Anastasia Zahner's Story

Anastasia, always having been an early riser, had been roaming the grounds for some time. She stopped and talked with nearly everything she came in contact with, calling it by name, as though she was saying hello to her friends. In her mind, they were her friends. One could often find her chatting with trees, walls, even other students' backpacks. Of course, inanimate objects weren't her only friends - she knew everyone in Wonderland Academy, and often considered them her friends - even if the feeling wasn't requited.

She hadn’t put much thought in what she was wearing that morning. It was a simple, white dress with white flats over white tights. In fact, the only thing on her body that had any color (after her bright blue eyes, of course) was the silver locket that matched her brother’s ring.

Currently, she was sitting in a tree, unknowingly having climbed it a bit more gracefully than her friend, the Hatter. The tree, whose name was Frank, talked slowly and was wise in the way that only those with experience could be. He was one of her favorite trees, or plants for that matter. She found things like shrubs rather dull, since they'd been anchored in one spot, their roots only reaching so far, for their entire lives. Frank however, had his roots out for entire feet, most of them longer than Ana was herself.

After a few minutes, Frank told her that someone was coming. In order to get a better look, the pale girl flipped herself upside down to hang by her knees. Her dress was just long enough that it didn't fall over her head. "Oh, hello!" She greeted the blonde-brown-haired girl, "How are you this fine morning, Mouse?" Ana asked cheerily.

Marchy smiled a cheeky at the girl as he was about to tell her the direction. He's smile quickly faded at the sight of her hurrying and he got a quit puzzled looked. His arm stopped swinging the pocket watch and went straight down to his side, his ring finger twitching slightly. He eyed the girl as he hurried down the hall without even a proper hello or fair well. "Well, I'd say. That poor girl must be stark ravin' mad!" Marchy said, shaking his head slightly as his tourettes kicked in slightly and he practically shouted the last part.Turning around, he continued walking.

As he walked, he held his pocket watch, swinging it slightly again and humming a bit obnoxiously with a wide grin on his face. "How about a nice cup of tea?" Marchy asked himself, smiling. "Yes, just half a cup, if I do say so myself." He added, coming upon the door to the garden. Marchy say Tarrant, or Hatta as Marchy called him, and her highness herself out in the garden. The garden, what a lovely place it would seem if it wasn't run by someone who doesn't like anyone except her own in. Marchy stood and watched for a moment, his whole body seeming to tic every time his eye twitched. Then he sat down against the wall and started singing quietly to himself.

"Twinkle twinkle little bat, how I wonder where your at... No, no, no. That will never do. Huhum." Marchy smiled to himself. "Twinkle twinkle little ant, you look quit strange without your pants. Heem heem heem." March sang to himself, ending his little solo with a small laugh, childish laugh that seemed to echo through the hall. After a moment, he decided to hightail it to the Tea Party Table outside to grab some warm tea before it's all gone. Walking outside, Marchy looked around and saw Melody, or Mouse-wee as he called her, by a tree with a girl in white hanging out of it. He walked right up to them with a rather confused look on his face. "Why, my dear, are you hanging upside down in a tree?" Marchy asked Ana as he stood there next to Mouse-wee staring at the girl, his arms down by his sides with the chain of his pocket watch in one hand and his ring finger twitching slightly.

Andrew mulled over the fact he was waiting for something, he could feel it, and either he was just insane or he was correct, normally he was both. He twiddled his thumbs, looking straight ahead, as if the answer to his questions would simply fall right in front of him. A long stream of smoke snaked past his lips alongside a sigh. Just as he was about to give up on 'waiting' and stand to go sulk off to some high place, Chelle sat right next to him of the bench he was posted at, greeting him with his nickname. To be honest, he never could quite remember why he'd begun to be called caterpillar, but he heard stories of the result of his drunken misadventures.

With a puff of smoke escaping his lips, Andrew gave a slight smirk. "Something is upon us, it's presence resonates in my very bones." he said vaguely, still staring off straight ahead. "And hello. It must have been you I was waiting for this whole time." He caught movement out of the corner of his eye, finding a couple of people in a tree by the gardening club. Standing without a word, he abandoned his place at the bench, "Investigation is key." he muttered, the pipe bouncing on his lips as he spoke, walking towards the scene, assuming Chelle would follow.

