A/N: Imagine this fits somewhere in the early chapters of The Beast is Out

This fic does matter to the story.

Maybe.

Nora ran at full speed down the road. She didn't know where she was going as long as it was away. Nora normally liked cats. But when they took on the form of a guy known tricking people and start hitting on her, their adorableness ran out. When she stopped to catch her breath, Nora hunched over onto her knees and panted. "It's bad enough he gives snakes a bad name, but now cats? Hoo… Now I wish I kept Kimmie to help scare him away."

"The Duchess' daughter?" Nora looked to her right to see a small gate. Beyond it was a large table with many seats, a lot of tea pots and hundreds of different tea cups. At the far end of the table sat three kids. The biggest of which looked like tech-savvy and bulked Biffy Goldstein, except Nora knew Biffy wouldn't be caught dead or alive in a purple and emerald tuxedo with a giant black-top hat much less at a tea party. "I said, you know the Duchess' daughter?" he called out louder. Nora was amazed he could hear her.

"Yes." Nora called back. "I just came from there." She walked through the little gate and came closer. The other guests at this party consisted of…

"Jeez, don't you know how to dress yourself?" A Jenny Jerkins- March Hare, clad in green, but a green open trench coat and black vest with straw sticking out of her ginger hair, along with a pair of floppy rabbit ears. She looked annoyed, like Jenny did, and suspicious of Nora.

"Yeah, and this is a private party. Squawk!" Lou was sucking his thumb and he was dressed in a fancy plaid-blue coat, matching vest to Jenny's. Nora wasn't sure what he was, as she saw Deuce sporting a pair of mouse ears and fast asleep in a purple coat with his head resting on the table.

"I'm just coming closer so no one has to yell." Nora assured him. Then she addressed Biffy. "Are you a friend of hers by any chance?"

"I… uh, well…" Nora noticed Biffy blush and suppressed a giggle. "A-Any way! A friend of Kimmie's is a friend of mine. Welcome to the Enigmaland Anti-Tea Party!"

"Anti-Tea Party?" Nora asked, taking a seat next to Jenny. She had thought for a second that this might be the tea party that everyone had been telling her about, but there were only four people here.

"A party for all of the rejects who didn't get an invitation or a date to the actual party." Jenny clarified. "Everyone that the Queen deems uncool or she doesn't want her son hanging out with."

"We were actually expecting a bigger turn out." Biffy said, gesturing to the many empty seats and plates. "The queen's really a perfectionist and we thought it be a good idea to have as many seats as possible."

"Though not everyone here didn't get an invitation." Lou sternly glared at Biffy. Biffy glared back at him to which Lou resumed sucking his thumb.

"Dodo-brain." Biffy grumbled. So Lou is the Dodo in this!

"You got an invite, Biffy?" Nora suddenly perked up. "Why aren't you going to the party?"

"I hate huge parties." Biffy said. "Wait. Who are you, and how did you know my name is Biffy? Everyone here calls me the Mad Hatter. She's the March Hare." Jenny raised her hand. "He's Dodo-Brain." Lou lowered his eyes, but kept sucking. "And the all-nighter over there is Dormouse."

"But your real names are Biffy, Jenny, Lou and Deuce. Right?" At that the whole table gasped. Even Dormouse snapped awake.

"The name is a name! Is a name…is name…"

"You're new around here I can tell." Biffy said. His glare is telling me that he's suspicious. "You dress different, you act different, yet you know stuff that only few close people to us know. What are you some kind of spy?"

"No!" Nora protested. "My name is Nora Prowler. It's true I don't live around here, but I'm not in Engimaland by choice! I followed a tazelwurm and just fell in. But it looks like my only chance to get back to my house is at that Tea Party none of us are invited too."

Seeing that she was looking down, Biffy felt sorry for her and dropped his charges that she was a spy. "I… I had an invitation to the party. Kimmie gave it to me so I could meet her there."

"You don't have it anymore?" Nora asked.

