-mouse thing with Boris and Pierce. Then again, my Chinese zodiac is a rabbit. But Elliot's a Hare, not a rabbit, though the two are rather closely related. Elliot trailed a finger down the side of my cut, frowning.
"It looks like a knife wound..."
"Oh, that?" I pulled away from Elliot's grip and touched it with the flat of my index finger. "I was goofing off with the twins. One of the knives fell off their table and nearly skewered me." I laughed at my lie, acting like it was all just some funny joke. "I've had worse."
"Such as?"
I stared at him blankly, causing him to blink at me. I then said, "You shot me, remember?" Elliot flinched at the memory.
"R-Right, of course. Sorry..."
"It's fine. Now, Alice?"
"Right! This way, Alexis!" I blinked when he grabbed my wrist and started to walk down the hallway, me trailing behind him. It was really weird and hurt my neck a little to look up at him, as he was even taller than Gray. Whereas Gray was around six-foot two, Elliot was a legit and straight-up six-foot-five. Yeah. That was how big he was. He was a giant.
People in Wonderland are too tall~! I whined in my head, feeling like a midget compared to everyone. At least I was taller than the twins...even if it was just by an inch. I would be taller than Pierce, but no~! He's, like, five inches taller than me! Argh! And Boris is practically the same height as Pierce, if not a little bit taller. Ugh! I don't like this!
At least Nightmare's not six-foot...though he's close.
When we arrived to a door, Elliot held an arm out telling me to stay behind him. Slowly, he knocked on the door. "Blood? Alice has a visitor."
"Ah, is that so?" A voice answered annoyed. I flinched. Gross...So they WERE doing that... Ew. Adults are ew. Teenagers who do that are ew. EW! Seriously, almost every teenager I knew in my High School had already slept with someone, except for the few people I called my friends. You'd think that they'd at least try to preserve themselves for marriage, that way when they woke up the next day the guy they slept with wouldn't dump 'em on the spot and you'd know that they truly loved you. But nope. People are stupid. "Just one moment."
Elliot looked down at me apologetically and I sighed, shrugging. "It's fine. If they want kids then that's their problem." Elliot looked surprised before chuckling at my response. Seriously. People sleep with each other without thinking about the consequences. Even if you use a condom, there's still that one-in-five chance that you'll get the girl pregnant and you'll end up raising a kid before you're even out of High School. I wish people thought about these things a bit more...
I blinked when Elliot ruffled my hair and looked up at him, but at that moment the door slammed open and a girl with slightly tangled honey blonde hair was breathing heavily, her cheeks rather flushes. "Elliot? Who's-Alexis!?" Her apron on her dress wasn't even properly tied.
Yeah. She and Blood were definitely having sex.
Gross. Wouldn't that feel weird? You know what, I'm not going to question it.
"Um, Gray told me that you visited the tower the other day looking for-looking for me and, well, yeah..." Okaaay, this wasn't awkward in the least. "I-I thought it'd be nice of me to...you know, visit? O-Obviously I was wrong, so I can just leave now!" I pointed in the opposite direction and started to walk away, wanting to get away from Blood's murderous intent, but was quickly pulled back by Alice.
Ew! She was sleeping with Blood and now she's getting nasties on my arms! Okay. I'm a kid. I'll admit. I-I don't want that stuff on me! I'll smell gross! I was going to have to take another shower later. Gross! Normally I don't care if I get slightly dirty, like mud and stuff, but EWWWWW! Acting like Peter right now, but I don't care! Ew! I kept a blank face on, though my nose did cringe a little.
"No! I'll hang out with you! We can go shopping!" Oh, god. Again? What is up with this world and shopping? "Blood can wait."
"Alice-" Blood started, walking up while rebuttoning his shirt, "Are you sure-"
"Yes! She came all this way to see me! I'm not letting her go this time! Besides, you have work to do!" Blood looked like he wanted to make a retort, but instead gave a "gentlemanly" smile and said, "Of course. I understand." He then shot Elliot a look, who's ears drooped.
Aw...Poor guy. He looked like a kicked puppy. Reaching up, I patted his arm lightly to gain his attention. He looked down at me confused. "Uh, three time periods, right? Then cake shop?" His ears twitched and pointed upwards, his eyes lighting up brightly as he smiled excitedly. I think I can at least try not to be so scared of him...same with the twins. And Ace. I...don't want to be alone in this world, too.
...I wonder if I can invite Pierce along to the cake shop? Wait! Does he even like cake? He's a mouse, right? Does he like cheesecake? I'll ask him if I see him. If so, I'll see if I can bring some back to the Tower with me. I smiled at the thought, but quickly made a face when Alice grabbed my hand-Ew, nasties, ew!-and started to lead me down the hall. I didn't want to be rude, but...