As he approached he realized there were more people than anticipated; Marchy, Mousie, Hatter, Ana, and Julianna. Andrew knew all their names just from overhearing conversations, what he wasn't quite sure of was if they knew him. He looked to Julianna, raising an eyebrow slightly, "Such a shame, that followers leave a leader like a leaf leaves a tree." he stated with a smirk and smoke unintentionally blowing in her direction every other word, referring to the fact he saw none of her club members with her. Slowly Andrew sunk to the ground, crossing his legs as he refilled his pipe, lighting once again. With a long inhale, smoke leaked from his lips and he gazed up at everyone, leaning back slightly.

Giving one last look at Ana in the tree, Marchy's eye twitched then he turned to see a familiar face or two. "Why, 'ello Mr. Cat-ee-pillor." Marchy said with a big cheeky smile, eyes wide, and twitching and ticking to his ever excitement. He heard what Mr. Cat-ee-pillor said, but didn't understand a thing. He watched as Hatta jumped down in front of Queen De Hearts and Marchy almost fell over laughing. Hatta was probably one of Marchy's favorite people in Wonderland for his happiness. Falling down clumsily, Marchy was on the ground like Mr. Cat-ee-pillor and Chess. "Oh, and a merry hello to you, Chessie." Marchy said, cheeky smile still on his face with wide eyes.

Then Marchy heard Chess starting to sing. His head tilted slightly, eye slightly twitching. Then, for the first time in awhile, he actually calmed down. Laying on his back on the ground with a small, normal smile on his face and eyes not so wide watching the white clouds passing through the blue sky. Someone singing was one of the only things to make Marchy this calm, well that and a half cup of tea with butter of course. Huhm…the tic's have stopped. On that note, once everyone was back to talking and-or arguing, Marchy's leg did the worst tic he had ever experienced, looking as if his leg was having a slight seizure of its own.

At that, Marchy shot off the ground like an excited child. His cheeky smile was back with the return of his wide eyes. "I've got an excellent idea, why don't we all sit down for a spot of tea?" One of the things Marchy almost always brings up in almost every conversation is tea. Why? Nobody knows. It's just one of the many things he seems to be obsessed with, that, his pocket watch, half cups of tea, and of course a stick of butter. Every tea party on whomever's un-birthday it's to be, Marchy will pull out his old pocket watch. One of the hands on the old, broken watch would move, like the tic a dead animal will have before its dies. Marchy call the thing a MAD WATCH! and take a whole stick of butter and a small mallet, smashing the butter on the poor watch then dipping in into a cup of tea. According to Marchy, Everything mad need their daily tea or you shall become mad as a march hair.

Marchy than ran inside the school, not waiting for anyone to comment on his statement of having a cup of tea for the lot of them. He went straight to where they kept the tea cups and tea, grabbing a cup for everyone, plus a few extra, and the kettle that had already been making fresh tea. As he carried everything in his arms, he walked past the new girl, the Tweedles, and Sky. "We're all having a spot of tea, if you would like to join us after you've gotten done what you've got to get done." Marchy said, a wide cheeky smile on his face and wide eyes. His tic seemed to be gone for the time being, so in all he looked like a child mostly. A very hyper skatterbrained child. Without even a mere hello or goodbye, Marchy was back outside by the others handing everyone a tea cup and with fresh tea, the tea was in the cup of course. He then sat himself down on the ground with crossed legs. The old pocket watch sitting on his thigh and a stick of better on a small saucer. He had the kettle, the creamer, and the sugar sitting on a silver tray i front of him and he sat there, drinking his tea, ticking slightly, and humming "Twinkle twinkle little star." in his head, changing the words of course.

It all started by Tarrant trying to climb one of the garden club's trees. Sebastian watched as the events unfolded. After a while, Cat, Ana, Julianna, March, the other Ana, and Caterpillar were there too. He stopped watching once he saw March handing out tea cups to everyone. That is interesting...I think I'll go to the green house to be safe.

Sebastian pushed his thoughts away. He finished spraying the flower bed of red lilies that hung outside his window. He made sure the dirt of the brown flower bed was moist. Then he placed the spray bottle on the window still's left corner.

Next Sebastian closed the window. He lowered and closed the dark leaf green blinds. He then shut the dark blue curtains that decorated the window. Sebastian had always been an earlier riser. He never wanted to be late for anything. If he was late, he would disappoint someone and he didn't want to do that. Sebastian woke with the sun practically everyday.