"Yesterday, Kimmie said she wouldn't talk to me at the party if I was wearing my hat. It's my favorite and best one; of course I would wear it. When she said that it was either the hat or her, I threw away the invitation into the lake." Biffy sighed, seeming to somewhat regret those actions.

"Oh." And Nora new that another chance to get to the party had slipped away from here. "To be honest today… no, this whole week hasn't been going too well for me. It doesn't look like my Dad is coming back home. Does that mean he's abandoned me? Am I going to be kicked out of my house eventually?" Nora sighed, resting her head in her two hands. "Maybe I should just stay around here. See if I can start out on my own."

Next to her, the March Hare reached over and placed a hand on her back. Even the Dodo looked sympathetic as Dormouse snoozed on. "Um… if you have no place to go maybe you could hang with us?" March Hare offered. "We've got the room. Plus, if you've got no place else to go, you'd probably find yourself here sooner or later!"

"Welcome to the Outcasts!" The Dodo toasted.

"The Outcasts!" Jenny and Biffy followed him in the toast.

"Happy Un-Birthday!" Dormouse cheered before falling back asleep.

Nora, weakly smiling, lifted up the cup in front of her. "Thanks you guys."

Everyone took a drink and the Biffy said, "So, anyone got any riddles?"

"I do! I do!" Jenny stood up waving her hands in the air. She stood on her seat and cleared her throat. "Ahem! What is it that you keep after giving it to someone else?"

The whole table fell into thought.

"Your name?" Biffy asked.

"Nope." Said Jenny.

"A hug?" asked Lou.

"Nuh-uh." Jenny shook her head.

"Cheesecake!" Dormouse cried out.

"Not even close!" Jenny told him. Dormouse fell into a cake in front of him.

"What then?" Nora asked.

Jenny replied, "It's… Your word!"

Everyone clapped in congratulations.

"Okay, my turn! And it's a good one." Biffy said. "I am tall when I'm young and short when I'm old. What am I?"

"A human being!" Lou declared.

"Negatory." Biffy shut him down.

"A candle?" Nora guessed.

Biffy looked at her surprised. "Yeah, it is. Good one, Prowler. It's your turn."

"Oh, it is? Um… okay…" Nora thought for a second. "Try this: I have 88 keys, but I cannot open any doors. What am I?"

Again everyone was silent. After a minute Jenny spoke. "We're stumped. What's the answer?"

"A piano." Nora said.

"Ah, that's not fair!" Biffy said slamming his fist on the table, shaking it. "We don't have any music!"

Biffy's outburst had woken up Deuce/Dormouse pretty well this time. He stood up and started singing,

"Twinkle, twinkle, little knat~

How I wonder where you're at!

You are very small indeed~

You can vanish up my sleeve~!"

When he finished all the others clapped, while he sat down and continued sleeping. For the first time, Nora genuinely smiled. "You sure are a fun bunch."

"Yeah, but we're socially dead." Lou told her. "We used to be on the A-List along with the Duchess, Griffon, and Mock Turtle, but then that one concert-!"

"C'mon, Dodo!" Jenny silenced him. "Let's at least have one person in Enigmaland who doesn't know about it."

"The Jabberwocky sabotaged our performance!" Lou shouted. "We would have had a show-stopper if she hadn't messed with the sound. That's how she keeps herself at the top: eliminating all possible competition!"

"Yeah, but we can't prove it." Biffy said. "Even if we did, what would we be going back to? Soul-less, cold friends who ditch us when the going gets rough? No thanks. Fair weather friends scatter to the winds fast. Besides, I like space where I can spread out, ya know?"

"Besides, it's not all bad." Jenny tried to brighten up Lou's disposition. "The Prince of Hearts said he and some of his friends will try to sneak away later and come hang with us." Jenny looked dreamily down at her cup of tea.

Lou however only pouted at her. "Not all of us have a crush on the prince like you do, Marchy."