"C-Can you wash your hands first? And-And can I wash mine? You-You got nasties all over it from when you were sleeping with Blood." Ugh, I felt like such a germaphobe. No offense to germaphobes out there-I respect the fact that you like to stay clean. I just don't like having nasty all over me. Alice stopped walking in surprise and stared at me with wide eyes.
...
"What do you think about this one?" Alice asked curiously, holding up a pale baby blue dress. It was strapless and fanned out at the waist. "I like it."
I shrugged. "It's a dress. I liked the last one better." Alice turned her head to look at the red sundress.
"You think...? I prefer blue, to be honest."
"I'm more a black fan. I do like both red and blue though, and green. Mainly dark greens, though. I can't stand really bright colors."
"Oh! Then how about we get you something, then?" I felt like banging my head against a wall. Another dress? If she buys me one, I'll be guilt-tripped into wearing it because I won't want to hurt her feelings!
"Oh, uh, no thanks. I'm good. Gray had me go shopping for quite a few dresses a few time periods ago, so I'm okay. I prefer pants and shirt anyway. Thanks, though."
"Aw...You'd look so cute in a dress, though!" I laughed nervously. I felt more comfortable being around a girl, but a girl I didn't really know, who also happened to love dresses and shopping... How am I going to survive this? Oh, god, I just remembered, but I still need to visit Vivaldi! I flinched at the image of my head getting chopped off and rolling on the ground in a pile of blood... No! I refuse! P-Peter will protect me, right? He likes me, right? He'll save me?
Oh, who am I kidding, he hates me too. No! Damn it, he was nice to me! He doesn't hate me! ARGH!
I looked at the dress Alice was now holding, her babbling about how I should at least buy one dress and wear it. It was cute, but it wasn't as cute as the one chiffon green sundress Pierce picked out for me. He had actually quite good tastes in clothes... Not that I'll tell him that, though. It was a black strapless floral print dress with red flowers decorating it, hints of green surrounding the flowers as they had leaves. To my surprise, it had one of the transparent sleeve-things going on that stopped right above the elbow. I guess I could try it... but it wasn't like I had the money to buy it.
...
Stubborn woman. Not only a dress, but a pair of boots to go with. And, even worse, she's making me wear it out of the shop-as she refused to take "no" as an answer and bought it without my consent. This is why I hate shopping. I felt naked without leggings. I was just lucky that the dress stopped at my knees, whereas the boots stopped just below. So, really, all you could see was the red thigh-high socks Alice made me put on.
I felt ridiculous. I probably looked hideous. I mean, I thought I looked decent, but other people probably thought I looked strange. People other than Alice that is, who kept smiling and saying how "pretty" and "cute" I looked. Tch. As if. The bandaid on my face and the bandages on my shoulders made me look like some runaway fashion-chick who got in a fight.
It was pretty ridiculous. I looked up at the sky, noting that it was now evening again and that a time period had passed. Two more. I think I'll leave during the second so I can get there before the third, so I can hang with Nightmare and Gray a bit (And possibly Pierce if he's there) and take a proper shower again. I liked my showers. They felt amazing.
"Hey, Alexis, do you like stuffed animals?" I paused, before reluctantly saying,
"Uh, maybe, why?"
She looked down at me with a smile, and I noted happily that she was only around three inches taller than me. "What's your favorite animal?"
"Huh? Oh, uh, I like cats..." Her eyes lit up.
"Me too! Hey, I know this store with a whole bunch of adorable stuffed animals!" Oh no...
Back in my world, I tried to hide the fact that I loved stuffed animals. It made me seem "girly" and "out of character". One time I painted my nails and a girl freaked out and asked if I feeling sick or something, and then wondered if I was replaced with an alien replica. I didn't like her. However, Alice had peaked my curiosity and I shrugged, saying, "Only if you want too..."
Act nonchalant, me. Wait, what am I even doing!? No one here really knows me, so I should be able to talk freely about my likes and dislikes!
But then I'll be labeled. I don't want to be labeled again. I wanted to be me. So, I put up with Alice grabbing my hand and dragging me towards a toy store, which had tons of cute...stuffed...furry...little...animals... So...adorable...
RESIST! I gulped, looking around anxiously at all the adorable little creatures. One caught my eye in particular, however, and I couldn't help but walk over to it. Was an adorable little brown bear, with a red bow wrapped around its neck. It had a little patched-up jacket on with a fake deck of cards sticking out of its breast pocket, and on it was a little fedora. It...was...so...cute! Glancing behind me to make sure Alice wasn't looking, I reached out and picked up the bear. It was so soft...