He ran his fingers through his semi damp hair. His eyes quickly scanned his room. Everything was in place and cleaned. Today he was dressed in a simple dark blue dress shirt with light brown buttons, slightly tight light brown jeans, light brown dress shoes, and a white bow tie which he kept untied around his neck. Maybe he would tie it into a bow later on in the day.

Sebastian slid his light brown knapsack onto his back. He grabbed his folded handkerchief from on top of his pillow and slid it into the dress shirt’s pocket. He snapped the button on the pocket. He didn't want to risk losing the handkerchief. Oddly enough, it was special to him.

Before Sebastian left his room, he made sure he had everything he needed. He took a deep breath and put a smile on his face. Then Sebastian walked out of his room and closed the door behind him. The door would lock itself automatically. He took in his surroundings very carefully. Once he was near the exit, he began to twirl a lock of his hair. Once outside, he pondered if he should head towards the garden or not. Maybe if he was quiet he would be able to sneak by without being noticed. Sebastian hummed a very soft tune. He had begun to walk towards the green house.

Harry laughed happily when Al-Valerie linked arms with them and skipped down the hall. This was the best day he'd had in a long while. They had made a new friend who didn't think they were crazy and was happy to have an adventure! He giggled excitedly and managed to twirl them around once before continuing in a straight line, just for the fun of it. They reached the doors leading outside then and Harry's heart soared. Valerie dashed ahead and out the doors with them hard on her tail. Harry never stopped smiling and laughed frequently in giddy excitement. She affirmed the fact that she didn't think they were crazy which caused Harry to throw his fists in the air in a sign of complete ecstasy. She liked them! She really liked them! It was rare for Harry to know that someone honestly, truly liked them, Skyler was like that, and now Alice was, too!

Harry twirled around her while she basked in the sun, hyper and very puppyish. He tripped once and sprawled on the warm grass, but only laughed, stood, and brushed himself off. Henry took a moment's control then. Rolling his eyes, he carefully cleaned the grass from his hair. "Sorry about Harry, again, he doesn't get someone who is this accepting very often. I generally don't care one way or the other, but it means the world to him. Thanks, Valerie." He winked softly before a huge grin spread over their face. "Henry!" Harry protested, "Can't take you anywhere!" Henry laughed on the inside and settled down again.

"I love the sun and snow, too! Henry gets grumpy whenever he's outside, though. Too dirty and too much movement." Harry exclaimed, prancing up to her and linking arms again. He liked it, it was fun and he generally wasn't allowed to get too close to people, either for their comfort or his and Henry's own safety. "I don't like rain, though, rain has too many memories. Henry and I are the same there." He shrugged dismissively and carried on with his new friend, behind her now that she began to run ahead. Harry laughed and called for her to wait up, already panting from their shenanigans. Most definitely, this was the best day EVER! Henry agreed for once.

Al-Valerie was far ahead of them and turned a corner as she saw the Garden. Harry wanted to see her face, the Garden made everyone catch their breath the first time they saw it. Henry didn't like the Gardening Club, and to be honest Harry didn't particularly enjoy being around them, too loud, but the Garden was always a treat. For Harry, at least. He skidded around the corner and slid to a stop behind Valerie as she fumbled out a hello. Harry nodded and waved at everyone. "Hey, guys! We heard there was tea! This is Al-Vale--oop, I mean..." they froze for a second before Harry's eyes widened and they jumped in the air, laughing and stammering excitedly, "AL-VAL! It rhymes!! Al-Val! Alvalalvalalval!! See, when we saw her in the hall she was flustered because it's her first day and she said her name was 'Al-Valerie,' and clarified Valerie, but Al-Valerie stuck in my head! Al-Val!!" He laughed and hugged his new friend without really noticing he had and rubbed his hair excitedly. "Sorry, I got excited, how is everyone! Henry is being grumpy today, so he may not be talking much."

Marchy sat there, enjoying his tea, thinking about random little thoughts that run into his mind, when someone picked up his tray with the tea, sugar, and cream all spilling over. "Well, that's not very civil, is it." He said, looking up at who had did it to see non-other than the Queen herself. Marchy sipped his tea as he watched her with a rather confused, frustrated look on his face, his eyes slightly closed from the sun beaming down. Then it hit him! The tray made contact with the side of his head and knocked him over. Marchy, being rather mad as he is, sat up slowly after it, putting his hand to the side of his head. He had a rather blank expression on his face after being hit with a tray without letting out a single solitary cry. Looking on the ground, Marchy saw the saucer that he had the butter in face down on the ground. He picked it up to see the butter all smashed into the grass. "That had been the best butter…" Marchy said he then stood up, still holding the saucer the butter had been on in his hand and had a very angry look on his face with his eye ticking furiously. He then throw the plate as hard as any madly insane person can, which is rather hard at that, right at the Queens head. He missed hitting her head by maybe an inch or two, it flying to the side passed her and breaking into a tree. Marchy then bent down and picked up a tea cup that had also fallen off the tray. "Don't forget your TEA!" He said before throwing the tea cup at the Queens head after missing the first time.