"I don't have a crush!" Jenny protested sticking her finger in her nose, like she did when she was nervous. "I just like nice people. Even they're afraid of the Queen so they don't talk to us."

"Yeah, but the Prince is more afraid of the Queen than anybody. Except maybe the King." Biffy said from his reclined position. "He's a good guy, no argument. But he's taking a big risk if he's coming to hang out with the Anti-Tea Party."

"Which is why I want you guys to behave yourselves when he shows up!" Jenny said this looking in Lou's direction. He only folded his arms and huffed turning his face away.

When Jenny sat back down, Nora whispered to the side. "Hey, I think Lou looked kind of jealous of that prince you were talking about."

Whispering back, Jenny answered, "He what?"

"When you looked so happy that the Prince was going to come, he got all bitter. Did you two go out or something?"

"Me and Dodo? No. We've been friends for, like, ever. Him, me and Dormouse. Hatter's a big part of our group. Both literally and figuratively. But he's still new to us in comparison. All these guys are my friends."

"But you do have a crush on the Prince. C'mon, girl-to-girl?"

If she's had a similar circumstance to Jenny, she probably hasn't had much of the chance to make female friends. Looking at Biffy laughing at Lou's attempts to put Deuce's face in a large teapot, Jenny judged it was safe for them to whisper. "Okay, yes. He's a really nice guy and he's promised to help me get back into the Court. Plus, he's really sweet and honest so I think I've got a good chance if I play my cards right."

From the seat behind Nora appeared like a mist an old acquaintance. "A game of love is a game of cards?" he purred in his usual way. "How interesting."

The girls yelped and jumped out of their chairs at the sight of the Cheshire Cat. Biffy spat out his tea which Lou ducked from, but Deuce couldn't.

"Huh? What?... CAT!" And he dove under the table.

Biffy stood up and stomped over it the Cat's chair. "Okay, there is definitely no room for you here! Cheshire, you were banned from this party months ago!"

"I was only banned because I got an invitation to the real Tea Party." He casually lifted up his own invite and dangled it up in the air.

"No! " Jenny jabbed a finger in his direction. "You were banned because you stole my favorite book. The one with the recipes for triangle cupcakes, and you put lice in the Mad Hatter's top hat."

"I'm surprised you even have an invitation after what you pulled on the Prince of Hearts!" Lou pointed out. "March Hare, toss me the grape jelly, I need to calm down Dormouse."

Jenny did, Lou caught it with one hand.

Biffy asked, "Hey, why do you guys always give him the grape? The strawberry is closer."

"Don't ask me, dude." Lou replied grabbing a spoon, "That's just his jam."

The Cheshire Cat snickered. The rest of the company just glared at him sitting there. "Okay Cat, you've frightened our guest, you've had a laugh, can you please just go now?" Biffy really didn't want him here. Wherever the Cheshire Cat showed up he always caused trouble.

"No." the Cat said taking a drink of the tea. "I'm not here to disrupt your amateur-reject party, I'm here to ask a certain purrson to the Tea Party."

Jenny looked over at Nora. "You know him?"

"No." Nora deadpanned.

At that the Cheshire Cat's ears dropped. "Aww, Nora how can you say that?" He looked up at her with big, kicked-kitty eyes. "After that moment we shared in the grove? Under the tree?"

Nora looked around for some support, but all her new friends were staring at her with their mouths open. She tried to explain. "H-He's making it up! I just met him at the Duchess' house and ran away from him after Kimmie and Brandy ditched me."

The Cheshire Cat came up behind her and just wrapped his arms around her from behind. "Then you just ran off on me! Nora, I have no home without you now. The Duchess will be after us both~."

"Get off me!" Nora tried to pull him off, but this cat had a strong hold.

"I'm Cheshire Cat, an odd feline, but I do have taste for purrfection. So when I see a lady to my taste, it's a pleasurrre to be of assistance."

