SECOND EFFORT
Theme: Alice in Wonderland
Rated G to R
1. Train – Meet Virginia 4:02
"Alice, I should not have to beg you to put on your dress or brush your hair."
"I don't care about any of that," Alice pouted stubbornly.
"Little girls must listen to their mothers," her mother insisted, pushing the brush across the dressing table towards Alice with the raised brow that Meant Business.
Alice took the ivory handled brush in hand and pulled it through her hair, growling silently at the looking glass. She would not be Little Alice forever, she inwardly promised herself. She would be Grown Alice and she would live her life as she saw fit. She would not wear stockings, she would not wear her hair in bows, and she would not listen to mothers.
"In Wonderland, I was a Queen, you know," Alice said quite proudly, as her mother began to leave her bedchamber, happy enough that she had begun to brush her hair. "Queens are not made by anyone to brush their hair."
"You can always go back to Wonderland and be the Queen, Alice, if you would rather not listen to your mother," her mother informed her icily.
Well, yes, she supposed she could. If she could find the way, of course. But in truth, she did not really want to be the Queen, which left her for the time being as Little Alice forced by the tyranny of mothers to brush her hair.
...
2. Parachute – Under Control 4:21
Hatter wished she would stop looking at him that way. He balled his fists under the table, pressing the thimbles on his middle fingers into his palm. Control, Hatter, he advised himself silently. Control was not his strong point, but Alice mustn't know. Mustn't see. Mustn't be exposed to his Thoughts or Actions: because, for the love of Underland, what if how he felt not only appeared in his eyes, but actually spilled out in Action? Unforgiveable Action? What if he seized her with his hands? Troubled her lips with his own? Moaned into her mouth? Ran his hands over the length of her tunic? Slipped them underneath the band of her trousers? Lifted her on top of this bloody tea table? What if he took exactly what he wanted?
...
3. Carolina Liar – Show Me What I'm Looking For 4:03
"Try again," Alice whispered.
She observed Tarrant swallow heavily, his Adam's apple bobbing beneath his bowtie.
"Again?"
She nodded, digging her fingers into his lapels, fearing that he was about to step away given the yellow rim that was circling his bright blue irises.
"I meant to do better," she said, bridging the gap between their lips.
"Better," he repeated, brushing her lips.
Fear had seized her a moment ago, but she wanted to properly return the proffered gift. She had begun to suspect that Hatter was what she wanted. What she had been searching for. This kiss might tell her everything she needed to know. Her confusion might be ended. It might save her.
This time, this kiss was different. She was able to respond. She was able to return the pleasant pressure. She felt his tongue run along her lip, begging access. A shiver ran up her spine, and it was a very good thing that she had anchored herself to his jacket.
"Alice," he said, pulling back to rest his forehead against hers.
He was breathing heavily, but then, so was she. This is what kissing Hatter was like. All her questions were answered.
"I've been waiting for you," she sighed.
...
4. Smashing Pumpkins – 1979 4:26
Humans, fools all of them, Chessur thought, swiping a paw across his ear. Dormice and Hares not much better, however, he observed. Stuck with them, he supposed. The thought made him reduce himself slowly to just a tail—a twitching tail that could lazily express his resignation to being surrounded by circus freaks for the rest of his endless existence. Mad, all of us.
Except for that Alice. Not a proper Cat, perhaps, but promising. Worth saving even. One could not tell a human these things, however. She would go to pieces. Blubber all over his coat. Want to pet him in appreciation for his complimentary views of her.
And if she was worth saving, he would have to go to the trouble to save that ridiculous Hatter as well, because he—being a feline of exceptional capabilities and insight—had the foresight to see that they would Need each other, as humans often did. Terribly social creatures, humans. Pity, that.
...
5. Modest Mouse – Float On 3:29
"Cheers!" Mally exclaimed, raising a somewhat drunken paw into the air.
"Drunken paw," Hatter pondered aloud. He had always wondered how that might look, and now that Mally had stirred her spiked tea with a paw, he was able to see most clearly just what a drunken paw looked like. A bit moist and wobbly.
"Tea!" Thackery slurred, slumping into his crumpet.
"Whose idea was it to spike the tea?" Chessur purred.
"Mine," all three hosts announced, although the Hare's response was somewhat muffled by bakery goods.
"Purrfect," Chess said, rolling his large teal eyes for effect.
"We're celebratin'," Mally advised the Cat.
"Celebrating what?"
"Several unbirthdays, Morganbasch day, and the end of worries," Hatter informed the floating Cat.
"The end of worries, hmm?" Chessur said, seemingly unconvinced.
"Well, yes," Hatter began, sipping from his spiked tea with his pinky extended. "Perhaps you hadn't heard, dear Chess. I am engaged."
...
6. Blue October – Breakfast After Ten 4:31
"Yer late!" Thackery shouted, tossing a spatula in the air.