Not even waiting to see if he scored the hit, Marchy bent down and picked up his pocket watch that had fallen off his lap and putting it in his pocket. He gave one last look to the queen them headed over to the tea party table where he saw the Hatta, Mouse-wee, Ana, and the new girl he had…passed earlier. Giving just a mere nod to the bunch, Marchy just sat down and grabbed a cup of tea, ticking every so often.

Valerie's head snapped to the side and her eyes shot to Tarrant's as he said her given name. Her eyes became stormy and she stabbed him in the chest with her finger. "Don't call me that," she snapped out, obviously furious. She hated her given name. It wasn't that it was a bad name, it was indeed lovely, but seeing as her parent's named her that and were now dead, and her sister and brother were the only immediate people she grew up with calling her that - even her friends began to call her Valerie when she was little, seeing as they claimed it was really pretty -, she hated the name with a passion. It never brought her any good memories, all of them flashing back to seeing her mother, father, and brother, dying in the accident, and her sister, hanging from the closet in her bedroom.

Shaking the images away and a few tears in her eyes, she pushed around Tarrant. "Don't call me Alice," she murmured, making her way over to the table. It took her the entire walk to the table to calm down enough to really register that Harry was having a bit of a meltdown and flashing back and forth between himself and Henry. Oddly enough, she was already accustomed to his weird bipolar issue and had made her way over to them without a second thought.

Ruffling his brown hair, she smiled down at them. "Don't worry, Harry. I could never forget about Henry. And Henry, you shouldn't worry either. Even if everyone forgot about you, I know Harry wouldn't, and neither would I," said added on, looking down and into their eyes. She nodded then stepped back and cast a look up and down the length of the table. With a shrug, she took a seat between Skyler and Harry/Henry, not too far down from Tarrant.

Still upset with 'The Hatter', she avoided his gaze and instead turned to assess the sweets and tea that were spread out widely across the table. Finally finding some chocolate cake and a small pot of green tea - seeing as it was labeled as such - she gingerly lifted the warm pot and poured herself a glass. She mixed it two spoonfuls of sugar and took a sip, practically purring in delight.

"This is, by far, the most amazing and delicious tea I have ever tasted. My compliment to the chef," she joked, laughing out as she cut off a piece of chocolate cake and set it on her plate. Peering up and down the table, she gasped. "Harry, I found you some cake!" she exclaimed, a bit rudely, but not meaning to be, leaning across the table to pluck it up. It was small and obviously not the most popular choice, but she had found one and she set it before Harry with a smile. "What type of cake does Henry enjoy? Does he have a taste for strawberry also?" she asked.

Suddenly, she turned to Skyler. "Skyler!" she gasped, grabbing his arm. "I completely forgot! Did you find your cake yet?" she asked urgently, casting a look at the table again. "Oh, and did you find your sister?" she wondered, tilting her head a little.

Harry continued to glare at Hatter for a moment until Henry broke through and smiled boredly, but genuinely, at Valerie. "Thank you. It means more to him than me, again, but that's what usually is the case." He sipped at the tea Harry had made with a small smirk. At the sight of strawberry cake, however, his mouth began to water. He swallowed twice and accepted almost reverently. Eyes wide and mouth slightly open, he grinned a bit wider at the new girl. "Thank you," he breathed. Scooping up a knife, he carefully cut the small pastry in half, one for him and one for Harry. Perhaps that would put him in a better mood. He was touchy around this time and it seemed he had just had his first bout of the season. At least Valerie had gotten to see Harry's good side before... Well, not worth worrying over right now. Henry could mourn later.

He ate the half of the cake happily, but politely and quietly, saying nothing at all. He occasionally glanced at Hatter or Valerie, one because the man had upset Harry, and the other because she was pretty spectacular. Harry nodded his gloomy approval before taking over. Even when upset and quiet, energy seemed to come off of him. He didn't glance around, only stared at the table and wished Tarrant had paid attention to Henry.