I squeezed the bear to my chest, hugging it tightly and pressing my face against the top of it's head, smiling widely with closed eyes and I swerved my body from left-to-right. SO CUTE! Aw, I wish I had money! I kissed the top of its head, feeling like the happiest girl in the world. I squeezed it again.
"Hey, Alexis-" I heard Alexis begin, so I quickly put the bear back on top of the pile and turned around with a bored look on my face. "What do you think about this one?" She was holding up a small pink cat. It reminded me of Boris. It had purple stripes going around its body and jade green eyes.
"If its eyes were gold, I'd of thought you were dating Boris instead of being married to Blood," I deadpanned, before grinning. She smiled at me. "I'm kidding. It's cute." I then tilted my head and leaned over one foot, saying, "Suits you, actually, now that I think about it."
"Eh? You think!?" She asked, an embarrassed blush forming on her face. I nodded.
"Yeah. You should get it."
She stared at the kitten toy contemplatively for a moment before nodding, "Maybe I will. What about you, though? Is there anything you want?"
I hesitated, thinking back to the stuffed bear, before shaking my head a second later. "Nope. Besides, even if there was one, I wouldn't be able to buy it-and I'm not letting you buy it either. The outfit was just a fluke!"
She shook her head at me, giggling. "Yeah, alright. Come on. It's almost been two whole time periods. We should probably get going. Blood's probably throwing a fit right about now." She blushed and pressed the kitten to her face, a small happy smile on her face. I felt a pang in my chest. I recognized that smile. That was the smile of a love-struck person in love. I've seen it plenty of times on Jack and Sarah's faces...and I suffered sometimes because of it. The third wheel. The forgotten one. I acted like nothing was wrong however, smiling and laughing, putting up with it when the three of us went somewhere together and I was often left out.
It hurt. It hurt more than I wanted to admit. I didn't like being alone. I didn't like being forgotten or ignored...
I didn't like being hated.
I swallowed and frowned, wishing more than ever to be cuddling that adorable soft toy right now. I wanted a cuddle buddy for when I go to sleep, as pillows can only do so much... I sighed deeply and followed Alice out of the store. As we were walking, I asked, "Hey, Alice...Do you know a mouse named Pierce?"
She turned her eyes on me, saying surprised, "Yes, I do, actually. Pierce Villiers?"
"Um, yeah. Does-Does he likes cheesecake?"
"It's one of his favorites, actually. Why? Are you planning on making him one?" A sly smile formed on her face, raising an eyebrow suggestively at me. I rolled my eyes at her behavior.
"'Cause I totally know how to cook a cheesecake. Cheesy Ranch Chicken however...That I made pretty darn well." I grinned, still proud with how that particular meal turned out. I made to place my hands in my pants pockets, only to pause and scowl when I realized I was wearing a dress. I sighed before looking up at the red-tinted sky as we walked. "No...Elliot was upset that I was still scared of him, so he said he'd take me to this cake shop or whatever next time period. Something like that anyway, and I was thinking about asking if Pierce could come, 'cause I haven't seen him since I arrived at the Hatter's Mansion 'cause Boris chased him off while the twins dragged me away, and I wondered if he liked cheesecake since he was a dormouse." I then flinched at my words, realizing how stereotypical that sounded. Being a mouse had nothing to do with liking cheesecake. "S-So, if I saw him, I-I was going to ask him if he did and try and bring some back to the Tower with me so I could give it to him if I saw him."
I refused to look at Alice, instead settling with scratching the side of my neck uncomfortably as I looked at the sky.
Alice smiled at me, and I finally gained the courage to look at her. I felt a deep blush spread across my face in embarrassment at the look on her face. "I think he'll like the gift, Alexis. That's actually rather nice of you."
There it was again. That word. "Nice". I'm a jerk. Why do people keep calling me "nice"?
I turned my head and scowled, crossing my arms as I made sure the bags that held my old clothes in it wouldn't fall to the ground. "Yeah, yeah...whatever." I just thought that since Pierce thought I hated him and all, he'd feel better if I brought him cheesecake... Plus, it would count as comfort food from the horror of having Boris chase him around all the time, and it could also work as an apology since I kinda ditched him for the twins-even if I wasn't willing. He probably thought that I did leave him to Boris to hang with the twins, and thought I hated him...
No...What if he hated me because he thought that? I tensed at that, very unhappy with that thought as a small pain formed in my chest. I didn't want to lose my new friend so soon... Oh, man... I hope the cheesecake thing works...
What do you guys think of Alexis' character so far? Good, bad, average-?