Yes, but recently he was always late for breakfast, he admitted to himself, as he gazed about the all white palace kitchen and listened to clatter of the spatula against the tile floor.
"Never before ten nowadays," Hatter agreed by way of apology. Thackery was so bothered by lateness that he should really attempt to be on time, he thought with a frown.
He lingered in bed longer than was healthy. Lazy bag o' bones, Mally called him. Not lazy, actually, but mad, certainly.
Alice had left again, and all that remained of her were his Memories and the every day lessening scent of her on his sheets. Lying amongst the sheets was his reason for being late. Lying amongst the sheets and thinking wicked thoughts, which necessitated his hat being placed on the side table, where it could not overhear its owner being so very naughty.
Alice had explained why she needed to go back, but the madness sometimes whispered to him that he ought to be angry. Angry with Alice—a possibility he had imagined impossible. And it whispered to him that when she came back, as she promised she would, he should show her in a most vigorous fashion what she had been missing while she was Above. Make her feel the strength of his feelings. Nothing soft or slow or gentle or kind, as had been their wont. So that at least her knees would not carry her very far for some time. So that she would not leave.
...
7. Gavin DeGraw – Chariot 4:01
Sometimes Alice thought about him as she lay abed. Staring up at the ceiling and counting the stars that must be above her head outside the roof of the palace just beyond her seeing. She could not help herself sometimes. She thought of his ginger hair and green eyes and his tendency to see the world so differently than the rest.
His tendency to say the most charmingly odd things.
"Alice, would you care for some chocolate with your salmon sandwich?"
"Chocolate?"
"It improves everything," he reasoned, extending to her a plate of milk chocolate.
"Even tea?" she mused, gazing at the proffered plate.
"Especially tea," he said, proving his point with a plop of chocolate into the pot.
Sometimes Alice felt pulled towards the life she had known. The respectability, the rules, and the regulations, which was not terribly surprising given that was how she had been raised. But then she thought about Hatter as she counted invisible stars, and he gave her his strength, his muchness—it had always been his. She just sometimes tried it on. The sleeves hung a bit long, but she liked the fit.
...
8. The Script – The Man Who Can't Be Moved 4:02
"Really, Hatter," Mirana said, frowning as prettily as was possible. "You have stood here quite long enough."
"How can I move, when Alice has not yet returned?"
"Alice will find you wherever it is you are. Alice is quite resourceful. And where your friends would like to see you is either in bed or at the table, where you might indulge in a little rest or repast, hmm?"
"I am not concerned with eating or sleeping at present," Hatter informed the Queen, crossing his arms across his chest. "And I am not concerned with Alice being unable to find me. I merely want to be the first to see her when she returns."
"Please don't be so impossible," the Queen said, lightly touching his folded arms. "Come to court. Make hats."
Hats, Hatter mused. That was tempting, but he would not be moved. He would not be tempted by the Queen or anyone. He would stay here where they first met. She would see him. She would know. She would understand.
...
9. A Fine Frenzy – Blow Away 3:48
"Oof!" Alice exclaimed, as she fell to the ground.
"Again," Hatter said unforgivingly.
Alice was about to frown when he extended his hand to her, hauling her out of the dirt.
"Champions must train for every possibility," he said, lowering his sword to nudge hers as it trailed in the dirt.
Alice was beginning to rethink telling Mirana that she would stay and be her Champion for all time. She was certainly beginning to rethink asking Hatter to be her trainer. He was unrelenting. Surely there were more pleasant things they could be doing. They could escape, ride the winds, smell the roses—whatever one did in Underland to pass the time pleasantly.
"Again," he said with a smirk.
"You're enjoying this," she said, dusting off her bottom.
He tilted his head, taking in the sight, "A little."
"I'm still seeing stars," Alice groaned, as she attempted to raise her sword.
"The stars do not come out until night, Alice," he said, circling her.
Alice gritted her teeth, "Alright then, again."
...
10. Sara Bareilles – Love Song 4:20
Even out at sea she was not free of the meddling, the matchmaking, and the unrelenting pressure of Mother. Each port could bring word to her from London.
"She writes," Alice read aloud to herself, "Alice, Hamish could be persuaded upon to forgive you. You are rather difficult, and there is no good way to say this, but with your head in the clouds you will never make a better match. You simply must write Hamish."
She was not going to write Hamish. Not ever. Not even with all of this lovely blank paper staring back at her awaiting ink. She had already apologized for embarrassing him, so that she would not feel guilty. Not to please her mother. She was done with trying to please her mother. Not to make Hamish propose again. She did not need Hamish.
"I'm not going to write Hamish, Mother, and I am shocked you would encourage such unladylike liberties." Were her mother there to hear her admonishment, she would be duly cowed. Single ladies writing letters to single gentlemen—shocking!
"I will write instead to a Hatter," Alice thought aloud, smiling to herself as she pulled out a sheath of paper. It might be presently undeliverable, but this letter would not be a chore. This letter would make breathing easy. This letter would promise a swift return.