Nora struggled, "Cheshire," she got free from one arm but he quickly moved it so he was hugging her close again. "The only way you could be of any help to me would be to give me your invitation so I could find the tazelwurm to take me home."

"But you just said you didn't want to go home." Biffy pointed out. Ignoring him, Cheshire Cat produced the invitation in front of Nora's face.

"This invitation?" he asked. Nora reached out to grab it, but Cheshire Cat was faster and moved it from her reach. "Sorry, no mice."

"You mean, 'dice'." Nora said.

"No I mean 'mice'. Cats play with mice, not dice. Except on special occasion." Nora rolled her eyes. "But while I can't give you my invitation, I can bring you along…as my date~."

Nora's mind went blank from the audacity. The others didn't waste a second on protesting.

"Nora, he's a scamming cat! A feline fiend! You can't trust him!" Jenny said grabbing her arm.

"This dude maybe on the A-List, but he's also on the blacklist to every decent person in Engimaland! This Cat is a wild card!" Biffy took Nora's other arm and began pulling too. Even with two people pulling against him, the Cat was able to pull back and have Nora in a kind of tug-o-war. Biffy and Jenny weren't pulling too hard as they didn't want to hurt her, but they put in a little more force when they saw that the Cheshire Cat was beginning to pull her away.

"Nora needs a gentleman to get her into that party. A refined feline is the best option, and I am the best feline."

"Every path you walk on leaves a trail of bad luck! The only reason you're tolerated in the Duchess' mansion is that you're as catty as the rest of em."

"Ooo! Big talk, from the boy with the big hat. Just come with me. Nora. We'll have such a good time you'll never want to go home!"

"He'll probably do something to ensure you can't go home no matter what Nora! A Chesire Cat is always playing tricks, the entire time your with him is a gamble based on if you can keep his interest!"

"Still a bit sore, eh Bunny?" At that Jenny pulled harder.

Nora was too caught up in her own thoughts to listen completely too the two sides. She wanted to go home. Home to what, though? A father that was avoiding her? She still had her friends. But the mystery with them was over and they probably didn't need her any more. Everyone was back with their families, and for the most part would be safe. Besides there seemed to be enough similarities between the people here and them for Nora to not really miss them. Everything was solved down at A. Nigma High, why shouldn't she stay in Enigmaland?

A sudden realization ran through Nora's head! If she stayed here, it would be the same as running away. All at once, Nora thrusted away the three people pulling on her. "Enough already!"

Brushing herself off, Nora walked over to the Cheshire Cat and hugged him around his arm. "I'll go with the Cat, guys. You've all been great but I need to get to that party."

"Are you mad?" Jenny screeched. "Sure, that'd be totally cool around here, but you're that mad!?"

Nora helped the Cheshire Cat to stand up. "If I gotta stick around here, nothing wrong with seeing how the other half lives. Maybe if I like it I can decide where I want to stay in this world. Besides," she snuggled up closer to the Cheshire Cat. "how could I turn down an offer from such a Cool Kat?"

All jaws dropped to the floor.

The Cheshire Cat purred and nuzzled closer to Nora. She could hear him purring as they started walking away. "Ah, I almost forgot." The Cheshire Cat stopped and turned his head to the side. "Hatter? I got something for you to go." He reached into his pocket and pulled out… Kimmie the Chihuahua!

"Kimmie!" Biffy gasped. Kimmie barked excitedly at him.

Cheshire Cat laughed. "Hee-hee-hee~! Fetch!" And he threw Kimmie off into the distance. Biffy and Jenny both ran after the flying dog, while the Cheshire Cat picked up Nora and ran her out the gate down the road into the forest. When Lou the Dodo, and Deuce the Dormouse came back up, everybody was gone.

"Okay, you've eaten all the grape, now let's get back to- Hey, where is everyone?"

A/N: What?

What?

Nora just-!

And he just-!

Not cool!

Okay, people. Pleas leave a review and we'll see if there's any method to this madness.